Hey All,
Here are the news items for this past week:
RENEWALS
Amazon Prime Video has renewed the drama series The Peripheral for a second season. (TV Line)
SERIES ORDER
Prime Video [aka Amazon] has ordered a television adaptation of the popular comic book series Wytches, from creators Scott Snyder and Jock. The series follows Sailor Rooks, a 17-year-old who moves to a far-off New England town with his family, but they soon realize that something unsettling lurks in the dark. (Variety and TV Line)
DEVELOPMENT ANNOUNCEMENT
It looks like Starz just might be resurrecting Spartacus. The network is calling it a “quasi-reboot” that will explore uncharted territory and new journeys of the original series’ iconic characters, but it will be set in the aftermath of defeat of Spartacus and his rebel army. (TV Line)
HOPPING TO A NEW HOME
The limited series Ripley that is set to star Andrew Scott (Fleabag) is leaving Showtime and hopping over to Netflix. Based on the Patricia Highsmith novels about Tom Ripley (to be played by Scott), a grifter scraping by in early 1960s New York, who is hired by a wealthy businessman to travel to Italy to try to convince his vagabond son to return home. Dakota Fanning and Johnny Flynn will co-star. (Variety)
UPHEAVAL
It looks like there is major drama going on behind the scenes at Yellowstone. There seems to be a dispute with leading man Kevin Coster and his shooting schedule; so much so that series just might come to an end this summer at the end of its current season, which is the show’s 5th season on Paramount Network. What’s more a new iteration of Yellowstone could possibly happen with Matthew Mcconaughey in a leading role. (Deadline and TV Line)
TV CASTING NEWS
Veteran actor Sam Neill will be joining Annette Bening in the limited series Apples Never Fall that will be coming to Peacock. The series centers on the Delaneys, who from the outside appear to be an enviably contented family. Former tennis coaches Joy (Bening) and Stan (Neill) are parents to four adult children. After decades of marriage, they have finally sold their famed tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. But after Joy disappears, her children are forced to re-examine their parents’ marriage and their family history with fresh eyes. (Variety)
Kelly Hu (Arrow) will have a recurring role on the new CBS police drama East New York, playing Allison Cha, a political policy advisor who shadows Chief Suarez (series regular Jimmy Smits) to get a better grasp on the responsibilities of the New York Police Department. (Deadline and TV Line)
Henry Czerny (Sharp Objects and Revenge) and Doug Savant (Desperate Housewives) will recur in the upcoming Starz drama series The Venery of Samantha Bird as Teddy, the father of Katherine Langford’s titular character, and loyal businessman Al Minot, respectively. (Deadline and TV Line)
Outlander and Downton Abbey alum Ed Speelers has landed a role in Star Trek: Picard, portraying an aide to Beverley Crusher (Gates McFadden), a Next Generation mainstay who is making her comeback this year. (Express.co.UK)
Hawaii Five-0 and Lost alum Daniel Dae Kim will star in and executive produce a series adaptation of the graphic novel Butterfly from Amazon Prime. The character-driven spy thriller centers on David Jung (Kim), an enigmatic, highly unpredictable former US intelligence operative living in South Korea, whose life is blown to pieces when the consequences of an impossible decision from his past come back to haunt him, and he finds himself pursued by Rebecca, a deadly, sociopathic young agent assigned to kill him. (Variety)
Colman Domingo (Fear the Walking Dead) will star in the Netflix limited series The Madness, which is a conspiracy thriller, centering on media pundit Muncie Daniels (Domingo), who must fight for his innocence and his life after he stumbles upon a murder deep in the Poconos woods. (Variety)
Hugh Laurie (House) has joined the third season of the international Emmy-winning Apple TV+ series Tehran. He joins Glenn Close (returning from the show’s 2nd season) and series lead Niv Sultan, who plays Mossad agent Tamar Rabinyan, who goes on a deep-cover mission in the Iranian capital. Season three finds her reeling from the loss of her closest allies and looking for a way to reinvent herself and win back the Mossad’s support after going rogue at the end of season two. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis are joining forces at Amazon for the small screen adaptation of the Kay Scarpetta novels by author Patricia Cornwall. Kidman would star as Scarpetta with Curtis playing her sister, Dorothy. (Variety)
BROADWAY NEWS
The Oscar-winning musical film La La Land is being adapted as a stage show with plans to open on Broadway at an undetermined date. The Broadway cast has yet to be announced. (Variety)
NETFLIX MOVIE
The X-Files alum Gillian Anderson is set to play former BBC news anchor Emily Maitlis in the Netflix movie Scoop, which will be about the disastrous 2019 “Newsnight” interview of Prince Andrew, which will be played by Rufus Sewell. Billie Piper (I Hate Suzie and Doctor Who) and Keeley Hawes (Bodyguard will play TV producer Sam McAlister and Prince Andrew’s former private secretary Amanda Thirsk respectively. (Variety)
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Former Twilight star Kristen Stewart, who has fashioned herself a trend of portraying influential real life women, will portray Susan Sontag in the aptly titled film Sontag, who was an influential writer and intellectual who would often distill complex ideas about human rights and social justice into clear-headed essays. Her nonfiction work, which brought light to social issues like the AIDS epidemic and criticism of the Vietnam War, was often met with controversy. (Deadline)
Mary J. Blige (Mudbound) will star alongside Jay Will (Tulsa King) inthe upcoming dramatic film Rob Peace, which is set to be directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor [who also wrote the script]. The film follows a young man who grew up in a crime-ridden section of Newark, NY and later graduated from Yale with degrees in molecular biophysics and biochemistry earned on scholarship. Peace led a dual life living in the insular world of academia and as a lab researcher of cancer and infectious diseases, while at the same time making six figures from the sale of marijuana. He was killed in a drug-related shooting in 2011. Blige will play Rob’s mother, Jackie, with Ejiofor portraying his father. (Deadline)
Zachary Levi (Shazam! and Chuck) has landed on a new project called Not Without Hope, which will follow best friends Nick Schuyler (Zachary Levi) and Will Bleakley, and NFL players Marquis Cooper and Corey Smith, as they depart Clearwater, Florida for a day trip at their favorite fishing spot 70 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico. As a severe storm heads their way, a trapped anchor causes their boat to capsize, throwing the four friends violently into the freezing water. With the U.S. Coast Guard’s air and sea rescue mission thwarted by the ferocity of the massive storm, the group must fight to survive in the ultimate test of teamwork and endurance. (AV Club)
Lena Headey (Game of Thrones), Yara Shahidi (grown-ish), Isabela Merced (Father of the Bride), Lana Condor (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before franchise) [among others] will star in the action-thriller Ballerina Overdrive that finds a troupe of ballerinas fighting for survival as they attempt to escape from a remote inn after their bus breaks down on the way to a dance competition. (Deadline)
Bridgerton alum Phoebe Dynevor will star in the psychological thriller Wichita Libra, playing Frannie Jacobs, a woman who fled her hometown in rural Kansas after a triple murder and starts a new life in Chicago. But a decade later, she returns home after her brother’s death and must decode a cryptic letter he left behind that suggests the wrong man was charged for the crime that shattered her family and community. (Variety)
Tony winners Audra McDonald and Myles Frost (who played Michael Jackson in MJ the Musical) will star in the upcoming Ava DuVernay movie Caste, joining already announced cast members Aunjanue Ellis, Niecy Nash, Vera Farmiga, Nick Offerman, Connie Nielson, Jon Bernthal and Jasmie Cephas-Jones. The movie is being described as an instant American classic. (Variety)
That’s it. Enjoy!
Read Full Post »
Rueben's Ramblings 