NBC has given a 10-episode straight-to-series order for “Emerald City,” a reimagining of the classic Frank L. Baum books that have inspired everything from “The Wizard Of Oz” to “Wicked.”
Based on the 14-book series that first created the wonderful – and treacherous – Land of Oz, “Emerald City” is a dramatic and modern reimagining of the tales that include lethal warriors, competing kingdoms, and the infamous wizard as we’ve never seen him before. A head-strong 20-year-old Dorothy Gale is unwittingly sent on an eye-opening journey that thrusts her into the center of an epic and bloody battle for the control of Oz.
Writer Matt Arnold and Josh Friedman will serve as executive producers. Universal Television is the production company.
NBC is also ordering eight episodes of the miniseries “The Slap,” based on the critically-acclaimed Australian project of the same name that aired in 2011.
Written by Jon Robin Baitz (“The West Wing,” “Brothers & Sisters”) and also produced by Universal Television, “The Slap” is a complex family drama that explodes from one small incident where a man slaps another couple’s misbehaving child. This seemingly minor domestic dispute pulls the family apart, begins to expose long-held secrets, and ignites a lawsuit that challenges the core American values of all who are pulled into it.
Baitz, who was a Pulitzer finalist for his semi-autobiographical play “A Fair Country,” will write all episodes and executive produce with Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald, Ted Gold and Tony Ayres.
NBC has given pilot orders to a drama and a comedy as well.
First up is “State of Affairs,” a drama from Universal Television, Bob Simonds Company and Abishag Productions. Joe Carnahan is executive producing, writing and directing the pilot, starring Katherine Heigl.
Heigl portrays a key CIA attaché who counsels the president on high-stakes incidents around the world. She balances her intense political responsibilities with a complicated personal life.
The second pilot is the “Untitled Amy Poehler Project” (also known as “Old Soul”), from Universal Television, Paperkite Productions and 3 Arts.
Natasha Lyonne plays a young woman who’s trying to find herself, but in the meantime she’s working as the aide to a group of elderly people.
