Hey All,
Here are the news items for today:
TELEVISION
Lifetime has canceled the new police drama The Protector. The network will, however, air any remaining episodes this month. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Actress Monica Raymund (Lie to Me) will have a recurring role on The Good Wife, playing a prosecutor working for newly re-elected Cook County State’s Attorney Peter Florrick (Chris Noth). She could potentially be a possible love interest for Cary (Matt Czuchry). The Good Wife is back on September 25 at 9 PM on CBS. (Kate Stanhope at TV Guide)
Actress Jacqueline Bisset and actor Billy Burke will both be returning to Rizzoli & Isles for the season 2 season finale, which is set to air in December. Bisset plays Constance Isles, Maura’s (Sasha Alexander) adoptive mother while Burke plays FBI agent Gabriel Dean. (Lesley Goldberg at The Hollywood Reporter)
Actor David Keith, last seen in the short-lived FOX drama Lone Star, will guest star in what could become multiple episodes of Nikita as the titular character’s birth father. Season 2 is expected to examine the core characters’ search for their respective “homes,” a story arc that will encompass Nikita’s Division past as well. And, there will be a new computer geek within the Division walls this year: a beautiful new hacker-type played by newcomer Lyndie Greenwood, but don’t worry Birkhoff (Aaron Stanford) will still be around. (Megan Masters at TV Line)
MADE FOR TV MOVIE NEWS
Actress Jena Malone (Sucker Punch) has joined the cast of the telefilm The Hatfields and McCoys. She will play Nancy McCoy, a ruthless cousin who uses her feminine wiles to wreak revenge on the Hatfields for murdering her father when she was a child. The film, of course, is based on the legendary family feud that will star Kevin Costner as “Devil” Anse Hatfield and Bill Paxton as Randall McCoy, the famed leaders of the feuding families. The project will center on the bloody hostilities between the two clans that escalated to the point of near war between two states. The cast includes Tom Berenger, Powers Boothe and Lindsay Pulsipher. (The Hollywood Reporter and TV Line)
Actress Catherine Bell (Army Wives) has signed on to do a fifth film in The Good Witch franchise of films on the Hallmark Channel. The fourth film – The Good Witch’s family – will air on October 29 at 9 PM. (The Futon Critic)
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
Executive Producers Greg Berlanti and Maggie Friedman are working on a new crime drama for NBC, which follows two connected cases that occur in two different time periods. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)
ABC has picked up the drama pilot called Haunted from screenwriter Cory Goodman (The Priest), which is a supernatural character procedural that follows Jessica Garrity, a paranormal investigator who each week helps the living move on from a spirit that can’t let go. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)
ABC has also bought the musical hour drama pilot The Lockharts from writers Michael Gans and Richard Register (Make It Or Break It). The pilot is set primarily in the cultural hurricane of the late 1970s centered around the Lockharts, a musically gifted family that lands its own variety show on a national network. They are billed as the perfect All American Family but, like all families, they are far from perfect. The series is framed by a slowly evolving present-day mystery involving the scandalous disappearance of the family’s matriarch. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Actor Russell Crowe has joined the cast of the new film adaptation for Les Miserables. He will star opposite Hugh Jackman. (Justin Kroll at Variety)
Actress Keira Knightley and actor Jude Law will star in the new film adaptation of Anna Karenina with director Joe Wright (the man behind Atonement and Pride & Prejudice) at the helm. (Joshua L. Weinstein at The Wrap)
Director James Mangold (Knight & Day) has set his sights on a new project: a film adaptation of the Anne Fortier novel Juliet, a novel that was inspired by the tragic romance of Romeo and Juliet. Here is the official synopsis of the novel: American Julie Jacobs travels to Siena in search of her Italian heritage–and possibly an inheritance–only to discover she is descended from 14th-century Giulietta Tomei, whose love for Romeo defied their feuding families and inspired Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Julie’s hunt leads her to the families’ descendants, still living in Siena, still feuding, and still struggling under the curse of the friar who wished a plague on both their houses. Julie’s unraveling of the past is assisted by a Felliniesque contessa and the contessa’s handsome nephew, and complicated by mobsters, police, and a mysterious motorcyclist. To understand what happened centuries ago, in the previous generation, and all around her, Julie relies on relics: a painting, a journal, a dagger, a ring. (Deadline and First Showing)
Q&A SECTION (with Sandra Gonzalez at Entertainment Weekly)
Question: How would you describe the tone of this season of Castle compared to previous seasons? Thanks for all you do! I enjoy your column each week. — Cheryl
Sandra: If I didn’t know that a very fun Halloween episode and a superhero-themed episode were coming up for Castle, I’d probably be thinking we were in for the darkest season yet based on the premiere. But since I do know those are on the way, I feel a little better saying perhaps the deep issues that will be dealt with will be scattered throughout the season as they have been in the past. That said, prepare for some not-necessarily-love-related issues to make your heart ache. Particularly one scene that shows a side of someone we’ve never seen before.
Question: I don’t really have a question, just anything your “willing” to share that doesn’t “spoil” anything for Castle. — @BecaGreenfield
Sandra: You’re going to get a lot for a non-question: The park scene everyone has been all excited about? It’s as deep and as good as we all imagined…but not for the reason you might be thinking.
Question: When will we find out what Montgomery put in that envelope during the Season 3 finale of Castle and who he mailed it to? — @lkanoczzz
Sandra: First episode. But it definitely opens up some more questions in the process.
Question: Are we going to meet Sam’s wife next season on NCIS: LA? — @ ncisgal995
Sandra: BIG NEWS: yes. Just don’t try shaking down EP Shane Brennan for details. “I’m not going to say anything more than that. It’s a brief appearance, but [fans] should start to look for an episode in November sweeps.”
That’s it. Enjoy!
Have a great weekend!!
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