Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage's Fake Empire Sells Two Dramas to ABC (Exclusive)
"Chuck's" Matthew Miller and "Hart of Dixie's" Donald Todd will pen the legal and cop dramas, respectively.
Spoiler alert: Josh Schwartz and his Fake Empire partner Stephanie Savage are having a busy development season.
The prolific producer -- who heads into the 2012-13 television season with four series on The CW -- has sold two dramas to ABC, The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively.
The untitled Matthew Miller/Josh Schwartz project revolves around two bright young lawyers who struggle to enter a depleted job market. Instead of landing at the high-profile law firms they'd envisioned, they're left with no other choice but to work for an ambulance chaser whose smiling, mustachioed face is regularly advertised on public buses.
Schwartz will reteam with Chuck's Matthew Miller to write and executive produce the project. Fake Empire's Savage and Len Goldstein are also on board to executive produce the project, which has received a script order at the network.
Wrongful Death, meanwhile, hails from Hart of Dixie's Donald Todd, who will write and executive produce alongside Schwartz, Savage and Goldstein.
The project, which has received a script-plus-penalty order, is described as a modern crime drama set amid the beaches, buildings and swamps of Florida, where a former cop-turned-felon-turned Tampa insurance adjuster reluctantly teams with an energetic but unpolished millennial at a private investigation firm to investigate wrongful deaths.
Both dramas hail from Warner Bros. Television, where Schwartz and Savage have an overall deal in place and bring to four the number of sales for Fake Empire thus far this development season. The shingle previously sold supernatural drama Copeland Prep to the CW and family comedy Losing Our Cool to Fox.
Schwartz and Savage are behind four series on The CW: the final season of Gossip Girl, second-year drama Hart of Dixie and freshman entries The Carrie Diaries and Cult.
Schwartz and Miller, who serves as showrunner on ABC's upcoming supernatural drama 666 Park Ave., are repped by WME and McKuin Frankel; Todd (Samantha Who, Ugly Betty) is with Rothman Brecher.
Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit
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