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[04/12/12 - 11:17 PM]
Development Update: Thursday, April 12
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!


CALIFORNICATION (Showtime) - The pay channel's veteran comedy will seed a potential spin-off during its upcoming sixth season about "what happens when an innocent young Catholic school girl is exposed to the evils of rock and roll and falls heads over heels in love with the music and the men who make it." Said character - twentysomething professional groupie Faith, who despite a fondness for sex, drugs and rock and roll, remains quite religious - will recur during a nine-episode arc and, assuming critical and ratings success, continue on her own series thereafter. "Californication" creator Tom Kapinos will presumably executive produce the half-hour. (EW.com)


HEMLOCK GROVE (Netflix) - Dougray Scott ("Desperate Housewives") is in talks to play the male lead on the upcoming drama, "a gripping tale of murder, mystery and monsters set in a ravaged Pennsylvania steel town." He'd play Norman Godfrey, "the older brother of Olivia's (Famke Janssen) late husband, JR, one of the founders of the Godfrey Center for Biomedical Technologies; wealthy, but with modest tastes and an equally modest home, Norman is sickened by Olivia's displays of ostentation and the way in which she spoils her son." Bill Skarsgard, Landon Liboiron and Penelope Mitchell also star in the Gaumont-based project, from director Eli Roth and co-creators Brian McGreevy and Lee Shipman. (Deadline.com)


ROYAL (HBO, New!) - Feature writer Nick Schenk ("Gran Torino") has booked a potential comedy at the pay channel about "a working-class, old-school, politically incorrect, tell-it-as-it-is biker who is forced back into 'the real world' to take guardianship over his nieces and nephew, executing a highly unorthodox parenting style - and inhabits a place he doesn't want to be where everyone's soft and overly PC." Said half-hour is set up at the Sony Pictures Television-based Fedora Entertainment with the company's Peter Tolan and Michael Wimer executive producing alongside Schenk and Television 360's Guymon Casady and Brandon Brito. (Deadline.com)


WHIPPED (FX, New!) - Shawna Kenney's memoir "I Was a Teenage Dominatrix" - about her experience of doing just that for various politicos and elected officials to pay for college at the American University in Washington, D.C. - is being developed as a potential series at the cable channel. Gina Fattore ("Californication") is spearheading the adaptation, which is set up at Vince Vaughn and Peter Billingsley's Wild West Picture Show Productions. No other details were given. (Vulture.com)


AND IN OTHER NEWS... - Brooke Nevin will guest star as the daughter of Ted Danson's D.B. Russell on the season finale of "CSI" (THR.com); Donald Glover will turn up on "30 Rock" as a younger version of Tracy Morgan's character on the show's April 26 live episode (TVLine.com); A&E has renewed its hit series "Storage Wars," "Storage Wars: Texas" and "Shipping Wars" (Deadline.com); Seth MacFarlane's revival of "The Flintstones" for FOX has been put on hold due to multihyphenate's busy workload (Deadline.com); and "The Office" executive producer Greg Daniels is reportedly mulling a major reboot of the series as co-stars John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, B.J. Novak and Ed Helms may not return or have limited availability next season (Deadline.com).






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· 30 ROCK (NBC)
· CALIFORNICATION (SHOWTIME)
· CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION (CBS)
· DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES (ABC)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· FLINTSTONES, THE (FOX)
· HEMLOCK GROVE (NETFLIX)
· OFFICE, THE (NBC)
· ROYAL (HBO)
· SHIPPING WARS (A AND E)
· STORAGE WARS (A AND E)
· STORAGE WARS: TEXAS (A AND E)
· UNTITLED CALIFORNICATION SPIN OFF PROJECT (SHOWTIME)
· WHIPPED (FX)





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