Posted in: CW, TV | Tagged: bleeding cool, cable, cbs, cw, mistresses, Rochelle Aytes, S.W.A.T., streaming, television, the lost boys, tv

"The Lost Boys": Rochelle Aytes Cast as Lead in CW's Retooled Pilot

The CW's The Lost Boys has found Garrett (Branden Cook, Industry) and Levi their on-screen mother, with Rochelle Aytes (Mistresses) joining the Rob Thomas (iZombie)-Heather Mitchell (Scandal)-penned project. With director Marcos Siega (Batwoman, The Vampire Diaries) set to helm, the pilot also stars Lincoln Younes (Grand Hotel), and Ruby Cruz (Castle Rock) in lead roles.

● Cook's Garrett is the older of the two brothers who have moved with their mom to the North Carolina seaside community (think: Michael/Jason Patric).

● Younes' Benjamin is the charismatic leader of the gang of vampires in the town (think: David/Kiefer Sutherland).

● Cruz's Elsie is a local who sparks with the new guy in town, Garrett – but there's more than she's letting on (think: Star/Jami Gertz).

● Aytes' Jackie is the single mother of Garrett and Levi, who've just moved back to the North Carolina seaside town she abandoned more than 20 years ago. Now she's returning to take over her dad's bed and breakfast, and perhaps, rekindle an old high school flame (think: Lucy/Dianne Wiest)

Based on Warner Bros.' 1987 horror film of the same name, The CW's proposed The Lost Boys reboot finds a mother and her "Gen Z" sons moving to the seaside town where she grew up – only to discover there's a sinister reason the local cool kids sleep all day, party all night, never grow up, and never get old. Family bonds are tested as the brothers find themselves on opposite sides of a mythological struggle.

Thomas was first approached about the project ahead of the 2016-2017 development season, though it would end up not going to pilot. The network was interested in redeveloping the project even though Thomas' work on the upcoming Veronica Mars return to Hulu was keeping him busy, so Mitchell's script was ordered to pilot.

While Mitchell's script is still in play, the inital pilot apparently didn't live up to the script's quality and never came together enough for the network's liking.

"This has been a odyssey for me with Lost Boys. I have been trying to get Lost Boys — I was about to say trying to get Lost Boys to see the light of day, and that sounded so embarrassingly punny to me that I will rephrase that sentence. I've been trying to get Lost Boys off the ground for the better part of four years now, first as a movie, then as a pilot that I wrote, and now as a pilot that Heather's written. We just shot a pilot that did not quite work; we plan on shooting another one. Hopefully this fourth attempt of ours will be the charm. Lost Boys deserves to be on TV."

– Rob Thomas

Mitchell is set to executive produce the project, alongside Thomas and Dan Etheridge for Spondoolie and Mike Karz and Bill Bindley for Gulfstream. Spondoolie's Rebecca Franko produces alongside Gulfstream's Juliana Janes.

Deadline Hollywood (exclusive)

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