Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Happy Tuesday, Everyone!! Here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

Actor Brad Dourif (Deadwood) will appear in the season finale of Fringe on May 6, playing a mysterious character named Moreau. (Matt Mitovich at TV Line)

If you’d like to read more about some newly announced guest stars and some spoilers for Drop Dead Diva, please visit here.

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

A new hour-long drama is being considered by ABC Family based on the childhood of country singer and recent Academy of Country Music winner Miranda Lambert whose father – Richard Lee “Rick” Lambert – is a retired police officer who became a private investigator in partnership with her mother, Beverly “Bev” June Lambert. The project is being described as Hart to Hart with a family, centering on a Texas family where the kids help their PI parents in solving cases. (Deadline)

MADE FOR TV MOVIE NEWS

The HBO made-for-TV movie Too Big to Fail, starring William Hurt, Paul Giamatti and Matthew Modine, based on the bestselling book by Andrew Ross Sorkin, will premiere on Monday, May 23 at 9 PM. The movie centers on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson (Hurt) and examines the symbiotic relationship between Wall Street and Washington. The cast includes Edward Asner, Billy Crudup, Topher Grace, Cynthia Nixon, Michael O’Keefe, Bill Pullman, Tony Shalhoub and James Woods. (The Hollywood Reporter)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Actor Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class and Jane Eyre) is set for a lead role in the upcoming film called Good Vibrations, which tells the true story of Terri Hooley, a man who many people call a punk rock impresario. (First Showing, The Playlist and Cineuropa)

Actress Mae Whitman (Parenthood and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) is in final negotiations to join the independent coming-of-age film called The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which is based on the 1999 coming-of-age novel by Stephen Chbosky, which follows the trials and tribulations of a 15-year-old shy and unpopular high school student (Logan Lerman) who writes a series of letters to a mysterious pen pal. Whitman will play Mary Elizabeth, a tattooed vegetarian who becomes his first girlfriend. Actress Emma Watson (the Harry Potter franchise) has the lead role in this film. (Variety and Dark Horizons)

ANIMATED FILM NEWS

Actress Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) will be voicing a role in Star Wars: The Clone Wars but very little is being released about which character she will play except that it is “a memorable character”. (Blastr)

SPOILER ROOM (with Sandra Gonzalez from Entertainment Weekly)

WARNING: Please tread carefully if you don’t want to be spoiled on Being Human, Supernatural and Chuck!!

BIG CHANGES COMING TO ‘BEING HUMAN’

Holy cow, Humans! Last night’s penultimate episode of Being Human on Syfy not only included a few nail-biting cliffhangers (Please don’t die, Aidan!), but it also left us on a great note going into the season 1 finale. Lucky for you, Sam Witwer spilled many a secrets about next week’s wicked finale to help ease the pain of the wait. “There are actually a few cliffhangers, and there are a few provocative questions, primarily with Josh and Aidan,” Witwer says. And some of those new questions are likely to be raised in the flashback scene to two years ago that “explains something that Josh did earlier this season,” Witwer teases. “There’s a vengeful move that Josh does at the urging of [Josh’s jerk were-buddy] Ray. We learn a little bit more about why he did that. And we’re also catching Aidan right as he’s about to pull away from the vampires; he’s already starting to feel quite alone and isolated. So that, more than anything, allows him to identify Josh as someone else who has the same problem.” But aside from exploring Aidan and Josh’s first encounter, the episode will also play a key part in defining what the trio’s friendship has become since their first meeting earlier this season — and what might change. “By the end of the season, the question of are they better together or better apart is answered — or begins to get answered. We have a lot of moments that are designed to remind us — sometimes literally and sometimes in a metaphoric way — how far these characters have come with each other,” Witwer says. But just don’t get too comfortable with the direction — or line-up, for that matter — that you see now. Because Witwer warns that come next week, not all will be as it is now. “Some of the things we end with demand the show has to change to keep up with them.”

‘SUPERNATURAL’: A TITANIC-SIZED TWIST

Has the wait been long enough for you? Well, lucky for you, the first new episode of Supernatural in six weeks is all you’ve been waiting for — a little mythology, a lot of one-liners, and a heck of a twist. In the April 15 episode, titled “My Heart Will Go On,” Sam and Dean find themselves in an altered reality where everything — from the not-Impala they drive (horror!) to the career of Celine Dion — is different as a result of the Titanic not sinking. But once Supernatural fans get a glimpse of how the ship’s safe arrival to the U.S. affects the world, you might find yourself wishing, like Balthazar (who’s behind the altered world), that the ship never sank. Particularly when you see the circumstances under which Ellen (Samantha Ferris) returns to the fold. If you, like me, bawled like a baby when she and Jo (Alona Tal) were killed off last season, you might shed more than a tear during this episode. Also great? Many bromantic moments between Dean, Sam, and the “dirty-trenchcoat-wearing angel who’s in love” with them. Not my words.

MORE AWESOME ACTION FOR CAPT. AWESOME ON ‘CHUCK’

The spy world is a dangerous place, and after Awesome and Ellie welcomed baby Clara this season, I got a flood of emails asking if this was the end of the new parents’ spy adventures. Well, for the most part it was — at least in regards to this season, when they resided primarily in Babyville. But things are about to change… “It was really tricky because the first time Awesome got into the spy world, it was a little self-centered to be honest. You know, married life does have its lulls. He wanted to spice things up a little bit and get that adrenaline rush,” Ryan McPartlin says. “If he did that now with a baby, it would be really selfish. So [the writers] had to be really careful bringing us into the spy world and making it out of necessity rather than desire.” Fans can assume that “necessity” has something to do with Pa Bartowski’s laptop of secrets, which Ellie has found herself engrossed with since she got her hands on it. But McPartlin eased any fears a bit, saying that the audience will be “relieved and happy to see what comes of it.” But not before Awesome and Ellie get to have a little fun. “I think the audience still likes to relate to people who are thrown in there, who have no business being there. Otherwise, you just have Alias. Where does it go? Whereas when we get in there, everything is haphazard,” he says, laughing.

Q&A SECTION (with Sandra Gonzalez from Entertainment Weekly)

Question: I’d love some Drop Dead Diva! — Margo

SANDRA: Then you’ll love this. Sharon Lawrence and Faith Prince will be reprising their roles as Deb and Jane’s mom, respectively, in episode 7 of next season, titled “Mothers’ Day.” But prepare to see them like we’ve never seen them before: singing “Lean On Me” with Brooke Elliott! “Jane’s got to help both moms with [separate] legal issues, and they’re fighting over her attention. She’s being torn between both mothers,” creator Josh Berman tells EW exclusively. “Then on top of that, we learn something new about her relationship with Grayson in this episode. It’s a juicy episode.” Juicy, indeed!

Question: I need some Warehouse 13 info — is Myka coming back? I hate waiting a whole year for a summer show to return. — Nathan C.

SANDRA: Waits are painful but usually worth it — and I hear yours might be, too. Though the powers that be are still quite mum on a return for Myka and would not confirm her appearance in the first episode of the third season (as listed on IMDB), a “you’ll see” is always better than a “no.” Right?

That’s it. Enjoy!