Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news updates for this past week:

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

It looks like Netflix is developing a sequel series to the long-running drama One Tree Hill, which aired on The WB starting in 2003 and ended on CW in 2012. Original series stars Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton are set to executive produce and reprise their breakout roles as Brooke Davis and Peyton Sawyer, respectively. The potential follow-up will pick up 20 years later, following Brooke and Peyton as they parent teenagers of their own. (Deadline and TV Line)

RENEWAL/CANCELLATION

Blue Ridge: The Series has been given a second season renewal by Imagicomm Entertainment. (Press Release)

Netflix has pulled the plug on Dead Boy Detectives after only one season. (TV Line)

SERIES ORDER NEWS

Hallmark+ (formerly Hallmark Movies Now) has given a straight-to-series order to the new one-hour drama series Ripple, which will be set in New York City, focusing on Nate, Kris, Walter and Aria who have crossed paths hundreds of times, yet they’ve never met. Because of the seemingly minuscule decisions these core four make in the pilot, we’ll witness the ripple effect of how these strangers, all dealing with life’s challenges in their own way, are led to one another. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

The Anthony Hopkins-led film Eyes in the Trees has added Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Ashley Greene and Thomas Kretschmann to its cast. The film will be a modern reimagining of H.G. Wells’ novel “The Island of Doctor Moreau,” which will follow a video journalist and his film crew as they embark on a journey into an isolated forest, only to find their excursion turned into a fight for survival for not just themselves, but the entire human race. Vince Henway (Meyers) and his former protégé-turned-ex Channing Arneau (Greene) lead the crew into the heart of Monkey Ko off the coast of Thailand. Also known as The Island of Death to the locals, the island holds rumors of forgotten government medical experiments and scientific genetic manipulations led by Dr. Addis (Hopkins). What they find on the island is beyond their wildest expectations, a product of nightmares. Their search for answers quickly transforms into a fight for survival as they try to thwart Dr. Addis’ plan to ‘regress mankind,’ killing the majority of earth’s human population. (Variety)

It looks like Sony Pictures is developing a remake of the Ritchie Valens story La Bamba, teaming with Luis Valdez, the writer and director of the original film. The 1987 film starred Lou Diamond Phillips as Valens, the 17-year-old Mexican-American singer who rose to fame in the 1950’s with songs like “La Bamba,” “Donna” and “We Belong Together.” His meteoric ascent was cut short when he died at age 17 in a plane crash with Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper, in what was dubbed “The Day the Music Died.” (Variety)

Tomer Capone (The Boys) will play a besotted suitor in the new romantic comedy called Save the Date that will star comedian Adi Havshush in the lead role. The movie follows the story of Dassy, a wedding planner who finds herself in a relationship slump after her longtime partner makes a shocking revelation. Turning to her grandmother for comfort, Dassy reluctantly agrees to take part in an ancient spell to summon her one true love – except instead of one, her overzealous bubbie manages to conjure up four suitors who set out to win Dassy’s heart. (Variety)

Rebecca Ferguson has joined the cast of The Magic Faraway Tree based on the classic children’s book by Enid Blyton, which includes Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy, Nicola Coughlan [among others]. Ferguson will play Dame Snap, the story’s headmistress. The film follows Polly (Foy) and Tim Thompson (Garfield) and their children, Beth, Joe and Fran, who find themselves forced to relocate to the remote English countryside. There, the children discover a magical tree and its extraordinary and eccentric occupants, who are capable of transporting visitors to fantastical far-off lands. Coughlan will play woodland fairy Silky while Nonso Anozie will play group leader Moonface. (The Hollywood Reporter)

TV CASTING NEWS

Game of Thrones alum Emilia Clarke will star in the espionage thriller Ponies, which has been ordered to series at Peacock. The series will be set in Moscow in 1977 where two ‘PONIES’ (‘persons of no interest’ in intelligence speak) work anonymously as secretaries in the American Embassy. That is until their husbands are killed under mysterious circumstances in the USSR, and the pair become CIA operatives. Bea (Clarke) is an over-educated, Russian-speaking child of Soviet immigrants. Her cohort, Twila, is a small-town girl who is as abrasive as she is fearless. Together, they work to uncover a vast Cold War conspiracy and solve the mystery that made them widows in the first place. (Variety)

Lost veteran Matthew Fox has joined the cast of The Madison, joining Michelle Pfeiffer in the Taylor Sheridan series set in the Yellowstone universe. Fox will play Paul, a self-reliant bachelor who loves the outdoors. (TV Line)

Kate Winslet is set to star in yet another new drama series called The Spot which will air on Hulu. When a successful surgeon (Winslet) and her schoolteacher husband begin to suspect that she may be responsible for a child’s hit-and-run death, their quest for truth spirals into a web of mounting suspicion and dark secrets, testing their resolve and their relationship as they confront the possibility of hidden guilt and betrayal. (Variety)

The upcoming Peacock limited series Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy, which will star Michael Chernus in the lead role, has added new cast members, including: Gabriel Luna as Detective Rafael Tovar; James Badge Dale as Chief of Detectives Joe Kozenczak; Michael Angarano as Sam Amirante; Chris Sullivan as Lead Prosecutor Bill Kunkle and Marin Ireland as Elizabeth Piest. The series will peel back the twisted layers of Gacy’s life while weaving in heartrending stories of his mostly gay victims; exploring the grief, guilt, and trauma of their families and friends; and exposing the systemic failures, missed opportunities and societal prejudices that fueled his reign of terror. (Variety)

Dean Norris has been promoted to series regular on Law & Order: Organized Crime where he plays Randall Stabler, the older brother of Elliot Stabler (series lead Christopher Meloni). (Deadline and TV Line)

That’s it. Enjoy!