American Lion
Network: HBO Network
Studio: Lionsgate
Executive Producer(s): Doug Miro, Carlo Bernard, Matt Jacobson, Sean Penn
Writer(s): Doug Miro, Carlo Bernard
Logline: The story of Andrew Jackson, a man who rose from nothing to create the modern presidency. Beloved and hated, venerated and reviled, Jackson was an orphan who fought his way to the pinnacle of power, bending the nation to his will in the cause of democracy.
Details: Based on the book, ” American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House,” written by Jon Meacham and published by Random House on November 11, 2008.
SSN Insight: HBO has greenlighted the six-hour event miniseries with Oscar winner Sean Penn set to play the President in his first major TV role.
Apparition
Network: Fox Broadcasting Company
Studio: 20th Century Fox Television
Production Company(s): 3 Arts Entertainment
Executive Producer(s): Albert Torres, Tom Lassally
Writer(s): Albert Torres
Logline: A successful New Orleans doctor is reluctantly pulled into the world of paranormal investigation when she discovers a secret family history that awakens an ability to connect with the afterlife. She teams up with an uncle she never knew she had and a former TV ghost hunter to help troubled souls, dead and live, find peace in this life and the next.
SSN Insight: Apparition is Torres’ first foray into television, previously he wrote the 2008 film Henry Poole Is Here and last year he adapted comic book series Locke & Key for Universal.
Botcop
Network: Fox Broadcasting Company
Studio: 20th Century Fox Television
Production Company(s): KatCo
Executive Producer(s): Geoff Barbanell, Itai Grunfeld, Tracy Katsky, Aaron Kaplan
Writer(s): Geoff Barbanell, Itai Grunfeld
Logline: In 1985 botcop was the cutting edge of law enforcement technology. Half man and half robot, all bad ass and he cleaned the mean streets of LA bringing crime to its lowest levels of all time. Now, 30 years later, botcop is nothing more that an outdated relic, he is fired from the LAPD and forced to take the only law enforcement gig he can get – that of a meter maid.
SSN Insight: Rolled from 2015-2016 season. Fox has given a pilot presentation order as of December 15.
Bunsen is a Beast!
Network: Nickelodeon
Executive Producer(s): Butch Hartman
Logline: Bunsen is the first beast to attend a human-grade school. On his first day of school, Bunsen befriends a classmate named Mikey, who over time guides Bunsen through the ups and downs of life as a human. On the flip side, Bunsen introduces Mikey to the wild and wacky world of monsters which, as it turns out, is a lot more fun than scary. No matter what the stakes, Bunsen and Mikey will always have each other’s backs.
SSN Insight: Network has ordered 20 episodes.
Good Girls Revolt
Network: Amazon
Studio: TriStar Television, Sony Pictures Television, Amazon Studios
Production Company(s): Lynda Obst Productions
Executive Producer(s): Lynda Obst, Jeff Okin, Dana Calvo, Darlene Hunt, Don Kurt
Writer(s): Dana Calvo
Logline: A group of young female researchers at “News of the Week” simply ask to be treated fairly. Their revolutionary request will spark convulsive changes and upend marriages, careers, sex lives, love lives, and friendships.
Details: Based on the sexual discrimination cases chronicled in “The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed the Workplace,” written by Lynn Povich and published by PublicAffairs on September 10, 2012.
SSN Insight: Amazon has picked up the pilot to series. Additionally, new series Red Oaks and Hand Of God will join recently renewed The Man In The High Castle in getting second-season pickups.
Highston
Network: Amazon
Studio: Amazon Studios
Production Company(s): Four by Two Films
Executive Producer(s): Bob Nelson, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris, Todd Hoffman
Writer(s): Bob Nelson
Logline: Highston Liggetts is a 19-year-old with a wide circle of celebrity friends—that only he can see. His parents, Jean and Wilbur, force him to get psychiatric help, but his Uncle Billy thinks he’s just fine.
SSN Insight: Amazon has picked up the pilot to series and gave a ten episode order.
Hoff The Record
Network: UKTV, AXS TV
Production Company(s): Me & You Productions
Executive Producer(s): Krishnendu Majumdar, Richard Yee, Eric Gardner, Iain Coyle
Logline: The show follows TV legend David Hasselhoff – playing a highly fictionalized version of himself – as he arrives in the UK in an attempt to reignite his flagging career. It’s been thirty years since he rose to worldwide fame in Baywatch and Knight Rider and things have since gone a little stale for The Hoff. Will a move across the Atlantic change his luck?
SSN Insight: AXS TV bought Season 1 of UK mockumentary series and will premiere it in early spring.
Kill Jill
Network: ABC Entertainment Group
Studio: Warner Bros. Television
Production Company(s): FourBoys Entertainment
Executive Producer(s): Laura Solon, Patricia Heaton, David Hunt
Writer(s): Laura Solon
Logline: An idealistic graduate, desperate to escape her small hometown, takes a job with a glamorous West Coast businesswoman who appears to have it all — including a plot against her life.
SSN Insight: Kill Jill is under the deal FourBoys (run by Heaton and Hunt) inked with WBTV back in August.
Mindhunter
Network: Netflix
Production Company(s): Denver & Delilah Films
Executive Producer(s): David Fincher, Charlize Theron
Logline: Storyline under wraps. Based on the book.
Details: Based on the book “Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit,” written by John Douglas and Mark Olshker and published by Pocket Books on August 1, 1996.
SSN Insight: Previously set up at HBO and Fox 21 in 2009 with writer Scott Buck. Fincher is expected to direct.
One Mississippi
Network: Amazon
Studio: FX Productions, Amazon Studios
Production Company(s): Pig Newton, Inc.
Executive Producer(s): Tig Notaro, Diablo Cody, Louis C.K., Dave Becky, Blair Breard
Writer(s): Tig Notaro, Diablo Cody
Logline: Tig Notaro deals with the complex reentry into her childhood hometown of Bay Saint Lucille, Mississippi, to deal with the unexpected death of her mother, the interminable life of the party, Caroline. Reeling from her own recently declining health, Tig struggles to find her footing with the loss of the one person who actually understood her, with help from her older but not always wiser brother, Remy, and her emotionally distant stepfather, Bill. A surprise visit from Tig’s girlfriend, Brooke, only compounds the reality of how out of place Tig is in a world without her mother.
Details: Loosely inspired by Tig Notaro’s life.
SSN Insight: Project was previously in development at FX. Louis CK was previously attached to direct.
Patriot
Network: Amazon
Studio: Amazon Studios
Executive Producer(s): Steve Conrad, Glenn Ficarra, John Requa, Charlie Gogolak, Gil Bellows
Writer(s): Steve Conrad
Logline: The story follows the complicated life of intelligence officer John Tavner. His latest assignment is to prevent Iran from going nuclear, requiring him to forgo all safety nets and assume a perilous “non-official cover” — that of a mid-level employee at a Midwestern industrial piping firm. A bout with PTSD, the Federal government’s incompetence, and the intricacies of keeping a day job in the “front” industrial piping company, cause a barrage of ever-escalating fiascos that jeopardize Tavner’s mission.
SSN Insight: Amazon has given a series order of ten episodes.
Please Don’t Go
Network: ABC Entertainment Group
Studio: ABC Studios
Production Company(s): Pacific Standard
Executive Producer(s): Reese Witherspoon, Bruna Papandrea
Writer(s): Meaghan Oppenheimer
Logline: The story follows the personal and professional life of a ruthless divorce attorney in Dallas. Raised in the trailer parks of Texas, she has left behind a life of struggle amid squalor, working her way into a corner office and mansion in Dallas’s most prestigious neighborhood. But beneath her facade of togetherness, she’s plagued by self-destructive tendencies and long hidden family secrets that begin to unravel her life.
SSN Insight: Pacific Standard is also prepping a romantic mystery drama from Rob Long for ABC and is producing HBO’s Big Little Lies, in which Witherspoon will star.
Revenge Body
Network: E! Networks
Studio: Lionsgate
Production Company(s): Ryan Seacrest Media, Rogue Atlas Productions, KhloMoney Productions, Inc.
Executive Producer(s): Khloe Kardashian, Eli Frankel, Ryan Seacrest
Logline: In each episode, two heartbroken individuals will get the opportunity to recreate themselves with the help of a team of Hollywood’s most elite trainers, stylists and glam squads assembled by Khloe Kardashian.
SSN Insight: Ordered to series. E! has ordered 6 episodes.
The Interestings
Network: Amazon
Studio: TriStar Television, Amazon Studios
Executive Producer(s): Lyn Greene, Richard Levine, Michael De Luca, Lindsay Sloane
Writer(s): Lyn Greene, Richard Levine
Logline: Based on a group of friends who meet at an arts camp when they’re 15 in 1974. The series chronicles their relationships throughout the next three decades dealing with the great expectations of youth juxtaposed with the realities life hands you as you get older.
Details: Based on the novel “The Interestings,” written by Meg Wolitzer and published by Riverhead Books in 2013.
SSN Insight: Mike Newell, who previously directed Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, has lifted the director contingency on this project.
The Passion
Network: Fox Broadcasting Company
Production Company(s): Dick Clark Productions, Eye2Eye Media
Executive Producer(s): Allen Shapiro, Michael Mahan, Mark Bracco, Jacco Doornbos, Adam Anders
Logline: Set in modern day, but told through song and Bible verse, The Passion will unfold live at some of New Orleans’ most iconic locations as Jesus presides over the Last Supper, is betrayed by Judas, arrested, put on trial by Pontius Pilate, convicted and ultimately resurrected. In addition, hundreds of people from New Orleans will participate in a live procession as a 20 foot, illuminated cross is carried through the streets of New Orleans from the Superdome to the location of the live stage at Woldenburg Park on the banks of the Mississippi River.
Details: Based on a format originally created in the Netherlands.
SSN Insight: The show first aired in 2011, and became the most successful live storytelling event ever on Dutch TV.
The Windsors
Network: Channel 4
Production Company(s): Noho Film and TV
Executive Producer(s): Camilla Campbell, Robert Wulff-Cochrane
Writer(s): Bert Tyler-Moore, George Jeffrie
Logline: A look at the imagined lives and loves of the royal family.
Details: Inspired by real events.
SSN Insight: Ordered to series. UK’s Channel 4 has ordered six episodes.
Untitled Latin Romeo and Juliet Drama Project
Network: Fox Broadcasting Company
Studio: 20th Century Fox Television
Production Company(s): No Production Company Available.
Executive Producer(s): Eduardo Cisneros, Jason Shuman
Writer(s): Eduardo Cisneros, Jason Shuman
Logline: A modern Romeo and Juliet tale set against the backdrop of Los Angeles’ new Latino wealth in the music and radio industry.
Details: Based on the play “Romeo and Juliet” written by William Shakespeare.
SSN Insight: The famous play is also the basis for the ABC series is developing entitled Still Star-Crossed.
Untitled Riddick Drama Project
Studio: Universal Television
Production Company(s): One Race Films
Executive Producer(s): Vin Diesel, Samantha Vincent
Logline: Storyline under wraps. Based on the films.
Details: The project is based on the Riddick film trilogy, which included “Pitch Black”(2000), “The Chronicles of Riddick” (2004), “Riddick” (2013).
SSN Insight: Vin Diesel and his One Race Television has signed a multi-year, first-look production deal with Universal TV.
When We Rise
Network: ABC Entertainment Group
Studio: ABC Studios
Production Company(s): Laurence Mark Productions
Executive Producer(s): Laurence Mark, Dustin Lance Black, Bruce Cohen, Gus van Sant
Writer(s): Dustin Lance Black
Logline: The story centers on the gay rights movement starting in the 70s up to the overturning of Prop 8 and the legalization of gay marriage.
Details: Based on the life of Dustin Lance Black.
SSN Insight: Planned as an 8-hour miniseries.
Z: The Beginning of Everything
Network: Amazon
Studio: Amazon Studios
Production Company(s): Killer Films
Executive Producer(s): Dawn Prestwich, Nicole Yorkin, Christina Ricci, Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon
Writer(s): Dawn Prestwich, Nicole Yorkin
Logline: A series based on the novel, “Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald”.
Details: Based on the novel, “Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald” by Therese Anne Fowler (2013)
SSN Insight: Ordered to series. Amazon has given a series order of 10 episodes.