Originally posted Tuesday, March 5, 2019 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Georgia has eight pilots shooting that could potentially become series from five different networks. Casting for many of them are happening now. Pilots are not guaranteed to make it to series.
Good news: while shows that shoot pilots in Atlanta sometimes go elsewhere if they go to series, most of the time they stay here.
Here’s a quick summary of each show:
“Deputy” Fox
Genre: Cop show
Main star: Stephen Dorff (”True Detective”)
What’s it’s about: Deputy Bill Hollister (Dorff) is a career lawman who’s very comfortable kicking down doors and utterly lost in a staff meeting. But when the L.A. County Sheriff drops dead, Bill becomes acting sheriff of Los Angeles County, in charge of 10,000 sworn deputies policing a modern Wild West.
“Lovestruck” Fox
Genre: Romantic dramedy
Main star: Rachel Billson (“The O.C.”) with Andie McDowell and Kathleen Turner included
What it’s about: A "structurally inventive" series with all the action taking place over one night. As viewers get to know the wedding party, they will learn about both their present and past and that things aren't always as they seem as the show explores the complicated bonds of love, friendship and family at different stages of life.
“The Baker and the Beauty” ABC
Genre: Romantic comedy
Leads: Nathalie Kelley (the CW’s “Dynasty”), Victor Rasuk (“Fifty Shades of Grey”)
What it’s about: The show follows the impossible Miami love story between a simple baker and an international superstar, Noa Hollander (Kelley). She’s the most famous woman in the country, the beautiful daughter of a real estate magnate, a successful model with an international career and, up until now, one half of a Hollywood power couple. The son of Cuban immigrants, Daniel Garcia is a simple guy who still lives with his parents and works at the family bakery. A chance encounter at a fancy restaurant — where Daniel may or may not propose to his eager girlfriend of eight years and where Noa is avoiding public speculation about a breakup from her Hollywood lover – leads to unexpected sparks and an even more unlikely love story.
"The Heart of Life" ABC
Genre: family drama
Cast leads: Harry Shum Jr. (“Glee”), Katie Findlay (“Man Seeking Woman”)
What it’s about: It follows two sets of adult siblings from wildly different worlds who discover they’re related and must reassess everything they thought they knew about their shared father. As they explore the mystery of their separate childhoods, they’ll experience the difficulty in overcoming the sins of the past, and learn the joys of reuniting with long-lost family.
“Beast Mode” TNT
Genre: Drama
Cast lead: Anika Noni Rose
What it’s about: Pulling herself and her two daughters up from poverty, abuse, homelessness, and criminality, Marsha Blackstone (Rose) reached the pinnacle of boxing as a fighter and has become equally as successful a trainer known for unconventional methods and a fiercely combative style. Driven by the belief that any step backward is a slippery slope to her former life, when the boxer Marsha trained to a world title fires her, this complex and inspiring woman is determined to find a new fighter to eclipse the one she lost, but her emotional baggage and militant style could be her undoing in her professional and personal life, especially with her two grown daughters, and a new baby on the way.
“Council of Dads” NBC (in Savannah)
Genre: Drama
Cast leads: Sarah Wayne Callies (“The Walking Dead,” “Colony”), Clive Standen (“Taken”)
What it’s about: It’s the story of Scott Perry and his family, whose lives are thrown into upheaval when he gets a potentially terminal diagnosis. Facing his mortality, he and his wife, Robin (Callies), assemble a unique group (council) of carefully chosen friends to support his family and guide them through the ups and downs of life’s many challenges. Callies’ Robin is an OB/GYN, the mother/stepmother to four children ranging in age from 7 to 21 – and she’s pregnant.
“(Future) Cult Classic” Syfy
Genre: A mélange
Cast lead: Emily Alyn Lind ("Code Black"). Ensemble cast also includes Jacob McCarthy, Cayden Boyd ("Heathers"), da'Vinchi/aka Abraham Juste ("Grown-ish") and Zoe Renee ("The Quad").
What it’s about: The show combines the genres of slasher films, high school drama and speculative satire. It is set 18 years in the future and centers on a group of teens whose community is rocked by a 1990s slasher-movie obsessed serial killer. Our heroes quickly realize they’re being targeted and decide to take matters into their own hands and track down the killer—before time runs out.
Lind will play Bree, a classic 90s horror movie Final Girl trapped in the wrong decade. Growing up in a future dominated by technology and terrible electronic music, her love of pop culture from decades past marks her as an outsider– a status she wears as a badge of honor.
“Cypher” Syfy
Genre: Science fiction
Cast leads: Gabriel Bateman, Adrian Grenier
What it’s about: Following the recent death of his mother, 13-year-old video game junkie Asa’s (Bateman) life changes yet again when his brain is implanted with one-of-a-kind computer technology, and the boy and his father John (Grenier) unwittingly find themselves at the center of the next great war – over artificial intelligence.
