The Tracking Board’s Daily Debrief (07.20.16)

Ellen DeGeneres Developing Dance Moms Movie At Warner Bros. (EXCLUSIVE)

The popular Lifetime series Dance Moms is the jumping off point for a new comedy from Ellen Degeneres. The film is in development at A Very Good Production, Degeneres’ TV group-based production company under Warner Bros.

Things Are Tough All Over, Especially At Paramount (Studio Series)

While Star Trek Beyond could do very well this weekend, last summer the Paramount executives would have scoffed at the idea that the studio’s highest grossing film of 2016 thus far would be a Will Ferrell comedy released on Christmas Day. Of the previous year.

Will Lionsgate Be Sending The Divergent Series To Television?

YA franchise Divergent may be making the jump to the small screen with Lionsgate planning to adapt The Divergent Series: Ascendant as a TV movie and possible spinoff television series.

More News From Around The Web

• John Crowley is in talks to direct the highly anticipated adaptation of Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Goldfinch.” Warner Bros. acquired the rights to the sought after novel in 2014 and tapped Peter Straughan to adapt the script. (Collider)

• Paramount TV and The Night Manager producers The Ink Factory are teaming to develop a limited series based on another John le Carré novel, the New York Times bestselling espionage tale The Spy Who Came in From The Cold. (Deadline)

• Charlize Theron and Basil Iwanyk are producing a biopic about the late war photographer Marie Colvin, and now Cartel Land director Matthew Heineman has been tapped to helm the project. The script was adapted by Arash Amel and is based on a Vanity Fair article. (The Hollywood Reporter)

• Shrek 5 is in the works at DreamWorks Animation, with Universal planning to distribute following NBCUniversal’s recent acquisition of the animation studio. Shrek 5 is currently slated for a 2019 release, but no story or casting announcements have been made at this point (Screen Rant)

• Channel 4 and National Geographic are teaming up for a drama series about four British men and women who travel to Raqqah in Syria to join ISIS. Wolf Hall director Peter Kosminsky is slated to write and direct. (The Guardian)

• Tony award winning Hamilton star Daveed Diggs will have a seasonal arc on ABC’s hit comedy Black-ish. The news comes shortly after Diggs departed the Broadway stage and subsequently signed on to a supporting role in the Julia Roberts drama Wonder. (Variety)

• Actors Amandla Stenberg and Nick Robinson will star in MGM and Alloy Entertainment’s adaptation of Everything, Everything, the YA novel from author Nicola Yoon. The debut novel follows a teen whose rare autoimmune disease forces her to stay in her home – but falls in love with a new neighbor across the street. (The Hollywood Reporter)

• AT&T Audience Network has given a straight-to-series order to Loudermilk, a new half-hour scripted comedy created by writer-director Peter Farrelly and Bobby Mort. Ten episodes have been ordered, with production scheduled to start in October. (Deadline)