Foxy: Fox is preparing a primetime sketch comedy series for midseason from Jamie Foxx. The network has given the half-hour show - which it is tentatively calling The Jamie Foxx Project - a 12-episode order. Foxx had been working on a different sketch comedy pilot for Fox this past development cycle, but this new project is different and the original pilot will reportedly be scrapped. The show will take on “pop culture, spoofing movie trailers, commercials, TV shows, music videos and celebrities, with a diverse cast of young new comedians.†This week is really not a high point for creativity in naming television shows. [HR]
Enter Sandman: Neil Gaiman’s legendary 1990s comic book series The Sandman is in the early stages of being developed into a TV series. Warner Bros. TV is in talks with several writer-producers about adapting the comic, with Supernatural creator Eric Kripke the current frontrunner. Sandman centers on Morpheus, the Lord of the Dreaming, a “deity who personifies dreams.†A movie version has been in development since the mid-90s but never gotten off the ground. [Heat Vision/HR]
Hogwarts For Adults: NBC has picked up a new drama project from Battlestar Galactica mastermind Ronald D. Moore billed as an “adult Harry Potter,†which takes place “in a world ruled not by science but by magic.†Instead of Charms and Care of Magical Creatures, wizards take classes like Potions for Passive-Aggressive Arguments and Defense Against Dark…Taxes. [Deadline]
Trio For Mazer: Adam Mazer (You Don’t Know Jack) is writing an authorized biopic about John DeLorean, the controversial automobile mogul. The Emmy winner is also attached to write Rube, a look at the origins of the porn business, and Contingency, about lawyers in the 1970s and 80s who were “among the first to advertise.†All three projects are to be produced by Steve Lee Jones, who served as executive producer on Jack. [HR]
Forever Young: Neil Young has announced the release of new solo album Le Noise, which will be released September 28. The eight-song disc will serve as a follow-up to 2009’s Fork in the Road. The album is said to be a “stripped-down collaboration†with Grammy-winning producer Daniel Lanois, who has worked with U2 and Bob Dylan. [Billboard]
Sister Act: Australian actress Jessica McNamee will play Rachel McAdams’ estranged younger sister in The Vow. The film, which also stars Channing Tatum and Scott Speedman, tells the real-life tale of a newlywed couple (McAdams and Tatum) who get into a car crash. When the wife wakes from her coma without “any memory of her husband or their marriage,†the husband “attempts to win her heart again.†And if she doesn’t remember her husband at all, the outlook probably isn’t good for the estranged sister. [HR]
Bunch Expands: Ezra Miller and Thomas Haden Church have joined The Reasonable Bunch, the directorial debut of Barry Levinson’s 25-year-old son Sam Levinson. Kate Bosworth, Ellen Barkin, Ellen Burstyn and Demi Moore will also star in the indie wedding comedy that Levinson is directing from his own script. [Variety]
Art Project: Max Borenstein will write the thriller Art of the Steal starring Zac Efron. Steal, based on Joshua Bearman’s Wired Magazine article, is about a “con man who plans and executes a series of elaborate heists, all while leading a double life as an upstanding citizen.†[Variety]