Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All

I’m back from WonderCon and playing some major games of ‘catch-up’. Here are the news items since Friday:

TELEVISION

NBC has picked up the new fairytale drama Grimm for a second season. (E! Online)

Actor Thomas Calabro (the original Melrose Place) will appear on an upcoming episode as the dad of none other than Puck (Mark Salling). His character is described as in his 40s with his life is in shambles; he dropped out of high school, left his wife and hasn’t paid child support in a long time. Rumor has it he may stick around too. (TV Line and E! Online)

Even before the new Starz drama Magic City has debuted the cabler has already given the series a 10-episode second season order. The drama will star Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen, Grey’s Anatomy and Supernatural), Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace and Danny Huston (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) in tales of Miami Beach circa 1959 for Starz. The first season will debut on April 6. (The Futon Critic)

Geek queen/actress Felicia Day (The Guild) will guest star in the April 27 episode of Supernatural, portraying a young woman who’s handy with a computer. (TV Guide)

Actress Constance Zimmer (Entourage) has booked a major recurring role in the Netflix drama series House Of Cards, which is a political thriller that will star Kevin Spacey as Rep. Frank Underwood, the Majority Whip of the U.S. House of Representatives who after being passed over for Secretary of State hatches a plot to bring down the new president. Zimmer will play a school journalist who gets involved in a political scandal. (Deadline)

Actress Allison Mack (Smallville) has been tapped for a major recurring role on the FX comedy Wilfred that is about Ryan (Elijah Wood) and his relationship with his neighbor’s dog Wilfred (Jason Gann). Mack will play Ryan’s new love interest, an attractive and edgy biochemist. (Deadline)

Actress Camilla Luddington (the Lifetime movie William and Kate) has been cast in a recurring role on the upcoming season of True Blood. She will play Claudette, one of Claude’s (Giles Matthey) many sisters, who gives Sookie insight into what it means to be a faerie. (Deadline)

Actress Janel Parrish, who was revealed – SPOILER ALERT – to be “A” in last night’s season finale of Pretty Little Liars, has been added to the cast as a series regular when the cable series returns for its third season this summer. (The Hollywood Reporter)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Actor Gerard Butler will star in the White House-set action thriller called Olympus Has Fallen that centers on an ex-Secret Service agent who must foil a terrorist attack on the president’s residence. (The Hollywood Reporter and Dark Horizons)

Actresses Margo Martindale (Justified and A Gifted Man) and Zoey Deutch (Ringer) are in final negotiations to join the cast of the supernatural love story Beautiful Creatures, which is based on the first novel in the popular series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. The story follows teenage lovers Ethan and Lena (Jack O’Connell and Alice Englert) who uncover dark secrets about their families, their history and their town. Martindale will play Lena’s Aunt Del who helps to protect her from the family’s dark side. Deutch will play Emily Asher, Ethan’s ex-girlfriend and the ringleader of the high school’s popular clique that conspires against Lena. The cast already includes Jeremy Irons, Viola Davis, Emma Thompson and Emmy Rossum. (Variety and Dark Horizons)

Here are the top 10 box office films from this past weekend courtesy of Exhibitor Relations:

1. 21 Jump Street, $35 million
2. Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, $22.8 million
3. John Carter, $13.5 million
4. Project X, $4 million
5. A Thousand Words, $3.8 million
6. Act of Valor, $3.7 million
7. Safe House, $2.8 million
8. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, $2.5 million
9. Casa de mi Padre, $2.2 million
10. This Means War, $2.1 million

NOTE: Really, 21 Jump Street is the top movie? Seriously? Does anyone remember the show for which the movie is LOOSELY based? This movie is NOTHING like the show except that they are young looking cops undercover in high school. The rest looks like utter crap. And, then there is Project X and that Will Farrell piece of trash in the top 10. ARGH!! What in the world is the American movie-going audience thinking? Off my soap box (for now).

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Queen Latifah has signed on to star in and executive produce the Lifetime Original Movie Event, Steel Magnolias, the TV adaptation of the iconic play and 1989 film. The all-star cast includes Alfre Woodard, Phylicia Rashad and Jill Scott (among others). This version chronicles the lives and friendship of six women in Louisiana, supporting each other through their triumphs and tragedies. They congregate at the local beauty shop to ponder the mysteries of life and death, husbands and children – and hair and nails – all the important topics that bring women together. The movie is expected to debut in 2012. (The Futon Critic)

Actor Matthew Rhys (Brothers & Sisters) will star opposite Keri Russell in the FX drama pilot The Americans that is about the complex marriage of two KGB spies posing as Americans in suburban Washington DC in the early 1980’s. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

Actor Pablo Schreiber (A Gifted Man) has joined the cast of CBS drama pilot Baby Big Shot that is about Martina Garretti (Janet Montgomery from Human Target), a working-class woman who uses her street smarts to compete with her more polished colleagues at a Manhattan law firm. He will play Aaronson, a senior partner at Stark & Cohen who still leads with his looks and athletic prowess. Also, actress Stephanie March (Law & Order: SVU) has landed a role in this pilot, playing Natalie, a high-ranking law firm associate who aspires to run the firm someday. (James Hibberd at Entertainment Weekly, Deadline and The Futon Critic)

Actor Brian White (Men of a Certain Age) has been added to the cast of The CW drama pilot Beauty and the Beat that is about Catherine Chandler (Kristin Kreuk from Smallville), a police detective who teams with Vincent Koslow (Jay Ryan from Terra Nova), a genetically altered Afghanistan war veteran to solve crimes in New York City. White will play Joe Profeta, Catherine’s handsome superior at the NYPD. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

Actor Tom Irwin (Saving Grace) has joined the cast of the ABC drama pilot Devious Maids that focuses on four maids (Ana Ortiz, Dania Ramirez, Roselyn Sanchez, Judy Reyes) with ambition and dreams of their own while they work for the rich and famous in Beverly Hills. Irwin will play renowned fashion designer Adrian Powell whose maid was recently murdered, a development which Marisol (Ortiz) has taken upon herself to investigate. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

Yunjin Kim (Lost) has joined the cast of the ABC drama pilot Mistresses (based on the BBC original) that follows the lives of four female friends and their involvement in an array of illicit and complex relationships. She will play Katie Roden, a therapist who slept with one of her patients, John, before his death. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

Actress Mimi Rogers and actor Gilles Marini (Switched at Birth and Brothers & Sisters) have both landed roles in the ABC drama pilot Scruples based on the book of the same name by Judith Krantz. The pilot is about the staggeringly luxurious life of a Beverly Hills boutique in 1978 and the people who work in it. Rogers will guest star as Harriet Toppington, the Anna Wintour-esque editor of Vogue Magazine who is behind Spider’s (Chad Michael Murray) banishment to Los Angeles. Meanwhile Marini will play Renee Dufaux, a handsome, scruffy French Count from Billy’s (Claire Forlani) past. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

Actor Holt McCallany (Lights Out) has joined the cast of the CBS drama pilot Golden Boy that tracks one man’s (Theo James from Underworld: Awakenings) meteoric rise from uniform cop at age 26 to police commissioner at 34. McCallany will play Joe Diaco, one of the detectives from the commissioner’s days in homicide. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

Actor Tate Donovan (Damages) will star in the NBC drama pilot Notorious that is about Joanna Locasto (yet to be cast), a police detective who returns undercover to the wealthy family she grew up in – as the maid’s daughter – to solve the murder of Vivian Lawson, the notorious heiress who was once her closest friend. Donovan will play Vivian’s older, responsible brother Edward, who’s married with two kids and serves as CFO of Lawson Pharmaceuticals. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

Actor Scott Bakula (Men of a Certain Age and Quantum Leap) has landed the male lead on the NBC comedy pilot Table for Three about Penelope “Pen” Morton (Christine Woods from FlashForward), a young doctor who returns home from Doctors Without Borders to find her father is seriously dating Holly Timmons (Nicky Whelan), the “mean girl” from her high school. Bakula will play said father, Robert, a safe, responsible, creature of habit who is made extremely uncomfortable by conflict. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

Actor John Corbett (United States of Tara and Northern Exposure) has scored a lead role in the CBS drama The Widow Detective that is about a decorated detective who has lost three partners in the line of duty and serves as the male figure in the lives of his fallen partners’ families. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

Actor Jason O’Mara (Terra Nova and Life on Mars) has landed a role alongside Dennis Quaid, Michael Chiklis and Carrie-Anne Moss in the as-yet untitled CBS Ralph Lamb drama pilot. The pilot chronicles the true story of Ralph Lamb (Quaid), a rodeo cowboy turned longtime Sheriff of Las Vegas and Johnny Savino (Chiklis), a Chicago mob fixer whose entrepreneurial vision for transforming Las Vegas collides with the law-and-order mandate of Sheriff Lamb. O’Mara will play Ralph Lamb’s younger brother Frank, the diplomat in the family. (Deadline)

Legendary actor Brian Cox will co-star in the ABC drama pilot Gotham that centers on Detective Annie Travers (Megan Ketch) who, while investigating the “impossible murder” of a nightclub owner, is stunned to learn that New York has a whole secret magical history of which she (and everyone else) was hitherto unaware. Cox will play Alderman Morrill, an intelligent, sharp-eyed gentleman and seemingly the owner of a clock shop who is actually entrusted to keep the secret magic world New York City running on an even keel. (Deadline)

Actor Anson Mount (Hell On Wheels) will have a high-profile guest starring role in the ABC drama pilot Penoza that centers on Martha (Radha Mitchell), the widow of an assassinated criminal (Mount) who is forced to adopt her husband’s role in a crime syndicate in order to protect her family. (Deadline)

The NBC reboot of the 60’s classic The Munsters now called Mockingbird Lane has cast its Grandpa in the form of none other than comedian/actor Eddie Izzard.  (Michael Ausiello at TV Line)

That’s it. Enjoy!