Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

First of all, let’s congratulate all of the Oscar winners, which were presented last night, including The Artist, Jean Dujardin, Meryl Streep, Octavia Spencer, Christopher Plummer, Woody Allen, Michel Hazanavicius, Rango, Hugo, The Descendants, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Muppets and The Iron Lady.

And, now here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

Actor Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) is headed to Doctor Who to play the latest incarnation of The Master. (Express.Co.UK and Film Thrasher)

Actor David Morrissey will join the AMC zombie drama The Walking Dead, playing The Governor, the main villain of season three. (The Live Feed and Dark Horizons)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Veteran character actor Martin Landau has been cast in the ABC drama pilot called Antichrist that will be about Carter Henderson (Max Thieriot), an astrophysics grad student who, after his father is killed, learns that he is the chosen one to destroy the forces of evil. Landau will play Mister Armin, a blind World War II veteran and the executor of Carter’s father’s estate. (The Futon Critic)

Scottish actor/singer Darius Campbell has booked one of the title roles on the ABC drama pilot Beauty and the Beast that will be set in the mythical city of Kendan where its princess, Grace, is tasked with quelling a rebellion. Campbell will play the beast, Shiro, once the Holy Protector to the Emperor, now a mercenary for the rebels. Chris Egan also stars. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

British actress Janet Montgomery (Human Target) has landed the lead in the CBS legal drama pilot called Baby Big Shot that will center on Martina (Montgomery), a working-class woman who uses her street smarts to compete with her more polished colleagues at a top New York law firm. (Deadline)

Actor Ethan Peck (grandson of legendary actor Gregory Peck), who starred in the short-lived TV adaptation of 10 Things I Hate About You on ABC Family has been tapped to play the prince in the futuristic drama pilot for The CW called The Selection. He will star opposite Aimee Teegarden (Friday Night Lights) in a story that draws parallels to The Hunger Games. This pilot will be based on the upcoming series of books by Kiera Cass and is set 300 years in the future. It centers on America Singer (Teegarden), a poor young woman who is chosen by lottery to participate in a competition to marry Prince Maxon (Peck) and become the next queen of a war-torn nation at a crossroads. Maxon has an unusual run-in with potential bride America and is impressed and intrigued with her honesty and moxie. (Deadline)

Actor Julian Morris (Pretty Little Liars) has been cast in the FOX legal drama pilot called Guilty that will center on Billy Remz, a brilliant, morally questionable defense attorney who, after being falsely convicted of fraud and stripped of his legal license, uses his unorthodox methods to solve the cases he’s been banned from handling and to exact revenge on the men who set him up. Morris will play an eager young attorney, dazzled and intimidated by Billy’s self-confidence and breezy ability when it comes to breaking the rules. (Deadline)

Actor Rick Gonzalez (Reaper) and Zoe Boyle (Downton Abbey) have joined the NBC drama pilot called Bad Girls that is to follow the ins and outs of a group of unlikely women in a federal prison: a scandalous female warden, her new protégé and a host of inmates — some mothers, some friends — who struggle with loyalties to people on the inside and outside. Gonzalez will play a hot, tattooed ex gang-banger who is now a correctional officer at the women’s prison and the object of lust among the man-less female inmates. Boyle will play a single mother who takes a job as nurse at the prison. (Deadline)

Actor Chaske Spencer (Sam in the Twilight movie franchise) has joined the cast of the NBC western drama called The Frontier that will revolve around a group who follows their dreams and heads West from Missouri across the unchartered country in the 1840s. Spencer will play Eli, a cook who’s traveling with his mentally unstable aunt, Luisa. The cast already includes Ethan Embry (Sweet Home Alabama), Megan Ferguson (Boardwalk Empire), Jake McLaughlin (Savages), Bridget Regan (Legend of the Seeker) [among others]. (Lesley Goldberg at The Hollywood Reporter)

Actor Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad) has been tapped to star in the NBC drama pilot Revolution that is to center on a group of characters struggling to survive and reunite with loved ones in a world where all forms of energy have mysteriously ceased to exist. Esposito will play Capt. Neville, a tough military man with a genteel Southern manner who may not always be what he seems. (Lesley Goldberg at The Hollywood Reporter)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Here are the top 10 box office movies for this past weekend courtesy of Exhibitor Relations:

1. Act of Valor, $24.7 million
2. Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds, $16 million
3. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, $13.5 million
4. Safe House, $11.4 million
5. The Vow, $10 million
6. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, $8.8 million
7. This Means War, $8.5 million
8. Wanderlust, $6.6 million
9. Gone, $5 million
10. The Secret of Arrietty, $4.5 million

Actress Frances Fisher (Titanic and The Lincoln Lawyer) has joined the cast of the film adaptation of the Stephenie Meyer book The Host. The store follows a few human survivors of a parasitic alien species called the Souls which have plagued Earth. The cast already includes Diane Kruger, Saoirse Ronan, Jake Abel and William Hurt. (Deadline and Dark Horizons)

That’s it. Enjoy!