Nellie Andreeva

Thandie Newton RogueEXCLUSIVE: After venturing into original scripted series with the pickups of two acclaimed dramas that had faced cancellation, Friday Night Lights and Damages, DirecTV is moving onto launching its own original drama series. I’ve learned that the satcaster has picked up Rogue, a 10-episode drama produced by Entertainment One. Thandie Newton is in talks to star in the project, written by British writer-director Matthew Parkhill (The Caller). It centers on an undercover cop (Newton) who takes on a gangster after her young son is killed in a drive-by shooting. The project was developed at Momentum Entertainment by head of scripted Nick Hamm who will serve as an executive producer. This would mark the first series regular role for Newton, who has been heavily pursued for pilots and series over the last few years, including this season. Her only previous series gig was an arc on ER. Newton, most recently seen in Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds, is with WME, which also reps Parkhill, and Untitled. DirecTV is the latest non-traditional TV distributor to order scripted original series. Netflix has already greenlighted three, David Fincher’s House Of Cards starring Kevin Spacey, Eli Roth’s Hemlock Grove starring Famke Janssen and Jenji Kohan’s Orange Is The New Black. Hulu has comedy series Battleground, while Crackle has ordered anthology series Unknown.

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