[01/31/11 - 10:58 PM] Development Update: Monday, January 31 By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC)
LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The latest development news, culled from recent wire reports:
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BOARDWALK EMPIRE (HBO) - Charlie Cox ("Stardust") is set to recur on the show's upcoming second season. He'll reportedly play "a charming and dangerous immigrant from Northern Ireland with possible ties to the IRA." No other specifics were given.
CHARLIE'S ANGELS (ABC) - Marcos Siega ("The Vampire Diaries") has signed on to direct the drama pilot, which stars Annie Ilonzeh, Minka Kelly and Rachael Taylor as the franchise's latest private investigators. He'll work from a script by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. Sony Pictures Television is producing.
THE CLOSER (TNT) - The cable channel has reportedly extended the show's final season to 21 episodes: "10 episodes this summer, followed by five in the winter and now another six in the summer of 2012." The extra installments could potentially lay the pipe as a backdoor for a proposed spin-off, "Major Crimes," a "gritty drama that focuses on what happens when criminals aren't sent to death row - the behind-the-scenes dealmaking that's as maddening as it is brutally realistic in today's criminal justice system."
CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION (CBS) - Executive producer William Petersen is reportedly set to reprise his role of Gil Grissom on the veteran drama. He'll return in a cameo involving Jorja Fox, who plays Gil's on-screen wife Sara. It's not clear when the appearance, which has already been shot, will air - potentially as early as this week.
DALLAS (TNT) - Jordana Brewster ("Dark Blue") has joined the cast of the drama pilot, "an update of the long-running series about the Ewings of Southfork, whose betrayals, jealousies and passions have made them famous." She'll play Elena, "the gorgeous daughter of the ranch's cook who is locked into a love triangle with Christopher and John." Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray also star in the Warner Horizon Television-based project, which may or may not also feature fellow original cast member Larry Hagman. Cynthia Cidre penned the hour.
DAMAGES (DirecTV) - Chris Messina ("Julie & Julia") is the latest addition to the show's upcoming fourth season, due this summer on DirecTV's 101 network. He'll play "a high school friend of Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) who was a decorated soldier before being recruited to work for a private security firm in Afghanistan." Messina marks the third newcomer this season, the others being John Goodman and Dylan Baker.
HOUND DOGS (TBS) - Darrell Hammond ("Saturday Night Live") is in talks to join the cast of Ron Sheldon's dramedy, an hour-long pilot set in the world of minor league baseball. He'd play Harry Hound, the team's mascot/resident womanizer. Laura Bell Bundy, Lolita Davidovich, Megan Ferguson and Tom Verica also star in the project, which is set up at Sony Pictures Television.
HOUSE OF LIES (Showtime) - Kristen Bell ("Veronica Mars"), Glynn Turman ("In Treatment") and newcomer Donis Leonard Jr. are the latest additions to the comedy pilot, about Marty (Don Cheadle), "a highly successful, cutthroat consultant who is never above using any means (or anyone) necessary to get his clients the information they want." Turman and Leonard will play Marty's father Jeremiah ("famous post-Jungian psychoanalyst and culture critic, now retired") and son Roscoe, respectively. Bell then is set as Marty's associate Jeannie Van Der Hooven, described as "razor-sharp, cute, Brown grad, has some control and self loathing issues, the self-loathing mostly around finding herself attracted to Marty." Ben Schwartz, Dawn Olivieri and Josh Lawson also star in the half-hour, to be directed by Stephen Hopkins from a script by Matthew Carnahan.
MAN UP! (ABC) - Teri Polo ("Little Fockers") and Mather Zickel ("The Cape") are the latest to be cast in the comedy pilot, "a look at what it takes to survive as a modern man, as told through the eyes of three best friends and the women in their lives." He'll play the trio's leader, Will Keen, "an everyman balancing family, work and making time for himself," with Polo as Theresa Hayden Keen, his "playful, supermom/wife." Christopher Moynihan is behind the ABC Studios-based half-hour, and also stars as Craig Griffith ("sensitive, heart on his sleeve, falls in love at the drop of a hat").
MIKE & MOLLY/RULES OF ENGAGEMENT (CBS) - The Eye has reportedly ordered two additional episodes of both comedies. Said pickups - which presumably would bring each to 26 episodes this season - are designed to fill the void left by "Two and a Half Men," which is currently on hiatus from production while star Charlie Sheen enters a rehabilitation program. To date only 16 of the planned 24 episodes of "Men" have been completed.
PARENTHOOD (NBC) - Richard Dreyfuss ("Weeds") has booked a multi-episode arc on the series. He'll play Gilliam T. Blount, "a once-great theater producer who also happens to be an old friend of Zeek's (Craig T. Nelson)," in the last four episodes of the show's sophomore season.
[06/19/13 - 01:39 PM] TNT Bumps Newcomer "72 Hours" to Friday Nights The reality competition series, which had been airing on Thursdays at 9:00/8:00c, will relocate to Fridays effective immediately.
[06/19/13 - 12:17 PM] ESPN to Present World Series of Poker Main Event To kick off ESPN's WSOP coverage, the inaugural World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific Main Event Final Table will air on Tuesday, July 23.
