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[02/16/18 - 11:49 PM]
Development Update: Friday, February 16
By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC) |
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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!
CHIEFS (CBS) - Aunjanue Ellis ("Quantico") has scored a lead role on the drama pilot as Los Angeles Chief Kendra Downes: "An LAPD lifer and divorced mother of two, Kendra is a highly respected and experienced chief. She's a people person who's always on the lookout for her fellow cops. Her style of policing is to connect with people and create community." Ellis was a regular on the first two seasons of the ABC drama. (Deadline.com)
CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA, THE (Netflix) - Lucy Davis (Wonder Woman) has been cast as Hilda Spellman, one of Sabrina's (Kiernan Shipka) two witch aunts on the upcoming drama: "More nurturing than Zelda, Hilda's motherly nature and warm sense of humor belie a wicked, ghoulish streak. She is as adept at brewing spite jars against her family's enemies as she is at concocting love potions for the students at Baxter High." (Deadline.com)
DAN THE WEATHERMAN (FOX) - Seth Gordon ("The Goldbergs") has signed on to helm the comedy pilot, in which after getting fired from his cushy job as a weatherman at the local TV station, Dan finds it's not enough to be a charming white man in this world. He reluctantly ends up at the neighboring Spanish TV station.
ENEMY WITHIN, THE (NBC) - Mark Pellington ("Blindspot") has signed on to direct the drama pilot, about former CIA agent Erica Wolfe, the most notorious traitor in modern history and most hated woman in America, who is brought out of a federal supermax prison by the FBI to help stop some of the most dangerous acts of espionage threatening the United States today. (Deadline.com)
GOD FRIENDED ME (CBS) - Javicia Leslie and Suraj Sharma have both been cast in the Brandon Micheal Hall-led drama pilot, about an outspoken atheist whose life is turned upside down when he is "friended" by God on Facebook, unwittingly becoming an agent of change in the lives and destinies of others around him. Leslie will play Ali Finer: "Bright, compassionate and opinionated, Miles' (Hall) younger sister is always in his corner to provide encouragement and honest insight. She is also working on her PhD in psychology." Sharma then is set as Rakesh Sehgal: "Good-natured, funny and likeable, Rakesh is Miles' (Hall) co-worker and his best pal. A video game enthusiast, coder and sometimes hacker, he helps Miles (Hall) and Cara (not yet cast) research the God account." (Deadline.com)
GREATEST AMERICAN HERO, THE (ABC) - Shoniqua Shandai has been cast in the Alphabet's reboot of the 1980s series as Tawnia Nichols, "the office manager and resident gossip at the marketing agency where Meera (Hannah Simone) works." (Deadline.com)
HARRY (Syndication) - NBCUniversal Domestic Television has confirmed the Harry Connick, Jr.-fronted talk show will end after two seasons. Episodes will continue to tape through September. (Variety.com)
I MOM SO HARD (CBS) - Freddie Prinze, Jr. and David Fynn are set to star opposite Kristin Hensley and Jen Smedley in the multi-camera comedy pilot, based on the web series which follows two moms who show how their friendship gets them through being wives and mothers. Fynn will play Brian, "a hard-working, affable school teacher and fun father, Brian is devoted to his wife, Kristin (Hensley), and he's willing to put a smile on her face at any expense." Prinze, Jr. then will portray Hale: "Married to Jen (Smedley), Hale is a work-from-home former athlete with a dry sense of humor. He has a great relationship with his wife's best friend, Kristin, and her husband, Brian (Fynn)." Additionally, Don Scardino is slated to direct. (Deadline.com)
INFAMY (FOX) - Patricia Riggen (The 33) has been tapped to direct the pilot, a legal drama set in an wrongful conviction firm. Led by a fierce and fearless female lawyer with a hunger for justice, the team reopens investigations, putting their own lives in danger to exonerate the innocent that were "proven" guilty.
LOVE IS ___ (OWN) - Tammy Townsend, Loretta Devine, Tim Reid and Vanessa Bell Calloway have all been cast in the upcoming drama, about a modern-day power couple balancing successful careers and a beautiful family. Townsend will play Carol, "the fun, sexy, bohemian mother of Nuri (Michele Weaver)"; with Devine as Betty, "the sharp-tongued and insightful mother of Yasir (Will Catlett)"; Reid as "Yasir's lifelong friend Sean, as seen in the year 2027"; and Calloway as Angela in 2027, "Nuri's lifelong friend and trusted confidante." (Deadline.com)
MIXTAPE (FOX) - Madeline Stowe ("Revenge") is the first to be cast in the drama pilot as Margot Weston, "an actress who carefully controls how she presents herself to the world, but is secretly exhausted by having to do it." (Deadline.com)
OUR PEOPLE (FOX) - Trent O'Donnell ("New Girl") has scored the directing duties on the comedy pilot, about a man from a bombastic African family who doesn't have a word in their native language for "privacy" and his fiancée from a mid-western family try to build a normal life together.
ROSWELL (The CW) - Jeanine Mason ("Grey's Anatomy") is the first to be cast in the netlet's reboot as Liz Ortecho, "a jaded biomedical researcher and the daughter of undocumented immigrants, is haunted by a tragic incident. She discovers a shocking truth about her teenage crush who is now a police officer: He's an alien who has kept his unearthly abilities hidden his entire life." (Deadline.com)
SAFE HARBOR (ABC) - Lynn Collins, Aasif Mandvi and Kris D. Lofton are the first to board the drama pilot, about the colorful, complicated lives of cops on and off the beat as we follow them into harrowing, emotional and often humorous situations. Collins will play Oriana "Ori" Cloverfield, "who gave up a legal career to become a rookie cop - or so it seems." Mandvi then plays Stanley Mudd, "a likable and loyal cop at Harbor Division"; with Lofton as Alvin "Deets" Dietrich, "who also is an officer at Harbor Open division, hoping to make detective one day." (Deadline.com)
SINGLE PARENTS (ABC) - Jason Winer ("Modern Family") is set to helm the comedy pilot, which revolves around a group of single parents who lean on each other as they raise their kids and look for another chance at love (or at least sex).
SO CLOSE (NBC) - Punam Patel ("Kevin from Work") has been tapped for a role in the multi-camera comedy pilot as Dhara, "whose strict parents always push their traditional Indian values on her. She's torn because she loves her parents and her culture but wants to live in the real world as well." (Deadline.com)
UMBRELLA ACADEMY, THE (Netflix) - Cameron Britton, Colm Feore, Adam Godley and Ashley Madekwe are all bound for the small screen take on the comic series. Britton will play Hazel, "an infamously ruthless and efficient hit-man, currently under contract"; with Feore as Sir Reginald Hargreeves, "a world-renowned billionaire industrialist and eccentric inventor - Howard Hughes meets Elon Musk"; Godley as Pogo, "a genetically engineered, tweed jacket-wearing, talking chimpanzee"; and Madekwe as Detective Patch, "a driven, fast riser within the police department focused on solving a string of crimes in the city." (Deadline.com)
UNTITLED BARRIS & BEAN PROJECT (ABC) - The Alphabet has pushed the multi-camera comedy pilot off-cycle over casting issues. The project was originally developed as a potential starring vehicle for executive producer Alec Baldwin. The actor subsequently passed leaving producers to find a new lead. (Deadline.com)
UNTITLED TIM DOYLE PROJECT (ABC) - Actress Mary McCormack and director Randall Einhorn are both bound for the comedy pilot, about an Irish-Catholic family with a working class dad (Michael Cudlitz), traditional mom and eight sons as they struggle to cope in the turbulent 1970's. She'll play said mom, Peggy Dwyer: "Controlling and formidable, married to Mike (Cudlitz) and the mother of their eight sons ranging in age from 20 to a baby in arms, she's a traditional 1950s housewife who can't drive, rarely leaves the house, and is a bit out of her depth in the early 1970s." (Deadline.com)
WHISKEY CAVALIER (ABC) - Peter Atencio ("Jean-Claude Van Johnson") is slated to direct and executive produce the Scott Foley-led drama pilot, about "an interagency team of spies who periodically save the world (and one another) while navigating the rocky roads of friendship, romance and office politics." (Deadline.com)
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