Actress Katherine LaNasa from the TV series Imposters and Satisfaction has joined the cast of Apple thriller series Are You Sleeping?, about a Serial-style crime podcast which reopens a murder case.
Interestingly, she will play a new character to replace the one originally played by actress Moon Bloodgood, who left the show after filming four out of the eight season one episodes. According to trade publication Deadline, the character’s role in the show is being completely rewritten.
Apple signed its Are You Sleeping? drama series at the end of 2017. It stars Oscar-winning Octavia Spencer from The Help, and is being adapted from a novel by Kathleen Barber. It is being written by Nichelle Tramble Spellman, best known for The Good Wife and Justified. She will also be showrunner.
Other actors in the show include Breaking Bad‘s Aaron Paul, Elizabeth Perkins, Mekhi Phifer, Michael Beach, Tracie Thoms, Haneefah Wood, and Ron Cephas Jones.
While recasting an actor midway through production isn’t unheard of, this news is certainly interesting — and suggests that this isn’t a wholly smooth production.
Apple has already had several examples of teething problems with its original shows. For instance, one showrunner left another series, supposedly over a clash with Apple over the type of humor in their show. The showrunner behind the Steven Spielberg-produced Amazing Stories reboot was also ditched. His vision for the series was allegedly “too dark” for Apple’s tastes.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Tim Cook stepped in when Vital Signs, a semi-biographic drama based on Dr. Dre’s life, looked like it was becoming too violent. Vital Signs, in the works since 2016, was one of Apple’s earlier original TV efforts. Apple supposedly wants its original content to be family friendly in nature.
The company has yet to reveal exactly when its shows will debut, or how they will be made available to users. Do you think Apple will be able to compete with the likes of Netflix when it comes to original content? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: Deadline
