Small Screen: Netflix Releases Footage Of ‘Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story’; Chloé Zhao Signs Multi-Year Deal With Searchlight Television
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Broadcast: Guy Lockard, who portrays Dr. Dylan Scott on Chicago Med is leaving the NBC drama series while Yaya DaCosta, who played April Sexton before exiting the show in 2021 is set to return. According to co-showrunner Diane Frolov, while Lockard’s character has chosen to leave his job at the hospital following the death of the woman he was romantically involved with, there is a chance that Dr. Dylan Scott could come back, stating “we’ve finished that arc of his story, so he is leaving right now, but we have people leave and we have them come back. We’re leaving that door open.” The return of DaCosta’s April will hopefully resolve the relationship the character has with Brian Tee’s Ethan, whose engagement had been broken prior to her departure.
Actor Martine Sensmeier has joined the cast of NBC’s La Brea for the show’s second season. The actor, known for appearing in Taylor Sheridan’s 1883 and Yellowstone, is set to play the leader of a dangerous group of people living in 10,000 BC known as The Exiles. La Brea is an epic drama about a family that is separated when a sinkhole opens in Los Angeles, pulling people into strange time and space-hopping portals. Produced by Universal Television and Australia’s Matchbox Pictures, it stars Natalie Zea, Jack Martin, Eoin Macken, and Zyra Gorecki as the Harris family. Also included in the cast are Jon Seda, Nicholas Gonzalez, Chiké Okonkwo, Veronica St. Clair, Rohan Mirchandaney, Lily Santiago, Josh McKenzie, Tonantzin Carmelo, and Michelle Vergara Moore.
Paulina Alexis, Elva Guerra, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, and Lane Factor - Reservation Dogs/FX
Cable: Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson has chosen not to renew his long-term deal with the Starz network. Jackson is the executive producer of the cable channel’s Power franchise and he is rumored to be entertaining multiple offers from streamers and studios. His G-Unit Film & Television reportedly has twenty-five series in production and projects in development at this time.
The FX series Reservation Dogs has been renewed for a third season, which will debut in 2023. Created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, the series follows a group of teenagers growing up on a reservation in Oklahoma. It stars D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Devery Jacobs, Paulina Alexis, and Lane Factor with Elva Guerra, Sarah Podemski, Zahn McClarnon, and Dallas Goldtooth appearing in featured roles, but most importantly every writer, director, and series regular on the show is Indigenous. Harjo also serves as showrunner and director, and executive produces alongside Waititi and Garret Basch.
Eugenio Derbez - Alexander Tamargo
Streaming: CODA’s Eugenio Derbez is developing a series titled They Came At Night with the streaming service ViX+. Under the first look deal between 3Pas Studios and TelevisaUnivision, Derbez is set to star in this workplace comedy inspired by true events surrounding the making of the 1930 classic horror film Dracula with Bela Lugosi. Written by Rob Greenberg and Bob Fisher, They Came At Night tells the story of the cast and crew that came onto the Universal lot after the original was done filming for the day to use their sets and costumes in order to film the Spanish language version overnight. Derbez will also executive produce the series along with Ben Odell, and Javier Williams of 3Pas Studios, whose Mexican company will handle production services.
Jharrel Jerome and Sheyi Cole have been cast in the HBO Max series Full Circle by Steven Soderbergh and Ed Solomon. Jerome (When They See Us) and Cole (Small Axe) are joining the already announced Dennis Quaid, Claire Danes, Zazie Beetz, and Timothy Olyphant in the six-episode series stemming from Soderbergh’s multi-year overall deal with HBO and HBO Max. Full Circle, described as “an investigation into a botched kidnapping that uncovers long-held secrets connecting multiple characters and cultures in present-day New York City,” was ordered to series in August of 2021. Soderbergh will direct the episodes which are written by Solomon and Casey Silver, all three of which worked together previously on the HBO Max film No Sudden Move. The trio will also serve as executive producers.
Hulu released its first teaser trailer for the upcoming eight-episode limited series Welcome To Chippendales. The dark comedy stars Kumail Nanjiani as Indian-American immigrant Somen “Steve” Banerjee who founded the now world famous male stripper dance troupe at his Los Angeles nightclub. Also starring in the series are Spencer Boldman, Murray Bartlett, Andrew Rannells, Dan Stevens, Juliette Lewis, Robin De Jesús, Annaleigh Ashford, Quentin Plair and Nicola Peltz. Writer Robert Siegel serves as co-showrunner with Jenni Konner. The pair will executive produce along with Nanjiani, Dylan Sellers, the show’s director Matt Shakman, Emily V. Gordon, Nora Silver, Jacqui Rivera, and writers Rajiv Joseph and Mehar Sethi,
Eugene Cordero, who plays Time Variance Authority employee on the Disney+ series Loki has been upped to series regular for the upcoming second season. The Filipino American actor, also known for his roles on The Good Place and Tacoma FD, played “Casey” during season one of the Tom Hiddleston-led Loki, except for in the season finale when he was listed as “Hunter K-5E”.
Disney+ is developing a series adaptation of bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz’s YA fantasy novel The Ring & The Crown. Aaron Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg (Pushing Daisies, Our Kind of People) are working with 20th Television, The Gotham Group, 3 Arts Entertainment, and Disney Branded Television to adapt the story set in a magical, Arthurian world where Princess Marie-Victoria, the heir to the mightiest empire in the world, is being forced into a political marriage, and her dear friend Aelwyn Myrddyn, the bastard daughter of Merlin, is being forced into service of the crown. De La Cruz also wrote The Isle Of The Lost, a prequel novel to the Disney Channel’s hit film Descendants. Harberts and Berg will also executive produce the series with de la Cruz, The Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith Vein, Jeremy Bell and DJ Goldberg and 3 Arts’ Richard Abate.
Filming for the Amazon Freeze series Beyond Black Beauty has begun in Canada, with production scheduled to wrap in Belgium in October. The international series, based on the novel of the same name by Annie Sewell, is set to be released on Amazon’s Freevee in 2023 and stars Kaya Coleman (The Sinners) as equestrian Jolie Dumont and Sagine Sémajuste (13: The Musical) as her mother Janelle who moves them from Belgium all the way to Baltimore. The show also stars Gina James (Hogtown: Code\Switch) and Lisa Berry (Workin’ Moms). The show is executive produced by Leif and Agnes Bristow, Blair Powers, Carla de Jong, Golden, and J.J. Johnson.
Netflix has released a clip of the upcoming Bridgerton prequel series Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. India Amarteifio (Line of Duty) portrays the younger version of Golda Rosheuvel’s Charlotte at the time of her marriage to King George, which “sparked both a great love story and a societal shift, creating the world of the Ton inherited by the characters in ‘Bridgerton;” according to the official longline. Adjoa Andoh and Ruth Gemmell will also appear as their Bridgerton roles Lady Agatha Danbury and Lady Violet Bridgerton respectively. Other cast members include Michelle Fairley, Corey Mylchreest, Arsema Thomas, Sam Clemmett, Freddie Dennis, Richard Cunningham, Tunji Kasim, Rob Maloney, Cyril Nri, and Hugh Sachs. Shonda Rhimes serves as showunner and writer with Tom Verica directing, and the two will executive produce along with Betsy Beers.
Chloe Zhao - Irvin Rivera
Industry: Foster Driver and Zoë Kent of Foster+Driver Media have signed a first look deal with A+E Studios to develop and produce projects for them for sale on all global and domestic television platforms and services. They have already set up a number of projects at A+E Studios, including Dead Eleven, based on the book by Jimmy Juliano, and Summerset, created by George Northy. Driver and Kent’s previous experience includes stints at Warner Brothers and Disney, before launching their own production company and developing works such as The Temperature of Me and You at Disney+, which is based on the book by Brain Zepka and adapted by Alden Derck.
Oscar winner Chloé Zhao now has a multi-year first look TV deal with Searchlight, who produced her award-winning feature Nomadland, to develop and produce scripted content across all platforms for Searchlight Television. The deal marks Zhao’s first foray into television and represents the latest efforts by Searchlight to bolster their newly-launched TV division, which produces the Emmy-winning Hulu series The Dropout and is launching the Hulu Spanish-language series La Maquina starring Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna.
Albert Cheng, the Chief Operating Officer at Amazon Studios, has been promoted to Vice President under Prime Video chief Mike Hopkins. Cheng will now be overseeing the company’s Prime Video business in the U.S. with responsibility for P&L and revenue growth, while also heading up Prime Video brand strategy, brand social, influencer marketing, marketing operations, media and audience insights, customer acquisition, retention, and engagement with our entertainment hub across SVOD, AVOD and Marketplace.
Kendrick Sampson, an actor and activist best known for his roles in Insecure, Miss Juneteenth, How To Get Away With Murder, and The Vampire Diaries, has launched the new production company BLD PWR Productions. BLD PWR is an advocacy initiative co-founded by Sampson that helps engage athletes and entertainers to use their platform for movements like Black Lives Matter and urging Hollywood to divest from the police. The production company will be headed by strategic advisor D’Angela Proctor and director of development Taylor Jett, and plans to produce short-form content in all genres and for all platforms.
Ben Stephenson’s Poisoned Pen Studios label has hired Sky Studios exec Preethi Mavahalli as its new creative director. The former head of television for Bad Robot launched the transatlantic scripted label under the ITV Studios banner in July. Mavahalli is set to work with Stephenson both in London and Los Angeles with the studio as it focuses on high-end premium drama.
The motion to dismiss the $10 billion racial discrimination suit filed last May by Byron Allen’s Media Group against McDonald’s Corp has been denied by a Los Angeles federal judge. The suit alleges that McDonald’s discriminated against Allen’s Entertainment Studios and Weather Group as well as other media companies that are owned by and serve minorities. It claims that of the $1.6 billion in television advertising McDonald’s buys each year, less than $5 million goes to Black-owned media and specifically that McDonald's has refused to advertise on Allen’s Entertainment Studios properties, or on The Weather Channel since 2018 when it was acquired by Allen. Now that McDonald’s motion to dismiss has been rejected, the case is expected to go to trial , possibly by next May.