Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

There will be no 4th season for American Gods as Starz has pulled the plug on the series. (TV Line)

Miss Scarlet and the Duke has been given a second season renewal. (Masterpiece)

Disney+ has decided not to order a 2nd season of The Right Stuff, but Warner Bros. Television (the studio behind the series) is shopping the series to other outlets. (Deadline)

TV DEVELOPMENT NEWS

CBS has given CSI: Vegas, the reboot/revival of the original series CBS, a formal series order. The series will pick up six years after the original finale, finding vets Gil (William Petersen) and Sara (Jorja Fox) surrounded by a new crop of Sin City-based CSIs who will be played by Matt Lauria (Friday Night Lights and Kingdom), Paula Newsome (Chicago Med and NCIS), Mel Rodriguez (Last Man on Earth) and Mandeep Dhillon (After Life). Wallace Langham, who played lab tech David Hodges, will also be back as a series regular. (TV Line)

NBC has given a series order to the drama Ordinary Joe that will explore the three parallel lives of the show’s main character to be played by James Wolk (Tell Me A Story) after he makes a pivotal choice at a crossroads in his life. The series asks the question of how different life might look if you made your decision based on love, loyalty or passion. The series also stars Natalie Martinez (Under the Dome and The Fugitive), Charlie Barnett (Arrow and You) and Elizabeth Lail (Once Upon a Time and Dead of Summer). (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Breakout star Rege-Jean Page will not appear in season 2 of Bridgerton, but fans of the hit Netflix streaming series shouldn’t be upset, as season 2 will focus on Anthony Bridgerton’s quest to find a wife (as the 2nd season is based on the 2nd book in the Julia Quinn book franchise) and the fact that Page’s appearance was only set for the debut season. (Variety)

Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey and Legion) will replace Armie Hammer in the upcoming Starz drama series Gaslit that is set to star Julia Roberts and Sean Penn. The series is a modern take on Watergate, focusing on the untold stories and forgotten characters of the scandal — from Nixon’s bumbling, opportunistic subordinates, to the deranged zealots aiding and abetting their crimes, to the tragic whistleblowers who would eventually bring the whole rotten enterprise crashing down. Stevens will play John Dean, the young White House Counsel torn between his ambition and his struggle with whether he can lie to protect the President. (TV Line)

Jesse Metcalfe will be leaving the Hallmark Channel series Chesapeake Shores during its upcoming 5th season. (TV Line)

Colin Firth will play Michael Peterson in a series adaptation of The Staircase, which has been ordered to series at HBO Max. The series is based on the docuseries of the same name focusing on Peterson, who was accused of murdering his wife, Kathleen, in 2001. He claimed she died after falling down the stairs at their home, but police suspected he bludgeoned her to death and staged the scene to look like an accident. (Variety)

Jason Dohring (Veronica Mars, Moonlight and iZombie) has landed a recurring role in SEAL Team where he will play LCDR Whitshaw, a charismatic and intelligent, high ranking officer with a stellar reputation, who knows how to work the regulation and system to his advantage. He has a cunning ability to cover his own tracks, which makes him a formidable adversary. (Deadline)

Amanda Seyfried will take over the role of Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, from Kate McKinnon who exited the project. The series will tell the story of Holmes, the enigmatic Stanford dropout who founded medical testing start-up Theranos. She was lauded as a Steve Jobs for the next tech generation. Once worth billions of dollars, the myth crumbled when it was revealed that none of the tech actually worked, putting thousands of people’s health in grave danger. Holmes’ scam was so successful, that Theranos was at one time valued at nine-billion dollars, making her one of the richest women in the world. She was indicted by a federal jury in 2018, along with the former Theranos chief operating officer, on nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Also, Naveen Andrews (Lost) will play Sunny Balwani, Holmes’ business partner and secret boyfriend throughout the rise and fall of Theranos. He served as the president and chief operating officer of the company. (Variety)

To All the Boys 2 star Jordan Fisher will have a recurring role in The Flash, playing Bart Allen, the fastest teenager on the planet and the future son of Barry (series lead Grant Gustin) and Iris (series regular Candice Patton). (TV Line)

The upcoming Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi has added a number of cast members, including Moses Ingram (The Queen’s Gambit), Joel Edgerton (Red Sparrow), Kumail Nanjiani (The Lovebirds and Big Sick), Indira Varma (For Life and Game of Thrones), Rupert Friend (Homeland), O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Straight Outta Compton), Sung Kang (Power and the Fast & Furious franchise) and Simone Kessell (Terra Nova) [among others]. Details on what roles each will play are being kept under wraps. (Variety)

Jack Reynor (Strange Angel) has joined the cast of the upcoming Amazon series adaptation of the novel The Peripheral by author Willaim Gibson. He joins Chloe Grace Moretz and Gary Carr (The Deuce and 21 Bridges), who will play the characters Flynne and Wilf respectively. Reynor will play Burton, Flynne’s brother and a US Marine Corp veteran who served in the Haptic Recon unit. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE CASTING NEWS

Russell Crowe will appear in a small but undisclosed role in Thor: Love and Thunder that finds Chris Hemsworth back as Thor, Natalie Portman back as Jane Foster (who will become a Thor) and Tessa Thompson back as Valkyrie. Christian Bale will play villain Gorr the God Butcher while Chris Pratt and other members of the Guardians of the Galaxy will also appear. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Jeremy Strong (Succession) will play Jonas Salk, the inventor of the polio vaccine, in the upcoming film Splendid Solution based on the best-selling novel, which follows Dr. Salk on his quest to find a cure for the deadly virus. (Variety)

New cast members for the upcoming box office film Being the Ricardos, that will star Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem as Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, have been announced, including Tony Hale (Arrested Development and Veep), Alia Shawkat (Search Party), and Jake Lacy (High Fidelity). Hale will play I Love Lucy executive producer and head writer Jess Oppenheimer, while Shawkat and Lacy will play the show’s longtime writing partners, Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll Jr. Other cast members include Clark Gregg (Avengers franchise and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and veteran actors John Rubinstein, Linda Lavin, Robert Pine in as-yet announced roles. (The Hollywood Reporter)

That’s it. Enjoy!