More high-profile Hollywood A-listers are jumping on the reality bandwagon. Just last week director Michael Bay announced he was working on a reality series called 'One Way Out,' and now Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are mounting an action-adventure reality show for TNT.

Called 'The Great Escape,' the series will challenge contestants to escape from big-screen-inspired situations. According to The Hollywood Reporter, each week teams of ordinary people will be dropped off, blindfolded, in different extreme environments -- lost in the desert, trapped in the mountains, locked in a prison or marooned on an island -- and they'll have to rely on their everyday skills and experiences to escape and win cash rewards.

For years, NBC has been looking for the new 'Friends.' Now they may have finally found it. With benefits.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, NBC has ordered a pilot for 'Friends With Benefits,' a new single-camera sitcom from '24' executive producer Brian Grazer (pictured) that had previously been in development for ABC. They passed on the project, however, allowing NBC to scoop up the co-production from 20th TV and Imagine TV.

'Friends With Benefits' is described as a comedy that "explores modern-day romance through the eyes of five friends, each looking for 'the one' but in the meantime settling for 'friends with benefits.'" The series will be written the '(500) Days of Summer' team of Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber, with the pilot scheduled to be helmed by 'Wedding Crashers' director David Dobkin.

Here's a play date you won't want to miss: NBC has just announced the premiere date for its new midseason drama series 'Parenthood.'

The one-hour dramedy, from the creative dream team of writer/producer Jason Katims ('Friday Night Lights') and producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer ('Arrested Development') will debut in a post-'Chuck' slot on Monday, March 1 at 9PM (this is after both the 'Heroes' season finale on Feb. 8 and the Winter Olympics have aired).

Wow, this sounds rather serious.

Maura Tierney, most recently on ER and now one of the stars of NBC's new comedy/drama Parenthood, is ill and will be going through a medical evaluation that will take several weeks. This means that the show will not start filming at the end of this month as originally planned. Instead, production will begin in September. No word yet on what exactly is wrong with Tierney.

Update: Tierney has released a statement.

It probably strikes some people as odd that a network would greenlight a show in 2009-2010 that's based on a movie from 1989 that was later made into a series in 1990 (one of the writers on that version was Joss Whedon). But this seems like a natural for a network family sitcom, and it least it has some good people behind it: producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, director Thomas Schlamme, and cast members Peter Krause and Maura Tierney. Could be worth checking out.

When you're an Oscar and Emmy-winning executive producer, you sort of expect your latest TV effort to be excitedly greenlighted network that ordered it. After all, you have a track record of success. Nevertheless, Brian Grazer (Friday Night Lights, Shark, 24) has had his latest effort rejected. Grazer's Imagine TV/20th Century Fox TV's crime drama about and called The F.B.I., is no longer attached to the Fox network.

The exec was reportedly especially enthused about the show. Last August, Grazer said of The F.B.I., "I like making movies about heroes. Selfless people willing to protect the city, the state or the world is interesting to me. I try very hard to do those subjects in a non-corny way. It's about people who have nobility but are emotionally flawed."

Reports are circulating that producers of the film adaptation of Magnum P.I. have their sights set on Ben Affleck to take on the title role.

The 1980s series starred Tom Selleck as a private investigator who worked in Hawaii. It had been known for some time that Selleck himself wanted to reprise the role in a feature adaptation but it's common knowledge that Selleck is way too old to be as cool as he was in 1983. Supposedly, Hollywood big-wig Brian Grazer is behind the remake.

At right is an artist's rendering of what Affleck may look like with Selleck's moustache.

[via StarPulse]