 |
 |
[03/23/09 - 06:12 PM]
Development Update: Monday, March 23
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!
ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE (CBS) - Grant Show ("Swingtown") and Lennon Parham ("Boldly Going Nowhere") have both joined the cast of the comedy pilot, which stars Jenna Elfman as a movie critic who gets pregnant after a fling with a younger man (Jon Foster). He'll play the owner of the paper where she works while she's set as the younger sister of Elfman's character. Claudia Lonow penned the half-hour project, which is based at CBS Paramount Network Television. Pamela Fryman is directing.
THE BIG D (CBS) - Nat Faxon ("Happy Hour") and newcomer Kelen Coleman have landed roles on the comedy pilot, about a New York couple moves to the husband's hometown of Dallas, where his Southern belle mother (Deanne Dunagan) makes life complicated for his East Coast wife. Coleman is set as the husband's younger sister while Faxton is playing his cousin. Jackie and Jeff Filgo created the half-hour, which comes from Warner Bros. Television.
THE BODY POLITIC (The CW) - Gabrielle Union ("Life"), Brian Austin Green ("Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles"), Jay Hernandez ("Six Degrees") and Jenny Wade ("Reaper") have all joined the cast of the drama pilot, which is described as a look at Washington politics through the eyes of up-and-coming staffers. Green, whose casting is in second position to "Terminator," will play the president's "boy wonder" adviser with Union as his sometimes-girlfriend, a legislative director. Rounding out the group is Hernandez as a naval officer and Wade as an idealistic young staffer. Minka Kelly, Jason Dohring and Tim Matheson also star in the CBS Paramount Network Television-based hour, which Scott Winant is directing from a script by Bill Robinson and Jason Rothenberg.
THE BRIDGET SHOW (ABC) - Jeffrey Tambor ("20 Good Years") has signed onto the Lauren Graham-led comedy pilot, about "a popular talk-show host and relationship expert who walks away from her career to be with the man she loves, only to attempt a comeback five years later after he dumps her." He's on board as Marty Roth, her business manager. Alex Herschlag is behind the half-hour, which is set up at the Sony Pictures Television-based Tantamount.
CANNED (ABC) - Amanda Bynes ("What I Like About You") has joined the cast of the comedy pilot, about a group of friends who are all fired on the same day. She'll play Sarabeth, "a naive Midwesterner who's being exploited by her boss - and doesn't realize it." Tim Peper, Stephanie Lemelin and Baron Vaughn also star in the half-hour, which comes from creator Kevin Etten and ABC Studios.
COMMUNITY (NBC) - Yvette Nicole Brown and Gillian Jacobs are the latest additions to the comedy pilot, about a lawyer named Jeff (Joel McHale) who returns to school after his college degree is deemed invalid. Brown is set as a fellow student with Jacobs as the object of Jeff's affection. Anthony and Joe Russo are directing the Sony Pictures Television-based half-hour, which was penned by Dan Harmon.
LIGHTS OUT (FX) - Veteran character actor Holt McCallany has been tapped for the lead role on the drama pilot, about an aging former heavyweight boxing champion who struggles to find his identity and support his wife and three daughters after his fighting days are over. He'll play the title character, Patrick "Lights Out" Leary, who's also battling pugilistic dementia and takes work as a legbreaker, collecting on unpaid gambling debts. Clark Johnson ("The Shield") is helming the Fox TV Studios/FX Productions-based hour, which comes from executive producers Justin Zackham, Ross Fineman and Phillip Noyce. Zackham penned the script. Production is set to begin next month on the pilot in New Jersey.
LIMELIGHT (ABC) - Matthew Davis ("What About Brian") has joined the cast of the drama pilot, about the teachers and students at a New York performing-arts academy. He'll play school's interim artistic director in the hour, which David Semel is directing from a script by K.J. Steinberg. Warner Bros. Television is the studio attached.
PARENTHOOD (NBC) - Peter Krause ("Dirty Sexy Money") and Maura Tierney ("ER") are both on track to join the cast of the drama pilot, based on the 1989 feature of the same name, as are Craig T. Nelson, Dax Shepard, Mae Whitman and Sarah Ramos. Krause will play Adam Braverman, "a married man with two children who is a lunatic beneath the surface," with Ramos as his good-girl daughter; Tierney as his sister, Sarah Braverman, a single mother; Whitman as her rebellious 16-year-old daughter; Shepard as the youngest Braverman, a slacker; and Nelson as their father, a Vietnam vet-turned-actor/hippie. Erika Christensen also stars in the Universal Media Studios-based, which was penned by Jason Katims.
PULLING (ABC) - Majandra Delfino has scored a lead role on the comedy pilot, about three single thirtysomething women (Lindsay Sloane, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Delfino) who move in together after one breaks off her engagement the day before her wedding. Delfino will play Louie Miller, a girl-next-door type. Charlie Finn also stars in the hour, which comes from ABC Studios. Elliot Hegarty is directing from a script by Rob Hanning.
SORORITY WARS (Lifetime, New!) - Courtney Thorne-Smith ("According to Jim") and Lucy Hale ("Privileged") are set to star in a new original movie at the cable channel set in the cut-throat world of college sororities. Faith Ford is also in negotiations to star the film, which centers on "18-year-old freshman (Hale) who ignites a full-blown sorority war after she snubs Delta, the sorority co-founded by her mother (Thorne-Smith) and her mother's college best friend (Ford), in favor of the more laid-back and less gossipy Kappa." James Hayman is set to helm the project from a script by Michelle Lovretta ("To Be Fat Like Me"). Patricia Clifford, Robert M. Sertner and Frank von Zerneck then are executive producing via their respective banners, Patricia Clifford Productions and von Zerneck/Sertner Films. Production is set to begin in late April in Vancouver.
THREE RIVERS (CBS) - Julia Ormond, who's currently recurring on "CSI: NY," has joined the cast of the drama pilot, about organ transplants as seen through three points of view: those of the doctors, the donors and the recipients. She'll play the head of surgery at the show's Three Rivers Hospital. Carol Barbee, Carol Fenelon and Curtis Hanson are executive producing the hour, which is set up at CBS Paramount Network Television.
UNITED STATES OF TARA (Showtime) - Alexa Junge reportedly won't be returning as showrunner of the Diablo Cody-created series when it returns for its second season. No reason was given for her exit. The search then is underway for a new showrunner who will serve alongside fellow executive producers Cody, Steven Spielberg, Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank. "Tara's" freshman run wraps on April 5 with season two due sometime next year.
WORLDWIDE TRIBE (Travel, New!) - The cable channel has ordered 12 episodes of a new series about tattooing around the globe. Tattoo artists Chris Nunez, Ami James and "apprentice" Yoji Harada will host the project, which will visit such locales as Nepal, Japan, Polynesia, Thailand, Canada, Israel, Germany and Spain. Mike Beale, Adena Chawke, Craig Borders, Elizabeth Browde, Nunez and James then are the executive producers for Alchemy Reality and Love Hate Productions.
Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters
|
|
|
 [march 2009]  |
S |
M |
T |
W |
T |
F |
S |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
[03/17/26 - 12:02 PM]
Hudson Williams, Jennifer Grey, Terry Chen, Elizabeth Adams, Hannah Galway, and William Mapother Join the Cast of "The Altruists"
The Netflix series tells the story of Sam Bankman-Fried (Anthony Boyle) and Caroline Ellison (Julia Garner), two hyper-smart, ambitious young idealists who tried to remake the global financial system in the blink of an eye...before they were accused of stealing $8 billion.
|
[03/17/26 - 12:01 PM]
Netflix Top 10: Week of March 9 - "One Piece" Season 2 Sets Sail for No. 1 in This Week's Top 10
Proving that demand for prehistoric beasts will never go extinct, docuseries "The Dinosaurs" landed at No. 2 on the English TV list with 9.6 million views.
|
[03/17/26 - 12:01 PM]
Next on Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN - April 2026
New series include "Dear Killer Nannies," "Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair," "The Testaments," and "Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord."
|
[03/17/26 - 10:05 AM]
Chloe Bennet, Max Greenfield, Charlie Hall, Kumail Nanjiani, and Jarrad Paul Join Season 4 of "The White Lotus"
More arrivals await.
|
[03/17/26 - 10:01 AM]
"Stranger Things: Tales from '85" Coming to Select Theaters on April 18
The screenings of the first two episodes of the new series will take place on April 18 at 12:00 PM and 3:00 PM local time, in 34 theaters in the U.S. in partnership with AMC Theatres.
|
[03/17/26 - 09:31 AM]
Netflix Announces New True-Crime Documentary "The Crash" Premiering May 15
Gareth Johnson directed the film, produced by RAW (an All3Media company).
|
[03/17/26 - 09:01 AM]
Video: Sweet Niblets! Official Trailer Drops for "Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special"
The special will be released on Disney+ and Hulu on Tuesday, March 24 - 20 years to the day that the original series debuted on Disney Channel.
|
[03/17/26 - 08:24 AM]
Hulu Renews Hit Drama Series "Paradise," from Dan Fogelman and Starring Sterling K. Brown, for a Third Season
The show continues to resonate with audiences worldwide, amassing over 30M hours for S2 and nearly 12 billion minutes streamed globally across its first two seasons.
|
[03/17/26 - 08:01 AM]
"The Chi" Signs Off: First Look at the Eighth and Final Season on Paramount+
Production on the new season began in January, kicking off the road to the show's highly anticipated farewell.
|
[03/17/26 - 07:01 AM]
BritBox Announces Additional Casting, Start of Production for Season Three of Jimmy McGovern's Award-Winning Drama Series "Time"
The three-part drama will be led by David Tennant as Prison Officer Bailey with Siobhan Finneran reprising her role as Marie-Louise, a prison chaplain.
|
[03/17/26 - 07:01 AM]
Apple TV Announces "My Brother the Minotaur," Premiering April 24
A thrilling mix of folklore, mystery and adventure about a young minotaur - half boy, half bull - found and raised in the human world.
|
[03/17/26 - 07:01 AM]
Video: "Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Ghost War" - Official Teaser - Prime Video
Jack Ryan returns in a major movie event. Stream "Ghost War" - May 20 on Prime Video.
|
[03/17/26 - 06:45 AM]
Video: Paramount+ Reveals Trailer & Key Art for Men's College Basketball Docuseries, "Made for March"
The docuseries chronicles two of college basketball's most renowned programs - Kansas Jayhawks and Michigan Wolverines--this season in their bid for a national championship.
|
[03/17/26 - 06:31 AM]
Video: "Love on the Spectrum U.S." - Season 4 Official Trailer - Netflix
New and familiar faces star in this heartfelt documentary series that follows singles on the autism spectrum as they search for true love.
|
[03/17/26 - 06:01 AM]
New Four-Part Series "Shared Planet" Premieres Wednesdays, April 29-May 20, 2026 on PBS and PBS.org
In an age of serious environmental challenges, this four-part global series offers a look at an alternative and more hopeful future.
|
|
|
|
