Nellie Andreeva

In the latest round of script buying, ABC has picked up two projects from feature auspices — a comedy from Friends With Benefits writers Keith Merryman and David Newman, which is executive produced by Mark Gordon, and a drama from Changing Lanes scribe Michael Tolkin, which is executive produced by Lorenzo Di Bonaventura. ABC TV Studios, where Di Bonaventura and Gordon’s companies are based, is producing. This marks the first sale for Di Bonaventura Pictures Television, Di Bonaventura’s partnership with Dan McDermott launched in June.

Merryman and Newman’s Status Update is a single-camera ensemble comedy about a woman who is re-entering the world of dating armed with the influences of new technology and the various opinions of her friends and family. Gordon and Andrea Shay executive produce, with Merryman and Newman co-executive producing. In addition to co-writing with Will Gluck the Justin Timberlake/Mila Kunis comedy Friends With Benefits, Merryman and Newman, repped by APA and Circle of Confusion, also recently penned the movie Think Like a Man, which just wrapped principal photography, as well as a rewrite on Walden Media’s Mother’s Day.

The untitled Michael Tolkin/David Zabel project, which has Tolkin set to write and former ER showrunner Zabel attached as showrunner, is a drama about a complex female ADA in San Francisco who runs against her boss and becomes the new DA. Tolkin, Zabel, Di Bonaventura and McDermott are executive producing. This is the third sale for ABC Studios-based Zabel this season, along with Western Gunslinger and Two Roads, a drama with Jason Richman.

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