Turner Broadcasting's TNT and TBS have each picked up a pilot.
TNT has given the green light to an untitled action/adventure drama from the writer behind The Bourne Identity, while TBS has added an untitled comedy from executive producer Conan O'Brien and the writer behind Hot Tub Time Machine, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Bourne's Blake Herron will write and executive produce the untitled action/adventure project that hails from Turner Originals. Air Force One, Children of Men and Castle's Armyan Bernstein is on board to executive produce.
The drama centers on an unseen hand who works to protect the country and its citizens from all manner of threats by any means necessary in times of extreme crisis when traditional law and government aren't in a position to help. Created by the original founding fathers but hidden from the view of the public, there is an agent of unknown identity that is trained and ready to serve -- deployed only at the careful discretion of the vice president. The drama is described as National Treasure meets The Bourne Identity.
For TNT, the project marks the drama-leaning cabler's first pilot after the network last week picked up its latest offering, Murder in the First, to series. It comes mere days after the network canceled King & Maxwellafter one low-rated season. (The fate of drama Franklin & Bash has not yet been determined.)
At TBS, meanwhile, the untitled comedy hails from Hot Tub Time Machine writer/actor Josh Heald and executive producer Warner Horizon Television. The multicamera entry is described as a post-recession comedy about charismatic twenty-something Connor Logan and his best friends, who reinvigorate a town on the verge of losing its identity when they acquire and reopen the local brewery. O'Brien's Conaco president David Kissinger and producer Jeff Ross willalso executive produce. Heald will also be credited as a co-EP. For Heald, the pilot marks his latest collaboration with O'Brien. The duo previously developed Most Likely for TBS.
The untitled comedy expands O'Brien's relationship with TBS, where he has late-night staple Conan. The pilot joins fellow half-hour Do It Yourself with Bill Engvallat the network, which also recently renewed bar-set Sullivan & Son for a third season as the network looks to build its comedy brand on the back of syndicated repeats of The Big Bang Theory.
E-mail: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
Twitter: @Snoodit
