Greg Berlanti has three shows on the air, but he's already planning a television Return.The brains behind Brothers & Sisters, Dirty Sexy Money and Eli Stone is adding a fourth show to his extensive resume with The Return, a sci-fi project in development with ABC, according to Variety.Berlanti is collaborating with sci-fi connoisseur Rene Echevarria (Star Trek, The 4400) on the series, which will examine the impact of an alien landing on the world.The Return will be Berlanti's first stab at science fiction. — Joyce Eng
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If you get deja view looking at ABC’s not-so-new fall lineup, there’s a reason for that. Much of the schedule is a redo from last fall, with a number of promising shows returning that were cut short by the writers’ strike—most notably the Wednesday lineup of Pushing Daisies, Private Practice and Dirty Sexy Money.“Our Wednesday night was to us an unbelievable success and we’re very excited to get back to that,” ABC entertainment president Steve McPherson said during a session with critics at the TCA press tour Wednesday morning. “We have kind of the advantage going in that we felt we had a dominant fall and a real strong core schedule and we didn’t need that much new programming.”In recent seasons, ABC has tended to single out just a few new shows for massive fall promotion, and this season it's planning to embrace a few old favorites. “We can actually prioritize returning shows,” says McPherson. One in particular: Desperate...
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Ah, the joys of stunt casting. In an effort to draw buzz and new eyeballs to ABC's little critical darling that could, Eli Stone, producers have brought Katie Holmes on board for at least one episode of the show's sophomore season. The gig will be a reunion of Holmes and Stone's executive producer Greg Berlanti from their days on Dawson's Creek. ABC Entertainment prez Steve McPherson let it slip that Holmes will even sing and dance in the episode.So, do you have "faith" in Mrs. Cruise? — Adam Bryant
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Sources confirm that Mark Perry has quietly exited his post as Brothers & Sisters' day-to-day show-runner. Perry, an alum of One Tree Hill, joined the drama this season to fill the void left by executive producer Greg Berlanti and series creator Jon Robin Baitz. Berlanti scaled back his B&S duties to focus on Dirty Sexy Money and Eli Stone, while Baitz left over creative differences. Or something like that. Although a successor has yet to be officially named, I'm hearing that Berlanti — who is expected to take a more active role in the series — will promote from within, which should make for a seamless transition. This is the second behind-the-scenes shake-up at an ABC Studios drama in as many days. Yesterday it was announced that Dexter's Daniel Cerone was replacing Josh Reims at the helm of Dirty Sexy Money. Reims had planned to move on after the first year to focus on developing his own projects.
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Brothers & Sisters executive producer (and Everwood alum) Greg Berlanti has inked a deal to cowrite and direct a live-action big-screen adaptation of the DC Comics superhero Green Lantern. "To me, this was the last great comic-book movie that hasn't been made," Berlanti tells Reuters. "It [has] a real mythology that you would see in a lot of space operas and sci-fi books."Berlanti's version for Warner Bros. will focus on the Green Lantern embodied by Hal Jordon, a test pilot who uncovers a downed alien spacecraft and in turn a ring that recruits him onto an interstellar police force.
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