Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for all of last week:

TELEVISION

Syfy has picked up Bitten for a third season (after the show’s home Canadian network renewed it up for a new season). (Laura Prudom at Variety)

American Odyssey has been cancelled by NBC after only one season; the same is true for A.D. The Bible Continues. (Variety)

Actor Liam Garrigan (24: Live Another Day and Strike Back) will appear as King Arthur on Once Upon a Time when the show returns this fall for its new season. (Natalie Abrams at Entertainment Weekly)

The USA Network has given Suits an order for a sixth season. (Variety)

Actress Neve Campbell (Party of Five and the Scream franchise) has joined the cast of House of Cards for the fourth season of the online series. (Aaron Couch at The Hollywood Reporter)

Actor Nick Zano (One Big Happy) has joined the cast of the upcoming small screen adaptation of Minority Report that will air on FOX this fall. He will also co-star alongside Stark Sands, as the now-fraternal twin brother Arthur to Sands’ character of Dash. (Sands was to play the originally planned identical twins). (Lesley Goldberg at The Hollywood Reporter)

Actor Kevin Alejandro (Arrow and True Blood) has joined the cast of the FOX mid-season drama Lucifer, replacing Nicholas Gonzalez (Sleepy Hollow) in the series regular role of Dan, a gruff homicide detective who is wary of Lucifer’s involvement with his wife (Lauren German) and daughter. The series is based on the Vertigo comic about the bored Lord of Hell (Tom Ellis), who resigns his throne and abandons his kingdom for the gorgeous, shimmering insanity of Los Angeles, where he gets his kicks helping the LAPD punish criminals. (Vlada Gelman at TV Line)

Actress Marisa Tomei has joined the cast of the FOX drama Empire for the show’s second season in the recurring role of Mimi Whiteman, a demanding venture capitalist who becomes involved with the Lyon family. (Kate Stanhope at The Hollywood Reporter)

ONLINE SERIES NEWS

Actor Rockmond Dunbar (Prison Break) will star alongside actor Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) and Michelle Monaghan (Source Code and True Detective) in the Hulu original drama The Way that examines a couple, Eddie (Paul) and Sarah Cleary (Monaghan) at the center of a controversial movement struggling with relationships, marriage and power. Dunbar will play Detective Abe Gaines, a thorough FBI investigator who seems to be the only agent suspicious of the mysterious religious sect that recently responded to a natural disaster. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Here is the top 10 box office movies for last weekend courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1. Jurassic World – 54.5 million
2. Inside Out – 52.3 million
3. Ted 2 – 33.5 million
4. Max – 12.2 million
5. Spy – 7.9 million
6. San Andreas – 5.4 million
7. Dope – 2.8 million
8. Insidious Chapter 3 – 2 million
9. Mad Max: Fury Road – 1.8 million
10. Avengers: Age of Ultron – 1.7 million

Actress Stana Katic (Castle) and actor Raza Jaffrey (Homeland and Smash) will star in the action adventure film The Rendezvous, which is inspired by classic romantic capers like North By Northwest and Romancing The Stone. It is set in Jordan and follows an unlikely pair who find themselves swept up in a deadly race to find a sacred Dead Sea Scroll hidden in the ancient city of Petra. (Ali Jaafar at Deadline)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

Actor Anthony Mackie (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) will Martin Luther King, Jr. in the HBO telefilm All the Way where he will star opposite Bryan Cranston, who is set to play Lyndon B. Johnson). (Deadline and Rebecca Iannucci at TV Line)

Q&A SECTION (with Michael Ausiello and Matt Mitovich at TV Line)

Question: I’m dying for news about Nashville‘s new season. –Christina

Ausiello: How about some new faces making their way to Music City? The show is casting Markus Kane, a globally successful, late-20s to 40something artist who’s looking for a new label to represent him as a solo act. Though every label courts him, Rayna’s Highway 65 is the one that’ll eventually win him over with talk of stripping away all the noise and getting to the essence of his soulful musical truth. Things are great… until Markus realizes how much Rayna’s fledgling company needs his solo album to be a hit. That’s when his controlling, narcissistic side comes out, and he’ll test his boss’ boundaries throughout the writing, recording and release of his first solo album.

BONUS SPOILER: #LoveWINS — but Will may not when Luke hires a no-BS elite media consultant named Gabriella to handle the fallout from Mr. Lexington’s very public coming-out. Though Gabriella herself (and an increasingly accepting Luke) are cool with Will’s sexuality, she serves as a giant reality check: Country-music fans may not support Will now that they know he’s gay.

Question: Got any other Flash scoop for next season? —Jeannette

Ausiello: My gut is telling me Joe is going to partake in some nookie-nookie with a woman named Olivia. In potentially related news, producers are looking for an African-American actress in her early-40s to play a troubled old friend of Joe’s. The recurring character’s name is Olivia.

Question: I’m a big fan of Iris West on The Flash. Any info on what’s to come for her in Season 2? –Leslie

Ausiello: Hopefully, more of an independent and resourceful Iris, per Candice Patton’s wishes. “She’s found her way into S.T.A.R. Labs and she’s trying to get her career off the ground at Picture News,” her portrayer says. “So I, personally, am really hoping to see Iris have more agency and more abilities to help the team and The Flash and the city that she loves so much. I want to see her stand on her own two feet and really contribute to the group.”

BONUS SCOOP: Patton teases that, following the wormhole cliffhanger, the Season 2 premiere will address “where Barry is and what that means for S.T.A.R. Labs and Iris and Joe and Eddie. It’ll pick up right where we left off.”

Question: Any West- Allen scoop to help us survive The Flash‘s hiatus? –Kaz

Mitovich: As we all surmised when I wrote this not-at-all-controversial bit, Barry is getting his own “Felicity” because it’s simply too soon for Iris to move on from Eddie — especially since Season 2 picks up right where we left off, with The Flash fighting the wormhole. “[Eddie’s death] is definitely a factor, for sure,” Grant Gustin says. “Barry wants to be there for Iris as her best friend right now. And for Barry, too. It’s too soon for everybody. Some tragic events just took place!” Interestingly, exec producer Geoff Johns added that the aforementioned (and yet-to-be-cast) CCPD noob Wendy Miller won’t be the only one shaking up the status quo when the CW hit returns. “There are a lot of new characters coming in, not just the ones that have been leaked online,” he teased. “And they all will challenge relationships, in good and bad ways.”

Question: Any info about who/what Teen Wolf‘s flashback episode (5×06, I think) will feature, aside from Scott and Kira? —Cecile

Mitovich: Show boss Jeff Davis tells the Inside Line you can expect “a heart-wrenching scene between Stiles and his mother, Claudia, where we learn just how bad things got before her death.”

Question: Did Graceland‘s Mike actually forgive Paige? Or is he playing her? –Diane

Mitovich: I’m going with Option A, suspecting that in his “death,” Mike saw the proverbial light. “One of the things that fascinated me, as a big Six Feet Under fan, is that Mike was clinically dead for six minutes,” series creator Jeff Eastin says, “and the season does hinge a great deal on what he believes happened in that six minutes.” Which is not to say that a crossover with TNT’s Proof is on tap. “We have not done any spiritual shark-jumping,” Eastin makes clear. “But it does influence the season a great deal, and I think at the end people will be very surprised by exactly how it does that.”

Question: Any scoop on Once Upon a Time? I’m not particular, I’ll take anything! –Allison

Mitovich: I’m hearing that the season opener, not unexpectedly, will pick up right where the finale left off, with Emma having vanished after taunting the disembodied Darkness with the Dark One’s dagger. Where exactly the Savior was transported to, however, thus far remains a closely guarded secret. Also, it will be sooner rather than later that we meet King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

That’s it. Enjoy!