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[01/20/09 - 06:31 PM]
Development Update: Tuesday, January 20
By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC)

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!


HUMAN TARGET (FOX) - Jon Steinberg's adaptation of the DC Comics title has officially been ordered to pilot. The drama, about a mysterious security-for-hire who assumes the identities of people in life-threatening danger, is set up at Warner Bros. Television and McG's Wonderland Sound & Vision banner. Steinberg penned the pilot and is executive producing alongside McG. ABC previously took a stab at bringing the Christopher Chance character to the small screen in 1992, with Rick Springfield in the title role.


LEGALLY MAD (NBC) - Kurt Fuller ("Big Day") is the latest addition to the drama pilot, about a twentysomething woman (Charity Wakefield) who takes a job at a law firm run by her father (Hugh Bonneville). He'll play Lou Peable, whom the casting notice details as follows: "40s, any ethnicity. The other pea in Gordon's pod, the sensitive Frick to Gordon's slick Frack. Completely caught in Gordon's contagious riptide, though without Gordon he would fall victim to his own more tortured and neurotic instincts. Physically comedic." Jon Seda and Kristin Chenoweth also star in the project, which comes from David E. Kelley and Warner Bros. Television. Separately, Fuller has also landed a three-episode arc on the studio's "Supernatural." He'll play "a corporate executive who secretly has supernatural authority" on the CW series, which airs on Thursday nights. No specific air dates were given.


MAGGIE HILL (FOX) - The Ian Biederman-penned drama, about a brilliant female surgeon who thrives despite enduring adult-onset schizophrenia, has formally landed a pilot commitment from the network. David Nevins and Brian Grazer are executive producing the 20th Century Fox Television-based hour via their Imagine Television alongside Biederman.


OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS (USA) - Assaf Cohen ("Flightplan") has scored a role on the 90-minute drama pilot, about a former Marine (Emily Rose) who returns from a tour as a Navy surgeon to become head of trauma surgery at a military hospital. He'll play eager staff anesthesiologist Eli Funston, who alternately is frustrated by and in awe of Rose's character. Christine Lahti, Diana Maria Riva, Johnny Sneed and Nick Zano also star in the project, which comes from Conaco Productions and Universal Cable Productions. Andy Tennant is helming from a script by co-creators John Peaslee and Judd Pillot.


REINCARNATIONIST (FOX) - The network has commissioned a pilot for the project, a drama about investigators who try to resolve their clients' current woes by solving the mysteries encountered in their previous lives. David Hudgins is behind the Warner Bros. Television-based hour, which he's executive producing alongside Lou Pitt and MJ Rose.


SONS OF TUCSON (FOX) - Actors-turned-writers Tommy Dewey ("Roommates") and Greg Bratman ("Last Night") have scored a pilot order from the network for their single-camera comedy about "a charming but misguided hustler hired by three rich young brothers to act as their "father" while their real one serves time for a white-collar crime." The pair penned the 20th Century Fox Television-based half-hour and serve as supervising producers. J2TV's Harvey Myman, Jason Felts and Justin Berfield are the executive producers.


THE STATION (FOX) - The Ben Stiller-produced comedy has received a pilot commitment from FOX. The single-camera half-hour, about a covert CIA operative and his workmates who are embedded in a South American banana republic with a mission to install a new dictator, was written by Kevin Napier who will serve as a co-executive producer. Stiller and his Red Hour Films then are executive producing alongside Stuart Cornfeld and Jeremy Kramer with Stiller potentially directing.


TWO DOLLAR BEER (FOX) - Mike Binder's multi-camera comedy, about a Detroit couple and their family and friends, all of whom must adjust to the changing world around them, has been greenlit to pilot. Binder wrote the script and is executive producing with 3 Arts Entertainment's Michael Rotenberg and Jonathan Levin for 20th Century Fox Television.


WALORSKY (FOX) - Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka's comedy - about a lazy ex-cop-turned-security guard patrolling a mall in Buffalo, who is forced to grudgingly step it up after he is assigned an idiot partner - has been issued a pilot order. The pair penned the pilot and are serving as co-executive producers. The half-hour is set up at 20th Century Fox Television with American Work's Ravi Nandan and Scot Armstrong executive producing.


Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters





  [january 2009]  
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M
T
W
T
F
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· BIG DAY (ABC)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· HUMAN TARGET (FOX)
· LEGALLY MAD (NBC)
· MAGGIE HILL (FOX)
· OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS (USA)
· PAST LIFE (FOX)
· ROOMMATES (ABC FAMILY)
· SONS OF TUCSON (FOX)
· STATION, THE (FOX)
· SUPERNATURAL (CW)
· TWO DOLLAR BEER (FOX)
· WALORSKY (FOX)





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