
UPDATED: ABC has handed 4 more hourlong pilot orders to Marc Cherry’s soap Devious Maids, Michael Green’s magical cop drama Gotham, Paul Scheuring’s Zero Hour and Melissa Rosenberg’s Penoza. Those are likely ABC’s last drama pilot orders this season.
Devious Maids is loosely based on the Mexican telenovela The Disorderly Maids Of The Neighborhood and centers on four Latina women who are maids in Beverly Hills. The original Televisa format revolves around five housekeepers who work in a quiet residential condominium where nothing ever happens until a tenant mysteriously disappears, a suitcase full of money appears, along with a dead body, and the maids find themselves in the middle of it all. Paradigm-repped Desperate Housewives creator Cherry wrote the script and is exec producing the pilot with his Cherry/Wind Prods. partner Sabrina Wind, Televisa’s Michal Garcia and John Mass, Larry Shuman & David Lonner. ABC Studios is the studio.
Michael Green’s Gotham, from 20th Century Fox TV, centers on a female cop who, after pursuing a seemingly unsolvable case, discovers a magical world that exists within New York City. Kings creator and The River showrunner Green, repped by WME, is executive producing with his manager, 3 Arts’ Erwin Stoff. This is the second pilot with magical elements ordered by ABC this season following the success of fairytale drama series Once Upon A Time. Earlier this month, the network picked up a Beauty and The Beast reboot.
Scheuring’s Zero Hour, through ABC Studios, centers on a man who, in a bizarre twist of fate, is pulled into one of the most compelling conspiracies in human history after spending 20 years as the editor of a skeptics magazine. Lorenzo DiBonaventura and Dan McDermott are executive producing with Prison Break creator Scheuring.
Rosenberg’s Penoza, also from ABC Studios, is based on the Dutch format. It centers on the widow of an assassinated criminal who is forced to adopt her husband’s role in a crime syndicate in order to protect her family. Endemol Studios, Alon Aranya and Howard Klein are attached to executive produce with UTA-repped Rosenberg, writer on the blockbuster Twilight movie franchise .Penoza was originally created by Pieter Bart Korthuis for Endemol’s NL Film & TV and producer Alain de Levita. The series is now in its second season on KRO in the Netherlands.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.


What’s the deal with Catlton Cuse projects?
The Disorderly Maids Of The Neighborhood from Televisa was not a telenovela, it was a 13 episode series, which the Mexican media dubbed the “mexican version of Desperate Housewives.” Ironically Marc Cherry is adapting the ABC version.
So Ex-Comm from Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci is dead? I heard the pilots they had at Fox are also dead. Tough year. Yikes!
Anybody who lives by the Fanboy hype will suffer the Fanboy backlash sooner or later. They are a fickle bitter bunch.
I thought The CW had the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ reboot? ‘Penoza’ sounds awful, and it will be awful with Melissa Resenberg at the helm. Case in point: Twilight.
Now all of these sound interesting to me. especially devious Maids. We need more Latinas on network tv. But, maybe Paul Lee, the man behind a Brazilian soap opera can change that.
And yes, I know they speak Portuguese in Brazil.
Hopefully Gotham works out as I was a big fan of KINGS. What’s up with COURTROOM 302?
I am all for the “Maids” show but Marc Cherry has prooved he was just a one season pony. Desperate Housewives became a huge joke midway through season 2. Marc please go away
Season 2 was when ABC thought they didn’t need him and he stepped back and developed other projects. The show improved again Season 3 when he got more involved in the actual writing.
Go Paul!
Green should stick to the River… His original material leaves much to be desired.
Wow. Alon Aranya is EP on two pilots this season (MIDNIGHT SUN and THE LIFE). He’s got a better batting average than 95% of the “PODs” in this town! Love it!
Magic is for morons… ABC, please don’t become the David Copperfield network.
So, Gotham is a rewrite of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere?
Thats it???? They need more optionS!!!
Does anyone at Deadline respond to comments?
Carlton Cuse has 2 projects in development at ABc, once since Fall 2010. Any idea the status?
Is a hallelujah done?
If nobody is blasting it here, then it’s probably cooked.
Cuse’s projects are dead. Sorry.
He’s a line producer, not a writer. They’re figuring it out.
God Michael Green is the worst writer and lost Warners 100m dollars on GREEN LANTERN with his dull & painfully superficial script. This won’t work out despite his big Spielberg dealings.
The “worst writer?” Green’s scripts for the sublime but short-lived series Kings stand as a refutation of that silly claim.