The Walking Dead, Daredevil, Neverwhere, and other TV productions have made recent TV show casting, TV movie casting, and TV directing news. These shows and movies air on AMC, Netflix, and BBC.
Game of Thrones (HBO)
James Faulkner (Downton Abbey) will play “Samwell’s stern and strong-willed father Randyll Tarly,” while Samantha Spiro (From Hell) will be his mother, Melessa Tarly, and Rebecca Benson will appear as Sam’s sister Talla Tarly.
Roots (A&E)
Forest Whitaker plays “Fiddler,” a slave who tries to mentor Kunta Kinte and risks his life to help him escape; Anna Paquin as “Nancy Holt,” the wife of a Confederate officer who has her own agenda when it comes to the handling of slaves; Jonathan Rhys Meyers as “Tom Lea,” an uneducated slave owner desperate to claw his way into the elite company of Southern gentility; Anika Noni Rose (Dream Girls, The Good Wife) as “Kizzy,” the cherished, smart daughter of Kunta Kinte who maintains her family pride and warrior spirit; Chad L. Coleman (The Walking Dead, The Wire) as “Mingo,” a stern no-nonsense slave who keeps the Lea plantation afloat; Erica Tazel (Justified) as “Matilda,” a preacher’s daughter and love interest to “Chicken George”; and Derek Luke (Captain America: The First Avenger, Antwone Fisher) as “Silla Ba Dibba,” the military trainer of Juffure, charged with transforming teen boys into powerful Mandinka Warriors.
In addition, new talents Malachi Kirby and Regé-Jean Page have been cast after a “global search” as Kunta Kinte and Chicken George, respectively.
Multi-award winning Mario Van Peebles and two-time Oscar nominee Bruce Beresford are set to direct nights two and four, respectively. They join previously-announced multi-award winning Phillip Noyce and Emmy Award winner Thomas Carter, who are directing nights one and three, respectively.
The Walking Dead (AMC)
Xander Berkeley is…he’s playing “a top-secret Season 6 recurring role” but that the part is not Negan, well-known to readers of the comic book series. The character, mysterious as he is for now, is said to have “narcissism, a huge ego and self-preservation,” and is someone who “relishes the superiority that comes with being in control, but he plays it off with a car salesman-type charm.”
Berkeley’s character will show up in the second half of the new season of The Walking Dead
Doctor Who (BBC)
Jenna Coleman, who has played Clara Oswald on Doctor Who since 2012, is leaving the show later this year…she’s expect[ed] to make her last bow on the show before the airing of the Christmas Special
Daredevil (Netflix)
Simone Missick (“Ray Donovan”) has joined the cast to play popular character Misty Knight, a Harlem police detective who is determined to learn the truth about Luke Cage.
Theo Rossi (“Sons of Anarchy,” “Bad Hurt”) has joined the cast as Shades, a ruthless criminal with ties to Cage’s mysterious past.
Frank Whaley (“Ray Donovan,” “Pulp Fiction”) has been cast as Rafael Scarfe, a hard-nosed NYPD detective who partners with Misty Knight in their Luke Cage investigation.
Actress Rosario Dawson, celebrated for her work in “Top Five,” “Sin City,” and “Kids,” will reprise her role from “Marvel’s Daredevil” as nurse Claire Temple. Her blossoming friendship with Luke Cage will have a major impact on both characters’ lives.
Dumb Prince (NBC)
Amy Poehler is teaming up with “The Mindy Project” executive producer Charlie Grandy on a new NBC pilot
The pilot, titled “Dumb Prince,” is a half-hour family comedy about a prince whose rule throws his family into chaos.
Grandy wrote the pilot
Empire (Fox)
Funkmaster Flex…has booked a guest starring role to play himself on Fox’s “Empire”
Flex will show up in episode 8 of the show’s upcoming second season, and will be seen acting as the emcee for a rap battle between Hakeem Lyon (Bryshere Gray) and newcomer Freda Gatz (Bre-Z), who will be introduced in the Season 2 premiere.
New Girl (Fox)
Megan Fox has been cast on the fifth season of “New Girl” in a recurring role
The “Transformers” actress will make her debut in the sixth episode of the season, playing Reagan, a pharmaceutical sales rep who comes to town on business and rents out Jess’ (series star Zooey Deschanel) room while she is sequestered on jury duty.
Viva La Madness
Jason Statham will play the anonymous hero of the story, who is stranded in the Caribbean itching for the criminal life he left behind–but he’s still a wanted man back home. Soon he joins forces with two robust London gangsters: the menacing Sonny King and his paranoid partner Roy “Twitchy” Burns.
August Wilson’s Plays (HBO)
Denzel Washington…has worked an arrangement with the estate of August Wilson to direct and exec produce all 10 of the Pulitzer-winning dramatist’s plays for HBO.
“I’m directing, producing — and acting in one (Fences) — and I’m executive producing the other nine,” he [said]
He also said Viola Davis also will star in Fences.
Westworld (HBO)
Tessa Thompson (Dear White People) has joined the cast of HBO’s upcoming drama series Westworld as a regular.
Thompson will play Charlotte Hale, a mysterious and savvy provocateur with a unique perspective on Westworld.
Colony (USA)
Thora Birch (American Beauty) is set for a major recurring role in USA Network’s upcoming drama series Colony
Neverwhere (BBC)
House Of Thieves (BBC)
Francis Lawrence…is attached to direct both dramas, which he is executive producing with Gordon and Stoff.
In urban fantasy Neverwhere, when Richard Mayhew encounters an injured girl named Door on the street one night, he decides to help her despite his fiancée’s protests. Upon doing so he ceases to exist on Earth and becomes real only to the denizens of “London Below,” whose inhabitants are generally invisible and non-existent to the people of “London Above.” He loses his house, his job and nearly his mind as he travels London Below in an attempt to make sense out of it all, find a way back and help Door survive as she is hunted down by hired assassins.
House Of Thieves is set in 1886 New York. A respectable architect shouldn’t have ahouseofthievesny connection to the notorious gang of thieves and killers that rules the underbelly of the city. But when John Cross’ son racks up an unfathomable gambling debt to Kent’s Gents, Cross must pay it back himself. All he has to do is use his inside knowledge of high society mansions and museums to craft a robbery even the smartest detectives won’t solve. Soon Cross becomes invaluable to the gang and with that his entire life becomes a balancing act, and it will only take one mistake for it all to come crashing down — and for his family to go down too.
Tutankhamun (ITV)
Max Irons and Sam Neill have boarded the cast of the ITV’s event series Tutankhamun. Acclaimed directer Peter Webber (Emperor) will be at the helm for the whole series, which follows the epic story of Howard Carter’s discovery of the tomb of one of Ancient Egypt’s forgotten pharaohs, the boy-king Tutankhamun. Irons (Woman In Gold) will play Carter. Sam Neill will play Lord Carnarvon, who sponsored Carter’s expeditions.
Guy Burt (Jekyll And Hyde, The Borgias) is writing and the story will focus on the personal story of Carter, a solitary man on the edge of society who became an iconic figure and an unlikely hero. The story unfolds from 1905 when Carter, an eminent British archaeologist then in his 20’s, is fervently leading an expedition only to have his license to dig revoked by Cairo’s Antiquities Service. Carter spends years ostracized, disheveled and living rough and resorting to selling previously discovered archaeological relics to buy food. A chance meeting with British aristocrat, the dashing and eccentric Lord Carnarvon, brings a change of fortunes as the enthusiastic amateur needs an experienced archaeologist to help him with a series of random excavations. Carter and Carnarvon begin the most unlikely friendship, in spite of their differences of background and character. Privileged and fast living, Carnarvon keeps faith with Carter and continues to back him when no one else will. After years of searching for the tomb, Carter and Carnarvon successfully discover the last resting place of the boy-king in 1921 against all odds and at great personal expense.
Limitless (CBS)
Tom Degnan (Madam Secretary, The Following) has booked a major recurring role in CBS’ sci-fi drama Limitless…Degnan will play Agent Ike, a physically fit FBI agent in charge of watching over Brian (Jake McDorman).
Grandfathered (Fox)
Andy Daly (Review) has landed a recurring role on John Stamos’ Fox comedy Grandfathered…Daly will play Bruce, an all-American, fleece-wearing dad type who is back in town after working as an aeronautical engineer in China for years.
Wicked City (ABC)
Vincent Ventresca has joined the cast of ABC’s upcoming series Wicked City in a recurring role. He’ll play Jimmy, ex-boyfriend of Betty (Erika Christensen).
Poor Richard’s Almanack (USA)
Neil Marshall (Game of Thrones) has signed on to direct USA Network’s drama pilot Poor Richard’s Almanack.
an edge-of-your-seat character thriller about a cadre of heroes who emerge as the new “Founding Fathers” after America is pushed to the brink of collapse…[It involves] Madison Fischer, a paranoid schizophrenic who sees patterns where others don’t. When she stumbles upon a plan for a series of terrorist attacks, she has to convince her CIA agent brother to look past her affliction and trust her.
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