Medical minds
NBC orders Zachary Quinto-led series
Medical minds: Before portraying Spock in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot movies, actor Zachary Quinto’s big breakout role was Sylar, a serial killer with superpowers, in the NBC series “Heroes” (20062010). More than a decade — and several more notable film/TV roles — later, Quinto is being welcomed back into the NBC fold.
The “NOS4A2” actor leads the cast of “Dr. Wolf,” a new medical series that was ordered to series over at NBC. The actor will play the role of neurologist Oliver Wolf, who leads a team of interns as “they explore the last great frontier — the human mind — while also grappling with their own relationships and mental health” (per the official logline).
Also starring Tamberla Perry (“All American: Homecoming”) and Ashleigh LaThrop (“The Kominsky Method”), the Quinto-led drama is inspired by the life and work of famed neurologist Oliver Sacks, whose treatment of postencephalitic patients formed the basis for the 1990 film “Awakenings” starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.
The series hails from writer/producer Michael Grassi (“Riverdale”) and counts Greg Berlanti (“Superman & Lois”) as one of its executive producers. It was the last 2023 pilot remaining in contention at NBC, though the idea of an Oliver Sacks drama has been in development for a while.
Back in 2018, it was first revealed that Fabrik Entertainment had teamed up with The Imaginarium — the production company founded by actor-director Andy Serkis (“The Fellowship of the Ring,” 2001) and producer Jonathan Cavendish (“Bridget Jones’s Diary,” 2001) — to develop a new drama based on a pair of books by Sacks: “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” and “An Anthropologist on Mars.”
The long-gestating project was simply titled “Wolf” this past January, when NBC formally handed it a pilot order. Lee Roland Krieger (“The Vicious Kind,” 2009), who has long been associated with the project, directed the NBC pilot that led to the formal series order.
No word yet on when “Dr. Wolf” might debut on NBC, given the impact of the SAG-*
AFTRA strike on film and TV productions.
Spring ‘Fallout’: Spring is the season of renewal and new beginnings, a time when nature awakens after a long winter slumber. It’s also when you can expect the new “Fallout” TV series to arrive on Prime Video.
Fans of the video game franchise, mark your calendars: April 12, 2024, is when the TV adaptation of the popular RPG is expected to arrive on the Amazon streamer, where it will be available to stream in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.
The announcement was made on Fallout Day, a.k.a. Oct. 23 — the date that (fictionally) marks the beginning of the Great War, which brought nuclear annihilation and turned the world into an irradiated wasteland, forcing citizens underground to live in bunkers.
The live-action TV adaptation will feature an original story based on the video game, but don’t worry, it’s expected to stick with canon events — in fact, the story, which is set in postapocalyptic Los Angeles, will reportedly begin in Vault 33, which figures prominently in the games.
“Fallout” is hardly the first TV adaptation of a popular video game — HBO’s “The Last of Us” also comes to mind — but it is in very capable hands, with “Westworld” creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy onboard as executive producers.
The series will star Walton Goggins (“Justified”), Ella Purnell (“Yellowjackets”), Kyle MacLachlan (“Twin Peaks”), Xelia Mendes-Jones (“The Wheel of Time”) and Aaron Moten (“Disjointed”).
Axed at Apple: “The Problem with Jon Stewart” is done after just two seasons on Apple TV+, and according to the New York Times, “creative differences” are to blame.
Helmed by comedian/political commentator/former “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart, the Emmy-nominated weekly series was poised to begin filming a third season of deep dives into key issues when it was revealed that Stewart and Apple were parting ways.
While the split was said to have been an amicable one, the New York Times reported that Stewart’s proposed topics and guests for the upcoming season had “caused concern,” with Apple expressing reservations about tackling topics relating to artificial intelligence and China. An insider also noted that Stewart and his staff were concerned about possible pushback during the upcoming 2024 presidential campaign.
According to a followup report from The Hollywood Reporter, it seems Apple indicated to Stewart the need for them to be “aligned” on topics, and when they threatened to cancel the series, Stewart chose to walk away rather than give the streamer the final say. And now “The Problem with Jon Stewart” has been effectively “unrenewed” — it’s over after two seasons.
When “The Problem with Jon Stewart” debuted in 2021, it marked Stewart’s big return to TV following his departure from “The Daily Show,” the Comedy Central political comedy series he had hosted for 16 years. “The Problem” had been part of a multiyear deal Stewart signed with Apple in 2020, and it earned five Emmy nominations during its unexpectedly short run, including one for Outstanding Talk Series.