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[10/14/11 - 10:55 PM]
Development Update: Friday, October 14
By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC)

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!


THE AMERICANS (FX, New!) - Joe Weisberg ("Falling Skies") has set up "a Russian espionage drama set in the 1980s during the collapse of the Soviet Union" at the cable channel. Said hour, which "centers on Russian sleepers operating in the United States," comes from DreamWorks Television with the company's Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey executive producing alongside the ever-busy Graham Yost. (THR.com)


ANGELA'S BACHELORS (ABC, New!) - The ever-busy Peter Tolan has landed a put pilot order at the Alphabet for a new single-camera comedy about "a well-educated and proper top chef who, following a very public embarrassment at her new restaurant in New York City, moves to Boston to start over and winds up working as the cook for the men in a local firehouse, elevating the tastes and lives of the rough and tumble crew as they knock her down a few pegs and reintroduce her to her humanity." Said half-hour, which is set up at Sony Pictures Television, is based on Brian O'Reilly's book "Angelina's Bachelors: A Novel With Food." Fedora Entertainment's Michael Wimer and Robin Schorr and Jenna Glazier of RCR Pictures will also executive produce alongside Tolan. (Deadline.com)


BUNKER (FX, New!) - Novelist Dennis Lehane ("Shutter Island") has booked a potential drama at the cable channel about "a female cop psychologist from Boston." Chernin Entertainment and Fox Television Studios are co-producing the hour with the former's Peter Chernin and Katherine Pope executive producing alongside Lehane. (THR.com)


THE HEIRESS (ABC, New!) - Executive-turned-screenwriter Jennifer Robinson has booked a potential drama at the Alphabet "inspired by a true story of Huguette Clark, who upon her death, left behind a $100 million dollar, fully-staffed estate in Santa Barbara, which she hadn't visited in decades." Robinson will write and executive produce the hour for the Sony Pictures Television-based One-Two Punch Productions and its principals Maria Grasso and Deborah Spera. (Deadline.com)


LAREDO (FX, New!) - Newcomer Eric Lodal has snagged a script order for a new "crime drama set at the Texas/Mexico border." He'll write and executive produce the hour alongside William Broyles ("Flags of Our Fathers") for FX Productions and Fox Television Studios. (THR.com)


RIDING ROCKETS (NBC, New!) - Peter Elkoff ("Gossip Girl") has snagged a script order from the Peacock for a new drama "inspired by Mike Mullane's memoir and tells his coming-of-age story of being an astronaut in the first class of NASA's Space Shuttle program." Said hour, which is set up at Maria Grasso and Deborah Spera's Sony Pictures Television-based One-Two Punch Productions, will tackle "the rocky integration of women into NASA's ranks, the fallout of the Challenger disaster and the growing frustration with government bureaucracy, all through Mike's eyes." (Deadline.com)


SCAR TISSUE (FX) - Anthony Kiedis's drama, loosely based on his autobiography of the same name, is now being developed at FX following a nearly three-year gestation at HBO. Kiedis, Jason Weinberg and Catapult 360's Mike Benson and Marc Abrams will continue as executive producers on the hour, which is now set up at FX Productions. John Sayles, who penned the HBO incarnation, however won't continue on with the FX take. (THR.com)


TREASURE ISLAND (NBC, New!) - John Glenn ("Eagle Eye") has sold a new drama to the Peacock which "postulates that Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel is based on real life events and characters and that Manhattan is actually the legendary Treasure Island." Maria Grasso and Deborah Spera also serve as executive producers on the hour via their Sony Pictures Television-based One-Two Punch Productions. (Deadline.com)


UNTITLED LISA PARSONS PROJECT (MTV, New!) - Lisa Parsons ("Supah Ninjas") is developing a new single-camera comedy billed as "Mean Girls" set in the workplace. She'll write and executive produce the half-hour for Krasnoff Foster Entertainment with Russ Krasnoff and Gary Foster also serving as executive producers. (THR.com)


WILDWOOD (FOX, New!) - Diane Ruggiero ("The Ex List") has booked a new period drama at the network about "a wise-beyond-her-years teenager who poses as an adult in order to land a job at a popular bar on the Jersey Shore in 1985." FOX has given a put pilot commitment to the project, which comes from the ABC Studios-based Shondaland. Shonda Rhimes and Besty Beers then will executive produce alongside Ruggiero. (Deadline.com)


AND IN OTHER NEWS... - "HawthoRNe's" Adam Rayner has joined the cast of Cinemax's "Nemesis" as Adian, one of Samantha's (Melissa George) fellow team members (THR.com); Jimmy Bennett will guest on TNT's upcoming "Perception" as "a lonely, depressed teen whose father died in an apparent suicide" (THR.com); Carrie Preston, Izabella Miko and Timothy Busfield are among the latest names set to drop by "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (TVLine.com); Ryan Phillippe is bound for season five of "Damages" as a "Julian Assange-type character who turns to Ellen (Rose Byrne) for help" (TVLine.com); Jason Behr will play "a convicted rapist and murderer who manages to escape from prison with the help of an adoring sycophant" on A&E's "Breakout Kings" (TVLine.com); Malcolm-Jamal Warner is set to return as Shirley's (Yvette Nicole Brown) ex-husband on "Community," while Taran Killam will turn up as Greendale's bound-to-be kooky choir director (TVGuide.com, TVLine.com); Alan Dale will reunite with fellow "Lost" alum Michael Emerson on an upcoming episode of "Person of Interest" (EW.com); Larry Hagman has been diagnosed with a "very common and treatable" form of cancer, limiting his availability on TNT's "Dallas" revival (Deadline.com); Brandon Jay McLaren will recur for at least seven episodes on "Falling Skies" as "a handsome and overwhelmed mechanic" (THR.com); plus Eion Bailey will recur on ABC's "Once Upon a Time" as the mysteriously named "The Stranger" (TVGuide.com).






  [october 2011]  
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M
T
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T
F
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· AMERICANS, THE (FX)
· ANGELA'S BACHELORS (ABC)
· BREAKOUT KINGS (A AND E)
· BUNKER (FX)
· COMMUNITY (YAHOO)
· DALLAS (TNT)
· DAMAGES (AUDIENCE)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· EX LIST, THE (CBS)
· FALLING SKIES (TNT)
· GOSSIP GIRL (CW)
· HAWTHORNE (TNT)
· HEIRESS, THE (ABC)
· HUNTED (CINEMAX)
· LAREDO (FX)
· LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT (NBC)
· LOST (ABC)
· ONCE UPON A TIME (ABC)
· PERCEPTION (TNT)
· PERSON OF INTEREST (CBS)
· RIDING ROCKETS (NBC)
· SCAR TISSUE (FX)
· SUPAH NINJAS (NICKELODEON)
· TREASURE ISLAND (NBC)
· UNTITLED LISA PARSONS PROJECT (MTV)
· WILDWOOD (FOX)





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