Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for the past week:

CANCELLATIONS/RENEWALS

NBC has pulled the plug on freshman dramas The Enemy Within and The Village. (Variety)

Starz has given Vida a season 3 renewal. (Variety)

Burden of Truth was given a third season renewal mere days before its second season started on Sunday night. (Deadline)

CASTING NEWS

Actor Jake Johnson (New Girl) will play one of the male leads in the new ABC fall drama Stumptown opposite Cobie Smulders and Michael Ealy. The series follows Dex Parios (Smulders), a strong, assertive and sharp-witted Army veteran with a complicated love life, gambling debt and a brother to take care of in Portland, Oregon. Her military intelligence skills make her a great PI, but her unapologetic style puts her in the firing line of hardcore criminals and not quite in alliance with the police. He will play Grey McConnell, Dex’s best friend, who owns and operates a popular bar in town, all the while hiding a questionable past that comes back to bite him. (Deadline)

Actress Carla Gugino (San Andreas) will star opposite Jack Huston and Cameron Britton in the second season of the anthology series Manhunt, which ran on the Discovery Channel for its first season, but will air on Spectrum’s new streaming service. Manhunt: Lone Wolf will chronicle one of the largest and most complex manhunts on U.S. soil, the search for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics Bomber, Eric Rudolph (Huston) and the media firestorm that consumed the life of Richard Jewell (Britton) in its wake. Gugino will play Kathy Scruggs, a hard-drinking, tough-talking crime reporter for Atlanta’s biggest daily newspaper who gets the once-in-a-lifetime scoop that Richard Jewell may be the Olympic Park bomber. Breaking the biggest story in the world makes a Kathy a sensation – but her life unravels as evidence starts pointing against it being the truth. (Deadline)

Actor Patrick J. Adams (Suits) will star in the National Geographic series The Right Stuff, based on Tom Wolfe’s best-selling nonfiction book. Adams will play Maj. John Glenn in the series that takes a look at what would become America’s first “reality show,” as ambitious astronauts and their families become instant celebrities in a competition that either will kill them or make them immortal in the quest to be a part of Project Mercury.  (Deadline)

Actress Jessica Brown Findlay (Downton Abbey) will star opposite Alden Ehrenreich in the USA Network drama Brave New World based on the Aldous Huxley’s groundbreaking 1932 novel, which imagines a utopian society that has achieved peace and stability through the prohibition of monogamy, privacy, money, family, and history itself. Findlay will play Lenina Crowne, a Beta Plus Hatchery worker, who has begun to question her position within the strict social strata of the New World. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

Actresses Monica Potter (Parenthood), Brooke Elliott (Drop Dead Diva) and Heather Headley (Chicago Med) will star in the new Netflix drama Sweet Magnolias, which is about three South Carolina women, best friends since high school, as they shepherd each other through the complexities of romance, career, and family. Potter will play Maddie Townsend, a low-key but resolute, warm and loving woman with a vocabulary like Southern poetry; Elliott will play Dana Sue Sullivan, everyone knows her as the strong-willed owner and head chef of Sullivan’s Restaurant, a cherished spot in the town of Serenity and Headley will play Helen Decatur, a lawyer who has made it her goal to create an opportunity for the people of Serenity, her hometown. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

Actress Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin) will star in the Netflix sci-fi thriller Awake. After a sudden global event wipes out all electronics and takes away humankind’s ability to sleep, chaos quickly begins to consume the world. Only Jill (Rodriguez), an ex-soldier with a troubled past, may hold the key to a cure in the form of her own daughter. The question is, can Jill safely deliver her daughter and save the world before she herself loses her mind. (The Futon Critic)

Actresses Vanessa Lachey (Dads) and La La Anthony (Power) will appear in the upcoming FOX serialized drama BH90210, inspired by the real lives and relationships of the cast of the original Beverly Hills, 90210 cast. Lachey will play Camille, the high-powered publicist wife of Jason Priestley who is balancing her demanding career with the hopes of starting a family while Anthony will portray Brian Austin Green’s wife, Shay, a superstar hip-hop/pop artist, who is the breadwinner of the family while her Mr. Mom husband watches over their three kids. Shay has become used to being the center of attention, but can still be surprisingly down to earth. (Deadline)

MOVIE CASTING NEWS

Actor Brendan Fraser (Doom Patrol and The Mummy movies) as well as actor Tom Welling (Smallville and Lucifer) will appear in the Scandinavian SVOD service Viaplay. The film is set against a backdrop of international espionage and corporate sabotage in the 21st century’s privately-funded space race, following follow Welling as Captain Vincent Corbo, a hardened former counterintelligence officer. After their advanced medical satellite explodes on deployment, billionaire futurist Peter Swann (Fraser), and his fiancée, medical visionary Dr. Graciela “Grace” Davila turn to Corbo, who assembles a team of experienced professionals to investigate the incident. They learn that any combination of Swann’s business rivals, corrupt governments officials, and a shadowy crime syndicate could be behind the attack and represent a continued threat. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!