· Universal's remaking The Thing, with Battlestar Galactica EP Ron Moore to write the script and commercials director Matthijs Van Heijningen set to direct. If you've forgotten how amazing John Carpenter's version was, watch this.

· HBO ordered a half-hour drama pilot with Ellen Barkin attached to star, about a woman who divorces her high-power, high-profile husband (OK, now the Barkin thing is starting to make sense) who then develops a platonic with his 24-year-old son. Meanwhile Oscar-nominated Revolutionary Road star Michael Shannon has been cast as the lead in Martin Scorsese's HBO pilot about the founding of Atlantic City, Boardwalk Empire. [Variety, THR]
· Surviving Suburbia, a Bob Saget sitcom that was orphaned after The CW dropped its Media Rights Capital-produced programming, has found a second chance, with ABC potentially interested. The only potential loser in this situation? Laughter. [Variety]
· ScreenwriterWatch: Slumdog Millionaire writer Simon Beaufoy will write Spyglass's Leap Year, starring Amy Adams as "an uptight woman who travels to Dublin to propose to her boyfriend on February 29," and all sorts of mayhem ensues. And A Mighty Heart writer Joe Orloff will script Ian Fleming bio Fleming, produced by Leo DiCaprio's company at Warner Bros. [THR, THR]