Latest in ABC Pilots

I’ve been reporting these and dribs and drabs but here is a full list: ABC: DRAMAS Identity, Hallelujah, Grace, Georgetown, Poe, Partners. COMEDIES: My Freakin’ Family, Other People’s Kids, Bad Mom, Lost & Found. NBC: DRAMAS Wonder Woman, Reconstruction, A Mann’s World, Metro, 17the Precinct; COMEDIES: Brave New World…

The Tudors alumna Natalie Dormer is set as the female lead opposite Chris Egan in ABC’s drama pilot Poe. The project, from Warner Bros. TV and Lin Pictures, is a crime procedural following Edgar Allan Poe (Egan), the world's very first detective, as he uses unconventional methods to investigate dark mysteries in…

In her first regular TV series gig, Ashley Judd is close to a deal to topline ABC’s action series Missing (aka Safe aka Hall of Mirrors). The project, from feature writer Greg Poirier, was once slated for summer but now eyes a fall launch, with early September as a possibility. Missing, whose premise somewhat echoes…

EXCLUSIVE: Jaume Collet-Serra, director of the upcoming thriller Unknown starring Liam Neeson, will make his TV directing debut with the ABC pilot The River, a horror drama from Paranormal Activity writer-director Oren Peli. Described as being in the mold of Paranormal Activity, The River centers on a family who…

British helmer Mark Mylod (Entourage), who directed the pilots for the U.K. series Shameless and its U.S. version on Showtime, has signed on to direct ABC’s drama pilot Once Upon a Time. The project, from Lost executive producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, centers on a woman with a troubled past who is drawn…

From Evelyn Salt to Emily Thorn: Feature director Phillip Noyce is returning to pilot directing duty with ABC’s Revenge. Like Noyce’s most recent feature assignment, the Angelina Jolie starrer Salt, Revenge has a strong woman at its center. Written by Swingtown creator Mike Kelley, it is a contemporary re-imagening of…

At ABC, it feels a lot like 2004 this pilot season. Seven years ago, ABC had one of those lighting-in-a-bottle development cycle that resulted in the launch of 3 mega-hit new series in a single season – Marc Cherry’s Desperate Housewives, Shonda Rhimes’ Grey’s Anatomy and J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof’s Lost. In a…

The L Word co-creator/executive producer Ilene Chaiken has joined CBS’ private eye drama pilot Hail Mary as executive producer/showrunner. The project, created by Jeff Wadlow, is a buddy P.I. show set in Atlanta that focuses on a suburban single mom who teams up with a streetwise hustler to solve crimes. Wadlow…

3RD UPDATE: ABC just greenlighted six drama pilots, including Marc Cherry’s Hallelujah, the Mark Gordon-produced Identity and Once Upon a Time, from Lost executive producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. Also picked up are the Oren Peli/Steven Spielberg collaboration The River, co-produced by DreamWorks TV, the…

Teri Polo and Mather Zickel have landed co-starring roles on the ABC comedy pilot Man Up!. The project, from 100 Questions creator Chris Moynihan, ABC Studios and Tagline, is a look at what it takes to survive as a modern man, as told through the eyes of three best friends and the women in their lives. Moynihan and…

UPDATED: Modern Family, meet Frickin’ Family. ABC has handed out a pilot order to My Frickin’ Family (previously Cowboys and Indians), a single-camera comedy from writer Erica Rivinoja. Additionally, the network has handed a pilot order to another single-camera family comedy, Bad Mom, from British…

The pilot pickup season is just starting in earnest, but we already have an unusually large number of creators with multiple pilot orders. Peter Tolan, Whitney Cummings, Michael Patrick King and the duo of Andrew Reich and Ted Cohen have each received two pickups. Tolan wrote and is executive producing Fox’s comedy The…