Jay Karnes, who plays Detective Holland “Dutch” Wagenbach on FX’s The Shield, will appear in at least six episodes of FX’s upcoming drama Sons of Anarchy, which revolves around a motorcycle club. Drea de Matteo, who is in the show’s pilot, is set to appear in two more episodes.
FX announced on Tuesday that Academy Award-winning actress Marcia Gay Harden will be joining the Glenn Close legal drama Damages as a second-season series regular. She will play a high-powered attorney who goes up against Glenn Close’s attorney character. Ted Danson will return to the show for several episodes, though it’s unclear whether his character survived a shooting in the first-season finale or will appear in flashbacks.
FX has ordered 19 additional episodes beyond the current 22-episode season that will mark the plastic surgery drama’s final season. The show will end its run with a total of 100 episodes in early 2011, with creator/executive producer Ryan Murphy signed on through the last episode. Nip/Tuck has already aired 14 episodes of its current fifth season; the remaining eight are set to premiere in January.
Mario Van Peebles will return to the lineup of FX’s Glenn Close legal drama Damages in a recurring role. The actor/filmmaker will appear in six episodes of the show, reprising last year’s guest-starring role as Agent Harrison. His acting duties stem from his stint as a director on a couple of episodes last season. Van Peebles also is set as a director on FX’s new drama series Sons of Anarchy, which revolves around a notorious outlaw motorcycle club’s efforts to protect their town from drug dealers and local corporate developers.
Timothy Olyphant has joined FX’s legal drama series Damages says The Hollywood Reporter. On Season 2 of Damages, Olyphant, repped by CAA and Brillstein Entertainment, will play a man who becomes entangled in the life of Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) as she deals with her boss, Patty Hewes (Glenn Close), when the firm takes a new client (William Hurt).
FX has acquired rights to the Adam Sandler feature film You Don’t Mess With the Zohan from Sony says The Hollywood Reporter. The network will pay about 12% of total domestic boxoffice for the film, which had earned $84 million through the weekend after 2 1/2 weeks in release. The movie opened June 6 with $38.5 million. FX’s rights to the movie will kick in in late 2010, and Sony has retained the right to carve out a broadcast window within the network’s four-year license term.
William Hurt is joining his Big Chill co-star Glenn Close for the second season of FX’s legal drama series Damages, Hurt has signed on for a season-long arc as a new client of attorney Patty Hewes (Close), with whom he has been involved professionally as well as personally. Damages is scheduled to resume airing in early 2009. The role is Hurt’s first as a series regular. The Oscar winner is currently on the big screen in The Incredible Hulk.
Ron Perlman is set to star in FX’s upcoming series Sons of Anarchy says The Hollywood Reporter. Sons of Anarchy revolves around a notorious outlaw motorcycle club’s efforts to protect their town of Charming, Calif., from drug dealers and local corporate developers. Perlman will play the club’s president and stepfather of the central character, Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam). The role, played by Scott Glenn in the pilot, has been recast after the character was re-imagined as part of the project’s shift in a more darkly comedic direction.
Katee Sackhoff has joined FX’s Nip/Tuck in a recurring role. On the upcoming sixth season of Nip/Tuck, Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) will play Dr. Theodora “Teddy” Lowe, a new doctor who challenges Sean (Dylan Walsh). She will appear in four episodes. Also set to appear in the FX drama is Morgan Fairchild, who will play a movie star in one episode.
FX has placed a 13-episode order for Sons of Anarchy says Variety. The motorcycle drama from Kurt Sutter, executive producer of The Shield, will begin production in June for a series premiere in September. Charlie Hunnam and Katey Sagal star along with Drea de Matteo and Maggie Siff. Sons of Anarchy, formerly titled Forever Sam Crow, centers on a biker club’s hopes of protecting the fictional town of Charming, California, from drug dealers and corporate developers.