[09/07/07 - 06:41 PM] Development Update: Week of September 3-7 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!
24 (FOX) - Annie Wersching ("General Hospital") is the latest addition to the show's new season while Bob Gunton is in talks to return as a series regular. Wersching will play an FBI agent who is in an adversarial relationship with Kiefer Sutherland's character while Gunton would reprise his role as Secretary of Defense Ethan Kanin, now the chief of staff for the new president (Cherry Jones).
THE BIG BANG THEORY (CBS) - Sara Gilbert ("ER") has booked a multi-episode arc on the freshman comedy, where she'll reunite with her "Roseanne" hubby Johnny Galecki. She'll play a fellow physicist who works with Galecki's "Bang" character and the two attempt to date.
BIONIC WOMAN (NBC) - Executive producer Glen Morgan has departed the freshman drama over creative differences. His exit, which comes as production is set to begin on its fifth episode, leaves David Eick and Jason Smilovic as the remaining executive producers/showrunners. The news marks the second major behind-the-scenes change for the show, the first being Michael Dinner's exit following the pilot.
DUEL (ABC, New!) - The Alphabet has ordered 10 hourlong episodes of a new high-stakes game show that combines the classic formula of questions and answers with the psychology and bluffing elements of gambling. The project comes from David Rosconval and Francis Vacher of French Television with BermanBraun's Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun also serving as executive producers. As for specifics, the series pits contestants head-to-head in a race to win a big-money jackpot with players going home with nothing if they miss even one question. A U.K. version is being developed concurrently by Gallowgate Productions's Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly for ITV.
NIP/TUCK (FX) - As expected, the cable channel has confirmed the series will return for its fifth season on Tuesday, October 30, one week after "Damages" wraps its inaugural season. Among this season's guests: Rosie O'Donnell, Portia de Rossi, Oliver Platt, Bradley Cooper and Lauren Hutton.
SMILE! YOU'RE UNDER ARREST (FOX, New!) - Scott Satin ("Who Wants to Be a Superhero?") is developing a "Punk'd"-esque series for FOX in which non-violent criminal suspects with outstanding warrants are lured out of hiding with promises of riches and other rewards, only to discover that they've been duped by law-enforcement officials. Among the possibilities: fugitives are tempted by the notion of earning money by being extras in a movie with the "victim" of the sting being offered a leading role - only to learn he's actually being taken into custody. Maricopa County, Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio is working with Satin on the pilot, which is currently in production.
