Kal Penn Joins ‘The Santa Clause’ Disney+ Limited Series

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentSND is teaming up with Easy Riders Films to develop a premium limited series loosely based on “The Family,” Suzanne Privat’s best-selling investigative book on a French cult which has existed for more than 200 years.“The Family” is penned by rising French screenwriter Clémence Madeleine-Perdrillat, whose recent credits include “Nona and Her Daughters,” as well as the Amazon Original show “Mixte.” She led the writing team for season 2 of “In Treatment.”Set in Paris’s underworld, the thriller series will shed right on the rites and customs of this enigmatic religious sect from diverse perspectives, focusing on the experiences of those inside and outside the community. The book, whose French title is “La Famille, itinéraires d’un secret,” was published by Les Avrils editions in 2021.

Mckenna Grace (The Handmaid’s Tale)  is set to star alongside Anna Paquin, Jake Lacy, Colin Hanks and Lio Tipton in A Friend of the Family, Peacock’s limited drama series about the Jan Broberg kidnapping case.

EXCLUSIVE: Michael Gaston (For Life) has signed on for a recurring role in FX’s limited series Fleishman Is in Trouble. He’s set to star alongside previously announced cast members including Jesse Eisenberg, Lizzy Caplan, Claire Danes, Adam Brody and Joy Suprano.

EXCLUSIVE: In a bidding war that included a number of streamers and networks, FX has closed a deal for development of the six-episode limited series based on Blitz Bazawule’s upcoming debut novel The Scent of Burnt Flowers. Bazawule will write, direct and produce under his newly minted entity Inward Gaze, with Emmy winner Yahya Abdul-Mateen II attached to star. Abdul-Mateen will also executive produce under his production shingle House Eleven10 alongside Macro Television Studios.

President Joe Biden trekked to Capitol Hill for the annual Friends of Ireland luncheon, where guests in the Rayburn Room were treated to jumbo crab salad, noisettes of lamb with lemony grilled vegetables and shamrock-shaped cookies, along with a performance from Riverdance.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeAs production on Season 2 of HBO’s “The White Lotus” continues in Sicily, Italy, the Television Academy has now confirmed that the show’s first season will nonetheless be eligible to compete as a limited series in this year’s Emmy Awards.The ruling comes even though original cast member Jennifer Coolidge is set to return for the seven-episode second installment of the hit series. Even though that would appear to make Season 2 a continuation of “The White Lotus,” and therefore a drama, the Academy ruled that it could still fall under its rules in the outstanding limited or anthology series category.That’s because, according to the org, “In this case, the reappearance in a subsequent ‘season’ of one character from a large ensemble does not prohibit eligibility based on Academy’s main criteria for limited series.” Coolidge, as wealthy hotel guest Tanya, was a supporting character in Season 1 — though, given the large ensemble cast, all of the show’s actors will be submitting in the supporting categories at the Emmys.It may be a bit of semantics, but the TV Academy stipulates that for a show to be considered a limited series, “the story arc must be completely resolved within its season, with no ongoing storyline and/or main characters in subsequent seasons.”Because Coolidge’s character is not a “main” character, it passes that test on a bit of a technicality.

EXCLUSIVE: C.J. Cooke’s supernatural family novel The Lighthouse Witches is set to be adapted into a television series after Studiocanal and The Picture Company landed the rights to the book.

Juliette Lewis has been tapped for a key role opposite Kumail Nanjiani and Murray Bartlett in the Hulu limited series Immigrant (working title), from Pam & Tommy creator Robert Siegel.

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words shall never hurt me” is a popular idiom dating back to the 19th century – but it couldn’t have foreseen the power of the text message. In 2017, an unprecedented “texting-suicide” trial made national headlines when Michelle Carter was accused of urging her boyfriend Conrad Roy III to end his own life.

EXCLUSIVE: Greg Hovanessian (Another Life) will star alongside Matt Barr as a series regular in The CW’s Walker: Independence pilot.

BET has set a new four-part original limited series, Carl Weber’s The Black Hamptons, from The New York Times best-selling author of the same name and the executive producers of the popular BET+ original drama, The Family Business.

In what comes as no surprise given the running $301M global grossing success of The Batman, HBO Max has given a straight-to-series order to the pic’s spinoff series The Penguin which will see Colin Farrell reprising his villainous role from the pic as one of Gotham’s legendary kingpins.

EXCLUSIVE: Yeardley Smith’s Paperclip Ltd is looking to turn Tom Wood’s forensic science bestseller Ruxton: The First Modern Murder into an unscripted podcast and a limited scripted series.

CNBC anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin will host and produce a limited series for NBC News Now, the latest figure from NBCU’s broadcast and cable networks to provide content for the streaming service.

Hulu has set an April premiere date for FX limited series Under the Banner of Heaven, from Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black. Inspired by Jon Krakauer’s true crime bestseller, Under the Banner of Heaven, starring Oscar nominee Andrew Garfield and Daisy Edgar-Jones, will launch April 28 exclusively on Hulu in the U.S. It will follow on Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ under the Star banner in all other territories. The premiere will feature the first two episodes, with a new episode available weekly for the next five weeks. FX also released a first-look photo above.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterKal Penn has joined the “Santa Clause” limited series at Disney Plus, Variety has confirmed.The series, which was announced on Jan. 14, will see Tim Allen once again play Santa Claus/Scott Calvin and Elizabeth Mitchell reprising her role as Scott’s wife, Carol Calvin, a.k.a. Mrs.

EXCLUSIVE: Jason Winer (The Big Leap) has been tapped to direct Disney+’s upcoming The Santa Clause limited series starring Tim Allen. The Modern Family alum will also executive produce through his Small Dog Production Co. the series, which comes from Last Man Standing creator Jack Burditt.

Ellise Shafer The Writers Guild of America, East will host their annual “And the Nominees Are…” limited series contenders’ panel on March 1, with Variety hosting the livestream.The limited series panel will take place at 7 p.m. ET/ 4 p.m. PT and will run for 90 minutes.

Michael Douglas recently wrapped his Netflix series The Kominsky Method and he’s getting ready to head back to television right away!

Apple TV+ has officially confirmed a limited event series starring Michael Douglas as Benjamin Franklin. The Oscar winner executive produces the project about the American polymath, from John Adams writer-executive producer Kirk Ellis, TV director, writer and producer Tim Van Patten (Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos), Tony Krantz and his Flame Ventures and Richard Plepler’s Eden Productions under the company’s deal with Apple Studios. Based on Pulitzer Prize winner Stacy Schiff’s book A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, the series, which has been casting for the past couple of months, is a co-production between ITV Studios America and Apple Studios.