Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

Child actor-turned mom and DIY author Soleil Moon Frye (of Punky Brewster fame) will make a guest appearance on the ABC summer series Mistresses, playing a version of herself: a potential celebrity client for Joss’s (series regular Jess Macallan) new party planning business that she started with Harry (Brett Tucker). Mistresses will air on ABC sometime this summer. (James Hibberd at Entertainment Weekly)

Actor Max Brown (Beauty And the Beast, The Tudors and MI-5) had landed the lead role in the upcoming 13-episode FOX action-adventure series Hieroglyph that follows Ambrose (Brown), a notorious thief who is plucked from prison to serve the Pharoah (Reece Ritchie), navigating palace intrigue, seductive concubines, criminal underbellies and even a few divine sorcerers. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actor Aidan Turner (UK’s Being Human and The Hobbit Trilogy) will star in the BBC One 8-part adaptation Poldark, which is based on the Winston Graham acclaimed saga set in 18th-century Cornwall, Britain. It’s 1783 and Ross Poldark (Turner) returns from the American War of Independence to his beloved Cornwall to find his world in ruins: his father dead, the family mine long since closed, his house wrecked and his sweetheart pledged to marry his cousin. But Ross finds that hope and love can be found when you are least expecting it in the wild but beautiful Cornish landscape. Production will take place in April with the airing set for 2015. It has not been announced if BBC America will air this production in the US, though. (Debs Hunt at Inside Media Track)

Actor Riley Smith (90210 and Beauty And the Beast) will have a major recurring role in True Blood for its seventh and finale season, playing Keith, a sexy rock’n’roll vampire with a romantic side. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actress Shohreh Aghdashloo (Grimm and The House of Sand and Fog) will guest star in an upcoming episode of Bones, playing the mother of Arastoo (Cam’s boyfriend). (Michael O’Connell at The Hollywood Reporter)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Actress Danielle Savre (Heroes) and actor Stephen Martines (The Vampire Diaries and The Closer) have joined the cast of The CW spin-off pilot Supernatural: Tribes. The potential series revolves around the various mafia-esque monster families that unknowingly to humans “run” the underbelly of Chicago and are being tracked by a newly minted Hunter who’s trying to stop them and rid Chicago of anything or anyone supernatural. Savre will play Margo, the acting head of the leading shape shifter family, an ex-punk rocker-turned-corporate professional who feels threatened only by the return of her prodigal brother David (Nathaniel Buzolic from The Vampire Diaries) into the family. Martines will play Detective Freddie Costa, a world-weary Chicago cop who serves as a mentor to Ennis (Lucien Laviscount from Episodes and Skins) but also is secretly on the payroll of one of the powerful monster families. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actor Kyle Schmid (Copper) has landed the lead role opposite Meagan Good (Deception) in the NBC drama pilot called Babylon Fields that is about a town’s residents who come back from the dead. Schmid will play Thomas Wunch who works for the CDC as a scientist and is Janine’s (Good) first love. (The Deadline Team)

Actress Liza Weil (Gilmore Girls and Scandal) has joined the cast of the ABC drama pilot How To Get Away With Murder, which centers on ambitious law students and their brilliant and mysterious criminal defense professor (Viola Davis) who become entangled in a murder plot that could rock their entire university and change the course of their lives. Weil will play one of the professor’s two associates. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Irish actor Stephen Hagan (BBC’s Injustice) has joined the cast of The CW drama pilot Identity that centers on Mia (Ahna O’Reilly from The Help), a young New Yorker who learns she needs an organ transplant to survive and her only living relative is a newfound half-brother, Davis (Matt Barr from Hellcats and Hatfields and McCoys), the charming, privileged only son of a wealthy and powerful Charleston family. She connects with them only to find they’re the target of a CIA investigation for involvement in domestic terrorism, and the agency wants her as their newest informant. Hagan will play Jasper, Davis’ handsome, mysterious, and magnetic best friend who has chemistry with Mia from the moment the meet. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actor Brian F. O’Byrne (FlashForward) has joined the cast of the ABC drama pilot Exposed that revolves around a dogged investigative reporter who is open to making questionable alliances in pursuit of stories. Details on what role he will play have not been announced yet. (Cynthia Littleton at Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Actor Matthew Morrison (Glee) has landed the lead role in the upcoming musical theatre project called Finding Neverland, which is based on the 2004 film of the same name that starred Johnny Depp that focuses on the growing bond between playwright J.M. Barrie and the family who inspired him to create Peter Pan. Morrison will play Barrie. (The Deadline Team)

Actor Patrick Wilson (The Watchmen and A Gifted Man) has joined the cast of the upcoming box office film Ant-Man that will star Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas and Michael Pena. Specific details on what role Wilson will play have not been released yet. (Mike Fleming, Jr. at Deadline)

Q&A SECTION (with TV Scoop Team)

Question: Tell me more about this shocking Once Upon a Time twist!! Dying to know who else is related. – Monica T.

TV Scoop Team: We will find out that two main characters are related, and because they are related, that means that two other characters are also related. Your brain hurt yet? Ours too. Still, we think this twist is one of the best OUAT has ever had.

Question: We need to start getting some answers on Red’s connection to Liz on The Blacklist! – Frank

TV Scoop Team: Come on, we all know patience is a virtue. “That’s the central relationship in the show, so the whole entire series is going to be about unraveling that mystery and there are different stages of that unraveling,” Megan Boone tells E! News of Liz and Red’s connection while accepting the Rising Star Award at Savannah College of Art and Design’s aTVfest in Atlanta. “It’s not a question that can be answered in one simple yes or no.” But she previews that we will get some answers by season’s end, as well as “a lot” of Tom and Liz stuff in the next string of episodes

Question: Anything on Teen Wolf’s finale? This season has been pretty epic so far! – Thomas

TV Scoop Team: Only the show’s best (and most gorgeous) scene yet. “There’s a fight scene that occurs in the snow. We were all really worried about how it would play, and it looks amazing, and we’re really happy about it,” Jeff Davis previews of the season finale sequence, which you can get a taste of here. “It involves a lot of our leads, so it’s pretty epic. There’s an epic fight scene in the snow that’s a lot of swords clashing.” Bonus scoop: a fan favorite might just be missing by season’s end.

That’s it. Enjoy!

Have a great weekend!!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

VH1 has given a 10-episode order to a new scripted drama called Hindsight that will air in 2015. The series will follow Becca (Laura Ramsey from She’s the Man), who’s approaching 40 years old and a second marriage. But she’s feeling there’s something missing, her long-estranged best friend Lolly (relative newcomer Sarah Goldberg). As she’s having mixed feelings, she wakes up to discover she has somehow traveled 15 years into the past as she’s approaching her first marriage with Sean (Craig Horner from Legend of the Seeker). (Jethro Nededog at The Wrap)

Actress Jill Hennessy (Crossing Jordan and Law & Order) will guest star in an episode of The Good Wife, playing power lawyer Rayna Hecht, who could become a potential partner in the firm. The Good Wife will be back with new episodes starting on March 9 on CBS. (Kate Stanhope at TV Guide)

Veteran actor John Rhys-Davies (the Lord of the Rings franchise) has joined the cast of the upcoming FOX drama series Hieroglyph that is set in ancient Egypt, where fantasy and reality intertwined. The 13-episode series will follow Ambrose, a notorious thief who is plucked from prison to serve the Pharoah (Reece Ritchie), navigating palace intrigue, seductive concubines, criminal underbellies and even a few divine sorcerers. Rhys-Davies will play Vocifer, Ambrose’s one-time mentor who was a dashing thief back in his day. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

The ABC drama series (it has a 13-episode order) that was developed by legendary film director David O. Russell (American Hustle) and Erin Brockovich writer Susannah Grant has finally been given a name – The Club – but it is losing its big name developer. Russell has left the production, while the pilot’s first cast member has been announced: Callie Hernandez (from Sin City 2). The series, as its title states, will be an upstairs/downstairs soap centered on a private country club. The role to be played by Hernandez has yet to be announced. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

BET has given a second season order to its first original scripted drama Being Mary Jane. (Greg Braxton at The L.A. Times)

The Canadian channel Showcase has given a fifth season order to Lost Girl; now we here in the States just need to wait for Syfy to jump on the bandwagon, stating they will air the fifth season. (Showcase Press Release)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Relative newcomer Gina Rodriguez, who has appeared in episodes of Longmire, Rizzoli & Isles and The Mentalist, has landing the title role in The CW drama pilot called Jane the Virgin which will be about a hard-working, religious young Latina woman who is accidentally artificially inseminated. (Michael Ausiello at TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Twilight actress Ashley Greene will star alongside Ron Livingston (Boardwalk Empire) in the upcoming box office film called Shangra-La Suite that will be set in 1974, focusing on two troubled 20 year olds who set out to kill The King, Elvis Presley. Believe it or not, Livingston will play Elvis and Green will play Priscilla. (Mike Fleming, Jr. at Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Hey All,

Here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

Syfy has canceled Being Human. The series finale will air on April 7. (The Wrap).

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Actor Greg Grunberg (Felicity, Alias and Heroes) has joined the cast of the ABC drama pilot called Warriors that centers on the doctors and nurses at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center who treat returning soldiers. Grunberg will play Dr. Leonard Mooney, an offbeat OB/GYN who uses a wheelchair and thus can no longer operate — unless, that is, he can coax the resident prosthetics whiz to help jerry-rig a state-of-the art-chair. Mooney also has a fondness for one of his patients, a widowed Army sergeant who’s having a difficult pregnancy. (Matt Mitovich at TV Line)

Film star Viola Davis (The Help) has joined the cast of the ABC drama pilot called How To Get Away With Murder centers on ambitious law students and their brilliant and mysterious criminal defense professor (Davis) who become entangled in a murder plot that could rock their entire university and change the course of their lives. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actor Sean Faris (the short lived drama Reunion and currently recurring on Pretty Little Liars) has joined the cast of The CW spin-off series Supernatural: Tribes that will be about the various mafia-esque monster families that unknowingly-to-humans “run” the underbelly of Chicago and who are being tracked by a newly-minted Hunter who’s trying to stop them and rid Chicago of anything or anyone supernatural. Fairs will play Julian Durant, the son of a wealthy family of lycanthropes who has no love for the shape shifting Hayden clan. (Andy Swift and Vlada Gelman at TV Line)

Actor Erik Palladino (666 Park Avenue and currently recurring on NCIS: Los Angeles) has joined the cast of the ABC drama pilot called Agatha that follows a former convict-turned-big-city criminologist who is brought in to help local police crack a case involving a perplexing disappearance. He will play Captain Benjamin Cooper, the admired and well-respected head of Philadelphia’s Major Crimes division. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actor Callum Blue (Smallville, Royal Pains and Dead Like Me) has joined the cast of the TNT drama pilot called Proof, which is a supernatural medical drama, centering on a skeptical, hard science, female surgeon who is persuaded to investigate cases of reincarnation. Callum will play Ivan Turing, a technology multi-billionaire who was recently diagnosed with cancer. (The Deadline Team)

Actor Geoffrey Arend (Body of Proof) has joined the cast of the CBS drama pilot called Madam Secretary that explores the personal and professional life of a maverick female Secretary of State (Tea Leoni) as she drives international diplomacy, wrangles office politics and balances a complex family life. Arend will play Matt, a speechwriter for Secretary of State. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actress Taraji P. Hanson (Person of Interest) will co-star alongside Terrence Howard in the FOX drama pilot Empire that is set in the world of a hip-hop empire, centering on Lucious Lyon (Howard), a charismatic, savvy music superstar who is about to take his company, Empire Entertainment, public. Hanson will play Cookie Lyon, Lucious’s ex-wife and former business partner. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actor Kenneth Choi (the short-lived remake of Ironside) has joined the cast of the NBC drama pilot called Coercion that revolves around the O’Connor family and their extremely intelligent son, Alex (Gavin Stenhouse), a decorated American war hero and newly minted CIA analyst. Unbeknownst to Alex, though, is that both of his parents and his sister are part of a dormant Russian sleeper cell that has just been reactivated. Choi will play Sam Luttrell, the CIA station chief for New York. (The Deadline Team)

ONLINE SERIES NEWS

The BBC series Ripper Street, which just started its second season here in the US on BBC America, was cancelled by its home network; but Amazon has stepped in to partner with the BBC to bring a third season of the period drama to a computer screen near you. Amazon Prime Instant Video has acquired the streaming rights to the show and that means a third season of the series will happen. (Leo Barraclough at Variety)

The ambitious new Netflix yet-to-be-titled Marvel Universe-based series, focusing on the characters of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist, will include 13 episode devoted to each of the four main characters but will also include a four-to-eight episode mini-series centered on “The Defenders” team to wrap all the stories together. (Jordan Zakarin at The Wrap)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

Actress Bailey Buntain (the short-lived drama Bunheads) has landed the role of Carrie Dollanganger in the planned Lifetime movie sequel Petals on the Wind. She joins recently cast Rose McIver (Once Upon a Time) and Wyatt Nash (Pretty Little Liars), who take over the lead roles of Cathy and Christopher Dollanganger. (Denise Martin at Vulture)

Q&A SECTION (with TV Scoop Team at E! Online and Natalie Abrams at TV Guide)

Question: I need some Once Upon a Time info that is not already out there. – Heather145

TV Scoop Team: There is a huge, HUGE (like, mind-blowing) reveal involving two major characters that no one will see coming. Another surprise family connection. Is it just us, or isn’t all of this starting to feel weirdly incestuous!? Everyone is related to EVERYONE! This reveal will go down before the season is over.

Question: Do you have any scoop on Reign? — Tina

Natalie: History tells us that Mary ends up marrying Francis, but it might not be so simple. Though she intends to wed Bash to save Francis’ life, Nostradamus’ vision may not be what it seems, which sparks the Queen to make a move that you won’t see coming.

That’s it. Enjoy!

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