Author: Rebecca Ford

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Mary Lynn Rajskub

Mary Lynn Rajskub, known for playing Chloe O’Brian on the hit series 24, has joined Starz’s new series The Girlfriend Experience.

Rajskub is joining Riley Keough in the 13-episode half-hour anthology series. It’s inspired by the 2009 Magnolia Pictures film of the same name directed by Steven Soderbergh that centers on women who provide “The Girlfriend Experience,” emotional and sexual relationships at a very high price.

Soderbergh, Philip Fleishman, Gary Marcus and Jeff Cuban serve as executive producers, as do independent filmmakers Lodge Kerrigan and Amy Seimetz, who also write and direct the series.

Rajskub will play Erin, a smart, calculating and persuasive woman who is an attorney in the firm where Christine (Keough) is an intern. Christine ends up juggling two very different lives after a law school friend introduces her to the world of The Girlfriend Experience, which drops her into an ever-broadening web of intrigue and betrayal. 

Rajskub recently reprised her role as Chloe on Fox’s 24: Live Another Day. She is also currently touring doing her stand-up routine and is in production on ABC’s untitled Judah Miller Comedy. She is repped by Innovative Artists, LEG and Myman Greenspan.

Courtesy of Image Comics

In a competitive bidding war, Legendary Television and producer Matt Tolmach have acquired the rights to Greg Rucka and Michael Lark’s dystopian-set comic book series, Lazarus for a scripted TV series. 

First released in October 2013 by Image Comics, Lazarus centers on a futuristic world where 16 wealthy families rule society. Each family has a Lazarus, a genetically engineered, unkillable being, who protects the family. Forever Carlyle is a Lazarus, and the central character in the series. She uses force and deception to keep her family and their interests safe. The popular series examines class structure and explores universal themes like morality and love.

Rucka will write the series pilot episode, along with executive producing with Lark and Tolmach. David Manpearl of Matt Tolmach Productions will work alongside Tolmach, who is known for producing The Amazing Spider-Man franchise at Sony, on the project.

Rucka, a five-time Eisner award-winner, is known for his popular novel series Atticus Kodiak. He served as an executive producer on the movie Whiteout, starring Kate Beckinsale, which is based on his comic book series of the same name. Also, his novel and comic book series Queen & Country is set up at Fox. 

Lark, a New York Times best-selling comic book artist, has received two Eisner Awards, both for his collaborative work with Rucka. His artwork has appeared in comics including Daredevil, Captain America and The Winter Soldier at Marvel and Gotham Central.

Lauren Whitney, who recently joined Legendary as president of scripted television, will oversee the project with Peter Johnson, Legendary’s evp of scripted development.

Angela Cheng Caplan of Cheng Caplan Company, Inc. sold Lazarus on behalf of lit agent David Hale Smith of Inkwell Management. Rucka and Lark are also repped by Stone, Meyer.

Legendary Television, which launched in 2013, has two series in preproduction: a co-production with Universal Cable Productions, Colony, which USA picked up to series, and the two-season order for the Netflix original series, Love, from creators Judd Apatow, Paul Rust and Lesley Arfin. As THR exclusively reported, they are also developing Carnival Row, a project from Guillermo del Toro and Rene Echevarria for Amazon.

Austin Hargrave

Matt Bomer

Matt Bomer, who starred in HBO’s critically acclaimed telefilm The Normal Heart, will return to the premium cable network as the star of biopic Monty Clift.

HBO is developing the film about the A Place in the Sun and From Here to Eternity actor, hiring Love Is Strange writers Ira Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias to rewrite the script by Christopher Lovick.

The story centers on the complicated life of Clift (Bomer), who finds himself deeply involved with a young Elizabeth Taylor following the filming of A Place in the Sun.

Anonymous Content’s Tony Lipp and Alix Madigan, Pier 3 Pictures’ Michael Din and Larry Moss are executive producing. A director has not yet been attached.

Bomer won critical praise for his work in HBO’s The Normal Heart, which chronicles the rise of AIDS in New York. It premiered in May 2015 and won the Emmy for outstanding TV movie. He also is nominated for a People’s Choice Award tonight for favorite TV Cable Actor as well as a Golden Globe award this weekend. His upcoming films include The Nice Guys and Magic Mike XXL. He’s repped by CAA, Anonymous Content and Hansen, Jacobsen.

Love Is Strange, starring John Lithgow and Alfred Molina as a longtime couple forced to separate after losing their home, was released by Sony Pictures Classics last summer. Zacharias and Sachs, who also directed Love Is Strange, previously collaborated on 2012’s Keep the Lights On.