Pilots: McG, Bruckheimer Land at ABC

Zap2It.com | February 2, 2009

Jerry Bruckheimer

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Network orders three more drama projects

Nine years after passing on "CSI," ABC has brought Jerry Bruckheimer back into the fold.

The A-list producer is behind one of the network's three latest pilot orders, all of them dramas. The Bruckheimer project is a crime drama about a group of amateur sleuths who concentrate on cases where the victims haven't been identified.

Mark Friedman wrote the script and will executive produce with Bruckheimer, Jonathan Littman and "CSI" veteran Danny Cannon, who's set to direct.

The other ABC projects come from producers McG ("Supernatural," "Chuck") and Mark Gordon ("Grey's Anatomy"), the showbiz trade papers say. The McG project is called "Limelight" and follows the lives of students and faculty at a performing arts school (think "Fame"). K.J. Steinberg ("The Nine," "Gossip Girl") is writing the script, and David Semel ("Heroes") will direct. All three will exec produce, along with Leonard Goldberg.

Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes, on whose life the story is loosely based, will be a consulting producer.

The pilot order is the second shot for the show at ABC. The network originally picked up a script from writer David S. Rosenthal in fall 2007, but it was derailed by the writers strike. Steinberg came aboard when the show went back into development.

Gordon's project is called "Empire State" and is a Romeo-and-Juliet story set in New York. The story centers on two families -- one working-class, one wealthy -- who come into conflict when a romance sparks between the son of one and the daughter of the other.

Michael Seitzman ("North Country") and Jeff Reiner conceived the story, and Seitzman is writing the pilot. He'll also exec produce with Gordon and Deborah Spera.