Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Ray Donovan Back for Fifth Season, But Not So Fast as Liev Schreiber Heads to Broadway

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Good news and bad news for “Ray Donovan” fans (I count myself among them). Showtime has renewed the Liev Schreiber series for a fifth season. That’s the good news. The bad news: not so fast.

Schreiber is booked on Broadway from October through the end of January in “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” with the great Janet McTeer. This will be a huge success and a wall to wall sell out ticket wise. If it is, then an extension would be in order.

Second, Schreiber had a tough negotiation, I’m told. “He wanted the show to move to New York,” a source told me. Schreiber and wife Naomi Watts are based in New York. “Ray Donovan” is set in L.A. To move it would be impossible, although some interior shooting could be done here.

In the end, I’m told, Showtime will compensate Schreiber nicely to come back west when “Liaisons” is over. But “Ray Donovan” probably can’t air until at least a year from now.

Some people who watch the Showtime show may not know it, but Schreiber is a great theater actor. So New Yorkers are going to be proprietary about keeping him here. Maybe Ray and his gang can move to Manhattan. We always need a new fixer!

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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