or


[05/05/10 - 11:27 AM]
Development Update: Wednesday, May 5
By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC)

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!


AMERICA IN THE KING YEARS (HBO, New!) - Oprah Winfrey has booked another project at the pay channel, this time a mini-series about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from 1954-68, including "the freedom rides, the Birmingham campaign, Selma, and the poor people's march on Washington that he was organizing when he was killed." The seven-hour project will be based on Taylor Branch's Pulitzer Prize-winning trilogy - "Parting the Waters," "Pillar of Fire" and "Canaan's Edge" - with Robert Schenkkan ("The Pacific") on board to pen the adaptation. Winfrey is executive producing alongside Kate Forte via their Harpo Films banner. The company has two other mini-series in the hopper at HBO: Carl Franklin's "The Black Panthers" and Mimosa Jones's "Ida Tarbell."


DROP DEAD DIVA (Lifetime) - Jaime Ray Newman ("Eastwick") is set to recur on the show's upcoming sophomore season. She'll play a new love interest for Jackson Hurst's character. No other specifics were given.


IN TREATMENT (HBO) - Debra Winger has closed her deal to join the cast of the show's third season. She'll play "a formerly big star in an anxiety crisis about her career, and seeks out Gabriel Byrne's psychotherapist character, Paul, for help." Dane DeHaan and Irrfan Khan are also on board the new season, due later this year.


THE KILLING (AMC) - Kristin Lehman has scored a role on the drama pilot, which tells the story of the murder of a young girl and the subsequent police investigation. She'll play Gwen Eaton, Darren Richmond's (Billy Campbell) campaign advisor, "mid 30's, razor sharp smarts meets sophisticated sexiness." Brent Sexton, Eric Ladin, Jamie Anne Allman, Joel Kinnaman, Michelle Forbes and Mireille Enos also star in the Fox Television Studios-based hour, which begins production next week. Patty Jenkins is directing from a script by Veena Sud.


PRIVATE PRACTICE (ABC) - Steve Blackman and Craig Turk have been upped to co-showrunners on the "Grey's Anatomy" spin-off. They'll take over from Robert Rovner and Jon Cowan, who stepped down from said post earlier this year. Both will serve as executive producers alongside Shonda Rhimes, Betsy Beers, Mark Gordon and Mark Tinker for the show's expected fourth season.


RIZZOLI & ISLES (TNT) - Chazz Palminteri has landed a role on the upcoming drama, about Jane Rizzoli (Angie Harmon) and Maura Isles (Sasha Alexander), a detective and medical examiner who work together to solve crimes in Boston. He'll play Frank Rizzoli, Sr., Jane's father. Palminteri joins the previously cast Lorraine Bracco, who likewise recurs as Jane's mother Angela, and Jordan Bridges who plays Jane's younger brother, Frankie, Jr. The newcomer launches Monday, July 12 at 10:00/9:00c.


THE WALKING DEAD (AMC) - Laurie Holden, Jeffrey DeMunn and newcomer Steven Yeun have all joined the cast of the drama, about Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), a small-town police officer who leads a group of survivors of a zombie apocalypse. She'll play Andrea, a law clerk who was driving her little sister to college when the undead epidemic started, with DeMunn as Dale, a retired car salesman who becomes involved with Andrea, and Yeun as Glenn, a pizza delivery boy who was living with his parents when the apocalypse hit. Sarah Wayne Callies and Jon Bernthal also star in the hour, the pilot of which is being written and directed by Frank Darabont. Separately, Adam Fierro ("The Shield") has signed on a consulting producer.


Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters





  [may 2010]  
S
M
T
W
T
F
S
      


· AMERICA IN THE KING YEARS (HBO)
· BLACK PANTHERS, THE (HBO)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· DROP DEAD DIVA (LIFETIME)
· EASTWICK (ABC)
· GREY'S ANATOMY (ABC)
· IDA TARBELL (HBO)
· IN TREATMENT (HBO)
· KILLING, THE (NETFLIX)
· PACIFIC, THE (HBO)
· PRIVATE PRACTICE (ABC)
· RIZZOLI & ISLES (TNT)
· SHIELD, THE (FX)
· WALKING DEAD, THE (AMC)





[03/17/26 - 12:02 PM]
Hudson Williams, Jennifer Grey, Terry Chen, Elizabeth Adams, Hannah Galway, and William Mapother Join the Cast of "The Altruists"
The Netflix series tells the story of Sam Bankman-Fried (Anthony Boyle) and Caroline Ellison (Julia Garner), two hyper-smart, ambitious young idealists who tried to remake the global financial system in the blink of an eye...before they were accused of stealing $8 billion.

[03/17/26 - 12:01 PM]
Netflix Top 10: Week of March 9 - "One Piece" Season 2 Sets Sail for No. 1 in This Week's Top 10
Proving that demand for prehistoric beasts will never go extinct, docuseries "The Dinosaurs" landed at No. 2 on the English TV list with 9.6 million views.

[03/17/26 - 12:01 PM]
Next on Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN - April 2026
New series include "Dear Killer Nannies," "Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair," "The Testaments," and "Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord."

[03/17/26 - 10:05 AM]
Chloe Bennet, Max Greenfield, Charlie Hall, Kumail Nanjiani, and Jarrad Paul Join Season 4 of "The White Lotus"
More arrivals await.

[03/17/26 - 10:01 AM]
"Stranger Things: Tales from '85" Coming to Select Theaters on April 18
The screenings of the first two episodes of the new series will take place on April 18 at 12:00 PM and 3:00 PM local time, in 34 theaters in the U.S. in partnership with AMC Theatres.

[03/17/26 - 09:31 AM]
Netflix Announces New True-Crime Documentary "The Crash" Premiering May 15
Gareth Johnson directed the film, produced by RAW (an All3Media company).

[03/17/26 - 09:01 AM]
Video: Sweet Niblets! Official Trailer Drops for "Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special"
The special will be released on Disney+ and Hulu on Tuesday, March 24 - 20 years to the day that the original series debuted on Disney Channel.

[03/17/26 - 08:24 AM]
Hulu Renews Hit Drama Series "Paradise," from Dan Fogelman and Starring Sterling K. Brown, for a Third Season
The show continues to resonate with audiences worldwide, amassing over 30M hours for S2 and nearly 12 billion minutes streamed globally across its first two seasons.

[03/17/26 - 08:01 AM]
"The Chi" Signs Off: First Look at the Eighth and Final Season on Paramount+
Production on the new season began in January, kicking off the road to the show's highly anticipated farewell.

[03/17/26 - 07:01 AM]
BritBox Announces Additional Casting, Start of Production for Season Three of Jimmy McGovern's Award-Winning Drama Series "Time"
The three-part drama will be led by David Tennant as Prison Officer Bailey with Siobhan Finneran reprising her role as Marie-Louise, a prison chaplain.

[03/17/26 - 07:01 AM]
Apple TV Announces "My Brother the Minotaur," Premiering April 24
A thrilling mix of folklore, mystery and adventure about a young minotaur - half boy, half bull - found and raised in the human world.

[03/17/26 - 07:01 AM]
Video: "Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Ghost War" - Official Teaser - Prime Video
Jack Ryan returns in a major movie event. Stream "Ghost War" - May 20 on Prime Video.

[03/17/26 - 06:45 AM]
Video: Paramount+ Reveals Trailer & Key Art for Men's College Basketball Docuseries, "Made for March"
The docuseries chronicles two of college basketball's most renowned programs - Kansas Jayhawks and Michigan Wolverines--this season in their bid for a national championship.

[03/17/26 - 06:31 AM]
Video: "Love on the Spectrum U.S." - Season 4 Official Trailer - Netflix
New and familiar faces star in this heartfelt documentary series that follows singles on the autism spectrum as they search for true love.

[03/17/26 - 06:01 AM]
New Four-Part Series "Shared Planet" Premieres Wednesdays, April 29-May 20, 2026 on PBS and PBS.org
In an age of serious environmental challenges, this four-part global series offers a look at an alternative and more hopeful future.