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[12/26/08 - 06:43 PM]
Development Update: Week of December 22-26
By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC) |
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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!
BITCHES (FOX, New!) - Feature writer Michael Dougherty ("Superman Returns") has scored a hefty script commitment from the network for a new drama about a quartet of female friends in New York who are werewolves. The project, which has a penalty attached should it not move forward to pilot, is set up at Warner Bros. Television. Writer/producers Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts ("Pushing Daisies") have been tapped to supervise Dougherty and executive produce. No other specifics were given.
GILMORE GIRLS (The CW) - One day after filing a lawsuit against CBS over "Two and a Half Men" (see below), Warner Bros. Television itself has been sued by producer Gavin Polone over "Gilmore Girls." The breach-of-contract lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims the vertically integrated Time Warner companies Warner Bros. Television and The WB "have colluded to defraud the originator of hit 'Gilmore Girls' television series with a scheme that rivals the greed and bravado of any story line defendants could script." Hofflund/Polone, Polone's company with Judy Hofflund, alleges the "modified adjusted gross," the money the show earns after costs are deducted, for "Gilmore's" first six seasons was modified by the studio - through "collusion among defendants to set below-market license fees" and a series of improper charges - which cut into Hofflund/Polone's profits as a result. A third-party audit commissioned by Hofflund/Polone in October 2006 alleges that number was understated by $45.5 million and the company has asked for "tens of millions of dollars" in damages as a result. Warner Bros. has yet to comment on the suit.
LOST & FOUND (NBC) - Australian actor Damon Herriman ("All Saints") has joined the cast of the drama pilot, which centers on Tessa Cooper (Katee Sackhoff), an offbeat LAPD detective who, after butting heads with higher-ups, is sent as punishment to the basement to work on John and Jane Doe cases. He'll play Anthony Yeckel, an oddball civilian consultant to the police's lost-and-found department who has an obsessive love of old detective TV shows. Brian Cox and Josh Cooke also star in the Universal Media Studios/Wolf Films-based hour, which Michael Engler is directing from a script by creator Chris Levinson.
TWO AND A HALF MEN (CBS) - Warner Bros. Television filed a $49 million breach of contract lawsuit against CBS on Tuesday. Said suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims the network owes Warner Bros. additional fees toward the production deficit carried by the studio. The "deficit recoupment" was understood to be tied to "Men" hitting certain ratings milestones as specified by the show's original four-year license agreement signed in 2003. The suit indicates the studio incurred a $61.1 million deficit over the course of the first four years of the show (for instance CBS paid $750,000 per episode during "Men's" first season while Warner Bros. actual cost to produce the show came in at $1.22 million), a cost which CBS would cover should "Men" finish as a top 10 show. Additionally, should "Men" finish in the top five in its fourth season, CBS would pay an additional $650,000 more per episode in the fifth and sixth seasons (with a downward scale from there). "CBS has reaped the benefits of the tremendous success of 'Two and a Half Men" but wants to deny Warner Bros. the right to its agreed-upon share," Warner Bros. said in a statement. CBS countered with simply, "Wow, I wonder what they got the other networks for Christmas."
UGLY BETTY (ABC) - "Dexter" co-star Lauren Velez has booked a multi-episode arc on the Thursday dramedy. She'll play Elena, a nurse that enters the lives of the Suarez family, whom reports speculate will be linked to a major plot development. It's not clear when her first episode will air.
UNTITLED MARIA BELLO PROJECT (HBO, New!) - Maria Bello ("The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor") is set to topline a potential new drama at the pay channel about a woman who's forced into a life of crime to support her three teenage sons after her husband is killed. Gary Lennon ("The Shield") is penning the hour, which sees the woman using her sons as henchmen, leading them all down a destructive road. Bello herself will executive produce alongside Lennon, Gavin Polone and John Carrabino.
Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters
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[03/02/21 - 11:32 AM]
Season One of "Prodigal Son" Now Available for Streaming on HBO Max
The first season of the show is available to stream today, Tuesday, March 2, on HBO Max.
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[03/02/21 - 11:05 AM]
Video: All-New Trailer for "Prodigal Son," Featuring Catherine Zeta-Zones and Alan Cumming
Following tonight's winter finale, look for new episodes beginning Tuesday, April 13.
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[03/02/21 - 11:01 AM]
The CW Network Renews "Superman & Lois" for Season Two
The super-sized 90-minute series premiere lifted The CW to its best night of primetime in over two years.
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[03/02/21 - 10:16 AM]
Peacock Orders Epic Science Series "The End Is Nye" with Emmy Award-Winning Host Bill Nye
The series sends Bill Nye into the most epic global disasters imaginable - both natural and unnatural - and then demystifies them using science to show how we can survive, mitigate, and even prevent them.
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[03/02/21 - 10:02 AM]
FOX Bet Super 6 Teams with Television's #1 Entertainment Series, "The Masked Singer," for Season Five, Premiering Wednesday, March 10, on FOX
The FOX Bet Super 6 app will offer viewers an enhanced entertainment experience, by making predictions about what they think will happen in each episode throughout the season.
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[03/02/21 - 10:01 AM]
Animation Expands to Mondays This Summer on FOX
Look for newcomer "Housebroken" and season two of "Duncanville" back-to-back beginning May 31.
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[03/02/21 - 09:59 AM]
HBO Sports Presents an Imagine Documentaries and Fuqua Films Documentary Feature "The Day Sports Stood Still," Debuting March 24
Emmy(R)-winning director Antoine Fuqua will chronicle the abrupt stoppage, athletes' prominent role in the cultural reckoning on racial injustices that escalated during the pandemic and the complex return to competition in the summer and fall.
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[03/02/21 - 09:30 AM]
"Zack Snyder's Justice League" Key Art Now Available
In addition, HBO Max announced a partnership with Footaction as well as The Heroes Among Us fan sweepstakes.
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[03/02/21 - 09:01 AM]
Video: "Bad Trip" Starring Eric Andre, Lil Rel Howery & Tiffany Haddish - Official Trailer - Netflix
In this hidden-camera prank comedy, two best friends bond on a wild road trip to New York as they pull real people into their raunchy, raucous antics.
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[03/02/21 - 09:01 AM]
Kevin Bacon, Angela Bassett, Phoebe Dynevor, Morgan Freeman, Gal Gadot, Justin Hartley, Chris Hemsworth, Javicia Leslie, Chrissy Metz, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Yara Shahidi, and More to Present at the 26th Annual Critics Choice Awards
The winners will be revealed live on The CW this Sunday, March 7, with acclaimed film, television, and stage star Taye Diggs returning to host for his third consecutive time.
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[03/02/21 - 08:32 AM]
Global Fashion Competition Series "Making the Cut" to Premiere This Summer on Amazon Prime Video
Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn will be joined by judges Winnie Harlow, world-famous supermodel, and fashion pop icon and Moschino Creative Director Jeremy Scott.
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[03/02/21 - 08:01 AM]
Nickelodeon's Brand-New Preschool Series "Baby Shark's Big Show!" Makes a Splash with Spring Premieres Beginning Friday, March 26, at 12:30 PM (ET/PT)
In "Baby Tooth/Slobber Slug," Baby Shark gets his first loose tooth and enlists William's help to lose it so he can trade it in for a sand dollar.
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[03/02/21 - 07:04 AM]
Critically Acclaimed Israeli Drama Series "The Attache" Debuts on Acorn TV on Monday, March 22
All 10 episodes, in Hebrew and French with English subtitles, will be available to binge.
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[03/02/21 - 07:00 AM]
HBO Max and BBC One to Co-Produce JP Delaney's "The Girl Before"
The four-episode limited series, based on the global bestselling book of the same name, stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw and David Oyelowo.
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[03/02/21 - 06:59 AM]
BET's "Boiling Point" and "Disrupt and Dismantle" Move to New Date & Time
The Sunday series will now air Tuesdays at 11:00/10:00c and Wednesdays at 11:00/10:00c, respectively.
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