Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATION

Netflix has given a second season order to Dept. Q. (Deadline)

Paramount has decided not to bring Dexter: Original Sin for a second season despite the prequel getting a renewal order. (Variety)

MGM+ has given The Institute a second season order. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Amalia Williamson (Sullivan’s Crossing) and Tom Cavanagh (The Flash) will star opposite Brooke Shields in the upcoming crime drama series You’re Killing Me on Acorn TV. The 6-episode series follows bestselling novelist (Shields) who forms an unlikely alliance with Andi, an aspiring writer and podcaster (Williamson) to find the killer of a close friend. Williamson’s Andi is a sassy Girl Wonder who was once an up-and-coming celebrity, until she lost it all. Cavanagh will play Jack, the new lead detective of the Founders Cove Police Department and former city slicker who is trying to acclimate to the quirks of small-town life. (Deadline)

This Is Us alum Mandy Moore has joined the cast of the Dan Fogelman (the creator of This Is Us) upcoming untitled football drama that will star Law & Order alum Christopher Meloni and William H. Macy. Set inside the world of the NFL, the series has a generational family component to it with Moore set to play Lauren, the daughter of NFL team owner Hank Durkin (Macy) and his heir apparent. Meloni is playing the team’s head coach, Danny Roarke. (Deadline)

Dominic West and Sienna Miller will star in a new legal thriller series at HBO that has already received a two-season commitment with West set to play tech titan Morgan Henderson and Miller his estranged wife, the international film star Carla Duval. Set in the prestigious world of London law, the show opens with a scandalous divorce case that sends shockwaves through boardrooms, bedrooms and courtrooms alike. (Variety)

Dafne Keen (His Dark Materials and Logan) and Saara Chaudry (The Mysterious Benedict Society) have joined the cast of the second season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, with Keen playing the powerful goddess Artemis and Chaudry playing her fan-favorite lieutenant Zoë Nightshade. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Season 2 of the Disney+ series Rivals has announced that Agent Carter alum Hayley Atwell and Rupert Everett (My Best Friend’s Wedding) will guest star will Malise Gordon and Helen Gordon, respectively. (Deadline)

LIMITED SERIES NEWS

Alexa Davalos (FBI: Most Wanted), Tom Mison (Sleepy Hollow), Tom Payne (The Walking Dead) and Ben Robson (Animal Kingdom) have joined the second installment of the upcoming Biblical limited series The Faithful, which is based on The Old Testament’s Book of Genesis told through the eyes of five of the Bible’s most iconic women: Sarah and her former slave Hagar; Sarah’s great-niece Rebekah; and Rebekah’s nieces, sisters Leah and Rachel. The second installment centers on Rebekah, played by Davalos, with Mison playing her husband Isaac, and Payne and Robson portraying their adult sons Jacob and Esau, respectively. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS

Doctor Who and Guardians of the Galaxy alum Karen Gillan will star alongside Henry Cavill, Russell Crowe, Dave Bautista and Marisa Abela in the upcoming box office reboot of Highlander. Gillan will play Heather, MacLeod’s (Cavill) mortal wife and the love of his life. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Blake Lively will star in the rom-com The Survival List that follows a highbrow reality TV producer named Annie who is assigned against her wishes to a new show hosted by famous survival expert Chopper Lane. When a shipwreck strands them on a deserted island, Annie discovers Chopper is a fraud and knows nothing about survival, leaving her in charge of figuring out how to keep them alive. Forced to work together, they begin to discover an unlikely chemistry. The role of Chopper Lane has yet to be cast. (Variety)

The Night Agent star Gabriel Basso will star in the upcoming romantic drama Love of Your Life alongside Margaret Qualley, Aaron Pierre and Patrick Schwarzenegger, which tells the story of a young woman (Qualley), suddenly single, who goes on a journey to find a way forward in her life. The script is written by Julia Cox. Character details are being kept under wraps, though. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Kevin Costner and Jake Gyllenhaal will star in the upcoming dramedy film Honeymoon with Harry that follows a man (Gyllenhaal) as he decides to go on a honeymoon with his would-be father-in-law (Costner) after his fiancée dies two days before their wedding. (Deadline)

Duster and Lost alum Josh Holloway will play the lead in the upcoming screen adaptation of One Second After based on the best-selling novel by William R. Forstchen where he will play John Matherson, a college professor and former military officer charged with protecting his community after a catastrophic electromagnetic pulse attack cripples the nation. Set in the hills of North Carolina, the film follows John as he confronts a world suddenly stripped of power, communication, and modern infrastructure, guiding those around him through life-or-death decisions in a fight for survival. (Deadline)

Vera Farmiga will star opposite Mark Wahlberg in an untitled film based on the 2023 German language sports comedy-drama that follows a father and his autistic son, who wants to find a favorite Premiere League soccer club and makes his father take him to see every single team so he can decide. (Deadline)

The Diplomat alum David Gyasi has landed his first lead film role in the upcoming movie The Bard, which will tell the true story of George Moses Horton, the first Black poet to be published in America while enslaved, a feat punishable by death. Horton wrote love poems and anti-slavery protests and was assisted by the white wife of a UNC Chapel Hill professor, who eventually became an anti-abolitionist. (Variety)

Hailee Steinfeld, Ron Perlman, Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire) and Rhenzy Feliz (The Penguin) will star in the upcoming thriller flick Asteroid that will follow a group of strangers who take the risk of a lifetime to travel to a nearby asteroid for the opportunity to mine for wealth beyond their wildest dreams. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!