[06/17/08 - 04:42 PM] Development Update: Tuesday, June 17 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 ANIMATED ADVENTURES OF BOB & DOUG MCKENZIE (FOX, New!) - FOX has come aboard as a partner on the upcoming animated series for Canada's Global Television, which features "SCTV" alums Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas reprising their signature characters Bob and Doug McKenzie. Moranis and Thomas are also executive producing the series - which comes from Two Presidents Productions, House of Cool Studios and Thomas's Los Angeles-based Maple Palms Productions - alongside Patricia Burns. It's believed FOX will subsequently repurpose the series in the U.S. following its January debut on Global. As for specifics, the half-hour plans to relocate the dim bulb brothers (who went on to topline the cult 1983 feature "Strange Brew") to a fictional town setting where they'll be given new friends and family. Rounding out the show's voice cast then are Dave Coulier, Colin Mochrie, Pat McKenna, Derek McGrath, Ron Pardo, Jayne Eastwood and Ho Chow.
ER (NBC) - Shiri Appleby, Julian Morris, Emily Rose and Victor Rasuk have all joined the cast of the show's final season. They'll all recur as new interns at County General Hospital - Appleby and Morris will play siblings Daria and Andrew Wade (she's the smart and eager to learn one, he uses his looks, smarts and charm to get ahead) with Rose as Tracy Martin, an ambitious intern with control issues, and Rasuk as Ryan Sanchez, a nervous New Yorker with an overbearing wife. It's not clear when their first episode will air.
KNIGHT RIDER (NBC) - "Battlestar Galactica" alum Paul Campbell has joined the cast of the series. He'll play the head research tech at the show's Knight Industries. It's believed he'll be introduced in the show's first post-pilot episode, which revolves around the company's efforts to protect a man whose "DNA holds the cipher that can decipher any code."
NUMB3RS (CBS) - Sophina Brown ("Shark") has booked a recurring role on the veteran crime drama. She'll play Nikki Donati, an ex-LAPD officer and full-blown adrenaline junkie who joins the Los Angeles FBI team as a junior agent. Said role could grow into a series regular. Brown's casting is designed to fill the void left by departing cast member Diane Farr.
TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES (FOX) - Leven Rambin ("All My Children") is in talks to join the cast of the show's second season. She'll play Becky, a potential love interest for Thomas Dekker's character, who's detailed via the casting notice as follows: "18+ to play younger, any ethnicity. High school-aged teenage girl, beautiful with an edge but not mean."
WIZARD'S FIRST RULE (Syndication) - Kenneth Biller ("Star Trek: Voyager") has been tapped as the showrunner of the upcoming syndicated drama, based on Terry Goodkind's book series about a woodsman (Craig Horner) who transforms into a magical leader and joins with a mysterious woman (Bridget Regan) to stop a bloodthirsty, sinister tyrant. In addition, fellow "Voyager" alum Mike Sussman is in negotiations to serve as a supervising producer. The pair then would work alongside executive producers John Shiban, Joshua Donen, Ned Nalle, Robert Tapert and Sam Raimi. ABC Studios is producing the hour with Disney-ABC Domestic Television handling its distribution. The series has been cleared on stations covering more than 95% of the country.
