Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWAL

Apple TV+ has renewed the sci-fi drama Invasion for a third season. (Variety)

While it hasn’t been officially announced yet, it’s looking like the CW could be renewing the new drama Wild Cards for a second season. According to CW President of Entertainment Brad Schwartz, they have not renewed it yet but a conversation is happening right now. (Deadline)

NEW SERIES ORDER

NBC has ordered a drama pilot from Jenna Bans and Bill Krebs, who both worked on Good Girls on NBC. The project is titled Grosse Pointe Garden Society and will center on four members of a suburban garden club, all from different walks of life, who get caught up in murder and mischief as they struggle to make their conventional lives bloom. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Jon Hamm is the latest addition to the growing cast of the next Taylor Sheridan series Landman that will be set in the proverbial boomtowns of West Texas and is a modern-day tale of fortune seeking in the world of oil rigs. The series will be an upstairs/downstairs story of roughnecks and wildcat billionaires fueling a boom so big, it’s reshaping our climate, our economy and our geopolitics. Hamm will have the recurring role of Monty Miller, a titan of the Texas oil industry who has a long personal and professional relationship with Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thornton). (The Hollywood Reporter)

The Netflix series adaptation of the Judy Blume novel Forever has cast its leads. Lovie Simone, who will soon be seen the the Apple TV+ period piece drama Manhunt) and relative newcomer Michael Cooper Jr will star in the epic love story of two Black teens exploring romance and their identities through the awkward journey of being each other’s firsts. (Variety)

The CW has given a TV series order to Sherlock & Daughter, which will see David Thewlis (the Harry Potter franchise and Wonder Woman) starring in the title lead role, which the renowned detective out of his comfort zone, mysteriously unable to investigate a sinister case without risking the lives of his closest friends. He then meets Amelia (Blu Hunt), an American who, after her mother’s mysterious murder, learns that Sherlock may be her missing father. Despite wildly different backgrounds and attitudes, the pair must work together to solve a global conspiracy, crack her mother’s murder and find out for sure if she really is Sherlock’s daughter. The cast also includes Dougray Scott as Holmes’ nemesis, Moriarty. (Variety)

Stephen Amell (Arrow and Heels) has landed the starring role in the spin-off series Suits: LA, which will center on Ted Black (Amell), a former federal prosecutor from New York who is described as a charismatic force of nature who puts his own needs above others. Ted joined forces 15 years ago with his old buddy, Stuart Lane, to build an L.A. law firm that specializes in criminal and entertainment law. No other casting details have been announced yet. (TV Line)

Leo Woodall, who can currently be seen in the small screen adaptation of One Day on Netflix and Quintessa Swindell (Black Adam) will star in the thriller series Prime Target at Apple TV+. The 8-episode drama will follow a mathematical genius as he’s plunged into a troubling conspiracy just as he’s about to make a major computational breakthrough. Woodall will play math post-graduate Edward Brooks, who’s on the verge of working out how to access every computer in the world via a unique mathematical pattern when he realizes someone is trying to stop him. Swindell will play NSA agent Taylah Sanders, whose job it is to watch and report on mathematicians with world-changing ideas. The cast will also include Stephen Rea, David Morrissey and Martha Plimpton [among others]. (Variety)

Simu Liu (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) will star in an espionage techno-thriller that has been ordered straight to series at Peacock but remains untitled. The premise of the series is five minutes in the future, a first-generation-American intelligence analyst Alexander Hale (Liu) realizes his brain has been hacked, giving the perpetrators access to everything he sees and hears. Caught between his shadowy agency and the unknown hackers, he must maintain a performance 24/7 to flush out who’s responsible and prove where his allegiance lies. (Variety)

Molly Shannon will be joining the cast of Only Murders in the Building on Hulu for the comedy’s 4th season, playing a high-powered Los Angeles businesswoman who finds herself drawn into the world of the investigation in New York. Also, Meryl Streep will reprise her role as Loretta Durkin. (Deadline and TV Line)

Season 2 of The Night Agent on Netflix has added to its cast. Michael Malarkey (The Vampire Diaries) and Keon Alexander (The Expanse) have joined as series regulars. Malarkey will play Markus, a military chief and loyal nephew to a dictator newly convicted of war crimes by the Hague. Alexander will play Javad, who oversees security for the Iranian Mission to the United Nations and monitors the loyalty of its employees. Meanwhile Navid Negahban (Homeland) and Rob Heaps (Station 11) will appear in the recurring roles of Abbas, the venerable U.N. ambassador for Iran and Tomas, the elitist son of the aforementioned deposed dictator, who is keen on restoring his family to power, respectively. Season 2 will follow Peter Sutherland (series lead Gabriel Basso) as he begins his career as a full-time Night Agent, while maintaining a relationship with Rose Larkin (series lead Luciane Buchanan). (Variety)

Venerable actor Tony Curran has joined the prequel series Outlander: Blood of My Blood, playing Lord Lovat, the grandfather of Jamie Fraser. (Deadline)

Brittany Snow (the Pitch Perfect franchise) and Malin Akerman (Watchmen) will star in the upcoming 8-episode drama series The Hunting Wives at Starz. Snow will play Sophie O’Neill, who moves with her family from the East Coast to deep East Texas. There, she succumbs to socialite Margo’s (Akerman) irresistible charms and finds her life consumed by obsession, seduction and murder. (Variety)

STREAMING MOVIE NEWS

Jennifer Garner just might be joining her ex-husband Ben Affleck’s latest movie, a crime thriller called Animals that is set up at Netflix. And, what’s more, she would be starring opposite Matt Damon in a crime thriller that centers on a mayoral candidate and his wife whose son is kidnapped. Surrounded by plenty of enemies, political and otherwise, the husband and wife have no choice but to get their hands dirty in order to save their son. Garner would play the wife opposite Damon as the candidate. (The Hollywood Reporter)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Ben Wang (American Born Chinese) has landed the lead role in the new version of The Karate Kid, which will find Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan reprising their roles from the movie franchise. Plot details are under wraps though. (Variety)

It would seem that the Gerard Butler disaster film Greenland is getting a sequel with the film going into production in April. Morena Baccarin (Firefly and Homeland) will also return for the sequel. (Variety)

Yet another version of the Fantastic Four is being made this time with Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian), Vanessa Kirby (The Crown), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Bear) and Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things) in the lead roles. Pascal will play Reed Richards (aka Mr. Fantastic), Kirby will play Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, Quinn will play Johnny Storm/The Human Torch and Moss-Bachrach will play Ben Grimm/The Thing. The film is slated to be released ono July 25, 2025. (TV Line)

Elizabeth Olsen and Charles Melton will star in the dark comedy film Love Child that follows Misty, who is stuck in a loveless marriage to a brutish husband. Junior, her precocious 11-year-old, is her only consolation. When Easy, a handsome vagabond stranger, appears, Junior hatches a plan to get rid of his father so that his mother can marry Easy instead. But things end up backfiring, so Junior comes up with yet another plan, this one even more devious, and with more disastrous—and unexpected—consequences. (Deadline)

Will Smith will star in the high-octane action thriller film Sugar Bandits based on the Chuck Hogan book “Devils in Exile,” which centers on an Iraq War veteran who teams up with a crew of fellow vets to target the drug trade in Boston. (Variety)

Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh will star in the box office movie The Mother, which will find her playing an immigrant mother and businesswoman trying to make a new life for her family in America. But when her two teenage sons stumble into trouble with a Boston crime ring, she’s forced to rekindle her past to save them. (Variety)

Laz Alonso (The Boys) has joined the cast of the Guy Ritchie film Fountain of Youth that will star John Krasinski and Natalie Portman as estranged siblings who partner on a global heist to find the mythological Fountain of Youth. (Deadline)

The much talked about two-part film from Kevin Costner – Horizon: An American Saga – which is not only starring the Yellowstone lead but was written and will be directed by him has announced its cast, including Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, Michael Rooker, Luke Wilson, Jeff Fahey and Jamie Campbell Bower. The film will center around the pre- and post-Civil War expansion, highlighting the land’s indigenous community. Information about the specific characters have yet to be announced. (The Pioneer Woman)

Lupita Nyong’o and Chloe Grace Moretz will star in the mixed martial arts film Strawweight, which follows the journeys of two fighters who find themselves competing against each other in the Octagon. One is a young woman (Moretz) whose life is changed forever when she discovers her passion for the UFC, while the other is a former champion (Nyong’o) who is determined to reclaim her title by reinventing herself. Both want the same thing — respect — but only one can come out on top. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!