Pilot Watch: April 11 to 15

During this time of year, a multitude of pilots are developed by all of the networks with very few of them actually making it to the air as a new series. The list below provides updates on just some of the countless pilots that are being developed, cast and filmed for the major and cable networks.

Actress Amber Tamblyn will be working with House executive producer Katie Jacobs on a new drama pilot about a young teacher in the world of public education in America. Currently the show has received a script commitment from FOX. Also expected to be part of the show is actor Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Tony-winning writer-star of the Broadway musical In the Heights, who appeared in the two-hour sixth-season premiere of House.

Actor Adam Harrington (Queer as Folk and Dexter) will be playing Adam’s (Thomas Dekker) father, Ethan Conant in the drama pilot Secret Circle. Also actress Emily Holmes (Snakes on a Plane) has been cast in a guest starring role as Cassie’s (Britt Robertson) deceased mother, Amelia Blake. The pilot follows Cassie as she moves to New Salem and discovers she is part of a secret coven of witches and may also be the key that will unlock a centuries-old battle of good versus evil.

TV, film and comic book writer Mark Verheiden has been tapped to co-write with Akiva Goldsman the NBC TV series The Dark Tower, which is part of a massive joint deal to turn Stephen King’s opus of best-selling novels into a feature film trilogy and a TV series. Verheiden will executive produce the The Dark Tower series along with Goldsman, Ron Howard will direct the series. Verheiden’s resume includes Smallville, Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, the upcoming TNT series Falling Skies as well as nearly 125 comic books including The American, Aliens, Predator, The Phantom, Superman and Superman/Batman.

Actress Jessica Lange has been cast in the FX drama pilot American Horror Story that comes from Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk (the men behind Glee). She will star opposite Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights). Plot details are being kept under wraps; but she will play a nosy neighbor to Vivien Harmon (Britton).

HBO has begun talks to acquire the Neil Gaiman novel American Gods to be developed into another fantasy series. The 2002 book follows an ex-convict on a cross-country journey through a modern day United States where all the mythological gods and monsters of ancient history have immigrated to.

NOTE: Again, keep in mind very few of these pilots will make it to the air so don’t count on seeing any or all of them UNLESS the networks deem them “good enough” for public consumption come this fall.