NBC lands J.J. Abrams' Project With Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn

Thanks to everyone for the heads up.

What do you know -- the Lost castaways have found new primetime land. A fresh hourlong project starring Lost alums Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn and executive produced by Lost co-creator/exec producer JJ Abrams has landed at NBC with a big put pilot commitment. Lost's home network, ABC, did bid aggressively on the the show and came close to locking it in. But, after the show went down to the wire with ABC, NBC ultimately snagged it. Life on Mars co-creators/exec producers Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec, who worked with Abrams on his ABC spy drama Alias, are writing the pilot for Warner Bros TV and Abrams' Bad Robot. Appelbaum and Nemec are executive producing with Abrams and Bryan Burk. Like with all JJ Abrams projects, the premise for the show, called for now Odd Jobs, is being kept under wraps. But Emerson and O'Quinn are expected to play former special ops agents.

After having done no projects with Abrams until last year, NBC has now picked up 2 in a row: last year's Undercovers and the now untitled Appelbaum/Nemec drama. NBC landed both after a bidding war with ABC. This marks the first sale for Appelbaum and Nemec under their overall deal with Warner Bros TV signed earlier this year. On the feature side, they are writing Mission Impossible: 4 for Abrams. It's been a strong selling season for Bad Robot with 3 production-size commitments. Its drama Alcatraz has already been officially greenlighted to pilot at Fox. The Appelbaum/Nemec one at NBC and another one with Jonah Nolan at CBS are both looking good to get to the pilot stage.

Source: NBC