
2ND UPDATE 5:30 PM: NBC has added another drama pilot to its roster, from Life creator/executive producer Rand Ravich. The untitled drama project, produced by 20th Century Fox TV, is described as an emotionally charged action thriller set in and around the world of Washington DC. It follows an idealistic Secret Service agent who finds himself at the epicenter of an international crisis on his first day on the job. He will need to cross moral and legal lines as he navigates the highest levels of power and corruption on his search for the truth. Ravich is executive producing with his producing partner Far Shariat, making a return to NBC where he landed his first series, the 2007 drama Life.
UPDATE 4:30 PM: It has been a busy pickup day at NBC. The network just ordered four more pilots: the Carlton Cuse-produced drama The Sixth Gun and comedies from Nurse Jackie co-creator Liz Brixius, Up All Night executive producer DJ Nash and The Office‘s Justin Spitzer. All four hail from Universal TV.
Related: NBC Greenlights Three Comedy Pilots
Based on the Oni Press graphic novel, Sixth Gun is the story of six mythical guns in the Old West. When the Sixth Gun, the most powerful and dangerous of the group, resurfaces in the hands of an innocent girl named Becky Montcrief, dark forces reawaken. Vile men thought long dead set their sights on retrieving the gun and killing Becky. Only Drake Sinclair, a self-serving gunfighter, stands in evil’s way. Feature writer Ryan Condal wrote the script and will executive produce with Cuse as well as Eric Gitter and Andy Bourne of Oni Press’s sister company, film/TV producer Closed on Mondays Entertainment. The order adds to an already full plate for Cuse, who also executive produces the A&E series Bates Motel and the FX pilot The Strain, his collaboration with Guillermo del Toro.
The DJ Nash single-camera project, from Jason Bateman‘s Aggregate Films, is a single-camera comedy. Loosely based on Nash’s life, it centers on a son idolizing his blind father and bemused by his mother’s newfound adolescence who watches his family come closer together post-divorce. Originally set in the 1980s, the comedy now takes place in present day. Nash will executive produce with Bateman and Aggregate president Jim Garavente.
Brixius’ single-camera Girlfriend In A Coma, from Wolf Films, is about a 34-year-old woman who, after almost two decades, wakes up from a coma to find out she has a 17-year-old daughter from a pregnancy she was unaware of when her life was put on hold. Dick Wolf, Brixius, Danielle Gelber and Peter Jankowski executive produce.
Justin Spitzer’s Holding Patterns, from Peter Traugott’s TBD Prods, is an ensemble multi-camera comedy about a group of friends whose lives completely change after they survive a plane crash. Spitzer, Traugott and Rachel Kaplan executive produce. The pickups bring NBC’s comedy tally to nine pilots and one presentation in addition to the Michael J. Fox straight-to-series order.
PREVIOUS: NBC has greenlighted another drama pilot, The Blacklist. Written by Jon Bokenkamp (Perfect Stranger), the project centers on the world’s most wanted criminal who mysteriously turns himself in and offers to give up everyone he has ever worked with. His only condition is he will only work with a newly minted FBI agent with whom he seemingly has no connection. John Eisendrath (Alias) serves as showrunner on the Sony TV-produced pilot, which he and Bokenkamp will executive produce with Davis Entertainment’s John Davis and John Fox. Bokenkamp and Eisendrath are with ICM Partners; Bokenkamp is managed by Brian Lutz. The Blacklist, which had been among the hot scripts getting pre-pickup buzz, joins four other NBC drama pilots: I Am Victor, Bloodline and the off-cycle ones After Hours and The Secret Lives Of Husbands And Wives.
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The project sounds awesome and John’s the consummate showrunner.
Congratulations DJ!
Everyone listen up — DJ Nash is one of the single best people in Hollywood. Write his name down and work with him/read his scripts/watch his shows. He’s gonna be around for a LONG TIME.
Congrats to Wolf Films partner Danielle Gelber, who created the concept for Girlfriend In A Coma, just like she did last year for Chicago Fire. Strong track record.
If she created the concept, her lawyers are going to have a good time. Girlfriend In a Coma is a novel by Douglas Coupland with the same premise and title.
you got that right, and it was set up at ABC Family just last year.
How about Girlfriend in a Courtroom. Girlfriend wakes from the coma and is served with a lawsuit for copyright infringement. 22 episodes will write themselves each hour a part of the trial leading up to the jury verdict for the season finale.
Is “Girlfriend in a Coma” related to the Douglas Copeland semi Sci Fi novel of the same name from a few years back??
The Sixth Gun sounds fun.
I’m assuming Girlfriend In A Coma is based on the Douglas Coupland book of the same and premise.
Good for Oni! Now if someone would have the balls to develop their best book, Black Metal…
Any update on the JJ Abrams project for NBC and that one about the holidays (where each episode would be a different holiday)?
So is that 10 comedies for NBC? How many more?
I’d bet at least a couple more. NBC needs as many options as possible
given their current slate. With shows ending and most of the new one’s dreadful. they probably need to pick up seven or so to series, or they’ll be forced to cut down on comedy hours or even worse, have to renew the likes of 1600 Penn.
they should pick up at least four more…esp in the multi cam arena…it’s clear they only have go on, new normal, and parks and rec, and poss comm coming back. All shows that prob can’t build a night around, or build a new or larger audience. I’d pick up at least a four or five more…hedge your bets at this point…
“Girlfriend in a Coma” is the worst idea for a high-concept comedy I have ever heard.
I realize Brixius is old buds with Greenblatt and Rabinowitz, but really? Is NBC going to develop a proto-Showtime show every season from now on?
And, if that wasn’t bad enough, they’ll never be able to obtain the rights to that title.
Justin Spitzer is one of the most talented writers in this industry. Bar none.
what does it mean when it says “off-cycle”? that they will air during the Summer?
Developed outside of pilot season — usually a retooling of a pilot the network liked but didn’t pick up or a show pitch that comes out of left field or has talent the network wants to work with. Can be mid-season or summer but not necessarily developed for that purpose.
Ah, it’s clear why NBC is picking up so many comedies. They’re about to clean house in the comedy department. With The Office and 30 Rock ending… my bet is that Up All Night, Whitney, Guys With Kids, 1600 Penn, and probably Save Me will go along with it. They’ll renew Community and Parks & Rec for final seasons (ensuring they have healthier syndication runs) and go for a new round of comedies. It makes sense. Go On and The New Normal will likely move to where Whitney/Guys With Kids was and they might try and expand the block further. Hard to tell at this point but that’s what I bet will happen.
I would be perfectly content with that deal, if The New Normal and 1600 Penn were swapped. But still, that doesn’t sound like a bad deal.
I’m interested to see where NBC puts the Michael J. Fox show. Old NBC would slot it on Thursday, but current NBC has NOTHING to launch a new comedy behind on Thursday. My guess is they’re going to pair it with “Go On” or a new comedy with an A-list lead in the middle hour on Tuesday rather than risk losing it in a grand plan to rebuild Thursday.
I agree with you.They will probably launch it behind The Voice Tuesdays and let it build on not wanting to risk losing it by dropping it on Thursday. A move to midseason Thursdays would work.
But i highly suspect they’ll launch a multi-cam hour Thursdays at 9 hoping to catch viewers still switching from CBS. That sean Hayes comedy looks bound for Thursdays at 9.
The Sixth Gun… satisfying the public’s insatiable thirst for Westerns.
Substitute a ring for the gun, and you basically have a Peter Jackson-directed trilogy.
PLEASE give CHICAGO FIRE a second season!! I just LOVE that show!
DJ is good people. Congrats!
Brixius is a stone cold genius. This is fantastic news!
Listen up NBC, The Sixth Gun‘s source material is a graphic novel which is essentially a storyboard in the form of a book. So shoot the damn thing scene for scene, put it on Friday nights with Grimm and then let it be.
The Blacklist sounds just as dumb as Alcatraz did over at Fox. An interesting (on the surface) gimmick to disguise your regular ol’ cops and robbers show.
Send our FBI agent on a wild goose chase week in and week out. With an endless pool of baddies. While answering very little on this “mysterious” relationship between the guy who turned himself in and the agent.
Been done before (Alcatraz amongst others.) Absolutely NOTHING interesting about it.
Zzzzzzzzz. Wake me up when it’s cancelled and the producer’s interviewed in a postmortem.
NBC News Flash>>>>>>
People have gotten tired of the Lawyer/the Policeman/the doctor concept, people want to see more representative characters in your dramas, ya need to get more creative.
I worked as James Spader’s stand in for the pilot. He was extremely gracious and kind.I sure hope they pick me up!