Hey All,
Here are the news items for the past week:
RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS/PICK-UP ORDERS
Crown Media (aka Hallmark) will be launching a new TV series called The Way Home from the folks behind the Canadian hit series Heartland. The family drama will span multiple generations but will have a time travel twist. The drama’s synopsis is: Kat Landry, her 15-year-old daughter Alice and Kat’s estranged mother Del are all strong, willful and independent. More than 20 years prior, lifechanging events created a chasm in their family that time has yet to repair. Kat and Del still aren’t on speaking terms. Alice has never met her grandmother and is unaware of the reasons for their fractured family. When the three generations come together under one roof for the first time in more than two decades, a surprising discovery unexpectedly sets the trio on a path toward healing and helps them find their way back to each other.” The cast for the new series has not yet been announced. The show is set to premiere on the Hallmark Channel in 2023. (Deadline and Heavy.com)
CBS has ordered the small screen adaptation of the box office movie True Lies for the 2022-2023 TV season. The show would focus on unfulfilled suburban housewife (Ginger Gonzaga) who is shocked to discover that her bland and unremarkable computer consultant husband (Steve Howey) is a skilled international spy. She is then propelled into a life of danger and adventure when she’s recruited to work alongside him to save the world as they try to revitalize their passionless marriage. (Variety)
ABC has picked up the spin-off series The Rookie: Feds and the new drama Alaska to series. Niecy Nash-Betts will star as Simone Clark, the oldest rookie in the FBI Academy; and Hilary Swank will star as a disgraced reporter who moves from New York to join a daily newspaper in Anchorage, Alaska. The network has also given renewals to Big Sky and A Million Little Things. (TV Line)
CBS has given two full season renewals to FBI, FBI: International and FBI: Most Wanted. Meanwhile, the network has pulled the plug on the new medical drama Good Sam after only one season, and they also cancelled the Magnum P.I. reboot after 4 seasons on the air. Also, the network has scrapped the planned Early Edition reboot. (TV Line)
CBS has picked up three new dramas, including:
East New York that will follow Regina Haywood (Amanda Warren from Dickinson), the newly promoted police captain of East New York, an impoverished, working class neighborhood at the eastern edge of Brooklyn.
Fire County, which will star SEAL Team alum Max Thieriot as Bode Donovan, a young convict who joins a firefighting program for inmates in a bid to shorten his prison sentence.
So Help Me Todd that will star Marcia Gay Harden and Skylar Astin (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist’s. The series centers on a talented but directionless P.I. who begrudgingly agrees to work as the in-house investigator for his overbearing mother Joan (Harden), a successful attorney reeling from the recent dissolution of her marriage. (TV Line)
NBC has given the Law & Order revival a second season order. And, the network has also given Law & Order: Organized Crime a 3rd season renewal. Meanwhile, NBC has pulled the plug on The Endgame after only one season. (TV Line)
Amazon has renewed the Robbie Amell dramedy Upload for a third season. (TV Line)
FOX has pulled the plug on Our Kind of People after only one season. (TV Line)
The CW has given a second season order to the spin-off series All American Homecoming. Meanwhile the network cancelled a handful of shows including Naomi and 4400 (both after only one season each); Charmed after 4 seasons on the air; Dynasty after 5 seasons on the air; Legacies after 4 seasons on the air as well as Roswell, New Mexico and In the Dark which will both come to an end after their upcoming episodes have all aired. Roswell, New Mexico is set to premiere its fourth (and now final) season on Monday, June 6 at 8/7c, followed by In the Dark’s fourth and final season on 9 pm. (TV Line and Variety)
The CW has picked up the following new dramas: Gotham Knights, Walker: Independence and The Winchesters. (TV Line)
HALLMARK NEWS
Ryan Paevey is the latest talent at Hallmark to sign an exclusive multi-picture deal with the network. (Deadline)
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Lucy Hale (Pretty Little Liars) will star in the romantic comedy Which Brings Me to You, an adaptation of the novel by Julianna Baggott and Steve Almond, which is about a journalist and a photographer who, instead of a one-night stand, spend 24 hours sharing their romantic histories in the coat room at a friend’s wedding. Hale will play Jane, a journalist, who finds herself ready to hook up with photographer Will during a wedding. But instead of doing the deed, they share stories of their most embarrassing sexual encounters, first loves, heartbreak and whirlwind romances, discovering each other through heartwarming, hilarious and sometimes tragic tales. (Variety)
The upcoming box office movie Tunnels will not only star Susan Sarandon and Jaeden Martell (Defending Jacob and Knives Out) but also Anna Faris, Alicia Silverstone and Patrick Wilson. Martell and Sarandon will play a duo who strike up the unlikeliest friendship in the wake of unthinkable tragedy. (Variety)
Jennifer Hudson, Milla Jovovich, Quvenzhane Wallis and Common will all star in the new action-thriller Breathe that focuses on what happens after Earth is left uninhabitable due to lack of oxygen. A mother Maya (Hudson) and her daughter Zora (Wallis) are forced to live underground, with short trips to the surface only made possible by a state-of-the-art oxygen suit made by Maya’s husband, Darius, whom she presumes to be dead. When a mysterious couple arrives claiming to know Darius and his fate, Maya tentatively agrees to let them into their bunker, but are they all they appear to be? (Variety)
Ben Hardy (Bohemian Rhapsody, Kaya Scodelario (The Maze Runner) and Lance Reddick (John Wick) will star in the upcoming sci-fi thriller Apteros that sees a crew of seven astronauts, including science officer Tressie (Scodelario), Captain Mitchell (Reddick), systems engineer Wade (Hardy) and their onboard AI, en-route to Mars after bacterial life is discovered on the red planet in the not-too-distant future. Soon however, a number of unusual events unfold aboard the spacecraft, and the crew find themselves divided in a tense psychological battle as they struggle to work out what is happening and realize nothing is as it seems. Thrown into a desperate tailspin, soon it’s not just the mission at stake, but all of life on earth. (Variety)
It looks like Dirty Dancing will be getting a sequel that will find Jennifer Grey reprising her classic role of Frances “Baby” Houseman. Little is known about the next chapter nor have other cast membesr been announced. (Variety)
TV CASTING NEWS
Jensen Ackles and Jamie-Lynn Sigler have been promoted to series regular for the newly announced season 3 of Big Sky. (TV Insider)
The BBC has announced that former Doctor Who David Tennant and former companion Catherine Tate will reunite in the show next year as part of the show’s 60th anniversary celebration. (TV Line)
The 10-episode, modern-day take on Zorro that is being undertaken by Amazon Prime will star Miguel Bernardeau (the Netflix smash hit Elite) as a new version of Diego de la Vega, a landowner and, in disguise, masked hero of the people. Renata Notni will play Lolita Marquez, the love of Diego’s youth. (Variety)
Stephane Beatriz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Encanto) will star opposite Anthony Mackie in the Peacock series Twisted Metal, based on the video game series. Mackie will play John Doe, a motor-mouthed outsider who is offered a chance at a better life, but only if he can successfully deliver a mysterious package across a post-apocalyptic wasteland. With the help of a trigger-happy car thief named Quiet (Beatriz), he’ll face savage marauders driving vehicles of destruction and other dangers of the open road, including a deranged clown who drives an all too familiar ice cream truck. (Variety)
Hannah Dodd (Anatomy of a Scandal) will take over for Ruby Stokes in the role of Francesca Bridgerton in the Netflix hit show’s upcoming third season. (TV Line)
Garrett Hedlund (Country Strong and TRON: Legacy) will star opposite Sylvester Stallone in the Paramount+ series Tulsa King. The series will follow New York mafia capo Dwight “The General” Manfredi (Stallone) just after he is released from prison after 25 years and unceremoniously exiled by his boss to set up shop in Tulsa, OK. Hedlund will appear in the series regular role of Mitch Keller, an Oklahoma native and ex bull-rider who retired prematurely after injuries led to addiction. (Variety)
HBO Max and Cartoon Network have two new projects coming up. First, American Girl: Corinne Tan (based on the American Girl doll brand) will star Miya Cech (The Astronauts) as 13-year-old ski enthusiast Corrine, who is still navigating her parents’ recent divorce while her 10-year-old sister Gwynn (Kai Cech), mom Judy (Michelle Krusiec), dad and stepdad Arne have adjusted to their new roles in this blended family. This project will premiere this December while the second American Girl special will follow next year. The second project will be the working title series B-Loved, a supernatural romance that will star Cobra Kai alum Peyton List. The project will follow Bea (List), a free-spirited teenage ghost who forms a special friendship with the new boy in town, Cole, whose house she has been inhabiting for over 100 years. With the help of a magical ring that allows Cole to see Bea, they’ll rediscover the meaning of being alive, but also the importance of letting go. (Variety)
Recent Oscar winner Ariana DeBose (West Side Story) has joined the 4th season HBO series Westworld in a recurring role that remains a closely guarded secret. (Variety)
MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS
Another cast member has joined the upcoming Teen Wolf movie that is coming to Paramount+. Superman & Lois alum Tyler Hoechlin will reprise his role of Derek Hale in the two-hour continuation of the hit MTV series. (TV Line)
That’s it. Enjoy!
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Rueben's Ramblings 