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[02/06/14 - 11:37 PM]
Development Update: Thursday, February 6
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!


AGENT X (TNT; W: William Blake Herron; D: Peter O'Fallon) - Peter O'Fallon ("The Glades") has been tapped to direct the drama pilot, about Natalie Maccabee (Sharon Stone), the newly elected Vice President of the United States who is tasked with protecting the Constitution in times of great crisis with the aid of her Chief Steward and a secret operative designated "Agent X" (Jeff Hephner). He'll work from a script by William Blake Herron. John Shea and Mike Colter also star. (Deadline.com)


BAD JUDGE (NBC/Universal; W: Adam McKay, Chad Kultgen & Chris Henchy; D: TBA) - Arden Myrin ("MADtv") has scored a role on the single-camera comedy pilot, about Rebecca Wright (Kate Walsh), a hard-living, sexually unapologetic woman who plays with the law, despite the fact she also happens to be a judge in the criminal court system. She's on board as her "cute but tough" best friend, Jenny. John Ducey and Mather Zickel also star. (Deadline.com)


COCKED (Amazon, New!) - Samuel Baum ("Lie to Me") and Sam Shaw ("Manhattan") have set up a potential drama at the distributor about "an estranged son who must return to work with his father and brother at his family's gun manufacturing company after a corporate rival, run by their uncle, moves to take them over." No other details were given. (Deadline.com)


HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER (ABC/ABC Studios; W: Peter Nowalk; D: Michael Offer) - Aja Naomi King ("Emily Owens M.D.") is the latest to be cast in the drama pilot, about a group of ambitious law students and their brilliant, mysterious criminal defense professor who become entangled in a murder plot that will rock their entire university and change the course of their lives. She'll play Michaela Pratt ("preppy, type-A"), one of said students. Matt McGorry also stars in the Shonda Rhimes-produced hour. (Deadline.com)


MAN SEEING WOMAN (FX/FXP; W: Simon Rich; D: Jonathan Krisel) - Jay Baruchel (This Is the End) has been cast as the title role on the comedy pilot, about Josh Greenberg, "a naive romantic on a desperate quest for love. When his longtime girlfriend dumps him, Josh enters the dating scene, a nightmarish hellscape of untold horror. Despite the agony, Josh continues his search in the hopes of finding someone who will make all the misery worth it." Production is set to begin this spring in Toronto. (Deadline.com)


MANHATTAN (WGN America/Lionsgate; W: Sam Shaw; D: Thomas Schlamme) - John Benjamin Hickey, Daniel Stern and Rachel Brosnahan have all been cast in the upcoming drama, which follows the brilliant but flawed scientists - on mission to build the world's first atomic bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico - and their families as they attempt to co-exist in a world where secrets and lies infiltrate every aspect of their lives. Hickey will play Frank Winter, "a brilliant and self-destructive physics professor tapped to help lead the Manhattan Project, a mission that will jeopardize his family and his sanity"; with Stern as Glen Babbit, "a mentor and consiglieri to the younger physicists working on the Manhattan Project"; and Brosnahan as Abby Abrams, "a girl from Boston whose life is transformed forever when she agrees on a whim to go to the middle of nowhere with her husband." Ashley Zukerman also stars as Charlie Abrams, "a brilliant but untested wunderkind married to Abby"; and Harry Lloyd as Paul Crosley, "an ambitious Oxford-educated physicist whose loyalties are called into question as he works to build the world's first atomic bomb." (THR.com)


ODYSSEY (NBC/Universal; W: Adam Armus, Kay Foster & Peter Horton; D: Peter Horton) - Peter Facinelli ("Nurse Jackie") has booked a lead role on the drama pilot, about three people - a stranded soldier, Odelle Ballard (Anna Friel); a disillusioned corporate attorney, Peter Drucker; and a disrespected political activist, Harrison Wolcott (Jake Robinson) - who are pulled into a shocking international military conspiracy. He'll play the aforementioned Peter Drucker in the project, which also stars Daniella Pineda, Elena Kampouris and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. (Deadline.com)


THE VISITORS (ABC/ABC Studios; W: Soo Hugh; D: Mark Romanek) - Mark Romanek (FOX's "Locke & Key") has signed on to direct the drama pilot, billed as a race against the clock to defeat an unseen alien enemy out to destroy the world by using the Earth's most precious resource: children. Soo Hugh is behind the Amblin Television-produced hour, which is based on Ray Bradbury's short story "Zero Hour." (Deadline.com)


WEIRD LONERS (FOX/20th; W: Michael J. Weithorn; D: TBA) - Zachary Knighton ("Happy Endings") is the first to be cast in the single-camera comedy pilot, about four relationship-phobic people who are unexpectedly thrust into one another's lives and form an unlikely bond in a townhouse in Queens, New York. He'll play one of said quartet, Stosh Lewandoski, "a whip-smart and rakishly handsome sales rep with a cynical edge, an inveterate womanizer whose knee-jerk seductions always have him in hot water, like getting fired for sleeping with his boss' fiancee." (Deadline.com)


AND IN OTHER NEWS... - Lifetime is reportedly in talks to order its dystopian-future drama pilot "The Lottery" to series while its Alicia Silverstone-led drama "HR" isn't moving forward (Deadline.com); Kimberly Williams-Paisley will recur on "Two and a Half Men" as "a new love interest for Alan (Jon Cryer) and sister to his friend Larry (D.B. Sweeney)" (Deadline.com); "Modern Family" executive producer Bill Wrubel has signed a three-year overall deal at Warner Bros. Television where he'll develop new series projects (Deadline.com);

Michael J. Fox Show will return to "The Good Wife" as Louis Canning later this season (EW.com); Zachary Knighton has booked an arc on "Parenthood" as "a hip new teacher at the school Kristina founded who catches the eye of Julia" (TVLine.com); Jason Gerhardt, Rebeka Montoya and Catherine Kim are among the new faces bound for "Mistresses" this summer (THR.com, TVLine.com) ; "Bones" executive producer Barry Josephson has set up shop at Sony Pictures Television as part of a new overall deal (THR.com); and Will Sasso will guest on "About a Boy" as "a plumber who romances the high-strung Fiona" (TVGuide.com).






  [february 2014]  
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M
T
W
T
F
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· ABOUT A BOY (NBC)
· AGENT X (TNT)
· AMERICAN ODYSSEY (NBC)
· BAD JUDGE (NBC)
· BONES (FOX)
· COCKED (AMAZON)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· EMILY OWENS, MD (CW)
· GLADES, THE (A AND E)
· GOOD WIFE, THE (CBS)
· HAPPY ENDINGS (ABC)
· HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER (ABC)
· HR (LIFETIME)
· LIE TO ME (FOX)
· LOCKE & KEY (FOX)
· LOTTERY, THE (LIFETIME)
· MADTV (CW)
· MAN SEEKING WOMAN (FXX)
· MANHATTAN (WGN)
· MISTRESSES (ABC)
· MODERN FAMILY (ABC)
· NURSE JACKIE (SHOWTIME)
· PARENTHOOD (NBC)
· TWO AND A HALF MEN (CBS)
· WEIRD LONERS (FOX)
· WHISPERS, THE (ABC)





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