Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

The end of the week is almost here and I want to give a heads-up that tomorrow’s entertainment update will be postponed until the evening simply because I have to be a good little employee drone and attend my day job’s mandatory holiday luncheon. And then I’m going to a movie to wipe away all the memories of that awful yearly forced gathering, which means Friday’s update will be posted late.

But, today’s update is right here so please have at it:

TELEVISION

Want to see season 3 of True Blood again? Or maybe you missed some of the episodes or perhaps all of the season? Well, you can catch up on it all by watching back-to-back episodes of True Blood on HBO starting on December 27 at 8 PM and continuing through December 30. (Zap2It)

Veteran actor Larry Hagman (Dallas) will guest star on Desperate Housewives later this season, as the love interest of Lynette’s mother, Stella Wingfield (Polly Bergen). (The Hollywood Reporter and Joyce Eng at TV Guide)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Actor Warren Kole (24 and Mental) is set to star in the USA Network buddy cop dramedy Common Law opposite Michael Ealy (FlashForward). (Deadline and Entertainment Weekly)

LITERARY NEWS

Author Sara Shepard will add four new books to her Pretty Little Liars series, starting with a July 2011 release. The new books will bring the total in the series to 12. The series follows the aftermath of a popular girl’s disappearance and is the basis for the ABC Family Channel drama of the same name. The first new installment, Twisted, will be on sale July 5. The Lying Game was just released. (Jennifer Armstrong at Entertainment Weekly)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Anne Hathaway has signed on to the play the lead while Bradley Cooper is in contention to play opposite her in the box office movie The Silver Linings Playbook that focuses on a man who, after a mental collapse, is released from a health facility determined to find the silver linings in his life. In total denial that his wife has remarried and moved on, he moves home with his parents and befriends a depressed woman who offers to act as a liaison between him and his wife. (Showbiz 411 and Dark Horizons)

Jessica Biel and Sofia Vergara (Modern Family) are in negotiations for roles in the box office film New Year’s Eve that is a sequel of sorts to the film Valentine’s Day. Biel would play a pregnant woman who tries to win a cash prize given by a hospital to the couple who are first to give birth on New Year’s Day. Lea Michele and Abigail Breslin are already confirmed while Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hilary Swank and Ashton Kutcher are in various stages of negotiations to join the cast. (The Hollywood Reporter and Dark Horizons)

Alan Cumming (The Good Wife) will have a small part in a film called Maladies with James Franco, Claire Danes and Catherine Keener. The film centers on a successful actor who retires at a young age due to what is believed to be a mental illness. (The Hollywood Reporter and First Showing)

Carey Mulligan is joining Michael Fassbender in the indie drama Shame. The film is said to examine the nature of need, how people live their lives and react to the experiences that shape them. (Deadline and First Showing)

Gerard Depardieu, Adil Hussain, and Irrfan Khan will star in the adaptation of the novel Life of Pi. Khan is set to play the adult version of the title character, while Hussain is on board to play Pi’s father and Depardieu to play a chef. (Variety and Entertainment Weekly)

Taylor Lautner (the Twilight franchise) is attached to star in the upcoming movie Incarceron, an adaptation of the Catherine Fisher young adult novel. Lautner will play Finn, a young man who has lived his entire life on Incarceron, a savage, futuristic prison society where he meets the warden’s daughter, who is trapped in her own prison, a futuristic world constructed to look like the 17th century. Together, she and Finn find a crystal key that allows them to communicate and hatch an escape plan for Finn. (The Wrap and Deadline)

BOX OFFICE TRAILER

Watch: First Teaser Trailer for ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Hey All,

Happy Over the Hump Day! We are getting closer to the weekend. Is anyone getting excited or are you too busy with work, school and/or holiday “stuff” to think clearly. Regardless, sit down for a bit and relax with today’s update:

TELEVISION

Syfy has decided to give their new pilot Alphas an 11 episode order in addition to the 90-minute pilot. The show is expected to get a summer 2011 debut. The series stars David Strathairn and follows a team of ordinary citizens who possess extraordinary and unusual mental skills. The cast also includes Warren Christie, Malik Yoba, Laura Mennell, Ryan Cartwright and Azita Ghanizada. Callum Keith Rennie (Battlestar Galactica) guest stars in the pilot. (Blastr and Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

FOX will not be ordering the “back nine” episodes of Lie to Me, making the third season only 13 episodes long; but the network claims the show has not been canceled. A final decision on the show’s future is expected to be made in the spring. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actress Adrienne Barbeau (Maude and Carnivale) will guest star on CSI: New York in February, playing a clinic manager who plays an important part of an investigation to track down a hit man played by Ne-Yo. (Lynette Rice at Entertainment Weekly)

When the finale of Dexter airs on Showtime this Sunday, viewers will get a 20 minute sneak peek at the network’s new drama Shameless which stars William H. Macy as Frank Gallagher, a far-from-stellar working-class patriarch of an unconventional Chicago brood of six motley kids whose eldest daughter (Emmy Rossum) keeps the home afloat while he’s out drinking and carousing. Shameless will debut on January 9. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Hot on the heels of FOX’s success with the musicomedy Glee, it looks like the CW is developing a struggling rock-band drama for next season. Tentatively dubbed The Prickly Spheres, the show is expected to revolve around a classical-music prodigy who turns down a full ride at Julliard and instead ends up joining an alternative-rock band in Minneapolis filled with quirky but super-talented musicians. (Josef Adalian at Vulture)

FOX has picked up the medical thriller pilot called The Danger List about a doctor with a complicated past who investigates medical abuses, crimes and conspiracies. While the CW has picked up the pilot Beautiful Strangers, about two young thieves who are given a second chance as informants for a new FBI division. The latter comes will be executive produced by Veronica Mars and Party Down veteran Rob Thomas. (James Hibberd at The Live Feed at The Hollywood Reporter)

Author John Grisham is working with NBC to turn his short story collection “Ford County” into a primetime drama. Brothers and Sisters creator Jon Robin Baitz has signed on to write the adaptation, but no other details are available just yet. (Variety)

DVD NEWS

Justified

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Oprah Winfrey may star in an HBO Films adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lynn Nottage play Ruined, which is set in a brothel in the war-torn Congo and captures the experiences of the women working there. (Dave McNary at Variety)

More names are being attached to the upcoming box office film The Hobbit. Among them is Cate Blanchett, who will reprise here role of the ethereal elf Galadriel. The others are Ken Stott (Charlie Wilson’s War) who will play the Dwarf Lord Balin; Sylvester McCoy (Doctor Who) who will play the wizard Radagast the Brown; Swedish actor Mikael Persbrandt who will play the shape-shifting bear-man Beorn; British actor Ryan Gage who will play Drogo Baggins; and New Zealand actors Jed Brophy and William Kircher who will play the dwarves Nori and Bifur, respectively. (Josh Rottenberg at Entertainment Weekly)

Actress Pauley Perrette (NCIS) will star in the science-fiction romance film The Girl From Mars, which is about a lonely geek whose life is transformed when he meets the girl of his dreams (Perrette) who claims to be a visitor from another planet. (Dark Horizons)

Q&A SECTION (with Natalie and Adam from TV Guide)

Question: Nikita scoop, please! — Monica

NATALIE: Alex is faced with her final test, in which she’ll have to kill or be killed. When she’s unable to pull the trigger, she’s forced to turn over Nikita to Division to save her own life. That doesn’t mean Alex won’t make her first kill though, and wait until you see who the victim is.

Question: Are we going to see Rose again on The Vampire Diaries? — Michelle

ADAM: Yep, and sooner than you think. I’m hearing that she’ll pop back up in order to help Damon and Stefan with a mysterious mission. First stop on their quest: a visit to another vampire savant who knows everything about everything in the world of bloodsuckers. He’s willing to hand over the dangerous info Damon and Stefan seek — but only in exchange for a day-walking ring.

Question: What can you tell us about the V premiere? — Rachel

NATALIE: The premiere picks up four days after the finale, when Anna released that creepy red sky that caused widespread panic and rioting among the humans. Anna’s actions have also stirred unrest among her captains, who fear that she has developed human emotions. Lesson of the premiere: Never doubt Anna, or she’ll kill you with her tail. That’s not a metaphor.

Question: Got anything interesting on NCIS? — Jeffrey

ADAM: Ask yourself this: Which NCIS-er do you think needs to see a shrink? (Correct answer: All of them!) But in the meantime, one team member could log some couch time in the near future, as the show is looking to add a clinical psychiatrist who specializes in combat trauma and stress-related anxiety issues to the cast. She reads people like books and isn’t shy about digging up sensitive memories.

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Hey All,

Here are the news items for today, which I think you will enjoy. Have at it:

TELEVISION

The final two episodes of the CW series Life Unexpected will air back-to-back on January 18 and yes, it has been confirmed by the show’s executive producer Liz Tigelaar that the show has been cancelled. (The Futon Critic)

More actors have joined season 4 of True Blood, including Christina Moore (Hawthorne), who will play Suzanne McKittrick, a WASPy Texas housewife who possesses certain special abilities. Neil Hopkins (Lost) will have a multi-episode arc as Claude, Claudine’s (Lara Pulver) mysterious brother while Chris Butler (The Good Wife) will play Emory, a prissy and conservative shapeshifter with his own agenda. (Michael Ausiello)

ARTICLE ABOUT NATHAN FILLION

Nathan Fillion on ‘Glee’: I Want to Play a ‘Mean’ Broadway Scout

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

Procter & Gamble and Walmart will premiere their latest made-for-TV family movie called Change of Plans on FOX on January 8 at 8 PM. The movie demonstrates how our lives can be turned upside down with a single phone call. When Sally Danville (Brooke White – a formerly American Idol top 10 contestant) finds out that her best friend from college died in a tragic accident while serving in the Peace Corps, she also learns that she has been named the legal guardian of her friend’s four children three of whom were adopted from third-world countries. Now Sally and her husband, Jason (Joe Flanigan from Stargate: Atlantis), must quickly learn to parent this instant family and help the kids deal with culture clashes and life in America. Phylicia Rashad (The Cosby Show) also co-stars as social worker Dorothy. Three songs from the movie’s soundtrack are from star Brooke White as well as tracks from various recording artists. (The Futon Critic)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Rick Schroder (24) has joined the cast of the Molly Parker-led Lifetime drama pilot called Meet Jane, which is about an unhappily married mother of two daughters in the Washington, DC area who is suddenly re-energized and empowered when the FBI enlists her to spy on her husband, a computer technician the government suspects is selling top-secret information to Russia. Schroeder will play her husband. (The Futon Critic)

Easy come, easy go. It would appear that actress Eliza Dushku (Buffy and Dollhouse has departed the TNT drama pilot Bird Dog, which is about an unlikely partnership between two cops who happen to be father and daughter, due to creative differences. (The Futon Critic)

Starz has greenlit production on Magic City, a drama centering on the gritty side of Miami in the 1960s from executive producer Mitch Glazer (The Recruit). This project revolves around Ike Evans, the head of the Miramar Hotel who meets pressures from the mob, his own family, and the changes brought on by Fidel Castro taking charge of Cuba. The 10-episode series will begin casting soon, and is slated to premiere in 2012. (Natalie Abrams at TV Guide)

Anthony Zuiker, the creator of the CSI franchise has four dramas in the works; three for CBS and one for the CW. The CBS projects include:

Detail, loosely based on bodyguard Kim Maree Penn, is about a female bodyguard protecting a different high-risk client of the week. She’s not only a bodyguard to her clients, but also a de facto counselor. (ME: Sounds a little like the female version of FOX’s Human Target.) Next up is Desperado, which about a band of lawmen doling out very Texas-centric cowboy justice. And third is Treadstone, which is about spies in our daily lives. Then the CW project is called Spirits , which is about three women at a startup company who try to help people with otherwordly problems. (Tim Molloy at The Wrap)

AWARD WINNERS

Congrats to the winners of the first-ever American Country Awards, including Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley, Lady Antebellum, Rascal Flatts, Toby Keith, Easton Corbin, Josh Turner, Blake Shelton and Trace Adkins. (E! Entertainment Online)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Aaron Johnson (Kick Ass) and Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland) have joined the cast of the film adaptation of the 1980 Broadway play called Albert Nobbs, which is set around a luxury hotel in Dublin in the 19th century. Glenn Close will reprise her award-winning stage role of a woman who impersonates a man to survive. Michael Gambon, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Janet McTeer also star. (Dark Horizons and Screen Terrier)

Chris Colfer (Glee) will make his feature-film debut in an independent movie for which he also wrote. The movie is called Struck by Lightning and is a coming-of-age comedy. There is no studio or distributor attached yet, though. (Rick Porter at Zap2It)

Ryan Phillippe has joined the cast of the heist film Set Up, which stars Bruce Willis and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. Jenna Dewan Tatum (Step Up) also stars. The film is to follow a group of friends who are catapulted into the middle of a diamond heist that turns deadly. (Variety and First Showing)

Lucy Punch and Rich Sommer have signed onto the romantic comedy The Giant Mechanical Man that follows a quiet zoo worker (Jenna Fischer) who is torn between a street performer (Chris Messina) and a pompous motivational speaker (Topher Grace). Punch will play the street-performer’s girlfriend. Malin Akerman also stars. (The Hollywood Reporter and Dark Horizons)

BOX OFFICE TRAILER

Must Watch: Epic New Full-Length Trailer for ‘I Am Number Four’

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

Question from ChickenLady: No Ordinary Family?

Kristin: NOF is introducing a supervillain by the name of Roy Minor. He’s introduced as being the dad of one of Daphne’s high school friends, but he quickly turns capital-E EEEEeevil.

Question from Lauren: I heard that Autumn Reeser is pregnant. Any idea how that will affect her character on No Ordinary Family?

Kristin: Word on the street is that The Powers That Be over on No Ordinary Family are figuring that out as I type. It’s possible Autumn’s pregnancy will be written into the show, or maybe producers will go the way most TV pregnancies and just hide the bump behind megasized purses and kitchen counters. Which would you prefer?

Question from @timegoesaway (via Twitter): Psych! Specifically, Shawn/Juliet. More specifically, Yin/Yang finale angst.

Kristin: First, a metaphor: Juliet is Yin to Shawn’s Yang; now that they’ve connected, nothing will tear them apart. Not even the serial killer Mr. Yang (Ally Sheedy), who—to be specific—returns Dec. 22 in the conclusion to the Yin-Yang trilogy, “Yang 3 in 2D.” Star James Roday told us “everything comes out in the wash” and “we find out who Mr. Yin is”—with a little help from one of his alleged victims, Mena Suvari. Also returning are Shawn’s mom (the lovely Cybill Shepherd) and Mary Lightly’s Jimmi Simpson—in flashbacks? As Mary’s twin? (Yin?!) Roday refused to be more specific!

Question from Zoe: Tell me about Justified!!

Kristin: OK!! Good news for you fans of Raylan (Timothy Olyphant) and Winona’s (Natalie Zea) relationship. Raylan’s protective ex-husband/sometime-lover instincts are activated in episode six, when Winona happens to be at a bank during a robbery, and one of the bad guys roughs her up. Look for Raylan to deliver some delicious Southern vengeance on her behalf. Yummy.

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »