[01/25/10 - 06:43 PM] Development Update: Monday, January 25 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!
FRESHMEN (ABC) - Greg Malins has received a green light to produce a pilot for his multi-camera comedy, about "the friendship of three freshmen members of Congress - two men and a woman - who live together in D.C." The 20th Century Fox Television-based project is also executive produced by The Huffington Post's Arianna Huffington and Roy Sekoff. The Alphabet ordered a script to the multi-camera half-hour back in September.
HITCHED (CBS) - Josh Schwartz and Matt Miller's comedy has snagged a pilot order from the Eye. The Warner Bros. Television-based half-hour revolves around "a twentysomething newlywed couple who, surrounded by their family and friends, is still learning about each other." The multi-camera project, which the duo co-wrote and will executive produce, was set up at the network back in August.
HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER (CBS) - Co-creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas have inked a massive three-year, eight-figure overall deal with 20th Century Fox Television, while the show itself has been picked up for a sixth season. The pact, which begins in June, covers their showrunning duties on the veteran comedy as well as calls for them to develop new series projects. Already in the works is a multi-camera comedy they penned with "Mother" staffers Kourtney Kang and Joe Kelly about "people in their late 20s and early 30s going through that second wave of growing up, and the ups and downs and the humor of that". The Pittsburgh-based project is billed as "similar tonally to 'HIMYM' and investigates the next chapter, the next stage of adulthood." As for "Mother," the pickup will carry the series through the 2010-11 season. The Eye previously extended fellow Monday entries "The Big Bang Theory" and "Two and a Half Men" through said period back in March of last year.
LEAPFROG (ABC) - Joanna Garcia ("Privileged") is the first to be cast in the comedy pilot, about "two sisters at different stages in their romantic relationships: one is in a happy, long-term relationship but isn't married, and the other gets pregnant and winds up marrying her beau." She'll play the latter sister in the multi-camera project, which comes from Warner Bros. Television and creator Shana Goldberg-Meehan.
NO ORDINARY FAMILY (ABC, New!) - Greg Berlanti ("Brothers & Sisters") and Jon Harmon Feldman ("Big Shots") are set to team for a potential new drama at the Alphabet about "a typical American family whose members have special abilities." The network has given a pilot order to the project, which marks Feldman's second for the current development cycle (the other being fellow ABC drama "True Blue"). Berlanti and Feldman co-wrote the hour and will executive produce for ABC Studios alongside Berlanti Television's Morgan Wandell.
SHAMELESS (Showtime) - Steve Hawey, Shanola Hampton and Jeremy White are the latest additions to the drama pilot, about "the lives of a very unconventional family." Details on their characters however weren't specified. Emmy Rossum, Justin Chatwin and William H. Macy also star in the Warner Bros. Television-based hour, which Mark Mylod is directing from a script by John Wells and U.K. creator Paul Abbott.
UNTITLED TAD QUILL PROJECT (CBS, New!) - Tad Quill ("Scrubs") has landed a pilot commitment from the Eye for a new comedy about "a widower father who raises his 12-year-old son while jumping back into the dating pool." The project, which is presumably multi-camera, is set up at CBS Television Studios. No other details were given.
