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

http://www.deadline.com/2010/09/nbc-lands-j-j-abrams-project-with-michael-emerson-and-terry-oquinn/

What do you know, the Lost castaways have found new primetime land. A new 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 landing it, but, after going down to the wire between the 2 nets, NBC ultimately got 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 project, from Warner Bros. TV and Abrams' Bad Robot. The two are also executive producing with Abrams and Bryan Burk. Like with all JJ Abrams projects, the premise for the show, referred to as Odd Jobs, is kept under wraps, but Emerson and O'Quinn are expected to play former special ops agents.

After having done no projects with JJ Abrams until last year, NBC has now picked up 2 in a row, last year's Undercovers and this year's untitled Appelbaum/Nemec drama. NBC landed both after a bidding war with ABC. This marks the first sale for Appelbaum and Nemec under the duo's overall deal with WBTV. 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, with the Appelbaum/Nemec project at NBC and another one with Jonah Nolan at CBS both expected to get to pilot stage.