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[01/30/20 - 11:49 PM]
Development Update: Thursday, January 30
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!
AFRO.PUNKS (HBO Max, New!) - Writer Jenina Kibuka and director Anton Cropper have sold a new drama to the streaming service about "three teenage misfits on the brink of rebellion as they navigate life, love and Afro-Punk." Sony Pictures Television is behind the hour with I'll Have Another Productions' Gabrielle Union and Holly Shakoor Fleischer also executive producing. Shakoor Fleischer is a co-executive producer. (Deadline.com)
BAD IDEAS WITH ADAM DEVINE (Quibi, New!) - Adam Devine is set to topline "a wacky celebrity reality series" on the streaming service in which "he and a famous actor or comedian will travel to a new location in search of adventures that are already inherently dangerous - only they'll add their own extra special sauce to ensure they are truly terrible choices." Devine also executive produces with Scotty Landes, Isaac Horne, Mark Kadin, Will Ehbrecht and Jeff Sells for Mak Pictures. (Deadline.com)
BIG SKY, THE (ABC, New!) - David E. Kelley has landed a straight-to-series order from the Alphabet for a TV series based on C.J. Box's Cassie Dewell series of novels. In the project, "private detective Cassie Dewell partners with ex-cop Jenny Hoyt on a search for two sisters who have been kidnapped by a truck driver on a remote highway in Montana. When they discover that these are not the only girls who have disappeared in the area, they must race against the clock to stop the killer before another woman is taken." A+E Studios and 20th Century Fox Television are behind the project, which was originally set up at Epix two years ago. (Deadline.com)
BOB (HEARTS) ABISHOLA (CBS) - Anthony Okungbowa's Kofu and Bayo Akinfemi's Goodwin are the latest to be named regulars on the freshman comedy. (Deadline.com)
CREW, THE (Netflix) - Mather Zickel will recur on the Kevin James-led comedy as "Beth's (Sarah Stiles) boyfriend Frank." (Deadline.com)
EVEL (USA) - David Krumholtz has been cast in the Milo Ventimiglia-led limited series as Bob Arum, "a Brooklyn-born boxing promoter and businessman who becomes both Evel Knievel's (Ventimiglia) adversary and best friend after Evel hires him to promote his infamous Snake River Canyon jump." (Deadline.com)
FOR LIFE (ABC) - Chance Kelly has booked a recurring role on the midseason drama as Cyrus Hunt, "an imposing and powerful figure, an old-school, no-nonsense prison warden." (Deadline.com)
GAME, THE (The CW) - The netlet's drama revival of the former comedy staple from Mara Brock Akil and Devon Greggory will not be moving forward to pilot. (Deadline.com)
GILDED AGE, THE (HBO) - Julian Fellowes's 1880s drama has cast Harry Richardson as Larry Russell, "a recent Harvard university graduate eager to make his way in the world"; Thomas Cocquerel as Tom Raikes, "a sensible young lawyer from Doylestown, PA"; and Jack Gilpin as Church, "the Russell family's butler." (Deadline.com)
KUNG FU (The CW) - The network has given a pilot order to the long-in-the-works reboot series, which was last set up at FOX. Christina M. Kim is behind the project, in which "a quarter-life crisis causes a young Chinese-American woman to drop out of college and go on a life-changing journey to an isolated monastery in China. But when she returns to find her hometown overrun with crime and corruption, she uses her martial arts skills and Shaolin values to protect her community and bring criminals to justice... all while searching for the assassin who killed her Shaolin mentor and is now targeting her." Quinn's House's Martin Gero and Berlanti Productions' Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter will also executive produce for Warner Bros. Television. (Deadline.com)
LEGACIES (The CW) - Julie Plec has signed a four-year, eight-figure overall deal with Universal Television, ending her 11-year run at Warner Bros. Television. There she'll develop new series projects on an exclusive basis via her My So-Called Company banner. (Deadline.com)
ON THE VERGE (Netflix, New!) - Julie Delpy is set to write, executive produce and star in a new drama at the streaming service about "four L.A. moms, one of them played by Delpy, facing challenges with their marriages, careers, family, who are all fighting to be authentic to themselves, to take risks, and to leave whatever it is that is no longer working for them." The 12-episode series is a co-production between Netflix and Canal Plus with Nick Hall also executive producing. Filming is slated to begin in May in Los Angeles. (Deadline.com)
PERPETUAL GRACE, LTD (Epix) - The pay channel reportedly plans to wrap up the Ben Kingsley/Jimmi Simpson-led series with a short limited run of episodes. The exact number is to be determined as talks are still in the early stages. (Deadline.com)
REPUBLIC OF SARAH, THE (The CW) - The netlet has ordered a pilot for a revised take on the defunct CBS drama, in which "faced with the destruction of her town at the hands of a greedy mining company, rebellious high school teacher Sarah Cooper utilizes an obscure cartographical loophole to declare independence. Now Sarah must lead a young group of misfits as they attempt to start their own country from scratch." Jeffrey Paul King penned the script and executive produces alongside director Marc Webb, Mark Martin, Jeff Grosvenor and Leo Pearlman for the CBS Television Studios-based Fulwell 73. Sarah Drew played the title role in the 2019 pilot from the same auspices. (Deadline.com)
SEX/LIFE (Netflix) - Sarah Shahi has signed on to star in the eight-episode dramedy series, about "a love triangle between a woman, Billie Connelly (Shahi), her husband, and her past which takes a deliciously steamy new look at female identity and desire." Shahi's Billie Connelly is "a woman with everything to lose, a suburban mother of two who goes in search of that sexy, single girl in the city she used to be ten years ago. She takes a fantasy-charged trip down memory lane that sets her very married present on a collision course with her wild-child past." Stacy Rukeyser is behind the project, which is inspired by BB Easton's self-published memoir "44 Chapters About 4 Men." (Deadline.com)
THIS COUNTRY (FOX) - Writer Jenny Bicks and director Paul Feig have landed a pilot order for the single-camera project, a co-production between Lionsgate Television, BBC Studios, FOX Entertainment, Feigco Entertainment. Charlie Cooper and Daisy May Cooper, creators of the original BBC series, will also executive produce alongside Angie Stephenson with Dan Magnante as a co-executive producer and Cathy Mason and Rachel Mason as producers. Its logline is as follows: "In this half-hour mockumentary inspired by the BBC format, a documentary crew goes to a small town to study young adults and their current concerns. Their focus is the daily lives of cousins Kelly and Shrub Mallet and their idiosyncratic surroundings. We follow the cousins as they pursue their dreams, confront challenges, and fight each other for frozen pizza. These two don't have much, but they do have each other."
UNTITLED CECILY STRONG PROJECT (Apple TV+, New!) - Cecily Strong is attached to star in a musical comedy series at the company which "follows a couple on a backpacking trip designed to reinvigorate their relationship when they discover the magical town of Schmigadoon, in which everyone acts as if they're in a studio musical from the 1940s. They then discover that they can't leave until they find 'true love.'" Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio are behind the Universal Television-based project, which is in final negotiations on a series order. Paul and Broadway Video Television's Lorne Michaels are the executive producers with Strong as a producer and Daurio as a consulting producer. (Deadline.com)
WRECKAGE (ABC, New!) - Writer Jacquie Walters and director Marc Webb have scored a pilot order for a small screen take on Emily Bleeker's novel in which "on the surface, Lillian Linden looks like a brave survivor of a plane crash. But she's been lying to her family, her friends, and the whole world since rescue helicopters scooped her and her fellow survivor, Dave Hall, off a deserted island in the South Pacific. Missing for almost four years, the castaways are thrust into the spotlight after their rescue, becoming media darlings overnight. But they can't tell the real story - so they lie." Webb and Mark Martin of Black Lamb Productions will executive produce alongside Keith Samples and Timberman-Beverly Productions' Sarah Timberman and Carl Beverly for ABC Studios. Walters is a co-executive producer while Bleeker serves as consultant. (Deadline.com)
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