[08/05/10 - 06:26 PM] Development Update: Thursday, August 5 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!
CRIMINAL MINDS: SUSPECT BEHAVIOR (CBS) - Richard Schiff ("The West Wing") has joined the cast of the much-ballyhooed spin-off, about an elite team of agents within the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit. He'll play FBI director Jack Fickler, details of which weren't specified.
HARRY'S LAW (NBC) - Christopher McDonald has scored a recurring role on the midseason drama, about a former patent attorney (Kathy Bates) who forms an unconventional law firm in a run-down shoe store. He'll play Thomas "Tommy" Jefferson, "a fast-talking, attention-seeking lawyer whose office is perma-lit for press conferences." It's understood he'll debut in the second episode featuring an unlikely case about the legality of China's one-child-only policy.
HOW TO MAKE IT IN AMERICA/I'M WITH THE BAND (HBO) - Jill Soloway ("United States of Tara") has joined both projects as an executive producer. The latter half-hour, to star Zooey Deschanel, centers on "a group of friends caught up in the sexual awakening and cultural revolution of the late 1960s." Deschanel, Tim Gibbons and Sarah Jackson also serve as executive producers.
I JUST WANT MY PANTS BACK (MTV, New!) - Doug Liman is set to direct and executive produce a new comedy pilot for the cable channel, based on the book by David Rosen. Said half-hour, which comes from Universal Cable Productions and was originally developed for NBC, centers on 22-year-old Jason Strider and his friends who grapple with dating, romance and becoming adults. Liman will executive produce via his Hypnotic banner alongside Dave Bartis.
LONE STAR (FOX) - Andie MacDowell and Rosa Blasi are reportedly on track to recur on the freshman drama, about a con man (James Wolk) who's leading a double life. The former would play the love interest of Jon Voight's oil tycoon while Blasi is set as Blake, the Lady Macbeth-esque trophy wife of Mark Deklin's character, Trammell. The newcomer launches on Monday nights this fall.
PUSHERS (AMC, New!) - The cable channel has commissioned a script for a new drama set in the pharmaceutical industry. Neal Baer, Michael Curtis and Roger Shulman are executive producing said hour, additional details of which weren't released. Universal Cable Productions is producing.
THREE INCHES (Syfy) - Noah Reid has booked the lead role on the drama pilot, about "a twentysomething underachiever who acquires a seemingly worthless superpower after getting struck by lightning - he can move any object three inches with his mind." He'll play Walter, said fellow, in the project, which Jace Alexander is directing from a script by Harley Peyton. Fox Television Studios and Landscape Entertainment are co-producing.
