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[berzeli]

Speaking of AMC:

AMC Opens Writers Rooms For 3 Dramas Under Scripts-To-Series Model

Not one of these sounds good to me.

All of these sound like one of those YA adaptations that the studio believed would be the next Hunger Games sized franchise, but never got a sequel after flopping at the box office.

 

[berzeli]

Some more details on the goings on with TNT

Ridley Scott Developing Sci-Fi Block For TNT

Reilly eyes a 2018 launch for the sci-fi block. The network could order pilots but also, “it could be a series order. When you got Ridley, there are projects he is potentially interested in getting directly involved.” That could potentially include directing.

In other TNT pilot news:

In addition to a sci-fi block, TNT also is prepping another programming block, TNT Mystery. The first two projects earmarked for the block are Deep Mad Dark and Deadlier Than the Male, both recently ordered to pilot by the network.

And finally, Tales From the Crypt is dead (for now):

“That one got really caught up in a complete legal mess unfortunately with a very complicated underlying rights structure,” Reilly said of Tales From the Crypt. “We lost so much time, so I said, ‘Look, I’m not waiting around four years for this thing’. Maybe that will come back around but in the meantime, Ridley Scott had come up, who has so much creative enthusiasm.”
...
As for taking another crack at launching a horror block, even if it doesn’t have the Tales From the Crypt branding, “I haven’t ruled it out. We don’t have a specific property today but we’re open to it,” Reilly said.

 

[Cornballer]

- HBO Nabs ‘Today Will Be Different’ Limited Series Starring Julia Roberts From Annapurna TV

Annapurna Television’s high-profile limited series adaptation of Maria Semple’s bestselling novel, Today Will Be Different, toplined and produced by Julia Roberts, has landed at HBO for development.

HBO has commissioned multiple scripts from the project, written by Semple. Today Will Be Different follows Eleanor Flood (Roberts), who wakes up determined to be her best self, but then life happens. Taking place over a single day, it’s described as a rollicking portrait of one woman’s fumbling but valiant attempt to navigate the knotty perils and sly grace of modern life.

Roberts will produce the series through her Red Om Films banner with Semple, and Annapurna’s Megan Ellison and Sue Naegle.

This marks Roberts’ return to TV and to HBO following her starring role in the film The Normal Heart. Today Will Be Different also is a return to TV for Semple, who wrote for Arrested Development and Mad About You, and a return to HBO for the network’s former entertainment president Naegle.

 

[TripOpt55]

- ‘Cleopatra’ TV Series In the Works At Amazon From ‘Black Sails’ Team

I missed this news. It sounds awesome.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

‘Euphoria’ Provocative Teen Drama Based On Israeli Format In Works At HBO

Written for American television by Sam Levinson (HBO’s Wizard of Lies), Euphoria is a look at the brutality and pleasures of teen existence today. It follows a group of high school students as they attempt to cope through drugs, sex and violence in an effort to make sense of an uncertain future.

Sounds like Skins.

 

[Cornballer]

- Deadline: Julia Roberts In Talks To Star In Sam Esmail TV Series ‘Homecoming’ Based On Podcast

A big TV package is about to become even bigger. I’ve learned that Oscar winner Julia Roberts is in talks to topline Homecoming, the high-profile drama series in the works at Universal Cable Productions with Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail.

Homecoming is based on Gimlet Media’s breakout fictional podcast of the same name, which launched in November. It instantly became a hot property pursued by several top film and TV producers and studios. UCP landed the rights to Homecoming in December in a very competitive situation for Esmail to develop as a TV series via his overall deal there. Anonymous Content, which produces Mr. Robot with UCP, also came on board to produce. The project immediately attracted major A-list actors. It is expected to be taken out to buyers soon.

I hear Homecoming won’t interfere with Roberts’ commitment to Today Will Be Different, the limited series she is attached to headline and executive produce for Annapurna Television. It recently landed at HBO for development. Reps for UCP and Roberts had no comment.

Written by Esmail, Homecoming is a political thriller that centers on a caseworker at a secret government facility — the role Roberts is in talks for — her supervisor, and a soldier.

 

[berzeli]

In totally necessary US remake news:
‘Misfits’ Reboot From Fake Empire Gets Freeform Pilot Order, Casts Four Leads

Freeform has given a pilot order to Misfits, a supernatural drama inspired by the British series of the same name. It comes from Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage’s Fake Empire and Diane Ruggiero-Wright (iZombie, Veronica Mars), who wrote the adaptation and serves as showrunner. Cast as four of the five leads in the pilot are Ashleigh Lathrop (Sirens), Tre Hall (Rebel), Allie MacDonald (Orphan Black) and Jake Cannavale (Nurse Jackie), son of actor Bobby Cannavale. Victoria “Vic” Mahoney (Grey’s Anatomy) is directing in her pilot directing debit [sic].

Misfits centers on a group of young offenders in a community service program who develop supernatural powers after being hit by a mysterious electrical storm.

The only thing worse than this news is Nellie's grasp of the English language.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

In totally necessary US remake news:
‘Misfits’ Reboot From Fake Empire Gets Freeform Pilot Order, Casts Four Leads

The only thing worse than this news is Nellie's grasp of the English language.

Ew, and they're not just doing an American version of the concept with new characters, it looks like they're actually remaking the original show. How unnecessary.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

HBO Developing ‘Brown Girls’ Comedy Based On Web Series

The duo behind the breakout web series, writer Fatimah Asghar and director Samantha Bailey, also will shepherd the TV adaptation as writer/executive producer and director/executive producer, respectively.

Brown Girls centers on a queer Pakistani-American writer and a commitment-phobic Black-American musician who rely on their friendship and sisterhood as they try to rise above their lives’ messiness in pursuit of their dreams. The project is not related to the Freeform comedy pilot of the same name.

 

[Jay Shadow]

The thought of Misfits on Freeform

 

[Cornballer]

- Bruce Lee-Inspired Tong Wars Drama ‘Warrior’ From Justin Lin & ‘Banshee’ Co-Creator Gets Cinemax Series Order

Cinemax has given a 10-episode straight-to-series order to 19th century crime drama Warrior, inspired by an idea from Bruce Lee, created and executive produced by Banshee co-creator Jonathan Tropper and executive producer by Justin Lin and Danielle Woodrow via Perfect Storm Entertainment, and Shannon Lee for Bruce Lee Entertainment.

Warrior, which had been a passion project for both late martial arts icon Bruce Lee and Fast & Furious helmer Justin Lin, was originally set up at Cinemax for development in 2015 and was ordered to pilot last summer.

Last December, Deadline unveiled Cinemax’s programming strategy shift toward the type of fare that launched the network’s push into original primetime series: fun, high-octane, action, pulpy, straight-to-series dramas done in a cost-effective way primarily as international co-productions. At the time, Kary Antholis, president, HBO Miniseries and Cinemax Programming, revealed that the idea was to do as many as four shows a year initially, three of them co-productions or very cost-effective and the fourth a marquee, homegrown show with a Banshee-level of budget. Back then, Warrior was already being eyed for a potential straight-to-series order to fill that marquee spot in the inaugural slate of the revamped Cinemax. Straight-to-series co-productions greenlighted under the model include a Strike Back reboot and Rellik.

“Warrior follows in the spirit of the tradition of adrenalized Cinemax dramas that we established with Strike Back and Banshee,” said Antholis, listing the network’s two most successful original series to date. “We are brimming with excitement for this unique martial arts series combining Bruce Lee’s inspired conception with the immense storytelling talents of Jonathan Tropper and Justin Lin.”

Warrior is described as a gritty, action-packed crime drama set during the brutal Tong Wars of San Francisco’s Chinatown in the second half of the 19th century. The series follows Ah Sahm, a martial arts prodigy who immigrates from China to San Francisco under mysterious circumstances, and becomes a hatchet man for one of Chinatown’s most powerful tongs (Chinese organized crime family).

“As a show that proudly bears the imprimatur of Bruce Lee, it’s our intention to deliver not only explosive martial arts action – which we will – but also a powerful and complex immigration drama that is as relevant today as it was in the 1870s,” says Tropper.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

- Bruce Lee-Inspired Tong Wars Drama ‘Warrior’ From Justin Lin & ‘Banshee’ Co-Creator Gets Cinemax Series Order

It took them long enough!

 

[Cornballer]

It took them long enough!

Seriously. Glimmer of hope for Cinemax, though!

 

[berzeli]

Update on:

BBC America Greenlights Dark Thriller Series ‘Killing Eve’ From ‘Fleabag’ Creator

Sandra Oh To Star In Title Role Of ‘Killing Eve’ BBC America Series

Grey’s Anatomy alum Sandra Oh has landed the title role in BBC America’s original scripted series Killing Eve. The casting marks Oh’s first series regular role since her exit from Grey’s Anatomy two years ago.

Say it with me: Fuck yes!

 

[RatskyWatsky]

Update on:

Sandra Oh To Star In Title Role Of ‘Killing Eve’ BBC America Series

Say it with me: Fuck yes!

Heck yeah!

 

[Cornballer]

- FX Picks Up Gerard Barrett’s Corporate Espionage Drama ‘Honey’

FX has picked up Irish filmmaker Gerard Barrett’s hour-long drama Honey. Story, which is being kept under wraps, is set against the backdrop of the world of corporate espionage.

 

[Cornballer]

- Comedic Crime Drama From Brian Duffield Gets USA Network Pilot Order

After a string of darker new drama series like Mr. Robot, Colony, Falling Water and the upcoming The Sinner and Damnation, USA Network is returning to the character-based comedic crime one-one genre where it had a lot of success early on with series like Monk and Psych.

Written by Duffield and to be directed by Matt Shakman (Fargo), Olive Forever follows the exploits of Olive, a mysterious high school student with an affection for cat burglary-type shenanigans, mostly because she is a cat burglar. New to a sleepy town with a criminal underbelly, Olive must navigate new foster parents, new boyfriends, new gangsters… and new crime opportunities.

 

[Cornballer]

- Glenn Close to Star in Amazon Zombie Comedy Pilot 'Sea Oak'

Glenn Close is returning to the small screen.

The Emmy-winning Damages alum has been tapped to star Amazon half-hour comedy pilot Sea Oak. The pilot, picked up in March, is described as a mix of zombie drama and family revenge comedy.

Sea Oak revolves around Aunt Bernie (Close), a meek, unmarried woman with no children in working-class Rust Belt City who dies tragically in a home invasion. Compelled by sheer force of dissatisfaction, she comes back from the dead full of rage and determined to get the life she never had. She proceeds to inflict a range of demands on what's left of her nuclear family, including a quasi-stripper nephew and two feckless nieces, who live in a low-end subsidized hellhole of a housing complex called Sea Oak.

 

[AoM]

I was surprised to see that Boreanaz is set to star in that Seal Team show. Thought he might want to take a break finally, but he must really like the work (and I imagine the offer from CBS was pretty good).

 

[berzeli]

Crackle has ordered/started developing a bunch of stuff.

So um, Sean Bean To Topline Crackle Drama Series ‘The Oath’

Sean Bean is set to star in Crackle’s upcoming drama series The Oath, executive produced by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson (Power) and his G-Unit Film & Television. Production begins in Puerto Rico Next month‎ with premiere slated for 2018.

Written and created by former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy Joe Halpin (Hawaii Five-0), the 10-episode original series explores a world of gangs made up of those sworn to protect and defend. The Oath sheds light on corrupt and secret societies that are nearly impossible to join, but once inside, members will do what they must to protect each other from enemies on the outside and from within their own ranks.

Instead of his character dying, the platform which airs the show will die?

 

[berzeli]

Netflix Orders Tony Danza Dramedy Series ‘The Good Cop’ From ‘Monk’ Duo

Tony Danza is returning to series television with The Good Cop, a dramedy crime procedural for Netflix. The Internet network has given a 10-episode straight-to-series order to the hourlong project inspired by a format from Israeli production company Yes. The project hails from Monk creator/executive producer Andy Breckman and director/executive producer Randy Zisk.

Written by Breckman, who serves as showrunner, The Good Cop centers on Tony Sr.(Danza), a disgraced, former NYPD officer who never followed the rules. He lives with his son, Tony, Jr., an earnest, obsessively honest NYPD detective who makes a point of always following the rules. This “odd couple” become unofficial partners as Tony Sr. offers his overly-cautious son blunt, street-wise advice on everything from handling suspects to handling women.

I was going to note that this is Netflix's first procedural they order and point to the genre's popularity abroad (same reason we have NBC's upcoming Gone). But then I saw the premise...

 

[RatskyWatsky]

So um, Sean Bean To Topline Crackle Drama Series ‘The Oath’


Instead of his character dying, the platform which airs the show will die?

Netflix Orders Tony Danza Dramedy Series ‘The Good Cop’ From ‘Monk’ Duo

I was going to note that this is Netflix's first procedural they order and point to the genre's popularity abroad (same reason we have NBC's upcoming Gone). But then I saw the premise...

Yawn

 

[berzeli]

Me two years ago:

The Tap is just unfairly aimed at me. Spy fiction set in in the 60s? There is no way I won't be watching this even if it sucks (and seeing as it is written by the Royal Pains guy it probably will).

Do we know if USA passed on "The Tap" yet?

And today:
‘The Tap’ Yale University Period Drama Pilot Not Going Forward At USA Network

USA Network has made a decision on its last outstanding pilot, passing on period drama The Tap, from Rob Reiner and Andrew Lenchewski.

The project, originally set up at USA in 2014 and ordered to pilot in 2016, was set at the most famous secret society in American college history, Yale’s Skull and Bones. It took place around 1969, during the height of America’s cultural and political revolution — a time when the campus is being upended by antiwar protests, race riots and the arrival of its first female students.

Sigh. Then again, it sounds like they dropped the spy angle so maybe it was for the best.

 

[Grizzlyjin]

That Netflix cop show sounds...not for me. The premise sounds off cause Danza isn't that odd or quirky. And then he's playing the wild card in the duo against his straight man son.

Too bad about The Tap. I probably would've watched that. Although I'm learning that even the new era of USA shows aren't for me. I caught two episodes of Shooter on Netflix and yeah, no fucking thanks

 

[berzeli]

It will never end.
‘Supernatural’ Spinoff ‘Wayward Sisters’ Starring Kim Rhodes Set As Backdoor Pilot For Season 13 Of the CW Series

It’s the ladies’ turn in the Supernatural franchise. I have learned that the CW’s long-running drama series, about the adventures of the Winchester brothers, is prepping a new spinoff, Wayward Sisters, starring the original series’ standout Kim Rhodes.

The project — which is being developed as a planted spinoff and will have a backdoor pilot airing as an episode of Supernatural‘s upcoming 13th season — tells the story of Sheriff Jody Mills (Rhodes) and a group of troubled young women, all of them orphaned by supernatural tragedy. Under Mills’ training and protection, these women will emerge as a supreme monster-fighting force. Unlike the original series, which centers on a biological brothers, Wayward Sisters is about a sisterhood of girls in a foster family. The spinoff hails from a quartet of Supernatural writers-producers, showrunners Andrew Dabb and Robert Singer as well as Phil Sgriccia, Robert Berens.

 

[Joni]

Now they really can't kill her.

 

[morningbus]

Oh, gee. I wonder why they didn't make the cast of the Supernatural spinoff biological sisters.

 

[berzeli]

Skydance Trying Asimov’s ‘Foundation’ As TV Series; David Goyer, Josh Friedman To Adapt

The Isaac Asimov science fiction trilogy Foundation heavily informed Star Wars and many other sci-fi films and TV series, but for decades it has confounded Hollywood attempts at a straight adaptation. I’m hearing that Skydance, David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman are going to try to crack it. Skydance Television is closing a deal with the Asimov estate to try turning Foundation into a sprawling TV series.
...
I’ve heard that Goyer (credits including the Batman, Ghost Rider and Blade franchises) and Friedman (whose sci-fi credits include the War of the World remake and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, will step up and take their shot at the sprawling tale.

Netflix Orders 1990s Coming-Of-Age Dramedy Series ‘Everything Sucks!’

Netflix continues to tap into 1990s nostalgia with a ten-episode series order to Everything Sucks!, a half-hour dramedy from writers Ben York Jones (Like Crazy) and Michael Mohan (Save the Date) and producers Midnight Radio, for premiere in 2018.

Created by Jones and Mohan, the series — a Netflix production — is described as a quirky, funny coming-of-age story that follows two groups of high school misfits, an A/V club and a Drama club who collide in 1996 Oregon.

 

[Joni]

Foundation can work if you only use the basis and make up a lot of extra stuff.

 

[Puck Beaverton]

ew goyer

 

[Cornballer]

- Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt And More Will Dub Amazon’s Crazy-Sounding ‘Comrade Detective’

Comrade Detective, which premieres August 4th on Amazon Prime Video in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (no word on Romania yet), follows Detectives Gregor Anghel and Iosef Baciu as they seek to uncover who killed fellow officer Nikita Ionesco. Played by real-life Romanian actors Florin Piersic Jr. and Corneliu Ulici, Anghel and Baciu’s Romanian lines will be dubbed by Tatum and Gordon-Levitt. As for the rest of Comrade Detective‘s Romanian-speaking characters, they will be voiced in English by an amazing cast.

Jenny Slate, Chloë Sevigny, Jake Johnson, Jason Mantzoukas, Nick Offerman, Fred Armisen, Kim Basinger, Mahershala Ali, Tracey Letts, Bobby Cannavale, Richard Jenkins, Debra Winger, Mark Duplass, Katie Aselton Duplass, Jerrod Carmichael, Bo Burnham and John Early will all take part in the nostalgia-driven farce. For aside from parodying the dubbing process itself, Comrade Detective is also pretending to be a legitimate show from the ’80s. After all, as the official release notes, Detectives Anghel and Baciu’s murder investigation ultimately “[unravels] a subversive plot to destroy their country that is fueled by — what else — but the greatest enemy: Capitalism.”

 

[Cornballer]

- FX To Turn Mark Bowden Tet Offensive Chronicle ‘Hue 1968’ Into Limited Series; Michael Mann & Michael De Luca Producing

In a competitive situation, FX has landed the rights to turn the Mark Bowden bestseller Hue 1968 into a limited event series that will span eight- to 10-hours. Michael Mann and Michael De Luca will creatively quarterback the adaptation of Bowden’s kaleidoscopic account of the bloody siege that became the turning point of American involvement in the Vietnam War. Mann plans to direct multiple installments of the series, including the opener, and he will produce alongside De Luca and FX Productions. The hope is to be shooting by year’s end in Asia. The book was just published to critical acclaim by Grove Atlantic.

Bowden’s historical books have often been optioned by Hollywood, and the best result came with the Ridley Scott-directed 2001 thriller Black Hawk Down. While that film told the story from the perspective of elite American soldiers who raided Somalia and then attempted to rescue downed pilots when things went awry, Hue 1968 will be a different exercise. Bowden wrote the book from multiple vantage points, and the series adaptation will humanize the conflict by telling the story through the eyes of different characters on both sides over a 26-day period. The cultural and historical capital city, Hue was the centerpiece of Hanoi’s 1968 Tet Offensive, a surprise attack by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong that sought to win the war in one stroke. Part military action and popular uprising, NVA infantry crossed mountains, undetected, with smuggled weapons awaiting them. This set the stage for a surprise attack that overran the city except for two small military outposts.

The intertwined characters include a seemingly innocent schoolgirl on a bike, whose heart had hardened her into a revolutionary after her sister was executed, leading her to help smuggle weapons; a former NFL tackle who became a U.S. Marine colonel and tactician; a Buddhist poet turned Vietcong commissar; an American civilian meeting his Vietnamese fiancée’s family; a math teacher from Hanoi in the North Vietnamese Army; a Marine captain radio operator from Pennsylvania, who immersed himself in local culture and language and then found himself unable to convince his supervisors that Hue had been over-run by conventional infantry; President Lyndon Johnson in his pajamas in the White House with Gen. Westmoreland, a sleepover guest who presented a rosy view of progress in Vietnam. The limited series will follow Bowden’s narrative structure to make understandable why bloody events unfolded the way they did and made clear that Vietnam was an unwinnable war for the U.S.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

- FX To Turn Mark Bowden Tet Offensive Chronicle ‘Hue 1968' Into Limited Series; Michael Mann & Michael De Luca Producing

Very cool - I'm in!

 

[Net_Wrecker]

- FX To Turn Mark Bowden Tet Offensive Chronicle ‘Hue 1968' Into Limited Series; Michael Mann & Michael De Luca Producing

Mann and FX seem to have something going on with each other considering FX has recently premiered the Blackhat Director's Cut, which isn't available anywhere else at the moment.

Very excited for this. A Michael Mann Vietnam mini-series is a very good thing that I never knew I needed.

 

[Cornballer]

- ‘The L Word’ Sequel In Works At Showtime With Jennifer Beals & Others Eying Return

 

[berzeli]

Channel 4 commissions Shane Meadows' brand new 4-part drama The Virtue

BAFTA-nominated Stephen Graham (This is England, ’86, ’88, ’90, Boardwalk Empire, Taboo) stars as Joseph, a moral yet troubled man who’s lost everything he ever held dear and who finds himself compelled to travel to Ireland to confront the demons from a childhood spent in the care system that continue to haunt him, with savage and brutal consequences. His path soon crosses that of Dinah, played by newcomer Niamh Algar (Without Name). She’s fiery and more than able to stand up for herself, but like Joseph she’s also deeply guarded, holding close a secret she’s hiding from all those around her.

Helen Behan (This is England ‘88 & ‘90) joins the cast as Anna, the sister Joseph hasn’t seen since they were separated as children, with Frank Laverty (Michael Collins, Angela’s Ashes) playing Michael, Anna’s husband.

At once an unlikely love story between two people cast adrift in life and an exploration of the conflict between sin and virtue, The Virtues (W/T) is a visceral and beautiful paean to the human spirit.
...
Written by Shane Meadows and BAFTA-winner Jack Thorne (This is England, ’86, ’88, ’90, National Treasure), The Virtues is directed by Meadows

Jack Thorne! I love that man (and his work ethic).
Between this and the details of their Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams Channel 4 is making me very happy.

- FX To Turn Mark Bowden Tet Offensive Chronicle ‘Hue 1968’ Into Limited Series; Michael Mann & Michael De Luca Producing

"will humanize the conflict by telling the story through the eyes of different characters on both sides"
Good. Just, you know, don't fuck this up.

 

[Cornballer]

Interview with HBO president Casey Bloys about Game of Thrones has a brief snippet on their drama output:

- THR: 'Game of Thrones' Future Explained: Could All the Prequels Move Forward?

Considering all of the projects are prequels, will these be more along the lines of Fear the Walking Dead — which exists in the same universe but does not have any direct connection to the flagship — or Better Call Saul, which will eventually take viewers to the beginning of Breaking Bad? Could these eventually connect to a flagship or will they be in an island of one?

The whole world is connected to some extent family tree-wise, and the timelines are so vast that unless you jumped ahead tens or hundreds of years, I don't see [the prequels connecting] happening. The other point I want to make about clamping down spin-off fever is if none of them work, remember, we are building up our drama slate: We have Westworld, which is our highest-rated freshman drama in history; Watchmen, which we're very hopeful that Damon Lindelof is excited about working on that; we've got Lovecraft Country; Alan Ball's show; we've got David Simon's new show. So it would be nice to have a Game of Thrones property, but the fate of the network does not hang in the balance.

Sounds like that's the stuff on the front burner, though most of those are a while off. Notably no mention of True Detective.

 

[Cornballer]

- Showtime Lands ‘Guantanamo’ Series; Oliver Stone To Direct Opening Episode

In competitive bidding, Showtime has landed Guantanamo, a drama series series that will start with a 10 episode first season. Oliver Stone is poised to direct the two-hour opening episode in what marks the 3-time Oscar winning filmmaker’s first foray in scripted television. Weinstein Television acquired the project in May. Created by Daniel Voll (The Unit), who will also serve as showrunner, Guantanamo focuses on the detainees held in the world’s most controversial prison, and those who defend and condemn them. Alexandra Milchan (The Wolf of Wall Street) will produce with Weinstein Television. This adds to a flurry of high caliber director driven television series deals for Weinstein, which includes Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone at Paramount TV, series with David O Russell and Mad Men‘s Matt Weiner at Amazon, and the John Erick Dowdle & Dennie Gordon-directed Waco at Paramount TV. TWC’s Harvey Weinstein and David Glasser will be executive producers on Guantanamo.

Sources say that Guantanamo will open a writers room August 1. Production is expected to begin later this year. The deal for Guantanamo comes after Showtime broadcast on consecutive nights in June the four hourlong installments of The Putin Interviews, in which Stone grilled Russian president Vladimir Putin about the divisive issues in Russian-U.S. relations. Guantanamo Bay is equally hot button subject matter. The detention camp was opened after the September 11 attacks to interrogate and imprison suspects in the war on terror. Human rights organizations condemn the treatment, including various forms of torture, of the 780 prisoners held at Guantanamo. In 2009, President Obama vowed to close the camp, but was met with opposition. The camp remains open with 41 prisoners today.

 

[Cornballer]

- THR: 'Walking Dead,' 'Fargo' Creators Team for FX Crime Drama

Joe and Anthony Russo will adapt 'The Mastermind,' based on the Atavist Magazine series of investigative articles.

FX is getting into the crime business.

The basic cable network is teaming with the creators of The Walking Dead and Fargo to develop crime drama The Mastermind.

Based on the series of founder Evan Ratliff's investigative stories from longform nonfiction publishing platform Atavist Magazine, The Mastermind revolves around Paul Le Roux, a former programmer and criminal cartel boss-turned-Drug Enforcement Administration informant.

Brothers Joe and Anthony Russo (Captain America: Winter Soldier) will exec produce and direct the drama, which is currently in development. Fargo and Legion showrunner Noah Hawley and his FX Productions-based 26 Keys banner will also exec produce. The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman's Skybound Entertainment will also exec produce with the Dave Alpert also on board.

The deal brings Kirkman to FX, which is among the networks that passed on The Walking Dead before AMC scooped up the zombie drama.

The project joins a growing TV slate for Kirkman and Skybound, which also have Fear the Walking Dead, the Talking Dead franchise, Cinemax's Outcast and more.

 

[Cornballer]

- ‘Homecoming’ Drama Series Starring Julia Roberts Lands At Amazon With Two-Season Pickup

In a very competitive situation, with production offers from multiple streaming/cable outlets, I have learned that Amazon has nabbed the hot drama series project Homecoming starring Oscar winner Julia Roberts. I hear the half-hour drama, from Universal Cable Productions and Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail, who is directing and executive producing, has received a two-season straight-to-series order.

Homecoming, based on Gimlet Media’s breakout fictional podcast of the same name, which launched in November, has been a hot property from the start. Upon launch, the podcast immediately was pursued by several top film and TV producers and studios. UCP landed the rights to Homecoming in December in a very competitive situation for Esmail to develop as a TV series via his overall deal there. Anonymous Content, which produces Mr. Robot with UCP, also came on board to produce. The project immediately attracted major A-list actors, with Roberts engaging in conversations in early June that led to a deal.

Written by the podcast’s original writers and directed by Esmail, Homecoming is a psychological thriller that centers on a caseworker at a secret government facility (Roberts) and a soldier eager to rejoin civilian life.

Presented in a collage of telephone calls, therapy sessions and overheard conversations, the Homecoming podcast had a cast led by Catherine Keener that also included Oscar Isaac, David Schwimmer, Amy Sedaris and David Cross. Keener voiced the caseworker, with Isaac as the soldier.

The first season of Homecoming received critical praised and was named a finalist for the 2016 Peabody Awards. Season 2 premieres today, July 19.

 

[berzeli]

Dan Harmon is bringing Kurt Vonnegut’s The Sirens Of Titan to TV

If he hadn’t recently confirmed the Rick And Morty season three premiere, the news that Dan Harmon‘s developing another TV series might have had led to a fan uprising (or, more likely, just angry tweets). Instead, we can feel excited and/or cautiously optimistic about the fact that Harmon’s adapting Kurt Vonnegut’s The Sirens Of Titan for Universal Cable Productions. According to CinemaBlend, Harmon is working with longtime 24 (and its offshoots) producer Evan Katz on the series, which is based on Vonnegut’s sci-fi novel from 1959. The Sirens Of Titan adaptation hasn’t landed a network yet, but NBC and USA are in the running.

The series will center on Malachi Constant, the richest man in the U.S., who’s used his “divine” luck to build his father’s fortune. But that money can’t shield him from a brewing war between Mars and Earth. Soon, Malachi’s on an interplanetary journey with another really rich guy, trying to determine whether or not free will exists.

I'm certain that this will materialise

 

[Busty]

- ‘Homecoming’ Drama Series Starring Julia Roberts Lands At Amazon With Two-Season Pickup

This show sounds awful. Julia Roberts in a thriller based on a podcast from the Mr Robot guy?

Who is the audience for this?!

Hard pass.

 

[berzeli]

‘Game Of Thrones' Creators Will Reteam With HBO On ‘Confederate' Alt-History Drama Series

Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have set their next project post Got. They will return to HBO with Confederate, an alt-history original drama series.

Written by Benioff and Weiss, who also will showrun, Confederate chronicles events leading to the Third American Civil War. It takes place in an alternate timeline, where the southern states have successfully seceded from the Union, giving rise to a nation in which slavery remains legal and has evolved into a modern institution. The story follows a broad swath of characters on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Demilitarized Zone – freedom fighters, slave hunters, politicians, abolitionists, journalists, the executives of a slave-holding conglomerate and the families of people in their thrall.

Eh.

 

[Cornballer]

I just made a thread for it. Not too excited about the concept, but we'll see.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

Dan Harmon is bringing Kurt Vonnegut’s The Sirens Of Titan to TV

I'm certain that this will materialise

A broadcast network version of this would probably be fucking awful.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

David Cronenberg Novel ‘Consumed’ To Be Developed As TV Series At AMC

David Cronenberg’s novel Consumed is getting drama series treatment at AMC. Fear The Walking Dead showrunner Dave Erickson has teamed with Lucifer executive producer Sheri Elwood to develop the novel as an hourlong drama series for AMC, where Erickson is under an overall deal.

Consumed is described as a mind-bending psychological thriller that follows two journalists who set out to solve the cannibalistic murder of a controversial Parisian philosopher.

 

[Dan]

David Cronenberg Novel ‘Consumed’ To Be Developed As TV Series At AMC

I could see this as a miniseries, but not on AMC and I don't think those writers inspire confidence. None of those traits are appropriate for the book I read.

Stylish and camera-obsessed, Naomi and Nathan thrive on the yellow journalism of the social-media age. Naomi finds herself drawn to the headlines surrounding a famous couple, Célestine and Aristide, Marxist philosophers and sexual libertines. Célestine has been found dead, and Aristide has disappeared. Police suspect him of killing her and consuming parts of her body. Yet Naomi sets off to find him, and as she delves deeper into the couple’s lives, she discovers the news story may only skim the surface of the disturbing acts they performed together.

Journalist Nathan, meanwhile, is in Budapest photographing the controversial work of an unlicensed surgeon named Zoltán Molnár, once sought by Interpol for organ trafficking. After sleeping with one of Molnár’s patients, Nathan contracts a rare STD called Roiphe’s and travels to Toronto, determined to meet the man who discovered the syndrome. Dr. Barry Roiphe, Nathan learns, now studies his own adult daughter, whose bizarre behavior masks a devastating secret.

These parallel narratives become entwined in a gripping, dreamlike plot that involves geopolitics, 3-D printing, North Korea, the Cannes Film Festival, cancer, and, in an incredible number of varieties, sex.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

‘Chernobyl': HBO Miniseries to Begin Production in 2018

This five-part miniseries dramatizes the true story of one of the worst man-made catastrophes in history, and tells of the brave men and women who sacrificed to save Europe from unimaginable disaster.

It is written by Craig Mazin; directed by Johan Renck; executive produced by Carolyn Strauss, Jane Featherstone and Craig Mazin; co- executive produced by Chris Fry and Johan Renck.

It's a co-pro with Sky btw.

 

[Dan]

‘Chernobyl': HBO Miniseries to Begin Production in 2018



It's a co-pro with Sky btw.

Interested. And starring Jared Harris!

 

[berzeli]

‘Chernobyl': HBO Miniseries to Begin Production in 2018

It's a co-pro with Sky btw.

Well, they couldn't have gotten a better director for the job.

... buuuut is that the The Hangover guy??
fake edit: checked his twitter and it is.
I was a bit worried about how well he would handle this topic, then I remembered that he was Ted Cruz' roommate so he's quite acquainted with man-made disasters.