Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for today:

TELEVISION

Actress Alicia Coppola (Jericho and The Nine Lives of Chloe King) will guest star in an upcoming episode of Criminal Minds this fall, playing Lisa Randall, the head of a Morgellons syndrome support group who’s willing to go as far as she can to protect group members privacy. (Andy Swift at TV Line)

Actress Mary McCormack (In Plain Sight) and actor Josh Randall (Ed) will guest star in an early October episode of Scandal, playing a couple. That’s it, no big reveals as to who they will be, but that seems par for the course with any Shonda Rhimes production – no spoilers. (Lauren Piester at E! Online)

DirecTV has given a 20-episode third season order to their original series Rogue that will find Thandie Newton returning in her lead role as well as actor Cole Hauser coming back from his second season role. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actor Mykelti Williamson (Justified) will guest star in the new CBS fall drama Scorpion that stars Elyes Gabel (Body of Proof) as eccentric genius Walter O’Brien, who builds a team of other super-geniuses to help solve the world’s most complex problems. Williamson will appear in an October episode as Gen. Ned Walker, a hard-edged, lifelong soldier in command of the military-controlled Montero Nuclear Reactor, which comes under threat. (Adam Bryant at TV Guide)

Actor Jacob Pitts (Justified) will guest star in an upcoming episode of the CBS drama Elementary, playing Paul Ettinger, a brilliant and wealthy mathematician who assembles a team of his fellow math geniuses to help identify a killer that Sherlock Holmes (series lead Jonny Lee Miller) and Joan Watson (series lead Lucy Liu) are tracking. (Natalie Abrams at Entertainment Weekly)

HBO has given a second season order to The Leftovers. (Variety)

ABC Family has given a fourth season order to their drama Switched at Birth. (The Futon Critic)

Actress Aunjanue Ellis (The Mentalist) will appear in Sleepy Hollow when the show returns to FOX this fall for its second season, playing Lori Mills, the late mother of Abbie (series lead Nicole Beharie) and Jenny (new series regular Lyndie Greenwood). (Natalie Abrams at Entertainment Weekly)

TV TRAILER

PROGRAMMING HEADS-UP

The August 10 episodes of Unforgettable and Reckless that were pre-empted due to a two-hour PGA overrun will air this Sunday, August 17. (The Futon Critic)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

WGN America has given a 13-episode order to the Appalachian family drama Titans and a fast-track development plan for the Civil War-era drama Underground. Titans revolves around a family struggling to live off the grid in Appalachia while Underground revolves around the covert network that was assembled to help slaves escape from the South via the Underground Railroad, as well as the mercenaries who tried to stop them. WGN America also has The 10 Commandments on tap. It will be a limited series, featuring notable directors offering their takes on stories drawn from the Biblical rule book. (Cynthia Littleton at Variety)

Starz and the BBC are working together on a small screen adaptation of the Richard House novel “The Kills”. The story centers on the global manhunt for a British mercenary who goes on the run after stealing $50 million from an American reconstruction project in Iraq. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Legendary actor/director/writer Rob Reiner will direct an untitled period piece thriller drama that will center on a Yale student with aspirations to be among the best and the brightest, who is recruited by the CIA to become a mole in the secret Skull and Bones society. He becomes caught between the two very powerful organizations. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

Actress Thandie Newton (Rogue) has joined the burgeoning cast of the HBO sci-fi drama pilot Westworld that is inspired by Michael Crichton’s 1973 movie of the same name that will revolve around a futuristic theme park where robots go berserk and attack the guests. Among the cast are Anthony Hopkins, James Marsden, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood and Jeffrey Wright. Newton will play Maeve Millay, a beautiful and razor-sharp Madame whose seen-it-all-before worldview is about to be truly challenged. (Michael Ausiello at TV Line)

ONLINE SERIES NEWS

The CW Seed’s web series Play It Again, Dick – the pseudo sequel to the Veronica Mars film – will find many of the stars from the TV series reprise their roles. The web series focuses on actor Ryan Hansen and his Dick Casablancas character. Each of the cast members will play both their former characters and heightened versions of their real-life selves. Amongst the returnees are Kristen Bell, Jason Dohring, Enrico Colantoni, Percy Daggs, Daran Norris, Francis Capra, Chris Lowell and Ken Marino. The eight-episode web series will premiere September 15 on the CW Seed. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Actress Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones) has been cast as Mary Shelley opposite Jeremy Irvin (War Horse) as Percy Shelley in the upcoming movie Mary Shelley’s Monster about the Frankenstein authoress. (Jen Yamato at Deadline)

Q&A SECTION (with Adam Bryant at TV Guide and Michael Ausiello at TV Line)

Question: I can’t believe they’re already giving DiNozzo a new love interest on NCIS. — Susan

Adam: I’m sure there are ‘shippers out there who never want to see Tony with anyone but Ziva, but that ‘ship has sailed. Or has it? While executive producer Gary Glasberg says the door is always open for Cote de Pablo to return, Michael Weatherly sounds even more certain. “I’m sure they will see other again,” he says of an eventual reunion between Tony and Ziva. “I am deeply fascinated by what kind of fireworks would result,” Weatherly says. “I absolutely know that it would not be without an explosive quality.”

Question: Outlander isn’t just another love triangle show, with Claire torn between good guy Frank and bad boy Jamie, is it? — Sandra

Adam: Don’t worry, it’s far more complicated than that! As Saturday’s episode reveals, Jamie’s criminal past is a direct result of an encounter with Frank’s ancestor Jack, a captain in the English army. Unlike his kind-natured descendant, Jack is a sadist who once brutally flogged Jamie and sent him to prison when the Scot tried to save his sister from sexual assault. So, ask yourself this: Could Jamie ever truly accept the fact that Claire married a Randall?

Question: Got any teases about the new season of Nashville? — Jessica

Adam: While Rayna’s personal life might be a mess, it sounds like her career will be hotter than ever. “Part of Rayna’s journey this year is being pulled into a whole new level of celebrity,” executive producer Dee Johnson says. Then again, being a huge star in 2014 means letting fans into your personal life. “There was a time when the work would stand for itself and fans would buy your albums,” Johnson says. “But everything now is about social media and really putting yourself out there in a way that has been sort of anathema to Rayna in the past. … [It] is less than comfortable for her.

Question: I can’t believe this season of Royal Pains is almost over! What can we expect? — Julie

Adam: Divya’s struggle to balance medicine and motherhood will hit a heartbreaking climax in the last episodes of the season. When Rafa (with more than a little influence from his mother) suddenly requests joint custody of Sashi, Divya’s entire life, and particularly her demanding job, will be put under the microscope. Expect things to turn ugly when Divya is accused of putting her patients before her daughter in the season finale.

Question: Any scoop on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s FitzSimmons? Any updates on Fitz’s storyline in terms of his injuries? —Stacy

Ausiello: Prepare to be mildly toyed with. Executive producer Jeff Bell told Matt Mitovich that as the September 23 premiere unspools, Fitz’s fate will go unaddressed “just long enough that you think, ‘Oh my God, really? Aren’t they going to…?!’” — before finally revealing the 411 on everyone’s favorite techie. But the bigger question may be: How is the lad’s heart? “The beauty of what [Fitz said to Simmons trapped underwater] is it makes for lots of complicated feelings,” Bell notes. “I’d be curious to see how things will be different or the same now.”

Question: Got any information on Perception‘s mid-season finale? – Barb

Ausiello: Kate and Donnie’s wedding “is starting to awaken things” in Pierce, Eric McCormack says. “Something will happen at the end of the summer that will shake him up enough that he starts to speak about other things he’s been quiet about for a long time.” And after the cliffhanger finale, there’s even more good stuff coming when the season continues this winter. “We get into a whole other area that I’m excited about, where we start to explore a bit more of his relationship with Moretti and all the stuff that’s been unspoken,” the actor adds.

Question: Has Sleepy Hollow cast the Succubus yet? —Janet

Ausiello: They have! I can exclusively confirm that Caroline Ford (Lake Placid: The Final Chapter) has landed the guest-starring role of Lilith — AKA the Succubus. Official character description, authored by Executive Producer Mark Goffman: You may have heard lore about the biblical creature called a Succubus. And as with all creatures on Sleepy Hollow, she comes with our own twist. Ethereal and seductive, Lilith drains her victims’ life force, leaving only desiccated husks behind. She’s drawn to desire, and hidden desires burn brightest, so she will reveal many secrets in her path of exotic destruction. Things in Sleepy Hollow are about to get sexy as—you know… hell.

Question: Will Once Upon a Time fans find out to whom Hook traded his ship? —Meg

Ausiello: Not anytime soon. “It’s definitely something I myself am wondering,” says Colin O’Donoghue, three episodes into shooting Season 4. Especially given the significance of the trade, in the name of helping Emma, “I would be intrigued to see exactly what happened there,” the pirate’s portrayer adds. “The Jolly Roger was his life for 300 years!”

That’s it. Enjoy!