Our strategy with original series is to provide an environment in which the industry’s best and brightest can work and be successful," said Wright. "The roster of top talent coming to work at TNT demonstrates our commitment to providing our viewers with the very best dramatic entertainment possible.

Wright also announced that TNT is creating extensive broadband content complementing its series.

The following are TNT’s original projects slated for premiere this summer or going into production or development:

Coming to TNT this Summer

THE CLOSER - One-hour drama series beginning third season in June - Premiere episode presented commercial-free, sponsored by Toyota
Television’s top detective is back on the case this summer as Golden Globe winner Kyra Sedgwick returns in ad-supported cable’s #1 series of all time. She took home Best Actress in a Drama Series honors this year for her performance as the feminine yet forceful, offbeat yet indomitable CIA-trained Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson, a former Atlanta detective brought to Los Angeles to head a special LAPD unit charged with cracking sensitive, high-profile murder cases. She is an expert at digging into a person’s secrets and obtaining confessions, despite constantly struggling with her own imperfections and neuroses. In addition to Sedgwick, THE CLOSER’s Screen Actors Guild Award-nominated ensemble cast is back, including Jon Tenney, J.K. Simmons, Corey Reynolds, Robert Gossett, G.W. Bailey, Tony Denison, Raymond Cruz, Michael Paul Chan and Gina Ravera. The eagerly anticipated third season will kick off with the first episode being presented uninterrupted and commercial-free, sponsored by Toyota. THE CLOSER comes to TNT from The Shephard/Robin Company in association with Warner Bros. Television and is executive-produced by Greer Shephard (Nip/Tuck, The D.A.), Michael M. Robin (Nip/Tuck, The D.A., NYPD Blue) and James Duff (The D.A., The Agency) and produced by Andrew J. Sacks (The D.A, Adaptation, Two Soliders) with Kyra Sedgwick also serving as producer. Gil Garcetti, Los Angeles district attorney from 1992 to 2000, is a consulting producer.

HEARTLAND - One-hour drama series premiering in June

HEARTLAND is set in the high-tension world of the organ donors and features a recently divorced couple - played by Treat Williams (Everwood) and Kari Matchett (Invasion) - working both sides of the industry. As an organ-recovery coordinator, she convinces survivors to donate body parts of their recently departed loved ones; as a top organ-transplant surgeon, he harvests and implants the valuable organs into needy patients. The series is about second chances, for not only the patients being treated but also the doctor who helps put their lives together even when his own seems to be falling apart. HEARTLAND comes to TNT from Warner Bros. Television, with David Hollander writing the pilot and serving as executive producer.

SAVING GRACE - One-hour drama series premiering in July
Academy Award winner Holly Hunter makes her television series debut in this edgy, unique drama as Grace Hanadarko, a tormented, fast-living Oklahoma City police detective who, despite having an excellent career in solving crimes, takes self-destruction to new heights. After seeing tremendous tragedy, both professionally and personally, Grace reaches a turning point one night and meets a rough-hewn angel (Leon Rippy of Deadwood) with a similar past who wants to help lead her back to the right path. Kenneth Johnson (The Shield), Bailey Chase (Las Vegas), Bokeem Woodbine (The Big Hit) and Laura San Giacomo (Just Shoot Me) co-star in this drama series from Fox Television Studios and creator Nancy Miller (Any Day Now), who wrote the pilot. She also serves as executive producer along with Gary A. Randall (A Little Thing Called Murder) and Artie Mandelburg (Leaving L.A., Mr. & Mrs. Smith), with Hunter serving as producer. The pilot was directed by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan (Battlestar Galactica, Invasion).

THE COMPANY - Six-hour limited series premiering in August
Chris O’Donnell, Alfred Molina and Michael Keaton star in this gripping six-hour limited series based on The New York Times bestseller by Robert Littell. This dramatic, action-packed series traces the activities of the CIA during the Cold War. The plot follows agents imprisoned in double lives, fighting an elusive, formidable enemy while also engaging in an internecine battle within the CIA itself. As agents delve deeper and deeper into the game of espionage, some can keep their hearts and heads cold and removed. But one man is forever changed by the cost in human lives and his own inability to resist even the deadliest of dangers: falling in love with an enemy. THE COMPANY is directed by Mikael Salomon (Band of Brothers, TNT’s Salem’s Lot) from a script by Ken Nolan (Black Hawk Down). It comes to TNT from Sony Pictures Television, with Ridley Scott (Gladiator), Tony Scott (The Gathering Storm), John Calley (The Da Vinci Code), David Zucker (N3mbers) and David A. Rosemont (Into the West) serving as executive producers.

In Development

THE TALISMAN - Six-hour limited series slated to premiere Summer 2008
After an enormously successful collaboration on the critically acclaimed Into the West, TNT is teaming once again with DreamWorks Television and executive producer Steven Spielberg, this time for an epic, six-hour adaptation of Stephen King and Peter Straub’s other-worldly adventure THE TALISMAN. This project also returns the drama network to King territory after such high-profile projects as Salem’s Lot, one of cable’s most popular movies of 2004, and last year’s Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King. Written in 1984, THE TALISMAN marks the first collaboration between bestselling authors King and Straub. It tells the story of Jack Sawyer, a boy who goes on a quest through this world and through a parallel world known as "The Territories," experiencing both good and evil in each. His goal is to obtain a mysterious talisman that will save his dying mother’s life, as well as the life of her twinner, the Queen of The Territories. Frequent Spielberg partner Kathleen Kennedy will join him in executive-producing this project, along with Ehren Kruger (Skeleton Key, The Ring, Arlington Road and currently adapting Nightline for DreamWorks Features), who will adapt the King/Straub novel. THE TALISMAN will be co-executive produced by Darryl Frank (Into the West, Taken, Las Vegas) and Justin Falvey (Into the West, Las Vegas), who head up DreamWorks Television.

UNTITLED STEVEN BOCHCO PROJECT - One-hour drama series in development
Steven Bochco (NYPD Blue, L.A. Law), the master of the legal drama series, is bringing his enormous talent to TNT for this show about young lawyers who have been friends since law school, but who now work on opposing sides. Bochco is serving as executive producer on this project, which comes to TNT from ABC Television Studios and Steven Bochco Productions. He is also co-writing with nationally known lawyer and writer David Feige (Indefensible).

UNTITLED SHEPHARD/ROBIN/ASHFORD PROJECT – One-hour drama series in development
This drama series from THE CLOSER’s executive-producing team of Greer Shephard and Michael M. Robin follows the ups and downs of a woman trying to juggle family and job.  Also executive-producing the project is Michelle Ashford (Medical Investigation).  The show comes to TNT from Warner Horizon Television.

LEVERAGE - One-hour drama series in development
Executive producer Dean Devlin (Independence Day, TNT’s The Librarian), under his Electric Entertainment banner, is developing this series about six professionals who form a team of modern-day Robin Hoods. Their mission is to protect society’s underdogs from the powerful and the corrupt; which includes everything from the underworld, international corporations and government officials. Using their expertise in various fields, the team’s methods of operation include everything from clever con-artistry to dubious, illegal and dangerous missions.

THE SAINT - One-hour drama series in development
Classy, suave, debonair, charming international thief Simon Templar (AKA The Saint) makes an action-packed return in this updated version of the classic 1960s series. This series pilot comes to TNT from executive producer William J. McDonald (Rome) and producer Jorge Zamacona (Homicide: Life on the Street, Wanted).

A.D. (working title) - One-hour drama series in development
This family drama is being developed for TNT by Angelo Pizzo and David Anspaugh, the filmmaking talents behind the popular movies Hoosiers and Rudy.