Kevin Costner, Jerry Bruckheimer coming to A&E

By Rick Porter

May 12, 2009 1:30 PM

A&E is making a bigger push into scripted programming, greenlighting a pilot from Jerry Bruckheimer and developing a western miniseries with Kevin Costner and a cop show with author James Ellroy and "The Shield" creator Shawn Ryan.

Those two projects, along with a new season of "The Cleaner" (starting June 23) and new unscripted shows starring Tony Danza and Steven Seagal, are among the highlights coming out of the cable channel's upfront on Tuesday.

Missing from A&E's announcement is any mention of a second season for Patrick Swayze's crime drama "The Beast." Swayze filmed the first season while fighting pancreatic cancer and is still battling the disease. A&E is still deciding what to do with the show.

Here are some highlights of A&E's development slate:

The Bruckheimer pilot is called "Cooler Kings" and follows a former Honolulu cop who is looking to avenge the death of his girlfriend. After meeting a group of detectives who call themselves the Cooler Kings, he gets a chance to do just that. Tristan Patterson is the writer.

Costner is executive producing a four-hour miniseries with producer Armyan Bernstein ("Castle," "Open Range") about a conflict over the settlement of the West following the Civil War, through the perspective of the founders of a frontier town. Costner may also direct.

"The Lead Sheet" comes from Ryan and author Ellroy ("L.A. Confidential," "The Black Dahlia"), who wrote the script. It follows LAPD detectives working the Hillside Strangler case in the late 1970s, with each episode centered on a tip that may or may not have something to do with the strangler case.

"Steven Seagal: Lawman" is scheduled to premiere in the summer. It will follow the actor in his other job -- that of a deputy with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office in Louisiana -- and his off-duty activities.

Danza is going back to school for a yet-to-be-titled series in which he puts his education degree to use by working as a teacher in New York. The 13-episode series will chronicle his year in the classroom.

"Obsessed" is a companion series to the channel's "Intervention" and follows people with obsessive-compulsive disorder, social anxiety disorder and other phobias as they try to cope with their conditions in daily life and through intense therapy sessions. It premieres May 25.

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