“Vampire Diaries” alumna Nina Dobrev, “Eighty Sixed” web series co-creator and star Cazzie David, and “Miracles from Heaven” director Patricia Riggen have all booked pilots. Dobrev is set to star in CBS sitcom “Fam,” David will topline and co-write Amazon comedy “Half-Empty,” and Riggen will direct an untitled legal drama for Fox.
Written by Corinne Kingsbury, “Fam” will see Dobrev playing Clem, a “grounded, deeply funny, quick-witted, and outspoken” woman whose younger sister (Odessa Adlon) comes to live with her and her fiancé, Deadline reports. Kingsbury is among the project’s EPs.
Clem “was a bit of a hot mess in her younger years, but since then, she has worked hard to create the best version of herself and her life is on track,” the source summarizes. She’s “ecstatic when Jay, the love of her life, proposes. In the ‘best version of herself,’ she claims that her own father is long dead, but the fact is that her dad, Freddy Banks, whom she hasn’t seen in 10 years, is such an embarrassment that she has lied about his death. And when her half-sister Shannon shows up unexpectedly, Clem’s lie is about to become painfully obvious to everyone who trusted and believed her.”
Dobrev starred as “Vampire Diaries’” Elena for six seasons before leaving the show in 2015. She returned for the 2017 series finale and has also appeared in films such as “The Final Girls” and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.”
“Back in the Game” and “The Newsroom” are among Kingsbury’s previous credits.
Amazon snagged David’s “Half-Empty” “in a competitive situation with multiple outlets bidding,” The Hollywood Reporter confirms. The streamer committed to a script plus sizable production penalty for the comedy, which centers on a college senior whose sarcasm and overactive imagination repeatedly land her in hot water.
“Half-Empty” began as a spec script, which David wrote with Elisa Kalani. The writing partners are exec producing alongside Sarah Heyward (“Girls”) and Annapurna TV’s Megan Ellison and Sue Naegle. Heyward will serve as showrunner if Amazon moves forward with the series.
David and Kalani created web series “Eighty Sixed,” which centers on the neurotic Remi (David) after she goes through a breakup.
Riggen is making her broadcast pilot directorial debut with the as-yet untitled Fox legal drama. As Deadline writes, the project stars Rachelle Lefevre (“Mary Kills People”) as Madeline Scott, “a fierce and fearless lawyer with a hunger for justice.” She and her legal team “reopen investigations, putting their own lives in danger to exonerate the innocent that were ‘proven’ guilty.”
“Madeline’s motivation comes from her infamous past; as a young adult she was found guilty and later exonerated in a high-profile case in which she became a tabloid sensation, household name, and national celebrity,” Deadline continues. “While a hero and a victim to some, her bold and bullish tactics garner her some enemies — one of whom will do anything to see her go down for a crime we know she did not commit.”
Riggen is also set to helm “Run for Your Life,” a supernatural thriller pilot ordered by Syfy and USA Network. The Dia de Los Muertos-set project was announced in November.
The director’s previous credits include “The 33,” “Girl in Progress,” and “Under the Same Moon.”
“Roswell” (Julie Plec), “Chiefs” (Zetna Fuentes), “Daddy Issues” (Kat Coiro), and “Bless This Mess” (Lake Bell) are among the 2018–19 season’s other female-helmed pilots.
