Kristen Bell Joins Don Cheadle For Showtime’s ‘House of Lies’

Kristen Bell made a name for herself playing the smart-as-a-whip teen detective in the cult TV show Veronica Mars and is returning to television to portray another piercingly intelligent gal in Showtime’s new series, House of Lies.

Bell will star opposite Don Cheadle in the darkly satirical show, which is based off a novel by Martin Kihn titled House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Tell You the Time, and was scripted by Matthew Carnahan (Dirt).

House of Lies revolves around Marty (Cheadle), a very successful, cutthroat management consultant who’s willing to use any means necessary to satisfy a client’s demands. Life isn’t exactly peachy keen for the self-hating Marty, whose mentally unstable, pill-popping ex-wife Monica (Heroes alumna Dawn Olivieri) runs the only consulting firm that’s more accomplished than his, and who has to care for his young son (Donis Leonard Jr.) while keeping his psychoanalyst father (Glynn Turman) off his back.

Cheadle will be joined by Bell, who’s set to play Jeannie Van Der Hooven – a character that Deadline describes as “a razor-sharp, Ivy-League graduate” who’s hired on to work at Marty’s firm. It’s an appropriate part for Bell – an actress who’s made a career portraying dedicated career gals, even in generic rom-com fare like When in Rome – and Cheadle is one of those versatile character actors who can switch between a no-nonsense personality and comical disposition with ease. That alone bodes quite well for House of Lies.

Office politics and business ethics generally make for engaging subject matter and timeliness is also on the show’s side as well, since entertainment that pokes fun at and examines the illicit dealing that goes on behind closed doors at high-profile firms is as popular as ever. Given that House of Lies is being made by Showtime, expect it to be rather subversive and biting in tone – more along the lines of Californication (which House of Lies pilot director Stephen Hopkins worked on, appropriately enough) than anything else.

David Duchovny in 'Californication'.

House of Lies will begin production this month in Los Angeles and will likely reach the small screen in either the second half of 2011 or early 2012.

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Source: Deadline

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Principal Casting for Showtime’s ‘Homeland’ Now Complete

The piecemeal process of casting the principals in Showtime’s new series Homeland is now complete.

On Monday, actor Diego Klattenhoff (Mercy, Men in Trees) became the latest confirmed talent to join the series, which has been among the most talked-about pilot projects of any premium cable network in recent months.

According to a report Monday in The Hollywood Reporter, Klattenhoff has been tapped to play Mike Faber, a Marine colonel and the best friend of Scott Brody, who will be played by Damian Lewis, a British actor best known in the U.S. for his work on NBC’s drama Life and HBO’s Emmy-winning World War II mini-series Band of Brothers.

Homeland centers around an American POW who returns after years of incarceration in Iraq. Mandy Patinkin, who has been largely missing in action  in the world of television since leaving Criminal Minds on CBS in 2007, will star in Homeland opposite Claire Danes. Patinkin will play a CIA chief who sends an agent (Danes) to investigate the returning soldier (Lewis) – who is under suspicion for terrorist collusion.

“It’s a great psychological study like all the best Showtime shows,” said David Nevins, the president of entertainment at Showtime who is believed to have closely overseen the conceptual development of the project. “But it actually is much more than that in the fact that it’s a psychological thriller with a real ticking clock and real edge-of-your seat elements.”

Since casting news about Homeland began to leak in the first week of December, Showtime’s drama pilot has generated substantial buzz. Sporting an impressive cast and crew of veteran television actors and producers, Homeland has been described as Showtime’s attempt to launch a 24-like crime thriller. Homeland, after all, is being executive produced by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa, formerly of Fox’s hit terrorism drama 24. Ironically, Klattenhoff – the latest talent confirmed for Homeland – even had a small part in the 2009 season of 24.

The series – planted firmly in the “terrorism drama” genre – is scheduled to begin shooting next week in Charlotte, North Carolina. If picked up for a full season, expect Homeland to debut on Showtime in  the fall of 2011.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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