FOX PICKS UP THREE DRAMA, FOUR COMEDY PILOTS, INCLUDING ‘SLEEPY HOLLOW’

Fox has picked up three more drama pilots, joining Greg Kinnear starrer Rake. They are the Ruben Fleischer-produced drama The List, Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci’s Sleepy Hollow and Karyn Usher’s Delirium.

The List, is from writer Paul Zbyszewski (Lost) and 20th TV, where Zombieland director Fleischer is based. The project centers on Deputy U.S. Marshal Dan Shaker who, when members of the Federal Witness Security Program start getting killed, leads the hunt for the person who stole “the list” – a file with the identities of every member of the program. Zbyszewski and Fleischer executive produce.

Kurtzman and Orci‘s Sleepy Hollow, which had a put pilot commitment, has Underworld helmer Len Wiseman on board to direct. 20th TV and Kurtzman and Orci’s studio-based K/O Paper Products produce. Described as a modern–day supernatural thriller based on The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow, it follows Ichabod Crane as he partners with Sleepy Hollow’s local female sheriff to solve the mysteries of a town ravaged by the battle between good and evil. Kurtzman and Orci wrote the script with up-and-coming writer Phillip Iscove, on whose idea the project is based. Kurtzman, Orci and Wiseman executive produce Sleepy Hollow with K/O’s Heather Kadin, while Iscove serves as supervising producer. Another Sleepy Hollow drama is in contention at the CW.

Usher’s Delirium, from 20th TV and Chernin Entertainment, is based on Lauren Oliver’s bestselling book trilogy about a world where love is deemed illegal and is able to be eradicated with a special procedure. With 95 days to go until her scheduled treatment, Lena Holoway does the unthinkable: she falls in love. Usher executive produces with Peter Chernin and Katherine Pope. This marks the second consecutive pilot for Usher at Fox through 20th, following her spy drama pilot last year.

PREVIOUS: Fox has given pilot orders to comedies I Suck At Girls, from Bill Lawrence; Sherry Bilsing-Graham and Ellen Kreamer’s To My Assistant; Andrew Gurland & Justin Hurwitz’s House Rules; and David Rosen’s Friends And Family. Also getting the greenlight today was Alec Sulkin/Wellesley Wild/Seth MacFarlane’s comedy, which went straight to series. Drama pilot pickups are expected shortly, with Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci’s Sleepy Hollow and Karen Usher’s Delirium among the frontrunners.

Single-camera I Suck At Girls, from Bill Lawrence’s Doozer and Warner Bros. TV, already had rich pilot production commitment and had been given permission to start casting. Based on Justin Halpern’s book I Suck At Girls, the follow-up to his bestseller Shit My Dad Says that was based on his popular Twitter feed, the half-hour comedy tells the story of a boy becoming a man, and a man becoming a father, in a time before coming of age was something you could Google. Halpern wrote with his TV writing partner Patrick Schumacker, with Lawrence supervising. Lawrence, Halpern and Schumacker executive produce with Jeff Ingold, Lawrence’s development executive at his WBTV-based Doozer production banner. Warner Bros. TV and Bill Lawrence optioned the book in February, three months before it was published by HarperColins.

Bilsing-Graham & Kreamer’s single-camera To My Assistant, from Warner Bros. TV and Lin Pictures, revolves around the assistants at a big New York law firm who band together as a family to help each other cope with the obnoxious, overbearing bosses who test their sanity on a daily basis. Bilsing, Plummer, Dan Lin and Jennifer Gwartz executive produce.

Friends And Family, from David Rosen, creator/executive producer of the MTV cult comedy I Just Want My Pants Back, is an adaptation of the 2007 British romantic comedy series Gavin & Stacey. The original series, created by James Corden and Ruth Jones, chronicled the long-distance relationship between a man from England (Matthew Horne) and a woman from Wales (Joanna Page) who start off talking on the phone. They eventually decide to meet, and hit it off — but must navigate their eccentric families and friends. The Fox version, produced by Sony TV and BBC Worldwide Prods., focuses on the key life moments of the title characters who try to maintain their relationship while combining their polarizing families’ lives. Rosen is executive producing with BBC Worldwide Prods’ Jane Tranter and Julie Gardner, Corden, Jones and Baby Cow’s Henry Normal.

House Rules, from 20th TV and Principato Young, was written by Andrew Gurland and Justin Hurwitz, who executive produce with David Dobkin, Peter Principato and Paul Young. It centers on a neurotic family with contempt for all things normal that tries their best to fit into their small Midwest town where everyone knows each other and politeness reigns.