FX Renews LOUIS, Extends BRANDX WITH RUSSELL BRAND

FX president John Landgraf kicked off the network's executive session at the TCA Summer Press Tour with a slew of announcements, including a fourth season of LOUIS and seven additional episodes of BRANDX WITH Russell Brand.

"Louie," which received three Emmy nominations last week, will return for 13 more episodes. The show's current 13-episode run wraps with a special one-hour finale on Thursday, September 27 starting at 10:00/9:00c. As for "BrandX," look for the series to resume in October alongside the new seasons of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and "The League."

Other highlights:

-- "Episodes three and four and five and six have exceeded the ratings threshold that's required for a back 90 renewal," Landgraf said about its recently launched Charlie Sheen comedy "Anger Management." "We won't make a decision... until all 10 episodes have aired. But the series up to now has given us every indication that it will earn [it]." He added that in the likelihood it gets the pickup, Martin Sheen will join the cast full time as Charlie's father, Martin Goodson.

-- As for "Wilfred," Landgraf indicated that "I'm very optimistic not only about a pickup for next year, which would be season three, but for a series run on FX that lasts many years beyond that. But we have some deal issues to work out before we announce anything official."

-- Scott Ellis has been tapped to direct the pilot for the Denis Leary-produced comedy pilot "Bronx Warrants," about a group of errant warrant detectives in the Bronx assigned to arrest individuals with outstanding warrants. The cast will feature "relative unknowns [but] incredibly funny people" including Robert Kelly, Josh Segarra, Shirley Rumierk and comedian Godfrey. Dean Lorey penned the script.

-- On the drama front, Landgraf hopes to make an decision about the pilot "The Americans" shortly. Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys star as two KGB spies posing as Americans in suburban Washington, D.C. in the early 1980s. "We're very happy with the pilot and quite optimistic about its series prospects."

-- The network has ordered a pilot for "The Bridge," based on the Danish/Swedish series of the same name, which followed a police investigation following the discovery of a dead body on the bridge connecting Denmark and Sweden. Meredith Stiem and Elwood Reid are behind the hour, a co-production of FX Productions and Shine America. Carolyn Bernstein, Lars Blomgren and Jane Featherstone are also among the executive producers.

-- And finally, Landgraf affirmed that its small screen take on "Powers" is still very much alive. "What we ended up doing was hiring Chic Eglee... not only to rewrite the pilot that we shot but to do three more episodes [and] put together a writing staff. I think Brian [Michael Bendis, creator of the comic book] has read those scripts, I haven't seen them yet." Adding, "if we'd like to move forward, yeah, let's go back and reshoot the pilot." Landgraf indicated there's a possibility some of the original cast - most notably Jason Patric as Christian Walker - could return but it's just as likely they'll recast the entire thing.

 

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