William Petersen, Lucy Liu and Christina Hendricks (yum) have joined the cast of Tony Kaye’s indie drama, Detachment. They join Adrien Brody, Bryan Cranston, James Caan and Marcia Gay
Harden, who have already signed on. Carl Lund wrote the script about a substitute teacher (Brody) who grows close to teachers and students at a troubled school and befriends a homeless teen supporting herself with prostitution. Petersen will play a Vietnam veteran who teaches history. The
character gets in trouble when, in a bid to teach tolerance, he
shows a gay film in class. Hendricks will play a teacher who urges Brody to commit to teaching
full-time and might be a romantic interest. Liu will play a school
psychologist who grows frustrated with her students’
incompetence.
Oscar nominee, Taraji P. Henson, has signed onto From the Rough, basedd on the story of Catana Starks, the first female coach of an NCAA Division 1 Men’s Team (golf at Tennessee State Univ.). Henson will play a fictionalized version of Starks named Cassandra
Turner, who parlays a successful stint as coach of the women’s swim
team at a historically black college into a shot at building the
men’s golf team. With available black players scarce, Turner scours
Europe, Australia and Asia for hidden talents and constructs a
uniquely multi-racial team. Michael A. Critelli wrote the script and will executive produce.
Tim Blake nelson will join John Krasinski and Drew Barrymore in Everybody Loves Whales for Working title and Universal. Set in Cold War-era 1988, “Whales” tells the true story of a
small-town news reporter (Krasinski) and a Greenpeace volunteer
(Barrymore) who enlist the help of rival superpowers to save three
majestic gray whales trapped under the ice of the Arctic
Circle. Ken Kwapis (he’s Just Not that Into you) will direct the project, which is based on Tom
Rose’s nonfiction book Freeing the Whales: How the Media Created
the World’s Greatest Non-Event.
Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy, The Cleveland Show and American Dad, has signed a record deal. MacFarlane has joined forces with Universal Republic Records to
deliver an album of 1940s and ’50s show tunes paying tribute to
Broadway classics. Unlike the songs on his animated Fox hits, these aren’t spoofs, but
straight-up renditions of songs by Rodgers and Hammerstein and Lerner
and Loewe, among other talents. MacFarlane, who also voices many of characters on all three shows, frequently sings parody songs and was nominated for an Emmy for music and lyrics this year.
Andie MacDowell and Rosa Blasi (Strong Medicine) are in talks to join the cast of Fox’s upcoming series, Lone Star. MacDowell would play the love interest of Jon Voight’s oil tycoon and Blasi would portray Blake, the Lady Macbeth-esque trophy wife of Mark Deklin’s character, Trammell. Lone Star centers on a con man (James Wolk) who is leading a double life.
Richard Schiff, a former Emmy winner for The West Wing, will join the cast of the Criminal Minds spinoff, Suspect Behavior. Schiff will portray FBI Director Jack Fickler, boss to Forrest Whitaker’s character. Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior stars Whitaker as the head of an elite team of agents
within the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit. The cast also includes
Janeane Garofalo, Matt Ryan, Michael Kelly, Beau Garrett, and Minds mainstay Kirsten Vangsness.