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Stars: Sung Kang, Lun-Mei Gwei, Luke Evans, Wyatt Yang | Written by George Huang, Luc Besson | Directed by George Huang

The poster for Weekend in Taipei bills it as “From the creator of Taken and The Transporter”. That’s another way of saying Luc Besson, who co-wrote both of those hits with Robert Mark Kamen, co-wrote this film’s script. However, his co-writer this time is the film’s director George Huang, who seems like an odd choice having not directed since he helmed several episodes of American Heiress in 2007. His last credit as a writer was the faux sequel Hard Target 2 in 2016.

In Taipei, mob boss Kwang is going on trial. At the same time that he’s proclaiming his innocence to the gathered reporters, his wife Joey is buying a new Ferrari. After a suitably fast test drive through the streets of Taipei, of course.

In Minneapolis, Agent John Lawlor...

Exclusive: AnnaLynne McCord has joined the cast of Robert Gillings’ cryptocurrency drama Paper Empire as it films season three in AlUla in Saudi Arabia.

McCord plays Tabitha Sutton, a seasoned CIA protective agent and cyber security analyst, on assignment to monitor a CIA asset’s activity and ensure his mission objectives are adhered at the same time as providing security in a dangerous environment.

She joins an ensemble cast led by Robert Davi and also featuring Wesley Snipes, Denise Richards, Kelsey Grammar, Anne Archer, Carol Alt, Cuba Gooding Jr., Steve Guttenberg, Robert Knepper, Richard Grieco, and Carol Alt.

Paper Empire revolves around Laurence Fintch (portrayed by Davi), a wealth management expert who accidentally creates a “digital limbo,” leading to an uncontrollable financial apocalypse. McCord’s character plays a pivotal role in navigating this high-stakes world of finance and deception.

Gillings spoke of his admiration for former Nip/Tuck and 90210 star McCord,...

90210 actress AnnaLynne McCord will soon be moving to Salem: The actress has signed a one-year contract to play Marin on Peacock‘s Days of Our Lives, our sister site Deadline first reported.

Her character is described as a “fascinating and complicated woman who is devastatingly beautiful, almost angelic in her outward appearance. The desire of many but her heart belongs to only one man who continues to push her away for her own good.”

More from TVLineTVLine Items: John Waters on Chucky, The Rookie Promotion and MoreJon Hamm to Lead Apple Crime Drama, in First Starring Role Since Mad...

Fresh off its first Emmy win for “I Know This Much Is True,” FilmNation Entertainment is continuing to drive into the TV space.

The company has acquired Ken Liu’s sci-fi short story “The Hidden Girl,” with the intention of adapting it into a series. Liu is attached to executive produce the project, which sources say is already in discussions with potential directors and showrunners.

News of the acquisition comes less than a month after Liu was announced as a consulting producer on David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, and Alexander Woo’s buzzy Netflix adaptation of “The Three-Body Problem.”

“The Hidden Girl” blends sci-fi and historical reality into a story set in a never-before-seen fantasy world derived from the cosmopolitan realities of Tang Dynasty China. In the story, a diverse group of women assassins travel through the fourth-dimension traversing space and time to kill their opponents, honor their professional code, and...

Exclusive: FilmNation Entertainment, producer of the Emmy-nominated HBO limited series I Know This Much Is True, is signaling a further push into television, signing a multi-year TV development fund deal with Wishmore (The Personal History of David Copperfield), the company owned and run by Greek film financier and producer Christos V. Konstantakopoulos. Wishmore is the sister company of Konstantakopoulos’s Faliro House, with whom FilmNation has had a successful film-focused development partnership for several years.

The multi-million dollar development investment will allow FilmNation Entertainment’s U.S. television division, led by President of Production Ben Browning, to expand its slate of high-profile television development properties, while simultaneously broadening Wishmore’s TV slate with series for the international marketplace. All funded projects, on which FilmNation will serve as a studio, are intended to be financed under the company’s existing credit facility. The studio’s focus remains on developing, producing and...

1960: Search for Tomorrow's Alison dealt with her mother-in-law.

1980: General Hospital's Monica faced a divorce decision.

1989: As the World Turns Paul shot his father, James Stenbeck.

2008: Hollyoaks' John Paul found Kieron's body."The best prophet of the future is the past."

― Lord Byron

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1938: Radio soap opera Life Can Be Beautiful premiered on CBS, starting a successful 16-year run. Life Can Be Beautiful quickly became known to radio insiders by its initials, and widely referred to as "Elsie Beebe." It was the story of Carol Conrad, a disadvantaged child who--still in her teens--ran into the Slightly Read Bookshop seeking shelter and...

Well, it was certainly promising. James Mangold (“Logan,” “Walk The Line“) taking on the Patty Hearst story with Elle Fanning in the lead role? Sign us up. Alas, the powers that be have given it the axe.

Fox has canceled the biopic, which was set up at their Fox 2000 shingle. The project would’ve been based on based on the book “American Heiress” by Jeffrey Toobin (“The Run of His Life: The People v.

Continue reading James Mangold’s Patty Hearst Biopic Starring Elle Fanning Canceled By Fox at The Playlist.

Logan director James Mangold’s project has just been scrapped. The filmmaker had been gearing up to make a biopic based on the life of kidnapping victim Patty Hearst, but THR reports that 20th Century Fox has now scrapped the movie altogether, largely due to Hearst’s complaints about the project. The film was based on author Jeffrey Toobin’s unauthorized book American Heiress, which recounted how Hearst was kidnapped in the mid 1970s by the Symbionese Liberation Army and transitioned “from hostage to warrior” during a two-year period. The heiress was rescued when she was caught on tape …...

A planned film about Patty Hearst, the San Francisco Bay Area newspaper heiress whose kidnapping and transition to revolutionary and back captivated America in the mid-1970s, was abruptly canceled Thursday after Hearst evoked the #MeToo movement, saying that a recent book and upcoming media projects about her experience “romanticizes my rape and torture.”

Now known as Patricia Hearst Shaw, she issued a statement Thursday specifically criticizing author Jeffrey Toobin, who wrote the unauthorized 2016 biography American Heiress and is a producer of a CNN docuseries due to air next month, and will co-host an upcoming CNN podcast. The book was...

Patty Hearst's scathing criticism of the upcoming film and TV projects about her life wasn't taken lightly ... Fox just pulled the plug on its film project. 20th Century Fox Film announced Thursday afternoon it's cancelling its planned biopic about Hearst based on the book "American Heiress" by Jeffrey Toobin after she blasted the project and the author for glorifying her rape and torture. Patty told us she especially took issue with Toobin allegedly referring to...

Twentieth Century Fox is not moving ahead with its Patty Hearst biopic, which was to have been directed by James Mangold.

“Twentieth Century Fox Film and its production partners have decided to cancel the studio’s planned project based on the book American Heiress,” the studio said Thursday in a statement.

The move comes after Hearst blasted Jeffrey Toobin, the author of American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst, which was serving as the basis for the biopic. Toobin’s work also is behind the upcoming CNN documentary The Radical Story of Patty Hearst, which is set...

20th Century Fox has canceled its Patty Hearst drama “American Heiress” hours after Hearst herself denounced the project for romanticizing “my rape and torture.” “Twentieth Century Fox Film and its production partners have decided to cancel the studio’s planned project based on the book “American Heiress,” a studio spokesperson said in a statement obtained by TheWrap. The project, which would have recounted how Hearst was kidnapped by and subsequently forced to join the left wing terrorist group Symbionese Liberation Army (Sla), was based on the 2016 book “American Heiress” by Jeffrey Toobin. Elle Fanning was attached to star with “Logan” director James Mangold...

Twentieth Century Fox Film said late this afternoon that it is canceling Fox 2000’s planned James Mangold-directed biopic about Patricia Hearst after Hearst herself publicly denounced the project and its source book today. The remarkable development comes hours after Hearst issued a damning statement about the project, the Jeffrey Toobin book, American Heiress, on which it’s based, and the upcoming CNN docuseries The Radical Story of Patty Hearst on which Toobin is an…...

Patty Hearst won't be involved in any film or TV series depicting her hostage ordeal ... and, in fact, she's blasting the people behind the upcoming productions for glorifying her rape. Patty tells us ... "Over the years I have been approached many times to discuss my ordeal, and I have answered many questions. I have spoken the truth about my experience and even wrote a 499-page book where I lay it all out, as painful as it was to relive.

Patricia Hearst, the heiress whose kidnapping became one of the most storied crimes of the 1970s, has issued a lengthy statement harshly denouncing upcoming film and TV projects based on her ordeal, and says she was inspired to do so by the MeToo movement and the Time’s Up presence at the Golden Globe Awards ceremony. She had especially strong words for author Jeffrey Toobin, whose unauthorized biography American Heiress is being turned into the feature film and who is an…...

Patricia Hearst, the heiress whose kidnapping became one of the most storied crimes of the 1970s, has issued a lengthy statement harshly denouncing upcoming film and TV projects based on her ordeal, and says she was inspired to do so by the MeToo movement and the Time’s Up presence at the Golden Globe Awards ceremony. She had especially strong words for author Jeffrey Toobin, whose unauthorized biography American Heiress is being turned into the feature film and who is an…...

Exclusive: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who currently can be seen in 20th Century Fox’s The Greatest Showman, has signed on to star alongside Elle Fanning in James Mangold’s untitled Patty Hearst project for Fox 2000. Based on author Jeffrey Toobin’s bestseller, American Heiress, the story follows Patty, the heiress who was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974 and brainwashed into becoming a bank robber and spokesman for the radical group's causes before serving…...

Patty Hearst was a rape victim and it's deplorable to run a movie or television show viciously attacking her ... this according to her family. Hearst family sources tell TMZ ... Patty's relatives are beside themselves over the upcoming film and TV docuseries based on the book, 'American Heiress' by Jeffrey Toobin. The film and TV series paint Patty as a woman who embraced her captors and then tried to manipulate the system during her trial.

David Crow Jan 12, 2018

Following Logan, James Mangold is co-writing and directing a movie about hostage-turned-revolutionary Patty Hearst.

Ah. Just over a month since news broke that it was happening, 20th Century Fox has now pulled the plug on the Patty Hearst movie, that was to be directed by Logan's James Mangold.

In a statement from the studio, it said:

“Twentieth Century Fox Film and its production partners have decided to cancel the studio’s planned project based on the book American Heiress"

No official reason was given, but there had been sizeable criticism from Hearst herself over the accuracy of the book, and its author Jeffrey Toobin. She said that the book "romanticizes my rape and torture and calls my abduction a ‘rollicking adventure'".

From December 2017

Well it’s good to see that despite whatever ominous headlines are in the Hollywood trades these days, the folks at 20th Century Fox...

AnnaLynne McCord (90210, American Heiress) has booked a recurring role on the second season of ABC’s Secrets & Lies. Season 2 of the anthology crime drama series picks up with detective Andrea Cornell (Juliette Lewis) investigating a new crime, the murder of Eric Warner's (Michael Ealy) wife. McCord will play Melanie Warner, the outspoken, slightly inappropriate housewife of Patrick Warner, the third child of private equity magnate, John Warner. Although she thought she…...

Rumer Willis is currently starring in an Off-Broadway show after she was attached to join a star-studded play; "Love, Loss, and What I Wore", earlier this March. Just Jared has posted "first look" pictures of her participation in the show with the other current cast of the play.

Daughter of Hollywood senior stars Bruce Willis and Demi Moore was all smiles when performing in her premiere show on March 23. She is acting alongside Donna McKechnie, Fredi Walker, Sonia Manzano, and Annie Starke from March 23 to April 24 at the Westside Theatre in Manhattan, New York City.

Beside Rumer, many actresses are lining up to take part in the play, there are "Two and a Half Men" star Conchata Ferrell, American socialite Marla Maples, supermodel Emme, "American Heiress" actress AnnaLynne McCord, and two-time Tony Awards nominee Alison Fraser. Ferrell and McCord were set for the May cast (April 27 until May 29), Emme will...

Greek mythology is popular in Hollywood at present, and so are legal dramas.

Bluewater Productions' cornerstone title 10th Muse handily combines both genres and, recognising its potential, Vanquish Motion Pictures has snapped up the rights to adapt it into a TV show.

The comic book, which has been running since 2001, centres on a young law intern imbued with the essence of the Greek goddess of justice.

Vmp head Jay Douglas, who will executive-produce the series with partner Nav Gupta, Marc Manus and Bluewater's Darren Davis, said: "We're going to sink our teeth into Darren's treasure chest of storylines and spin them into a show that kicks ass with all the mystery and action the fans would expect."

"I'm really excited to dive into this world that Davis has created.  The characters and Emma's central dilemma are rich and interesting - I think they'll prove a fantastic engine for a long-running series.

ollywoodnews.com: Helen Mirren, Mark Wahlberg, Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, Andrew Garfield, Amy Adams, Kerry Washington, Jim Parsons, Joe Manganiello, among others will be presenters at the 22nd Annual Producers Guild Awards, producer and 2011 Producers Guild Awards Chair, Paula Wagner announced today.

Award-winning producer, writer, director Judd Apatow will host the 2011 ceremony with the Guild set to pay tribute to several special individual honorees including: James Cameron (Milestone Award), Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman (Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television), Scott Rudin (David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures), Laura Ziskin (Visionary Award), RealD (Vanguard Award) and Sean Penn (Stanley Kramer Award).

The 22nd Annual Producers Guild Awards will be held on Saturday, January 22nd at The Beverly Hilton Hotel, 9876 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90210. Arrivals begin at 5:00 p.m. Pst; The Producers Guild Awards program will begin promptly at 6:30 p.m. Pst with dinner. The...

The fall television season is nearly upon us, with just about everything premiering between September 20-26. CBS, NBC, and ABC have all taken the opportunity to announce the premiere week synopses for all their new and returning shows via press release.

So if you’d like to see what the networks have planned for you on The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Chuck, The Event, The Office, Castle, Desperate Housewives, and many more, hit the jump.

The Amazing Race

The Amazing Race is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning adventure reality series hosted by Emmy-nominated host, Phil Keoghan, which pits teams, of two, against each other on a trek around the world. At every destination, each team will have to compete in a series of challenges, some mental and some physical, and only when the tasks are completed will they learn of their next location. Teams who are the...

From acclaimed writer / producer / director J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, Fringe, Lost, Alias), who serves as co-writer, executive producer and also directs – his first TV pilot since Lost – comes Undercovers, his latest show for NBC. The show is a sexy, fun, action-packed spy drama that proves once and for all that marriage is still the world’s most dangerous partnership.

Outwardly, Steven Bloom (Boris Kodjoe, “Resident Evil: Afterlife”) and his wife, Samantha (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, “Bonekickers”), are a typical married couple who own a small catering company in Los Angeles and are helped by Samantha’s easily frazzled younger sister, Lizzy (Jessica Parker Kennedy, “Smallville”). Secretly, the duo were two of the CIA’s best spies until they fell in love on the job five years ago and retired.

When fellow spy and friend Nash (Carter MacIntyre, “American Heiress”) goes missing while on the trail of a Russian arms dealer, the Blooms...

As a regular for both J.J. Abrams (Lost, Star Trek) and Pixar (Ratatouille, Up), Michael Giacchino has proven to be one of the medium’s most reliable composers in recent years; after this year’s win for Up, he’s got an Oscar to prove it. According to an announcement on Giacchino’s website, the composer will re-team with Cloverfield director Matt Reeves for the vampire thriller Let Me In. Meanwhile Abrams, the man who introduced the two as producer of Cloverfield, has procured Giacchino’s services for at least the pilot (and hopefully more) of the NBC spy drama Undercovers. And with that, both promising projects added another 1/4c of promise.

Hit the jump for details on Jon Brion’s score for the Will Ferrell/Mark Wahlberg cop comedy, The Other Guys.

After the Paul Thomas Anderson films Hard Eight, Magnolia, and Punch-Drunk Love introduced him to cinema, Brion...

According to THR, actress Mekia Cox has been cast in NBC’s spy drama Undercovers. Cox replaces Jessica Parker Kennedy in the series created by J.J. Abrams. She’ll play Lizzy, the older sister of the female lead, who is unaware of her family’s involvement in the CIA.

Undercovers is a sexy, fun, action-packed spy drama that proves once and for all that marriage is still the world’s most dangerous partnership.

Outwardly, Steven Bloom (Boris Kodjoe, “Resident Evil: Afterlife”) and his wife, Samantha (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, “Bonekickers”), are a typical married couple who own a small catering company in Los Angeles and are helped by Samantha’s easily frazzled younger sister, Lizzy. Secretly, the duo were two of the CIA’s best spies until they fell in love on the job five years ago and retired. When fellow spy and friend Nash (Carter MacIntyre, “American Heiress”) goes missing while...

hollywoodnews.com: The New Fall Schedule Features All-Drama Lineups on Mondays and Wednesdays and All Comedies on Thursdays, Plus Unscripted Programming into Compatible Dramas on Tuesdays and Fridays New Comedies Include “Friends With Benefits,” “Outsourced,” “Perfect Couples, “Love Bites” and “The Paul Reiser Show.”

New Dramas Are “Undercovers,” “The Event,” “Chase,” “Law & Order: Los Angeles,” “Outlaw,” “The Cape” and “Harry’s Law”; And New Alternative Show “School Pride”

NBC announced today its 2010-11 primetime schedule that is highlighted by five new comedies, seven new drama series and one new alternative program, including shows from such innovative hit-makers as J.J. Abrams, Jerry Bruckheimer and David E. Kelley, among others.

The high-quality series include new comedies such as “Outsourced,” Love Bites,” “Perfect Couples,” “Friends With Benefits” and “The Paul Reiser Show.” The new dramas are “The Cape,” “Harry’s Law,” “Outlaw,” “Undercovers,” “The Event,” “Chase” and “Law & Order: Los Angeles.”

The schedule...

Chicago – NBC announced their fall schedule and fans of “Heroes,” “Law & Order,” “Trauma,” and “Mercy” will shed a tear while on-the-bubble shows like “Chuck,” “Parenthood,” and “Community” will return with “Parks and Recreation” coming back later in the season. Most notably, the peacock network filled the now-vacant five hours of programming after “The Jay Leno Show” debacle with eight new fall shows and five more scheduled for midseason.

NBC has called in the starpower to help save the sinking network, bringing in new programs by J.J. Abrams, Jerry Bruckheimer, and David E. Kelley with recognizable TV veterans like Blair Underwood, Jimmy Smits, Laura Innes, and more.

The network has scheduled their fall 2010 season with thematic evenings. Mondays and Wednesdays will feature drama, Thursdays will be all comedy, and the rest of the week will include reality leading into similar dramas.

Jeff Gaspin, Chariman, NBC Universal Television Entertainment said, “This new...

NBC reveals their full 2010-2011 primetime schedule NBC announced today its 2010-11 primetime schedule that is highlighted by five new comedies, seven new drama series and one new alternative program, including shows from such innovative hit-makers as J.J. Abrams, Jerry Bruckheimer and David E. Kelley, among others.

The high-quality series include new comedies such as Outsourced, Love Bites, Perfect Couples, Friends with Benefits and The Paul Reiser Show. The new dramas are The Cape, Harry's Law, Outlaw, Undercovers, The Event, Chase and Law & Order: Los Angeles.

The schedule features all-drama lineups on Mondays and Wednesdays and five comedies on Thursdays. Tuesdays will continue to combine the similar appeal of The Biggest Loser with Parenthood, and Fridays will team Who Do You Think You Are? and the new series School Pride with Dateline NBC and the new legal drama Outlaw.

NBC will also broadcast a 35th anniversary Saturday Night Live special...

With the release of NBC’s 2010-11 schedule comes a whole bunch of preview clips to promote the network’s new shows. On the drama side, we have short clips from new fall shows The Event, Chase, Undercovers, School Pride and Outlaw as well as midseason offerings The Cape and Harry’s Law . (For clips from NBC’s new comedies, click here.) Check out the clips for yourself, as well as full synopses for each show, after the jump.

The Event, Mondays at 9/8c

“The Event” is an emotional, high-octane conspiracy thriller that follows Sean Walker (Jason Ritter, “The Class”), an Everyman who investigates the mysterious disappearance of his fiance, Leila (Sarah Roemer, “Disturbia”), and unwittingly begins to expose the biggest cover-up in U.S. history. Sean’s quest will send ripples through the lives of an eclectic band of strangers, including: newly elected U.S. President Martinez (Golden Globe nominee Blair Underwood,...

NBC has the new J.J. Abrams ("Lost," "Alias") show on its fall schedule -- "Undercovers," an action spy thriller starring Boris Kodjoe ("Soul Food"), Gugu Mbatha-Raw ("Doctor Who"), Gerald McRaney ("Deadwood," "Jericho"), Jessica Parker Kennedy ("Valemont"), Carter MacIntyre ("American Heiress") and Ben Schwartz ("Mayne Street").

"Undercovers" follows the adventures of a retired husband and wife team suddenly thrust back into their former lives as CIA agents. The couple are Steven and Samantha Bloom, played by Kodjoe and Mbatha-Raw.

Joining J.J. Abrams as executive producers are Josh Reims ("Brothers & Sisters," "Dirty Sexy Money") and Bryan Burk, who has collaborated with Abrams on "Lost," "Alias" and the 2008 movie "Cloverfield."

Check out these sneak peeks below and let us know what you think. Is "Undercovers" going to be the first step on NBC getting its mojo back? "Undercovers" will air Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. Et in the fall according to the just-released NBC night-by-night schedule.

From acclaimed writer / producer / director J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, Fringe, Lost, Alias), who serves as co-writer, executive producer and also directs – his first TV pilot since Lost – comes Undercovers, his latest show for NBC.

Undercovers is a sexy, fun, action-packed spy drama that proves once and for all that marriage is still the world’s most dangerous partnership.

Outwardly, Steven Bloom (Boris Kodjoe, “Resident Evil: Afterlife”) and his wife, Samantha (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, “Bonekickers”), are a typical married couple who own a small catering company in Los Angeles and are helped by Samantha’s easily frazzled younger sister, Lizzy (Jessica Parker Kennedy, “Smallville”). Secretly, the duo were two of the CIA’s best spies until they fell in love on the job five years ago and retired. When fellow spy and friend Nash (Carter MacIntyre, “American Heiress”) goes missing while on the trail of a Russian arms dealer, the Blooms are...

We’ve been following the development of J.J. Abrams’ latest series Undercovers, for some time – in fact ever since it was announced as a possible pilot for 2010-2011; and now THR are reporting that NBC has picked up 13 episodes of the show for the upcoming fall season.

Abrams co-wrote, produced and directed the Undercovers pilot, which stars British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Boris Kodjoe as a married couple who are re-activated as CIA agents after years of retirement. Undercovers also marks the first pilot Abrams has directed since 2004’s Lost.

As part of the early pick-up, NBC have released the full synopsis for the show:

Outwardly, Steven Bloom (Boris Kodjoe, “Resident Evil: Afterlife”) and his wife, Samantha (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, “Bonekickers”), are a typical married couple who own a small catering company in Los Angeles and are helped by Samantha’s easily frazzled younger sister, Lizzy (Jessica Parker Kennedy, “Smallville”). Secretly,...

In a bit of a no-brainer, NBC has picked up the high profile pilot for the spy drama Undercovers for their fall 2010 schedule. Co-created by J.J. Abrams (Star Trek) and Josh Reims (Brothers and Sisters), Undercovers nabbed the first official season order among the broadcast networks after riding high on a wave of good buzz throughout pilot season. The Abrams-directed pilot opens on a married couple who currently run a small L.A. catering company, but fell in love when they were two of the CIA’s finest spies; Boris Kodjoe (Soul Food) and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Doctor Who) star.

Given the Abrams pedigree, expectations are high for a network who could use a savior next season. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a two hour block of spy-related awesomeness (i.e. Chuck at 8:00, Undercovers at 9:00) when the full schedule is announced in a couple weeks. Hit the...

J.J. Abrams' series Undercovers gets picked up at NBC NBC has issued its first scripted series pickup for the 2010-11 season with the order of the drama Undercovers from acclaimed writer/producer/director J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, Fringe, Lost, Alias) and executive producer/writer Josh Reims (Brothers and Sisters), it was announced today by Angela Bromstad, President, Primetime Entertainment, NBC and Universal Media Studios.

"We have tremendous confidence in this promising series and feel this is a great way to kick off our upcoming Upfront development announcements," said Jeff Gaspin, Chairman, NBC Universal Television Entertainment. "J.J. has delivered another signature series, along with our partners at Warner Bros., and we couldn't be happier."

"Having J.J. on our creative team is a great reason for celebration," said Bromstad. "In Undercovers, J.J. and Josh have found a breakout couple that is rich in character and brimming with romance and action.

J.J. Abrams' latest series has been given the green light at NBC. Undercovers, about a married couple of ex-spies lured out of retirement by the CIA, marks the first new-series pickup for next season. The announcement came today from Angela Bromstad, President, Primetime Entertainment, NBC and Universal Media Studios.

The series stars Boris Kodjoe and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Steven and Samantha Bloom, as ex-spies who run a Los Angeles catering business. Abrams (Star Trek, Fringe, Lost, Alias), along with executive producer/writer Josh Reims (Brothers and Sisters) serves as executive producer of the series. Abrams also co-wrote and directed the pilot episode, his first time wearing both hats since the pilot for Lost.

"We have tremendous confidence in this promising series and feel this is a great way to kick off our upcoming Upfront development announcements," said Jeff Gaspin, Chairman, NBC Universal Television Entertainment. "J.J. has delivered another signature series,...