Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

Starz has given Heels a second season renewal. (Variety)

The Amazon series Hanna will come to an end after its upcoming third season. (Variety)

FOX has renewed the reboot of Fantasy Island for a second season, and it will also air a two-hour holiday special on December 21. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo will play Glinda and Elphaba (respectively) in the big-screen adaptation of Wicked that will be directed by Jon M. Chu (In the Heights). (Variety)

Chris Pratt will provide his voice to Garfield in a new animated movie. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) will play the Evil Queen in the upcoming live-action adaptation of Snow White, playing opposite Rachel Zegler (the new version of West Side Story). (Variety)

Robert Downey Jr. and Matt Damon will star in the upcoming World War II epic film Oppenheimer about the development of the atomic bomb. What roles they will play has not been announced, but a star-studded cast is being assembled by director Christopher Nolan, that includes Cillian Murphy and Emily Blunt. (Variety)

Katie Holmes will not only star in but direct, produce and co-write the box office film Rare Objects that is an adaptation of the Kathleen Tessaro novel that tells the story of a young woman with a traumatic past who seeks to rebuild her life when she begins working at an antique store. Receiving wisdom and guidance from the kind souls that own the shop, she gains a new level of confidence that will then be put to the test when those from her past draw her back into their world and challenge her fragile stability. (Variety)

Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Edgar Ramirez will star in the upcoming romantic drama film Nobody’s Heart that will be set in Lisbon in the 1930s, centering on a new widow, Lily, who inherits her husband’s cork factory, and begins to form an unexpected relationship with his enigmatic co-worker, igniting repressed imagination and passion, and discovering unknown truths about both herself and her late husband. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Jason Ralph (The Magicians) and Blair Redford (Satisfaction and The Gifted) will have recurring roles in the upcoming Showtime drama Three Woman that is based on the best-seller by Lisa Taddeo. Shailene Woodley, DeWanda Wise and Betty Gilpin with star with Blair Underwood in the series that focuses on a group of women who are on a crash course to radically overturn their lives. (Deadline)

Netflix has announced that Dolly Parton will guest star in the 7th and final season of Grace and Frankie, reuniting with her former 9 to 5 co-stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. Details about her character or plot details are being kept under wraps. (TV Line)

Emilio Estevez will not return as Coach Bombay in season 2 of The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers. Disney has “passed on the actor’s option for next season after a back-and-forth over the series’ requirement for COVID vaccination,” as he “refused to give assurance that he would comply with the vaccine mandate, so the studio decided to move on.” (Deadline and TV Line)

Daniel Dae Kim has joined the Netflix live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series that will be a reimagined take on the beloved Nickelodeon animated franchise. Kim will play Fire Lord Ozai, the ruthlessly driven leader of the Fire Nation who demands everyone live up to his impossible standards, especially his teen son, Prince Zuko. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Regina King will be teaming up with David E. Kelley to adapt the Tom Wolf novel “A Man in Full” as a Netflix limited series. The project received a straight-to-series six one-hour episodes. In the series, when Atlanta real estate mogul Charlie Croker faces sudden bankruptcy, political and business interests collide as Charlie defends his empire from those attempting to capitalize on his fall from grace. (Variety)

Rekha Sharma (Battlestar Galactica) will have a recurring role on Roswell, New Mexico, playing Shivani, an internationally recognized futurist and tech entrepreneur with a distinct warmth and wisdom underneath her genius antics. (Deadline)

Jenna Dewan has been promoted to series regular on The Rookie where she has been recurring as firefighter Bailey Nune. (Deadline)

Jeffrey Donovan has been tapped to join the revival of the original Law & Order where he will play a New York Police Department detective. (TV Line)

Sofia Vergara will star in the upcoming Netflix limited series called Griselda, playing notorious drug trafficker Griselda Blanco. The series will chronicle the real life of the savvy, ambitious Colombian business woman who created one of the most profitable drug cartels in history. The show will consist of six 50-minute episodes. (Variety)

Brett Daltonwill be joining the cast of Chicago Fire, recurring as new interim Lieutenant Jason Pelham. (TV Line)

Peyton List and James Remar will be joining the cast of The Rookie playing Tim Bradford’s (series regular Eric Winter) sister – Gennifer “Genny” Bradford – and father, respectively. (Outsider)

STREAMING MOVIE NEWS

Chord Overstreet (Glee) will star alongside Lindsay Lohan in as-yet-to-be-titled upcoming holiday rom-com on Netflix, the actress’s first acting role in years. She will play a newly engaged, spoiled hotel heiress who gets into a skiing accident and suffers from total amnesia. During her recovery, around Christmastime, she finds herself in the care of a handsome, blue-collar lodge owner, to be played by Overstreet, and his precocious daughter. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!