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Drama writer-producer Michael Seitzman has signed a new two-year overall deal with ABC Studios, where he has been for the past six years. Under his most recent pact, Seitzman created and executive produced the studio’s CBS drama series Intelligence. He has developed and sold a number of other projects for ABC Studios in the past few years, three of which have gone to pilot: Americana and Empire State at ABC and House Rules at CBS. Like Seitzman’s previous overall deals, the new one is for development only. On the feature side, the Wme-repped Seitzman penned the 2005 film North Country.

Drama writer Michael Seitzman is staying at ABC Studios with a new two-year overall deal. Under the seven-figure pact, he will continue to develop for the studio. Two shows he developed at ABC Studios during the 2008-09 season, Empire State and House Rules, were picked up to pilot by ABC and CBS, respectively. This development season, he wrote an adaptation of the hit British series Spooks aka Mi-5 for ABC and ABC Studios outside of his overall deal with the studio. On the feature side, the Wme-repped Seitzman penned the 2005 film North Country.

Exclusive: Anna Chlumsky is set to co-star opposite Julia Louis-Dreyfus in HBO's comedy pilot Veep. In a recasting, Dorian Brown (ABC Family's Roommates) has landed a lead on FX's new comedy series Wilfred starring Elijah Wood, while Kelly Rowan (The O.C.) has gotten a lead role in the TNT drama pilot Perception. Veep, from British comedian, writer and director Armando Iannucci, centers on former Senator Selina Meyer (Louis-Dreyfus) who becomes Vice President. Chlumsky, repped by Innovative and Liebman Entertainment, will play her responsible and insecure chief of staff Amy. This is the second DC-set pilot for Chlumsky. Last year, she co-starred in CBS' House Rules, playing an aide to the Speaker of the House. She also co-starred in Iannucci's politically themed 2009 feature In the Loop. Wilfred, based on the acclaimed Australian series of the same name, revolves around a guy, Ryan (Wood), the girl next door (Fiona Gubelmann), and mixed-breed dog,...

Exclusive: An adaptation of the hit British series Spooks aka Mi-5 is headed to American television via ABC. ABC Studios has closed a deal for the rights to Spooks, known in the U.S. as Mi-5, with Kudos Rights Ltd, a division of the Shine Group-owned British production company Kudos Film and Television which produces the BAFTA-winning original series. Michael Seitzman has been tapped to write and executive produce the adaptation, which has received a script order from ABC. Spooks, created by David Wolstencroft, follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters in highly secure offices known as The Grid. The spy drama, one of the U.K.’s top series of this decade, launched in 2002, with a new season scheduled to premiere this fall. Spooks also has become one of the most recognizable British series in the U.S. in a long while.

"The Station," Ben Stiller's comedy pilot for Fox, is staying in contention at the network as Fox and producing studio 20th Century Fox TV have extended options on the cast through year's end.

Another pilot still alive from this past development season is the CBS/ABC Studios drama "House Rules," whose actors' options also were picked up through year's end.

"Station," executive produced by Stiller, revolves around covert CIA operative Eric (Justin Bartha) and his workmates, who are on a mission in Central America to install a new dictator.

John Goodman and Whitney Cummings co-starred in the pilot, which will be tweaked. The single-camera project, written by Kevin Napier and directed David Wain, was shot in the summer.

For "Rules," it is the second time actors' options have been extended. CBS and ABC Studios first put a hold on most of the pilot's cast members -- including star Zoe McLellan,...

ABC has a D.C.-set sitcom in the works from Friends and How I Met Your Mother alum Greg Malins and, er, Arianna Huffington. Freshmen will follow three newbie representatives -- two men and a woman -- who share a house. (And more! I'm guessing.) Malins told Variety that he "always knew wanted to do a show" in DC, and that "once discovered that members of Congress often live together," he knew he was set. He might have "discovered" this one of the nine billion times it's been written about in the New York Times alone, all of which mention its sitcommy potential. But okay. Freshmen is the latest in a string of politically-oriented shows in development: Earlier this summer, Body Politic, The CW's would-be D.C. series, didn't get past the pilot stage, but CBS's House Rules (starring Anna Chlumsky) is still in the works. I feel compelled...

A month and a half after the end of the 2008-09 broadcast development season, four pilots -- ABC's "Romantically Challenged," "This Little Piggy" and "Solving Charlie" and CBS' "House Rules" -- remain in midseason contention after their cast options have been extended.

The actors on all broadcast pilots are tied to projects until June 30, when they're released and free to book other jobs. The networks and studios have until then to decide whether they want to keep any of their pilots alive by paying the actors to continue to be attached to them.

This year, the multicamera comedies "Challenged" and "Piggy" and the dramas "Charlie" (formerly the untitled Daniel Cerone) and "Rules" and made the cut, with the options of some but not all cast members extended.

"Challenged" hails from Wbtv; the three others are produced by ABC Studios.

"Challenged," about a thirtysomething man torn between his new girlfriend and needy best friend,...