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Anthony Zuiker
NBC's pilot spree continues with Anthony Zuiker's Alice in Wonderland sequel.
The network has ordered the drama, simply titled Wonderland, which is set in the world of Lewis Carroll’s fairytale. The hourlong entry will explore Clara's life, which took an unexplained turn for the worse seven years earlier. A mysterious stranger tells her there may be an explanation after all... an explanation that lies in the fantastical world of Wonderland. Determined to revive her dreams and get her life back on track, Clara agrees to wage war against the reigning but malevolent Queen, the woman we once knew as Alice.
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The effort hails from CSI creator Zuiker, who will executive produce the project, which is being produced by Universal TV, Zuiker's Dare to Pass and Brillstein Entertainment Partners. Feature scribe Whit Anderson is on board to pen the pilot with Matt Weinberg, Brillstein's JoAnn Alfano and Margaret Riley joining Zuiker as EPs.
The Zuiker project was one of two Alice in Wonderland-themed entries this development season, a move that follows the success of fairytale dramas Once Upon a Time and Grimm at ABC and NBC, respectively. The Playboy Club's Chad Hodge also had a young-skewing procedural with McG set up at the CW. Zuiker, who jumped from longtime home CBS Television Studios to ABC Studios in 2011, has Taboo, a sexy soap about a stay-at-home-mom-turned-psychological profiler for the FBI in development at ABC as well.
Wonderland marks NBC's 10th drama pilot order this season, joining a modern-day Hatfields & McCoys produced by Charlize Theron, J.J. Abrams' Believe, Jerry Bruckheimer's The Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives and CarltonCuse's The Sixth Gun, among others. Additionally, the network has 16 comedies, including the already order Michael J. Fox effort, in contention.