Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

Emily in Paris has been renewed by Netflix for a second season. (Variety)

Netflix has canceled the supernatural drama The Order after two seasons. (TV Line)

HBO has pulled the plug on the horror crime drama The Outsider after only one season. (Variety)

Netflix has given a third season renewal to The Umbrella Academy. (Variety)

IMDbTV has renewed Alex Rider for a second season. (TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

The CW has ordered a pilot for a spin-off to Black Lightning that will center on the character Painkiller, starring Jordan Calloway. The show would follow Khalil Payne (Calloway), a young man ridden with the guilt of his troubled past from his former life in Freeland City. As a super-enhanced killing machine known as Painkiller, he was both a member of Tobias Whale’s gang and a weapon of Agent Odell and the shadowy ASA. After attempting to bury the darker, devastatingly lethal Painkiller part of his persona, Khalil has distanced himself away from everyone he knows and loves in a new city, Akashic Valley, in order to find peace. But peace never comes easy for men with pasts like his. As his violent, destructive history crashes his idyllic new beginning, Khalil is thrust back into action with a new mission – bring justice where he once gave out punishment – but to do that, he will first have to deal with and harness his darker side. (Variety)

The series The Mysterious Benedict Society, based on the book series by Trenton Lee Stewart, is being moved to Disney+ from its original home of Hulu. The 8-episode series will star Tony Hale, Kristen Schaal and Ryan Hurst [among others]. Placed undercover at a boarding school known as The Institute, a group of orphans must foil a nefarious plot with global ramifications while creating a new sort of family along the way. (Variety)

The CW is developing Modern Austen, a contemporary reimagining of Jane Austen’s novels. IT will be a one-hour anthology series that will focus on her beloved novels in six modern stories. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Actor Robert Patrick has joined the spin-off series Peacemaker that will air on HBO Max, joining John Cena, who has the lead role. Patrick will star as Auggie Smith. The series is to explore the origins of Peacemaker, a man who believes in peace at any cost, no matter how many people he has to kill to get it. (Variety)

Actress Ruth Wilson and actor Andrew Scott are set to star in the movie Oslo, based on the Tony Award-winning play by J.T. Rogers [that counts Steven Spielberg among its executive producers. The movie will focus on a committed group of Israelis, Palestinians and one Norwegian couple that led to the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords. Wilson will play Mona Juul, a Norwegian foreign minister while Scott will play Terje Rød-Larsen, a sociologist and Mona’s husband. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Actress Millie Bobby Brown is reteaming with Netflix on the fantasy film Damsel, following the success of her recent fall hit Enola Holmes with the streamer. Brown will not only star but also executive produce. She will play Princess Elodie, who thinks she is marrying Prince Henry, only to find out that she is being sacrificed to a dragon. (Deadline)

Broadway star Audra McDonald has been cast in the Julian Fellowes period drama The Gilded Age that will be on HBO. She will play Dorothy Scott, the wife of a powerful man and the backbone of her family. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

MOVIE CASTING NEWS

Actor Sylvester Stallone has joined the ensemble cast of The Suicide Squad, the stand-alone seque. But it is unclear what role he will play. (Variety)

Actor Paul Mescal (Normal People) will star opposite actress Melissa Barrera (Vida and the upcoming In the Heights) in the modern-day reimagining of Carmen, one of the world’s most celebrated operas. Mescal replaces Jamie Dornan in the role while Barrera will play the lead role. (Deadline)

Actress Danai Gurira will play the title role in the upcoming box office movie The Fighting Shirley Chisholm, the first black congresswoman. The story will follow Chisholm’s historic 1972 presidential run. The film is not a biopic; rather it’s focused more centrally on the campaign and how “the Chisholm Trail was populated by young people who sought social and political change during one of the most turbulent times in American history. (Deadline)

Since Johnny Depp was forced out of his role in the Fantastic Beasts franchise it is rumored that actor Mads Mikkelsen just might take over the role of wizard Gellert Grindelwald. (Variety)

Dwayne Johnson and his producing partner Dany Garcia are teaming up with Universal Pictures for a relaunch of The Scorpion King, which is the very first role Johnson ever had on the silver screen. (Variety)

The following actors joined Maggie Gyllenhaal in the star-studded drama The Lost Daughter, which has been adapted from the acclaimed novel by Elena Ferrante. Those cast members include Ed Harris, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Peter Sarsgaard, Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. (Variety)

Actor Chris Pratt will reprise his role of Peter Quill in the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder that will also find Natalie Portman back as Jane Foster, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie and new addition Christian Bale in a mysterious role. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!