Hey All,
I spent all day yesterday at the Paley Center for Media, hanging out with friends waiting patiently in line for the Castle event that took place last night, which kept me from posting any news update.
So, the following are the news items from yesterday and for today:
TELEVISION
Actress Leslie Bibb (best known for her role in the cult favorite series Popular) will appear in The Following as Jana Murphy, a suburban housewife who unexpectedly finds herself in the company of Joe Carroll (series lead James Purefoy). There are no other details on her character or how many episodes for which she will appear. The Following will be back mid-season on FOX. (Liz Raftery at TV Guide)
Character actor Patrick Fischler (Lost and Mad Men) will appear on Suits, playing A. Eliot Stemple, a Harvard Law School classmate of Harvey’s (series lead Gabriel Macht) with whom he has a unique (and tense) history. Suits will be back with the rest of its current, third season in early 2014. (Michael Ausiello at TV Line)
CBS has renewed Unforgettable for a 13-episode third season to air in summer 2014. (Broadcast & Cable)
The Hallmark Channel has given a second season order to their first ever scripted drama Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove. (The Futon Critic)
Actress Alicia Witt (Cybill and Friday Night Lights) and actors Edi Gathegi (Twilight and X-Men: First Class) and Michael Rapaport (Prison Break and The Mob Doctor) have all been cast in the upcoming fifth season of Justified. Witt will play Wendy Crowe, the smart, sexy sister of crime lord Dale Crowe (to be played by Rapaport). Meanwhile, Gathegi will play Jean Baptiste, a Haitian criminal in the employ of the Crowe family. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline and Sadie Gennis at TV Guide)
TELEVISION TRAILER
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
Actors Josh Kelly (Army Wives and One Life to Live) and Freddie Stroma (Harry Potter franchise) have landed roles in the Lifetime drama pilot called Unreal that is being executive producer by Marti Noxon (of Buffy and Angel fame) and Sarah Gertrude Shapiro based on the latter’s award-winning independent short called Sequin Raze. The project will star Shiri Appleby (Roswell and Life Unexpected) as Rachel, a young staffer whose sole job is to manipulate her relationships with (and among) the contestants to heighten the drama of a hit competition dating show. Kelly will play Jeremy, a cameraman on the dating show who also is Rachel’s ex-boyfriend while Stroma will play Adam, the bachelor on the competition dating show at the center of Unreal. (Lesley Goldberg at The Hollywood Reporter and Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)
ABC is developing a new drama called Beverly Kills that will center on a wife and mom who retires from her job – as a highly skilled hit-woman for the mob – and settles into domesticity; but try as she might to live the life of a normal housewife, she soon spots crime, corruption, and evil-doing beneath the quiet, green surface of Beverly Hills, and decides to clean it up and keep her family safe in the only way she knows how. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)
ABC is developing a new project about a female CIA agent called Clandestine from Tall Girls Productions, the production of Twilight saga writer Melissa Rosenberg. This project takes a look into the CIA world through the perspective of an unlikely asset: the hard-partying daughter of the American ambassador to the UK. As her work grows more dangerous, she discovers skills and talents no one ever thought she possessed — especially not her father, from whom she is keeping a dark secret. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)
Actress turned producer Eva Longoria has yet another drama in development, this time with NBC. The hour-long project called Vega V. Vega will center on a brilliant, young, successful lawyer who suddenly finds herself forced to go into a practice with her mother, a pioneering female attorney with whom she has a love/hate relationship. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)
ABC Studios and producers Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage and Rina Mimoun are collaborating on a new project together called Sisterland that is based on the best-selling novel by Curtis Sittenfeld. The project tells the story of identical twin sisters born with paranormal abilities and how those abilities shape their very different lives. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)
MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS
Actress Kellie Martin (Army Wives and ER) has a new project for which she will both star and executive producer. It is the made-for-TV movie Dear Viola for the cable network UP that will focus on Katie Miner (Martin), a shy accountant at the local newspaper in the quaint seaside village of Bellport. After the writer of beloved advice column “Dear Viola” retires, Miner begins penning the column on the sly, and discovers that the townspeople become enamored of the column’s new refreshing, no-nonsense tone. (Tim Kenneally at The Wrap)
Actress Jessica Brown Findlay (Lady Sybil on Downton Abbey) will star in the three-part adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s 1936 gothic novel, Jamaica Inn for BBC One (one of the major networks in the UK). The story is set in 1820s Cornwall, following spirited Mary Yellan (Brown Findlay), a young woman sent to live with her aunt (Joanne Whalley) after the death of her mother. When Mary arrives at the eerie, isolated Jamaica Inn, she finds her once carefree aunt is now firmly under the spell of domineering husband Joss (Sean Harris). The inn, it turns out, is a front for a smuggling ring. (Nancy Tartaglione at Deadline)
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Actor Hugh Jackman has joined the cast of the upcoming movie called Chappie where he will play the rival to a character to be played by Dev Patel (The Newsroom and Slumdog Millionair) in the South Africa-set sci-fi picture about an android cop who’s kidnapped by gangsters. (The Deadline Team)
Full Trailer: “The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug”
Here are the top 10 box office films from this past weekend courtesy of TV Guide and Box Office Mojo):
1. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 – 34 million
2. Prisoners – 10.9 million
3. Rush – 10 million
4. Baggage Claim – 9 million
5. Don Jon – 8.7 million
6. Insidious Chapter 2 – 6.6 million
7. The Family – 3.7 million
8. Instructions Not Included – 3.5 million
9. We’re the Millers – 2.8 million
10. The Butler – 2.4 million
IF ONLY IT COULD HAPPEN DEPARTMENT
VOTD: “Wonder Woman” Short Film
Q&A SECTION (with TV Scoop Team at E! Online)
Question: Need some OUAT scoop! – Storybrookecity:
TV Scoop Team: Let’s focus on season three’s big bad Peter Pan, shall we? We will learn how he became the twisted person he is today and some familiar names will definitely factor in, like Tinkerbell, who we will meet in episode three. “We try to have a spin on it that’s a little different than what you expect, and also there’s a connection to some of our characters that you’ve already met,” Adam Horowitz teases. “And as for the Darlings, they’re so integral to the Peter Pan story. We have not forgotten about them and there is a connection and a tie into what we’re doing with them as well.”
Question: January is so far away! Any Teen Wolf scoop to tide me over until then? – Keegan
TV Scoop Team: Sheriff Stilinski is getting some help! A new deputy will be coming to Beacon Hills in season 3B named Deputy Parrish, who is pretty young and very good looking.(Someone goodlooking on Teen Wolf?! How strange!) But Parrish isn’t the only newbie coming to town as Nogitsune, a malevolent man with inhumane movements will also be introduced. Bonus creepy factor: He speaks in riddles!
Question: Loving Sleepy Hollow, especially Tom Mison as Ichabod Crane. What’s coming up for my favorite time-traveler?
TV Scoop Team: We’ll be meeting his former bestie! In episode seven, we’ll be introduced to Abraham, a British-American colonist, via flashbacks to 1774. Abe (Yes, we’re already on nickname terms with him, get over it) is quite the fighter, especially when it comes to fencing.
That’s it. Enjoy!
Rueben's Ramblings 
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