Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

Freeform has canceled Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists. (Variety)

Amazon has given the Stana Katic drama Absentia a third season renewal. (Deadline)

CASTING NEWS

The long-gestating drama The Gilded Age from Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellows has announced some of its cast. They include Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon and Amanda Peet. The series is set in the titular period of American history, beginning in 1882, centerting on young Marian Brook, the orphaned daughter of a Southern general, who moves into the home of her rigidly conventional aunts in New York City. Accompanied by the mysterious Peggy Scott, an African-American woman masquerading as her maid, Marian gets caught up in the dazzling lives of her stupendously rich neighbors, led by a ruthless railroad tycoon and his ambitious wife struggling for acceptance by the Astor and Vanderbilt set. Baranski will star as Agnes van Rhijn, a proud and stubborn aristocrat who will never accept that the world has changed, and that ancient values are being replaced by new ones. Nixon will play Ada Brook, another victim of the collapse of the old south, but unlike her sister Agnes, she never found a way to get out until it was too late, and she was forced back on her sister’s charity. Peet will appear as Bertha Russell, who comes from the ordinary middle-class. She backed her instincts when she set out to catch her husband George, the son of a merchant family who has proved to be a financial genius. She is determined to use her money and position to break into a society that resists change at every turn. (Variety)

Actress Ashley Scott will reprise her role of Helena Kyle aka Huntress from the short-lived series Birds of Prey in the upcoming Arrowverse “Crisis on Infinite Earth.” Also, actor Osric Chau (Supernatural) will recur as Ryan Choi, a physics professor at Ivy Town Universiry, who is a normal guy who comes to learn that he has a pivotal role to play in the crisis crossover. (TV Line and Deadline)

Actresses AnnaSophia Robb (The Act) and Alona Tal (SEAL Team) and actor Luke Bracey (Hacksaw Ridge) will appear in the flashback episode of the upcoming Hulu limited series Little Fires Everywhere, which is based on the best-selling book by Celeste Ng that will star Reese Witherspoon (as Elean Richardson) and Kerry Washington in a story that follows the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and an enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives. Robb will play a young Elena, a young mother with four children under four, who struggles to reassert control over her life after her youngest child is born. Tal portrays Young Linda, Elena’s best friend, who along with her husband Mark long for a child of their own while enduring heartbreaking loss and the grief of infertility. Bracey will play Jamie Caplan, Elena’s college boyfriend. (Deadline)

Actor Chuku Modu, who plays Dr. Gabriel Santiago (aka Xavier) on The 100, has been promoted to series regular for the show’s 7th and final season. Acto Chad Rook (Siren, Timeless, Supernatural and The Flash) has also joined the cast, recurrnng as Hatch, a charming Eligius convict who is determined to forge a better life for those he loves,” TVLine has learned exclusively. (Deadline)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

Actor John Stamos and Graham Phillips (The Good Wife and Riverdale) have joined the cast of the upcoming ABC live musical The Little Mermaid Live with Stamos reprising his role as eccentric French cook Chef Lous while Phillips will play Prince Eric. (Variety)

SHOWS IN DEVELOPMENT

Actor Jared Padalecki (Supernatural) could soon be starring in a reboot of Walker, Texas Ranger, as CBS TV Studios is currently developing a new version of the long-running CBS series that starred Chuck Norris in the lead role. At this time no network is currently attached, but the the series would focus on Walker as he returns from years undercover. A widower and father of two, he begins fighting crime with a new partner, who is one of the only female Rangers in history. (Variety)

The CW is developing an Arrow spin-off that would focus on the crime-fighting team The Canaries that would star Katherine McNamara (Shadowhunters) as Mia Smoak and Arrow alums Katie Cassidy as Laurel Lance and Juliana Harkavy as Dinah Drake. The Canaries are a vigilante group operating in a future of Star City in which the city was overrun by an uprising by the denizens of the city known as The Glades. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE CASTING NEWS

Actress Kirby Howell-Baptiste (Hulu’s Veronica Mars) will join Emma Stone in the Disney live-action film Cruella, an origin story based on the classic 101 Dalmatians villian Cruella de Vil (Stone). Details on what character Howell-Baptiste has yet to be revealed. (Variety)

Jurassic Park alums Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill will reprise their roles in the third chapter of the Jurassic World franchise. (Variety)

Actor Aidan Turrner (The Hobbit, Being Human and Poldark) has joined the cast of the upcoming under-the-radar life of Christ movie The Last Planet. He will play Apostle Andrews. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!