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[08/16/11 - 11:09 PM]
Development Update: Tuesday, August 16
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!


THE CARRIE DIARIES (The CW, New!) - The netlet is reportedly on track to land the proposed "Sex and the City" prequel series, based on Candice Bushnell's recent book about the high school years of Carrie Bradshaw. Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage are expected to spearhead the project via their Warner Bros. Television-based Fake Empire banner with Amy Harris ("Gossip Girl") penning the script and Bushnell herself also serving as an executive producer. Said move is understood to come with the blessing of Time Warner corporate sibling HBO, which had first crack at the project. Darren Star, Michael Patrick King and Sarah Jessica Parker are not currently attached. (Deadline.com)


THE MENTALIST (CBS) - Co-stars Robin Tunney, Amanda Righetti, Tim Kang and Owain Yeoman have all reportedly completed renegotiations of their current contracts with Warner Bros. Television. Said pacts, which all include a one-year extension to their standard six-year deals, call for Tunney to be upped to over $100,000 an episode with Righetti, Kang and Yeoman each getting raises to $70,000-$80,000 an episode. With built-in yearly salary increases, Tunney could ultimately take home almost $200,000 per episode by the end of her contract with the latter trio likewise being upped to over $100,000 per installment. The news comes on the heels of Simon Baker's similar renegotiation, which will see him make upwards of $350,000 an episode, not to mention the studio's off-network sale of the series to TNT for $2.2-$2.3 million an episode. (Deadline.com)


TERMINALES (ABC Family, New!) - Del Shores (Logo's "Sordid Lives") is developing a domestic take on Miguel Angel Fox's Televisa format about "the life of young and successful publicist April Marquez, who is diagnosed with terminal cancer." Shores then is executive producing alongside Kapital Entertainment's Aaron Kaplan and Televisa's Paul Presburger for Lionsgate Television. (Deadline.com)


UNTITLED VIOLA DAVIS PROJECT (HBO, New!) - Viola Davis ("The Help"), Dee Rees ("Pariah") and Margaret Nagle ("Boardwalk Empire") are set to team for a potential half-hour at the pay channel about "the corruption of a city as seen through the eyes of the headmaster of an exclusive prep school who is angling for much bigger things." Davis would topline the project with Rees directing from a script by Nagle. Davis and Nagle then would executive produce alongside John Lesher with Rees as a co-executive producer. (THR.com)


UNTITLED JIM BELUSHI PROJECT (New!) - Jim Belushi ("The Defenders") is looking to return to comedy for his new project, about "a single father with a teen offspring." Diane English ("Murphy Brown") is behind the ABC Studios-based half-hour, which is expected to land at sibling ABC. Belushi and English then will executive produce alongside Brillstein Entertainment Partners. (Deadline.com)


AND IN OTHER NEWS... - Dominic Chianese ("The Sopranos") has booked six episodes on HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" as Leander Whitlock, a contemporary of Dabney Coleman's Commodore (TVGuide.com); Carlos Bernard ("24") has been cast as David Caruso's latest nemesis on "CSI: Miami," billed as "a very subtle, but powerful, political patriarch" (TVGuide.com); Chris Parnell ("30 Rock") has scored a role on ABC's "Suburgatory" as Fred Shay, the beta husband of Ana Gasteyer's Sheila (EOnline.com); Michael Rady ("Melrose Place") will play the latest CBI chief on "The Mentalist," the "very educated, fresh-faced special agent" Luther Wainwright (TVLine.com); Michael Arden ("Kings") will turn up on "The Good Wife" as "a handsome, flirty philosophy professor" who potentially catches the eye of Dallas Roberts's Owen (TVLine.com); while Harvey Fierstein will likewise guest on "The Good Wife's" fourth episode this season as "a liberal, ex-hippie type" judge (EW.com); plus Stephen Collins ("No Ordinary Family") and Dee Wallace ("Sons & Daughters") will play Andy Bernard's (Ed Helms) parents on "The Office" (EW.com).






  [august 2011]  
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· 24 (FOX)
· 30 ROCK (NBC)
· BOARDWALK EMPIRE (HBO)
· CARRIE DIARIES, THE (CW)
· CHASING LIFE (ABC FAMILY)
· CSI: MIAMI (CBS)
· DEFENDERS, THE (CBS)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· GOOD WIFE, THE (CBS)
· GOSSIP GIRL (CW)
· KINGS (NBC)
· MELROSE PLACE (CW)
· MENTALIST, THE (CBS)
· NO ORDINARY FAMILY (ABC)
· OFFICE, THE (NBC)
· SEX AND THE CITY (HBO)
· SONS & DAUGHTERS (ABC)
· SOPRANOS, THE (HBO)
· SUBURGATORY (ABC)
· UNTITLED VIOLA DAVIS PROJECT (HBO)
· YOU WONT EVEN KNOW I'M HERE (ABC)





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