Rueben's Ramblings

Hi All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

CONGRATS

Here is a salute to the Academy Awards, including director Chloe Zhao, Emerald Fennell, Daniel Kaluuya, Soul, Yuh-Jung Youn (Minari), Frances McDormand, Anthony Hopkins and Nomadland.

RENEWALS

Netflix has renewed Ginny & Georgia for a second season. (TV Line)

CBS has given the go-ahead for the spin-off series NCIS: Hawaii. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Henry Lloyd-Hughes (The Irregulars) and Thalissa Teixeira (The Musketeers) will star alongside Lucy Hale in the six-episode AMC-Alibi series Ragdoll, which is based on the novel by Daniel Cole. Assigned to a shocking new case, nicknamed The Ragdoll, are DS Rose (Lloyd-Hughes), DI Baxter (Teixeira) and DC Edmunds (Hale). The “Ragdoll Killer” taunts the police by sending them a list of his next victims, with Rose’s name at the very end. And with those victims to protect, our heroes soon come under intense public scrutiny. (Variety)

LisaGay Hamilton (The Practice) will recur in the Netflix small screen drama adaptation of The Lincoln Lawyer, playing Mary Holder, presiding judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, the most powerful trial judge in the city and a no-nonsense jurist who doesn’t suffer fools. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

Edgar Ramirez (Netflix’s new movie Yes Day) will star in the 8-episode Netflix series Florida Man, which revolves around a struggling ex-cop who is forced to return to his home state of Florida to find a Philly mobster’s runaway girlfriend. (Variety)

Game of Thrones alum Emilia Clarke is expected to join the cast of the new Marvel Studios series Secret Invasion that is being put together at Disney+ that already boasts Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Kingsley Ben-Adir and Olivia Colman as part of its cast. The series is reported to follow a group of shape-shifting aliens who have been infiltrating Earth for years. Ben-Adir has been set as the main villain, but no word yet on Clarke’s role. (Variety)

Additional cast members have been added to the upcoming HBO drama series about the Los Angeles Lakers: Tracy Letts (Ford v. Ferrari), Julianne Nicholson (Mare of Easttown) and LisaGay Hamilton (The Practice) [among others]. The series chronicles the professional and personal lives of the 1980s Lakers. Letts will play Jack McKinney, the original architect of the Lakers’ fast paced running game; Nicholson will play Cranny McKinney, the coach’s wife; and Hamilton will play Magic Johnson’s mom, Christine Johnson. (Deadline)

Jamie McShane (Bloodline) and Reggie Lee (All Rise and Grimm) will recur in the Netflix small screen adaptation of The Lincoln Lawyer that stars Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Neve Campbell. Based on the Michael Connelly best-selling novels, the series revolves around Mickey Haller (Garcia-Rulfo), an iconoclastic idealist who runs his law practice out of the back seat of his Lincoln Town Car as he takes on cases big and small across the expansive city of Los Angeles. McShane will play Detective Lee Lankford. A cynical veteran of the police force who is working with Maggie (Campbell), Lankford has a contentious relationship with Mickey. Lee will play Angelo Soto, an intimidating, wealthy businessman who owns a string of successful nursing facilities. He’s under investigation by the DA’s office for possible illegal activity. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS

Downton Abbey will be back on the big screen for a follow-up movie with series creator Julian Fellowes back at the helm and the entire cast returning as well as four new additions, including: Hugh Dancy (Hannibal), Dominic West (The Affair), Laura Haddock (Da Vinci’s Demons and Peter Quill’s mom in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise) and French actress Nathalie Baye. Their roles are being kept under wraps, as are plot details. (TV Line)

Vin Diesel will be starring in the live-action movie Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em based on the Mattel children’s game, featuring battling robots. (Variety)

Dakota Johnson (from the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise) will be taking the lead in a modern-day approach of Jane Austen’s novel Persuasion that tells the story of Anne Elliot, a headstrong woman living with her snobby family on the brink of bankruptcy. Unmarried and 27-years-old, Anne reconnects with a man she was once persuaded to reject and faces a second chance at love. (Variety)

Oscar Nunez (The Office) will join Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum in the upcoming romantic action comedy The Lost City of D that will center on a romance novelist (Bullock), who gets stuck on a book tour with her cover model (Tatum). Straight out of a novella, a kidnapping attempt sweeps them both into a cutthroat jungle adventure, proving that life can be much stranger — and more romantic — than fiction. What character Nunez will play has yet to be announced. (Variety)

Steven Strait (The Expanse) will star in the high concept sci-fi thriller film Five Below. The plot is being kept under wraps, but is said to be a new take on the meta-human sci-fi genre. (Deadline)

Adria Arjona (Emerald City and Good Omens) will star alongside Andy Garcia in the reboot of Father of the Bride; this time revolving around a Cuban-American family. The film will tell the story of a father coming to grips with his daughter’s upcoming wedding through the prism of multiple relationships within a big, sprawling Cuban-American family. Also singer-songwriter Gloria Estefan will also star in the movie. (Deadline)

Additional cast members have been announced for the indie spy thriller Agent Game: Jason Isaacs (the Harry Potter franchise), Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips) and Adan Canto (Designated Survivor). The film also stars Dermot Mulroney, Katie Cassidy, Rhys Coiro, Annie Ilonzeh, and Mel Gibson. The film focuses on CIA officer Harris (Mulroney), who is involved in missions to detain and relocate foreign nationals for interrogation. When Harris’ superior (Isaacs) is murdered, he finds himself the scapegoat for the killing of a detainee (Abdi) and must run from a team of operatives sent to bring him in (Canto, Cassidy, Coiro), led by a ruthless double agent (Ilonzeh). Gibson will play a rogue intelligence official running the off-book operation to hunt down and kill Harris. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!