ABC has ordered three more drama pilots.
The network has picked up three one-hour drama pilots centered on a hotshot medical examiner and another based on a Scandanavian format, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. ABC has also picked up alien project The Visitors, from Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment.
From executive producer Matt Miller (Chuck), Forever centers on Dr. Henry Morgan, New York City's best medical examiner, but what no one knows is Henry studies the dead for a reason -- he is immortal. With the help of Detective Jo Martinez, the layers will be peeled back on Henry's colorful and long life through the cases.
STORY: TV Pilots 2014: The Complete Guide
Miller penned the pilot, with Lin Pictures' Dan Lin and Jennifer Gwartz executive producing. Warner Bros. TV produces.
Exposed, based on a Scandinavian format, follows an investigative journalist who will stop at nothing to uncover the truth -- including making questionable alliances. Love & Other Drugs screenwriter Charles Randolph will pen the Universal TV project, with executive producers Peter Traugott and Rachel Kaplan.
For ABC, Exposed marks the network's latest remake to garner a pilot order this season under network topper Paul Lee. It joins An American Education (based on the British comedy Bad Education), Irreversible (based on the Israeli series Bilti Hafich), Strange Calls (based on the Australian series) and dramas Sea of Fire (based on the Dutch format Vuurzee) and Secrets & Lies, a drama series based on the upcoming Australian entry of the same name.
PHOTOS: The Faces of Pilot Season 2013
ABC has also added drama pilot The Visitors, from Amblin Television. Based on a Ray Bradbury short story called Zero Hour, the drama hails from Marti Noxon and Dawn Olmstead's Grady Twins banner. Soo Hugh (Under the Dome, The River) will pen the script for the ABC Studios entry, which landed at the network with a script commitment in November.
Hugh will executive produce the drama that is described as a race against the clock to defeat an unseen alien enemy out to destroy the world by using the Earth's most precious resource: children. Amblin TV's Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank -- who also oversee Under the Dome -- will executive produce the drama, marking a reunion for them with Hugh.
The drama brings Amblin back into the ABC fold after the network canceled freshman drama Lucky 7. The company also produced ABC's short-lived scripted found-footage drama The River. Amblin most recently secured a pilot order at TNT for a cop drama starring Ed Burns. The banner also produces FX's The Americans, TNT's Falling Skies and CBS' upcoming Halle Berry summer space drama Extant.
The three drama pilots join six other hourlong efforts in the works at ABC for the 2014-15 season. In addition to straight-to-series orders for Secrets & Lies and an untitled entry from David O. Russell, ABC also has drama pilots American Crime (from 12 Years a Slave's John Ridley), Clementine, How to Get Away With Murder and Sea of Fire in the works.
