Following Daredevil, Jessica Jones is the second of a four-part deal between Netflix and Marvel, with Twilight screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg as showrunner. A bevy of actresses are in the mix to play the titular superhero, including Krysten Ritter (Breaking Bad, Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23), Alexandra Daddario (True Detective), Teresa Palmer (Warm Bodies), and Jessica De Gouw (Arrow). Jessica Jones centers on a superhero suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder who opens her own detective agency.
Hulu has picked up the Amy Poehler-produced Difficult People with a straight-to-series order. Billy Eichner (Billy on the Street) had originally developed the show with head writer Julie Klausner for USA before the streaming service swooped in. The comedy revolves around two best friends (Eichner and Klausner) living in New York City, where their irreverent behavior gets them into trouble. Eichner’s reoccurring character Craig is also set to return for the seventh and final season of Parks and Recreation.
Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony winning Director Mike Nichols passed away yesterday from cardiac arrest at the age of 83. Nichols, born Mikhail Igor Peschkowsky in Berlin Germany, immigrated to America as a child in 1938. While attending the University of Chicago he met comedienne Elaine May and the two formed a partnership that lasted years. They won a 1961 Grammy Award for best Comedy Album. He won his first Tony for Best Director in 1964 for Barefoot in the Park and would go on to win six more Tonys. He received his first Academy Award for Best Director for 1967’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Although he didn’t win that year, he would be nominated for four more Academy Awards, winning for Best Director for 1968’s The Graduate. In the 2000s he turned his camera to the small screen, winning Emmy Awards for Best Director for 2001’s Wit and 2004’s Angels in America. He leaves behind wife Diane Sawyer and three children from previous marriages.
Series creator Neil Cross is developing an Americanized pilot for Fox, with star of the original iteration Idris Elba on board as executive producer. Earlier this year, Fox debuted Gracepoint (Fresh at 66 percent), an American version of Broadchurch, retaining the series star David Tenant. The original BBC Luther will be back in 2015 as a mini-series with Elba reprising his role as the titular brilliant but self-destructive detective.
After six seasons, TV Land has pulled the plug on its first original comedy, Hot in Cleveland, starring Valeria Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, Wendie Malick, and Betty White. The series just celebrated its 100th episode in September and is licensed to 210 countries and syndicated in 96 percent of US markets. With its debut in 2010, the sitcom launched TV Land into scripted territory, though its recent show Jennifer Falls (Rotten at 50 percent) was not a hit with critics or audiences. Where will we get our Betty White fix now?
