TV News Roundup: Josh Charles Joins ‘Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders’

In today’s roundup, Josh Charles has been cast in “Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders,” while Sissy Spacek will star in a new Hulu drama set in the Stephen King multiverse.

CASTING

Josh Charles has been added to the cast of “Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders” as Dr. Jerome Oziel, the Menendez brothers’s controversial psychiatrist. Charles joins previously announced cast Edie Falco as defense attorney Leslie Abramson, Heather Graham as Judalon Smyth, Gus Halper as Erik Menendez, Miles Gaston Villanueva as Lyle Menendez, and Cliff Chamberlain as Detective Tom Linehan, among others. The series is a Wolf Entertainment production in association with Universal Television, and is executive produced by Dick Wolf, Rene Balcer, Leslie Linka Glatter, Arthur Forney and Peter Jankowski.

Hulu announced that Sissy Spacek and Jane Levy have joined the cast of upcoming original drama series “Castle Rock.” Spacek plays Ruth Deaver, the estranged adoptive mother of Henry (Andre Holland) and a retired professor whose fading memories may hold a key to the town of Castle Rock’s past. Levy plays Jackie, the self-appointed historian of the town. The psychological thriller is set in the Stephen King multiverse, and was developed by Sam Shaw and Dustin Tomason with EPs J.J. Abrams, Ben Stephenson and Liz Glotzer.

DATES

“Fuller House” Season 3 will begin on Sept. 22 on Netflix. The choice of that date is no coincidence, as it just so happens to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the premiere of the original “Full House.” The streaming service also announced that Season 3 of the series will be broken into two parts. The first nine episodes will launch in September, while the second nine episodes will air sometime in December.

EXECUTIVE NEWS

Turner has promoted Richard Warren to president of Turner Content Distribution after the previous president of TCD, Coleman Breland, took on a newly created position as the president of content experiences. In this expanded role, Warren will oversee all brand distribution, affiliate marketing, interactive television, and business development for Turner’s ten domestic networks as well as continued oversight of TCD’s strategic planning, business operations, and legal and business affairs. Breland’s new role entails leading a cross-functional, company-wide initiative to explore new content strategies for business models both inside and outside the traditional TV ecosystem. In this capacity, Breland will work with business leaders across the company to develop a future-forward approach for Turner’s content portfolio that addresses rapidly shifting consumption behaviors, technology advancements, and set-top-box evolution and disruption. Breland will also continue as president of TCM and Filmstruck.

MGM Worldwide Television Distribution expanded its team with the addition of Mina Patel as senior vice president of Worldwide Television Distribution and Todd Parkin as senior vice president/general manager of MGM Domestic Networks. Annie Khostegyan has also been promoted to senior vice president of Domestic Television Distribution. Patel will lead sales administration operations for MGM Worldwide TV Distribution and will report to Chris Ottinger, president of Worldwide Television Distribution & Acquisitions. Parkin will develop future digital networks for MGM and oversee the management and operation of the company’s current domestic digital networks. Parkin will report to John Bryan, president of Domestic Television Distribution and Simon Graty, EVP of Worldwide Branded Services. Khostegyan reports to Bryan as well, and will manage and oversee television distribution in Canada while continuing to supervise cable distribution in the U.S., a responsibility she held in her most recent position as Vice President, U.S. Television Distribution.

SPECIALS

National Geographic Documentary Films has announced it will broaden access to the documentary film “From the Ashes,” which studies the impacts of coal as well as America’s energy future. Until July 3, the film will be available to stream for free on You Tube, Facebook, Hulu, Amazon, Google Play, Video on Demand, NatGeoTV.com and Nat Geo TV Apps. “From the Ashes” is produced by the Academy Award- and Emmy award-winning production company RadicalMedia in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies. It is directed by Emmy-nominated filmmaker Michael Bonfiglio, produced by Sidney Beaumont and executive produced by Joe Berlinger, Jon Kamen, Katherine Oliver and Justin Wilkes.

ABC Talent and Casting’s fifth annual “ABC Discovers: Digital Talent Competition” is now live in the U.S., along with its first-ever partner competition in the U.K. Taking place Monday, June 26 – Sunday, July 9, the competition aims to discover and champion actors who may not have had the opportunity to be seen by a team of professional casting executives. The winner of the contest, announced Thursday, August 10, will receive a one-year $25,000 talent deal with ABC. The U.K. winner will receive a separate one-year $25,000 deal. To enter the “ABC Discovers: Digital Talent Competition,” actors 18 years of age and above are asked to create a video performing one of the comedy or drama scenes posted on ABCDiscovers.com.

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