Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for today:

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Actor Alexis Denisof (Much Ado About Nothing and Angel) will co-star in the MTV drama pilot Finding Carter that centers on Carter, a teenager (Kathryn Prescott) who learns that her mother abducted her as a child. Carter is a confident and mischievous girl who has no problem being the center of attention or the life of the party. She and her permissive single mother, Lori, have a close, sibling-like relationship. After getting into trouble with friends, Carter is taken to the police station where she learns a life-altering bombshell: that Lori is not her mother but instead the felon who abducted her when she was 3. From there she begins to know more about her biological family, which includes a twin sister and younger brother. Denisof will play David Wilson, Carter’s birth father, who frequently is the family mediator and the most levelheaded in the house. As a novelist, he saw his only real success with his true crime novel Losing Lyndon about the disappearance of his daughter. Now that his daughter is back and insisting on being called Carter, he wonders if writing a follow-up book, Finding Carter, would fix what is broken in his family. Money problems and a tenuous marriage plague him, and this memoir could be the cure. (Lesley Goldberg at The Hollywood Reporter)

Actor Will Yun Lee (The Wolverine) will co-star opposite actor Shane Coffey (Pretty Little Liars) in the USA Network drama pilot The Novice that centers on Kyle (Coffey), a recent college graduate who is forced to move back home with his parents and soon lands a position with a Korean crime organization. Lee will play Big Bang, a thug with a lot of anger issues who is a major player in the Korean syndicate. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actor Craig Horner (Legend of the Seeker) and actresses Laura Ramsey (The Covenant) and newcomer Sarah Goldberg have been cast in the VH1 drama pilot Hindsight that centers on Becca (Ramsey) who, as she nears 40, is about to embark on her second wedding to Andy Kelly, but her joy is tempered by the absence of her old best friend Lolly (Goldberg) who’s a no-show, having dropped out of their relationship years ago. As Becca mulls over her past with Lolly and the mishap of her marriage to her first husband, Sean (Horner), she wakes up on her wedding day and discovers that it’s 15 years in the past – she’s about to marry Sean, her own parents are still married and Lolly is still in her life. Becca must now decide to either go ahead with her marriage to Sean and watch the years play out as they have before or chuck it all and try for a re-do of the history of her life that’s still in the future. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actor Michael Graziadei (American Horror Story), and actresses Lesley-Ann Brandt (Spartacus) and Louise Lombard (CSI) have been cast in the Lifetime dystopian future drama pilot The Lottery that is set in a world where women have stopped having children, threatening extinction of the human race. When 100 embryos are successfully fertilized, a national lottery is held to decide the surrogates. Graziadei will play Kyle, a recovering alcoholic and single father of one of the last children born in the country. Brandt will play Casey, a U.S. soldier longing for a child who jumps at the shot at being a surrogate by participating in the lottery. And, Lombard will play Tori, a formerly free-spirited artist who is now a member of the Washington power elite, an accomplished writer and spinmeister who has the ear of the president. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actor Wes Ramsey (Charmed and Pretty Little Liars) will star opposite Lauren Ambrose in the Lifetime backdoor pilot Deliverance Creek that centers on Belle (Ambrose), who attempts to defend her family’s land by any means necessary and is pushed into becoming an outlaw by the corrupt bank that runs their town. Ramsey will play Nate Cooper, Deputy of Deliverance, Missouri and one of the few men left behind to uphold the law during the Civil War. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actress Megyn Price (Rules of Engagement) and actor Bryan Batt (Mad Men) have joined the cast of the Lifetime drama pilot Unreal that centers on the outrageous duties of a staffer (Roswell and Life Unexpected alum Shiri Appleby) on a hit dating show. (The Hollywood Reporter and TV Line)

Starz is developing a half-hour scripted dramedy Heartbeats that will take an intimate glimpse into the constantly intersecting and diverging lives of Bobby and Kristen; two down-to-Earth individuals who would be perfect for each other, if only they had met at a different time. The project will explore their story with an episode format that focuses alternately on Bobby and Kristen. (The Futon Critic)

Actor Jason O’Mara (Vegas and Terra Nova) has been cast as the lead in the USA Network medical drama pilot Complications, which centers around John Ellis (O’Mara), a disillusioned suburban ER doctor, who finds his existence transformed when he intervenes in a drive-by shooting, saving a young boy’s life and killing one of his attackers. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

The CW is developing another potential drama from DC Comics. This time the story will be focused on Hourman that will follow a brilliant yet troubled pharmaceutical analyst who’s mysterious visions that have followed him since childhood has led to a less than glamorous life, including a divorce that has caused his ex-wife and son to look down on him. When he discovers, however, that the visions are actually previews of events one hour in the future, he sets out to heroically prevent them from occurring. (Variety and Film Thrasher)

Best-selling novelist Patricia Cornwell is working with ABC on a drama project called Greta Stone that is based on one of her own original ideas. The project centers on a young, orphaned, highly skilled female cop who has an uncanny ability to solve crime. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

Lifetime is developing a small screen adaptation of the Broadway revival hit The Trip to Bountiful that tells the inspiring story of one woman’s quest to reconnect with her past in order to ensure her family’s future. (Seat42F)

History is planning a new 8-hour Roots mini-series that would be taking from a contemporary perspective. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!