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woensdag 3 oktober 2012

Development Update: The 3rd of October

DOES SOMEONE HAVE TO GO? (A.K.A. SOMEONE'S GOTTA GO) (FOX) - Endemol USA is on track to land a four-episode order for a new reality series in which "a dysfunctional company will task employees with deciding whether to dismiss one of their own." Said effort is a reworked version of the 2009 pilot "Someone's Gotta Go." Among the changes: "the decision whether to fire the company's perceived weakest link is optional, and the businesses are merely 'dysfunctional' rather than economically suffering." No other details were given. (EW.com)

DRESS TO KILL (ABC, New!) - Jessica Sharzer ("American Horror Story") has snagged a put pilot commitment for a new drama described as "an erotic thriller/soap set in the New York fashion world with whodunit mystery at the heart of it." 20th Century Fox Television-based Imagine Television is behind the hour with the company's Brian Grazer and Francie Calfo executive producing alongside Sharzer. (Deadline.com)

FARGO (FX) - The cable channel has a closed a deal to develop Joel and Ethan Coen's 1996 Oscar-nominated film as a TV series. Noah Hawley ("My Generation") is set to pen the adaptation, about "a pregnant Minnesota police chief (Frances McDormand in the film) who follows the trail of two bumbling criminals (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) hired by a car salesman (William H. Macy) to kidnap his wife." MGM Television and FX Productions are behind the hour with the Coens, Hawley and Warren Littlefield executive producing. Edie Falco previously toplined a 1997 pilot for CBS based on the film, from director Kathy Bates and writers Bruce Paltrow and Robert Palm. (Deadline.com)

GOLDEN GUYS (FOX, New!) - TV icon Garry Marshall ("Happy Days") is returning to the small screen with a new multi-camera comedy about "a down-on his-luck guy who was once wealthy but gets caught in a scam and now must move back in with his family." Said half-hour was conceived alongside his son Scott Marshall with Prospect Park's Paul Frank, Jeff Kwatinetz and Josh Barry also executive producing for 20th Century Fox Television. (TVGuide.com)

THE HEART SPEAKS (ABC, New!) - Mimi Guarneri's memoir - about a female cardiologist who experiences a fall from grace - is being developed as a drama at the Alphabet. Yahlin Chang ("Pan Am") is on board to pen the hour, which is set up at Sony Pictures Television. She'll executive produce alongside Fishbowl Worldwide Media's Vin Di Bona, Bruce Gersh and Susan Levison as well as Ellen Stiefler. Guarneri herself will also serve as a consultant. (Variety.com)

MISS MOST LIKELY (ABC, New!) - Mandy Moore ("The Family Trap") is back in business with the Alphabet for a new comedy about a 28-year-old (Moore) who runs away from home to the big city so she can finally start the life she's always wanted only to find her family has decided to run away with her. Rich Appel is penning the half-hour, which has a penalty attached, for 20th Century Fox Television with 21 Laps-Adelstein's Shawn Levy, Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements executive producing alongside Moore and Appel. (Deadline.com)

EDISON (NBC, New!) - Daniel C. Connolly ("Longmire") has booked a period drama at the Peacock about a fictionalized version of famed inventor Thomas Alva Edison in 1880s Manhattan where he serves as "a secret consultant to the under-trained and under-equipped New York Police force." Sony Pictures Television is behind the hour with John Shiban and Gran Via Productions' Mark Johnson and Melissa Bernstein also serving as executive producers. (Deadline.com)

FAMILY AFFAIR (NBC, New!) - Sara Goodman ("Gossip Girl") has received a put pilot order from the network for a potential drama about "two families in a small Connecticut town who are thrown together when an accident claims the lives of a mother and father who were having an affair." Warner Bros. Television-based Berlanti Television is behind the hour with Greg Berlanti executive producing alongside Goodman and Melissa Kellner Berman serving as a co-executive producer. (THR.com)

NAPA (NBC, New!) - Tom Donaghy ("The Whole Truth") has snagged a put pilot commitment from the Peacock for a new drama billed as a modern day take on Emily Bronte's novel "Wuthering Heights." The 1847 tome "centers on the all-encompassing, passionate, but ultimately doomed love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and the people around them." No other details were given about the new incarnation, which will be set in California's Napa Valley. Warner Bros. Television-based Berlanti Television is behind the hour with Donaghy and Greg Berlanti serving as executive producers and Melissa Kellner Berman as a co-executive producer. (THR.com)

SOLVE FOR X (CBS, New!) - "The L Word" creator Ilene Chaiken has sold a potential drama to the Eye about "a young game developer at a social gaming company in San Francisco who agrees to consult for an anti-crime task force." CBS Television Studios is behind the hour with The Tannenbaum Company's Eric and Kim Tannenbaum executive producing alongside Chaiken. (THR.com)

TROUPE STARS (ABC, New!) - 5 Streams Global Entertainment has booked an eight-episode order from the Alphabet billed as "a military singing reality show where current and former soldiers will show off their performance skills." No auspices were given for the project, which has been given the blessing of the U.S. military however the government is not involved in the series. (EW.com)

UNTITLED ANDREW MILLER PROJECT (FOX, New!) - Andrew Miller ("The Secret Circle") has sold a potential drama set in the world of Texas ranches and rodeos to the network described as "a soap exploring two families on either side of the American dream and their fight for love, respect and glory." 20th Century Fox Television is behind the hour with Miller writing and executive producing alongside Ruben Fleischer ("Gangster Squad"). (THR.com)

UNTITLED HOLLY SORENSEN PROJECT (ABC, New!) - "Make It or Break It" creator Holly Sorensen has sold a new drama to the Alphabet about "three very average girls who break into New York's beauty industry with a product that holds a wicked secret." Sorensen conceived the hour alongside Irish actress Victoria Smurfit and will pen the script for the ABC Studios-based The Mark Gordon Company. Gordon, Sorensen and Nick Pepper are the executive producers. (Deadline.com)

UNTITLED MATTHEW MILLER PROJECT (ABC, New!)
- "Chuck" alum Matthew Miller has set up a potential drama at the Alphabet about "two bright young lawyers who struggle to enter a depleted job market [and] are left with no other choice but to work for an ambulance chaser whose smiling, mustachioed face is regularly advertised on public buses." He'll write and executive produce the Warner Bros. Television-based hour with Fake Empire's Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage and Len Goldstein also serving as executive producers. (THR.com)

WITCHES OF EAST END (Lifetime) - Nicholas Gonzalez ("Off the Map") has joined the cast of the drama pilot, about a mother (Julia Ormond) and her two adult daughters (Jenna Dewan, Rachel Boston) - 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. He'll play Matthew, "a good-natured local cop who is dating a ditzy co-worker of Ingrid's (Boston) [who] becomes very busy at work when a series of murders and strange deaths bedevil his previously placid township." Killian Gardiner and Patrick Heusinger also star in the Fox 21-based hour, from writer Maggie Friedman and based on the book by Melissa de la Cruz. (Deadline.com)

WRONGFUL DEATH (ABC, New!)
- Donald Todd ("Hart of Dixie") has sold a new drama to the Alphabet about "a former cop-turned-felon-turned Tampa insurance adjuster reluctantly teams with an energetic but unpolished millennial at a private investigation firm to investigate wrongful deaths." Warner Bros. Television-based Fake Empire is behind the project, which has a penalty attached. Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage and Len Goldstein then will executive produce alongside Todd. (THR.com)

DASH FOR CASH (A&E, New!) - "The Amazing Race" executive producers Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri have snagged a pilot order from the cable channel for a new competition series in which two couples compete against each other in a variety of challenges for a shot at $50,000. The show - which involves traveling from small town to small town around the country - would be close-ended, with new contestants each week. No other details were given. (TVGuide.com)

FAMILY TREE (HBO) - Christopher Guest mainstays Fred Willard, Michael McKean and Ed Begley Jr. have all landed roles on the filmmaker's upcoming series for the pay channel, about the recently unemployed and single Tom Chadwick (Chris O'Dowd) who looks into his ancestry after suffering an identity crisis. Begley will play Tom's Uncle Andy with Willard as Andy's neighbor, Mike, and McKean as Tom's father, Keith. Also on board is Don Lake as a friend of Tom's cousin. Guest himself and fellow executive producer Jim Piddock also star in the series, from Lucky Giant Productions and NBCUniversal International Television. (THR.com)

FEYNMAN AND THE CHALLENGER (Science) - Oscar-winner William Hurt ("Kiss of the Spider Woman") is set to star in the network's docudrama, about one American physicist's determination to reveal the truth behind the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster. He'll play said fellow, Richard Feynman, in the project, which James Hawes is directing from a script by Kate Gartside. The film will be executive produced by Mark Hedgecoe for BBC Scotland and Cassian Harrison for the BBC. Production begins next month for a 2013 broadcast premiere on BBC2 and Science. (THR.com)

THE ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT (NBC, New!) - Patrick Harbinson ("Person of Interest") has booked a small screen take on Jeffrey Archer's 1998 novel about Connor Fitzgerald, "who has been leading a secret life as the CIA's most deadly assassin when he decides to pull back to spend more time with his wife and family. But his worlds are about to collide when he is set up by someone within the CIA for an assassination he didn't commit." Universal Cable Productions, Valhalla Entertainment and New Franchise Media are behind the hour, with Gale Anne Hurd and Jeffrey Steiner executive producing alongside Harbinson. (Deadline.com)

MOTOR CITY SHAKEDOWN (CBS, New!) - "Medium" creator Glenn Gordon Caron has landed a new drama at the Eye about "ambitious rookie defense lawyer Issabella Bright, who lands her first big case but is forced to team up with Darren Fletcher, a hardened and reckless lawyer who's fallen from success and now runs his practice out of a booth in a bar." Said effort is based on Jonathan Wakins's book of the same name. Richard Shepard, Sean Furst and Bryan Furst are also on board to executive produce the CBS Television Studios-based hour via their Olé banner with Caron writing and executive producing through his Picturemaker Productions. (Deadline.com)

NEAR DEAD (CBS, New!) - Glenn Gordon Caron ("Medium") has likewise sold a second hour to the Eye about an NYPD detective who "experiences a near-death experience and may have witnessed his wife's murder while 'under' [and] re-enters the force with a new perspective on how to close those cases he wrote off as unsolvable; all the while pursuing answers to who may have killed his wife and why." Caron will write and executive produce via his CBS Television Studios-based Picturemaker Productions with Ridley Scott and David W. Zucker of Scott Free Productions also serving as executive producing. (Deadline.com)

ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK (Netflix) - Kate Mulgrew ("Star Trek: Voyager") has joined the cast of the Jenji Kohan-produced drama, about "an engaged Brooklynite (Taylor Schilling) whose decade-old relationship with a drug-runner (Laura Prepon) in college results in her arrest and multi-year detention in a federal penitentiary." She'll play Red, "a Russian prisoner who runs the kitchen and serves as a mother figurehead for the women." Jason Biggs and Yael Stone also star in the Lionsgate Television-based hour, which is based on the book by Piper Kerman. (Deadline.com)

PAGING DR. FREED (USA) - Justina Machado ("Three Rivers") has scored a role on the comedy pilot, about two gynecologist brothers (Kyle Howard, 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. She'll play "the no-nonsense office manager and gatekeeper at the practice who acts as the brothers' tough-loving figure at the workplace." Annie Potts, Dorian Missick and Leslie Grossman also star in the Fox 21-based project, which Marc Buckland is directing from a script by Michael Feldman. (Deadline.com)

SECRET LIVES OF HUSBANDS AND WIVES (NBC) - Nicole Ari Parker ("The Deep End") has joined the cast of the drama pilot, based on Josie Brown's book about "a murder and the secrets and lies within a tightly woven group of three suburban couples and their families exposed in its aftermath." She'll play Paula, "a tough and strikingly beautiful trophy wife who, after 12 years of a troubled marriage, questions whether to stay with her husband because of love or respect... all while having no idea that he is financially ruined." Perrey Reeves also stars in the project, from the Warner Bros. Television-based Jerry Bruckheimer Television, director Mark Pellington and writer Sascha Penn. (Deadline.com)

SECRET LIVES OF WIVES (Lifetime) - Amber Clayton ("Three Rivers") has joined Salli Richardson-Whitfield on the drama pilot, about the unvarnished truth behind the marriages of four different women, breaking down the creative ways each close friend nurtures, maintains and endures what many see as an impossible convention of modern life. She'll play Keaton, "an aspiring fashion designer who was a virgin until she married the love of her life." Jill Gordon penned the Warner Horizon Television-based hour, which is inspired by Iris Krasnow's book of the same name. (Variety.com)

THE SWAMP (NBC, New!) - Tom Brady (MTV's "Good Vibes") has sold a single-camera comedy to the Peacock about "a scramble-style college marching band and its unlikeliest of mentors" in musically rich New Orleans. Werner Entertainment's Tom Werner and Mike Clements will executive produce the half-hour alongside Brady for Warner Bros. Television. (Deadline.com)

THIS THING CALLED LOVE (NBC, New!) - Marc Buckland ("Grimm") has sold a new dramedy to the Peacock described as "a comedic documentary that explores the minutiae of modern relationships through the eyes of several very disparate couples." He'll write, direct and executive produce the potential hour for Universal Television, home to his recently signed overall deal. (Deadline.com)

UNTITLED DAVID SHORE/PETER TOLAN PROJECT (FOX, New!) - David Shore ("House") and Peter Tolan ("Rescue Me") have teamed for a potential new drama at the network about Mike and John, "who believe they are the best partners the Boston Police Department has ever seen despite one of them getting fired and replaced by a young female cop with issues of her own." Sony Pictures Television, home to their respective overall deals, is behind the hour, which has a penalty attached. Shore and Tolan then will executive produce alongside Michael Wimer, the latter's producing partner at Fedora Entertainment. (Deadline.com)

UNTITLED LAGRAVENESE & GOLDWYN PROJECT (AMC) - Seth Gilliam ("Teen Wolf") has scored a role on the drama pilot, about a District Attorney (Damon Gupton) who uncovers new evidence that prompts the reinvestigation of a sensational murder case. He'll play his younger brother, a handsome uniformed cop. Aunjanue Ellis, Joe Anderson, Marin Ireland and Paul Schneider also star in the AMC Studios-based hour, from director Tony Goldwyn and writer Richard LaGravenese. (Deadline.com)

UNTITLED EVAN KATZ/CHRIS MORGAN PROJECT (ABC, New!) - Evan Katz ("Body of Proof") is set to team with feature writer Chris Morgan ("Fast Five") for a potential drama at the Alphabet about "a former army special forces team who are betrayed, and decide to become thieves, in order to go after the people who are responsible for the deaths of their friends." ABC Studios-based Temple Hill Entertainment is behind the hour with the company's Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey executive producing alongside Katz and Morgan. (Deadline.com)

YOUR MEDICAL MIND (CBS, New!) - Neal Baer ("A Gifted Man") and "Reaper" creators Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters have sold a potential drama to the Eye inspired by husband and wife doctors Jerome Groopman and Pamela Hartzband's book about "how their unique approaches to medicine - and different ways of dealing with tough ethical issues - lead them to examine the state of their own marriage." CBS Television Studios is behind the hour with James Mangold and Cathy Konrad also on board to executive produce via their Treeline Film banner. Fazekas and Butters will pen the teleplay off a story they conceived with Baer. Groopman's previous book "The Measure of Our Days" served as the basis for ABC's short-lived drama "Gideon's Crossing" starring Andre Braugher. (Deadline.com)