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[08/22/11 - 11:20 PM]
Development Update: Monday, August 22
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!


BOTTOMFEEDERS (MTV, New!) - Arden Myrin ("MadTV") is set to write and star in a new comedy at the cable channel. Details about the project however weren't released. Fred Savage ("It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia") is on board to direct and executive produce from a script by Myrin and Bruce McCoy. (THR.com)


COMMON LAW (USA) - Jon Turteltaub has inked a two-year overall deal with ABC Studios. The pact, financial details of which weren't released, calls for the director/executive producer to develop new series projects for the studio alongside his Junction Entertainment principals Karim Zreik and Dan Shotz. (Deadline.com)


THE DAY THE LAUGHTER STOPPED (HBO, New!) - Eric Stonestreet ("Modern Family") is set to star in a biopic at the pay channel about legendary silent-film star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Kirk Ellis ("John Adams") will pen the project, based on the book of the same name by David A. Yallop, while Barry Levinson is in talks to direct. Said effort "promises to detail how, virtually overnight, false accusations of rape and murder against Arbuckle transformed one of the most popular and highest paid Hollywood stars into a showbiz pariah." Ellis, Stonestreet and Baltimore Pictures' Levinson will also executive produce alongside Ron West and Chris Henze of Tagline Pictures, Christine Vachon of Killer Films and Steve Kavovit. (NYMag.com)


GURLAND ON GURLAND (Showtime, New!) - Actor/filmmaker Andrew Gurland ("The Last Exorcism") has booked a pilot at the pay channel which "reflects his real family life and the challenges he faces pursuing the next phase of his career." Glenn Gordon Caron also serves as an executive producer on the CBS Television Studios-based docu-comedy which "reflects his real family life and the challenges he faces pursuing the next phase of his career." (Deadline.com)


HYDE (ABC, New!) - Sheldon Turner has booked a contemporary interpretation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic split-personality tale at the Alphabet. Said effort, from ABC Studios, centers on Grant Hyde, "a thirtysomething ER doctor with a degenerative eye condition who is conflict-averse and hesitant to be captain of his own destiny [who] after attempting an experimental treatment to improve his eyesight, begins to experience a strange side effect - when he goes to sleep, his id manifests itself as Hyde, a fearless, gregarious personality who takes control where Grant cannot." Turner will pen the hour and executive produce alongside his Vendetta partner Jennifer Klein. (Deadline.com)


LAST RESORT (ABC, New!) - Shawn Ryan and Karl Gajdusek are set to team for a new drama at the Alphabet billed as "a thriller set in the near future when the country is very fractured and revolves around the crew of a U.S. nuclear submarine who become hunted after ignoring an order to shoot nuclear missiles." Said report goes on to detail that, "they escape to a NATO listening outpost where they publicly declare themselves to be the world's smallest nuclear nation with 24 nuclear warheads [and] the show will explore the society the fugitives create, the natives they meet and how what they've done affects the group and its unity." Ryan and Gajdusek are co-writing the Sony Pictures Television-based hour, which has a hefty pilot production commitment. MiddKid Productions' Marney Hockman will also executive produce. (Deadline.com)


MASTERS OF SEX (Showtime, New!) - Michelle Ashford has landed a pilot order from the pay channel for a new drama about William Masters and Virginia Johnson, "the pioneers into the science of human sexuality whose research touched off the sexual revolution." Said hour is based on Thomas Maier's book of the same name, subtitled "The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to Love." Ashford penned the hour and will executive produce alongside Sarah Timberman and Carl Beverly for Sony Pictures Television. (Deadline.com)


RAY DONOVAN (Showtime, New!) - "Southland" creator Ann Biderman has snagged a pilot order from the pay channel about "a fixer for the rich and famous in Los Angeles but himself is broken, with a troubled Irish family he can't quite escape." She'll write and executive produce alongside Mark Gordon, whose involvement is separate from his overall deal with ABC Studios. (Deadline.com)


TIGHTROPE (FOX, New!) - Jim Uhls ("Fight Club") has booked a potential drama at the network about "an FBI agent who is exceptionally skilled at finding, turning, and using criminal informants, rendering them totally trusting and trustworthy [however] it's a process that comes with a cost: the blurring of the boundaries of morality." 20th Century Fox Television and Chernin Entertainment are co-producing the hour with the latter's Peter Chernin and Katherine Pope executive producing alongside Uhls. (Variety.com)


UNTITLED DANIEL SWEREN-BECKER PROJECT (ABC, New!) - Daniel Sweren-Becker has sold a single-camera comedy to the Alphabet about "a guy in the year 2016 who thinks his life is perfect until he's struck by lightning, which takes him back to the year 2011 [where] the reasons he was meant to relive his past start to become clear." Adam Sandler's Sony Pictures Television-based Happy Madison is behind the half-hour, which will also be executive produced by Doug Robinson and Steve Carr ("Paul Blart: Mall Cop"). (Variety.com)


THE YARD (New!) - Feature writers Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons ("Megamind") are developing a potential single-camera comedy that "presents the life lessons of elementary school as seen through the lens of an 'Office'-like documentary." The half-hour, currently making the network rounds, is set up at Will Gluck's Sony Pictures Television-based banner. (Deadline.com)


AND IN OTHER NEWS... Lily Rabe will visit FX's "American Horror Story for six episodes as the original owner of the haunted house in 1920s-era flashbacks (EOnline.com); Nina Kronjager will play Arthur's (Peter Gallagher) ex, Elsa Von Hagen, in an upcoming episode of "Covert Affairs" dealing with his character's early days (TVGuide.com); Jamie Bamber is set to recur on TNT's "Perception" as a new professor who catches the eye of Rachel Leigh Cook's character (AOLTV.com); John Pyper-Ferguson will turn up on the season finale of "Alphas" as the man whose writings inspired the members of the Red Flag organization (AOLTV.com); T.R. Knight ("Grey's Anatomy") will visit "Law & Order SVU" as a man suspected of being a serial rapist (TVLine.com); Meredith Monroe will guest on "Hawaii Five-0" as an unhappy wife who leaves her wealthy husband only to get kidnapped herself (EW.com); Dylan Baker's convicted killer Colin Sweeney is set to return to "The Good Wife" (TVLine.com); plus Eisa Davis will recur on The CW's "Hart of Dixie" as a warm and acerbic nurse who becomes a mentor to Rachel Bilson's Zoe (TVLine.com).






  [august 2011]  
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· ALPHAS (SYFY)
· AMERICAN HORROR STORY (FX)
· BOTTOMFEEDERS (MTV)
· COMMON LAW (USA)
· COVERT AFFAIRS (USA)
· DAY THE LAUGHTER STOPPED, THE (HBO)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· GOOD WIFE, THE (CBS)
· GREY'S ANATOMY (ABC)
· GURLAND ON GURLAND (SHOWTIME)
· HART OF DIXIE (CW)
· HAWAII FIVE-0 (CBS)
· HYDE (ABC)
· IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA (FXX)
· JOHN ADAMS (HBO)
· LAST RESORT (ABC)
· LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT (NBC)
· MADTV (CW)
· MASTERS OF SEX (SHOWTIME)
· MODERN FAMILY (ABC)
· PERCEPTION (TNT)
· RAY DONOVAN (SHOWTIME)
· SOUTHLAND (TNT)
· TIGHTROPE (FOX)
· UNTITLED DANIEL SWEREN BECKER PROJECT (ABC)





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