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[10/03/19 - 11:42 PM]
Development Update: Thursday, October 3
By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC) |
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LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The latest development news, culled from recent wire reports:
Looking to keep track of all the various projects in development? Click here to visit our signature "Devwatch" section. There visitors can view our listings by network, genre, studio and even development stage (ordered to pilot, cast-contingent, script, etc.). It's updated every day!
BLINDSPOTTING (Starz, New!) - Jasmine Cephas Jones is set to star in a small screen take on the 2018 film, which "centers on Ashley, who was nipping at the heels of a middle class life in Oakland until Miles, her partner of 12 years and father of their son, is suddenly incarcerated, leaving her to navigate a chaotic and humorous existential crisis when she's forced to move in with Miles' mother and half-sister. Her world is turned upside down while the neighborhood goes inside out, and she must renegotiate her relationship with a town that is caught between two conflicting identities." Rafael Casal, who also starred in the film, and Daveed Diggs are penning the half-hour series with Snoot Entertainment's Jess Wu Calder and Keith Calder and Barnyard Projects' Emily Gerson Saines, Ken Lee and Tim Palen also executive producing. (Variety.com)
CLOSE UP (Freeform) - Millicent Simmonds is set to star in the pilot, a one-hour drama set in Centreville, New Jersey, a suburban town just like any other ... at least on the surface. Centreville high school student Rachel Guyer is on a mission to expose the truth about her seemingly normal hometown and turn her community inside out. Simmonds, who is deaf, will be communicating in American Sign Language. (Deadline.com)
CORTES (Amazon) - Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna have both signed onto the long-in-the-works limited series, which stars Javier Bardem as legendary conqueror, Hernan Cortes, who led a rebellious expedition to the heart of King Montezuma II's Aztec empire, connecting two civilizations for the first time and changing the course of history. In addition, Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego will helm the project's four installments from scripts by Steven Zaillian. Bardem, Bernal, Luna and Zaillian will executive produce alongside Kirk Douglas, Grant Hill, Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey. (Deadline.com)
CUPCAKE MEN (ABC, New!) - Owen Smith has scored a put pilot commitment from the Alphabet for a new comedy inspired by "the real life story of former Tennessee Titans Brian Orakpo and Michael Griffin who, along with their childhood friend Bryan Hynson, opened a cupcake shop in Austin, Texas." 20th Century Fox Television and ABC Studios are both behind the half-hour with Lee Daniels and Marc Velez of Lee Daniels Entertainment and Michael Strahan and Constance Schwartz-Morini of SMAC Productions likewise executive producing and Thea Mann as a co-executive producer. (Deadline.com)
FOREVER FAMILY (NBC, New!) - Austen Earl and Joel Church-Cooper have sold a potential comedy to the Peacock "which centers on three different families that live miles away but worlds apart and who discover that their adopted children all share the same birth father." 20th Century Fox Television-based Small Dog Picture Company is behind the project with Jason Winer and Jon Radler also executive producing. (Variety.com)
HILL, THE (NBC, New!) - Paul Grellong has booked a potential drama at the Peacock "that lives at the supercharged intersection of media and Capitol Hill where everything is transacted: information, sex, love, fame and power." Sony Pictures Television-based Osprey Productions is behind the project with Josh Berman, Chris King and Wendy Walker also executive producing. In addition, CNN's Dana Bash will serve as a consulting producer. (Deadline.com)
INTERNATIONAL, THE (CBS, New!) - Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren are set to re-team for a new drama at the Eye about Anders Soto (Lundgren): "Part negotiator, part international spy, Anders is a one-man covert black-ops team working for the U.N. who is called in to find asymmetrical solutions to the world's most delicate and complex problems." Stallone then is attached to direct the hour from a script by Ken Sanzel with said pair executive producing alongside Flame Ventures' Tony Krantz, Balboa Productions' Braden Aftergood and Zero Gravity's Craig Baumgarten for CBS Television Studios. Lundgren then will receive a producer credit. (Deadline.com)
KATY KEENE (The CW) - Bernadette Peters has been cast as Ms. Freesia in the midseason drama, "Pepper Smith's eccentrically elegant surrogate mother and mentor who taught Pepper in the art of the con." (Deadline.com)
LITTLE FIRE EVERYWHERE (Hulu) - Jesse Williams is the latest slated to recur on the limited series as Joe Ryan, "a wealthy Wall Streeter who for years has struggled to conceive. Joe and his wife, Madeline, turn to an unlikely source to help start their family." (Deadline.com)
MAD ABOUT YOU (Spectrum) - Cynthia Harris and Cloris Leachman are both bound for the revival series. Harris will reprise her role as Paul's mother, Sylvia Buchman; with Leachman guest starring as Mrs. Mandelbaum, "one of Jamie's therapy patients." (Deadline.com)
NEVER HAVE I EVER (Netflix) - Richa Shukla is the latest to be cast in Mindy Kaling's upcoming comedy series as Kamala, "Devi's cousin from India, who's getting her PhD from Caltech." (Deadline.com)
OPUS (FOX, New!) - Nicole Ari Parker is attached to star in a potential drama at the network in which "classical and urban music will clash when Willie Mae Gray (Parker), Europe's most celebrated and only African American conductor, suddenly returns to Baltimore to reinvent her hometown's crumbling symphony orchestra, while attempting to rebuild the relationship with her teenage son, an underground MC on the rise." Felicia D. Henderson is penning the hour, which has a penalty attached, for 20th Century Fox Television and FOX Entertainment. Darryl Taja, Stephen Endelman and Kara Feifer then will executive produce alongside Parker and Henderson. (Deadline.com)
PARTY OF FIVE (Freeform) - Garcia and Sol Rodriguez will both recur on the reboot series: the former as Matthew, "who ran away from a difficult situation at home"; and the latter as Natalia, "the Acostas' new babysitter." (Deadline.com)
SCHITT'S CREEK (Pop) - Debmar-Mercury has cleared repeats of the series on the Fox Television Stations group beginning in September 2020. (Deadline.com)
SWAT (CBS) - Original cast member Stephanie Sigman has confirmed her departure from the series. (@SigmanStephanie)
THEM (Amazon) - Shahadi Wright Joseph, Alison Pill, Ryan Kwanten, Melody Hurd, Javier Botet and Percy Hynes White have all been cast in the horror event series. They join previously announced leads Deborah Ayorinde and Ashley Thomas. No details on their characters were given. Additionaly, Derek Phillips will recur on the inaugural season. (Variety.com)
WILL & GRACE (NBC) - Joel McHale will drop by two upcoming episodes of the series' final season as "a potential suitor for none other than Ms. Karen Walker." (TVLine.com)
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