LIFE
‘Magnum P.I.’ gets reboot with new cast
CBS Orders Four Dramas Including ‘Magnum PI,’ Plus Comedy ‘Fam’ Starring Nina Dobrev. CBS has given out five new series orders for the 2018-2019 season.
The network has ordered four more one-hour dramas: “God Friended Me,” the reboot of “Magnum P.I.,” “The Code,” and “The Red Line.”
“Magnum P.I.” will see Jay Hernandez take over the role originally played by Tom Selleck. The series follows Thomas Magnum, a decorated ex-Navy SEAL who, upon returning home to Hawaii from Afghanistan, repurposes his military skills to become a private investigator. The series will also star Perdita Weeks, Zachary Knighton, Stephen Hill.
Peter Lenkov, the writer and producer behind current CBS reboots of “Hawaii Five-O” and “MacGyver,” will serve as the writer and executive producer. Eric Guggenheim, an executive producer and writer on Lenkov’s “Hawaii Five-O,” will also write and executive produce. John Davis and John Fox of Davis Entertainment will also executive produce along with Danielle Woodrow. Justin Lin will direct the pilot and executive produce. CBS Television Studios will co-produce with Universal Television.
“God Friended Me” is described as a humorous, uplifting series about an outspoken atheist whose life is turned upside down when he is “friended” by God on social media. Unwittingly, he becomes an agent of change in the lives and destinies of others around him. The series stars Brandon Micheal Hall–fresh off of ABC’s comedy “The Mayor”–along with Violett Beane, Suraj Sharma, Javicia Leslie, and Joe Morton.
Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt penned the script and will serve as executive producers. Marcos Siega directed the pilot and will also executive produce. Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter of Berlanti Productions, will also executive produce. Warner Bros. Television is the studio.
“The Code” centets on the military’s brightest minds as they take on our country’s toughest challenges – inside the courtroom and out – where each attorney is trained as a prosecutor, a defense lawyer, an investigator, and a Marine. It stars Anna Wood, Ato Essandoh, Phillipa Soo, Raffi Barsoumian. Mira Sorvino and Dave Annable were previously cast in lead roles, but those roles will now be recast.
The series is based on a teleplay by Craig Sweeny, with the story by Sweeny and Craig Turk. Sweeny will serve as showrunner. Carl Beverly and Sarah Timberman will also executive produce. Marc Webb directed the pilot and will also executive produce. CBS Television Studios will produce.
“The Red Line,” from writers and co-executive producers Caitlin Parrish and Erica Weiss, hails from Warner Bros. Television. After a white cop in Chicago mistakenly shoots and kills a black doctor, the show follow three different families that all have connections with the case as the story is told from each perspective. Ava DuVernay, Berlanti, and Schechter also serve as executive producers. It stars Noah Wyle, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Aliyah Royale, Noel Fisher, Michael Patrick Thornton, Vinny Chhibber, Howard Charles, and Elizabeth Laidlaw.
Finally, CBS has also ordered the multi-camera comedy “Fam.” In the series, a woman’s dreams of an upstanding life with her new fiancé and his upstanding family are dashed when her younger train wreck half-sister comes to live with her to escape their train wreck of a father. It stars Nina Dobrev, Tone Bell, Odessa Adlon, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Sheryl Lee Ralph. Corinne Kingsbury will serve as writer and executive producer. Aaron Kaplan, Dana Honor, Bob Kushell, and Wendi Trilling will also executive produce. CBS Television Studios will produce with Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment. Scott Ellis will serve as director and executive producer of the pilot.
These bring CBS’ total orders for next season to nine total. The network had previously ordered the multi-camera comedies “Welcome to the Neighborhood” and the untitled Damon Wayans Jr. project to series. The network also gave straight-to-series orders for the revival of “Murphy Brown” and Dick Wolf’s new procedural “FBI.”
One project not included in these orders was the network’s adaptation of “LA Confidential.” Sources say the pilot was well-received but was considered too dark for the broadcaster. It is possible the project could be shopped to cable or streaming, with CBS All Access being the most logical choice.
Drew Barrymore is stepping down as host of this year’s MTV Movie & Music Awards, due to be held on Sunday, in solidarity with the ongoing strike by the Writers Guild of America (WGA). The actress has agreed to host the ceremony next year instead, Variety reported.
Although the MTV awards are set to go ahead without a host, Variety said that arrangements for the show are in constant flux as producers are unsure which of the presenters, nominees, and guests will be willing to appear.
Organizers have already scrapped the red carpet as well as interviews that were supposed to take place before the ceremony.
In a statement quoted by Variety, Barrymore said she had “listened to the writers, and in order to truly respect them, I will pivot from hosting the MTV Movie & TV Awards live in solidarity with the strike.”
The actress added that “everything we celebrate and honor about movies and television is born out of their [writers’] creation,” and revealed that she is “choosing to wait” until a solution is reached on fairly compensating writers for their craft.
Although Barrymore will not be present at the live event in Santa Monica, California on Sunday, she is likely to appear in several pre-recorded short films created for the telecast.
Unions representing writers working in Hollywood and beyond officially began a strike on Tuesday. The move comes amid a dispute with major studios such as Paramount and Universal over working conditions and the shift brought about by the rise of streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon.
Hollywood writers go on strike
The WGA has complained that its members are being “devalued” and have received reduced pay despite significantly more movies and TV shows being in production than ever before thanks to streaming.
Aside from increased pay, the WGA has issued a list of demands to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents Hollywood’s major studios. Among them is a request for guarantees that scripts would not be generated using Artificial Intelligence, and that writers would not be asked to edit or rewrite screenplays generated by such technology.
The current strike is the first work stoppage in the US entertainment industry in 15 years. The previous writers’ strike in 2007 lasted for 100 days and ultimately cost Hollywood an estimated $2.1 billion.
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