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[12/15/15 - 11:31 PM]
Development Update: Tuesday, December 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!


BOTCOP (FOX/20th; W: Geoff Barbanell & Itai Grunfeld; D: TBA) - The high concept comedy, about an outdated half man/half robot relic who is fired from the LAPD and forced to take the only law enforcement gig he can get - that of a meter maid, has received a pilot presentation order from the network. Original conceived as a single-camera project, "Botcop" has since been reformatted to an animated one in which Botcop "takes a minimum wage job as a guard in a wealthy gated community and moves in with his patrol partner, a single Dad in need of help, even if it's from an arrogant cyborg unaware his best days are behind him." KatCo's Tracy Katsky and Aaron Kaplan's Kapital Entertainment also serves as executive producers with Bento Box Entertainment tapped to handle the animation. (Deadline.com)


IMAGINARY FRIEND (NBC/Universal; W: Kassia Miller; D: Paul Briganti) - Newcomer Kalia Prescott has joined the cast of the single-camera comedy pilot, about Wendy (Megan Neuringer), an intelligent yet unmotivated woman who discovers a special and unexpected way of dealing with her mediocre life. She'll play Mable, "an attractive ultra-cool, couldn't give a shit intern at Wendy's company." Alex Newell and Brandon Scott also star. (Deadline.com)


LAST TYCOON, THE (Amazon/TriStar; W/D: Billy Ray) - Kelsey Grammer, Rosemarie DeWitt, Mark O'Brien and Enzo Cilenti have all been cast in the drama pilot, based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's final unfinished novel inspired by the life of film mogul Irving Thalberg, about Monroe Stahr (Matt Bomer), Hollywood's first wunderkind studio executive in the 1930s as he climbs to the height of power pitting him against his mentor and current head of the studio Pat Brady (Grammer), a character based on Louis B. Mayer. DeWitt then is set as Pat Brady's wife, Rose Brady, "who may be involved with Stahr"; with O'Brien as Max Miner, "a displaced down-and-outer who's livid at his misfortune"; and Cilenti as Aubrey Hackett, "a writer at Brady-American studios under Monroe." In addition, F.Scott Fitzgerald scholar A. Scott Berg has been added as a consulting producer. (Deadline.com)


UNTITLED GRATEFUL DEAD PROJECT (Amazon, New!) - The legendary band's co-founder Bob Weir is developing "a limited bio-series" at the streaming serve based on the book by Steve Parish, "Home Before Daylight: My Life on the Road with the Grateful Dead." Bernie Cahill and ROAR also serve as executive producers on the project with Stephen Emery as a co-executive producer. The search is underway for a writer. (Deadline.com)


AND IN OTHER NEWS... - NBC has axed its freshman effort "Best Time Ever With Neil Patrick Harris" (@ActuallyNPH); TNT has likewise pulled the plug on dramas "Agent X," "Legends" and "Public Morals" (Deadline.com); IFC has presumably nixed its newcomer "Benders" (@chrisdcomedy); and FX's "Fargo" won't return for a third season until 2017 (Deadline.com).






  [december 2015]  
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· AGENT X (TNT)
· BENDERS (IFC)
· BEST TIME EVER WITH NEIL PATRICK HARRIS (NBC)
· BOTCOP (FOX)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· FARGO (FX)
· IMAGINARY FRIEND (NBC)
· LAST TYCOON, THE (AMAZON)
· LEGENDS (TNT)
· PUBLIC MORALS (TNT)
· UNTITLED GRATEFUL DEAD PROJECT (AMAZON)





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