16th August 2017
00:10 - Alice Isn't Dead - Podcast Being Developed into USA Network Series
Alice Isn’t Dead, the critically acclaimed podcast from Night Vale Presents, is headed to TV. Universal Cable Productions has begun development on adapting the podcast for the USA Network. Alice Isn’t Dead creator Joseph Fink, who also co-authored podcast-turned-novel Welcome to Night Vale, will executive-produce the series.
The podcast follows a fictional truck driver as she searches for her wife, who for many years she thought was dead.
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00:10 - Deadlier Than the Male - Chiara Aurelia Joins TNT Pilot
Chiara Aurelia is set for a series regular role opposite Amy Brenneman, Lily Rabe and Enrique Murciano in Deadlier Than the Male (working title), TNT’s drama pilot produced by Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories and Turner’s Studio T.
Written by Harriet Warner, Deadlier Than The Male follows a trio of characters, each with a mysterious and troubling past: a young woman who once looked into the eyes of a dangerous killer, a former serial predator desperate to find redemption and Mary, a grieving mother (Brenneman) obsessed with finding her missing daughter. As each of them is pushed to the edge, the truth about their pasts and motives grows ever murkier, blurring the lines between victim and perpetrator.
Aurelia will play Rose Lord, who on the surface is a beautiful, bored teenager with a mean streak. But as the series evolves so do her secrets and the growing toxic/intoxicating friendship with the mysterious stranger in her small town.
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19:00 - Carlton Cuse Returns to ABC to Develop New Shows Under $20 Million Mega-Deal
Days after seeing Shonda Rhimes exit for a game-changing deal with Netflix, ABC Studios has reunited with Lost co-showrunner Carlton Cuse.
The Disney-owned studio has inked a massive four-year overall deal with Cuse and his newly launched Genre Arts banner in what is said to be a pact worth more than $20 million plus a percentage of the back-end on programming created under the partnership.
Under the pact, Cuse and Genre Arts — headed by president Lindsey Springer — will create and produce content across all network, cable and streaming platforms while also working with other writers.
Sources note that Cuse opted to return to ABC Studios — where he served as co-showrunner for six seasons of ABC's Lost — after fielding multiple offers from other studios, including co-financing deals. The goal will be for Cuse to help bring ABC Studios into the competitive cable landscape, where the studio thus far has been slowly building a roster of programming via its ABC Signature banner. (Those shows include Showtime's SMILF, FX's animated Deadpool, Freeform's Black-ish spinoff as well as Marvel properties Cloak and Dagger and New Warriors, among others.)
Cuse, who had been without an overall deal since exiting his pact with A+E Studios, will set up his Genre Arts banner on the Disney Studios lot with Springer (previously head of development for Amblin TV) focused on finding and developing the next generation of showrunners. In his career, Cuse has had a number of successful partnerships, including on Lost (which he ran with Damon Lindelof), Bates Motel (with Kerry Ehrin), The Strain (with Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan) and Colony (with Ryan Condal). He has groomed a generation of showrunners, including Shawn Ryan (The Shield), Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz (ABC's Once Upon a Time), Glen Mazzara (The Walking Dead) and Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man), among others.
"It is with great pleasure that I am returning to ABC Studios, my happy home for six years during Lost. I am very excited to be working alongside wonderful and iconic Disney brands like Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm to create and bring entertaining and compelling stories to the screen," Cuse said. "The very best part of my job is working with other writers to come up with cool ideas, solve story problems and get stories made."
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15th August 2017
21:45 - MOVIES: Molly's Game - Trailer feat Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba & More
21:45 - Crash and Burn - Denis O'Hare & Rachel Bay Jones Join Hulu Pilot
The cast of Hulu’s forthcoming pilot for Crash and Burn is starting to take shape. Emmy-nominated actor Denis O’Hare has been tapped to star in the coming-of-age drama. Also boarding the pilot is Rachel Bay Jones who recently won a Tony Award for her role in the acclaimed musical Dear Evan Hansen. The two will join previously announced cast members Alex Fitzalan, Sebastian Chacon, Alex Wolff, and Camila Perez.
Based on the bestselling book by Michael Hassan, Aaron Zelman’s pilot follows three troubled suburban boys through an averted school shooting in the mid-1990s. Steve Newman (Fitzalan) is named a local hero for his role in averting the shooting. Since then, his father has pressured him to write a book about the experience, thinking it will help his son get into a good college. This forces him to confront his past with two boys who allegedly were involved in the shooting. Crash and Burn explores the complex world of teen boys and the men they’ll ultimately become.
O’Hare is set to play Steve’s father, Jacob who struggles with a son he sees as supercilious and unfocused. Jones, in her first series role since her Tony win, will play Steve’s mother Debbie, a put-together woman with a full social life, which often serves as a welcome distraction from the issues facing her and her family at home.
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21:45 - SMILF - Austin Abrams to Recur in Showtime Comedy
Connie Britton’s got a new TV kid. May we introduce you?
Austin Abrams (The Walking Dead) will recur on Showtime’s SMILF as Casey, the son of Connie Britton’s Ally, TVLine has learned exclusively.
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14th August 2017
04:30 - MOVIES: Rememory - Trailer feat Peter Dinklage
04:30 - MOVIES: Molly's Game - Teaser feat Jessica Chastain
04:30 - MOVIES: Nosferatu - Anya Taylor-Joy in Negotiations to Star in Remake
After breaking out in his psychological thriller “The Witch,” Anya Taylor-Joy is looking to reteam with director Robert Eggers on his new take on a cinematic classic.
Sources tell Variety that the “Split” actress is in negotiations to star in Studio 8’s remake of “Nosferatu.”
Eggers is writing and directing the pic. The 1922 silent movie followed the vampire Count Orlok of Transylvania, who wants to buy a house in Germany and becomes enamored of the real-estate agent’s wife. It was an unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” and Werner Herzog directed a 1979 remake.
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04:30 - The Changeling - Annapurna Television Acquires Novel to Develop as TV Series
Annapurna Television, the TV division of Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures, has acquired Victor LaValle’s new novel The Changeling to develop as a television series. The book, described as a mix of horror, fantasy and realism, was published on June 13 by Spiegel & Grau.
In The Challenging, when Apollo and Emma have their baby, Brian, it feels like both a reward and a challenge for the new dad. Apollo, the son of a single mother, had been scraping by as a bookseller who hunts estate and garage sales for rare first editions, so even the unusual circumstance of Brian’s birth (in a stalled subway train) seems like a blessing, as does the way Apollo stumbles across a first edition of To Kill a Mockingbird (inscribed by Harper Lee to Truman Capote, no less) shortly after. But after some young-parent squabbles and inexplicable images on their smartphones foreshadow trouble, the story turns nightmarish: Apollo finds himself tied-up and beaten by Emma, then forced to listen to the sounds of Brian’s murder.
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01:00 - Star - Season 2 - Michael Michele Joins Cast as Series Regular
ER alumna Michael Michele is set for a key series regular role on Season 2 of Fox’s hit music drama series Star.
Michele will play Ayanna, described as a modern day black Alexis Carrington. She’s the new president of the girls’ record label, and money is the bottom line for her. She knows the music business is changing and is driven to do whatever it takes to make her label relevant.
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01:00 - Orphan Black - Season 5 (The Final Season) - Blooper Reel
01:00 - The Walking Dead - Producers Sue AMC Networks Over Profits
Thanks to greenarrowfan1 for the heads up.
AMC’s monster hit drama “The Walking Dead” has sparked another lawsuit, this time from producers who say AMC is short-changing their profit participation stakes through self-dealing.
“Walking Dead” comic creator Robert Kirkman and his fellow exec producers Gale Anne Hurd, Glen Mazzara and David Alpert maintain AMC has failed to pay fair market value in the license fee for the series because the show is produced by its in-house AMC Studios arm. The suit filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court also involves the spinoff “Fear the Walking Dead” and the “Talking Dead” after-show.
The suit echoes the accusations in the bitter legal fight that original “Walking Dead” showrunner Frank Darabont has waged against the cabler for the past few years. Ironically, in the most recent round of motions in the Darabont case, AMC pointed to what it depicted as the acceptance of the license fee definition by Hurd and others as evidence that Darabont’s position was unfounded.
“When the production company and the network are part of the same conglomerate, as AMC Studios and AMC Network are here, there is a powerful financial incentive to keep the lion’s share of the profit at the network level and not pay a fair-market-value license fee to the production company — thereby depriving profit participants, like Plaintiffs, of their fair share of the series’profits,” the suit states.
AMC called the filing “opportunistic” in a response that suggests it will battle the foursome’s self-dealing claim as vigorously as it has defended its actions in the Darabont case.
“These kinds of lawsuits are fairly common in entertainment and they all have one thing in common – they follow success,” AMC said in a statement. “Virtually every studio that has had a successful show has been the target of litigation like this, and ‘The Walking Dead’ has been the #1 show on television for five years in a row, so this is no surprise. We have enormous respect and appreciation for these plaintiffs, and we will continue to work with them as partners, even as we vigorously defend against this baseless and predictably opportunistic lawsuit.”
The lawsuit from the foursome hinges on the dispute over the calculation of the “imputed” license fee for “Walking Dead,” a number derived for the purposes of profit participants because the network does not formally pay the studio a license fee — as would be the case if the show hailed from an outside studio. Instead the initial imputed license fee was set at 65% of production costs with a cap of $1.45 million for the first season, with 5% bumps per season thereafter.
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01:00 - Patrick Melrose - Blythe Danner Joins Showtime & Sky Limited Series
Blythe Danner has been cast opposite Benedict Cumberbatch, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Hugo Weaving in five-part limited series Patrick Melrose.
The project, a co-production of Showtime and Sky Atlantic, is based on the Patrick Melrose series of semi-autobiographical novels written by Edward St. Aubyn. David Nicholls (Far From the Madding Crowd) is penning the TV adaptation.
Melrose skewers the upper class as it tracks the protagonist’s harrowing odyssey from a deeply traumatic childhood through adult substance abuse and, ultimately, toward recovery.
With each episode devoted to one of the five novels, the series will encompass the saga of Patrick Melrose’s (Cumberbatch) life, from his horribly abusive youth at the hands of his father (Weaving) and the mother who tacitly condones the behavior (Leigh), to the outrageous playboy he becomes and the struggles he endures to defy the damage of his own past.
Danner will play Nancy, the wealthy Park Avenue sister to Eleanor Melrose (Leigh). Cast also includes previously announced Anna Madeley and Allison Williams.
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00:55 - The Secret World - Johnny Depp Producing TV Series Based On Video Game
Johnny Depp’s Infinitum Nihil has partnered with G4C Innovation’s Gudrun Giddings to produce The Secret World, a television series based on the globally successful MMO game The Secret World and its recently released reboot Secret World Legends.
The TV adaptation, which is being written by James V. Hart (Hook, Crossbones) and Jake Hart, with former CSI: NY showrunner Pam Veasey on board as showrunner, will be based on the universe of the Secret World IP. It will center on a team of undercover agents and the shadowy war between secret societies: the Illuminati, Dragon and the Templar. Central to the plot is their battle against the supernatural in an adventure that spans across our world, and incorporates the realms of ancient myths and legends, as well as today’s conspiracy theories and headline news.
Johnny Depp, Christi Dembrowski, Sam Sarkar and Gudrun Giddings will produce with Veasey.
“The Secret World is the ideal gaming experience to translate into a live-action episodic adventure,” said Veasey.
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18:30 - Grey's Anatomy - Season 14 - First Set Photo of Kim Raver
Thanks to gabby for the heads up.
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13th August 2017
06:00 - Shonda Rhimes Leaving ABC Studios for Netflix
Thanks to TVBuff65 for the heads up.
Netflix has signed Shonda Rhimes to a multi-year production deal, ending a 15-year relationship with ABC Studios that yielded hits from “Grey’s Anatomy” to “Scandal.”
Her shingle, Shondaland, will begin producing new series for Netflix while she continues to stay involved in her current broadcast series. Executive producer Betsy Beers will also come to Netflix with Rhimes, one of the most successful TV producers of the past decade.
“Shonda Rhimes is one of the greatest storytellers in the history of television,” said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer, Netflix, in a statement. “Her work is gripping, inventive, pulse-pounding, heart-stopping, taboo-breaking television at its best. I’ve gotten the chance to know Shonda and she’s a true Netflixer at heart — she loves TV and films, she cares passionately about her work, and she delivers for her audience. We’re so excited to welcome her to Netflix.”
The pact reflects Netflix’s increasing interest in producing original series the company can own, as well as the arms race continuing to escalate between not only the streaming service and TV networks, but other subscriber VOD options like Amazon Prime and Hulu. Earlier this week, Amazon signed on another proven hitmaker, Robert Kirkman, creator of AMC’s megahit “The Walking Dead.”
“Shondaland’s move to Netflix is the result of a shared plan Ted Sarandos and I built based on my vision for myself as a storyteller and for the evolution of my company,” said Rhimes in a statement. “Ted provides a clear, fearless space for creators at Netflix.”
“I am a huge fan of the talented team and amazing programming at Netflix,” said Beers. “The ability to create content for our new partners is an exciting challenge. I am grateful to everyone at ABC for their continued support and I look forward to beginning this next chapter at Netflix.”
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12th August 2017
19:40 - Kevin Can Wait - Season 2 - Set Photo
Thanks to "A" for the heads up.
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19:20 - Mom - Season 5 - Steven Webber to Guest as Christy's Love Interest
A guy after Christy’s heart!
At least that’s the plan for Steven Weber, who will guest star in the fifth season of Mom, EW has learned exclusively.
Weber — who most recently played Principal Gary Bolan on 13 Reasons Why and Mayor Douglas Hamilton in NCIS: New Orleans — is briefly coming aboard as Patrick, the newly divorced brother of Adam (William Fichtner), the boyfriend of Bonnie (Allison Janney). Patrick causes a commotion when he takes an interest in Christy (Anna Faris).
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10th August 2017
02:05 - Star - Season 2 - Evan Ross to Recur; Mike Epps to Guest
Fox is rounding out casting for Season 2 of its hit music drama Star, with Evan Ross joining in a key recurring role.
Ross will play Angel, nephew to Jahil Rivera (Benjamin Bratt) and a DJ with a bad-boy streak who is heavy in the Latin music scene. Mike Epps will appear in the Star/Empire crossover episode. He’ll play Jay Holland, the girls’ record label president, who is willing to cross the line with one of them. Luke James, who was mentioned during TCA as a cast addition for the new season, will play Noah Brooks, a record-selling R&B artist at the label. He is charming and a sweet talker with ambitious streak.
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01:50 - Will & Grace - Ben Platt to Guest
From Broadway to #WillAndGrace, we're proud to welcome Tony Award winner @BenSPLATT to join us as a guest star this fall! pic.twitter.com/iKy68RkV2A
— Will & Grace (@WillAndGrace) August 10, 2017
20:40 - HBO Developing Sneaker Store Comedy
HBO has put in development an untitled half-hour single-camera comedy about the sneaker culture phenomenon, from NBA star LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s Springhill Entertainment. It hails from Warner Bros. TV and stems from SpringHill’s multi-year movie, TV and digital deal with Warner Bros.
Written by Shawn Wines (High Maintenance) and Lemon Andersen (She’s Gotta Have It), the untitled Sneaker Store Project centers on two best friends and their wild employees at an up-and-coming sneaker shop outside L.A., where they take on the insane and obsessive world of sneaker culture. Wines also executive produces with James and Carter. Andersen is co-executive producer.
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19:30 - Bull - Season 2 - Brad Garrett to Guest
An Everybody Loves Raymond alum is headed to Bull in Season 2.
TV Guide can exclusively reveal that Brad Garrett will guest star in an episode that finds Dr. Jason Bull (Michael Weatherly) as a defendant in a case. Garrett will play a legendary attorney who Bull calls up to defend him for the trial. No additional details have been released yet but it looks like Bull is about to fall on some hard times.
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17:45 - Crash and Burn - Alex Fitzalan & More Join Hulu Pilot
The cast for the forthcoming Aaron Zelman (Damages) Hulu series Crash and Burn has been set. The coming-of-age dramatic thriller will star Alex Fitzalan (Slender Man), Sebastian Chacon (Mr. Robot, Gotham), Alex Wolff (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, My Friend Dahmer), and Camila Perez (Gotham, The Path).
Based on the bestselling book by Michael Hassan, the story follows three troubled suburban boys through an averted school shooting in the mid-1990s, Crash and Burn explores the complex world of teen boys and the men they’ll ultimately become.
Fitzalan will play the good-looking and charming Steve Newman, a local hero for his role in averting a school shooting at his high school. Since then, his father has pressured him to write a book about the experience, thinking it will help his son get into a good college. This forces him to confront his past with two boys who were allegedly involved in the shooting.
Chacon is set to play JR Lopez, who may have may or may not have played a part in the events of that fateful day. Wolff will portray Gabriel once was once good friends with Steve and JR, but was a neglected member of the group. When he learns of Steve’s book, he decides to take action and force his version of the truth into the light. Perez will play Roxanne Lopez, JR’s older sister. Roxanne becomes a touchstone in all the boys’ lives, but these relationships, fueled by dark impulses in all four characters, combine to create an explosive situation.
The project from Sony Pictures TV has been in development for more than a year at the streaming service.
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17:20 - Suits - Season 7 - Jay Harrington to Guest in 2-Episode Arc
Suits viewers who have long shipped Harvey (Gabriel Macht) and Donna (Sarah Rafferty) finally getting together are about to have another little hiccup to deal with, this time in the form of Jay Harrington.
The Better Off Ted and Coupling actor is set for a two-episode arc on the USA drama as Mark Meadows, Donna’s ex-boyfriend. Given Harvey’s recent relationship with his former shrink Paula (Christina Cole) this season, and the lengths he’s gone to in order to hide that relationship from Donna, it seems as though Mark’s reappearance will come at quite the inconvenient time for the coworkers.
The Better Off Ted and Coupling actor is set for a two-episode arc on the USA drama as Mark Meadows, Donna’s ex-boyfriend. Given Harvey’s recent relationship with his former shrink Paula (Christina Cole) this season, and the lengths he’s gone to in order to hide that relationship from Donna, it seems as though Mark’s reappearance will come at quite the inconvenient time for the coworkers.
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17:20 - Shut Eye - Season 2 - Aasif Mandvi to Recur
Aasif Mandvi has booked a recurring role on the psychic drama starring Jeffrey Donovan.
On the drama, which revolves around a former fake psychic scammer (Donovan) who starts to experience visions who may or may not be real, Mandvi will play Pazhani "Paz" Kapoor, a man who grew up in the slums of Mumbai as the sole survivor of a Cholera outbreak who found himself able to communicate with those who perished from the beyond. Now, he’s a spiritual healer with a worldwide following. After being banned in Germany and other European countries, Paz has come to L.A. where he plies his trade as a spiritual guru through his popular new age seminars. Viewers first meet Paz through Dr. Nora White (Susan Misner) when she offers his guidance to Linda (KaDee Strickland) to help Charlie (Donovan) make sense of his visions. Charlie will learn there is more than meets the eye with the mysterious mystic.
On the drama, which revolves around a former fake psychic scammer (Donovan) who starts to experience visions who may or may not be real, Mandvi will play Pazhani "Paz" Kapoor, a man who grew up in the slums of Mumbai as the sole survivor of a Cholera outbreak who found himself able to communicate with those who perished from the beyond. Now, he’s a spiritual healer with a worldwide following. After being banned in Germany and other European countries, Paz has come to L.A. where he plies his trade as a spiritual guru through his popular new age seminars. Viewers first meet Paz through Dr. Nora White (Susan Misner) when she offers his guidance to Linda (KaDee Strickland) to help Charlie (Donovan) make sense of his visions. Charlie will learn there is more than meets the eye with the mysterious mystic.
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9th August 2017
03:30 - Chance - Season 2 - David Barrera to Recur
David Barrera (NYPD Blue) has signed on for a recurring role opposite Hugh Laurie in the second season of Hulu’s drama series Chance. The psychological thriller based on Kem Nunn’s novel focuses on Dr. Eldon Chance (Laurie), a San Francisco-based forensic neuropsychiatrist who reluctantly gets sucked into a violent and dangerous world of mistaken identity, police corruption and mental illness. Barrera will play Sid Velerio, a weary police detective in charge of an investigation into a body dump on the headlands.
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03:30 - Here, Now - Marwan Salama to Recur in Alan Ball's Upcoming HBO Drama
Marwan Salama (American Crime) has booked a key recurring role opposite Holly Hunter and Tim Robbins in Here, Now (new title), Alan Ball’s upcoming drama series for HBO. Written by Ball, Here, Now is described as a tragicomic meditation on the complicated forces at work on us all in America today. Salama will play Navid. Details of the role are being kept under wraps.
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21:05 - You're the Worst - Season 4 - Zosia Mamet & Lou Diamond Phillips to Guest
Thanks to Carol for the heads up.
Zosia Mamet and Lou Diamond Phillips will both guest on season 4 of You’re the Worst, creator Stephen Falk announced at the Television Critics Association’s press tour on Wednesday.
Girls star Mamet will play a character with ties to Gretchen (Aya Cash), while Phillips, who just landed a guest role on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, plays someone connected to Lindsay (Kether Donohue) and Becca’s (Janet Varney) past.
According to Falk, Mamet’s character is “an old figure in Gretchen’s life who runs a rollerskating rink. So there’s a lot of rollerskating. Lou Diamond Phillips plays a figure in Lindsay and Becca’s former life that does not roller-skate, but has a weird relationship with lemons.”
Girls star Mamet will play a character with ties to Gretchen (Aya Cash), while Phillips, who just landed a guest role on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, plays someone connected to Lindsay (Kether Donohue) and Becca’s (Janet Varney) past.
According to Falk, Mamet’s character is “an old figure in Gretchen’s life who runs a rollerskating rink. So there’s a lot of rollerskating. Lou Diamond Phillips plays a figure in Lindsay and Becca’s former life that does not roller-skate, but has a weird relationship with lemons.”
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19:30 - The Arrangement - Season 2 - Ruffin Prentiss to Recur
Ruffin Prentiss has booked a recurring role on on Season 2 of E!’s hit drama series The Arrangement. From Universal Cable Productions and Emmy-winning writer/EP Jonathan Abrahams (Mad Men), the series stars Josh Henderson, Christine Evangelista, Lexa Doig and Michael Vartan in a Hollywood love story that brings to life the darker side of fame. Prentiss will play Xavier Hughes, a popular jazz musician.
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19:30 - Bosch - Season 4 - Tamberla Perry to Recur
APB alumna Tamberla Perry has booked a recurring role on the fourth season of Amazon drama series Bosch. Based on Michael Connelly’s bestselling Harry Bosch novels, Bosch stars Titus Welliver as the idiosyncratic, tough, jazz-loving cop. Perry will play Gabriella Lincoln, a career Internal Affairs detective.
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19:30 - The Man in the High Castle - Season 3 - John Hans Tester to Recur
John Hans Tester (Royal Pains) is set for a recurring role in the upcoming third season of Amazon’s drama series The Man in the High Castle. Based on Philip K. Dick’s Hugo Award-winning 1962 alternate history novel, The Man In The High Castle explores what would have happened if the Allied Powers had lost World War II. Tester will play Dr Josef Mengele, a famous Nazi physician and Nobel Prize winner living in Berlin conducting his research.
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19:30 - MOVIES: Our Souls at Night - Teaser Trailer feat Jane Fonda & Robert Redford
