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[10/08/15 - 11:22 PM]
Development Update: Thursday, October 8
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!


BELLES & WHISTLES (FOX, New!) - Alex McAulay ("Eastbound & Down") has set up a new single-camera comedy at the network about "an unfulfilled father who, when fired from his comfortable tech job in Silicon Valley, decides to move his dysfunctional family to Nashville, Tennessee to pursue his lifelong dream of music stardom." 20th Century Fox Television is behind the project with Dwight Yoakam and Electric Dynamite's Jack Black and Spencer Berman also serving as executive producers. (Deadline.com)


GRAVES (Epix/Lionsgate; W/D: Joshua Michael Stern) - Ernie Hudson has been tapped for a role on the upcoming comedy, about a former President of the United States. Twenty years after his presidency, former President Richard Graves (Nick Nolte) has the epiphany that his policies have damaged the country for decades and so, with his young assistant (Skylar Astin), he goes on a Don Quixote-like journey to right his administration's wrongs just as his wife, the former First Lady, decides to follow her own political ambitions. He'll play Jacob Mann, "a staple in the Graves Family for decades, who acts as the Family Fixer." (Deadline.com)


I'M DYING UP HERE (Showtime/Endemol; W: Dave Flebotte; D: Jonathan Levine) - Ari Graynor is the latest addition to the Jim Carrey-produced drama pilot, which centers on L.A.'s celebrated and infamous stand-up comedy scene of the 1970s. She'll play Cassie, "an ambitious comedian from Texas who wants to be taken as seriously as her male comic contemporaries." R.J. Cyler, Erik Griffin, Andrew Santino and Stephen Guarino also star. (Deadline.com)


NEGOTIATIONS (ABC, New!) - Paul Lieberstein ("The Newsroom") has set up a potential hour at the Alphabet about "life, politics and romance in one of the world's largest law firms." ABC Studios is behind the project with 3 Arts Entertainment's Howard Klein also executive producing. (Deadline.com)


POOR RICHARD'S ALMANACK (USA/Legendary/UCP; W: Jim Danger Gray & Miguel Sapochnik; D: Neil Marshall) - Lynn Collins, Athena Karkanis, Carly Pope and Barbara Eve Harris have all been cast in the drama pilot, which revolves around a cadre of heroes who emerge as the new "Founding Fathers," after America is pushed to the brink of collapse. Collins will play Julia Winslow, "a postal worker inadvertently dragged into a radical conspiracy on account of her fiancé's former links to the CIA"; with Karkanis as Penny Richards, "an already seen-it-all surgeon who finds herself in the ethical dilemma of having to keep a wounded bomber alive so the FBI can interrogate him, rather than tend to his victims"; Pope as Brooke Beaudine, "an ambitious local network journalist whose reporting on a deadly attack in Philadelphia puts her on the trail of a group of extremists who may be responsible"; and Harris as Elizabeth Walker, "Director of National Intelligence during an attack on Philadelphia." (Deadline.com)


UNTITLED PRENTICE PENNY PROJECT (NBC, New!) - Prentice Penny ("Brooklyn Nine-Nine") has snagged a put pilot commitment from the Peacock for a single-camera comedy about "a loud, boisterous, and quarrelsome family from the Bronx and what happens when they take in their wide-eyed, hopelessly optimistic 10-year-old nephew." Bruno Mars, his manager Brandon Creed and Imagine Television's Brian Grazer and Francie Calfo are also on board to executive produce the half-hour, which is presumably set up at 20th Century Fox Television. (Deadline.com)


UNTITLED WENDY DAVIS PROJECT (NBC, New!) - Jennifer Cecil ("Heartbreaker") is developing a new drama at the Peacock inspired by the life of former Texas state senator Wendy Davis. The Universal Television-based project will revolve around "a female Democratic senator who, after losing the Texas governor's race, gets her world turned upside down. In the vein of 'The Good Wife,' while she pieces her pride back together, she goes to work in the law firm of her best friend - a black male Republican - and discovers that with no political future to protect, she can unshackle her inner badass." Naegle Ink's Sue Naegle and Karen Sherwood are likewise on board to executive produce alongside Cecil and Davis. (Deadline.com)


AND IN OTHER NEWS... - FOX has three backup scripts for its freshman drama "Rosewood" (Deadline.com); Peter Mensah will recur on "Sleepy Hollow" as "an ancient, desiccated god who returns to the mortal world revived as a handsome, powerful menace with eyes that entrance and torment" (Deadline.com); Elle McLemore has been cast as Patty Simcox in FOX's "Grease: Live" (Deadline.com); Melanie Liburd is bound for "Game of Thrones" as a Red Priestess (Deadline.com); and Robert Forster has signed onto Showtime's "Twin Peaks" revival in a role speculated to be taking over for Michael Ontkean as Sheriff Harry S. Truman (TVLine.com).






  [october 2015]  
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· BELLES & WHISTLES (FOX)
· BROOKLYN NINE-NINE (NBC)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· EASTBOUND & DOWN (HBO)
· GAME OF THRONES (HBO)
· GRAVES (EPIX)
· GREASE: LIVE (FOX)
· HEARTBEAT (NBC)
· I'M DYING UP HERE (SHOWTIME)
· NEGOTIATIONS (ABC)
· NEWSROOM, THE (HBO)
· POOR RICHARD'S ALMANACK (USA)
· ROSEWOOD (FOX)
· SLEEPY HOLLOW (FOX)
· TWIN PEAKS (SHOWTIME)
· UNTITLED PRENTICE PENNY PROJECT (NBC)
· UNTITLED WENDY DAVIS PROJECT (NBC)





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