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[03/18/13 - 11:39 PM]
Development Update: Monday, March 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!


ANATOMY OF VIOLENCE, THE (CBS/20th; W: Alex Gansa, Alexander Cary & Howard Gordon; D: Mark Pellington) - Amber Tamblyn ("Joan of Aracadia") has signed on for the female lead on the drama pilot, about Adrian Raines (Skeet Ulrich), a criminal psychologist with an expertise in sociopaths who partners with Abby Ravner, a young Philadelphia detective with whom he shares a conflicted past. She'll play the aforementioned Abby, whose sister Becky (yet to be cast) - along with Raines - were among the few survivors of bank robbery gone wrong 13 years ago. David Harewood also stars. (Deadline.com)


BACKSTROM (CBS/20th; W: Hart Hanson; D: TBA) - Rainn Wilson ("The Office") has been tapped for the title role while Page Kennedy ("Blue Mountain State") has also been cast in the drama pilot, based on Leif G.W. Persson's literary hero Everett Backstrom, a homicide detective/equal-opportunity misanthrope. Wilson will play the aforementioned Backstrom ("hung-over, worn, wary, in constant opposition to the world") as well as serve as a producer on the potential series. Kennedy then is set as Frank Moto ("an ex-fighter, earnest, honest, not very bright"), an officer with the Portland Police Department. Beatrice Rosen, Dennis Haysbert and Kristoffer Polaha also star. (Deadline.com)


BETAS (Amazon; W: Evan Endicott & Josh Stoddard; D: Michael Lehman) - Joe Dinicol, Margo Harshman, Charlie Saxton and Karan Soni are the first to be cast in the comedy pilot, about "a quartet of under-socialized computer geeks who have designed a killer app that could transform the social lives of about 6 billion people for the better." Dinicol will play frontman Trey, "an aspiring dot-com maverick"; with Saxton as junior coder Mitchell; Soni as the group's tech brains Nash; and Harshman as Lisa Rudolph, "a young, attractive, investment firm workaholic who realizes the app's potential." Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland are also on board as showrunners. (Deadline.com)


BLINK (The CW/CTS; W: Vera Harbert; D: TBA) - Elizabeth Marvel ("Person of Interest") has booked a role on the drama pilot, about Ari Trask (Madeline Carroll), a 16-year-old girl reeling from a car accident that put her father, Greg (John Benjamin Hickey), in a coma and his attempts to communicate from the great beyond. She'll play mom Helen ("an Atlas in slingbacks, and these days it's a tiring act") in the project, which also stars Johnny Simmons and Michael Weston. (Deadline.com)


INFLUENCE (ABC/20th; W: Kyle Killen; D: TBA) - Wynn Everett ("The Newsroom") has booked the female lead on the drama pilot, about two brothers - Clark (Steve Zahn), a bipolar genius in human psychology, and Ross (Christian Slater), a slick ex-con - who head a unique agency designed to solve their clients' problems using the real science of human motivation and manipulation. She'll play Ross's ex-wife Claire whom Clark hires to be their new office manager. Cedric Sanders, Gregory Marcel and Megalyn Echikunwoke also star. (Deadline.com)


SIXTH GUN, THE (NBC/Universal; W: Ryan Condal; D: Jeffrey Reiner) - Elena Satine ("Magic City") will round out of the cast in the drama pilot, based on the comic book about Becky Montcrief (Laura Ramsey), an innocent girl swept up in the struggle over six mythical guns in the Old West. She'll play The Widow Missy Hume ("like a porcelain doll made real"), who runs The Silver Palace, a house of gambling and drinking and pleasure in the bustling border town of Brimstone. More importantly, she possesses one of said guns which maintains her unnatural youth. W. Earl Brown plays her "late" husband General Hume with Chin Han as her loyal manservant Chow. Aldis Hodge, Graham McTavish, James LeGros, Michiel Huisman and Pedro Pascal also star. (Deadline.com)


SPY (ABC/ABC Studios; W: Simeon Goulden; D: Alex Hardcastle) - Nat Faxon ("Ben & Kate") will guest star on the comedy pilot, based on Simeon Goulden's U.K. series about a hapless single father Tim (Rob Corddry) who tries to impress his precocious 10-year-old son Marcus (Mason Cook) by joining the CIA. He'll play Alan, the new boyfriend of Tim's ex-wife Erica (Paget Brewster) "who desperately wants to be friends with Tim and also happens to the principal at Marcus's elementary school." The single-camera project also stars Camille Guaty, Ken Jeong and Moshe Kasher. (Deadline.com)


TURN (AMC; W: Craig Silverstein; D: Rupert Wyatt) - Kevin McNally and Angus Macfadyen are the latest additions to the pilot, a period drama about New York farmer Abe Woodhull (Jamie Bell), who bands together with a group of childhood friends to form The Culper Ring, an unlikely group of spies who turn the tide in America's fight for independence. The former will play Richard Woodhull, the local magistrate and Abe's well-respected, loyalist father. Macfadyen then is set as Robert Rogers, "a feared and admired war hero who fought alongside George Washington in the French and Indian war but has fallen from grace following a return to England where he has gambled away his fortune and lapsed into alcoholism." Burn Gorman, Daniel Henshall, Heather Lind, Meegan Warner and Seth Numrich also star. (Deadline.com)


UNTITLED ROBERT PADNICK PROJECT (NBC/Universal; W: Robert Padnick; D: Kyle Newacheck) - Comedian Mike Castle has boarded the comedy pilot, about four hopeful city-dwellers as they step through the endless mine field of their romantic entanglements. He'll take over for Josh Rabinowitz as Hirsch ("charming overthinker, sincere and scrupulous; always strives to do right") in the single-camera project, which also stars Adhir Kalyan, Ellen Woglom and Eric Andre. (Deadline.com)


WEST SIDE (ABC/Warner Bros.; W: Byron Balasco; D: McG) - Brooklyn Sudano ("My Wife and Kids") is the latest to board the drama pilot, about "Romeo & Juliet"-esque lovers Chris (Luke Bracey) and Sophie (Odette Annable) from rival families in the surfing community of Venice, California. She's set as Jess Roman ("gorgeous, sadness in her eyes"), Chris's ex - now a newly sponsored pro surfer - who wants to resume their relationship now that he's out of prison. The ensemble cast also includes Bruce Greenwood, Dean Winters, Jennifer Beals, Lexi Ainsworth, Lincoln Lewis and Michael Graziadei. (Deadline.com)


WILD BLUE, THE (FOX/Sony; W: Taylor Elmore; D: Michael Dinner) - Gina Rodriguez ("The Bold and the Beautiful") is the latest addition to the drama pilot, about the lives of the men and women on board the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Lexington and her Strike Group of destroyers, cruisers and various tender ships. She'll play Pilar "Maytag" Robles, an overachieving F-18 pilot. Will Rothhaar also stars as James Kincaid, one of the flight deck Ordys who's smitten with her, with Alano Miller, Josh Salatin and Mykelti Williamson as fellow shipmates. (THR.com)


AND IN OTHER NEWS... - "Bachelor Pad" won't return for a fourth season on ABC this summer (@fleissmeister); Lauren Iungerich has bowed out of her MTV comedy pilot "Hot Mess" for "a combination of creative and personal reasons" while female lead Annabelle Stephenson has been released (Deadline.com); former "Up All Night" writer/producer Erica Rivinoja has inked a two-year overall deal with Sony Pictures Television (Deadline.com); Mircea Monroe will guest on "How I Met Your Mother" as a MacLaren's patron whom Barney obsesses over whether she's hot or not underneath her oversized coat (TVLine.com); James Callis will drop by the season finale of "CSI" as "a journalist who has the Las Vegas Police Department - including the CSI team - in his crosshairs" (TVLine.com); and Sarah Hyland has been cast as Blanche Barrow, the wife of Clyde's brother Buck (Lane Garrison) in Lifetime's "Bonnie & Clyde" (THR.com).






  [march 2013]  
S
M
T
W
T
F
S
     


· ANATOMY OF VIOLENCE, THE (CBS)
· BACHELOR PAD, THE (ABC)
· BACKSTROM (FOX)
· BEN & KATE (FOX)
· BETAS (AMAZON)
· BLINK (CW)
· BLUE MOUNTAIN STATE (SPIKE TV)
· BONNIE & CLYDE (A AND E)
· CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION (CBS)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· HOT MESS (MTV)
· HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER (CBS)
· JOAN OF ARCADIA (CBS)
· MAGIC CITY (STARZ)
· MIND GAMES (ABC)
· MY WIFE & KIDS (ABC)
· NEWSROOM, THE (HBO)
· OFFICE, THE (NBC)
· PERSON OF INTEREST (CBS)
· SIXTH GUN, THE (NBC)
· SPY (ABC)
· TURN: WASHINGTON'S SPIES (AMC)
· UNTITLED ROBERT PADNICK PROJECT (NBC)
· UP ALL NIGHT (NBC)
· WESTSIDE (ABC)
· WILD BLUE, THE (FOX)





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