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PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
CBS came out on top in the scrum to land action drama The International. Project reunites Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren, who co-starred in The Expendables and Rocky IV; Lundgren stars and produces, and Stallone directs and exec-produces. Project, which hails from Flame Ventures, Stallone’s Balboa Productions and CBS TV Studios, centers on Anders Soto (Lundgren), who’s part negotiator, part international spy, and fully a one-man covert black-ops team working for the UN.
NBC is developing another show from exec-producer Jason Winer and his Small Dog Picture Company. Network bought the script for comedy Forever Family, from writers Austen Earl and Joel Church-Cooper, which follows three families who discover their adopted children all share the same birth father. Winer inked a new overall deal with 20th Century Fox TV, now a part of Disney, earlier this year.
It’s a marathon, not a sprint. CBS is continuing its relationship with Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan after giving a 10-ep order to his latest competition format Tough As Nails. Keoghan is producing with Louise Keoghan, and will host the series, which spotlights real people who are real tough as a result of their physically demanding jobs.
Fox gave a script commitment with penalty to Opus, a family music drama starring and exec-produced by Nicole Ari Parker, who stars on the network’s winding-down Empire. From writer Felicia D. Henderson (Empire), producer Larry Taja and 20th Century Fox TV, series finds classical and urban music clash when Europe’s most celebrated and only African American conductor returns to Baltimore to reinvent her hometown’s crumbling symphony orchestra.
Starz put in development a spinoff series based on Lionsgate feature Blindspotting; Jasmine Cephas Jones is on board to reprise her lead role from the film. Penned by Rafael Casal and Daveed Diggs, who co-wrote, starred in and produced the original film, spinoff centers on Ashley (Jones), whose world is turned upside down when her partner of 12 years and father of their son is suddenly incarcerated.
Quibi is onboarding horror anthology series 50 States of Fright, with a cast toplined by Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Travis Fimmel (Vikings, Warcraft: The Beginning) and Christina Ricci (Monster, Z: The Beginning of Everything). First season of the series, from Gunpowder & Sky’s Alter horror brand, Diga Studios and exec producer Sam Raimi (Spider Man, Army of Darkness), will explore urban legends from around the country. Cast also includes Jacob Batalon (Spiderman: Homecoming), Ming-Na Wen (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D), Taissa Farmiga (The Nun, American Horror Story), Asa Butterfield (Sex Education), John Marshall Jones (The Last Revolutionary, Rectify) and Ron Livingston (Loudermilk, A Million Little Things).
Pop TV renewed Florida Girls for a second season. Series debuted in July to critical acclaim for its bold comedic take on four friends making the most out of life while living below the poverty line in Clearwater, FL, inspired by the life of creator and star Laura Chinn.
Gael García Bernal (Mozart in the Jungle) and Diego Luna (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) will exec-produce Amazon Studios and Amblin Television’s miniseries based on the saga of Hernan Cortes. Currently titled Untitled Cortes and Moctezuma Project, project stars Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) in the title role.
Exec producer Marie Leguizamo signed an overall development deal with Endemol Shine Boomdog to jointly develop and produce unscripted content. She’s also working with Endemol Shine North America’s English-language team on potential series.
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
Season 4 of Baroness von Sketch Show returns to IFC on Wednesday, October 30 at midnight, with two eps. The all-female sketch series performed and written by Carolyn Taylor, Meredith MacNeill, Aurora Browne and Jennifer Whalen teased out a trailer yesterday.
HBO dropped a trailer for His Dark Materials, which premieres Monday, November 4 at 9p—and there’s a lot going on in the adaptation of the Philip Pullman universe. The short clip reveals demons in the forms of leopards, monkeys and, perhaps, in the form of one gigantic bear.
From Ultimate Thanksgiving Challenge to Worst Cooks in America: Thanksgiving Redemption, Food Network will be talking turkey throughout November. On the menu: Five chefs face off to create the ultimate Thanksgiving dishes on Ultimate Thanksgiving Challenge, hosted by Giada De Laurentiis premiering Sunday, November 3 at 9p. On Monday, November 4 at 9p, Holiday Baking Championship returns followed by a new season of Christmas Cookie Challenge tat 11p. Worst Cooks in America: Thanksgiving Redemption debuts Sunday, November 10 at 10p, and Chopped Junior returns for a new season Tuesday, November 12 at 8p. New special Thanksgiving Pie Fight pops up Thursday, November 14 at 9p, while special Good Eats: Thanksgiving Special premieres Sunday, November 17 at 8p, followed by Macy’s Thanksgiving Cake Spectacular at 10p. On Wednesday, November 27 at 10p, The Great Food Truck Race: Holiday Hustle debuts, followed November 28 with the premiere of Santa’s Baking Blizzard 9p.
CBS All Access dropped the official season 2 trailer and teaser art for the psychological thriller Tell Me a Story yesterday at NY Comic Con. Series returns Thursday, Dec. 5.
COMING UP
Starz acquired six titles on tap for premiere in Q4, including doc This Changes Everything from exec producer Geena Davis and a comedy from Idris Elba. Up first on October 5, The Professor and the Madman, starring Sean Penn and Mel Gibson, is true story of a murderer confined to an insane asylum and his unlikely bond with an Oxford professor. The River and the Wall, debuting October 21 from conservation filmmaker Ben Masters and NatGeo Explorer Filipe DeAndrade, explores the potential impacts of a Mexico border wall on the natural environment. Elba’s In the Long Run, inspired by his experience growing up in east London in the ‘80s, will premiere in November. Debuting December 14 is Stockholm, based on the1973 bank heist and hostage crisis in which hostages bonded with their captors. The Davis doc, set for December 16, looks at the history, empirical evidence and systemic forces that foster gender discrimination. My Days of Mercy, premiering December 27, centers on what happens when a female activist (Ellen Page) protesting the death penalty befriends a woman (Kate Mara) with opposing views.
HGTV is adding to the guest-star lineup for its reboot of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Singer/songwriter LeAnn Rimes is the latest celeb to join a cadre of guests who will support massive community build and renovation efforts for local heroes. Series will debut on HGTV in early 2020.
TECH TALK
Entertainment and sports media company Whistle acquired Vertical Networks, a mobile-first content studio founded by Elisabeth Murdoch and backed by Snap. Whistle currently has 12 shows on Snapchat, including new Snap Originals Can’t Talk Now and Two Sides. Vertical Networks is known for Snapchat show Phone Swap, now in its seventh season, and the Snapchat Publisher Story Brother, which has 20 million subscribers.
Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch League’s 2019 Grand Finals saw an uptick over their inaugural season. Based on average minute viewers, Grand Finals drew 1.12 million average viewers, up 16 percent from last year, according to the company. The Overwatch season was up 11 percent in viewership for the A18-34 demo.
Indie mobile data marketplace The Kochava Collective partnered with Intent IQ, a cross-device identification platform, to bring web-to-mobile targeting capabilities to marketers and advertisers.
Six alleged members of a NY drug-delivery service were arrested and charged earlier this week for distributing heroin and cocaine. Their service, “Mike’s Candyshop,” supplied the drugs that resulted in the death of Colin Kroll, the co-founder of the HQ Trivia app, in December 2018.
STREAMING NEWS
Kanopy, the streaming film service that is free for users through a network of library partnerships, is expanding. The company brought in Google veterans Dave Barney and Chase Rigby as CTO and chief product officer, respectively, and is expanding its facilities with new engineering digs in Orange County, CA.
KIDS NEWS
HBO Max knows how to get to Sesame Street. The WarnerMedia streaming platform will be the new SVOD home of the iconic series beginning with its 51st season. Series will relocate from HBO and its on-demand as part of a five-year deal between WarnerMedia and Sesame Workshop that includes five new 35-ep seasons, four new live-action and animated series, including an Elmo-hosted talk show and an animated Sesame Street spinoff. Deal also includes the show’s entire 50-year library of more than 4,500 eps, marking the first time the entire Sesame Street library has been made available.
Future Today, in a partnership with One Animation, launched kids app Oddbods & Friends. Content, including OddBods, Antiks and Insectibles, is available across OTT channels including Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV.
Aardman is rebooting its classic series Timmy Time series for CBeebies in the UK. Series will launch this fall, 10 years after the original launch.
PODCAST POSTS
ABC Audio is expanding its roster with The HeirPod. Hosted by ABC News royal contributor Omid Scobie, podcast dives into the latest stories from the House of Windsor with insider interviews and special guests. It’s available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Pandora, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn and the ABC News app, with new eps posting every Thursday.
CASTING
Tony, Emmy and Grammy winner Cynthia Erivo (Harriet, The Color Purple) will star as Aretha Franklin in the next installment of Nat Geo anthology series Genius: Aretha… Bernadette Peters landed a role in The CW’s upcoming Katy Keene, portraying a mother figure to Julia Chan’s Pepper Smith… Millicent Simmonds (A Quiet Place) landed a role in Freeform’s upcoming pilot Close Up… Garcia and Sol Rodriguez scored recurring roles in Freeform’s Party of Five reboot.
Neil Patrick Harris will star in ‘80s AIDS-focused drama Boys for Channel 4 drama Boys… Original cast member Cynthia Harris will reprise her role in the upcoming limited series Mad About You for Spectrum Originals. Additionally, Cloris Leachman will also guest in the follow-up to the ‘90s NBC comedy… Jesse Williams (Grey’s Anatomy) landed a recurring role opposite Reese Witherspoon, Kerry Washington, Rosemarie DeWitt and Joshua Jackson in upcoming Hulu limited series Little Fires Everywhere.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Netflix’s UK profits rose by 37 percent during the past year, with UK revenue soaring 44 percent. The company, which has produced a raft of British series out of the UK including The Crown and Sex Education, has close to 50 live original projects based in the country.
In related news, Netflix inked a seven-picture deal with local broadcasting giant Mediaset, run by the family of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi… and in less sanguine news, Italian authorities are investigating the streamer for potential alleged tax evasion in Italy after the company did not file a tax return this year.
Kanal Drama has been added to the Movistar cable offering in Peru in a deal that extend the Turkish company’s presence in Latin America and adds more than 1 million subscribers.
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