Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

Actress Kim Raver (Grey’s Anatomy) and legendary actor William Devane will reprise their roles on 24 when the series returns to FOX next year for its big event series 24: Live Another Day. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

The Hallmark Channel confirmed that the two-hour back-door pilot Signed, Sealed, Delivered that will air this weekend on the cabler has been picked up as a series, airing 10 episodes sometime next year. (The Deadline Team)

ABC has cancelled the new drama Lucky 7 after only two airings. (Variety)

Actress Halle Berry will star in the straight-to-series CBS drama Extant from Steven Spielberg’s Amblin TV and CBS TV Studios. The series will follow an astronaut (Berry) returning from a year-long solo space mission who tries to reconnect with her husband and son in their everyday life. Her experiences in space and home lead to events that ultimately change the course of human history. (Variety)

ONLINE SERIES NEWS

Actors Jamie Kennedy (The Ghost Whisperer), Adrian Pasdar (Heroes and The Lying Game) and Aldis Hodge (Leverage) have all joined the cast of the Amazon Studios pilot called The After that comes from Chris Carter (the man behind The X-Files). The online series will take place at the moment of apocalypse with Kennedy playing a professional clown, Pasdar playing a successful Beverly Hills businessman, and Hodge playing an escaped convict who proclaims to be an innocent man who was railroaded. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Shonda Rhimes just keeps making more TV projects. She now has another drama in development at ABC that will center on a bankrupt, forty-something divorcée and her underemployed Millenial neighbors who make ends meet by chasing reward money for unsolved crimes. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

ABC isn’t finished there, though, as they have a drama project in development with producer Mark Gordon called Conviction which centers on Amy Koch. When her 20-year-old son, Steven, is convicted on two counts of first-degree murder, she is simply unable to accept it, and so, facing a slim list of options, Amy sees no alternative but to take matters into her own hands. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

CBS is developing a drama project based on the James Patterson best-selling thriller called Zoo that is set amidst a wave of violent animal attacks sweeping across the planet. A young renegade scientist is thrust into a race to unlock the mystery behind this pandemic before time runs out for animals and humans alike. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Actress Reese Witherspoon will produce and star in the comedic fairy-tale box office film called Happily Ever After that will follow a prince and princess ten years after they got their “happily ever after.” Even in fairy-tale land, they realize they have to work to keep their relationship and lives together. (The Hollywood Reporter and Dark Horizons)

BOX OFFICE TRAILER

Jack Ryan Trailer Released: See Chris Pine and Keira Knightley in Action

Hot Trailer: ‘I, Frankenstein’

Q&A SECTION (with TV Scoop Team at E! Online and Matt Mitovich at TV Line)

Question: Can’t wait for my date with the Winchesters! Any Supernatural scoop to celebrate? – Shauna

TV Scoop Team: Fans will be meeting a new angel in episode nine: Therat-faced Malachi, who is a street fighter of an angel who has managed to put together a sizable group of loyal followers. (Join or die is his kind of thing.) His goal? To start a war.

Question: I wasn’t expecting to love The Fosters as much as I did, so I’d appreciate any scoop you have on its return! – Debbie

TV Scoop Team: Mariana is getting a new friend…and possible love interest! Levi is a new freshman boy who is smart, funny and self-deprecating. He’s pretty much the definition of awkward cute. Levi would as the lighting and tech guy for the school’s drama club, which is how Mariana meets him.

Question: Have you seen the Arrow premiere? What can we expect! I’m hoping for an Oliver and Felicity hookup finally! – Nina

TV Scoop Team: Well then the first two episodes should please the Olicity lovers out there as the duo share a few moments, including one in which Felicity comments on how “sweaty” Ollie is. Oh, and she then mentions how much she loves watching him workout on the infamous salmon ladder. Alas, we’re hearing Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen and Felicity will share quite the spark when he makes his Arrow debut.

Question: So happy that this season of Revenge feels a lot more like season one! Is it going to stay this way? -McKayla

TV Scoop Team: Oh yes! The Revenge that we all fell in love with is back and it’s going to keep getting better. Now that Emily and Daniel are re-engaged, there are a plethora of things that they need to complete before their red wedding. One of the most important events on their list is a pre-wedding photo-shoot and story about Daniel and Emily’s second attempt at tiring the knot. Unfortunately the journalist in charge of the shoot is determined to as all the hard-hitting questions, even if it makes the atmosphere extremely uncomfortable.

Question: I was wondering if you knew if (or when) Once Upon a Time‘s Neal would go to Neverland? Based on some cast photos that were tweeted, it looked like he might show up there. –Allie

Mitovich: Or, Michael Raymond-James was just photo bombing his pals on their own set…? Because Neal’s road home will not be an easy one. “This show never seems to be short in the obstacles department,” Raymond-James shares. “It’s one of those things where the answer to one problem usually leads to seven more problems that one needs to overcome. So there’s some tough sledding ahead, I’ll say that.”

Question: How has Once Upon a Time‘s Emma not questioned or had a glimmer of hope that Neal might have been saved? –ratinhos

Mitovich: Fair point. So we asked Jennifer Morrison if Emma might start to somehow “sense” that Neal survived his portal plunge. But she maintained, “They have no sense in Neverland what happened with Neal.” And as for Emma’s instincts, “Because of everything she has been through — and especially having been through so much loss with Neal — for her own sanity, she has to assume that he is dead.”

Question: Any clues on Regina’s Once Upon a Time love interest? –Natalie

Mitovich: You think you’re anxious to meet Regina’s romantic interest? How about poor Lana Parrilla, who when we saw her on the set Thursday had yet to start shooting that storyline. But with an eye on it, she said, “I’m like, ‘What?! I don’t think she’s kissed anyone in like 200 years.’ Well, [except for] the Huntsman. But there is something coming up. And I will say: Regina has not met him. But maybe the audience has.”

Question: How cool is Stana Katic?! And any more scoop on Castle? –Clare

Mitovich: You don’t even know, and of course! This Monday’s episode, which centers on the death of a defunct Saved By the Bell-like sitcom’s star, is the one I was on set for, so I invited writer Elizabeth Beall to preview it for y’all. “It’s a really fun world that we go into, one that offers all of our characters really distinct points of view about the ’90s sitcom thing,” she started. “Beyond that, it’s a really surprising type of case, for Beckett and the Feds to bump up against the boys in the precinct. And it takes a very surprising turn going from the fun aspects of the case to a much more serious, grounded conclusion.” As Kate temporarily reunites with her pals at the 12th, “It becomes a really nice big episode for Beckett and everything that she’s going through this whole section of the season.”

Question: You know Gladiators are always up for more Scandal scoop. Anything to tide us over until next week? –Miranda

Mitovich: When I chatted up Joshua Malina at the Saks event this week, he described David’s dynamic with Olivia as now being “cautious friendship.” And as for David’s larger Season 3 purpose, he said that five episodes in, he has yet to see it quite crystallize. “I’ve argued a very important case — I think I can say that — and I’ve had a bit of the, ‘We’re friends/No, we’re on opposite sides of an issue’ thing with Olivia,” he shared. “It feels like their earlier dynamic.”

Question: Big fan of you, big fan of TVLine, and big fan of Hart of Dixie. Anything on Zoe and Wade? –Jill

Mitovich: It would seem that the arrival of Josh Cooke’s character, who like Zoe is a NYC transplant, will shake up the canvas – meaning perhaps a bit less Zade action. “With Joel in town… the five original regulars aren’t working together a whole heck of a lot,” Scott Porter shared with us last week. “George is a kind of a satellite around everyone else’s storyline, and so is Wade. We haven’t as much together this season as I would like, but I’m sure it’s all coming.”

Question: On Revenge, is Aiden’s pairing with Victoria to ruin said “Girl Next Door “legit? Please tell me it isn’t, as I am the many who believe in Aiden and Emily. –coalways

Mitovich: Oh, you must have missed our premiere post mortem Q&A with show buss Sunil Nayar. Sorry, but he said Aiden’s agenda is “absolutely” bona fide, adding: “He will state at the beginning of Episode 2 exactly what his opinions are about Emily.”

That’s it. Enjoy!

PS: Have a terrific weekend!