2016-11-07



Latest News Items (What is this?)

21:40 - Otis the POTUS and Linda From HR - FOX Developing Comedies

Thanks to 90sbaby for the heads up.

Fox has put in development two more single-camera comedy projects, Otis the POTUS, written by Richard Murphy, and Linda From HR, written by Geoff Barbanell and Itai Grunfeld. The projects hail from Tracy Katsky’s Kat Co., under the company’s production partnership with Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment, and 20th Century Fox TV.

Otis the POTUS, which has received a script commitment plus penalty, centers on Otis Chucker. After his doppelgänger is elected president, Otis, the black sheep of a dysfunctional, blue-collar family in Cleveland, cashes in his genetic lottery ticket and becomes a presidential impersonator. Murphy executive produces with Kaplan, Katsky and Dana Honor.

Linda From HR centers on the eponymous heroine. Every office in America has a Linda from HR. We all know her. She’s good for a hallway wave, a “how are the kids” and, once a year, buys the supermarket cake for your birthday. What you don’t know is Linda, bored with her life, had an affair. Unfortunately, it was a honey trap. Now, to keep the affair a secret from her family, Linda is forced to spy on her company, sabotaging it from the inside. A serialized comedy about Linda from HR, who, it turns out, we don’t know at all. Barbanell and Grunfeld executive produce with Kaplan, Katsky and Honor.

Source:

Deadline

21:40 - The Last Ship - Season 4 - Jonathan Howard to Recur

Jonathan Howard has booked a recurring role on TNT’s drama series The Last Ship. Created by Hank Steinberg and Steven Kane based on William Brinkley’s novel, The Last Ship chronicles the aftermath of a global catastrophe that nearly decimates the world’s population. Captain Tom Chandler (Eric Dane) and his crew must confront the reality of their new existence in a world where they may be among the few remaining survivors.

Howard will play James Fletcher, a British Royal Navy commander and MI-6 agent. A cross between James Bond and a Navy SEAL, Fletcher has been tasked to work with the crew of USS Nathan James to recover stolen items that are crucial to the survival of the planet. In so doing, he works closely with Sasha Cooper (Bridget Regan), who’s still with the ship, even in the absence of Capt. Chandler, who walked off Nathan James at the end of Season 3.

Source:

Deadline

21:30 - Flatlands - FX Developing Political Serio-Comedy

FX has put in development Flatlands, an hourlong serio-comedy from Oscar- and Emmy- nominated filmmakers Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (American Splendor, HBO’s Cinema Verite) and Likely Story.

Co-written and to be directed by Berman and Pulcini, Flatlands is set in a multi-ethnic, old-school corner of Brooklyn where a bored PTA mom reinvents herself as a local political kingpin who will do anything — including dismantling her family — to attain power. Berman and Pulcini executive produce with Likely Story’s Anthony Bregman and VP Jeff Stern. FX declined comment.

Source:

Deadline

21:30 - The Classic - Sofia Vergara Developing Football Family Drama at ABC

ABC has put in development The Classic, an hourlong family drama produced by Mandalay Sports Media, Modern Family star Sofia Vergara and her Latin WE, and Delirio Films. 20th Century Fox TV, which also produces Modern Family, is the studio.

Written by Todd E. Kessler (The Good Wife, Nashville) and to be directed by Patricia Riggen (Under The Same Moon), The Classic is inspired by the upcoming Delirio Films documentary of the same name. The series is set in East Los Angeles and revolves around a legendary football rivalry between two high schools that are only five miles apart. Against the backdrop of the rivalry, the series will follow a multi-generational family all striving for the American Dream.

“While some might look at this as a Latino Friday Night Lights, it’s way more than that,” said Mike Tollin, co-chairman of Mandalay Sports Media. “Patricia and Todd have created an incredibly rich and multi-cultural tapestry, where football is just the connector between communities facing enormous social and economic challenges.”

Source:

Deadline

12:45 - Absentia - Patrick Heusinger Cast as Male Lead Opposite Stana Katic in AXN Series

Patrick Heusinger (Jack Reacher 2) is set as the male lead opposite Stana Katic in Absentia, a 10-episode straight-to-series crime thriller for Sony Pictures Television Networks’ AXN.

Written/executive produced by Matt Cirulnick, based on a pilot script originally written by Gaia Violo, Absentia centers on an FBI agent, to be played by Katic. While hunting one of Boston’s most notorious serial killers, the agent disappears without a trace and is declared dead. Six years later, she is found in a cabin in the woods, barely alive and with no memory of the years she was missing. Returning home to learn her husband (Heusinger) has remarried and her son is being raised by another woman, she soon finds herself implicated in a new series of murders.

Heusinger’s character also is an FBI agent. Still in love with his first wife, he is torn in doing his duty as an FBI agent.

Source:

Deadline

00:40 - Pulling - Comedy Based on UK Series Being Developed at NBC by Sharon Horgan

Cult British comedy series Pulling is heading to NBC. The network is developing an U.S. version of the 2006 BBC Three series, with the original series’ creators Sharon Horgan who also starred, and Dennis Kelly executive producing. The project hails from Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment, Horgan’s Merman and 20th TV.

Penned by the Bob’s Burgers writing duo of Wendy & Lizzie Molyneux, the single-camera Pulling is described as a contemporary re-conception of the beloved format. Donna breaks off her engagement to comfortable human-sweatsock Karl and moves in with her libertine sister Karen and sweet friend Louise. The show centers around the women’s adventures in the often-horrifying modern dating scene and their search for professional fulfillment.

Source:

Deadline

00:40 - She’s Gotta Have It - Chyna Layne & Ilfenesh Hadera Join Netflix Series

Chyna Layne (Precious) and Ilfenesh Hadera (Baywatch) have joined the cast of Spike Lee’s 10-episode Netflix series She’s Gotta Have It, a contemporary update of Lee’s groundbreaking 1986 indie film.

The series centers on Nola Darling (DeWanda Wise), a Brooklyn-based sexually liberated, free spirited painter/mixed media artist in her late 20s struggling to define herself and divide her time amongst her friends, her job and her three lovers, played by Lyriq Bent, Cleo Anthony and Anthony Ramos.

Source:

Deadline

00:40 - Succession - Alan Ruck, Parker Sawyers & More Join HBO Drama Pilot

Hiam Abbass (Exodus: Gods and Kings), Alan Ruck (Fox’s The Exorcist), Rob Yang (The Bourne Legacy), Parker Sawyers (young Barack Obama in Southside With You) and Peter Friedman (The Path) have joined the cast of HBO’s drama pilot Succession, directed and executive produced by The Big Short’s Adam McKay.

Written by Jesse Armstrong, Succession follows the saga of the Roys, a fictional American global-media family that is not only rich and powerful but also powerfully dysfunctional. The drama will explore family loyalty, international business and the perils of power in the 21st century. Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong and Kieran Culkin star, along with Sarah Snook, Nicholas Braun, and Matthew Macfadyen.

Abbas will play Marcia (Marcy), current wife of Logan (Cox) — a loving, formidable partner. Ruck is Connor Roy, the eldest son and only child from Logan’s first marriage. Although also on the board of directors at the firm, Connor ploughs his own furrow. Yang is Lawrence, founder and CEO of a digital media outfit who is the target of a buyout. Sawyers will play Alessandro, a young, bright, up-and-coming executive at the family firm. Friedman is Francis (Frank), COO of the firm, old family friend and a mentor figure to Kendall (Strong).

Source:

Deadline

00:40 - 24: Legacy - Moran Atias Joins Cast

Tyrant alumna Moran Atias has joined the cast of Fox’s 24 franchise reboot 24: Legacy. The limited series, starring Straight Outta Compton‘s Corey Hawkins, chronicles a race against the clock to stop a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. It will follow the original series’ real-time format.

Atias will play the mysterious Sidra, Tony Almeida’s strong, attractive and intense associate who instigates feelings of distrust between Tony and former Head of CTU Rebecca Ingram, played by Miranda Otto. Atias was most recently seen as standout female lead Leila in Howard Gordon and Gideon Raff’s series Tyrant for FX. Moran also costarred in Third Person, directed by Paul Haggis, and in The Next Three Days opposite Russell Crowe and Liam Neeson.

Source:

Deadline

19:30 - Thankless - CBS Developing Sports Agency Comedy From LeBron James

CBS is producing a sports agency comedy series from LeBron James’ production company SpringHill Entertainment, Variety has learned.

“Thankless” follows a group of ambitious assistants who pursue their dreams at a sports agency in Chicago.

The hybrid comedy hails from writers Craig Gerard and Matt Zinman, who will serve as executive producers, along with James and his business partner Maverick Carter.

Warner Bros. Television, where SpringHill Entertainment is under a deal, is the studio.

Source:

Variety

19:30 - Throuple - Comedy Starring Richie Keen, Andrew Leeds, Lindsey Kraft in Development at NBC

NBC is developing Throuple, a half-hour comedy written, executive produced and toplined by Richie Keen (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), Cristela alum Andrew Leeds and Lindsey Kraft (Getting On).

Throuple is an autobiographical comedy based on a short film written by and starring the three real-life best friends. The half-hour project, which Keen is attached to direct, revolves around a long-term couple and their best friend as they navigate everyday situations in their own very unique way. Scott Fedro and Perry Rogers also executive produce. Universal TV is the studio.

Source:

Deadline

19:30 - Family Style - Comedy from Amy Poehler in Development at ABC

ABC has given a script plus penalty commitment to Family Style, a single-camera half-hour comedy from Amy Poehler and her Paper Kite production company, How to Live With Your Parents creator Claudia Lonow, Difficult People showrunner Scott King and Universal TV where Paper Kite and Lonow are based.

Co-written by Lonow and King based on an idea by King, Family Style is a multi-generational comedy about two mismatched men from different cultures who find love in a family-run restaurant in Miami. Lonow and King, who will co-showrun, executive produce with Paper Kite’s Poehler and Brooke Posch, and 3 Arts’ Dave Becky (Louie).

Source:

Deadline

19:30 - Star - Gladys Knight to Guest in FOX Music Drama Series

Star is bringing out its brightest for its debut season.

Fox announced Friday that soul legend Gladys Knight will guest star in an upcoming episode of the network’s musical drama from Lee Daniels and Tom Donaghy.

The show will focus on three rising singers from Atlanta with eyes toward fame. Playing herself, Knight is Alexandra’s (Ryan Destiny) music idol and also the aunt of Danielle (guest star Jasmine Burke), who works in Carlotta’s (Queen Latifah) salon. When Danielle arranges for Knight to introduce the girls at the Taylor Brothers Hair Show, the girls are tremendously honored.

Source:

Entertainment Weekly

03:45 - Patriots & Murder Room - CBS Developing 2 Dramas Involving the FBI and Forensic Experts

CBS is developing two new dramas from writer and executive producer Anna Fricke — one with Mark Gordon and another with Ridley Scott.

“Patriots,” follows an estranged brother and sister — an FBI agent and a professor with former ties to Islamic extremism — who unexpectedly reunite to counter violent terrorism in the city of Boston. Fricke will executive produce with Scott and David Zucker of Scott Free Productions. The project hails from CBS Television Studios, which Fricke signed a two-year overall deal with earlier this year.

“Murder Room,” produced by CBS TV Studios in association with Mark Gordon Productions and EOne, tells the story of a woman recruited by her mother into the Vidocq Society, an international think tank of the world’s best forensic experts dedicated to solving the unsolvable. Executive producers are Fricke, Gordon, Jim Young, and Tatiana Kelly

Fricke served as showrunner for five seasons on Syfy’s “Being Human,” which she developed for North American television with her husband, Jeremy Carver. Fricke most recently was a writer and executive producer on the second season of Fox anthology series “Wayward Pines.” Her previous credits include include Fox’s “Minority Report,” the WB Network’s “Everwood” and ABC’s “Men in Trees.”

Source:

SpoilerTV

03:45 - A Midsummer's Nightmare - Courtney Love to Recur in Lifetime's Shakespearean Pilot

Lifetime has enlisted Courtney Love for a recurring guest role on its William Shakespeare anthology A Midsummer's Nightmare, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The first season of the anthology series takes on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and transforms the classic into a modern-day, mind-bending thriller that explores terror, deception and the dark side of love.

The drama centers on Elena, a young woman reluctantly drawn into a summer getaway-turned-nightmare. The potential series introduces four young lovers who steal off into the woods in pursuit of their romantic desires, but their plans are quickly thwarted when terrifying forces in the deep woods target the stranded group, using their own fantasies and darkest secrets against them.

Love will play a mysterious woman in the woods who is part of the sinister forces that turn the lovers’ dream getaway into a nightmare. She joins a cast that includes Dominic Monaghan (Lost), Daisy Head (Guilt), Jake Robinson (American Odyssey), Ellie Gall, Casey Deidrick (Eye Candy), Eric Balfour (Haven), Chelsea Gilligan (Star-Crossed), Paul Walter Hauser (Kingdom), Rhys Ward (The Returned), Thomas Cadrot (Arrow) and Anjali Jay (Continuum).

Source:

The Hollywood Reporter

03:45 - MOVIES: Office Christmas Party - Trailer 2 feat Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman & More

03:45 - MOVIES: La La Land - New Trailer feat Ryan Gosling & Emma Stone

03:45 - Outcast - Season 2 - Chris Greene to Recur

Chris Greene (The Birth of a Nation) has booked a recurring role on Cinemax exorcism drama Outcast from The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman and Chris Black. Outcast follows Kyle Barnes (Patrick Fugit), a young man who has been plagued by possession since he was a child. In the second season, the exploration and mystery of what lies behind the supernatural manifestations and why they are drawn to Kyle continues. Greene will play Oscar, a member of a cult-like church in Rome.

Source:

Deadline

03:45 - Star - Chad Buchanan to Recur in FOX Music Drama Series

Chad Buchanan has landed a recurring role on Fox’s Star. Created by Lee Daniels and Tom Donaghy, Star follows three talented young singers — desperate for a new start and with ambitions of stardom — as they navigate the cut-throat music business.

Buchanan plays Hunter Morgan, a young NFL star. He’s pure charm at first glance. But there’s a dark rage underneath he can’t control. Hunter is the godson of Jahil Rivera (Benjamin Bratt) and a total momma’s boy. He supports his mother in the style to which she’s become accustomed, which is lavish. As for other women, Hunter has a posse of female groupies he treats like playthings – until he meets Star (Jude Demorest). She’ll be the first woman he actually falls in love with. That love will be his undoing. Buchanan recently guest-starred on Mary + Jane and Jane the Virgin. Buchanan is repped by Don Buchwald & Associates and Mosaic.

Source:

Deadline

03:45 - Atypical - Nik Dodani to Recur in Netflix Comedy Series

Nik Dodani (Kevin From Work) has landed a recurring role in Netflix’s Atypical (formerly known as Antarctica), a coming-of-age comedy series from The Goldbergs writer/co-executive producer Robia Rashid and director/executive producer Seth Gordon. Created and written by Rashid, the story follows Sam (Keir Gilchrist), an 18-year-old on the autistic spectrum on his search for love and independence.

Dodani will play Zahid, Sam’s co-worker at the electronics store. Dodani will next be seen in Joshua Leonard’s indie drama Behold My Heart opposite Marisa Tomei, Mireille Enos, Timothy Olyphant, and Charlie Plummer. He previously recurred on the FreeForm’s Kevin From Work and HBO’s The Comeback and guest-starred on NBC’s The Player. He’s repped by Authentic Talent & Literary Management and Don Buchwald & Associates.

Source:

Deadline

03:45 - Wet Hot American Summer - Season 2 - Joey Bragg to Recur in Netflix Series

Liv and Maddie‘s Joey Bragg has booked a recurring role on Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later, Netflix’s sequel series to the limited series Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp that was based on the cult 2001 movie. The new installment takes place in 1991, as the junior counselor staff of ’81 is returning to Camp Firewood for a 10-year reunion.

Bragg will play Seth, a fast-talking camp counselor at Camp Firewood. Bragg is known for his starring role in Disney Channel’s Liv and Maddie, and more recently guest-starred in Criminal Minds, Nickelodeon’s The Thundermans and YouTube Red’s Foursome. He’s repped by Innovative Artists, Levity Entertainment Group and attorney Mark Temple.

Source:

Deadline

18:30 - Melting Potts - Blended Family Comedy Produced by Kerry Washington in Development at ABC

ABC is developing Melting Potts, a single-camera comedy from Kerry Washington’s Simpson Street production company and ABC Studios, where the company is based.

Written by Ryan Jaffe (This Is Happening), Melting Potts centers on a blended family made up of equal parts Indian, Muslim, Jewish, and New Jersey. It is about a newly married couple struggling against culture, tradition and generations to build their idea of a “normal” American family.

Jaffe executive produces with Simpson Street’s Washington and producing partner Sharla Sumpter Bridgett.

Source:

Deadline

18:05 - Missing Persons Drama in Development at NBC

Sully writer Todd Komarnicki is venturing into television with an hourlong drama at NBC from Mike Karz and Bill Bindley’s Gulfstream Television and Warner Bros. TV where the company has an overall deal.

Written by Komarnicki, the untitled project, inspired by a true story, follows the life of the world’s leading finder of missing persons as he searches nonstop, driven by the one person he could not find in time…his own daughter. Komarnicki executive produces with Gulfstream Pictures’ Karz and Bindley as well as Mark Clayman (The Pursuit Of Happyness). At Gulfstream TV, the drama is being overseen by SVP Juliana Janes. Tim Miller, who inspired the project, will serve as an executive consultant.

Miller’s teenage daughter Laura went missing from her League City home in September 1984. Her body was found 17 months later. The search for Laura inspired Miller, a construction contractor, to launch Texas EquuSearch, a volunteer organization dedicated to searching for missing persons.

Source:

Deadline

18:05 - Lakeside VA - Hospital Comedy from Jim Parsons Receives Put Pilot Commitment at ABC

ABC is looking for another hospital series — only this time it's a comedy with heart.

The network is teaming with Modern Family's Bill Wrubel and Jim Parsons for single-camera comedy Lakeside VA, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The comedy has landed at ABC with a hefty put-pilot commitment.

Inspired by writer Shelly Gossman's (Raising Hope, SNL) experience working at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Lakeside VA follows a C-plus team of VA hospital employees who are underfunded, understaffed and who stopped overworking themselves to make up for it years ago — until a new hotshot female chief of surgery steps in to turn them into an A team.

Gossman's father is a Vietnam veteran, and in her early 20s, she worked at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The comedy will draw on her experience as well as first-hand accounts from veterans and VA staff across the country. Gossman will co-exec produce the Warner Bros. Television comedy alongside That's Wonderful Productions' head of development, Eric Norsoph, who will produce. Big Bang Theory star Parsons will exec produce the comedy via his overall deal with WBTV alongside Todd Spiewak.

Source:

The Hollywood Reporter

11:30 - DC TV Series Generate More Than $1 Billion in Revenue Per Year for Time Warner

Thanks to sonofgod87 for the heads up.

iZombie, Lucifer, Preacher, Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl and Gotham are apparently huge earners for Time Warner according to CEO Jeff Bewkes. Case in point, TNT just recently signed a deal to air Arrow reruns and will also be the basic cable home for the DCEU. In addition to the ongoing shows, upcoming programs slated to debut or film a pilot include Powerless (NBC), Black Lightning (Fox) ,Krypton (Syfy) and Scalped (WGN). With Arrow set to hit the magic 100 episode number later this season, The CW's gamble back in 2012 on a C-list archer certainly appears to have paid off.

Source:

ComicBookMovie

09:40 - Workaholics - Season 7 - Nina Dobrev to Guest

Thanks to sonofgod87 for the heads up.

The Vampire Diaries star — whose character remains sound asleep in a supernatural coma — will guest-star in Season 7 of Comedy Central’s Workaholics, TVLine has confirmed, though no further details about her role are available.

Source:

TV Line

05:00 - The Nix - Penny Dreadful Creator Set as Showrunner on Meryl Streep and J.J. Abrams TV Series

John Logan has lined up his next gig.

The Penny Dreadful creator has been tapped to serve as showrunner and executive producer of The Nix, the Warner Bros. Television drama from J.J. Abrams starring Meryl Streep, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Based on a 2016 novel by Nathan Hill, Abrams and Hill will executive produce the project, which is being developed as a limited series. The Nix does not yet have a network attached.

Hill's critically acclaimed debut novel — which debuted at No. 5 on the New York Times' best-seller list — centers on college professor and stalled writer Samuel Andresen-Anderson, who hasn't seen his mother, Faye, since childhood, the day she walked out of his life. Now she has reappeared, having committed an absurd crime that electrifies the nightly news, beguiles the internet and inflames a politically divided country. The media paints Faye as a radical hippie with a sordid past, but as far as Samuel knows, his mother was an ordinary girl who married her high school sweetheart. Which version of his mother is true? To save her, Samuel will have to embark on his own journey, from the suburban Midwest to New York City to the 1968 riots that rocked Chicago, uncovering long-buried secrets about the woman he thought he knew, secrets that stretch across generations all the way back to Norway, home of the mysterious Nix.

Source:

The Hollywood Reporter

05:00 - MOVIES: Sing - Trailer 3

05:00 - MOVIES: Gifted - Trailer feat Chris Evans

05:00 - American Gigolo - TV Adaptation in Development at Showtime

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount TV and Jerry Bruckheimer Television’s American Gigolo series adaptation has landed at Showtime for development. Playwright Neil LaBute is set to write the show — a drama set in present day inspired by the iconic 1980 film that embodied the “wish fulfillment” glossy culture of Los Angeles.

Paramount TV originally joined forces with Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced the film noir classic starring Richard Gere and Lauren Hutton, to explore a TV series adaptation in 2014.

Executive producing the American Gigolo series are Bruckheimer and Jonathan Littman of Jerry Bruckheimer TV. KristieAnne Reed serves as co-executive producer; and James Oh as producer. The film’s writer-director, Paul Schrader, is an executive consultant.

Source:

Deadline

05:00 - Dante's Cove - Revival Of Show Being Kickstarted

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1070598095/bring-back-dantes-cove-season-4-the-next-generatio

05:30 - Feud - Molly Price Joins Ryan Murphy's FX Anthology Series

Molly Price (The Knick) has landed a lead role opposite Alfred Molina in Ryan Murphy’s latest anthology series Feud for FX.

The eight-episode first installment tells the story of the legendary rivalry between two of the greatest movie stars of all time—Joan Crawford (Jessica Lange) and Bette Davis (Susan Sarandon), and how they came together in 1962 to collaborate on a picture each hoped would revive their careers. Molina plays the film’s director Robert Aldrich. Price plays Aldrich’s wife Harriet.

Source:

Deadline

05:30 - Cormoran Strike - Holliday Grainger Cast as the Female Lead in J.K. Rowling's Limited Series

British actress Holliday Grainger is set as the female lead opposite Tom Burke in Cormoran Strike, BBC One’s high-profile new limited series based on J.K. Rowling’s bestselling crime novels, written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

Cormoran Strike centers on Strike (Burke), a war veteran turned private detective operating out of a tiny office in London’s Denmark Street. Though he’s wounded both physically and psychologically, Strike’s unique insight and his background as an SIB Investigator prove crucial in solving three complex cases which have eluded the police. Grainger will play Robin Venetia Ellacott, Strike’s assistant and secretary.

HBO has U.S. and Canadian rights to the series.

Source:

Deadline

05:30 - MOVIES: A Wrinkle In Time - Zach Galifianakis, Bellamy Young, Rowan Blanchard & More Join Disney Adaptation

I'm a fan of this young woman on and off the screen. She stands for something. Something good. Welcome to #WRINKLEINTIME, @RowBlanchard.

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