Rueben's Ramblings

Hi All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWAL

HBO has renewed The White Lotus for a second season that will feature both a new cast and a new locale. (TV Line)

TV PICK-UP ORDER

ABC has picked up the Latino project Promised Land to series. The drama will be an epic, generation-spanning series about two Latinx families vying for wealth and power in California’s Sonoma Valley. The cast will include John Ortiz (Messiah and the box office movie Peppermint); Mexican actress Cecilia Suarez (The House of Flowers); Augusto Aguilera (Made for Love and the 2018 movie The Predator); and Christina Ochoa (Animal Kingdom and A Million Little Things) [among others]. (Variety)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

FX has given a development order for another installment of the American Crime Story franchise tentatively called Studio 54: American Crime Story along with two new limited anthology series called American Love Story and American Sport Story all from series creator Ryan Murphy. American Love Story will tell a scripted tale about John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. Meanwhile the first installment of American Sports Story will focus on former NFL player and convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez. Studio 54: American Crime Story will follow Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager who, in 1977, turned their midtown Manhattan disco into an international mecca of nightlife. After three years of lavish parties, music, sex and drugs, Rubell and Schrager fell hard when they were convicted of tax fraud. (Variety)

NOT MOVING FORWARD

ABC is not moving forward with the new fairytale drama called Epic from Once Upon a Time co-creators Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis. (TV Line)

STREAMING SERVICE NEWS

Amazon Studios has landed the rights to the action film Coyote Blue that will star This Is Us alum Sterling K. Brown. The movie revolves around an everyman (Brown) who’s hunted by a ruthless criminal syndicate for his mysterious cargo, and must navigate the treacherous terrain of Route 66 while unleashing his lethal set of skills in a fight for survival. (Variety)

Rowan Blanchard (Snowpiercer and Girl Meets World) and Auli’i Cravalho (the voice of Moana and the box office movie All Together Now) will star in an upcoming as-yet-titled coming-of-age teen movie on Hulu. Blanchard will play Paige, an aspiring artist who’s thrust out of her comfort zone when forced to join the track team captained by her longtime crush, but she soon finds herself falling for an unexpected teammate, ultimately discovering what real love feels like. Cravalho will play AJ, an elusive track star who has always lived in the shadow of her twin sister. (Variety)

Amazon Studios and Kaling International (Mindy Kaling’s production company) are developing the Uzma Jalaluddin novel “Hana Khan Carries On” into a movie that puts a modern Muslim spin on a premise first made famous by the classic “The Shop Around the Corner” from Ernst Lubitschwhich, which was later updated with Nora Ephron’s You’ve Got Mail. The novel follows two competing Halal shops. Hana’s family owns a restaurant called Three Sisters in the Golden Crescent neighborhood of Toronto, and its business is threatened when a more commercial, fusion-based eatery moves in down the street. The catch is that Hana and the owner of the other restaurant, Aydin, have an instant romantic connection. (Variety)

TV NEWS

Catherine Zeta-Jones (Chicago and The Mask of Zorro) has joined the cast of the upcoming Netflix series Wednesday Addams where she will guest star as Morticia Addams, the family matriarch. (Variety)

Due to a scheduling conflict Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD alum Chloe Bennet has departed from her role of Blossom on the live-action pilot Powerpuff, which is based on The Powerpuff Girls. The show was in contention for pilot season earlier this year, but the original pilot was scrapped and is set to be redeveloped. Recasting of the role will begin this fall. (Variety)

Australian actor Sam Reid (The Astronaut Wives Club and Lambs of God) has landed the lead role of Lestat in the upcoming AMC small screen adaptation of Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice that has been given an 8-episode order and which is expected to debut in 2022 on both AMC and AMC+. (Variety)

TV MOVIE NEWS

The upcoming NBC TV movie Annie Live! has added to its cast, which already includes Harry Connick Jr. and Taraji P. Henson. The new cast members are Nicole Scherzinger (The Masked Singer and former member of The Pussycat Dolls) and Tituss Burgess (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt). Scherzinger will play Grace, Daddy Warbucks’ (Connick) chief of staff while Burgess will play Rooster, the underhanded brother of the ruthless Miss Hannigan (Henson). (The Futon Critic and The Hollywood Reporter)

LIMITED SERIES NEWS

Grey’s Anatomy alum Jesse Williams will lead the small screen adaptation of the Tony-winning play Take Me Out that is set as a limited TV series. Set in the early 2000s, the story follows Darren Lemming, a mixed-race star center fielder for the fictional Empires, whose decision to come out of the closet sparks controversy and soul searching for American’s favorite pastime, revealing long-held, unspoken prejudices both on and off the field. Facing some hostile teammates and fraught friendships. Williams will play Lemming. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Idris Elba will provide the voice of Knuckles in the animated movie Sonic the Hedgehog 2. (Variety)

Andre Braugher has joined the cast of the box office film She Said, which is the retelling of the investigation into sexual assault and harassment perpetrated by Harvey Weinstein. Braugher will play New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet, who oversaw groundbreaking reporting from journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. The cast includes Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan as Twohey and Kantor and Patricia Clarkson. (Variety)

Emma Stone will reprise the lead role in the upcoming sequel Cruella 2. (Deadline and Variety)

BROADWAY NEWS

Beanie Feldstein (Booksmart and the upcoming Impeachment: American Crime Story) will play Fanny Brice in Funny Girl. This will be the first time the musical has been revived on Broadway since it wrapped its run nearly six decades ago. Ironically, Feldstein played the lead role at her 3rd birthday party “in a head-to-toe leopard print outfit (her) mom made for (her)…(so it) is truly (her) lifelong dream come true. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!