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[06/15/15 - 11:37 PM]
Development Update: Monday, June 15
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!


EMERALD CITY (NBC/Universal; W: David Schulner; D: TBA) - Adria Arjona has booked the lead role on the upcoming drama, in which 20-year-old Dorothy Gale and her K9 police dog are transported to another world, one far removed from our own - a mystical land of competing kingdoms, lethal warriors, dark magic and a bloody battle for supremacy. She'll play the aforementioned Dorothy in the project, which has a 10-episode order. Also signing on is Shaun Cassidy as an executive producer. (Deadline.com)


MONTAUK (Netflix; W: Matt Duffer & Ross Duffer; D: TBA) - Winona Ryder and David Harbour are the first to be cast in the drama series, set in 1980 Montauk, Long Island, in which a young boy vanishes into thin air. As friends, family, and local police search for answers, they are drawn into an extraordinary mystery involving top secret government experiments, terrifying supernatural forces, and one very strange little girl. She'll play Joyce, "the boy's working-class single mother reeling from her son's disappearance"; while he's set as "the town's weary and disheveled chief of police tasked with investigating the disappearance." Additionally, Karl Gajdusek ("Last Resort") has come on board as the project's showrunner. (Deadline.com)


PARADISE PICTURES (USA/UCP; W: Rick Muirragui; D: TBA) - Morgan Spector ("Allegiance") is set to star in the drama pilot, about ambitious people striving to get to the top in 1940s Hollywood, when the dream factory was at its peak. Little do they know the challenges they're about to face: the end of studio monopolies, the blacklist and the new disruptive technology of television. He'll play Tom Kirby, "the head of production at Paradise Pictures, a rising film studio in 1946 Hollywood. While he doesn't own the studio it is obvious to everyone in town that he is in charge and that he is not afraid to get his hands dirty in order to elevate the studio into prominence." (Deadline.com)


PRESENCE (UNLIC) (ABC, New!) - John Ridley ("American Crime") has set up another potential drama at the Alphabet about Presence Foster, "a former Army Counter Insurgency Operative who finds herself navigating a widely divergent and highly colorful cross section of Los Angeles as she unintentionally begins a career as an unlicensed (unlic) Private Investigator." He'll write, direct and executive produce via his International Famous Players Radio Picture Corporation banner alongside Stearns Castle's Michael McDonald for ABC Studios. (Deadline.com)


UNAUTHORIZED BEVERLY HILLS, 90210 STORY, THE (Lifetime, New!) - Writer Jeff Roda (Love Liza) and director Vanessa Parise ("PopFan") are spearheading the latest installment in the network's "unauthorized" series of TV movies. Said effort will "show the roller coaster ride of the teen soap's first four seasons, particularly the drama between cast members and producers both on and off-set. The movie will also shed light on the show's several near-cancelations and its subsequent rise to ratings hit and pop culture phenomenon." Peter M. Green and Howard Braunstein are the executive producers with Christian Bruyere producing. (THR.com)


AND IN OTHER NEWS... - A&E has passed on a second season of its freshman drama "The Returned" (Deadline.com); Paramount Television is looking to bring Joe Carnahan's 2002 movie "Narc" to the small screen with Eminem "in negotiations to join the project as an executive producer and music supervisor" (Deadline.com); "How I Met Your Mother" creators Craig Thomas and Carter Bays have inked a three-year, potentially eight-figure overall deal with Sony Pictures Television (Deadline.com); Roy Boehm and Charles W. Sasser's "First Seal" is being developed as a limited series by Relativity Television (Deadline.com); Martin Henderson has joined the cast of "Grey's Anatomy" in a yet-to-be-revealed role (Deadline.com); and "Westworld" co-creator Lisa Joy has closed a multi-year overall deal with producer Warner Bros. Television (THR.com).






  [june 2015]  
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· ALLEGIANCE (NBC)
· AMERICAN CRIME (ABC)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· EMERALD CITY (NBC)
· GREY'S ANATOMY (ABC)
· HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER (CBS)
· LAST RESORT (ABC)
· PARADISE PICTURES (USA)
· POPFAN (LIFETIME)
· PRESENCE (ABC)
· RETURNED, THE (A AND E)
· STRANGER THINGS (NETFLIX)
· UNAUTHORIZED BEVERLY HILLS, 90210 STORY, THE (LIFETIME)
· WESTWORLD (HBO)





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