[Televisionary]

Looks like that Veronica Mars feature film is probably not happening... I've been on tenterhooks for the last few months about Rob Thomas' plans for a feature film version of his short-lived (and much missed) UPN/CW series Veronica Mars . On the one hand, I'd be the first in line to go back to Neptune and catch up with super-sleuth Veronica, watch her drop some witty bon mots, and solve some crimes, but I wondered whether there really was a massive public interest in, you know, paying to go see Veronica Mars on the big screen. After all, the sensational Kristen Bell-led series was canceled due to low ratings and, as much I adore Veronica Mars , it did work best as a complex, ongoing serialized drama series. It turns out that Warner Bros and executive producer Joel Silver feel more or the same way, according to series star Kristen Bell, who spilled the dish to Entertainment Weekly 's Michael Ausiello at the recent Saturn Awards. "I don't think it will ever ha

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Jennifer Westfeldt ( Grey's Anatomy ) and John Boyd ( The Notorious Bettie Page ) have been cast in Day Eight of FOX drama series 24 . Westfeldt will recur as journalist Meredith Reed, an ambitious writer who has ties to Middle East leader Arman Hashemi (Anil Kapoor), who arrives in the U.S. on a peacemaking mission. Boyd, meanwhile, will be a series regular and will play CTU analyst Jonah Schwartz. ( Hollywood Reporter ) The Middleman creator Javier Grillo-Marxuach has joined the writing staff of NBC's upcoming sci-fi series Day One, where he will serve as writer/co-executive producer. Also joining the writing staff, according to series creator Jesse Alexander (who broke the news via Twitter): Kings ' Erik Oleson, and Angela Kang. ( io9 ) BBC Films has confirmed that a big screen version of Doctor Who is being developed and that development of a script is currently underway. It's unclear whether inbound showrunne

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Could Buffy be heading back to the big screen... sans Joss Whedon, Sarah Michelle Gellar, or any of the supporting talents that made the franchise a success? Sadly, yes, in what appears to be shaping up as one of the worst ideas of the year. Executive producers Fran and Kaz Kuzui, along with Vertigo Entertainment's Roy Lee and Doug Davison are said to be developing a reboot of the Buffy franchise. (Fran Rubel Kuzui directed the original Buffy feature.) However, said project would not involve characters like Willow, Xander, Angel, or Spike (or, indeed any of the above elements) and would instead focus on a new slayer and would kick off a new franchise. The producers are currently meeting with writers and have not reached out to Joss Whedon about any involvement with the project. ( Hollywood Reporter ) David Tennant will star opposite Elisabeth Sladen in two upcoming episodes of Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures 

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. FOX inched its way closer to renewing drama Bones yesterday, ordering six scripts for the Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz-led series. While it's not a firm renewal yet for Bones , the script order does point favorably towards FOX picking up the series, which has improved the network's Thursday night timeslot by 43 percent since the series relocated there in January and has bested ABC's Ugly Betty and NBC's My Name is Earl . ( TV Week ) Some bad news for Veronica Mars fans: don't hold your breath waiting for the feature film spin-off of the much missed sleuthing series. Creator Rob Thomas told The New York Post that a greenlight isn't looking likely, though he'll "drop whatever" he's doing in order to make it happen should it materialize. "While the pitch [to producer Joel Silver] went well and I don't think the movie's dead, right now it's looking depressing," s

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Freddie Prinze Jr. ( Freddie ) has been cast as one of the leads in ABC's US remake of UK comedy series No Heroics . In the ABC Studios-produced pilot, Prinze will play Bradley (a.k.a. Ultimatum), a cocky celebrity superhero with no shortage of women, arrogance, or grade-school quips. He joins the already cast Paul Campbell, Eliza Coupe, and Arielle Kebbel. ( Hollywood Reporter ) Just days after announcing that Samantha Who? star Jennifer Esposito had been cast in USA's Burn Notice , the actress has dropped out of the role. No reason was given for Esposito's departure from the series, where she was to have played Miami police detective Michelle Paxon, a new adversary for Jeffrey Donovan's Michael Weston. Stepping in to replace Esposito: Moon Bloodgood ( Journeyman ), who will assume the role of Michelle. Production on Burn Notice 's third season is currently underway. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files

Now the story of a wealthy family who lost everything and the one actor who had no choice but to keep them all together. It's Arrested Development . Yep, Michael Cera has finally signed on to the big screen version of Arrested Development , according to E! Online's Watch with Kristin , and will reprise his role as George Michael Bluth. (Not to be confused with the singer-songwriter.) E! Online is reporting that cast holdout Cera will join Jason Bateman, Portia de Rossi, Will Arnett, Tony Hale, Jessica Walter, Jeffrey Tambor, and David Cross in the feature version of Arrested Development , which is reportedly going to be written by series creator Mitch Hurwitz and directed by Ron Howard. Looking for details about a potential storyline for the Arrested film? You're sadly out of luck. Hurwitz, Howard, and the cast are said to be extremely tight-lipped about any plot points for the feature film, which will be produced by Fox Searchlight and may be filmed as early as this year

I am really, really disheartened by the recent news that Universal is developing a feature film version of Battlestar Galactica . What's that you say? Shouldn't I be chuffed that Battlestar Galactica is heading to the big screen? Well, I would be if the version of BSG that was being developed as a feature was the current Sci Fi drama (which wraps its final season next month), executive produced by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, rather than the original, less dark 1970s version created by Glen A. Larson ( Magnum, P.I. ). (You know, the one in which Starbuck was a, well, man.) And yet that's just what Universal is doing. According to the Hollywood Reporter , Universal has "quietly entered into negotiations with Glen A. Larson to write and produce a big-screen version of the property he created." The original Battlestar Galactica series shares a similar premise with the current series: the human race, existing in a settlement of Twelve Colonies, is all but wiped

Universal has reportedly pay $42.5 million to win the heated bidding war for worldwide rights to Bruno , Sacha Baron Cohen's follow-up to Borat , which opens Friday. According to reports, Universal's price (which could have bought the entirety of Staines, Ali G's hometown) managed to edge out competition from other interested studios including Dreamworks, Sony, Warner Bros., and 20th Century Fox, and will cover the film's estimated budget, said to be in the range of $20-25 million. For those of you not familiar with Bruno , he's another character played by the uber-talented Sacha Baron Cohen ( Da Ali G Show ): a flamboyant Austrian fashionista/reporter who jet sets between the runway shows of New York (watch out, Tim Gunn), the nightclubs of Miami (that goes for you too, Uli) and, um, the American Deep South, usually annoying the hell out of anyone he meets and managing to nearly get himself killed. The film, like its predecessor Borat , will showcase the Bruno char