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Gods and monsters are coming to Disney+ with the series adaptation of author Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson books. Claire Danes and Josh Duhamel join series, Netflix orders scripted comedy from comedian and actress Michelle Buteau, Peacock announces Winter Olympics talent, trailers drop for the second season of Space Force and Outlander season 6, and more of the biggest news in TV and streaming this week.
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Finally, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the internationally best-selling YA book series about the young descendants of Greek gods in the modern world, has been ordered as an adventure-filled television series. Author Rick Riordan announced the news in a video message (above).
Disney+ is currently casting the series, which will follow Percy, who’s just coming to terms with his supernatural gifts, when god Zeus accuses the young hero of stealing the master thunderbolt. Percy has to prove his innocence, which sends him on a quest across America to find the missing object and restore order to Olympus.
The show comes from Riordan and producer Jon Steinberg (Black Sails), who will write the pilot. The Mysterious Benedict Society director James Bobin will direct, and all three will serve as executive producers on the project, which begins production this summer.
The Percy Jackson series has sold more than 180 million copies around the world and has spawned two big-screen movies starring Logan Lerman (pictured), including 2010’s Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and 2013’s Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.
Murderville is the six-episode procedural crime comedy about homicide detective Terry Seattle (Will Arnett), who tackles a new murder case every day, alongside some help from a rotating line-up of guest stars who are not give a script, and so, along with Arnett, have to improvise their way to solving a murder. Guest stars include Annie Murphy, Conan O’Brien, Ken Jeong, Kumail Nanjiani, Marshawn Lynch, and Sharon Stone. Premieres Feb. 3. (Netflix)
More trailers and teasers released this week:
• The Real Husbands of Hollywood: More Kevin, More Problems is the limited series reunion that catches up with Kevin Hart and the pseudo real versions of his pals Nick Cannon, Boris Kodjoe, Duane Martin, JB Smoove, Nelly, and Robin Thicke, as they get into various mishaps, often the result of Hart’s shenanigans. Premieres Feb. 10. (BET+)
• Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber is the first installment of Showtime’s new anthology series, this season focusing on the swift rise, and fall, of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Also stars Kyle Chandler, Uma Thurman, and Elisabeth Shue. Premieres Feb. 27. (Showtime)
• IMDb TV asks you to Bug Out over their four-part true crime docuseries about the largest insect theft (that’s theft of insects) in history, when thousands of dollars of bugs were pilfered from a bug museum. Premieres March 4 (IMDb TV)
• Swap Shop season 3 proves yet again that one person’s trash is another person’s much sought after collectible … so clean out those closets and garages! Premieres Feb. 16. (Netflix)
• Outlander finally dropped its season 6 trailer on Droughtlander-suffering fans. Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jaime (Sam Hughan) return to face the American Revolution. (Starz)
• My Brilliant Friend: Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay season 3 is an adaptation of the third book in Elena Ferrante’s quadrilogy about Elena Greco and her BFF, Raffaella Cerullo, a.k.a. Lila, and picks up with the women both living new lives in Italy in the 1970s. Stars Margherita Mazzucco and Gaia Girace. Premieres Feb. 28. (HBO)
• Space Force season 2 finds the return of Steve Carell and John Malkovich and answer that first season cliffhanger, which saw General Naird (Carell) headed for a court martial for his rebellious ways. Also starring Ben Schwartz, Tawny Newsome, Diana Silvers, Jimmy O. Yang and Don Lake. Premieres Feb. 18. (Netflix)
• Snowfall season 5 takes place as the cocaine epidemic really takes hold of 1980s Los Angeles and brings both danger and opportunities to Franklin and his cohorts. Stars Damson Idris. Premieres Feb. 23. (FX)
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(Photo by Patrick McMullan via Getty Image)
Homeland Emmy winner Claire Danes will star in FX’s limited series adaptation of Fleishman Is in Trouble, Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s bestselling debut novel. Jesse Eisenberg and Lizzy Caplan also star in the story of Toby Fleishman (Eisenberg), who’s juggling being a single father, a new dating life, and a much-awaited promotion at work just as his ex-wife Rachel (Danes) disappears and leaves no idea of where she is or when she’ll return. (Deadline)
Neither William Petersen nor Jorja Fox will return for season 2 of CBS’ CSI: Vegas. The new season will now revolve around the characters played by Matt Lauria, Mandeep Dhillon, Mel Rodriguez, and Paula Newsome. (Twitter)
Peacock has announced its Winter Olympics talent lineup: Matt Iseman, Jonny Moseley, Ashley Wagner, Brian Boitano, Scott Hamilton, and Adnan Virk will provide coverage and analysis of the Games. The Olympic Show (8 a.m. EST), Olympic Ice (10 a.m. EST), Winter Gold (11 a.m. EST), and Top Highlights (8 p.m. EST) will stream for free on Peacock’s Olympic Spotlight Channel beginning February 5. In addition to daily shows, Peacock will live stream all of NBCUniversal’s coverage of the Winter Games, including the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, NBC’s nightly primetime show, and full-event replays on its premium tier.
Nick Stahl (Fear the Walking Dead) has joined the cast of the Showtime vampire drama Let the Right One In, about a man (Demián Bichir) and his daughter, whose lives were upended a decade ago when she was changed into a vampire. She lives her life inside, and can only go out at night, while her dad commits himself to getting her the human blood she needs to survive. Stahl will play a former soldier and current fixer for a family that is pretending to be a gentle presence but is actually quite dangerous.
Julian McMahon has left as the star of CBS’s FBI: Most Wanted, and stepping in as the new lead: Dylan McDermott, who most recently was recurring on another Dick Wolf–produced drama, NBC’s Law & Order: Organized Crime. McMahon will exit FBI as team lead Jess LaCroix on March 8, and McDermott will step in as a new character and the series’ new lead in April. (Deadline)
(Photo by ABC via Getty Images)
Another leading man switcheroo: Emilio Estevez is out at the Disney+ series The Mighty Ducks: Game Changer, in which he reprised his role as Coach Gordon Bombay from The Mighty Ducksmovies. Stepping in as the new coach for season 2: Josh Duhamel, who will play Gavin Cole, a former NHL star who is now running a summer hockey camp.
George & Tammy, a Paramount Network/Spectrum Originals co-production about the marriage between country music superstars George Jones and Tammy Wynette – starring Jessica Chastain as Wynette and Michael Shannon as Jones – has cast Kelly McCormack (A League of Their Own series) and Katy Mixon (American Housewife) in the limited series based on a book by the tempestuous couple’s daughter. McCormack will play Sheila Richey, the ex-wife of George Richey (Steve Zahn) — songwriter, producer, and husband of Wynette after she divorced Jones — and Wynette’s one-time friend. Mixon will play Jan Smith, a hair and makeup artist who’s also a Wynette pal. (Deadline)
ER alums and former love interests Eriq La Salle and Gloria Reuben will reunite in the Hallmark movie A Second Chance at Love, in which they play a divorced couple whose adult daughter tries to play matchmaker for them.
B Positive star Annaleigh Ashford has joined the cast of Hulu’s Immigrant, the limited series about Chippendales founder Steve Banerjee (Kumail Nanjiani). Ashford will play Banerjee’s wife, Irene, an accountant who works for the Chippendales company.
CBS has revealed the cast for its third season of Celebrity Big Brother: model and Real Housewives of Atlanta alum Cynthis Bailey; Diff’rent Strokes star Todd Bridges; American Idol alum Todrick Hall; Saturday Night Live alum Chris Kattan; ‘N Sync member Chris Kirkpatrick; Queer Eye for the Straight Guy star Carson Kressley; Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum Teddi Mellencamp; former Miss USA Shanna Moakler; Olympic figure skater Mirai Nagasu; former UFC champion Miesha Tate; and NBA champ Lamar Odom. The season premieres on CBS on February 2.
(Photo by John Atashian/Getty Images)
New Amsterdam executive producer (and singer of 1977 Billboard No. 1 pop hit “Da Doo Ron Ron”) Shaun Cassidy will produce the NBC pilot Unbroken, which revolves around ranch families and rodeo competitions, and seems inspired by Paramount’s wildly successful ratings hit drama Yellowstone.
This Is Us star Milo Ventimiglia has sold a drama called Hometown Saints to NBC. The series is about a retired hockey player who’s unsure how to live his life in the real world now that his pro sports life is over. (THR)
Stargate SG-1 writers and producers Dean Devlin and Jonathan Glassner have gotten a 12-episode straight-to-series order for The Ark, a drama about planetary colonization gone wrong. The series is set 100 years in the future when planetary colonization missions are necessary lest the human race become extinct. “The Ark” is a spacecraft set to transport a group, but when a “catastrophic event” happens, those who survive have a year to reach their target without the supplies and leadership they need.
(Photo by Marcus Price/Netflix © 2020)
Netflix has greenlit a scripted comedy series, Survival of the Thickest, starring comedian and actress Michelle Buteau, based on her own book of essays of the same name. The series will revolve around Mavis (Buteau), a black, plus-size and newly single woman who unexpectedly finds herself having to rebuild her life after “putting all her eggs in one man’s basket.”
Peacock has given a straight-to-order series for the supernatural series Dead Day, from producers Julie Plec (The Vampire Diaries and The Originals) and Kevin Williamson (The Vampire Diaries and Dawson’s Creek). The series is an adaptation of the bestselling AfterShock comic book series of the same name created by Ryan Parrott. Dead Day follows an ensemble of characters as they navigate the annual “dead day,” when for one night the dead come back to complete unfinished business … be that to celebrate a night back on earth or to torment the living.
Alyssa Milano will executive producer an adaptation of the memoir The White House Doctor by author Dr. Connie Mariano, who was the White House doctor for George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. The series will revolve around the White House doctors all-consuming duties, from traveling the world with the POTUS to being his confidant and being as close to him as the Secret Service agents. The series is in development at Fox.
R&B icon Bobby Brown, currently reunited and on a national tour with the original New Edition (plus Johnny Gill), is sitting down for an interview for A&E Network’s Biography: Bobby Brown, in which he’ll detail in his own words the many public and private ups and downs of his life and Grammy-winning career. That special will air on May 30 and 31, and will be followed by Bobby Brown: Every Little Step, a docuseries that follows the whole Brown family, including Bobby as he tours the country with the New Edition tour.
Why yes, that is Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters performing “Fraggle Rock Rock” for Apple TV+’s Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock soundtrack. Grohl wrote the song, too.
