Hey All,
RENEWALS/BROADCAST RIGHTS/CANCELLATION
Freeform has renewed The Bold Type for its 5th and final season, expected to air later this year. (TV Line)
NBC has renewed The Blacklist for a 9th season. (Variety)
FOX has acquired the first two seasons of the Canadian legal drama Diggstown that is about a star corporate lawyer (Vinessa Antoine) who, after her beloved aunt commits suicide following a malicious prosecution, decides to reconsider her priorities. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)
The Canadian broadcaster CBC has cancelled plans for a 2nd season of the drama Trickster (which is currently airing on The CW with its finale set to air on February 16) in the wake of a controversy over the co-creator of the series not being Indigenous despite claims of being such for the past TWO DECADES. (TV Line)
TV AND STREAMING CASTING NEWS
Actor Joel Kinnaman (The Killing, Altered Carbon and For All Mankind) will star opposite Orange Is the New Black alum Uzo Aduba in the revival of the HBO drama In Treatment. Kinnaman will play Adam, the long-time on-again, off-again boyfriend of Dr. Brooke Lawrence (Aduba’s character). (Variety and The Futon Critic)
Relative newcomer Jay Lycurgo (who will be seen in the upcoming DC film The Batman) will recur on Season 3 of the DC series Titans, playing Tim Drake, a streetwise kid who’s managed to grow up on the toughest streets without losing his indelible belief in heroism. In DC lore, Tim is fated to become the third Robin, succeeding Jason Todd (and Dick Grayson before him) in carrying the superhero mantle. Titans‘ Dick (Brenton Thwaites), after a bit of an identity crisis, has transitioned to the Nightwing persona, while Jason Todd (Curran Walters) is due to become Red Hood in Season 3. (TV Line)
Anne Hathaway and Jared Leto will star in the Apple series WeCrashed based on the Wondery podcast of the same name, which is described as following the greed-filled rise and inevitable fall of WeWork, one of the world’s most valuable startups, and the narcissists whose chaotic love made it all possible. (Variety)
Actor Dylan McDermott (The Practice and American Horror Story) will star opposite Christopher Meloni in the latest spin-off Law & Order: Organized Crime that finds Elliot Stabler returning to the NYPD after a devastating personal loss and joins a new, elite task force designed to take down New York’s most powerful criminal syndicates. Details on the character McDermott will play is being kept under wraps, however. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Actor Tian Richards (the movie Dumplin’ and Being Mary Jane) has landed the title role in the Nancy Drew spin-off Tom Swift at The CW. The series follows the titular Black, gay, billionaire inventor who is thrust into a world of sci-fi conspiracy and unexplained phenomena after the shocking disappearance of his father. (Variety)
Actors Jamie Dornan (The Fall and the recent box office movie Wild Mountain Thyme) and Hugo Weaving (The Lord of the Rings franchise) and actresses Daniell Macdonald (Patti Cake$ and I Am Woman) and Shalom Brune-Franklin (the streaming series Cursed) will star in the HBO Max 6-episode limited series The Tourist. Dornan will star as a British man who finds himself in the glowing red heart of the Australian outback being pursued by a vast tank truck trying to drive him off the road. An epic cat and mouse chase unfolds and the man later wakes in the hospital, hurt, but somehow alive. Except he has no idea who he is. With merciless figures from his past pursuing him, The Man’s search for answers propels him through the vast and unforgiving outback. Macdonald will star as Helen Chambers, a fledgling Probationary Constable; Brune-Franklin will play Luci, a waitress who’s swept into The Man’s journey for answers; and Weaving will play Agent Lachlan Rogers, one of the most highly regarded detective inspectors in Australia, leading Major Crime for the state police. (Variety)
Actors Ted Levine (The Silence of the Lambs) and Kyle Schmid (Blood Ties, Copper and Six) have joined the cast of the new ABC drama Big Sky. Levine, a new series regular, will play Horst Kleinsasser, who has run a ranch empire for decades with a petty ruthlessness, buying up failing ranches, making deals, expanding his grip on the small, rural Lochsa County while Schmid will recur as John Wayne Kleinsasser, who clings to the old ways of the ranch with a ferocity and forcefulness. Also, actress Michelle Forbes (True Blood and Battlestar Galactica) will recur in the show as Margaret, the picture perfect ranch wife who knows her place, likes to bake and loves all of her children equally, but scratch the surface and there’s real steel beneath; actress Britt Robertson (Life UnExpected and Under the Dome) will recur as Cheyenne, Horst’s daughter, who ran off and made poor life choices; actor Michael Raymond-James (True Blood, Terriers and Once Upon a Time) will recur as Blake, who turned his back kon the ranch, going to the city to make his own way; actor Ryan Dorsey (Pitch and Ray Donovan as well as the ex-husband to the late Naya Rivera) will recur as Rand and actor Omar Metwally (Mr. Robot and Treadstone) who will recur as Frank Lindor, a bounty hunter. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)
Actor Alan Cumming will recur on the FOX drama Prodigal Son, playing Simon Hoxley, a supremely confident and cocky Europol agent known as The MindSleuth, who is considered one of the most celebrated criminal profilers in the world. He travels to New York to solve the murder of Nicholas Endicott (played by Dermot Mulroney last season), which puts Malcolm in his crosshairs. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)
Actor Dan Bucatinsky (Scandal) will recur in the upcoming new ABC drama Rebel that will star Katey Sagal (Sons of Anarchy) in the title role. Bucatinsky will play Jason Erickson, an edgy, somewhat bitter university professor who Rebel seeks out to enlist his help. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)
Actress Jodie Turner-Smith (the box office movie Queen & Slim and the TV series The Last Ship) is the first cast member of the spin-off series The Witcher: Blood Origin. She will play Éile, a fierce warrior with the voice of a goddess. (Netflix and The Futon Critic)
Actor Paul Campbell (Battlestar Galactica and numerous Hallmark Channel movies) has joined the cast of the Disney+ small screen adaptation of Turner & Hooch, the show about a detective who solves crimes with the help of an oversized dog. Campbell will play Grady Garland, the ex-husband of Laura Turner (to be played by Lyndsy Fonseca from Nikita). (Deadline and The Futon Critic)
Actress Shiva Negar (the box office movie American Assassin) has landed a recurring role on SEAL Team, playing Chief Petty Officer Mina Hassan, a diligent and uniquely skilled Navy Cryptologist and Special Activities Senior NCO who has developed valuable assets and built an impressive network in the Middle East. (Deadline)
The 2009 Black List script for the music-driven project Mixtape will finally show up as a movie on Netflix, starring Julie Bowen (Modern Family) and Jackson Rathbone (the Twilight movie franchise) as well as newcomer Gemma Brooke Allen. The movie focuses on what happens on the eve of Y2K when orphaned, awkward 12-year-old Beverly Moody (Allen) discovers a broken mixtape crafted by her teen parents. Raised by her grandmother Gail (Bowen), a former teen mom herself who finds it painful to speak about her late daughter, Beverly sees this mixtape as a chance to finally learn more about her parents. So she sets out on a journey to find all the songs on the tape. Rathbone will play Wes, a rocker who knew Beverly’s mother back in the day. He’s now a bitter man who is still playing in a crappy local band. (Deadline)
Actor Jason Scott Lee (Mulan and Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story) has joined the cast of the upcoming Disney+ comedy series Doogie Kameāloha, M.D., which will be set in present-day Hawaii, reimagining Doogie Howser M.D. as a ½ hour medical dramedy with a female lead. The show will follow Lahela “Doogie” Kameāloha (Peyton Elizabeth Lee), a 16-year-old mixed-race girl who juggles a budding medical career and life as a teenager. Lee will play her father, who struggles to accept that his daughter is no longer his little girl. (Deadline)
Actresses Nicole Beharie (Sleepy Hollow) and Tovah Feldshuh (The Walking Dead and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) and actor Corey Stoll (House of Cards) will have supporting roles in the HBO limited series Scenes from a Marriage, which is an adaptation of the classic Ingmar Bergman mini-series that is set to star Jessica Chastain (who will also executive produce) and Oscar Isaac. The series reexamines depictions of love, hatred, desire, monogamy, marriage and divorce through the lens of a contemporary American couple. (Deadline)
Actress Jessica Barden (Penny Dreadful and the box office film Hanna) and actors Omari Hardwick (Power), Joe Dempsie (Game of Thrones), David Wenham (The Lord of the Rings franchise) and Jacob Scipio (the box office movie Bad Boys for Life) will star opposite Toni Collette and Bella Heathcote in the upcoming Netflix series Pieces of Her, which is based on the best-selling novel by Karin Slaughter. In a sleepy Georgia town, a random act of violence sets off an unexpected chain of events for 30-year-old Andy Oliver (Heathcoate) and her mother Laura (Collette). Desperate for answers, Andy embarks on a dangerous journey across America, drawing her towards the dark, hidden heart of her family. Barden will play Jane, a piano prodigy and the only daughter of a Getty-like billionaire; Hardwick will play Gordon Oliver, a successful lawyer in Savannah; Wenham will play Jasper, the eldest of the three siblings, forever driven to surpass his domineering billionaire father; and Scipio will play Michael Vargas, an enigmatic stranger tracking Andy Oliver as she searches for the truth about her mother. (Variety)
Actor Tom Sturridge (Sweetbitter) has landed the lead role of Dream, Lord of the Dreaming in the Netflix adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. The series will follow Dream — as well as those who’ve been affected by him — as he goes about putting right the mistakes he’s made during his very long existence. Among the cast will be Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones), who will play Lucifer, the ruler of Hell; Charles Dance (Game of Thrones) , who will play Roderick Burgess, a charlatan, blackmailer and magician; and Boyd Holbrook (Narcos, The Fugitive), who will play The Corinthian, an escaped nightmare who wishes to taste all that the world has in store. (TV Line)
Relative newcomer Charmaine Bingwa will join the upcoming 5th season of The Good Fight as a series regular, filling the void left by original cast member Cush Jumbo. Bingwa will play Carmen Moyo, a tough, unsentimental, young lawyer whose working-class background allows her to bond with Reddick, Boseman & Lockhart’s most infamous, difficult clients. (Deadline)
The upcoming new drama Delilah from Craig Wright, the creator of the network’s popular series Greenleaf, will air on OWN. The series revolves around Delilah (Maahra Hill), who left a demanding white-shoe law firm a decade ago and hung up her own shingle so she could make raising her kids her number one priority. Now she takes on cases the big firms ignore and finds herself, more often than not, going head-to-head with the powerful and privileged as she fights for the disenfranchised. The cast will include LaMonica Garrett (Arrow and Designated Survivor), Jill Marie Jones (Girlfriends) and Lyriq Bent (Rookie Blue and Carter). (Deadline)
Actress Jen Landon (Yellowstone) will have a recurring role on FBI: Most Wanted, playing Sarah Allen, a horse riding instructor who will work with Special Agent Jess LaCroix’s daughter, Tali (Yaya Gosselin). (TV Line)
Taron Egerton has been tapped to star in the 6-episode Apple TV+ limited series In With The Devil from author Dennis Lehane, which will be centered around an intimate relationship between two prisoners, exploring the lengths that people will go to in order to seek redemption — and if true absolution is ever really possible. (TV Line)
BOX OFFICE CASTING NEWS
Zach Braff (Scrubs) and Gabrielle Union (Being Mary Jane and L.A.’s Finest) are set to appear in a new film adaptation of Cheaper by the Dozen from Black-ish creator Kenya Barris being developed for Disney+. This new version will center on a multiracial, blended family of 12, navigating a hectic home life while managing their family business. (Deadline)
Actress Samara Weaving (the box office movie Ready or Not) will star in the biopic film Liz that will focus on one of America’s forgotten founding mothers Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte. The film will tell the story of the country’s first modern celebrity, who gained prominence as the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte’s youngest brother, Jerome. She revolutionized America’s social scene in the time of Jefferson’s presidency; she has been called one of America’s first international celebrities known for her fashion, wit and independence. (Variety)
Kevin Hart will join Cate Blanchett in Borderlands, the upcoming movie adaptation of the popular video game. Hart will play Roland, a skilled ex-soldier-turned-mercenary. (Variety)
Newcomer Alton Mason will play Little Richard in the box office movie Elvis from director Baz Luhrmann. He joins Austin Butler, who stars in the title role and Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker. (Deadline)
Actor Luke Evans (The Alienist and 2017’s Beauty and the Beast) will play The Coachman in the upcoming live-action retelling of Pinocchio that will star Tom Hanks as Geppetto. (Deadline)
That’s it. Enjoy!
Rueben's Ramblings 