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[12/08/15 - 11:39 PM]
Development Update: Tuesday, December 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!


DIRTY DANCING (ABC, New!) - Abigail Breslin is attached to star in a three-hour event movie for the Alphabet and Lionsgate Television where she'll take on Jennifer Grey's iconic role as Baby, "an innocent young woman in the early 1960's who vacations with her affluent parents and siblings in the Catskill Mountains and falls for the resort's working-class dance instructor." Jessica Sharzer is penning the script while Wayne Blair will direct. Other auspices include Adam Anders and Peer Astrom on music and producing; Andy Blankenbuehler on choreography; and Stephen Altman on producing design. Allison Shearmur Productions' Allison Shearmur and original screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein will also executive produce. Production is contingent on additional casting. (Deadline.com)


LA82 (Amazon, New!) - Jeffery Blitz and Mac Carter have sold a potential comedy to the streaming service about "a misfit gang of schlock filmmakers who storm the gates of Hollywood in the early '80s." RatPac Entertainment's Brett Ratner and John Cheng will also will executive produce the project for Amazon Studios. (THR.com)


MIRACLE MAN (NBC, New!) - "The Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" alums Sam Raimi and Kevin Sorbo are set to re-team for a new drama at the network about Jason Greene (Sorbo), "a decorated Army Ranger who is nearly killed in Afghanistan. Haunted by the experience, he's discharged and returns home to a wife who's left him and an adult son he barely knows. As Jason struggles to piece his life together, he discovers a power - the ability to make miracles happen, marvels often small but real that can change people's lives. Jason, tough and skeptical, is on a quest to discover why." Robert Eisele (The Great Debaters) is penning the script while Raimi; Sorbo; his wife, Sam Sorbo; and his manager Sherry Marsh will also executive produce for Sony Pictures Television. (Deadline.com)


NOS4A2 (AMC, New!) - Joe Hill's supernatural novel - about Victoria "Vic" McQueen, "a young woman with an uncanny talent for finding lost things... a gift that is gradually destroying her mind, whose search for help leads her to someone with powers not unlike her own: the psychopath Charlie Manx" - is being developed for television at the cable channel. AMC Studios and Tornante Television are co-producing the potential hour, with the latter's Michael Eisner presumably executive producing. (Deadline.com)


NOW YOU SEE HER (CBS, New!) - James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge's book - about "a successful attorney at a boutique New York City law firm who is hiding her true identity and past as a murderer when one case threatens to expose her and upend her new life and career" - is being developed as a drama at the Eye. Siobhan Byrne O'Connor will pen the project for CBS Television Studios and James Patterson Entertainment with Patterson, Bill Haber, Bill Robinson and Leopoldo Gout executive producing. (Deadline.com)


UNTITLED DAN FOGELMAN PROJECT (NBC/20th; W: Dan Fogelman; D: Glenn Ficarra & John Requa) - Susan Kelechi Watson is the latest to be cast in the pilot, a dramedy featuring a unique ensemble of characters all born on the same day. She'll play Beth in the project, which also features Mandy Moore, Milo Ventimiglia, Justin Hartley, Sterling Brown, and Ron Chephas Jones. (Deadline.com)


WHITE SHEEP (ABC, New!) - Jordan Young and Elijah Aron ("BoJack Horseman") has set up a potential comedy at the Alphabet about "unapologetic, anti-helicopter parents Gail and Bruce, their daughter Sarah who remarkably finds ways to take advantage of her parents tough love philosophy and their optimistic, nice guy son who begins to realize that his parents are very far from perfect." Peter Traugott and Rachel Kaplan will also executive produce the project, which is based on Young's life, for Universal Television. (THR.com)


AND IN OTHER NEWS... - Eve Plumb has been cast as Mrs. Murdock on FOX's upcoming "Grease: Live" (Deadline.com); "How to Get Away with Murder" creator Peter Nowalk has inked a new three-year overall deal with producer ABC Studios, retroactive to the beginning of the season (Deadline.com); Tony Shalhoub will drop by "The Blacklist" as "a master negotiator for the criminal underworld" (EW.com); Joely Richardson has signed onto NBC's "Emerald City" as Glinda the Good Witch (TVInsider.com); and Vince Gerardis is shepherding "The 4th Kingdom," "a $40 million high-octane drama series which he describes as 'Mad Max' meets 'Waterworld'" (Variety.com).






  [december 2015]  
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· BLACKLIST, THE (NBC)
· BOJACK HORSEMAN (NETFLIX)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· DIRTY DANCING (ABC)
· EMERALD CITY (NBC)
· GREASE: LIVE (FOX)
· HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER (ABC)
· LA82 (AMAZON)
· MIRACLE MAN (NBC)
· NOS4A2 (AMC)
· NOW YOU SEE HER (CBS)
· THIS IS US (NBC)
· WHITE SHEEP (ABC)





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