Hey All,
Here are the news items for this past week:
RENEWALS
Hulu has renewed Handmaid’s Tale for a 5th season. (Variety)
The 2nd season of the already renewed Canadian medical drama Transplant has been picked up by NBC. (TV Line)
Apple TV has renewed the drama For All Mankind for a third season. (Variety)
Industry” has been renewed for Season 2 at HBO. (Variety)
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
HBO is supposedly developing a new iteration of True Blood from Riverdale creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Alan Ball, who created the original, is expected to return as executive producer. (TV Line)
A U.S. remake of the Canadian drama Being Erica is being developed with actress Allison Williams (HBO’s Girls and the box office movie Get Out) taking on the lead role. In the original series actress Erin Karpluk played Erica Strange, a woman whose therapist sends her back in time to revisit her biggest regrets in life. This new iteration would tell the story of two women, both of whom are sent back in time, discovering their lives are inextricably intertwined. (Deadline and TV Line)
TV CASTING NEWS
Actor Andrew Leeds (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist) will appear on A Million Little Things playing Peter, a highly skilled music teacher who works with young artists; but his style is decidedly not gentle — which likely will be a shock to Sophie, Danny, Theo or whatever kid winds up on the other side of his music stand. (TV Line)
Actress Julia Roberts has signed on to executive produce AND star in the TV series adaptation of the upcoming Laura Dave novel “The Last Thing He Hold Me” at Apple. The series follows a woman (Roberts) who forms an unexpected relationship with her sixteen-year-old stepdaughter while searching for the truth about why her husband has mysteriously disappeared. (Variety)
Actor Matt Smith (Doctor Who) and actress Olivia Cooke (Bates Motel and box office movie Ready Player One) have joined the cast of the Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragons. (Variety)
MOVIE CASTING NEWS
Paul Schneider (Lars and the Real Girl), Shantel VanSanten (The Shooter and The Boys), Kevin Corrigan (Pineapple Express and Ray Donovan) and Moises Arias (Five Feet Apart) have joined the cast of the upcoming box office film American Murderer, which tells the story of a charismatic con man turned party king who bankrolls his high living through a series of scams. The cast already includes Tom Pelphrey, Ryan Phillippe, Idina Menzel and Jacki Weaver. (Variety)
Actor Alfred Molina will reprise his role of Doctor Octopus (from the 2004 Spider-Man movie) in the third installment of the Tom Holland Spider-Man blockbuster. It’s also being reported that Jamie Foxx just might appear as Electro, the villain from the Andrew Garfield movie The Amazing Spider-Man 2. And (yes, there’s more!) actor Benedict Cumberbatch will appear as Doctor Strange in the next movie in the current franchise. (Variety)
MASSIVE DISNEY NEWS [From Variety]
For Disney Films:
Christian Bale is joining the cast of Thor: Love and Thunder where he will play the villain Gorr the Godbutcher.
Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer will return for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumaina that will introduce Kathryn Newton (Supernatural, Big Little Lies and the recent box office movie Freaky) as Cassie Lang.
Chinese actor Simu Liu landed the lead role in the upcoming box office movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings; and cast members for that film has finally been revealed, including Awkwafina, Michelle Yeoh, Tony Leung, Ronny Chieng, Fala Chen and Florian Munteanu.
Disney is also in very early development on (another!) reboot of the Fantastic Four; and it’s been confirmed there will be no recasting of Chadwick Boseman for Black Panther 2.
There will be a Sister Act 3 with Whoopi Goldberg returning to the film franchise with Tyler Perry serving as a producer.
Newcomer Iman Vellani will star in the Disney Plus series Ms. Marvel; and she will also appear in the upcoming Captain Marvel 2, starring opposite Brie Larson.
For Disney Plus:
Mark Ruffalo will reprise his role of Bruce Banner (aka The Incredible Hulk) in the small screen adaptation of She-Hulk that will star Orphan Black alum Tatiana Maslany in the title role. Tim Roth will also reprise his role of Abomination the series as well.
Don Cheadle will reprise his role of James Rhodes (aka War Machine) in the standalone series Armor Wars, based on the comic book series of the same name, in which Tony Stark’s Iron Man armor designs fall into the hands of those who would use them to do harm rather than good.
In 2022, there will be a Guardians of the Galaxy holiday special, featuring the popular film characters.
Secret Invasion, based on the comic book series of the same name, will see Samuel L. Jackson return as Nick Fury with Ben Mendelsohn reprising his role of Skrull leader Talos from Captain Marvel.
Dominique Thorne (Judas and the Black Messiah) will star in the new series Ironheart will follow genius inventor Riri Williams, the creator of the most advanced suit of armor since Iron Man.
Other new Disney Plus series will include:
Andor: A Rogue One prequel that will focus on Cassian Andor (Diego Luna). Set for 2022.
Ahsoka: Rosario Dawson will reprise her role of Ahsoka Tan from The Mandalorian
Obi-Wan Kenobi: Starring Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen returning as Darth Vader
Lando: Will focus on rogue Lando Calrissian, but it’s unclear with Donald Glover, who played the character in Solo: A Star Wars Story, will return for the series
The Acolyte: A female-centric series billed as a “mystery-thriller” set in the final days of the High Republic era
Disney Animation includes:
An animated series based on Moana is being developed.
Baymax, which will follow the medical robot from the feature film Big Hero 6 is set for a fall 2021 premiere.
Zootopia Plus, based on the talking-animal feature, will premiere in early 2022.
Tiana, based on the heroine from the animated feature The Princess and the Frog is set for 2022.
Pixar’s Dug Days, a spinoff from the feature film Up, focusing on the titular talking dog, will premiere in fall 2021.
Pixar’s Cars, a series based on the box office movie, will debut in fall 2022.
Pinocchio, with Tom Hanks, and Peter Pan and Wendy, with Yara Shahidi as Tinker Bell and Jude Law as Captain Hook are skipping their planned theatrical releases and will debut on Disney Plus instead.
That’s it. Enjoy!
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