‘Sago Mini Friends’: Apple TV+ Orders Animated Series Based On Children’s App

EXCLUSIVE: HBO is developing Sula, a limited series based on the novel by Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison’s novel. The project comes from writer Shannon M. Houston (Station Eleven), who has an overall deal at HBO, and Stephanie Allain’s Homegrown Pictures, under the company’s first-look deal with Warner Bros. Television Group and HBO.

EXCLUSIVE: Jeremy Robinson’s The Nemesis Saga novel series is getting the small screen treatment. Project Nemesis, the first book in Robinson’s series, is being developed for television by Sony TV and Neal H. Moritz’s Original Film (The Boys), with John Wick helmer Chad Stahelski set to direct and executive produce.

Disney Branded Television will bring Shawn Amos’ debut novel Cookies & Milk to screen with an animated series currently in development. The project hails from Laurence Fishburne and Helen Sugland of Cinema Gypsy Productions (black-ish), Jesse Murphy and James Sears Bryant of Jesse James Films and Shawn Amos.

Dead on arrival. Pearl, the animated series created by Meghan Markle, will not air after all amid cuts at Netflix.

EXCLUSIVE: Peter V. Brett’s international bestselling sci-fi horror fantasy novel, The Warded Man, is being developed for TV by Rush Hour and The Hustle producer Roger Birnbaum and Mark Kimsey under their Electromagnetic Productions (EMP).

EXCLUSIVE: HBO Max docuseries The Way Down: God, Greed & The Cult of Gwen Shamblin is set to be adapted as a scripted series.

EXCLUSIVE: The true-crime story of the Murdaughs, which includes money, power, family drama, corruption, local politics, drugs and murder, is the subject of a drama series, which is in development at UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group.

EXCLUSIVE: NBA superstar Carmelo Anthony has boarded Lil’ Heroes, an animated series based on the NFT collection, from Exile Content Studio and Spanish artist Edgar Plans. Anthony and his producing partner and co-founder of his Creative 7 content company, Asani Swann, will executive produce the series and Anthony also will voice one of the characters in the series.

Apple TV+ announced on Wednesday it has ordered “Sago Mini Friends,” a new kids animated series based on the award-winning Sago Mini World app. The series for preschoolers is produced by Spin Master Entertainment and animated by Brown Bag Films, based on the characters developed by Sago Mini, including Harvey the floppy-eared dog and his best friends, Jinja the cat, Jack the rabbit, and Robin the bird.

Warner Bros. has been developing an animated feature film based on the beloved monster-hit video game “Minecraft” for ages and it looks like the studio is ready to get things going sooner rather than later.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNetflix has ordered an adult animated series based on the card game “Exploding Kittens,” starring “Lucifer” star Tom Ellis and Lucy Liu. A new mobile game adaptation, “Exploding Kittens – The Game,” is being co-developed and will launch via the streamer in May, well ahead of the TV show’s planned 2023 debut.The show, which is executive produced by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, follows the eternal conflict between Heaven and Hell as it reaches epic proportions when both God and the Devil are sent to Earth – in the bodies of chunky house cats.Along with Ellis and Liu, “Exploding Kittens” stars Abraham Lim (“Clickbait,” “The Boys”), Ally Maki (“Wrecked,” “Toy Story 4”), Mark Proksch (“What We Do In The Shadows,” “Better Call Saul”) and Sasheer Zamata (“Woke,” “Home Economics”).

EXCLUSIVE: Tattoo Artist Katrina “Kat Tat” Jackson, best known for starring in Black Ink Crew; Chicago on VH1, has signed a first look, development and executive producer deal with Paramount. Jackson will develop and EP original content for the studio in collaboration with her production company, Enigma Entertainment Group.

Peacock has put in development Cheeky, a comedy based on Ariella Elovic’s book Cheeky: A Head-To-Toe Memoir, from Saturday Night Live‘s Aidy Bryant, writer Sudi Green, executive producer Lorne Michaels, and Universal Television.

HBO Max is expanding its DC Comics footprint with a series order for “Detective Dead Boys,” based on characters created by writer Neil Gaiman and illustrators Matt Wagner and Malcolm Jones. The show follows a pair of ghostly detectives as they investigate murders related to the supernatural.

EXCLUSIVE: We’ll be seeing a new face on NCIS. The Fosters alumna Teri Polo is joining CBS drama series in a recurring role opposite Gary Cole.

EXCLUSIVE: We’ll be seeing a new face on NCIS. The Fosters alumna Teri Polo is joining NBC’s flagship drama series in a recurring role opposite Gary Cole.

Peacock has assembled most of the main cast of Ted, Seth MacFarlane’s live-action comedy series based on his popular film franchise. Joining MacFarlane, who is reprising the voice of the lovable foul-mouthed teddy bear Ted, are series regular stars Giorgia Whigham (13 Reasons Why), Max Burkholder (Parenthood) and Scott Grimes (The Orville).

EXCLUSIVE: Erik McCurdy’s comic strip Stuffed is set to be turned into a television series.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterPeacock has given a straight-to-series order to the comedic thriller “Based on a True Story.”The series hails from writer, executive producer, and showrunner Craig Rosenberg. Jason Bateman and Michael Costigan of Aggregate Films will also executive produce, with Roxie Rodriguez of Aggregate co-executive producing.