Gus Worland gets in shape
Radio personality Gus Worland will be the subject of a new documentary series, The Marathon Man, in which Worland hopes to transform from ‘‘an overweight, unhealthy couch potato to a lean, mean marathon man’’. In the series, Worland will be tasked by his friend, United States-based Australian actor Hugh Jackman, to slim down and run the New York marathon. Worland has previously featured in several FOX8 series, including An Aussie Goes Barmy. The Marathon Man will air on A&E later this year.
Europe loves our husbands
Channel Nine’s hit family drama House Husbands is to be remade in France and Italy. The German-based international distributor, ZDF Enterprises, which owns the rights to the series internationally, has struck two deals for remakes. Both will use scripts from the first season of House Husbands as the basis for their remakes. House Husbands is produced by Playmaker Media for the Nine Network. The deals follow similar deals in Europe for Foxtel’s Prisoner remake, Wentworth, and the comedy Small Time Gangster.
Westbrook revisited
Foxtel has commissioned a two-part docudrama on Westbrook, the infamous boys’ home in Toowoomba. Westbrook, from Shadow Productions (Crime Investigation Australia, The Train: The Granville Rail Disaster) explores the home’s darkest years, in the 1950s and 1960s, when boys were ‘‘imprisoned, systematically abused and sexually assaulted in a regimen designed to break their spirit’’, and includes accounts from nine men who survived the home. Westbrook will air on CI Network in August.
ABC wants more Please
The ABC comedy series Please Like Me has been commissioned for a third series by the ABC and the show’s US co-producer, Pivot channel. Please Like Me was created by, written by and stars Josh Thomas. In Australia, it won the 2014 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts award for best comedy series, and the Australian Writers’ Guild award for best comedy script. It also won the Australian Directors Guild award for best direction in a TV comedy. ABC’s head of comedy, Rick Kalowski, said the series was ‘‘a cracker from start to finish’’.
Mitchell’s big break
Australian actor Luke Mitchell has signed on to a new big-budget network drama in the US. The series, titled Members Only, is described as an ‘‘upstairs/downstairs soap opera set in a private country club’’. Mitchell will play a young man from the wrong side of the tracks who becomes entangled with the clubs’ owners, the wealthy Holbrooke family. Members Only has been in development for some time, with the working title The Club. In an unusual move, the US network ABC ordered 13 episodes of the series before it had filmed a pilot.
Charles back from the dead
Actor Josh Charles is returning to The Good Wife as a director. The 42-year-old actor has directed three previous episodes of the series, once in season four and twice in season five. He will return to direct an episode in the sixth season, the second since he was killed off in a shocking twist midway through the fifth season. Charles won an Emmy nomination for his work, in the category of outstanding supporting actor in a drama series. The sixth season of The Good Wife launches in the US in September.
TV tweets
@RedFoo Who would have thought when we were 14 in middle school that we would be on opposing talent shows on competing networks in Australia
Will.I.Am (voice coach, all grown up) @iamwill
Had a disastrous Oscar hosting dream, so my nightmares have officially jumped the shark
Lena Dunham (actress, dreamer) @lenadunham
I was supposed to look for my missing watch yesterday, but I couldn’t find the time. #ClassicJokeWednesday
Ellen DeGeneres (talk-show host, groan) @TheEllenShow
Theo Huxtable Will Also Star in the Final Season of Sons Of Anarchy
Kurt Sutter (writer, producer, stuntcaster extraordinaire) @sutterink