Hey All,
So Friday is tomorrow – finally – and I’ve got a busy weekend ahead of me. What about you? In the meantime, here are the news items I found for today:
TELEVISION
Joanna Cassidy (Boston Legal) has joined the cast of the new ABC fall drama Body of Proof. She will appear in the third episode and play the yet-to-be-named mother of Dana Delany’s medical examiner, Dr. Megan Hunt. Body of Proof premieres on September 24 at 9 PM. (Rob Moynihan at TV Guide)
The AMC drama Breaking Bad won’t premiere new episodes for its upcoming 4th season until July 2011; more than a full year after the conclusion of Season Three last June. To bridge the 13-month gap between seasons, the plan is to produce short interstitial mini-episodes of 3-to-4 minutes apiece early next year after the show goes back in production in January. They will be posted on AMC’s website. (Deadline Hollywood Daily)
Timothy Olyphant (Justified) will be playing a rival paper salesman with a deep, dark secret on NBC’s The Office when he drops by next year: He used to date Pam!” (Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly and Televisionary)
Patrick Gallagher (Glee) will be joining hit TNT comedy Men of a Certain Age, playing a mechanic who works in the car dealership owned by Andre Braugher’s character, Owen. It has yet to be decided whether his appearance on the series will be a recurring role or just a guest stint. (The Wrap)
Chad Allen (Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman) will guest star in an upcoming episode of Dexter, portraying a killer who is hunted down by the show’s title character this fall. The drama returns on September 26. (TV Fanatic)
Malcolm McDowell will return to The Mentalist this fall, reprising his role of Britt Stiles, the leader of the Visualize Self-Realization Center. There is no word yet on how many episodes he will appear on next season, though. The Mentalist returns on September 23. (TV Guide and TV Fanatic)
Rob Morrow (Numb3rs) will be seen this fall as a lawyer on The Whole Truth, but before that show premieres, he’ll get practice in the same occupation on Entourage, as he is set to guest star on the HBO comedy as Ari’s attorney. The actor will defend Ari against a charge of sexual harassment. (TV Fanatic)
After nearly 30 years of reporting for Entertainment Tonight, Mary Hart is leaving the long-running news show (after the coming season ends). Lara Spencer (who reports for The Insider) will take her place. I remember watching ET in its early stages – nearly since it started on the air in 1981 (yes, I’m dating myself!) – and while the show has slowly descended into TMZ territory – shame on you ET!!! – Mary Hart was always a staple. (The Wrap and Me)
Christopher McDonald (Family Law) has landed the recurring role of Thomas “Tommy” Jefferson, a fast-talking, attention-seeking lawyer whose office is perma-lit for press conferences on the new David E. Kelley-NBC legal drama Harry’s Law. (Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly)
Richard Schiff (The West Wing) is joining the new CBS drama Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior in the role of FBI Director Jack Fickler. He will make his first appearance in the second episode of the spin-off, which is slated to launch at midseason. (Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly)
Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica) will appear in an episode of CSI: NY. The episode will be about gang turf wars and Olmos will play a former gang leader — newly released from prison — who goes head-to-head with Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise), who had put him away 15 years earlier. The episode will air in October. (Ileane Rudolph at TV Guide)
DVD ANNOUNCEMENTS
BOX OFFICE
Amy Adams and Viggo Mortensen have joined the cast of the box office movie On the Road, which is an adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s acclaimed 1957 novel about Kerouac’s years traveling all over North America with his friend Neal Cassady on a cross-country bohemian odyssey. Garrett Hedlund and Sam Riley play the pair. Adams will play Jane, the emotionally damaged junkie wife of Old Bull Lee (Mortensen). Kristen Stewart and Kirsten Dunst also star. (Deadline Hollywood Daily and Dark Horizons)
Tim Blake Nelson has joined the true story romance drama Everybody Loves Whales, which centers on a love story between a non-profit aid worker (Drew Barrymore) and a journalist (John Krasinski) set against the story of three California Gray Whales that were found trapped under the ice of the Arctic Circle in October 1988. The subsequent rescue attempt became a global event as scores of journalists converged on the nearby Eskimo town of Barrow, Alaska, and the U.S. and Soviet governments enjoyed a rare moment of collaboration. Nelson will play a wildlife expert who works in the wildlife-management office. Kristen Bell also stars. (The Hollywood Reporter and Dark Horizons)
Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman are in negotiations to team for a third time in the upcoming inspirational animal box office movie Dolphin Tale, which is inspired by the true story of a dolphin named Winter who was rescued off the Florida coast. The film will follow a boy who befriends an injured dolphin who lost her tail in a crab trap. The boy motivates everyone around him to help save the dolphin by creating a prosthetic appendage to replace its tail, and the mammal’s strong survival instincts become an inspiration to people with special needs. Judd plays the boy’s mother while Freeman is a doctor who creates a prosthetic limb for Winter. Harry Connick Jr. is in talks to play a vet who rescues the mammal. (The Hollywood Reporter and Dark Horizons)
BOX OFFICE TRAILER
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
NBC has signed a script deal for Austin Winsberg’s spec script Zombies Vs. Vampires, described as a fun buddy cop procedural with supernatural overtones. The project is set in a world where zombies are a part of society, controllable with medication. The show’s two leads (one secretly a vampire) are cops assigned to a squad specifically formed to deal with ‘zombie crime.’ (Deadline Hollywood Daily and Televisionary)
AMC is said to be thisclose to handing out a series order to crime drama The Killing, based on the Danish series Forbrydelsen. The project is to star stars Mireille Enos, Billy Campbell, Michelle Forbes, Brent Sexton, Kristin Lehman, Eric Ladin, Jamie Anne Allman, and Joel Kinnaman. (Deadline Hollywood Daily and Televisionary)
Q&A SECTION (with Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly)
Question: Please tell me you have some Bones scoop that doesn’t involve Booth’s new girlfriend. I really need the distraction. —Amy
Ausiello: As they approach their first-year anniversary, Angela and Hodgins will remain an “ironclad couple,” says exec producer Hart Hanson. “They are in the honeymoon phase but they keep getting smacked in the head. But the honeymoon phase never goes away. They are deeply, deeply in love. We just want to do everything to a couple you would do to a couple that is going to go through life together. Sort of the opposite of Booth and Brennan for the time being.” Hanson adds that he plans to “have the kitchen sink thrown at them” this season, “but they’re together for always. We could change our mind next year, but they’re pretty strong this season.”
Question: What’s this I’m hearing about a sniper stalking the Bones gang this season? —Dave
Ausiello: “We’ve got someone worse than the Gravedigger coming,” teases Hanson. “And if the Gravedigger is Evil Brennan, this next person is Evil Booth.” Sounds like a sniper to me. “Booth was a sniper,” Hanson points out, “so it may be a sniper.” In related news, sources confirm to me exclusively that Hart Hanson is legally changing his name to Teasy McTeaserson.
Question: Can you give us any sort of clue as to who is going to die on Bones? Is it a series regular? —Camilla
Ausiello: I’m 92 percent certain it is not a series regular. Hanson, meanwhile, would only tell me “it’s someone we know.” This Just In: Hart Hanson is changing his name yet again. He will now be known as Cryptic McCrypticson.
Question: What’s in store for Cate and Ryan on Life Unexpected this season? I love them together. —Ken
Ausiello: Their marriage is going to hit a few bumps, but none of them will involve Baze. “Baze has been a thorn in their side, but in the second season, the dynamic is going to shift a little bit,” reveals exec producer Liz Tigelaar. “Whereas before they had a common enemy in Baze—all of their problems can kind of be blamed on him—they come to realize that maybe other things are more of a problem. Removing Baze from the equation highlights some other things they hadn’t quite worked out. This season is very much the story of a young marriage and the trials and tribulations that they go through and the way you’re kind of thrust together, torn apart, and brought back together. It’s like everyone always says—the first year of marriage is the hardest. I think that they’re going to experience that.”
Question: Scoop on Castle, please. Are Castle and Beckett getting together anytime soon? —Maggie
Ausiello: You obviously missed my interview with Nathan Fillion at Comic-Con, during which he revealed that Castle and Beckett would spend much of the season married—in the figurative sense—to other people. Exec producer Andrew Marlowe both corroborated and expanded on that scoop when we caught up with him at press tour. “We will be introducing a boyfriend for Beckett in episode 4,” he revealed. “It’s someone new and surprising.” Castle, meanwhile, will still be going strong with his ex—although fellow EP Rob Bowman concedes “he would prefer to be with Beckett. He acted as a gentleman should last year. She said she was with somebody else and he stepped back. But I don’t think he spent his summer where he preferred to spend it. I think he wants to be back with her. We also know we like to have fun with the boy/girl chase and that as soon as he lets on any intention that he’s interested, you know she’s going to punish him. And that’s why we watch the show.”
Question: Did you get any Supernatural scoop at press tour? —Jackie
Ausiello: Sure did. Considering the theme of the season is monsters, it’s probably no surprise that the first big mystery concerns, er, monsters. “Sam and Dean are looking into the fact that monsters are acting off-pattern,” explains exec producer Sera Gamble. “It’s sort of a postapocalyptic landscape and monsters are acting in various weird ways. It’s a monster mystery.” Gamble is also hard at work on an episode that pokes fun at the Twilight phenomenon. “I was just doing a bit of work on the script today with [series creator] Eric [Kripke] and he was like, ‘So what is this reference to dropping an apple?’ I was like, ‘You don’t know the dropping-an-apple thing? It’s from Twilight!’ I was like, ‘Come over here! You have to watch the promo!’ There are a lot of references to Twilight and our former [time-slot companion] Vampire Diaries.”
That’s it. Enjoy!
Rueben's Ramblings 
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