ITV

Tag: Dylan McDermott

  • TNT, BBC team up for drama series ‘The Grid’

    TNT, BBC team up for drama series ‘The Grid’

    MUMBAI: Turner Network Television (TNT) and the BBC have joined forces for a drama series The Grid. Starring Dylan McDermott The Practice and Julianna Margulies ER the show will explore both sides of the escalating war on terror.
     
     
    The Grid will be produced in conjunction with Fox Television Studios and Carnival Films. Production on the six-hour series will begin early next year in Toronto, London and Morocco. Margulies will play maverick NSA counter-terrorism operative Maya Jackson, and McDermott will play FBI agent Mike Canary, two of three young American and two British counter-terrorism agents. They collaborate to disrupt a ferocious terrorist cell bent on destroying the world’s economic foundations.

    BBC’s head of drama commissioning Gareth Neame had the following remarks to make about the project. “The Grid is an international project that looks in detail at a terrorist cell operating on a global level and a team of American and British counter-terrorists who are tasked to stop it. It is an ambitious project that explores what motivates and finances the terrorists and examines how international agencies must cooperate to defeat them. The drama looks at the defining threat of our time but does so on a bigger scale than is possible with shows like Spooks and 24.”

    Fox TV Studios’ executive VP movies and miniseries David Madden added, “We’re very excited to be in business for the first time with TNT and BBC. We believe this film project is extremely significant in its effort to honestly depict all sides of the current global tensions within the context of an urgent international thriller.”

  • Dylan McDermott, Lara Flynn Boyle to exit ‘The Practice’

    MUMBAI: This will come as a huge disappointment for fans of legal drama The Practice. Dylan Mcdermott, Lara Flynn Boyle and four cast members will leave the show.
    In India the show airs on Star World every Wednesday at 10 pm. A Reuters report indicates that the slimming of The Practice’s actor payroll comes as the Emmy-winning series faces at least a 50 per cent reduction in the license fee paid by ABC.
    The show had a difficult seventh season. The ratings took a dive after a midseason time-slot shift to Monday — and secured an eleventh-hour pickup for 2003-04 on condition that the estimated $6.5 million license fee get reduced by half.
    McDermott will guest-star in at least four episodes next season. The creator of the show David E Kelley has been quoted in the report saying, “Due to economic and creative realities, many key people will not be returning, including Dylan. It hurts, professionally and personally. This is perhaps the finest group of actors and people one could ever hope to work with; I hope for all of them to recur if possible, and if I’m lucky, I’ll get to work with them on future projects as well. I’m indebted to each and every one of them.”
    The report indicates that cast reduction was Kelley’s idea and is part of his plan to rejuvenate the veteran show, which won the outstanding drama series Emmy in 1999. Kelley is said to have noted how other long-running dramas, including NBC’s Law & Order and ER have constantly used cast changes as an effective vehicle to keep a show fresh and even bring in new viewers.
    Original Practice cast members who are still with the show include Camryn Manheim and Michael Badalucco.