Pilots: 'Candy' Man Directs for FOX

Zap2It.com | March 14, 2007

Jake Busey

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'NSA Innocent' needs a new leading man

FOX's "Me & Lee?" comedy pilot will move forward after finding a director, but the network's "NSA Innocent" pilot is now stalled in search of a new star.

Paul Dinello, who co-wrote, directed and co-starred on "Strangers with Candy" in both its TV and feature incarnations will helm "Me & Lee?" a high concept comedy about a man whose attempts to relieve his back pain lead him to a mysterious "bionic" back surgery in a secret lab run by Lee Majors.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Matthew Salsberg-penned pilot had been under a director contingency hold that's now been lifted.

Also at FOX, Jake Busey is hoping to bring a little of his "Shasta McNasty" magic to the comedy "Playing Chicken."

"Chicken" focuses on two very different brothers (Norbert Leo Butz and Bill Burr) forced to live together after an accident. Busey ("The Frighteners") will provide additional amusement as a "dim and laid-back guy."

In other FOX casting news, Sean O'Bryan is joining the clan on "Two Families," about two sets of adult siblings who are shocked to discover that they share the same father.

Not everything at FOX is progressing quite so well.

Just last week, Stephen Moyer was cast as the lead of "NSA Innocent," a drama from "24" vets Bob Cochran, Jon Cassar, Joel Surnow and Howard Gordon. However, the trade paper reports that a table read led to a new direction for the main character, forcing script rewrites and, ultimately, the desire for a new lead. The HR had no timetable for either the recasting or the eventual pilot shoot.