Hey All,
Here are the news items for this past week:
CANCELLATION
Peacock has pulled the plug on the Queer as Folk reboot after only one season. (TV Line)
SURPRISE ANNOUNCEMENT
Despite being disgraced by the college admissions scandal, the folks over at Great American Family (the rival network to Hallmark) are giving actress Lori Loughlin a second chance to get back her “glory” by casting her in a new movie under the network formerly known as GAC Family. The movie entitled Fall Into Winter will start production next month and will premiere on the cabler this coming January. (People)
DEAL NOTICE
Another Hallmark alum has signed a multi-picture over deal. This time its Alison Sweeney. (Deadline)
TV CASTING NEWS
New cast members for season 4 of True Detective have been announced. Among them are John Hawkes (Deadwood), Christopher Eccleston (Doctor Who), Fiona Shaw (Harry Potter franchise and Killing Eve). True Detective: Night Country follows what happens when the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska. The six men that operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanish without a trace. To solve the case, Detectives Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) will have to confront the darkness they carry in themselves and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice. Hawkes will play Hank Prior, a police officer with old grudges hiding under a quiet surface; Eccleston will play Ted Corsaro, the regional Chief of Police and a political animal with a long history tying him to Liz Danvers and Shaw will play Rose Aguineau, a survivalist with a past full of secrets. (Variety)
Minnie Driver will not only be the narrator of the prequel series The Witcher: Blood Origin she will also play Seanchai, a shapeshifting collector of old lore with the abilities to travel between time and worlds. The series is set 1,200 years before the events of The Witcher, in an elvish civilization that has yet to interact with humans or monsters. It follows a trio of warrior elves (Michelle Yeoh, Laurence O’Fuarain, and Sophia Brown) who become entangled with the creation of the first prototype Witcher. It also spans the events leading up to the Conjunction of the Spheres — the moment the human, elf and monster worlds collide. (Netflix)
More cast members have been announced for the Yellowstone prequel series 1923. Robert Patrick (Terminator 2: Judgment Day and The Unit) will play Sheriff William McDowell, an ally to the notorious Dutton family; and Jerome Flynn (Game of Thrones) will play Banner Creighton, a hard-headed Scot and the leader of the local sheep men. (Variety, Digital Spy and Entertainment Weekly)
Parker Posey (Lost in Space) and Wagner Moura (Narcos) have joined the upcoming Amazon series Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which includes Donald Glover and Maya Erskine in the lead roles. The cast already includes Michaela Coel, John Turturro and Paul Dano. Posey and Moura will have recurring roles in the series, but all character details are being kept under wraps. (Variety)
Molly Ringwald has joined the cast of the upcoming new season of the anthology series Feud: Capote’s Women. She will play Johnny Carson’s second wife Joanne Carson, a good friend of Capote’s who remained close to him until his death. (Deadline)
Donal Logue (Sons of Anarchy) and Gloria Reuben (ER) have joined the cast of The Equalizer for the show’s upcoming 3rd season. Logue will play Colton Fisk, one of the CIA’s most decorated agents, an ex-CIA union chief in the Middle East during the 1990s. Meanwhile, Reuben will play Trish, a recently widowed gallerist who is rekindling a romantic relationship with her former girlfriend, Vi (Lorraine Toussaint). (Deadline)
Sarah Paulson will play cult leader Gwen Shamblin in the HBO Max series The Way Down, which is being adapted from the streamers own 5-part docuseries. (Variety)
SPECIAL PRESENTATION NEWS
New cast members have been announced for the upcoming live action musical Beauty and the Beast. David Alan Grier will play Cogsworth; and Martin Short and country star Shania Twain are in final talks to play Lumiere and Mrs. Potts respectively. (Variety)
STREAMING MOVIE NEWS
Saoirse Ronan is set to star in the Apple TV+ World War II epic Blitz that tells the stories of a group of Londoners during the aerial bombing of the British capital during the war. (Variety)
Anne Hathaway will star in the Amazon flick The Idea of You, playing Sophie, a divorced mother who sparks a passionate love affair with a pop star she meets after taking her daughter to a music festival. Nicholas Galitzine, who starred in the Netflix movie Purple Hearts and Amazon’s Cinderella), will play Hayes Campbell, the 24-year-old lead singer of August Moon, the hottest boy band on the planet. The film follows Sophie, who saves the day after her ex-husband Dan (who left her for a younger woman) cancels his Coachella trip with their 15-year-old daughter. When she decides to brave the crowds and desert heat to take her daughter to the music festival, Sophie meets Hayes and the 40-year-old’s life really heats up. (Variety)
Netflix will reunite Eddie Murphy with his Beverly Hills Cop co-stars Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser and Bronson Pinchot in the upcoming sequel Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley. (Variety)
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Bridgerton hunk Jonathan Bailey will play Fiyero in the upcoming big screen adaptation of Wicked that will star Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda. The movie will actually be released in two-parts set for release on Christmas in 2024 and 2025. (Variety)
Darren Barnet (Never Have I Ever) has joined the adaptation of the best-selling racing video game Gran Turismo that will include David Harbour (Stranger Things), Orlando Bloom (The Lord of the Rings franchise) and Archie Madekwe (See) among its cast. The project is described as the ultimate wish-fulfillment tale of a teenage Gran Turismo player whose gaming skills won him a series of Nissan competitions to become an actual professional race-car driver. Madekwe is playing the teen, while Harbour will play the retired driver who teaches him to drive. Bloom will play a hungry marketing exec and Barnet will play a racer who is ranked at the top at the GT academy, who is not thrilled to see the upstart teen excel. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Kelly Marie Tran (Star Wars franchise) is developing a biopic about one of her close friends, the civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen. Tran would portray Nguyen who transformed from a survivor of college sexual assault to an activist for survivors’ rights, including penning a Survivors’ Bill of Rights (which inspired the federal law passed in 2016) and founding the civil rights accelerator Rise. (The Hollywood Reporter)
That’s it. Enjoy!
Rueben's Ramblings 
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