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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!
BAD ADVICE FROM MY BROTHER (Comedy Central, New!) - Jordan Pope Roush's blog is being developed as a comedy at the cable channel about two brothers who move in together: - "Jason, the older, not necessarily wiser brother who has spent most of his post-college life chasing women and the almighty dollar on Wall Street, and Ben, his younger brother who wants to follow in his footsteps." Roush himself is penning the potential half-hour, which is being produced by Trevor Engleson of Underground Films. (Deadline.com)
BANSHEE (Cinemax) - Lili Simmons ("Geek Charming") is the latest to be cast in the upcoming drama, about Lucas (Antony Starr), an ex-convict and master thief who assumes the identity of the sheriff of Banshee, Pennsylvania, and continues to carry out his criminal activities even as shadowy gangsters hunt him. She'll play Rebecca Bowman, "a local Amish girl in her early 20s who lives a devout life by day but is a rebellious, sexually adventurous party girl by night." Ben Cross, Daniel Ross, Demetrius Grosse, Frankie Faison, Hoon Lee, Ivana Milicevic, Matt Servitto, Rus Blackwell, Ryann Shane, Trieste Dunn and Ulrich Thomsen also star in the Alan Ball-produced hour, which was created by David Schickler and Jonathan Tropper. (TVLine.com)
BEING MARY JANE (BET) - Latarsha Rose and Omari Hardwick are the latest additions to the drama pilot, about Mary Jane Paul (Gabrielle Union), a successful talk show host looking to one day become a top nightly news anchor while searching for Mr. Right. She'll play Dr. Lisa Hudson, her "best friend from college who is a professional yet conflicted single woman whose strong religious values have driven her to a life of celibacy"; while he's set as Mary Jane's love interest. Aaron D. Spears, Lisa Vidal and Richard Roundtree also star in the project, from writer Mara Brock Akil and director Salim Akil. (Deadline.com)
HEMLOCK GROVE (Netflix) - Australian actress Freya Tingley ("Cloudstreet") has joined the cast of the upcoming original, "a gripping tale of murder, mystery and monsters set in a ravaged Pennsylvania steel town." She's on board as Christina Wendall, "a precocious and friendly, self-dubbed novelist who interviews Peter (Landon Liboiron) after catching him swimming in her grandfather's pond." Bill Skarsgard, Famke Janssen and Penelope Mitchell co-star in the project, based on the novel by Brian McGreevy. (Deadline.com)
MUHAMMAD ALI'S GREATEST FIGHT (HBO) - Danny Glover, Barry Levinson, Pablo Schreiber, Ed Begley Jr., Bob Balaban and Kathleen Chalfant have all boarded the telefilm, which "dramatizes the machinations of the Supreme Court as Ali pursued Conscientious Objector status." They'll play various justices - Thurgood Marshall (Glover), Potter Stewart (Levinson), Harry Blackmun (Begley Jr.) - joining the previously cast Christopher Plummer as John Marshall Harlan and Frank Langella as Warren Burger. Balaban then will play "an Advocate for Vietnam Veterans who argues a case before the Court"; with Schreiber as Covert Becker, "a Supreme Court clerk who doesn't hide his contempt for liberals"; and Kathleen Chalfant as Ethel Harlan, Justice Harlan's wife. Benjamin Walker also stars as Kevin Kennedy, a Supreme Court clerk who championed the issue. Frank Doelger, Tracey Scoffield, and Jonathan Cameron are the executive producers while Stephen Frears is directing from a script by Shawn Slovo. (Deadline.com)
TRUE DETECTIVE (New!) - Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are set to star in a potential eight-part series about two detectives - Rust Cohle (McConaughey) and Martin Hart (Harrelson) - whose "lives collide and entwine during a 17-year hunt for a serial killer in Louisiana." Writer Nic Pizzolatto ("The Killing") and director Cary Fukunaga ("Jane Eyre") are behind the project, which takes place in 1995 but is "framed and interlaced with testimony from the detectives in 2012, when the case has been reopened." Producer Anonymous Content is currently shopping the effort with two written episodes and a bible. The company's Richard Brown, Steve Golin and Bard Dorros then will executive produce alongside Pizzolatto and Fukunaga. (Deadline.com)
AND IN OTHER NEWS... - Lauren Cohan has been upped to series regular on "The Walking Dead" (TVLine.com); James Van Der Beek will visit "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" as "a former friend of a doctor who's sabotaging him" (TVGuide.com); Sarah Clarke will take over for Rebecca Creskoff on "Covert Affairs" as "a legendary CIA operative running her own division who will become an important figure in Annie's career" (TVGuide.com); bestselling author Nicholas Sparks has signed a two-year, first-look deal with Warner Horizon Television (Deadline.com); and Rick Harrison, Corey "Big Hoss" Harrison and Austin "Chumlee" Russell from History's "Pawn Stars" will play themselves on an upcoming episode of "iCarly" (EW.com).
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