Hey All,
Here are the news items for this past week:
RENEWALS
Paramount Plus has given Mayor of Kingstown a second season renewal; as well as giving The Game (revival series) a second season renewal. The streamer has also given SEAL Team a 6th season renewal. (TV Line and Variety)
HBO has given Euphoria a third season renewal. (TV Line)
Disney+ has given Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. a second season renewal. (Deadline and TV Line)
Yellowstone has been given a fifth season renewal. (Deadline and TV Line)
SERIES ORDER
Apple has given a limited series 8-episode order to the drama Presumed Innocent, which is inspired by the Scott Turow novel. The courtroom thriller tells the story of a horrific murder that upends the Chicago Prosecuting Attorneys’ office when one of its own is suspected of the crime. (Variety)
A new Goosebumps TV series has been picked up by Disney+, receiving a 10-episode order. Based on the beloved R.L. Stine books the series follows a group of five high schoolers who unleash supernatural forces upon their town and must all work together to save it, learning much about their own parents’ teenage secrets in the process. (Variety)
PILOT ORDERS
The CW has three new pilots in development: Gotham Knights, Walker: Independence (a Walker prequel spin-off) and The Winchesters (a Supernatural prequel spin-off). Original Supernatural star Jensen Ackles will be one of the executive producers on the spin-off The Winchesters, which will center around Dean and Sam Winchester’s parents, John and Mary. It will be the epic, untold love story of how John met Mary and how they put it all on the line to not only save their love, but the entire world. It will be told from the perspective of Dean, with Ackles narrating. The live-action Gotham Knights [which is NOT a spin-off of Batwoman] find Bruce Wayne’s rebellious adopted “son” forging an unlikely alliance with the children of Batman’s enemies, when they are all framed for killing the Caped Crusader. Now branded the city’s most wanted criminals, this renegade band of misfits must fight to clear their names — but in a Gotham with no Dark Knight to protect it, the city descends into the most dangerous it’s ever been. Meanwhile, Walker: Independence, set in the latte 1800’s, will follow Abby Walker, an affluent Bostonian whose husband is murdered before her eyes while on their journey out West. On her quest for revenge, Abby crosses paths with Hoyt Rawlins, a lovable rogue in search of purpose. Abby and Hoyt’s journey takes them to Independence, Texas, where they encounter diverse, eclectic residents running from their own troubled pasts and chasing their dreams. Also, The CW is holding off on ordering a pilot of its in-the-works, female-led Zorro series until after it reads six additional (and just-ordered) scripts. (TV Line)
TV CASTING NEWS
Veteran actor Bill Nighy will star in the upcoming Showtime series The Man Who Fell to Earth, joining previously announced cast members Chiwetel Ejiofor, Naomie Harris, Jimmi Simpson, Kate Mulgrew and Clarke Peters [among others]. The series will follow a new alien character named Faraday (Ejiofor) who arrives on Earth at a turning point in human evolution and must confront his own past to determine our future. Nighy will play Thomas Newton, the first alien to arrive on earth over 40 years ago. Alone and desperate, Newton summons Faraday to complete his original mission. But Newton’s time marooned among human beings has cost him everything, possibly even his sanity. (Variety)
Yellowstone has promoted two cast members to series regular status: Kathryn Kelly, who portrays Jimmy’s newly minted fiancess, and Jen Landon, who portrays ranch hand Teeter. (Deadline and TV Line)
Jennifer Beals will recur in Law & Order: Organized Crime, playing the yet-to-be-named wife of New York drug kingpin and Marcy Corporation head Preston Webb (Mykelti Williamson). (Deadline and TV Line)
Lifetime has acquired rights and licenses to the entire book catalog by V.C. Andrews, which currently stands at 138 titles. The cable network previously greenlit a limited series called Flowers in the Attic: The Origin, which will track the twisted origin and dark secrets of the Foxworth family, and which is set to premiere in the summer. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Jada Pinkett Smith will guest star in an upcoming episode of The Equalizer, playing Jessie Cook, a savant-level thief with a photographic memory. Though she’s brilliant and the best at what she does, she’s also devious, unpredictable and amoral. Briefly recruited by the CIA for her skills, Jessie and Robin McCall (series star Queen Latifah) once worked a mission together back in the day, and though the two get along like oil and water, they’re a whole lot of fun to watch. (Deadline)
Apple has given a series order to the drama series Dear Edward, which is based on the novel by Ann Napolitano, that will star Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights and 9-1-1) and Taylor Schilling (Orange Is the New Black). The series will tell the story of Edward Adler, a 12-year-old boy who survives a devastating commercial plane crash that kills every other passenger on the flight, including his family. As Edward and a diverse ensemble of others affected by the tragedy try to make sense of life after the crash, unexpected friendships, romances and communities are formed. (Variety)
Tom Ellis (Lucifer) has joined the cast of the upcoming Hulu limited series Washington Black that will also star Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us). Ellis will play steam-punk inventor Christopher “Titch” Wilde. The epic 9-episode adventure, based on the Esi Edugyan novel, follows the extraordinary 19th-century adventures of George Washington “Wash” Black, an 11-year-old boy on a Barbados sugar plantation who must flee after a shocking death threatens to upend his life. Brown will play the gregarious, larger-than-life Medwin Harris, who traveled the world after a traumatic childhood as a Black refugee in Nova Scotia as the de facto Mayor of Black Halifax prioritizes the community over everything except Washington Black, his young protégé. Meeting Wash sends him down a challenging path of self-discovery. And as the barricades around his heart start to fall, Medwin will learn to dream again. (Variety)
Joseph Morgan (The Vampire Diaries and The Originals) and Franka Potente (Claws and the Bourne franchise) have joined the cast of the HBO Max drama Titans for the show’s 4th season. Morgan will play Sebastian Blood, aka Brother Blood while Potente will play May Bennett, aka Mother Mayhem. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Kiernan Shipka (Mad Men and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) and Diane Kruger (The 355 and National Treasure) will star in psychological drama Swimming With Sharks on The Roku Channel [which was originally expected to air on Quibi in 2020]. Kruger will play Joyce Holt, studio head of Fountain Pictures, while Shipka will play Joyce’s intern, Lou Simms, who develops an extreme obsession with her boss. The six half-hour episodes will follow the great undertakings Lou (Shipka), who is anything but a naive newcomer to the industry, will go to get closer to Joyce (Kruger). Other cast members of this series include Donald Sutherland, Ross Butler, Thomas Dekker and Finn Jones. (Variety)
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Evan Rachel Wood, Eliza Scanlen, Rufus Sewell and Vanessa Redgrave will star in the World War II flick All That I Am that brings to light a heroic true story about four German-Jewish literati-turned-anti-Nazi activists who are forced to flee to London following the rise of Adolf Hitler’s regime in Germany. Sixty years later, one of the group members, Ruth Wesemann, is living in Sydney, Australia, and is the sole survivor of the four. One day she receives a package containing the posthumous memoirs of her old friend Ernst Toller and is drawn back into her memories, and the years in which the four emigrés smuggled highly classified documents from Hermann Goering’s office into the hands of Winston Churchill. Scanlen will play Ruth while Wood will play Dora Fabian. Redgrave will play the older Ruth, in Australia, while Sewell is Ernst. (Variety)
Dakota Johnson (Fifty Shades franchise) has been cast as Madame Web in Sony’s next stand-alone superhero movie. This flick will mark the studio’s first modern comic book adaptation to feature a female in the title role. (Variety)
Taraji P. Henson (Person of Interest and Empire) will star as Shug Avery in the latest, upcoming movie adaptation of The Color Purple, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker. Also, American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino and Peacemaker actress Danielle Brooks will reprise their Broadway roles of Celie and Sofia in the film. (Variety)
THEATRE NEWS
It looks like a stage adaptation of the TV series Smash is one step closer to becoming a reality. A workshop is planned for this summer with producer Robert Greenblatt aiming (if all goes well) for a Broadway opening in 2024. (Variety)
That’s it. Enjoy!
