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[09/13/19 - 11:33 PM]
Development Update: Friday, September 13
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!


BACKLASH (ABC, New!) - Lizzy Weiss has scored a put pilot commitment from the Alphabet for a new drama about "a working-class town after the high-profile rescue of a child. As the rescue workers and family are deluged with praise, suspicions begin to mount that the accident was something quite different than it seemed. Unpeeling the truth of what happened that day will uncover the town's many secrets and, in the process, explore hero worship, the media, celebrity culture and the lengths we will go to in order to be seen." Jon Harmon Feldman and Jennifer Gwartz will also executive produce via their ABC Studios-based Random Hill Productions. (Deadline.com)
BLUE BLOODS (CBS) - Dylan Walsh will recur on the show's landmark 10th season as "the newly-elected Mayor of New York. A pragmatic businessman who rose up through honest ingenuity and keen instincts, he took on the office as a means to "give back" to the City where he was raised in the disappearing middle-class and from which he launched his enormously successful career." (Deadline.com)
DANSON, FEY & CARLOCK SERIES (NBC) - Bobby Moynihan is set to star opposite Ted Danson on the comedy series, about a wealthy businessman who runs for mayor of Los Angeles for all the wrong reasons. Once he wins he has to figure out what he stands for, gain the respect of his staff, and connect with his teenage daughter, all while controlling the coyote population. He'll play Jayden, "the interim Director of Communications in the newly elected Mayor's office." (Deadline.com)
DICKINSON (Apple TV+) - Wiz Khalifa will recur on the Hailee Steinfeld-led series as Death, "an imaginary character who personifies a crucial theme found throughout Emily Dickinson's real works of poetry. Here, he is depicted as Emily's (Steinfeld) muse." (Variety.com)
EL GATO NEGRO (Apple TV+, New!) - Diego Boneta is attached to star in a new series at the streaming service from director Robert Rodriguez about "the intergenerational exploits of two crime-fighting heroes in South Texas. The first hero was a young man who takes up the mantle of a fabled local hero to avenge the death of his best friend while the other was his grandfather, a lucha (Mexican wrestler) who turned to crime-busting decades earlier." MGM Television is behind the project, which is based on comic book by Richard Dominguez. Eric Carrasco is presumably penning the script with Boneta and Rodriguez also executive producing via the former's Three Amigos banner. Joel Novoa will co-produce. (THR.com)
FILTHY RICH (FOX) - Aaron Lazar is the latest to be cast in the midseason drama. He'll play Reverend Paul Luke Thomas, "the beloved, popular, influential and ambitious minister at the Sunshine Network." He succeeds Steven Pasquale, "who had to drop out for personal reasons a week before start of production." Pasquale in turn replaced David Denman from the original pilot. (Deadline.com)
FOUNDATION (Apple TV+) - Executive producer David S. Goyer has signed a multi-year overall deal with Skydance Television. The pact makes the company the exclusive home to the output from Goyer's banner, Phantom Four Films. (Deadline.com)
FUN (CBS, New!) - "Ugly Betty" alums Becki Newton and Michael Urie are set to re-team for a multi-camera comedy at the Eye about "a brother and a sister, played by Urie and Newton, who always encourage each other to have fun - no matter what hardship life is currently serving up. FUN celebrates life - in spite of the fact that the family business is a funeral home." Michael Patrick King, Tracy Poust and Jon Kinnally are penning the half-hour for Warner Bros. Television and MPK Productions. Urie and Newton are producers. (Deadline.com)
ON POINTE (Disney+, New!) - The upcoming streaming service has commissioned a six-part documentary series about the School of American Ballet. The project "will follow a year in the life of students at the New York City school as they go through rigorous training, auditions and preparations for the New York City Ballet's annual performances of 'The Nutcracker.'" Imagine Documentaries' Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Justin Wilkes and Sara Bernstein as well as DCTV's Matthew O'Neill are the executive producers. Larissa Bills will produce and direct. (Variety.com)
PLAYERS BALL, THE (TBS, New!) - John Altschuler and David Krinsky are developing a new comedy at the cable channel which "tells the story of the incredible battle between the founder of Match.com and the con man who swindled him out of the website Sex.com, resulting in an all-out war for the control of love and sex on the internet." The project is based on David Kushner's novel, subtitled "A Genius, a Con Man, and the Secret History of the Internet's Rise," who will also executive prodcue alongside The Gotham Group's Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Eric Robinson, Jeremy Bell and D.J. Goldberg. (Variety.com)
SUPER DINOSAUR (Amazon, New!) - Robert Kirkman and Jason Howard's comic book-turned-animated series has found a U.S. home on the streaming service. The project "follows 10-year-old genius Derek Dynamo and his T-Rex best friend, Super Dinosaur, as they protect the planet against evil." The show's first 13 episodes will launch on October 6 with the other 13 presumably in 2020. Spin Master Entertainment, Atomic Cartoons, Skybound Entertainment and Corus Entertainment are co-producing while David Alpert, Robert Kirkman, Catherine Winder, Laura Clunie, Jennifer Dodge, Ronnen Harary, Kevin Burke and Chris "Doc" Wyatt are the executive producers. (Deadline.com)





  [september 2019]  
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· BACKLASH (ABC)
· BLUE BLOODS (CBS)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· DICKINSON (APPLE TV PLUS)
· EL GATO NEGRO (APPLE TV PLUS)
· FILTHY RICH (FOX)
· FOUNDATION (APPLE TV PLUS)
· FUN (CBS)
· MR. MAYOR (NBC)
· ON POINTE (DISNEY PLUS)
· PLAYERS BALL, THE (TBS)
· SUPER DINOSAUR (CANADA) (AMAZON)





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