Hey All,
Quite a bit of development news and a number of other news items to share with all of you so let’s get right into it all:
TELEVISION
Actress Audra McDonald will be leaving the ABC drama Private Practice at the end of this season. (The Futon Critic)
Cinemax will embark on original programming with it first scripted prime-time drama called Strike Back, based on the UK series, which was, in turn, based on a book by Chris Ryan. This new program would be a 10-hour action series, which will follow a charismatic former U.S. Special Forces operative Rhidian Scott (actor Sullivan Stapleton) who teams up with a British military unit led by Section 20 officer Michael Stonebridge (actor Philip Winchester) to stop an international terrorist group. The series is expected to premiere this summer. (Deadline)
IN PREPARATION FOR TV SHOW RETURN
TV 101: Justified
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
The CW has ordered the drama Secret Circle, based on the L.J. Smith young adult novels about a young woman who discovers that she’s a witch and part of a secret coven that holds the key to unlocking ancient battle of good and evil to pilot. Kevin Williamson (the man behind The Vampire Diaries alongside Julie Plec) is supervising the hour along with writers-producers Elizabeth Craft, Sarah Fain, Leslie Morgenstein and Gina Girolamo. (The Futon Critic)
Actress Gretchen Egolf (Journeyman) will have a lead role on the USA Network pilot called that centers on a young hotel worker (Nick D’Agosto) who, with the help of his escaped con artist cousin (Enver Gjokaj), gets a job as the concierge at an elite NYC hotel. Together they manage to provide the hotel guests with whatever they desire. (Deadline)
Actor Edi Gathegi (the Twilight franchise) has a lead role in the USA Network pilot called Wild Card, which is about people behaving badly at night in Las Vegas and two very different lawyers, Will Garratt (Ben Lawson) and Eliza Evans who solve their problems before morning. Gathergi will play the duo’s smart, ambitious and resourceful investigator, a former hotel concierge who knows everyone in town. (Deadline)
Actress Amanda Detmer (Private Practice) has joined the cast of the comedy pilot Man Up for ABC, which centers on happily married father of two Will, his brother-in-law Kenny and the lovelorn Craig (Chris Moynihan). Detmer will play Kenny’s ex-wife who has a complicated relationship with him. (Deadline)
Actor Ken Leung (Lost) has joined the A&E pilot Big Mike, which stars Greg Grunberg (Heroes) as a plus-size detective with the San Diego Police Department. Leung will play the department’s doctor. (Deadline)
Actress Rachel Bilson (The O.C.) is in negotiations to star in the CW drama pilot called Hart of Dixie that is about an adorable, spoiled New Yorker who inherits a medical practice in a small Southern town inhabited by an eclectic and eccentric group of characters. Bilson will play Zoe Hart, the title character. (The Futon Critic)
Box office actress Kerry Washington and film actor Columbus Short (Stomp the Yard) are the first to be cast in the drama pilot called In Crisis for ABC, which is about the life and work of a professional fixer and her dysfunctional staff. Washington will play the lead character, Olivia Price, who is stylish but weary and too smart for her own good. Short is believed to be playing Harrison Jones, a lawyer and the newest addition to Price and Associates. (The Futon Critic)
Actress Zooey Deschanel (500 Days of Summer) is in talks to star in the as-yet untitled Liz Meriweather comedy pilot for FOX about an optimistic Midwestern woman who moves into a New York apartment with three juvenile guys. She will play the lead role named Jessica Day. (The Futon Critic)
Broadway actress Megan Hilty (Wicked and 9 to 5) has joined the cast of the NBC drama pilot Smash, which follows a cross section of characters who come together to put on a Marilyn Monroe musical on Broadway led by the musical’s composer Tom and lyricist Julia (Debra Messing). Hilty will play Tom’s go-to girl for acting out scenes in progress who is hugely disappointed when she is told she is too old to play Marilyn and has to be part of the chorus. (Deadline)
Actor Anthony Carrigan (The Forgotten) has been cast in the USA Network pilot called Over/Under, which centers on Paul, a day trader with a massive gambling problem fired from his job who settles in Brooklyn where he finds an unlikely partner, expectant father with a failing business Marino (Carrigan), to start a high-end bookie business. (Deadline)
Actor Nestor Carbonell (Lost) is expected to star opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar in the CBS drama pilot Ringer, which centers on a troubled young woman Bridget (Gellar) who, while on the run from the mob, hides out by inhabiting the life of her wealthy twin sister, until she learns that her twin’s life has a bounty on it as well. Carbonell will play an FBI agent in charge of keeping Bridget safe so she can testify against the mob that tracks her down and gets to know her “sister.” (Deadline)
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Former American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino is set to appear in film adaptation of the 1993 biographical book called Got to Tell It: Mahalia Jackson, Queen of Gospel, which recounts the life of the late American gospel singer, a civil rights activist who was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (The Hollywood Reporter and Dark Horizons)
Actors Diane Keaton and Ed Harris are set to star in the film called The Look of Love. Keaton will play a widow who, several years after the death of her husband, mysteriously meets a man who looks exactly like her deceased husband. (Dark Horizons and the trade magazines)
Actor Richard Jenkins has joined the cast of the comedy-toned crime caper called Cogan’s Trade, which stars Brad Pitt as Jackie Cogan, a professional enforcer investigating a heist which takes place during a mob-run high stakes poker game. Jenkins will play a lawyer who provides Cogan with inside information regarding the game. Javier Bardem, Mark Ruffalo, Sam Rockwell, Casey Affleck, James Gandolfini and Bella Heathcote also star. (Variety and Dark Horizons)
Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges), Liam Cunningham (Clash of the Titans), Robert Patrick (Walk the Line) and Sam Shepard (Black Hawk Down) have all landed roles in the upcoming thriller Safe House that stars Ryan Reynolds as a CIA agent who has to protect a criminal (Denzel Washington) and get him safely to Washington after their safe house is attacked. (The Wrap and First Showing)
Actress Rosamund Pike (An Education) is in negotiations for the role of Andromeda in the Clash of the Titans sequel, replacing actress Alexa Davalos, who played the same Andromeda role in the predecessor. Other returning actors include Sam Worthington, Gemma Arterton, Liam Neeson, Danny Huston and Ralph Fiennes. The sequel is set for release on March 30, 2012. (Heat Vision and First Showing)
Actor Stanley Tucci (Easy A) has joined the cast of the upcoming film Jack the Giant Killer as the villain, an advisor to the king with designs on usurping power. The lead role in the film still has to be cast, but the story will center what happens when a princess is kidnapped, threatening the long-standing peace between humans and giants. A young farmer is then forced to lead a rescue mission to the giants’ kingdom. Meanwhile, actors Bill Nighy and John Kassir will play Fallon, the two-headed leader of the giants. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Actor John Turturro will lend his voice to the animated sequel Cars 2, voicing Francesco Bernoulli, an Italian racecar who becomes Lightning McQueen’s (Owen Wilson) chief rival in Europe. (First Showing)
Q&A SECTION (with Adam Bryant and Natalie Abrams from TV Guide)
Question: I’m so worked up about this Bones proposal. Please tell me who Booth is going to ask to marry him! — Lisa
ADAM: Where’s the fun in that? Executive producer Stephen Nathan summed up the episode in three words: Big. Game. Changer. “We’ve existed this whole year with Booth and Brennan accepting, admitting and also denying their feelings for each another and with Booth in a very serious relationship with another woman — much to the dismay of a lot of fans,” Nathan says with a laugh. “I think the episode will be a satisfying conclusion to this story line and also a great start for the next development that happens in the show emotionally. It will be very difficult and very painful, and David [Boreanaz] really brings that home.”
Question: When will the Red John case pick up again on The Mentalist? — Jacob
ADAM: Soon. Executive producer Bruno Heller tells us the next break in the Red John case will come just as LaRoche’s mole hunt reaches fever pitch in the Feb. 24 episode. “When a suspect emerges, it’s going to be immensely shocking to both Jane and our audience,” he says.
Question: Is there hope for Damon and Elena on Vampire Diaries? — Carla
NATALIE: “In the lifetime of the series, every fan who ‘ships either side of the triangle will have moments of hope,” executive producer Julie Plec says. Does that mean we should stop asking? Well… “Stefan, Elena and Damon are a series-long journey for us,” she says. “There are big moments coming up all around for them, lots of evolution of friendships and relationships, and questions of who loves who.” You heard it, Dalena fans — moments!
Question: Any chance that Sookie and Alcide will get together this season on True Blood? — Danielle
NATALIE: “Timing is everything and the timing between those two could not have been worse, so we’ll see where the time goes in Season 4,” Joe Manganiello says. But factor this in: We’re hearing that Alcide’s loyalties might be split. His work for Eric is done, but Alcide has a new boss, and his interests diverge from those of Sookie.
That’s it. Enjoy!
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