TNT is looking to further reshape the television landscape by developing Dean Koontz’s best-selling Frankenstein novels into a series and putting a six-episode series order on L.A. Noir, officially returning Frank Darabont (The Walking Dead) to TV.  James V. Hart (Dracula, Hook) and his son Jake Hart will script the modern-day retelling of the Mary Shelley mythology for the Frankenstein series.  Set in New Orleans, the story centers on a war between Dr. Victor Frankenstein and his monstrous creation, Helios. Each survived a fight in the arctic 200 years ago, but the not-so-good doctor has been busy crafting an army of creatures that answer only to him.  The two sides resume their war with New Orleans caught in the middle. Deadline reports that the elder Hart makes his series writing debut with Frankenstein, making him the most recent feature talent to transition to the small screen.  Hit the jump for more on Frankenstein as well as news on Darabont’s L.A. Noir.

A number of actors have signed on for the family comedy Robot and Frank. Liev Schreiber, Liv Tyler, James Marsden, and Jeremy Strong join previously announced Susan Sarandon and Frank Langella in the Jake Schreier-directed indie. The comedy marks Schreier’s feature directorial debut. The script, by Christopher Ford, is set in the future and centers on an aging curmudgeon (Langella) whose kids (Marsden and Tyler) give him a caretaker robot (voiced by Schreiber), sparking an unlikely friendship with the lonely man. Sarandon plays a librarian who serves as Langella’s only friend.

Hit the jump to read the full press release. The film is currently shooting in New York.

A slew of actors are now in negotiations to join the cast of Steven Spielberg’s long-in-gestation Abraham Lincoln biopic Lincoln. Daniel Day-Lewis is set to star as our nation’s 16^th president, with Sally Field attached to play his wife Mary Todd. Now, the names of those currently in negotiations to join the project are as follows (deep breath): Tommy Lee Jones, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, John Hawkes, James Spader, Hal Holbrook, Tim Blake Nelson, Bruce McGill (Fair Game), Joseph Cross (Milk), David Costabile (Breaking Bad), Byron Jennings (Julie & Julia), Dakin Matthews (True Grit), Boris McGiver (The Wire), Gloria Reuben (ER), Jeremy Strong (The Happening) and David Warshofsky (Taken). Now that’s one hell of a cast.

Jones will play Pennsylvanian Republican congressman Thaddeus Stevens, a strong supporter of abolishing slavery and a man crucial to the legislation that funded the Civil War. Gordon-Levitt is in talks to play Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd. Robert was Abraham’s eldest son and the only one to live past his teenage years. No word on who the other actors will be playing, but one assumes that Lincoln’s cabinet will make up a good deal of the roles. Hit the jump to read the full press release. Lincoln is set to start filming in Virginia this fall, with a 4^th-quarter 2012 release.

The first official trailer for director Galt Niederhoffer’s The Romantics has finally been released.  The film premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and it stars Katie Holmes, Josh Duhamel, Anna Paquin, Elijah Wood, Malin Akerman, Adam Brody, Jeremy Strong, Rebecca Lawrence, Dianna Agron and Candice Bergen.

Since the movie takes place over one night at a seaside wedding with seven close friends getting together for the first time in awhile, some at Sundance compared it to The Big Chill.  I disagreed with that comparison.  However, while The Romantics isn’t a home-run, I enjoyed it more than I expected to, and it’s probably due to Katie Holmes and Josh Duhamel.  That’s because both surprised me with their performances as they really made me believe in their characters and their relationship.  Hit the jump to check out the trailer and I’ve also provided the synopsis.  The Romantics opens in New York and Los Angeles on September 10, and will expand throughout September.