TV SALES
COMEDY CENTRAL has picked up, and put into development the new pilot EVIL GENIUS from writers/exec producers Tom Scharpling and Paul F. Tompkins (who will also star). The series, which will also be exec produced by David Martin, John Thoday and Richard Allen Turner, centers on the evil genius – Professor Tiberius Lynch, who has successfully taken over the world, achieving global domination, but now finds himself bored with what to do next, and slowly discovers governing an entire world population takes a lot of boring administration work, just like every other office job he had before it.
HBO has moved forward with development on the spy period drama REDS from writer/exec producer Martyn Burke. The series is based on a true tale of Burke’s filmmaking experience, when he discovered his sound man was actually a colonel in the Russian military sent to America as a spy.
HBO is moving into development on the upcoming mini-series LIZZIE BORDEN from writer Bryce Kass. The series, which will also be executive produced by Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman and Chloe Sevigny (who will also star), will take place in the late 1800s, and center on the true tale of Lizzie Borden, and the murders of her husband and daughter, of which she was charged, and later acquitted.
TV CANCELLATIONS
Steven Spielberg’s upcoming FOX tv series TERRA NOVA has pulled the plug on the planned 2-hour “pilot” set to air this May, and will instead kick off with the 2-hour special before the show begins in the Fall.