'True Blood' showrunner Alan Ball doing new pilot for HBO

HBO might be doubling up on Alan Ball series. The "True Blood" showrunner got the go-ahead on a new pilot, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Ball hopes to adapt a series from the novel "The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death" by Charlie Huston. And -- no surprise here -- it's all about death.

"Mystic Arts" follows Webster Goodhue, an out-of-work teacher who takes a job cleaning up death sites. The unusual career eventually finds him embroiled with some seriously shady characters.

And that's not the only high profile pilot cooking over at HBO. EW.com reports that both Lee Pace ("Pushing Daisies") and Linus Roache ("Law & Order") are on board the Kathryn Bigelow-directed pilot for "Magnificent Year." The New York-set family drama already features Hope Davis and Frank Langella, as well as Broadway stars Patti LuPone and Eddie Redmayne.

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