Sarah Michelle Gellar to Star in Amazon YA Comedy Pilot ‘Hot Pink’

Joe Otterson TV ReporterAmazon Studios has ordered a YA pilot based on the Harlan Coben novel “Shelter,” Variety has learned exclusively.Shelter” is the first novel in Coben’s Mickey Bolitar book series. MGM has acquired the rights to all the other books in the Mickey Bolitar series as well.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterCecilia Suárez and Augusto Aguilera have joined the ABC drama pilot “Promised Land,” Variety has learned.The show is described as an epic, generation-spanning drama about two Latinx families vying for wealth and power in California’s Sonoma Valley.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterCall it the pilot season that wasn’t. One year later, the COVID-19 pandemic is still casting a long shadow over the new crop of broadcast shows.Across the Big Five networks, the majority of the pilots in contention this year are holdovers from 2020. The backlog is still being sorted out, underscoring the disruption of last spring when the public health crisis shut down work for months just as pilot production would have normally reached its peak.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterJohn Ortiz has been cast in a leading role of the ABC drama pilot “Promised Land,” Variety has learned.The show is described as an epic, generation-spanning drama about two Latinx families vying for wealth and power in California’s Sonoma Valley. Ortiz joins previously announced cast members Christina Ochoa and Mariel Molino.Ortiz will star as Joe Sandoval, the patriarch of the Sandoval family, a wealthy vineyard-owning family in the Sonoma Valley.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterAnika Noni Rose has been cast in the “Let the Right One In” pilot at Showtime, Variety has learned.She joins previously announced cast member Demián Bichir. The series centers on Mark (Bichir), a father and his 12-year-old daughter, Eleanor, whose lives were changed forever 10 years earlier when she was turned into a vampire.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterChristina Jackson has been cast in a leading role in the FX pilot based on the Sam Greenlee novel “The Spook Who Sat by the Door,” Variety has learned.The project was ordered to pilot at FX in February. Jackson will star opposite series lead Y’lan Noel.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterNBC has given out a pair of comedy pilot orders, including one starring music superstar Demi Lovato.The Lovato project is titled “Hungry.” NBC had previously given the single-camera show a put pilot commitment back in January.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterNikolaj Coster-Waldau will star in and executive produce a series adaptation of the Christina Clancy novel “The Second Home” currently in the works at Sony’s TriStar TV, Variety has learned.The story follows the Gordon and Shaw families beyond a fateful summer on Cape Cod. Told through two generations, the story explores how a devastating secret can derail young love, tear apart families, and change the fate of countless individuals forever if they let it.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterChi McBride has joined the untitled CBS multi-cam comedy pilot based on the life of pro bowler Tom Smallwood, Variety has learned.In the series, after being laid off from the assembly line at the GM factory, seemingly ordinary man Tom (Pete Holmes) makes the extraordinary decision to provide for his family by following his dream of becoming a professional bowler.McBride will star as Archie.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterAdepero Oduye has been cast in the upcoming Apple series “Five Days at Memorial.”Oduye joins previously announced cast member Vera Farmiga. The series is based on the Sheri Fink novel of the same name.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterTom Holland is set to star in “The Crowded Room,” an anthology series from Akiva Goldsman that has been ordered at Apple.The first season of the series will be based on the biography “The Minds of Billy Milligan” by Daniel Keyes. It tells the story of Billy Milligan (Holland), the first person ever acquitted of a crime because of Multiple Personality Disorder (now known as Dissociative Identity Disorder).

Joe Otterson TV ReporterThe Apple drama series “The Essex Serpent” has added four actors to its cast.Frank Dillane, Hayley Squires, Clémence Poésy, and Jamael Westman will join series leads Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston in the show, which is an adaptation of the Sarah Perry novel of the same name.The one-hour drama series follows newly widowed Cora (Danes) who, having being released from an abusive marriage, relocates from Victorian London to the small village of Aldwinter in Essex, intrigued

Joe Otterson TV ReporterSamantha Morton has been cast in the lead role of the Starz drama series “The Serpent Queen.”Morton will star as Catherine de Medici. Based on the book “Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France” by Leonie Frieda, the eight-episode series is described as an account of one of the most influential women ever to wear a crown.

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 ReporterHBO Max has given a series order to the half-hour comedy “Minx.”The streamer has given the show a 10-episode order. Set in 1970s Los Angeles, “Minx” on around an earnest young feminist (Ophelia Lovibond) who joins forces with a low-rent publisher (Jake Johnson) to create the first erotic magazine for women.In addition to Lovibond and Johnson, the show also stars Idara Victor, Jessica Lowe, Lennon Parham, Michael Angarano, and Oscar Montoya.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter“The Powerpuff Girls” live-action pilot at The CW has found its Mojo Jojo.Nicholas Podany has joined the pilot in the role of Joseph “Jojo” Mondel Jr. As a kid, the nerdy, power-hungry, insecure JoJo was obsessed with The Powerpuff Girls, despite his father’s grudge against them.

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 Reporter“The Three of Us,” a comedy pilot at CBS, is no longer moving forward at the network.The multi-camera pilot was a holdover from CBS’ 2020 pilot crop, which was thrown into disarray due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It starred Oliver Hudson, Malin Akerman, Brent Morin, and Vanessa Lachey.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterEugenio Derbez’s upcoming Apple comedy series “Acapulco” has added four new cast members, with Richard Shepard now onboard to direct the pilot.Enrique Arrizon, Damian Alcázar, Camila Perez, and Raphael Alejandro will all star alongside Derbez in the half-hour series.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterDonald Faison has joined “The Powerpuff Girls” live-action pilot at The CW in the role of Professor Drake Utonium.The series, now titled simply “Powerpuff,” was first announced as being in development back in August. Based on the Cartoon Network series created by Craig McCracken, the new series sees the pint-sized superheroes as disillusioned twentysomethings who resent having lost their childhood to crime fighting.