After creating shows exclusively for FX and FOX in the past (RIP Terriers and The Chicago Code), The Shield’s Shawn Ryan along with Criminal Minds writer-producer Simon Mirren have instead sold a new untitled project to CBS. According to Deadline, the procedural is inspired by a true story and follows a genetic scientist who uses his psychopath gene to help the FBI catch killers. I’m not sure how this will amount to a series, but I’m intrigued already.
Deadline reports that Shawn Ryan and movie writer Karl Gajdusek have also sold The Last Resort to ABC. The thriller is set in a dystopic near future around a U.S. nuclear submarine crew that refuses an order to fire its nuclear missiles. They’re now being hunted for that decision and retreat to a NATO outpost to create their own small nuclear society. As someone who loves a high-concept premise, I’m even more excited about this one.
More Development News
FOX passed on Josh Freidman‘s pilot Locke & Key this season, despite its great reviews, but has given a commitment to his new spy pilot, according to THR. Similar to his last show Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, also a female action series on FOX, The Asset centers on a female agent in the New York office of the CIA. There have already been several female-fronted spy series (Alias, Nikita, and Covert Affairs), but I’m excited to see what Freidman has planned for this one.
Everwood creator Greg Berlanti has sold a grand total of three projects. Per Deadline, the first is Guilty for FOX, about a brilliant but morally questionable attorney who’s falsely convicted of fraud and stripped of his legal license. So what’s a guy to do? Use his other methods to continue solving cases while getting back at the men who set him up, of course.
Greg Berlanti has also sold a police drama to CBS, the network of procedurals. The project centers on a young and inexperienced, but ambitious, police officer who rises to detective too quickly after shutting down a major drug ring, Deadline reports.
The last project from Greg Berlanti and Maggie Friedman is a high crime drama for NBC, which according to Deadline centers on two connected cases that occur in two different time periods. Sounds interesting. I can’t wait to learn more about this one.
Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain, writers on The Shield, The Vampire Diaries and formerly supervised development on CW’s The Secret Circle, have sold a new young soap-drama to FOX. Beautiful Girls is set at a cosmetic company and will focus on the politics, sex, and intrigue that comes from working in the beauty industry, perDeadline. Sounds scandalous!
Liz Tigelaar, who created CW’s Life Unexpected and has been working on ABC’s new series Once Upon a Time, has sold a new drama to ABC. Based on the 2009 indie film The Joneses, the new series will follow a family moving into a suburb with a secret: They’re not really a family at all.
WSSH: Which Show Should I Watch?
Fall season is upon us this week, and I’ve already given a list of the new and returning shows I think are worth watching. You don’t have to take my word for it though because a number of sites have now published their own Top Shows to Watch lists.
TVOvermind has their ‘Top New Shows’ list grouped by You Have to Watch (Once Upon a Time, Person of Interest, Terra Nova) and Guilty Pleasure (Ringer, Revenge, Pan Am, The Secret Circle).
However, my favorite list is Trendrr.tv‘s ‘Top 10 Most Anticipated New Fall Shows’. By monitoring social media on Twitter, Facebook, GetGlue, and Miso, they’ve ranked the shows with the most buzz in the past week: Once Upon a Time, Revenge, The Secret Circle, New Girl, and Ringer all feature.
EW also has their ’40 Fall TV Shows We’re Psyched About’ list, which includes all of my previously discussed favorites.
Let’s Get This Show on the Road
Creepy dolls, pregnant ladies, and guys wearing latex abound in Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story. For the last few weeks we’ve seen strange videos appearing on YouTube to promote the Oct. 5 premiere of the show. Now we have our first teasers with actual footage of the cast and not to be outdone our first keyart for the horror-thriller on YouTube and THR. One thing’s for sure, this show’s going to be really weird.
The Secret Circle has also been posting their own promotion videos on Youtube. There’s the usual teasers and trailers popping up, but also interview videos with each member of the cast. Get ready because the premiere is this Thursday.
Where’s Waldo?
If you thought The Observer could only be found on Fringe, you were wrong. TVLine reports that Michael Cerveris will be sighted this fall on JJ Abrams’ new show Person of Interest for a one episode stint in October. Don’t you just love playing spot The Observer?
With Switched at Birth on midseason break, its stars are looking for work elsewhere. According to THR, Vanessa Marano, who plays Bay Kennish on Switched at Birth, will guest-star as the daughter of an ex-con in an upcoming episode of CSI.
Meanwhile, her co-star Katie LeClerc, who plays Daphne Vasquez on Switched at Birth, will guest-star on Big Bang Theory as a love interest for Raj, reports TVLine.
According to EW, Kristen Stewart spent some of her time recently appearing in a music video for Marcus Foster, the best friend of her Twilight co-star and rumored boyfriend, Robert Pattinson. It may have just been as a favor, but I really like the haunting look she gives to the video for one of my favorite Marcus Foster songs.