Small Screen: NBC Greenlights Jude Weng's New Project ‘Leftover Daughters;’ Chrissy Tiegen Leaves Netflix's ‘Never Have I Ever;’ Byron Allen discusses his lawsuit with McDonalds
Jude Weng - Ron Tom
Broadcast: Jude Weng’s (Finding Ohana) new project has just been greenlit for development by NBC. Also attached to the project are Paul Feig and his Feigco Entertainment, Janet Yang from The Joy Luck Club, and Lionsgate Television. The show is written by Weng and Jeremy Hsu with the former set to direct the potential pilot. The synopsis is as follows: ‘Leftover Daughters chronicles the lives of a single Chinese-American woman and her circle of unmarried family and friends as they struggle to find love and happiness amidst the pressure of strict cultural traditions.‘ Weng, Hsu, Feig, Yang, and Dan Magnante of Feigco Entertainment are executive producing with Zach Bianco attached as co-producer.
A new single-camera romantic comedy pilot is in the works at NBC entitled Someone Out There. Originally ordered to pilot in January of 2020, the show is based on a Spanish format Pequeñas Coincidencias and has Gabrielle Dennis, known for her role on A Black Lady Sketch Show, playing the female lead Chloe. The series hails from The Good Place writing team of Josh Siegal and Dylan Morgan and Forever creator Matt Hubbard as well as Universal Television. Someone Out There is about ‘two set-in-their-ways adults, Derek and Chloe (Dennis), who are challenged by very unexpected strangers to become the best versions of themselves in order to find love and possibly each other.’ Directing the pilot is Ally Pankiw and the executive producers are Pankiw, Emiliano Calemzuk, Gonzalo Sagardia, and Veiga.
Fox melodrama The Resident bumps up Anuja Joshi to a series regular for its upcoming season 5. During season 4 Joshi was Dr. Leela Devi, a surgical intern at Chastain Park Memorial Hospital struggling with dyslexia. The new season teases a possible long-term romance between Leela and Manish Dayal’s Dr. Devon Pravesh after the season 4 finale’s kiss. Amy Holden Jones, Hayley Schore, and Roshan Sethi are the creators of the show that: ‘follows a group of doctors at Chastain Park Memorial Hospital as they face personal and professional challenges on a daily basis.’ Joshi joins the rest of the cast including Matt Czuchry, Emily VanCamp, Bruce Greenwood, Dayal, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, and Jane Leeves. The series’ executive producers include Todd Harthan, Andrew Chapman, Peter Elkoff, Holden Jones, Rob Corn, Antoine Fuqua, Oly Obst, and Marc Halsey.
Krysta Rodriguez - Dia Dipasupil
Cable: HBO has cast Merle Dandridge as the role of Marlene in its upcoming adaptation of the 2013 game The Last of Us. She will be reprising the role after voicing the character in both the original and sequel. A brief summary describes the game as ‘revolving around the relationship between Joel (The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal), a hardened survivor of the collapse of modern civilization 20 years ago, and 14-year-old Ellie (Bella Ramsey, Game of Thrones), whom he’s hired to smuggle out of an oppressive quarantine zone. Marlene is the head of the Fireflies, a resistance movement struggling for freedom against an oppressive military regime.’ The writer and creative director, Draig Mazin and Neil Druckmann will write the series. The two also executive produce with Mighty Mint’s Carolyn Strauss, Naughty Dog’s Evan Wells, PlayStation Productions’ Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan, and Rose Lam. Directing the project are Jasmila Zbanic and Ali Abbasi. A release date for The Last of Us has not been announced yet.
TBS’s new scripted romantic-comedy pilot Space has cast Krysta Rodriguez, known as Liza Minelli on Netflix’s Halston, as the series lead. Written by Hilary Winston, the show is described as ‘a hilarious, romantic Quantum Leap, follows Rob and Marin (Rodriguez), a long-term couple on the verge of a break-up who are granted the ultimate space to figure out their future when they suddenly begin jumping into the bodies of other couples.’ Ally Maki from Wrecked, Caleb Hearon of Fargo, and Love Life’s Rachel Pegram have also been cast as series regulars in the pilot. Directing are Andrew Mogel and Jarrad Paul from Miracle Workers: Dark Ages with Winston and Nick Stoller executive producing. Space will begin shooting later this month in Portland.
Luis Gerardo Méndez - Mindy Small
Streaming: One of Mexico’s biggest stars has just signed a deal with ViacomCBS International Studios, known in short as VIS, for Paramount+ Latin America. Luis Gerardo Méndez known for Netflix’s Murder Mystery owns the firm Cine Vaquero with Mexican producer Gerardo Gatica. According to VIS, ‘Under the terms of the agreement, they will create, develop and produce exclusive Spanish-language scripted and nonscripted content for VIS and Paramount+ Latin America.’ With more than 140 projects in development at the moment, VIS has stated this deal is crucial for continuing its worldwide strategy.
Disney+’s In the Heights star Melissa Barrera is bringing her talents to Netflix for a new six-episode drama series entitled Breathe. It was acquired in February with a straight-to-series order and is from Blindspot duo Martin Gero and Brendan Gall. The plot is as follows: ‘after a small plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness a lone woman must fight for her survival.’ Barrera will be playing Liv, a ‘razor-sharp Manhattan attorney who finds herself profoundly out of her comfort zone.’ From Warner Bros. TV, where Gero and his Quinn’s House banner is under an overall deal, the Blindspot creator and Gall will write the script together and work as executive producers of the series.
Christina Lee, showrunner of Made for Love, has just signed a multiple-year overall deal with Warner Brothers Television. According to the agreement, ‘ Lee will create and develop new projects for the studio and, should WarnerMedia-backed HBO Max renew Made for Love, continue on as showrunner.’ Lee released a statement about her excitement for the deal saying “I have something in development at Netflix right now, and I have a project that I’m going out with the actress Greta Lee that I’m very excited about,” Lee told The Hollywood Reporter podcast TV’s Top 5 in April. “I’m busy, but just at the top of my mind is hoping that we get as lucky to do a season two because not only was it so rewarding for us and for me creatively, it was the most fun that I’ve ever had in my career.” A renewal for the well-reviewed Made for Love is expected.
The Netflix comedy Never Have I Ever has just lost one of the guest voiceovers. According to a spokesperson of the show, Chrissy Tiegen has decided to step away from the program following recent Tweets. In early May, Tiegen came out on Twitter admitting she publicly bullied Courtney Stodden a decade ago going as far as telling Stodden to take her own life: “She wouldn’t just publicly tweet about wanting me to take ‘a dirt nap’ but would privately DM me and tell me to kill myself. Things like, ‘I can’t wait for you to die.” Tiegen issued an apology to Stodden who was a teenager at the time of the allegations. Tiegens role is expected to be recast.
Billy Porter (Pose), Dan McCabe, and Berlanti Productions have finalized a deal with Peacock to develop their script: Fruits of Thy Labor. The series explores a Black family’s multi-generational imprint in Hollywood. Warner Brothers TV, where Berlanti Productions is base, will be the studio. Attached as executive producers are Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and David Madden with Jonathan Gabay as producer. Porter and McCabe worked together on McCabes 2019 play The Purists, which Porter directed. Fruits of Thy Labor is written by Porter and McCabe however will not star Porter. Here’s the logline: “‘Fruits of Thy Labor’ is a family drama that follows three generations of an African-American showbiz dynasty navigating their way through life, love, politics, and career.”
Industry: A recent interview between Byron Allen and Marc Lamont Hill came out where the pair discussed the ongoing lawsuit between Allen and the Worldwide restaurant chain McDonald’s. Allen claims the restaurant is racially discriminating towards him and his company in advertising sales among others. In the $10 billion dollar lawsuit, Allen alleges that the fast-food giant doesn't advertise with Black-owned media outlets as much as it does with white-owned media. The founder, chairman & CEO of Allen Media Group, says that he is working toward economic inclusion for Black people.
A new partnership between Endeavor Content, Jeff Friday Media, and Layne Eskridge’s POV Entertainment is attempting to develop and produce premium scripted television series by Black and brown creators. This comes as a way to accelerate exposure and opportunity for BIPOC writers and producers. The three companies are combining efforts with the American Black Film Festival to find industry talent and to expand the range of TV from creatives of color in the present market. POV Entertainment president Eskridge said: “We are taking a 360 approach to platform the Black and Brown creators who will produce the next wave of shows audiences truly crave. By giving access to the Endeavor Content ecosystem and providing the forum to develop ideas in a thoughtful way we will spur more diversity on and off camera in the television space.”
