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[10/21/20 - 11:52 PM]
Development Update: Wednesday, October 21
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!


ACCESSIBLE (HBO Max, New!) - Ryan O'Connell has booked a potential comedy at the streamer which follows Clare, "a 15-year-old girl who's recently been in an accident and is forced to attend a boarding school for people with all kinds of disabilities. There, she discovers the usual teenage dilemmas of sex, love, and friendship are even more complicated in a wheelchair." Warner Bros. Television is behind the project with Jim Parsons and Todd Spiewak of the studio-based That's Wonderful Productions also executive producing and Eric Norsoph co-executive producing. (Deadline.com)
ALL RISE (CBS) - Reggie Lee, who plays Head DDA Thomas Choi, has been promoted to regular on the series as part of a one-year deal. (Deadline.com)
FLASHDANCE (Paramount+, New!) - Writer Tracy McMillan and director Angela Robinson are developing a TV series based on the 1983 feature, which will "revolve around a young Black woman with ballet dreams and a strip club reality who struggles to find her place in the world while navigating romance, money, art, friendship and how to love herself." Lynda Obst, one of the film's original associate producers, will also executive produce for Paramount Television Studios. (THR.com)
LIGHTYEARS (Amazon, New!) - Holden Miller and Daniel C. Connolly have booked a series order from the streaming service for a drama about Franklin and Irene York, "a couple who years ago discovered a chamber buried in their backyard which inexplicably leads to a strange, deserted planet. They've carefully guarded their secret ever since, but when an enigmatic young man enters their lives, the Yorks' quiet existence is quickly upended, and the mysterious chamber they thought they knew so well turns out to be much more than they could ever have imagined." Juan José Campanella will direct and executive produce alongside Connolly, Jimmy Miller and Sam Hansen for Amazon Studios, Mosaic Media Group and Legendary Television. Miller will serve as a co-executive producer. (Variety.com)
QUEEN OF THE SOUTH (USA) - Molly Burnett - who recurs as Kelly Anne, "the on-again, off-again member of Teresa's drug operation" - has been promoted to regular for the upcoming fifth season of the series. (Deadline.com)
SECOND WAVE, THE (Spectrum, New!) - Audra McDonald, Taylor Schilling and Steven Pasquale are set to star in a six-episode drama for Spectrum Originals which "follows an unexpected, deadly second wave of the coronavirus outbreak in New York City. It follows the lives of two neighbors, Rachel (McDonald) and Lily (Schilling), as they navigate life in quarantine in New York City. While Rachel juggles her many telemedicine clients as well as a shaky, passionless marriage, Lily is upstairs just trying to convince her Wall Street clientele that her very specific skillset is still just as valuable over video as it was in person." Pasquale plays Rachel's husband, Zach, "a top official at the CDC who is stuck between the medicine he knows and the politics thrust upon him." CBS Studios-based King Size Productions' Robert and Michelle King are behind the project with Liz Glotzer and Brooke Kennedy also executive producing. Filming is set to begin next week. (Deadline.com)
SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT (New!) - David Gordon Green and Brian Sides are looking to bring the 1977 movie - which "follows Burt Reynolds's Bo "Bandit" Darville and Jerry Reed's Cledus "Snowman" Snow, two bootleggers attempting to illegally transport 400 cases of beer from Texarkana to Atlanta as they are being chased by Jackie Gleason's county sheriff Buford T. Justice" - to the small screen at Universal Content Productions. Rough House Pictures' Danny McBride, Jody Hill and Brandon James and Fuzzy Door's Seth MacFarlane and Erica Huggins will executive produce alongside Green, who is attached to direct, with Sides as a co-executive producer. (Deadline.com)
SUCCESSION (HBO) - Emmy-winning director Andrij Parekh has signed a one-year exclusive television deal with the premium cable network. The pact calls for him to serve as cinematographer on the upcoming limited series "Scenes from a Marriage" as well as return to direct an episode of the "Succession's" third season. (Deadline.com)
UNTITLED FIGURE SKATING COMEDY (NBC, New!) - Olympic bronze medalist figure skater Adam Rippon is set to team with Susan Kittenplan and Billy Finnegan for a new comedy at the network "set in the off-the-wall world of adult figure skating. Oversized ambitions, underwhelming talent, and boundless heart take center ice as one woman fights her family, her failing knees and every other skater at the rink to make her dreams come true." The project, which has a penalty attached, is set up at 20th Television. Finnegan will pen the script from a story by Rippon and Kittenplan with all three executive producing. (Deadline.com)
UNTITLED NIECY NASH PROJECT (Syndication, New!) - Niecy Nash is set to topline a potential daytime syndicated talk show for CBS Television Distribution. The actress will reportedly film a presentation with Fulwell73's Ben Winston and James Corden also executive producing. No other specifics were given. (THR.com)
YOUR HONOR (Showtime) - Maura Tierney is set to appear in four episodes of the Bryan Cranston-led limited series as Fiona McKee, "a fearless prosecutor trying a major case in Desiato's courtroom." (Deadline.com)





  [october 2020]  
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F
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· ACCESSIBLE (HBO MAX)
· ALL RISE (OWN)
· BITE, THE (SPECTRUM)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· FLASHDANCE (PARAMOUNT PLUS)
· NIGHT SKY (AMAZON)
· QUEEN OF THE SOUTH (USA)
· SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE (HBO)
· SUCCESSION (HBO)
· UNTITLED FIGURE SKATING COMEDY (NBC)
· UNTITLED NIECY NASH PROJECT (SYNDICATION)
· YOUR HONOR (SHOWTIME)





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