ABC
Not long after CBS showed its hand regarding a trio of drama projects, ABC has given a pilot order to what would be the network's first series from überproducer Jerry Bruckheimer. ABC also greenlit prospective series from Mark Gordon (Grey's Anatomy) and McG (Terminator Salvation).
Bruckheimer's untitled pilot, says the Hollywood Reporter, revolves around a team of amateur detectives who ...
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Robin cover art by Jim Lee and Scott Williams/DC Comics
Batman can have the big screen. Second banana Robin is settling for the small screen.According to Variety, the CW is developing a one-hour drama based on the pre-Robin days of Batman's perennial sidekick.The Graysons will explore Dick "DJ" Grayson's youth and adolescence in the same vein Smallville does for Clark Kent.Not surprisingly, the concept is the brainchild of Smallville executive produers Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson. Supernatural's executive producer McG is also behind the project. The CW has put in a pilot commitment for the show, viewed as a potential replacement for Smallville, which may be hanging up its super-flying cape after eight seasons. Should Smallville continue, The Graysons will work as a companion series.Are you interested in seeing the wondrous boyhood of the Boy Wonder? — Joyce Eng
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McG by Kevin Parry/WireImage.com
Facing a roomful of press at Comic-Con Saturday the Terminator Salvation cast minus Christian Bale and director McG offered thoughts on just how things are shaping up for the next film installment and what kinds of themes they took to heart Almost from the get-go it was apparent that the filmmaker was searching for some salvation of his ownWith cast members Sam Worthington Anton Yelchin Moon Bloodgood Bryce Dallas Howard and Common seated on either side of him McG soon owned the podium with comments that were almost sermon-like Here are some of the highlights149 Fear was one of the dominant themes of McGs motivation and thought process in making the film He feels hes a different filmmaker than who he was during the Charlies Angels era In order to make Terminator he said I needed to face what I most afraid of 149 The fear theme soon digressed into a soliloquy about modern technology McG outed all of us with our laptops and digital cameras strewn across
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Common by Jamie McCarthy/ WireImage.com
Rapper-turned-actor Common has joined the cast of Warner Bros Terminator sequel Terminator Salvation The Future Begins According to Variety Common who has recently appeared in Street Kings American Gangster and Smokin Aces will play a freedom fighter and member of the inner circle formed by John Connor Christian Bale to fight with the remaining humans against the machines The McG-directed flick is expected in theaters May 22 2009Common can next be seen on the big screen alongside Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman in Wanted and will be taking on the role of the Green Lantern in the forthcoming Justice League movie Adam BryantRelated149 Christian Bales Terminator Targets a PG-13
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Christian Bale by Steve Granitz/WireImage.com
According to the Reporter, Batman frontman Christian Bale is in talks to join another boffo franchise, playing a grown-up John Connor in Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins. (Hey, I think Phantom Menace just lost the honor of worst film title ever.)Bale is currently lensing the Batman Begins follow-up The Dark Knight; McG (Charlie's Angels) is in negotiations to direct this latest Terminator trip.
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Coolio by Steve Granitz/WireImage.com
Oxygen has OK'd a reality show about rapper Coolio's attempts to raise six teens as a single parent. Coolio & the Gang will debut in the second quarter of '08.... Fox and McG (The O.C.) are developing Spaced, a comedy based (of course) on a British series from Shaun of the Dead creators Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright. In it, two singles pose as a couple so they can rent a flat. Er, apartment.... Andy Barker, P.I. creator Jonathan Groff's new laffer, Private Lives of Public People, started a bidding war between ABC and CBS. In the end, the Eye landed the pilot about upstanding citizens whose home lives are disastrous.... Arrested Development alum Abraham Higginbotham got a go-ahead from Fox for his untitled comedy pilot featuring Reno 911's Niecy Nash among the lowbrow staffers at a highfalutin NYC hotel. — Ben Katner
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Mark Burnett has set up at NBC My Dad is Better than Your Dad, a game show in which fathers face off in stunt-driven challenges, Variety reports.... FX has given Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy a series commitment for Queen B, a workplace drama centered on a female CEO who grooms a young girl in her ruthless image.... Homicide's Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson are reteaming for the NBC pilot The Philanthropist, a series that sound a bit like The Equalizer.... After a fierce bidding war, ABC has ordered six episodes of Section 8, a drama penned by X-Men 3's Zak Penn and described as a blend of House, X-Men and The X-Files. OK.... ABC is teaming with hip-hop producer Pharrell Williams and filmmaker McG on Limelight, a drama set at a performing arts-school.
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Zachary Levi as Chuck by Chris Haston/NBC Photo
The network of Heroes is going hero-crazy this fall. But two of NBC's more buzzed-about new genre series couldn’t be more different: a dark and disturbing "reimagining" of '70s superhero series Bionic Woman and the laugh-out-loud action-comedy Chuck, about a computer nerd whose brain is accidentally wired with government secrets, catapulting him into the spy game. Both were presented in back-to-back sessions at the TCA critics' press tour Tuesday morning.Of course, much of the latest Bionic buzz has focused on this week’s announcement that the ever-controversial Isaiah Washington is joining the show for an early five-episode arc as a mystery man brought into the secret bio-science organization that turned Jaime Sommers (Michelle Ryan in a new twist on the old Lindsay Wagner role) into a part-machine superhuman. It’s a casting stunt that at least a few journalists in the room feel could backfire. Executive producer Jason Smilovic defended the casting stunt by saying, &...
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Justin Chambers and Elizabeth Reaser by Ron Tom/ABC
How great did it feel to have Ugly Betty and Grey’s Anatomy back on with new episodes this week? Such a scrumptious double feature of feel-good TV. I’m especially keen on Betty these days, this colorful and vibrantly funny new geek on the block. As others have said, it’s the perfect appetizer to the main course of Grey’s, with its usually irresistible blend of suds, scrubs and heartache.Best move both shows made this week: Ditching subplots that were going nowhere. On Betty, that meant saying goodbye to Ignacio’s case worker (who really wasn’t), the crazily smitten Constance (Octavia Spencer). On Grey’s, that meant saying goodbye to the arrogant Dr. Marlow, played by a miscast Roger Rees, a fine actor who came off more like a creepy Dracula than an intimidating Dr. McBrilliant. Of all the misbegotten love matches we’ve been forced to consider on this show, asking us to believe Cristina ever had a thing for this ghoul was almost as ewww-inspiri...
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Sources tell the Hollywood Reporter that producer-director McG (Charlie's Angels) is shopping around an unscripted series about the Pussycat Dolls and that the new CW network may be nibbling at the vittles. Hmm, tough call for CW: Give airtime to an insubstantial girl group, or renew the brilliant Veronica Mars. Coin toss.
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