Small Screen: Justin Cortez Appears on CW’s ‘Walker,’ The BBC Gets New Regulations
Elizabeth Yu - Kevin Mazur
Broadcast: Fox has renewed 9-1-1, 9-1-1: Lone Star, Animal Control, and Call Me Kat, along with the previously-announced renewal of drama The Cleaning Lady. Featuring names like Angela Bassett and Peter Krause, as well as heavy use of special effects, 9-1-1 is Fox’s most expensive drama after six seasons. Despite its expense, most were expecting a renewal of the series as the cast has one year remaining in their contracts. Animal Control, starring Vella Lovell, Ravi Patel, and Joel McHale, is paired with Call Me Kat, with Mayim Bialik, Kyla Pratt, and the late Leslie Jordan up until the time of his death; despite Jordan’s passing, both have been renewed for their second and third seasons, respectively. Renewal of the network’s drama The Cleaning Lady with Elodie Young was announced in February.
Chris Chalk will play James Baldwin in Feud: Capote’s Women. The most recent installment of the Feud series, Capote’s Women is based on Laurence Leamer’s book with a script written by Jon Robin Baitz. The series will tell the story of Truman Capote’s friendship with his “swans,” a group of 1960s society women whose lives Capote referenced in his 1975 Esquire piece La Côte Basque 1965. In addition to playing Baldwin, Chalk plays Paul Drake in Perry Mason, and has appeared in Gotham, Homeland, 12 Years a Slave, and When They See Us, as well as on Broadway opposite Denzel Washington and Viola Davis in Fences.
Essence Atkins and Tetona Jackson will star in Damon Wayans’ and Damon Wayans Jr. 's CBS family comedy, yet to be titled. The project, which got a pilot order in February, follows talk radio host “Poppa” (Wayans) whose sexism is challenged when he must work with a female co-host. Poppa lives with his adult son Junior (Wayans Jr.), who is trying to balance finding his passions while being a father and husband. Atkins will play Dr. Ivy Reed, host of an advice radio show who joins Poppa as part of the station’s efforts to modernize their content. Ivy and Poppa argue over their respective old-school and modern points of view, leading to a rivalry. Jackson will play Junior’s wife, who seeks to balance supporting Junior with a realistic outlook on life. Atkins is known for her recurring role on BET+’s First Wives Club and ABC’s The Company You Keep. She and Wayans worked together on NBC’s 2017 sitcom Marlon. Jackson is a recurring actor on Freeform’s Good Trouble. No release date for the Wayans’ untitled project has been announced.
Justin Johnson Cortez will play a recurring role in CW’s Walker: Independence, a prequel to the 2021 period drama Walker. Cortez will play Calain, an Indigenous scout who speaks fluent English and has complicated feelings about the influx of white settlers to his Texas community. Walker: Independence bills itself as a Walker origin series, set in the 1800s and following Abigail Walker, ancestor of Cordell Walker (Padalecki). When Abigail’s husband is murdered, she seeks revenge, accompanying an old friend of her father’s to Independence, Texas. When Abby is left for dead in the desert brush, Cortez’s Calain saves her from death and they develop an unlikely friendship. Cortez, who is of Yaqui Tribe descent, is best known for his roles on 911: Lone Star and Lucifer, as well as being an actor, writer, director, and producer in the short film The Fall. New episodes of Season 2 of Walker air on the CW on Thursdays.
NBC drama pilot formerly titled Murder by the Book (currently untitled) has added Elizabeth Yu and Hilda Martin to its cast. The series stars comedian Retta, who plays an internet-famous book reviewer and unlikely detective in a sleepy beach town. Martin will play the younger Hazel, and Yu will play the younger Maggie. Yu appeared in Avatar: The Last Airbender and upcoming drama May December alongside Natalie Portman. Martin appeared in Lifetime’s He’s Not Worth Dying For, Hallmark’s Our Christmas Journey, and the CW’s Superman and Lois. Along with starring in the untitled project, Retta will also executive produce with Krebs, Bans, and Casey Kyber.
BBC Three’s Domino Day, a dating drama where witches use apps to hunt their targets, has begun casting. Among the first of the cast to be announced is Adult Material star Siena Kelly, a BAFTA nominated actor who will play a young witch named Domino. Domino feeds on the energy of those around her, a fact that complicates her quest to begin life anew in Manchester. Unbeknownst to her, Domino is being hunted by a coven of witches. Other actors cast in the series include Babirye Bukilwa (We Hunt Together), Alisha Bailey (Call the Midwife), Molly Harris (Industry), Percelle Ascott (The Innocents), Christopher Jeffers (Rocketman), and Maimuna Memon (Sherwood). BAFTA nominee and new writer Lauren Sequeira will make her screenwriting debut with Domino Day, making her the first Dancing Ledge Writer in Residence to have a show greenlit by a network. Dancing Ledge CEO Laurence Bowen describes Sequeira as “the poster girl” for Dancing Ledge residencies, who fits the new series’ material well with a ““great love of the supernatural but who has a lot to say about identity, sex and dating in the real world.”
Australian soap Neighbours will begin filming once again in Melbourne on April 17, with a new season launching in 2023 on Network 10. Episodes will be available on Prime Video a week after they air. Network 10 called the soap a “television institution,” touting its “global respect” as a starting point for careers across the industry. The soap is known for kickstarting the careers of Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce, and Delta Goodrem. When Neighbours was nearly forced to end its 37-year run after failing to secure a production partner, Beverley McGarvey, chief content officer and executive vice president of Network 10’s parent company Paramount ANZ, hoped there was still a future for the popular soap. Sure enough, Prime Video came through at the eleventh hour with a deal for not only the back catalog but a new season. Old episodes are now becoming available on Prime.
Comedian Robin Thede of A Black Lady Sketch Show is developing a new comedy series for HBO. The series, titled Disengagement, will follow a prestigious family called the Coles after their public image is smeared by the failure of their business. According to the show’s logline, “behind closed doors, even [the Cole’s] dysfunction has dysfunction, proving family is the ultimate pyramid scheme.” Thede will write and executive produce the series as part of her 2022 deal with HBO. Thede, who began her career with sketch comedy, has written for the BET Awards and the NAACP Image Awards, was the first Black woman to serve as head writer on a late night series with “The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore,” and is the creator of BET’s “The Rundown with Robin Thede.” She is perhaps most known for her variety sketch series “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” whose success led it to rival SNL at the Emmy awards.
Streaming: Paolo Montalban will be stepping back into the shoes of Cinderella’s Prince Charming for a new Disney+ original film. Along with singer-songwriter Brandy, who will play the princess, Montalban will take on the role of King Charming in Descendants: The Rise of Red. Both Montalban and Brandy played the iconic pair in ABC’s 1997 “Wonderful World of Disney” TV movie Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. The Rise of the Red is part of Disney’s Descendants franchise, and features many new faces alongside the king-and-princess duo. Kylie Cantrall will star as Red, Malia Baker as Chloe, recording artist Rita Ora as the Queen of Hearts, China Anne McClain as Uma, Dara Reneé as Uliana, Ruby Rose Turner as Bridget/, the Young Queen of Hearts, Morgan Dudley as Ella/Young Cinderella, Joshua Colley as Hook, Melanie Paxson as Fairy Godmother, Jeremy Swift as Principal Merlin and Leonardo Nam as Maddox Hatter. The Rise of Red will take place in Auradon and the Isle of Lost, as well as a setting with which audiences may be familiar: Wonderland. The film tells the story of Red, who is the daughter of the Queen of Hearts, and Chloe, who is the daughter of Cinderella, as they travel back in time in an attempt to re-write the Queen’s villain origin story.
Prime Video’s The Devil’s Hour has cast Saffron Hocking in Season 2. Hocking, known for her role in Top Boy, will play detective sergeant Sam Boyd, who worked under DI Lucy Chambers (Jessica Raine) in her past life. The Devil’s Hour tells the story of Lucy, a social worker who suffers from severe insomnia. Lucy is strangely connected to a string of murders in her community, and begins a search for the killer. Hocking has appeared in The Riches, Moon Knight, and White Gold, and was nominated for best supporting actress at the Royal Television Society Awards for her part in Top Boy. Hocking is also an ambassador for UK domestic abuse charity Refuge.
Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin) will develop an adaptation of podcast series Princess of South Beach for Netflix. Rodriguez’s I Can & I Will Productions, Sonoro, My Cultura Network, and Jasmine Romero will team up on the adaptation, whose cast has yet to be announced. Princess of South Beach is My Cultura Network’s top performing podcasts, and received an Ambie nomination for Best Fiction Podcast in 2022. It follows twin sisters Maria del Carmen and Gloria, who are separated at birth and raised in vastly different worlds: Maria del Carmen in a convent, and Gloria into an extravagantly wealthy family. After Gloria dies in an accident, Maria del Carmen assumes Gloria’s identity to uncover secrets about her family. The series is voiced by Rachel Zegler, Raul Esparza, Gina Torres, Danny Pino and Sheryl Rubio. In addition to the screen adaptation, the Princess of South Beach podcast has been renewed for a second season in both English and Spanish.
Netflix has ordered a series adaptation of A.J. Quinnel novels Man on Fire and The Perfect Kill. The series of eight episodes will follow “the story of John Creasy, a broken ex-mercenary on a mission to avenge the death of his only friend, while protecting his fallen comrade’s daughter from the forces that destroyed her family.” Man on Fire has also been made into two feature films, a 1987 picture starring Scott Glenn and a 2004 version starring Denzel Washington. Kyle Killen will write and produce Netflix’s adaptation under Chapter 11 along with Scott Pennington. Killen is known for Fear Street, The Beaver, and Mind Games.
Amazon Freevee will release a new single-camera comedy series entitled Primo on May 19. The show is inspired by author and the show’s writer Shea Serrano’s upbringing in San Antonio, Texas. It follows Rafa Gonzalez (Ignacio Diaz-Silverio), his single mom Drea (Christina Vidal), and his five uncles Rollie (Johnny Rey Diaz), Mike (Henri Esteve), Ryan (Carlos Santos), Jay (Jonathan Medina), and Mondo (Efrain Villa) in their raucous, funny, and poignant lives in the city. As he approaches high school graduation, Rafa develops a crush on a girl at school; paired with the fact that he may become the first in his family to go to college, these events mark a turning point in his life. Rafa, his mother, and his uncles all have different ideas about how to best handle the next chapter of his life, and their attempts to guide him are the crux of the series’ comedy. According to its logline, Primo "is a coming-of-age comedy about a teenager balancing college aspirations, societal expectations, and a hectic home life anchored by his single mom and five uncles." Primo has been in development since 2017, and will premiere on Freevee May 19, 2023 with all eight episodes available.
Disney+ animated series Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes has partnered with Debbie Allen’s Dance Academy (DADA). Kiya & Kimoja is set in fictional Kimoja City in Africa and follows a seven-year-old girl named Kiya whose passions, dancing and martial arts, become superpowers. DADA, a Los Angeles-based dance academy, instructs children as young as 3 in dancing, academics, and the arts. In 2020, the Academy’s preparation for their Hot Chocolate Nutcracker was featured in Netflix’s Dance Dreams documentary, and more recently their free block party included a Kiya and the Kimoja Heroes pop-up. Allen is excited for the partnership, saying,
“It’s really wonderful, because I think the show Kiya is going to be an inspirational show that will also help other shows get made. She is a Black young kid who has powers. It’s all about dancing and martial arts. That’s a fun thing for us to be associated with. . . . [DADA] has built a board of people who are accomplished, but also believe in this mission. We’ve built a community of parents and dance aficionados who support us no matter what we do. . . . It’s been hard work, but work that we love, and we will just keep doing while we can as long as we have breath.”
The first season of Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes is available on Disney+.
Peacock’s Gladiator action series Those About to Die has added new actors to its cast, among them Summertime’s Alicia Edogamhe, Tehran’s Liraz Chari, Gonçalo Almeida (Amor Amor), and Kyshan Wilson (Voila). They will act alongside Anthony Hopkins, who plays Roman emperor Vespasian. Edogamhe will play Aura, a woman sold into training as a gladiator, and Chari will play Berenice, the captive queen of the Judeans. The series is based on Daniel Mannix’s book about ancient Rome, adapted for the screen by Oscar-nominated Robert Rodat of Saving Private Ryan. Emmerich, Rodat and Kreuzpainter will executive produce, with Harald Kloser, Gianni Nunnari, Martin Moszkowicz, Oliver Berben and Jonas Bauer; Chief Creative Officers will be Lourdes Diaz and Charles Holland.
Jar Jar Binks actor Ahmed Best is making a surprise appearance in an episode of Disney+’s The Mandalorian. Rather than reprise his role of Gungan, Best will play a Jedi named Kelleran Beq. Best’s appearance is brief, popping up in a flashback to Order 66 when the Jedi was betrayed by murderous clone troopers. Kelleran saves the young Grogu by allowing them to escape together, and the episode ends with the possibility of Kelleran’s reappearance. Best has portrayed Kelleran before, on a children’s game show web series titled “Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge.” For his role as Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars prequel series, Best was famously reviled by fans and critics alike for a “silly” accent and overly “goofy” persona. In a 2019 interview, Best said of the vicious backlash:
“I was called every racial stereotype you can imagine. There was this criticism of being this Jamaican, broken dialect, which was offensive because I’m of West Indian descent — I’m not Jamaican. It was debilitating. I didn’t know how to respond. The depression hit me. Hard. I was just broken. . . . I felt tired of having to explain myself. I felt tired of having to defend myself and defend my work. I felt tired of having to fight back against racism and the racial stereotypes. I just wanted to play a part. I was exhausted.”
Best’s new episode, The Foundling, aired on March 22nd and is available on Disney+.
Kamie Crawford - Leon Bennett / Stringer
Industry: Viz Media has acquired the rights to Japanese animated series “Captain Tsubasa: Junior Youth Arc” in North America and Latin America. Adapted from a manga by Yoichi Takahashi, the series is produced by Studio KAI with director Ono Katsumi and stars the voices of Sanpei Yuko as Tsubasa Ozora, Gukuyama Jun as Karl Heinz Schneider and Suzumura Kenichi as Wakabayashi Genzo and Hyuga Kojiro as Sato Takuya. The manga series was first serialized in 1981, and in those 42 years has sold over 90 million volumes. It follows the protagonist, Tsubasa Ozora, as he and his fellow soccer players duke it out on and off the field, occasionally alluding to real-life soccer teams and leading to an uptick in the sport’s popularity in Japan. Junior Youth Arc will tell the story of the International Junior Youth soccer tournament in Paris, where Japan plays Germany, France, Argentina, and Italy. The series is set for an October launch.
Amazon Studios and IllumiNative have partnered to found the IllumiNative Episodic Directors Program. An annual cohort of fledgling Indigenous filmmakers will be given the opportunity to shadow experienced directors on the upcoming season of Amazon’s Outer Range. Though the filmmakers will not be hired to direct an episode of the series, as earlier iterations of the program suggested, participants will be paid and alumni will be considered for future positions. Amazon and IllumiNative have teamed up before, with Amazon consulting IllumiNative for their series Outer Range, The English, and Three Pines. IllumiNative director Crystal Echo Hawk said of their partnership,
“Over the past few years, we have seen the huge success of Native content on streaming platforms — the demand for the nuance and complexity that Native-led shows bring to the screen is undeniable. In order to meet this demand, we have to ensure Native creatives are provided with the resources and opportunities to succeed in an industry that has historically forgotten or dismissed Native peoples. We’re so thrilled to expand our work with Amazon Studios on this exciting collaboration, to uplift new and emerging Native and Indigenous TV directors and ensure they not only break into the industry but thrive.”
Amazon’s head of DEIA Latasha Gillespie said,
“Amazon Studios is intentional in developing accurate stories and characters by and about Native peoples, and IllumiNative has been an invaluable resource in this work. We are proud to grow our relationship with them and provide a pathway for Indigenous directors to build their careers.”
The inaugural IllumiNative Episodic Directors Cohort include:
Razelle Benally (Oglala Lakota/Diné), a film production MFA student from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, director of Showtime’s Murder in Big Horn, and staff writer on season one of AMC’s Dark Winds.
Daniel Edward Hyde (Navajo/Belize), a 2007 alumnus of the University of Arizona’s School of Media Arts and 2011 Sundance Lab Fellow whose credits include The Way Things Are (2011), Brousins (2012), Bert & Weiwei: Time (2014), The Making of Navajo Star Wars (2015) and Manna (2015). Hyde was the first ever recipient of the Sen. John Pinto Memorial Film Grant.
Christopher Cegielski (Navajo), a fellow in the DGA and AICP’s Commercial Diversity Directors Program whose clients include ABC, United Airlines, Google, YouTube, Altra, AriZona Beverages and Dig Deep, recipient of fellowships from the Sundance Native Lab’s Time Warner Producers and Film Independent’s Project Involve, winner of the Sony Pictures Diversity Fellowship Grant, and co-director of docudrama Sitting Bull.
Peshawn Bread (Comanche), a 2014 Sundance Film Institute Full Circle Fellow, 2019 Indigenous Filmmakers Lab alum, and director of mockumentary The Daily Life of Mistress Red.
Kamie Crawford, known for her time as a host on MTV’s Catfish: The TV Show, has signed with CAA. Crawford has hosted Catfish alongside Nev Schulman since 2018, and has been named host of Paramount+’s Are You the One? And MTV’s Ex on the Beach as part of a deal with MTV Entertainment Studios. Crawford hosts her podcast Relationsh*t on DearMedia, and made her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit debut in 2022. She is a partner with a host of major brands, including Starbucks, Hulu, Swarovski, Lancome, Dove, Crest, Target, and American Express. Of her new deal and hosting several new series, Crawford says:
“As a huge fan of reality TV centered around dating and working in the relationship advice space, it’s an absolute dream to now be hosting three shows based on finding love and making lifelong connections. It’s an honor to continue working and growing with my MTV and Paramount+ family and I can’t wait to show the world a fresh, global version of two of my personal favorite shows!”
UK media regulator Ofcom has put forth rules for the BBC’s new operating license. The regulations, which take effect April 1, take into account that program hours could be cut due to recent runaway inflation. The license requires the BBC to stick to over 70 quotas across its services in order to protect news delivery on its main TV and radio platforms. The license also states that the BBC must commission a certain amount of content in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Additionally, the BBC’s online services will now be comprehensively regulated, requiring “important content” and at-risk programming to be made available and easily discoverable on iPlayer and Sounds. In tandem with other transparency and content diversity requirements, the BBC will be required to disclose annual plans and other information about how it will and if it has delivered on the new requirements. Ofcom’s group director for broadcasting and online content Kevin Bakhurst gave reason for transparency requirements, saying:
“We’ve been particularly disappointed by the BBC’s lack of detail and clarity around planned changes to its services, which has led to a lot of uncertainty for audiences and industry. Our strict new reporting rules will ensure the BBC is held to a higher level of public accountability, requiring it to clearly explain its plans before going ahead, as well as evaluating whether they work. . . . If the BBC does not comply with the license, we will act. Should the BBC fail to publish the information required by the new transparency provisions in the license, we can direct it to take swift remedial action, or force it to disclose the information to Ofcom so that we can publish it ourselves.”
A BBC spokesperson said in an interview, “. . . We welcome these changes. We are committed to transparency and will set out how we plan to deliver for audiences in the year ahead in our upcoming annual plan.”
Wanda Sykes’ and Page Hurtwitz’s Push It Productions has signed a first-look deal with Warner Bros. TV. The two-year deal will see Push It develop scripted and unscripted series for WBTV, including sitcom and variety series already in development. Push It is known for The Upshaws, a Netflix comedy series starring Sykes, Mike Epps, and Kim Fields, as well as Stand Out, a series featuring LGBTQ+ comedians. Former WBTV exec Rachel Davis, who worked on Abbott Elementary among other projects, will serve as VP of development for Push It. Sykes says of Davis,
“Rachel is a talented and admired executive with exceptional comedic taste and an impressive track record of developing scripted projects. She has built meaningful relationships across the industry, and we’re excited about what she brings to our growing slate and company. We are thrilled to have her join the team.”
Bel-Air showrunner Carla Banks Waddles, along with Jenna Bush Hager and Good Girls’ Jenna Bans will adapt Diane Marie Brown’s novel Black Candle Women for TV for Universal Television. The book follows four generations of women in the Montrose family who live together in a small California home. When seventeen year old Nickie Montrose brings home a boy, the other women must reckon with a family curse that dooms any person the they fall in love with to death. Per the book’s description, “As new truths about the curse emerge, the family is set on a collision course dating back to a Voodoo shop in 1950s New Orleans’s French Quarter—where a hidden story in a mysterious book may just hold the answers they seek in life and in love.” Waddles will write and executive produce the series. Hager calls Black Candle Women “magical” and “poetic,” saying she is excited to bring it to the screen. “I am thrilled to partner with the indomitable Carla to bring the four generations of Montrose women to viewers,” she told interviewers.
DGA
Strike Watch: The DGA Outreach Team has named former Directors Guild presidents Paris Barclay and Thomas Schlamme as co-chairs. The mission of the Outreach team is to “support increased member engagement and awareness as we prepare for negotiations,” referring to the Guild’s upcoming negotiations for a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers. Negotiations are set to start May 10, with the current contract ending June 30. DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter cited Barclay’s and Schlamme’s experience as former DGA presidents and their “unrivaled knowledge of our industry,” appearing optimistic that the pair will represent the Guild effectively at the negotiating table. Chair of the DGA Negotiating Committe Jon Avnet said of the pair,
“Paris and Tommy are the strong, experienced leaders our Outreach Team needs as we prepare our membership for this upcoming round of negotiations with the studios. They understand exactly the issues our members care about and will play a crucial role in keeping us united as we head into this difficult round of negotiations.”
Schlamme and Barclay say they are ready to “fight for the future” of the industry.