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[10/14/13 - 11:22 PM]
Development Update: Monday, October 14
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!


THE AFTER (Amazon; W/D: Chris Carter) - Louise Monot and Sam Littlefield are the latest to board the drama pilot, which takes place at the moment of apocalypse. She'll play Gigi, "a woman caught up in the midst of the action"; while he's set as "the mysterious Dark Shadow." The project, from Georgeville Television, also stars Adrian Pasdar, Aldis Hodge, Andrew Howard, Arielle Kebbel, Jaina Lee Ortiz, Jamie Kennedy and Sharon Lawrence. (Deadline.com)


THE CISCO KID (CBS/CTS; W: Chad Damiani & J.P. Lavin; D: TBA) - Chad Damiani and J.P. Lavin (How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack) have been tapped to pen a new script for the drama, about "Cisco, a dishonorably discharged Marine, as he returns to L.A. for his father's funeral and learns that his father was actually the mythical Cisco Kid, who helped the downtrodden and disenfranchised who had been let down by the system. Cisco and his best friend, Dan, join the remaining members of his father's team and take the mantel of the Cisco Kid, vowing to find justice for those who can't find it anywhere else." Diego Gutierrez penned the original draft during the past development cycle. Ventanarosa's Salma Hayek and Jose "Pepe" Tamez will once again executive produce alongside Donners' Company's Lauren Shuler Donner for CBS Television Studios with Damiani and Lavin as supervising producers. (THR.com)


THE FIVE FAMILIES (Discovery, New!) - Nicholas Pileggi (Goodfellas) is developing a potential drama at the cable channel about the founding families of the Mafia. Said effort would "invoke the real figures and actual events in the history of the Gambino, Genovese, Lucchese, Bonanno and Colombo Mafia families - also known as the famed five crime families of New York." Fellow Goodfellas alum Irwin Winkler then will executive produce alongside Pileggi. (THR.com)


GROWING IVY (NBC, New!) - Mother and daughter duo Susan Sarandon and Eva Amurri Martino are set to topline a single-camera comedy at the Peacock about "Type A+ Ivy Davis (Martino) who craves the stability she lacked in her childhood and, as a result, has thrown herself into her career at the expense of her personal life. In an attempt to restore balance and potentially find love, she invites her freewheeling, eccentric mom, Franckie (Sarandon), to move in with her and work on their relationship." Martino and Will McCormack co-wrote the Warner Bros. Television-based half-hour, which has a pilot production commitment. McCormack and his Le Train Train Productions partner Rashida Jones then will executive produce with Sarandon and Martino as co-executive producers and Jeff Grosvenor producing. (Deadline.com)


JENNIFER FALLS (TV Land; W: Matthew Carlson; D: TBA) - Jessica Walter ("Arrested Development") has joined the cast of the comedy pilot, about a career woman and mother (Jaime Pressly) who must move back in with her own mom after being let go from her high-powered, six-figure salary job. She's set as her mother Maggie, "described as a charming, narcissistic psychotherapist with boundary issues who's warm and welcoming to her daughter - but maybe too welcoming." Dylan Gelula and Missi Pyle also star in the multi-camera project. (THR.com)


THE MAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE (CBS, New!) - Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett have sold a single-camera comedy to the Eye inspired by their web site of the same name, "which offers man-to-man advice about love and relationships, born from interviews with over 3,000 men around the world." They'll pen the half-hour alongside Andrew Goldberg for CBS Television Studios with Laurence Mark likewise executive producing. (Deadline.com)


OUTLANDER (Starz/Sony; W: Ronald D. Moore; D: John Dahl) - James Fleet and Lotte Verbeek have both scored roles on the upcoming original series, about Claire Randall (Caitriona Balfe), a married combat nurse from 1945 who is mysteriously swept back in time to 1743, where she is immediately thrown into an unknown world where her life is threatened. He'll play Rev. Wakefield, "a Scottish historian of sorts who - in the books - interacts with Claire and husband Frank in the 1940s." She's then set as Geillis Duncan, "a sly, 18th-century Scottish woman who dabbles in the black arts." Annette Badland, Duncan Lacroix, Gary Lewis, Graham McTavish, Laura Donnelly, Sam Heughan, Stephen Walters and Tobias Menzies also star. (TVLine.com)


SALEM (WGN/Fox 21; W: Adam Simon & Brannon Braga; D: Richard Shepard) - Seth Gabel ("Fringe") has booked a lead role on the upcoming drama, which explores what really fueled the town's infamous witch trials and dares to uncover the dark, supernatural truth hiding behind the veil of this infamous period in American history. He will play Cotton Mather, "a local aristocrat who makes it his business to oversee the witch hunts in Salem." Ashley Madekwe also stars. (Deadline.com)


TERRIBLE PEOPLE (ABC, New!) - British comedian Humphrey Ker has set up a semi-autobiographical comedy at the Alphabet about Charlie Stevenson "who dutifully goes to see his narcissistic, manipulative father and stepmother for a short visit, but finds himself drawn in for a permanent stay when he sees what awful children his half-brother and sister are becoming, believing that he must intervene and help raise these children to stop the cycle of rapacious awfulness." Betsy Thomas is supervising the half-hour with Todd Holland and Karey Burke of Dark Toy Entertainment likewise executive producing for Universal Television. (Deadline.com)


UNTITLED CORINNE BRINKERHOFF PROJECT (The CW, New!) - Corinne Brinkerhoff ("Elementary") has sold a new drama to the netlet about "a young Brooklynite recruited by the CIA to infiltrate her recently discovered biological family, a wealthy and powerful dynasty in Texas suspected of having criminal alliances across the globe." Said effort - inspired by the Israeli feature script "Dance of the Hours" by Orna Raiz - is set up at the CBS Television Studios-based K/O Paper Products with the company's Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Heather Kadin executive producing alongside Scripted World's Rob Golenberg and Alon Aranya. (Deadline.com)


UNTITLED NICK SANTORA PROJECT (CBS, New!) - Writer Nick Santora ("Breakout Kings") and director Justin Lin (Fast & Furious 6) have scored a put pilot commitment from the Eye for a new drama inspired by the true story of Walter O'Brien, "a man with the fourth highest documented IQ, who recruited the world's greatest intellects to his company where they not only solved the world's most pressing and significant problems, but also helped each other learn to fit in and live in a world where literally being one in a billion can be as lonely as it sounds." CBS Television Studios is behind the hour with Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Heather Kadin of K/O Paper Products and Scooter Braun of SB Films also serving as executive producers. Co-executive producing are the latter's Danny Rose and Perfect Storm Entertainment's Danielle Woodrow with Scott Manson and Troy Poon producing. (Deadline.com)


AND IN OTHER NEWS... - Marvel Television is reportedly putting together a package of four drama series and a mini-series - a total of some 60 episodes - for the VOD and cable space, with Netflix, Amazon and WGN America rumored as potential candidates (Deadline.com); "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" has tapped co-executive producers Adam Lowitt, Jennifer Flanz and Steve Bodow to succeed Rory Albanese as showrunners of the series (Deadline.com); Christopher Cousins will recur on "Revolution" as "high-ranking Patriot Victor Doyle, who's on a collision course with Giancarlo Esposito's Tom Neville" (Deadline.com);

Josh McDermitt is bound for "The Walking Dead" as Dr. Eugene Porter, "Ford's (Michael Cudlitz) traveling companion in the comics who claims to know the origin of the outbreak" (Deadline.com); Juliet Rylance's role - "a whip-smart Assistant State's Attorney who shares a past with Kalinda" - has been cut from "The Good Wife" (TVLine.com); and Garrett Clayton has scored an arc on "The Fosters" as "a handsome and charming high school senior who recruits Mariana (Cierra Ramirez) to join the crew of the school play" (THR.com).






  [october 2013]  
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· AFTER, THE (AMAZON)
· ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT (NETFLIX)
· BREAKOUT KINGS (A AND E)
· CISCO KID, THE (CBS)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· ELEMENTARY (CBS)
· FIVE FAMILIES, THE (DISCOVERY)
· FOSTERS, THE (FREEFORM)
· FRINGE (FOX)
· GOOD WIFE, THE (CBS)
· GROWING IVY (NBC)
· IDENTITY (CW)
· JENNIFER FALLS (TV LAND)
· MAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE, THE (CBS)
· OUTLANDER (STARZ)
· REVOLUTION (NBC)
· SALEM (WGN)
· SCORPION (CBS)
· TERRIBLE PEOPLE (ABC)
· WALKING DEAD, THE (AMC)





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