Fox lands squadron of pilots

Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly is shown during a break during the Fox network summer press tour in Beverly Hills July 14, 2008.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The Fox network has green-lighted seven pilots for development -- four comedies and three dramas.

Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly said last week that he planned to order five comedy pilots and at least five drama pilots and that his comedy picks would be closer in tone to the quirky, offbeat "Malcolm in the Middle" and "The Bernie Mac Show" than uninspired recent additions like "Do Not Disturb."

The comedies on tap:

* "The Station," a single-camera pilot, revolves around a covert CIA operative and his workmates who are embedded in a South American banana republic with a mission to install a new dictator. Ben Stiller is among the executive producers.

* "Walorsky," a single-camera pilot, is in the tone of the 2003 comedy "Bad Santa" and centers on a lazy ex-cop-turned-security guard patrolling a mall in Buffalo, N.Y., who is forced to step it up after he is assigned an idiot partner.

* "Two Dollar Beer," a multicamera pilot, is set in Detroit and revolves around a blue-collar couple and their extended family and friends.

* "Sons of Tucson," a single-camera pilot, centers on a charming but misguided hustler hired by three rich young brothers to act as their "father" while their real one serves time for a white-collar crime.

Among hourlong pilots, Fox is casting a wide net with a medical drama, a comic-book adaptation and supernatural cop show.

* "Maggie Hill" is about a brilliant female surgeon who thrives despite enduring adult-onset schizophrenia.

* "Human Target" is based on the DC Comics title and centers on Christopher Chance, a mysterious bodyguard-for-hire who assumes the identities of people in life-threatening situations, becoming the "human target" on behalf of his clients.

* An untitled reincarnation project revolves around past-life investigators who solve mysteries of their clients' previous lives in order to resolve their problems in the present.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter