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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!
BERLIN STATION (Epix/Paramount; W: Olen Steinhauer; D: Michaël Roskam) - Rhys Ifans is the latest to be cast in the upcoming drama, about Daniel Meyer, a newly anointed case officer who has arrived at the CIA foreign station in Berlin, Germany to uncover the source of a leak who has supplied information to a now-famous whistleblower named Thomas Shaw. He'll play Case Officer Hector DeJean, "a darkly charming, tenacious agent who works for Chief Steven Frost (Richard Jenkins)." (Deadline.com)
DETOUR, THE (A.K.A. UNTITLED JONES & BEE PROJECT) (TBS; W: Jason Jones & Samantha Bee; D: Steve Pink) - Daniella Pineda has joined the cast of the upcoming comedy, which will follow a couple (Jason Jones, Natalie Zea) and their two young kids (Ashley Gerasimovich, Liam Carroll) as they take a road trip to Florida. She'll play Vanessa, the "obliviously distasteful sister" of Zea's character. (Deadline.com)
EDGE (Amazon; W: Fred Dekker & Shane Black; D: Shane Black) - Yvonne Strahovski, Max Martini, Ryan Kwanten and Alicja Bachleda are the first to be cast in the western drama pilot, which "follows Josiah Hedges, better known as Edge (Martini), a man who's out for vengeance after his younger brother is killed by a group of his former Union army comrades, lead by his nemesis, Merritt Harknett (Kwanten)." Strahovski will play Beth, "a mysterious Pinkerton detective who's a newcomer to the bloody town of Seward, Kansas, where the series is set"; with Bachleda as Pilar, "a pregnant woman who is held prisoner by her husband and father-in-law and pleads with Edge (Martini) to help her escape." Said effort is based on the Edge books by author George Gilman. (Variety.com)
EL DOUBLE (WGN America, New!) - Alfredo Barrios, Jr. ("Burn Notice") has set up a potential drama at the network which "centers on a cunning Mexican drug kingpin who hires a down-on-his-luck American actor as his body double to evade the authorities and his enemies from the cartel underworld." Electus is behind the project, which is based on the Spanish-language format Tiro de Gracia from Televisa USA and Caracol. Ben Silverman, Sean Canino, Jay Weisleder and Chris Philip also serve as executive producers. (THR.com)
GORGEOUS MORONS (ABC Family/ABCS; W: Danny Chun; D: TBA) - Federico Dordei (Big Stan) has scored a role on the multi-camera comedy pilot, about Madison (Christopher Russell) and AJ (Dylan Playfair), two stunningly handsome but ridiculously simple brothers - one is a model, the other a personal trainer - who find their lives rocked by their brainy new roommate, Jane (Lilah Richcreek), a female literature PhD whose looks are, by their standards, in desperate need of help. He'll play Adriano in the project, which also stars Joy Osmanski. (Deadline.com)
GROUP, THE (TBS/WHT; W: David Jenkins; D: Greg Daniels) - Ana Gasteyer, Wyatt Cenac, Alice Wetterlund, Tracee Chimo, Oscar Nunez, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Marylouise Burke and Brian Huskey have all been cast in the comedy project, about a support group for people who think they have been abducted by aliens is the subject of a snarky feature piece by skeptical journalist Wyatt Jones. Cenac will play the aforementioned Jones with Gasteyer as Gina Morrison, "a disgraced, though, competent therapist who runs a support group for alien abductees while working part time at a home furnishing chain store"; Wetterlund as Kelly Grady, "a goofy attractive girl who works as a temp and perpetually dates jerks"; Chimo as Chelsea Healey, "a high-strung soul in the body of a housewife who is masking something much darker"; Nunez as hip priest Father Doug, who "manages the community room rentals at Our Lady of Sorrows in Beacon"; Randolph as Yvonne Watson, "the best door-to-door cosmetic salesperson on the Eastern seaboard in The Group"; Burke as Margaret Flood, "the sex-crazed retiree in Beacon's retirement community"; and Huskey as Richard Shenk, "a newly promoted executive of a tech company who has all the charisma of a manila envelope and fervently believes that his wife was taken by aliens." (Deadline.com)
INCORPORATED (Syfy/CBSP; W/D: Alex Pastor & David Pastor) - Julia Ormond is the latest to be cast in the drama pilot, set in a future where companies have seemingly unlimited power and centers around Ben Larson (Sean Teale), a young executive who risks everything to infiltrate the all-controlling corporate world and save the woman he loves. In the process, he will take on the entire system - with deadly consequences. She'll play Ben's mother-in-law, Elizabeth, "a whip-smart, powerful top executive who enjoys the perks of her position but also is trapped in a ruthless system that demands results." Eddie Ramos and Georgina Haig also star. (Deadline.com)
LADY DYNAMITE (Netflix; W: Mitch Hurwitz & Pam Brady; D: TBA) - Ana Gasteyer has booked a role on the Maria Bamford-led comedy, which tells the story of a woman who loses - and then finds - her s**t. She'll play Karen Grisham, "a power agent in LA and a huge fan of Maria. Inviting Maria to lunch, Karen has no interest in representing her but does want to be her best friend." (Deadline.com)
WOMEN'S MURDER CLUB (USA, New!) - James Patterson is looking to revisit his popular book series - about "four women in San Francisco (a homicide detective, a reporter, the chief medical examiner and a district attorney) solving crimes together - on the small screen. Angie Harmon toplined a short-lived adaptation for ABC during the 2007-08 season, while NBC aired an adaptation of the first book in the series, "1st to Die," in 2003. Tony Krantz is penning the new adaptation, which will envision "each book as a 10-episode serialized season following one complicated and twisty murder mystery." James Patterson Entertainment's Bill Robinson and Leopoldo Gout will also executive produce with Flame Ventures' Drew Comins as a co-executive producer. (Deadline.com)
AND IN OTHER NEWS... - Courtney Grosbeck will recur on NBC's new drama "The Player" as "the teenage niece of Alex King (Philip Winchester) who is mourning the loss of her Aunt Ginny, King's wife" (Deadline.com); Jeremy Clarkson will reunite with his former "Top Gear" colleagues James May and Richard Hammond as well as producer Andy Wilman on a new series with three-season deal for Amazon (@AmazonVideoUK); Rob Benedict has booked an arc on "Masters of Sex" as "the new office ultrasound technician working alongside Barton Scully (Beau Bridges) at the Masters and Johnson clinic" (Variety.com); pop star Becky G will visit "Empire" in a yet-to-be-revealed role (TVLine.com); Archie Panjabi will guest on "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" as "a police officer who has her eye on Joe Lo Truglio's Detective Boyle" (TVLine.com); and Danish director Kristoffer Nyholm has signed on the helm the first half of FX's event series "Taboo" (Variety.com).
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