the industry

Forest Whitaker to Catch a Criminal Once a Week

Crime Dog: Forest Whitaker is close to locking down the lead role in a CBS spinoff of Criminal Minds. The show will focus on a group of criminal profilers working outside of the FBI apparatus. Rogues! Whitaker will play the group’s charismatic leader and an awesome criminal profiler who has been out of the game for eight years. Unless his technique involves martial arts and pigeons, Whitaker’s prodigious talents are going to be severely underused here. [THR]

Larry the Traveling Guy: As a part of its new strategy to appeal to real America, the History Channel has signed up Larry the Cable Guy for a new show. The United States of Larry will use the travelogue format as Larry travels the U.S. hunting for “folks with interesting jobs, hobbies and ways of life.” If they’re lucky, he might even show them something interesting: Dan Whitney. [TV Squad]

Recession Cinema: Kyra Sedgwick and Vincent D’Onofrio will star as a married couple in Jay Alaimo’s indie drama Chlorine. The movie is about a family fighting to keep up with the Jonses in their wealthy New England community. The heads of the family care more about appearances than each other, leading the man into a bad real estate deal. Unfortunately, this shouldn’t be too much of a departure for Sedgwick, who knows what it’s like to lose all of her money. [THR]

Young Love: CBS picked up Josh Schwartz and Matt Miller’s pilot Hitched yesterday. The show revolves around young newlyweds who are still learning about each other with the help of family and friends. Back in our day, that’s what dating was for. [THR]

Oil Man: Marc Webb is a busy man. Now that he’s locked in to direct the next Spider-Man flick, the director has signed on to helm Fox’s pilot Midland. Written by Kyle Killen, the man behind The Beaver, Midland focuses on an oil man who’s also a polygamist. Does this mean polygamy dramas are becoming the new crime procedural? Probably not. [THR]

Forest Whitaker to Catch a Criminal Once a Week