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[09/04/13 - 11:17 PM]
Development Update: Wednesday, September 4
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!


FIRST TIMERS (ABC, New!) - Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger ("The Neighbors") have sold a semi-autobiographical comedy to the Alphabet about twentysomething male/female business partners. ABC Studios is behind the half-hour, with Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage and Len Goldstein of the studio-based Fake Empire executive producing alongside the duo. (Deadline.com)


FORMER FAT GIRL (NBC, New!) - J.J. Philbin ("New Girl") has snagged a pilot production commitment from the Peacock for a single-camera comedy about "a formerly obese thirtysomething woman who has just recently shed the weight and is now experiencing life and relationships from her very unique perspective." Said effort is loosely based on former "The Biggest Loser" contestant Amy Parham's book "10 Lessons from a Former Fat Girl." Jason Katims and Michelle Lee will also serve as executive producers via their Universal Television-based True Jack Productions. (Deadline.com)


HALF (NBC, New!) - Newcomer Matt Angel has sold a new single-camera comedy to the Peacock about Riley Young, "a quirky 13-year-old conceived through artificial insemination, who convinces her dysfunctional family into embarking on a search for all of her half siblings." Said effort is based on a pilot presentation for which Angel raised money on Kickstarter. Greg Malins ("Ground Floor") and Matt's father, Dan Angel ("R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour"), are on board to executive produce the half-hour for Sony Pictures Television. (Deadline.com)


HERE'S YOUR DAMN FAMILY (FOX, New!) - Ricky Blitt ("Romantically Challenged") has booked a new multi-camera comedy at the network about "a stunted, set-in-his-ways thirtysomething man living with his mom who finds his perfectly organized world upended when his mother/roommate gets married, and her new husband plus his three teenage children move in." "The Big Bang Theory" star Johnny Galecki and former ABC chief Stephen McPherson are also on board to executive produce the Warner Bros. Television-based half-hour, which has a penalty attached. (Deadline.com)


ROYAL (FOX, New!) - Joshua Safran ("Smash") has set up a potential drama at the network about "a Kate Middleton-type, caught having an affair, who is thrown out of the royal family and forced to take the only job she can get - as assistant and minder to an temperamental, suicidal, drug-and-sex-addicted up-and-coming designer, also running from his own past." 20th Century Fox Television-based Chernin Entertainment is behind the hour with the company's Peter Chernin and Katherine Pope executive producing alongside Safran. (Deadline.com)


ROYALS (E!/Lionsgate; W: Mark Schwahn; D: TBA) - Elizabeth Hurley ("Gossip Girl") is the first to be cast in the drama pilot, a contemporary family ensemble steeped in all of the regal opulence of the British Monarchy and framed by Shakespeare's "Hamlet." She'll play "the sexy, devious and conflicted Queen Helena, who struggles to cope with the death of her oldest son and the crisis of confidence this creates with her husband, King Simon, while working to deter the growing relationship between her middle son, now the heir apparent, and his American girlfriend." (Deadline.com)


SOCIAL CIRCLE (ABC, New!) - Joshua Safran ("Gossip Girl") has booked a new drama at the Alphabet about "a group of friends from college, now in their late 20s, who regroup and discover they really don't know each other at all." The project is set up at Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage's newly ABC Studios-based Fake Empire banner where they'll executive produce alongside Safran. (Deadline.com)


TYRANT (FX/Fox 21; W: Craig Wright; D: David Yates) - Jennifer Finnigan ("Monday Mornings") has been tapped for the female lead on the drama pilot, about an unassuming American family drawn into the workings of a turbulent Middle Eastern nation. She'll play idealistic mom Molly (Finnigan), who is married to Barry (Adam Rayner) and has two kids, Emma (Anne Winters) and Sammy (Noah Silver). Ashraf Barhom, Fares Fares, Jordana Spiro, Justin Kirk, Mehdi Dehbi, Moran Atias, Salim Daw and Sibylla Deen also star in the project, which begins filming next week in Morocco. (Deadline.com)


UNTITLED GREG MATHIS PROJECT (FOX, New!) - Todd Jones and Earl Richey Jones (Johnson Family Vacation) are developing a multi-camera comedy at the network inspired by the life of Judge Greg Mathis. The untitled project will center on "a hoodlum-turned-judge who has total control of his courtroom - and no control at home raising his four kids." Warner Bros. Television is behind the half-hour with A Very Good Production's Ellen DeGeneres and Jeff Kleeman executive producing alongside Mathis and the Jones brothers. (Deadline.com)


AND IN OTHER NEWS... - HBO is reportedly on track to order a third season of "The Newsroom" (@Jeff_Daniels); "Parks & Recreation" and "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" co-creator Michael Schur has inked a massive overall deal with Universal Television that will keep him at the studio through 2016 (Deadline.com); Jason O'Mara has snagged an arc on "The Good wife" as "a wild-eyed Irish attorney who has spent a decade successfully defending gang members and crime families" who joins Lockhart/Gardner (Deadline.com);

Dan Stevens has been tapped to voice the biological computer TIM on The CW's "The Tomorrow People" (EW.com); Walton Goggins will guest on "Community" as "a mysterious, emotionless man that the Greendale gang encounters" (TVGuide.com); Cynthia Addai-Robinson has been tapped to play DC Comics villain Amanda Waller on "Arrow" (TVGuide.com); and Jane Leeves will guest on CBS's "We Are Men" as "a hairstylist at the on-site salon with whom Tony Shalhoub's Frank has a long-standing weekly appointment" (TVLine.com).






  [september 2013]  
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· ARROW (CW)
· BIGGEST LOSER, THE (USA)
· BROOKLYN NINE-NINE (NBC)
· COMMUNITY (YAHOO)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· ELLEN MORE OR LESS (NBC)
· FIRST TIMERS (ABC)
· GOOD WIFE, THE (CBS)
· GOSSIP GIRL (CW)
· GROUND FLOOR (TBS)
· HALF (NBC)
· MONDAY MORNINGS (TNT)
· NEIGHBORS, THE (ABC)
· NEW GIRL (FOX)
· NEWSROOM, THE (HBO)
· NO PLACE LIKE HOME (FOX)
· PARKS & RECREATION (NBC)
· RL STINE'S THE HAUNTING HOUR: THE SERIES (DFC)
· ROMANTICALLY CHALLENGED (ABC)
· ROYAL (FOX)
· ROYALS, THE (E)
· SMASH (NBC)
· SOCIAL CIRCLE (ABC)
· TOMORROW PEOPLE, THE (CW)
· TYRANT (FX)
· UNTITLED GREG MATHIS PROJECT (FOX)
· WE ARE MEN (CBS)





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