Development News - March 17, 2014
ABC's Agatha, Exposed & The Winklers; ABC Family's Alice in Arabia, Recovery Road & Unstrung; Amazon's Hand of God; CBS' Only Human, The Odd Couple, Red Zone & Scorpion; The CW's iZombie; FX's Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll; HBO's Laughs Unlimited; and NBC's Ellen More or Less, Love is Relative, Salvation & State of Affairs.
AMAZON's HAND OF GOD
- Alona Tal (Cult) is set as a series regular on the drama pilot starring Ron Perlman. She will play Jocelyn, Harris Pernell's (Perlman) daughter-in-law.
FX's SEX&DRUGS&ROCK&ROLL
- Sainty Nelsen (Jimmy Kimmel Live) has joined the cast of the comedy pilot starring Denis Leary. She will play Becky, the best friend to 22-year-old aspiring singer Gigi (Elizabeth Gillies).
ABC's EXPOSED
- Ben Barnes (The Chronicles of Narnia) has been tapped as the male lead opposite Mary Elizabeth Winstead on the drama pilot. He will play Stoya, a mysterious man who develops an intimate relationship with Anna (Winstead). He claims to be a pilot, but is in fact an NSA whistleblower who is being hunted by the U.S. government because he knows too much.
ABC's AGATHA
- Daniel Henney (Revolution) has been cast on the drama pilot starring Bojana Novakovic. He will play Rey, Agatha's (Novakovic) attentive, doting and loving fiance.
NBC's SALVATION
- Danny Huston (Magic City, American Horror Story: Coven) is set as the male lead opposite Ashley Judd on the drama pilot. He will play Caleb, the lead pastor at a rival Mega-Church.
NBC's STATE OF AFFAIRS
- Adam Kaufman (Altered) has landed a lead role on the drama pilot starring Katherine Heigl. He will play Lucas Wright, a CIA analyst on the President's Daily Briefing team.
HBO's LAUGHS UNLIMITED
- Fruitvale Station's Melonie Diaz has been cast as the lead in the drama series project, which has not been formally picked up to pilot yet but HBO is doing preliminary casting and financing.
- The project comes from Oren Moverman and Anthony Swofford. It centers on Army Reserve medic Billie Crown (Diaz) who, after fifteen months as a combat medic in Afghanistan, discovers that "real life" is just as perilous as war. Duty as a Sacramento cop offers the same dangers and thrills as combat, and repairing relationships with her husband and young daughter is as difficult as saving a comrade after an IED attack. Moverman and Swofford will executive produce with Lauren Shuler Donner, Jennifer Beals, Jack Leslie and Adena Chawke. The Donners Co. and Greenlight Management will produce.
NBC's ELLEN MORE OR LESS
- Michael Liu (Conviction) has booked a regular role on the comedy pilot starring Stacey McGunnigle. He will play Nicholas, a co-worker of Ellen's (McGunnigle) in the Billing Department.
THE CW's IZOMBIE
- Ruhul Kohli (Alone Together) has been cast on the drama pilot starring Rose McIver. He will play Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti, a high-energy, enthusiastic nerd with a brilliant mind who becomes Liv's (McIver) friend, partner and confidant.
ABC's THE WINKLERS
- Judith Light (Who's the Boss, Dallas, Transparent) is returning to ABC with a starring role on the multi-camera comedy pilot starring Henry Winkler. She will play Tita Winkler, Henry's (Winkler) wife, the fabulous, fierce momma bear of the family.
CBS' SCORPION
- Smash and American Idol alum Katharine McPhee has booked the female lead on the drama pilot starring Elyes Gabel. She will play Paige, a working-class hero and diner waitress who understands geniuses and becomes a nanny of sorts and translator for Walter's super team of socially misunderstood masterminds.
CBS' THE ODD COUPLE
- The New Normal star Georgia King is the latest star of a former NBC comedy to join the cast of The Odd Couple remake. She joins a cast that includes Matthew Perry, Thomas Lennon, Sarah Baker and Wendell Pierce - all of whom last worked on the NBC comedies Go On, Sean Saves the World and The Michael J. Fox Show. She will play Katie, a model who lives in the same building as Oscar (Perry) and Felix (Lennon).
NBC's LOVE IS RELATIVE
- The Daily Show's Jason Jones has landed the third lead role on the comedy pilot starring Leslie Bibb and Barry Rothbart. He will play Nate, a good dad and husband who views with envy the perks of a bachelor's life when his brother-in-law (Rothbart) moves in.
CBS' RED ZONE
- Kim Dickens (Friday Night Lights, Sons of Anarchy) has been tapped as the female lead on the drama pilot starring Anthony LaPaglia. She will play Helen Weller, Holden's (LaPaglia) confident and strong wife, a former CIA shrink who teaches psychology at the same high school as her husband.
- Kevin Rahm (Mad Men) and Samantha Mathis (Under the Dome) have also been cast on the pilot today as husband and wife Paul and Olivia Jordan, and the parents of Jake (Graham Rogers). Paul is a good father despite the fact his NSA analyst job keeps him overworked and away from his family a great deal. Olivia is a well-kept woman who is dialed into the DC elite.
CBS' ONLY HUMAN
- Ashton Holmes (Revenge) and Anna Brewster have been cast on the drama pilot starring Jamie Lee Curtis. Brewster will play Diana, the quadruplet sister, a doctor who has dedicated her life to research. Holmes will play Gary, possibly the most brilliant of the Lang quadruplets who left medical school to travel the world and find himself before a near-death experience impels him back Stateside, to the loved ones he left behind. When he learns that his brother is now deeply involved with Jennifer, the love of his life, Gary realizes how much he may have lost when he left the U.S.
ABC FAMILY's ALICE IN ARABIA
- Pilot Ordered - Drama
- Alice in Arabia is a high-stakes drama about a rebellious American teenage girl who, after tragedy befalls her parents, is unknowingly kidnapped by her extended family, who are Saudi Arabian. Alice finds herself a stranger in a new world but is intrigued by its offerings and people, whom she finds surprisingly diverse in their views on the world and her situation. Now a virtual prisoner in her grandfather's royal compound, Alice must count on her independent spirit and wit to find a way to return home while surviving life behind the veil. The pilot was written by Brooke Eikmeier.
ABC FAMILY's RECOVERY ROAD
- Pilot Ordered - Drama
- Based on the popular young adult novel by Blake Nelson, Recovery Road focuses on a teenage girl dealing with addiction. Maddie has a reputation as a party girl who doesn't think she has a problem, until she's confronted one day by her school guidance counselor and forced to choose between expulsion and rehab. Trying to save face, Maddie chooses to spend her nights living with other recovering addicts at a rehab facility, and her days pretending everything is perfectly normal among her high school classmates and her closest friends. The pilot was written by Bert V. Royal ad Karen DiConcetto. Beth Miller and Craig Piligian from Pilgrim Studios and Danielle VonZerneck will serve as executive producers.
ABC FAMILY's UNSTRUNG
- Pilot Ordered - Drama
- Unstrung explores the sexy, cutthroat and emotional stakes of the profession world tour of tennis as brother and sister Luke and Ellie Holt compete to move up the ranks. The Holts may seem to have it all in a world where success is not only determined by prowess on the court, but by looks, charm and the ability to hide your faults under pressure from fans, critics, opponents and even your closest allies. But a major family secret threatens to turn their lives, and their hard-earned family "brand" upside down. Emily Whitesell will executive produce.
