Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

MTV has renewed the thriller Teen Wolf for a fourth season. The rest of the show’s current third season will be back starting on January 6. (Tierney Bricker at E! Online)

Actor Seth Gabel (Fringe) will have the lead role in the WGN America’s first scripted series called Salem that is set in the volatile world of 17th century Massachusetts, exploring what really fueled the town’s infamous witch trials. Gabel will play Cotton Mather, a local aristocrat who makes it his business to oversee the witch hunts in Salem. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actor Christopher Cousins (Breaking Bad) has joined the cast of NBC drama Revolution where he will recur as high-ranking Patriot Victor Doyle, who’s on a collision course with Tom Neville (series regular Giancarlo Esposito). (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actress Lotte Verbeek (who played Giulia Farnese on The Borgias) and British actor James Fleet (Four Weddings and a Funeral) have been added to the cast of the upcoming Starz series Outlander, based on the popular novels by Diana Gabaldon. Verbeek will play Geillis Duncan, who – in the books – is a sly, 18th-century Scottish woman who dabbles in the black arts and befriends accidental time-traveler Claire (to be played by Catriona Balfe). Fleet will play Rev. Wakefield, a Scottish historian of sorts who (again) – in the books – interacts with Clare and husband Frank in the 1940s. (Kimberly Roots at TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Actress Victoria Justice (Nickelodeon’s Victorious) has joined the cast of the MTV cyber thriller pilot called Eye Candy, which is based on the best-selling novel by RL Stine. Justice will play Lindy, a beautiful but reclusive hacker whose blog exposes everything from terrorist plots to suspected killer. Convinced by her roommate to begin online dating, Lindy is targeted by a dangerous cyber stalker and believes one of her suitors to be the culprit. When things take a deadly turn, she teams up with the city’s cyber-crime unit to catch the killer. (The Deadline Team)

Lifetime is developing a Wizard of Oz themed drama called Red Brick Road that will take an edgy look at that magical world. In the original 1939 film, when Dorothy sets off for the Emerald City, she followed the Yellow Brick Road; but among the yellow bricks at Dorothy’s feet, there was also a swirl of red bricks. The series will answer where the red bricks lead by following Dorothy down that fateful path, taking her to the oldest, darkest and most dangerous parts of Oz to find what became of her friends who all have gone missing. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

ABC is developing a contemporary spin on King Arthur with a project called Excalibur that will center on a young Brooklyn man who is forever changed when his life is saved by a beautiful stranger who reveals that he is the last living descendant of the very real King Arthur and that he is now at the center of an eons-old shadow war between the descendants of the Knights of the Roundtable and the forces of dark magic. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Netflix has ordered a new psychological thriller series from the creators of Damages that will center on a family of adult siblings whose secrets and scars are revealed when their black sheep brother returns home. The 13-episode first season will premiere exclusively for Netflix members to watch instantly in all Netflix territories. Production will begin next year. (The Futon Critic)

CBS is working on an untitled project with executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (the men behind the new Star Trek, Sleepy Hollow and Hawaii Five-0). The series is inspired by the true story of Walter O’Brien’s life and how he, a man with the fourth highest documented IQ, became a real-life professor X. He recruited the world’s greatest intellects to his company where they not only solved the world’s most pressing and significant problems, but also helped each other learn to fit in and live in a world where literally being “one in a billion” can be as lonely as it sounds. Additionally, the duo will be working with writer Corinne Brinkerhoff on a new project for The CW that is also currently untitled that will center on a young Brooklynite recruited by the CIA to infiltrate her recently discovered biological family, a wealthy and powerful dynasty in Texas suspected of having criminal alliances across the globe. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

MINI-SERIES NEWS

FX is working on a 10-part mini-series with Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle, producer Christian Colson and writer Simon Beaufoy called Telemark that is based on the true story of the British-trained Norwegian resistance fighters who sabotaged Hitler’s nuclear development program during World War II. (Lesley Goldberg at The Hollywood Reporter)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

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

1. Gravity – 44.2 million
2. Captain Phillips – 26 million
3. Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 – 14.2 million
4. Runner Runner – 3.7 million
5. Machete Kills – 3.6 million
6. Prisoners – 3.5 million
7. Insidious Chapter 2 – 2.7 million
8. Don Jon – 2.3 million
9. Rush – 2.2 million
10. Baggage Claim – 2 million

That’s it. Enjoy!