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[12/19/13 - 11:22 PM]
Development Update: Thursday, December 19
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!


7 DEADLY SINS (FOX, New!) - David Mamet ("The Unit") is spearheading a potential limited series at the network in which the "themes invoked by the seven deadly sins will serve as a backdrop of a series of interconnected stories the reflect on the human condition through Mamet's distinctive lens." Mamet will write and direct the first episode and write at least two additional episodes as well as executive produce. 20th Century Fox Television and Lionsgate Television are behind the project with Wonder Monkey's Stephen McPherson likewise executive producing. (Variety.com)


THE BRINK (HBO; W: Kim Benabib & Roberto Benabib; D: Jay Roach) - Eric Ladin ("The Killing") is the latest to board the cast of the comedy pilot, about three compromised souls who must pull through the chaos around them to save the planet from World War Three: U.S. Secretary of State Walter Hollander (Tim Robbins); Alex Coppins (Jack Black), a lowly Foreign Service officer; and Zeke Callahan (Pablo Schreiber), an ace Navy fighter pilot. He's set as Lieutenant Glenn Taylor, "Callahan's ace wingman." Also starring are Aasif Mandvi, Esai Morales, Geoff Pierson, Maribeth Monroe, Mimi Kennedy and Ryan Curtona. (Deadline.com)


GRACEPOINT (FOX; W: Chris Chibnall; D: James Strong) - Michael Peña (American Hustle) is the latest addition to the event series, a gripping crime drama which follows the tragic and mysterious death of a young boy found dead on an idyllic beach surrounded by rocks and a jutting cliff-face, from where he may have fallen. He'll play the boy's father Mark Lasseter, "a well-liked local plumber and family man. Like anyone else, Mark is left devastated by the murder, but as his wife, Beth (Virginia Kull), suspects, he may be hiding something about that fatal evening." David Tennant, Jacki Weaver, Kevin Rankin and Kevin Zegers also star. (Deadline.com)


HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER (ABC/ABC Studios; W: Peter Nowalk; D: TBA) - The Shonda Rhimes-produced drama - about a group of ambitious law students and their brilliant, mysterious criminal defense professor who become entangled in a murder plot that will rock their entire university and change the course of their lives - has received a pilot order from the Alphabet. Shondaland's Betsy Beers will likewise executive produce alongside writer Peter Nowalk. (Deadline.com)


PUBLIC MORALS (TNT; W/D: Ed Burns) - Ruben Santiago-Hudson ("Low Winter Sun") has scored a role on the Ed Burns-led 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 Lt. King, "a womanizing badass, beloved and revered by the department, who has just as much drama outside of the workplace as there is inside the workplace." Michael Rapaport and Wass Stevens also star. (Deadline.com)


SEA OF FIRE (ABC/Sony; W: Jenna Bans; D: TBA) - The Alphabet has given a pilot order to its import of the Dutch series, about how a pornographic film featuring three teenage girls tears their families apart and leads to a disappearance, a murder and host of other secrets boiling under the surface in their small town. Scripted World's Rob Golenberg and Alon Aranya; Mandeville's David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Laurie Zaks; as well as VARA's Robert Kievit and Frank Ketelaar are executive producing alongside writer Jenna Bans. (Deadline.com)


UNTITLED MARSHALLS PROJECT (Nickelodeon, New!) - Garry Marshall (New Year's Eve) and his son, fellow director Scott Marshall (Keeping Up with the Steins) are developing a multi-camera comedy at the network in which kids - ages 10 to 12 years old - play grown-up characters in a crime procedural about "a male cop, his DA brother and the female judge they both have a crush on. Also a corrupt mayor and the woman who runs the local malt shoppe who is "connected." They'll co-write the script with the younger Marshall attached to direct. Kapital Entertainment's Aaron Kaplan will also serve as an executive producer. (Deadline.com)


AND IN OTHER NEWS... - Disney-ABC Domestic Television won't move forward with a third season of "Katie" however production will continue through June (Deadline.com); Judy Davis will recur on "24: Live Another Day" as Margot, "a British national and the widow of a notorious terrorist" (Deadline.com); Rhea Perlman will drop by "The Neighbors" as Debbie's (Jamie Gertz) mother Janet (TVLine.com); Marc Evan Jackson has been cast as the yet-to-be-seen husband of Andre Braugher's Captain Holt on "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" (TVLine.com); Cybill Shepherd has been cast as Malin Akerman's mother on "Trophy Wife" (EOnline.com); newcomer Mitchell Hope has joined the cast of Disney Channel's "Descendants" as Belle's teenage son (THR.com); and Dylan Bruno will visit "NCIS: Los Angeles" as "a former Army intelligence officer who also worked for a private contractor in Afghanistan" (TVGuide.com).






  [december 2013]  
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W
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· 24 (FOX)
· 7 DEADLY SINS (FOX)
· BRINK, THE (HBO)
· BROOKLYN NINE-NINE (NBC)
· DESCENDANTS (DISNEY)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· GRACEPOINT (FOX)
· HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER (ABC)
· KATIE (SYNDICATION)
· KILLING, THE (NETFLIX)
· LOW WINTER SUN (AMC)
· NCIS: LOS ANGELES (CBS)
· NEIGHBORS, THE (ABC)
· PUBLIC MORALS (TNT)
· SEA OF FIRE (ABC)
· TROPHY WIFE (ABC)
· UNIT, THE (CBS)
· UNTITLED MARSHALLS PROJECT (NICKELODEON)





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