Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

NBC gave the new drama The Blacklist a full 22-episode season order. (Variety)

The National Geographic Channel is getting into scripted dramas with an adaptation of the box office film Act Of Valor, which will begin production next year. The series will focus on para-rescue men, also known as PJs, who are the unsung heroes tasked with recovery and medical treatment of personnel in humanitarian and combat environments. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actress Sharon Leal (Hellcats and Dreamgirls) will have a multi-episode arc in Grimm, playing as physical therapist and potential love interest for Hank (series regular Russell Hornsby). Grimm returns for an all-new season on October 25 on NBC. (Kimberly Roots at TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Screenwriter Diablo Cody and TV producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage (Gossip Girl and Chuck) are teaming up for a potential TV series called Prodigy that will center on a homeschooled and brilliant teen who enters a high school and is adopted by a wild crowd. (AJ Marechal at Variety)

NBC has given a pilot order to the psychological crime thriller Tin Man that will be set in the near future, focusing on a fugitive robot accused of first-degree murder, who may hold the key to the future of human evolution, and the young female public defender forced to fight for his cause. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Cinemax is developing another Western-theme drama project called Blood & Ice that will be about the near-future race to control the vast natural resources hiding in the Arctic. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

ONLINE SERIES

Actresses Sharon Lawrence (NYPD Blue) and Arielle Kebbel (The Vampire Diaries) [among others] have joined the cast of the Amazon Studios pilot The After from Chris Carter, the creator of The X-Files. They join Jamie Kennedy, Adrian Pasdar and Aldis Hodge as part of the cast that will take place at the moment of apocalypse. Lawrence will play Francis, a wealthy mysterious woman who resides in Bel Air while Kebbel will play Tammy, a sexy, professional woman. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actress Amy Price-Francis (King) has joined the cast of the other Amazon drama pilot called Bosch, which is a police procedural based on the Michael Connelly novels about Harry Bosch (actor Titus Welliver of Lost fame), a veteran police homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. Price-Francis will play Sunny “Money” Chander, an attractive and exceptionally good lawyer representing Rosa Flores, whose husband Roberto, a suspected serial killer, was killed four years ago by Bosch, and Chandler’s job is to destroy Bosch in court. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Here are the top 10 films at the box office from this past weekend courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1. Gravity – $55.6 million
2. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 – $14.5 million
3. Runner Runner -$7.6 million
4. Prisoners – $5.7 million
5. Rush – $4.4 million
6. Don Jon – $4.2 million
7. Baggage Claim – $4.1 million
8. Insidious Chapter 2 – $3.9 million
9. Pulling Strings – $2.5 million
10. Enough Said – $2.2 million

The Weinstein Company has joined Look Out Point and BBC Worldwide as production partners on the upcoming six-part adaptation of the Leo Tolstoy classic novel War And Peace that begins in 1805 Russia, centering on five aristocratic families set against the backdrop of the reign of Alexander I. This will be an “event series” for the BBC written by Andrew Davies, screenwriter for House Of Cards, Pride And Prejudice, Bridget Jones and Sense & Sensibility. (Nancy Tartaglione at Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!