News Brief : Game Of Thrones castings, Show renewals and Who's the best 'Anti-hero' character on TV

.... FX's plan for The Strain 
The network's upcoming adaptation of Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hagan's trilogy of vampire novels is already pretty highly anticipated around these parts: Lost and Bates Motel showrunner Carlton Cuse is working with del Toro to bring it to the airwaves, and House of Cards' Corey Stoll is starring. But at FX's TCA executive session, network head honcho (and all-around smart guy) John Landgraf announced that they already have episode and season limits (39-65 and 3-5, respectively) in mind for the show. Pre-planning doesn't always work, but knowing end dates early, especially for high-concept series, is a really good idea.

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: James Gandolfini is Dead ,,,,, and other TV news.

SAD NEWS
Actor James Gandolfini, known for his iconic, Emmy-winning portrayal of one of television's most famous gangsters, Tony Soprano (in the series The Sopranos) has died at age 51. Early reports suggest that the cause of death is a massive heart attack; Gandolfini was in Italy at the time. Gandolfini's long and impressive resume includes roles both large and small in True Romance, Where The Wild Things Are, In the Loop, Zero Dark Thirty, and a host of other films. He is survived by his wife and two children.

LET THE LAUGHS BEGIN NEWS
... FX has ordered a new untitled comedy starring Martin Lawrence and Kelsey Grammer as mismatched lawyers who end up being buddies. The deal, dubbed a 10/90, is similar to the one FX struck with Anger Management; FX is asking for 10 episodes, and if those 10 episodes hit a certain target in the ratings department, FX will order 90 more episodes. FX has a similar deal with a new comedy starring George Lopez.

.... Community creator Dan Harmon has apologized for his comments about Community Season 4. Where he said that he watched the fourth season Community—the season he was not part of after his firing—and did not care for it. At all. In fact, he compared watching Season 4, specifically seeing James Brolin play Jeff's dad, to "being held down and watching your family get raped on a beach." And "flipping through Instagram just watching your girlfriend blow everyone." He apologized to fans, the Season 4 writers, and the cast and crew for his remarks, but did not mention Sony or Season 4 showrunners Moses Port and David Guarascio. He also acknowledged that he said what he said in a cheap attempt to get laughs and that his head "was up his ass."

BUSINESS TIME
.... Netflix has renewed the Eli Roth-helmed horror series Hemlock Grove for Season 2, ordering 10 episodes with a target launch date of 2014. The company has also announced that Charles H. Eglee will join the series as an executive producer and showrunner; Eglee's previous EP credits include The Walking Dead, Dexter, and The Shield.

... Singer John Legend won't let his dream of getting into the TV business die. After a few failed attempts at producing, Legend has a new project in the works at Showtime. The half-hour comedy would follow the lives of big-time music producers, and be loosely based on Legend's life, which probably involves all kinds of opulence and pretty ladies and man. Is this going to be similar to The Real Husbands of Hollywood (one of the best new comedy series this year), reality-show or scripted? We wait and see.

... Nashville music boss T Bone Burnett is leaving the series between seasons, and will hand over his post to Buddy Miller, Burnett's righthand man in Season 1. Burnett produced all the original tunes for the country-music drama and co-composed the score.

CASTING NEWS
... HBO's drama pilot The Leftovers has beefed up its cast with a rare bit of TV casting for one actress. Liv Tyler (that elf lady from Lord of the Rings, that daughter of that rock star) has joined the project, starring opposite Justin Theroux. The drama comes from Damon Lindelof and follows those left behind after the Rapture takes all the righteous away. Tyler, in her first major TV role, will play a woman who becomes the target of a cult.

... Oscar nominee John Hurt has joined FX's vampire pilot The Strain, from Carlton Cuse and Guillermo Del Toro. Hurt will play the owner of a pawn shop who may be the only one who knows what's going on with the sudden viral outbreak the show is built around. Corey Stoll and Mia Maestro were previously cast in the series.

... NBC's upcoming drama Believe is already changing things up. Sienna Guillory, originally cast as a series regular, will see her character written out of the show now that producers have decided on a new direction. In the J.J. Abrams-produced drama about a young woman named Bo with special abilities, Guillory's character was a professional goon attempting to kidnap her. But now several new bad guys will be written in with the hopes that one becomes a series regular.

... Desperate Housewives vet Doug Savant will guest-star on TNT's Rizzoli & Isles. He'll play a mock trial adviser in a September episode.

... Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane will lend his voice to Futurama's final season, and not for just any role; I'm talking about the character who owes me 10,000,000 tears. MacFarlane will voice Seymour, Fry's dog from 1999 who was the centerpiece of the series' masterpiece "Jurassic Bark." Listen for MacFarlane in the August 14 episode. [EW]

... The Veronica Mars movie will bring back New Girl star Max Greenfield as Deputy Leo. Basically, everyone who was originally part of Veronica Mars will be back for the movie.

FIRING NEWS

Following Charlie Sheen's weekend tantrum over his co-star Selma Blair, Blair has been canned from Anger Management. Sheen had threatened to quit the show if Blair wasn't fired after word got back to Sheen that Blair had been talking smack about his work ethic.