Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Happy Friday Everyone! I hope you have some fun activities planned for this weekend and remember the Oscars will air on Sunday on ABC starting at 8:30 PM (but check local listings for further details). In the meantime, here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

Actor Donal Logue (Terriers) will make a guest appearance on House in what is being called “ a very juicy role”. He will be in the 20th episode of the season that is slated to air in early May. (Michael Ausiello at TV Line)

Actor James Corden – who is best remembered by fans of Doctor Who as Craig Owens (the “chap” who the Doctor roomed with for a short time in the flat that was snuck beneath a downed but hidden space ship in the DW episode called “The Lodger” – will be returning as that character in the series. He may even get to visit the TARDIS with the Doctor. (BBC and Blastr)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Actor Eamonn Walker (Kings) will play Detective Chief Inspector Wilder Banks in the Ron Moore NBC drama pilot called 17th Precinct. The pilot already includes Jamie Bamber and Stockard Channing. (Deadline)

Actress Michelle Borth (The Forgotten and Hawaii Five-0) has landed the lead role in the upcoming ABC drama called Combat Hospital, playing Major Rebecca Kincaid, a trauma surgeon at the aforementioned hospital who was dumped by her fiancé just before she left for Afghanistan. (The Futon Critic)

Tony-nominee Christian Borle (Legally Blonde: The Musical) has booked the lead role in the NBC pilot called Smash that is a show-within-a-show about a group of people who come together to put on a Broadway musical. He will play Tom, a composer who spearheads the effort – a Marilyn Monroe musical – alongside lyricist Julia (Debra Messing). Among the other cast are Jack Davenport (FlashForward), Katharine McPhee (American Idol runner-up) and Broadway star Megan Hilty. (The Futon Critic)

Actress Jennifer Aspen (Glee and Rodney) has been cast in the ABC dramedy pilot Good Christian Bitches based on the Kim Gatlin book that follows a woman who moves back to her Dallas neighborhood after a divorce only to become the center of salacious gossip from the community’s church-going wives. (The Hollywood Reporter)

MADE FOR TV MOVIE NEWS

The 7th movie in the Jesse Stone series of movies – this one is called Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost – will debut on CBS on May 22 at 9 PM. Tom Selleck stars as Police Chief Jesse Stone in a story that finds Jesse, once again, on overload, looking into the death of a teenage girl and unofficially involved in the case of a convicted murderer who he thinks may be innocent. He’s also battling his familiar demons, alcohol and his ex-wife. Kathy Baker and Kohl Sudduth reprise their roles as the Paradise Police Force. William Devane, Stephen McHattie, Saul Rubinek and William Sadler also return. And Gloria Reuben will be among the guest stars. (The Futon Critic)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Ewan McGregor is in negotiations to join the cast of the upcoming box office movie Jack the Giant Killer, which is the re-telling of the Jack and the Beanstalk fairy tale that follows a farm boy (Nicholas Hoult) who leads an expedition to free a princess taken hostage by a giant, a situation which threatens the uneasy truce between humans and giants. McGregor would play the leader of the king’s elite guard, who helps fight giants. Stanley Tucci, Bill Nighy and John Kassir also star. (Heat Vision and Dark Horizons)

The cast of the upcoming box office movie called Prometheus is expected to include Idris Elba (Luthor). The cast already includes Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace. Not much is known about the movie besides this: it will be “a new, grand mythology and universe in which this original story takes place. (Daily Mail, The Playlist and First Showing)

Peter Stormare (Prison Break) has joined the cast of the upcoming film Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, which already has Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton and Famke Janssen in the cast. Stormare will play a villainous town sheriff named Berringer in a story that sees the two siblings as full-time killers whose primary targets are witches like the one who terrorized them at such a young age. (Deadline and First Showing)

That’s it. Enjoy!