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[10/18/12 - 11:12 PM]
Development Update: Thursday, October 18
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!


BEST MAN (FOX, New!) - Paul Ruehl ("The Hard Times of RJ Berger") has scored a script commitment from the network for a new comedy about "a longtime, successful bachelor who finds himself guiding his best friend's wife through the realities of single life after her husband runs off and leaves them both." Sunswept Entertainment's Karen Rosenfelt, Alex Maggioni and Ken Blancato also serve as executive producers on the project, which is set up at 20th Century Fox Television. (Deadline.com)


DETECTIVES, THE (ABC, New!) - Manny Coto ("Dexter") has sold a new drama to the Alphabet about "a female internal affairs investigator who is tasked with rebuilding the LAPD's special detective unit after she spearheads the probe into a corruption scandal that ultimately brings the department to its knees." Said effort is set up at Sony Pictures Television with Coto writing and executive producing alongside Lynda Obst ("Hot in Cleveland") and her self-titled banner. (THR.com)


DIRTY GIRLS (ABC, New!) - Gillian Telling's book, subtitled "The Naked Truth about Our Guilty Secrets," is being developed as a single-camera comedy at the Alphabet. Screenwriter Moe Jelline ("You Again") will pen the adaptation, about "a group of female friends who reveal the dirty truth about the secret lives of women." Mark Gordon and Andrea Shay will likewise executive produce via their ABC Studios-based The Mark Gordon Co. (Deadline.com)


FINDING LOVE (Lifetime, New!) - Jennifer Love Hewitt is developing a small screen take on her 2010 book "The Day I Shot Cupid," in which she offers tips on romance in a comical and honest way based on her own dating experiences. Matt Hastings ("Alphas") is set to the pen the hour for Universal Cable Productions with Hewitt executive producing via her Fedora Films banner ("The Client List"). (Deadline.com)


FOSTERS, THE (ABC Family) - Jake T. Austin, Cierra Ramirez, Hayden Byerly and Danny Nucci have all been cast in the drama pilot, which tells the story of Stef (Teri Polo) and Lena Foster (Sherri Saum), a mixed race couple who are raising a biological son, Brandon (David Lambert), along with several adopted children - most recently Callie (Maia Mitchell), a troubled teen with an abusive past. Nucci will play Mike, "Stef's handsome ex-husband and Brandon's biological father, a cop who requests to partner up with Stef after her regular partner leaves the department"; with Byerly as "Callie's 13-year-old brother, whom she is determined to rescue from his abusive foster home." Ramirez and Austin then will play the Fosters' fraternal twins, Marianna and Jesus, "a smart-as-a-whip straight-A student" and "a charming, hyperkinetic kid who's on Ritalin," respectively. Timothy Busfield is directing the Jennifer Lopez-produced hour from a script by Bradley Bredeweg and Peter Paige. (Deadline.com, THR.com)


HOUSE CALLS (The CW, New!) - Sascha Penn (NBC's "The Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives") and Jerry Bruckheimer Television are set to re-team for a new drama at the netlet "set in Boston and follows three idiosyncratic young doctors who've set up a 24-hour house call business." Warner Bros. Television is behind the hour with Penn, Bruckheimer and Jonathan Littman serving as executive producers and KristieAnne Reed as a co-executive producer. (Deadline.com)


LEGENDS (TNT) - "The Mummy" star Brendan Fraser has been tapped for the lead role on the drama pilot, about a deep-cover operative named Martin Odum, who has an uncanny ability to transform himself into a different person for each job. Fox 21 is behind the hour, which is based on a book by master spy novelist Robert Littell. Howard Gordon, Jeffrey Nachmanoff, Alexander Cary and Jonathan Levin are among the executive producers while David Semel is set to direct. (Deadline.com)


NIGHTCRAWLER (CBS, New!) - Neal Baer ("A Gifted Man") has sold a new drama to the Eye about "a disgraced homicide detective who gets a second chance when he begins working with a murder victim's daughter with a genetic disorder that prevents her from going out in the sun." CBS Television Studios is behind the hour with Baer writing and executive producing. (Variety.com)


REV (ABC, New!) - Bob Daily ("Desperate Housewives") is developing a domestic take on Tom Hollander and James Wood's U.K. comedy, about "a priest from a small rural parish who becomes the vicar of an inner-city London church." ABC Studios is behind the half-hour, which will center on "an Episcopal priest who leaves a small rural parish in Wisconsin to take over a failing inner-city church in a racially diverse, economically-challenged Chicago neighborhood." Kenton Allen and Matthew Justice of Big Talk Productions will also serve as executive producers with Hollander and Wood consulting. (Deadline.com)


TOWN & GOWN (NBC, New!) - Tom Garrigus ("The Glades") has landed a potential drama at the Peacock about "a recently defeated senator and former football star who returns to take the reins as President of his alma mater, a midwestern state university, only to have one of the best and brightest students go missing, revealing the complex relationship between the large university and small town." 20th Century Fox Television is behind the hour with Sunswept Entertainment's Karen Rosenfelt, Alex Maggioni and Ken Blancato. (Deadline.com)


UNTITLED GAYTON BROTHERS PROJECT (NBC, New!) - "Hell on Wheels" creators Joe and Tony Gayton have sold a new drama to the Peacock about Kyle Jones, "a recent college grad who can't find a job and who finds himself forced to courier cash for criminals." Marty Adelstein, Shawn Levy and Becky Clements of 21 Laps/Adelstein Productions as well as Brian Volk-Weiss, Matt Ochacher and Michael Pelmont of New Wave Entertainment are on board to executive produce alongside the Gaytons for 20th Century Fox Television. (Deadline.com)


UNTITLED GOOR & SCHUR PROJECT (FOX) - "Saturday Night Live" alum Andy Samberg is set to star in the comedy pilot, about "a diverse group of detectives in a precinct at the very edge of New York City." He'll play the lead detective in the single-camera project, which comes from co-creators Dan Goor and Michael Schur, as well as serve as a producer for Universal Television. (Deadline.com)


UNTITLED STEVE COOGAN/SIMON NYE PROJECT (CBS, New!) - British comedy mainstays Steve Coogan ("I'm Alan Partridge") and Simon Nye ("Men Behaving Badly") are set to team for a potential half-hour at the Eye about "three dads with children from the same mother." Said pair will write and executive produce for CBS Television Studios alongside Michael Rotenberg. (Variety.com)


AND IN OTHER NEWS... - Pierre Morel ("Taken") and Jason Moore ("Pitch Perfect") will direct the pilots to NBC's medical drama "After Hours" and ABC's Malin Akerman-led comedy "Trophy Wife," respectively (Deadline.com); Alysia Reiner will recur on Netflix's "Orange Is the New Black" as the penitentiary's assistant warden (TVLine.com); Deirdre Lovejoy is bound for "Private Practice" as "a woman who sues Addison (Kate Walsh) for the wrongful birth of her daughter," while Marisol Nichols will appear in a yet-to-be-revealed role (TVGuide.com, TVLine.com); Kevin Corrigan will visit "Men at Work" as "a hard rock-loving, chicken wing-eating moonshiner who ends up sitting next to Milo (Danny Masterson) at a wedding reception" (TVGuide.com); Brad Dourif will turn up on an upcoming episode of "Criminal Minds" which "finds the BAU tackling a case in a strange small town in Arizona" (TVGuide.com); Kevin Dunn has booked a recurring role on "Veep" as the President's Chief of Staff (Deadline.com); and Graham Patrick Martin has been cast as Anna Nicole Smith's son Danny in Lifetime's original movie "The Anna Nicole Story" (Deadline.com).






  [october 2012]  
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· ALPHAS (SYFY)
· ANNA NICOLE (LIFETIME)
· BEST MAN (FOX)
· BROOKLYN NINE-NINE (NBC)
· CLIENT LIST, THE (LIFETIME)
· CRIMINAL MINDS (CBS)
· DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES (ABC)
· DETECTIVES, THE (ABC)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· DEXTER (SHOWTIME)
· DIRTY GIRLS (ABC)
· FINDING LOVE (LIFETIME)
· FOSTERS, THE (FREEFORM)
· GIFTED MAN, A (CBS)
· GLADES, THE (A AND E)
· HARD TIMES OF RJ BERGER, THE (MTV)
· HELL ON WHEELS (AMC)
· HOT IN CLEVELAND (TV LAND)
· HOUSE CALLS (CW)
· LEGENDS (TNT)
· MEN AT WORK (TBS)
· NIGHT SHIFT, THE (NBC)
· NIGHTCRAWLER (CBS)
· ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK (NETFLIX)
· PRIVATE PRACTICE (ABC)
· REV (ABC)
· SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (NBC)
· SECRET LIVES OF HUSBANDS AND WIVES, THE (NBC)
· TOWN & GOWN (NBC)
· TROPHY WIFE (ABC)
· UNTITLED COOGAN & NYE PROJECT (CBS)
· UNTITLED GAYTON BROTHERS PROJECT (NBC)
· VEEP (HBO)





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