‘Roswell’ Reboot, Greg Berlanti Football Drama Among Six CW Pilot Orders

The CW has ordered six more drama pilots, including those for the reboot of “Roswell” and a high school football drama that boasts Greg Berlanti among its executive producers.

The untitled “Roswell” project would follow the daughter of undocumented immigrants who reluctantly returns to her tourist-trap hometown of Roswell, New Mexico. There she discovers a shocking truth about her teenage crush who is now a police officer: he’s an alien who has kept his unearthly abilities hidden his entire life. She protects his secret as the two reconnect and begin to investigate his origins, but when a violent attack and long-standing government cover-up point to a greater alien presence on Earth, the politics of fear and hatred threaten to expose him and destroy their deepening romance.

Like the original series, this project would be based on the “Roswell High” book series by Melinda Metz. Carina Adly MacKenzie will write and executive produce. Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank of Amblin Television will executive produce, with Lawrence Bender and Kevin Kelly Brown also executive producing. Brown was previously an executive producer on the original series. Amblin Television and Bender Brown Productions will produce in association with Warner Bros. Television.

The high school football drama is titled “Spencer,” which is inspired by the life of pro football player Spencer Paysinger. It follows a rising high school football player from South Central L.A. who is recruited to play for Beverly Hills High. April Blair will write and executive produce, with Berlanti and Sarah Schechter also executive producing. Robbie Rogers will produce with Dane Morck consulting. Berlanti Productions will produce in association with Warner Bros. Television, where Berlanti is set up under an overall deal.

The CW has also ordered a pilot for “In the Dark,” about a flawed and irreverent blind woman is the only “witness” to the murder of her drug-dealing friend. After the police dismiss her story, she sets out with her dog, Pretzel, to find the killer while also managing her colorful dating life and the job she hates at Breaking Blind- the guide dog school owned by her overprotective parents.

Corinne Kingsbury will write and executive produce. Ben Stiller, Jackie Cohn, and Nicky Weinstock will also executive produce via Stiller’s Red Hour Films. CBS Television Studios will produce in association with Red Hour Films.

Another of the pilot orders is for “The End of the World as We Know It.” When a prison spaceship carrying the universe’s most deadly aliens crashes in Southern California, two young women with bigger dreams than working at a kids’ pizza place in The Valley are recruited by a space cop to hunt down the escaped criminals, who have camouflaged themselves as eccentric Angelenos. Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker will write and executive produce, with Rob Thomas, Danielle Stokdyk, Dan Etheridge; Leslie Morgenstein, and Gina Girolamo also executive producing. The series is based on the book of the same name by Iva-Marie Palmer. Ehsugadee Productions, Spondoolie Productions and Alloy Entertainment will produce in association with Warner Bros. Television.

The drama project “Skinny Dip” is based on the novel of the same name by Carl Hiaasen. After her husband tries to kill her on what she thought was a romantic cruise to celebrate their second wedding anniversary, a woman teams with a jaded ex-cop to exact her own twisted brand of revenge on her cheating spouse, and winds up uncovering a wider conspiracy in the process.

Russel Friend and Garrett Lerner will write and executive produce, with Peter Traugott and Rachel Kaplan of Keshet Studios also executive producing. CBS Television Studios will produce in association with Keshet Studios

Finally, the drama “Playing Dead” is described as a dysfunctional family dramedy about a mortician and his son whose lives are turned upside down when the woman who abandoned them 15 years ago returns and asks them to fake her death.

Rina Mimoun and Josh Reims will write and executive produce with Tariq Jalil and Lucas Carter of Intrigue Entertainment also executive producing. CBS Television Studios will produce in association with Intrigue Entertainment.

It is worth noting that most of these pilots have female leads. The network has found success in recent years developing female-led projects such as the Golden Globe-winning shows “Jane the Virgin” and “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.” The network has also ordered pilots for a supernatural cop drama with a female lead and a reboot of the witch series “Charmed.”

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