'Homicide' meets 'Gangs of New York' for BBC America's first foray into original scripted drama.

The network announced that it has ordered a ten-episode period cop drama from Tom Fontana ('Oz') and Will Rokos ('Southland').

'Copper' is set in the notorious Five Points Irish neighborhood of New York City in the 1860s.

The executive producers include Fontana, Rokos, Barry Levinson ('Homicide: Life on the Street') and Christina Wayne ('Mad Men') of Canada's Cineflix Studios.

A week from now, HBO will probably be one of the big stories from the Primetime Emmys thanks to the success of the John Adams mini-series. But it's not sitting on that success, the premium cable net is banking on it. HBO announced today a mini series based on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln called Manhunt. That news would be interesting enough because the series will deal with the 12 days after Lincoln was shot when the assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was on the run. However, the guys that HBO have tapped to work on Manhunt are two of the best in television -- David Simon and Tom Fontana.

HBO knows Simon and Fontana's work really well. Simon was the creator of The Wire and Fontana's brainchild was Oz. This is also not a new collaboration. Fontana turned Simon's book, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, into the Homicide: Life on the Streets TV series for NBC.

Hello! The Saint is rising again. The venerable character, who was created by writer Leslie Chareris in novels in the 1920's, will be back on television in a contemporary setting, and actor James Purefoy (Rome) has been in talks to play Simon Templar, the suave, British "good guy" thief. Aside from Purefoy, the Hollywood Reporter writes that the production team includes first class talent: Homicide's Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana (Oz), writer Jorge Zamacona, Bill Macdonald, and the original TV Saint himself, Roger Moore, and his son Geoffrey Moore.

The WB has cut some scenes from the upcoming pilot episode of The Bedford Diaries, but the full version of the episode will be available on their web site starting at 3pm Eastern today. For all you perverts fans, the scenes uncut involve a girl unbuttoning her jeans and another scene with two girls kissing in a bar.

The show will air next Wednesday, March 28.

[via TV Tattle]