Development News - February 26, 2014
ABC's Selfie; CBS' How I Met Your Dad & Madam Secretary; The CW's The Messengers & Supernatural: Tribes; FOX's Empire; NBC's Coercion & Old Soul; and TBS' Tribeca.
THE CW's SUPERNATURAL: TRIBES
- Sean Faris (The Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars) will co-star on the planted spinoff of Supernatural. He will play Julian Durant, the savagely handsome werewolf son of a wealthy family of lycanthropes who has no love for the shapeshifting Hayden family.
ABC's SELFIE
- Tim Peper and Da'Vine Joy Randolph have been cast on the comedy pilot starring Karen Gillan. Peper will play Ethan, Eliza's (Gillan) jealous, competitive and ambitious co-worker. Randolph will play Charmonique, the company's cheerful receptionist.
TBS' TRIBECA
- The comedy pilot is quickly becoming a family affair - with Quincy Jones and Peggy Lipton set to portray the parents of the series' lead, played by their real-life daughter, Rashida Jones.
- Additionally, Alfred Molina is set for a guest starring/recurring role in the pilot. He will play Dr. Edelweiss, a solemn and serious handwriting expert who also has a penchant for toys.
CBS' MADAM SECRETARY
- Body of Proof vet Geoffrey Arend will appear on the drama pilot starring Tea Leoni and Tim Daly. He will play Matt, a speechwriter for Secretary of State McGill (Leoni).
CBS' HOW I MET YOUR DAD
- Upright Citizens Brigade member Drew Tarver has landed one of the lead roles on the potential spinoff of How I Met Your Mother. He will play Todd, Sally's (Greta Gerwig) best friend and college roommate who is now married to her brother. His casting stems from a talent holding deal he signed with CBS last month.
FOX's EMPIRE
- Person of Interest alum Taraji P. Henson has landed the female lead on the drama pilot starring Terrence Howard. Also cast on the project today is Jussie Smollet. Henson will play Cookie Lyon, Lucious' (Howard) ex-wife and former business partner. She is a sexy, outrageous, over-the-top force who has spent 17 years of hard time in prison for dealing drugs - money she funneled directly to Lucious' fledging music empire. Now, she's been released early and wants what's hers. Smollet will play Jamal, Lucious and Cookie's middle son, a sensitive soul and musical prodigy who could easily ride to superstardom if he desired. As a gay man he's been rejected and judged by his father since childhood - which may explain why he steers clear of fame and prefers to keep his music "pure."
NBC's COERCION
- Kenneth Choi (Ironside) has booked a regular role on the drama pilot starring Hope Davis. He will play Sam Luttrell, the CIA station chief for New York.
NBC's OLD SOUL
- Veteran actor Fred Willard (Modern Family) will co-star on the comedy pilot starring Natasha Lyonne and Rita Moreno. He will play Hector, a veteran Broadway songwriter who has been joyously married to Rita (Moreno), his writing partner, for over 50 years. One of Nadia's (Lyonne) main jobs with Hector is to help him sort through the massive amounts of stuff he has kept over the years.
THE CW's THE MESSENGERS
- Sofia Black-D'Elia (Skins) and Joel Courtney (Super 8) are the first to be cast on the drama pilot from writer Eoghan O'Donnell. Black-D'Elia will play Erin, the mother of a young girl who is forced to drive an escaped inmate to Houston. She's bubbly despite the stress in her after being killed by the pulse. Courtney will play Peter, an Emo outsider who is accused of trying to commit suicide when he drowns in a pool from the pulse who gains immense strength when he awakens.
