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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 ALZHEIMER'S PROJECT (ABC, New!) - Sam Sklaver ("Ben and Kate") has booked a potential single-camera comedy at the Alphabet about "a father with early onset Alzheimer's trying to reconnect with his family." Aaron Kaplan of Kapital Entertainment will also serve as an executive producer on the project, which is set up at ABC Studios. Sklaver then will co-executive produce. (Deadline.com)
BENCHED (USA/ABC Signature; W: Michaela Watkins & Damon Jones; D: Michael Fresco) - The cable channel has ordered a pilot presentation for the comedy, tapping Eliza Coupe ("Happy Endings") to star, John Enbom ("Free Agents") to showrun and Michael Fresco ("Family Tools") to direct. Coupe plays Nina, a high-powered attorney who loses her job and her boyfriend all on one day, finding that the only job available to her is at the Public Defender's office. She quickly realizes that the system is more screwed up than her own crazy personal life. Mark Gordon and Andrea Shay will likewise executive produce via their banner, The Mark Gordon Company. (Deadline.com)
FAST FORWARD (CBS, New!) - Wendy Battles ("Unforgettable") is looking to import the Austrian crime drama "Schnell Ermittelt" - about "a female homicide detective who juggles the demands of her job while co-parenting and working side-by-side with her newly divorced husband, the medical examiner" - at the Eye. Sony Pictures Television and CBS Television Studios are co-producing the hour with FanFare Productions' Jamie Tarses and original series' producers Andreas Kamm, Oliver Auspitz, Kurt M. Mrkwicka and Katharina Schenk executive producing alongside Battles. (Deadline.com)
FINDING CARTER (MTV; W: Emily Silver; D: TBA) - Kathryn Prescott, Anna Jacoby-Heron, Zac Pullam and Nolan Sotillo
have all been cast in the drama pilot, about Carter, a teenager who has the perfect life with her fun-loving single mom Lori until a police bust reveals that Lori abducted her as a toddler. Prescott will play the aforementioned Carter with Jacoby-Heron as Taylor, her newly revealed fraternal twin sister from her biological parents. Pullam then is set as Grant, "Carter's somewhat detached little brother who was born after his older sister had already been kidnapped"; while Sotillo is on board as Gabe, "Taylor's good friend since second grade and, like his old pal, is the son of a cop." Cynthia Watros also stars. (THR.com)
THE LIBERATOR (History, New!) - Feature writer Jeb Stuart (Die Hard) is developing a mini-series at the cable channel which "will tell the true story of the epic battlefield odyssey of maverick U.S. Army officer Felix "Shotgun" Sparks and his infantry unit as they fought over 500 days to liberate Europe." Said effort will "cover battles from the Allied invasion of Italy to the liberation of the concentration camp of Dachau and follow Sparks and the 157th Infantry Regiment, comprised primarily of cowboys, Native Americans and Mexican-Americans as the unit battles to become one of the most decorated combat units of the war." Unique Features' Bob Shaye, Michael Lynne and Sarah Victor are on board to executive produce. (THR.com)
THE POINT (ABC, New!) - "The West Wing" alums Rob Lowe and Kevin Falls are set to re-team for a new drama about "a single mother and her two teenagers who move from Indiana to Malibu in the summer of 1976. The Byrd family must navigate the cross currents of colorful personalities, power land grabs, dead friends and lovers, cheating hearts, and seismic cultural changes that will transform Malibu from a quirky middle-class beach town to the iconic coastal destination of today's rich and famous." Said effort is inspired by Lowe's bestselling 2011 memoir "Stories I Only Tell My Friends," with Falls penning the teleplay for Sony Pictures Television. (Deadline.com)
PULLING TEETH (NBC, New!) - Stacy Traub ("Glee") has set up a single-camera comedy at the Peacock about Holly, "a dentist who recently discovered that her surgeon husband has been having an affair with a pharmaceutical sales rep. After a leave of absence, Holly returns to the practice only to find that the dynamics of the workplace are even more complicated than the ones in her own life." ABC Studios is behind the half-hour, home to Traub's overall deal. Robin Schwartz of the studio-based Brillstein Entertainment Partners will likewise executive produce. (Deadline.com)
UNTITLED CHRIS FEDAK PROJECT (NBC, New!) - "Chuck" co-creator Chris Fedak is back in business with the Peacock for a new drama about "four broken people from different walks of life who all have one thing in common - a new chance at a normal life thanks to an anonymous organ donor whose body is used to cure them of their ills. But the ordinary becomes extraordinary when they learn that the mysterious donor was Earth's mightiest hero, and now each literally carries part of him inside themselves." Legendary Television is behind the hour with the company's Bruce Rosenblum and Peter Johnson presumably executive producing alongside Fedak. (Deadline.com)
UNTITLED KEENEN IVORY WAYANS PROJECT (ABC, New!) - Keenen Ivory Wayans has sold a single-camera comedy to the Alphabet about "what happens when the whitest guy in America marries into a sprawling, close-knit African-American family." Said effort, which has a significant penalty attached, comes from the 20th Century Fox Television-based Chernin Entertainment with the company's Peter Chernin and Katherine Pope executive producing alongside Wayans, who had no plans star. (THR.com)
UNTITLED REBECCA SINCLAIR PROJECT (The CW, New!) - Rebecca Sinclair ("90210") has set up a period drama at the netlet about "the lives of a motley crew of Malibu surfers - each an outsider in their own way - who had found a community of kindred spirits" in 1961 Malibu. CBS Television Studios is behind the hour with Carol Mendelsohn and Julie Weitz executive producing alongside Sinclair for Carol Mendelsohn Productions. (Deadline.com)
AND IN OTHER NEWS... - Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution has cleared "TMZ Live," TMZ.com's daily video podcast turned one-hour live daily series, through 2017 on the Fox Television Stations group (Deadline.com); Richard Schiff and McKayla Maroney will both guest on "Bones" as "a former (fictional) White House staffer and an Olympic gold medalist," respectively (EW.com); Whoopi Goldberg have been tapped to voice Mrs. Rabbit, the wife of John Lithgow's White Rabbit, on "Once Upon a Time in Wonderland" (TVLine.com);
Keith Carradine, father of co-star Martha Plimpton, will guest on "Raising Hope" as "a no-nonsense, no-outside-world-technology, real deal cowboy" (TVLine.com); Tricia O'Kelley is bound for "Melissa & Joey" as "a demanding and difficult boss who is Mel's (Melissa Joan Hart) neighbor" and David Castaneda will visit "Switched at Birth" as "a nurse-practitioner at the free clinic where Daphne (Katie Leclerc) and Campbell (R.J. Mitte) work" (THR.com); and Sean Maher have been tapped as DC Comics supervillain Shrapnel, "a serial bomber who places Starling City in a grip of terror," on "Arrow" (THR.com).
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