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[12/18/13 - 11:16 PM]
Development Update: Wednesday, December 18
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!


COLD DEAD HANDS (Sundance, New!) - Scott Gold ("Under the Dome") has sold a potential series at the cable channel about "the fictional and polarizing head of the NRA, Trip Thibodeaux, and the drama that swirls around him both at work and at home. A charismatic and polarizing figure, he'll be forced to navigate a volatile landscape in American culture and politics, as well as crises of his own faith, when his rarefied world spirals out of control." Tony Krantz will also executive produce via his Flame Ventures banner with Reece Pearson serving as co-executive producer. (Deadline.com)


FATRICK (FOX/20th; W: Corey Nickerson & Nahnatchka Khan; D: Jim Rash & Nat Faxon) - Marcia Cross ("Desperate Housewives") and Ray Ford ("Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23") are the first to be cast in the comedy pilot, about Patrick, a 30-something moving man and formerly fat kid who is forced to face the damage caused by years of being Fatrick: a chubby little kid just trying to survive. Cross will play Patrick's mother Arlene, "a fit, energetic nutritionist, she is rigid and intense when it comes to her family's eating habits." Ford then will play Maurice, "the only one who knows both Patricks and now serves as his therapist." Also signing on are Dante Hoagland as the 12-year-old version of Maurice and Lucy Rust as the younger version of Patrick's sister. (Deadline.com)


JAKE & AMIR (TBS, New!) - Amir Blumenfeld and Jake Hurwitz's web series - about "an odd-couple friendship between best friends and co-workers Jake (Hurwitz), the sensible regular guy, and Amir (Blumenfeld), the obsessive oddball" - is being developed as a comedy at the cable channel. Mike Lisbe and Nate Reger will co-write the half-hour alongside said duo with Pacific Electric Picture Co.'s Ed Helms and Mike Falbo and CollegeHumor's Ricky Van Veen and Sam Reich also serving as executive producers. (Deadline.com)


PUBLIC MORALS (TNT; W/D: Ed Burns) - Michael Rapaport ("Justified") has joined the cast of the drama pilot, about "the Public Morals Division in New York City circa 1967, where cops walk the line between morality and criminality as the temptations that come from dealing with all kinds of vices can get the best of them." He's set as Muldoon's (Ed Burns) partner Charlie Bullman, "the muscle of the operation." Wass Stevens also stars. (Deadline.com)


UNTITLED DAVID KOECHNER/LOU WALLACH PROJECT (NBC) - David Koechner (Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues) has booked a pilot order from the Peacock for a one-hour variety sketch show. No other details were given about the project, which Koechner will executive produce alongside Lou Wallach and Brillstein Entertainment Partners' Alex Murray and Tim Sarkes for Universal Television. Wallach previously set up at the project back in July via his overall deal with the studio. Koechner had been attached to the A+E Networks comedy pilot "Whitey," which did not go to series. (Deadline.com)


AND IN OTHER NEWS... - A&E has placed "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson "under hiatus from filming indefinitely" over comments he made to GQ about the LGBT community (EW.com); Fred Armisen will return to "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" for its post-Super Bowl as episode as oddball Melipnos while former NFL great Joe Theismann will make a cameo as himself (EW.com); Pasha Lychnikoff will recur on FOX's "Gang Related" as "the head of a Russian organized crime family" (Deadline.com); Jim Watson is bound for FX's "The Strain" as the younger version of David Bradley's Abraham (Deadline.com); Demi Lovato won't return to "The X Factor" for a potential fourth season (Deadline.com);

CBS and Warner Bros. Television are reportedly in talks for a three-year renewal of their monster hit "The Big Bang Theory" (Deadline.com); Lionsgate Television is developing a small screen take on Nick Bilton's book "Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal" (Deadline.com); NBCUniversal Domestic Television Distribution's "The Meredith Vieira Show" is now a go in 85% of the country for its launch next fall (Deadline.com); Romy Rosemont is bound for "The Fosters" as "the quirky and sometimes challenging mother of Mariana's (Cierra Ramirez) new friend Zac (Julian De La Celle) (EOnline.com); Paul Sorvino and Vincent Curatola will guest on "Elementary" as "the heads of two warring families in an hour that explores the state of the Mafia in New York City in 2013" (TVLine.com); and Josh Peck will drop by "The Big Bang Theory" as "the owner of the rival - and extremely successful - comic book store" to Stuart's (Kevin Sussman) shop (TVLine.com).






  [december 2013]  
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· BIG BANG THEORY, THE (CBS)
· BROOKLYN NINE-NINE (NBC)
· COLD DEAD HANDS (SUNDANCE)
· DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES (ABC)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· DON'T TRUST THE BITCH IN APARTMENT 23 (ABC)
· DUCK DYNASTY (A AND E)
· ELEMENTARY (CBS)
· FATRICK (FOX)
· FOSTERS, THE (FREEFORM)
· GANG RELATED (FOX)
· JAKE & AMIR (TRUTV)
· JUSTIFIED (FX)
· MEREDITH VIEIRA SHOW, THE (SYNDICATION)
· PUBLIC MORALS (TNT)
· STRAIN, THE (FX)
· UNDER THE DOME (CBS)
· UNTITLED LOU WALLACH PROJECT (NBC)
· X FACTOR, THE (FOX)





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