Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS

Netflix has given a second season renewal to The Hunting Wives. (Variety)

Apple TV+ has given a fourth season order to Foundation. (Deadline)

Acorn TV has ordered a second season for the drama Irish Blood. (Deadline)

ON INDEFINITE HOLD

It looks like Amazon Prime has pushed back the release of the planned season two of Mr. & Mrs. Smith to an uncertain future. Supposedly, the delay is due to cast issues. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS

Idris Elba will star in and direct a feature film adaptation of This is How it Goes by Neil LaBute for Apple Original Films. The psychological thriller tells the story of a couple who reconnect with an old school acquaintance, apparently randomly, and offer to take him in but then things turn a bit scarier. (Variety)

Twilight alum and The English star Chaske Spencer (who is also a BAFTA nominee) will play th role of Ponca chief and Native American civil rights leader Standing Bear in a film of the same name. The film will chronicle the Ponca Tribe’s harrowing “Trail of Tears” march and the landmark 1879 trial of Standing Bear vs Crook that helped recognize Native Americans as “human beings” under U.S. law. (Deadline)

Hannah John-Kamen (Thunderbolts* and Killjoys) has joined the cast of One Second After, the new thriller flick that will star Lost and Duster alum Josh Holloway. The movie, based on the best-selling novel by William R. Forstchen follows John Matherson (Holloway), 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 will find 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. John-Kamen will play Makalya, a nurse stranded in Black Mountain following the attack. Partnering with John, Makalya fights to keep the community alive as modern society unravels, offering both medical expertise and emotional resilience in the face of collapse. (Deadline)

Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau will play the lead role, opposite Jennifer Lopez, in The Last Mrs. Parrish, the anticipated film adaptation of the hit novel by Lynne and Valerie Constantine. Also joining the cast are Isobel May (1883) and Pierson Fodé (The Wrong Paris and The Bold and the Beautiful). The film will center on a twisted con artist who ends up with more than she bargained for in targeting a wealthy couple. Daphne Parrish (Lopez) and Jackson Parrish (Coster-Waldau) have it all on paper, as Amber Patterson (May) looks to befriend the wife and seduce her husband. Daphne’s shoes, Amber learns, are far more complicated to slip into than she expected. (Deadline)

Jessica Chastain will star alongside Oscar-nominee John Hawkes and country singer Carter Faith in the upcoming Netflix mystery thriller film Heartland that will follow Misty Jones (Chastain), a former country star who comes out of seclusion to investigate the disappearance of her missing niece (Faith), herself a rising country musician. She must grapple with her own past and Nashville’s seedy underbelly, and her search uncovers a murky side of Nashville where no one, including Misty, is who they seem. (Deadline)

Shadowhunters co-stars Katherine McNamara (Arrow) and Alberto Rosende (Chicago P.D.) as well as Arden Cho (from the recent hit KPop Demon Hunters and the small screen series Teen Wolf) and Margaret Cho will star with Josh Plasse (The Baxters and Butterfly) in the upcoming indie rom-com flick Cheap AF that will tell the story of Carol, a money-saving influencer (Arden 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)

GREEN LIGHT ORDER

Amazon Prime has given a series order to Bishop, an original thriller drama that will star Joel Kinnaman (The Killing, For All Mankind and Altered Carbon). In this new series, he will play homicide detective Bishop Graves, brilliant, battle-scarred, who will put all of his skills to the test in the hunt for an elusive killer targeting San Francisco’s moneyed class. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

The Bold and the Beautiful actor Victor Rivas Rivers has joined the season two cast of The Pitt where he will play Trent Norris, the CEO of Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. (Deadline and TV Line)

Lucifer alum Aimee Garcia has landed a series regular role on The Walking Dead: Dead City for the show’s upcoming third season, playing Renata, a disarmingly charming leader with a natural ability to win people over with her optimism and convivial personality. (Deadline)

New Zealand actress Luciane Buchanan has appeared in not only the first two seasons of The Night Agent but also the Jason Momoa-led Apple TV+ period piece drama Chief of War, but she will not be returning for season three of The Night Agent, as it appears the powers-that-be behind the show have decided to focus solely on FBI agent Peter Sutherland (series lead Gabriel Basso) for the upcoming third season. (Deadline)

Spence Moore (Brilliant Minds and Creed III) and Charlie Mann (The Watchers) have landed the lead roles in the Starz spin-off series Power: Origins, playing Ghost and Tommy, respectively, the younger versions of the characters portrayed by Omari Hardwick and Joseph Sikora in the mothership Power series. In this spin-off Ghost (Moore) and Tommy (Mann) are ambitious young entrepreneurs on the rise, determined to make their mark on the streets of New York City. (Deadline)

Matthew Rhys (The Americans and Perry Mason) will star opposite Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) and Jack Reynor (On the Basis of Sex and Midsommar) in season two of the Apple TV+ legal drama Presumed Innocent, which will center on an ambitious defense attorney (Brosnahan) who takes on a high-profile case. Rhys will play her husband, the prosecutor on the case while Reynor will play her client, the defendant. (Deadline)

Joshua Malina (Scandal and The West Wing) will guest-star in an upcoming episode of season 25 of Law & Order, playing the managing partner of a prominent law firm. (TV Line)

The cast members for the spin-off series S.W.A.T. Exiles has been announced, including Lucy Barrett (Charmed and Deep Water), Adain Bradley (Warfare and Tarot), Zyra Gorecki (La Brea), Freddy Miyares (When They See Us) and Ronen Rubenstein (9-1-1: Lone Star). Also, Jay Harrington and Patrick St. Esprit will reprise their S.W.A.T. roles of Sergeant David “Deacon” Kay and Commander Robert Hicks (respectively) will make guest appearances. (Variety and Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!