Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

First of all, let’s all take a moment to remember the people who were senselessly murdered in Aurora, Colorado last night while trying to see The Dark Knight Rises. Such sad news to wake up to this morning…

MOMENT OF SILENCE

Now, on to the news for today (with a heavy heart):

TELEVISION

Actress Jennifer Jason Leigh (Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Single White Female) will play mom to Emily Thorne (aka Amanda Clarke) on Revenge this fall. (Kristin at E! Online)

Actress Clean Duvall (Carnivale) will appear in multiple episodes of American Horror Story. Details are scarce on the character she will be playing but she will appear in scenes with returning co-star Sarah Paulson. (TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Lifetime has ordered the drama pilots The Secret Lives of Wives, which is the working title and Witches of East End. Both pilots are slated for next year. The Secret Lives of Wives, inspired by the book by Iris Krasnow, will explore the unvarnished truth behind the marriages of four different women, breaking down the creative ways each close friend nurtures, maintains and endures what many see as an impossible convention of modern life. Meanwhile, Witches of East End, based on Melissa de la Cruz best-selling novel, centers on the adventures of a mother and her two adult daughters — both of whom unknowingly are their family’s next generation of witches — who lead seemingly quiet, uneventful modern day lives in Long Island’s secluded seaside town of North Hampton. When one of the daughters becomes engaged to a young, wealthy newcomer, a series of events forces her mother to admit to her daughters they are, in fact, powerful and immortal witches. (Deadline)

Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (the men behind the Star Trek reboot) and director Len Wiseman (Underworld) are working on a drama project based on the tale of Sleepy Hollow. This version would be a modern–day supernatural thriller that would follow Ichabod Crane as he partners with Sleepy Hollow’s local female sheriff to solve the mysteries of a town ravaged by the battle between good and evil. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Actress Lena Headey (Game of Thrones) and Jared Harris (Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) have joined the cast of the upcoming film The Mortal Instruments (written by Cassandra Clare), the latest young adult fantasy book series being adapted to film. They join Lily Collins (Mirror Mirror), Jamie Campbell Bower (Twilight saga) and Kevin Durand (Lost and I Am Number Four) who were cast earlier). The books follow NYC teen named Clary Fray (Collins), who finds out she is the latest in a line of “Shadowhunters,” a secret society of half-angel warriors caught up in an ancient battle against demons. The first film is set to release on August 23, 2013. (Hit Fix)

Actress Abigail Breslin will star as the daughter of Julia Roberts in the upcoming film called August: Osage County. She will play Jean Fordham, the 14-year old angry and acerbic pot smoking child of Barbara (Roberts). The film is based on the Tracy Letts Pulitzer- and Tony-winning play, which chronicles several summer weeks in the life of a severely dysfunctional Oklahoma family and the crisis that gathers them back together. Meryl Streep and Juliette Lewis are also set to star in the film. (Deadline)

Actor/Director Kenneth Branagh may be appearing in the upcoming Jack Ryan reboot. He is in negotiations to play the Russian villain in the franchise based on the famous Tom Clancy literary hero. In this version, Chris Pine will play Ryan, an ex-Marine who now works as a successful financial analyst in Moscow. He discovers a plot by his employer to finance a terrorist attack designed to collapse the U.S. economy. (Variety and Dark Horizons)

Actor Josh Holloway (Lost) has joined the cast of the upcoming film Paranoia, which is an adaptation of the Joseph Finder thriller that finds Liam Hemsworth (The Hunger Games) playing a blue-collar guy who is blackmailed by his boss into spying on a rival company. Holloway will play the investigating FBI agent keeping a close eye on Hemsworth. (Variety and Dark Horizons)

Q&A SECTION (with Sandra Gonzalez at Entertainment Weekly)

Question: Supernatural scoop please!! — Remy

Sandra: Want a follow-up to the hyper-meta episode “The French Mistake”? Ben Edlund told reporters after the show’s panel at Comic-Con that he has an idea that could produce a part 2 — but he’s not sure if it’ll work. He’s also into dinosaurs, but “I’ve never been able to get them on.”

Question: So Jim Beaver was at the SPN panel at Comic-Con. Does that mean he’s coming back? I love him, but… — Sarah

Sandra: Everyone I chatted with after the panel was hesitant to confirm or deny a return, but Beaver would certainly be up for it. And, he added, he doesn’t think it’d be one too many trips back to the land of the living. “Dramatically speaking, you’ve hit on one of the dilemmas of the show and I think they’ve managed very well to walk the line without crossing over too much into making death less meaningful,” he says. “It’s dangerous if your show is about threatening people with destruction every week but destruction doesn’t matter because you get to come back. You don’t always get to come back and you don’t always get to come back well. What the show has done really well is creating characters that fans love so much that any step over that line gets attenuated by the fact that the audience is so happy to see the character back.”

Question: Is there anything new on the upcoming season of Supernatural? I’m hoping that we get a few episodes centered on Purgatory. — Annabelle

Sandra: As I’m sure you heard, it’ll be more than a few. And these flashbacks will be intense, I hear. Especially episode 2, which is when we see Castiel again. That’s when we’ll find out whether he left Dean seemingly fending for himself in Purgatory for a good reason (to find help/provisions)…or a bad one.

Question: You know what sucks? Waiting for Hart of Dixie to come back! So any and all scoop is appreciated! — Lucy

Sandra: The show is currently looking for a musically talented gal to play Wade’s ex-bandmade — and former flame!

That’s it. Enjoy!

Have a great weekend!

And, again, deepest condolences to those affected by the shooting in Colorado. No words can make the pain dissipate; but time will heal the wounds. Sympathies extended to all!

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Hey All,

Well after yesterday’s long news update today’s update seems much simpler. Here are the news items for today:

NEWS

Congrats to all the Emmy nominees (they were announced this morning). Some of the big “winners” (at least for now) include Downtown Abbey, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Homeland, Game of Thrones and Sherlock (among others). The official awards ceremony will be televised on September 15. (E! Online)

TELEVISION

Actress Camilla Luddington (from William & Kate, the Lifetime movie and True Blood) has landed a recurring role as a young doctor on Grey’s Anatomy. (Deadline)

Actor Richard Burgi (Desperate Housewives) will appear in the season premiere of Blue Bloods when it returns this fall to CBS. HE will play Councilman Anthony Russo, the powerful, wealthy chairman of the Committee on Public Safety. Blue Bloods will be back on September 28. (TV Guide)

Actress Megalyn Echikunwoke (The 4400 and CSI: Miami) will be a series regular on the new CBS legal drama Made in Jersey that tells the story of how working-class Jersey girl Martina Garretti (Janet Montgomery from Human Target) shows her stuffy New York law-firm colleagues a thing or two. Echikunwoke will play Riley, the daughter of an ambassador and a Silicon Valley pioneer and a second-year associate at the law firm of Stark & Rowan. The series will debut on September 28. (TV Line)

Actor Santiago Cabrera (Heroes and Merlin) will appear in a number of episodes of Dexter during the show’s 7th season. He will guest star as Ethan Price, the author of a true crime book series about famous murders. Dexter returns to Showtime on September 30. (Entertainment Weekly and TV Line)

Actress Grace Phipps (The Nine Lives of Chloe King) will appear in episodes of The Vampire Diaries when the series returns to The CW for its new season this fall. She will play April, a natural beauty with a bit of an edge, who has some history with both Elena (Nina Dobrev) and Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen), but Elena will try to protect her from the supernatural secrets of Mystic Falls. The Vampire Diaries will be back on October 11. (TV Guide)

Actor Patton Oswalt (Caprica) and actress Sonja Sohn (The Wire) will make guest appearances on upcoming episodes of Burn Notice. Oswalt will play Colin Schmidt, a notorious smuggler who is just the man the gang needs in order to escape the grasp of the CIA and disappear indefinitely. While Sohn will play a high-level CIA director. (Sandra Gonzalez at Entertainment Weekly)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Marlene King, executive producer of the ABC Family teen drama Pretty Little Liars is in the early stages of developing a TV project based on her 1995 feature film Now and Then. The film centered on four friends during the summer of 1970 and starred Christina Ricci, Demi Moore, Rosie O’Donnell, Melanie Griffith and Rita Wilson. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Bryan Fuller, the man behind the quirky but short-lived TV shows Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies announced some news about the latter of his creations. It seems that the tale of pie maker Ned (Lee Pace), who was able to bring the dead back to life with a single touch, could be making its way to Broadway as a musical. Fuller told TV Line the following: “We’re working on something that is definitely a Pushing Daisies revival, and the idea would be to have as many cast [members] as we can to participate in it.” No other specifics are known at this time, however. (TV Line and Blastr)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

I’m back from Comic Con 2012 and boy is there a lot of news for which to catch up on. Today’s update needless to say is going to be very long and has taken me the better part of three days to put together.

Here goes:

TELEVISION

Actress Paget Brewster (Criminal Minds) will guest star in the two-hour premiere of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which is set to air on CBS on September 26. (The Futon Critic)

The CBS series Unforgettable is getting a second chance with 13 all-new episodes that will air next summer, but the supporting cast will be changing significantly. Season one co-stars Kevin Rankin, Daya Vaidya, Michael Gaston and Britt Lower will not be back; but Jane Curtin, who joined as a series regular halfway through the first season will be back along with series stars Poppy Montgomery and Dylan Walsh. (Deadline)

Actor Will Chase (Smash) will make a guest appearance on Necessary Roughness, playing a band member who goes to Dr. Dani to resolve past conflicts before going on a reunion tour. (TV Line and TV Guide)

Actor Todd Williams (In Plain Sight) has landed a recurring role on The Vampire Diaries where he will play Connor, a mysterious and powerful new vampire hunter who comes to Mystic Falls when the show returns this fall. The Vampire Diaries will be back on October 11 on The CW. (TV Guide)

Actress Amanda Peet will have a multi-arc role on The Good Wife, playing a military lawyer who enlists the law firm’s aid when the show returns for a 4th season this fall. The series returns on September 30 on CBS. (TV Line and TV Guide)

Well-known actress Linda Hamilton (Chuck and the Terminator franchise) will guest star in a season 3 episode of the Syfy series Lost Girl. She will play Acacia, a tough, sexy and ruthless assassin who has enjoyed a storied and deadly career. Her arrival will spell trouble for Bo and company. Lost Girl will move to Friday night this Friday with the finale set to air on September 14. Season 3 will return some time next year. (TV Line)

Actor Mark Consuelos will appear in the upcoming season of American Horror Story, playing a patient named Spivey. (Entertainment Weekly and The Futon Critic)

Actor Gaius Charles (Friday Night Lights) has landed a recurring role on Grey’s Anatomy. It is being presumed that he will play a young doctor at Seattle Grace. (TV Line and The Futon Critic)

Actor Ty Olsson (Eureka and Men In Trees) has landed a recurring role on Supernatural. He will play Benny, a darkly handsome survivor with a tell-it-to-you-straight sense of honor. The series will air its 8th season premiere on October 3. (Deadline)

Actor Devon Sawa has been made a series regular on The CW series Nikita. (Deadline)

It looks like the web series Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog from Joss Whedon will air on The CW sometime next year; but a date or time has not been announced yet. (Deadline)

Actress Shannyn Sossamon (Moonlight and A Knight’s Tale) has landed a role on the upcoming ABC soap Mistresses. She will play Alex, one-half of a lesbian couple who become a client of Josslyn (Jess Macallan) and are on the search for an expensive house. Mistresses will also star Alyssa Milano, Yunjin Kim and Rochelle Aytes. The soap will debut next May for a summer run. (Deadline)

Actor Iain Glen (Game of Thrones and Downton Abbey) will guest star in the season of Haven, playing Roland Holloway, a refined yet bitter man who’s been trapped inside his house for more than 27 years and is bent on vengeance. Haven will return to Syfy on September 21. (Deadline)

Falling Skies has been renewed by TNT for a third season. (Deadline)

MTV has renewed Teen Wolf for a third season. (Deadline)

Actors Sean Murray and Michael Weatherly and actress Pauley Perrette have signed contracts to return for the 10th season of NCIS. (Deadline)

Legendary actress Diana Rigg (the original TV series The Avengers) has joined the cast of Game of Thrones for its third season. She will play Olenna Redwyne the Queen of the Thorns. (Deadline)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Ron Moore (the executive producer of Battlestar Galactica) will develop the best-selling Outlander series of books by Diana Gabaldon for TV. The project will be taken to cable networks this week. The book series starts off in 1945, following Claire, a married WWII combat nurse who accidentally steps back in time to the Scottish Highlands of 1743. (Deadline)

TNT has given a pilot order to The Last Ship, an action drama series to be executive produced by Michael Bay. The project is based on the popular novel by William Brinkley and will be written by Hank Steinberg (Without a Trace) and Steven Kane (The Closer). The project centers on the crew of a naval destroyer who, after a global catastrophe decimates the earth’s population, are forced to confront the reality of their new existence in a world where they are among the only survivors. (Deadline)

Author Neil Gaiman will collaborate with artist J.H. Williams III (Batwoman) on a new limited series based on his classic graphic novel The Sandman. The mini-series will be published next year. (Deadline)

Hung co-creators Dmitry Lipkin and Colette Burson are developing a new series for Starz entitled Called Sleep No More, a supernatural thriller that will tell the tale of a town where the dead keep returning to life. (Deadline)

The drama pilot The Joneses by Liz Tigelaar, the series creator of The CW series Life Unexpected has been picked up by Bravo. The family drama follows the All-American Joneses, who have just moved into an upscale suburb to start a new life; but they have a secret they must keep from their new friends and neighbors — they aren’t a real family at all. (Deadline)

The cable network Starz has two original projects in development: Incursion, a sci-fi action thriller from Steven S. DeKnight (creator of Spartacus) and Vlad Dracula from the team of J. Michael Straczynski, Roy Lee and Rob Tapert. Incursion follows a squad of soldiers caught in a war against a hostile alien race while Vlad Dracula will blend historical facts of the 15th century Prince of Wallachia with the fictional Dracula. (Deadline)

A&E has secured the rights to Those Who Kill, the Danish crime series based on the books by Elsebeth Egholm. The cabler has also ordered a pilot. The original series revolves around a police detective and a forensic profiler who possess a deep understanding of the serial killers they hunt. (Deadline)

CONDOLENCES

Queen of Country Music, Kitty Wells, passed away last week after suffering complications from a stroke. She was 92. (E! Online)

Oscar-winning actress Celeste Holm passed away last week at the age of 95. (Deadline)

Actor-director Sage Stallone, son of Sylvester Stallone, passed away last week. He was only 36. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Here are the top 10 box office films for last weekend courtesy of online research:

1. Ice Age Continental Drift – 46 million
2. The Amazing Spider-Man – 34 million
3. Ted – 22 million
4. Brave – 11 million
5. Savages – 9.3 million
6. Magic Mike – 9 million
7. Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection – 5.6 million
8. Katy Perry: Part of Me – 3.8 million
9. Moonrise Kingdom – 3.7 million
10. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted – 3.6 million

Actress Dianna Agron (Glee) is in negotiations to play the daughter of the characters to be played by Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer in the dark action comedy called Malavita. De Niro plays an American mob boss in Witness Protection hiding with his family in the Normandy region of France. But the man can’t stop his Mafia ways and begins to impose his will on the unsuspecting small town. (Heat Vision and Dark Horizons)

Actress Viola Davis and actors William Hurt and Ciarin Hinds (among others) have joined the cast of the upcoming film The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby that will be dual films following a love story between a New York City couple (James MacAvoy and Jessica Chastain) during a difficult time in their marriage. (Screen Daily and Dark Horizons)

Actress Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) and actor Sam Claflin (Snow White and the Hunstman) have joined the cast of the upcoming film Overdrive that will star Karl Urban in a story about two American brothers who decide to take their careers as car thieves to the next level by fleeing to the South of France, where they run afoul of a black marketeer. (Deadline)

Actress Jessica Biel will appear as Viper from the X-men mythology in the upcoming movie The Wolverine. (Deadline)

Actor Richard Armitage, who will be seen in The Hobbit, will star alongside Sarah Wayne Callies (The Walking Dead) in an upcoming untitled tornado film. (Deadline)

Actor Tobey Maguire has joined the cast of the upcoming film called Labor Day, which is an adaptation of the Joyce Maynard book that centers on 13-year old Henry, who learns valuable life lessons over a five-day Labor Day weekend. Maguire will play the adult version of the boy. (Deadline)

Actress Britt Robertson (Life Unexpected and The Secret Circle) has joined the cast of the upcoming dark bully drama called White Rabbit that will also star Sam Trammell (True Blood). (Deadline)

Actor Billy Campbell (The Killing) will play Abraham Lincoln in the National Geographic Channel docu-drama called Killing Lincoln, based on the book by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard that chronicles the conspiracy behind Lincoln’s assassination. (Deadline)

Q&A SECTION (with Watch with Kristin Team at E! Online)

Question: Vampire Diaries scoop, please and thank you! – Beth

WWK Team: Matt Donovan fans, you may want to avert your eyes: “Matt’s going to have a tough year. I’m not kidding you, Matt’s going to have a really tough year. I feel bad for Matt,” Ian Somerhalder warns of Damon’s feelings toward Mystic Falls’ No. 1 quarterback/busboy after learning that Stefan chose to save him over Elena.

Question: I’ll take anything you’ve got on Once Upon a Time! – Samantha:

WWK Team: Princess Aurora comes in a package deal! The ABC hit series is currently looking for a Prince Phillip to go hand-in-hand with Aurora and he kind of reminds us of Charming: He is known to selflessly shoulder the burden for those around him and is a skilled warrior. Oh, and he’s very handsome.

Clarissa: Any news on the Mad Hatter from Once Upon a Time? – _serenachan

WWK Team: Showrunner Edward Kitsis was pretty tight-lipped about season two, but did say fans will “absolutely” see Sebastian Stan in season two, so Jefferson/Mad Hatter’s story is far from over. Small victories, people!

Question: Any scoop on NCIS: LA would be greatly appreciated! – Clarissa

WWK Team: The show will be adding a new potentially recurring character this season, an 18-year-old girl named Astrid (how Fringe of the CBS hit!), who has high-functioning autism and a punk style. Though she’s socially awkward and low on the empathy, she’s brilliant and has a knack for numbers and patterns. New team member alert, anyone?!

Question: Teen Wolf, when will we find out more about Lydia’s immunity? – Paigerzz22

WWK Team: Holland Roden would only tell us that episode nine is a big one for Lydia, but Colton Haynes let a bit more spill when we asked who the bigger threat was, Jackson or Lydia: I think Lydia is a huge threat because in the show we make you think Lydia is fully unaware of what’s happening and is kind of off in space, but I think it could be otherwise,” he says. “Jackson is a huge threat, but I think one character in the show will find a way to possibly cure something in all of us. Someone could have a cure.” Can Lydia cure lycanthropy? Things that make you go hmmm…

Question: ANYTHING on the Hart of Dixie Wade/Zoe/George situation? This wait is killing me! – Charlottexoxo

WWK Team: How about that both men won’t stay in the dark about their situation with the town’s resident shorts-lovin’ doc for long? In fact, the whole town will find out about George and Zoe, branding her the home wrecker of Bluebell.

That’s it. Enjoy!

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