Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

RENEWALS

Starz has given a third season renewal to Power Book III: Raising Kanan. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Apple TV+ has given the dramedy Physical a 3rd season renewal. (TV Line)

PICK-UP ORDER

ABC has officially ordered the drama series Will Trent for mid-season 2023. The series, based on the novel by Karin Slaughter, follows Special Agent Will Trent (Ramón Rodríguez) of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI). Trent was abandoned at birth and endured a harsh coming-of-age in Atlanta’s overwhelmed foster care system. But now, determined to use his unique point of view to make sure no one is abandoned like he was, Will Trent has the highest clearance rate in the GBI. The cast will include Erika Christensen, Sonja Sohn and Jake McLaughlin. (Variety)

CHANGE OF PLANS

Charter is phasing out Spectrum Originals as the cable provider moves out of the original scripted series space. Among the shows that appeared on Spectrum Originals includes LA’s Finest, the Mad About You reboot, Joe Pickett, The Bite and Paradise Lost. (Variety)

TV NEWS

The Blacklist, which is going into its 10th season this fall, will introduce a character name Siya Malik (a role which has yet to be cast), an MI6 intelligence officer, who is also the daughter of the last season 1 character Meera Malik, who was played by Parminder Nagra. Meera, a CIA agent, appeared in nearly the entire debut season of the long-running NBC drama, serving as an OG member of Raymond Reddington’s special task force. She was ultimately killed by an assassin in the Season 1 finale, and our sources say that Siya will arrive on the task force in pursuit of answers about her mother’s work and death. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Max Martini will recur opposite Titus Welliver in the upcoming 2nd season of spin-off of the long-running Amazon series Bosch: Legacy that airs on Freevee (formerly IMDbTV). Martini will play Detective Don Ellis, a hardened vice cop in the LAPD. He’s intelligent and fierce, and not above getting down and dirty with the criminals he polices to get the job done. (Deadline)

The Apple TV+ 6-episode dramedy Land of Women, inspired by the award-winning novel by Sandra Barneda, has been ordered to series. The show will star Eva Longoria (who will also serve as executive producer) as Gala, a New York empty nester whose life is turned upside down when her husband implicates the family in financial improprieties and she is forced to flee the city alongside her aging mother and college-age daughter. To escape the dangerous criminals to whom Gala’s now vanished husband is indebted, the three women hide in the same charming wine town in northern Spain that Gala’s mother fled 50 years ago, vowing never to return. The women seek to start anew and hope their identities will remain unknown, but gossip in the small town quickly spreads, unraveling their deepest family secrets and truths. (Apple TV+ Press Release)

Lucy Liu has joined the cast of the upcoming Netflix limited series A Man in Full that already includes Jeff Daniels and Diane Lane in the lead roles. Based on the Tom Wolfe novel the straight-to-series series comes from David E. Kelley and focuses on Atlanta real estate mogul Charlie Croker (Daniels) who faces sudden bankruptcy. Political and business interests collide as Charlie defends his empire from those attempting to capitalize on his fall from grace. Liu will play Joyce Newman, the founder of a successful clean beauty company. Joyce struggles with a crisis of conscious that threatens to undo friendships and business ventures The cast include William Jackson Harper, Aml Ameen, Tom Pelphrey, Sarah Jones, Jon Michael Hill, and Chanté Adams. (Variety)

Newcomer Sarah Pidgeon (The Wilds) will play the younger version of the character to be played by Kathryn Hahn in the upcoming Hulu series Tiny Beautiful Things that will be based on the best-selling book by Cheryl Strayed. The half-hour drama will center around Claire (Hahn), a woman who reluctantly becomes “Dear Sugar,” an anonymous, revered advice columnist whose own life is falling apart. Told in multiple timelines with astonishing intimacy, nerve and candor, she excavates the beauty, struggle and humor in her own life to show us that we are not beyond rescue, that it’s our stories that will ultimately save us. Young Claire is described as rebellious, sharp-tongued and acting out irresponsibly after her mother’s death. (Deadline and TV Line)

Lauren Ambrose has been cast in the 2nd season of Yellowjackets as the adult version of the character Vanessa “Van” Palmer. (TV Line)

Tatiana Maslany will have a starring role in the AMC series Invitation to a Bonfire, a psychological thriller that will be set in the 1930s at an all-girls boarding school. The 6-episode series, based on the novel by Adrienne Celt, will follow Zoya (Industry‘s Freya Mavor), a young Russian immigrant and groundskeeper who is drawn into a lethal love triangle with the school’s newest faculty member Leo, an enigmatic novelist, and his bewitching wife Vera (Maslany). (TV Line)

Jon Hamm has joined the 3rd season of The Morning Show, starring in a key role opposite Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Billy Crudup. Hamm will play Paul Marks, a corporate titan who sets his sights on UBA, pulling Cory, Alex and Bradley into his powerful orbit,” according to the official character breakdown. (TV Line)

Supergirl alum Chyler Leight will star opposite Andie MacDowell in the upcoming Hallmark Channel series The Way Home, a family drama about three generations of women who make up the Landry family. Leigh will play Kat Landry, a newly divorced and recently laid off single mom who moves back to her small Canadian farm town of Port Haven after receiving a letter from her estranged mother Del (MacDowell) urging her to return home. Her 15-year-old daughter Alice isn’t happy about moving, and the family reunion isn’t what Kat had pictured. As the multi-generational household slowly comes together as a family, they embark on an enlightening — and surprising — journey none of them could have imagined. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

The next movie from actor-turned-director Justin Baldoni (Jane the Virgin) will focus on the video game Pac-Man. Details for the live-action movie version, including but not limited to the plot and the character’s physical iteration, remain vague. (Variety)

Crystal Clarke (Sanditon) will star in the upcoming movie Empire of Light alongside some heavy hitters like Olivia Colman, Colin Firth and Toby Jones. Details on the film have yet to be revealed, but it is being described as a romantic story set around an old cinema in the South coast of England in the 1980s. (Hello Magazine)

That’s it. Enjoy!