LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The latest development news, culled from recent wire reports:
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BETWEEN THE DYING AND THE DEAD (HBO) - Al Pacino has been tapped to topline the pay channel's biopic of right-to-die champion Dr. Jack Kevorkian. Barry Levinson is helming the project from a script by Adam Mazer with Levinson, Steve Lee Jones, Lydia Dean Pilcher and Glenn Rigberg executive producing. As for specifics, "Dying" will track
"Kevorkian's construction of his infamous 'Mercy Machine,' his first assisted suicide in the early 1990s and the resulting media frenzy." Kevorkian was subsequently convicted of second-degree murder in 1999 and was released in 2007. Longtime Kevorkian associates Harry Wylie and Neal Nicol penned "Between the Dying and the Dead," the manuscript upon which the film is based.
E!/STYLE ORIGINAL SERIES - The Comcast-owned cable channels have confirmed their remaining summer premieres. E! will roll out newcomers "Kourtney & Khloe" and "Reality Hell" on Sunday, August 9 at 10:00/9:00c and 10:30/9:30c respectively. Sibling Style then will offer up season two of "Ruby" on Sunday, July 5 at 8:00/7:00c while freshman entry "Giuliana & Bill" is due on Wednesday, August 5 at 9:00/8:00c.
YO MOMMA (MTV) - Wilmer Valderrama has inked a three-year overall deal with RelativityReal, the reality/alternative TV arm of Ryan Kavanaugh's Relativity Media. The multihyphenate will develop new series projects for the company via his WV Enterprises banner. Already in the works: the half-hour comedy "Earth to Pablo" at Nickelodeon, a blind script commitment from the Disney Channel and "Brooklyn Sound" at MTV, a soap about "a tough neighborhood where teenagers use their talent and passion to achieve stardom." Valderrama and WV's Danny Villa are executive producing all of the aforementioned projects. The news marks RelativityReal's second overall deal, the first being with Jay Blumenfield and Anthony Marsh earlier this year.
Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters
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