News

Exclusive: As Netflix’s The Night Agent gears up to begin production on Season 2, a new list of recruits joining Gabriel Basso, Luciane Buchanan and Amanda Warren is being released.

Berto Colon, Louis Herthum (Westworld) and Arienne Mandi (Tatami) are set as series regulars with Brittany Snow and Teddy Sears joining in recurring roles.

Colon plays Solomon, a former Marine turned right-hand man/fixer for a powerful businessman; Herthum plays Jacob Monroe, an international businessman with powerful global connections that he uses to obtain valuable information; and Mandi plays Noor, a low-level aide in the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York who is looking to leverage her access to top secret information into a better life for her and her family.

Snow plays Alice, Peter’s (Basso) partner...

The Malcolm in the Middle cast is filled with great actors – both sitcom staples and traditional dramatic performers in comedic roles – playing the show’s delightfully wacky characters. Created by Linwood Boomer, Malcolm in the Middle revolves around the titular child prodigy and the various misadventures he gets into with his dysfunctional family. From its single-camera shooting style to its regular fourth-wall breaks, Malcolm in the Middle made a few stylistic revolutions to the TV comedy format that went on to influence future sitcoms. Its dark, surreal comic sensibility was also a radical break from the family sitcom style.

A consistent ratings success and a hit with critics, Malcolm in the Middle ran for seven seasons on the Fox broadcast network. Throughout its run, the series won many prestigious awards – including a Peabody Award. While the writing was highly acclaimed, Malcolm in the Middle received particular praise for the work of its hilarious ensemble cast.

The music industry is the proverbial “canary in the coal mine” for the rest of entertainment, and issues around monetizing content in the streaming era and the complicated questions posed by the emergence of artificial intelligence are ones Hollywood can benefit from watching, according to veteran music lawyer Don Passman.

The attorney spoke during a keynote conversation as part of The Hollywood Reporter‘s breakfast honoring the industry’s Power Lawyers, an annual event that had gone virtual amid the pandemic and returned to Spago in Beverly Hills this year.

The event on Wednesday morning began with remarks from THR editorial director Nekesa Mumbi Moody, who welcomed the group. “Congratulations to this year’s Power Lawyers for their exceptional achievements,” she said. “We’re so thrilled we’re finally back together celebrating in person for the first time since 2019. … And it my privilege to be congratulate the new inductees of...

Exclusive: Teddy Sears (American Horror Stories) and Tamberla Perry (All-American: Homecoming) have landed roles in the NBC medical drama pilot Wolf starring Zachary Quinto.

From writer/executive producer Michael Grassi, Wolf is inspired by the books The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks. It follows a revolutionary, larger-than-life neurologist, Dr. Oliver Wolf (Quinto), and his team of interns as they explore the last great frontier, the human mind, while also grappling with their own relationships and mental health.

Sears will play Dr. Josh Nichols, a neurosurgeon who left a private practice in San Francisco to work at Bronx General. Josh is clinical, exacting and relies on technology to treat his patients — the opposite of Wolf. The two will go toe-to-toe and develop a competitive relationship full of tension.

Perry will play Dr. Carol Pierce, the head of psychology at Bronx...

The latest rumors from Marvel's Daredevil: Born Again Disney+ show suggest Marvel has learned from mistakes made during production of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Marvel Television's old Netflix TV shows met with mixed success; there were tremendous stand-outs, such as the original Daredevil TV show, but these were unfortunately tempted by disappointments like Iron Fist. Some of the casting choices have proved remarkably influential, though, with Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock and Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin making the jump into the mainstream MCU.

Cox made his triumphant return in Spider-Man: No Way Home, playing Peter Parker's "really good lawyer" - and hinting at Matt Murdock's secret identity, when he effortlessly caught a projectile tossed through a window at Spider-Man. Marvel then decided to tie one superhero lawyer in with another; Daredevil appeared in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, with the character even entering into an unlikely but...

Exclusive: Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Mixed-ish) has been cast as a lead opposite Shanola Hampton in NBC pilot Found. The one-hour missing-persons drama is written by Nkechi Okoro Carroll and hails from Berlanti Productions, Carroll’s Rock My Soul Productions and Warner Bros. TV, where Greg Berlanti and Carroll are under overall deals.

In any given year, more than 600,000 people are reported missing in the U.S. More than half are people of color that the country seems to forget about. In Found, public relations specialist Gabi Mosley (Hampton) — who was once one of those forgotten ones herself — and her crisis-management team make sure there’s always someone looking out for the forgotten missing people. But unbeknownst to anyone, this everyday hero is hiding a chilling secret of her own.

2022 NBC Pilots & Series Orders

Gosselaar will play Sir, a controversial figure in Gabi’s past.

Berlanti and Sarah Schechter executive produce for Berlanti Productions,...

Heath Freeman, an actor, best known for his roles on Bones and NCIS, has died.

He was 41 years old. No cause of death has been revealed.

Shanna Moakler revealed the news of her friend's death on social media, while his manager, Joe S. Montifore, shared a statement to Deadline.

"We are truly devastated at the loss of our beloved Heath Freeman," Montifore said in the statement.

"A brilliant human being with an intense and soulful spirit, he leaves us with an indelible imprint in our hearts."

"His life was filled with deep loyalty, affection, and generosity towards his family and friends, and an extraordinary zest for life."

"He was extremely proud of his recent film work and was very excited for the next chapter of his career," Montifore continued.

"His remarkable legacy as a son, brother, uncle, friend, extraordinarily gifted actor and producer, consummate cook, and man with the most infectious and spectacular laugh,...

Heath Freeman, who starred as Gavin Dillon in legal drama Raising the Bar and played serial killer Howard Epps on Bones, has died. He was 41.

Freeman’s management team confirmed his passing to The Hollywood Reporter. The exact date and cause of death were not disclosed, and there are no “further details at this juncture,” according to the actor’s manager, Joe Montifiore.

“We are truly devastated at the loss of our beloved Heath Freeman,” Freeman’s team wrote in a statement provided to THR. “A brilliant human being with an intense and soulful spirit, he leaves ...

Heath Freeman, who starred as Gavin Dillon in legal drama Raising the Bar and played serial killer Howard Epps on Bones, has died. He was 41.

Freeman’s management team confirmed his passing to The Hollywood Reporter. The date and cause of death were not disclosed, and there are no “further details at this juncture,” according to the actor’s manager, Joe Montifiore.

“We are truly devastated at the loss of our beloved Heath Freeman,” Freeman’s team wrote in a statement provided to THR. “A brilliant human being with an intense and soulful spirit, he leaves us ...

A group of filmmakers including director Kimberly Townes-Gethers, producer-writer-actor Theo Perkins and executive Kirk Moore have launched Audacity Division, a banner that aims to amplify non-dominant narratives in the Bipoc space.

Its debut project is 14 Days, a short film that follows two ex-lovers (Diarra Kilpatrick and Perkins) who find reconciliation over Zoom conversations at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. The film reinforces the power of therapy and challenges the stigma associated with mental health with Bipoc communities. (See the trailer below.)

Kilpatrick’s credits include writing on The Last O.G. and a role on HBO’s Perry Mason, and is up next in USA Network’s Nash Bridges revival. She also earned an Emmy nomination for the ABC Digital Studios short-form series American Koko. Perkins’ acting credits include Lie to Me, NCIS and Raising the Bar.

The short is helmed by Ad co-founder Townes-Gethers. Perkins and Brandon Scotland are producers and Moore is executive producer. Christian Epps is the Dp. The short was shot on iPhones during the pandemic, and all the cast and crew worked remotely.

The plan is to develop 14 Days into a potential TV series. Audacity Division’s next short is Hands to the Sky, which will highlight the rising epidemic of autism in Bipoc communities in New Jersey, with an eye on developing it into a feature-length film.

“My belief is that in order to transform, change, and liberate, we can not stay still,” said Perkins, also founder and artistic director of the nonprofit Elizabeth Youth Theater Ensemble. “What we accomplished during the filming of 14 Days, the audacity that we had as artists, led to the birth of the collective.”

Here’s the 14 Days trailer:

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Multitude Films, the LGBTQ-led independent production company dedicated to telling nonfiction stories by and about underrepresented communities, has hired veteran producer Sweta Vohra and promoted Ameena Din to VP Finance. The news comes after the company founded and led by Jessica Devaney signed with ICM Partners.

The company produced the Peabody-nominated Roll Red Roll and last year’s Oscar-shortlisted documentary short Call Center Blues, and its latest projects include Netflix’s upcoming Pray Away in partnership with Ryan Murphy and Blumhouse, and “Apart,” an installment of the HBO Max and Sesame Workshop series Through Our Eyes.

Vohra, a three-time News & Documentary Emmy nominees, is a New York City-based journalist, filmmaker, and producer who previously was a producer-director on the first season of New York Times series The Weekly on FX and Hulu. Din also consults on Netflix projects including the recent Lenox Hill and works with Fork Films, HBO, Conde Nast Entertainment, Itvs, Hoff Productions and more.

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Gravitas Ventures has acquired North American distribution rights to Lone Wolf, an Australian thriller directed by Jonathan Ogilvie. Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Hugo Weaving, Diana Glenn, Josh McConville and Chris Bunton star in the pic, a product of the Melbourne International Film Festival Premiere Fund. It will no get a U.S. release in theaters and on-demand on September 24.

Set in contemporary Melbourne, the plot center on Winnie (Cobham-Hervey), a young woman who runs a struggling political bookshop with her boyfriend Conrad (McConville) and takes care of her disabled brother. But Winnie’s efforts to hold everything together get thwarted when Conrad becomes entangled in an act of terrorism.

“Filmmaker Jonathan Ogilvie skillfully blends issues of surveillance and big government and how they intersect with radical political groups, resulting in a highly topical and tense film that leaves the viewer thinking about who is watching, and why,” said Megan Huggins, Gravitas’ Acquisitions Coordinator.

Huggins negotiated the deal with Denmark-based LevelK.

Emmy-winning producer and writer Alison Cross has signed with Buchwald for representation.

Cross has served as an executive producer on CBS’ S.W.A.T. under Shawn Ryan since the series’ premiere in 2017. Prior to that, she served as an executive prodcer on The Good Fight at CBS All Access.

She also served as a consulting producer on USA’s Queen of the South, as well as an executive producer on TNT’s legal drama Murder in the First, which reunited her with writer-producer Steven Bochco. Her additional producing credits include TNT’s Raising the Bar, ABC’s Commander in Chief and ABC’s legal drama Philly, which she co-created with Bochco.

Cross’ screenwriting credits include co-writing the 1996 film Blood and Wine, starring Jack Nicholson and Michael Caine.

In 2018, Cross received the WGA West’s Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award, an honor previously awarded to Aaron Sorkin, Garry Marshall, Shonda Rhimes and Larry David.

Season 1 of “The Masked Dancer” came to a dramatic conclusion on Wednesday night’s finale, with three-time Olympic gold medalist Gabby Douglas being revealed as the Diamond Mask trophy winner, Cotton Candy. Despite competing against two professionally trained dancers in the finale, Gabby came out on top by incorporating a few tricks she knew the Sloth and Tulip couldn’t match — tumbling skills. Cotton Candy rocked and rolled her way through an inspirational routine to Kesha‘s version of “This is Me” and finished things off by flying through the air in a bouquet of balloons.

See Paula Abdul ends ‘The Masked Dancer’ as judge with most correct guesses — how’d she do it?

“This experience has been so amazing!” the gymnast exclaimed during her unmasked interview with host Craig Robinson. “I just love everyone so much.” When asked if it was easy for her to tumble in costume, Gabby responded,...

Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s debut feature launched at Venice 2019.

Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection won the main New Visions Award, the Golden Puffin, at the Reykjavik International Film Festival which wrapped its 17th edition on Sunday, October 4.

Set in Lesotho, the film is about an 80-year-old widow who learns her village will be resettled.

The jury, comprised of filmmakers Shahrbanoo Sadat and Ísold Uggadóttir and New Europe Film Sales CEO Jan Naszewski, praised the film as “a voyage to a magical and isolated place where the 80-year-old protagonist is fighting for nature...

Chile’s animation industry has gone from nearly non-existent to one of the most highly regarded and best exported in Latin America in just two decades.

For the third consecutive year, a Chilean feature is in competition at Annecy, and in 2016 “Bear Story” became the first-ever Chilean film to win an Oscar, taking home the award for best animated short.

So how did the Andean country go from bust to boom so quickly? As is often the case in modern-day Chile, when attempting to explain any cultural phenomena the first place to look is at the two brutal decades in which dictator Augusto Pinochet reigned over the country. It is through that lens that the roots of Chile’s current animation industry first become clear.

“As a country that went almost into cultural shutdown for so many years during the dictatorship, I think the return of democracy in the ‘90s...

Doogie Howser, M.D., the series that plucked an adolescent Neil Patrick Harris from obscurity, putting him on an eventual path to contemporary comedy superstardom, is getting a reboot series, this one brandishing a female lead.

Keeping this new version of the 1989-1993 ABC dramedy series in the Disney corporate tentpole, the reboot effort under the working title, Doogie Kealoha, M.D., is set to manifest on platform Disney+ as a streaming serial offering, reports Variety. In a creative choice analogous to the Harris-starring original, the reboot will center on the titular character, who’s similarly a 16-year-old prodigy-turned-doctor. However, in this case, said teen doctor is a half-Asian, half-white female practicing medicine in Hawaii (in contrast to the original’s setting of Los Angeles).

Interestingly enough, Doogie Kealoha is maintaining a direct connection to original star Harris, since it will take shape under the creative stewardship of showrunner Kourtney Kang,...

There’s a ridiculous amount of TV content out there waiting to be streamed during your downtime — and a lot of it won’t cost you one shiny penny.

TVLine already offers a premium streaming guide, which delivers a rundown of subscription rates, original series and select library content offered by established, new and forthcoming streamers. We also publish a monthly list of TV shows and movies coming and going on Netflix.

More from TVLineThe Blacklist Creator Explains the Midseason Premiere's Glaring Absence, Teases a Major Secret for [Spoiler]American Idol Video: Will Margie Mays and Jonny West Survive the New 'Duets' Round in Hollywood Week?...

Jimmy Smits was a much younger man when he played Victor Sifuentes on L.A. Law, the role that made him a household name. Now, at age 63, he’s the elder statesman of a different firm on a new show, Bluff City Law. When he got onto the set and into a suit, was slipping into [...]

The post Raising The Bar (Again): Jimmy Smits Returns To The Law appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.

Mild spoilers for the Veronica Mars revival ahead!

The Veronica Mars revival on Hulu reunites us with nearly all of the original cast of characters, bringing back the faves we haven't seen in years and seeing what they've been up to. Of course, it wouldn't be Veronica Mars without Wallace Fennel, Veronica's trusty, loyal, take-no-crap best friend. Never fear: actor Percy Daggs III returns for season four, bringing Wallace back when Veronica needs him the most.

When we rejoin him in the revival series, Veronica's longtime bestie has turned out to have one of the most stable lives out of the entire main cast. He's still coaching basketball at their alma mater, Neptune High, and by the time the revival starts up, he's happily married and has a baby son. The friends are still close, as the first episode shows Veronica going to dinner at Wallace's house and hanging out with his family.

In today’s TV news roundup, Showtime sets the premiere date for season 4 of its docu-series “The Circus,” and Pop TV orders a new coming-of-age comedy “Best Intentions.”

Casting

Hulu has added four new series regulars to its upcoming original series “Reprisal.” Craig Tate is joining the cast as former Special Forces operative Earl, Wavvy Jonez as Earl’s cousin Cordell, Shane Callahan as Bru, a member of the Banished Brawlers, and Rory Cochrane as Burt, the reclusive gang leader. Created and executive produced by Josh Corbin, the series follows a femme-fatale who, after being left for dead, seeks revenge against her brother and his fellow gang members. Previously announced series regulars include Abigail Spencer, Rodrigo Santoro, Mena Massoud, Rhys Wakefield, Madison Davenport, Gilbert Owuor, David Dastmalchian and W. Earl Brown.

Dates

Stand-up specials from Alonzo Bodden, #IMomSoHard, Alice Wetterlund, and Mike E. Winfield will premiere on Amazon Prime on Aug.

In today’s TV news roundup, ABC’s “Highwire Live in Times Square” tops Sunday night ratings, and “Total Bellas” has been renewed for a fifth season.

Dates

FX will air the special event “Peabody Presents: Stories of the Year” on July 7. The program will showcase the issues honored at the 78th Annual Peabody Awards Ceremony hosted by Ronan Farrow. Hasan Minhaj will moderate a round table discussion on race, Lgbtq issues, the #MeToo movement and the state of journalism. Panelists will include Steven Canals, co-creator, executive producer and writer of FX’s “Pose”; Paula Lavigne, ESPN investigative reporter for “Spartan Silence: Crisis at Michigan State”; Terence Nance, filmmaker and creator of HBO’s “Random Acts of Flyness”; and Tracy Heather Strain, director and writer of the PBS/Wnet documentary “Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart.”

Renewals

“Total Bellas,” the docuseries on the lives of WWE stars Nikki and Brie Bella...

Terri Clark has announced her first new album in four years: Raising the Bar will arrive September 14th. Ahead of its release, the Canadian country singer shared the carpe diem track “Young As We Are Tonight.”

Backed by an aggressive beat and featuring Clark’s rich, twang-tinged vocals, the tune extols the virtues of small-town life, capturing colorful snapshots of a county-fair midway and encouraging young people to drink life in to its fullest because “the truth is you and I, we’re never gonna be as young as we are tonight.

1.Netflix

Netflix took Annecy. It held a presentation, its first ever at Annecy, an effective coming out to the world animation industry. You could here a pin drop as Melissa Cobb, the highly popular ex-DreamWorks Animation executive, now Netflix Evp, expounded on Netflix priorities on stage. The audience warmed to Chilean Fernanda Frick’s exposition of her new series, “Raising the Bar,” now in development at Netflix, and Andy Coyle’s explanation of the varying tones and palette of “Hilda.” But the presentation and Netflix’s presence at Annecy left a question in the air. Cobb’s introduction stressed the diversity of Netflix’s lineup – from children shows, -and working the talent. Beyond Cobb and Yaram, the Netflix panel at the presentation was made up just of talent. Netflix brought a 15-strong delegation. Most was talent as well. The production community fears that Netflix is going increasingly straight to talent,...

Steven Bochco, creator of classics such as NYPD Blue and Hill Street Blues that helped redefined the medium of television, has died at 74 after a long battle with leukemia.

Bochco’s series over several decades revamped the cop and legal genres and created lucrative franchises for NBC and ABC. He had most recently co-created mystery crime-drama Murder in the First, which began its run on TNT in 2014. Another TNT show he created, Raising the Bar, ran for two seasons in 2008 and 2009. Among his other credits was L.A. Law, a significant hit for NBC in the 1980s which he was working on rebooting in recent years.

As a writer and producer, Bochco popularized the notion of authorship in television, something today’s audiences take for granted during the current Golden Age. He helped make TV a sandbox for complex ideas and complicated heroes, and also repeatedly pushed the boundaries of content...

Steven Bochco, one of the most prolific creators of TV ever, has died ... TMZ has learned. Sources connected to the family tell us, the "Hill Street Blues" creator died this weekend. He had been battling leukemia for several years and put up a hard fight, but one family source says he finally just gave up. Bochco carved out a specific area for many of his shows -- the law. His police shows were gritty and compelling.

Apple isn’t sleeping on its upcoming foray into scripted TV: The tech giant is developing the thriller drama Are You Sleeping, starring Oscar winner Octavia Spencer (The Help) and produced by Reese Witherspoon‘s Hello Sunshine shingle, our sister site Deadline reports.

RELATEDOutlander Boss Ronald D. Moore’s Space Drama Gets Apple Series Order

The project — written by Nichelle Tramble Spellman (The Good Wife, Justified) and based on a novel by Kathleen Barber — explores America’s obsession with true-crime podcasts and challenges viewers to consider the consequences when the pursuit of justice is placed on a public stage. Serial...