Casting News CBS Pilots for Fall 2012

Fred Durst Signs Deal With CBS & CBS Studios, Will Star In Comedy Project



EXCLUSIVE: Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst is looking to front his own comedy series next. Durst has signed his first ever TV deal with CBS and CBS TV Studios. Under the pact, he has partnered with CBS TV Studios-based producers Eric and Kim Tannenbaum on a half-hour comedy project, which he will star in and produce. The untitled comedy, sometimes referred to as Douchebag, has received a script commitment. It centers around a rock legend looking for balance between his high profile lifestyle and trying to raise a family. It will be written by Matthew Carlson (Mr. Sunshine) who will executive produce with the Tannenbaums. The idea was brought to the Tannenbaum Co. by Durst’s manager/producer John Schneider who will serve as a non-writing producer. Schneider is already in business with the Tannenbaums, CBS Studios and CBS. Last season, he and his brother, actor Rob Schneider, developed a family comedy with the same auspices, which was inspired by Rob Schneider’s real-life experiences. The project recently received a midseason series order by CBS. On the TV side, Durst’s only previous credits were arcs on NBC’s limited series Revelations and Fox’s House. In features, he directed The Education of Charlie Banks and The Longshots.

CBS Buys Comedy Starring ‘The Daily Show’ Correspondent Aasif Mandvi



CBS has bought a comedy from The Daily Show correspondent Aasif Mandvi. Mandvi will write and star in the project, about a recently divorced marriage counselor who dispenses relationship advice. Tagline and CBS TV Studios are producing, with Tagline’s Kelly Kulchak and JB Roberts and Mandvi’s manager, Sweet 180′s Lillian LaSalle, exec producing. ICM-repped Mandvi is currently writing a book of semi-autobiographical essays for Chronicle Books. He has two films coming up, Gods Behaving Badly and Premium Rush, and also has a cameo in Sacha Baron Cohen’s The Dictator. CBS has been high on Daily Show correspondents. The network has previously developed projects with Rob Riggle, Demetri Martin and the duo of Jason Jones & Samantha Bee.

CBS Buys Fatherhood Comedy Starring And Produced By Jerry O’Connell



EXCLUSIVE: New father Jerry O’Connell may play one on TV next season. CBS has bought an untitled multi-camera family sitcom about new parenthood starring O’Connell and written by Jeff Astrof (The New Adventures Of Old Christine). CBS TV Studios and 3 Arts are producing. This marks O’Connell’s return to CBS and CBS Studios after starring in the network and studio’s dramedy series The Defenders last season.

As a father of 2-year-old twins, O’Connell had been looking to translate his experience and its hilarity into a comedy series vehicle when he read Adam Mansbach’s “bedtime book for parents” Go The F**k To Sleep. He liked the comedic yet honest tone of it, which he found similar to what he was going for. 3 Arts, which manages O’Connell and Mansbach, got them together, and they started bouncing around ideas for a TV show. With neither of them having TV writing experience, they looked around for a showrunner and met with Astrof, also a 3 Arts client, immediately after he became available when How To Be A Gentleman was recently shut down. Astrof served as an executive producer on the CBS/CBS Studios freshman comedy series and had a blind script deal with CBS Studios, which has now been applied to the new project. Astrof, O’Connell and Mansbach got their heads together and will share “story by” credit on the potential series. Astrof and Mansbach will co-write the script for the project, an adult family sitcom about a struggling writer catapulted into the spotlight as a parenting expert after his tongue-in-cheek children’s book becomes an unexpected hit. ICM-repped Astrof will showrun and executive produce with 3 Arts’ Michael Rotenberg and Richard Abate. UTA-repped O’Connell and CAA-repped Mansbach will co-executive produce.

Conan O’Brien-Produced Comedy Starring Rebel Wilson Gets Pilot Order At CBS



CBS has given a pilot green light to Super Fun Night, a multi-camera comedy pilot written by and starring Australian actress-comedian Rebel Wilson (Bridesmaids). The project, from Warner Bros TV and Conan O’Brien’s studio-based Conaco banner, follows three nerdy female friends on their ”funcomfortable” quest to have super fun every Friday night. O’Brien, Jeff Ross and David Kissinger are executive producing, with Wilson co-executive producing.

Despite CBS’ comedy brand being built on multi-camera sitcoms, Super Fun Night is the network’s first multi-camera comedy pilot this season. CBS’ first two half-hour pilot orders went to single-camera projects, both from feature writer-directors: Jon Favreau’s Tweaked and an untitled Nick Stoller project.

Michael Angarano Cast As Lead In CBS’ Nick Stoller Comedy Pilot



EXCLUSIVE: Michael Angarano (Haywire) has landed the lead in CBS’s single-camera comedy pilot from feature writer-director Nick Stoller (The Muppets). Stoller wrote and will direct the untitled project loosely based on his real-life experiences. It is a twentysomething ensemble comedy that centers on Jake (Angarano), a commitment phobic ad agency exec who, after breaking up with his girlfriend, realizes he has to continue working with her one cubicle away. Chernin Entertainment and 20th Century Fox TV are producing. Angarano’s series credits include arcs on 24 and Will & Grace. He recently wrapped the features The English Teacher and The Brass Teapot.

Andre Braugher To Star In Shawn Ryan’s ABC Drama Pilot ‘Last Resort’



EXCLUSIVE: Emmy winner Andre Braugher is set to lead the ensemble cast of ABC’s drama pilot Last Resort, executive produced by Shawn Ryan and written-executive produced by Karl Gajdusek. The Sony TV-produced project centers on the crew of the U.S.S. Nevada, a nuclear submarine, who, after disobeying a suspicious order, become fugitives. They land on the island of Sainte Marina, where they take over the NATO Listening Station and declare themselves an independent nuclear nation. Braugher will play Capt. Marcus Chaplin, the commander of the U.S.S. Nevada, a veteran of real combat, a leader by nature and a patriot, but will not follow any man blindly. Braugher, repped by WME and Principato-Young, won Emmys for his lead roles on Homicide and Thief. He most recently starred on the TNT dramedy Men Of A Certain Age, which earned him 2 Emmy nominations. This marks the second military-themed ensemble drama from Ryan to cast an well-known black actor as the lead, following the CBS series The Unit, which starred Dennis Haysbert.