Author: Lesley Goldberg

October 19, 2016 11:30am PT by Lesley Goldberg

Paul Zimmerman/Getty Images for AWXI

Shonda Rhimes

Paul William Davies will pen the script for the project, which has received a hefty pilot-production commitment from the network.

ABC is reteaming with Shondaland and a Scandal producer for a new legal drama.

The network has handed out a hefty pilot-production commitment to an untitled project from Scandal producer Paul William Davies, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The drama is set in the Southern District of New York Federal Court, aka “The Mother Court.” It follows brand-new lawyers working for both the defense and the prosecution as they handle the most high-profile and high-stakes cases in the country — all as their personal lives intersect.

Davies, writer-producer on Scandal, will pen the script and executive produce the ABC Studios effort alongside Shondaland’s Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers.

The project marks the first drama sale (and second overall) of the development season for ABC Studios-based Shondaland, which has a comedy set up at ABC. The company is behind ABC’s No. 1-rated drama, Grey’s Anatomy, and has How to Get Away With Murder currently airing on Thursdays. Scandal, The Catch and freshman Still Star-Crossed are due midseason.

Davies is repped by WME and attorney Ken Richman; Shondaland is repped by ICM Partners.

Legal dramas continue to be in high demand this development season as broadcasters look for broad fare in a crowded and competitive landscape.

TV Development Scandal Shonda Rhimes

October 18, 2016 2:31pm PT by Lesley Goldberg

Amanda Edwards/WireImage

Jennifer Lopez

‘C.R.I.S.P.R.’ — aka “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats” — marks her latest project for the network.

NBC is reteaming with Jennifer Lopez for a futuristic procedural.

The network has handed out a script order to drama C.R.I.S.P.R., which is being produced by the Shades of Blue star, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

C.R.I.S.P.R.— aka ” clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats” — is a procedural thriller set five minutes into the future that explores the next generation of terror: DNA hacking. If the project moves forward, each episode will explore a bio-attack and crime — from a genetic assassination attempt on the president to the framing of an unborn child for murder. The show’s central character is a scientist with the CDC who is paired with an FBI agent. In the same vein of Castle, romance will blossom between the scientist and the FBI agent as they team to bring down a diabolical genius with a twisted God complex: her former boss. The drama will see mentor and protégé battle for control over the human genome in a game of cat and mouse in which the future of our species may rest and all disease could one day be eradicated.

Anthony Cipriano (Bates Motel) will pen the script and executive produce alongside Lopez and her Universal Television-based Nuyorican Productions. Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas also will exec produce via her EGTV banner alongside Benny Medina and Fascination Street’s Drew Brown. Nuyorican head of development Priscilla Porianda is set as a co-exec producer.

C.R.I.S.P.R. marks the latest collaboration for Lopez with NBC. In addition to starring and exec producing sophomore drama Shades of Blue, Lopez will exec produce and serve as a judge on dance competition series World of Dance. The prolific actress-producer also has an untitled legal drama set up at CBS this development season. She next will play drug lord Griselda Blanco in an HBO TV movie.

Lopez, Goldsmith-Thomas, Porianda and Brown are repped by CAA; Cipriano is with APA, Energy Entertainment and McKuin Frankel. 

TV Development

October 18, 2016 1:16pm PT by Lesley Goldberg

Screengrab/ITV

‘Benidorm’

‘Awkward’ showrunners Chris Alberghini and Mike Chessler will adapt the U.K. family comedy.

Fox is ready to go on vacation this summer.

The network is teaming with Awkward showrunners Chris Alberghini and Mike Chessler to adapt ITV’s successful U.K. comedy Benidorm with an eye on a summer run.

The Fox take, called The Big Package, is a half-hour single-camera comedy about a blue-collar Boston family on the brink of financial disaster who takes a Mexican vacation they can’t afford and seeks escape at a third-rate resort whose bargain “big package” also attracts a handful of other boisterous and crude guests.

The comedy is based on Tiger Aspect Productions’ U.K. format Benidorm and hails from Endemol Shine Studios (where Tiger Aspect is based). Alberghini and Chessler — currently showrunners on VH1’s Daytime Divas — will pen the script and executive produce the 20th Century Fox TV co-production alongside Wetdog Entertainment’s Stephanie Davis, Derren Litten and Ben Cavey, the latter of whom exec produces Benidorm for Tiger Aspect. Litten created Benidorm and serves as the show’s lead writer. The critically acclaimed series wrapped its eighth season earlier this year and has already been renewed for a ninth run in 2017. The ensemble comedy has won two National Television Awards and also has been nominated for British Comedy prizes and BAFTAs.

The Big Package — which is in development — comes as Fox continues to eye original scripted comedies in the typically low-rated summer. In April, the network went straight to series on comedy Famous, but after difficulties casting the 10-episode summer series, hit the brakes and put the project back into development where it languished. This past summer, Fox focused on a mix of scripted dramas (including the second season of Wayward Pines, which struggled to match the 2015 success) and unscripted (with its Mark Burnett-produced reality dating series Coupled tanking).

For Alberghini and Chessler, who will serve as showrunners should The Big Package go to series, the project comes on top of VH1’s Daytime Divas (formerly Satan’s Sisters) starring Vanessa Williams that is set for a 2017 debut. The writing duo’s credits include Awkward, 90210, Cashmere Mafia, Whoopi and Reba. They are repped by Paradigm, manager Davis and Felker Toczek.

Watch a clip of Benidorm, below.

Fox’s The Big Package comes as TBS has found success with Jason Jones comedy The Detour, which follows a family on a road trip gone wrong. HBO next has comedic anthology Room 104 about an American hotel and follows different guests in each episode, while TBS has similarly themed Greg Garcia anthology The Guest Book also exploring the events at a small-town vacation home and its visitors.

TV Development