[12/13/10 - 06:17 PM] Development Update: Monday, December 13 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!
ANDERSON (A.K.A. UNTITLED ANDERSON COOPER PROJECT) (Syndication) - Anderson Cooper's upcoming talk show has been dubbed simply, "Anderson." Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution is behind the New York City-based series, due to launch in the fall of 2011. New York (WPIX), Los Angeles (KTTV), Chicago (WFLD) and Boston (WFXT) are among the major market clearances already set.
CHANGE OF PLANS (ABC, New!) - Ryan Raddatz ("WordGirl") has sold a potential multi-camera comedy to the Alphabet about "a Midwestern family running a small business out of their living room." ABC Studios and Mandeville Films are behind the half-hour, with the company's David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman presumably executive producing alongside Raddatz and Marsh McCall. "I sold a show a few weeks back," Raddatz wrote on his blog. "It's a 1/2 hour multicamera sitcom, inspired by my family's adventures in 1990's Wisconsin. I'm thrilled. A big fancy network bought the idea, and now I get to write the script. If luck is on our side, we may get to shoot a pilot in the spring. This is fun."
EXIT STRATEGY (FOX) - Ethan Hawke is reportedly in talks to star in the real-time drama pilot, about "a team of five experts who are deployed when a CIA operation goes bad to extract the ones involved before it's too late." He'd play the team leader, "the architect of exit strategy who also empathizes with the people they extract and would rather die than let them get hurt." David Guggenheim ("Safe House") is behind the hour, which comes from 20th Century Fox Television and Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci's K.O. Paper Products banner. Kurtzman, Orci and Heather Kadin are the executive producers with Guggenheim serving as a co-executive producer. Hawke would also receive a producing credit.
MY SON GOMEZ (NBC, New!) - Adam Scott ("Parks & Recreation") and Hilary Winston ("Community") have booked a potential single-camera comedy at the Peacock about "a slick womanizing bachelor who takes in a kid with no place to go." Said half-hour is set up at Sony Pictures Television with Winston, Scott and his wife, Naomi Scott, executive producing.
PROJECT RUNWAY (Lifetime) - The cable channel has reportedly ordered another spin-off of its reality franchise, this time revolving around the construction of handbags, shoes, jewelry and other fashion accessories. No details were given about the project, which would come from producer The Weinstein Company.
SHREDD: THE JON JOHNSONSEN STORY (Adult Swim, New!) - Jason Lee ("Memphis Beat") has sold a pilot to the cable channel about Jon Johnsonsen (Lee) "who, as a 17-year-old superstar skateboarder in 1985 was on top of the world until a risky skate move landed him in a coma for 25 years. When he wakes up, he is 42 but stuck in the 1980s mindset of a teenage boy and must cope with all the changes in his life." Lee and Luke Watson co-wrote the 11-minute pilot which Lee is likewise attached to direct. They'll also executive produce alongside Reveille's Carolyn Bernstein, Todd Cohen and Howard T. Owens as well as the Electric Dynamite's Jack Black, Ben Cooley and Priyanka Mattoo. Should it move forward to series, it's understood Lee will play the role concurrently with his TNT series.
TORCHWOOD (Starz) - Mekhi Phifer ("Lie to Me") has joined the cast of the show's upcoming fourth season. He'll play Rex Matheson, "a CIA agent, a fast-tracked high-flyer with a lethal sense of humor who starts to feel his mortality when his life is put in danger." John Barrowman, Eve Myles and Kai Owen also star in the new season, due this summer on the cable channel.
