TNT Greenlights Series from NBA Legend and Provocateur Charles Barkley
Network also Orders Pilot for Rod Lurie Drama Monsters of God
And Commissions Fourth Season of the Epic Drama The Last Ship
Premiere Dates for New Drama Good Behavior
And Season Three of the Fantasy Hit The Librarians Announced
TNT, a division of Turner, has given the greenlight to a provocative new series with NBA legend and Inside the NBA analyst Charles Barkley. Slated to premiere in early 2017, The Race Card (working title) will follow Barkley as he goes on a personal journey to explore and understand why our country is so divided right now. TNT has also ordered a pilot for Rod Lurie‘s post-Civil War drama Monsters of God, from Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment. And the hit action-adventure series The Last Ship will be back for a fourth season next summer.
TNT is in the midst of evolving its original programming slate, starting this past June with the premiere of the critically acclaimed hit Animal Kingdom. The evolution will continue later this year with Good Behavior, starring Downton Abbey‘s Michelle Dockery in a no-holds-barred performance as a complicated woman trying to regain her life. Good Behavior is slated to premiere Tuesday, Nov. 15, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT)
In addition to Good Behavior, TNT’s fall slate will include the third season of the hit fantasy drama The Librarians, starring Rebecca Romijn, Christian Kane, Lindy Booth, John Kim, John Larroquette and Noah Wyle. The Librarians season three is set to premiere Sunday, Nov. 20, at 8 p.m. (ET/PT).
Monsters of God joins two other pilots in the works at TNT: Civil, starring Bradley Whitford (The West Wing), Toby Jones (Captain America: Winter Soldier), Courtney B. Vance (The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story), Enrique Murciano (Bloodline), as well as guest stars Eliza Coupe (Quantico) and Brian D’Arcy James (Spotlight) in a gripping political and social drama that finds America on the brink of a modern day Civil War, and Claws, starring Niecy Nash (Getting On), Harold Perrineau (Lost) and Jenn Lyon (Justified) in a wickedly funny dramedy set in a Florida nail salon.
“We’re creating premium shows that are also unapologetically entertaining, whether it’s through the tenuous and unexpected relationship in Good Behavior, the hard-hitting action of The Last Ship, or Monsters of God, our version of a western chock-full of violence, sex and insane characters,” said Sarah Aubrey, executive vice president of original programming for TNT.
“When it comes to unscripted programming, we’re going to venture into new territory with unique subjects and formats not found anywhere else,” said Michael Bloom, TNT and TBS’s newly appointed senior vice president of unscripted series & specials. “With his enormous popularity and outspoken, sometimes controversial views, Charles is the perfect choice to kick off this new strategy.”
Below are the complete details for today’s TNT news about The Race Card greenlight, Monsters of God pilot and The Last Ship renewal.
TNT Greenlights The Race Card
NBA legend and Inside the NBA analyst Charles Barkley has had enough. The America that he knew has lost its way, becoming mired in partisan politics, social divides and entrenched corporate interests. Now he hopes to get to the root of the problem in the new limited-run series The Race Card. TNT has ordered six hour-long episodes of the show, with plans to launch in early 2017.
In The Race Card, Charles Barkley wants to bust up the echo chamber mentality that so often has people retreating to corners of the like-minded, where views are reinforced and ideas are distorted into angry, unexamined groupthink conclusions. Each week, Barkley will take on the rapidly calcifying positions around today’s hot-button topics. He will seek out the sharpest and most varied viewpoints from today’s cultural leaders and tastemakers. He will then challenge and probe those ideas, even trying them out on himself.
No idea presented on The Race Card will be left in the abstract. Barkley will put ideas on their feet, with real-world proof-of-concept tests that will engage people and expose the truth behind their closely held beliefs. In the end, Barkley will reach his own conclusions guided only by his own wits and common-sense wisdom.
“We as Americans never discuss the issue of race in this country and how it impacts everything in our lives until something bad happens,” Barkley said. “I see this project as a way to talk about race, class and cultural differences and challenge everyone’s status quo.”
The Race Card is a Studio T production in association with DocShop Inc. and Kin Studios. Studio T is Turner’s in-house studio which produces and owns original content airing on TNT and TBS. Serving as executive producers on The Race Card are Charles Barkley, Lee Gaither, Marc Perman and Emmy® winner Dan Partland (Intervention), who oversaw the acclaimed documentary series The Sixties for TNT’s sister network CNN.
TNT Orders Monsters of God Pilot
TNT has greenlit a pilot for Monsters of God, a post-Civil War drama from Rod Lurie (The Contender) and Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment for Turner’s Studio T. Lurie wrote the script and serves as executive producer and director on the pilot. Also serving as executive producer is Lurie’s partner at Battle Plan Productions, Marc Frydman, and Plan B’s DeDe Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Sarah Esberg.
In Monsters of God, savagery and violence are the cornerstones of Colonel “Terrible” Bill Lancaster’s holy war against the Comanche in post-Civil War Texas. Despite the peaceful co-existence between the Comanche and local townspeople, Lancaster sets out on a quest to kill off every single member of the tribe, bringing wild chaos to the town of Slater. Meanwhile, his wife, Cynthia Lancaster, will let no one get in the way of her obsessive quest to institute her wildly feminist ideals, even if she has to challenge the United States Army and make her own allegiance with the Comanche women. Whether by force or free will, change is coming to Texas, and the escalating insanity will reveal humanity at its most monstrous.
A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Lurie served as an artillery officer in the U.S. Army before moving into the entertainment industry first as a reporter, then as a writer and director. While serving in the Army, Lurie spent a great deal of time and energy studying the Comanche Wars, which serve as the historical backdrop for Monsters of God.
TNT’s The Last Ship Gets S4 Renewal
TNT has ordered 13 episodes for a fourth season of The Last Ship to air next summer. Eric Dane, Adam Baldwin and Bridget Regan star in the series’ third season, along with Charles Parnell, Travis Van Winkle, Marissa Neitling, Christina Elmore, Jocko Sims, Bren Foster and Kevin Michael Martin.
Based on William Brinkley’s popular novel, The Last Ship chronicles a global catastrophe that nearly decimates the world’s population. Because of its positioning, the Navy destroyer U.S.S. Nathan James avoided falling victim to the devastating tragedy. But now, CO Captain Tom Chandler (Dane) and his crew must confront the reality of their new existence in a world where they may be among the few remaining survivors.
In its third season, The Last Ship is reaching an average of 7.6 million viewers per episode across all platforms. New episodes premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. (ET/PT) on TNT. Fans can catch up on episodes from the first half of season three through TNT On Demand and the TNT website and mobile app. Past seasons are currently available on Blu-Ray and DVD, as well as on Hulu.
The third season of The Last Ship is a production of Turner’s Studio T in association with Platinum Dunes, whose partners – blockbuster filmmaker Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form – serve as executive producers. Co-creators and showrunners Hank Steinberg and Steven Kane also serve as executive producers, along with directors Paul Holahan and Michael Katleman.
About TNT
TNT, one of cable’s most watched networks, features a packed slate of original drama series, including the bold new Animal Kingdom, The Last Ship, The Librarians, Murder in the First, Major Crimes, Rizzoli & Isles, and the upcoming Good Behavior, Will, Foreign Bodies, The Alienist and Tales from the Crypt. TNT is also the cable home to popular dramas like Bones, Castle, Charmed, Grimm, Hawaii Five-0 and Supernatural; primetime specials, such as the Screen Actors Guild Awards®, the iHeartRadio Music Awards and the Live Nation Music Awards; and championship sports coverage, including the NBA and the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. TNT is available across multiple platforms in more than 92 million households.
TNT is a division of Turner, a Time Warner company. Turner creates and programs branded news, entertainment, sports, animation and young adult multi-platform content for consumers around the world. Turner brands and businesses include CNN/U.S., HLN, CNN International and CNN.com, TBS, TNT, TCM, truTV, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Adult Swim, Turner Sports, Bleacher Report, iStreamPlanet and ELEAGUE.
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