The man who brought you Commander in Chief next wants to bring you a woman who commands bucks in the boudoir. Writer-producer Rod Lurie is teaming with Showtime on Hilary Jones, a drama about a Los Angeles vice cop by day/legal Nevada hooker by night. (OK, technically she splits her duties week versus weekend, but that would have mangled my nice little sentence there.)Lurie tells the Reporter that he took the project to Showtime because of similarities between his anti-heroine and Weeds' pot-peddling momma. "[Nancy Botwin] is so likeable, and that's what I want to accomplish with [Hilary]," he says, calling Jones a "fascinating" woman "who believes in the law who ends up working both sides of a prostitution ring." OK, which of you wants to be the first person to bring up Secret Diary of a Call Girl? — Matt Mitovich
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Per the Hollywood Reporter, Matthew Rhys (Brothers & Sisters' Kevin) will play Welsh poet Dylan Thomas in The Best Time of Our Lives, an indie biopic also starring Lindsay Lohan, Keira Knightley and Cillian Murphy.... Mark Wahlberg will star in M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening.... Rod Lurie is remaking Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs.... Paula Patton (Denzel's Déjà Vu love interest) is joining Kiefer Sutherland in Mirrors.... Per Variety, Hilary Swank is developing and may star in a remake of Intimate Strangers, in which a woman thinks she's visiting a new shrink but instead bares her soul to an accountant. Ha!.... Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd is on track for a Dec. 21 (limited) release.
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How is that for a headline? And it's actually kinda sorta true. Caitlin Wachs, who played first daughter to Geena Davis' Mackenzie Allen on ABC's Commander in Chief, has a flurry of fun gigs coming up, roles that find her, at separate times, expectant with Satan's offspring, and channeling a teen Great Gatsby. First up, though, is a guest spot on tonight's episode of Shark (10 pm/ET on CBS). The in-demand ingenue gave TVGuide.com a call to preview her varied ventures.
TVGuide.com: Hey, guess what. You, little miss Boston Legal fan, are being recorded on the same tape as William Shatner
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Question: I am so disappointed that ABC canceled Commander in Chief! I know many other people are upset, too. Geena Davis received a Golden Globe, the episodes were so believable, and even though there were serious breaks in the season, it was a great show. Do you think the head honchos at ABC received pressure from certain political parties to silence the show? I know that the writers or directors were changed midstream, but I think the show was still good and could have come back given support, creative freedom and consistency in its airdates. Do you think politics were involved?
Answer: Nope. Just a bad case of network mismanagement, which ABC now admits. They should never have taken the show away from its creator, Rod Lurie. As great a producer as Steven Bochco is, this was not a good fit. The creative disarray, which I thought became quite noticeable on screen, doomed the show, along with ABC's erratic scheduling once the powers-that-be gave up on it. Had nothing to do with it ...
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Question: I am probably Commander in Chief's biggest fan! What is the status of it? And when are they going to air the remaining episodes of the season?
Answer: Officially, Commander in Chief is over as a series for now. It is not on next fall's schedule. But the show's creator, Rod Lurie, has been talking to the network and studio about revisiting the characters and the premise of the first female president in a two-hour movie. If that's successful, you never know whether more stories may be able to be told, in series or some other form. But for now, it's off the schedule. The remaining episodes will begin showing up shortly after the official TV season is over. I have the Chief finale tentatively penciled in for Wednesday, June 14 ...
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