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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!
BLACK-ISH (ABC, New!) - Anthony Anderson ("Guys with Kids") is set to star in a potential single-camera comedy at the Alphabet about "an upper-middle-class black man who struggles to raise his children with some sense of cultural identity despite constant contradictions and obstacles coming from his liberal wife, old-school father, and his own assimilated, color-blind kids." Kenya Barris ("The Game") will pen the project, which is loosely based on his personal experiences and has a penalty attached, for ABC Studios. Anderson, Barris, Laurence Fishburne, Helen Sugland, Tom Russo, Peter Principato, Paul Young and Brian Dobbins will also executive produce via their respective companies Cinema Gypsy Productions and Principato-Young Entertainment. (Deadline.com)
CHECKED OUT (Comedy Central, New!) - Craig DiGregorio ("Workaholics") has scored a pilot order from the cable channel for a new comedy about "two co-dependent, odd-couple cousins (Sean Clements and Dominic Dierkes) trying to manage a youth hostel without fully understanding youth, managing, hostels, or how people normally behave." Matt Villines and Oz Rodriguez ("Saturday Night Live") are also on board to direct the project with DiGregorio, Clements, Dierkes, Oly Obst and Greg Walter of 3 Arts Entertainment and Andrew O'Connor of Objective Media executive producing. Said group self-financed a pilot presentation - co-starring Billy Zane - that paved the way for the order from Comedy Central. (Deadline.com)
COLONY (The CW, New!) - Ian Goldberg ("Once Upon a Time") is developing a new drama at the netlet about "a group of explorers sent to colonize Mars, willing to leave their lives behind to brave the dangers of another planet, and the terrifying reality they discover." Said effort is inspired by the famed "lost" colony of Roanoke Island, "a 16th century British settlement whose inhabitants vanished without a trace, sparking a slew of theories about their fate." Robert Zotnowski and Frank Marshall are also on board to executive produce via their CBS Television Studios-based Kennedy/Marshall Co. (Deadline.com)
CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND (Showtime, New!) - Aline Brosh McKenna (We Bought a Zoo) and comedian Rachel Bloom have set up a half-hour comedy with musical elements at the pay channel about "a girl who upends her life to stalk an ex." CBS Television Studios is behind the project, which has a put pilot commitment. (Deadline.com)
DELIVERANCE CREEK (Lifetime/Warner Horizon; W: Melissa Carter; D: Jon Amiel) - Lauren Ambrose ("Torchwood: Miracle Day") has been tapped for the lead role on the post-Civil War backdoor pilot movie, about Belle Barlowe (Ambrose), "a mother of three who attempts to defend her family's land by any means necessary. When the corrupt bank that runs their town pushes Belle into becoming an outlaw, the stakes become personal, setting off a chain of events that force her to question whether it's better to be good or to survive." Christopher Backus also stars in the project, from Nicholas Sparks Productions. (TVLine.com)
THE EDGE (NBC, New!) - Chap Taylor (Changing Lanes) has set up a potential drama at the Peacock about "a skeptical female detective who teams with a Mexican shaman-turned-cop who uses his non-traditional skills to help solve high-profile crimes in Houston." Universal Television is behind the hour with Ian Sander and Kim Moses of Sander/Moses Productions executive producing alongside Taylor and Mark Roberts. (Deadline.com)
THE END (FOX, New!) - Feature writer Michael Cooney (Identity) and director Peter Horton ("Ironside") are set to team for a new drama about "Lauren Marks, who believes she is leading a perfect life - she has a loving husband, a perfect child, a rewarding career and close friends. However, overnight her life is ripped apart by one simple twist of fate: Lauren soon realizes that to uncover the truth, she must follow a trail of lies to The End." 20th Century Fox Television is behind the hour, which is based on Berkun Oya's Turkish series "Son." Ian Sander and Kim Moses of Sander/Moses Productions are executive producing alongside Cooney and Horton. (Deadline.com)
FARGO (FX/FX Productions/MGM; W: Noah Hawley; D: Adam Bernstein) - Kate Walsh, Joey King and Josh Close have all scored roles on the Billy Bob Thornton-led limited series, an adaptation of the classic Academy Award winning feature film of the same title by Joel & Ethan Coen. Walsh will play Gina, "a trophy wife-type and reluctant mother of twin sons"; with King as Greta, "the daughter of Colin Hanks's police deputy, a single father who comes face-to-face with a killer"; and Close as Ron, "the brother of Martin Freeman's small-town insurance salesman Lester Nygaard." (Deadline.com)
JIGSAW (CBS, New!) - Janine Sherman Barrois ("Criminal Minds") has sold a new drama to the Eye about "the intersecting lives of homicide detectives, prosecutors, defense attorneys, the Media and the Mayor's office as they work to solve the most scandalous crimes San Francisco has seen in decades." ABC Studios is behind the hour with Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage and Len Goldstein of the studio-based Fake Empire executive producing alongside Barrois. (Deadline.com)
MAIN STREET (ABC, New!) - Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein (The Vow) have sold a single-camera comedy to the Alphabet about "a group of friends who, facing the reality that making it in a big city is a dead-end proposition, move to the Mississippi Delta to try to make their dreams come true there." J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk are also on board to executive producer the half-hour via their Warner Bros. Television-based Bad Robot banner with Kathy Lingg as a co-executive producer. (Deadline.com)
THE MONEY (HBO; W: David Milch; D: Justin Chadwick) - Billy Magnussen, Rosemary Harris, Mamie Gummer, Ray Liotta, Ruth Negga, Morgan Spector, John Carroll Lynch and Tracee Chimo have all landed roles on the drama pilot, about wealth and corruption among the super elite, focusing on American mogul and patriarch James Castman (Brendan Gleeson), who wields power and influence to expand his media empire and control his family. Magnussen will play Greg Castman, "the middle, and favorite, child"; with Harris as Ellen Knox, "the sharp, fearless, and funny mother of James Castman's wife Ruth (Laila Robins)"; Gummer as Tricia Castman, "who comes from old New York money and is married to John Castman (Patrick Kennedy), James and Ruth's dutiful son and key lieutenant in Castman's empire"; Liotta as "wealthy, entitled, untouchable Wall Street tycoon George Archer"; Negga as Erin Foley, "the stylish, no-nonsense senior news editor who reports to John Castman"; Spector as "James Castman's trusted associate Sidney"; Lynch as Robert Harris, "the CFO of the parent company of Castman's many holdings"; and Chimo as private eye Jane Mulvaney, who works closely with Gordon McCarren (Nathan Lane)." Dominique McElligott, Andrea Riseborough and David Harewood also star. (Deadline.com)
PRESIDENT X (TNT, New!) - Nicholas Wootton ("Golden Boy") has set up a political thriller at the cable channel about "a former U.S. President who wakes up from a year-long coma and, now out of power, must hunt down the individual who tried to assassinate him." Warner Horizon Television is behind the hour with Berlanti Productions' Greg Berlanti and Melissa Kellner Berman as well as Scripted World's Alon Aranya and Rob Golenberg also on board as executive producers. Guy Nattiv and Erez Tadmor, who conceived the concept alongside Aranya, will also be consulting producers. (Deadline.com)
REMINGTON STEELE (NBC, New!) - Robert Butler and Michael Gleason's 1980s staple - about Laura Holt (Stephanie Zimbalist), "a licensed private detective who recruits a con man (Pierce Brosnan) to pose as her fictitious male superior Remington Steele at her detective agency - is being developed as a comedy at the Peacock. The next-generation reboot follows their daughter Olivia Holt as "she reopens the once-world-famous Remington Steele Detective Agency - only to fall into the same hilarious, action-packed, romantic entanglements of her parents." 20th Century Fox Television is behind the half-hour - which has a penalty attached - with Ruben Fleischer (Gangster Squad) attached to direct from a script by Jay Scherick and David Ronn (The Smurfs). (Deadline.com)
TRIAL OF THE CENTURY (FOX, New!) - Evan Katz ("24: Live Another Day") has received a script commitment - with a penalty attached - from the network for "a serialized legal thriller told from the POV of a young Latina attorney working on a unique high-profile case." Teakwood Lane's Howard Gordon and Olé's Bryan Furst, Sean Furst and Richard Shepard are also on board to executive produce the 20th Century Fox Television-based hour, the latter of which will direct if it moves forward to pilot. (Deadline.com)
UNTITLED AISHA MUHARRAR PROJECT (NBC, New!) - Aisha Muharrar ("Parks & Recreation") is developing a new comedy at the Peacock about "a gifted teen who aspires to be the next Oprah, but lacks the social skills and life experience, so she uses her family and friends as the reluctant case studies in her mission to solve everyone's problems, including her own." Ed Helms and Michael Falbo also serve as executive producers on the Universal Television-based half-hour via their Pacific Electric Picture Company banner. (Deadline.com)
UNTITLED LARRY DORF PROJECT (FOX, New!) - Melissa McCarthy, Ben Falcone and Larry Dorf are set to re-team for a potential single-camera comedy at the network about "two mismatched guys who become stepbrothers when their parents get married." Dorf will pen the half-hour and executive produce alongside real life husband and wife Falcone and McCarthy for Warner Bros. Television. (Deadline.com)
UNTITLED MATT SPICER PROJECT (FOX, New!) - Matt Spicer (It's Not You It's Me) has set up a potential comedy at the network about "a dysfunctional family, a 9-year-old golf prodigy, and the below-average father who's determined to make them all winners." 20th Century Fox Television is behind the half-hour with Jake Johnson and Max Winkler executive producing via their Walcott Co. banner and Josh Greenbaum serving as a co-executive producer. (Deadline.com)
UNTITLED RORY ALBANESE PROJECT (CBS, New!) - "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" showrunner Rory Albanese is set to depart the Comedy Central series, opting to sign a double blind script development deal with Warner Bros. Television. Said pact has already resulted in a multi-camera comedy at CBS about "a family-owned drug store, where the conservative father and liberal son are constantly battling over the future of the business - and the direction of the country." (Deadline.com)
AND IN OTHER NEWS... - Richard Belzer is departing "Law & Order: SVU" as a series regular after 15 seasons (HuffPo.com); Michael Malarkey will recur on "The Vampire Diaries" as "a charismatic but tortured figure from Damon's past who arrives in Mystic Falls desperate to reconnect with his old friend" (Deadline.com); Madeline Brewer is bound for "Hemlock Grove" as "a graphic novelist entering the town" (Deadline.com); Robert Forster and Lou Diamond Phillips will both visit "Ironside" as "Virgil's (Pablo Schreiber) father, an ex-detective and NYPD legend" and "the head of security for a prestigious New York City university who helps the crew track down a car bomber," respectively (TVGuide.com);
"Glee" and "American Horror Story" co-creator Brad Falchuk has inked a new three-year overall deal with producer 20th Century Fox Television (Deadline.com); Enver Gjokaj has booked an arc on "Witches of East End" as "a mysterious stranger and novelist who takes a strong interest in Ingrid (Rachel Boston), but his reasons for getting to know her go far beyond her work at the library" (TVGuide.com); Ashley Tisdale will guest on "The Crazy Ones" as an intern at the advertising firm (EOnline.com); and Food Network has commissioned 26 more episodes of "Mystery Diners" (THR.com).
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