CBS Orders California Convict Firefighter Drama Pilot From ‘SEAL Team’ Star, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Alums

Joe Otterson TV Reporter“SEAL Team” star Max Thieriot has signed on for the lead role in the CBS drama pilot “Cal Fire,” Variety has learned.It was previously reported that Thieriot co-wrote the story for the series, which is inspired by his life growing up in northern California. He will also serve as an executive producer.

SEAL Team star Max Thieriot has closed a deal to headline CBS drama pilot Cal Fire, a project he co-wrote and executive produces.

Jason Gray-Stanford is opening up about undergoing an emergency heart transplant.

EXCLUSIVE: Olatunde Osunsanmi, director/executive producer of Star Trek: Discovery, has signed a multi-year overall deal with the studio behind the flagship Star Trek Universe series, CBS Studios.

Jason Gray-Stanford is opening up about his heart transplant.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer“Call Me Kat” actress Schuyler Helford’s teen-parenting comedy “Unplanned in Akron” has received a pilot order at CBS.Written by Helford with Emily Wilson (“The Conners”) supervising, the multi-cam project follows two teenagers navigating parenthood in the best way they know how. With a little help from their friends and parents, they’ll learn that mistakes in life don’t have to derail your life – that no matter what age you are, taking care of a child is no joke – but sometimes, you just gotta laugh (or cry) your way through it.Helford is co-executive producing the potential series.

Today, Universal Pictures announced that Christopher Nolan’s atomic bomb film “Oppenheimer” has officially started production with multiple locations in the U.S., such as New Mexico, California, and New Jersey. The project has an ambitious budget of $100 million and will be heading to theaters the summer of 2023.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterCBS has ordered comedy pilots from “Jane the Virgin” creator Jennie Snyder Urman and Lonely Island crew Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone.The Urman-produced multi-cam project is called “Sober Companion” and follows Eliza, a hot-mess alcoholic who owns a bar with her uncle in New Orleans. She is forced to get her life together when the court appoints her an exhaustingly upbeat sober companion with whom she has to live 24/7.The potential series is based on a story by Urman, Gracie Glassmeyer and David Rosenthal.

Selome Hailu CBS has given a pilot order to “Rust Belt News,” a comedy written and executive produced by Matt Warburton.The single-camera series is set in a small Ohio town where the local newspaper goes out of business, leaving the ambitious, angsty reporters of the high school newspaper as the only people left to report on scandals, dig up corruption and generally polish the rust off their rust-belt community.Along with Warburton, executive producers include Leslie Morgenstein and Gina Girolamo on behalf of Alloy Entertainment. Warner Bros.

ViacomCBS is supersizing reality competition franchise The Challenge.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterABC has ordered a drama pilot from Kay Oyegun.In the untitled one-hour series, five therapists in Philadelphia find unique ways to solve problems in their patients’ lives while grappling with their own. Ellen Roman, the owner of the practice and a brilliant therapist, has her life shockingly turned upside down when she begins working with a sociopathic patient who may hold the key to the disappearance of her sister five years earlier.Oyegun will serve as the writer and executive producer on the pilot.

The Tourist,” starring Golden Globe nominee Jamie Dornan (“Belfast”). Dornan stars as a British man who is pursued by a large tank truck in the Australian outback, ending with him waking up in the hospital with no memory of his identity. As people from his past follow him around, he begins to look for answers.The cast also includes Danielle Macdonald (“Dumplin’”), Shalom Brune-Franklin (“Line of Duty”), Damon Herriman (“Mindhunter”), Alex Dimitriades (“Total Control”), Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (“Eurovision Song Contest”), and Kamil Ellis (“Bushwacked!”).“The Tourist” was written by Emmy and Golden Globe winners Harry and Jack Williams (“Baptiste”), who also executive produce alongside Christopher Aird (“Liar”).

Selome Hailu CBS has given a pilot order to “East New York,” a drama series written by William Finkelstein and Mike Flynn.The series follows Regina Haywood, the newly promoted police captain of East New York, an impoverished, working class neighborhood at the eastern edge of Brooklyn. She leads a diverse group of officers and detectives, some of whom are reluctant to deploy her creative methods of serving and protecting during the midst of social upheaval and the early seeds of gentrification.Finkelstein is best known for his writing and producing work on a number of police and legal dramas.

EXCLUSIVE: CBS has given a pilot green light to Cal Fire, a drama from SEAL Team star Max Thieriot, Grey’s Anatomy alums Tony Phelan and Joan Rater, Jerry Bruckheimer Television and CBS Studios where the company is based. This is CBS’ second in-cycle drama pilot this season, joining a mother-and-son legal drama from Scott Prendergast and Dr. Phil McGraw.

EXCLUSIVE: Cinedigm has acquired North American rights to Coast, a coming-of-age drama starring Fatima Ptacek (Dora the Explorer), stand-up comedian Cristela Alonzo (Cristela), Academy Award winner Melissa Leo (The Fighter) and Ciara Bravo (Cherry), with plans to release it day-and-date in theaters and on VOD on April 8. VMI Worldwide, which is handling international sales and distribution, will rep the film at the Berlin Film Festival when it kicks off on February 10.

Selome Hailu CBS announced a pilot order for a currently untitled drama series from Scott Prendergast for the 2021-22 development season. Prendergast will serve as writer and executive producer.In the series, a talented but directionless private investigator who is the black sheep of his family begrudgingly agrees to work as the in-house investigator for his overbearing mother, a successful attorney reeling from the recent dissolution of her marriage.Prendergast is known for writing, directing and starring in the 2007 comedy film “Kabluey,” which follows a woman (Lisa Kudrow) struggling to keep her life together while her husband is away in Iraq, until her brother-in-law (Prendergast) shows up to help.