Instead of recapping a weeks worth of TV SALES & ATTACHMENTS and scattering them along the past week, I thought it best to deliver all of the info in one new post! So, here we go…
TV SALES
FOX is readying a single-cam BATTLEGROUND comedy for director Marc Webb. New series will be an ensemble-based workplace comedy in the world of political campaigning. J.D. Walsh will write, and exec produce alongside Webb.
FOX has snatched up new high-concept thriller SMOKERS from scribe Brian K. Vaughan. Series, which Sam Raimi and Joshua Donen will produce with Vaughan, will follow a documentary crew as they film working class heroes who exterminate alien threats in deep space.
FOX has won the fire-hot bidding war for CONNECTED, handing out a hefty pilot commitment for the single-cam family comedy from writer/exec producer Nahnatchka Khan and exec producers R.J. Cutler and Ann Blanchard.
FOX has picked up new actioner UNKNOWN from writer Sascha Penn and exec producer Brett Ratner. Series, which centers on a man trying to unravel who he really is, is pitched as being in the vein of “The Fugitive”.
FOX is ready to hedge their bets on new legal series LAWYERS FOR LESS from producers Adam Sandler, Anthony Russo and Joe Russo. Series, which Danny Comden will star in, and co-write with Josh Pate, centers on two lawyer friends, one black and one white, who who run a small storefront law firm specializing in ambulance chasing and defending the defenseless.
FOX has bought new UNTITLED CARROL MONKS PROJECT from writer Cynthia Cidre, and exec producers Marty Adelstein and Shawn Levy. Series centers on a detective physician.
FOX has gone hot on animation, buying up three new animation series – SO CAL, SWELL and SLACKER CATS. Cal, which centers on a family that looks to escape the technology-driven world by finding a more laid-back existence in Southern California, comes from writers, exec producers Josh Faure-Brac and Doug Robinson. Swell, which surrounds a perfect 1950s family, that is magically transported to the present, stems from writers Kevin Cecil and Andy Riley, who also exec produce with Anthony Russo and Joe Russo. Meanwhile, Slacker, which centers on two bizarre brothers who disturb a peaceful suburban neighborhood when they move in, comes from writers Reed Agnew and Eli Jorne, and will be produced by Donick Cary and Jamie Tarses.
FOX has commited to Brian Grazer and Francie Calfo, the duo who will exec produce the new David Hubbard scripted comedy SPLITTING ADAMS, which will tell the story of a legal procedural about a young prosecutor who finds herself caught between two realities: one in which she is an incredible trial lawyer, and another in which she is the one on trial.
NBC has won a heated bidding war to snatch up the supernatural rom/com GHOST ANGELES from writer/creator/exec producers Josh Schwartz and Henry Alonso Myers. Series, which was given a pilot order as part of the deal, will star Rachel Bilson as a young woman in Los Angeles who can talk to the dead. Schwartz, Myers, Stephanie Savage and Leonard Goldstein will produce under the Fake Empire banner.
NBC has picked up the pilot for a contemporary retelling of THE MUNSTERS, which writer Bryan Fuller has described as being a mix between “Modern Family” and “True Blood”. Series also has Guillermo Del Toro circling in a producing capacity.
NBC has picked up the UNTITLED JEFF BUSHNELL PEDIATRICIAN COMEDY which writer Jeff Bushnell will exec produce alongside Adam Sandler.
NBC has said yes to The male ensemble laugher UNTITLED RICKLY BLITT COMEDY from writer Ricky Blitt.
NBC has picked up the adaptation of the non-fiction book MY LIFE AS AN EXPERIMENT, from writers Cathy Yuspa and Josh Goldsmith. Duo will exec produce this project alongside Jack Black, that landed a hefty 7-figure penalty in part of the package.
HBO has finalized a deal for YEAR ZERO, a new series which will be adapted from the Nine Inch Nails music album of the same name. Nails’ frontman Trent Reznor will exec produce the series adapted by writer Daniel Knauf, alongside Lawrence Bender and Kevin Kelly Brown.
ABC has jumped into the Jennifer Lopez game, picking up the UNTITLED NANNYLAND PROJECT, a new series which will center on three branches of an extended Los Angeles family — as told through the eyes of their three Latina nannies. Series, written by Alexa Junge, will be exec produced by Lopez, Simon Fields and Ann Blanchard.
ABC has committed to the UNTITLED WAYANS COMEDY from writer Damon Wayans, which will also see him star as an actor who plays America’s favorite dad in a sitcom — but whose family is not nearly as functional in real life. Don Reo will exec produce with Wayans.
ABC has bought the UNTITLED BETSY THOMAS WORKPLACE COMEDY, which Betsy Thomas will write and exec produce alongside Jamie Tarses and her Fanfare company.
ABC has picked up the UNTITLED LEGAL VIGILANTE project from writer Dee Johnson and fellow co-exec producers Sam Raimi and Joshua Donen. Project centers on one of LA’s top female prosecutors who decides to take the law into her own hands.
ABC has jumped to pick up a female-centered spy show described as Taken meets The Bourne Identity from writer/producers Greg Poirier, Grant Scharbo and Gina Matthews. New UNTITLED ABC SPY DRAMA is already out to writers, with network circling an order of 3-5 more scripts.
ABC has snatched up TV rights to AQUI NO HAY QUIEN VIVA (I HATE THIS PLACE) from producers Sofia Vergara, Ben Silverman and his company Electus. Series, which Craig Doyle will adapt from the Latin American series before it will focus on a multi-cultural and multi-generational cast in the tone of Modern Family, and will be set in an apartment building in which an old school father and his corner-cutting son who must somehow work together to manage the outrageously eccentric tenants of the building that has been in their family for generations.
CBS has picked up MUSINGS OF A MIDDLE CHILD, based on the unpublished manuscript from Bruce Hopman. Bill Kunstler will produce the series alongside Topher Grace, which centers on a man suffering from middle-child syndrome who is determined to spare his own middle child of the same fate.
CBS has also picked up the UNTITLED KUNG-FU COP project from writer Neil Tolkin, which he will produce with Marty Adelstein and Shawn Levy.
CW has picked up TV rights to Tucker Shaw’s book CONFESSIONS OF A BACK-UP DANCER, which writer Sascha Penn will write and exec produce alongside Les Morgenstein, Gina Girolamo and attached director Marcos Siega.
CW has finalized a deal and a pilot commitment for DANNI LOWINSKI, a one-hour dramedy based on the German series of the same name. Jennie Snyder Urman will write and exec produce the series about a hairdresser who after making it through law school, graduates only to find law firms aren’t interested in her type. Not letting that persuade her, she decides to set up her very own legal practice in a small shopping mall kiosk.
NICKELODEON has picked up new live-action comedy series SUPAH NINJAS from writers/creators Eric Garcia and Leo Chu, and will be produced by Brian Robbins and Sharla Sumpter Bridgett.
LIFETIME has added the UNTITLED SARDO MEDICAL DRAMA to their slate from scribe Michael Sardo. Series, whic Sardo will exec produce with Gerard Bocaccio, centers on a woman who moves to Philadelphia to work as chief of staff in the psychiatry department alongside her sister and a diverse staff.
TV RENEWALS
ABC FAMILY has renewed freshman series MELISSA & JOEY, with what is expected to be an additional 10-12 episode order.
SyFy has made an early move to renew WAREHOUSE 13 for another season.
TV CANCELLATIONS
ABC FAMILY has pulled the plug on new series HUGE, starring Nikki Blonsky.
FOX has officially terminated the critically lauded, little watched series LONE STAR.
ABC has canceled its documentary-style ensemble drama MY GENERATION after only two episodes.
TV ATTACHMENTS
Overbrook Entertainment and has partnered with Pete Chiarelli to adapt the hit 2005 romantic comedy HITCH, for TV. Will Smith and James Lassiter will produce alongside Sony Pictures TV.
David E. Kelley has signed on to write and produce a TV pilot for WONDER WOMAN based on the DC comic book character of the same name. Kelly will work on the pilot for DC Entertainment, before bringing it to networks.
TV GREENLIGHTS
ABC FAMILY has greenlit 4 new pilots, STRUT, NINE LIVES, SWITCHED AT BIRTH and THE LYING GAME.
LIFETIME has greenlit a pilot for new series MEET JANE, from writer Andi Bushell and co-exec producer Mark Pedowitz. Series centers on Jane Bilinksi, whose unhappily married motherhood is suddenly given a jolt when the FBI enlists her to spy on a computer technician the government suspects is selling top-secret information to Russia. A man who also happens to be her husband.
