· The Office's Mindy Kaling has signed a two-year, 7-figure contract with NBC that would keep her writing and performing on that show while developing a new comedy for her to star in. Movieline Twitter Dispatch readers, meanwhile, have already gleaned the inside scoop on this negotiation through a series of 140-character dispatches sent between its various key figures: Kaling has been sleeping with Jay Leno forever, and this was an ironclad stipulation of his return. [THR]
More INK after the jump.
· Everyone gets a Wolverine origin story! Next up, Ryan Reynolds, who plays Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a deadly mercenary who submits to a gene-altering top-secret superweapon and emerges an indestructible badass. Also being developed is Magneto and X-Men: First Class. [Variety]
· Will Ferrell is in talks to star in Neighborhood Watch, about a guy who moves to the suburbs, joins the neighborhood watch, and uncovers a mini-conspiracy embroiling every soccer mom in the area. Fred Claus/Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin would direct. [Variety]
· Rachel Weisz has signed on for indie political drama The Whistleblower, in which she'll play a cop from Nebraska stationed in a peacekeeping job in Bosnia, who discovers a UN cover-up of a sex trafficking scandal. Eventually Weisz blows open the truth about Boutros Boutros-Ghali's addiction to barely legal, mail-order translators. [Variety]
· HBO fantasy pilot Game of Thrones, based on George R.R. Martin's best-selling Songs of Fire and Ice novels, has cast Peter Dinklage in the lead role of Tyrion, brother to the Queen who's discriminated against for his size. The network has also given an order to the New Orleans-set Treme, from The Wire creator David Simon; it's a "post-Katrina-themed drama that chronicles the rebuilding of New Orleans through the eyes of local musicians." [THR, THR]
· CBS is close to ordering pilots for remakes of Let's Make a Deal and The Dating Game, which would replacing the void in their daytime schedule left by departing, paleolithic soap Guiding Light. Perhaps Drew Carey can expand his hosting duties to encompass the troika of classic games shows, adding his own emotionally dead spin to thrilling moments like these. [THR]