ABC has handed 4 more hourlong pilot orders to Marc Cherry’s soap Devious Maids, Michael Green’s magical cop drama Gotham, Paul Scheuring’s Zero Hour and Melissa Rosenberg’s Penoza. Those are likely ABC’s last drama pilot orders this season.
Devious Maids is loosely based on the Mexican telenovela The Disorderly Maids Of The Neighborhood and centers on four Latina women who are maids in Beverly Hills. The original revolves around five housekeepers who work in a quiet residential condominium where nothing ever happens until a tenant mysteriously disappears, a suitcase full of money appears, along with a dead body, and the maids find themselves in the middle of it all. Paradigm-repped Desperate Housewives creator Cherry wrote the script and is exec producing the pilot with his Cherry/Wind Prods partner Sabrina Wind as well as John Mass, Larry Shuman and David Lonner. ABC Studios is the studio.
Michael Green’s Gotham, from 20th Century Fox TV, centers on a female cop who, after pursuing a seemingly unsolvable case, discovers a magical world that exists within New York City. Kings creator and The River showrunner Green, repped by WME, is executive producing with his manager, 3 Arts’ Erwin Stoff. This is the second pilot with magical elements ordered by ABC this season following the success of fairytale drama series Once Upon A Time. Earlier this month, the network picked up a Beauty and The Beast reboot.
Scheuring’s Zero Hour, through ABC Studios, centers on a man who, in a bizarre twist of fate, is pulled into one of the most compelling conspiracies in human history after spending 20 years as the editor of a skeptics magazine. Lorenzo DiBonaventura and Dan McDermott are executive producing with Prison Break creator Scheuring.
Rosenberg’s Penoza, also from ABC Studios, is based on the Dutch format. It centers on the widow of an assassinated criminal who is forced to adopt her husband’s role in a crime syndicate in order to protect her family. Endemol Studios, Alon Aranya and Howard Klein are attached to executive produce with UTA-repped Rosenberg, writer on the blockbuster Twilight movie franchise .Penoza was originally created by Pieter Bart Korthuis for Endemol’s NL Film & TV and producer Alain de Levita. The series is now in its second season on KRO in the Netherlands.
