LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The latest development news, culled from recent wire reports:
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MELROSE PLACE (The CW) - "One Tree Hill" creator Mark Schwahn is in negotiations to pen the script to the show's small screen revival. The writer/producer recently inked a two-year overall deal with "Melrose" producer CBS Paramount Network Television that begins in June. Holding up the potential deal - Schwahn is under contract with Warner Bros. Television until said date and is already committed to staying with "Hill" should it go for a seventh season.
TEMPS (ABC, New!) - Danny Comden ("I'm With Her") is once again in business with the Alphabet and ABC Studios, this time in a multi-camera comedy dubbed as a modern-day "Taxi" set at a temp agency. Comden will write, executive produce and star in the project, which will touch on everything from the deepening recession to the plight of overqualified immigrants left to toil as manual laborers. As for specifics, Comden will play a 10-year veteran temp with the action set at the agency's office as well as their assignments.
UNTITLED DAVID HEMINGSON PROJECT (ABC) - The Alphabet is redeveloping David Hemingson's drama pilot, which starred Matt Long as a law school grad from a blue-collar background who joins a Los Angeles boutique law firm. It's understood the project, which didn't make the cut from the network's post-strike pilots in August, is being retooled to be more dramatic and emotional in tone. Matt Long will once again topline the 20th Century Fox Television-based hour, however it's not clear if co-stars Ben Lawson, Gail O'Grady, Jonathan Adams, Morena Baccarin, Norbert Leo Butz, Roger Bart or Tina Majorino will make the transition. The new pilot then will be considered for a series commitment next season.
UNTITLED ODESSA PROJECT (Lifetime, New!) - "Ghost Whisperer" star Jennifer Love Hewitt has tapped veteran TV movie producer Scott W. Anderson ("Confessions of a Sociopathic Social Climber") as her producing partner at her Fedora Films, formerly known as LoveSpell Productions. The news comes as the company, which has an overall deal with ABC Studios, begins a major development push. Already in the works: an original movie for Lifetime based on "She Had Brains, a Body, and the Ability to Make Men Love Her," a Texas Monthly article about a 22-year-old housewife and former homecoming queen in Odessa who became one of the city's most popular hookers. Hewitt is attached to star in the project, which was originally eyed as a feature.
Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters
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