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[03/01/16 - 11:41 PM]
Development Update: Tuesday, March 1
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) - Taylor Handley ("Vegas") has been tapped for a role on 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? He's set as Officer Roderick Brandt, "a Marine combat veteran-turned-cop who sometimes has difficulty making the distinction between the urban streets and the battlefield." (Deadline.com)

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (TNT, New!) - Luc Besson and Bill Wheeler have sold a new drama to the cable channel about "an artificial intelligence that escapes from a laboratory and begins carrying out its own mysterious agenda, prompting the AI's creator to assemble a team of specialists to deal with the situation." Matthew Gross, Edouard de Vesinne and Thomas Anargyros also serve as executive producers for EuropaCorp TV USA. (Deadline.com)

BLACK 22S, THE (National Geographic Channel, New!) - Paul Guyot ("The Librarians") has sold a potential drama to the cable channel "based on the true story of a brilliant African-American detective and one of America's first all-black police squads in St. Louis, Missouri. Battling the gangland killers of Prohibition and set up to fail by their own bosses, they fought for justice during one of the most racially charged times in history, in a city that to this day is a flashpoint for racism and police brutality." David Oyelowo, John Rogers and Jennifer Court of Kung Fu Monkey Productions will also executive produce the project, which has a significant penalty attached, as will director Bharat Nalluri. (Deadline.com)

BRAND, THE (Showtime, New!) - José Padilha and Alessandro Camon are set to team for a new 10-episode limited series at the pay channel which "tells the epic tale of the rise of prison gangs, particularly the Aryan Brotherhood, in the 1970s and 1980s, when mass incarceration resulting from the war on drugs caused the prison population to explode." The project is inspired by the 2004 New Yorker article by author David Grann. Anthony Mastromauro of Identity Films will also executive produce alongside said duo with Padilha directing. (Deadline.com)

CHANCE (Hulu/Fox 21; W: Alexandra Cunningham & Kem Nunn; D: Lenny Abrahamson) - Greta Lee ("Wayward Pines") has boarded the 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. She'll play "Chance's assistant, Lucy, a former studio artist and present psychology major." (Deadline.com)

COLONY (The CW/CTS; W: Doris Egan; D: TBA) - Peter Mark Kendall ("The Americans") has been cast in the drama pilot, a thriller which follows a team of explorers who arrive on Mars to join the first human colony on the planet, only to discover that their predecessors have vanished. He'll play Mason Rose, "a member of the explorer team." (Deadline.com)

CRUEL INTENTIONS (NBC/Sony; W: Jordan Ross, Lindsey Rosin & Roger Kumble; D: Roger Kumble) - Kate Levering ("Drop Dead Diva") has snagged a role on the drama pilot, a small screen revival of the 1999 cult feature about Bash Casey (Taylor John Smith), the son of Sebastian Valmont and Annette Hargrove, who is introduced to a world of sex, money, power and corruption he never could have imagined after discovering his late father's legacy in a hidden journal. She'll play the aforementioned Annette Hargrove, a role originated by Reese Witherspoon in the film. (Deadline.com)

DESIGNATED SURVIVOR (ABC/ABCS; W: David Guggenheim; D: Paul McGuigan) - LaMonica Garrett ("The Last Ship") is the latest to be cast in the Kiefer Sutherland-led drama, about Tom Kirkman, a lower level United States Cabinet member who is suddenly appointed President after a catastrophic attack during the State of the Union kills everyone above him in the Presidential line of succession. He'll play James Ritter, "Kirkman's Secret Service officer, charged with protecting the Kirkman family in the wake of the unprecedented bombing." (Deadline.com)

ENFORCERS, THE (FOX/WBT; W: Ellen Kreamer & Sherry Bilsing-Graham; D: Gail Mancuso) - Matt Oberg ("The Comedians") has boarded the single-camera comedy pilot, about M.J. (Niecy Nash) and Nora (Christine 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. He's set as Sweet Pete, "a bit of an emotional roller coaster, he's the PR guy in the office whose job is to inform the public in a cheerful way that things like a drought could be the end of mankind. He's also the right-hand man to George (Ian Gomez), a job he takes quite seriously." (Deadline.com)

FREQUENCY (The CW/WBT; W: Jeremy Carver; D: TBA) - Anthony Ruivivar ("Banshee") has boarded the feature-turned-drama pilot, which centers on Raimy (Peyton List), 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. He's set as Stan Hope, "an NYPD plainclothes detective who is Frank's handler with the NYPD, who calls the shots on Frank's day-to-day undercover operation." (Deadline.com)

GODLESS (Netflix, New!) - Steven Soderbergh and Scott Frank (Out of Sight) are set to re-team for a new limited period drama series for the streaming service, "a Western set in an 1800s New Mexico mining town." Frank will write and direct as well as executive produce alongside Soderbergh and Casey Silver. (Deadline.com)

INFAMOUS, THE (A&E/A+E; W: Joshua Zetumer; D: Anthony Hemingway) - Jahmil French ("The Divide") has scored a role on the pilot, a drama set against real events in turbulent 1990s Los Angeles leading up to the LA Riots, and centers on two complicated men on a collision course: an ambitious reformed gangster poised to break out of South Central and the LAPD detective hell-bent on taking him down. He'll play Luke Ward, "a 17-year-old rapper from South Central LA who's torn between a life in music and a life in a gang." (Deadline.com)

LEGION (FX/FXP; W: Noah Hawley; D: TBA) - Katie Aselton ("The League") is the latest addition to 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. Aselton will play the Type A Amy. (Deadline.com)

MODEL WOMAN (ABC/TriStar; W: Helen Childress; D: Richard Shepard) - Newcomer Madeline Blake has been 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. She'll play Gemma, "a model from a small town who becomes the new it girl." (THR.com)

SEBASTIAN (NBC/CTS; W: Austen Earl; D: Scott Ellis) - Steve Talley ("Hindsight") has been cast in the multi-camera comedy pilot, which chronicles comedian Sebastian Maniscalco's old-school values, instilled by his opinionated Italian father, which are constantly put to the test by his new wife, her family, and the absurdities of the modern world. He'll play Trevor, "Chloe's husband, an attractive, charming and cocky frat guy who comes from a similar background as Sebastian - the difference is, while Sebastian would never take handouts from Lana's family, Trevor takes every single one." (Deadline.com)

SECOND FATTEST HOUSEWIFE IN WESTPORT, THE (ABC/ABCS; W: Sarah Dunn; D: Ruben Fleischer) - Newcomer Carly Hughes has scored a role on the single-camera comedy pilot, about Katie (Katy Mixon), a (slightly) larger wife and mother raising her flawed family of three in a wealthy town filled with perfect wives and their perfect offspring. She will play Angela, "a hip, brutally honest woman who is going through a messy divorce." (Deadline.com)

SUPERIOR DONUTS (CBS/CTS; W: Bob Daily, Garrett Donovan & Neil Goldman; D: James Burrows) - Brian d'Arcy James (Spotlight) has scored a lead role on the multi-camera comedy pilot, which follows the relationship between Arthur, the owner of a donut shop; Franco (Jermaine Fowler), his new young employee; and their patrons in a gentrifying neighborhood of Chicago. He'll play the aforementioned Arthur in the project, which also stars Maz Jobrani. (Deadline.com)

TAKEN (NBC/Universal; W: Alexander Cary; D: Alex Graves) - Gaius Charles, Monique Gabriela Curnen and James Landry Hebert have all signed onto 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 (Clive Standen) before he marries and has a daughter. Charles will play John, "a member of Bryan's OPCON (Operational Control) team, an elite unit of operatives who take care of America's national security emergencies on the ground"; with Curnen as Vlasik, "an integral member of OPCON"; and Hebert as Casey, "another OPCON operative who takes it all very seriously and is wound a bit tight." (Deadline.com)

WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND (CBS/WBT; W: Dan Kopelman; D: Tim Story) - Jason Lee ("Memphis Beat") has been tapped for the lead role on the single-camera comedy pilot, about two fortysomething parents who were wild and reckless teenagers now face their worst nightmare - raising three teenagers of their own. He'll play said father, Kenny, the "owner of a hip music management company." (Deadline.com)

WHEN THE STREET LIGHTS GO ON (Hulu/Paramount; W: Chris Hutton & Eddie O'Keefe; D: Brett Morgen) - Max Burkholder ("Parenthood") has signed onto 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. He'll presumably play one of the lead roles, Charlie Chambers, the narrator; or Casper Tatum, the accused murder. (Deadline.com)

WING PERSON (ABC/ABCS; W: Ed Weeks & Hannah Mackay; D: Leslye Headland) - Andy Ridings ("Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt") has booked the male lead on the single-camera comedy pilot, about the co-dependent relationship between Hilda, a lesbian lothario, and Randall, her cautious, straight male best friend. He'll play the latter. (Deadline.com)

AND IN OTHER NEWS... - Nicole Scherzinger has been cast as Penny, Johnny's (Cole Prattes) dance partner, in ABC's "Dirty Dancing" remake (Deadline.com); Josh Salatin and Alyssa Diaz have joined the cast "Zoo" for its second season (Deadline.com); and Universal Cable Productions is developing "The Von Bülow Affair," "a scripted true-crime series based on the book by William Wright about the infamous attempted-murder trial of British socialite Claus von Bülow" (Deadline.com).




  [march 2016]  
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· AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE (ABC)
· AMERICANS, THE (FX)
· APB (FOX)
· ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (TNT)
· BANSHEE (CINEMAX)
· BLACK 22S, THE (NGC)
· BRAND, THE (SHOWTIME)
· CHANCE (HULU)
· COLONY (CW)
· COMEDIANS, THE (FX)
· CRUEL INTENTIONS (NBC)
· DESIGNATED SURVIVOR (NETFLIX)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· DIRTY DANCING (ABC)
· DIVIDE, THE (WE)
· DROP DEAD DIVA (LIFETIME)
· ENFORCERS, THE (FOX)
· FREQUENCY (CW)
· GODLESS (NETFLIX)
· HINDSIGHT (VH1)
· INFAMOUS, THE (A AND E)
· LAST SHIP, THE (TNT)
· LEAGUE, THE (FXX)
· LEGION (FX)
· LIBRARIANS, THE (TNT)
· MEMPHIS BEAT (TNT)
· MODEL WOMAN (ABC)
· PARENTHOOD (NBC)
· RANDALL & HILDA ARE NOT A COUPLE (ABC)
· SEBASTIAN (NBC)
· SUPERIOR DONUTS (CBS)
· TAKEN (NBC)
· UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT (NETFLIX)
· VEGAS (CBS)
· WAYWARD PINES (FOX)
· WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND (CBS)
· WHEN THE STREET LIGHTS GO ON (HULU)
· ZOO (CBS)




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