FX is plotting a revolution. The cable network is developing "AR2," a drama from "Prison Break" creator/exec producer Paul Scheuring and "The West Wing" director/exec producer Thomas Schlamme about a group of Midwestern youths who spark a second American Revolution. Scheuring calls the project, which is expected to be laid off at Fox 21, " 'Les Miserables' in modern America." Full story
It's a go for ABC's "The Middle." After closing a deal with Patricia Heaton for the lead, the network has greenlighted the comedy pilot, tapping Julie Anne Robinson to direct. Additionally, Robinson has landed a blind pilot directing commitment at ABC Studios to helm another pilot this development cycle. Full story
Ed Begley Jr., Tyne Daly, Linda Emond and Henry Simmons have been cast opposite Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons in the Lifetime original biopic "Georgia O'Keeffe." "O'Keeffe," from Sony Pictures TV, will follow the 20-year love affair between the American artist (Allen) and photographer Alfred Stieglitz (Irons). Begley plays Alfred's brother, Lee, a doctor who examines Georgia after she faints and years later when she suffers a breakdown. Full story
FremantleMedia North America is in talks to acquire Thom Beers' Original Prods. Beers, who founded Original in 1999, has created a distinct "blue collar hero" unscripted programming brand with such shows as "Deadliest Catch," "Ice Road Truckers" and "Axeman." With a dozen series on television, mostly on cable, he's one of the most prolific reality producers. A deal would expand Beers' existing business relationship with Fremantle. In August, Fremantle picked up international distribution rights to several Original series: "Verminators," "America's Port, L.A.," "Hard Hats," "1,000 Ways to Die" and "Black Gold." Full story
Joan Cusack has lined up two TV projects, developing a comedy at NBC set in the world of psychiatry and starring opposite Mae Whitman in the Lifetime original movie "Acceptance." The NBC project, which she is co-creating with the network and Universal Media Studios, will be based on an original idea of Cusack's. John Markus ("The Larry Sanders Show") is serving as writer/executive producer, while Cusack will produce with Julie Yen. Full story
Brian Dennehy has been tapped to co-star opposite Donnie Wahlberg on TNT's drama pilot "Bunker Hill." Meanwhile, Mather Zickel and Todd Stashwick have joined CBS' comedy pilot "The Kareskys." "Bunker," from Warner Horizon, writer Walon Green and director Jon Avnet, explores crime, corruption and deceit in the Bunker Hill section of Boston and centers on Mike Moriarty (Donnie Wahlberg), who returns to Boston as a cop protecting the streets he grew up on. Full story
Oxygen development executive Kristen Connolly Vadas is in negotiations to join the CW as senior vp alternative programming. As head of the CW's reality department, Vadas will succeed Jennifer Bresnan, who left in August to take the same position at sister network CBS. Full story
NBC is putting some Olympic-style competition back in primetime with a new dance series from the producers of "American Idol" and "So You Think You Can Dance." The reality program will feature professional dancers from eight countries exhibiting different performance styles. "Lord of the Dance" Michael Flatley will host, and Nigel Lythgoe and Simon Fuller will executive produce. Full story
NEW YORK -- Hilary Duff will soon become a fixture on NBC. The former Lizzie McGuire has signed a talent and development deal with NBC. The network said it will come up with a new series for Duff to star in, though it offered no details on what that might be. n addition, the network said Friday that Duff will appear as a guest in several other NBC series over the next year, but there were no details. Full story
Marvel's Thor is the latest hero from the comics and entertainment
company to get the cartoon treatment.
Marvel Animation is developing and self-producing a 26 half-hour
episode series based on its long-running comic book, with the
series targeted to launch in fall 2010, following Marvel's
live-action feature "Thor," which bows in 2010. Full story
NEW YORK -- IM Global is harnessing the comic book power of Platinum Studios to develop D.J. Coffman's "Hero by Night" into a live-action TV series. "Hero," which won Platinum's 2006 Comic Book Challenge competition, tells the story of young landlord Jack King, who uncovers the lair of the title character. Determined to make some extra cash, Jack auctions the Hero's journal on eBay, raising the ire of a dormant madman. Full story
Warner Bros. has picked up the Delta Force prison project, an action thriller written by Ari Rubin with Francis Lawrence attached to direct. Michael De Luca is producing along with David Keane, "Black Hawk Down" author Mark Bowden and Aaron Bowden via their Wild Eyes banner. The project tells the true story of the riots and siege of Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in 1987. Cuban and American prisoners seized control of the maximum security facility and took more than 100 federal prison staff members hostage. The situation was so extreme that the FBI's hostage rescue team was ill-equipped to handle the riots, and Delta Force, the Special Forces detachment, was called in to retake the prison. Full story
Showtime is developing a dating-themed comedy from Tim Long, a longtme writer/executive producer on "The Simpsons." The half-hour project, "Kevin and the Chart of Destiny," is about a brilliant but lonely market researcher who designs an elaborate "dating system" -- as laid out in a complex wall chart -- in order to achieve his goal of finding a wife within one year. The project -- created, written and exec produced by Long -- will draw from his "own private dating humiliations," he said. "I was fascinated by the idea of people who are relatively smart at most things in life but tragically inept at dating. This project is a love letter/apology to all the women I took on tragic dates." Full story
Sasha Alexander is returning to CBS. The "NCIS" alumna has been tapped as the star of the network's multicamera comedy pilot "The Karenskys." The project, from "Malcolm in the Middle" creator Linwood Boomer, BermanBraun and Universal Media Studios, centers on Emily Atwood (Alexander), who returns to her hometown when her husband's job relocates them and is reunited with her large, eccentric family. Full story
After a market crash, a magazine is struggling to survive. It sounds like a contemporary drama but is in fact a period comedy project from writer Andy Bellin in the works at HBO. Tentatively titled "The Review," the show is set at a New York literary magazine in the immediate aftermath of Black Monday in 1987, just in time to catch the tail end of the decade's "greed is good" excess. It centers on a young guy who leaves banking to work at the magazine right when it existence is threatened by funding cuts. Full story
John Schneider, Roma Downey and Brooke Nevin have been tapped to star in "Wedding Dance," a Hallmark Channel original movie airing next year. The telefilm, which goes into production this month in Vancouver, centers on a young bride-to-be (Nevin) who is shocked when the father (Schneider) she never knew shows up alive and holding the deed to her family's dance studio, which she is hoping to sell in order to pursue her dream of becoming a therapist. She turns to her attorney (Downey) for help. Full story
Fox has some abandonment issues. The network has inked a first-look deal for "Living With Abandon," an independently produced single-camera comedy pilot. Written by Richie Keen and Heath Corson ("Hooked") and directed by Keen, "Abandon" stars Todd Grinnell, Ed Quinn, Melissa Peterman, Rachel Specter and 14-year-old Nick Dodani as the members of an abandonment support group who suffer a blow when their therapist commits suicide. Left to fend for themselves, the members band together to solve each other's issues. Full story
Jim Caviezel will attempt to stop Samuel L. Jackson from destroying
London in the espionage thriller "Blown."
Martha Fiennes' film centers on Will Matlock (Caviezel), a top MI5
operative whose routine investigation of a global corporation leads
him to discover an imminent terrorist attack. Jackson will play
Julian Lezard, the businessman who engages him in a high-stakes
game of wits and deception. Full story
Dominic Fumusa has landed a co-starring role on Showtime's upcoming comedy series "Nurse Jackie." Meanwhile, Laura Harris has been tapped as the female lead opposite Ron Livingston in the drama series "Defying Gravity," from Fox TV Studios, Canada's CTV, Germany's ProSieben and the BBC. "Jackie," from Showtime and Lionsgate TV, stars Edie Falco as a strong-willed, iconoclastic New York nurse juggling the frenzied grind of an urban hospital and an equally challenging personal life. Famusa will play her husband. Full story
HBO has given a pilot order to the fantasy project "Game of Thrones." The program is based on George R.R. Martin's best-selling "A Song of Fire & Ice" series of novels and executive produced by David Benioff ("Troy") and D.B. Weiss ("Halo"). The title "Game of Thrones" is from the first novel in the series. If it gets an episodic order, "Thrones" would represent the rarest of TV genres: a full-fledged fantasy series. Full story
AMC is developing a legal drama with actor-writer-producer Ray McKinnon that would star "The Shield's" Walton Goggins. McKinnon, perhaps recognized for his roles on HBO's "Deadwood" and CBS' 2008 mini "Comanche Moon," created and wrote the AMC project, titled "Rectify"; he also will serve as exec producer with Mark Johnson (AMC's "Breaking Bad"). Goggins and Stephen Kay are co-executive producers. Full story
SoapNet on Monday announced three new series, including a relationship-themed reality show featuring Greg Behrendt and a scripted drama about a thirtysomething woman trying to figure out her life. "Greg Behrendt's Wake-Up Call," from Avalon Television, will feature Behrendt -- who has consulted for "Sex and the City," co-wrote the book "He's Just Not That Into You" and hosted his own daytime talk show -- addressing one couple's major issues each week and using practical and funny relationship expertise to give them the tools to fix their problems. The series will air at 11 p.m. Thursdays beginning Jan. 8, kicking off SoapNet's six-week programming event "Sugar-Free Valentines." Full story
Colm Feore has joined the cast of "The Listener," the upcoming Canadian paranormal series acquired by NBC, Canada's CTV and Fox International. Feore will play an older mentor to a young paramedic (Craig Olejnik) who uses his telepathic powers to heal what's broken in the lives of people he treats. Full story
Michael Rapaport has inked a development deal with CBS. Under the pact, he will develop, star in and produce an hourlong project for the network. The project will be produced by Denis Leary and Jim Serpico's Apostle Pictures, Sony TV and CBS Paramount TV. The untitled project, to be written by "Basketball Diaries" scribe Bryan Goluboff, is based on an idea Rapaport has tossed around for four years. It revolves around the lives of social workers in New York and is inspired by the experiences of a good friend of Rapaport's who is a social worker in the Big Apple. Full story
Tiffani Thiessen has been tapped to co-star on USA Network's pilot "White Collar," while Matthew Marsden has landed the title role on Spike TV's two-hour pilot "Madso's War." "Collar," from Fox TV Studios, centers on Neal (Matthew Bomer), a brilliant con artist who partners against his will with Peter (Tim DeKay), the head of the FBI's white-collar crime unit. Thiessen will play Debbie, Peter's intelligent and supportive wife who works as an accountant. Full story
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