[06/24/11 - 10:16 PM] Development Update: Friday, June 24 By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC)
LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The latest development news, culled from recent wire reports:
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CALIFORNICATION (Showtime) - Natalie Zea ("Justified") is set to recur on the comedy's upcoming fifth season. She'll play a new love interest for David Duchovny's character however no other details were given. The actress recently reupped her deal on the FX series to continue on for the foreseeable future. Zea guest starred in the "Justified" pilot before being upped to series regular in a two-year deal.
LAST H.O.P.E. (Showtime, New!) - Dave Digilio has snagged a script order from the pay channel about the Last Hospital On Planet Earth. Parkes/MacDonald Productions, which has a first-look deal with Universal Media Studios, is producing. The company's Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald and Ted Gold then will presumably executive produce alongside Digilio.
LIBERTY (Lifetime, New!) - Amy Holden Jones has landed a new drama at the cable channel about Liberty Kincaid, "a gifted physician and hospital sheriff who not only ensures care for her own patients but also for those being treated by other doctors." Said hour, from Universal Media Studios and Parkes/MacDonald Productions, was originally set up at NBC. Jones then will executive produce alongside Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald and Ted Gold.
THE REPUBLIC OF PIRATES (NBC, New!) - Jim Hart and Amanda Wells have booked a period drama at NBC about "the world's most notorious pirates as they forge their own rogue nation, called New Providence, which became the first democracy in the Americas." Tom Fontana is supervising the hour, set during 1715 to 1725, which is based on Colin Woodard's book of the same name. Universal Media Studios and Parkes/MacDonald Productions are producing with the latter's Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald and Ted Gold executive producing alongside Fontana.
YEAR ZERO (HBO) - Screenwriter Jim Uhls ("Fight Club") has been tapped to write the long-in-the-works mini-series, a small screen take on Nine Inch Nails' 2007 album of the same name. He'll take over for Daniel Knauf, who was originally attached. The concept recording, which criticizes contemporary policies of the United States government by presenting a dystopian vision of the year 2022, has already been adapted into an alternate reality game. Lawrence Bender and Kevin Kelly Brown are executive producing alongside Trent Reznor for HBO and BBC Worldwide Productions.
