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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!
THE BLACK BOX (ABC; W: Amy Holden Jones; D: Simon Curtis) - Laura Fraser ("Breaking Bad") will round out the cast of the upcoming drama, about Dr. Elizabeth Black (Kelly Reilly), a world-famous neuroscientist who unwraps the mysteries of the brain as she juggles complex issues of her own. She's on board as Regan Black, "the wife of Elizabeth's brother Joshua (David Chisum) and antagonist to Elizabeth." Ali Wong, David Ajala, Ditch Davey, Siobhan Williams, Tasso Feldman, Terry Kinney and Vanessa Redgrave also star. (Deadline.com)
GIRLFRIENDS' GUIDE TO DIVORCE (Bravo/UCP; W: Marti Noxon; D: TBA) - Paul Adelstein ("Private Practice") has joined the cast of the drama pilot, about Abby (Lisa Edelstein), the famous author of a best-selling self-help book series who is hiding the fact that she's separated from her husband as she starts to navigate her life as a single woman in her early 40s in Los Angeles. He'll play her aforementioned husband in the project, which also stars Beau Garrett. (Deadline.com)
THE LAW OF ATTRACTION (ABC, New!) - Jonathan Shapiro ("The Firm") and Betsy Borns ("All of Us") have sold a legal drama to the Alphabet about "a beautiful, upper class, brilliant woman who is forced to practice law with a charismatic, lower class tough guy in a reluctant partnership to save her father's powerful Boston law firm." Said duo will write and executive produce alongside Matt Gross via his ABC Studios-based Gross Entertainment. (Deadline.com)
LOS ROLDAN (ABC/ABC Studios; W: Sarah Hooper; D: TBA) - The Alphabet is once again looking to import the Argentine telenovela, about "the patriarch of the family, an average blue collar worker, who talks a woman out of jumping off a ledge. For saving her life, she offers him a big job in her company that changes his fortune but also puts him in the path of suspicious co-workers who try to figure out who he is and why has he been given such a big job." Writers Sarah Kucserka and Veronica Becker and producers Jose Tamez and Salma Hayek set up the previous incarnation at the network in 2010. Sarah Hooper ("Mount Pleasant") is spearheading the revised take with Michael McDonald likewise executive producing for ABC Studios. (Deadline.com)
THE SECRET SEX LIFE OF A SINGLE MOM (Lifetime, New!) - Ashley Jones, Cynthia Preston and Alex Carter are set to star in a small screen take on Delaine Moore's memoir of the same name, about Moore's (Ashley Jones) steamy self-discovery post-divorce. Preston will play Moore's supportive best friend Halli with Carter as The Dom. John L'Ecruyer is directing the telefilm from a script by Christine Conradt with Pierre David and Tom Berry executive producing for Reel One Entertainment. (Deadline.com)
SINS (ABC, New!) - Philip Levens ("Knight Rider") has landed a potential drama at the Alphabet about "a modern day black widow who seduces a wealthy man while struggling to stay one step ahead of his District Attorney sister and the ghosts of her past." Barry Jossen is also on board to executive produce for ABC Studios. (Deadline.com)
UNTITLED CHRIS DOWNEY/APOLLO ROBBINS PROJECT (ABC, New!) - Writer Chris Downey ("Leverage") and director Martin Campbell ("Last Resort") are set to team for a new drama about Alice Jones, "an FBI forensic psychiatrist, who teams up with Vincent Smith, a brilliant pickpocket-turned-Las Vegas magician, to catch bad guys living it up in Vegas in elaborate stings." Sleight-of-hand artist/security consultant Apollo Robbins - known as The Gentleman Thief - co-created the ABC Studios-based hour alongside Downey and will likewise executive produce. (Deadline.com)
UNTITLED PHILIP MARLOWE PROJECT (ABC, New!) - "Castle" creator Andrew W. Marlowe is developing a new small screen take on Raymond Chandler's famous hard-boiled detective, billed as "a smart, sexy and stylish update of Chandler's character which follows the investigations of wisecracking, edgy and rugged private detective Philip Marlowe as he navigates the morally complicated world of today's Los Angeles." Marlowe is penning the ABC Studios-based hour alongside his wife Terri Edda Miller and will executive produce via their MilMar Pictures banner with Michael De Luca of Michael De Luca Productions. Jason O'Mara toplined the network's 2007 take on the character, simply dubbed "Marlowe." (Deadline.com)
YOUNG & HUNGRY (ABC Family/CBSP; W: David Holden; D: TBA) - Aimee Carrero ("Level Up") has joined the cast of the multi-camera comedy pilot, about Nick (yet to be cast), a well-off young tech entrepreneur, who hires Gabi (Emily Osment), a feisty young food blogger, to be his personal chef. She'll play her best friend Tessa, "an ambitious banking intern who is always hustling to make ends meet." Eric Tannenbaum, Kim Tannenbaum , Ashley Tisdale and Jessica Rhoades are also among the executive producers. (THR.com)
AND IN OTHER NEWS... - NBC has commissioned four additional scripts of its newcomer "Sean Saves the World" (Deadline.com); MTV has reportedly given eight-episode series orders to its comedy pilots "Happyland," from writer Ben Epstein and director Lee Toland Krieger, and "Faking It," from writer Carter Covington and director Jamie Travis (Deadline.com); James Van Der Beek is returning to "How I Met Your Mother" as Simon, one of Robin's early boyfriends (@VanderJames); "CSI" co-star George Eads - who took a break from the series after a reported off-camera dispute - will be back beginning with its ninth episode this season (EW.com); Amandla Stenberg is set to recur on "Sleepy Hollow" as the teenage daughter of Orlando Jones's Capt. Frank Irving (THR.com);
Lifetime has picked up 20 original half-hour episodes of "Betty White's Off Their Rockers," which ran for two seasons on NBC (THR.com); Aimee Carrero has booked an arc on "The Americans" as "a smart yet impulsive Sandinista freedom fighter who will go to any lengths to support her cause" (THR.com); Rockmond Dunbar's incoming FBI Supervisory Agent Dennis Abbott has been upped to series regular on "The Mentalist" (TVLine.com); Marilyn Manson will lend his voice to "Once Upon a Time" as Shadow, "a character whose voice will give life to the very essence of Neverland" (RollingStone.com); and Amanda Plummer is bound for "Hannibal" as "a hippie-chic acupuncturist who's been causing trouble" (TheWrap.com).
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