Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

The cable network Starz will pay tribute to former Spartacus star Andy Whitfield, who passed away of cancer last weekend. The tribute will air this Sunday at 9 PM and will include five episodes of Spartacus: Blood and Sand, including the premiere and finale episodes. The network is set to re-air the entire first season of Spartacus: Blood and Sand starring Whitfield starting on Dec. 16. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

ABC Family has canceled their new drama The Nine Lives of Chloe King and their new comedy State of Georgia. Meanwhile, the network has picked up drama Make It or Break It for another season and has given their new drama The Lying Game an additional 12-episodes order. (TV By The Numbers and Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actor Lou Gossett Jr. and actress Sara Rue will guest star on Psych this fall, appearing as two of Lassiter’s (Timothy Omundson) new neighbors after the detective moves into a new and seemingly cursed condo. Gossett will play Lloyd, the creepy manager at the Overlook Gardens Condominium while Rue will play quirky nurse Amy Alleris, an overly friendly neighbor. (Sandra Gonzalez at Entertainment Weekly)

Actress Carrie Preston (True Blood) will to The Good Wife, playing Elsbeth Tascioni. She is slated to appear in the 7th episode of the third season, but it there is a strong chance her time of the show will be expanded during the season. The Good Wife will air in its new time slot on September 25 at 9PM. (Lesley Goldberg at The Hollywood Reporter)

The FOX drama Bones is expected to air six episodes this fall and seven in the spring with its spinoff The Finder bridging the gap in the winter. Now word has it that FOX has ordered four additional episodes, possibly set to air over the summer or to be carried over to Season 8. (Michael Ausiello at TV Line)

The Voice champ Javier Colon will appear as legendary blues singer Ray Charles on The Playboy Club this fall. Colon will appear in the sixth episode of the show’s new season. (Megan Masters at TV Line)

MTV has greenlit the scripted series called Underemployed that takes a comedic look at the post-college generation starting life and career in today’s harsh economic climate. (Lacey Rose and Lesley Goldberg at The Hollywood Reporter)

Actor Michael Nouri (Damages and NCIS) will guest star in House as Thad Barton, a corporate bigwig who comes under fire from his employees when he announces he’s moving his company to China. House returns to FOX on October 3. (Michael Ausiello at TV Line)

Actor Frederick Weller (In Plain Sight) will appear in Blue Bloods as Jacob, an international and very charismatic art curator who begins dating Erin (Bridget Moynahan) after they meet at an art gallery. He is expected to appear in three episodes, starting on November 4. The series is back on CBS starting September 23. (Lynette Rice at Entertainment Weekly)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Ilene Chaiken (creator of The L Word) and director-producer Joel Silver are teaming for a character-driven procedural at CBS that is centered on an edgy punk hacker girl who teams up with an Oakland police detective to solve crimes. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Looks like ABC now has two different Jekyll & Hyde projects from which to choose for their development slate. The first is from Mark Gordon Co. and film writer Matt Lopez (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice) that is described as a suspenseful, darkly romantic retelling of the classic tale with a unique sci-fi twist. It is set in modern-day San Francisco, centered on a female criminal psychologist who is drawn into the mysterious world of a brilliant but inhibited scientist and his volatile alter ego. And the second is from writer Sheldon Turner that is about an ER doctor whose id manifests itself as a different person when he goes to sleep as a result of an experiential medical treatment. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

The CW and CBS are developing a contemporary reboot of the late 1980’s drama fantasy series Beauty and the Beast that will air on The CW. It is described as a modern-day romantic love story with a procedural twist. This project should NOT be confused with the other ‘Beauty & the Beast project announced last week that is in development at ABC and is described as an epic fantasy reimagining of the public domain fairy tale. (The Live Feed and Dark Horizons)

The sci-fi thriller Source Code, that starred Jake Gyllenhaal as an Army helicopter pilot who takes part in an experiment through which he inhabits the consciousness of a man on a train for the last eight minutes of the man’s life to try and find out who planted a bomb on the train, may now be made into a TV series for ABC. The TV version will follow three former federal agents who use the same “source code” technology to insert themselves into the consciousness of different dead people each week, presumably to head off more terrorist attacks and other catastrophes. (The Hollywood Reporter and Blastr)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Rupert Grint (Harry Potter franchise) will join actors Jim Broadbent, David Tennant and Stephen Mangan as part of the voice cast for a 3D film adaptation of the British children’s series Postman Pat. The story has Pat coming face-to-face with the temptations of money, status and a shiny new suit when he enters a national TV talent show competition that threatens to tear him away from his hometown of Greendale and the friends he loves. (The Hollywood Reporter and Dark Horizons)

BOX OFFICE TRAILERS

Must Watch: Joseph Gordon-Levitt in First Trailer for ‘Premium Rush’

Emily Watson and Hugo Weaving in First ‘Oranges & Sunshine’ Trailer

That’s it. Enjoy!

Have a terrific weekend!