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[10/11/13 - 11:11 PM]
Development Update: Friday, October 11
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!


BALLERS (A.K.A. UNTITLED DWAYNE JOHNSON PROJECT) (HBO; W: Steve Levinson; D: Peter Berg) - Troy Garity ("Boss") has joined the cast of the Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson-led comedy pilot, which chronicles the lives of several Miami-based athletes. He'll play Jason, "a top-tier sports agent and anti-establishment type who is comfortable in any situation." Omar Miller also stars. (Deadline.com)


EXCALIBUR (ABC, New!) - Jason Fuchs (Ice Age: Continental Drift) has snagged a put pilot commitment from the Alphabet for a contemporary spin on the legend of King Arthur in which "a young Brooklyn man who is forever changed when his life is saved by a beautiful stranger who reveals that he is the last living descendant of the very real King Arthur and that he is now at the center of an eons-old shadow war between the descendants of the Knights of the Roundtable and the forces of dark magic." Said effort is set up at the Warner Bros. Television-based Berlanti Productions with the company's Greg Berlanti and Melissa Kellner Berman executive producing alongside Fuchs. (Deadline.com)


EYE CANDY (MTV; W: Emmy Grinwis; D: Catherine Hardwicke) - Victoria Justice ("Victorious") has been tapped for the lead role on the drama pilot, about Lindy, "a beautiful but reclusive hacker whose blog exposes everything from terrorist plots to suspected killers." Said effort, from Blumhouse Productions, is based on R.L. Stine's book of the same name. (Deadline.com)


LET'S PRETEND THIS NEVER HAPPENED (ABC, New!) - Chrissy Pietrosh and Jessica Goldstein ("Cougar Town") have sold a new comedy to the Alphabet based on Jenny Lawson's (aka The Bloggess) memoir of the same name, about her unorthodox upbringing in rural Texas and the anxiety attacks that plague her adult life. Temple Hill's Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen and Gotham Group's Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell and Michael Prevett also serve as executive producers alongside said duo for ABC Studios. (Deadline.com)


REAL DEAL (CBS, New!) - Craig O'Neill ("Burn Notice") is developing a new drama at the Eye centering on "two polar opposite women - an ambitious FBI agent and an uncontrollable criminal Confidential Informant - who must find common ground if they're going to survive both the streets of Los Angeles and each other." CBS Television Studios is behind the hour, which has a penalty attached and is inspired by Emily Benedek's 2005 Glamour article "The FBI's Secret Weapon: Women." Conde Nast Entertainment's Dawn Ostroff and UnbeliEVAble Entertainment's Eva Longoria and Ben Spector will also serve as executive producers. (Deadline.com)


RED BRICK ROAD (Lifetime, New!) - Tim Schlattman ("Dexter") is the latest auspice looking to bring L. Frank Baum's classic tome "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" to the small screen. Said effort will track Dorothy's travels down the Yellow Brick Road's unexplored sister road, the Red Brick Road, "taking her to the oldest, darkest and most dangerous parts of Oz to find what became of her friends who all have gone missing." Warner Horizon Television, Vertigo Entertainment and The Wolper Organization are co-producing the drama with Roy Lee and Adrian Askarieh also among the executive producers. Rob Prior, who provided the project's concept art, will also serve as a consulting producer. (Deadline.com)


RELATED (ABC, New!) - Lisa Addario and Joe Syracuse (Parental Guidance) have set up a semi-autobiographical multi-camera comedy at the Alphabet based on their unique experience as a husband and wife whose younger siblings are married to each other as well. Mandeville Films and Television's David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Laurie Zaks are executive producing for ABC Studios with the aforementioned Addario and Syracuse serving as co-executive producers. (Deadline.com)


TELEMARK (FX, New!) - Director Danny Boyle, writer Simon Beaufoy and producer Christian Colson (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours) are looking to re-team for a 10-episode limited series at the cable channel, "based on the true story of the British-trained Norwegian resistance fighters who sabotaged Hitler's nuclear development program during World War II." Beaufoy is penning the project for Cloud Eight/Decibel Films with Boyle and Colson likewise serving as executive producers. (Deadline.com)


UNTITLED BROWNLEE & MCCLELLAND PROJECT (NBC, New!) - Ellen DeGeneres is developing a comedy series for Sophia Grace Brownlee and Rosie McClelland, the British viral video standouts turned pint-sized staples of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." Said effort is set up at Warner Bros. Television with DeGeneres and Jeff Kleeman executive producing via their A Very Good Production banner. The search is underway for a writer to hone in on a premise. (Deadline.com)


UNTITLED CREVELLO & NIEDERMEYER PROJECT (NBC, New!) - Newcomers Heidi Niedermeyer and Elena Crevello have sold a new comedy to the Peacock about "a girl learning to deal with being the only single person in her group of friends." ABC Studios is behind the half-hour, which said duo wrote on spec, with Mark Gordon and Andrea Shay of The Mark Gordon Co. executive producing. (Deadline.com)


UNTITLED DAVID HORNSBY PROJECT (NBC, New!) - David Hornsby ("How to Be a Gentleman") has booked a potential comedy at the Peacock, which "takes a look at the world of NASA in the 1960s." Adam McKay, Chris Henchy and Owen Burke are also on board to executive produce the half-hour via their Universal Television-based Gary Sanchez Productions. (Deadline.com)


UNTITLED MEG RYAN PROJECT (NBC, New!) - Meg Ryan (Sleepless in Seattle) is looking to return to the small screen as part of a single-camera comedy at the Peacock about "a sunny, devoted and desperately non-confrontational single mom (Ryan) who decides to return to her New York publishing house where she was once a brilliant editor to find that she now works for Brenda, the neurotic 30-year-old boss who was once her former intern." Marc Lawrence (Miss Congeniality) is penning the project for Universal Television where he'll executive produce alongside Ryan and her manager, Jane Berliner. (Deadline.com)


AND IN OTHER NEWS... - NBC has asked for three additional scripts of its medical drama "The Night Shift," which has an eight-episode order for midseason (Deadline.com); Max Adler will recur on "Switched at Birth" as "a fraternity brother Bay (Vanessa Marano) befriends in her college art class" (Deadline.com); Bambadjan Bamba likewise has booked an arc on "The Following" as Algerian Sami, "Jamel's brother who grew up in Paris" (Deadline.com); Hector Elizondo will reprise his role of Callie Tores's (Sara Ramirez) father on "Grey's Anatomy" (TVGuide.com); Michael Cudlitz has been cast as Sgt. Abraham Ford, "an Army man and sports coach before the outbreak," on "The Walking Dead" (TVLine.com); Aisha Hinds will guest on ABC's "Killer Women" as "a bank-robbery specialist who clashes with Tricia Helfer's Molly Parker" (TVLine.com); and Madeleine Martin has joined the cast of "Hemlock Grove" as Shelly Godfrey, "a reanimated child of the Godfreys, played last season by Nicole Boivin" (Deadline.com).






  [october 2013]  
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· BALLERS (HBO)
· BOSS (STARZ)
· BURN NOTICE (USA)
· COUGAR TOWN (TBS)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· DEXTER (SHOWTIME)
· ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW, THE (SYNDICATION)
· EXCALIBUR (ABC)
· EYE CANDY (MTV)
· FIFTH WHEEL (NBC)
· FOLLOWING, THE (FOX)
· GREY'S ANATOMY (ABC)
· HEMLOCK GROVE (NETFLIX)
· HOW TO BE A GENTLEMAN (CBS)
· KILLER WOMEN (ABC)
· LET'S PRETEND THIS NEVER HAPPENED (ABC)
· MISSION CONTROL (NBC)
· NIGHT SHIFT, THE (NBC)
· REAL DEAL (CBS)
· RED BRICK ROAD (LIFETIME)
· RELATED (ABC)
· SWITCHED AT BIRTH (FREEFORM)
· TELEMARK (FX)
· UNTITLED BROWNLEE & MCCLELLAND PROJECT (NBC)
· UNTITLED MEG RYAN PROJECT (NBC)
· VICTORIOUS (NICKELODEON)
· WALKING DEAD, THE (AMC)





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