Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Lots of news to share with everyone on this Friday so let’s get right into it, shall we (with my prefacing that we should all send our thoughts and prayers to the people of Japan after the horrible earthquakes that hit that nation):

TELEVISION

Jason Priestley (the 90210 actor-director) will appear in a four-episode arc on the Syfy series Haven, playing Chris Weekly, a brilliant, principled but anti-social marine biologist who must deal with an affliction most would consider a blessing. (Michael Ausiello at TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Actor Thomas Dekker (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) has landed the male lead in the CW drama pilot Secret Circle, which is based on the book series of the same name by L.J. Smith (the author behind The Vampire Diaries books). The story revolves around a young woman named Cassie (Britt Robertson from Life Unexpected) who discovers that not only is she a witch and part of a top-secret coven, but she’s also the key that will unlock a centuries-old battle between good and evil. He will play Adam, the oldest member of the aforementioned coven and a love interest for Cassie. (Michael Ausiello at TV Line)

Actress Marisol Nichols (The Gates and 240 has joined the ABC pilot Good Christian Bitches that follows a woman (Leslie Bibb) who moves back to her Dallas neighborhood after a divorce only to become the center of salacious gossip from the community’s churchgoing wives. She will play the role of Heather (no other details on the character are available). (The Hollywood Reporter)

Actor Titus Welliver (The Good Wife and Lost) has joined the cat of the CW drama pilot Awakening about two combative sisters (Lucy Griffiths and Meredith Hagner) who come of age amid the beginning of a zombie uprising. He will play the character initially known simply as “The Hunter,” a member of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Division. (The Futon Critic)

Legendary choreographer-actress Debbie Allen has booked a role on the ABC drama pilot Grace that is about Michael Grace (Eric Roberts), a famous choreographer whose womanizing ways have produced three daughters – Sarah (Abigail Spencer), a lawyer; Shay (Sherri Saum), a photographer; Eden (Anabelle Acosta), a teenager – all with different mothers. Allen will play Helen Grace, Shay’s mother. (The Futon Critic)

Actor Cress Williams (Friday Night Lights and Grey’s Anatomy) has joined the cast of the CW drama pilot Hart of Dixie that is about Zoe Hart (Rachel Bilson), a young big-city doctor who inherits a medical practice in the oddball town of BlueBell, Alabama. It is believed he will play Lavon Hayes, the town’s unorthodox mayor, a former NFL star who lets Zoe stay in his plantation’s carriage house. (The Futon Critic)

Sean Maher (Firefly) will have a role in the NBC drama pilot Playboy, which is a period drama set at the Playboy Club in Chicago in 1963. It is believe he will play Sean, Alice’s (Jenna Dewan-Tatum) husband. Meanwhile, the lead role has been changed from Jeff Hephner (Hellcats and The O.C.) to Eddie Cibrian (Third Watch). His character is Nick Dalton – described as “the ultimate playboy” – an attorney in Chicago and a Keyholder at the glamorous, exclusive Playboy Club. (The Futon Critic and Deadline)

Actress Lily Rabe (All Good Things and No Reservations) is set for a recurring role in the FOX drama pilot Exit Strategy that stars Ethan Hawke as the head of a team of five experts associated with the CIA who are deployed when a CIA operation goes bad. (The Futon Critic)

Actor Paul Blackthorne (The Gates and The Dresden Files) has landed a role in the ABC drama pilot The River, which is about a state-of-the-art research vessel on a quest to find Emmet Cole (Bruce Greenwood), a missing TV explorer in the Amazon. He will appear as the producer of the show documenting this endeavor. (The Futon Critic)

Actress Ellen Barkin will star in the NBC drama pilot A Mann’s World. Allan Mann, a fiftysomething handsome and sexy straight Beverly Hills hairdresser (Don Johnson) struggling to stay young and relevant in a place where looks are everything. She will play Allan’s forgiving, funny ex-wife and the mother of their three children. (Deadline)

Actor Eric Winter (Brothers & Sisters) has been cast in the FOX drama pilot Weekends at Bellevue, which is based on the Julie Holland memoir. It centers on Ellie (Lauren Ambrose), the psychiatrist in charge of the weekend shift of Bellevue Hospital’s psychiatric unit. Winter will play a scruffy and sexy doctor attending in the ER. (Deadline)

MADE FOR TV MOVIE NEWS

A large cast has been added to the HBO biopic called Hemingway & Gellhorn that is set to appear on the TV network in 2012. The story covers the tumultuous romance and subsequent marriage of literary master Ernest Hemingway (Clive Owen) and up-and-coming war correspondent Martha Gellhorn (Nicole Kidman) from their first meeting in a Key West bar in 1936 to their cross-Europe romance and five-year marriage. Among the cast are David Strathairn, Rodrigo Santoro, Molly Parker, Parker Posey, Santiago Cabrera, Peter Coyote and Tony Shalhoub. (Deadline and Dark Horizons)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Welsh hunk Luke Evans (Clash of the Titans) will appear in the upcoming action-thriller The Amateur American, playing a young American living in Paris who accepts a job working for a shadowy employer and soon finds himself framed for murder and caught up in a web of deceit. Evans will soon be seen in the following roles in these upcoming movies: Zeus in Immortals; Aramis in The Three Musketeers; a British DI in Blitz and Edgar Allan Poe’s assistant in The Raven. (Deadline and Dark Horizons)

BOX OFFICE TRAILER

Must Watch: Phenomenal Full Trailer for J.J. Abrams’ Sci-Fi ‘Super 8’

Q&A SECTION (with The TV Addict)

Question: Any good news for fans of NIKITA? Specifically fans of Nikita and Michael? — Kimra

The TV Addict: According to sources, the nineteenth episode of the season will see a potentially deadly situation forcing Michael and Nikita to work together as Alex’s life hangs in the balance. What’s more, it’s a night of double-crosses and high stakes that will not only be explosive, but force Michael to make a decision that may finally drive Nikita away from him forever.

Question: Any chance we’ve seen the last of Josh on CASTLE? — Dave

The TV Addict: Having just had the opportunity to screen CASTLE’s not-to-be-missed love letter to daytime entitled “One Life to Lose,” we’ve got some bad news for you. The only disappointing aspect of what is hands down the most entertaining episode of the season was Josh’s seemingly inexplicable ability to ruin what should have been yet another beautiful Castle/Beckett moment. Seriously. This guy could not have worse timing if he tried.

WARNING: Tread lightly on the next section as it is a SPOILER ROOM (from Sandra Gonzalez at Entertainment Weekly)

‘V’ SEASON FINALE: ELIZABETH MITCHELL DISHES ON MAJOR DEATHS

Oh, you didn’t really think everyone would be safe, right? Of course you didn’t. But what you won’t anticipate is how big these three (incredibly bloody!) main character deaths are as ABC’s sci-fi series closes its second season next week. “I think that the people who die are going to affect everyone in different ways,” Elizabeth Mitchell tells EW. “The people they chose, they chose for a reason because they will mean something. I think it’s going to create an entirely new dynamic for everybody. Nobody is going to be unscathed.” (And you can bet that the terrifying Female-Visitor Lizard-Tail figures prominently in at least one of these death scenes.) “There will be some interesting betrayals, which I always enjoy, and there will be tears and hopefully some fun. We’re all very active in this and everyone has an important part,” she adds. Some more than others — as will be revealed when Marc Singer (star of the original V series) guest-stars as the leader of a top-secret anti-V organization. And to know exactly what I mean by that, I ask you to review the above quote about “betrayals” once again. Yup, prepare to see some surprising faces among the ranks of the said top-secret org. And that’s only where the twists, gore, and horrifying acts begin. As for where they end…that news is just as grim. “I’d love to say the fans will be satiated because I’m a fan and I know how wonderful it is to feel like, ‘Oh, thank God.’ But you’re going to want to see the rest,” Mitchell says.

Then there are the SIDE DISHES FROM THE SPOILER ROOM (from Sandra Gonzalez at Entertainment Weekly)

Question: Chuck‘s awesome. (<<CHUCK PUN!!!!!) Any news? — J.J.

Answer: [Breaking news: Your question made me laugh out loud. Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming…] Monday’s Chuck is going to answer many of the questions you have about the GRETA, and in many ways acts as a launching pad for the next couples of episodes. It also marks the return of Isaiah Mustafa and Stacy Keebler, who find themselves at odds with Chuck and Sarah. “We definitely wanted to see some of the GRETA characters we established earlier in the season and see what happened to them next and explain what the government was up to and why there were GRETAs inside the Buy More,” says co-creator Chris Fedak. “Once we got the order for more episodes, after the initial 13, we were like ‘Oh, we gotta get in there and explain what the GRETA project was.’ And so it was kinda neat to take those characters, who we’d only had a little big of time with in episode 2 and episode 3 [of the season], and say, ‘Well, let’s explore them; let’s meet them a little bit better.’”

Question: I need me some Chuck scoop! — Elise

Answer: There’s trouble in the spy world — and not in the normal way where they can simply shoot something and solve their problem. It’s more of an internal issue. “Casey is very much tied into what’s happening with the GRETA project at this moment. He might very well be in charge of this project. So there’s tension within the team. There’s a rift growing,” Fedak explains. “The question, and essentially where the A-Team title comes from — is: Who is the A Team? Is it Chuck and Sarah or is it Casey and his new team? That’s definitely at the heart of this episode.”

Question: Peter and Neal better still be friends when White Collar comes back, or I’ll be unforgivably mad. They MAKE the show. Please tell me this is the case. Need my bromance!! — Shana

Answer: You don’t have anything to worry about. Jeff Eastin is totally aware of the appeal of this dreamy twosome, which is why he tells me he plans to preserve their friendship. “Ultimately, in season 3, we will restore the friendship that Peter and Neal had to get us here. But it’s a rocky road to get there,” he says. But even through those hard times, he adds, he stayed strong on one important principle: “Neal never lies to Peter, and he still doesn’t. But keeping him from lying to Peter has been a real challenge.” A conman with a conscience — and they wonder why we’re smitten.

Question: Thanks for the White Collar interview this week. The finale was great. I felt like Elizabeth was a little snubbed, though. She’s never been a huge part of the show, but I love Tiffani-Amber Theiessen! I never really recovered from my SBTB girl crush on her. — Alison

Answer: You and about 1,000 of my male friends of a similar age never quite recovered from Kelly Kapowski’s spell, Alison. No shame. As for season 3, now that Thiessen is back on set full-time (Her pregnancy interfered with some of the filming during this recent season, and some of her scenes were even done on green screens) creator Jeff Eastin says we can look forward to a more active Elizabeth, thanks largely to the art treasure plotline. “We’ve added to her responsibility; she’s no longer just an event planner. One of the things we had initially in the series was that she worked at an art gallery, and that’s where she and Peter met. We found a really great opportunity in the first episode back with all this art — this treasure — to have Elizabeth go back to that word a bit,” he says. “It’s actually something I’m pretty excited about — to get her out of the Burke house a little bit more and see her more active in these cases.”

Question: I need some more Nikita finale scoop!! Things are really getting good! — Sarah

Answer: Agreed! And should the show get a second season (those fingers crossed? They better be. Toes, too) you should look for some existing regulars to slowly become more prominent, namely the people at Division, who each have their own dark past. And I’m told Amanda (Melinda Clarke) will become more and more important as the season rolls on as well.

That’s it. Enjoy!

Have a great weekend!!