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[02/18/16 - 11:29 PM]
Development Update: Thursday, February 18
By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC) |
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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!
BUNKER HILL (CBS/Universal; W: Jason Katims; D: David Semel) - Augustus Prew (Kick-Ass 2) has scored a lead role on the drama pilot, about a young Silicon Valley tech titan who enlists a veteran surgeon with a controversial past in starting a hospital with a cutting-edge, new school approach to medicine. He'll play the former, James Bell, who's "relentless, unapologetic, maybe brilliant, maybe just nuts, but definitely magnetic and determined to revolutionize healthcare." (THR.com)
CHANCE (Hulu/Fox 21; W: Alexandra Cunningham & Kem Nunn; D: Lenny Abrahamson) - Lisa Gay Hamilton and Stefania LaVie Owen have both joined Hugh Laurie-led drama, about Eldon Chance, a San Francisco-based forensic neuropsychiatrist. After an ill-advised decision regarding an alluring patient who may or may not be struggling with a multiple personality disorder, Chance finds himself in the crosshairs of her abusive spouse, who also happens to be a ruthless police detective. The former will play Suzanne Silver, "a psychologist practicing in Berkeley who is Chance's close friend since their teaching days at UCSF. Gay, direct and fiercely intelligent and perceptive, she is very concerned about Chance and the surreal events unfolding around him." Owen then is set as Nicole, "Chance's daughter, unhappy about her parents' divorce, confused and vulnerable to outside influences." (Deadline.com)
CHUNK & BEAN (ABC/ABCS; W: Brian Donovan & Ed Herro; D: Chris Koch) - Emmy-winner Anna Gunn ("Breaking Bad") has joined the cast of the single-camera comedy pilot, about the unlikely friendship of two misfits, Chunk and Bean, who benefit from having two very different sets of parents living next door to each other. She'll play Dr. Connie Dawson, "Chuck's stern but (mostly) fair mother, a psychologist who works out of her home office. Connie loves Chunk, and that love takes the form of constant monitoring of his food intake and prodding him to slim down." (Deadline.com)
DREAM TEAM (ABC/WBT; W: Bill Wrubel & Kari Lizer; D: Marc Buckland) - Justin Long has been tapped for the lead role on the single-camera comedy pilot, about champion soccer coach Marty Schumacher, who now has to start from scratch with a diverse group of eight-year-olds and their disparate parents. Michael Mosley, Lindsey Kraft and Michelle Buteau also star. (Deadline.com)
ENFORCERS, THE (FOX/WBT; W: Ellen Kreamer & Sherry Bilsing-Graham; D: Gail Mancuso) - Niecy Nash, Christine Woods and Ian Gomez have all been cast in the single-camera comedy pilot, about M.J. (Nash) and Nora (Woods), two wildly different single mothers with dreams of being police officers who find themselves partnered as inspectors in the Code Enforcement Department. Instead of fighting crime, they have been relegated to handling petty code breaking, like noise complaints, tree trimming and water misuse. Gomez then will play George, "their supervisor in the city code enforcement office." (Deadline.com)
I LOVE DICK (Amazon, New!) - Writer Sarah Gubbins and director Jill Soloway are set to team for a small screen take on Chris Kraus's 1997 novel, about "a colorful academic community in Marfa, Texas. It centers on a struggling married couple, Chris and Sylvere, and their mutual obsession with an off-putting but charismatic professor, Dick. Told in Rashomon-style shifts of POV, I Love Dick charts the unraveling of a marriage, the awakening of an artist and the reluctant deification of a man named Dick." Topple Productions' Soloway and Andrea Sperling will executive produce for Amazon Studios with Gubbins as a co-executive producer. (Deadline.com)
JURY, THE (ABC/ABCS/Sony; W: Mark Bianculli & V.J. Boyd; D: Neil Burger) - Adina Porter ("The 100") has joined the cast of the drama pilot, which follows a single murder trial a season as seen through the eyes of the individual jurors, exploring the biases and experiences that influence the jurors' judgment, and how their preconceptions change along the way. She's on board as Angela, "a mother of three who works two jobs to support an unemployed husband battling clinical depression - and her kids who are living a comfortable middle-class life unaware that the family is massively in debt." (Deadline.com)
KICKER, THE (CBS/Universal; W: Jack Burditt; D: TBA) - Geoff Stults ("Enlisted") has signed on for the lead role in the multi-camera comedy pilot, about an oddball athlete who drives family, friends and strangers bonkers after he unexpectedly finds himself retired. He'll play said fellow, former NFL kicker Daryl Thorkelson. (Deadline.com)
LEGION (FX/FXP; W: Noah Hawley; D: TBA) - Newcomer Jeremie Harris has joined the cast of the Marvel Television drama pilot, which introduces the story of David Haller (Dan Stevens): Since he was a teenager, David has struggled with mental illness. Diagnosed as schizophrenic, David has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals for years. But after a strange encounter with a fellow patient, he's confronted with the possibility that the voices he hears and the visions he sees might be real. He'll play Ptonomy, "an outsider by nature, stand-offish and sardonic, who is a former child prodigy who feels trapped in the past." (THR.com)
ME & MEAN MARGARET (NBC/Universal; W: Adam Barr; D: James Burrows) - Actress Stockard Channing and director James Burrows have both signed onto the multi-camera comedy pilot, about a fiercely candid and often offensive legendary actress and the ambitious 27-year-old lawyer forced to babysit her. She'll play the former, Margaret. (Deadline.com)
MIDNIGHT, TEXAS (NBC/Universal; W: Monica Owusu-Breen; D: Niels Arden Oplev) - Arielle Kebbel ("Ballers") is the latest to be cast in the drama pilot, a small screen take on the three-book series by Charlaine Harris, about Midnight, Texas, where the real world and the supernatural collide in a dangerous, sexy, place full of dark secrets and mysterious people. She'll play Olivia, "a freelance hitwoman with a mysterious past who is a vital part of the community." (Deadline.com)
PEARL (ABC/ABCS; W: Andrew Reich; D: Jim Field Smith) - Zachary Knighton ("Weird Loners") is set to star opposite Candice Bergen in the single-camera comedy pilot, about a larger-than-life family matriarch who, after she finds out she has cancer, becomes intent on controlling and orchestrating every aspect of her family's life before she dies. He'll play her son, Billy. (Deadline.com)
RECON (FOX/WBT; W: Caroline Dries; D: TBA) - Sarita Choudhury and Karan Oberoi are the inaugural cast members of the drama pilot, about a rookie FBI agent embeds herself in a suspected terrorist family. Choudhury will play Farrah, "a successful businesswoman who struggles to balance work, family and the Five Pillars of Islam"; while Oberoi is set as Jared, "son of Farrah and her husband Omar. He's a charming bad boy and heir to his family's company with ambitions that don't align with his father's business plan." (Deadline.com)
SHOTS FIRED (FOX/20th; W: Gina Prince-Bythewood & Reggie Rock Bythewood; D: Gina Prince-Bythewood) - DeWanda Wise is the latest to be cast in the event series, that examines the dangerous aftermath of racially charged shootings in a small town in Tennessee. She'll play Shameeka Campbell, "who lives in 'the houses,' one of the worst parts of town. She opens up to the prosecutors about her son being killed by police and how they threatened to arrest her if she talked." (Deadline.com)
TRAIL, THE (NBC/WBT; W: Jeff Astrof & Matt Miller; D: Jeffrey Blitz) - Nick D'Agosto ("Gotham") has booked the lead role on the single-camera comedy pilot, a spoof of crime documentaries, about Josh Simon, a young big-city lawyer and his oddball defense team during a high-profile murder trial in a small southern town. He'll play the aforementioned Josh. "Sent from his big New York law firm to small town South Carolina to prep a rag-tag team in defending a poetry professor (John Lithgow) accused of murdering his wife, Josh Simon tries to keep his optimism while feeling a bit out of his element - both professionally and as the first "Northeasterner" many of the townspeople have seen." (Deadline.com)
UNTITLED KEVIN JAMES PROJECT (CBS/CTS/Sony; W: Bruce Helford, Kevin James & Rock Reuben; D: Andy Fickman) - Mary Charles Jones and James DiGiacomo have both scored roles on the Kevin James-led multi-camera comedy, about a newly retired police officer looking forward to spending more quality time with his wife and three kids only to discover he faces much tougher challenges at home than he ever did on the streets. She'll play Sara, "described as tough kid with some anger-management issues, but despite everything, she's quite likable"; while he's set as Jack, James' youngest son. (Deadline.com)
UNTITLED MCNEARNEY/OXFORD PROJECT (TV Land, New!) - Kelly Oxford and Molly McNearney are set to team for a new semi-autobiographical comedy at the cable channel which "revolves around the real-life best friends and their families." Said duo will co-write and co-star in the project, additional details of which were not released. (Deadline.com)
WHEN THE STREET LIGHTS GO ON (Hulu/Paramount; W: Chris Hutton & Eddie O'Keefe; D: Brett Morgen) - Odessa Young (Looking for Grace) is on track to star in the drama pilot, a coming-of-age thriller about a sleepy, suburban town that is rocked by the brutal murder of a high school girl and her teacher in the summer of 1983. She'd play 15-year old Becky Monroe, "an elusive teenage wallflower forced to come of age amid the shocking aftermath of her sister's tragic murder." (Deadline.com)
Y'ALL IN THE FAMILY (CBS/CTS; W: Stephnie Weir; D: TBA) - Nick Zano ("Minority Report") is the first to sign into the multi-camera comedy pilot, set in Texas and centering on a conservative, small town family who is forced to reconcile their family values when they discover their children's lives are less than perfect. He'll play Billy, "the baby, the golden child, a smart, handsome, war vet who maps a course for his life and follows it without deviation." (Deadline.com)
AND IN OTHER NEWS... - Comedy Central has ordered a final season of Andy Daly's "Review" with a minimum of three installments (THR.com); Kacey Rohl and Nimrat Kaur are among the latest faces bound for the new season of "Wayward Pines" (Deadline.com); Gail Mancuso has signed on to direct and executive produce ABC's comedy pilot "Toast" (Deadline.com); Joe Morton has been promoted to series regular on "Scandal" (THR.com); Costas Mandylor has been cast as Captain Silver on "Once Upon a Time" (ETOnline.com); and Jenna Fischer, Chris Klein and Caroline Rhea are all set to visit "The Grinder" later this season (EW.com).
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