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[02/28/13 - 11:31 PM]
Development Update: Thursday, February 28
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!


BAD ADVICE FROM MY BROTHER (Comedy Central) - The single-camera comedy - based on Jordan Pope Roush's blog of the same name - has received a cast-contingent pilot order. Said effort will track Jason, the older, not necessarily wiser brother who has spent most of his post-college life chasing women and the almighty dollar on Wall Street, and Ben, his younger brother who wants to follow in his footsteps. Roush himself penned the half-hour, to be executive produced by Brad Copeland. (Deadline.com)


BLINK (The CW) - John Benjamin Hickey ("The Big C") has booked the male lead on the drama pilot, about Ari Trask (Madeline Carroll), a 16-year-old girl reeling from a car accident that put her father, Greg, in a coma and his attempts to communicate from the great beyond. He'll play said father in the CBS Television Studios-based hour, which also stars Johnny Simmons and Michael Weston. Vera Harbert penned the script. (Deadline.com)


BLOODLINES (NBC) - Chris Zylka ("The Secret Circle") has been cast in the drama pilot, about Bird Benson (Skyler Samuels), a smart, irreverent and strong young girl who, due to an accident of birth, finds herself caught in the middle of an epic struggle between two warrior families. He'll play Troy Robbins, who grew up with the rigorous training regimen once mandated for all male Spartans and is smitten by Bird. Jonathan Banks, KaDee Strickland and Tom Everett Scott also star in the Universal Television-based hour, from director Peter Berg and writer David Graziano. (THR.com)


CAMP (NBC) - Nikolai Nikolaeff has snagged a role on the upcoming drama, about Little Hawk Family Camp, where parents decompress with gin while teenagers make gleeful mischief and fall in and out of love. He'll play Wes Carmichael ("staggeringly good-looking, a laidback force of nature"), the camp's maintenance guy who has three goals in life: food, sex and weed. The show's ensemble also includes Rachel Griffiths, Rodger Corser, Tim Pocock and Tom Green. Liz Heldens and Peter Elkoff created the project. (Deadline.com)


ENLISTED (FOX) - Parker Young ("Suburgatory") has booked a lead role on the single-camera comedy pilot, which follows three very different brothers working together in the Army at a small base in Florida. He'll play the youngest of said trio, Private Randy Waits ("a big, happy, eager-to-please kid brother"), who's billed as a Labrador Retriever of a man. Angelique Cabral, Geoff Stults and Keith David also star in the 20th Century Fox Television-based half-hour, from creator Kevin Biegel. (TVLine.com)


GROUND FLOOR (TBS) - John C. McGinley ("Scrubs") is the first to be cast in the multi-camera comedy pilot, about a successful alpha male who, after crossing paths with his company's carefree support staff, realizes he's not nearly as happy as he thought he was. He'll play his boss, Mr. Mansfield, in the Warner Bros. Television-based half-hour, from co-creators Bill Lawrence and Greg Malins. Gail Mancuso is directing. (Deadline.com)


HATFIELDS & MCCOYS, THE (NBC) - Sophia Bush, Rebecca De Mornay and Nick Westrate have all boarded the drama pilot, in which a startling death re-ignites the feud between the legendary families in present day Pittsburgh. De Mornay will play Hatfield matriarch Mary ("sophisticated, intelligent, dominant"), the city's mayor; with Westrate as her son Randall ("acts like he owns the world, but he has a lot left to prove"). Bush then is set as Emma McCoy ("piercing eyes and golden hair"), a resident at Allegheny General Hospital. Virginia Madsen also stars as Emma's mother with Jesse Lee Soffer and Patrick Flueger as her brothers. Michael Mayer is directing from a script by John Glenn for ABC Studios. (Deadline.com)


HOSTAGES (CBS) - James Naughton ("Gossip Girl") has been tapped to play the President of the United States on the drama pilot, about Ellen Sanders (Toni Collette), a successful surgeon who is selected to operate on the President, only to be told she must kill him after her family is taken hostage. Said character, Paul Kincaid ("silver-haired, avuncular"), has a non-malignant mass on his lung which Ellen has been tapped to remove. Writer/director Jeffrey Nachmanoff is behind the Warner Bros. Television-based hour, which also stars Billy Brown, Dylan McDermott, Mateus Ward, Quinn Shephard, Rhys Coiro, Sandrine Holt and Tate Donovan. (Deadline.com)


HUNDRED, THE (The CW) - Eliza Taylor and Marie Avgeropoulos have both landed roles on the pilot, a post-apocalyptic drama about 100 juvenile delinquents that are sent from the remnants of the multi-ringed space stations that are all that left of humanity to the surface of a wildly changed Earth as a test for recolonization. Taylor is set as Clarke ("smarter than she is pretty, but not by much"), their de facto medic who knows the truth behind their mission; while Avgeropoulos is on board as Octavia Black ("strikingly beautiful"), Bellamy's (Bob Morley) illegally born sister. Director Bharat Nalluri and writer Jason Rothenberg are behind the Warner Bros. Television-based hour, which also stars Eli Goree and Henry Ian Cusick. (Deadline.com)


KILLER WOMEN (ABC) - Marta Milans is the latest addition to the drama pilot, about Molly Parker (Tricia Helfer), the only woman in the notoriously male Texas Rangers. She'll play Vanessa "Nessa" Hernandez ("a fiery Latina"), who's married to - but separated from - Molly's ruggedly handsome older brother Billy (yet to be cast). Director Lawrence Trilling and writer Hannah Shakespeare are behind the ABC Studios-based hour, which also stars Marc Blucas. (Deadline.com)


MIDDLE AGE RAGE (ABC) - Will Sasso ("$#*! My Dad Says") has booked a role on the comedy pilot, about Carol Bobeck (Annie Mumolo), a wife/mother/Oprah fan who is fed up with feeling invisible and begins to speak up and demand the respect she feels she's earned. He's set as her husband Leonard ("thinning hair, stress fat belly") in the single-camera project, which is set up at ABC Studios. Melanie Leishman also stars while Cheryl Holliday penned the script. (Deadline.com)


MURDER IN MANHATTAN (ABC) - Enver Gjokaj and Brendan Hines are the latest to board the drama pilot, about a mother and daughter - Blythe (yet to be cast) and Lex Sutton (Bridget Regan) - who team up as amateur sleuths in New York City. Hines will play Lex's brother Bart ("handsome, easy on his feet, confident"), an Assistant District Attorney; with Gjokaj as Jack ("got the kind of off-handed good looks and swagger that make ladies swoony"), an NYPD detective and Lex's childhood best friend/current romantic complication. ABC Studios is behind the hour, from director Cherie Nowlan and writer Maria Maggenti. (Deadline.com)


RITA (Bravo) - Rafi Gavron and Anisha Nagarajan have landed roles on the drama pilot, about the title character (Anna Gunn), an outspoken private school teacher who struggles to raise her own three teenage children while dealing with the inane bureaucracy and overprotective parents at her school. Gavron will play Rita's cool, easygoing eldest son; with Nagarajan as an eager new teacher. Colin Salmon, Josh Hamilton and Robbie Kay also star in the Krista Vernoff-penned hour, to be directed by Miguel Arteta for Fox Television Studios. (Deadline.com)


SELECTION, THE (The CW) - Celia Massingham and Michael Malarkey have joined the cast of the drama pilot, which is set 300 years in the future and tracks America Singer (Yael Grobglas), a poor woman who is chosen by lottery to compete to become the next queen of a war-torn nation. She's on board as fellow competitor Celeste Newsome, a drop dead gorgeous member of the Noble Class. Malarkey then is set as Prince Maxon Shreave ("handsome and knows it, wickedly charming"), whom the girls are vying to marry. Peta Sergeant and Sean Patrick Thomas also star in the Warner Bros. Television-based hour, from writers Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain. Alex Graves is directing. (Deadline.com)


SURGEON GENERAL, THE (CBS) - Beth Riesgraf ("Leverage") has been cast in the drama pilot, about a fictional Surgeon General of the United States (Jason Isaacs) and the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. She'll play Dr. Page Wyatt, "a cute offbeat biochemist." Rod Lurie is directing the CBS Television Studios-based hour from a script by Samuel Baum. Katherine McNamara also stars. (Deadline.com)


WEST SIDE (ABC) - Lincoln Lewis and Michael Graziadei have scored roles on the "Romeo and Juliet"-esque drama pilot, about star-crossed lovers, Sophie (Odette Annable) and Chris (yet to be cast), from rival families in Venice, California. The former is on board as Shealy ("lost boy good looks, damaged"), Chris's brother who just got out of prison after six years; while the latter is set as Josh ("hip, dad's looks, on top of his shit"), Sophie's brother who's poised to take over the family business. Bruce Greenwood and Jennifer Beals also star in the Warner Bros. Television-based hour, from writer Byron Balasco and director McG. (Deadline.com)


AND IN OTHER NEWS... - Mary Kay Place has been cast as Bryan's (Andrew Rannells) estranged mom on "The New Normal" (TVGuide.com); Jimmy Smits's Nero Padilla will return for all 13 episodes of "Sons of Anarchy's" sixth season (TVLine.com); Joanna Cassidy will guest on the season finale of "Bones" as the mother of David Boreanaz's Seeley Booth (TVGuide.com); ABC Studios is developing David France's Oscar-nominated documentary "How to Survive a Plague" as a mini-series (THR.com); and Fred Savage has been tapped to direct the Patrick Warburton-led comedy pilot "Jacked Up" at CBS (THR.com).






  [february 2013]  
S
M
T
W
T
F
S
     


· 100, THE (CW)
· BAD ADVICE FROM MY BROTHER (COMEDY CENTRAL)
· BIG C, THE (SHOWTIME)
· BLEEP MY DAD SAYS (CBS)
· BLINK (CW)
· BLOODLINES (NBC)
· BONES (FOX)
· CAMP (NBC)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· ENLISTED (FOX)
· GOSSIP GIRL (CW)
· GROUND FLOOR (TBS)
· HATFIELDS & MCCOYS, THE (NBC)
· HOSTAGES (CBS)
· JACKED UP (CBS)
· KILLER WOMEN (ABC)
· LEVERAGE (TNT)
· MIDDLE AGE RAGE (ABC)
· MURDER IN MANHATTAN (ABC)
· NEW NORMAL, THE (NBC)
· RITA (BRAVO)
· SCRUBS (ABC)
· SECRET CIRCLE, THE (CW)
· SELECTION, THE - 2013 VERSION (CW)
· SONS OF ANARCHY (FX)
· SUBURGATORY (ABC)
· SURGEON GENERAL, THE (CBS)
· WESTSIDE (ABC)





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