Pilots: ABC Tries on 'Cashmere'

Zap2It.com | January 9, 2007

Darren Star

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Projects from Star, Ratner get go-ahead

In the latest round of pilot orders, ABC is joining Darren Star's "Cashmere Mafia" and picking up a drama based on books by best-selling author James Patterson.

NBC has also given a green light to its long-in-development project "Lipstick Jungle," based on the book by "Sex and the City" author Candace Bushnell. Another female-lead hour from "House" creator David Shore is also in the works at NBC.

Star ("Sex and the City," "Beverly Hills, 90210") will executive produce "Cashmere Mafia," which is being written by Kevin Wade ("Working Girl," "Maid in Manhattan"), the showbiz trade papers report. It will focus on four women who've been friends since college and now lean on each other while dealing with the demands of their professional and personal lives. Wade and Gail Katz ("The Perfect Storm") will also exec produce.

Also at ABC, Brett Ratner ("X-Men: The Last Stand," "Prison Break") has signed on to direct "Women's Murder Club," based on a series of Patterson novels about four women -- a reporter, a detective, a prosecutor and a medical examiner -- who work together to solve murder cases. One of the novels, "1st to Die," was adapted into an NBC movie in 2003.

Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain, veterans of "The Shield" and "Angel," are writing the script and will serve as exec producers with Ratner, Patterson and Joe Simpson ("Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica").

At NBC, meanwhile, "Lipstick Jungle" has received the go-ahead after more than a year of development and the coming and going of a couple of writers. Gina Gershon was also attached to star in the show at one point last year; it's unclear if she'll still be involved.

Deann Heline and Eileen Heisler ("Committed," "How I Met Your Mother") are now the writers-exec producers of the pilot, with Bushnell also producing.

Finally, Shore and fellow "House" writer Peter Blake are collaborating on an NBC drama about a group of police officers with a female cop at its center. It's likely to offer a mix of procedural and character elements -- not unlike "House" -- as well as a fair amount of humor.