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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!
CHUCK (NBC) - Brandon Routh ("Superman Returns") has booked a multi-episode arc on the show's third season. He'll play Shaw, "a mysterious new spy who takes control as the new leader of Operation Bartwoski, becoming a mentor to Chuck and a rival in his affections for Sarah." Routh then will make his first appearance in the season's fourth episode.
DAMAGES (FX) - Campbell Scott, fresh off his recurring stint on "Royal Pains," is set to join the cast of "Damages's" third season. Entertainment Weekly reports details about his character however are being kept under wraps. Production on the new season begins next month for a January premiere.
GIULIANA & BILL (Style) - The cable channel has commissioned a second season of the reality series, about "the lives of the long-distance marriage of E! correspondent Giuliana Rancic in Los Angeles and her Chicago-based husband." Through three weeks the series has "drawn 75% more viewers than Style's primetime average, nearly doubling the network's performance among women 18-49." The show's 10-episode freshman run wraps on October 7 with production on season two set for September. Carmen Mitcho and Jay James of Comcast Entertainment Productions, Sarah Weidman and Merah Chung of Style and the Rancics themselves are the executive producers.
HEATHERS (FOX, New!) - Mark Rizzo ("Zip") is looking to revive the 1989 Christian Slater/Winona Ryder feature as a weekly television series. Sony Pictures Television and Lakeshore Entertainment are behind the project, which would reimagine Veronica Sawyer (Ryder) for the 21st century. The feature film incarnation revolved around Veronica's attempts to navigate a clique of mean girls - all named Heather - only to have them "accidentally" start dying at her and new kid J.D.'s (Slater) hands, "who cover up the deaths by faking them as suicides." No details however were given about the updated take. "Sex and the City" alum Jenny Bicks is on board to executive produce the TV version alongside Rizzo, Gary Lucchesi and Tom Rosenberg.
HITCHED (CBS, New!) - "Chuck's" Josh Schwartz and Matt Miller are set to team for a new multi-camera comedy at the Eye about "a twentysomething newlywed couple navigating their new life together" following their honeymoon. The project, which is set up at Warner Bros. Television, is loosely based on the pair's recent marriages.
LEGEND OF THE SEEKER (Syndication) - Sam Raimi and Joshua Donen's Stars Road Entertainment has inked a two-year, first-look deal with Sony Pictures Television. The pact gives the studio first crack the company's non-horror output for primetime. (Said genre will remain the focus of Raimi's Ghost House Pictures banner.) Robert Zotnowski, fresh from his run as senior VP of drama at CBS, is spearheading the company's TV efforts.
Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters
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