The beginning of the year is a busy one for Hollywood as it means that casting will be in full swing for pilot season. Here’s a couple casting news tidbits for pilots that NBC is working on:
‘Beautiful People’
This drama with a sci-fi twist deals in a world where human-like robots called Mechanicals exists to serve humans. A few days ago it was reported that James Murray (‘Chaos’, ‘Primeval’) and Patrick Heusinger (‘Black Swan’, ‘The Nanny Diaries’) have joined the cast. Now it’s been announced that Frances Conroy has just been added to the list of stars appearing in this pilot. You may recognize Conroy as she just finished a stint on ‘American Horror Story’ as the elder version of Moira the housekeeper. This time she will be playing a wealthy widow whose late husband founded the company that makes Mechanicals. Murray will play her son who happens to be an attorney who advocates for the rights of Mechanicals while Heusinger plays a Mechanical that works in their household.
It’ll be interesting to watch Conroy in this role as it seems so opposite to the one that she just played on ‘American Horror Story.’ The wealthy widow description sounds like she will be a prim and proper lady so it will be a little amusing watching that knowing she just finished playing someone with a rather kinky side.
‘Isabel’
Now that the lead role of ‘Isabel‘ has been cast with Sophia Schloss (‘Grimm’), the producers are now focusing on the rest of the family. The role of Karen, the self –involved older teenage sister, has been given to Abigail Mavity (‘Zeke & Luther’, ‘Summerland’) and the young brother named Eric will be played by Skyler Gisondo (‘The Bill Engle Show’, ‘Psych’). Gisondo can also be seen in the upcoming ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ movie as well as ‘The Three Stooges’ where he plays the young version of Moe.
I’m already seeing a cliché here with the “self-involved older teenage sister” description and really hope this is not the case. I do like to keep an open mind to new projects but if the pilot continues to use character descriptions like this one, I’m going to start thinking it will be just another regurgitated sitcom using magic for easy laughs. If it continues on this route, the show may not get past a pilot commitment.
