BATES MOTEL (A&E) - Oscar-nominee Vera Farmiga ("Up in the Air") is the first to be cast in the upcoming drama, a contemporary exploration of the formative years of Norman Bates, relationship with his mother, Norma, and the world they inhabit. She'll play said matriarch, described "as passionate, and compelling, a smart, multidimensional character who is always capable of surprising us." Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin are behind the Universal Television-based hour, which was ordered directly to series last month. (Deadline.com)
BETRAYAL (ABC, New!) - David Zabel ("Detroit 1-8-7") is looking to import the Dutch series "Overspel," about "an unhappily married woman who begins a torrid affair with the lawyer for a powerful family. When he turns out to be the legal counsel for a murder suspect who is being prosecuted by her husband, the affair and the case begin a spiraling series of betrayals with cataclysmic results for everyone involved." Rob Golenberg and Alon Aranya ("Red Widow") are also on board to executive produce the hour, which is set up at ABC Studios. (Deadline.com)
THE FARM (NBC) - Veteran character actor Tom Bower is the latest addition to the proposed "The Office" spin-off, which has Dwight (Rainn Wilson) living at the Schrute family beet farm/bed and breakfast. He'll play his great uncle Heinrich Manheim, "who is charming, greedy, manipulative... and may have had to spend time in Argentina following World War II, thanks to his German National Socialist roots." Majandra Delfino, Thomas Middleditch and Matt Jones co-star in the Universal Television-based project, from co-creators Wilson and Paul Lieberstein. (Deadline.com)
HOW TO ROCK (Nickelodeon) - Co-creator David M. Israel has posted to his Tumblr account that the freshman comedy won't be returning for a second season. "Nickelodeon has decided, unfortunately, not to give How To Rock a second season," he wrote. "I know this news will be very disappointing for many of you. Believe me, it's disappointing for me, too." The first of its six remaining episodes will air on Saturday, September 22 ("How To Rock a Singing Telegram") culminating in the finale on Saturday, December 8 ("How To Rock Christmas"). (Tumblr.com)
UNTITLED INGRID HAAS PROJECT (NBC, New!) - Ingrid Haas ("Scott Pilgrim vs. the World") is set to star in a semi-autobiographical comedy at the network in which "Ingrid's parents come to visit her in Los Angeles, she accidentally breaks up their marriage, forcing Ingrid's dad, Wayne, to move in with her and her roommate in their Melrose Place-style apartment building." Haas herself will pen the half-hour with Brad Wollack, Chelsea Handler and Tom Brunelle of Borderline Amazing Productions also executive producing for Universal Television. (Deadline.com)
FRIENDS WITH BETTER LIVES (CBS, New!) - Dana Klein ("Kath & Kim") has sold a potential comedy - with a penalty attached - to the Eye about "a group of 35-year-old friends who each think that the other has it better." The multi-camera project - which will have some single-camera elements - is set up at 20th Century Fox Television with Kapital Entertainment's Aaron Kaplan executive producing alongside Klein. (Deadline.com)
INTELLIGENCE (CBS, New!) - Michael Seitzman ("North Country") has booked a potential hour at the Eye, about "a man gifted and cursed with a top-secret experimental microchip implanted in his brain that makes him computer-like in the way he sees and processes information." The drama, from ABC Studios, is based on the unpublished book "Dissident" by John Dixon. Tripp Vinson ("Red Dawn") will also executive produce alongside Seitzman. (Deadline.com)
A KNIGHT'S TALE (ABC, New!) - Brian Helgeland's 2001 feature - about a peasant squire (played by the late Heath Ledger) who creates a new identity for himself as a knight after his master dies - is being developed as a TV series at the Alphabet. Ronald D. Moore ("Battlestar Galactica") is spearheading the adaptation, which like the film will incorporate modern music into its 14th century romantic adventure. Sony Pictures Television, where Moore's Tall Ship Productions is based, is behind the hour with Helgeland, Maril Davis and Todd Black executive producing alongside Moore. (Deadline.com)
KNOCK, KNOCK (ABC, New!) - Kevin Napier (FOX's "The Station") has sold a single-camera comedy to the Alphabet about Mitch Fuller, "an A-list actor who realizes he's losing touch with reality and his family, and moves back to the same building he grew up in in New York, where his parents still live." Ben Stiller, Stuart Cornfeld and Debbie Liebling are also on board to executive produce the project via their Red Hour Television banner for ABC Studios. (Deadline.com)
LIVE FROM OUR LIVING ROOM (FOX, New!) - "'Til Death" creators Cathy Yuspa and Josh Goldsmith are back in business with the network for "a re-imagining of the domestic family multi-cam sitcom shot and aired live every week." 20th Century Fox Television is behind the half-hour, which has a penalty attached and the duo will write and executive produce. (Deadline.com)
MIDDLE AGE RAGE (ABC, New!) - Cheryl Holliday ("Mike & Molly") has sold a single-camera comedy to the Alphabet about "what happens when a middle-aged wife and mother is fed up with feeling invisible and begins to speak up and demand the respect she feels she's earned." Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television and ABC Studios are behind the half-hour, which Holliday will write and executive produce alongside Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey. (Deadline.com)
MUST BE NICE (FOX, New!) - J.J. Philbin ("New Girl") has booked a new comedy at the network which "explores the generation gap between two women who are only 7 years apart when a single, chaotic, 27 year-old moves in with her more responsible, 34-year-old, married sister." The presumably single-camera project is set up at the 20th Century Fox Television-based Chernin Entertainment with the company's Peter Chernin and Katherine Pope executive producing alongside Philbin as well as Zooey Deschanel, Sophia Rossi and Molly McAleer via their Hello Giggles banner. (Deadline.com)
THE NOTORIOUS MOLLIE FLOWERS (ABC, New!) - Adam Resnick (FOX's "Cop House") has booked a potential half-hour at the Alphabet about Cape May, New Jersey's "sweetest, cutest, most selfless do-gooder" who is falsely accused of a crime and - after being exonerated - "decides it's time to start focusing on her own needs for once, much to the dismay of everyone around her." ABC Studios is behind the single-camera project with Red Hour Television's Ben Stiller, Stuart Cornfeld and Debbie Liebling also among the executive producers. (Deadline.com)
OXYGEN (The CW, New!) - Meredith Averill ("The Good Wife") has sold a potential drama to the netlet about the prejudices and competing agendas that arise from a high school pilot program, "the first attempt to integrate a group of humanoid aliens stranded on earth who until now have been living in forced segregation." Space Floor Television's Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec and Scott Rosenberg as well as Olé's Richard Shepard, Sean Furst and Bryan Furst are on board to executive produce the hour, which is based on a Spanish format from Isla Producciones and Powwow Media Partners. The aforementioned group then will all executive produce alongside Averill and Daniel Gutman for CBS Television Studios. (Deadline.com)
SUPER FUN NIGHT (ABC) - John Riggi ("30 Rock") has signed on to supervise the network's single-camera take on Rebel Wilson's multi-camera comedy for CBS this past development cycle, about three nerdy female friends on a quest to have super fun every Friday night. Wilson penned the Warner Bros. Television-based half-hour - directed by Mark Cendrowski - and starred alongside Edi Patterson and Jenny Slate. It's understood the latter roles will be recast while Riggi succeeds original showrunners Ted Cohen and Andrew Reich. Conan O'Brien, Jeff Ross and David Kissinger however will remain as executive producers - via their Conaco banner - with Wilson as a co-executive producer. (Deadline.com)
UNTITLED ALEC SULKIN/WELLESLEY WILD PROJECT (FOX, New!) - "Ted" co-writers Alec Sulkin, Wellesley Wild and Seth MacFarlane are set to reteam for a multi-camera comedy at the network about "two successful guys in their 30s who have their lives turned upside down when their nightmare dads unexpectedly move in with them." Sulkin and Wild will pen the 20th Century Fox Television-based half-hour, which has a put pilot commitment, as well as executive produce alongside MacFarlane. (Deadline.com)
UNTITLED ALFONSO CUARON/MARK FRIEDMAN PROJECT (NBC, New!) - Oscar-nominee Alfonso Cuarón ("Children of Men") and "The Forgotten" creator Mark Friedman are set to team for a new drama at the Peacock about "a girl in possession of a great gift/powers - which will come into their own in seven years - and the man who is sprung from prison to protect her from those trying to hunt her down." The project, from the Warner Bros. Television-based Bad Robot Productions, has a pilot production commitment with Cuarón directing from a script he co-wrote with Friedman. Said duo will likewise executive produce alongside J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk with Kathy Lingg serving as a co-executive producer. (Deadline.com)
BLACK SAILS (Starz) - Neil Marshall ("Game of Thrones") is set to direct the debut installment of the Michael Bay-produced 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 work from a script by Jon Steinberg and Robert Levine who are executive producing alongside Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller. Eight episodes have been ordered for a 2014 premiere on the pay channel. (Deadline.com)
GATES (NBC, New!) - "'Til Death" co-creators Cathy Yuspa and Josh Goldsmith have snagged a pilot order from the Peacock for a domestic take on the British comedy about "the parents, the school staff and the 15-minute social minefield they have to navigate at the beginning and end of each school day." The single-camera project comes from 20th Century Fox Television with Kapital Entertainment's Aaron Kaplan and Feelgood Fiction's Laurence Bowen and Philip Clarke serving as executive producers alongside the duo. (Deadline.com)
I'M NOT DEAD YET (TV Land) - Rachel G. Fox ("Melissa & Joey") has joined the cast of the single-camera comedy pilot, about Sandy Lazarus (Ben Falcone), a driving instructor who, after learning he has a potentially fatal heart condition, decides to start speaking his mind and grab life by the horns. She'll play his daughter Melanie Lazarus, "a goth-looking 13-year-old who was recently betrayed by a best friend." Missi Pyle and Elliott Gould also star in the half-hour, from Ben Silverman's Electus banner and creator Jon Sherman. (Variety.com)
UNTITLED JOSS WHEDON PROJECT (ABC) - Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen ("Spartacus: Gods of the Arena") have been tapped to co-write Joss Whedon's proposed drama from Marvel Television and ABC Studios. Said hour, which has been greenlit to produce a pilot, will follow the small screen adventures of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, better known as S.H.I.E.L.D. Jeffrey Bell and Jeph Loeb are also on board to executive produce with Joss Whedon attached to direct should his schedule permit. (Deadline.com)
GIRLS WITH GUNS (Showtime, New!) - "The Good Wife" creators Robert and Michelle King have booked a new drama at the pay channel about "two Los Angeles sisters whose family moves to the one place in the world where women are drafted into the military - Israel." CBS Television Studios, where the duo is based, is producing. Ridley Scott and David W. Zucker of Scott Free Productions will also executive produce alongside the Kings. (Deadline.com)
THE MAKEOVER (ABC, New!) - Julia Stiles ("Dexter") and David Walton ("Bent") are set to topline the latest Hallmark Hall of Fame original at the Alphabet, billed as a modern twist on George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion." She'll play Hannah Higgins, a professor who, after an unsuccessful bid for Congress, recruits the sincere yet unpolished Elliott Doolittle (Walton) to run in her place during the next election. John Gray is directing the project with Brent Shields serving as an executive producer. (Variety.com)
THE SECOND COMING OF ROB (CBS, New!) - Newly anointed "The Big Bang Theory" series regular Kevin Sussman and recurring player John Ross Bowie have sold a potential multi-camera comedy to the Eye about "a recent divorcee looking for a do-over on his twenties when he reunites with his college buddies after seven years of marital 'incarceration.'" Said half-hour, which is loosely based on Bowie's life, comes from Sony Pictures Television with the duo writing and serving as co-executive producers. Principato-Young Entertainment's Peter Principato, Paul Young and Joel Zadak then will executive produce with Sussman's manager Jill McGrath receiving a producer credit. (Deadline.com)
UNTITLED BARBARA HALL PROJECT (CBS, New!) - "Joan of Arcadia" creator Barbara Hall is back in business with the network, landing a script order for a new drama about "three generations of empowered women who all live together under one roof." She'll write and executive produce for CBS Television Studios with Ridley Scott and David W. Zucker of Scott Free Productions also executive producing. (Deadline.com)
UNTITLED MIRANDA LAMBERT PROJECT (NBC) - Miranda Lambert's proposed private investigator drama has found a new home at the Peacock. Chad Hodge ("The Playboy Club") will spearhead said incarnation, "inspired by Lambert's experience growing up and centers on a couple who run a highly successful detective agency while also trying to raise two teenagers." He'll take over for Scott Kaufer, who was attached as part of its original sale to ABC Family. Lambert, Marion Kraft and Kapital Entertainment's Aaron Kaplan are also among the executive producers with Lambert's mother, Beverly June Lambert, serving as a consultant. (Deadline.com)
AT EASE (NBC, New!) - Josh Bycel and Jonathan Fener ("Happy Endings") have landed a put pilot commitment from the Peacock for a new documentary-style comedy about the "the relationships, jobs, bosses and social lives of a group of young people who happen to live and work on an active military base in the middle of a desert country that is just coming out of a war." Warner Bros. Television-based Jerry Bruckheimer Television is behind the single-camera project, with Bruckheimer and Jonathan Littman executive producing alongside the duo. KristieAnne Reed will serve as a co-executive producer with Dan Conley, Aaron Hendricks and Martie Cook as consulting producers. (Deadline.com)
BATES MOTEL (A&E) - Olivia Cooke and Nicola Peltz have both landed roles on the upcoming drama, a contemporary exploration of the formative years of Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore), relationship with his mother, Norma (Vera Farmiga), and the world they inhabit. Peltz will play Bradley Kenner, "a girl Norman takes a liking to at school who's described as bright and effortlessly sexy with a depth that makes her seem older than she really is," while Cooke is set as "the eccentric and extremely bright Emma, who has a disease that could take her life early and gives her a sense of adventure and that time is of the essence." Max Thieriot also stars in the Universal Television-based hour, from executive producers Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin. (Deadline.com, THR.com)
CHOSEN (ABC, New!) - Screenwriter John August ("Frankenweenie") has sold a potential drama to the Alphabet which "explores how a family's life is upended when their 15-year-old daughter is identified as the reincarnated prophet of a mysterious South American religion." He'll write and executive produce the 20th Century Fox Television-based project, which has a penalty attached, alongside Josh Friedman ("Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles"). (Deadline.com)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE (HBO, New!) - Emmy-winner James Gandolfini ("The Sopranos"), Oscar-winner Steven Zaillian ("Schindler's List") and Oscar-nominee Richard Price ("The Color of Money") are set to team for a domestic take on Peter Moffat's U.K. series, which followed the journey of an individual through the justice system over the course of its five-episode season. Zaillian will helm the project, which has a pilot order, from a script by he co-wrote with Price. Gandolfini then will play Jack Stone, "a disheveled jailhouse lawyer wearing cheap suits and sandals, who trolls for clients at police precincts" with Rizwan Ahmed as his client, Naz, an American-born Pakistani. Also cast are Bill Camp as the lead detective on the case with Peyman Moadi and Poorna Jagannathan as Naz's parents. Executive producing are Gandolfini (Attaboy), Zaillian (Film Rites), Price, Moffat, Jane Tranter, Nancy Sanders and Mark Armstrong are executive producing for BBC Worldwide Productions with Garrett Basch serving as a producer. (Deadline.com)
DEREK (Netflix, New!) - The distributor has acquired Ricky Gervais's new series for the U.K.'s Channel 4, "a bittersweet one-off comedy drama about a group of outsiders living on society's margins." Gervais stars as the title character - a naively simple man who works in a nursing home - as well as wrote, directed and executive produced the pilot. Also starring are Kerry Godliman as his colleague and friend Hannah; Karl Pilkington as caretaker/bus driver Dougie; and David Earl as Derek's friend Kev who does not work in the home. Channel 4 aired the pilot back in April and subsequently commissioned the series, due sometime next year. (NYTimes.com)
GASLIGHT (ABC, New!) - Feature writer Michael Cooney ("Identity") has scored a script order from the Alphabet for a potential drama "set in a present-day Steampunk World in which three rival families battle for power and redemption in a re-imagined San Francisco." ABC Studios and Sander Moses Productions are behind the hour with the latter's Ian Sander and Kim Moses executive producing alongside Cooney. (Deadline.com)
LEGENDS (TNT) - David Semel ("Person of Interest") is on track to direct 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. Howard Gordon, Jeffrey Nachmanoff, Alexander Cary and Jonathan Levin are executive producing the Fox 21-based hour, which is based on the book by Robert Littell. (Deadline.com)
MIDNIGHT, MASS (NBC) - The Peacock is taking a second stab at bringing John Rozum's comic book - about married occult experts Adam and Julia Kadmon as they deal with supernatural cases around America - to the small screen. Evan Daugherty ("Snow White and the Huntsman") is set to pen the adaptation, taking over for Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts, who penned the previous 2009 take. Warner Bros. Television and Gerber Pictures are behind the hour with Bill Gerber serving as an executive producer and Daugherty co-executive producer. Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks, who executive produced the aforementioned incarnation, are no longer attached. (Deadline.com)
MY INAPPROPRIATE LIFE (FOX, New!) - "Chelsea Lately" mainstay Heather McDonald is set to star in a potential comedy at the network based on her upcoming book of the same name. Dava Savel ("So Random!") will co-write the single-camera project alongside co-executive producer McDonald, which will track her life as a working mom with "parents who live next door; a stay-at-home husband who doesn't give an inch; a sister who keeps asking for one of her eggs; and a group of neighborhood moms who stopped talking to her when she took her kids to a stripper pool party in Vegas." Warner Bros Television is behind the half-hour with Savel, Werner Entertainment's Tom Werner and Mike Clements and Borderline Amazing's Chelsea Handler and Tom Brunelle also among the executive producers. (Deadline.com)
PAGING DR. FREED (USA) - Dorian Missick ("Southland") has scored a role on the comedy pilot, about two gynecologist brothers - David (Kyle Howard) and Jonathan (Joel David Moore) - who inherit their father's thriving medical practice after he suffers a heart attack during an attempt at "playing" doctor with his young secretary. He'll recur as "an anesthesiologist and friend of the Freed brothers who attended medical school with David." Annie Potts and Leslie Grossman also star in the Fox 21-based project, from director Marc Buckland and writer Michael Feldman. (Deadline.com)
RECKLESS (CBS, New!) - "What About Brian" creator Dana Stevens has landed a potential drama at the Eye "set in Charleston where sex and crime walk hand in hand as two adversaries, a gorgeous Yankee litigator and a Southern city attorney, struggle to hide their attraction while clashing over a police sex scandal that threatens to implode the city." CBS Television Studios is behind the hour with Ian Sander and Kim Moses of Sander Moses Productions also serving as executive producers. (Deadline.com)
RESTLESS VIRGINS (Lifetime, New!) - Vanessa Marano ("Switched at Birth") and Charlie Carver ("Desperate Housewives") are set to star in a small screen take on Abigail Jones and Marissa Miley's book of the same name, about a sex scandal which rocked venerable Massachusetts prep school Milton Academy during the 2004-05 school year. Marano plays "a scholarship student and the editor of the school newspaper who exposes a sex tape made by the senior hockey players that blows the lid off the controversy"; while Carver is set as "one of the students embroiled in the scandal - a wealthy and calculating senator's son." Jason LaPeyre is directing from a script by Andrew Cochran with production slated to begin in Vancouver next month. (Deadline.com)
THE WHITE QUEEN (Starz) - Tom McKay ("Hatfields & McCoys") has joined the cast of the 10-episode period drama, the thrilling story of the women caught up in the ongoing conflict for the throne in 1464 England. He'll play Jasper Tudor, "who schemes with Margaret Beaufort (Amanda Hale) to make her son Henry the future king." Said effort, from director James Kent and writer Emma Frost, is based on Philippa Gregory's trilogy "The Cousins War." Rebecca Ferguson, Amanda Hale and Faye Marsay co-star as Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret Beaufort and Anne Neville, respectively. (Variety.com)
WITCHES OF EAST END (Lifetime) - Rachel Boston and Killian Gardiner have both boarded the drama pilot, about a mother (Julia Ormond) and her two adult daughters (Boston, Jenna Dewan) - both of whom unknowingly are their family's next generation of witches - who lead seemingly quiet, uneventful modern day lives in Long Island's secluded seaside town of North Hampton. Boston will play eldest sister Ingrid with Ditomasso as Freya's (Dewan) future brother-in-law. Patrick Heusinger also stars in the Fox 21-based hour, from Maggie Friedman. (TVLine.com)
