Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Happy Wednesday to everyone! Hope your week is going well and that you have some great plans for the weekend. Friday cannot get here fast enough, right?

Now, let’s get into the news for today:

TELEVISION

Bruce Boxleitner (Scarecrow and Mrs. King and Babylon 5) will guest star on NCIS, as Vice Admiral C. Clifford Chase, a high-ranking Navy official who turns to Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and the rest of the NCIS team when his friend is killed. The episode is scheduled to air on November 9. (Adam Bryant at TV Guide)

Lindsey Shaw (10 Things I Hate About You) is joining the cast of Pretty Little Liars for at least two episodes, playing Paige McCullers, a character who is on the swim team with Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell). Paige is overly competitive, and she’s got Emily in her sights as her main obstacle to glory. (Kristin at E! Entertainment Online)

Legendary actor Richard Chamberlain will appear in a multi-episode arc on Brothers & Sisters as “someone who comes back from Saul’s past to complicate things for him in ways he won’t expect”. (Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly)

WEB SERIES NEWS

Syfy.com will premiere the award-winning, steampunk digital series Riese: Kingdom Falling beginning October 26. It will air every Tuesday and Thursday on syfy.com/riese. Each episode runs approximately seven to eight minutes and will be narrated by Amanda Tapping (Stargate SG1 and Sanctuary). The synopsis for this 10-part series follows:

Eleysia is a dying kingdom where resources are dwindling and compassion is fading. Distrust and anxiety have clouded people’s minds, causing a regression into primitive ways of thinking. People have grown restless, almost feral. Rituals and mythology have resurged, and the darker side of mankind has begun to reveal itself. Riese (Christine Chatelain from Sanctuary and The Bone Collector), a wanderer, travels across the decaying lands of Eleysia with her wolf, Fenrir. Marked as a heretic by religious group The Sect and the new Empress, Amara (Sharon Taylor from Stargate Universe), Riese must evade their assassins and discover their true intentions for Eleysia. Riese is the Crown Princess of Eleysia, forced to flee into the wilds after her family was slaughtered. She will soon serve as a catalyst for a disparate group of supposed heretics, the Resistance, launching them into civil war.

The rest of the cast includes Ben Cotton (Harper’s Island), Allison Mack (Smallville); Ryan Robbins (Sanctuary and Caprica); Patrick Gilmore (Stargate Universe); Alessandro Juliani (Battlestar Galactica and Smallville) and Emilie Ullerup (Sanctuary). (The Futon Critic)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

Jessica Capshaw (Grey’s Anatomy) stars in the Lifetime movie One Angry Juror, which is set to premiere on November 15 at 9 PM. The movie is based on a true story, following the story of Sarah Walsh (Capshaw), a tough, opinionated, no-nonsense New Orleans attorney who has been chosen to serve on the jury of a murder trial. Reluctantly serving her duty, she is apathetic towards the defendant until she is convinced that he may actually be innocent. Unwavering, Sarah deadlocks the jury to secure a mistrial. When they retry the case, she partners with the defense attorney Donald Burston (Jeremy Ratchford from Cold Case) and detective Derrick White (Michael Jai White from Why Did I Get Married Too?) and the investigation leads them through a dangerous maze of corruption. With the support of her husband (Jonathan Scarfe from ER), Sarah begins to reconcile her own past and realize that she is one man’s last chance for freedom. (The Futon Critic)

The Disney movie Avalon High – a contemporary twist on the Arthurian legend – has been given a premiere date: November 12 at 8 PM. The movie is about Allie Pennington (Britt Robertson from Life Unexpected) who is ecstatic when her parents, traveling professors, tell her she will be staying at Avalon High until she graduates. She can finally join the track team, make new friends and be a normal high school student. But shortly after arriving, Allie discovers that something strange may be afoot. While researching a term paper on King Arthur’s legacy, she begins to notice some interesting parallels between the past and the present – from handsome quarterback Will, his cheerleader girlfriend, Jen, and their best friend, Lance, to Will’s brooding step-brother, Marco, a quirky kid named Miles and football players who act like knights of the roundtable. The deeper Allie searches, the more convinced she is that her school is a contemporary Camelot, and it’s up to her to solve the mystery of Avalon High before notorious traitor Mordred wins again. The cast includes Gregg Sulkin, Joey Pollari, Devon Graye, Molly Quinn (Castle), Chris Tavarez (Big Momma’s House 2), Don Lake (The Bonnie Hunt Show) and Steve Valentine (I’m In The Band and Crossing Jordan). (The Futon Critic)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Robert DeNiro and crime writer Richard Price have sold a police drama script to CBS called Rookies, which follows a team of six new officers who are sent into high-crime areas. (Jennifer Armstrong at Entertainment Weekly)

CBS has set its sights on Grave Sight, an adaptation of True Blood author Charlaine Harris’ Harper Connelly mystery series. The novels revolve around Harper Connelly, a woman who after being struck by lightning can “see” the last moments of a dead person’s life. (Matt Mitovich at Fancast)

Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, former Lost executive producers, are developing a fairy-tale-themed drama series, which they will be pitching to ABC. IF the pilot is picked up they will be getting help from Damon Lindelof, who will serve as a consultant on the project. No other details are known at this time, however. (Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly)

ABC is picking up, for development, a retelling of William Shakespeare’s classic tale Romeo & Juliet with Catherine Hardwicke (Director of Twilight) in talks to direct the potential pilot. No other specific details are available. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

British hunk Luke Evans (Tamara Drew) and Alice Eve (She’s Out of My League) are in negotiations to join the period thriller adaptation of The Raven, which will be set in Baltimore in 1849. Evans will play a detective who partners with famed macabre author Edgar Allan Poe (John Cusack) to search for a serial killer who has kidnapped the author’s fiancé (Eve) and has gone on a murder spree that mimics the author’s work. Evans replaces Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) who was tipped to take the lead but opted to do the fourth “Mission: Impossible” instead. (Heat Vision and Dark Horizons)

Greta Gerwig (Greenberg) and Adam Brody (The O.C.) will star in the movie Damsels in Distress, which revolves around a group of style-obsessed college girls who take in a new student (Gerwig) and teach her their misguided ways of helping people at their grungy university. The crux of the story is focused on the relationship between Gerwig’s character and a suitor (Brody), whom the girls are taken with but have doubts over his intentions. (Borys Kit from The Hollywood Reporter)

Q&A SECTION (with the TV Gurus at TV Guide)

Question: Can you give me some scoop about Danno on Hawaii Five-0? — Nikki

ADAM: Tired of his ex-wife’s angry phone calls? Get ready to meet her! The show is looking for a British actress to play the role, but don’t worry, she’ll still be plenty angry. In fact, she’s livid when Danny and McGarrett show up to use her home as a command center. Over the course of the stakeout, the team will realize that the tension between Danno and his ex is sexual.

Question: I can’t wait for Smallville’s 200th episode! What can you tell me about it? — Tyler

ADAM: While Clark takes a trip down memory lane with the surprisingly helpful Brainiac 5 (James Marsters), it’s his trip to the future that will most help him become the Man of Steel. What Clark sees “galvanizes his confidence,” executive producer Brian Peterson says. “He comes out [of the episode] as the leader that we know Superman to be. His leadership skills sort of jump up to the next level and that sort of maintains all the way through the rest of the season,” adds executive producer Kelly Souders.

Question: Doesn’t it seem like everyone knows everyone’s secrets on The Vampire Diaries? I wish there were more “innocents” in the cast now. — William

MICKEY: Well, I’ve got bad news, William. There’s going to be a new guy in Mystic Falls soon, and to paraphrase the bard Spears, he’s not that innocent. He’s a huge fan of the dark arts — and specifically, he knows an awful lot about the Bennett family. Put another way, Bonnie is getting a groupie, and she’s not happy about it at all!

That’s it. Enjoy!