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[07/01/08 - 05:03 PM]
Development Update: Tuesday, July 1
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!


EASY MONEY (The CW) - Jeff Hephner, Jay R. Ferguson and Katie Lowes have all landed roles on the upcoming drama, about a family of loan sharks and its matriarch (Laurie Metcalf). Ferguson will play her eldest son with Hephner as the middle child and Lowes as the youngest sister. Andy Schneider and Diane Frolov are behind the hour, which comes from Media Rights Capital.


LEISURE (HBO, New!) - "American Pimp" directors Albert and Allen Hughes are developing a new drama series at the pay channel which explores the world of prostitution through the eyes of a legendary pimp contemplating retirement. Evan Reilly ("Rescue Me") is on board to pen the script to the project, which will be set in Oakland, California and explore the generational conflict of old-school pimps living by honor codes and creeds who are being pushed aside by violent upstarts. The Hughes brothers are attached to direct the pilot should it move forward as well as executive produce alongside Reilly and Interscope's Jimmy Iovine and Polly Anthony.


LIE TO ME (FOX) - Tim Roth ("The Incredible Hulk") has scored the lead role on the drama pilot, which is being eyed for a midseason order of 13 episodes. He'll play Dr. Cal Lightman, whom the casting notice details as follows: "42-48, any ethnicities. Lightman is a confident, fiercely intelligent, intensely charismatic and strangely inscrutable man, a cutting edge researcher in the field of "deception detection." Lightman has the natural gift of being able to determine who is lying to him, and who is telling the truth, and his cutting edge scientific research has quantified the gestures and expressions of deception for use by law enforcement and others. Very much in demand for his abilities, Lightman is unable to turn off his powers for even an instant, at sad cost to his personal life, as evidenced by his painfully broken marriage. Under his understandably cynical attitude, he is a humanist who longs to connect to a true heart and a soul mate. Although he would never admit it, he feels that person just might be Gillian Foster, his married and unavailable colleague. A brilliant detective, Lightman also carries another burden - a grim secret from his past that haunts his every waking hour." Monica Raymund also stars in the 20th Century Fox Television-based project, which Robert Schwentke ("Flightplan") is directing from a script by Sam Baum. Brian Grazer and David Nevins also serve as executive producers via their Imagine Television banner.


PRIVILEGED (The CW) - Brian Hallisay ("Bionic Woman") has joined the cast of the netlet's upcoming drama, about Megan (Joanna Garcia), a Yale-educated woman who is hired to be the live-in tutor/life coach to rich 16-year-old twin girls (Ashley Newbrough, Lucy Kate Hale) in Palm Beach. He'll play Will, "the wealthy and extremely hot dilettante who lives on the estate next door and just happens to be dating Megan's estranged sister Lily," according to the network's description. Allan Louis, Anne Archer and Michael Cassidy also star in the Warner Bros. Television-based hour, which comes from creator Rina Mimoun.


Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters





  [july 2008]  
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· BIONIC WOMAN (NBC)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· EASY MONEY (CW)
· LEISURE (HBO)
· LIE TO ME (FOX)
· PRIVILEGED (CW)
· RESCUE ME (FX)





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