Lots of casting news to report on Thursday, which saw Oscar winner Mira Sorvino, former “3rd Rock From the Sun” star French Stewart and more pinning their hopes on a slew on new TV pilots. See below for a brief rundown on each…
– Mira Sorvino will star opposite Jim Gaffigan (“My Boys,” “Portlandia”) in the latter’s untitled CBS comedy pilot, playing Jeannie, the “super-wife” to Gaffigans’ immature Jim and “super-mom” to their five children. Did we mention they live in a 2-bedroom apartment? Gaffigan and “Rescue Me” creator Peter Tolan came up with the story, with Tolan penning the script solo. Gaffigan, Tolan, Michael Wimer and Alex Murray are executive-producing. [Deadline]
– French Stewart (“3rd Rock From the Sun”) has hopped aboard “Mom,” Chuck Lorre’s multi-camera comedy pilot for CBS starring Anna Faris as a newly-sober single mother who moves to California’s Napa Valley for a fresh start. Stewart will play Rudy, the temperamental chef of an upscale restaurant. [Deadline]
– Daniel Stern (“Whip It,” “Home Alone”) has joined NBC’s single-camera comedy pilot “Girlfriend in a Coma,” starring Christina Ricci as Karen, a woman who emerges from a years-long coma to discover she has a 17-year-old daughter named Evie (“iCarly”‘s Miranda Cosgrove). Stern will play Karen’s father Tom, an electrician who has been raising Evie along with his wife. Liz Brixius, who will executive-produce with Dick Wolf, Danielle Gelber and Peter Jankowski, based her script on the book by Douglas Copland. [Deadline]
– Former teen idol Joey McIntyre – he of NKOTB fame – has joined CBS’s single-camera comedy pilot “The McCarthys,” with Jessica Chaffin (“United States of Tara,” “Zoey 101”) also joining the cast. The two will star opposite the previously-cast Jacki Weaver (2013 Oscar nominee for “Silver Linings Playbook”), Jake Lacy and Jack McGee in the potential series, which centers on a traditionally-macho Irish-Catholic family living in Boston and the gay son (Lacy) who years to spend less time with them. McIntyre will play Gerard McCarthy, the lone short man in the family with a major Napoleon complex, while Chaffin will play moody sister Jackie, who regularly veers from egotism to insecurity. The Will Gluck-produced pilot was written by Brian Gallivan (“Are You There, Chelsea?”) and is set to be directed by actor-turned-director Fred Savage. [Deadline]
– Lou Taylor Pucci (“Thumbsucker,” “Evil Dead”) and “Revenge”‘s Ashton Holmes have joined the ABC drama pilot “Reckless,” which centers on David, a man who travels overseas to rescue his doctor wife Sarah (the previously-cast Eloise Mumford) after she’s been imprisoned following a political uprising in East Myanmar. Pucci wil play Ryan, Sarah’s brother, while Holmes is set to play David’s college roommate Wyatt, who puts him in touch with a mercenary. The pilot is written and executive-produced by Chris Black (“Ugly Betty,” Desperate Housewives”) and will be directed by “Casino Royale” helmer Martin Campbell, also on board to executive-produce. [Deadline]
– Peter Cambor has been tapped to star opposite “Apt. 23″‘s Krysten Ritter in the NBC single-camera sitcom pilot “Assistance,” in which he’ll play Jeremy, the medical school-graduate fiance of Ritter’s character Nora. Written by Leslye Headland (“Terriers,” “Bachelorette”), the pilot centers on executive assistant Nora’s conflicting loyalties to Jeremy and a male colleague/”work husband,” all while trying to keep her demanding boss happy. [Deadline]
– Charlie Cox (“Boardwalk Empire”) has been tapped to lead CBS drama pilot “The Ordained,” in which he’ll star as the son of a Kennedy-esque dynasty who leaves the priesthood to start a career as a lawyer in a firm headed by a man who may be behind a plot to assassinate his politician sister. The prospective series comes from writer Lisa Takeuchi Cullen and executive-producers Frank Marshall and Larry Shuman. Nestor Serrano (“Blue Bloods”) was previously cast as the firm’s shady head honcho. [TV Line]
– Jesse Lee Soffer (“The Mob Doctor”) will star in NBC drama pilot “Hatfields & McCoys,” a contemporary take on the legendary feuding clans. Soffer will play Patrick McCoy, a “prodigal son” who returns to the family fold after years away. Shortly after his arrival, the family’s patriarch is shot down in cold blood and Patrick sets his sights on the Hatfields, who he believes responsible for the murder. The pilot was written by John Glenn (“Eagle Eye”) and will be directed by Michael Mayer (“Smash”); Charlize Theron executive-produces. [Deadline]
– Speaking of assistants, Joe Egender and Melissa Tang have been cast in Fox’s single-camera comedy pilot “To My Future Assistant,” which centers on a group of, yes, assistants at a large New York law firm who help each other cope with their nightmare bosses. Egender is set to play Roy, an acerbic paralegal beholden to two-faced lawyer Magda (Catherine O’Hara), while Tang will play the unfailingly-sunny/ass-kissing assistant Claire, whose persona suddenly changes once she’s promoted. The pilot was written by Sherry Bilsing-Graham and Ellen Kreamer (“I Hate My Teenage Daughter,” “The New Adventures of Old Christine”). [Deadline]
– Kim Dickens (“Treme”) will star with Jason Lee in CBS drama pilot “Second Sight,” a “gothic thriller” based on the 2000 British series of the same name. The potential series centers on Tanner (Lee), a New Orleans detective with an ocular disorder that causes him to suffer terrifying hallucinations and “anxiety dreams,” and Dickens will play Sammy, a fellow detective. Michael Cuesta (“L.I.E.”) will direct from a script he co-wrote with his brother Gerald; he’s also on board to executive-produce alongside Carol Mendelsohn, Julie Weitz, Paula Milne and Nick Reed. [Deadline]
– Aussie actress Peta Sergeant has re-joined “Hunger Games”-esque CW pilot “The Selection,” described as an “epic romance” set 300 years in the future in which a blue-collar young woman is selected to take part in a tournament in which she’ll compete against 24 other women for the hand of the royal prince and the title of queen. Along with Sean Patrick Thomas, Sergeant starred in an earlier version of the pilot from last season as rebel leader Gaia, and she will reprise the role in this retooled adaptation of the New York Times bestselling book by Kiera Cass. Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain (“666 Park Avenue,” “The Vampire Diaries”) scripted. [Deadline]