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Detective Drama From Michael Cuesta & Carol Mendelsohn Gets CBS Pilot Order

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday February 1, 2013 @ 5:00pm PSTTags: Carol Mendelsohn, CBS, Michael Cuesta, Second Sight
Nellie Andreeva

CBS has added one more pilot to its drama roster, greenlighting Second Sight, from Michael Cuesta, director/executive producer of the Emmy-winning Homeland and CSI executive producer/showrunner Carol Mendelsohn. Based on the 2000 British series starring Clive Owen, Second Sight is described as a gothic psychological thriller about a detective who is suddenly afflicted with an autoimmune virus that causes hallucinations reflective of his subconscious. He discovers that catching the killer depends as much on insight as eyesight. (watch the trailer for the original series below.) Cuesta wrote the adaptation with his brother Gerald Cuesta. The two previously teamed for another CBS drama project, the cult 2007 zombie pilot Babylon Fields, which Gerald co-wrote and Michael directed. Michael Cuesta is set to direct Second Sight, which he is executive producing with Mendelsohn, her executive Julie Weitz, Paula Milne, who created the original series, and Nick Reed. Weitz secured the rights to the British format for Carol Mendelsohn Prods. through British-born agent-turned-producer Reed, with whom she previously worked together at ICM. Gerald Cuesta and Phil Goldfine are co-executive producing.
Michael Cuesta shared in Homeland‘s best drama series Emmy win. There are four series currently on the air whose pilots he directed: Showtime’s Homeland and Dexter and CBS’ Blue Bloods and Elementary. Cuesta and Mendelsohn are with WME.

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‘Homeland’s Michael Cuesta & ‘CSI’s Carol Mendelsohn Sell Detective Drama To CBS

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday October 5, 2012 @ 10:32am PDTTags: Carol Mendelsohn, Michael Cuesta
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Michael Cuesta, director/executive producer of the Emmy-winning Homeland, has teamed with CSI executive producer/showrunner Carol Mendelsohn for Second Sight, a drama based on the 2000 British series starring Clive Owen. The project has been set up at CBS through CBS TV Studios, where Cuesta is under an overall deal, and studio-based Carol Mendelsohn Prods.

Second Sight centers on a homicide detective going blind who turns his affliction into an advantage – using his heightened senses and intuition to solve crimes. (watch the trailer for the original series below.) Cuesta will write the adaptation with his brother Gerald Cuesta. The two previously teamed for another CBS drama project, the cult 2007 zombie pilot Babylon Fields, which Gerald co-wrote and Michael directed. Michael Cuesta is set to direct Second Sight, which he is executive producing with Mendelsohn, her executive Julie Weitz, Paula Milne, who created the original series, and Nick Reed. Weitz secured the rights to the British format for Carol Mendelsohn Prods. through British-born agent-turned-producer Reed, with whom she previously worked together at ICM. Gerald Cuesta and Phil Goldfine are co-executive producing. Read More »

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CBS Greenlights ‘Dogs In The City’ Reality Series Produced By Carol Mendelsohn

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday April 12, 2012 @ 12:10pm PDTTags: Carol Mendelsohn, CBS, Dogs In The City
Nellie Andreeva

CSI maven Carol Mendelsohn, executive producer of the TNT drama pilot Scent Of The Missing, which revolves around search and rescue dogs, is behind another dog-centric project, this time on the unscripted side. CBS has picked up for summer Dogs In The City, a reality series starring New York City dog guru Justin Silver, which will premiere on May 30. In the vein of veteran Dog Whisperer, Silver, a dog trainer, behaviorist and owner of a pet care company, helps owners with any dog behavior-related problems. Read More »

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CBS Greenlights David Hubbard/Carol Mendelsohn’s ‘Widow Detective’ Pilot

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday January 25, 2012 @ 5:25pm PSTTags: Carol Mendelsohn
Nellie Andreeva

CBS has given a pilot order to Widow Detective, a drama written by David Hubbard and produced by CSI maven Carol Mendelsohn. The project, from CBS TV Studios and Mendelsohn’s studio-based production company, centers on a decorated police detective who, … Read More »

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‘CSI’ Showrunner Carol Mendelsohn Sets Up Slew Of Drama Projects

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday October 24, 2011 @ 3:00pm PDTTags: Carol Mendelsohn, CBS, CBS TV Studios, CW, FX, Julie Weitz
Nellie Andreeva

In the first full development cycle since Carol Mendelsohn brought in Julie Weitz as president of her CBS TV Studios-based production company last year, Carol Mendelsohn Prods has sold a half-dozen projects to CBS, CW and FX, including cop drama Throwdown Gun to FX penned by LA Confidential author James Ellroy. Most of the company’s broadcast projects are based on books. The list includes three shows at CBS: FBI drama The Murder Room, based on the book by Michael Capuzzo and written by feature scribe George Nolfi (The Bourne Ultimatum); female cop drama Widow Detective, penned by David Hubbard (feature Noel); and another cop drama, Two Badges, based on the book by Mona Ruiz and Geoff Boucher and penned by Ted Humphrey (The Good Wife). At the CW, Carol Mendelsohn Prods is behind Unearthly, a supernatural drama based on the book by Cynthia Hand and written by Hellcats creator Kevin Murphy, and The Hollows, based on the book series by Kim Harrison and penned by Jordan Hawley (Smallville). Additionally, the company recently received a pilot order from TNT for Scent Of The Missing, an adaptation of Susannah Charleson’s novel written by Mendelsohn, Treena Hancock and Melissa R. Byer. That project stars Tricia Helfer as an adrenaline-junkie leader of a canine search-and-rescue team who assists law enforcement agencies with her partner, a golden retriever. WME-repped Mendelsohn, who continues to run CBS’ mothership CSI series, executive produces all projects along with Weitz. Here are descriptions of the shows on the company’s development slate: Read More »

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TNT Pilot ‘Scent Of The Missing’ Sets Tricia Helfer As Lead, Gerald McRaney To Co-Star

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday October 12, 2011 @ 8:05am PDTTags: Carol Mendelsohn, Gerald McRaney, Scent Of The Missing, TNT, TV Castings
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Battlestar Galactica alumna Tricia Helfer has been cast as the lead in TNT’s drama pilot Scent Of The Missing. Veteran Gerald McRaney will co-star in the project, co-written/executive … Read More »

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TNT Picks Up Carol Mendelsohn’s Drama ‘Scent Of The Missing’ To Pilot

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday September 7, 2011 @ 3:30pm PDTTags: Barry Josephson, Carol Mendelsohn, CBS TV Studios, Julie Weitz, Scent Of The Missing, TNT
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: TNT has given a pilot order to Scent of the Missing, a drama project co-written and executive produced by CSI: Crime Scene Investigation executive producer/showrunner Carol Mendelsohn and executive produced by Barry Josephson. Based on the … Read More »

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TCA: ‘CSI’ Will Explore Humorous Side Of Murder And Gore With Ted Danson

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday August 3, 2011 @ 12:39pm PDTTags: Carol Mendelsohn, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, TCA, Television Critics Association

Diane Haithman is contributing to Deadline’s coverage of TCA.

More laughs than screams? At today’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation panel at TCA, producers and actors from the long-running procedural drama said viewers should expect a lighter tone than in recent seasons with the introduction of Ted Danson’s new character, D.B. Russell.

Executive producer Carol Mendelsohn said the 12th season of CSI will still tend to open with “one or more dead or maimed bodies,” but that more humor will be injected into the procedure. “I think you can infer it — last year we were chasing a serial killer; that arc has come to an end … we will have more humor than last season.” After the session she reiterated that blood will still spill: “It will be our usual gore that we’ve all been desensitized to. … I don’t think we are going to lose our template.”

Said Mendelsohn of the decision to hire Danson: “We wanted a Sherlock Holmes — we did not want a science nerd. And we started the premiere of Season 1 with, ‘Here comes the nerd squad.’ We said, how do we get someone of great intelligence who is not a nerd?” That led, she said, to making Danson’s character the son of intellectual, Left Coast hippie parents. Read More »

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Girl Power: Writing Duo Sells 2 TV Projects

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday September 17, 2010 @ 1:14pm PDTTags: Carol Mendelsohn, CBS TV Studios, Jennifer Levin, Medical Drama, Richard Shepard, Sherri Cooper, TV Deals
Nellie Andreeva

Brothers & Sisters writer-producers Sherri Cooper and Jennifer Levin left the long-running ABC drama to focus on development. And this summer, they inked a two-script deal with CBS TV Studios. In a development season in which the medical genre has been hot, Cooper and Levin are now 2-for-2. They’ve sold two medical dramas: one to CBS with director-producer Richard Shepard attached, and another to the CW with Carol Mendelsohn on board as executive producer. Read More »

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WME’s Julie Weitz To Run Carol Mendelsohn’s Production Company

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday August 24, 2010 @ 9:43pm PDTTags: Carol Mendelsohn, CBS TV Studios, Endeavor, WME
Nellie Andreeva

WME literary agent Julie Weitz is joining Carol Mendelsohn’s CBS TV Studios-based production company as president.
For the past 6 years, she was an agent at Endeavor and then WME. She joined Endeavor in 2004 when the agency launched a movies-for-television … Read More »

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‘CSI’ Creator Back On Mothership Series

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday August 9, 2010 @ 9:00am PDTTags: Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn, CBS TV Studios, CSI, CSI Anthony Zuiker, CSI Franchise
Nellie Andreeva

There is a familiar face in the CSI writers room this summer, series creator Anthony Zuiker, who has returned to the mothership series. A decade ago, Zuiker was an young writer with no TV credits when he created CSI and … Read More »

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‘CSI’ Showrunners Carol Mendelsohn & Ann Donahue Sign New Deals With CBS Studios

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday June 28, 2010 @ 2:10pm PDTTags: Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn, CBS Studios, CSI Franchise, Producers, TV, TV Shows
Nellie Andreeva

Ann Donahue Press Photo.jpgCSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATIONCSI mavens Carol Mendelsohn and Ann Donahue are staying at the helm of CBS’ veteran crime drama franchise. Each has inked a new four-year eight-figure overall deal with CSI producer CBS TV Studios. Medelsohn will continue to executive produce and showrun the mothership CSI series, which anchors the CBS Thursday schedule at 9PM. She also is executive producing the new CBS/CBS Studios drama The Defenders. Donahue will continue to executive produce and run CSI: Miami, which moves to Sundays 10PM this fall. The new pacts succeed Mendelsohn and Donahue’s previous four-year eight-figure deals with CBS Studios, which expired in mid-June. Both have been under overall pacts at the studio since 2001. “Every studio dreams of having producers with this kind of passion and leadership on the set and in the writer’s room,” CBS TV Studios president David Stapf said. “It was very important to us that Carol and Ann remain not only part of CSI, but the CBS family too.”

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