Weekly Update
The Weekly Round-Up (August 31 to Sept. 4)
First of all HAPPY LABOR DAY Weekend!! Next, here are the entertainment news items for this past week:
CONDOLENCES
DJ AM, the celebrity DJ who narrowly escaped a deadly plane crash with musical collaborator Travis Barker last year was found in his New York City apartment. He was 36. Condolences to his family, friends and fans.
Television and motion picture writer and producer Dick Berg passed away this week at his home in Los Angeles after a brief illness. He was 87. Condolences to his family and friends.
NEWS
Disney acquired Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion.
Columbia Records will release multiple soundtracks from the upcoming first season of the new FOX series Glee. Glee: The Music, Volume 1 will feature cast covers of songs by artists from Neil Diamond to Kanye West, will be available Nov. 3.
John Krasinski and Emily Blunt are engaged.
Tom Lenk (Andrew on Buffy the Vampire Slayer) will make his Broadway debut as Franz in the Tony-nominated musical Rock of Ages on Sept. 14. Lenk originated the supporting role, the son of a German developer who wants to demolish the Sunset Strip (including LA’s favorite rock club), in Los Angeles and Las Vegas productions
Producers of Smallville are planning to include the Wonder Twins, Green Arrow’s sidekick Speedy, the Justice Society of America and future Daily Planet boss Perry White this season.
AMC picks up Mad Men up for a fourth season.
ABC won the bidding war over an untitled legal dramedy from executive producers Josh Schwartz and Ali Adler (Chuck). The project is about a female attorney in Los Angeles who “has observed enough misery in her divorce and family law practice to vow never to take the plunge into matrimony.” Script will be written by Adler (Chuck), who will executive produce along with Schwartz, Stephanie Savage, Sheldon Turner, and Jennifer Klein.
FOX has given a pilot commitment to drama spec script Worthy from writer Davey Holmes (Damages, In Treatment). The project revolves around an Arizona politician who finds himself involved in a hit-and-run accident and then is blackmailed by a local mob boss.
MTV is close to handing out a pilot presentation order for a contemporary take on 1985 feature film Teen Wolf, about a teenager who discovers that he is a werewolf. The new project, which will be set in high school and combine horror, comedy, and romance, is written by Jeff Davis (Criminal Minds), who will executive produce with Marty Adelstein (Prison Break) and Rene Echevarria (Medium).
CBS has landed a comedy script by Will & Grace alumna Gail Lerner tentatively titled Open Books. The story will revolve around book editor June and her circle of friends, which is inspired by the time Lerner spent as a temp in the publishing world at the beginning of her career and by the experiences of her sister Betsy, who worked as a book editor for 15 years before becoming a literary agent.
ABC has signed two separate talent holding deals with Martin Henderson (Inside the Box) and Leah Remini (The King of Queens). Under the deals, Henderson will star in a drama pilot for the network, with Henderson meeting with writers shortly to discuss potential properties. Remini, who appeared in ABC’s comedy pilot Married Not Dead this past development cycle, will appear in a comedy pilot.
ABC‘s Charles Gibson will step down as anchor of World News at the end of this year, and Diane Sawyer will replace him.
Katherine Heigl has been granted a five-episode hiatus from Grey’s Anatomy to shoot the Greg Berlanti-directed romantic comedy Life as We Know It. Her departure, which starts this month and will kick in on screen around November, will almost certainly overlap with co-star Ellen Pompeo’s maternity leave.
HBO has ordered 12 hours of the new Prohibition-era drama Boardwalk Empire, which is set in the Atlantic City of the 1920s. It was directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Sopranos veteran Terence Winter. The show will arrive on HBO in the fall of 2010. The cast includes Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt, Kelly Macdonald and Michael Shannon.
Producers are talking to Minka Kelly about making a two-episode return to Friday Night Lights as Lyla halfway through the season. Coincidentally, that’s right around the time things start heating up between Riggins’ and Dillon’s resident Lolita, Becky (newcomer Madison Burge).
Campbell Scott’s role in Season 2 of Royal Pains will not be affected by his recent casting in the new season of Damages.
NBC is developing a US version of British crime drama series Prime Suspect, which starred Helen Mirren as the dogged and damaged Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison. The US version, which will be developed and written by Hank Steinberg (Without a Trace), will be shot as a two-hour presentation.
FOX is developing an untitled ensemble medical drama in Kuwait with Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah (Freaks and Geeks, 90210); a drama entitled Daylight Robbery about a group of women on a crime spree from writer/executive producer Karen Usher (Prison Break) and an untitled actioner from writer/executive producer Michael Duggan (Millennium) and Sony Pictures Television about a government agent and his older handler.
HBO has given a pilot order to single-camera comedy Enlightened, starring Laura Dern as a “self-destructive woman who has a spiritual awakening and becomes determined to live an enlightened life, creating havoc at home and work.” The pilot, written by Mike White, will shoot in December.
CBS has ordered a script for an untitled multi-camera comedy project co-created by and starring Bret Harrison (Reaper) about two district attorneys, one of whom is in his twenties (to be played by Harrison) and the other in his forties, and the woman who comes between them. The project, which will be written by Robert Borden, will be produced by Universal Media Studios, Stuber Prods., and executive producer Scott Stuber.
Fox has picked up Jack and Dan, a 13-episode hourlong series from Matt Nix, creator and executive producer of Burn Notice. It centers on Jack, an ambitious, by-the-book cop who is partnered with Dan, a drunken, lecherous, wild-card cop who hangs onto his job only because of a heroic act years before.
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Sony has started development on a third installment of the Bad Boys franchise Michael Bay launched years ago. The studio has hired newcomer Peter Craig to write the Bad Boys 3 screenplay. The hope is to have a script that would reunite director Michael Bay, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.
Sony Pictures has pulled the superhero comedy The Green Hornet out of mid-Summer 2010 release and has pushed it back to the week before Christmas next year – a full five month delay.
Kate Beckinsale has denied widespread reports that she has signed on to a fourth Underworld film, telling a group of reporters that she had barely even considered reprising the role of vampire/death dealer Selene.
Marc Blucas (Buffy, the Vampire Slayer) has joined the cast of the Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz untitled Wichita project. He will play the ex-boyfriend of Diaz’s character.
Colin Firth has signed up to play King George VI in The King’s Speech, telling the story of the man who would become King George VI, the father of the current Queen, Elizabeth II. Geoffrey Rush will co-star. The film is set for release in 2010.
Colin Hanks (Roswell, King Kong) has been cast in a comedy film Lucky about a serial killer intent on wooing his lady love, played by Ari Graynor (Fringe). Ann-Margret and Jeffrey Tambor will also star.
CASTING SCOOP
Jesse Williams (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2) has joined Grey’s Anatomy for a multiple-episode hitch. He is expected to play a new medical professional. Nora Zehetner (Heroes, Everwood) and Robert Baker (Valentine) have also been cast as two of the recurring residents in the series.
Kate Mulgrew (Star Trek: Voyager) has been cast in NBC‘s medical drama Mercy, where she will play Jeannie Flanagan, the mother of Taylor Schilling‘s Veronica.
Newcomer Matthew Levy has joined FOX‘s midseason comedy Sons of Tucson. The 15-year-old will play the oldest of three brothers who hire a guy (Tyler Labine) to pose as their dad while their real father is in prison. The show begins filming next month and is slated to premiere in early 2010.
Brenda Blethyn (Atonement) will star in Hidden Depths, a new murder mystery series on UK’s ITV based on the novel by Ann Cleeves. She will play Vera Stanhope, a detective inspector in Northumberland who is on the trail of a murderer who left the bodies of two young people in the water.
Actor Michael Weston (Six Feet Under, Garden State) is returning to House this fall as private eye Lucas Douglas. No other details are available at this time.
Michael Hogan (Battlestar Galactica) will portray Myka’s (Joanne Kelly) father Warren Bering on Warehouse 13 on Sept. 15.
Mark Sheppard (Battlestar Galactica) will appear as Mr. Valda, the enigmatic representative of the Regents, the mysterious organization that controls Warehouse 13, who disapproves of Artie’s methods as the team leader of the Warehouse, and isn’t afraid to let him know it, on Sept. 8.
Titus Welliver (Deadwood, Lost) will play the first horseman of Supernatural‘s apocalypse.
Debi Mazar (Entourage) will have a recurring role on Castle this fall, as Paula Haas, book agent to Nathan Fillion’s modern-day Jessica Fletcher. She’ll first appear in October when she makes Castle an offer he’ll find hard to refuse. Accepting said offer, however, would cause a fair amount of upheaval in his life, particularly his relationship with Detective Beckett.
Linda Purl (Matlock, Happy Days) will appear as Pam’s mom on The Office, showing up next month at Pam and Jim’s wedding.
Nicole Ari Parker (Imagine That) will replace Sherri Saum in ABC’s midseason legal dramedy The Deep End, where she will play Susan, a crack partner at a Los Angeles law firm where her husband (Billy Zane) is the new managing partner. Mehcad Brooks (True Blood, Desperate Housewives) is also joining as a series regular. He will play Malcolm Bennet, an associate at the firm.
Megan Mullally (Will & Grace) will be joining the cast of Party Down in season 2 when it returns on Starz.
Tony Hale (Arrested Development) will guest star in an October episode of Numb3rs as an erratically brilliant biotech professor with some interesting ethical notions.
Two and a Half Men has tapped Annie Potts (Designing Women) to play Judith’s (Marin Hinkle) fresh-out-of-rehab mother in an episode airing October 5.
Windell Middlebrooks (The Suite Life on Deck) is checking into Scrubs as one of the med school’s two security guards.
Relative newcomer Ben Koldyke will join the cast of Big Love as recurring character Dale, Alby’s new gay lover.
Lena Heady (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) has filled the remaining role in the HBO pilot called Game of Thrones, which also stars Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Sean Bean, Jennifer Ehle and Mark Addy.
Former Los Angeles Laker-turned-actor Rick Fox has been added to the cast of Melrose Place, playing the owner of a restaurant at which both Auggie (Colin Egglesfield) and Violet (Ashlee Simpson-Wentz) work.
Elisabeth Rohm (Law & Order) will be back on NBC in the fall, making a guest appearance in the 8th episode of Heroes, playing a character named Lauren Gilmore. Rohm will also guest in next week’s 90210 season premiere.
New casting intel for Melrose Place: Melissa: In her late 20s, she’s a gorgeous, sexy, lesbian Hollywood agent who sets her sights on Katie Cassidy’s Ella. There will be recurring potential for this role.
Kristin Kreuk (Smallivlle) is joining Chuck for multiple episodes as Hannah, a girl Chuck meets on a flight to Paris, who gets laid off from her glamorous publishing job, and ends up working at the Buy More.
Idris Elba (The Wire) has landed the lead in the new BBC One crime thriller Luther. He will play John Luther, a “near-genius murder detective whose brilliant mind can’t always save him from the dangerous violence of his passions.” The series will have six episodes, written by Neil Cross (Spooks).
Bella Thorne (My Own Worst Enemy, Dirty Sexy Money) will replace Jolean Wejbe in the upcoming 4th season of HBO’s Big Love.
Angie Harmon (Law & Order) has signed on to guest star in the fourth episode of Chuck when it returns next spring. She will play Sydney, a spy for the Ring who wants to whack Ryan McPartlin’s awe-obsessed alter ego.
RUMOR PATROL
Rumors are swirling that just about every past Lost cast member may be journeying back to the island – where death apparently isn’t always the end – as the series heads into its final season. No firm details have become available yet, except for Ian Somerhalder stating at Comic Con that he will hopefully be back if his current schedule with the CW’s The Vampire Diaries permits him time.
Jamie Luner (All My Children, Profiler, Savannah) says she’s ready and willing to take a trip from Pine Valley back to her old primetime neighborhood of Melrose Place — if she’s invited. But, will she be invited?
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
If you didn’t get to see it in July or if you want to see it again, BBC America will run a Torchwood: Children of Earth marathon on Labor Day, September 7 starting at 9 AM (Eastern Time).
Durham County will debut on September 7 at 10 PM. This 2007 Canadian series that is being reaired on ION (fomerly the PAX network) is about a detective who relocates to a quiet suburban community to start a new life.
The reimagined Melrose Place will debut on the CW on Tuesday, September 8 at 9 PM.
Sons of Anarchy will return for a new season on Tuesday, September 8 on FX at 10 PM.
NOTICE: President Obama is to address a joint session of Congress on Sept. 9. His address will interrupt the start of season premieres on some of the major networks. ABC, CBS and NBC are all slated to carry the address.
Glee will debut at 9 PM on Wednesday, September 9 on FOX.
The Vampire Diaries will debut on the CW on Thursday, September 10 at 8 PM.
Supernatural will have its season premiere on the CW on Thursday, September 10 at 9 PM.
Here is a list of new episodes for the summer series that are finishing up their summer runs:
Sunday, September 6:
Mad Men on AMC at 10 p.m.
Defying Gravity on ABC at 10 p.m.
Monday, September 7:
The Secret Life of An American Teenager on ABC Family at 8 p.m.
Greek on ABC Family at 9 p.m.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent on NBC at 8 p.m and at 9 p.m.
Tuesday, September 8:
10 Things I Hate About You on ABC Family at 8 p.m.
Ruby & the Rockits on ABC Family at 8:30 p.m.
Warehouse 13 on SyFy at 9 p.m.
The Cleaner on A&E at 10 p.m.
Wednesday, September 9:
Leverage on TNT at 9 p.m.
Dark Blue on TNT at 10 p.m.
Friday, September 11:
Eureka on Syfy at 9 p.m.
Monk on USA Network at 9 p.m.
Psych on USA Network at 10 p.m.
NOTE: Please check your local listings for the correct air dates and times for all of the above.
Have a great weekend!
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