Some quickie casting news you should know about…
First, Marianne Jean-Baptiste has joined the cast of ITV’s BAFTA winning drama series Broadchurch for its upcoming second season. The veteran actress joins James D’Arcy, Eve Myles and Phoebe Waller-Bridge in a series created by Chris Chibnall (Law & Order: UK), which tells the story of when peace within a small community is disrupted when the dead body of a man is found on the beach, leading to an engulfing police investigation (at least that was in season 1; season 2’s exact plot and character details aren’t public yet). Season 1 of Broadchurch is currently available on home entertainment platforms. It’s streaming on Amazon, although it’ll cost you.
Second, relative newcomer Linzie Gray has been cast in a horror film titled Viral, which is set up at Blumhouse Productions, IM Global, and Dimension Films. Gray joins star Sofia Black-D’Elia in a film about a young woman who starts exhibiting symptoms amid the discovery of a deadly virus. Gray will play the lead character’s best friend. Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost (Paranormal Activity 4) are directing from the Black List script penned by Barbara Marshall and rewrite by Christopher Landon.
Third, Andrew Stewart-Jones has been promoted to a series regular on Fox’s Gotham series, which debuts during the 2014/2015 season. Based on DC characters from the Batman universe, the hour-long drama series explores the origin stories of Commissioner James Gordon (Ben McKenzie), Bruce Wayne and the villains who made Gotham City famous. Stewart-Jones will play a detective in the major crimes unit of the Gotham Police Department.
Fourth, James McDaniel has been cast opposite Mena Suvari in Amazon Studios’ drama pilot Hysteria, which follows an exceptionally bright but socially awkward neurologist/psychiatrist (Suvari) at the University of Texas Medical School, who travels to her hometown of Austin, TX to investigate a mysterious epidemic among high school girls that might be spreading through technology. McDaniel will play a Dr. Carl Sapsi, who is a local Austin doctor, baffled by the outbreak, who is initially eager to work with Suvari’s character to uncover the epidemic’s mystery, but then starts to separate himself from her, when she becomes a pariah in the community.
And finally, Courtney B. Vance has joined the cast of Showtime’s drama series Master of Sex for its upcoming second season. Based on Thomas Maier’s book, Masters of Sex follows the real-life pioneers of the science of human sexuality, William Masters and Virginia Johnson. Vance will recur in multiple episodes as a Dr. Hendricks, the head of an African American hospital in St. Louis, whose goal is to racially integrate his hospital. The drama series is produced by Sony Pictures Television and stars Michael Sheen, Lizzy Caplan, Caitlin Fitzgerald, Nicholas D’Agosto and Teddy Sears.
