News briefs : HBO sets premiere date for new detective murder miniseries

NEWS THIS WEEK

... With Burn Notice nearing the end of its seven-season run on USA (the series finale airs Thursday, September 12), creator Matt Nix is turning his attention to a new drama. His next project, Complications — about an ER doctor who is changed after being involved in a gang shooting—is nearing a pilot order at USA.

News Briefs : A "Rambo" series? 50 Cent produces series now too? New casting news

... Sylvester Stallone is in talks to join a potential TV series based on his hit movie franchise Rambo. The project, is still in the early stages, but Stallone would work with the show on a creative level and could potentially reprise his iconic role. I don't really want to be the person to say this, but isn't it about time we stopped with the remakes, and the sequels, and the adaptations? Have we seriously run out of all the good ideas already? After the failure of Beverly Hills Cop to get a series order, am not holding my breath on this

News Briefs : Breaking Bad doubles its Midway Season premiere, an 8th clone on Orphan Black?

Breaking Bad had 5.9 million viewers tuned in for Season 5B premiere, crushing the series' previous high of 2.9 million viewers for the Season 5A premiere. Breaking Bad probably has Netflix to thank for the jump, as many shows are using the video-streaming service as a way to hook new viewers. AMC's new series Low Winter Sun used its Breaking Bad lead-in to draw 2.5 million viewers, and Talking Bad, the new post-Breaking Bad chat show, grabbed 1.2 million viewers.

News Brief: Awkward Loses Its Showrunner, Shows to be at Comic–Con and New Casting News

... MTV's Awkward showrunner and creator Lauren Iungerich is departing after the currently on-hiatus third season wraps up. MTV is likely ordering a fourth season, dependent on who they find to replace Iungerich. But Iungerich's very funny and talented voice was all over the series, and the loss of her will be, like, totally obvs.

... FX is developing a TV version of the book Mohicans, which served as the source material for the film The Last of the Mohicans. The idea would be to make it a miniseries that follows the development of America as seen through the eyes of the characters from the books.

... The CW is developing an adaptation of the Venezuelan telenovela Jane the Virgin, and you have to listen to this awesome description. Jane, a respectable, religious goody-goody, gets accidentally artificially inseminated through a series of hilarious circumstances!
... Simon Cowell is launching Afghanistan's Got Talent.

... History Channel's The Bible miniseries has sold more than 1 million units of its Blu-ray and DVD editions.
... Captain Planet might become a movie. Let our powers combine.

CASTING NEWS

... Elementary's Sherlock Holmes has an older brother, and we'll all get to meet him in Season 2. Rhys Ifans (The Amazing Spider-Man's the Lizard, Human Nature) will play Mycroft Holmes and I'm pretty convinced that he could actually be Jonny Lee Miller's real-life brother. Mycroft will appear in the premiere episode, where the two brothers will confront their recent falling-out after Sherlock heads to London.

... In today's The Leftovers news, the show has added The Secret Circle's Chris Zylka. In the Damon Lindelof drama about those left behind after the Rapture, Zylka will play a college dropout who settles under the wing of a guru.

... TLC's Who Do You Think You Are?, which is being revived by TLC after cancellation by NBC, has announced the celebs who will let Lisa Kudrow poke around their families' pasts and talk about them on TV (minus the "your great granddad was a Nazi sympathizer" part). Here they are: Christina Applegate, Kelly Clarkson, Cindy Crawford, Zooey Deschanel, Chelsea Handler, Chris O'Donnell, Jim Parsons, and Trisha Yearwood. Who Do You Think You Are? debuts July 23 on TLC.

... 1980s dreamboat Andrew McCarthy will guest-star on CBS's summer drama Unforgettable. He'll play a rich dude who enlists Carrie's help to get his kidnapped young daughter back.

... First Andrew McCarthy, now Sendhil Ramamurthy!?!?!? A day after casting the Pretty in Pink star, CBS's summer series Unforgettable has booked Ramamurthy (Heroes) for a guest role. In the second season's second episode, he'll play a criminal who's employed by a mystery man.

... Last Resort's Scott Speedman will star in Ryan Murphy's HBO pilot Open. The drama is described as an exploration of modern sexuality. Speedman will play a hunky sports executive, and chances are very high that you will get to watch him have sex. Let's see if he's learned anything since Felicity!

... Maggie Gyllenhaal will star in Sundance Channel's 2014 miniseries The Honourable Woman. She'll play a lady who inherits her dad's arms-smuggling business but uses its resources to install data cable networks between Israel and the West Bank and then earns a position in the U.K.'s House of Parliament.

COMIC-CON
... The X-Files will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a panel at this year's Comic-Con. Series creator Chris Carter and writers David Amann, Vince Gilligan (who now has his own nifty show), Howard Gordon, Darin Morgan, Glen Morgan, John Shiban, and Jim Wong will be on hand for the Thursday, July 18 panel. Gillian Anderson has also confirmed an appearance, but there's been no word from David Duchovny. He's got to show up, right?

... CBS Television Studios has announced the shows its bringing to Comic-Con: Under the Dome, Intelligence, Star-Crossed, and Beauty and the Beast.

... Falling Skies will be at Comic-Con, too.

RELATIONSHIPS NEWS
... Pretty Little Liars' Lucy Hale and Revolution's Graham Rogers (Danny!) are dating!
... Justified's (and The Following's, I guess) Natalie Zea got engaged! Congratulations to Zea.

REQUIRED READING
... James Gandolfini's funeral was held this week in New York. The procession, including a eulogy from The Sopranos creator David Chase, was surreal and truly touching.

News Brief: New Series Debuting and Casting news

 
Since most of all the new pilots have been accepted or discarded last month, there have been little/slow new information to provide. Aso we have Some news which came out last week and New Series premiered last week worth checking out.

.... "Graceland”, about agents from different law agencies living together in a house. Created by Jeff Eastin, who created ”White Collar” for USA network as well.
Graceland is the name of an impeccably decorated beachfront home where the FBI, the DEA, and U.S. Customs house a handful of their best agents, Real World-style, so that they can work together to catch the bad guys. Starring Daniel Sunjata (Rescue Me) and Aaron Tveit's (Les Miserables).They're joined by Vanessa Ferlito (24, CSI: New York), Brandon Jay McLaren (Falling Skies, The Killing), Manny Montana (Chicago Code), and Serinda Swan (Breakout Kings).

.... "In The Flesh”– this show puts a unique twist on the zombie genre by bringing the undead back from the undead, so to speak.
In the world where "In the Flesh" takes place, the dead rose from their graves, ate human brains, got better, were rehabilitated through treatment and counseling, and then rejoined society, where they now live—with the help makeup and colored contact lenses—as if they'd simply had a bad case of the chicken pox (the show refers to their condition as "Partially Deceased Syndrome"—PDS). But at the same time, untreated zombies roam freely and cause serious problems. Sounds pretty cool, right?

CATELYN STARK NEWS
... ”Game of Thrones' Michelle Fairley, who had quite a bit to do in last week's epic episode, has booked a recurring role on the upcoming third season of ”Suits". She'll play a British oil entrepreneur who hires Harvey to defend her against a lawsuit. Look for her debut in the Season 3 premiere on July 16.
... Justin Theroux ("Parks and Recreation", the movie Wanderlust) landed what may be the cushiest new acting gig of next year, taking the lead in HBO's pilot ”The Leftovers". The show comes from Lost's Damon Lindelof and follows those who remain behind after the Rapture takes the virtuous away..

... "Defiance" will welcome guest-star Brian J. Smith (Stargate Universe) as astronaut Gordon McLintock. The character was put into an induced coma after a space station accident in 2013, and will have his mind blown when he wakes up to see that Earth has changed, Oh, and all the aliens and stuff. 

BUSINESS TIME
... NBC's ”Revolution" ended its first season last night with a slight ratings uptick, racking up a 2.0 in the adult demo. It finishes as the second-best rated new series after Fox's "The Following".

... MTV's "Teen Wolf" returned for Season 3 last week, and brought back a whole lot more viewers. The premiere was the series' most-watched episode to date, averaging 2.4 million viewers.

Fox Orders J.J. Abrams' Robo-cops, 3 New Dramas and 4 New Comedy Shows.

DRAMAS

Robots! Headless Horsemen! Tough urban gang members! And Greg Kinnear! That's what next year's new crop of Fox dramas will look like. Not just tough, Kinnear tough! In advance of Fox's Upfronts next Monday, the network has picked up four new dramas. That's twice as many new serious shows as it had last year (The Following, Mob Doctor). Let's run 'em down:

.... "Almost Human" is the highlight (if you ask me) of the bunch and comes from producers J.J. Abrams and J.H. Wyman (Fringe). Karl Urban stars as a cop in the future who has a new partner: a lifelike android (Michael Ealy)! Well, all cops 35 years have robot partners, not just Karl Urban. This one will be all about feelings, methinks. And blasting perps with laser guns. Also starring are Lily Taylor (Hemlock Grove), Mackenzie Crook (Game of Thrones), and Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights).

.... "Gang Related" could be an interesting take on the cop genre. In it, a gang member infiltrates the San Francisco Police Department and rises all the way up to the Gang Task Force. But it sounds like this gang member starts to have feelings (aww) for his new cop buddies, and battles loyalties between his homies and his other homies. Gang Related stars Ramon Rodriguez (Charlie Angels), RZA (CSI: Wu Tang), Jay Hernandez (Nashville), and Terry O'Quinn (Lost).

.... "Sleepy Hollow" is a supernatural thriller based on the classic tale by Washington Irving. You know, the one about Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman. In Fox's Sleepy Hollow, Ichabod Crane is resurrected in modern-day times to find the world on the brink of destruction, so he teams up with a cop to save us all. Starring Tom Mison, Also starring: Nicole Beharie (42), and Orlando Jones.

..... "Rake" is an Emmy vehicle for star Greg Kinnear (Little Miss Sunshine). Based on an Australian series, Kinnear will gloom it up as Keegan Joye, a brilliant but self-destructive criminal defense lawyer. Sort of like "House" in court, I'm guessing? Mirando Otto and John Ortiz also star.

With those orders out, it's almost certainly bad news for the rest of Fox's drama pilots, which include "Boomerang", "Delirium", and "The List". Joining the four picked today are dramas "Bones", "The Following", and "Glee" which were previously renewed.

COMEDIES

Fox is getting busy today, ordering shows like it's Buy Four Get Four Free Day or something. After previously ordering four dramas, Fox took care of those who like to laugh and ordered a quartet of comedies, according to TV Line, including its fourth new cop-like show of the day. They join the previously revealed "Dads", the live-action multi-camera comedy from Seth MacFarlane starring Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi as dudes who let their dads move in with them. Let's run down the newbies:

.... "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" comes from the Parks and Recreation writing team of Mike Schur and Dan Goor. The ensemble comedy stars Andy Samberg, Andre Braugher, Terry Crews, and Melissa Fumero as cops in a Brooklyn precinct. At the center of it are Samberg as a slacky cop and Braugher as his uptight boss. This was probably the comedy pilot I was anticipating most; it's got so much already in place. Even the promo photo is funny... look at Crews in the background. How is that not going to be hilarious every week?



.... "Surviving Jack" (formerly I Suck at Girls) stars Christopher Meloni (Law & Order: SVU) and is based on a book by the Sh*t My Dad Says guy. It also still makes no sense to me because this is the logline that hasn't been updated yet for some reason: "a story about a boy becoming a man, and a man becoming a father, in a time before coming of age was something you could Google."

.... "Enlisted" is a military comedy from "Cougar Town"s Kevin Biegel and stars Geoff Stults (The Finder) as one of three brothers working at a Florida Army base. I welcome this new premise! The scary thing about this show is that Parker Young plays one of the brothers, which means he will no longer be playing Ryan Shay in "Suburgatory", most likely.

.... "Us and Them" is based on the UK series Gavin and Stacey that ran from 2007-2010. The US version stars Jason RItter (Parenthood) and Alexis Bledel (Gilmore Girls) as the title characters, an opposite-attracts situation that tries to make a long-distance relationship work. Jane Kaczmarek and Kurt Fuller also star.

With those four getting the series nods, that means Fox's other comedy pilots are almost certainly dead. Those included The Gabriels, To My Future Assistant, and Two Wrongs. The four picked up today join "Raising Hope", "New Girl", and "The Mindy Project" as Fox's options for comedy next year.


Culled from TV.com