[04/03/12 - 11:01 PM] Development Update: Tuesday, April 3 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!
BOUNCE (VH1, New!) - Taylour Paige, Dean Cain, Kimberly Elise, Valery Ortiz and Katherine Bailess are set to star in a new drama pilot at the cable channel set in the world of professional basketball dancers. Writer James LaRosa and director by Sanaa Hamri are behind the project, which will track Ahsha (Paige), "a sheltered young woman who joins the squad against the wishes of her mother Sloane (Elise), who knows this treacherous, tempting world all too well having been a dancer herself." Cain then is set as the coach of the basketball team with Ortiz and Bailess as two of the dancers, single mother Raquel and former stripper Kyle. LaRosa will executive produce alongside Maggie Malina and VH1's Jill Holmes and Jeff Olde. (Deadline.com)FRIEND ME (CBS) - Christopher Mintz-Plasse ("Superbad") has booked a lead role on the comedy pilot, about best pals Rob and Evan who have just moved to L.A. from Indiana to start new jobs at Groupon. He'll play the latter of said duo, who is cynical and way, way less open to change than the enthusiastic Rob (Nicholas Braun), who's always ready for the next adventure. Dan Ahdoot, Parvesh Cheena and Tim Robinson co-star in the project, from CBS Television Studios, director Pamela Fryman and co-creators Ajay Sahgal and Alan Kirschenbaum. (Deadline.com)HEMLOCK GROVE (Netflix) - Landon Liboiron ("Terra Nova") has joined the cast of the upcoming drama, "a gripping tale of murder, mystery and monsters set in a ravaged Pennsylvania steel town." He'll play Peter, a 17-year-old Gypsy kid from the wrong side of the tracks, who tells his classmates he's a werewolf. Famke Janssen and Bill Skarsgard also star in the Gaumont International Television-produced project, from director Eli Roth and writer Brian McGreevy. (THR.com)AND IN OTHER NEWS... - Emmanuelle Chriqui is set to recur on "The Mentalist" as "a mysterious new woman in Jane's (Simon Baker) life who may be too good to be true," a character which will be introduced in the season finale and continue for at least five episodes next season (TVLine.com); and Emmy-winner William Daniels is bound for "Grey's Anatomy" as one of the doctors overseeing the medical boards being taken by the Seattle Grace residents (TVLine.com).
