Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls) will star in a multi-episode arc in the upcoming second season of NBC’s Smash. That will make two American Idol alumnae appearing on the show as star Katharine McPhee is also set to return.  Hudson will play Veronica Moore, a Tony Award-winning Broadway star whose presence impacts the lives of Karen (McPhee) and Ivy (Megan Hilty).   Smash, a Television Critics Award nominee for Best New Program, needs to recoup some losses after axing a good portion of the cast earlier this year.  Hudson is certainly a worthwhile addition, even if it’s only for a short time.  Hit the jump for more on Hudson and the second season of Smash.

Though NBC’s musical drama series Smash is coming back for a second season, not all of the regulars from the first season will have a role, and they’re probably not even allowed back for the chorus (musical jokes!). Raza Jaffrey, who played Katharine McPhee‘s fiance in the first season and Jaime Cepero, who played the despicable assistant Ellis, have both been axed from the second season. In addition, Brian D’Arcy James, who played Debra Messing‘s husband Frank and Will Chase, who played the Broadway musical star with whom she cheated, are also not going to return as season regulars. More after the jump.

On the NBC musical drama series Smash, Karen (Katharine McPhee) and Ivy (Megan Hilty) have aligned as frenemies, but their newly formed friendship will soon be put to the test when the Marilyn Monroe musical moves to Boston for its first out-of-town performance in front of a real audience.  While the big lingering question is, “Will Bombshell be a smash?,” Karen and Ivy will be experiencing as much drama off stage as on.

During this recent interview to promote the show, co-stars Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty talked about what they like and don’t like about their characters, whether or not they think Karen and Ivy can maintain their newfound friendship, how long movie star Uma Thurman will be sticking around, how fans respond to the show and their characters, the reaction from the Broadway community, that this season will end on multiple cliffhangers, and how they expect to resume shooting for Season 2 in mid-July.  Check out what they had to say after the jump:

Look out Glee! NBC’s gamble on their more mature, and far superior musical series Smash from producer Steven Spielberg seems to have paid off. The network has just revealed that the Broadway centric drama series has been given an order for a second season as it’s currently NBC’s top drama amongst the all-important 18-49 demographic. With Glee waning in its presentation nearly every single episode, I’ve found myself absolutely enthralled with this new series, currently focusing on the development of a Marilyn Monroe based musical and a great competition between Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty for stardom.

While the cover songs in the series may not be as fun or catchy as those on Glee, it’s the original songs from the musical in progress that really keep my attention. Frankly, I couldn’t be more excited to hear that NBC is sticking with the series for at least one more season and I can’t wait to see where it goes. Now if we could only get some more attention to NBC’s other mind-blowing drama Awake, then I’d be the happiest viewer in all the land. Hit the jump for the full press release.

NBC is looking to siphon off the success of FOX’s hit, Glee, by including some famous guest stars in their new musical drama, Smash. Having recently released a promising trailer, the series from executive producer Steven Spielberg will follow Karen Cartwright (Katharine McPhee) along her journey from Iowa to Broadway. Though the show already supports a strong cast in Debra Messing, Christian Borle and Anjelica Huston, Smash is going to need some star power: that’s where Uma Thurman comes in. Thurman will be featured in a five-episode arc as a famous, but pretentious, movie star who competes for the starring role in “Marilyn,” the featured musical of Smash’s plot. Hit the jump for the press release.

Yes that headline is meant to be literal as series star Katharine McPhee belts out a cover of Christina Aguilera’s hit song Beautiful, but honestly, the trailer for Smash is actually quite a solid presentation of a show that looks like it’s going to be much more than Glee for adults. From executive producer Steven Spielberg, the series follows Karen Cartwright (McPhee), a young girl from Iowa with a dream of making it on Broadway. While a veteran of the stage seems like an obvious choice to take the lead role in a new musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe, a songwriting team (Debra Messing and Christian Borle) and their tenacious producer (Anjelica Huston) just might see something in Cartwright and kick off a new chapter in all of their lives. Watch the music video style trailer for Smash after the jump.

The first trailer for Shark Night 3D has gone online.  It looks just as cheesy as you’d expect and it looks ultra-faithful to horror movie tropes in that the black guy clearly dies first.  Now the issue with a movie about sharks attacking hapless teens at a lake house is that the obvious solution is to simply not go back in the water after the first shark attack.  But it looks like the teens are being forced back in the lake (that’s right, someone transplanted sharks into a lake) as a Hostel-like torture game.  And now that we’ve sent torture porn underwater, hopefully we can shoot it into space.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  Shark Night 3D opens September 2nd.

After last night’s huge influx of news from Fox about series pick-ups, renewals and cancellations, it’s now NBC’s turn to announce some of their new series that we can look forward to in the fall. As of now there seems to be some dissension amongst the news outlets online as to whether or not Wonder Woman will actually get picked up, and other potential series like The Playboy Club are rumored for a pick-up but we haven’t heard anything official yet.

After the jump, check out the four new series that have definitely been picked up to premiere sometime this fall including a new sitcom from stand-up comedian Whitney Cummings, another comedy from Christina Applegate, a Broadway musical series from producer Steven Spielberg, and the stateside remake of the British crime drama Prime Suspect.

Relativity Media has just obtained the rights to child-actor turned stuntman turned director David R. Ellis’ new untitled 3D shark thriller. THR is reporting that Relativity Media is planning a wide release for the shark thriller which should hit theaters sometime next year. The movie, which is being produced by Sierra Pictures and Incentive Filmed Entertainment, has a large cast including Sara Paxton, Dustin Milligan, Katharine McPhee, Chris Carmack, Alyssa Diaz, Joel David Moore, Donal Logue, Sinqua Walls and Chris Zylka. The plot has seven college friends spending the weekend at a lake house on the Louisiana gulf where they find out that theres much more than shrimp in these waters.

The screenplay was penned by first timer film writers Jesse Studenberg and Will Hayes and is being produced by Chris Briggs and Mike Fleiss under their NextFilms banner and Lynette Howell of Silverwood Films. Ellis’ previous films include the underwhelming The Final Destination and Cellular. The film is already in post production so expect an official release date soon.