TNT is back in business with Kyra Sedgwick and Ed Burns.
The Turner-owned cable network ahead of its upfront presentation next week has handed out series orders to dramas Proof and Public Morals, produced by Sedgwick and Burns, respectively.
Proof is a female centered procedural centering on a skeptical, hard science female surgeon (Jennifer Beals) who has struggled with family issues including a tragic death. She is convinced to investigate cases of reincarnation, out-of-body experiences and hauntings in a quest to find verifiable proof to answer one of life's biggest questions: Is death the end or is there something beyond.
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Rob Bragin (Greek) penned the pilot and will exec produce alongside Sedgwick and her manager Jill Littman and producer Tom Jacobson. The drama reunites TNT with Segwick following her seven-season run on The Closer. The L Word alum Beals, Matthew Modine and Scandal's Joe Morton star in the drama. Callum Blue, Edi Gathegi, Annie Thurman, Sean Gleeson and Caroline Rose Kaplan round out the cast.
For his part, Mob City alum Burns wrote, stars and exec produces Public Morals, a 1960s cop drama that centers on the Public Morals Division. It's there that cops walk the line between morality and criminality as the temptations that come from dealing with all kinds of vice can get the best of them. It centers on cop Terry Muldoon (Burns), who knows the line between the good guys and the bad guys is thin but is determined to raise his sons to be honest and hardworking.
Public Morals hails from Amblin TV and TNT Original Productions, with Steven Spielberg and Burns exec producing alongside Darryl Frank, Justin Falvey and Aaron Lubin. The series pickup also extends Amblin's relationship with the Turner-owned cable network, which also is home to the Noah Wyle starrer Falling Skies. The pickup brings Burns back to the network after he starred in Frank Darabont's short-lived drama Mob City, which was canceled last year after one season.
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The drama hits close to home for the actor, whose father, Edward J. Burns, worked for the NYPD during the late 1960s. The successful writer-actor previously co-created The Fighting Fitzgeralds for NBC with his brother, Brian. Burns also wrote, directed, produced and starred in Fox Searchlight's 1995 family drama The Brothers McMullen.
Proof and Public Morals join a rapidly growing slate of original dramas including Falling Skies, Dallas, Franklin & Bash, Perception, Rizzoli & Isles, Major Crimes as well as upcoming entries The Last Ship, Legends, Murder in the First and recently revived drama The Librarians. On the pilot side, TNT still has Guilt By Association and Agent X still in contention.
Email: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
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