Final Shots: HBO Is Developing A ‘Wag The Dog’ Comedy Series

HBO is developing a brand new Wag The Dog TV series from Oscar winner Barry Levinson titled. Levinson will adapt his 1997 political satire as a half-hour scripted comedy with Robert De Niro attached as executive producer.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the original film centers around a political strategist (De Niro) who hires a Hollywood producer (Dustin Hoffman) to craft a fictional war to draw attention away from the president’s sexual harassment scandal. Writer Rajiv Joseph will pen the script for the series adaptation with Warner Bros. Television and De Niro’s Tribeca Productions set to produce.“In the 21st century with the tools of social media at their hands, nothing is off limits to a small group of operators when it comes to manufacturing reality. Fake news is so yesterday,” said HBO in reference to the series.

In other news…

Paris Jackson has spoken out against Netflix’s controversial new teen drama 13 Reasons Why, accusing the original series of being “an extremely triggering thing to watch.” The model and actress, 19, took to Tumblr to warn away potential viewers from the show, claiming it “was incredibly irresponsibly handled and puts people in very real danger.” [Tumblr]

Kenneth Mitchell has been cast in CBS All Access’ Star Trek: Discovery as Kol, a commanding officer in the Klingon Empire. Also joining the cast are Rekha Sharma as Commander Landry, the security officer of the Starship Discovery; along with Clare McConnell and Damon Runyan as leaders in the Klingon Empire. [Deadline]

K-pop stars BigBang are starring in their own reality-comedy show on YouTube Red, which debuted this Wednesday, April 26. The six-episode series, Run, BigBang Scout!, is the platform’s first Korean-language original series. [Variety]

Google announced on Wednesday that its latest update to the search field on iOS devices will allow users to find TV shows, movies and songs that are currently available on streaming services. Platforms that will populate in the search include iTunes, Hulu, Amazon Video, Google Play, YouTube and Spotify. [Engadget]

Michael is a music and television junkie keen on most things that are not a complete and total bore. You can follow him on Twitter — @Tweetskoor