Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

CANCELLATION

Netflix has pulled the plug on the Michelle Yeoh-led series The Brothers Sun after only one season. (Deadline and TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Sara Ramirez won’t return for the upcoming season 3 of And Just Like That…, the sequel series to Sex and the City. There has been no official reason behind her departure. (TV Line)

The Outlander prequel series: Outlander: Blood of My Blood announced more casting for younger versions of well-known characters from the original series. Rory Alexander (Hulu’s mini-series Pistol) will play Murtagh Fraser; Sam Retford (the UK’s Coronation Street) will play Dougal MacKenzie; newcomer Seamus McLean Ross will play Colum MacKenzie and Conor MacNeil (The Tourist and Industry) will play Ned Gowan. (TV Line)

Funny man Eugene Levy has joined the cast of Only Murders in the Building for the show’s upcoming 4th season. He will have a recurring role, but exact details on what that role will be are being kept under wraps. (Variety)

Nick Offerman and Betty Gilpin have joined the cast of the upcoming Netflix historical drama Death by Lightning, joining Matthew Macfadyen and Michael Shannon in a story about U.S. President James Garfield (Shannon) and his assassination by Charles Guiteau (Macfadyen). Gilpin will play Crete Garfield, the First Lady and President Garfield’s wife while Offerman will play Chester A. Arthur, Garfield’s vice president and eventual successor. (Variety)

Actress Lex Scott Davis (the box office film The First Purge and The L Word: Generation Q) has joined the cast of the spin-off series Suits L.A. that will star Arrow alum Stephen Amell in the lead role. Davis will play Erica Rollins, a savvy and strong-willed rising star at the firm who is shrewd enough to test the loyalty of her associates only to admire some of them for not having any. (TV Line)

Peacock has a new horror thriller series set to debut called Teacup, which is inspired by author Rogert McCammon’s novel called Stinger. Yvonne Strahovski (The Handmaid’s Tale and Chuck), Scott Speedman (Felicity and Grey’s Anatomy) and Chaske Spencer (Echo and The English) have all been cast in the series with Strahovski set to be a producer on the project too. The series will center on a group of people in rural Georgia, who must come together in the face of a mysterious threat in order to survive. Strahovski will play Maggie Chenoweth while Speedman will play James Chenoweth and Spencer will play Ruben Shanley. No other details are available about their roles in the series. (The Hollywood Reporter and Variety)

Jessica Green (The CW’s sci-fi series The Outpost) will be back on the CW as a series regular in The Librarians: The Next Chapter, a spin-off series, which will center on a Librarian from the past, who time traveled to the present and now finds himself stuck here. When he returns to his castle, which is now a museum, he inadvertently releases magic across the continent. He is given a new team to help him clean up the mess he made, forming a new team of Librarians. Green will play Charlie Cornwall, the Guardian. Charlie, having been rejected by the Library to serve as a Guardian – essentially the bodyguard of The Librarian – was at a low point in her life when she got the call to be a “special guardian” on a trial basis. Trained in the military, her dedication and martial art skills are unquestionable. If she can keep the powers that be in line, she can achieve her dream to become a permanent member of the Library. (Deadline)

Attention fans of the PBS period drama Miss Scarlet & the Duke. Some shocking news was announced this week. Stuart Martin will not be returning as the Duke for the show’s 5th season! Instead, the show will now be called Miss Scarlet. (TV Line)

Netflix has picked up the medical procedural Pulse that will star Justina Machado. The official description of the show is: While the staff of Miami’s busiest Level 1 Trauma Center navigate medical emergencies, young ER doc Dani Simms is unexpectedly promoted to Chief Resident amidst the fallout of her own provocative romantic relationship. Machado will play Natalie Cruz, a brilliant and politically-savvy doctor, who oversees both administration and medicine in her role as the Chair of Surgery and Emergency Medicine. (Variety)

The Netflix upcoming western drama The Abandons, from Kurt Sutter (Sons of Anarchy) has added new cast members, including Nick Robinson (Love, Victor and Jurassic World) and Lucas Till (the MacGyver remake and the X-Men film franchise). They will star alongside Lena Headey and Gillian Anderson in a story about a group of diverse, outlier families who pursue their Manifest Destiny in 1850s Oregon, as they face a corrupt force of wealth and power, coveting their land, and who are trying to force them out. (Variety)

NEW SERIES ORDERED

Amazon Prime has ordered El Gato, a drama series that will be based on the comic book El Gate Negro by Richard Dominguez; and will star Diego Boneta (the box office movies Rock of Ages and Terminator: Dark Fate) as Frank Guerrero, who returns home to Mexico after the death of his father, finding himself neck deep in a nest of vipers – his estranged family – who are vying for control of his father’s business empire. But Frank’s grief is interrupted when he learns his only inheritance, a seemingly worthless parcel of land on the border, sits atop the lair of a famous costumed vigilante. His father was ‘El Gato.’ Now, Frank is in the crosshairs. To survive, he’ll have to solve mysteries decades in the making and unravel the truth about his father’s connections to a modern-day terror plot. (Variety)

Paramount+ has ordered an NCIS off-shoot series that will reunite Michael Weatherley and Cote de Pablo, on-screen for the first time since October 2013, reprising their roles of Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David. The series has yet to be given an official title, but the show is expected to open with Tony and Ziva raising their daughter together; but when Tony’s security company is attacked, they must go on the run across Europe, trying to figure out who is after them — and maybe even learn to trust each other again? — so that they can finally have their unconventional happily ever after. (TV Line)

Apple TV+ has ordered a series adaptation of the novel Neuromancer by author William Gibson. The 10-episode series will follow a damaged, top-rung super-hacker named Case who is thrust into a web of digital espionage and high stakes crime with his partner Molly, a razor-girl assassin with mirrored eyes, aiming to pull a heist on a corporate dynasty with untold secrets. (Variety)

NBC has given a series order to a new drama series called The Hunting Game that will be a high-concept crime procedural about a small team of investigators who are assembled to track down and capture the most dangerous killers our country has ever seen, all of whom have just escaped from a top-secret prison that’s not supposed to exist. (Variety)

Paramount+ is expanding the Ray Donovan universe with a 10-episode order for The Donovans, a new drama “loosely based” on the original series. But this time, no one from behind or in front of the camera on the original show will be involved. Instead, this version will center on a similarly-named family of “elite fixers” in London whose client list includes some of the most powerful people in Europe. (TV Line)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

Lauren Holly (NCIS and Picket Fences) and Bruce Boxleitner (Babylon 5 and Scarecrow and Mrs. King) are joining Jill Wagner and Jesse Hutch for the holiday movie Aurora Christmas, which will air over on Great American Family. The movie follows Erin (Wagner), who joins her dad Doug (Boxleitner) for a Christmas in the family’s former hometown of Aurora on a mission that is part business and a major bucket list item for Erin to see the Aurora Borealis light up the Northern sky. Realtor Lori (Holly) and family friend and local tour guide Trevor (Hutch) create a Christmas inspired at every turn by faith, love, and hope, so much so that Christmas bells hung over decades in a forest grove ring an unbroken song, a harbinger of miracles to come. (Deadline)

Also over on Great American Family there will be a new mystery movie series starring Candace Cameron Bure, who until recently had been the lead star in 18 Aurora Teagarden mystery movies over on Hallmark. Now, Bure will play Ainsley McGregor based on the books by Candace Havens. The new franchise will follow Ainsley McGregor, a former Chicago criminologist who returns to her hometown of Sweet River, Texas. She has chosen to trade full-time crime work to open Bless Your Arts, a market for artisans to sell crafts and wares. But Ainsley cannot deny her first love is crime solving and accepts a position teaching a criminology class at the local community college. Her skills quickly become a major asset to the quaint town, when a murder occurs at a winery owned by her friend, who now stands accused of the crime. The Sweet River Sheriff, who just happens to be Ainsley’s brother, Ryan, wants her to stay out of the investigation. But Ainsley knows the pieces of this puzzle do not fit. To help her friend and with the unexpected assistance from some goodhearted local busybodies – Ainsley McGregor is back on the case. The franchise will co-star Aaron Ashmore (Veronica Mars and Killjoys) and BJ Harrison (Family Law and a long-time co-star of Hallmark movies). (Variety)

BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS

Emily Blunt is expected to star, once again, alongside Dwayne Johnson in the upcoming box office movie The Smashing Machine. Johnson will play MMA and UFC champion Mark Kerr with Blunt in talks to play Dawn Staples, Kerr’s wife. (Variety)

Joshua Jackson has joined the cast of the upcoming reboot of The Karate Kid that will find Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan both reprising their roles of Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Han respectively. Little is known at this time about this reboot nor the role Jackson will play in the movie. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Priyanka Chopra Jonas will star in the box office flick The Bluff with Karl Urban in talks to also star. The movie will be set in the 19th century Caribbean, following a former female pirate (Chopra Jonas) who must protect her family when the mysterious sins of her past catch up to her. (Deadline)

Wendell Pierce (Suits and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan) has joined the cast of the latest Superman movie coming from James Gunn. He will play Perry White, the iconic editor-in-chief of The Daily Planet. (The Hollywood Reporter)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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