Small Screen: CBS Announces 'Y&R', 'B&B' Crossover Episode; Zazie Beetz To Star In HBO Max Series 'Full Circle' From Stephen Soderbergh; Alliance Of Latin American Executives Formed
CBS
Broadcast: CBS has announced a crossover episode between The Young And The Restless, which is celebrating 50 years on the air, and its sister soap The Bold And The Beautiful. No other details have been released other than that the event will air on September 26th.
Bob Hearts Abishola’s Saidah Arrika Ekulona (Better Call Saul, A League Of Their Own) has been promoted to series regular for the show’s upcoming fourth season. The actress plays the Nigerian Abishola’s (Folake Olowofoyeku) mother Ebunoluwa in the CBS comedy about a middle-aged compression sock businessman (Billy Gardell) from Detroit who has a heart attack and unexpectedly falls for his cardiac nurse (Olowofoyeku). The Chuck Lorre Production, which is produced in association with Warner Bros Television and executive produced by showrunners Lorre, Al Higgins, Gina Yashere, and Matt Ross, has its season premiere on September 19th.
ABC and 20th Television are developing a new Muslim-American comedy loosely based on a chapter from the book Undercooked: How I Let Food Become My Life Navigator and How Maybe That’s A Dumb Way To Live written by Cobra Kai actor Dan Ahdoot, which is being released early next year by Crown Publishing. Ahdoot is set to write and executive produce alongside Modern Family’s Vali Chandrasekaran.
Anand Desai-Barochia - Albert L. Ortega
Cable: The Outpost’s Anand Desai-Barochia has been cast in a guest role on Freeform’s Everything’s Trash. The comedy series, based on Phoebe Robinson’s book of the same name, stars Robinson as an outspoken podcaster in Brooklyn whose brother launches a political campaign. Desai-Barochia will be playing the CEO of a major podcast venture who wants to do business with Robinson and her podcasting partner. After the show’s finale airs on September 7th, all the episodes will be available to stream on Hulu.
Eiza González - Cindy Ord/MG22
Streaming: Zazie Beetz, best known for her Emmy-nominated portrayal of Van on the hit FX series Atlanta, will star in a six-episode limited series for HBO Max. Full Circle, directed by Stephen Soderberg and written by Ed Solomon, was ordered back in August of 2021 by HBO Max and is described as “an investigation into a botched kidnapping uncovers long-held secrets connecting multiple characters and cultures in present-day New York City” but the details of Beetz’ character have yet to be revealed. Soderbergh and Solomon will also executive produce the series with their No Sudden Move collaborator Casey Silver.
The first trailer for Hulu’s legal drama series Reasonable Doubt has been released. Executive produced by writer Raamla Mohamed and Kerry Washington (who also directed the first episode) is the first scripted drama from ABC Signature and Disney’s Onyx Collective. Premiering on September 27th, it stars Emayatzy Corinealdi as a Los Angeles defense attorney with a cast that includes McKinley Freeman, Michael Ealy, Thaddeus J. Mixson, Aderinsola Olabode, Tim Jo, Angela Grovey, Sean Patrick Thomas, and Pauletta Washington. Mohamed, who also serves as showrunner, leads an all-Black writers’ room and every episode is directed by Black directors as per the Onyx Collective Brand.
It was announced that Mariamo Diallo, who recently helmed her first feature, Master, will direct the pilot episode of the Hulu original series The Other Black Girl. Adapted from the Zakiya Dalila Harris novel of the same name, the show comes from executive producers Harris, Rashida Jones, Temple Hill, Adam Fishbach, and showrunner Danielle Henderson. The Other Black Girl tells the story of Nella and Hazel, the only two black girls employed at a publishing company with sinister secrets.
Eiza González has joined the cast of the Hulu limited series La Máquina. The Spanish-language series stars Gael Garciá Bernal as an aging boxer and Diego Luna as his crafty manager. González (Baby Driver, I Care A Lot) plays the aspiring sports journalist and ex-wife of Garciá Bernal’s Esteban, Irasema, who has known the pair since they were teenagers. In addition to starring, Garciá Bernal and Luna also executive produce with Gerardo Gatica, Leandro Halperin, Adam Fishbach, Kyzza Terrazas, and writer Marco Ramirez, who also serves as showrunner.
Clean Slate, the new original comedy from Norman Lear’s Act III Productions, has been given the green light from Amazon Freevee. In development since February 2021, Clean Slate focuses on a car wash owner (played by comedian George Wallace) who’s estranged child, a trans woman (played by Emmy nominee Laverne Cox), comes back home to Alabama after 17 years. The story comes from Cox, Wallace, and writer Dan Ewen, who executive produces the show with Cox, the 100-year-old Lear, Brent Miller, and Paul Hilepo.
The upcoming Peacock series Poker Face starring Natasha Lyonne has added a few new faces to its cast, including the new Gomez Addams Luis Guzmán and The Whale’s Hong Chau. Guzman, who frequently works with film directors Stephen Sodebergh and Paul Thomas Anderson, and Chau, best known for her roles in Downsizing and Watchmen, are joining a huge cast that includes Benjamin Bratt, Jameela Jamil, S. Epatha Merkerson, Stephanie Hsu, and Tim Meadows. Knives Out’s Rian Johnson is the creator, writer, and director of the ten-episode anthology-like series. He also serves as executive producer with Ram Bergman of T-Street, Nena Rodrigue, showrunners Nora Zuckerman, and Lilla Zuckerman, star Lyonne, Maya Rudolph, and Danielle Renfrew Behrens from Animal Pictures.
Queen & Slim and Anne Boleyn actress Jodie Turner-Smith is in talks to star opposite Amanda Stenberg in the upcoming Star Wars series The Acolyte for Disney+. All of the details of the series are being kept heavily under wraps but the show is described as a “mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era.” The Acolyte comes from Russian Doll creator Leslye Headland and is said to begin production in London in late fall.
In other Star Wars news, Eman Esfandi of King Richard has been cast as Ezra Bridger in the live-action Ahsoka series starring Rosario Dawson for Disney+. The character was first introduced in the animated Star Wars: Rebels, which was co-created by The Mandalorian’s Dave Filoni.
Another cast member has joined Disney+’s Marvel series Ironheart. Shakira Barrera of the new Amazon Freevee series Sprung is said to have been added to the list of series regulars led by Dominique Thorne, who stars as genius inventor Riri Williams. Barrera, a Goodwill ambassador to Nicaragua, will appear alongside Anthony Ramos, Manny Montana, Alden Ehrenreich, Regan Aliyah, Shea Couleé, and Zoe Terakes. The six-episode series from head writer Chinaka Hodge and directors Sam Bailey and Angela Barnes comes from Ryan Coogler via his company Proximity Media and is executive produced by Hodge, Zinzi Coogler, and Sev Ohanian serve as executive producers alongside Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum, and Zoie Nagelhout.
LaMonica Garrett is one of three actors being added to the Paramount+ series Lioness starring Zoe Saldaña and Laysla De Oliveira. Garrett will play an experienced CIA Special Activities Division operative with fellow new cast member James Jordan on the show based on a real-life CIA program. Both actors, along with Dave Annable, have been featured in other productions by Taylor Sheridan, who executive produces Lioness with Saldaña, Nicole Kidman, David C. Glasser, Ron Burkle, Bob Yari, David Hutkin, Jill Wagner, Geyer Kosinski, Michael Malone, and John Hillcoat. Garrett appeared in Sheridan’s Yellowstone prequel series 1883.
Speaking of Yellowstone, Q’orianka Kilcher, whose attorney Angela Blue Thunder was last seen in the Season Three finale, will return to the Paramount series for the upcoming fifth season. The new season of the series about an American family who controls the largest contiguous cattle ranch in the U.S. will have its premiere on November 13th.
R. O. Kwon
Industry: With Liz Truss officially the UK’s new Conservative Party Leader and Prime Minister, the next question is whether Nadine Dorries will continue to serve as Culture Secretary. The former I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! contestant is a controversial figurehead due to her stances on the privatization of public broadcasting, coupled with her claim that the reality show she was on many years ago was rigged with actors. Truss is expected to set out an economic plan soon to address the national economic crisis but it’s unsure as to whether this will involve any decisions regarding Dorries or reversing privatization.
Disney Branded Television has promoted four of its executives, including Amee Dolleman and Mahita Penke, to the original movies division. The announcement was made that Amee Dolleman, who joined Disney in 2018, would be moved up to vice president of original movies with Charles Pugliese, while Mahita Penke, whose credits include the Zombies and Descendants franchises, would be elevated to executive director of original movies along with Jennifer Dubin. Disney’s Original Movies department is led by Lauren Kisilevsk, who commented that all four chosen executives possessed “exceptional taste and fantastic relationships with top creative talent.”
FilmNation Entertainment TV announced it is developing a limited series based on the novel The Incendiaries by R. O. Kwon. They are producing it in association with Wishmore Entertainment and have tapped Lisa Randolph of Jessica Jones and Star Trek: Discovery to adapt and Pachinko’s Kogonado to serve as a director. Kwon’s nationally bestselling first novel, The Incendiaries about two lovers at a prestigious college has been translated into 7 languages and was named the best book of the year by over 40 publications.
Tony Award-winning actress and filmmaker Tonya Pinkins, who recently starred opposite Adrienne Warren in the ABC limited series Women of the Movement, has signed with The Rosenzweig Group for management. She has also had notable reoccurring roles in such series as God Friended Me, Fear the Walking Dead, Gotham, 24, and J.J. Abrams’ 11.22.63.
The Good Doctor’s Bria Samoné Henderson has signed with The Gersh Agency for representation. Henderson, who is also known for her portrayal of radical feminists and Ms. Magazine editor Margaret Sloan on the Hulu limited series, Mrs. America, will return as Dr. Jordan Allen on David Shore’s hit ABC medical drama when its sixth season debuts on October 3rd.
The Alliance of LatinX Executives has recently been created in Hollywood to help companies hire more diverse groups of employees as it can to populate the industry with allies and ultimately support LatinX writers and producers who might not have had a chance to get their projects made. It compromises more than 100 executives and a slew of senior producers and network executives, including founding members Cris Abrego, Chairman of the Americas, Banijay and President and CEO, Endemol Shine Holdings; John Pollak, the former NBCU exec who recently set up a management company with Wilmer Valderrama; Nina Tassler, the former CBS Entertainment chairman who now runs PatMa Productions with Denise Di Novi; Fabrizio Alcobe, who previously ran Telemundo Global Studios; Latin World Entertainment’s Luis Balaguer; Adriana Cisneros, CEO of Grupo Cisneros; Collective Moxie’s Julie Ann Crommett; Universal Television Alternative Studio’s Minerva Lopez; Univision’s Rodrigo Mazon; UTA’s Laura Roenick; Propagate Content’s Isabel San Vargas; and 51 Minds’ Christian Sarabia.
Dionne Harmon, who just won an Emmy for co-producing the 2022 Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show with Dr. Dre, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent, and Kendrick Lamar, has been promoted from EVP Content and Strategy to President at Jesse Collins Entertainment. She will now oversee all aspects of the company’s creative strategy and financial growth under Collins. An executive producer on the scripted series Real Husbands of Hollywood and American Soul, two shows from JCE (which has a multi-year overall agreement with ViacomCBS Cable Networks), Harmon was featured on the 2021 Showtime documentary The Show and two episodes of the 2022 Peacock docuseries Earnin’ it: The NFL’s Forward Progress.
L’Oréal (UK & Ireland) diversity exec Chinny Okolidoh has been named as the first Diversity & Inclusion Director for The BBC. The position was put in place to “oversee the development and implementation of initiatives related to on-air and production, talent representation, commissioning guidelines, diversity and inclusion training programs, and metrics to measure progress.” Okolidoh says she looks forward “to building on the great work that has been done so far and continuing to put diversity and inclusion at the heart of everything the BBC does to inform, educate and entertain millions of people in the UK and around the world.”
Kim Harrison, the executive producer, and co-showrunner of the upcoming Disney+ basketball series The Crossover has inked an overall deal with 20th Century Television to develop new projects. The Crossover is based on Kwame Alexander’s best-selling coming-of-age novel about teen brothers who are basketball phenoms and Harrison serves as co-showrunner on the series alongside Alexander and Damani Johnson who wrote the pilot script together.
Actor, dancer and choreographer Raoul Trujillo has signed with Innovative Artists for representation in all areas. Trujillo is best known for his portrayal of Che ‘Taza’ Romero on FX’s crime drama series Mayans M.C., which has been renewed for a fifth season.