[02/21/11 - 09:55 PM] Development Update: Monday, February 21 By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC)
LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The latest development news, culled from recent wire reports:
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CRIMINAL MINDS (CBS) - Simon Mirren, an executive producer on the veteran drama, has reportedly inked an overall deal with Sony Pictures Television. The pact, which begins in June, will set the writer/producer up at the studio where he'll develop new series projects. It will also spell the end of his six-year run at "Minds," which is co-produced by ABC Studios and CBS Television Studios. Financial details weren't specified. Separately, Mirren is executive producing "The Sector" at Cinemax, an action-adventure drama from Scott Free Productions, Anne Thomopoluos and Aaron and Matt Benay.
HAIL MARY (CBS) - Minnie Driver ("The Riches") has booked the title role on the drama pilot, about a suburban single mom who teams up with a streetwise hustler to solve crimes. She'll play the aforementioned mom, Mary Beth Baker, a pretty and petite guidance counselor ("a little bit Erin Brockovich and a lot Leigh Ann Tuohy"). Jeff Wadlow penned the hour for Warner Bros. Television.
IN CRISIS (ABC) - Guillermo Diaz ("Mercy") is the latest addition to the drama pilot, about a professional fixer (Kerry Washington) and her dysfunctional staff. He'll play Huck, the firm's the lone paralegal who is also an expert hacker. Columbus Short, Henry Ian Cusick and Katie Lowes also star in the ABC Studios-based hour, from writer Shonda Rhimes and director Paul McGuigan.
MISSING (ABC) - Ashley Judd is reportedly on track for the lead role in the upcoming drama, about "a devoted single mom who, after her 18-year-old son disappears in Italy where he'd been working on architecture fellowship, takes it upon herself to travel to Europe and track him down." She'll play said woman, Becca Winstone, "a former CIA agent who will stop at nothing to bring her son home alive." Steve Shill is directing the pilot to the project, which was ordered directly to series last month. Gina Matthews, Grant Scharbo and creator Greg Poirier are executive producing alongside Shill for ABC Studios. Production is set to begin late next month in Rome, Vienna and Prague for a late summer/early fall bow.
MY LIFE AS AN EXPERIMENT (NBC) - Adam Campbell ("Harper's Island") is the first to be cast in the comedy pilot, about the adventures of A.J. Wilder, an immersion journalist and how his unusual assignments affect his home life with his wife and two kids. He'll play Dan Meadow, A.J.'s editor and "perhaps the manliest man in America." Cathy Yuspa and Josh Goldsmith co-wrote the half-hour, which is based on A.J. Jacobs's book of the same name. Sony Pictures Television is producing.
PRIME SUSPECT (NBC) - Toby Stephens ("Vexed") has joined the cast of the Maria Bello-led drama pilot, a remake of the iconic British series of the same name. He'll play Matt Webb ("an usually genial man in
his 40s"), the live-in boyfriend of Bello's character, Jane Timoney, who is fighting his ex-wife to allow their son to stay with him and Jane. Alexandra Cunningham penned the Universal Media Studios-based hour, to be directed by Peter Berg.
REM (NBC) - Jason Isaacs ("Brotherhood") has booked the lead role on the drama pilot, about Mark Britten, a police detective living in two different realities following a horrible car accident: one in which his son Rex lives, another in which his wife Hannah lives. He'll play said cop ("40ish, handsome, but a weight to his stare") in the 20th Century Fox Television-based hour, which David Slade is directing from a script by Kyle Killen. Isaacs will also receive a producing credit while Howard Gordon is executive producing alongside Killen. In addition, Tim Minear ("Terriers") has been tapped as a consulting producer.
SUBURGATORY (ABC) - Alan Tudyk ("Dollhouse") is the latest addition to the comedy pilot, about Tessa (Jane Levy), "a teenage girl who is moved by her dad George from Manhattan, where she grew up, to her version of hell: the suburbs." He's on board as Noah Werner, George's college buddy, who's "too tan for the season with white teeth and professionally tousled hair." Michael Fresco is directing the Emily Kapnek-penned half-hour for Warner Bros. Television.
