 |
 |
[03/14/11 - 11:25 PM]
Development Update: Monday, March 14
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!
ALLEN GREGORY (FOX) - Will Forte ("Sit Down, Shut Up") has joined the voice cast of the upcoming animated comedy, about Allen Gregory (Jonah Hill), the world's most celebrated seven-year-old embarking on the greatest challenge of his life: attending elementary school with regular kids. French Stewart, Nat Faxon, Cristina Pucelli and Joy Osmanski are also featured in the ensemble. Hill, Andrew Mogel and Jarrad Paul are behind the project, which is set up at 20th Century Fox Television and the studio-based Chernin Entertainment.
THE BACHELOR (ABC) - The Alphabet has ordered a 16th edition of the veteran reality series, which wrapped its most recent cycle tonight. Said run, featuring the return of Brad Womack, has averaged a solid 10.2 million viewers for the network and will once again return in January of next year. Next Entertainment and Warner Horizon Television are the co-producers.
COOPER & STONE (The CW) - Vanessa Ferlito ("CSI: NY") has booked the latter title role in the drama pilot, about two pop culture savvy detectives - Jenna Cooper (Alexandra Breckenridge) and Angela Stone (Ferlito) - working in Chicago's Northside precinct. She'll play the aforementioned Stone, who with her "ponytail and Ann Taylor separates make a pointed attempt to downplay how pretty she actually is." Cooper conversely with "her expensive highlights and designer jeans, clearly works what she's got." Laurie Arent penned the CBS Television Studios-based hour, which also stars Riley Smith. John Dahl is directing.
GOOD CHRISTIAN BITCHES (ABC) - Emmy-winner Kristin Chenoweth ("Pushing Daisies") has joined the cast of the drama pilot, about Amanda Vaughn (Leslie Bibb), a widowed mother of two who - to get a fresh start - moves back to the affluent Dallas neighborhood where she grew up. She's set as Darlene Cockburn ("beautiful, blonde, buxom"), a chruch-going housewife with a skewed sense of goodness and the alpha of the group. Annie Potts, Jennifer Aspen, Marisol Nichols and Miriam Shor also star. Alan Poul is directing the ABC Studios-based hour from a script by Robert Harling.
IDENTITY (ABC) - Bree Turner is the latest addition to the drama pilot, a procedural set at the Identity Crimes Division, the FBI's first cyber-crime unit mixed with traditional investigators. She's set as Tessa Stein ("lush, posh, Jewish, impeccably attired, sharp wit"), an atypical master tech geek. Also starring in the ABC Studios-based hour are Angela Bassett, Jay Paulson, Orlando Jones and Colin O'Donoghue. John Glenn penned the script, to be directed by Gary Fleder.
LIZZIE BORDEN (HBO, New!) - Chloe Sevigny ("Big Love") is set to star and produce a potential mini-series at the network about Lizzie Borden "who, in 1893, was acquitted of murdering her overbearing father and step-mother with a hatchet, but was publically condemned." Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman's Playtone are behind the four-hour project, to be penned by Bryce Kass. Hanks and Goetzman then will executive produce with Sevigny serving as a co-executive producer.
LOVELIVES (NBC) - Amanda Loncar ("The Loop") has scored the female lead on the comedy pilot, about a couple - Tim (Ryan Hansen) and Holly (Loncar) - and their challenges of love and fidelity. She'll play the aforementioned Holly. Also signing on is Sean Maguire as Blake, Tim's older brother, a Wall Street-type who's something of a bad influence on him. Chris Sheridan is behind the half-hour, which is set up at 20th Century Fox Television.
MY FRICKIN' FAMILY (ABC) - Cybill Shepherd ("Eastwick") has been cast in the comedy pilot, about Anna (Ellen Woglom) and Raj (Ravi Patel), a couple with a new baby and the culture clashes between its four very different grandparents. She'll play Nell, Raj's mother, who's fully embraced Indian culture while her husband Pradip (Harish Patel) conversely has immersed himself in American white-trash culture. Christopher Rich and Mo Gaffney also star as Anna's parents. Tristram Shapeero is directing the ABC Studios-based project, from creator Erica Rivinoja.
R.E.M. (NBC) - Wilmer Valderrama, Steve Harris, B.D. Wong, Laura Allen and Dylan Minnette have all booked roles on the drama pilot, about Mark Britten (Jason Isaacs), 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 - each with their own partner and psychiatrist. Minnette will play said son ("tall, good looking"), a football player who takes up tennis - his late mother's sport of choice - following her death. Allen then will play Tara ("long, slender, like someone who not only plays a sport for a living, but does it well"), his coach, a trusted confidante. Meanwhile, Harris will play Isaiah "Bird" Freeman ("an air of having seen it all, twice"), Mark's partner in the Rex reality, while Valderrama, who has a talent holding deal with the studio, is set as Richard Vega ("gregarious, the type of person who talks to strangers in elevators"), Mark's partner in the Hannah reality. And finally, Wong will play Dr. Lee ("a cerebral presence"), Mark's psychiatrist in the Hannah reality. 20th Century Fox Television is behind the hour, from writer Kyle Killen and director David Slade.
REDS (HBO, New!) - Martyn Burke ("Pirates of Silicon Valley") is developing a period drama at the pay channel inspired by the true story of a colonel in the Soviet KGB who attempted to raise a family as an ordinary American citizen just outside New York City but was eventually caught. Burke himself crossed paths with the man in question in the 1980s when he worked as a sound man for one of Burke's documentary film crews. No other details or auspices were given about the project.
REVENGE (ABC) - Christa B. Allen has scored a role on the drama pilot, about Emily Thorne (Emily VanCamp), a mysterious young woman who comes to the Hamptons to exact revenge on the people who destroyed her family. She's on board as Charlotte ("a fresh-faced coquette"), the daughter of Conrad Grayson, whom Emily blames for her foibles. Ashley Madekwe, Connor Paolo and Gabriel Mann also star in the ABC Studios-based hour, which Phillip Noyce is directing from a script by Mike Kelley.
THE RIVER (ABC) - Leslie Hope ("The Mentalist") has joined the cast of the drama pilot, about a state-of-the-art research vessel on a quest to find Emmet Cole (Bruce Greenwood), a missing TV explorer, in the Amazon and the crew documenting said endeavor. She'll play Tess Cole, Emmet's thoughtful and determined wife ("smarter than he is, but hampered by practicality"). Eloise Mumford, Joe Anderson, Paul Blackthorne and Shaun Parkes also star in the hour, from ABC Studios, writer Michael Green and director Jaume Collet-Serra.
S.I.L.A. (NBC) - Noah Emmerich and Emma Dumont are the latest additions to Stephen Gaghan's pilot, a drama depicting a complex web of crime, policework and politics in Los Angeles. He'll play Terry Mullins, a detective who "has hit that point where it'll take a real effort to actually care again and he may not have it in him," with Dumont as his daughter Jennifer, "a bright sophomore with braces." Daniella Alonso, Danny Pino, Matthew Lev and Madchen Amick also star, the latter as Mary McCarthy, Jennifer's mother and Terry's ex-wife. 20th Century Fox Television is producing.
UNTITLED SUSANNAH GRANT PROJECT (CBS) - Julie Benz ("No Ordinary Family") has joined the cast of the drama pilot, about Michael Halstead (Patrick Wilson), an ultra-competitive surgeon whose life is changed forever when his ex-wife, Anna Lindberg (Jennifer Ehle), dies and begins teaching him what life is all about from the hereafter. She'll play Didi ("huge heart, unfocused, overwhelmed"), Michael's sister with a troubled teenage son. Her casting is in second position to the ABC drama. Afton Williamson also stars while CBS Television Studios is producing. Jonathan Demme is directing from a script by Susannah Grant.
|
|
|
 [march 2011]  |
S |
M |
T |
W |
T |
F |
S |
| | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
[10/17/25 - 01:16 PM]
"Live with Kelly and Mark" Hits Season Highs with Best Audience Performance Since July
"Live" has now ranked as the No. 1 talk show in syndication for 139 consecutive weeks across all key measures.
|
[10/17/25 - 10:38 AM]
"Dancing with the Stars" Continues Historic Hot Streak - Rising for Fourth Straight Week Since Premiere with 6 Million Total Viewers
Plus: "High Potential" dominated the 10 p.m. hour with 4.15 million Total Viewers and a 0.33 rating among Adults 18-49.
|
[10/17/25 - 10:01 AM]
51st Season of "Saturday Night Live" Continues with Three Back-to-Back Shows in November
Miles Teller is on tap to host on November 1, followed by Nikki Glaser on November 8, and Glen Powell on November 15.
|
[10/17/25 - 09:05 AM]
All-New Season of "The Last Woodsmen" Premieres Friday, November 14 at 9PM ET/PT on Discovery
Deep in the untamed wilderness of the Pacific Northwest, veteran logger Jared Douglas returns to put everything on the line in the new season.
|
[10/17/25 - 09:01 AM]
Video: "Mob War: Philadelphia vs. The Mafia" - Sneak Peek - Netflix
A brutal mob war between John Stanfa and Joey Merlino plunges '90s Philadelphia into chaos and bloodshed in this captivating true-crime series.
|
[10/17/25 - 08:31 AM]
Video: "Me late que si" - Official Trailer - Netflix
A desperate, ordinary man, fed up with his misfortune, hatches a daring heist and assembles a very unusual group to attempt the impossible: stealing a live lottery jackpot.
|
[10/17/25 - 08:00 AM]
"Weapons" Begins Streaming Exclusively on HBO Max October 24
When all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at 2:17 a.m., a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance.
|
[10/17/25 - 07:01 AM]
Video: "My Secret Santa" - Official Trailer - Netflix
A vivacious single-mom (Alexandra Breckenridge) in need of a job decides to disguise herself as a man in order to get hired as the seasonal Santa at a luxury ski resort.
|
[10/17/25 - 07:01 AM]
"Euphoria" Season 3 Is Coming Spring 2026
Newly announced cast members include Gideon Adlon, Bill Bodner, Colleen Camp, Danielle Deadwyler, Homer Gere, Jessica Blair Herman, Natasha Lyonne, Hemky Madera, Kwame Patterson, Trisha Paytas, Rebecca Pidgeon, Bella Podaras, Cailyn Rice, Eli Roth, Madison Thompson, Jack Topalian, Sam Trammell, Matthew Willig.
|
[10/17/25 - 06:01 AM]
Video: "Eloa the Hostage: Live on TV" - Official Trailer - Netflix
This gripping documentary explores the case of a teenage girl who was kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend in one of Brazil's most shocking hostage situations.
|
[10/17/25 - 06:01 AM]
Apple Is the Exclusive New Broadcast Partner for Formula 1 in the U.S.
Apple TV will deliver comprehensive coverage of Formula 1, with all practice, qualifying, Sprint sessions, and Grands Prix available to Apple TV subscribers.
|
[10/16/25 - 02:11 PM]
Video: National Geographic Unveils First Look at "Chris Hemsworth: A Road Trip to Remember" - A Powerful and Heartfelt Special Featuring the Global Movie Star on His Most Personal Journey Yet
The one-hour documentary, from Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Darren Aronofsky's Protozoa, Jane Root's Nutopia, and Chris Hemsworth and Ben Grayson's Wild State, premieres November 23 at 9:00/8:00c on National Geographic and streams the next day on Disney+ and Hulu.
|
[10/16/25 - 12:58 PM]
Lifetime Announces Annual "It's a Wonderful Lifetime" Holiday Movie Slate Kicking Off November 29th
Featured talent this year includes Brandy Norwood, Kane & Katelyn Brown, Loretta Devine, Debbi Morgan, Arielle Kebbel, Tyler Hilton, James Lafferty, Vivica A. Fox, Jackée Harry, Sy'Rai Smith, Nischelle Turner, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, and others.
|
[10/16/25 - 12:31 PM]
Video: "The Witcher" Season 4 - Character Trailer - Netflix
Scattered to fates unknown, Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri traverse the war-torn Continent and its countless enemies in the hope of finding each other again.
|
[10/16/25 - 11:32 AM]
A+E Global Media and Rachael Ray's Free Food Studios Cook Up Expanded Programming Partnership with Over 100 New Episodes Ordered
The network has ordered 110 new episodes of Ray's programming, including new episodes of "Meals in Minutes," that will continue to focus on her approachable and comforting cooking style.
|
|
|
|
