It seems like we’ve heard Lucy Liu more than we’ve seen her on screen recently, with a lot of voiceover work for films such as the two Kung Fu Panda adventures. But she’s also been finding more reliable work by returning to TV, on the likes of cop show Southland. And soon she’ll be putting that law-keeping experience to use, signing on to play Watson to Johnny Lee Miller’s Sherlock in CBS pilot Elementary.
The concept finds the legendary ‘tec re-imagined, with Sherlock (fortunately still a Brit) having finished a round in rehab for addiction issues. He’s now living in Brooklyn with “sober companion” and former surgeon Joan Watson and getting back to his old gig – albeit for the NYPD instead of Scotland Yard. Watson has her own demons, since she lost her medical licence following the death of a patient.
Robert Doherty is the man behind the tweaking and yes, we’re aware that, between this and Sherlock, both of Danny Boyle's Frankenstein stage stars have now played the iconic detective. Whether the show goes forward, of course, will entirely rely on how successfully the pilot works. We're not convinced by the concept just yet, but that might be because Sherlock Holmes in modern times on the telly never, ever succeeds. Ahem. Just kidding, Moffat fans! Stand down, Benedict brigade!
In related small screen news, Cuba Gooding Jr is signing on the dotted line for Marc Guggenheim and Greg Berlanti’s pilot Guilty over at the Fox network.
He’ll star as a brilliant but morally dubious defence attorney (a lawyer on a TV series? New! Fresh! More Sarcasm Here!) who has his legal licence revoked when he’s falsely convicted of fraud. So what does he do? He uses his unusual methods to pursue cases anyway, while also figuring out a way to get revenge on those who done him wrong. He’s a maverick, see? Gooding Jr has cropped up in guest roles on various shows in the past and has one or two TV movies on his credit list. But this will be his first stab at telly leading man status.
McG is directing the pilot, which means it stands a good chance to making it to the screen: he’s got quite the track record for TV shows, including Chuck, Supernatural and Nikita.