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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!
BATES MOTEL (A&E) - Mike Vogel ("Pan Am") and Nestor Carbonell ("Ringer") have both scored roles on upcoming drama, a contemporary exploration of the formative years of Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore), relationship with his mother, Norma (Vera Farmiga), and the world they inhabit. Carbonell will recur as Sheriff Royce Romero, "who has something almost sinister about him"; with Vogel as Deputy Zach Shelby, "a completely engaging, attractive, intelligent sociopath." Max Thieriot, Nicola Peltz and Olivia Cooke also star in the Universal Television-based hour. (Deadline.com)
BIRTHRIGHT (ABC, New!) - Jon Harmon Feldman ("No Ordinary Family") is set to team with Patrick Massett and John Zinman ("The Finder") for a new drama about Hal Chester, "former dashing prince of the tabloids, and heir apparent to the true royal family of New York, who returns home a war hero, only to shock the nation, publicly renouncing his family and their ilk, and vowing to now fight against them for the common good and repair the damage that their centuries of insular wealth and power have wreaked upon America." Feldman will pen the teleplay off a story he conceived with said duo for Sony Pictures Television. (Deadline.com)
GROSS ANATOMY (ABC Family, New!) - The cable channel is developing a new reality series based on the popular feature from "The Doctors" designed to help teens with what they consider embarrassing medical conditions. Ghost Mountain Productions is behind the presentation with the company's Jay McGraw, Dr. Phil McGraw, Jay Bienstock and Eugene Young serving as executive producers. (Deadline.com)
HOSTAGES (CBS, New!) - Writer/director Jeffrey Nachmanoff ("Traitor") has booked a pilot production commitment from the Eye for a new drama about "a family caught in the middle of a grand political conspiracy that will change their lives forever." Warner Bros. Television-based Jerry Bruckheimer Television is behind the hour, which is based on a proposed Israeli format from Alon Aranya. Nachmanoff will write, direct and executive produce the project alongside Bruckheimer, Jonathan Littman, Omri Givon, Rotem Shamir and Chayim Sharir with Aranya and KristieAnne Reed serving as co-executive producers. (Deadline.com)
KIRBY GATES (Disney XD, New!) - The cable channel has ordered a pilot to a new single-camera comedy about "a high school freshman who dreams of becoming a world-famous animator." Gabe Snyder and Mike Alber ("Death Valley") penned the half-hour, which use animation as part of title character's daydreams. David Bowers ("Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days ") is attached to direct and executive produce alongside the duo. (Variety.com)
STALKERS (A.K.A. WHISPER OF FEAR) (Lifetime) - Drea de Matteo ("Sons of Anarchy") is set to star in the backdoor pilot telefilm, about "a hot-headed cop with a troubled past, and a polished DA who team up to bring a stalker, obsessed with her former lover, to justice." She'll play said woman, Diane Harper, in the project, which is based on the book "Whisper of Fear: The True Story of the Prosecutor Who Stalks the Stalkers" by Rhonda Saunders. Mark Tonderai is directing from a script by David Wiener with Craig Piligian of Pilgrim Studios executive producing. (Deadline.com)
...THEN CAME ELVIS (NBC, New!) - D.J. Nash ("Up All Night") has booked a new single-camera comedy at the Peacock set in the 1980s about "a family that finally comes together when the parents divorce" as told through voice-over from the adult son's perspective. Universal Television is behind the half-hour, loosely based on Nash's experiences, with Aggregate Films' Jason Bateman and Jim Garavente also on board as executive producers. (Deadline.com)
UNTITLED CHRIS SHERIDAN PROJECT (ABC, New!) - Chris Sheridan have booked a semi-autobiographical comedy at the Alphabet about "35-year-old Rob Campbell who, a year after his divorce decides to re-enter the dating world for the first time in 10 years." Seth Gordon ("Breaking In") is on board to direct and executive produce the Sony Pictures Television-based project, as are Amblin Television's Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank. (Deadline.com)
WENDY & PETER (FOX, New!) - Jill Soloway ("How to Make It in America") has sold a potential half-hour to the network about "single working mom Wendy, who gets the hardest assignment of her life: as the right-hand woman and den mother to kid-genius tech billionaire Peter and the lost boys he calls family." 20th Century Fox Television is behind the comedy with Pacific Standard's Reese Witherspoon and Bruna Papandrea and Television 360's Meghan Lyvers and Evelyn O'Neill executive producing alongside Soloway. (Deadline.com)
AND IN OTHER NEWS... - "The Cleveland Show" co-creator Rich Appel has inked a new overall deal with 20th Century Fox Television where he'll take over the studio's "Family Guy" as showrunner (Deadline.com); Whoopi Goldberg will guest on "666 Park Avenue" as "a mysterious shut-in and longtime resident of the Drake" (EW.com); Robbie Amell, Rebecca Wisocky, David St. James and Rene Auberjonois are all slated to drop by on NBC's "1600 Penn" (EW.com); Callie Thorne is bound for "Elementary" as Captain Gregson's (Aidan Quinn) former partner while Lisa Edelstein will also turn up as "the charismatic CEO of a high-end PR consultancy" (TVLine.com); Patton Oswalt will visit "Justified" as "a local constable who went to high school with Raylan and has been hired by the lawman to watch Arlo's house" (TVLine.com);
Daniel Henney will guest on "Hawaii Five-0" as "the beefy, tattooed brother of Adam (Ian Anthony Dale), who was just released from Pelican Bay Penitentiary where he served 15 years" (TVGuide.com); Dylan Walsh and Sarah Joy Brown are bound for "CSI" as part of plot involving serial killer Tom Cooley, a longtime nemesis of Elisabeth Shue's Julie Finlay (TVLine.com); Stephen Collins is set to appear on "Falling Skies" as the President of the United States prior to the alien invasion (TVGuide.com); Eric Edelstein and Maile Flanagan will join Bradley Whitford on the new season of "Shameless" (Deadline.com); and Andy and Lana Wachowski are currently shopping their top secret drama "Sense8" alongside showrunner J. Michael Straczynski (Variety.com).
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