Welcome to Development Hell, the fiery pit into which we fling recent developments in casting, distribution, and everything else that’s new and mildly interesting in the Boschian phantasmagoria of the entertainment industry.
Today’s trip to hell is dedicated to everyone who didn’t vote in the 2016 U.S. presidential election because “it doesn’t matter anyway” and “both parties are the same.” You’re the guests of honor on this party bus into the inferno! Anyway, here’s some pop-culture news:
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s (and How I Met Your Mother, we guess) Alyson Hannigan has signed on for a rather interesting role, playing an ex-Mennonite “who is nobody’s fool and has been helping her lawyer-boyfriend funnel a fortune in cartel cash through a local bank” on the second season of BBC America’s Pure, according to a press release.
- Emma Thompson and Paul Feig are teaming up for Last Christmas, a movie that’s being described as a “holiday romance set in London.” So, like Love, Actually, but with less editing. Thompson won’t be starring in the film—she wrote the screenplay with British multi-media artist Bryony Kimmings. Thompson has written a number of screenplays over the years, most recently Bridget Jones’ Baby (2016). [Deadline]
- Grace Park has booked her first post-Hawaii Five-O TV gig, a lead role in the new ABC ensemble drama A Million Little Things, about a group of friends who reconnect after one of them suddenly dies. Park got the role in recasting, replacing My Generation’s Anne Son. [Deadline]
- Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins tweeted out a new teaser image from the film earlier today, showing Kristen Wiig’s Cheetah in her civilian guise, Barbara Minerva. We’re getting kind of a Michelle Pfeiffer-as-Selina Kyle vibe. [Twitter]
- Sony has set a date for the sequel to its surprise hit Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle, which we were, against all odds, rather charmed by back in December. The sequel to the reboot’s coming December 23, 2019. [The Hollywood Reporter]
- Noted New Zealander Russell Crowe is set to play late asshole Roger Ailes in a new limited series for Showtime, based on Gabriel Sherman’s book The Loudest Voice In The Room. [/Film]
- After being booted from NBC, Bad Boys spin-off L.A.’s Finest has moved to the titillatingly monikered Spectrum Original Content platform from telecom company Charter Communications. Jessica Alba and Gabrielle Union probably deserve better, hey, but a paycheck’s a paycheck. [TVLine]
- Finally, Freeform has canceled the drama series Famous In Love, which was reportedly a “relief” to members of the cast and crew who were tired of constant clashes between star Bella Thorne and showrunner I. Marlene King. That’s all hearsay, but the fact that Thorne found out the show was canceled on Twitter does point towards a troubled production. [The Hollywood Reporter]
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