Southern Comfort: still hope

This is from John Beifuss' story in The Commercial Appeal:

"Southern Comfort," the Fox television pilot shot two months ago in Memphis, has not been picked up by the network for its fall or early 2007 schedule.

The project is most likely dead, although the pilot theoretically could be revisited during the coming year, depending on the ratings of the seven new series -- including four dramas -- that Fox will add next season to its relatively stable prime-time lineup. Fox also could sell the pilot to another network.

"I can tell you this: It was so close to being accepted, it was a photo finish, so it wouldn't surprise me if it got resurrected in some other form," Dennis Murphy, a producer of "Southern Comfort," said in a phone interview Thursday, after Fox officially unveiled its fall lineup.

Memphis and Shelby County Film Commissioner Linn Sitler said the pilot's failure to become a series "is a real shame, not just from an economic standpoint but because (the filmmakers) were so polite. They not only left millions of dollars but hand-written thank-you notes, to everyone from the mayors to the Tennessee Film Commissioner."