Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Some really great casting news has been announced today along with some trailers for upcoming fall shows; and much more. Please check out the following TV and movie news for today:

TELEVISION

Judd Hirsch will join his former Numb3rs co-star Rob Morrow on Rob’s new fall show The Whole Truth, starring as Ruben Wright, a distinguished and well-respected judge who is accused of corruption and murder. He hires Morrow’s rising criminal attorney to represent him. Maura Tierney’s character, who tried the first case of her career in front of Judge Wright, reluctantly takes on the task of prosecuting him. The Whole Truth premieres on September 22. Hirsch’s episode is slated to air in October. (Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly)

Reggie Austin (Life Unexpected and The Starter Wife) will play the New York baseball star husband of Vanessa Williams’ new housewife, Renee Perry, on Desperate Housewives. (William Keck at TV Guide)

James Marsters (Buffy, Angel and Caprica) will finally get to play a good guy. He will play Troy, leader of a gang of superheroes with substandard powers, in the new series Three Inches on Syfy. The show revolves around a man named Walter who gets struck by lightning and finds he can move objects with his mind — but he can only move them three inches. He is then recruited into a superhero gang full of people with similarly lackluster powers. (TV Squad and Digital Spy)

AMC will launch their newest drama The Walking Dead with a 90-minute premiere on Halloween night (October 31), starting at 10 PM. The series is based on the comic book written by Robert Kirkman and published by Image Comics. The six-episode series tells the story of life following a zombie apocalypse. It follows a group of survivors, led by police officer Rick Grimes, played by Andrew Lincoln (Love Actually), traveling in search of a safe and secure home. Jon Bernthal (The Pacific and Eastwick) plays Rick’s sheriff’s department partner before the apocalypse, Shane Walsh, and Sarah Wayne Callies (Prison Break), is Rick’s wife, Lori. Supporting cast include Laurie Holden (The Shield), Jeffrey DeMunn, Chandler Riggs and Steven Yeun. Also, Lennie James (Jericho and Hung) will be featured in the pilot. Subsequent episodes will be one-hour long presentations. (The Futon Critic)

Alicia Coppola (Jericho) will guest star in an upcoming episode of NCIS: Los Angeles, playing FBI agent Amy Rand, an expert on kidnapping cases. Her first appearance is slated to air in October. NCIS: Los Angeles returns with back-to-back episodes on Tuesday, September 21 at 9 PM on CBS. (Adam Bryant at TV Guide)

FALL TV

Will Lone Star Live Up to its Promos?

AMC’s epic ‘The Walking Dead’ trailer, premiere date

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Steven Spielberg and Fringe’s Kurtzman/Orci to Turn the Graphic Novel Locke & Key into a TV Show

Looks like Jamie-Lynn Sigler (The Sopranos) has been tapped to star opposite Sherry Stringfield (ER) in the new as-yet untitled Josh Berman pilot for Lifetime. The series is a closed-ended drama set in San Diego, centering on police detective Molly Collins (Stringfield), married mother of two on the verge of divorce, who, along with her partner Brooke Kross (Sigler), investigate the city’s most high-profile crimes while navigating their divergent personal lives. This series is one of 3 new pilots ordered by the network in June. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline Hollywood Daily)

Meanwhile, John Hawkes (Deadwood and Lost) is set to star in the FX drama pilot Outlaw Country, which is a crime thriller/family drama set against the backdrop of southern organized crime and Nashville royalty. It focuses on 4 main characters, played by Luke Grimes (Brothers & Sisters), Haley Bennett (Marley & Me), Mary Steenburgen and Hawkes. Grimes plays twentysomething Eli Larkin, a half-cowboy, half-modern guy who tries to get out of the crime ridden life he has grown accustom. Bennett plays twentysomething Annabel Lee, a gorgeous country singer who is living in the shadow of her overprotective mother (Steenburgen). Hawkes plays Tarzen Larkin, Eli’s uncle and one of the most charismatic and compelling characters in Slaughter, a big-time player in the Southern crime world. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline Hollywood Daily)

MADE FOR TV MOVIE NEWS

Andrea Bowen (Desperate Housewives) will star as a driven equestrian who suffers a near fatal injury during a horse show in the Hallmark Channel movie After the Fall set to premiere on October 9 at 8 PM. The movie co-stars Greg Evigan, Gail O’Grady, Rick Malambri (Step Up 3-D) and Fiona Dourif (Deadwood). (The Futon Critic)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

A script by Ahmet Zappa and Michael Wislon called Monster Witness Relocation Program, based on an original idea by Zappa, is being made into a movie. The book follows a brother and sister who discover they hail from a long line of monster hunters, who must learn the family business quickly when their father is kidnapped and they take on the most diabolical creature in the universe. (Deadline New York and Dark Horizons)

Paul Rudd, Topher Grace and Kristen Wiig are being recruited for the independent film Bobby Blue Sky, which focuses on three dysfunctional siblings dealing with their baby brother’s accidental fame (as a character in their father’s children’s book series) warping their lives. (Pajiba and First Showing)

Jessica Alba will be taking on a parental role in the film sequel Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World. The fourth installment of the franchise will see Alba as a retired spy who has been reactivated and mother of a baby and two preteen stepchildren who will step up to be the new Spy Kids. Although this is technically a reboot, apparently franchise star Antonio Banderas and original kids Alexa Vega & Daryl Sabara (all grown up) are expected to get supporting roles. (Heat Vision and First Showing)

Harold Perrineau (Lost), Diora Baird (My Best Friend’s Girl) and Elisabeth Rohm (Heroes) will be starring in the thriller Transit, which follows a band of thieves on the run from a bank robbery and the suburban family they come across during their escape. When the criminals stash their stolen money in the family’s SUV at a rest stop, the road trippers unwittingly draw the murderous band of outlaws on their trail. Rohm plays the mother of the traveling family heading out on a camping trip while Perrineau and Baird are members of the bank robbery crew. (First Showing and The Hollywood Reporter)

Taylor Schilling (Mercy) will star opposite Zac Efron in the screen adaptation of The Lucky One based on the Nicholas Sparks romance novel. The story follows a young Marine who, upon completing three tours in Iraq, returns home to North Carolina attributing his survival to a photo of a mysterious girl, who he then sets out to find. When he finally meets her, the two begin to develop feelings for each other. (The Wrap and Variety)

Looks like Sam Worthington is heading to his hometown of Perth, Australia to star as the lead in the surfing drama Drift, which is an inspired-by-facts story that follows how surfing evolved from a pastime to a global industry. Worthington will play a photographer and journalist instrumental in that revolution. (The West Australian and Dark Horizons)

Andie MacDowell has signed on to play the wife of Dennis Quaid in the upcoming Footloose remake. The acting vets should be a welcome addition to a cast that boasts relative newbies Kenny Wormald (Center Stage: Turn it Up) and Julianne Hough (Dancing with the Stars) as the teen leads. The movie should be on the big screen next April. (Nicole Sperling at Entertainment Weekly)

BOX OFFICE TRAILER

‘Red Hill’ trailer: Ryan Kwanten is a real cop with his real accent

Q&A SECTION (with Kristin at E! Entertainment Online):

Question: Alex in Venice, Italy: Is Jonathan Groff ever coming back to Glee?

Kristin: Yes! Executive producer Dante DiLoreto tells us, “Yes, absolutely, without a doubt Jonathan will be back. He’s in London right now. We’re hoping he’ll finish that pesky play and come back and work with us.”

SPOILER ALERT!!! – Tread lightly!!

Question: Drew in Chicago: What’s the latest on Brothers and Sisters? You haven’t talked about it in a while!

Kristin: I forgot! And that’s exactly what’s going to be happening to Holly (Patricia Wettig) in the new season—except she’s gonna forget something much bigger. She has memory loss and can’t even remember her own daughter Rebecca, from what I hear. I’m guessing this makes the loss of Emily VanCamp somehow easier? I’m also told that Emily will appear in episode three and four of the new season and that she and Justin will have some serious problems. And there may be another little Walker on the way! One of the women wants to get pregnant.

Question:Nikki in Bowling Green, Ohio: Parenthood was one of my favorite new shows last year, and I need some scoop on the second season!

Kristin: You’re in luck, because the season premiere date is just around the corner (September 14) Erika Christensen was gracious and lovely enough to spill some tidbits on what’s coming up for Julia, and it involves spawning. “My character decides she wants to get pregnant and have a second child. Her husband maybe isn’t quite as enthusiastic about it as she is.” And if her hubby ain’t gonna do the job, someone else might! There are plenty of hot dudes coming on the show next season, after all. “When a woman makes up her mind, she gets what she wants. I do occasionally think maybe she’ll have an affair at one point,” she says. Relax, she’s joking. Or is she?

Question:Roland in Toluca Lake, Calif.: It would be so double rainbow if you could give me any secrets from the next season of Castle.

Kristin: Remember when you thought Stana Katic couldn’t get any hotter? You are so wrong. “Beckett rides a motor bike!” she tells us gleefully. And this won’t be a one-time thing either, so don’t you worry—it’s her new thing. “Beckett definitely has a motor bike at home. I’m so stoked. I can’t wait!” We can’t either. Meanwhile, that sound you hear is millions of fanboys drawing up concepts for Stana’s leather biker-babe ensembles.

Question:Sarah in Massapequa, N.Y.: Am I the only person sensing some romantic tension between Aria’s dad Byron (Chad Lowe) and Hanna’s mom Ashley (Laura Leighton) on Pretty Little Liars?

Kristin: Trust us, you are definitely not the only one catching the pair’s meaningful stares and ever-growing connection, but there might be someone standing in their way when this guiltiest of guilty pleasures returns, and that someone isn’t his estranged wife, Ella (Holly Marie Combs). We caught up with Amanda Schull, aka Byron’s former mistress Meredith, who tells us fans will be seeing more of her in the second half of the season: “As far as I know I will be [back]. I don’t know the details of that but I know that the story line, especially the story lines in the book say I will be.” Well, according to the books she’s around for a long time.

Question:Kiley in Colorado: Any scoop on Psych? My friends and I all agree that this season’s run of episodes has been awesome—so much better than all of last year’s serious drama!

Kristin: Agreed! Lost’s Nestor Carbonell spilled to us about his upcoming guest gig on Psych: “I play a criminal profiler who rivals Shawn and who one-ups him at every turn. Shawn’s never had somebody one-up him. Shawn’s always the man in charge—he’s pretty much a superhero. But I come in and I destroy him—which is a lot of fun.”

Question:Britney in Dallas, Texas: I’m so over Stelena and Delena on The Vampire Diaries. Please tell me we will see more Dalaric!

Kristin: You can rest easy because we will be seeing plenty of Damon and Alaric teaming up in season two. We asked Matt Davis about the unlikely duo’s partnership and here’s what he told us: “Our bromance is definitely developing. You’ll see much more of that for sure. I love Ian to pieces and I love working with him and I think our chemistry as friends and the way Kevin and Julie write the two of them together, just the archetypes of the two characters together I think fit really well.”

That’s it. Enjoy!