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CW Greenlights Greg Berlanti-Julie Plec’s ‘Tomorrow People’ & David Marshall Grant-Produced ‘Blink’ As Pilots

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday January 28, 2013 @ 12:20pm PSTTags: Blink, David Marshall Grant, Greg Berlanti, Julie Plec, the CW, The Tomorrow People
Nellie Andreeva

The CW rounded out its pilot orders today with pickups of The Tomorrow People, an adaptation of the cult British 1970s sci-fi series from Arrow co-creators/executive producer Greg Berlanti and The Vampire Diaries co-creator/executive producer Julie Plec; and Blink, produced by David Marshall Grant (Smash). In all, the CW picked up eight drama pilots this year, including planted Vampire Diaries spinoff The Originals, also from Plec. None of them is in the CW’s former bread-and-butter genre of teen soap, with futuristic, sci-fi and high-concept fare galore.

Related: Wonder Woman CW Drama ‘Amazon’ Rolled

Berlanti and Plec executive produce Tomorrow People, written/exec produced by Phil Klemmer (Chuck). In the vein of X-Men and Heroes, Tomorrow People is the story of several young people from around the world who represent the next stage in human evolution, possessing special powers, including the ability to teleport and communicate with each other telepathically. Together they work to defeat the forces of evil. Created by Roger Price, The Tomorrow People, ITV’s answer to BBC’s Dr. Who, ran on the commercial broadcaster for eight seasons from 1973-1979. READ MORE »

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Greg Berlanti On ‘Political Animals’ Posthumous Award Nominations

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 2:54pm PSTTags: Greg Berlanti, Political Animals, USA Network
Nellie Andreeva

Save for USA Network‘s decision last month not to extend Political Animals beyond its original run, it has been a great last few weeks for Greg Berlanti‘s political drama. He landed a WGA nomination for writing the pilot, star Sigourney Weaver got a SAG nomination, and today the show received two Golden Globe nominations — for best movie/miniseries and best actress in a movie/mini (Weaver).

Related: Golden Globes TV Analysis Read More »

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Greg Berlanti & Julie Plec To Produce CW Adaptation Of UK Show ‘Tomorrow People’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday November 13, 2012 @ 9:30am PSTTags: Greg Berlanti, Julie Plec, the CW, The Tomorrow People
Nellie Andreeva

The co-creators/ executive producers of the CW‘s two top-rated series, Arrow and The Vampire Diaries, have teamed for a new project at the network — a series adaptation of the cult British 1970s sci-fi series The Tomorrow People. Arrow‘s Greg Berlanti and The Vampire Diaries‘ Julie Plec will executive produce the project, written by Phil Klemmer (Chuck). In the vein of X-Men and Heroes, Tomorrow People is the story of several young people from around the world who represent the next stage in human evolution, possessing special powers, including the ability to teleport and communicate with each other telepathically. Together they work to defeat the forces of evil. Read More »

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ABC Nabs Sera Gamble-Greg Berlanti Medical Drama With Penalty

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday August 15, 2012 @ 5:27pm PDTTags: Big Deals TV, Greg Berlanti
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: In Berlanti Prods.’ first sale this development season, the Warner Bros. TV-based company has set up a medical drama at ABC. The project, written/executive produced by former Supernatural co-showrunner … Read More »

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Over-Achievers Of This Year’s Upfront

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday May 25, 2012 @ 6:58pm PDTTags: Big Deals TV, Chernin Entertaiment, Fake Empire, Greg Berlanti, Upfronts
Nellie Andreeva

Greg Berlanti entered the upfronts as the producer with the most pilots this year — four — in his first development season at Warner Bros. TV. Two of them, the CW’s Arrow and CBS’ Golden Boy, went to series, while a third, Fox legal drama Guilty, has a solid shot at a midseason order. Additionally, Berlanti has cable series Political Animals launching on USA this summer. Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage‘s Fake Empire also netted two new broadcast series orders. The company went 2-for-2 with its two pilots, the CW’s The Carrie Diaries and Cult, to increase its primetime portfolio to four series next season, including returning CW dramas Gossip Girl and Hart Of Dixie, and tie the Mark Gordon Co. as the pods with the most broadcast shows on the air. In addition to newly picked up comedy Family Tools and returning Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice and Criminal Minds, the Mark Gordon Co. also has Army Wives on Lifetime. With CSI: Miami ending its run, Bruckheimer TV will have three series on the air next season, same as Chernin Entertainment, which added one new series, Fox comedy Ben & Kate, to its returning New Girl and Touch; J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot (newbie Revolution and returning Person of Interest and Fringe) and Alloy (666 Park Ave, The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl).

Besides Fake Empire, the only other entity to log a 1.000 batting average this upfront was Lionsgate TV, also with two series out of two pilots, ABC darling Nashville and NBC’ midseason comedy Next Caller. The pickups capped the company’s renewed push into broadcast TV led by Chris Selak in her first season as head of development. Another established company in its first development cycle with a new top development executive, Wolf Films, which hired Danielle Gelber last July, landed its first non-Law & Order-branded new series in six years, NBC’s Chicago Fire. Two newly launched pods, Peter Traugott‘s Traugott Company and Lorenzo DiBonaventura‘s DiBonaventura Pictures Television, also scored series orders in their first year, NBC drama Do No Harm and ABC drama Zero Hour, respectively, as did two indies, Gaumont and Georgeville. Read More »

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‘Bent’s David Walton To Star In CBS’ Greg Malins/Greg Berlanti Comedy Pilot

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday April 5, 2012 @ 10:57am PDTTags: Bent, Big Deals TV, CBS, David Walton, Greg Berlanti, Greg Malins
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Bent star David Walton has been tapped as the male lead opposite JoAnna Garcia in CBS’ untitled Greg Malins/Greg Berlanti multi-camera comedy pilot. He replaces Bryan Greenberg, who was originally cast in the role but exited after yesterday’s … Read More »

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Bryan Greenberg Exits CBS’ Greg Malins/Greg Berlanti Comedy Pilot

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday April 4, 2012 @ 3:20pm PDTTags: Bryan Greenberg, Greg Berlanti, Greg Malins
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Bryan Greenberg is leaving CBS’ untitled Greg Malins/Greg Berlanti multi-camera comedy pilot, in which he was to play the male lead opposite JoAnna Garcia. The decision was made after the project’s table read this morning. I hear it has to do with the heightened tone and dynamic of a … Read More »

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British Actor Theo James Gets The Lead In CBS’ Pilot ‘Golden Boy’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday March 7, 2012 @ 6:10pm PSTTags: Greg Berlanti, Nick Wootton
Nellie Andreeva

British actor Theo James has landed the lead in CBS’ drama pilot Golden Boy, from Nick Wootton and Greg Berlanti. The project, produced by Warner Bros TV and Berlanti Prods., centers on Clark (James), a cop, and chronicles his meteoric rise from officer to detective and ultimately police commissioner. Ryan Phillippe was originally tapped for the role but exited shortly thereafter, triggering a lengthy auditioning process that resulted in the casting of James. James, who has a handful of credits in his native Britain, including a lead on the BBC series Bedlam, is virtually unknown in the U.S. aside from a guest spot in the first season of Downton Abbey where he played Kemal Pamuk, the Turk who died in Lady Mary’s bed. He made his Hollywood debut in the recent Underworld: Awakening. James is the latest non-American actor to get the lead in a pilot this pilot season.

Read More »

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Sigourney Weaver To Star In Greg Berlanti’s USA Network Series ‘Political Animals’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday March 6, 2012 @ 4:30pm PSTTags: Greg Berlanti, Laurence Mark, Political Animals, Sigourney Weaver
Nellie Andreeva

Sigourney Weaver Political AnimalsIn her primetime TV series debut, Sigourney Weaver is set to star in Political Animals, USA Network’s 6-episode drama series from Greg Berlanti and Laurence Mark, which premieres this summer. Written by Berlanti, the Washington … Read More »

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Bryan Greenberg Cast As The Lead In CBS’ Greg Berlanti/Greg Malins Comedy Pilot

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday February 24, 2012 @ 6:40pm PSTTags: Bryan Greenberg, Greg Berlanti, Greg Malins
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: How To Make It In America star Bryan Greenberg is returning to broadcast TV as the lead opposite JoAnna Garcia in CBS’ untitled comedy pilot from Greg Berlanti and Greg Malins. The Warner Bros./Berlanti Prods. project, also known as … Read More »

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Greg Grunberg To Co-Star In CBS’ Greg Malins/Greg Berlanti Comedy Pilot

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday February 22, 2012 @ 5:14pm PSTTags: CBS, Greg Berlanti, Greg Malins
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: It’s The Greg Show! Heroes alum Greg Grunberg has been cast in CBS’ untitled comedy pilot from Greg Berlanti and Greg Malins. The Warner Bros./Berlanti Prods. project, also known as Oh Fuck … Read More »

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Primetime Pilot Season: The Overachievers

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday February 17, 2012 @ 8:16am PSTTags: Aaron Kaplan, Greg Berlanti, Jamie Tarses, pilots
Nellie Andreeva

If the broadcast development season were a reality competition show, we would now be in the final round where some 85 pilots are battling for spots on next season’s schedule. And while the winners won’t be known until the upfronts in May, here are the overachievers in the pilot stage of the competition.

Greg Berlanti — he killed it in his first development season at his new (old) studio home, Warner Bros. Television. Berlanti and his company Berlanti Prods. sold five projects to the broadcast networks. Four of them netted pilot orders: Guilty at Fox written by Marc Guggenheim, an Nicholas Wootton-written drama at CBS, Arrow at the CW, penned by Berlanti, Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg, and a comedy at CBS written by Berlanti and Greg Malins. And if that’s not enough, while working on his broadcast development Berlanti found time to write a cable spec, Political Animals, which just received a six-episode straight-to-series order by USA Network and is now casting alongside Berlanti’s broadcast pilots.

Aaron Kaplan — the one-man selling machine. Since founding his company, Kapital Entertainment, two-and-a-half years ago with his own money, the former WMA agent has landed 12 pilot orders while operating independently without the backing of a studio. Four of them came from the broadcast networks this season, all comedies: The Manzanies and the untitled Dan Fogelman project at ABC and Daddy’s Girls and Isabel at NBC. (Technically, there are 5 Aaron Kaplan broadcast pilots this season. The lit manager by the same name is executive producing the Adam Sztykiel ABC comedy pilot, and the matching names have created a lot of confusion and wrongly addressed emails.) Like Berlanti, Kaplan is casting a cable project along with his 4 broadcast pilots, Darren Star’s HBO comedy pilot Viagra Diaries starring Goldie Hawn. He also has several other projects in pilot contention, two upcoming series: ABC’s GCB and MTV’s The Inbetweeners, and a third one awaiting word on Season 2, Fox’s Terra Nova.

Mark Gordon, Marty Adelstein & Shawn Levy and Jamie Tarses. The Mark Gordon Co., Adelstein & Levy’s 21 Laps/Adelstein Prods. and Tarses’ Fanfare landed 3 pilot orders each this broadcast pilot season. The ABC Studios-based Mark Gordon Co., which has 4 series on the air, ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice, CBS’ Criminal Minds and Lifetime’s Army Wives, is behind 3 ABC pilots: dramas Americana and the Roland Emmerich project and comedy White Van Man. Additionally, the company has a cable pilot casting, the Showtime drama Roy Donovan starring Liev Schreiber. In its second year, 20th TV-based 21 Laps/Adelstein, whose first development season produced ABC’s solid freshman Last Man Standing, is fielding the untitled Karyn Usher drama pilot at Fox and comedies Little Brother at Fox and the Mandy Moore project at ABC. Sony TV-based Fanfare, which has 3 series on the air, ABC’s Happy Endings, TNT’s Franklin & Bash and TBS’ upcoming Men At Work, is shepherding CBS’ Baby Big Shot, NBC’s Hilary Winston and Fox’s cast-contingent Must Hire. Additionally, 3 Arts’ Howard Klein is an executive producer on 3 pilots, Greg Daniels’ Friday Night Dinner at NBC, Mindy Kaling’s Fox comedy and Melissa Rosenberg’s ABC drama Penoza. Read More »

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Jimmy Wolk To Co-Star In Greg Berlanti’s USA Network Series ‘Political Animals’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday February 10, 2012 @ 8:14pm PSTTags: Greg Berlanti, Political Animals
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Jimmy Wolk is the first actor cast in Political Animals, USA Network’s 6-episode drama series from Greg Berlanti and Laurence Mark, which premieres this summer. Written by Berlanti, his first solo spec script since Everwood, the Washington DC-based series … Read More »

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Ryan Phillippe To Star In CBS’ Nick Wootton-Greg Berlanti Drama Pilot

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday February 10, 2012 @ 2:15pm PSTTags: CBS, Greg Berlanti, Ryan Phillippe
Nellie Andreeva

In his first pilot gig, Ryan Phillippe is set for the lead in CBS’ untitled Nick Wootton-Greg Berlanti drama pilot (formerly Golden Boy). The project, from Warner Bros TV and Berlanti Prods centers on Clark (Phillippe), a cop, and chronicles … Read More »

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JoAnna Garcia Swisher To Star In CBS’ Greg Malins/Greg Berlanti Comedy Pilot

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday February 3, 2012 @ 6:59pm PSTTags: CBS, Greg Berlanti, Greg Malins, JoAnna Garcia
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Better With You star JoAnna Garcia Swisher is set as the female lead in CBS’ untitled Greg Malins/Greg Berlanti comedy pilot, reuniting with Better With You executive producer/co-showrunner Malins. The multi-camera project, from Warner Bros. TV and studio-based Berlanti … Read More »

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USA Orders Ex-First Family Drama Series From Greg Berlanti And Laurence Mark

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday January 30, 2012 @ 9:14am PSTTags: Greg Berlanti, Laurence Mark, Political Animals, USA Network
Nellie Andreeva

In USA Network’s biggest production commitment to date, the top-rated basic cable network has given a straight-to-series six-episode order to Political Animals, a drama from Greg Berlanti and feature producer Laurence Mark. In his first cable project, Berlanti wrote Political Animals on spec — his first solo spec script since Everwood – in a midst of a busy first development season for his Berlanti Prods at Warner Bros TV, which has resulted in 4 broadcast pilot orders so far. The Washington DC-based series, from Warner Horizon, explores a fictional former first family that is on the verge of falling apart. It centers on Elaine Barrish, a divorced former First Lady and current Secretary of State who struggles to keep her family together while dealing with the crises of the State Department. She finds an unlikely ally in Susan Berg, a famous DC journalist who has spent her career tearing Elaine down. USA will air Political Animals at the height of the presidential campaign this summer. ”The timing couldn’t be more perfect,” USA co-president Chris McCumber said. “The soap opera of politics will be at top of mind for everyone.”

Berlanti’s series credits also include the WB drama Jack & Bobby, about two brothers in high school, one of whom becomes U.S. president in 2041, and the long-running ABC family drama Brothers & Sisters, which he ran for the first several seasons. “I’m a political junkie and I obviously love smart, rich family dramas — and a drama about a former First Family seemed to me to be the ultimate political family show,” Berlanti said. “Also the fact the family doesn’t currently reside in the White House gave us a lot of room for fun with the characters.” Like on Jack & Bobby, where the names and the story of the title characters evoked John and Robert Kennedy, “many of the characters in (Political Animals) are an amalgamation of former Presidents and their clans — and other famous political figures as well in the tradition of something like Primary Colors, I guess,” Berlanti said. He wouldn’t elaborate on its inspirations, but people who have read the script say that there are noticeable hints of both the Clintons and the second Bush presidential couple in the fictional first family on the show. Read More »

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McG To Direct And Produce Greg Berlanti- Marc Guggenheim Fox Drama Pilot ‘Guilty’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday January 27, 2012 @ 9:49am PSTTags: Fox, Greg Berlanti, Guilty, Marc Guggenheim, McG
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: In a symbolic move, on the day Chuck, whose pilot McG directed, is ending its 5-season run on NBC, McG has closed a deal to direct his first pilot since Chuck, Fox’s Guilty. The legal drama, from Greg … Read More »

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CBS Picks Up Greg Berlanti-Nick Wootton Drama Pilot ‘Golden Boy’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday January 23, 2012 @ 5:26pm PSTTags: CBS, Greg Berlanti, Nick Wootton
Nellie Andreeva

CBS has made it official, greenlighting hot drama project Golden Boy to pilot. The drama, written and executive produced by Nicholas Wootton and executive produced by Greg Berlanti, hails from Warner Bros. Television where Berlanti is under an overall deal. … Read More »

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Green Arrow Drama Nears Pilot Order At CW

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday January 12, 2012 @ 8:15pm PSTTags: CW, Green Arrow, Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Smallville
Nellie Andreeva

The CW is finalizing a deal for a pilot order to Arrow, an hourlong superhero drama based on DC Comics’ Green Arrow. It is written and executive produced by The Green Lantern co-writers Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim and Fringe and Vampire Diaries alum Andrew Kreisberg. I hear that David Nutter will likely direct the project, which takes the comic book character created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp and sets him in a new world with an original story that is not based on the comics, which are published by DC Entertainment. Arrow, produced by Warner Bros TV and Berlanti’s studio-based Berlanti Television, was developed by Berlanti and Guggenheim, who came up with the idea and wrote the storyline and then brought in Kreisberg to write the script. Kreisberg, who has comics experience having written DC Comics’ Green Arrow and Black Canary among other books, previously worked with Berlanti and Guggenheim on their ABC drama Eli Stone. Read More »

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