Josh Radnor, Mary Elizabeth Winstead to Lead Drama ‘Mercy Street’
PBS has assembled an award-winning cast for their new Civil War drama Mercy Street, the network’s first American drama in over a decade. Josh Radnor (How I Met Your Mother), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) and Gary Cole (Pineapple Express) will star in the project, which will also feature Shalita Grant, Jack Falahee, McKinley Belcher III, AnnaSophia Robb, Donna Murphy, Cameron Monaghan and Hannah James. The six-part series filming on location in Virginia follows the lives of two volunteer nurses on opposing sides of the Civil War — New England abolitionist Mary Phinney (Winstead) and Confederate supporter Emma Green (James). TV directors Roxann Dawson and Jeremy Webb are attached to helm the series, which will join Downtown Abbey on PBS’ Sunday lineup in winter 2016. [THR]
ABC Ends ‘Revenge’ After Four Seasons
Emily VanCamp’s time in the Hamptons is coming to an end. After four seasons playing Emily Thorne on Revenge, the ABC drama will end its run with a series finale on Sunday, May 10 at 10 p.m. And it seems Emily Thorne a.k.a. Amanda Clarke might not be getting a happy ending after all. Executive producer Sunil Nayar says the last episode, appropriately titled Two Graves, a callback to the Confucius quote recited in the pilot, is not only going to end in a tiny cliffhanger, but it will also surprise even the most hardcore fans: “There are epic emotional moments in the finale. There are really shocking things that happen in the finale.” [EW]
Lifetime ‘The Omen’ Sequel ‘Damien’ Moves to A&E
When you’re looking for something spooky to watch, you don’t think Lifetime. So it’s no wonder that Damien, the sequel series to the 1976 horror film The Omen, is now making the move to sibling network A&E, where it should feel right at home next to Bates Motel and The Returned. A&E has also ordered an additional four episodes of the series, bringing the first season total to 10. In the drama from The Walking Dead‘s Glen Mazzara, Bradley James (Merlin) stars as an adult version of Damien Thom, who as a child was surrounded by satanic forces that did his bidding. Seemingly unaware of his past, Ann Rutledge (Barbara Hershey) is tasked with making sure Damien fulfills his destiny as the Antichrist. The series will premiere in 2015. [THR]
NBC Releasing Entire David Duchovny Drama ‘Aquarius’ Online
David Duchovny fans won’t have to wait too long to see the actor’s new series Aquarius in its entirety. NBC plans to release all 13 episodes of the drama on NBC.com, the NBC app and VOD directly after the two-hour premiere on May 28. This is a first for broadcast networks, where episodes usually appear online only after they’ve already aired on TV. But in this case, new episodes will continue to premiere each week on NBC, while the entire series is available to binge for the first four weeks. Emma Dumont, Grey Damon and Gethin Anthony also star in the period piece about a Los Angeles police sergeant hunting down Charles Manson. [THR]