Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

It’s over the hump day and the weather certainly seems to be acting strangely as folks on the West Coast have been experiencing rain, thunderstorms and in some cases tornados. Just hope the bad weather gets over soon, no one is hurt by the more severe weather patterns and no damage is wrought.

In the meantime, here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

Robert Patrick (The Unit) will guest star in multiple episodes of Big Love, playing Bud Mayberry, the leader of a polygamist fringe group. (Andy Patrick and Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly)

Scott Cohen (Gilmore Girls) has been cast opposite Callie Thorne in the USA drama pilot Necessary Roughness, where he will play a ‘fixer’ for a football franchise who works closely with Danielle (Thorne). (Deadline and Televisionary)

Sara Rue (Less Than Perfect) has joined the cast of the CBS comedy Rules of Engagement as surrogate Brenda. Joan Collins (yes, THAT Joan Collins) will appear in a November sweeps episode of the comedy as the mother of David Spade’s character. (Deadline and Televisionary)

Aquaman (Alan Ritchson) will make his return to Smallville later this season, and he’s bringing a wife in the form of Mera, played by Elena Satine (Melrose Place). The duo are set to turn up in the ninth episode, which is directed by Tom Welling. (Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly and Televisionary)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Ron Moore (the man behind the Battlestar Galactica reboot and Caprica) is in the VERY early stages of developing a remake of the ’60s classic The Wild Wild West, which originally ran on CBS from 1965 to 196 starring Robert Conrad and Ross Martin as secret service agents who get reassigned to the Old West. (Michael Ausiello from Entertainment Weekly)

Chris Mundy has left the CBS midseason Criminal Minds spinoff, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior. He will be replaced by Ed Bernero, who will now oversee both the flagship and spinoff series as show runner. (Variety and Televisionary)

Fox has nabbed the rights to a series adaptation of the 2005 hit romantic comedy Hitch, which starred Will Smith. The series is described as an action-packed one-hour. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIES NEWS

The Hallmark Channel movie Christmas in Canaan was named Best Show or Series: Family Friendly at the 3rd annual CableFAX Program Awards gala held in New York and the network announced that Billy Ray Cyrus has signed on to star in the sequel which will premiere in 2011. The original movie had Cyrus playing Daniel Burton, a farmer in Canaan, TX, during the civil rights movement who forces his young son to spend time with his black classmate, leading to an unexpected friendship. (The Futon Critic)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Tom Hanks may be the first actor to join director Kathryn Bigelow’s first post-The Hurt Locker project called Sleeping Dogs. The story centers around five men of varying ages who all work in the Triple Frontier, the notorious border zone between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil where the Igazu and Parana rivers converge and a haven for organized crime and terrorist funding activities. Leonardo DiCaprio, Christian Bale, Sean Penn and Jeremy Renner have all been rumored to be potentially involved in the project. (ABC News and Dark Horizons)

Idris Elba (The Losers) has joined the cast of the box office sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, playing an alcoholic warrior monk tasked with finding Ghost Rider (Nicolas Cage) while Johnny Whitworth (Gamer) plays a criminal who is recruited by the devil and is later turned into a demonic creature. (Heat Vision and First Showing)

Thomas Haden Church (Easy A) has joined the cast of the film We Bought a Zoo, which has Matt Damon already set to star and Amy Adams apparently considering a role in the adaptation of a memoir from Benjamin Mee about his own family who bought a rundown mansion in the English countryside which included the 30-acre Dartmoor Wildlife Park, home to over 200 animals. Church’s role has yet to be revealed. (Variety and First Showing)

That’s it. Enjoy!