Greenlit means a project is officially a go, so all you have to do is follow these leads to stay up to date. You never know where you’ll find an opportunity to land an audition!
“Dear Evan Hansen”
In just two weeks, the cast of Universal’s upcoming “Dear Evan Hansen” adaptation has gone from so small to so big. As reported last week, Amandla Stenberg, Colton Ryan, and Nik Dodani all joined the cast of the movie musical that is rumored to star Kaitlyn Dever and original Broadway star Ben Platt. Now, Amy Adams and Danny Pino have joined the cast. Adams will play the role of Cynthia Murphy, the mother of Evan’s classmate, Connor, who dies by suicide, and Pino will play his stepfather, a role that has been conceived specially for the film. Steven Levenson, who wrote the book for the stage musical, wrote the script with Stephen Chbosky directing. Telsey + Company is the casting team.
“The Color Purple”
“Dear Evan Hansen” is not the only movie musical in the news this week. First reported by Deadline, Blitz Bazawule is set to direct the Warner Bros. movie musical “The Color Purple.” Bazawule just got off of co-directing Beyoncé’s Disney+ visual album feature “Black Is King” and has previously directed Netflix’s “The Burial Of Kojo.” The feature, based on the Tony-winning musical of the same name, will be produced by Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Scott Sanders, and Quincy Jones. Marcus Gardley will write the screenplay. A cast and a casting team has yet to be announced, but Telsey + Company also cast the most recent Broadway revival, so they could be a likely choice for the movie musical.
“Resident Evil” Series
More horrors await in Raccoon City. Netflix has reportedly given an eight-episode series order to a live-action “Resident Evil” series. Constantin Films, which produced the six-film franchise based on the Capcom video game franchise, will once again serve as the studio behind the new series, which has been rumored for over a year and a half. The story of the series will unfold across two timelines: in one, two teen sisters move to New Raccoon City, a manufactured, corporate town, forced on them right as adolescence is in full swing. In the second timeline, a decade into the future, one of the sisters is among the 15 million people and six billion monsters left on the Earth. Andrew Dabb (“Supernatural”) will serve as writer, executive producer, and showrunner with Browen Hughes directing at least the first two episodes. Hughes has previously worked as a director on series such as “Breaking Bad” and its spinoff “Better Call Saul,” “13 Reasons Why,” and many others. No casting has been announced.
Mamie Till Projects
Two projects that center on a civil rights icon have been given the go-ahead. First up, Chinonye Chukwu is set to co-write and direct a feature film about the death of Emmett Till and his mother Mamie Till Mobley’s relentless pursuit of justice. The film, based on the extensive research of award-winning documentarian Keith Beauchamp and his relationship with Mamie Till Mobley and Emmett’s cousin, Simeon Wright, will be co-authored by Beauchamp, Michael J P Reilly, and Chukwu. Also announced last week, ABC has officially ordered the “Women of the Movement” limited series as previously rumored, and the first season is set to focus on Mamie Till. The first six-episode season is slated to debut in 2021 and is inspired by the book “Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement” by Devery S. Anderson. Marissa Jo Cerar (“The Handmaid’s Tale,” “13 Reasons Why”) is the series creator and will serve as showrunner and executive producer. Chukwu most recently worked with casting team Barden/Schnee on her 2019 feature “Clemency.” As for “Women of the Movement,” a casting director has yet to be announced.
“Gossip Girl”
XOXO, “Gossip Girl” is back and it’s wrapping up casting. Singer-actor Jordan Alexander has been cast as one of the leads in the HBO Max reboot, joining fellow leads Emily Alyn Lind, Tavi Gevinson, Whitney Peak, Eli Brown, Johnathan Fernandez, and Jason Gotay, as well as Thomas Doherty, Adam Chanler-Berat, Savannah Smith, and Zion Moreno. The new iteration of the hit series, written by Joshua Safran, will take place eight years after the original website went dark and a new generation of New York private school teens is introduced to the social surveillance of Gossip Girl. Cassandra Kulukundis is casting. Filming is expected to begin in the fall in New York.
“Joe Exotic”
The release of Netflix’s “Tiger King” may have felt like a lifetime ago, but NBC is still on its trail. NBCUniversal has officially given a straight-to-series order to its previously rumored “Joe Exotic” series, which will get a cross-platform release on NBC, its streaming service Peacock, and the USA network. Kate McKinnon will executive produce and star as Carole Baskin; her co-star for the role of Joe Schreibvogel has yet to be cast. The NBC project is one of two scripted series adaptations of the Netflix series, along with one starring Nicolas Cage as the Tiger King. The McKinnon project will be written by Etan Frankel, co-showrunner of Facebook’s “Sorry for Your Loss.”
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