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TV Pilots |OT| The Season's Dead, But Development Hell is Forever

TheOddOne

Member
- Deadline: Peter Pan Drama ‘The League Of Pan’ Set At Fox With Imagine TV & Andrew Miller
League Of Pan, a modern day twist on Peter Pan, has landed at Fox with a script commitment plus penalty. The mystery drama hails from 20th Century Fox TV and studio-based Imagine Television. Written by Andrew Miller, developer/executive produced of CW’s The Secret Circle, League Of Pan is described as a grounded, edgy, soapy thriller featuring updated versions of all favorite Neverland characters.

It picks up the Lost Boys fifteen years after they left Neverland. Now men and very much estranged, the Lost Boys are forced back together when they realize someone is killing them off one by one. To find out who and why and stay alive, they’ll have to get past the bitter rivalries and bad blood that forced them out of paradise and rediscover the magic that made them fearless. This time in the very real world of contemporary Los Angeles.
- Deadline: ‘American Gigolo’ Series In Works At Paramount TV With Jerry Bruckheimer
Paramount Television is pulling another marquee title from Paramount’s movie library for a series adaptation with top original auspices attached. The company is developing a television adaptation of the film noir classic, American Gigolo, with Jerry Bruckheimer, who was a producer of the 1980 movie with Richard Gere and Lauren Hutton, executive producing. The film’s director and writer, Paul Schrader, will serve as an executive consultant. “With its signature noir aesthetic, American Gigolo has remained a deeply entertaining, psychological thriller and I’m thrilled to partner with (Paramount’s) Brad (Grey) and Amy (Powell) on remaking it into a television series,” said Bruckheimer.
 
League Of Pan is described as a grounded, edgy, soapy thriller featuring updated versions of all favorite Neverland characters.

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RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
- THR: Jason Reitman Comedy Lands Straight-to-Series Order at Hulu
The streaming service has handed out a 10-episode straight-to-series order for the Jason Reitman-produced comedy Casual, The Hollywood Reporter has learned, marking the Oscar nominee's first TV foray.

Casual revolves around a dysfunctional family with a bachelor brother and his newly divorced sister. Together, they coach each other through the crazy world of dating (online and off), while living under one roof again and raising a teenager.

Zander Lehmann is on board to pen the series, which hails from Lionsgate Television. Reitman will executive produce and direct the premiere. Reitman's (Up in the Air, Juno) Right of Way Films production partner Helen Estabrook (Whiplash, Young Adult) will also exec produce alongside Lehmann. Production will begin this year for a 2015 debut.
 
- THR: AMC Lands Hugh Laurie, Tom Hiddleston Limited Series 'Night Manager'
Following a multiple-network bidding war, AMC has handed out a straight-to-series pickup for the John le Carre limited series, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. AMC declined comment, but sources say the cabler is looking at the project as a six- or eight-part miniseries.

The drama starring Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston is being developed in partnership with the BBC, which will air the series in the U.K. Ink Factory (A Most Wanted Man) is also producing. David Farr (Hanna, Spooks) will pen the adaptation. AMC will also have partial ownership and will co-produce the series with Ink Factory and BBC One.

Published in 1993, le Carre's Night Manager follows Jonathan Pine, a British soldier turned luxurious hotel night auditor.
Pine crosses paths with a French-Arab woman named Sophie with ties to Richard Onslow Roper, an English black marketer who specializes in weapons. The woman provides Pine with incriminating documents, which he forwards to a friend in British intelligence. After Sophie winds up dead, Pine works with intelligence operatives and goes undercover as part of a sting against Roper to avenge Sophie's death.
 
- Deadline: FX Developing Sci-Fi Comedy From ‘Super Fun Night’ Trio
FX has put in development Daedalus 6, a science fiction comedy set in the distant future written by Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit (1600 Penn). The two are executive producing with Michael Showalter, with whom they worked together on ABC’s Super Fun Night, and Jonathan Stern of Abominable Pictures. Hernandez and Samit are currently writing Warner Brothers’ Gilligan’s Island movie reboot with 1600 Penn star Josh Gad. Showalter just wrapped his Red Crown feature Hello My Name Is Doris, which he co-wrote and directed. Stern is executive producer on Childrens Hospital and co-creator of Adult Swim’s Newsreaders.
 
- EW: TNT orders pilot for monster drama 'Breed'
TNT announced that they have ordered a pilot for Breed, a supernatural drama about a string of murders in the Pacific Northwest that are being committed by beings that not quite human.

Written by John Scott Shepherd and set to be directed by Scott Winant (True Blood), Breed follows the primary antagonist, Detective Cooper Wells, as he follows the trail of murders. Realizing that the serial killer may be some sort of barbaric race of creatues, Wells seeks out the help of a female assassin to hunt the perpetrators down.
 
- Deadline: Pilots ‘Knifeman’ & ‘Galyntine’ Not Going Forward At AMC
AMC has passed on pilots Knifeman and Galyntine. This marks three consecutive drama pilots at AMC not to go forward, following the pass to Line of Sight in March. It has been 15 months since the network last picked up a pilot to series — both Turn and Halt and Catch Fire in July 2013 — as AMC has been shifting strategy to more straight-to-series orders over the past year, including Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul, martial arts drama Badlands and UK co-production Humans. The net has two high-profile pilot in the works, the Stephen Gaghan-directed Afghanistan drama White City, and the untitled Walking Dead companion.

Additionally, Preacher, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Sam Catlin’s adaptation of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s controversial 1990s comic book series, has been heating up for a pilot order, and the network earlier this month held a fall round of producer meetings on seven drama projects in consideration for a pilot pickup.

Galyntine and Knifeman both were swings for AMC as they explored new content territories – Galyntine was about a technology-induced disaster that has resulted in a new society that has eschewed any form of technology and Knifeman about a surgeon in 18th century London. Neither was flashy or featured known actors, something that helps new programs with no title recognition break through the clutter. New AMC series have a particularly high bar to measure up to because of the network’s tremendous early success with Mad Men, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, which it has been looking to replicate. The network has recently refocused its efforts on drama series, exiting the unscripted arena.

“We have enormous admiration and appreciation for everyone associated with these projects,” AMC said in a statement. “We are grateful to have ongoing relationships with several of these talented creators and look forward to working together again.”

Galyntine was written by Jason Cahill and Greg Nicotero and produced by Scott Free; Knifeman was penned by Rolin Jones.

In addition to Better Call Saul, Humans and Badlands, AMC has returning juggernaut Walking Dead, the final installment of Mad Men and Seasons 2 of Turn and Halt and Catch Fire on tap for next year.
 

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
Galyntine sounded like a ripoff of Revolution so I can't say I'm upset that it's not moving forward. Knifeman sounded sort of cool though so that is a bit of a bummer.
 

beat

Member
http://variety.com/2014/tv/news/bra...producing-limitless-pilot-for-cbs-1201344526/

Limitless, the TV show.

CBS has given a pilot production commitment to the CBS TV Studios project, which has a raft of heavyweight producers and original feature helmer Neil Burger on tap to direct.

[...]

Series will pick up where the film left off in telling the story of a man who uses a drug to achieve powers that allow him to be a force for good. Cooper, Robert De Niro and Anna Friel starred in the pic.
 

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
- THR: '24' Team Plots Presidential Drama at Fox
Fox has handed out a script commitment to POTUS, a drama from 24's Howard Gordon, Many Coto and Evan Katz, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

POTUS is described as a topical and high-intensity drama that follows an American president frustrated with politics as usual who decides to play by his own rules. Part wish-fulfillment and part cautionary tale, the drama tells the story of a man with good intensions who ultimately becomes corrupted by power.

Sleepy Hollow's Sam Chalsen and Cybernatural's Nelson Greaves will pen the script and co-executive produce the 20th Century Fox Television drama.
What if Madame Secretary were the POTUS and became a Tyrant?


I'm so confused... AMC involved in a project that sounds entirely awesome without reservations.
 
- Deadline: Arthur Clarke’s ‘3001: The Final Odyssey’ Set As Syfy Miniseries From Scott Free
Forty six years after the release of Stanley Kubrick’s groundbreaking 2001: A Space Odyssey, based on the opening novel in Arthur C. Clarke’s Odyssey series, the final book in the series is getting a screen adaptation. Syfy has put in development 3001: The Final Odyssey, a miniseries based on the fourth and final Odyssey book. The deal comes on the heels of Syfy recently greenlighting a miniseries adaptation of another Clarke classic, Childhood’s End.

3001, from Scott Free Prods. and Warner Horizon TV, is described as an epic story of a man lost in time and dark thematic meditations on the final fate of all Humankind, It begins with the discovery of Frank Poole’s frozen body, floating in space, and resolves the tale that started in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Feature writer Stuart Beattie (Pirates Of The Caribbean, Collateral) will write the adaptation and serve as executive producer along with Scott Free’s Ridley Scott and David W. Zucker. Clayton Krueger will serve as co-executive producer.

Clarke’s Odyssey series spanned over 30 years, with the initial publication of 2001 in 1968, and the final 3001 in 1997. The opening book was immortalized by Kubrick’s 1968 feature adaptation. The second book, 2010: Odyssey Two, was the only other of the novels in the series to be brought to the screen as a 1984 movie directed by Peter Hyams. The 3001 adaptation is being done with the blessing and support of both the Kubrick and Clarke estates.
 
- EW: Showtime developing modern-day second U.S. civil war drama
Just in time for Election Day: Showtime is developing an ambitious new series that chronicles a modern-day U.S. civil war.

Titled Anthem, the project looks at what happens when partisan politics goes to the extreme. The official logline: “This is a series about an unraveling: about what happens when our political system collapses under the weight of mistrust and partisan division. The pilot begins on a typical presidential election day. When it ends, America is on the brink of a second civil war.”

The project is from executive producer and former Obama White House speechwriter Jon Lovett (1600 Penn) and executive producers Brian Koppelman and David Levien (Ocean’s Thirteen, Rounders).
 

Clevinger

Member
Just noticed a tiny update from Oct. 9th about David Milch's Boss Tweed show

Milch's next script: Carlton Cuse said he'd just read Milch's latest pilot, which the writer finished just days ago. It's entitled Big City, and it centers on William "Boss" Tweed, the head of the Tammany Hall political machine that controlled 19th century New York City politics. The pilot is populated with historical figures, including tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt and women's rights reformer Susan B. Anthony, Cuse said. "I read the script thinking, 'Oh my god, this show is absolutely the next great thing from you,' " he added.

Said Milch: "I’m no rose. I have been around a while, and you never know when something is going to be the last thing you do. You want to harbor your resources and try not to make a mistake." So why Tweed? "This guy, in addition to being a crook, had the gift of society. There was nobody, even the people he put in jail, who didn’t have great affection for William Tweed."

Script is done.
Now HBO just needs to decide whether to kill it as a script or as a pilot.
 

TheOddOne

Member
- Deadline: Sheldon Turner Hitman Drama Set At Fox
Fox is developing Dirty Deeds, a drama written by Oscar nominee Sheldon Turner and to be directed by Emmy winner Tommy Schlamme. The project, which has a premium script commitment with penalty, hails from Turner and Jennifer Klein’s Vendetta Prods and Sony TV, where the company has a deal.
Dirty Deeds is based on the 2013 GQ article “Oops, You Just Hired the Wrong Hitman” by Jeanne Marie Laskas, which profiles an ATF agent posing as a hitman for hire to help thwart murder plots. (Read it here.) The series centers on Tommy Deeds, a vigilant ATF agent and family man who works undercover as a hitman — a job that exposes him to the wild, dark and often humorous soul of the human condition.
 

TheOddOne

Member
Oh, Netlfix.

- Deadline: Netflix Adapting Lemony Snicket’s ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ As Series
After bursting onto the original series scene with premium cable caliber adult fare like House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black, Netflix is entering a new area — live-action family entertainment.

On the heels of picking up Awesomeness TV’s live-action comedy Richie Rich, the streaming company has acquired the rights to the best-selling series of books, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, with plans to adapt them as a live-action series. Search is underway for a director to help recreate Snicket’s visual world on TV. Netflix is producing the project, which is being fast-tracked, with Paramount Television. Paramount was behind the 2004 movie starring Jim Carrey, which grossed $209 million.
 

big ander

Member
not that we need more adaptations, but I did enjoy the series as a kid and was disappointed they never made movies of the rest. It could work well as a TV series too, I seem to remember the stories being segmented within each of the dozen books.
 

TheOddOne

Member
- Deadline: ‘Damn!’ Supernatural Drama From Glenn Gordon Caron Set Up At Fox
Fifteen years after his cult series Now And Again premiered, Glenn Gordon Caron is developing another drama about a man getting a second chance at life after an untimely demise. Damn!, from 20th Century Fox TV where Caron is under an overall deal, has received a script commitment with penalty from Fox. It centers on a reprobate conman who meets his untimely death but gets another chance at life as an angel. Gordon is writing and executive producing.
- Deadline: Sam Jaeger To Star In TNT Pilot ‘Lumen’
As Parenthood is wrapping its six-season run on NBC, original cast member Sam Jaeger is segueing to a new drama project. He has been tapped for a lead role in the TNT drama pilot Lumen, written by Chris Black and directed by Joe Johnson.

In Lumen, the famous author of a best-selling series of fantasy books suddenly disappears, and a family of four finds themselves transported to the mystical alternate world that inspired her work. Jaeger will play Michael Hartman, the stepfather of 16-year-old Charlie whose obsession with finding the author thrusts his family into the surreal world of Lumen. Michael, a widower now married Charlie’s mother and the father of a rebellious teenage daughter, is challenged with trying to keep his family together as they confront the amazing, but dangerous reality of Lumen.
 
- EW: 'Evil Dead' TV show starring Bruce Campbell coming to Starz
Bruce Campbell will star, reprising his iconic career-making role as Ash.

The logline: “Bruce Campbell will be reprising his role as Ash, the stock boy, aging lothario and chainsaw-handed monster hunter who has spent the last 30 years avoiding responsibility, maturity and the terrors of the Evil Dead. When a Deadite plague threatens to destroy all of mankind, Ash is finally forced to face his demons –personal and literal. Destiny, it turns out, has no plans to release the unlikely hero from its ‘Evil’ grip.”

Campbell played Ash in the cult-favorite horror comedies The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness.

“I’m really excited to bring this series to the Evil Dead fans worldwide — it’s going to be everything they have been clamoring for: serious deadite ass-kicking and plenty of outrageous humor,” Campbell said.

“Evil Dead has always been a blast,” Raimi said. “Bruce, Rob, and I are thrilled to have the opportunity to tell the next chapter in Ash’s lame, but heroic saga. With his chainsaw arm and his ‘boomstick,’

Ash is back to kick some monster butt. And brother, this time there’s a truckload of it.”

Added Starz managing director Carmi Zlotnik: “Starz first worked with Sam and Rob on Spartacus, and we are thrilled to be back in business with them. With Sam writing and directing and Bruce Campbell returning to the screen, we are certain the show will give Evil Dead fans around the world the fix they’ve been craving.”

The series will air on Starz in 2015. Hail to the king, baby.
 
- The Wrap: Jonah Nolan Developing ‘Foundation’ Series for HBO, WBTV
The Oscar-nominated “Memento” writer says “everyone would benefit from reading” the sci-fi trilogy

HBO and Warner Bros. TV are teaming to produce a series based on Isaac Asimov's “Foundation” trilogy that will be written and produced by “Interstellar” writer Jonathan Nolan, multiple individuals familiar with the project have told TheWrap.

Nolan, who is already working with HBO on “Westworld,” has been quietly developing the project for the last several months. He recently tipped his hand to Indiewire, which asked him, ‘what's the one piece of science fiction you truly love that people don't know enough about?’

“Well, I fucking love the ‘Foundation’ novels by Isaac Asimov. They're certainly not well-known, but that's a set of books I think everyone would benefit from reading. That's a set of books where the influence they have is just fucking massive. They have many imitators and many have been inspired by them, but go back and read those, and there are some ideas in those that'll set your fucking hair on fire,” Nolan told Indiewire.

Representatives for HBO and WBTV had no comment, while a representative for Nolan didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
 

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
Wow, Foundation would be huge. That's a big undertaking.

Also, it never fails to amuse me how completely different Chris and Jonah's speech patterns are. Entirely different accents, and while Chris is rather proper, Jonah can't resist constantly saying "fuck" no matter the context.
 

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
- THR: Sundance TV Orders Drama Series 'Hap and Leonard'
Sundance TV is expanding its scripted roster.

The cabler has greenlit drama series Hap and Leonard, based on the book series by Joe Lansdale, the company announced Monday.

The six-episode series centers on a pair of best friends and martial arts experts who struggle through misadventure in a bid to stay on the right side of the law in 1980 East Texas.

Production on the drama will begin in 2015 for a 2016 broadcast.

The drama hails from Cold in July writers Jim Mickle and Nick Damici, marking the duo's second Lansdale adaptation. Mickle will direct, with Nick Schumaker and Jeremy Platt exec producing. Lansdale will co-exec produce with Lowell Northrop; Linda Moran will consult.
More story info at the link.
 
- EW: Amazon announces 7 new pilots for 2015
Amazon is entering pilot season strong with seven pilots for shows with big names attached.

The pilots will include hour-long shows Cocked, Mad Dogs, The Man in the High Castle, and Point of Honor, half-hour shows Down Dog and Salem Rogers, and the half-hour docu-series The New Yorker Presents.

Cocked is a hour-long dark comedy from Lie to Me’s Sam Baum and Manhattan’s Sam Shaw. It stars Sam Trammell as Richard Paxson, a man who returns to his rural Virginia family after leaving acrimoniously 20 years ago. Now, Paxson returns with his liberal family to the dysfunctional family he left behind, which includes his playboy older brother Grady, played by Jason Lee. Brian Dennehy, Laura Fraser, and Dreama Walker also star as members of the Paxson family.

Half-hour comedy Down Dog will take on the yoga-obsessed world of Los Angeles, centering on one Logan Wood (Josh Casaubon), who has been cruising through life as a yoga teacher to the hot moms and wannabe celebs of L.A. However, when Logan and girlfriend and yoga studio owner Amanda (Paget Brewster) break up, things get real, real fast. Written by Are You There, Chelsea? writer Robin Schiff, the show also stars Lyndsy Fonseca, Will Greenberg, Andrea Savage, Amir Talai, Kris Kristofferson, and Alysia Reiner.

Created by Cris Cole and executive produced by Shawn Ryan, Marney Hochman, Andy Harries, Suzanne Mackie, and Charles McDougall, Mad Dogs is an hour-long dark comedy based on the UK series of the same name that follows the reunion of a bunch of 40-something friends that start off quaint but soon devolve into a “nightmare of lies, deception, and murder.” The Sony TV pilot stars Steve Zahn, Billy Zane, Romany Malco, Michael Imperioli, and Ben Chaplin.

Based on Philip K. Dick’s Hugo-award-winning tale of the same name, the Ridley Scott-produced spy drama The Man in the High Castle takes on the alternative timeline of what would have happened if the Allied Powers lost World War II. The hour-long pilot will take place 20 years after the war and will have the world split between the two Axis Powers, Japan and Germany, and will star Alexa Davalos, Luke Kleintank, Rupert Evans, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Joel De La Fuente, Rufus Sewell, and DJ Qualls. David Semel will direct the pilot with a script written by Frank Spotnitz. Scott will executive produce alongside David W. Zucker, Jordan Sheehan, Stewart Mackinnon, Christian Baute, Isa Dick Hackett, Kalen Egan, and Christopher Tricarico.

The New Yorker Presents brings the magazine to the screen in this half-hour docu-series pilot. Produced by Conde Nast Entertainment and Jigsaw Productions, the series will feature Alan Cumming, Jonathan Demme, Marina Abramovic, and more, taking articles from the magazine and featuring them in a visual medium online. Oscar-winner Alex Gibney will executive produce alongside Dave Snyder and Dawn Ostroff.

Point of Honor is an hour-long, Civil War drama written by Carlton Cuse that centers on John Rhodes (Nathan Parsons), who chooses to defend the South while freeing all of their slaves. Rhodes leaves behind three sisters to tend to their plantation, as well as an abundance of family turmoil. Annabelle Stephenson, Riley Voelkel, Hanna Mangan Lawrence, Patrick Heusinger, Luke Benward, Adrienne Warren, Lucien Laviscount, and James Harvey Ward also star. Braveheart’s Randall Wallace will direct the pilot, which he will also executive produce alongside Cuse and Barry Jossen.

Leslie Bibb stars in half-hour comedy Salem Rogers, as the titular hard-partying former supermodel, who must face her past after a 10-year stint in rehab. Rogers will reconnect with her former assistant Agatha (Rachel Dratch) to help her regain the limelight. The pilot will also star Jane Kaczmarek, Brad Morris, Harry Hamlin, Toks Olagundoye, and Scott Adsit. The pilot comes from newcomer Lindsey Stoddart and will be directed by Mean Girls’ Mark Waters. Will Graham will executive produce.
 
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