Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

Actress Ally Sheedy will back as Shawn’s nemesis on Psych, supposedly appearing in the musical episode that is being planned for the new season. (Matt Mitovich at TV Line)

Actress Alex Kingston (Doctor Who) will guest star in an upcoming episode of NCIS, as Miranda Pennebaker, a shady business woman who gets tangled up with Gibbs and the team. (TV Line and TV Guide)

Actress Ellen Greene (Pushing Daisies) will have a recurring role on the mid-season NBC drama Hannibal. She will play Mrs. Komeda, a novelist and member of Boston’s cultural elite, who is a pal of Dr. Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen). (Kimberly Roots at TV Line)

Actress-singer Jill Scott (the upcoming Lifetime movie Steel Magnolias) will appear in an upcoming episode of Fringe, playing Simone, an incredibly intuitive woman, an oracle-like person. (Jeff Jensen at Entertainment Weekly)

ABC Family has renewed Pretty Little Liars for a fourth season. (Seat42F)

Fox has made the first lineup change since the start of the season, delaying the return of the Kiefer Sutherland-led drama Touch until January. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Acting veteran Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner) will be joining the cast of True Blood as a series regular. He will play Macklyn, a mysterious and sinister figure with deep ties to Sookie and Jason (Anna Paquin and Ryan Kwanten). True Blood is slated to return in June. (Michael Ausiello at TV Line)

Actress Vanessa Marcil (Las Vegas) will guest star in an upcoming episode of Hawaii Five-0, appearing as a therapist McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) suspects is involved in a murder case and might be messing with his mind. The episode is slated for November. (Vlada Gelman at TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Chris Carter, the creator of The X-Files, has a new drama project in the works called The After, which is a thriller that revolves around a mysterious, unexplained event. The project has yet to be picked up by any network yet. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Feature film director/writer M. Night Shyamalan has had his first foray into television – called Lost Horizon – picked up by NBC; however the premise of said project is being kept under wraps with the only details being that the potential series revolves around a small fishing village on the East Coast and that it is being described as a modern-day Moby Dick, dealing with obsession and the unknown. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, the executive producers of Smash are developing another hour-long series for NBC with writer Krista Vernoff and legendary songwriter Diane Warren along for the ride. The potential series has yet to be titled, but music will be a feature part of the project. The dramedy will center on a 30-something songwriter who has written the most epic love songs of our time, despite, or perhaps due to the fact that she is painfully unlucky in love. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

MADE FOR TV MOVIE NEWS

Actress Jodi Lyn O’Keefe (Prison Break) will join Drea de Matteo (The Sopranos) in the Lifetime made-for-TV movie/backdoor pilot called Stalkers that is based on the book “Whisper of Fear: The True Story of the Prosecutor Who Stalks the Stalkers by Rhonda Saunders. O’Keefe will play Julia Whitman, the ambitious assistant district attorney who teams with Diane Harper (de Matteo), a hot-headed cop with a troubled past as the duo look to bring a stalker obsessed with her former lover to justice. (Lesley Goldberg at The Hollywood Reporter)

Actress Agnes Bruckner (Private Practice) has been cast to play Anna Nicole Smith in the Lifetime original movie The Anna Nicole Story that will be based on the true life story of Vicky Lynn Hogan, a pretty but plain girl growing up in a small Texas town who transforms herself into Anna Nicole Smith – a voluptuous, Marilyn Monroe-esque Playboy pin-up and model. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Actor Demian Bichir (A Better Life) will play a crime boss in the upcoming black comedy called Dom Hemingway that is already set to star Jude Law, Richard E. Grant and Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones). Law plays the eponymous larger-than-life safecracker who is back on the streets of London after twelve years in prison and eager to collect for keeping his mouth shut. Things take a turn when he sets off to visit Bichir’s capo in the south of France. (Nancy Tartaglione at Deadline)

Actress Julianne Nicholson (Law & Order: Criminal Intent) has joined the cast of the upcoming film called August: Osage County. She will play Ivy Weston, one of the sisters to Barbara (Julia Roberts) in the adaptation of the Tracy Letts Oklahoma family clan play. Ivy is the middle daughter to Violet (Meryl Streep), who stayed in Oklahoma, teaching at a local college but is having a secret affair with a man for who she plans to move to New York with. (Dominic Patten at Deadline)

BOX OFFICE TRAILER

Watch: John McClane is Back in First ‘Good Day to Die Hard’ Trailer

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

Question: What’s with Aidan? Everyone is teasing Emily’s new love interest, but who is he? – Evelyn

Team Watch with Kristin: We talked with Emily VanCamp to get more background on Aidan. “He has betrayed Emily at a certain point in her past, which you see, and then he comes back,” Emily told us. “She’s very resistant to have him back, but there’s still so much love there, and such a depth to their relationship and such an understanding that it’s really cool.”

Question: Dying for more Revenge scoop! – Rebecca

Team Watch with Kristin: It’s time to meet Nolan’s ex-boyfriend! We already told you that the fan favorite will be entangled in a bisexual love triangle of his own later this season, and now we’ve got details on the guy coming into to stir up some drama in Nolan’s new relationship with Padma. Smart, attractive and vulnerable, Lucas is a high-level exec at a tech start-up. While he’s super savvy when it comes to his business, the same can’t be said when it comes to love.

Question: Give a Vampire Diaries fan something to get me through one more week. Any scoop on Bonnie this season? – Sarah

Team Watch with Kristin: We just chatted with Kat Graham who said she’s taking Elena’s transformation “hard, like everyone.” Kat added: “It’s a transition time for everyone in the beginning of the season. Bonnie is going to have to be put under a lot of pressure to make something happen, and she’s going to have to rely on someone new to help her through that.”

Question: I’ve watched the Once Upon a Time premiere three times. Can you give me anything about season two? – Caroline in Dallas

Team Watch with Kristin: We talked to Raphael Sbarge recently who teased there are “big plans ahead” in Storybrook. “There’s a lot of confusion and sorting out the new order. As a therapist, I would say there is still going to be a lot of, ‘Oh I didn’t see that coming’ this season,” said Sbarge. “There is work I have to do to help some people, and I also have to sort some things out about how to deal with this new world order.”

Question: Please tell me we’ll get some good Fitz and Olivia action in tonight’s episode of Scandal?! – Gretchen

Team Watch with Kristin: That phone call in the premiere episode? Not a one-time thing. Turns out, Fitz and Olivia have been having nightly phone calls, and we’ll see three of them in tonight’s episode. They’re intense, to say the very least. “She’s trying to stop him! My goodness!” Kerry Washington says of Olivia. “She’s shoving him away. She’s trying.” Need more? The two will be in the same room at one point in the episode.

Question: Pretty Little Liars scoop, maybe about the epic Halloween episode? – Miles

Team Watch with Kristin: Ashley Benson warns us to fear “the box” in the Halloween episode, calling it “very terrifying.” We’re not sure what that means, but damn, are we curious! And yes, “A” will be making a visit. That, plus the idea of a terrifying box, makes our anticipation for the PLL Halloween episode shoot through the roof.

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

Cinemax has renewed Strike Back for a third season that will debut sometime in 2013; but there are no details on who exactly will be in the cast this time around. In other words, the network likes to keep the viewers guessing. (TV Equals)

Syfy has acquired the Canadian series/UK spin-off Primeval: New World, which will star Niall Matter (Eureka), Sara Canning (The Vampire Diaries) and Danny Rahim (Young James Herriot) as a team of animal experts and scientists investigating paranormal events, while battling both prehistoric and futuristic creatures. In addition, Amanda Tapping (Stargate SG1 and Sanctuary) is on board to direct several episodes. (TV By The Numbers)

Actors Patrick Fischler (Mad Men) and Tony Denison (The Closer and Major Crimes) will guest star in an upcoming mafia-themed episode of Castle. Fischler will play Leo Conrad, a mild mannered witness to a murder who Castle and Beckett take on the run to protect him from a team of ruthless gangsters who want him silenced. Denison will play Mickey Dolan, an enforcer with the McElroy crime family who was friends with the victim until recently when they had a falling out. The episode is slated to air in November. (Michael Ausiello at TV Line)

Actor Colin O’Donoghue (The Rite) was cast not that long ago as Captain Hook on Once Upon a Time and now news has broken that he has been promoted to series regular. He will make his first appearance in the show on October 21. (James Hibberd at Entertainment Weekly)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

ABC has picked up another drama project – this one from screenwriter/playwright Jonathan Mark Feldman, Patrick Massett and John Zinman. The project is called Birthright, centering on Hal Chester, former dashing prince of the tabloids and heir apparent to the true royal family of New York, who returns home a war hero, only to shock the nation, publicly renouncing his family and their ilk, and vowing to now fight against them for the common good and repair the damage that their centuries of insular wealth and power have wreaked upon America. But before he can begin, he is arrested for murdering his younger brother over the woman they both love. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Actor Jake Gyllenhaal will join Hugh Jackman in the upcoming kidnapping thriller flick Prisoners. He will play a hot shot cop named Detective Loki. (The Deadline Team)

BOX OFFICE TRAILER

Hot Trailer: ‘The Lone Ranger’

Jason Statham, Jennifer Lopez and Disguises in the Trailer for ‘Parker’

DreamWorks Animation’s Caveman Comedy ‘The Croods’ First Trailer

Q&A SECTION (with Team Watch with Kristin at E! Online; Natalie Abrams and Adam Bryant at TV Guide and Michael Ausiello at TV Line)

Question: What’s coming up for Daniel on Revenge? – Shannon

Team Watch with Kristin: Hell hath no fury like a not-so-dead mother scorned. “It’s going to really twist up Victoria’s relationship with Daniel,” Mike Kelley teases of Victoria’s re-entry into the world of the living. “When she got on that plane, part of it was because she knew Daniel had double-crossed her with his father and chosen sides. You don’t cross Victoria without some sort of payback.” Yikes!

Question: I need NCIS spoilers. – Ronnie

Team Watch with Kristin: Pauley Perrette tells us all about the guest stars coming to NCIS, and the plotlines that come with them. “Right after the explosion we have our psychiatrist come in who is played by the incredible Steve Valentine, who we all adore,” she says. “And then we also have Billy Dee Williams joining us. We’re bringing back Ralph Waite, who plays Gibb’s father, who is so beloved to us. Abby’s brother, that she didn’t know she had, who we met last year, we’ll get to revisit that storyline.” And get a load of this factoid about the guy playing her brother: “He’s played by Daniel Louis Rivas, which is so fun. We actually look like twins, and he’s my ex-boyfriend in real life.”

Question: Got any Revolution scoop for us? – Ali

Team Watch with Kristin: You mean besides the fact that NBC already gave it a full-season order? Fans should prepare to meet Neville’s wife Julia in an upcoming episode. She’s beautiful, strong and dangerous.

Question: Do you know who’s on the boat on Revenge? — Ashian

NATALIE: Mike Kelley unequivocally confirms that the arm on the boat belongs to a male, not a female. “It’s a man and it’s someone you know,” he says with an evil laugh — seriously — before noting that we’ll learn whose arm it is in Episode 14. Kelley also addressed his statements from February that the Season 2 flash-forward would involve a wedding: “No one’s saying there’s not a wedding that night. I just didn’t show that part. There is at least one wedding and probably two by the time we get to the boat wreck.” So who do you think is on the boat?

Question: You promised Once Upon a Time scoop on the fate of Pinocchio and how Prince Charming and Snow White would take back their kingdom! — Joseph

NATALIE: And I will keep my word! This season’s third episode will feature a fairy-tale land flashback to Snow and Charming’s post-reunion plan — and there will be familiar faces helping them along the way. “We’ve seen their war council,” executive producer Adam Horowitz says. “Snow’s got a really great relationship with Red, and I think that is a story we want to tell.” Horowitz also promises that August’s fate — whether he’s dead now because he went all wooden — will be explained in this Sunday’s episode, but fear not because Eion Bailey has already returned to filming this season!

Question: I could not have guessed who Quinn Perkins was if I tried! What’s coming up on Scandal now? — Mel

NATALIE: Sure, Quinn is a free woman, but not everyone is happy with that. Namely, David, who will not let his failure go. “He came off the case looking like such an imbecile because he absolutely should’ve won it and he didn’t,” Katie Lowes tells us. “Now he [spends] all these [next] episodes going absolutely insane and he is going to get to the bottom of this.”

Question: I really enjoyed Last Resort. Any hints about what’s to come? — Wesley

ADAM: Look for a major bomb (heh) about Chaplin’s family to be dropped in Thursday’s episode. It will provide context for (and raise questions about) Chaplin’s motivations to take on his own country. Speaking of family bombshells, the father of a character we’ve already met seems to be in on the conspiracy to sink to the USS Colorado.

Question: Loved the Revenge premiere! Do you have any more scoop to share about the season? Maybe something about Emily and Aiden? –Jessica

Ausiello: Takeda’s other student might not have figured prominently in last week’s episode, but that will soon change. According to executive producer Mike Kelley, an origins episode of the addictive primetime soap will fill in a lot of the new guy’s back story – including how he and Em met and what bonds them. And later, when Daniel and Emily are “on the outs” and Jack’s unavailable, “There’s an opening there” for Aiden, Kelley previews. “But she’s not the most receptive. He has a lot of ground to make up with her, because he did something to her that’s very hard for her to forgive.” He adds that Em’s rich sidekick may not be Aiden’s biggest fan. “This character has come in and stolen his girl, so [Nolan] doesn’t love him.”

Question: Can I have some Hart of Dixie scoop? —Alicia

Ausiello: Next week’s episode will introduce viewers to Bluebell’s answer to Lollapalooza, Bluebell-palooza. “It’s a music festival,” explains show runner Leila Gerstein. “Claudia Lee, who plays Magnolia, is performing and Wade and George are performing.” Also on the theme-episode docket this season is an election episode that actually airs on Election Day (aka Tuesday, Nov. 6). “It is Bluebell,” notes Gerstein, “so a chicken — the Pickin’ Chicken — may decide who wins.”

Question: I’m glad to see Revolution doing well, but where did Elizabeth Mitchell vanish to so soon? She’s one of the main reasons I’m watching. –Jerry

Ausiello: Rachel is seen again in Episode 5 (airing Oct. 15), in which Mitchell says “we learn quite a bit” about “the ins and outs of her leaving” her family. But it’s in Episode 7, she says, that “we find out 100 percent for sure” how it is that she wound up in Monroe’s possession.

That’s it. Enjoy!

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