Patrick Coker, Adam Wiesen to Serve as Head Writers on ‘Tales’ Season 3 at BET (EXCLUSIVE)

Joe Otterson TV ReporterNatalia Anderson will direct the ABC single-camera comedy pilot “Maggie,” Variety has learned exclusively.Anderson started out as a director and producer on the CBS comedy series “Life in Pieces,” directing multiple episodes. Other TV directing credits for Anderson include “Black-ish,” “Single Parents,” “Brews Brothers,” “Grown-ish,” “American Housewife,” and “Perfect Harmony.” She previously worked at Brownstone Productions under Elizabeth Banks.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter“Bridgerton” Season 2 at Netflix is officially adding four new cast members.Charithra Chandran, Shelley Conn, Calam Lynch, and Rupert Young will all star in the new season of the popular Shondaland series at the streamer.Chandran will play Edwina Sharma. Edwina has been taught by her older sister Kate to be the perfect debutante.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterRachael Leigh Cook will star in the Netflix original film “A Tourist’s Guide to Love,” Variety has learned exclusively.The film is based on an original idea of Cook’s with Eirene Donohue set to write the screenplay. In the film, after an unexpected break up, a travel executive (Cook) accepts an assignment to go undercover and learn about the tourist industry in Vietnam.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterIn a competitive situation, Mike Scully and Julie Thacker Scully have signed with Verve, Variety has learned exclusively.The husband and wife duo most recently co-created the Fox animated series “Duncanville” with Amy Poehler, on which they also serve as co-showrunners. Poehler also provides the voice of the lead character on the show and serves as an executive producer along with Scully and Thacker Scully.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter“Rick and Morty” Season 5 will debut this summer.Adult Swim announced Tuesday that the hit animated series will return with new episodes on June 20 at 11:00 p.m. ET/PT.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterJohn Waters has joined the cast of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” Season 4 at Amazon, Variety has learned exclusively.Waters will be appear in a guest starring role in the fourth season of the critically-acclaimed series, with the exact nature of the character he is playing being kept under wraps.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterBen Hardy has been cast in the upcoming BBC One, HBO Max series “The Girl Before,” Variety has learned exclusively.Hardy joins previously announced cast members David Oyelowo, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Jessica Plummer. The four-episode series is based on the book of the same name by J.P.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterErica Watson is set to direct the pilot episode of The CW’s upcoming reboot of “The 4400,” Variety has learned exclusively.“The 4400” reboot was ordered to series at CW in February.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterThe Giannis Antetokounmpo movie at Disney is taking shape, with Variety learning exclusively that the film has found three of its leads.Newcomer Uche Agada will star as the NBA great in the film, which is titled “Greek Freak” in honor of the nickname Antetokounmpo earned for his otherworldly basketball skills.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter“The L Word: Generation Q” at Showtime has added Vanessa Williams in a recurring role for Season 2, Variety has learned exclusively.The new iteration of the series follows the intermingled lives of Bette Porter (Jennifer Beals), Shane McCutcheon (Katherine Moennig) and Alice Pieszecki (Leisha Hailey) from the original “The L Word” drama series that aired from 2004 to 2009.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter“Resident Alien” has been renewed for Season 2 at Syfy.The news comes ahead of the first season finale, which is set to air on March 31. Based on the Dark Horse comic of the same name by Peter Hogan and Stephen Parkhouse, “Resident Alien’ follows Harry (Alan Tudyk), an alien that crash lands on Earth and passes himself off as a small-town human doctor.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterThe team behind “Justified” is reuniting to develop an FX series based on the Elmore Leonard novel “City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit,” with Timothy Olyphant potentially returning as Raylan Givens, Variety has learned exclusively.“Justfied” creator Graham Yost will serve as executive producer, with “Justified” writers and executive producers Michael Dinner and Dave Andron onboard to co-write, executive produce, and serve as co-showrunners.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterLena Headey will star in and executive produce the Spectrum-AMC Networks series “Beacon 23,” which hails from Zak Penn, Variety has learned.The series is described as a sci-fi psychological thriller. It follows two people whose fates become entangled after they find themselves trapped together at the end of the known universe.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterMichelle Selene Ang has signed with Buchwald, Variety has learned exclusively.Ang is best known for her role on the popular Netflix series “13 Reasons Why.” During her time on the show, she played the role of Courtney Crimsen, who is one of the titular reasons that Hannah (Katherine Langford) commits suicide in Season 1 after Courtney spreads lies about her around their school.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterVerve has promoted TV lit agent Chris Noriega to partner.He is now the ninth partner at the agency, alongside founders Bryan Besser, Adam Levine and Bill Weinstein, and, Amy Retzinger, Adam Weinstein, David Boxerbaum, Felicia Prinz and Sean Grumman.“We launched Verve over a decade ago with a goal of creating an environment in which interns become assistants , assistants become agents and agents become partners,” the other partners said in a statement.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter“Killing Eve” will end with its upcoming Season 4.The critically-acclaimed BBC America series was renewed for a fourth season in January 2020, but filming was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Production on Season 4 is now slated to begin in early summer in the U.K.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter“Outlander” has been renewed for Season 7 at Starz.The news comes as the show is currently in production on Season 6, which was supposed to begin last year but was delayed due to the pandemic.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterLucy Hale has signed on for a starring role in the AMC-Alibi series “Ragdoll,” Variety has learned exclusively.In the six-episode show, which was ordered to series back in February, six people have been murdered, dismembered, and sewn into the shape of one grotesque body — nicknamed the “Ragdoll.” Assigned to the shocking case are DS Nathan Wolf, recently reinstated to the London Met; his best friend and boss, DI Emily Baxter; and the unit’s new recruit, DC Lake Edmunds

Joe Otterson TV ReporterDakota Fanning has joined the cast of the Showtime drama series “Ripley,” Variety has learned.The series is based on Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley novels. She joins previously announced cast members Andrew Scott and Johnny Flynn.In the series, Tom Ripley (Scott), a grifter scraping by in early 1960s New York, is hired by a wealthy businessman to travel to Italy to try to convince his vagabond son to return home.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterA series adaptation of the Victoria Schwab novel “City of Ghosts” is in the works at ABC Signature and Searchlight Television, Variety has learned exclusively.David Lowery and Sehaj Sethi are attached to write the adaptation, with Lowery also onboard to direct. Schwab will executive produce along with with Sailor Bear’s Toby Halbrooks and James M.