[12/05/12 - 11:03 PM] Development Update: Wednesday, December 5 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!
BABES ON A BUS (FOX, New!) - The network has ordered a pilot for a potential dating series in which 10 single women from the big city board a bus that takes them from small town to small town in search of love. At each stop, "the town's finest bachelors will be on hand to impress them with romantic scenery and delicious local food" with the ladies ultimately tasked with choosing to stay or move onto the next town. Endemol USA is behind the project, which is based on a Norwegian format. No auspices were given. (THR.com)GATES (NBC) - Marc Buckland ("My Name Is Earl") is set to helm the comedy pilot, about the hijinks that ensue when parents drop off and pick up their kids at school each day. He'll work from a script by Cathy Yuspa and Josh Goldsmith, who are executive producing alongside Kapital Entertainment's Aaron Kaplan and Feelgood Fiction's Laurence Bowen and Philip Clarke for 20th Century Fox Television. (Deadline.com)JENNI (ABC, New!) - Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera is set to topline a multi-camera family comedy at the Alphabet about "a strong, middle-class, single Latina woman working to raise a family using unique parenting skills, while struggling to run a family business and navigate her extended, co-dependent relatives - all while fighting the cultural perception that she needs a man to do it." Robert L. Boyett ("Family Matters") and Robert Horn ("Designing Women") are behind the half-hour with Rivera and her manager Pete Saldago serving as producers for ABC Studios. (Deadline.com)MRS. G'S BIGGER LOVE (Lifetime, New!) - Julie Golden has landed a new drama at the cable channel about a bored Seattle housewife who gains fame from her fictional day-in-the-the-life-of-a-female-polygamist blog who goes on to cover up her "normal" life to perpetuate the myth. Said hour is based on an entry in Heather Gatticio's blog Derfwad Manor, which espoused a polygamist scenario involving George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem. Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jeanie Bradley of Fedora Films, which has a first-look deal with the network, are the executive producers. (Deadline.com)SILICON VALLEY (HBO, New!) - "King of the Hill" alums Mike Judge, John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky are set to team for a live-action comedy at the pay channel "set in the high tech gold rush of modern Silicon Valley, where the people most qualified to succeed are the least capable of handling success." Said trio will co-write the half-hour, which has a pilot order, with Judge attached to direct. Also executive producing are Scott Rudin and 3 Arts Entertainment's Michael Rotenberg and Tom Lassally. (Deadline.com)UNTITLED DEBORAH KAPLAN/HARRY ELFONT PROJECT (E!, New!) - Screenwriters Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont ("Leap Year") have sold a potential drama to the cable channel about "a young entertainment lawyer who dies but is determined to pursue a romance with a woman who's still alive - while he exists in limbo in New York City, working for the department that judges the recently departed." They'll write and executive produce for Universal Cable Productions and Aaron Kaplan's Kapital Entertainment. (Deadline.com)WEIRD DESK (ABC, New!) - Carl Binder ("Stargate Universe") and David N. Titcher ("The Librarian") have booked a 13-episode straight-to-series order from the Alphabet for a new drama about a clandestine organization "tasked with investigating and solving occurrences of the paranormal, supernatural and sometimes extra-terrestrial" using mysterious intelligence rerouted from the CIA and NSA. Said effort will track Morgan, "an obstinate, socially inept and brilliant man who would now be dead if it weren't for his special forces trained partner, Rosetta." ABC Studios and Christina Jennings's Shaftesbury Films are behind the hour, targeted for this summer, with the latter's Tom Mazza and Maggie Murphy executive producing alongside Binder and Titcher. (Deadline.com)AND IN OTHER NEWS... - Brooklyn Decker will guest on "New Girl" as "a patron at Nick's bar who is specifically attracted to the brokenhearted" (EW.com); and B.J. Novak will drop by "The Mindy Project" as "a charming Latin professor who bonds with Mindy over their love of a dead language" (Vulture.com).
[06/19/13 - 01:39 PM] TNT Bumps Newcomer "72 Hours" to Friday Nights The reality competition series, which had been airing on Thursdays at 9:00/8:00c, will relocate to Fridays effective immediately.
[06/19/13 - 12:17 PM] ESPN to Present World Series of Poker Main Event To kick off ESPN's WSOP coverage, the inaugural World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific Main Event Final Table will air on Tuesday, July 23.
