Hey All,
Here are the news items for this past week:
CANCELLATIONS
Peacock has pulled the plug on the drama Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol after only one season. (Variety)
Showtime has cancled the drama American Rust after only one season. (Variety)
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
FOX is developing a series adaptation of The White House Doctor, based on the memoir by Dr. Connie Mariano, with Charmed star Alyssa Milano, who will not only star but also as an executive producer. Inspired by the memoir of the first woman of color to serve as physician to three presidents, the series will be about a smart but impulsive White House physician as she navigates the dangerous intersection of medicine and politics and struggles to keep her own life together while safeguarding the life of the most powerful patient on Earth. (Variety)
PILOT ORDER
NBC has given a pilot order to the drama Unbroken from Shaun Cassidy. The show will follow three dynastic ranch families on the central coast of California make love and war in a passionate struggle to survive, ultimately setting the stage for a group of fiercely determined young women to win big for all at the National Championship of Rodeo. (NBC and The Futon Critic)
SERIES ORDER
Netflix has given an 8-episode series order for the political thriller The Diplomat that will be executive produced by Debora Cahn (The West Wing and Homeland). The series will center on a career diplomat who lands a high-profile job that puts her on the front lines of an international crisis. The gig finds her in way over her head, with tectonic implications for her marriage and her political future. (TV Line)
Executive producers Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec (The Vampire Diaries) are reteaming for the supernatural drama Dead Day, which has been given a straight to series order by Peacock. Based on the AfterShock comic book series by Ryan Parrott, the show will follow an ensemble of characters as they navigate the annual ‘dead day,’ when for one night the dead come back to complete unfinished business: be that to celebrate a night back on earth or to torment the living. (TV Line)
Disney+ has ordered Percy Jackson and the Olympians, based on the Rick Riordan fantasy novels, to series. The live-action series will follow Percy Jackson, a 12-year-old modern demigod who’s just coming to terms with his newfound supernatural powers when the sky god Zeus accuses him of stealing his master lightning bolt. Now Percy must trek across America to find it and restore order to Olympus. (TV Line)
Syfy has picked up the drama series The Ark from Dean Devlin (Independence Day, Stargate and Leverage). The series takes place 100 years in the future when planetary colonization missions have begun as a necessity to help secure the survival of the human race. The first of these missions on a spacecraft known as Ark One encounters a catastrophic event causing massive destruction and loss of life. With more than a year left to go before reaching their target planet, a lack of life-sustaining supplies and loss of leadership, the remaining crew must become the best versions of themselves to stay on course and survive. Syfy has ordered 12 episodes. (Variety)
Hulu has given a series order to Saint X, based on the Alexis Schaitkin novel. Told from multiple perspectives and across multiple timelines, the series aims to explore and upend the missing-girl story, examining how a young woman’s mysterious death during an idyllic Caribbean vacation creates a traumatic ripple effect that eventually pulls her surviving sister into a dangerous pursuit of the truth. (The Hollywood Reporter)
MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS
The new original Hallmark Channel movie A Second Chance at Love will star ER alums Gloria Reuben and Eriq La Salle along with Jarod Joseph (The 100 and Rogue) and Alvina August (Nancy Drew). On the surface, Alicia (August) and Arnold’s (Joseph) marriage is picture perfect, however, there is something amiss. Arnold is ready to grow their family, but subconsciously Alicia is hesitant to the idea. Rather than face the problem head on, Alicia, the self-proclaimed “love doctor,” immerses herself in her divorced parents Jack (La Salle) and Brenda’s (Reuben) dating affairs by setting them each up on a blind date dating app. The movie is slated to debut on March 26. (Deadline)
CHANGE OF PLANS
It looks like the Paramount Network will not be rebranded after all. The rebrand plans to turn Paramount Network into Paramount Movie Network are on hold (at least for now). (Deadline)
TV CASTING NEWS
Dylan McDermott has signed on to play the new lead in the CBS drama FBI” Most Wanted, replacing the recently announced departing star Julian McMahon. (TV Line)
Jorja Fox will not be back for season 2 of CSI: Vegas on CBS. (TV Line)
The upcoming Apple anthology series Extrapolations has added new cast members, including Murray Bartlett (The White Lotus), Yara Shahidi (grown-ish and black-ish), Diane Lane (Under the Tuscan Sun), Heather Graham (Boogie Nights) and Judd Hirsch (Taxi and Independence Day) [among others]. The 8-episode series will tell eight interconnected stories that will track the worldwide battle for our mutual survival spanning the 21st century and how changes to our planet will affect love, faith, work and family. The cast already includes Meryl Streep, Matthew Rhys, Marion Cotillard, Eiza Gonzalez, Tobey Maguire, Forest Whitaker, Edward Norton, Kit Harrington, Sienna Miller, Gemma Chan, Tahar Rahim, Daveed Diggs, David Schwimmer, Indira Varma, Keri Russell, Cherry Jones, and Michael Gandolfini. (Variety)
Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost) will return as Mrs. Claus in the upcoming Disney+ limited series The Santa Clause based on the box office franchise that will find Tim Allen returning as Santa. (Deadline)
Josh Duhamel has joined the cast of the Disney+ drama The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers where he will play Gavin Cole, a former NHL player-turned-coach who runs the super-intense summer hockey institute where the series is set this season. Duhamel will take over for Emilio Estevez, who will not be back as Gordon Bombay. (TV Line)
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Ivory Aquino (Tales of the City) will join Leslie Grace in the upcoming Batgirl feature film, playing Alysia Yeoh, the best friend of Barbara Gordon (Grace). Both Aquino and Yeoh are transgender, marking the first time a live-action feature film adaptation of a DC Comics title will feature an openly trans character. (Variety)
Kyle Allen (West Side Story) will star in the upcoming live-action film adaptation of Masters of the Universe, playing an orphan named Adam who discovers he is a prince destined to be the savior of a faraway land. He must quickly learn of his power and the importance of saving his true home from an evil force. (Variety)
Jason Momoa has joined the cast of the Fast & Furious franchise that will find Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Michelle Rodriguez and Sung Kang expected to return along with franchise star Vin Diesel. Plot details, of course, are unknown. (Deadline)
That’s it. Enjoy!
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