Hey All,
Here are the news items for last week:
TELEVISION
Actor Eric Close will not be returning as a series regular on Nashville when it returns this fall for its third season. (Kimberly Roots and Michael Ausiello at TV Line)
Actress Penny Johnson Jerald will not be returning for the 8th season of Castle, possibly laying groundwork for Beckett to take over since she “aced her captain’s exam” in the show’s season finale. (Matt Mitovich at TV Line)
Actor Colin Donnell (Arrow) has joined the cast of this fall’s new drama Chicago Med, but it hasn’t been released who he will be playing though. (Kate Stanhope at The Hollywood Reporter)
Actor John Pyper-Ferguson (The Last Ship) will have a major recurring role in Suits, playing Jack, a partner at the law firm and new head of the firm’s Compensation Committee, who will have to work with the on-going power struggle between Harvey and Louis. (Denise Petski at Deadline)
Actress Nazneen Contractor (Covert Affairs) will have a recurring role in the upcoming NBC series Heroes Reborn. She will play Farah, a mysterious character who is militant, tough and stoic. Also, actor Dylan Bruce (Orphan Black) has joined the cast of the show, but his role has not been revealed yet. (Denise Petski at Deadline and Tim Surette at TV Guide)
Actors Nicholas D’Agosto and Chris Chalk and actress Morena Baccarin have been promoted to series regulars on Gotham when it returns for its second season this fall. (Denise Petski at Deadline and Matt Mitovich at TV Line)
Actor Jon Cor (Being Human and Being Erica) will have a recurring role in the ABC Family series Shadowhunters, which is an adaptation of The Mortal Instruments book series. He will play Hodge Starkweather, a weapons trainer at the Shadowhunters New York Institute and a former Circle member. (Denise Petski at Deadline)
Actress Keke Palmer (True Jackson, VP) has landed a role in the upcoming FOX live production of Grease that will star Julianne Hough and Vanessa Hudgens. Palmer will play Pink Lady Marty Maraschino. (Denise Petski at Deadline)
Actress Charlene McKenna (A.D. The Bible Continues and Ripper Street) has landed a series regular role on the upcoming Lifetime drama Clan of the Cave Bear (based on the book by Jean M. Auel) that takes place more than 25,000 years ago when Neanderthals shared the Earth with the first early modern humans. (Michael Ausiello at TV Line)
ONLINE SERIES NEWS
Actress Ally Walker (Profiler and The Protector) will appear in season four of the western-themed drama Longmire, which will air its 4th season on Netflix. There are no details on who she will play, though. (Matt Mitovich at TV Line)
Deadbeat, the Hulu drama, has been given a 13-episode third season order. (The Hollywood Reporter)
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Actor William Fichtner (Prison Break) has joined the cast of the box office film Independence Day 2 where he will play a top general. (Mike Fleming, Jr. at Deadline)
Actress Kat Graham (The Vampire Diaries) will star in the biopic about Tammi Terrell, the 1960s Motown singer who teamed with Marvin Gaye for a number of hit singles, but who died of a brain tumor at age 24. (Erik Pedersen at Deadline)
Here are the top 10 box office movies for last weekend courtesy of Box Office Mojo:
1. Tomorrowland – 33 million
2. Pitch Perfect 2 – 30.8 million
3. Mad Max: Fury Road – 24.6 million
4. Poltergeist – 22.6 million
5. Avengers: Age of Ultron – 21.7 million
6. Hot Pursuit – 3.6 million
7. Far From the Madding Crowd – 2.28million
8. Furious 7 – 2.72 million
9. Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 – 1.9 million
10. Home – 1.8 million
BOX OFFICE TRAILERS
Q&A SECTION (Matt Mitovich at TV Line)
Question: I want some DC Comics TV scoop, please! Arrow, The Flash, Gotham, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow. – Keith
Mitovich: What I’ve got is… Fox’s Gotham casting for Season 2 a “male DC Villain” described as “intelligent, cultured and highly articulate,” “extremely attractive, both seductive and threatening,” as well as a female DC Villain in her mid- to late 20s — “a sexy knock-out.” So get speculating! Turning to DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, the cast was hard-pressed to elaborate on the midseason CW drama, seeing as no one had seen a script for the pilot yet. (They only filmed a trailer for this month’s Upfronts.) That said, Brandon Routh allowed that I made “a pretty good guess” that Ray/The Atom’s exploded body has been reconstituted using miniaturization-capable nanites; Ciara Renee said that the origin of her winged hero, Kendra Saunders, will be “melding some [Hawkgirl origin stories] together”; and Franz Drameh was super-mum on what powers high school jock Jay Jackson (MIA from the trailer) might bring to the table” – though the actor himself “was in the London Youth Circus for a little while.”
Question: Any scoop on what’s coming up for Defiance’s Tarr family this season? –Katie H.
Mitovich: Holy Rayetso, a tremendous amount of things happen in the two-hour season premiere (airing June 12). As you’ll recall, Datak and Stahma were searching for Alak and Christie, who had been spirited away by nutty Pilar – but what the Castithans instead find is tons of trouble in the form of Oz alum Lee Tergesen’s General Rahm Tak aka “The Beast,” a Johnny Cash-quoting marauder who has insidious plans for Defiance. Elsewhere in the epic opener, which picks up seven months later: Nolan and Irisa are rescued by a most unlikely savior; the new, purple-skinned Omec race rival only Rahm Tak as the show’s most frightful adversary yet (let’s just say they could use a good dentist); Doc Yewll remains highly quotable; and there are no fewer than two shocking deaths.
Question: Hilarie Burton hinted that she may be playing a bad guy on Extant. Do you have any more info about what we can expect? –Annie
Mitovich: The Tree Hill alum’s Season 2 arc kicks off with Episode 2, where she’ll be playing Anna Schaefer, a government operative charged with overseeing the militarization of the Humanichs program. Anna causes great moral discomfort for Julie (played by Grace Gummer) and Charlie (Tyler Hilton) as she pushes the boundaries of what is ethically sound for the robotic soldiers they are creating — so, yeah, “bad guy.”
Question: Do you know how Scott Michael Foster’s new show (ABC’s Oil) getting picked up is going to affect his role as Leo on Chasing Life? –Steph
Mitovich: ABC Family’s Chasing Life has been in production for a couple of months already, so just as EP Patrick Sean Smith recently told us, “Leo will still have a strong presence in the second season,” premiering August 17.
Question: What’s happening with TNT’s Lumen? –Lisa
Mitovich: The pilot for the family fantasy drama, starring Parenthood‘s Sam Jaeger and filmed in New Zealand, “looks spectacular,” Turner president Kevin Reilly told me earlier this month. “It’s very, very big,” he added, “and really original” — if a bit “soft for our network right now.” Even so, Reilly believes it could appeal to the same crowd as another fantastical TNT series: “I think that people who watch The Librarians would enjoy Lumen…. It’s fun escapism.”
That’s it. Enjoy!