Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

There’s a good bit of interesting items to share with all of you so let’s get right into it.

TELEVISION

Actress Gabrielle Carteris (from Beverly Hills 90210) will appear on the March 14 and 21 episodes of the NBC drama The Event. She will be Diane Geller, an old friend of Michael Buchanan who has been living amongst the human population since the crash at Inostranka. When Michael and Sophia undertake a mission to hunt down Thomas, Michael leaves his daughters Leila and little Samantha in the care of Diane and her husband, Carlos. (William Keck at TV Guide)

Veteran character actor Jay O. Sanders will play the new captain of the Major Case Squad and boss to Robert Goren (Vincent D’Onofrio) and Alexandra Eames (Kathryn Erbe) on Law & Order: Criminal Intent when it returns for its final season. (Nellie Andreeva at TV Line)

Actor Jesse Metcalfe (Desperate Housewives and Chase) has landed the role of Bobby and Pam Ewing’s adopted son Christopher on the “in-the-works” TNT Dallas sequel series. Also, actress Julia Gonzalo (Veronica Mars and Eli Stone) will play Christopher’s fiancée. (Megan Masters on TV Line)

DirecTV has added the Canadian comedy Call Me Fitz, which debuted on HBO Canada last fall) to its line-up starting on April 21 at 9 PM. The comedy stars Jason Priestly (Beverly Hills 90210) as Richard “Fitz” Fitzpatrick, a morally bankrupt, yet charismatic, used-car salesman who is forced to become business partners with his inner “conscience” – a lanky do-gooder named Larry. (The Futon Critic)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Actor Henry Ian Cusick (Lost) has joined the ABC drama pilot In Crisis, which is about the life and work of professional fixer Olivia Price (Kerry Washington) and her dysfunctional staff. Cusick will play Stephen, a litigator who works for her firm. (The Futon Critic)

Actress Scottie Thompson (Trauma and NCIS) has been cast in the ABC drama pilot called Partners, which is about two female police detectives who are fiercely loyal to one another since they’re also secretly sisters. Thompson will play one of the sisters, Mattie Scott. (The Futon Critic)

FOX is bringing the memoir by Julie Holland called Weekends at Bellevue to the small screen. The pilot is about a psychiatrist in charge of the weekend shift of Bellevue Hospital psychiatric unit. (The Futon Critic)

CBS has green lit another project by J.J. Abrams. This one is called Person of Interest, which is an hour-long drama, but very few details are known about the plot. (James Hibberd at Entertainment Weekly)

Amanda Peet and Minnie Driver are close to signing pilot deals with NBC. Peet is likely to star in the comedy pilot called Bent about a recently divorced Type A mom (Peet) trying not to fall for the “surfer-dude” contractor she hires to redo her kitchen. While Driver is poised to be in the pilot called Free Agents which is an adaptation of a British series about co-workers at a Hollywood talent agency – one getting over a divorce and the other a broken engagement. (Marisa Guthrie at The Hollywood Reporter)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Writer Melissa Rosenberg (the woman behind the scripts for all of the Twilight movies) is in negotiations to work on a remake of the 80’s Highlander movies for Summit Entertainment. (Dark Horizons and the trade magazines)

Andrew Garfield, Jennifer Garner and Marcia Gay Harden are all to star in the upcoming movie Back Roads, which is an adaptation of the Tawni O’Dell bestselling novel about the Pennsylvania-set murder mystery where a young man (Garfield) who is forced to care for his three younger sisters after their mother is sent to prison for killing her abusive husband. Garner will play one of the family’s neighbors who becomes romantically involved with him. Harden will play his court-appointed therapist. (Variety and Dark Horizons)

Actress Amanda Seyfried will star in the thriller movie called Gone. The story revolves around a young woman named Jill (Seyfried) who returns home from her night shift to find her sister’s bed empty and is convinced a serial killer who kidnapped her two years before has come back to finish the job. The police don’t believe her. With no one to turn to, and time running out, she plans to face her abductor once and for all. (The Hollywood Reporter and Dark Horizons)

Gary Oldman, Guy Pearce and Mia Wasikowska have joined the cast of the upcoming Prohibition movie The Wettest County In The World. The story is based on three infamous brothers (Shia Labeouf, Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke) who made up a fierce criminal gang at the center of the American South’s moonshine trade. Oldman will play a gangster who engages the boys to deliver alcohol. Wasikowska plays a local Mennonite girl and love interest for the youngest brother Jack (Labeouf). (The Hollywood Reporter and Dark Horizons)

Michael Caine has joined the cast of the upcoming film Mr. Morgan’s Last Love, which centers on a widowed and retired American philosophy professor who meets a much younger woman in Paris. The pair forms a special relationship, not about sex but more than friendship, and rekindles the lost joy in both their lives. (Variety and Dark Horizons)

Actor Goran Visnjic (ER) will appear in the American version of the film The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, playing Dragan Armansky, the head of a security firm that employs the main character, Lisbeth Salander. Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara star. (Joshua Weinstein at The Wrap)

Actor Dominic Cooper (Momma Mia) is in final negotiations to star as Henry in the upcoming film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Cooper joins Broadway actor Benjamin Walker, who signed on to play Abraham Lincoln last month. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE TRAILER

Second Official Trailer for Illumination’s ‘Hop’ with James Marsden

That’s it. Enjoy!