Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

Legendary actor Barry Bostwick will guest star in an upcoming episode of Scandal, appearing as the father of President Fitzgerald Grant (Tony Goldwyn). That episode is expected to air on January 17. (Matt Mitovich at TV Line)

Actress Sarah Shahi (Fairly Legal) has landed a recurring role on the CBS drama Person of Interest where she will play Shaw, a fearless, sexy and witty operative in a secret paramilitary organization that tracks and eliminates terrorists before they can act. She will first appear in the February 21 episode and her role may continue into season 3. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

FOX has renewed Bones for a ninth season. (TV By the Numbers)

Actor Burn Gorman (Torchwood) will have a recurring role in the ABC soap Revenge, playing Trask, another representative of the “nefarious” Americon Initiative. (Michael O’Connell at The Hollywood Reporter)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Box office director Brett Ratner and Law & Order veteran Barry Schindel are teaming together for the ABC drama project called Tomorrow, which has been given a script-to-series commitment by the network. That means if the pilot does well enough, the network will continue with a 13-episode order of the series, which is a high-concept law enforcement procedural about an FBI agent who gets trapped in a time travel scenario. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

NBC has given a pilot order to a new stylized drama called Bloodline from writer David Graziano (Awake and Lie To Me) and producers Peter Berg and Sarah Aubrey. This project is set against the backdrop of modern suburbia, following the story of an orphaned young girl name Bird Benson, who, due to an accident of birth, is caught in the epic struggle between two warring families of mercenaries and killers. Mentored by a mysterious Chinese man, Bird must accept the quest to find and defeat her mother in mortal combat if she is ever to lead a normal life. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

FOX and FX announced the launch of a new production unit that would supply them with high-profile limited series and/or mini-series; and it would seem they have chosen their first project. It is called Wayward Pines from feature film director M. Night Shyamalan and Chad Hodge. The project is based on the best-selling novel “Pines by Blake Crouch” and is an intense, mind-bending thriller evocative of the classic cult hit Twin Peaks. Here is the synopsis: Secret Service agent Ethan Burke arrives in the bucolic town of Wayward Pines, ID, on a mission to find two missing federal agents. But instead of answers, Ethan’s investigation only turns up more questions. What’s wrong with Wayward Pines? Each step closer to the truth takes Ethan further from the life he knew, from the husband and father he was, until he must face the terrifying reality that he may never get out of Wayward Pines alive. Fox plans to order at least one event series pilot this year and launch its first long-form series in 2014. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Actress Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) is confirmed to be joining actor Kevin Costner as well as actress Amber Heart and Connie Nielsen in the as-yet untitled action thriller film that will star Costner as a Secret Service agent who comes out of retirement for one last mission in exchange for access to an experimental drug that could save his life, all while trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter (Steinfeld). Hallucinatory, narcoleptic action ensues as he tries to complete the mission while battling the drug’s side effects. (The Deadline Team)

That’s it. Enjoy!