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[02/22/16 - 11:48 PM]
Development Update: Monday, February 22
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!


APB (FOX/20th; W: David Slack; D: Len Wiseman) - Caitlin Stasey ("Reign") has boarded the drama pilot, about when a tech billionaire purchases a troubled police precinct in the wake of a loved one's murder, but can this eccentric and enigmatic figure's cutting edge approach fix the broken ways of these blue blooded veterans? She'll play Ada Hamilton, "the striking, fiercely intelligent, cynical, and tough head of the team of tech troubleshooters brought in by the billionaire taking over the police precinct." (Deadline.com)


CITIZEN (Hulu/Paramount; W: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, Josh Pate & Nicholas Schutt; D: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon) - Alex Gonzalez and Augusto Aguilera have both been cast in the drama pilot, billed as a fresh take on the hero origin story blending elements of magical realism and gritty vigilantism set against the backdrop of a vibrant, supernaturalized Los Angeles. Gonzalez will play Gabriel, "the drama's stoic hero who must reconcile a crushing guilt from a tragic past"; while Aguilera is set as Julio, "a small town dreamer in over his head in the deep waters of the Los Angeles underworld." (Deadline.com)


DEATH OF EVA SOFIA VALDEZ, THE (ABC/ABCS; W: Charise Castro Smith; D: TBA) - Raúl Castillo ("Looking") has joined the cast of the pilot, a sexy revenge drama with a supernatural twist about a Cuban-American family on the rise as they navigate multiple business ventures in Miami, familial rivalries and dark secrets from the past that come back to haunt them. He'll play Sebastian, "Eva Sofia's oldest son." (Deadline.com)


DREAM TEAM (ABC/WBT; W: Bill Wrubel & Kari Lizer; D: Marc Buckland) - Wynn Everett ("Marvel's Agent Carter") has been tapped for a role on the single-camera comedy pilot, about champion soccer coach Marty Schumacher (Justin Long), who now has to start from scratch with a diverse group of eight-year-olds and their disparate parents. She's set as Denise Johnson, "a stay-at-home supermom who's determined to see her youngest daughter, Tiffnee, realize her dream and potential as a great soccer player." (Deadline.com)


DUMB PRINCE (NBC/Universal; W: Charlie Grandy; D: Amy Poehler) - Tiya Sircar, Elizabeth Perkins and Kevin Nealon are the latest additions to the single-camera comedy pilot, about a reluctant Crown Prince's (Nico Evers-Swindell) attempt to run the family business his way, thereby throwing his highly publicized and dysfunctional family into chaos. Sircar is set as Maria, "the new maid in the royal household, described as smart, strong-willed and likable." Nealon and Perkins then will play his seemingly hapless father, King Adrian, and his wife, Queen Tuesday. (Deadline.com)


FREQUENCY (The CW/WBT; W: Jeremy Carver; D: TBA) - Peyton List and Mekhi Phifer are the latest additions to the feature-turned-drama pilot, which centers on Raimy, a female police detective in 2016 who discovers that she is able to speak via a ham radio with her estranged father, Frank Sullivan (Riley Smith), also a detective, who died in 1996. She'll play the aforementioned Raimy with Phifer as Lt. Satch DeLeon, "a veteran police officer who was a good friend of Frank's and who became a surrogate father to Raimy after Frank's death." Jim Caviezel and Andre Braugher originated the roles in the 2000 film. (Deadline.com, THR.com)


GREAT INDOORS, THE (CBS/CTS; W: Mike Gibbons; D: TBA) - Shaun Brown has scored a role on the multi-camera comedy pilot, about an adventure reporter (Joel McHale) who must adapt to the times when he becomes the boss to a group of millennials in the digital department of the magazine. He'll play Dwayne, "Joel's new colleague in the magazine's digital department, a hip and obnoxiously peppy urban outdoorsman who has actually spent zero time outside." (Deadline.com)


IMAGINARY FRIEND (ABC/Sony; W: Adam F. Goldberg, David Guarascio & Patrick Osborne; D: Shawn Levy) - Stephen Schneider ("You're the Worst") has booked a role on the comedy pilot, about a thirtysomething bachelorette whose life is turned upside-down when she finally meets the love of her life - a divorced father with three kids; this triggers even more upheaval when the slightly unhinged imaginary friend she created as an only child suddenly reappears in her life to help her navigate the transition from single girl to a woman ready for a family. He'll play Ben, "an attractive, adorable and quick-witted divorced dad of three who charmingly seduces the full-time bachelorette into falling in love with him." (Deadline.com)


INTERESTINGS, THE (Amazon/TriStar; W: Lyn Greene & Richard Levine; D: Mike Newell) - Jessica Paré ("Mad Men") is the latest to be cast in the drama pilot, based on Meg Wolitzer's bestselling book about a group of friends who meet at an arts camp when they're 15 in 1974 and their relationships throughout the next three decades. She's on board as Ash, "Ethan's wife, a successful theater director and philanthropist who's harboring a secret from her husband." (Deadline.com)


LEGION (FX/FXP; W: Noah Hawley; D: TBA) - Amber Midthunder is the latest to be cast in 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. She'll play Kerry, "a woman of action with a childlike sense of wonder. A true savant, Kerry has lived a sheltered, but never dull life." (Deadline.com)


MODEL WOMAN (ABC/TriStar; W: Helen Childress; D: Richard Shepard) - Dan Byrd ("Cougar Town") is the first to be cast in the drama pilot, set in the late 1970's during the notorious Model Wars and centers on Bertie Geiss, a tempestuous matriarch and uncompromising businesswoman at the helm of an internationally renowned modeling agency. He'll play Bertie's oldest son, Lonnie Geiss, "SVP of Geiss Agency, who makes the trains run on time but longs to prove himself in other ways, and wants to find the next new face." (Deadline.com)


NOTORIOUS (ABC/ABCS/Sony; W: Allie Hagan & Josh Berman; D: Michael Engler) - Aimee Teegarden ("Star-Crossed") is the latest addition to the drama pilot, which follows the professional and personal relationship between a charismatic attorney (Daniel Sunjata) and a powerhouse television producer as they attempt to control the media, the justice system, and ultimately - each other. She'll play Ella Benjamin, "book smart and seemingly confident but covering her vulnerability. She is the daughter of a convicted felon and became a lawyer to prove her father's innocence." (Deadline.com)


ONE DAY AT A TIME (Netflix/Sony; W: Gloria Calderon Kellett & Mike Royce; D: Pamela Fryman) - Justina Machado ("Queen of the South") has joined the cast of the streaming service's reimagining of the Norman Lear classic, centering on a Cuban-American family. She'll play Penelope, "a recently separated former military mom who is navigating a new single life while raising her radical teenaged daughter and socially adept tween son, with the "help" of her old school Cuban-born mom and a friends-without-benefits building manager named Schneider." Rita Moreno also stars as the grandmother. (Deadline.com)


POWERLESS (NBC/WBT; W: Ben Queen; D: Michael Patrick Jann) - Vanessa Hudgens ("Grease: Live!") is the first to be cast in the single-camera comedy, set at one of the worst insurance companies in America - with the twist being that it also takes place in the universe of DC Comics. She'll play Emily Locke, "an insurance claims adjuster who loves her job because she gets to help people and who likes to fly under the radar and just get her work done. She finds herself increasingly exasperated by the disruptive antics of the various Super Heroes that proliferate in her city." (Deadline.com)


RECON (FOX/WBT; W: Caroline Dries; D: TBA) - Tracy Spiridakos and Alexander Siddig are the latest additions to the drama pilot, about a rookie FBI agent embeds herself in a suspected terrorist family. She'll play the aforementioned Alexa, "a young, driven FBI analyst tasked with embedding herself in a suspected terrorist family." Siddig then plays her target Omar, "a father, husband and devout Muslim who has no idea the Feds have been tracking his every move." (Deadline.com)


SHOTS FIRED (FOX/20th; W: Gina Prince-Bythewood & Reggie Rock Bythewood; D: Gina Prince-Bythewood) - Conor Leslie and Manny Perez have signed onto the event series, that examines the dangerous aftermath of racially charged shootings in a small town in Tennessee. She'll play Sarah Ellis, "a government aide who works directly for Governor Eamons. Hard-working and a go-getter, Sarah wants to change the world and make money doing it." Perez then is set as James Ruiz, "who works at the Department of Justice." (Deadline.com)


SIX (History/A+E; W: David Broyles & William Broyles; D: Lesli Linka Glatter) - Nadine Velazquez and Brianne Davis have both been cast in the drama series, which follows a brotherhood of modern American warriors, Navy SEAL Team Six, the best of the best, whose 2014 mission to eliminate a Taliban leader in Afghanistan goes awry when they uncover a U.S. citizen working with the terrorists. Velazquez will play Jackie, "a strong military wife whose husband Ricky (Juan Pablo Raba) is considering retirement from the SEAL Team Six but is called upon for one last mission"; with Davis as Lena Graves, "John Graves' (Barry Sloane) wife and a hard-working teacher." (Deadline.com)


TAKEN (NBC/Universal; W: Alexander Cary; D: Alex Graves) - Clive Standen ("Vikings") has been tapped as the lead role in the Peacock's prequel to the Liam Neeson-led film franchise, about a retired CIA operative on a one-man mission to save his kidnapped daughter which would follow a young Bryan Mills before he marries and has a daughter. He'll play Bryan Mills, Neeson's character in the films. (Deadline.com)


TRANSYLVANIA (The CW/CTS; W: Hugh Sterbakov; D: Jason Ensler) - Laura Brent (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) has booked the female lead on the drama pilot, set in 1880 about a headstrong young woman in search of her missing father ventures from NYC to Transylvania where she teams up with a wrongfully disgraced Scotland Yard Detective, and together they witness the births of the most famous monsters and villains in history. She'll play said woman, Victoria. (Deadline.com)


UPPER MIDDLE BOGAN (CBS/ABCS/CTS; W: Dan O'Shannon, Robyn Butler & Wayne Hope; D: Todd Holland) - Swoosie Kurtz and John Carroll Lynch are the first to be cast in the single-camera comedy pilot, a domestic take on the Australian comedy about a wife and mother who learns she was adopted and that her birth parents are a flamboyant but loving family of drag-racers. She'll play Margaret, "Bess' (uncast) widowed mother who is revealed to have adopted her daughter"; while he's set as "Bess' biological father, Wayne." (THR.com)


AND IN OTHER NEWS... - Robert Eggers is spearheading a potential eight-hour mini-series about the life of Russian "mad monk" Grigori Rasputin from Media Rights Capital (Deadline.com); Allison Miller has joined the cast of Syfy's "Incorporated" as Laura, succeeding Georgina Haig (Deadline.com); Mark Feuerstein has signed onto FOX's "Prison Break" revival as Scott Ness, "the husband of Dr. Sara Tancredi, the character played by Sarah Wayne Callies on the original series" (Deadline.com); Julie Berman's Leia has been upped to regular on Hulu's "Casual" while Katie Aselton will recur as "a new therapist who takes the vacant office next to Valerie's" (Deadline.com); and Michael Raymond-James will return to "Once Upon a Time" as Neal Cassidy for its midseason premiere (TVLine.com).






  [february 2016]  
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· APB (FOX)
· CASUAL (HULU)
· CITIZEN (HULU)
· COUGAR TOWN (TBS)
· DEATH OF EVA SOFIA VALDEZ, THE (ABC)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· DREAM TEAM (ABC)
· DUMB PRINCE (NBC)
· FREQUENCY (CW)
· FURST BORN (CBS)
· GREASE: LIVE (FOX)
· GREAT INDOORS, THE (CBS)
· IMAGINARY MARY (ABC)
· INCORPORATED (SYFY)
· INTERESTINGS, THE (AMAZON)
· LEGION (FX)
· LOOKING (HBO)
· MAD MEN (AMC)
· MARVEL'S AGENT CARTER (ABC)
· MODEL WOMAN (ABC)
· NOTORIOUS (ABC)
· ONCE UPON A TIME (ABC)
· ONE DAY AT A TIME (POP)
· POWERLESS (NBC)
· PRISON BREAK (FOX)
· QUEEN OF THE SOUTH (USA)
· RECON (FOX)
· REIGN (CW)
· SHOTS FIRED (FOX)
· SIX (HISTORY)
· STAR-CROSSED (CW)
· TAKEN (NBC)
· TRANSYLVANIA (CW)
· VIKINGS (AMAZON)
· YOU'RE THE WORST (FXX)





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