Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

It’s finally the end of the week – YAY! Hope everyone has fun plans for the long holiday weekend. In the meantime, here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

Kathy Griffin and Loretta Devine will appear as judges at Regionals on Glee. Griffin is expected to play a Sarah Palin type (a D-Listed liberal home-schooling Tea Party candidate character) while Devine will supposedly be Sister Mary Constance, who wears a halo and a habit now, but was – gasp – a stripper in her past. (Michael Ausiello at TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Megan Dodds (Detroit 1-8-7) has joined the cast of the FOX drama pilot Exit Strategy, which stars Ethan Hawke in a story about a team of CIA agents who are sent in to fix operations gone bad. Dodds will play Hannah Burke, a doctor with a prodigy-level IQ who trusts no one. (The Futon Critic)

David Giuntoli (Privileged) has been cast in the lead role in the NBC drama pilot called Grimm about a police detective who discovers fairy tale creatures live among us. He will play Nick Burckhardt, who is tasked with defending humans from these mythical beasts. (The Futon Critic)

Wilson Bethel (Generation Kill) will star alongside Rachel Bilson (The O.C.) in the CW drama pilot Hart of Dixie which is about a young New York City doctor who inherits a medical practice in a small Southern town inhabited by an eclectic and eccentric group of characters. He will play Wade Kinsella, the doctor’s fisherman neighbor. (The Futon Critic)

Kiefer Sutherland (24) MIGHT be coming back to network TV in the FOX drama pilot from Heroes creator Tim Kring. The pilot is called Touch and Sutherland could be playing Martin Bohm, an unassuming baggage handler at JFK who discovers that his autistic, mute son can predict events before they happen. (The Futon Critic)

Eric Roberts has landed the lead role in the AC drama pilot called Grace, which focuses on Michael Grace (Roberts), a famous choreographer whose womanizing ways have produced three daughters – Sarah, a lawyer; Shay, a photographer; Eden, a teenager – all with different mothers. (The Futon Critic)

Glee co-creator and co-executive producers Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk are returning to the cable network FX with a new drama pilot called American Horror Story. The premise is being kept under wraps, though. (Deadline)

Actor James Wolk (from the short-lived series Lone Star) has landed a lead role in the drama pilot Georgetown (from Joss Schwartz and Stephanie Savage) that is a sexy soap centering around the young people behind the power brokers of Washington, DC. It centers on Andrew Pierce (Wolk), an effortlessly charming and brilliant Yale graduate and the youngest presidential speech writer on record who was once idealistic but is now cynical as he sees how compromise has eroded the administration’s promise. (Nellie Andreeva at TV Line)

Meanwhile his former Lone Star co-star, actress Eloise Mumford is the first to be cast in the ABC drama pilot The River, which centers on a small group that goes deep into the Amazon in search for a missing TV explorer. She will play a fearless helicopter pilot attached to the expedition whose father, the explorer’s cameraman, is also missing. (Nellie Andreeva at TV Line)

Box office actress Leelee Sobieski (Joan of Arc) has been cast in the CBS drama pilot called Rookies (that comes from Robert DeNiro. The pilot is to follow six rookie cops who patrol especially dangerous areas. (Deadline and The Wrap)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Oscar nominee Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) will appear in the box office movie Forgotten based on the soon-to-be published novel of the same name by Cat Patrick. The story follows London Lane (Steinfeld), a 16-year old whose memory is erased daily at 4:33am. (Deadline and Dark Horizons)

Britt Robertson (Life Unexpected) and Dylan O’Brien (soon to be seen in the MTV series Teen Wolf) are set to star in the teen romance movie called The First Time, which follows two high school students over the first weekend of a blossoming relationship. (Variety)

It looks like Mila Kunis (Black Swan and That 70’s Show) just might be playing the Wicked Witch of the West in the upcoming movie Oz: The Great and Powerful, which just might be starring James Franco in the lead role. The storyline is being kept under tight wraps, but it is said to follow the Wizard back when he was a young illusionist with a grandiose attitude who is forced to flee the traveling circus. The story also contains the origins of both the Wicked Witch of the West and the Wicked Witch of the East, not to mention Glinda the Good Witch of the North. (Vulture and First Showing)

Despite the previous announcement that newcomer Australian actress Robin McLeavy would be getting the role, it now looks like actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim) has landed the role of Mary Todd Lincoln in the historical action horror film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. (Heat Vision and First Showing)

BOX OFFICE TRAILER

First Trailer Hits for WB’s Summer Fling ‘Something Borrowed’

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Not a lot of news to share, but most of it is still pretty interesting. Please read on:

TELEVISION

Actress Amber Benson – best known for her role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer – will reprise her Season 2 role on Supernatural, playing “good” vampire Lenore. (Zap2It)

Actor Aaron Ashmore (Smallville) will be joining the Syfy series Warehouse 13 as a series regular when it returns for its new season this summer. He will play new agent Steve Jinks, a young ATF agent with an ability to tell when somebody is lying. Jinks is recruited by Mrs. Frederic (CCH Pounder) to be Pete’s (Eddie McClintock) new Warehouse 13 partner as they search for mysterious artifacts. (James Hibberd at Entertainment Weekly)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Actress Christine Lahti has signed on to star in the CBS drama pilot The Doctor, which centers on Emily Campbell (Lahti), a mother who reconnects with her adult children when she joins the family medical practice. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Lost alum Michael Emerson will reunite with J.J. Abrams on his upcoming CBS pilot, Person of Interest, which drama follows an ex-CIA hit man and a mysterious billionaire (Emerson) who team up to prevent crimes before they happen. (Robyn Ross at TV Guide)

Actor Kevin McNally (Pirates of the Caribbean franchise) has joined the cast of the ABC drama pilot Poe about Edgar Allan Poe, the world’s very first detective, as he uses unconventional methods to investigate dark mysteries in 1840s Boston. McNally will play Kyle Kilpatrick, the city’s tough, authoritative commissioner. (The Futon Critic)

Actress Tara Summers (Damages) has joined the cast of the CBS drama pilot Ringer, which is about Bridget Cafferty (Sarah Michelle Gellar), a troubled young woman who, while on the run from the mob, hides out by inhabiting the life of her wealthy twin sister, Siobhan Marx, until she learns that her twin’s life has a bounty on it as well. Summers is believed to be playing Gemma Gallagher, Siobhan’s tall, attractive best friend. Ioan Gruffudd, Mike Colter and Nestor Carbonell also star. (The Futon Critic)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Actress Alice Eve will appear in the box office film Men in Black III, playing the younger version of Men in Black Agency head Emma Thompson in the time travel storyline. The film is expected to be released on May 25, 2012. (Deadline)

Writer Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich and The Soloist) has been hired to write an untitled dramatic biopic on Texas high school teacher Lynn Shaw. The story centers on Shaw, a teacher who created a high school drama program and turned it into one of the best in the country. She died of breast cancer in 2009. (Variety and Dark Horizons)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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