2nd UPDATE 5:20 PM: Another hot NBC pilot getting a series pickup, the Katherine Heigl-starring drama State of Affairs. The project is in need of a showrunner as Alexi Hawley, who wrote the original script, has left, and Joe Carnahan, who is getting high marks for rewriting and directing the pilot, is busy with The Blacklist. I hear Tom Szentgyorgyi is eyed for the job if The Mentalist is not renewed. Each day the president is faced with hundreds of life and death decisions, and to prioritize the biggest international crises facing the country, one top CIA analyst – Charleston Tucker (Heigl) – assembles the president’s Daily Briefing (PDB). Aside from the political minefields she has to walk, Charlie has a close personal relationship with the president (Alfre Woodard) because she was once engaged to her son before a tragic terrorist attack took his life. Charlie survived that attack and is now determined to bring the perpetrators to justice. The cast also includes Adam Kaufman, Sheila Vand, Cliff Chamberlain, Tommy Savas and Leslie Odom, Jr. Writer-director Carnahan serves as executive producer with Katherine Heigl, Nancy Heigl, Robert Simonds, Sophie Watts, Henry Crumpton, Rodney Faraon and Julia Franz. State of Affairs is a production of Universal Television, Bob Simonds Company and Abishag Prods.
UPDATE: After picking up its hottest comedy pilot, Marry Me, NBC also ordered to series its drama pilot frontrunner, Allegiance (form. Coercion). It was adapted from Israeli series The Gordin Cell by writer George Nolfi who also directed the pilot. I hear John Zinman and Patrick Massett are in talks to join as showrunners. Allegiance centers on Alex O’Connor, a young idealistic CIA analyst specializing in Russian affairs, who learns a shocking secret that his parents, Mark (Scott Cohen) and Katya (Hope Davis) are covert Russian spies deactivated decades ago. Today the Kremlin has re-enlisted them into service as they plan a terrorist operation inside the U.S. border that will bring America to its knees. The cast also includes Margarita Levieva, Gavin Stenhouse, Morgan Spector, Annie Ilonzeh, Alexandra Peters and Kenneth Choi. Nolfi serves as executive producer with Avi Nir, Ron Leshem, Amit Cohen, Yona Wisenthal and Giyora Yahalom for Universal Television, Keshet Media Group, which is behind the original series; along with Israeli satcaster YES, which airs it.
