BADLANDS (HBO, New!) - Ron Fitzgerald ("Last Resort") and Rolin Jones ("Smash") have sold a new drama to the pay channel about "the challenges and joys of love and family, as well as the struggles of living in the blue-collar mining town of Tar River, Wyoming, that's fighting for its life during this economic hardship." Sony Pictures Television-based MiddKid Productions is behind the hour with the company's Shawn Ryan and Marney Hochman presumably executive producing alongside said duo. (Deadline.com)
GIANT BABY (TV Land) - Michael Richards ("Seinfeld") and Gilles Marini ("Switched at Birth") have both landed roles on the comedy pilot, about Madison "Maddie" Banks (Kirstie Alley), a Broadway star who finds her life turned upside down when Arlo (Eric Petersen), the son she gave up for adoption 26 years ago, turns up looking to connect after his adopted mother has died. Richards will play Maddie's limo driver with Marini guest starring as her chef. Rhea Perlman also stars in the half-hour, from creator Marco Pennette. (Deadline.com)
HIT (TNT, New!) - Actor Jamie Foxx ("The Jamie Foxx Show") and writer Robert Port ("NUMB3RS") are set to team for a new drama about "two former high school football teammates and best friends - one a QB, one a WR - who years later are 'drafted' by the Miami P.D. and assigned to HIT (High Impact Team)." They'll co-write the potential hour and executive produce alongside Foxx's producing partner Jaime King. (Deadline.com)
IRONSIDE (NBC, New!) - Screenwriter Michael Caleo ("Malavita") and director David Semel ("Person of Interest") are set to team for a potential revival of Raymond Burr-led 1967-1975 series of the same name, about "a San Francisco police detective who's forced to find new ways of fighting crime after being paralyzed by a gunshot." Universal Television will presumably produce the new incarnation. (Vulture.com)
LEGENDS (TNT) - Sean Bean ("Missing") has booked the lead role on the drama pilot, about a deep-cover operative named Martin Odum, who has an uncanny ability to transform himself into a different person for each job. He'll take over for Brendan Fraser, who bowed out of the project last month. Alexander Cary, Howard Gordon, Jeffrey Nachmanoff and Jonathan Levin are all behind the Fox 21-based hour, which is based on a book by master spy novelist Robert Littell. David Semel is directing. (Deadline.com)
RIGHTS OF BILL (AMC, New!) - Alex Winter and Steven Pearl have sold a new drama to the cable channel about "a Sheriff who forms his own militia in Wisconsin, becoming both the law and an outlaw simultaneously." No other details were given about the project. (Deadline.com)
UNDEREMPLOYED (MTV) - The cable channel has quietly bumped the scripted drama to Saturday nights at 8:00/7:00c. The newcomer posted a series low 342,000 viewers this past Tuesday and a 0.2 rating among adults 18-49. Said numbers are well short of its already modest premiere numbers from October 16 - 654,000 viewers and a 0.3 adults 18-49 rating. (@InbarLavi)
ROOKIE (ABC, New!) - Andy Bobrow ("Community") has booked a single-camera comedy at the Alphabet about "a twentysomething woman who tries to reinvent herself by becoming a cop, and finds a surrogate family amongst the disparate group of police she works with." Said half-hour comes from the Sony Pictures Television-based Olive Bridge Entertainment with the company's Will Gluck and Richie Schwartz serving as executive producer and co-executive producer, respectively. Scott Zabielski ("Tosh.0") is also attached as a consulting producer. (Deadline.com)
SHE GOT PROBLEMS (ABC, New!) - Alison McDonald ("Nurse Jackie") has landed a potential comedy at the Alphabet based on her short film of the same name about "the life of an African-American writer who escapes her romance and career problems with a world of musical fantasy." ABC Studios is behind the half-hour, which McDonald will write and serve as a supervising producer. (Variety.com)
BLACK SAILS (Starz) - Mark Ryan is the latest to board the upcoming drama, a pirate adventure centering on the tales of Captain Flint and his men, 20 years prior to Robert Louis Stevenson's classic "Treasure Island." He'll play Gates, Captain Flint's (Toby Stephens) right-hand man, in the project, which also stars Clara Paget, Hakeem Kae Kazim, Hannah New, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Luke Arnold, Toby Schmitz, Tom Hopper and Zack McGowan. Jon Steinberg and Robert Levine are behind the project, which is set up at Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes banner. (Deadline.com)
I HUNT KILLERS (ABC Family, New!) - Arika Mittman ("Dexter") is developing a small screen take on Barry Lyga's young-adult novel of the same name, about "the teenage son of an imprisoned notorious serial killer, a likable boy who becomes a suspect after a string of copy-cat murders." Said effort is set up at Warner Horizon Television with Silver Pictures' Joel Silver executive producing. Mittman will pen the script and serve as a co-executive producer with Lyga himself on board as a consultant. (Deadline.com)
INSTANT MOM (Nickelodeon) - Michael Boatman has boarded the comedy pilot, which stars Tia Mowry as a 25-year-old party girl who trades in Cosmos for carpools when she marries an older man with kids. He'll take over for Duane Martin as said fellow, successful doctor Charlie, following today's table read. Sheryl Lee Ralph, Sydney Park, Tylen Williams and Damarr Calhoun and also star in the half-hour, from co-creators Warren Bell and Jessica Butler as well as executive producer Aaron Kaplan of Kapital Entertainment. (Deadline.com)
KISSING OUTSIDE THE LINES (NBC, New!) - Diane Farr's memoir is being developed as a comedy at the Peacock. The single-camera project, set inside a Venice Beach bar, will revolve around "an Italian girl and a Korean guy who fall in love in California despite their parents, who will do anything to stop their relationship." Farr herself will pen the half-hour and executive produce alongside Warren Hutcherson ("Reed Between the Lines"). No studio was indicated. (THR.com)
POWER (Starz, New!) - Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson is developing a potential drama at the pay channel about a New York nightclub owner who "skirts the line between legitimacy and criminality." Courtney Kemp Agboh ("The Good Wife") is set to pen the CBS Television Studios-based hour and will executive produce alongside Jackson, Mark Canton ("300") and Randall Emmett ("End of Watch"). (Variety.com)
ROMEO KILLER: THE CHRIS PORCO STORY (Lifetime, New!) - Matt Barr, Eric McCormack, Emily Bett Rickards and Lolita Davidovich are set to star in the cable channel's latest docudrama, inspired by the true story of Christopher Porco, "who was convicted of killing his father and attempting to murder his mother." Barr will play the title role with Davidovich as his mother; McCormack as a local police detective; and Rickards as "a young love interest of the accused killer who had maintained his innocence." Norma Bailey is directing from a script by Edithe Swensen with Steve Solomos, Harvey Kahn, Michael Jaffe of Michael Jaffe Films and Ilene Kahn Power of Kahn-Powers Pictures as the executive producers. (Deadline.com)
UNTITLED MOLLY RINGWALD PROJECT (Lifetime, New!) - Molly Ringwald ("The Secret Life of the American Teenager") is developing a potential drama at the cable channel about "a woman who returns to her hometown with two kids and confronts the social issues of her past, including the mean girls of her high school days." No other auspices were given about the project, which Ringwald will star in and executive produce. (Variety.com)
AMAZON (The CW) - The netlet has hired casting directors Barbara Fiorentino and Danielle Aufiero to begin the search for the titular role, which is based on the DC Comics heroine Wonder Woman. Allan Heinberg is behind the Warner Bros. Television-based hour, which envisions Diana as a Tarzan-esque fish-out-of-water, chronicling the superhero's life as a young Amazonian, before she becomes a warrior princess with super powers. Adrianne Palicki previously played said role in David E. Kelley's much-ballyhooed incarnation at NBC, which didn't move forward. (Deadline.com)
FAIRY TALE THEATER: 18 AND OVER (FX, New!) - J. Michael Feldman's comedic stage show - which "features puppets in satirical, twisted fables that center on contemporary topics like sex, relationships and finances" - is being eyed as a potential comedy at the cable channel. Feldman (MTV's "The Inbetweeners") will pen the project and executive produce alongside Billy Crystal. (Variety.com)
KINGPIN (Cinemax, New!) - Newcomer Chad St. John has sold a potential drama to the pay channel about "a crafty and careful mid-level drug trafficker trying to get out of the business only to be blackmailed back into it by a dirty DEA agent." Overbrook Entertainment is behind the hour with Viruna Arend and the company's James Lassiter also among the executive producers. (Deadline.com)
PAPER (HBO, New!) - Jake Halpern's New Yorker essay - about "a notorious ex-gangster and single father in Buffalo, N.Y., who is trying to reform himself by also serving as a professional debt collector" - is being developed as a drama at the pay channel. Plan B Entertainment's Dede Gardner and Brad Pitt are executive producing the project, to be penned and co-executive produced by Wells Tower. (Variety.com)
RUBĂ (FOX, New!) - Screenwriter Lisa Loomer ("Girl, Interrupted") is developing a domestic take on the 2004 telenovela of the same name, about "a beautiful but poor woman who will do anything to make her dream a reality and become rich, even giving up the greatest love of her life." 20th Century Fox Television and Televisa USA are behind the hour, which Loomer and Michael Garcia will executive produce. (Deadline.com)
SLATY FORK (FOX, New!) - David Holstein ("Weeds") has booked a potential single-camera comedy at the network about "the relationship between a young female cop and her dad, the former police chief, as well as other local police and volunteer firefighters in an offbeat resort town." Said half-hour is set up at 20th Century Fox Television and FishBowl Worldwide Media with the latter's Vin Di Bona, Bruce Gersh, Susan Levison and Shaleen Desai executive producing and creator Holstein serving as a co-executive producer. (Deadline.com)
WATCHLIST (FOX, New!) - Chad St. John likewise has set up a drama at FOX about "two ex-clandestine Special Ops teammates who sacrifice their normal lives to come to the rescue of a third former teammate who is framed by a powerful CIA faction for a political assassination." Overbrook Entertainment likewise is behind the hour with John presumably executive producing alongside Will Smith and James Lassiter. (Deadline.com)
SPARTACUS (Starz) - Todd Lasance's Gaius Julius Caesar, the chief antagonist of the show's upcoming final season, is being eyed for a potential spin-off at the cable channel. Executive producer Robert Tapert is spearheading the effort, which would track the young Caesar who has yet to begin his ascent toward ruling the Roman state. "Spartacus" creator Steven S. DeKnight likely won't be involved in the project as he's busy with the sci-fi drama "Incursion," also at the network. (Deadline.com)
