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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!
AMERICA'S MOST WANTED (Lifetime) - The cable channel has opted not to order additional episodes of the former FOX mainstay, effectively ending its run after 25 seasons. The network's 44-hour revival - which began in December of 2011 - averaged a modest 966,000 viewers on Friday nights, including a 0.3 rating among adults 18-49. Lifetime however will remain in business with host and executive producer John Walsh with "John Walsh Investigates," a potential series which "would take a different approach to Walsh's ongoing crime fighting and victims' advocacy work." As for the future of "Most Wanted," distributor Twentieth Television may shop the series elsewhere. (TVGuide.com)
BRENDA FOREVER (NBC/Sony; W: Andrew Leeds & David Lampson; D: David Wain) - David Krumholtz ("Partners") has been cast in the single-camera comedy pilot, about one woman's (Ellie Kemper) journey from slightly chubby and awkward 13-year-old girl to slightly more attractive and stylish 31-year-old but little in her personality has changed. He'll play her best friend Neil Jacobs ("cute but buttoned up, a neurotic over-thinker who enjoys a lively debate"). Daija Owens, Da'vine Joy Randolph and Stephnie Weir. (Deadline.com)
CHALLENGE ME (FOX, New!) - Talpa Media USA has wrapped filming on a pilot for a potential studio-based game show at the network in which "contestants who have unusual individual skills are pushed to the limit for a cash prize." The company's John de Mol is spearheading the project, further details of which weren't released. (Deadline.com)
DADS (FOX/20th; W: Alec Sulkin & Wellesley Wild; D: Mark Cendrowski) - Vanessa Lachey ("Wipeout") has boarded the multi-camera comedy pilot, about two successful video game developers - family man Warner (Tommy Dewey) and perpetually single Eli (Seth Green) - who have their lives turned upside down when their nightmare dads (Martin Mull, Peter Riegert) unexpectedly move in with them. She'll replace Erin Pineda as Camilla, Warner's wife with whom he has a four-year-old son and one-year-old daughter. No reason for the change was given. Brenda Song and Tonita Castro also star. (Deadline.com)
JACKED UP (CBS/Sony; W: Greg Malins; D: Fred Savage) - Tyne Daly and Missi Pyle are the latest additions to the comedy pilot, about Jack Wheeler (Patrick Warburton), a beloved, recently retired baseball player who finds that adjusting to retirement isn't as easy as he thought it'd be. They'll play his mother Anne ("sweet with a kind demeanor") and older sister Kate ("smart, funny and caring"), respectively, in the multi-camera project. Rob Huebel and Ziah Colon also star. (Deadline.com)
LINE OF SIGHT (AMC, New!) - Blake Masters ("Brotherhood") is developing a new drama at the cable channel about a guy who has experienced "first contact." Fox Television Studios is behind the hour, further details of which weren't released. (Deadline.com)
ONCE UPON A TIME (ABC) - Sophie Lowe, Peter Gadiot and Michael Socha have been tapped for the principal roles on the show's proposed spin-off, the just-monikered "Once: Wonderland." Lowe will play Alice (of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" fame), who has "a generous heart but carries the scars of a long hard life." Gadiot then is set as Cyrus née Amahl, "Alice's love interest with a background shrouded in mystery", with Socha as the Knave of Hearts, "a sardonic adventurer, a man of action, a loner and a heart-breaker." Production on the presentation begins next month once the parent series wraps. Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz, Zack Estrin and Steve Pearlman are among the executive producers for ABC Studios. (Deadline.com)
RAIDERS (AMC, New!) - Evan Wright ("Generation Kill") has set up a potential drama at the cable channel which takes place during World War II. No other details were given about the project, which is set up at Ridley Scott and David W. Zucker's Scott Free Productions. (Deadline.com)
AND IN OTHER NEWS... - Miramax, GK Films and Martin Scorsese are developing a small screen take on their 2002 film "Gangs of New York" (Deadline.com); USA has begun casting a potential second season of its yet-to-launch reality series "The Moment" (Deadline.com); WE tv has renewed "Bridezillas" and "My Fair Wedding with David Tutera" for 22 and nine episodes, respectively, as well as ordered "Marriage Bootcamp: Bridezillas," an eight-episode spin-off in which five Bridezillas and their husbands live together in the same house "for an extreme marriage boot camp in an effort to work out their marriage demons" (Deadline.com); Stan Lee will guest star as himself on an episode of "The Simpsons" due next season (EW.com);
Taylor Swift is bound for the season finale of "New Girl" as "an important guest at the wedding of Cece (Hannah Simone) and Shivrang (Satya Bhabha)" (EW.com); Eric Ladin will recur as a young J. Edgar Hoover on "Boardwalk Empire" (Deadline.com); Hilarie Burton likewise has landed an arc on "Grey's Anatomy" as "a craniofacial specialist who visits the hospital to work on a case" (EOnline.com); Eion Bailey is bound for "Law & Order: SVU" as "a veteran of the Iraq war with PTSD who is a key witness in an investigation of a sexual assault in a nightclub" (THR.com); and Robert L. Boyett and Robert Horn are spearheading Lionsgate's potential comedy vehicle for Kelsey Grammer and Martin Lawrence (THR.com).
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