Channel Surfing: Westfeldt and Boyd Clock in for "24," Grillo-Marxuach Bound for "Day One," "Doctor Who" Feature in Development, "Buffy," and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

Jennifer Westfeldt (Grey's Anatomy) and John Boyd (The Notorious Bettie Page) have been cast in Day Eight of FOX drama series 24. Westfeldt will recur as journalist Meredith Reed, an ambitious writer who has ties to Middle East leader Arman Hashemi (Anil Kapoor), who arrives in the U.S. on a peacemaking mission. Boyd, meanwhile, will be a series regular and will play CTU analyst Jonah Schwartz. (Hollywood Reporter)

The Middleman creator Javier Grillo-Marxuach has joined the writing staff of NBC's upcoming sci-fi series Day One, where he will serve as writer/co-executive producer. Also joining the writing staff, according to series creator Jesse Alexander (who broke the news via Twitter): Kings' Erik Oleson, and Angela Kang. (io9)

BBC Films has confirmed that a big screen version of Doctor Who is being developed and that development of a script is currently underway. It's unclear whether inbound showrunner Steven Moffat or executive producer Russell T. Davies will write the feature film or if David Tennant or his replacement, Matt Smith, would play the Doctor. (Digital Spy)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has contacted Joss Whedon for a reaction to the news that director/producer Fran Rubel Kuzui is planning a feature film reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Joss' noncommittal reply? "I hope it's cool," wrote Whedon via email. Ahem. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

HBO will launch comedy series Hung, starring Thomas Jane, Jane Adams, and Anne Heche, on June 28th at 10 pm ET/PT, following an episode of True Blood. The first episode of Hung runs a lengthy 45 minutes while the subsequent installments will each run 30 minutes. (Variety)

The Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed has a hysterical cartoon jokingly depicting FOX executives deciding the fate of on-the-bubble sci-fi series Dollhouse and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles at gunpoint. (The Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

BBC America will launch supernatural drama Being Human, about a werewolf, vampire, and ghost who live together, on Saturday, July 25th at 9 pm ET/PT. (Televisionary)

Bravo is developing reality spinoff The Real Housewives of Washington, D.C. and is said to be looking for "personalities who are among Washington, D.C.'s influential players, cultural connoisseurs, fashion sophisticates and philanthropic leaders -- the people who rub elbows with the most prominent people in the country," according to Bravo EVP/general manager Frances Berwick. Series, to be developed by Half Yard Productions, is expected to launch sometime in 2010. (via press release)

Al Pacino will star in an untitled HBO telepic about Dr. Jack Kevorkian. Set in the early 1990s, the film will follow Kevorkian (Pacino) as he creates the first assisted suicide machine and the resulting media frenzy. Project, written by Adam Mazer and based on Harry Wilie and Neal Nicol's biography "Between the Dying and the Dead," will be directed by Barry Levinson. (Variety)

ABC is following through on its plans to merge ABC Entertainment and ABC Studios into a single unit under president Steve McPherson. While the network is said to still be finalizing its "development chain of command," it's widely thought that Suzanne Patmore-Gibbs--who currently serves as EVP of drama development--would be promoted to become McPherson's second-in-command, leaving Channing Dungey to take over as the network's head of drama and Josh Barry to replace Dungey on the studio side. (Hollywood Reporter)

Carol Kane will reprise her Homicide: Life on the Street role as Gwen Munch, the ex-wife of Detective John Munch (Richard Belzer) in the June 2nd season finale of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. The episode will also feature Nick Stahl (Carnivale), who will play Peter Harrison, an artist turned killer who has set his sights on one of the SVU team after he succumbs to mental illness and Kane's Gwen will have to help her ex-husband track him down. (via press release)

RelativityReal, the reality/alternative arm of Relativity Media, has signed a three-year overall deal with Wilmer Valderrama, under which he will create, develop, and executive produce series for both broadcast and cable networks. Valderrama is currently developing a half-hour telenovela Brooklyn Sound at MTV. (Variety)

Stay tuned.