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[01/23/19 - 11:44 PM]
Development Update: Wednesday, January 23
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!


HAPPY ACCIDENT (ABC) - JoAnna Garcia Swisher has been cast in the single-camera comedy pilot, about two Pittsburgh families - a father with three adult daughters, and a hotel lounge singer with her med student son - who are forced together after a decades-old secret is revealed. She'll play Eleanor Bennett, "a professor at Pitt who is also Bud's (Matt Walsh) oldest daughter." (Deadline.com)
JANE THE NOVELA (A.K.A. UNTITLED JANE THE VIRGIN SPIN-OFF PROJECT) (The CW) - The network's spin-off series has scored a pilot order from the netlet. As previously announced, writer Valentina Garza and director Brad Silberling are spearheading the CBS Television Studios-based project with Gina Rodriguez, Jennie Snyder Urman, Ben Silverman, Joanna Klein, Emily Gipson, Jorge Granier and Gary Pearl also executive producing. The logline is as follows: "A telenovela anthology series in the tradition of JANE THE VIRGIN, where each season is based on a different fictional novel "written by" Jane Villanueva and narrated by the author herself. The first installment takes place at a Napa Valley Vineyard, where family secrets (and family members) don't stay buried for long." (Deadline.com)
JUDGE JERRY (Syndication) - NBCUniversal Television Distribution has now cleared the series on stations covering more than 90% of the country for its fall 2019 debut. (Deadline.com)
KATY KEENE (A.K.A. UNTITLED RIVERDALE SPIN-OFF PROJECT) (The CW) - The proposed spin-off, first mentioned back in August, has received a pilot order from the network. "Riverdale's" Robert Aguirre-Sacasa and Michael Grassi co-wrote the hour for Warner Bros. Television and will executive produce alongside Jon Goldwater and Berlanti Productions' Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter. The logline is as follows: "A Riverdale spinoff, KATY KEENE follows the lives and loves of four iconic Archie Comics characters - including fashion legend-to-be Katy Keene - as they chase their twenty-something dreams in New York City. This musical dramedy chronicles the origins and struggles of four aspiring artists trying to make it on Broadway, on the runway and in the recording studio." (Deadline.com)
LOST BOYS, THE (The CW) - The network has ordered a pilot for its long-in-the-works small screen take on the 1987 vampire feature. Heather Mitchell penned the script for Warner Bros. Television and is executive producing alongside Spondoolie Productions' Rob Thomas (who was originally set to write) and Dan Etheridge as well as Gulfstream Television's Mike Karz and Bill Bindley. The logline is as follows: "Welcome to sunny seaside Santa Carla, home to a beautiful boardwalk, all the cotton candy you can eat... and a secret underworld of vampires. After the sudden death of their father, two brothers move to Santa Carla with their mother, who hopes to start anew in the town where she grew up. But the brothers find themselves drawn deeper and deeper into the seductive world of Santa Carla's eternally beautiful and youthful undead." (Deadline.com)
MARE OF EASTTOWN (HBO, New!) - Kate Winslet is attached to star in a new limited series from writer Brad Ingelsby and director Gavin O'Connor. The project follows "a small-town Pennsylvania detective who investigates a local murder at a time when her own life is crumbling around her." Said trio will also executive produce alongside Mayhem Pictures' Gordon Gray and wiip's Paul Lee and Mark Roybal. (Deadline.com)
MILLION LITTLE THINGS, A (ABC) - Chandler Riggs has been tapped to recur on the freshman drama as PJ, "a young man Rome (Romany Malco) meets. Like Rome, PJ has had some dark days and their encounter proves meaningful to both of them in ways each of them doesn't even fully realize at the time." (TVLine.com)
SPLITTING UP TOGETHER (ABC) - Executive producer Emily Kapnek has signed a three-year overall deal at ABC Studios. The pact covers her duties on the comedy as well as any future output from her Piece of the Pie banner. (Variety.com)
UNINSURED (NBC) - Dan Levy's comedy - about young parents Dave and Rebecca, who in addition to raising their two kids, end up taking care of Dave's parents, Elliot and Linda, who have mishandled their finances and need their help to pay down a sizable debt - has been ordered to pilot by the network. The project, originally conceived as single-camera, will instead be shot as multi-camera. Sony Pictures Television-based Doug Robinson Productions is producing. (Deadline.com)
UNTITLED NANCY DREW PROJECT (The CW) - The netlet's small screen take on Edward Stratemeyer's literary heroine is heading to pilot. Noga Landau, Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage co-wrote the hour for the CBS Television Studios-based Fake Empire. The logline is as follows: "Set in the summer after her high school graduation,18-year-old Nancy Drew thought she'd be leaving her hometown for college, but when a family tragedy holds her back another year, she finds herself embroiled in a ghostly murder investigation - and along the way, uncovers secrets that run deeper than she ever imagined." (Deadline.com)





  [january 2019]  
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· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· HAPPY ACCIDENT (ABC)
· INDEBTED (NBC)
· JANE THE NOVELA (CW)
· JANE THE VIRGIN (CW)
· JUDGE JERRY (SYNDICATION)
· KATY KEENE (CW)
· LOST BOYS, THE - 2019 VERSION (CW)
· MARE OF EASTTOWN (HBO)
· MILLION LITTLE THINGS, A (ABC)
· NANCY DREW (CW)
· RIVERDALE (CW)
· SPLITTING UP TOGETHER (ABC)





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