Fresh off its Supergirl pickup on Wednesday and ahead of its upfronts presentation next week, CBS announced orders for six new series, some of which have familiar titles.
On the drama front, CBS greenlit TV adaptations of the films Limitless and Rush Hour and picked up the Criminal Minds spinoff Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders. The network also finally added a medical drama to its roster in the form of Code Black.
Based on the 2011 feature film starring Bradley Cooper, Limitless follows Brian Finch as he discovers the power of the mysterious drug Nzt and uses his drug-enhanced abilities to solve weekly cases for the FBI. It stars Jake McDorman, Jennifer Carpenter, Hill Harper, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. Cooper is executive producing along with Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Heather Kadin, Todd Phillips, Ryan Kavanaugh, Tucker Tooley, Tom Forman, Craig Sweeny, and Marc Webb.
Rush Hour is inspired by the 1990s Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker franchise.
On the drama front, CBS greenlit TV adaptations of the films Limitless and Rush Hour and picked up the Criminal Minds spinoff Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders. The network also finally added a medical drama to its roster in the form of Code Black.
Based on the 2011 feature film starring Bradley Cooper, Limitless follows Brian Finch as he discovers the power of the mysterious drug Nzt and uses his drug-enhanced abilities to solve weekly cases for the FBI. It stars Jake McDorman, Jennifer Carpenter, Hill Harper, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. Cooper is executive producing along with Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Heather Kadin, Todd Phillips, Ryan Kavanaugh, Tucker Tooley, Tom Forman, Craig Sweeny, and Marc Webb.
Rush Hour is inspired by the 1990s Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker franchise.
- 5/8/2015
- by A.R. Wilson
- SoundOnSight
CBS’ latest drama series orders for the 2015-16 TV season include a spinoff, two movie adaptations and a documentary-turned-tv drama.
RelatedSupergirl Lands Series Order at CBS
Having already declared Supergirl ready for takeoff, the Eye network on Thursday ordered to series the dramas Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, Rush Hour, Limitless and Code Black.
Related Fall TV: Jane Lynch’s Angel From Hell Among Comedies Ordered at CBS
Descriptions with casting are as follows:
Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders
Writer: Erica Messer
Other EPs: Mark Gordon, Nick Pepper
Cast: Gary Sinise, Daniel Henney and Tyler James Williams; Anna Gunn appeared...
RelatedSupergirl Lands Series Order at CBS
Having already declared Supergirl ready for takeoff, the Eye network on Thursday ordered to series the dramas Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, Rush Hour, Limitless and Code Black.
Related Fall TV: Jane Lynch’s Angel From Hell Among Comedies Ordered at CBS
Descriptions with casting are as follows:
Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders
Writer: Erica Messer
Other EPs: Mark Gordon, Nick Pepper
Cast: Gary Sinise, Daniel Henney and Tyler James Williams; Anna Gunn appeared...
- 5/8/2015
- TVLine.com
CBS is breaking out the paddles and reviving the festival award-winning documentary Code Black (pictured) as a drama pilot.
To be penned by Michael Seitzman (Intelligence), the series pilot will be set in “the busiest and most notorious ER in the nation” – L.A. County Hospital – where the extraordinary staff confronts a broken system in order to protect their ideals and the patients who need them the most.
Seitzman and Code Black docu producer/director Ryan McGarry will exec-produce the project alongside Marti Noxon, Linda Goldstein-Knowlton and pilot director David Semel.
CBS’ previous drama pilot orders include an adaptation...
To be penned by Michael Seitzman (Intelligence), the series pilot will be set in “the busiest and most notorious ER in the nation” – L.A. County Hospital – where the extraordinary staff confronts a broken system in order to protect their ideals and the patients who need them the most.
Seitzman and Code Black docu producer/director Ryan McGarry will exec-produce the project alongside Marti Noxon, Linda Goldstein-Knowlton and pilot director David Semel.
CBS’ previous drama pilot orders include an adaptation...
- 1/28/2015
- TVLine.com
Marti Noxon is checking into the hospital with CBS.
The network has ordered a pilot for the medical drama “Code Black,” which counts Noxon (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Glee”) among its executive producers.
Also Read: CBS Orders ‘Rush Hour’ Pilot, Projects From Greg Garcia, ‘Modern Family’ Ep
The drama is set in the busiest and most notorious ER in the nation – La County Hospital – where the extraordinary staff confronts a broken system in order to protect their ideals and the patients who need them the most.
Michael Seitzman, who created the CBS drama “Intelligence,” is writing and serving as executive producer,...
The network has ordered a pilot for the medical drama “Code Black,” which counts Noxon (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Glee”) among its executive producers.
Also Read: CBS Orders ‘Rush Hour’ Pilot, Projects From Greg Garcia, ‘Modern Family’ Ep
The drama is set in the busiest and most notorious ER in the nation – La County Hospital – where the extraordinary staff confronts a broken system in order to protect their ideals and the patients who need them the most.
Michael Seitzman, who created the CBS drama “Intelligence,” is writing and serving as executive producer,...
- 1/28/2015
- by Tim Kenneally
- The Wrap
The seven-week 2014 Documentary Lab is designed to help filmmakers who are in post-production.
This year’s Lab Fellows are Esteban Arguello and Xuan Jiang, Jamie Sisley and Mayuran Tiruchelvam, Suzanne Joe Kai, Robyn Symon, Nick Spark, Andrew James, Jonathan Matthews, and Jen Heck.
“We are delighted to kick off the fourth year of our Documentary Lab with such an talented group of filmmakers and esteemed mentors,” said Kelly Thomas, producer-in-residence and interim director of artist development.
Documentary filmmakers Doug Blush, Laura Gabbert, Caroline Libresco, Linda Goldstein-Knowlton, Jeff Malmberg and Chris Shellen are this year’s Documentary Lab mentors.
This year’s Lab Fellows are Esteban Arguello and Xuan Jiang, Jamie Sisley and Mayuran Tiruchelvam, Suzanne Joe Kai, Robyn Symon, Nick Spark, Andrew James, Jonathan Matthews, and Jen Heck.
“We are delighted to kick off the fourth year of our Documentary Lab with such an talented group of filmmakers and esteemed mentors,” said Kelly Thomas, producer-in-residence and interim director of artist development.
Documentary filmmakers Doug Blush, Laura Gabbert, Caroline Libresco, Linda Goldstein-Knowlton, Jeff Malmberg and Chris Shellen are this year’s Documentary Lab mentors.
- 3/17/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Opens
June 6, Los Angeles and New York
Maori tradition undergoes a seismic shift with tremendous grace in Whale Rider, writer-director Niki Caro's moving adaptation of the popular novel by Witi Ihimaera.
Centering on a young girl who must defy her grandfather to take a leadership position in her community, the film boasts a terrific newcomer in the lead role, exquisite widescreen photography and a powerful sense of place.
Shot on tribal property in Whangara on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, with the participation of Ngati Konohi elders and tribe members, Whale Rider conveys a deep respect for a culture that will feel foreign, in the best of ways, to most American viewers -- startling, vital, mysterious. The recipient of audience nods at Sundance, Toronto and Rotterdam, the New Zealand-German co-production should ride steady waves of boxoffice returns in limited release.
Played without an ounce of cutesiness by gangly, pretty Keisha Castle-Hughes, 11 at the time of filming, Pai is a bright, self-confident girl being raised by her grandparents (Rawiri Para-tene and Vicky Haughton) in Whangara. From the moment she entered the world, her life has been haunted by the childbirth deaths of her mother and her twin brother, the tribe's intended chief. Her grief-stricken father (Cliff Curtis), in an act of defiance, named her after Paikea, the legendary male ancestor who reached what is now New Zealand on the back of a whale.
Pai's grandfather, Koro, holds firmly to the tribal tradition that passes down the mantle of leadership from firstborn son to firstborn son, and though he and Pai love each other intensely, his disappointment over not having a grandson hovers between them like a ghost. Painfully aware that she broke the patrilineal chain -- He died, she says of her twin, "and I didn't" -- Pai draws encouragement and common sense from her strong-willed grandmother.
Playing a man so consumed with the past and future that he doesn't see what's right before him, Paratene at first seems to take the humorless Koro to wooden extremes. But as the story progresses, his performance expresses a toxic rigidity whose flip side is paralyzing depression, while Haughton is a level-headed counterforce.
Koro's disappointment began with his sons: His children's generation is listless and dislocated, the boys grown into semi-absent fathers. Pai's dad, who's turned his traditional carving talents into a fine-arts career in Germany, is caught between two cultures, while his genial brother, Rawiri (Grant Noa), has grown fat and lazy. Determined to find a new leader for his people, Koro begins teaching village boys the ways of the warrior, and when the layabout fathers watch their sons perform traditional chants, they look both proud and abashed, Caro and the actors making the point sans dialogue.
Driving the story is a profound connection to place, especially to the sea. Alternately spangled turquoise and silty gray, the ocean is an essential character, as are the whales that communicate with Pai. Through lush underwater photography, digital effects and models, a pod of whales makes a dramatic third-act appearance, in a sequence that speaks volumes about the spiritual bonds of community.
In her sophomore feature, Caro (Memory and Desire) tells a triumphant story in direct fashion. Her themes are clear but not heavy-handed, and the indigenous elements of Whale Rider help the film transcend its formulaic structure. She has a fine protagonist in Castle-Hughes, whose resilient Pai regards Koro with compassion even as he stubbornly tries to deny her destiny. Young Whangara resident Mana Taumaunu -- whose grandfather, tribal elder Hone Taumaunu, served as an adviser to the filmmakers -- makes an impression as Pai's friend Hemi.
WHALE RIDER
Newmarket Films
South Pacific Pictures, ApolloMedia and Pandora Film
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Niki Caro
Based on the novel by: Witi Ihimaera
Producers: Tim Sanders, John Barnett, Frank Hubner
Executive producers: Bill Gavin, Linda Goldstein Knowlton
Director of photography: Leon Narbey
Production designer: Grant Major
Music: Lisa Gerrard
Co-producer: Reinhard Brundig
Costume designer: Kristy Cameron
Editor: David Coulson
Cast:
Pai: Keisha Castle-Hughes
Koro: Rawiri Paratene
Nanny Flowers: Vicky Haughton
Porourangi: Cliff Curtis
Uncle Rawiri: Grant Noa
Hemi: Mana Taumaunu
Running time -- 102 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
June 6, Los Angeles and New York
Maori tradition undergoes a seismic shift with tremendous grace in Whale Rider, writer-director Niki Caro's moving adaptation of the popular novel by Witi Ihimaera.
Centering on a young girl who must defy her grandfather to take a leadership position in her community, the film boasts a terrific newcomer in the lead role, exquisite widescreen photography and a powerful sense of place.
Shot on tribal property in Whangara on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, with the participation of Ngati Konohi elders and tribe members, Whale Rider conveys a deep respect for a culture that will feel foreign, in the best of ways, to most American viewers -- startling, vital, mysterious. The recipient of audience nods at Sundance, Toronto and Rotterdam, the New Zealand-German co-production should ride steady waves of boxoffice returns in limited release.
Played without an ounce of cutesiness by gangly, pretty Keisha Castle-Hughes, 11 at the time of filming, Pai is a bright, self-confident girl being raised by her grandparents (Rawiri Para-tene and Vicky Haughton) in Whangara. From the moment she entered the world, her life has been haunted by the childbirth deaths of her mother and her twin brother, the tribe's intended chief. Her grief-stricken father (Cliff Curtis), in an act of defiance, named her after Paikea, the legendary male ancestor who reached what is now New Zealand on the back of a whale.
Pai's grandfather, Koro, holds firmly to the tribal tradition that passes down the mantle of leadership from firstborn son to firstborn son, and though he and Pai love each other intensely, his disappointment over not having a grandson hovers between them like a ghost. Painfully aware that she broke the patrilineal chain -- He died, she says of her twin, "and I didn't" -- Pai draws encouragement and common sense from her strong-willed grandmother.
Playing a man so consumed with the past and future that he doesn't see what's right before him, Paratene at first seems to take the humorless Koro to wooden extremes. But as the story progresses, his performance expresses a toxic rigidity whose flip side is paralyzing depression, while Haughton is a level-headed counterforce.
Koro's disappointment began with his sons: His children's generation is listless and dislocated, the boys grown into semi-absent fathers. Pai's dad, who's turned his traditional carving talents into a fine-arts career in Germany, is caught between two cultures, while his genial brother, Rawiri (Grant Noa), has grown fat and lazy. Determined to find a new leader for his people, Koro begins teaching village boys the ways of the warrior, and when the layabout fathers watch their sons perform traditional chants, they look both proud and abashed, Caro and the actors making the point sans dialogue.
Driving the story is a profound connection to place, especially to the sea. Alternately spangled turquoise and silty gray, the ocean is an essential character, as are the whales that communicate with Pai. Through lush underwater photography, digital effects and models, a pod of whales makes a dramatic third-act appearance, in a sequence that speaks volumes about the spiritual bonds of community.
In her sophomore feature, Caro (Memory and Desire) tells a triumphant story in direct fashion. Her themes are clear but not heavy-handed, and the indigenous elements of Whale Rider help the film transcend its formulaic structure. She has a fine protagonist in Castle-Hughes, whose resilient Pai regards Koro with compassion even as he stubbornly tries to deny her destiny. Young Whangara resident Mana Taumaunu -- whose grandfather, tribal elder Hone Taumaunu, served as an adviser to the filmmakers -- makes an impression as Pai's friend Hemi.
WHALE RIDER
Newmarket Films
South Pacific Pictures, ApolloMedia and Pandora Film
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Niki Caro
Based on the novel by: Witi Ihimaera
Producers: Tim Sanders, John Barnett, Frank Hubner
Executive producers: Bill Gavin, Linda Goldstein Knowlton
Director of photography: Leon Narbey
Production designer: Grant Major
Music: Lisa Gerrard
Co-producer: Reinhard Brundig
Costume designer: Kristy Cameron
Editor: David Coulson
Cast:
Pai: Keisha Castle-Hughes
Koro: Rawiri Paratene
Nanny Flowers: Vicky Haughton
Porourangi: Cliff Curtis
Uncle Rawiri: Grant Noa
Hemi: Mana Taumaunu
Running time -- 102 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 7/16/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It sure sounds crazy: actor Antonio Banderas directing wife Melanie Griffith in a summer of '65 comedy-drama that's as much about the civil rights movement as the escape of a frustrated mother from a bad husband and dead-end life. But based on Mark Childress' 1993 novel, with the author penning the screenplay, "Crazy in Alabama" is a genuinely fine, albeit lost-in-time, movie.
Uncorked at the Venice Film Festival in competition, the Columbia Pictures release (opening Oct. 22) will probably have a so-so reception at the boxoffice. But good word-of-mouth and critical support should give it strong momentum going into post-theatrical markets.
A little less graphic than the novel, "Crazy" commences after the off-screen killing of Chester, abusive husband of Lucille (Griffith). With her seven children and Chester's head in a Tupperware container, smiling, dizzy Lucille comes running to her mother and older brother Dove (David Morse), a funeral-home operator who brings his parentless nephews Peejoe (Lucas Black) and Wiley (David Speck) to live with him in the ensuing crisis.
Lucille hits the road on her own, heading for fame and fortune, taking her husband's head, and leaving the kids behind. In parallel stories, the movie shifts between her escapades and the two teenage boys in company with Dove, who become central characters after they see racial tensions turn deadly in their decidedly southern town.
Lucille is a bit cracked (she has conversations with Chester's head), star struck (she gives herself a Marilyn Monroe-like showbiz name) and definitely lucky (winning thousands by playing No. 13 at roulette in Las Vegas). She's a late-blooming Auntie Mame-type with an itch for adventures with strange men and making it in Hollywood, where she heads for an audition to appear on "I Dream of Jeannie" as arranged by a savvy agent (Robert Wagner).
Meanwhile, back in combustible Alabama, the redneck sheriff (Meat Loaf) is a little too rough breaking up a peaceful protest by black kids wanting to use the "whites-only" public swimming pool. Peejoe is by far the most tolerant of the locals in regards to equality for blacks and refuses to keep quiet when a young protester is accidentally killed and nobody raises a fuss.
While the sheriff is zealous about catching Lucille for the murder of Chester, he's also slowly backed into a corner and lashes out at Peejoe. Dove's trashy wife (Cathy Moriarty) voices the casual and pervasive racist attitudes of the times that only make Peejoe more determined. Dove is no crusader for truth and justice, but it's part of the film's delicate balancing act that we're never encouraged to make superficial judgments about characters. When Lucille is arrested and brought to trial, Peejoe is a prime witness and many wrongs are righted with the help of an eccentric judge (the show-stopping Rod Steiger).
Ranging from serious drama to nostalgic comedy to courtroom farce, "Crazy" is winning entertainment largely because of first-time director Banderas' lively, perceptive and often moody approach to the material. The performances are also a big help -- with Griffith going to town in one of her best roles in years and extremely likable Black proving that "Sling Blade" was no fluke. The costumes, hairdos, sets, cars and songs on the soundtrack are all out-of-sight.
CRAZY IN ALABAMA
Columbia Pictures
A Green Moon production
in association with a Meir Teper production
Director: Antonio Banderas
Screenwriter: Mark Childress
Producers: Meir Teper, Linda Goldstein Knowlton, Diane Sillan Isaacs, Debra
Hill
Executive producer: Jim Dyer
Director of photography: Julio Macat
Production designer: Cecilia Montiel
Editor: Maysie Hoy
Costume designer: Graciela Mazon
Music: Mark Snow
Casting: Mindy Marin
Color/stereo
Cast:
Lucille: Melanie Griffith
Peejoe: Lucas Black
Wiley: David Speck
Dove Bullis: David Morse
Earlene Bullis: Cathy Moriarty
Sherriff John Doggett: Meat Loaf
Judge Mead: Rod Steiger
Harry Hall: Robert Wagner
Running time -- 111 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Uncorked at the Venice Film Festival in competition, the Columbia Pictures release (opening Oct. 22) will probably have a so-so reception at the boxoffice. But good word-of-mouth and critical support should give it strong momentum going into post-theatrical markets.
A little less graphic than the novel, "Crazy" commences after the off-screen killing of Chester, abusive husband of Lucille (Griffith). With her seven children and Chester's head in a Tupperware container, smiling, dizzy Lucille comes running to her mother and older brother Dove (David Morse), a funeral-home operator who brings his parentless nephews Peejoe (Lucas Black) and Wiley (David Speck) to live with him in the ensuing crisis.
Lucille hits the road on her own, heading for fame and fortune, taking her husband's head, and leaving the kids behind. In parallel stories, the movie shifts between her escapades and the two teenage boys in company with Dove, who become central characters after they see racial tensions turn deadly in their decidedly southern town.
Lucille is a bit cracked (she has conversations with Chester's head), star struck (she gives herself a Marilyn Monroe-like showbiz name) and definitely lucky (winning thousands by playing No. 13 at roulette in Las Vegas). She's a late-blooming Auntie Mame-type with an itch for adventures with strange men and making it in Hollywood, where she heads for an audition to appear on "I Dream of Jeannie" as arranged by a savvy agent (Robert Wagner).
Meanwhile, back in combustible Alabama, the redneck sheriff (Meat Loaf) is a little too rough breaking up a peaceful protest by black kids wanting to use the "whites-only" public swimming pool. Peejoe is by far the most tolerant of the locals in regards to equality for blacks and refuses to keep quiet when a young protester is accidentally killed and nobody raises a fuss.
While the sheriff is zealous about catching Lucille for the murder of Chester, he's also slowly backed into a corner and lashes out at Peejoe. Dove's trashy wife (Cathy Moriarty) voices the casual and pervasive racist attitudes of the times that only make Peejoe more determined. Dove is no crusader for truth and justice, but it's part of the film's delicate balancing act that we're never encouraged to make superficial judgments about characters. When Lucille is arrested and brought to trial, Peejoe is a prime witness and many wrongs are righted with the help of an eccentric judge (the show-stopping Rod Steiger).
Ranging from serious drama to nostalgic comedy to courtroom farce, "Crazy" is winning entertainment largely because of first-time director Banderas' lively, perceptive and often moody approach to the material. The performances are also a big help -- with Griffith going to town in one of her best roles in years and extremely likable Black proving that "Sling Blade" was no fluke. The costumes, hairdos, sets, cars and songs on the soundtrack are all out-of-sight.
CRAZY IN ALABAMA
Columbia Pictures
A Green Moon production
in association with a Meir Teper production
Director: Antonio Banderas
Screenwriter: Mark Childress
Producers: Meir Teper, Linda Goldstein Knowlton, Diane Sillan Isaacs, Debra
Hill
Executive producer: Jim Dyer
Director of photography: Julio Macat
Production designer: Cecilia Montiel
Editor: Maysie Hoy
Costume designer: Graciela Mazon
Music: Mark Snow
Casting: Mindy Marin
Color/stereo
Cast:
Lucille: Melanie Griffith
Peejoe: Lucas Black
Wiley: David Speck
Dove Bullis: David Morse
Earlene Bullis: Cathy Moriarty
Sherriff John Doggett: Meat Loaf
Judge Mead: Rod Steiger
Harry Hall: Robert Wagner
Running time -- 111 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 9/10/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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