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LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The latest development news, culled from recent wire reports:
Looking to keep track of all the various projects in development? Click here to visit our signature "Devwatch" section. There visitors can view our listings by network, genre, studio and even development stage (ordered to pilot, cast-contingent, script, etc.). It's updated every day!
BORED TO DEATH (HBO) - Comedian Zach Galifianakis has joined the cast of the pay channel pilot, about Jonathan (Jason Schwartzman), an alcoholic writer who pretends to be a private detective. He'll play Ray, a struggling comic book artist and Jonathan's best friend. Ted Danson also stars in the project, which comes from writer Jonathan Ames and director Alan Taylor.
GEORGE NOORY (Sci Fi, New!) - George Noory is returning to the cable channel for a weeklong stunt beginning Sunday, November 16 at 11:00/10:00c. Noory is best known as the host of "Coast to Coast AM," a radio program nationally syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks. Last June, Noory toplined a backdoor pilot special on the network called "Into the Unknown With George Noory." It's not clear if this new effort, which runs November 16 to November 20 at 11:00/10:00c, will feature the same format as "Unknown."
GEORGIA & THE SEVEN ASSOCIATES (FOX, New!) - Feature writers David Weissman and David Diamond, director Ken Kwapis and producers Chris Brancato and Bert Salke are set to team for a contemporary take on the classic Walt Disney tale of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Currently dubbed "Georgia and the Seven Associates," the project tells the story of Georgia Burnett, "a young lawyer who is banished from a top law firm run by her stepmother and forced to team up with seven quirky lawyers [who will have the personalities of the Seven Dwarfs] at a storefront legal office." ABC Studios is producing the hour, which Brancato is writing with Weissman and Diamond. In addition, some of their cases will be modernized fairy tales, such as one about three people whose homes were taken away by Wolf Corp. FOX has issued the project a put pilot order with the aforementioned quintet executive producing. Kwapis, who helmed the pilot to "The Office," is set to direct.
HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER (CBS) - Fox owned-and-operated stations in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago were among the winning bidders for the show's off-network run. While not quite the rainmaker Twentieth Television expected, "Mother" nevertheless drew cash license fees of $70,000 a week from New York's WNYW, $50,000 a week from Los Angeles's KTTV and $65,000 a week from Chicago's WFLD. Other stations landing the show were WPSG Philadelphia, KTXA Dallas, WLVI Boston, KQCA Sacramento and KCPQ/KMYQ Seattle. Additional clearances are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS (USA) - The cable channel has added the medical-themed drama to its expanding pilot roster. Judd Pillot and John Peaslee are behind the project, which centers on a top female trauma surgeon who returns home from two tours in Iraq to take a post as head of surgery at a military hospital - only to find herself quickly entangled the absurd, bureaucratic minefields of the stateside health system. Said order is actually cast-contingent, as is custom for USA's efforts. Pillot and Peaslee are also executive producing alongside Conaco's Conan O'Brien and David Kissinger for Universal Cable Productions. "Instructions" joins previously announced pilots "White Collar" (starring Matthew Bomer with Bronwen Hughes directing from a script by Jeff Eastin for Fox TV Studios) and "Royal Pains" (starring Mark Feuerstein and Jill Flint starring with Jace Alexander directing from a script by Andrew Lenchewski for The Firm).
Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters
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