Fox orders 'Sleepy Hollow' TV pilot

Wednesday January 23, 2013 12:35 PM By Chris Serico

Photo credit: Tom Nycz | The headless horseman at the 2011 Horseman's Hollow event at Philipsburg Manor in Sleepy Hollow. (Oct. 22, 2011)

Fox has green-lit "Sleepy Hollow," a TV pilot inspired by Washington Irving's spooky tale set in Westchester County.

Newsday Westchester picked up on the buzz six months ago, when two "Sleepy Hollow" pilots were in development: one at Fox, another by the same name at The CW. Yesterday, it was announced that Fox gave the go-ahead to its version, whose executive producers, Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci, have a little more time on their hands now that "Fringe" has come to a close.

Describing the Fox series as a "modern-day supernatural thriller based on the famed legend," The Hollywood Reporter says that Heather Kadin and Len Wiseman are among the show's other executive producers, and Phillip Iscove will contribute as a writer and supervising producer.

Perhaps Fox was so pleased by the premiere ratings of "The Following," which filmed in Bronxville for a day in August, that they opted to order a pilot that would be based — and perhaps filmed — in another Westchester village.

According to Deadline, no decision has been made about The CW's "Sleepy Hollow" pilot. That version, penned by "Missing" writers Scharbo and Patrick Macmanus, chronicles FBI agent Ichabod Crane, who's assigned to investigate a beheading in the Westchester village.

In other pilot news with connections to the Hudson Valley: Eddie Murphy, who once owned a house in Poughquag, has teamed up with "The Shield" creator Shawn Ryan and may play a role on a "Beverly Hills Cop" pilot that CBS has picked up; and Rye native Jason Bateman is part of a team that has NBC interested in an untitled single-camera comedy about a "son, his blind father, and a mother who rediscovers her adolescence post-divorce," according to Yahoo.

Tags: Sleepy Hollow , Fox , TV