Pilot Season: Another Oscar-Winner Gets The Role

The pilot “Kindreds” is spiking Kathy Bates’ attention.

Perhaps it’s the necessity for great writing, now that the jobs of screenplay pennists are less cushy and easy to obtain than they used to be. Perhaps it’s the fact that fewer movies are being made because of our in-the-toilet economy. Or perhaps it’s because Dustin Hoffman has started the trend that it’s not career suicide to flip flop between feature films and television.

Kindreds is a new pilot series for NBC (cast by Nikki Valko and Ken Millerwhich) follows the life of a perpetually exasperated, former parent attorney (Bates), and her Peter-Pan-esque group of odd, rag-tag associates. The role was originally written for a male character to be called “Harry Korn”, but NBC is more than willing to trade Bates’ wry humor and Academy Award status for testosterone.

If the contract goes through, the ICM repped Bates will be dropping her signature on her third television appearance of the year — following her arc on NBC’s The Office and a guest star on L.A. Law.