Famous for his role co-starring in Fox’s House M.D. for the last eight seasons, Jesse Spencer will now be on the front line of the Dick Wolf drama, Chicago Fire. The NBC pilot will hopefully set off a dramatic series that follows the professional and personal lives of the firefighters in Chicago’s Firehouse 55. Spencer has been cast as Matthew Casey, a natural leader who was born to be a firefighter. A recent separation from his wife, however, causes friction in his personal life. Hit the jump for more on Chicago Fire as well as recent additions to more upcoming pilots.

Spring hasn’t even started yet, but FX is already making moves to get you ready for a summer of television with new seasons of Wilfred starring Elijah Wood (the season premiere will have a guest star appearance by Robin Williams) and Louie with Louis C.K. In addition, the network has also revealed the premiere dates for their new series like Anger Management, marking the return of Charlie Sheen to a series since his crazy breakdown and departure from Two and a Half Men, and Russell Brand‘s non-scripted series Strangely Uplifting.

All of the series will premiere on Thursday, June 28th. Anger Management kicks off the comedy block at 9/8c with a two-episode premiere (the show’s regular timeslot will be at 9:30/8:30c) followed by the second season premiere of Wilfred at 10/9c. Louie follows with its third season premiere at 10:30/9:30c followed by the debut of Russell Brand’s show Strangely Uplifting at 11/10c, filmed in front of a live audience. This block sounds almost as impressive as NBC’s Thursday night line-up and just might give it a run for its money. However, it all depends on how the two new series pan out. For a full press release with plenty more information on all these series, hit the jump.

Last year, one of my favorite new series was Louis C.K.’s self-titled comedy series Louie on FX. Like a more gritty, depressing and realistic version of Seinfeld, the show follows Louis C.K. as he deals with the trials and tribulations of being divorced, having two kids, dating and more. And throughout each episode are great stand-up bits from the fantastic comedian himself. Well, thankfully the show is returning this summer for its second season and we have a funny promo for the new season featuring Louis C.K. trying to tell us about the upcoming premiere while his onscreen daughters hop around on the couch. It’s just the right amount of comedy and standard Louis C.K. stoicism and mild depression. The new season premieres on FX June 23rd, at 10:30/9:30c, but in the meantime, check out the promo below.

Good news for anyone who has been enjoying the hell out of one of my favorite new comedy series: THR reports that FX has ordered a thirteen-episode second season of Louie, the fantastic gritty and vulgar half-hour comedy series from brilliant comedian Louis CK.  Combine that with the love for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, plus a decent amount of success for The League and the animated series Archer, and FX has certainly been rocking the comedy world on television.

It looks like the network is eager to continue that success with their recent order of a pilot called Alabama, a part-scripted/part-improvised science fiction comedy from Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant, the screenwriters and creators behind Reno 911.  Set a thousand years in the future, the show follows the crew of the space ship USS Alabama as they continue a seven-year mission to maintain interplanetary peace.  At the  Television Critics Association’s press tour, FX execs said, “The show will follow the heart-pounding action as our crew visits hostile planets, meets alien life-forms, and tries to have sex with each other in their tiny, metal bunk beds.”  Seems like Star Trek meets Reno 911, and that sounds just fine to me.

Ricky Gervais has a cult following in America for his work on the British version of The Office. The show didn’t hit cultural saturation stateside (though it is a masterpiece), it did inspire the American version, and Gervais made some in-roads with HBO-released Extras. Cinematically, he made a cameo in Stardust, and they have now given him two films to star in: Ghost Town, a more standardized romantic comedy, and The Invention of Lying, which was more in tune with his comic sensibilities. It also attracted a great deal of talent, which speaks to Gervais’s power in the community. In the film are Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, Louis C.K., Rob Lowe, Jeffery Tambor, Jennifer Garner, and a number of high profile cameos. Unfortunately for Gervais, neither did all that well, but both are fun to watch. The Invention of Lying stars Gervais as the first person to ever figure out lying in world where lying never existed before. My review of The Invention of Lying Blu-ray after the jump.

With Ricky Gervais “The Invention of Lying” set for release October 2nd, we’ve been given some cool stuff to giveaway to help promote the film. If you haven’t seen the clips from the movie, “The Invention Of Lying” stars Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, Louis C.K., Jeffrey Tambor, Fionnula Flanagan and Rob Lowe and it’s loaded with cameos from some of the biggest actors in Hollywood. As you might infer from the title, the film takes place in an alternate reality in which lying-even the concept of a lie-does not exist. But that all changes when Ricky Gervais tells the first one. Anyway, if you’d like some free stuff, hit the jump to see what we’ve got and how you can win:

Opening on October 2nd is the new Ricky Gervais movie “The Invention of Lying”. The film takes place in an alternate reality where lying — even the concept of a lie — does not even exist. Everyone from politicians to advertisers to the man and woman on the street speaks the truth and nothing but the truth with no thought of the consequences. But when a down-on-his-luck loser named Mark (Ricky Gervais) suddenly develops the ability to lie, he finds that dishonesty has its rewards. The film also stars Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, Louis C.K., Jeffrey Tambor, Rob Lowe, Tina Fey, and it also has guest appearances from some of the biggest names in Hollywood. So to help promote the film, we’ve been provided with 6 clips from the movie. They’re after the jump so take a look.

Warner Bros. has released a preview of their upcoming 2009 movies. In the preview, they’ve got updated synopsis’ along with new images from “Whiteout”, “Ninja Assassin”, “The Invention of Lying”, “The Informant!” and a few others. So if you’d like to see the new images and read what’s coming later this year (it’s a lot of great stuff), it’s all after the jump:

There may be bigger comedies on the horizon (“Bruno”, “Funny People”) but Ricky Gervais’ “The Invention of Lying” (formerly known as “This Side of the Truth”) remains high on my radar as it should anyone that is fan of Gervais because while “Ghost Town” was surprisingly good, I feel like this is his big cinematic debut for US audiences.

Yahoo! Movies recently debuted the trailer for the film and it looks very…Gervais.  Based in a world where everyone always tells the truth, Gervais’ character discovers that he can lie.  If there’s only minor flaw that caught me in the trailer, it seems like Gervais’ character is astounded when folks tell him the truth.  Everyone else reacts deadpan and like it’s not a big deal (which makes sense) but Gervais reacts like he does whenever anyone said something stupid to him on “Extras”.  But perhaps these reaction shots are after he’s acquired his “lying” ability.  Check out the trailer after the jump.