TV In Development Bits: ‘Freakonomics’, ‘The Beach’, ‘Luther’, ‘Idiocracy’, ‘Sleepy Hollow’, Keri Russell, Warren Ellis
By Angie Han/Aug. 10, 2012 2:30 pm EST
Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner’s nonfiction tome Freakonomics has been developed into a blog, a radio show, even a documentary — and now it’s even inspired a police procedural. NBC has just picked up Pariah, a new drama by Lionsgate TV and Kelsey Grammer’s Grammnet Productions. Levitt and Dubner are on board as producers.
The script, by Law & Order: SVU scribe Kevin Fox, sees the mayor of San Diego appointing an academic with no law enforcement experience to spearhead a police task force using Freakonomics-inspired methods. Not surprisingly, the cops don’t take to the decision so well. [Deadline]
Warren Ellis, the acclaimed comic book writer of Transmetropolitan and Red, is about to come to a small screen near you. Or more accurately, his upcoming novel Gun Machine is.
Keri Russell’s sitcom Running Wilde didn’t fare so well, but the former Felicity star will soon return to the small screen in a project that sounds more promising. FX has just ordered thirteen episodes of The Americans, a Cold War drama starring Russell and Matthew Rhys as a pair of KGB spies. The pair’s cover as American couple in the DC suburbs is complicated by the arrival of their neighborhood’s newest resident, an FBI agent (Noah Emmerich). The show is expected to air early next year, though no exact date has been announced at this time. [Vulture]
Detective John Luther (Idris Elba) may be the star of BBC’s Luther, but sociopathic Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson) has her share of dedicated fans as well. Including, apparently, Luther creator Neil Cross and the BBC. Cross told Variety that he’s considering an Alice-centric spinoff, and that the BBC is already “very interested” in it.
Cross cautions that the project is still in the very early stages, and that he hasn’t even spoken to Wilson about it yet. But he has some idea of where he wants things to go, explaining that he envisions the series as “a mix between The Talented Mr. Ripley and The Last Seduction.” [Vulture]
Terry Crews will be stepping back into The Expendables’ Hale Caesar for the sequel next weekend, but the character of his that he’s really eager to bring back is apparently Idiocracy’s President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho. Crews has been talking up his desire to reprise that role for years now, and it looks like his wish is finally moving a little closer to reality.
