Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWAL/CANCELLATION NEWS

FX has given Alien Earth a second season renewal. (Deadline)

In a very expected move Peacock has pulled the plug on the Natasha Lyonne series Poker Face after only two seasons (and quite the cliffhanger ending). But series creator Rian Johnson is shopping the series around to other broadcasters for a two-season commitment, but with one change: Peter Dinklage would take over the role of Charlie Cale, the sleuth whose superpowers is an innate ability to detect liars. (Deadline)

IN DEVELOPMENT

Apple TV is working with Jason Momoa (again) for a new drama Nomad that will be set in the violent underworld of New Zealand’s outlaw bikers where a warrior is torn between two lives, two callings and two families and he must decide which path defines his true destiny. Sons of Anarchy Kurt Sutter is one of the co-creators. (Deadline)

Anna Fricke, executive producer and showrunner on The CW’s Walker and actor Jared Padalecki (Supernatural and Walker) are re-teaming for a new, untitled medical drama at CBS. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS

Singer Sabrina Carpenter will star in and produce an untitled musical that will be inspired by Alice in Wonderful, making this her first attempt at anchoring a major studio picture. Plot details are under wraps. (Deadline)

Looks like Idris Elba will be back as Luther in a new movie that will have him reuniting with Ruth Wilson in the second Netflix feature film for the popular BBC series. In this new movie, Luther is secretly called back into service when a new wave of brutal, seemingly random murders hits London. But how can he save London when everyone on all sides seems to want him dead? (Variety)

Grammy-winning singer Adele will make her acting debut in the new Tom Ford film Cry to Heaven, an adaptation of the 1982 novel by Anne Rice that is set in18th century Italy, following two men, a Venetian noble and a castrated Opera singer, whose lives become unexpectedly intertwined. The cast includes Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ciarán Hinds, George MacKay, Mark Strong, Colin Firth, Paul Bettany, Owen Cooper and Thandiwe Newton [among others]. (Variety)

Lana Condor (To All the Boys franchise) will star in Whodunnit, a new rom com flick that will follow Tess Klein, whose life was supposed to follow the plan: love by 25, marriage by 30, baby by 34. But after a spectacularly failed marriage proposal and one wild rebound weekend where her best friend Kelsey tells her the only way to get over someone is to get under someone else, Tess finds herself pregnant — and clueless about who the father is. As she sets out to solve the mystery, she discovers that sometimes the right family finds you. (Deadline)

Elsa Pataky (Fast & Furious franchise and the real-life wife of Thor star Chris Hemsworth) will star in the upcoming spy thriller The Mask, which follows Eden (Jessica Alba), an enigmatic spy on a covert and dangerous mission. When she pulls single father Ben Dawson (Tom Hopper) into her world of high-stakes espionage, his life is turned upside down. Mistaken for the world’s deadliest assassin, Ben becomes the perfect decoy for Eden. She uses the mix-up to expose a powerful network of corrupt politicians, placing Ben in the crosshairs of ruthless crime syndicates and the CIA, led by the seasoned Special Operative Len Milton (Angus Sampson). With enemies closing in from all sides, Eden must keep Ben alive long enough to complete her mission — while Ben must summon his inner action hero to stay alive and return to the person who matters most: his daughter. There are no details yet about what role Pataky will play, though. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Omar Epps (House) has joined the cast of the upcoming Hulu football drama from This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman. Epps will have a recurring role in the as-yet-titled series that will be set inside the world of the NFL and has a generational family component to it. Law & Order: Organized Crime star Christopher Meloni will play the team’s head coach Danny while William H. Macy will play the team owner Hank, Mandy Moore and Chloe Bennet will play Hank’s daughters, and Chace Crawford will play the team’s new General Manager. Epps will play a former NFL player who is now Offensive Coordinator. (Deadline)

Station 19 star Jaina Lee Ortiz has joined the cast of the upcoming ABC drama RJ Decker that will star Grey’s Anatomy and Felicity star Scott Speedman. The series centers of the eponymous RJ Decker (Speedman), a disgraced newspaper photographer and ex-con who starts over as a private investigator in the colorful-if-crime-filled world of South Florida. Ortiz will play Emi Ochoa, the shrewd-if-unpredictable daughter of a very powerful, very corrupt state senator with ties to RJ’s (Speedman) past. (Deadline)

Michelle Monaghan (The White Lotus) will star in a new untitled hockey drama from Netflix that will take place in the small working-class town of South Dorothy, Minnesota, where the high school hockey team has been churning out out-of-state championships and NHL stars for decades with their legendary Coach “Sully” Sullivan at the helm. When a bus crash claims the lives of several players and Sully himself, the town looks to Harper Sullivan (Monaghan) — Coach Sully’s widow — to coach a new team of battered and broken young men. What unfolds is the hopeful and unforgettable story of an underdog team that comes together to galvanize their town, reclaim their way of life, and turn their shared grief into an unstoppable superpower. (Deadline)

Castle star Stana Katic is set to star in the new drama project Entangled, which is inspired by the story of real-life CIA intelligence officers Meredith and Freddie Woodruff, one of the Agency’s first undercover husband-and-wife teams, who conducted their overseas covert operations while also raising a family. Working across Europe, Africa and the Middle East, they tracked down international terrorists, recruited and handled spies and survived a sudden and violent coup in one of the countries they were stationed in. The TV series follows married couple Abby (Katic) and Jim Sullivan, deep-cover CIA officers who must juggle their responsibilities as spies and parents while stationed overseas in one of the world’s most dangerous countries. (Deadline)

Lucifer cast member Lesley-Ann Brandt has been cast as a series regular in the upcoming second season of the Apple TV series Presumed Innocent that includes among its cast Rachel Brosnahan, Matthew Rhys, Courtney B. Vance, Fiona Shaw and Jack Reynor (among others). Details around the plot of the second season have yet to be released. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!