Hey All,
Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:
RENEWALS/CANCELLATION
Acorn TV has given the Stephen Moyer-led drama Art Detective a second season renewal. (Deadline)
Disney+ has pulled the plug on Wonder Man after only one season. (Variety)
UPtv has given the family-friendly drama Sugarcreek Amish Mysteries a second season renewal with stars Galadriel Stineman, Denise Gossett, Kevin Joy and Riley Beeson all returning for the new season. (UPtv Press Release)
GREENLIT PROJECTS
Looks like Alicia Silverstone will be playing her Clueless character Cher Horowitz in a small screen sequel series on Paramount+ that will revisit the 1995 cult classic film by having Beverly Hills-bred Cher, this time the owner of a successful business and the mom of a teen daughter entering high school. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Matthew Macfadyen and Claire Foy will star in the BBC and Starz will star in the 8-part adaptation You Are Here based on the best-selling novel by David Nicholls, which will have the pair playing Michael and Marnie. When a mutual friend throws them together, the pair unexpectedly find themselves setting off on an epic walk. Against the odds, they end up on the brink of a relationship that neither was looking for, but which might be exactly the one they both need. Michael and Marnie go coast-to-coast across the stunning — and soaking — English countryside, navigating an undeniable attraction that is as exhilarating as it is terrifying. (The Hollywood Reporter)
SERIES PICK UP NEWS
Anna Kendrick, the one and only J.K. Simmons and Outlander hunk Sam Heughan will star in the drama Embassy, which has been picked up to air in the US on MGM+. The series star Kendrick as Layla, a sharp and resourceful American diplomat, who faces an impossible choice: protect the U.S. Ambassador or follow his orders to exfiltrate a high value asset being held at the embassy after armed mercenaries storm the U.S. Embassy in London. As a larger conspiracy unfolds, Layla must rely on her instincts, and the reluctant help of her ex-fiancé, a British SAS soldier, in the tense hours before extraction. Simmons will play the U.S. Ambassador and Heughan will play the ex- fiancé. (Deadline)
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Tony Award winner and Snowpiercer cast member Lena Hall will appear in the box office movie Disconnecting Peter alongside Sullivan’s Crossing hunk Chad Michael Murray. Hall will play Elizabeth Ruck, wife of Peter Ruck (Murray), a woman working to hold her family together as her husband’s destructive patterns threaten to unravel them. (Variety)
Famed singer-musician John Legend will play American singer, actor and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte in the South African apartheid era drama The Road Home about late real-life protagonist Hugh Masekela. The movie will also star Guy Pearce, Cynthia Erivo and Johnny Flynn. (Deadline)
Regina Hall and Dwayne Johnson will star in the live-action/CGI hybrid film Lizard Music that will follow a boy left to his own devices who stumbles upon a secret late-night broadcast of lizards playing otherworldly music when a hidden door to the extraordinary swings open. His search for answers leads him to an eccentric and whimsical old man nicknamed The Chicken Man (Johnson) and his beloved companion, a 111-year-old chicken named Claudia – two kindred spirits who found each other at just the right time. United by this shared vision, they set off on an adventure that begins as a hunt for a hidden society but blossoms into something far greater: a voyage through invisible worlds, unexpected harmonies and the unbreakable bond between lost souls who discover magic not only in what they find but also in each other. Hall will play The Chicken Man’s friend and co-worker. (Deadline)
Horror star Samara Weaving seems to be the chosen one to play Emma Frost as Marvel Studios are closing in on forming its team of Mutants. The studio has not made an official announcement yet, but it seems that Weaving will play the telepathic Mutant originated by January Jones in the 2011 flick X-Men: First Class. (Deadline)
David Oyelowo has joined the cast of the indie film Little Five from Anne Hathaway’s production company. The movie will be inspired by the legendary Little 500 cycling race at Indiana University, telling the story of a determined group of young women who challenge tradition, forge an unlikely team and redefine what is possible through resilience, friendship, and grit. Oyelowo will play Randall, a former cycling champion whose own dreams were cut short. Reluctantly drawn back into the sport, Randall becomes an unlikely mentor whose guidance helps shape a new generation of athletes while forcing him to confront his own unfinished journey. (Deadline)
TV CASTING NEWS
The second season of the Amazon Prime drama Young Sherlock has added to its cast. The new cast members will include Olivia Williams, Outlander star Sophie Skelton, Indira Varma and Game of Thrones alum Aidan Gillen. Details about who the new cast members will play have not been revealed, but series star Hero Fiennes Tiffin will be back in the title role as well as returning cast members Dónal Finn (James Moriarty) as well as Natascha McElhone, Max Irons and Holly Cattle, who play Sherlock’s mother Cordelia, brother Mycroft and sister Beatrice, respectively. (Deadline)
Season 5 of Reacher over at Amazon Prime has added the following to its cast: Jay Baruchel, Kevin Durand, Amanda Ip and Ciara Bravo. They will play the characters of Chief Buck Bauer, Nokes, Michelle Chang, and Eunice, respectively. The 5th season will be based on the 20th book in Lee Child’s global best-selling series, Make Me. After his train stops in the mysterious town of Mother’s Rest, Reacher teams up with a private investigator in the search for a missing person and uncovers a dangerous and deadly criminal conspiracy. Season 4 will premiere on the streamer starting on August 12. (Deadline)
Joe Minoso, who has played Joe Cruz since season 1, will be departing the long-running NBC drama Chicago Fire at the starting of the show’s upcoming 15th season this fall. Chicago Fire will also say goodbye to Dermot Mulroney in season 15, as Chief Dom Pascal. (Deadline)
The FOX drama Memory of a Killer has added Meta Golding (The Pitt and Ransom Canyon) and Natalie Zea (Fire Country) to its cast. Golding will play Mel, Angelo’s (series lead Patrick Dempsey) childhood sweetheart. A Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist who has spent her career diving headfirst into the world’s darkest corners — and has the scars to prove it. Mel is not a delicate flower: she’s sharp, funny, direct, and constitutionally incapable of looking away from the truth. She and Angelo were childhood sweethearts, but their romance was cut short by Angelo’s tragic past. She reappears in Angelo’s life and becomes his love interest of the season – while working alongside him to avenge a tragic loss. Meanwhile, Zea will have the recurring role of Olivia, a brilliant, ambitious, yet sensitive businesswoman who always insisted on forging her own way — and she has, in ways no one yet suspects. In the aftermath of tragedy, she appears to be a woman undone by loss, but beneath the surface, this is a woman protecting something far more dangerous than a legacy. (Deadline)
Meghann Fahy will star in the upcoming HBO 5-episode limited series The Trial of Louise Woodward. It will focus on the shocking true story of how, in 1997, an 18-year-old British au pair was accused of shaking to death a baby left in her care by her American host family, setting off an international media firestorm as the trial unfolds in full view of both the British and American public. (Deadline)
That’s it. Enjoy!
Rueben's Ramblings 