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LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The latest development news, culled from recent wire reports:
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87TH PRECINCT (NBC, New!) - Amy Bloom ("State of Mind") has booked a script at the Peacock for a new drama based on Ed McBain's series of police procedural novels set in the 87th Precinct in Isola, a fictionalized version of Manhattan. Robert Lansing, Gena Rowlands and Ron Harper toplined a short-lived small screen take in 1961, which also aired on the Peacock. The new incarnation comes from Lionsgate-based Olive Productions with the company's Steve Buscemi and Stanley Tucci executive producing alongside Bloom.
Here's how publisher Simon & Schuster details "Cop Hater," the first novel in the 54-book (and counting) franchise: "Swift, silent, and deadly -- someone is knocking off the 87th Precinct's finest, one by one. The how of the killings is obvious: three .45 shots from the dark add up to one, two, three very dead detectives. The why and the who are the Precinct's headaches now. When Detective Reardon is found dead, motive is a big question mark. But when his partner becomes victim number two, it looks like open-and-shut grudge killings. That is, until a third detective buys it. With one meager clue, Detective Steve Carella begins his grim search for the killer, a search that takes him into the city's underworld to a notorious brothel, to the apartment of a beautiful and dangerous widow, and finally to a .45 automatic aimed straight at his head...."
BACK NINE/PLAYING WITH GUNS (Spike TV) - The cable channel has reportedly passed on both pilots. The former, from Jason Filardi and Mark Perez, starred John Schneider as Ronnie Barnes, "a hard-drinking, washed-up former U.S. Open golf champion who is trying to make it back onto the Tour with help from his sex-addicted caddy, aptly named Tiger." The latter, from the trio of Bob Castrone, Brian Levin and Jason Zumwalt, featured Danny Masterson and Joey Kern as "childhood friends who have grown up to become small town cops, trying to get the most out of their badges while doing the least amount of police work possible."
TILDA (HBO) - Executive producer Cynthia Mort has reportedly bowed out of the comedy pilot, about a powerful female online showbiz journalist with a no-holds-barred style (Diane Keaton). Said development followed "a tense pilot shoot in which she frequently clashed with executive producer/director Bill Condon and got into public scuffles with Diane Keaton." Condon is currently searching for a new showrunner as it's understood the pay channel has ordered additional scripts.
Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters
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