News

Thora Birch has joined Adrian Grenier and Mimi Rogers in the political thriller Public Affairs, about a young campaign aide who gets in over his head after he sleeps with the wife of a presidential candidate. The film is being directed by Sundance alum and DGA-Award winner Eric Bross (USA Network’s Traffic) and was scripted by Tom Cudworth. Produced by School Pictures' Stephen Israel (Swimming with Sharks) and George Voskericyan (Echoes of War) of American Film…...

Darkover, a TV adaptation of Marion Zimmer Bradley's book series, has been set up at Amazon Studios, I have learned. Darkover was among the projects on the maiden development slate of Im Global Television, the TV arm of feature-film financing, production and sales company Im Global, a subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Reliance Ada, co-founded by Stuart Ford and Mark Stern. Ilene Kahn Power (Traffic) and Elizabeth Stanley are set to executive produce the Darkover TV…...

Veteran Gawker writer Alex Pareene was named editor-in-chief of the website on Tuesday. Pareene replaces Max Read, who resigned in the wake of the Conde Nast gay porno story debacle. He rose to digital fame as a blogger for Gawker and Salon, known for writing that oozed in satire, dry wit and biting humor. He’ll replace Leah Beckmann, who stepped in temporarily as editor-in-chief after Read resigned. Executive editor John Cook praised Pareene as the premiere mischief-stirrer of our time. Also Read: Gawker Executive Editor Demands Writers Cut 'Facebook Viral Garbage,' Work Faster as Traffic Stalls “Alex is...

William Hurt has been cast in Jesse Owens biopic Race.

The actor has joined Traffic director Stephen Hopkins's film about the 1936 Olympic gold medallist.

Up-and-comer Stephan James will star as Owens, with Jeremy Irons, Jason Sudeikis and Amanda Crew also on the cast.

Game of Thrones' Carice van Houten was the most recent addition to the lineup.

Us sprinter Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, humiliating Adolf Hitler and his claims of Aryan racial superiority.

Hitler had attempted to ban black and Jewish athletes from the games, but backed down in the face of a threatened boycott. Owens also faced prejudice in his home country.

Hurt will play president of the Amateur Athletic Union Jeremiah Mahoney, who led efforts to boycott the Berlin Olympics.

The film is endorsed by Owens's family, the Jesse Owens Foundation, the Jesse Owens Trust and the Luminary Group.

Race will...

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I was stuck in traffic yesterday, which I didn’t really mind because I have a fun little yellow convertible, and I was thinking about Uber ($17 billion! – that’s the company’s valuation, not the price of a ride) and Google’s driverless cars (development cost unknown), and I decided it was time to connect the dots: once a car learns to drive, there’s no need to own it and there’s no need for a driver. That’s because the car can come when called, take you to your destination, then go off and pick up someone else. That sounds great and I’m hardly the first to connect those particular dots, but there’s a corollary that seems to have gone largely (though not entirely) unnoticed: when driving oneself becomes unnecessary, it will eventually become more expensive, less convenient and – ultimately – unlawful,...

NBC’s two-hour Thursday night comedy block will come to an end this fall. The broadcaster is scaling back its comedy investment on TV’s most lucrative night for advertising. Instead, NBC plans to gives its breakout hit The Blacklist the post-Super Bowl spot next year, then shift it to Thursday nights at 9 p.m. in midseason.

All told, seven new dramas and comedies will join NBC’s lineup next season, along with two event miniseries. Stand-out dramas include the return of former Grey’s Anatomy star Katherine Heigl to prime-time in the thriller State of Affairs (which will receive...

In the wake of its success with The Blacklist this season, NBC has given series orders to a trio of intrigue-heavy political-tinged dramas that bring Katherine Heigl, Anna Friel, and Hope Davis into prime-time.

First up is Allegiance, a show that will remind some of FX’s The Americans, except it’s set in present day. The show stars Scott Cohen (Necessary Roughness) and Davis (The Newsroom) as deactivated covert Russian spies living in America (full descriptions below).

Then there is State of Affairs, which returns former Grey’s Anatomy star Heigl to series TV. This one is about a...

At the Independent Spirit Awards Saturday afternoon, John Cassavetes Award winner (and former In Contention contributor) Chad Hartigan told me something I didn't know: He wouldn't have made "This is Martin Bonner" if it weren't for Steve McQueen's "Hunger." He copped a few of the film's lines in his film, some of the camerawork, too. He was inspired, he said, by a filmmaker who could pull something that powerful off with such modest means, both financially and artistically. That, to me, is McQueen's legend. That, to me, is the kind of thing that will endure. These nickel-plated notions of "importance" that people throw around during the Oscar season, straining to associate some arbitrary level meaning to the thing, they can frankly diminish the very fine achievement on display. "I fear all the talk about the historical importance of '12 Years a Slave' almost completely obscures its extraordinary artistic merit,...

Just got some news that I suspect lotsa folks will be excited and nervous about: Producers Ilene Kahn Power and Elizabeth Stanley Secure Rights to Epic Fantasy “Darkover” Novels Plan to Develop Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Best-Selling Novels Into TV Series February 13, 2012 — Producers Ilene Kahn Power and Elizabeth Stanley have secured the rights to Marion Zimmer Bradley’s renowned “Darkover” novels and are currently developing a fantasy television series around the saga. Kahn Power and Stanley, both award-winning producers of movies and mini-series, are developing the “Darkover” novels into a multi-platform TV series. A gifted and prolific science-fiction and fantasy writer, Bradley, who garnered the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2000, was the author of over 66 books and 105 short stories, who “The Mists of Avalon,” Bradley’s monumental re-imagining of the Arthurian legend, won the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 1984 and in 2002 was developed into an award-winning miniseries.

Just a reminder that Esai Morales gets kidnapped in the Lifetime film We Have Your Husband tonight at 8 pm.

If you're in the right region, you can see the trailer on Lifetime's site.

Esai was on Ktla News the other day to talk about the film and some of the issues it raises. You can watch the interview here. It includes a couple of clips from the film.

Here is the synopsis:

The chilling true story of one woman’s fight to get her husband released from the hands of kidnappers in Mexico is brought to life in the Lifetime Original Movie, “We Have Your Husband.”

American-born Jayne Valseca (Teri Polo, Meet the Parents, Man Up), her husband Eduardo (Esai Morales, NYPD Blue), the son of a legendary Mexican newspaper publisher, and their two children live an idyllic life on their 1,000 acre ranch outside of a peaceful Mexico town. But...

TNT and TBS, which staged their Upfront presentation today in New York, are making bold moves to bolster their remarkably strong foundations in original programming. The networks are developing extensive new lineups of scripted and unscripted series and making a new push into half-hour comedy in partnership with some of the top talents in the industry, from award-winning actors to acclaimed producers, writers and best-selling authors.

This year marks the beginning of production of the final season of the blockbuster hit The Closer, starring Emmy winner Kyra Sedgwick. TNT confirmed today that it has ordered a 10-episode season of Major Crimes, a series set in the Los Angeles Police Department that promises to become television's next great crime drama. The seventh and final season of The Closer will include 15 episodes in 2011 and six in summer 2012, leading into the launch of Major Crimes, starring Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica). McDonnell has been...

TNT and TBS, which staged their Upfront presentation today in New York, are making bold moves to bolster their remarkably strong foundations in original programming. The networks are developing extensive new lineups of scripted and unscripted series and making a new push into half-hour comedy in partnership with some of the top talents in the industry, from award-winning actors to acclaimed producers, writers and best-selling authors.

This year marks the beginning of production of the final season of the blockbuster hit, The Closer, starring Emmy® winner Kyra Sedgwick. TNT confirmed today that it has ordered a 10-episode season of Major Crimes, a series set in the Los Angeles Police Department that promises to become television’s next great crime drama. The seventh and final season of The Closer will include 15 episodes in 2011 and six in summer 2012, leading into the launch of Major Crimes, starring Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica). McDonnell has...

It looks like Andy Richter will be stepping from behind the podium on Conan to another podium (I am guessing) for a new game show on TBS entitled Pyramid. The show is reportedly a modern-day take on the iconic game show that began asThe $10,000 Pyramid.

I really enjoye watching Men of A Certain Age, and highly recommend it. The new shows don't really catch my interest yet, aside from Pyramid. Check out the full lineup below and share your thoughts on what shows you are most interested in seeing.

TNT scripted series in development

Untitled Kip Koenig/John Wells Productions Project – Set against the backdrop of the Pacific Northwest, this drama follows a family of cops who uncover the mystical and often crime-ridden world of a small town where things aren’t as they appear. The project comes to TNT from Warner Horizon Television, Kip Koenig (Grey’s Anatomy) and John Wells Productions (Southland,...

[1] Last month a friend of mine was telling me about this comic book series titled Chew, which he thought could make a great premium cable television series. And it looks like it might actually happen. The comics follow a cop who gets secret psychic impressions from whatever he eats (for example, if he eats a piece of the corpse of a murder victim to help figure out whodunit). It sounds like it has the potential to be a dark comedy series in the same category as Dexter. Deadline [2] is reporting that Showtime has acquired the rights for a small screen adaptation of Rob Guillory’s bestselling comic book Chew. Stephen Hopkins, who was responsible for some of the best looking episodes of the first season of 24, has been hired to direct the pilot episode and executive produce the project for Circle of Confusion, the company behind AMC’s The Walking Dead.

Spring is a season of renewal, particularly in the movie business, where the completion of the awards derby allows Amy Adams to segue from playing a solemn nun in "Doubt" to a klutzy crime scene cleaner in "Sunshine Cleaning." Along with "Sunshine," there are plenty of festival favorites about to get their day in the sun, whether that's in theaters, on DVD or on demand online or on TV. This preview recognizes the many ways to get your indie film fix, as well as the special events you might want to head out to if you live in New York or Los Angeles, including "The Brothers Bloom" director Rian Johnson's week-long con man movie "Festival of Fakery" at L.A.'s famed New Beverly Cinema, about which we recently spoke to the director. But regardless of whether we're watching films from the past or present, we're looking forward to the next couple months.

ABC is teaming with veteran TV movie producer Robert Halmi Sr. for The Ten Commandments, a four-hour miniseries that will retell the classic biblical tale of Moses and the Ten Commandments.The Hallmark Entertainment special-effects extravaganza, whose budget is estimated at more than $20 million, will be written by Ron Hutchinson (USA Network's Traffic), with Robert Dornhelm (USA's Spartacus) on board to direct. Halmi is quick to point out that the mini will not be a remake of Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 movie starring Charlton Heston but will rely on extensive biblical and historical research for a realistic, truthful presentation of Moses and the Jewish people's exodus from Egypt and their travel to Mt. Sinai, where, according to the Old Testament, God descended to deliver the Ten Commandments.

The USA Network's Traffic: The Miniseries ran into ratings gridlock in its opening night Monday. The six-hour, $12 million project drew a respectable 2.8 million total viewers between 9-11 p.m., but not enough to surpass such cable staples as Spike TV's WWE Raw or TNT's Law & Order. Traffic also lost a small portion of its 8 p.m. lead-in, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which grabbed 2.9 million viewers. Traffic did better in the 18-49 demo, however, where its 1.5 million tally topped all cable time slot competitors except for Raw.