Hey All,
Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:
RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS
In advance of next week’s upfront presentations in New York by the major networks, FOX and NBC have announced some of their renewals and cancellations, including the following:
NBC has renewed Law & Order, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and all three Chicago One drama for a new season each while the network has pulled the plug on The Irrational and Found after only two seasons each and Suits LA after only one episode. (TV Line)
FOX has pulled the plug on the new drama Rescue: Hi-Surf after only one season. (TV Line)
Meanwhile, Amazon Prime (aka Prime Video) has pulled the plug on the new police drama On Call after only one season, but sources are reporting that the drama is already being shopped around to other platforms. (Deadline and TV Line)
TV CASTING NEWS
Actress Arden Cho (Partner Track and Teen Wolf) and comedian Margaret Cho will star in the upcoming rom-com movie Cheap AF that tells the story of a money-saving influencer (Cho) seeking her big break, who risks losing her wedding and relationships when she goes all out to win Wedding Magazine’s “Best Wedding on a Budget” social media competition. (Deadline)
Kevin Pollak will appear in season 3 of Tulsa King on Paramount+, playing the series regular role of Special Agent Musso, an FBI agent who has an axe to grind. (Variety)
Singer turned actress LeAnn Rimes and Kimberley Williams-Paisley have joined the cast of the upcoming spin-off 9-1-1: Nashville, joining the already cast Chris O’Donnell and Jessica Capshaw. There are no specifics on what characters they will play, however. (Variety)
Watson lead Morris Chestnut will be back on season 3 of Hulu’s legal drama Reasonable Doubt, reprising his role of Corey Cash, a charming, media-savvy defense attorney on a recurring basis. Other recurring guest stars will be Rumer Willis, Richard Brooks (9-1-1) and Kyle Barry (Ginny & Georgia [among others]. (Deadline)
True Detective: Night Country alum Kali Reis has joined the cast of the upcoming Apple TV+ heist drama 12 12 12 that will follow a disgraced FBI agent (Anthony Mackie) and an American career criminal (Jamie Dornan) who play a zero-sum game of cat and mouse across Europe. At the center of it all is the daring, epic raid on a bank vault deep beneath the streets of Zurich. (Variety)
Emmanuelle Chriqui (Superman & Lois) will guest star in the upcoming 4th season of The Lincoln Lawyer on Etflix, playing Jeanine, the girlfriend of a local gangster who finds herself mixed up in a criminal enterprise, giving her information pivotal to Mickey’s defense. Also, Jason O’Mara (Fire Country and The Man in the High Castle) will guest-star as Jack Gilroy, Maggie’s (Neve Campbell) current boyfriend who is an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine. (TV Line)
New cast members for season 2 of the Netflix comedy A Man on the Inside, that stars Ted Danson, have been announced. Those new members include Constance Marie (Switched at Birth and With Love), David Strathairn (The Bourne Legacy and Alphas), Gary Cole (NCIS), Max Greenfield (The Neighborhood and New Girl), Michaela Conlin (Bones) and Sam Huntington (the American version of Being Human). (Variety)
Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy in the original Harry Potter franchise of movies has tased that he will be playing a small role in the small screen adaptation of the Harry Potter books planned as a series on HBO. (The Daily Mail and Parade)
Hugh Laurie (House) will star alongside Thandiwe Newton (Westworld), Stephen Dillane (Game of Thrones) and Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk) [among others] in the upcoming, new Apple TV+ thriller series The Wanted Man that will follow the rise and fall of Felix Carmichael (Laurie), the elusive and powerful head of notorious British crime syndicate ‘The Capital.’ (Variety)
Star Trek Discovery alum Sonequa Martin-Green has joined the cast of the spin-off series Boston Blue, starring opposite Blue Bloods alum Donnie Wahlberg as Detective Danny Reagan who leaves New York City with his family to take a position with the Boston Police Department. There, he will be partnered with Detective Lena Silver (Martin-Green), the eldest daughter of a prominent law enforcement family. (TV Line)
MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS
Brandy and Rita Ora will appear in Descendants: Wicked Wonderland, the 5th movie in the musical fantasy movie franchise Descendants that follows the teenage progeny of Disney’s most iconic characters. They will reprise their respective roles of Cinderella and the Queen of Hearts alongside Paolo Montalban as King Charming and Melanie Paxson as Fairy Godmother as well as Kylie Cantrall and Malia Baker as Princesses Red and Chloe, the daughters of the Queen of Hearts and Cinderella, respectively. Picking up shortly after the events of the previous movie The Rise of Red, this new movie will explore what “happily ever after” is really like for Red and Chloe following their return from their time-traveling adventures and will delve into the warning at the end of the film — that “there are consequences when you alter the fabric of time.” (Deadline)
BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS
Michael Sheen (Good Omens) and Eva Longoria (Desperate Housewives) will star in the upcoming family holiday comedy The 12 Days of Christmas, which will follow the dysfunctional Sullivan family, who for the 5th year in a row have cancelled Christmas, that is until a mysterious someone starts sending strange gifts to hopeless widower Henry (Sheen) and his two bickering children, Will and Ella. First, a partridge in a pear tree, the next day two turtle doves are sent, followed by three calling birds on day three. Before they know it, the house is full of boisterous animals and house guests, all relating to the famous Christmas song “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” The family’s lives are turned upside down as they try to figure out just who the mystery gift giver is, and to top it off, Mariana (Longoria) from Animal Protection Services is on their case. (Variety)
The Gentleman alum Theo James will be taking over for Adrien Brody in the upcoming gangster thriller The Bookie & the Bruiser that will be set in 1959 New York City, featuring a pensive, Jewish fellow named Rivner (James) and an oversized Italian American tough named Boscolo (Vince Vaughn). Having served in World War II, the two return as changed men, no longer fitting into their old lives. Unwilling to take orders or play by the rules of polite society, the two partner up as a bookmaker and his enforcer and run an illicit gambling operation that proves highly profitable — but dangerous. Their operation thrives until they’re caught in a violent power struggle between the Mafia and an Irish gang, forcing them into a violent fight for survival. (Variety)
Oscar winner Natalie Portman will star in the upcoming movie Photograph 51 that will uncover the story behind the brilliant scientist whose pioneering work in x-ray crystallography captured the image that revealed DNA’s double-helix structure, the molecule that carries the genetic instructions for all known life. (Deadline)
Oscar nominees Demi Moore and Colman Domingo are set to star in the epic romance flick Strange Arrivals that will be inspired by the incredible true story of Betty and Barney Hill, an interracial couple who, in 1961, became the first reported case of an alien abduction, as they journeyed back from their honeymoon in Niagara Falls. Their experience catapulted them to fame and celebrity, but underneath that notoriety simmered the truth of what really happened that night, which would test even the most epic of romances. (Variety)
Star Trek alum Chris Pine will star in and produce the upcoming action film Run the Night that follows a banker accused of betraying the Penose (the Dutch mob), who is dumped naked in the heart of Amsterdam with a $10 million bounty on his head. Hunted by the city’s most violent gangs, he must fight his way across the city by dawn to save the lives of his wife and child, a mission that reveals he was never just the money guy. (Variety)
Wednesday alum Jenna Ortega and screen legend Robert De Niro will star in Shutout that follows Jake Kejeune (De Niro), one of the last masters of a vanishing craft, the pool hustler. Having lived and lost by the roll of a ball in smoky backroom halls, Jake encounters Mia (Ortega), a young prodigy whose raw, electrifying talent reignites a fire he thought long extinguished. Sensing a rare opportunity to shape a legend, Jake takes Mia under his wing, honing her instincts and sharpening her natural gift. Together, they plunge into the ruthless world of high-stakes pool, where the line between unimaginable fortune and devastating failure is razor-thin. (Variety)
International singer Celine Dion, actor Himesh Patel (Yesterday and The Franchise) and actress-stage performer Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso) will provide their voice in the upcoming 3D animated film High in the Clouds, which is inspired by the children’s adventure book by Beatles legend Paul McCartney. Other voices that will also be featured in the animated fare include the following: Idris Elba, Lionel Richie, Ringo Starr, Jimmy Fallon, Clémence Poésy, Pom Klementieff and Alain Chabat. The story is a tale about the power of family and freedom of expression through music, following Wirral, a teenage squirrel who embarks on an extraordinary journey to set music free, after accidentally sparking a revolution against Gretsch, the bossy diva-owl who has banned all music from his town. (Variety)
Hunter Schafer (Euphoria) and Tim Roth (Pulp Fiction) will star in the upcoming movie called Fish, a genre-bending drama set in a dreamlike Venice. Roth will play Professor Fish Osborne, a brilliant but reclusive art historian who is undergoing a mysterious transformation: he is slowly becoming a fish. As the professor’s secret unravels, Billie (Schafer) and other students of his begin to perceive their own identities through new lenses. (Variety)
Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) will star in the psychological thriller The Midnight Pool that centers on Johnny Black (Paul), a jaded journalist whom, after a personal tragedy, is lured into the shadows of an elite, exclusive society, where the pursuit of a career-defining story becomes a descent into illusion, manipulation and altered realities. (Variety)
Charles Meton (Warfare and May December) and Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All At Once) will provide their voices to the animated feature In Waves, a California surf-themed movie that follows AJ, a shy teenager in Los Angeles, who falls deeply in love with Kristen, a vibrant surfer. Their shared passion for the ocean becomes a source of strength as they face the devastating impact of illness together. (Variety)
Hannibal alum Mads Mikkelsen will star opposite Boyd Holbrook (Logan and A Complete Unknown) in the upcoming box office movie Last Meals with Mikkelsen playing Walter Karat, a former White House Chef whose fall from grace lands him in the kitchen of a maximum-security prison cooking for death row inmates. Boyd Holbrook will play Jeffrey Reed, a death row inmate who decides to go on a hunger strike and whose constant rejection of his meals frustrates him at every turn. Their animosity reaches a boiling point until Walter confronts Reed, triggering an unexpected deeper connection: Walter starts to believe Reed is innocent. As the two bond, Walter is determined to find out the truth. (Variety)
Xolo Mariduena (Blue Beetle and Cobra Kai) and Leah Lewis (Matlock)will star in the indie romance flick Dog Years that follows two former best friends who unexpectedly meet up in their hometown seven years after admitting they were in love. Reunited for one exhilarating night, they break into their old high school and question whether they would upend their lives to be together now. (Deadline)
The Gilded Age and The White Lotus alum Carrie Coon and Downton Abbey and Pam and Tommy star Lily James will star opposite The Last of Us and Game of Thrones alum Bella Ramsey and The Narrow Road to the Deep North star Odessa Young in the upcoming thriller Harmonia that will be set in 1980s and will revolve around an insidious cult. Rita (Coon), unraveling from past wounds, meets a radiant young spiritual leader (James) after a chance encounter. Following her into the all-female commune known as Harmonia, Rita leaves her life and family behind until her daughters, Ella (Ramsey) and Jo (Young), embark on a dangerous journey to rescue their mother. Once immersed in the commune, they find themselves inexorably drawn into the leader’s labyrinthine web of pseudo-spiritual and psychological manipulation. (Variety)
Outlander alum Caitriona Balfe will star opposite Loki alum Tom Hiddleston in the upcoming film Tenzing, which is about the inspirational life of Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and his summit of Mount Everest in 1953 alongside fellow outsider New Zealander Edmund Hillary. Balfe will play Jill Henderson, a friend of Tenzing who helped organize trips up Mount Everest. (Deadline)
Fast & Furious star Michelle Rodriguez and box office legend Richard Gere will star in the plane survival thriller Left Seat that will focus on a pharmaceutical representative (Rodriguez) who is forced to take control of a small charter plane after the pilot falls unconscious mid-flight. She must rely on the help of a stranger (Gere) over the radio to navigate through deadly storms and land the aircraft before the fuel runs out. (Deadline)
That’s it. Enjoy!
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