Gray interviews Kristin Kreuk on the set of Chuck.

The CW Picks Up 2 Series From Josh Schwartz, BEAUTY & THE BEAST with Kristin Kreuk

The CW announced several pilot pick ups today, three of which have Chuck connections: Cult and The Carrie Diaries are both from Chuck co-creator Josh Schwartz and Beauty & the Beast stars Kristin Kreuk as the Beauty. Here are the official descriptions of each show:

THE CARRIE DIARIES
It’s 1984, and life isn’t easy for 16-year-old Carrie Bradshaw. Since their mother passed away, Carrie’s younger sister Dorritt is more rebellious than ever, and their father Tom is overwhelmed with the responsibility of suddenly having to care for two teenage girls on his own. Carrie’s friends – sweet, geeky Mouse, sarcastic and self-assured Maggie and sensitive Walt – make life bearable, but a suburban life in Connecticut isn’t doing much to take her mind off her troubles. And even though the arrival of  a sexy new transfer student named Sebastian brings some excitement to Carrie’s world, she is struggling to move on from her grief. So when Tom offers Carrie the chance to intern at a law firm in Manhattan, she leaps at the chance. Carrie’s eyes are opened wide at the glamour and grit of New York City – and when she meets Larissa, the style editor for Interview magazine, she’s inspired by the club culture and unique individuals that make up Larissa’s world. Carrie’s friends and family may have a big place in her heart, but she’s fallen in love for the first time with the most important man in her life – Manhattan.

The series stars AnnaSophia Robb (“Soul Surfer”) as Carrie Bradshaw, Austin Butler (“Switched at Birth,” “Life Unexpected”) as Sebastian Kydd, Ellen Wong (“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” “Combat Hospital”) as Mouse; Katie Findlay (“The Killing,” “SGU Stargate Universe”) as Maggie Landers, Stefania Owen (“Running Wilde,” “The Lovely Bones”) as Dorrit Bradshaw, Brendan Dooling (“An Elf’s Story: The Elf on the Shelf”) as Walt Reynolds, Chloe Bridges (“90210”) as Donna LaDonna, Freema Agyeman (“Doctor Who,” “Law & Order: UK”) as Larissa Loughton and Matt Letscher (“Brothers & Sisters,” “Entourage”) as Tom Bradshaw.

Based on the novels “The Carrie Diaries” and “Summer and the City” by Candace Bushnell, THE CARRIE DIARIES is from Fake Empire in association with Warner Bros. Television, with executive producers Amy B. Harris (“Sex and the City,” “Gossip Girl”), Josh Schwartz (“Hart of Dixie,” “Gossip Girl”), Stephanie Savage (“Hart of Dixie,” “Gossip Girl”), Len Goldstein (“Hart of Dixie”) and Candace Bushnell. Miguel Arteta (“Englightened,” “Cedar Rapids”) directed the pilot, which was written by Harris.

CULT
Investigative journalist Jeff Sefton has learned to laugh off his brother Nate’s relentless string of obsessions, especially his latest rant that a hit TV show intends to harm him. However, when his brother mysteriously disappears, Jeff takes Nate’s paranoia seriously, and in the process uncovers the dark underworld of the TV show “Cult” and its rabid fans. The only person who seems willing to help Jeff with his investigation is Skye, a young research assistant for “Cult,” who has also started to grow suspicious of the increasingly dark happenings surrounding the show. The fictitious show, centered on the cat-and-mouse game between charismatic cult leader Billy Grimm and LAPD detective Kelly Collins, has become an obsession for its viewers – and now some of its devotees seem to be taking their fixation to deadly extremes in the real world. As Jeff and Skye dig deeper into the fan world, they discover that the gruesome plot twists on television are much more than fantasy for some very unfortunate people. The hardcore fans of “Cult” would kill to see what happens next…
The series stars Matt Davis (“The Vampire Diaries”) as Jeff Sefton, Jessica Lucas (“Melrose Place,” “Cloverfield”) as Skye Yarrow, Alona Tal (“Supernatural,” “The Killing”) as Kelly Collins and Robert Knepper (“Prison Break,” “Shameless”) as Billy Grimm.

CULT is from Fake Empire and Rockne S. O’Bannon Television in association with Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios, with executive producers Rockne S. O’Bannon (“Farscape,” “V”), Josh Schwartz (“Chuck,” “Gossip Girl”), Stephanie Savage (“Hart of Dixie,” “Gossip Girl”), Len Goldstein (“Hart of Dixie”) and Jason Ensler (“Franklin & Bash,” “Hart of Dixie”). The pilot  was directed by Jason Ensler and written by Rockne S. O’Bannon.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
Detective Catherine Chandler is a smart, no-nonsense homicide detective. When she was a teenager, Catherine witnessed the murder of her mother at the hands of two gunmen. Catherine would have been killed too, but someone – or something – saved her. No one has ever believed her, but she knows it wasn’t an animal that attacked the assassins…it was human. Years have passed, and Catherine is a strong, confident, capable police officer, working alongside her equally talented partner, Tess. While investigating a murder, Catherine discovers a clue that leads her to a handsome doctor named Vincent Keller, who was reportedly killed by enemy fire while serving in Afghanistan in 2002. Catherine learns that Vincent is actually still alive and that it was he who saved her many years before. For mysterious reasons that have forced him to live outside of traditional society, Vincent has been in hiding for the past 10 years to guard his secret – when he is enraged, he becomes a terrifying beast, unable to control his super-strength and heightened senses. Catherine agrees to protect his identity in return for any insight he may have into her mother’s murder. Thus begins a complex relationship between Catherine and Vincent, who are powerfully drawn to each other yet understand that their connection is extremely dangerous for both of them.

The series stars Kristin Kreuk (“Smallville,” “Chuck”) as Catherine, Jay Ryan (“Terra Nova”) as Vincent, Max Brown (“The Tudors,” “MI-5”) as Evan, Nina Lisandrello (“Nurse Jackie”) as Tess, Nicole Gale Anderson (“Make It or Break It”) as Heather, Austin Basis (“Life Unexpected”) as J.T., and Brian White (“The Shield,” “The Cabin in the Woods”) as Joe.

Note: I know some of you still have hard feelings towards Schwartz about how Chuck ended. You still have to abide by the comment guidelines, though, which means no flaming, trolling, or personal attacks of any kind. Thanks and have a nice day.

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13 comments

  1. I have no hard feelings toward Schwartz. Yes I would have liked a different ending for “Chuck”, but hey, the guy gave me five years of “Chuck” so thanks for that. Either past fan reaction is going to prove instructional for Schwartz and he will go on to make shows that his fans like, or he is going to make a habit of teasing and tormenting his fans, to his ultimate detriment. It will be interesting to see which path he takes.

    • Doctor Bob- Just got around to reading your comment which was extremely well put. Could not agree more. Loved the “..teasing and tormenting…” comment. I could go on forever but I will spare you all.

  2. Super excited to see Kristin Kreuk back on TV again. 😀

  3. Good for JS. He’s creative and thinks out of the box. CULT premise sounds interesting, and I know just the guy who could write the musical score for something like that! Does the name Tim Jones ring a bell? Are you listening Mr. Schwartz?

  4. I too don’t have any hard feelings toward Schwartz but I have to admit that Chuck is the only show he’s been involved in that I’ve enjoyed and that ended very badly for me. I’ll be giving his future projects a miss, the show descriptions don’t sound promising to me at all. Thanks for the post though Mel.

  5. I thought the Chuck finale left us wanting more and keeps the Chuck story alive.

    • It does for us, so much so we bought CDs and blue rays of the whole series so that we can do the weekend re-watch or re-watch a particular episode.

  6. It appears that Beauty and the Beast is a direct reboot of the previous TV series which starred Linda Hamilton so there is another CHUCK connection. I remember watching the original TV series and the outline sounds identical the characters have the same names. I enjoyed the original, but I suspect that was because even then Linda Hamilton was fun to watch. I might give this a try.

    As far as TPTB. I suspect that Chris Fedak was a much bigger part of CHUCK than Josh, so if there were hard feelings, I’d think that Chris would be on the hook.

  7. ThereIsAnother

    Not sure if anyone noticed, but one of the characters on the Beauty and the Beast show is Heather Chandler. Also, remember who played Beauty in the TV show back in the 80’s.

    I know, reaching but still.

    • Move over Kevin Bacon, the new game is 6 degrees of Chuck.

      It is funny, but now whenever I see an actor/actress on TV that was on Chuck, I remember them from their Chuck character.

      Like a few weeks ago they had the matrix on one of the channels here in Canada – and I said to myself – Hey Gertrude Verbanski is in this movie.

      It also works for music – whenever I here a song from the show on the radio or in another TV show I think of the wonderful Chuck episode it came from.

  8. I personally loved the finale and I don’t understand why any fans will say bad things about Josh or Chris if they didn’t like the finale.

    • I loved the finale too, but I can understand why a lot of fans didn’t.

      However, even when Chuck was at its lowest points for me – (Mask, Fake Name and Morgansect) I didn’t hate Fedak or Schwartz. I may not have cared for the choices they made in those episodes and I definitely was vocal with my opinions, but I didn’t hate TPTB.

      After all if it wasn’t for them, there would have been no Chuck and out of 91 episodes I can count all the episodes I didn’t like on 1 hand. That’s some pretty talented writing.

  9. The Cult might be interesting, and I will probably give the Beauty and the Beast a try just because its Kristin, but I doubt it will be interesting to me. I didn’t care for the earlier version with Linda Hamilton.

    Josh also has “Hart of Dixie” on CW as well doesn’t he?