Nellie Andreeva

Fox is joining the Western trend this development season with an untitled drama project from producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who co-wrote this summer’s big-screen Western with a sci-fi twist Cowboys & Aliens. Written by The Shield alum John Hlavin, the project is described as a Western that tells the origins of Wyatt Earp, chronicling both the well-known incidents in his life such as the Gunfight at the OK Corral and lesser-known details of Earp and his brothers bringing order to a lawless frontier. UTA-repped Hlavin, who has a feature Western, The Gunslinger, in development at Warner Bros, brought the project to Kurtzman and Orci. The three will executive produce with Heather Kadin for 20th Century Fox TV and Kurtzman and Orci’s K/O Paper Products. This marks K/O’s return to Fox, where the company had two high-profile drama pilots last season, Locke & Key and Exit Strategy, neither of which were picked up to series. This is Kurtzman and Orci’s second sale this season, following the script plus penalty commitment at CBS for an Anna Fricke-written drama about a congresswoman advocate. The Hlavin project joins a slew of Westerns in development at the broadcast networks. NBC has an untitled Kerry Ehrin project set in the 1880s, which is produced by Sean Hayes’ Hazy Mills; ABC has Ron Moore’s Hangtown, set in the early 1900 and David Zabel’s Gunslinger. Additionally, TNT recently gave a cast-contingent pilot order to Bruce C. McKenna and Danny Cannon’s Gateway, set in the 1880s.

On the comedy side, Fox has bought The Good Life, a single-camera comedy project by stand-up comedian/writer Carlos Kotkin and writer Justin Sternberg (The Paul Reiser Show), which is being produced by 20th TV and another studio pod, Chernin Entertainment. Loosely based on Kotkin’s upcoming book Please God Let It Be Herpes, a collection of short stories about the often awkward dating situations Kotkin has found himself in, the comedy is about a guy whose continued optimism always lands him in unexpected and humorous predicaments. Chernin, Katherine Pope and Brad Mendelsohn of Circle of Confusion, which manages Kotkin, are executive producing. Steinberg is with WME.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.