Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

NEW DEVELOPMENT

The creators of Game of Thrones are developing a series adaptation of the Richard Power novel “The Overstory” for Netflix. The novel was published in 2018 and won the Pulitzer Prize tells the story of a world alongside ours that is vast, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. A handful of disparate people learn how to see that world and are drawn into its unfolding catastrophe. (Variety)

Amazon has ordered an adaptation of the Jenny Han YA novel “The Summer I Turned Pretty.” This adaptation has been given an 8-episode order. This project is described as a multigenerational drama that hinges on a love triangle between one girl and two brothers, the ever-evolving relationship between mothers and their children, and the enduring power of strong female friendship. It is a coming-of-age story about first love, first heartbreak, and the magic of that one perfect summer. (Variety)

CBS has a revival of CSI in the works with William Peterson and Jorja Fox set to reprise their roles; and new cast members will include Matt Lauria (Friday Night Lights), who will play Josh, a Level 3 CSI who excels at crime scene reconstruction; Paula Newsome (Chicago Med), who will play Maxine, the new head of the Vegas Crime lab; and Mel Rodriguez (Last Man on Earth), who will play Hugo, the head medical examiner who has a slightly creepy obsession with dead bodies. (TV Line)

The CW has announced their new projects, including the following:

• A straight-to-series order for a remake of The 4400 (a reboot of the USA Network drama). 4400 overlooked, undervalued, or otherwise marginalized people who vanished without a trace over the last hundred years are all returned in an instant, having not aged a day and with no memory of what happened to them. As the government races to analyze the potential threat and contain the story, the 4400 themselves must grapple with the fact that they’ve been returned with a few upgrades, and the increasing likelihood that they were all brought back now for a specific reason. This reboot has been in development at The CW since 2018;
• Naomi, based on the standalone comic book series, has been given a pilot order. The series follows a teen girl’s journey from her small northwestern town to the heights of the multiverse. When a supernatural event shakes her hometown to the core, Naomi sets out to uncover its origins, and what she discovers will challenge everything we believe about our heroes;
• Powerpuff Girls, a live-action series based on the Cartoon Network animated series, has also been given a pilot order. The new series sees the pint-sized superheroes as disillusioned twentysomethings who resent having lost their childhood to crime fighting. Will they agree to reunite now that the world needs them more than ever?; and,
• An untitled religious dramedy about two millennial nuns – a devout true believer, and a new arrival who has yet to take her final vows – who start as strangers and become sisters on a funny, spiritual journey to understand their own faith and place in the Catholic church. (Variety)

YOU’VE BEEN FIRED

This news comes as no surprise for viewers of The Mandalorian on Disney+. Actress Gina Carano has been fired from the show due to problematic things and opinions she has shared/supported all across social media, ranging from anti-trans, anti-mask/anti-vaxxer and racist comments as well as being a supporter of the attempted January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, among other things. (TV Line)

SMALL SCREEN CASTING NEWS

Actress-singer Christina Milian has joined the cast of the small screen adaptation of Step Up – based on the box office dance franchise of films – which was picked up by Starz from its original airing on YouTube. She will take over the role of Collette that was played by the late Naya Rivera. (Variety)

Another Castle alum will appear in The Rookie. Actress Toks Olagundoye will appear in a multi-episode arc, playing Fiona Ryan, Officer John Nolans (lead star Nathan Fillion) professor in his Ethics and Criminal Justice class. (Digital Spy)

Versatile actor J.K. Simmons and actress Nina Arianda (Midnight in Paris and the TV series Goliath) are in talks to join the Amazon Studios Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez project Being the Ricardos that is set to star Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem as the legendary couple. Simmons will play William Frawley, the actor who played Fred Mertz; and Arianda will play Vivian Vance, who played Ethel Mertz. (The Hollywood Reporter)

National Geographic has announced the next installment of its anthology series The Hot Zone. This time the scripted series will be The Hot Zone: Anthrax, which takes place in 2001, just weeks after 9/11, where another deadly act of terrorism rocked the United States. Letters containing anthrax were sent to unsuspecting victims in Florida, Washington, D.C. and New York. The anonymous assault claimed five lives and caused panic throughout the country. Despite interagency turf wars and many false leads, an unlikely team of scientists, FBI agents and government departments slowly closed in on a shocking prime suspect. The cast will include the following:

• Tony Goldwyn (Scandal) will play Bruce Ivins, a brilliant microbiologist who becomes embroiled in the hunt to find the 2001 anthrax killer;
• Daniel Dae Kim (Lost and Hawaii Five-0) will portray Matthew Ryker, an FBI agent with a specialty in microbiology, who, just three weeks after the 9/11attacks, risks his career to convince his superiors of the unthinkable, that the United States is under attack again;
• Harry Hamlin (L.A.Law) will play Tom Brokaw, the respected journalist and anchor for NBC News; and,
• Dylan Baker (The Good Wife) will play Ed Copak, a high-ranking FBI lifer. His department is rocked by the recent events of 9/11 and is now charged with finding the anthrax killer. He feels the weight of responsibility for getting justice for a wounded nation. (National Geographic)

HBO is working on a series adaptation of The Last of Us, based on the Sony Playstation franchise; and two cast members have been announced: Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) and Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones). The series takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joe (Pascal), a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie (Ramsey) out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse across the U.S. and depend on each other for survival. (Variety)

Actress Claire Danes (Homeland) will star in the lead role in the upcoming Apple drama series The Essex Serpent, which is based on the book by Sarah Perry. Danes takes over the lead role from Keira Knightley. The story follows newly widowed Cora (Danes) who, having been released from an abusive marriage, relocates from Victorian London to the small village of Aldwinter in Essex, intrigued by a local superstition that a mythical creature known as the Essex Serpent has returned to the area. (Variety)

Legendary Dolly Parton will reunite with her 9 to 5 co-stars Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, appearing in Grace and Frankie. (NY Post)

Actor Angus Macfadyen (from the box office movie Braveheart) will appear in the new drama Superman & Lois on the CW. He will take on the role of Jor-El, who will be a projection in the Fortress of Solitude, offering his son sage guidance. (ComicBook.com)

Actor Donald Glover (Community and Atlanta) and actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) will be putting a new spin on a small screen adaptation of the 2005 box office movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith – that starred Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Glover and Waller-Bridge will not only star in but also executive produce the series. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE CASTING NEWS

Veteran actress Jamie Lee Curtis will join Cate Blanchett and Kevin Hart in the box office adaptation of the popular video game Borderlands. Curtis will play Tannis, based on the character Dr. Patricia Tannis, an archeologist on the planet of Pandora, whose expertise could help lead to a mysterious vault filled with ancient alien technology. She has a tricky background with Lilith, the character for which Blanchett will play. ALSO, actor Jack Black has joined the cast, providing the voice of Claptrap, a persistently sarcastic robot that isn’t all that invested in the survival of his teammates. (Variety)

Netflix has acquired the Dennis Quaid film Blue Miracle, based on a true story, that centers on Casa Hogar, a Mexican orphanage that was struggling to survive after Hurricane Odile hit in 2014. On the brink of bankruptcy, the residents enter the world’s biggest fishing tournament in hopes of winning the prize money to save their home. (Variety)

Actress Lily Gladstone, a descendant of the Blackfeet and Nez Perce tribes, will star in the upcoming Martin Scorsese film Killers of the Flower Moon, which is based on the best-selling book by David Grann that takes place in 1920s Oklahoma, depicting a string of brutal murders of Osage Nation Native Americans, which came to be known as the Reign of Terror. The Osage Nation, who were the richest people per capita in the world, were killed one by one after oil was discovered on their land. As the death toll rose, the newly-created FBI took up the case and unraveled a chilling conspiracy and one of the most monstrous crimes in American history. Gladstone will play Mollie Burkhart, an Osage married to Ernest Burkhart, who is the nephew of a powerful local rancher. The movie cast will include Leonardo DiCaprio as Burkhart and Robert De Niro as Burkhart’s uncle. (Variety)

Actress Florence Pugh (Little Women and Black Widow) has signed on to play the lead in a sci-fi movie called Dolly, which will be about a robotic “companion doll” that kills her owner then asks for an attorney so she can plead not guilty. The movie is based on a short story by Elizabeth Bear. While the project has been picked up by Apple Studios it hasn’t been given an official green light yet. (Deadline and BBC America)

That’s it. Enjoy!