ABC Orders Pilot for Matt Lopez’s Latinx Family Drama “Promised Land” 

Matt Lopez’s promise continues…

The Latino screenwriter’s hourlong Latinx family drama Promised Land has secured a pilot order at ABC.

Matt Lopez

Previously known as American Heritage, the project is an epic, generation-spanning drama about two Latinx families vying for wealth and power in California’s Sonoma Valley.

ABC bought the project pre-emptively with a put-pilot commitment last year.

Lopez, who has written feature films including Bedtime Stories, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Race to Witch Mountain, writes and executive produces.

ABC Signature is the studio.

Lopez created the NBCUniversal International drama series Gone, starring Chris Noth, which aired on WGN America in the U.S. He also is adapting Helen Cresswell’s young-adult novel Moondial into an ambitious time-travel drama for Fulwell 73. On the feature side, he’s writing a new Father of the Bride film for Warner Bros. revolving around a Latinx family, a first for the franchise.

Lopez Developing Legal Drama Project “Justice” for NBC

Matt Lopez is looking to bring a little justice to NBC

The network has put in development Justice, a legal drama project from the Latino screenwriter and John Glenn.

Matt Lopez

Written by Lopez, a former lawyer, Justice tells the story of larger-than-life District Attorney Logan Archer, a brilliant and relentless prosecutor who takes on crime while harboring some deep, dark secrets.

In features, Lopez is a go-to screenwriter for family fare including Bedtime Stories, Race To Witch Mountain, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and the upcoming Clifford The Big Red Dog.

He is set to adapt the best-selling children’s book The Day The Crayons Quit as a feature at Universal Pictures and is producing Huck for Paramount Pictures.

In TV, he wrote the 2013 ABC pilot Gothica and developed the drama One Kick at NBC last season.