TNT is aggressively stoking its original-series pipeline.
The cable network last week picked up all three of its pilots: a Steven Spielberg-produced alien-invasion drama starring Noah Wyle; the George Clooney-produced Delta Blues, starring Jason Lee; and Rizzoli & Isles, starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander.
The trio has received orders for 10 episodes, including the pilot. Blues and Rizzoli are targeted to start this year; the untitled alien-invasion series, which requires a longer postproduction process because of special effects, will premiere in 2011.
The moves come on the heels of TNT renewing the freshman dramas Men of a Certain Age, Dark Blue and Hawthorne and picking up the NBC cop drama Southland.
TNT's head of programming, Michael Wright, said he didn't expect to pick up all three pilots in the current cycle to series, but "if it works and is going to improve the performance of the network, we thought let's find a way to do it."
The alien-invasion project, written by Robert Rodat from an idea he conceived with Spielberg, stars Wyle as the leader of a rag-tag group of soldiers and civilians struggling against an occupying alien force. Moon Bloodgood, Jessy Schram, Seychelle Gabriel and Maxim Knight co-star.
It marks TNT's first foray into sci-fi/adventure series.
"We want to challenge ourselves and our audience to expand our horizons while concentrating on what's working for us -- character-based, populist-themed dramas," Wright said.
The hourlong Blues, from Clooney and Grant Heslov's Smokehouse Pictures and Warner Horizon, centers on Dwight Hendricks (Lee), a Memphis police officer who lives with his mother (Celia Weston, a graduate of Salem College) and moonlights as a musician.
The pilot, written by Liz Garcia and Joshua Harto and directed by Clark Johnson, co-starred Alfre Woodard, Abraham Benrubi and DJ Qualls.
Based on Tess Gerritsen's mystery novels, Rizzoli, from Warner Horizon, revolves around the crime-solving team of Boston police detective Jane Rizzoli (Harmon) and medical examiner Maura Isles (Alexander).
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