‘Heist 88’ Moves To Showtime As Network Picks Up ‘Seasoned’ To Series, Passes On ‘The Wood’ & Cancels ‘Ziwe’ After 2 Seasons
05.04.2023 - 18:29
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance’s film Heist 88, which had been earmarked for Paramount+, will be moving to Showtime, Deadline has learned. Additionally, I hear the network has made decisions on two of its three comedy pilots, handing a six-episode series order to Seasoned, starring Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody, and passing on The Wood, based on the 1999 feature film. Showtime also has opted not to renew Ziwe, hosted and executive produced by comedian Ziwe Fumudoh, for a third season.
Paramount Television Studios, which produces The Wood, will be shopping it elsewhere.
Original movies were a staple on Showtime in the 1980s, 90s and 2000s until the network shifted to original series. The network recently returned to the genre after a14-year break with Ray Donovan: The Movie. Heist 88, which stars Vance, falls into one of the three new programming lanes for Showtime recently outlined by Chris McCarthy, President and CEO of Paramount Global’s Media Networks: culturally diverse takes in the vein of the network’s The Chi.
The film, written by Dwayne Johnson-Cochran and directed by Menhaj Huda, stars Vance as Jeremy Horne, a criminal mastermind who decides to pull one last job before going to prison in 1988. He recruits four young bank employees to steal close to $80 million dollars via a sophisticated takedown of the banking wire system.
Keesha Sharp, Bentley Green, Keith David, Xavier Clyde, Nican Robinson and Precious Way also star in Heist 88, which Bassett Vance Productions produces alongside MTV Entertainment Studios and Gunpowder & Sky. Bassett, Vance, Lynnette Ramirez, and Johnson-Cochran executive produce for Bassett Vance Productions, Van Toffler and Barry Barclay for Gunpowder & Sky.
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