Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

Actress Annie Wersching will guest star in the (slated for) October 24 episode of Hawaii Five-0, playing Samantha Martel, the sister of a murder victim whose death Five-0 is investigating. The show is back with a new season starting on September 19 at 10 PM on CBS. (Adam Bryant at TV Guide)

Happy Days alum Don Most and Northern Exposure alum Valerie Mahaffey will play Rusty and Rose Pillsbury, the parents of guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays), who are coming to visit on Glee. The show is back on September 20 at 8 PM on FOX. (Hanh Nguyen at TV Guide)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

ABC is developing a new version of the classic fairy tale romance Beauty and the Beast as visualized by Human Target and Jericho writer-producer Jonathan E. Steinberg. The one-hour fantasy drama is described as an epic re-imagining of the tale. (James Hibberd at Entertainment Weekly)

Shonda Rhimes (the brains behind Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice) has another new project in the works with ABC. The one-hour project centers on a young, idealistic and recently fired defense lawyer struggling to start his own firm with an eclectic group of lawyer misfits, while starting to realize that he may have been fired from his old job because he got too close to a deadly cover-up. (Lacey Rose at The Hollywood Reporter)

The production company of John Wells (the guy behind Shameless, The West Wing and Southland) is developing two projects; both based on books. NBC has picked up the project called Easy Rawlins, which is based on the Walter Mosley best-selling novels about Black P.I. Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, who finds himself solving crimes and dealing with the changing world around him in 1960s Los Angeles. The books are set from 1940s to 1960s. Meanwhile, CBS has bought the drama based on the Alice Woo novels by Leslie Glass, primarily the book Ann of Hollywood, which comes out in January. The book is described as a contemporary reinvention of The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. This story would give Henry the Eighth’s second wife Anne Boleyn a modern frame as a woman in her late twenties who is smart, witty, and just a cut above her contemporaries. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Pushing Daisies and Dead Like Me show creator Bryan Fuller is bringing the twisted mind of Hannibal Lecter to the small screen, developing Hannibal, a one-hour drama that would explore the early relationship between the famed psychiatrist and his young patient, an FBI criminal profiler who is haunted by his ability to empathize with serial killers. (Deadline and Vlada Gelman at TV Line)

CONDOLENCES

Actor Andy Whitfield, who was the lead in the Starz series Spartacus: Blood and Sand passed away over the weekend in his home country of Australia after a battle with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. He was only 39 years old. (The Wrap)

Oscar-winning actor Cliff Robertson passed away over the weekend at the age of 88. He is best known to modern day audiences as Uncle Ben Parker in Spider-Man and the film’s two sequels. (E! Online)

ME: Rest in Peace, Mr. Whitfield and Mr. Robertson! Deepest sympathies are extended to both of their families, their friends and families.

MOMENT OF SILENCE, PLEASE…

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Here are the top 10 box office movies for this past weekend according to Exhibitor Relations:

1. Contagion, $23.1 million
2. The Help, $8.7 million
3. Warrior, $5.6 million
4. The Debt, $4.9 million
5. Colombiana, $4 million
6. Rise of the Planet of the Apes, $3.9 million
7. Shark Night 3D, $3.5 million
8. Apollo 18, $2.9 million
9. Our Idiot Brother, $2.8 million
10. Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D, $2.5 million

Actor Colin Firth has joined the cast of the film adaptation of The Railway Man, which is based on the story of former British army officer Eric Lomax’s real-life best-selling account of his torture by the Japanese during the construction of the “death railway” during World War II and his mission decades later to seek revenge on his tormentor. (The Hollywood Reporter and Dark Horizons)

Actress Kelly Reilly (Pride & Prejudice) has landed the female lead alongside Denzel Washington in the new thriller called Flight that follows the redemption of “Whip” (Washington), a commercial airline pilot who pulls off a heroic feat of flying in a damaged plane, saving 98 lives on a flight carrying 106 people. Reilly is negotiating to take the role of Nicole Devlin, a drug addict who is at rock bottom when she meets Whip. The two become friends as each of them try to get their respective demons under control. (Deadline and First Showing)

That’s it. Enjoy!