Nicole Kidman to play Gretchen Carlson in that A-List-filled Fox News movie

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.

It’s like we’ve always said: When there’s no more room in Development Hell, the TV projects and casting news will walk the Earth. So let’s get some of these sumbitches cut down, before our homes and families are overwhelmed with factoids about comic-book TV shows and Jordan Peele’s over-stuffed production calendar.

• First up: Nicole Kidman has just become the latest big-name actress to play a member of the former women of Fox News, whose sexual harassment complaints against CEO Roger Ailes eventually forced him to put a “former” in front of his name, too. Per Variety, Kidman is in talks to play Gretchen Carlson in Jay Roach’s planned film about Ailes’ downfall; she’ll appear opposite Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly, while Margot Robbie is also reportedly considering a role.
• Timothy Hutton has signed on for a role in the upcoming TV adaptation of Y: The Last Man, but, since he’s not playing the title character, we have to assume it’ll be a pretty short gig. Deadline reports that the former Leverage star will play the U.S. president in the upcoming Biran K. Vaughan adaptation, about a world where all the men done drop dead one day.
• Jordan Peele has reportedly rounded out the cast and started production on his Get Out follow-up, Us. Per Deadline, Peele has just cast Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, Madison Curry, Cali Sheldon and Noelle Sheldon in the film, which stars Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, and Tim Heidecker.
• Kiersey Clemons—recently of the affable Sundance treat Hearts Beat Loud—has joined the cast of Disney’s upcoming Lady & The Tramp remake. Clemons will play “Darling,” one of the film’s few human characters. No word yet on who’ll be her “Jim Dear,” but Justin Theroux is playing The Tramp. [via Variety]
• Deadline reports that Sony is attempting a remake of Blake Edwards’ 1987 farce Blind Date. The madcap original starred Bruce Willis and Kim Basinger as a button-down guy and the woman who destroys his life over the course of a single night; nobody’s been cast in the new version yet, but Chris Hazzard and Michael Fontana are set to write.
• Having proven his comedy chops three times over as the cheerfully blunt Drax in the MCU films, Dave Bautista is breaking out for a solo gig, one apparently in the footsteps of his tree-playing co-star Vin Diesel. THR reports that Bautista is set to star in My Spy, about a tough, burly secret agent who ends up being forced to guard a 9-year-old gifted with that most irritating of cinematic tween attributes: precociousness. Peter Segal (Get Smart, Fifty First Dates) is set to direct.
• Hillary Clinton is getting into TV making with her old buddy Steven Spielberg; according to The Hollywood Reporter, the pair are executive producing suffragette drama The Woman’s Hour for Amblin TV. Based on Elaine Weiss’ book, the project will tell the story of the activists who secured women’s right to vote in the U.S.—and remind viewers that the ratification of the 19th Amendment was a much closer thing than most of us like to think about. Amblin’s expected to shop the project—either as a TV movie or a limited series—to premium cable or one of the streaming services.
• Finally, we’ve got a little more Stephen King news, for those of you who haven’t gotten your fill of Castle Rock: Deadline reports that Ewan McGregor’s The Shining sequel, Doctor Sleep, has cast a few new faces for old friends, with Carl Lumbly (Alias, Supergirl) and Alex Essoe (Midnighters) playing Dick Halloran and Wendy Torrance, respectively. Although most of King’s book takes place during Danny Torrance’s adulthood—as he faces off with a vampire cult headed up by Rebecca Ferguson—we have to assume there’ll be at least a few flashbacks to his days during and immediately after his time at the Overlook Hotel.