Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

CANCELLATION

New Amsterdam will end after its fifth season. The show is currently in its fourth season on NBC. (TV Line)

TV SERIES ORDER

Amazon has picked up the series adaptation of Shelter by Harlan Coben. The YA thriller will star Jaden Michael (Colin in Black and White) as Mickey Bolitar as he navigates his new life with a mom in rehab, a dead father, an annoying aunt, and a new school in New Jersey with a camel as its mascot. When a creepy old lady who may or may not be a ghost tells Mickey that his father isn’t dead, Mickey is sure he’s losing his mind on top of everything. Mickey finds a grounding force in Ashley Kent, another new student who’s lived through her own tragedy. But then Ashley goes missing, and as Mickey searches for her, he learns that everything she told him was a lie—and that he is in serious danger unless he gets to the bottom of what happened to her and his father. Mickey’s search thrusts him into a world of conspiracy, lies, and the darkest aspects of humanity. (Variety)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

Hallmark veteran Brennan Elliott has signed an exclusive multi-picture deal with the folks over at Hallmark Channel. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Veteran actor Frankie Faison (The Wire) has joined the proposed spin-off from The Rookie that will be set at the FBI that will star Niecy Nash. Faison will guest star in a two-episode arc in the current fourth season of The Rookie, which will serve as a backdoor pilot for the potential spin-off. (Deadline)

Paul Wesley (The Vampire Diaries) has joined the cast of the second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – which will debut on Paramount+ on May 5. He will play iconic Captain James T. Kirk. (TV Line)

Alexandra Daddario (The White Lotus) will play the lead role in the AMC series Mayfair Witches that is based on the Anne Rice novel The Lives of the Mayfair Witches. She will play Rowan, a brilliant doctor who grapples with her fate as the heir to a family of powerful witches. (Variety)

Lincoln Younes (a rising Australian star) has been cast in the lead role of Last King of the Cross, a biographical series about a notorious nightclub owner and gangster being produced for Paramount+. The series is an operatic story of two brothers, Sam and John Ibrahim who organize the street but lose each other in their ascent to power. (Variety)

Comedy actors Amy Sedaris and Neil Flynn will join the cast of the second season of the Peacock hit comedy Girls5Eva. They will play the parents of Summer Dutkowsky (Busy Philipps), one of the members of the titular girl group fighting for a comeback. (Variety)

The forthcoming Amazon Studios drama Anansi Boys – based on the Neil Gaiman novel – has added more members to his cast. They include Fiona Shaw (Harry Potter franchise and Killing Eve), CCH Pounder (NCIS: New Orleans) and Jason Watkins (Around the World in 80 Days and The Crown). The series will follow Charlie Nancy (Malachi Kirby), sometimes known as Fat Charlie (it was his father’s nickname for him), a young man who is used to being embarrassed by his estranged father. But when his father dies, Charlie discovers that his father (Delroy Lindo) was Anansi, the trickster god of stories, and that he has a brother. Now that brother, Spider (to also be played by Kirby), is entering Charlie’s life, determined to make it more interesting, but making it a lot more dangerous instead. Wakings will play Grahame Coats, a successful theatrical agent and self-made man who is Charlie’s boss; Shaw will play Maeve Livingstone, a retired dancer and widow of famed comedian Morris Livingstone; and Pounder will play Mrs. Higgler, the matriarch of her clan, and an old family friend of Charlie’s. (Variety)

Season 2 of the HBO Max comedy-drama Hacks has added Laurie Metcalf (The Conners) and Ming-Na Wen (Agents of SHIELD and The Book of Boba Fett) will have recurring roles; and comedian Margaret Cho will guest star. Descriptions of the characters they will be playing are being kept under wraps, though. (Variety)

Laysla De Oliveira (Locke & Key) has joined the cast of the upcoming Paramount+ drama series Lioness that is based on a real-life CIA program and follows Cruz Manuelos (De Oliveira), a young Marine, who is recruited to join the CIA’s Lioness Engagement Team to help bring down a terrorist organization from within. Zoe Saldaña will play Joe, the station chief of the Lioness program tasked with training, managing and leading her female undercover operatives. The series is set to go into production in June. (Variety)

Veteran actor Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future franchise) will appear in season 3 of The Mandalorian in a guest starring role, but no details on his character are being provided. (Deadline)

Adina Porter (Underground) and Clark Backo (Letterkenny) will star opposite LaKeith Stanfield in the upcoming Apple TV+ drama The Changeling, based on the best-selling book by Victor LaValle. The series is an adult fairytale; a horror story, a parenthood fable and a perilous odyssey through a New York City you didn’t know existed. Porter will play Lillian, the mother of Apollo, who will be played by Stanfield. Backo will play Emmy, Apollo’s wife. (Deadline)

Natalie Martinez (Ordinary Joe) will star opposite Vince Vaughn in the Apple TV+ drama Bad Monkey that is based on the Carl Hiaasen 2013 novel. The series tells the story of Andrew Yancy (Vaughn), a onet-ime detective demoted to restaurant inspector in Southern Florida. A severed arm found by a tourist out fishing pulls Yancy into the world of greed and corruption that decimates the land and environment in both Florida and the Bahamas. And yes, there’s a monkey. Martinez will Rosa, a Miami medical examiner who is starting to realize she may not be cut out for her job, so is happy to ditch work and help Yancy try to figure out the story of the severed arm he brings into her lab. The cast includes Michelle Monaghan, Jodie Turner-Smith and Meredith Hagner. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!