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LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The latest development news, culled from recent wire reports:
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18 YEARS (ABC, New!) - Cathy Yuspa and Josh Goldsmith ("'Til Death") have booked a new comedy at the Alphabet about "a young urbanite couple who must adjust to their new life as parents - trading their fast-paced existence for a more domesticated lifestyle." The project is set up at Sony Pictures Television, where the pair's overall deal is based. Yuspa and Goldsmith will pen the multi-camera half-hour as well as executive produce.
THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE (The CW) - Eric Balfour is set to recur on the freshman drama, Entertainment Weekly reports. He's play Eric, "a charming rival to Claudia (Elle Macpherson) at a competing modeling agency." No other details about the role were given.
GAVIN & STACEY (ABC, New!) - Stacy Traub ("Notes From the Underbelly") and Hayes Jackson ("According to Jim") are looking to import the BBC comedy for U.S. audiences. Ruth Jones and James Corden are behind the U.K. incarnation, which revolves around "a young man (Mathew Horne) from England who strikes up a relationship over the phone with a young woman from Wales (Joanna Page)." BBC Worldwide is behind the new version, which didn't list a studio as attached. Traub and Jackson then will write and executive produce.
THE JANICE DICKENSON MODELING AGENCY (Oxygen) - Reality guru Stuart Krasnow has inked a first-look deal with Fox 21. The pact gives the studio first crack at Krasnow's unscripted output. The prolific Krasnow, who was also behind NBC's "The Weakest Link," "Dog Eat Dog" and "Average Joe," and his company Krasnow Productions had been based at FremantleMedia North America since 2005.
TRUE BLOOD (HBO) - Tony-winner Denis O'Hare is set to join the cast of the show's third season. He'll play the vampire king of Mississippi, according to a report from Entertainment Weekly. No other details about his role were given.
TRUE LOVE (CBS, New!) - Matt Tarses has landed a pilot commitment from the Eye for a new comedy about "four people in their 20s in New York looking for love." The multi-camera half-hour comes from Sony Pictures Television, where Tarses will write and executive produce alongside his studio-based sister Jamie Tarses.
UNTITLED DONALD TODD PROJECT (ABC, New!) - "Samantha Who?" executive producer Don Todd has scored a script order from the Alphabet for a new comedy about "a thirtysomething woman who's promoted to a new job managing a bunch of young twentysomething workers." The multi-camera project is set up at ABC Studios with Peter Traugott of Brillstein Entertainment Partners also serving as an executive producer.
UNTITLED CLARK ROCKEFELLER PROJECT (Lifetime, New!) - Emmy-winner Eric McCormack ("Will & Grace") is set to topline a new original movie at the cable channel about the true story of German con artist Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter who eventually went on to pass himself off as Clark Rockefeller, an heir to the famous dynasty. Gerhartsreiter, to be played by McCormack, came to the U.S. in 1979 as a foreign exchange student where he used a series of aliases to impersonate everything from a talk show host to a Pentagon adviser. Gerhartsreiter would go on to marry Sandra Boss, "a millionaire with a Harvard MBA and a partner at the prestigious business consulting firm McKinsey & Co," and subsequently kidnap their daughter after losing custody during the divorce. The abduction drew nationwide attention and led to the discovery of his real identity. Production on the untitled project is set to begin next month for a March premiere. Mikael Salomon will direct from a script by Edithe Swensen with Ilene Kahn Power and Judith Verno executive producing for Sony Pictures Television.
Separately, McCormack is attached to a comedy pilot from Alex Barnow and Marc Firek ("'Til Death") set to go out to the broadcast networks shortly. In said half-hour he plays Kris Jacobs, "a recent widower surrounded by an eccentric cast of family and friends who tries to put his life back together." The pair will pen and executive produce the Sony-based project alongside Jamie Tarses and Aaron Kaplan with McCormack himself earning a producing credit.
Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters
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