TV SALES, PICK-UPS, ATTACHMENTS, RENEWALS & DEALS (1.23.15)
TV SALES
NBC commissioned 13 episodes of Eva Longoria‘s new single-camera comedy, TELENOVELA. The Desperate Housewives star portrays a persistent diva and star of Latin America’s most beloved telenovela. Written/executive produced by Cougar Town co-executive producers Chrissy Pietrosh and Jessica Goldstein. Longoria and Ben Spector are set to executive produce.
TV RENEWALS
Fox has renewed GOTHAM, BROOKLYN NINE-NINE, and breakout star EMPIRE for next season.
TV CANCELLATIONS
TV ATTACHMENTS
Gary Sinise is attached to lead in the CBS spinoff of Criminal Minds. The untitled project focuses on an FBI unit that deals with American citizens in trouble abroad. Sinise will play the 20 year veteran and unit commander, Jack Garrett. Erica Messer will executive produces with Mark Gordon and Nick Pepper of the Mark Gordon Co. Sinise is repped by Brillstein Entertainment Partners and CAA.
Keir O’Donnell has joined FX‘s Golden Globe award winning mini-series, FARGO. The American Sniper actor is said to be playing Ben Schmidt, known only as a “driven and ambitious” character. The new installment is already set to star Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Ted Danson and Patrick Wilson. O’Donnell is repped by UTA and Visionary Entertainment.
Julianne Hough and Vanessa Hudgens are attached to star in the Fox and Paramount Television‘s GREASE: LIVE (working title), a re-imagined live-event based on the musical Grease. Hough and Hudgens will star as Rydell High’s iconic duo Sandy and Rizzo. The show will be executive-produced by Marc Platt. It will be a Paramount Television production.
Rob Lowe, Jenna Fischer, Megan Mullally, Mathew Baynton, Pauline Quirke, Patterson Joseph and Joel Fry have all signed on to Sky 1‘s 10-part British series, APOCALYPSE SLOUGH. The series follows an eclectic group of people hunker beneath the town of Slough to watch the end of the world on TV.
Luna Blaise has been cast in ABC’s debut sitcom FRESH OFF THE BOAT in a guest starring arc as Nicole, a girl who lives in the same neighborhood as young Eddie Huang. Blaise is repped by Coast to Coast and DNA Entertainment.
Kerry Condon and Toby Leonard Moore have been cast in the Showtime drama pilot BILLIONS. The story takes a forensic look at the world of high finance by tracking the approaching collision between two titanic figures – U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades, and hedge fund king, Bobby “Axe” Axelrod. Starring opposite Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis, Condon will play Lara Axelrod, Bobby’s wife and Moore will play Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Bryan Connerty. The drama is written and executive produced by Brian Koppelman and David Levien and Andrew Ross Sorkin. Condon is repped by ICM Partners, Frameworks and Curtis Brown. Moore, repped by Gersh and McKeon/Myones Entertainment.
Nadia Hilker and Amber Clayton are attached to star as the female leads in TNT’s pilot BREED. The drama, from writer/novelist John Scott Shepherd follows Cooper, a mentally unstable yet gifted detective, as he tracks down the mysterious race of creatures that have committed a series of brutal murders in the Pacific Northwest. Hilker will play Ruby, a powerful assassin born of a long line of Eastern European hunters called Avelytes.Clayton plays Mandy, Cooper’s girlfriend who followed him from New York to Tacoma after he got fired from the FBI. The show will be directed by Scott Winant and produced by Nicky Weinstock. Hilker is repped by Robert Kelly Associates in the UK. Clayton is repped by Catherine Poulton Management, Glick Agency and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.
TV GREENLIGHTS
TV DEALS
NBC has signed a development deal with Dolly Parton as the first step a plan to create a series of TV movies based on Parton’s songs, stories, and life. The network has said that the projects will not be musicals but that Parton may appear in them. Parton will develop the projects with production partner Sam Haskell of Magnolia Hill Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television.
PBS and BBC have inked a multi-title co-production deal also involving BBC Worldwide. The deal will create eight to 10 new programming specials, both one-offs and multipart series, to air on PBS nationwide. The specials will cover a full range of genres — natural history, history, science, religion and the arts.