Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWAL

Starz has given a third season order to Power Book IV: Force; and the cabler has given Hightowen a third and final season order as well. (TV Line)

Prime Video has given a third and final season order to Good Omens. (TV Line)

TV NEWS

A TV series based on Otherland, the 4-book series by Tad Williams, is in the works. The story is described as an epic cyberpunk-fantasy adventure. The world as we know it has an additional layer here – hyper-realistic VR arenas that have become a new place for fun, work, education but also debauchery, crime and abuse. The mysterious Otherland, supposedly another layer of the network, becomes a mere starting point for a multi-realm adventure. There are no details on where the potential series will air has been announced yet. (Deadline)

FOX has picked up the psychological crime drama Murder in a Small Town for the 2024-2025 TV season. The series stars Rossif Sutherland and Kristin Kreuk, and is based on the Karl Alberg books by L.R. Wrigh. This marks FOX’s first green light to a scripted series co-produced with an international studio. (Deadline)

The Hugo Award-winning The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells are becoming a 10-episode series on Apple TV+. The story follows a self-aware “SecUnit” robot that must hide its free will in order to complete a dangerous assignment. The series will star Alexander Skarsgård. (Engadget)

Lisseth Chavez has been promoted to series regular for season 6 of The Rookie. She has played Officer Celina Juarez since season 5. (Deadline)

Season 2 of Nine Perfect Strangers on Hulu will find Christine Baranski, Annie Murphy and Murray Bartlett joining the cast along with Dolly De Leon, Maisie Richardson-Sellers and others. (Variety)

Actor Rome Flynn has joined the cast of Chicago Fire in the recurring role of Jake Gibson, a quietly confident former amateur boxer with a dark past. The physically fit and fearless Jake earns a spot on Truck 51’s radar thanks to a heroic act. (Deadline)

Alexander Siddig has joined the cast of the Apple TV+ sci-fi series Foundation for its upcoming third season. He will play Dr. Ebling Mis, a self-taught psychohistorian and diehard fan of Hari Seldon (Jared Harris). (Deadline)

Actor Santiago Cabrera and telenovela star Kate del Castillo are joining the FOX drama The Cleaning Lady as series regular for the drama’s upcoming third season. They will play siblings Ramona Sanchez and Jorge Sanchez. (Variety)

Simone Missick has found her next new project now that All Rise has come to an end. She will star alongside David Oyelowo in the upcoming Apple TV+ dramedy Government Cheese that follows Hampton Chambers (Oyelowo), a man recently released from prison who struggles to keep his criminal past at bay and win back his family, all while processing moments of divine intervention that seem to happen with increasing frequency. Missick will play Astoria, Hampton’s wife. (Variety)

Emilia Jones (the Oscar-winning movie CODA and Thuso Mbedu (The Woman King) have joined an as-yet-to-be titled Task Force series at HBO. The series tells the story of an FBI agent leading a Task Force to put an end to a string of drug-house robberies led by an unsuspecting family man. It’s set in the working class suburbs outside of Philadelphia. (Variety)

Dean Norris will join the cast of Law & Order: Organized Crie for its fourth season, playing Randall Stabler, Elliot’s older brother, in a multiple-episode arc. (TV Line)

Kevin Hart will star in a true crime limited series on Peacock called Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist that tells the story of an armed robbery during the night of Muhammad Ali’s historic 1970 comeback fight that changed an entire city’s destiny, focusing on the cop and the hustler at the center of it all. (Variety)

Amy Adams will star and executive produce the limited TV series project The Holdout based on the novel of the same name. A legal drama–meets–murder investigation in the vein of The Night Of with a dual-timeline mystery, the series is set in Los Angeles and follows a woman (Adams) who finds herself playing multiple roles – juror, attorney, investigator, and suspect. Ten years after Maya Seale turns the tide in a hugely controversial verdict, a fellow juror is found dead in her hotel room, all evidence points to her. Now, she must prove her own innocence – by getting to the bottom of a case that is far from closed. As the present-day murder investigation weaves together with the story of what really happened during their deliberation, told by each of the jurors in turn, the secrets they have all been keeping threaten to come out – with drastic consequences for all involved. (Deadline)

Jon Hamm will star in and executive produce the Apple TV+ crime drama Your Friends and Neighbors, playin Coop, a recently divorced hedge fund manager who, after being fired, resorts to stealing from the wealthy residents in his tony upstate New York suburb in order to keep his family’s lifestyle afloat. (TV Line)

The upcoming Netflix dark comedy No Good Deeds has added Linda Cardellini, Luke Wilson, Teyonah Parris, Abbi Jacobson and Poppy Liu to its cast. The series revolves around three different families who are all trying to buy the same 1920s Spanish-style home, but as the sellers have already discovered, sometimes the home of your dreams can be a totle nightmare,” the logline teases. Ray Romano also stars. (Variety)

Outlander cast memer Lauren Lyle has joined the Netflix drama Toxic Town that will star Jodie Whittaker and Robert Carlyle (among others). The series tells of the scandalous waste spillages in Corby, Northamptonshire, and the ensuing legal battle that has been dubbed the ‘British Erin Brokovich.’ (Deadline)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Sunny Hostin, one of the co-hosts of The View, is in the early stages of developing her first novel, “Summer on the Bluffs,” as a TV series for Amazon MGM Studios. The book follows the tales of three god sisters and their godmother, as well as the rich history of Oak Bluffs, an exclusive historically Black beach community in Martha’s Vineyard, exploring personal journeys, hidden secrets and the transformative power of heritage. (Variety)

Looks like CBS is considering a spin-off of the network’s new hit drama Fire Country. The studio is in the process of casting a female sheriff character, who will first appear in a Season 2 Fire Country episode. The yet-to-be-cast actor would appear on Fire Country as a guest star, with an option for a series regular role in a potential spinoff, if Sheriff’s Country (the working title of the potential drama) is ordered to series. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Younger and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 alum Miriam Shor is the latest addition to the reinvented James Gunn Superman Legacy film. (The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline)

Uma Thurman will star opposite Richard Gere, Jacob Elordi and Michael Imperioli in the drama flick Oh, Canada that tells the story of Leonard Fife (Gere), a famed documentary filmmaker who takes stock of his life, with not long to go after being stricken with cancer at 80 years old. The most unreliable of narrators — and of men — Fife offers the viewer a look at his home life, as a draft-dodging artist who abandoned one family for another, consistently evading any sense of responsibility for actions as he starts a new life in Canada. Thurman plays Emma, the present day spouse and creative partner of Fife. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!