Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

Actors David Marciano and Navid Negahban have been promoted to series regulars on the Showtime drama Homeland for the series’ second season. As viewers will recall, Marciano played Virgil, Carrie’s “right-hand snoop” and Negahban played the renowned terrorist Abu Nazir. Homeland is expected to be back in the fall. (Matt Mitovich and Michael Maloney at TV Line)

MADE FOR TV MOVIE NEWS

Legendary actors Christopher Plummer and Frank Langella have signed on the upcoming HBO project Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight. Plummer will play Supreme Court Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan II, and Langella will take on the role of Chief Justice Warren Berger. An actor has yet to be named to play Ali himself, though. (Lanford Beard at Entertainment Weekly)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Actress Bridget Regan (Legend of the Seeker), actor Ethan Embry (That Thing You Do!) [among others] have joined the cast of the NBC Western pilot called The Frontier that will chronicle the journey of a group of disparate travelers from Missouri to the West Coast in 1840. Regan will play Hannah, who is traveling with her husband but becomes close with one of the other travelers while Embry will play DJ Jackson, who pretends to be married to Payton, but is secretly gay. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actors Jon Voight and Elliot Gould have joined the Showtime drama pilot called Ray Donovan that will star Liev Schreiber in the title role. Voight will play Ray’s father Mickey Donovan, a newly freed ex-convict who heads to Los Angeles with suspicious intentions to reconnect with his estranged family. While Gould will appear as a recurring guest star named Ezra Goodman, a senior partner at a law firm who is Ray’s mentor and confidante, yet is showing signs of dementia. (The Futon Critic)

Young actor Max Thieriot (The Pacifier) has landed the lead role in the as-yet titled Roland Emmerich drama pilot for ABC. The pilot centers on Carter (Thieriot), an astrophysics grad student in NYC who learns that he is the chosen one to destroy the forces of evil. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actress Autumn Reeser (No Ordinary Family and The O.C.) has joined the cast of the ABC drama pilot called Last Resort that will star Andre Braugher. The pilot centers on the crew of the U.S.S. Nevada, a nuclear submarine, who, after disobeying a suspicious order, become fugitives. They land on the island of Sainte Marina, where they take over the NATO Listening Station and declare themselves an independent nuclear nation. Reeser will play Kylie, a charming lobbyist for her family’s weapons manufacturing company. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actor Kevin Alejandro (True Blood and Southland) has been cast in the as-yet titled Greg Berlanti drama pilot formerly known as Golden Boy that will chronicle a cop’s meteoric rise from officer to detective and eventually police commissioner. Alejandro will play the top detective in the squad who is disturbed by the new guy’s arrival and plots to derail his career. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

NBC is temporarily shelving their remake of the Munsters pilot – now titled Mocking Bird Lane – to June effectively removing it from this fall’s TV line-up; but that doesn’t mean it’s dead – just delayed. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Syfy is developing a series version of the box office film Legion, which chronicled human race’s battle for survival against God’s legion of angels sent by him to bring on the Apocalypse. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actor Keong Sim – who played Mike Chang’s dad on Glee – has joined the cast of the TNT medical drama pilot from David E. Kelley and for which is based on CNN chief medical correspondent’s Sanjay Gupta’s novel Monday Mornings. The pilot follows the lives of five surgeons as they push the limits of their personal and professional feelings. Sim will play Dr. Sung Park, an abrupt but socially awkward neurosurgeon who performs his job with a searing intensity and relentless ambition. (Lesley Goldberg at The Hollywood Reporter)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

It looks like yet another Beauty and the Beast project is getting underway – this time on the big screen with actor Vincent Cassel (Black Swan) and Lea Seydoux (Midnight in Paris and Robin Hood) in the lead roles. There are no story details at this time, though. The film is expected to be in theatres in 2014. (Deadline, Movie Web and Blastr)

Young actress Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) is in negotiations to join Mark Ruffalo and Scarlett Johansson in the box office film Can a Song Save Your Life? that has Johansson’s character moving to New York to pursue her dreams of a singing career but finding herself all alone when she’s dumped by her boyfriend. Enter a down-on-his-luck record producer (Ruffalo) who finds her singing in a local bar and the two realize that they may be each other’s last chance to turn their lives around. Steinfeld will play Ruffalo’s daughter. (Borys Kit at The Hollywood Reporter)

That’s it. Enjoy!

Have a terrific weekend!!