|
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!
THE ASSISTANTS (CBS) - T.J. Miller ("Carpoolers") is the first to be cast in the comedy pilot, about four assistants who toil for a celebrity couple. He'll play one of the quartet, DJ Kilmer ("handsome and happily simple"), who spends his nights as a drummer for a metal band. Tucker Cawley is behind the half-hour, which is set up at CBS Television Studios.
BACHELOR PAD (ABC) - The Alphabet has renewed "The Bachelor" spin-off for a second season. A new cycle of six episodes will roll out later this summer, following "The Bachelorette's" run. The series, which features the franchise's various alums competing to win - or share - a $250,000 cash prize, averaged 6.4 million viewers and 2.3 rating among adults 18-49 during its freshman run. Warner Horizon Television and Next Entertainment are co-producing.
BOARDWALK EMPIRE (HBO) - Newcomer Heather Lind has landed a multi-episode arc on the show's upcoming second season. She'll play a maid in the period drama however no other specifics were given.
THE CROSSING (NBC) - Newcomer Claire Wellin has been cast in the pilot, a period drama set in Circle Bend, Missouri following the Civil War and revolves around Jason Edding, a former soldier who is welcomed as its savior - whether he likes it or not. She's believed to be playing Dora, a young girl who lost her father and brothers in the war, who alongside her mom - Anna, a leather goods store owner - befriends Jason. Peter Horton is helming the Universal Media Studios-based hour from a script by Joshua Brand.
HUNG (HBO) - Stephen Amell ("The Vampire Diaries") and Leven Rambin ("Scoundrels") are set to recur on the show's upcoming third season. He'll play Jason, "a rival gigolo of Ray Drecker (Thomas Jane) who is described as super sexy with a good physique and possessing a sweetness to him that makes him very charismatic." Rambin then is set as an unspecified love interest for Jane's character.
I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER (FOX) - Emmy-winner Jaime Pressly ("My Name Is Earl") is set to star opposite Katie Finneran in the comedy pilot, about two women - Annie Watson and Nikki Miller (Finneran) - who now have daughters just like the girls who picked on them in high school. She'll play the aforementioned Annie ("pretty, but nerdy pretty; funky but not quite cool"), the manager of a coffee house. Warner Bros. Television is behind the half-hour, from co-creators Ellen Kreamer and Sherry Bilsing-Graham. Andy Ackerman is directing.
MY FRICKIN' FAMILY (ABC) - Ellen Woglom ("Outlaw"), Ravi Patel ("Past Life") and Christopher Rich ("Reba") are the latest additions to the comedy pilot, about a couple with a new baby and the culture clashes between its four very different grandparents. Woglom and Patel will play the couple in question - Anna ("a bit of a control freak who tries to be perceived as an intellectual physician, but occasionally slips back into her pageant queen past") and Raj ("outdoorsy, outgoing, and an accomplished musician") - with Rich as Anna's dad, Gary ("an affable suburban cowboy, a former local politician who will talk your ear off"). Harish Patel also stars in the ABC Studios-based half-hour, from creator Erica Rivinoja and director Tristram Shapeero.
ONCE UPON A TIME (ABC) - Lana Parrilla ("Miami Medical") has boarded the drama pilot, about "a small town in Maine where the magic and mystery of Fairy Tales just may be real." She'll play Regina ("an attractive suburban mom in her 30s"), the town's mayor who also happens to be the Evil Queen of Fairy Tale Land. Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis co-wrote the hour, which is set up at ABC Studios. Mark Mylod is directing.
PLAYBOY (NBC) - Wes Ramsey ("CSI: Miami") is the latest addition to the pilot, a period drama set at the Playboy Club in Chicago in 1963. He'll play Max ("model looks, model brain, but sweet"), a bartender at the club. The ensemble also features Amber Heard, David Krumholtz, Jenna Dewan-Tatum, Laura Benanti, Leah Cudmore and Naturi Naughton. Chad Hodge penned the 20th Century Fox Television-based hour while Alan Taylor is attached to direct.
POWERS (FX) - The long-in-the-works drama, based on the Brian Michael Bendis/Michael Avon Oeming comic of the same name, has officially been ordered to pilot. Michael Dinner is on board to direct the hour, which was penned by Charles H. Eglee. "Powers" revolves around Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim, homicide detectives in a world where superheroes are commonplace. Sony Pictures Television and FX Productions are co-producing with Dinner and Eglee executive producing alongside Circle of Confusion's David Alpert. Casting is underway for a spring production start.
PRIME SUSPECT (NBC) - Kirk Acevedo, Tim Griffin and Joe Nieves have all scored roles on the drama pilot, about Jane Timoney (Maria Bello), "an iconoclastic female detective who has to make her bones in a tough New York precinct that is dominated by men." They'll play her fellow detectives: Phil Carter ("former Div II linebacker, 30s"), Augie Blando ("henpecked class clown, 40s") and Don Korilko ("broad with a healed many-times-broken nose"), respectively. Toby Stephens also stars in the Universal Media Studios-based hour, from director Peter Berg and writer Alexandra Cunningham.
THE REMEMBERER (CBS) - Poppy Montgomery ("Without a Trace") has been tapped for the lead role on the drama pilot, about Carrie Wells, an FBI agent who remembers everything, helping her career but makes for turmoil in her personal life. Niels Arden Oplev is helming the hour, which was penned by Ed Redlich and John Bellucci. CBS Television Studios and Sony Pictures Television are co-producing.
S.I.L.A. (NBC) - Danny Pino ("Cold Case") is the first to board the pilot, a drama depicting a complex web of crime, policework and politics in Los Angeles. He'll play Detective Douglas Romero, "a 3rd generation Angeleno, a sort of Latino Jack Johnson, usually scruffy and in the clothes of someone ten if not twenty years younger, the quintessential LA boy-man, but a great goddamn surfer." Stephen Gaghan wrote and will direct the hour for 20th Century Fox Television.
TWO BROKE GIRLS (CBS) - Newcomer Beth Behrs is set to star alongside Kat Dennings in the comedy pilot, about two struggling waitresses at a Brooklyn diner - Max ("cool, street smart, tough on the outside") and Caroline ("pretty, book smart, tough on the inside") - who aspire to open their own cupcake shop. She's on board as the aforementioned Caroline with the previously cast Dennings as Max. Michael Patrick King and Whitney Cummings co-wrote the half-hour for Warner Bros. Television.
UNTITLED WHITNEY CUMMINGS PROJECT (NBC) - Zoe Lister ("Hollyoaks") has scored a role on the comedy pilot, about a young couple (Whitney Cummings, Chris D'Elia) and the ups and downs of a committed relationship in today's complicated world. She'll play Lily, the pair's "traditional, sweet, upbeat" friend. Beverly D'Angelo also stars in the half-hour, which is set up at Universal Media Studios.
WEEKENDS AT BELLEVUE (FOX) - Oscar-nominee Janet McTeer ("Tumbleweeds") is the first to be cast in the drama pilot, about the weekend physician in charge of Bellevue's psychiatric emergency room. She'll play the "warm, outgoing" Diane Wallace, the hospital's head of psychiatry. Jack Bender is directing the Universal Media Studios-based hour from a script by Lisa Zwerling.
|
