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[01/22/13 - 11:35 PM]
Development Update: Tuesday, January 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!


BACKSTROM (CBS) - The Hart Hanson-penned drama - about "an overweight, offensive, irascible detective as he tries and fails to change his self-destructive behavior" - has received a pilot commitment from the Eye. Said hour is based on the books by Leif G.W. Persson, who's executive producing alongside his agent Niclas Salomonsson and Hanson for 20th Century Fox Television. (Deadline.com)


BETRAYAL (ABC) - David Zabel's drama - about "a beautiful but unhappily married female photographer who begins a torrid affair with a lawyer for a powerful family," the first of a spiraling series of betrayals with cataclysmic results for everyone involved - has been ordered to pilot. Said effort is based on the Dutch series "Overspel" with Scripted World's Rob Golenberg and Alon Aranya executive producing alongside Zabel for ABC Studios. (Deadline.com)


BEVERLY HILLS COP (CBS) - Shawn Ryan's small screen take on the Eddie Murphy film franchise has formally been ordered to pilot. Brandon T. Jackson has already been cast in the Sony Pictures Television-based hour, about Axel Foley's police officer son, who takes down the criminal elements of the rich and famous in Beverly Hills. Murphy himself will appear in the project and executive produce alongside Ryan and Marney Hochman. (Deadline.com)


BLACKLIST, THE (NBC) - Jon Bokenkamp's drama - about "the world's most wanted criminal who mysteriously turns himself in and offers to give up everyone he has ever worked with" in exchange to work with "a newly minted FBI agent with whom he seemingly has no connection" - is the latest to receive a pilot order at the Peacock. Sony Pictures Television is behind the hour with Davis Entertainment's John Davis and John Fox executive producing alongside Bokenkamp and showrunner John Eisendrath. (Deadline.com)


DADS (FOX) - Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild's multi-camera comedy - about "centers on two successful guys in their 30s who have their lives turned upside down when their nightmare dads unexpectedly move in with them" - has reportedly been given a six-episode direct-to-series order. Seth MacFarlane also serves as an executive producer on the half-hour, which is set up at 20th Century Fox Television. (Deadline.com)


DELIRIUM (FOX) - The Karyn Usher-penned drama - set in a world in which the government requires that all teenagers be cured of love, a.k.a. deliria, to keep society safe - has scored a pilot order from the network. 20th Century Fox Television-based Chernin Entertainment is behind the hour, which is based on Lauren Oliver's bestselling book trilogy. Peter Chernin and Katherine Pope are executive producing alongside Usher. (Deadline.com)


FRIENDS & FAMILY (A.K.A. GAVIN & STACEY) (FOX) - David J. Rosen's import of Ruth Jones and James Corden's U.K. comedy "Gavin & Stacey" has received a pilot order from the network. The single-camera project focuses on "the key life moments of the title characters who try to maintain their relationship while combining their polarizing families' lives." Rosen, Jones and Corden are all executive producing the Sony Pictures Television-based half-hour alongside Henry Normal, Jane Tranter and Julie Gardner. Hayes Jackson and Stacy Traub previously took a stab at an adaptation for ABC in 2009. (Deadline.com)


FRIENDS WITH BETTER LIVES (CBS) - Dana Klein's multi-camera comedy - about a group of 35-year-old friends who each think that the other has it better - is the latest to receive a pilot order from the Eye. 20th Century Fox Television is behind the half-hour with Kapital Entertainment's Aaron Kaplan also serving as an executive producer. (Deadline.com)


THE GABRIELS (FOX, New!) - Andrew Gurland and Justin Hurwitz have booked a pilot commitment at the network for a new single-camera comedy about "a neurotic family with contempt for all things normal that tries their best to fit into their small Midwest town where everyone knows each other and politeness reigns." Said duo penned the half-hour and will executive produce alongside David Dobkin, Peter Principato and Paul Young of Principato-Young Entertainment for 20th Century Fox Television. (Deadline.com)


GIRLFRIEND IN A COMA (NBC, New!) - Liz Brixius has likewise scored a pilot order for a new single-camera comedy about "a 34-year-old woman who, after almost two decades, wakes up from a coma to find out she has a 17-year-old daughter from a pregnancy she was unaware of when her life was put on hold." Universal Television-based Wolf Films is behind the half-hour with Dick Wolf and Danielle Gelber executive producing alongside Brixius. (Deadline.com)


HAPPINESS (A.K.A. UNTITLED SEAN HAYES PROJECT) (NBC) - The Sean Hayes-led comedy - a man who must figure out how to parent his 14-year-old daughter, who just moved in, while navigating a temperamental new boss at work - has scored a pilot order from the Peacock. The multi-camera project was penned by Victor Fresco, who's executive producing alongside Hayes and his Hazy Mills Productions partner Todd Milliner for Universal Television. (Deadline.com)


HOLDING PATTERNS (NBC) - Justin Spitzer's multi-camera comedy - about "a group of friends whose lives completely change after they survive a plane crash" - has booked a pilot order from the Peacock. Peter Traugott and Rachel Kaplan's TBD Productions is behind the half-hour, which is based at Universal Television. (Deadline.com)


I SUCK AT GIRLS (FOX) - Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker's comedy - about a father and son coming of age in a time before coming of age was something you could Google - has booked a pilot order from the network. Bill Lawrence and Jeff Ingold's Warner Bros. Television-based Doozer banner is behind the single-camera project, which is based on Halpern's book of the same name. (Deadline.com)


JOE & JOE & JANE (NBC) - Sally Pressman ("Army Wives") is the first to be cast in the comedy pilot, about "an author caught in an ongoing war between two needy, flawed people - his wife (played by Pressman) and his co-author/BFF." She'll play the aforementioned Jane, "a tough, successful business woman with a soft mushy center." Joe Port and Joe Weissman are behind the multi-camera project, which is set up at 20th Century Fox Television. (TVLine.com)


LIST, THE (A.K.A. UNTITLED PAUL ZBYSZEWSKI PROJECT) (FOX) - Paul Zbyszewski's drama - about a U.S. Marshal who leads the hunt for the person who stole a file with the secret identities of every member of the Witness Security Program - is the latest to receive a pilot commitment. Ruben Fleischer also serves as an executive producer on the hour, from 20th Century Fox Television. (Deadline.com)


ORIGINALS, THE (The CW) - Daniel Gillies has boarded the netlet's proposed spin-off of "The Vampire Diaries." He'll continue on as Elijah, joining fellow carryovers Klaus (Joseph Morgan) and Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin). Julie Plec is behind the hour, which will air on April 25 as a backdoor pilot on the parent series. Alloy Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios are all co-producing. (Deadline.com)


PULLING (ABC) - The Alphabet's second attempt to import Sharon Horgan and Dennis Kelly's U.K. series - about "three dysfunctional women in their 30s living their lives the way they want, even if society tells them they should have it all figured out by this point" - has been given the green light to produce a pilot. Gene Stupnitsky and producer Aaron Kaplan are behind the single-camera project, which is being produced by produced by ABC Studios and Aaron Kaplan's Kapital Entertainment. Rob Hanning and Stacy Traub spearheaded ABC's previous incarnation in 2009, titled "Besties," with Lindsay Sloane, Majandra Delfino and Mary Elizabeth Ellis in the principal roles. (Deadline.com)


REMEMBER SUNDAY (ABC, New!) - Alexis Bledel and Zachary Levi are set to topline the latest Hallmark Hall of Fame original at the Alphabet. Bledel will play Molly, a down-on-her-luck waitress, who meets Gus (Levi), a jewelry store clerk dealing with a brain aneurysm that gives him a blank slate the second his alarm wakes him each day. Jeff Bleckner is directing the project, additional auspices for which weren't given. (Variety.com)


RETURNED, THE (ABC) - The Aaron Zelman-penned hour - about a worldwide event in which loved ones return from the dead exactly as they last were in life - has scored a pilot order from the Alphabet. Said drama is based on Jason Mott's upcoming novel of the same name with JoAnn Alfano and Jon Liebman of Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner of Plan B Entertainment executive producing alongside Zelman for ABC Studios. (Deadline.com)


RITA (Bravo) - Miguel Arteta ("The Carrie Diaries") has been tapped to helm the drama pilot, about an outspoken private school teacher who struggles to raise her own three teenage children while dealing with the inane bureaucracy and overprotective parents at her school. He'll work from a script by Krista Vernoff, which in turn is an adaptation of the Danish format of the same name. Henrik Bastin and Mikkel Bondesen also serve as executive producers for Fox Television Studios. (Deadline.com)


SIXTH GUN, THE (NBC) - Ryan Condal's small screen take on the Oni Press comic - about an innocent girl and a shadowy gunfighter who are tasked with protecting one of six pistols of otherworldly power in the Old West - has been ordered to pilot at the Peacock. Carlton Cuse and Closed on Mondays Entertainment's Andy Bourne and Eric Gitter are executive producing for Universal Television. (Deadline.com)


SLEEPY HOLLOW (FOX) - The Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci-produced drama - which follows Ichabod Crane as he partners with Sleepy Hollow's local female sheriff to solve the mysteries of a town ravaged by the battle between good and evil - has been greenlit to produce a pilot. Len Wiseman is helming the 20th Century Fox Television-based hour from a script by Kurtzman, Orci and supervising producer Phillip Iscove. Heather Kadin of K.O. Paper Products is executive producing alongside Kurtzman and Orci. (Deadline.com)


...THEN CAME ELVIS (NBC) - D.J. Nash's semi-autobiographical comedy - about "a son idolizing his blind father and bemused by his mother's newfound adolescence who watches his family come closer together post-divorce in the 1980s" - has scored a pilot commitment from the Peacock. The single-camera project is set up at Universal Television with Jason Bateman and Jim Garavente of Aggregate Films also serving as executive producers. (Deadline.com)


TO MY ASSISTANT (FOX, New!) - Sherry Bilsing-Graham and Ellen Kreamer have scored a pilot order for their new single-camera comedy about "the assistants at a big New York law firm who band together as a family to help each other cope with the obnoxious, overbearing bosses who test their sanity on a daily basis." Dan Lin and Jennifer Gwartz are executive producing alongside said duo for via their Warner Bros. Television-based Lin Pictures. (Deadline.com)


UNDER THE DOME (CBS) - Natalie Martinez and Alex Koch have both been cast in the upcoming drama, about a small town that is suddenly and inexplicably sealed off from the rest of the world by an enormous transparent dome. Martinez will play Linda, "a young, ambitious deputy, fiercely loyal to Sheriff Duke Perkins, who runs a tight ship in the town of Chester's Mill"; while Koch is set as Junior Rennie, "son of the local politician and car dealer, who is a smart, secretly deeply disturbed college freshman desperately in love with local girl Angie, a waitress who's desperate to get out of Chester's Mill." Colin Ford also stars in the project, which is based on Stephen King's best-selling novel and produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment alongside CBS Television Studios. (Deadline.com)


UNTITLED RAND RAVICH PROJECT (NBC) - Rand Ravich's drama - about "an idealistic Secret Service agent who finds himself at the epicenter of an international crisis on his first day on the job" - has booked a pilot commitment at the Peacock. 20th Century Fox Television is behind the hour with Far Shariat executive producing alongside Ravich. (Deadline.com)


WEST SIDE (ABC) - Byron Balasco's contemporary take on Romeo and Juliet - about "two rival families and a forbidden and dangerous romance emerging between them as the two families battle for control of Venice, California" - has likewise received a pilot commitment. Warner Bros. Television-based Wonderland Sound and Vision is behind the hour with the company's Peter Johnson and McG also executive producing, the latter of which will direct. (Deadline.com)


AND IN OTHER NEWS... - Alex Kingston will recur on "Arrow" as Laurel's (Katie Cassidy) mom, who returns to Starling City to make amends with her family (EW.com); rapper 2 Chainz will make a cameo as himself on "2 Broke Girls" (THR.com); Marcia Gay Harden has been tapped to replace Rosemarie DeWitt on "The Newsroom" as "a litigator who's been hired to defend the fictional Atlantis Cable News channel" (Deadline.com); James Brolin has been cast as Rick's MIA dad in a two-part "Castle" due in February (TVLine.com); and HBO Films has put in development a "Bored to Death" feature written by creator Jonathan Ames (Deadline.com).






  [january 2013]  
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M
T
W
T
F
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· 2 BROKE GIRLS (CBS)
· ARROW (CW)
· BACKSTROM (FOX)
· BESTIES (ABC)
· BETRAYAL (ABC)
· BEVERLY HILLS COP (CBS)
· BLACKLIST, THE (NBC)
· BORED TO DEATH (HBO)
· CARRIE DIARIES, THE (CW)
· CASTLE (ABC)
· CRISIS (NBC)
· DADS (FOX)
· DELIRIUM (FOX)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· FRIENDS WITH BETTER LIVES (CBS)
· GABRIELS, THE (FOX)
· GIRLFRIEND IN A COMA (NBC)
· GROWING UP FISHER (NBC)
· HOLDING PATTERNS (NBC)
· JOE & JOE & JANE (NBC)
· LIST, THE (FOX)
· NEWSROOM, THE (HBO)
· ORIGINALS, THE (CW)
· PULLING (ABC)
· REMEMBER SUNDAY (ABC)
· RESURRECTION (ABC)
· RITA (BRAVO)
· SEAN SAVES THE WORLD (NBC)
· SIXTH GUN, THE (NBC)
· SLEEPY HOLLOW (FOX)
· SURVIVING JACK (FOX)
· TO MY ASSISTANT (FOX)
· UNDER THE DOME (CBS)
· US & THEM (SONY CRACKLE)
· WESTSIDE (ABC)





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