Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS

Hulu-Disney+ has given the period piece drama The Artful Dodger a third and final season. (Deadline)

Peacock has ordered a second season of The Five Star Weekend with lead actress Jennifer Garner returning along with cast members D’Arcy Carden, Regina Hall and Chloë Sevigny all coming back as well. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Jaafar Jackson (who played his uncle Michael Jackson in the recent box office movie Michael) will star alongside Will Smith and AnnaSophia Robb in the upcoming action thriller flick Supermax, which will revolve around two FBI agents (Smith and Robb) investigating a seemingly impossible murder within the impenetrable walls of a maximum-security prison. Jackson’s role is being kept under wraps right now. Additionally, Jascon Clarke will also appear in this movie but his character details are also being kept under wraps. (Deadline)

The next installment of The Mummy movie that’ll find Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz reprising their legendary roles will find original movie cast members Kevin J. O’Connor and Oded Fehr returning to the fold. O’Connor played ill-fated Beni Gabor so it will be interesting to see how he makes a return in the movie while Fehr played Medjai Ardeth Bay. Young Sherlock actor Numan Acar has also joined the cast, but his role has yet to be announced. (Deadline)

In addition to Samara Weaving appearing as Emma Frost in the upcoming X-Men movie, it would seem that Heartstopper hunk Kit Connor will be playing Cyclops aka Scott Summers. (Deadline)

Oscar winner Russell Crowe and head-turner Priyanka Chopra Jonas are set to star in the upcoming sci-fi action thriller Bluefly, which tagline goes a little like this: Deep in the Congo, a grieving UN translator is pulled onto a black-ops mission to recover a downed aircraft that isn’t supposed to exist. As a Special Operations team pushes upriver through militia-held territory, the recovery becomes a descent — and the closer they get to the craft, the clearer it becomes that they were never meant to bring it home. (Deadline)

The live action feature film The Legend of Zelda, based on the popular video game, in which the late Sam Neill will make his final film appearance, will also feature Dichen Lachman (Severance) and Chuck’s own Yvonne Strahovski as well, but details on the roles these two ladies will play are still a bit of a mystery. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

It’s sounding like Dave Bautista just might be taking over the role of Kratos in the Amazon Prime series God of War after the torn bicep injury sustained by Ryan Hurst, who was originally cast in the titular role. (Variety)

It’s looking like Blue Bloods alum Will Estes will be reprising his role of Jamie Reagan in the spin-off series Boston Blue for the show’s second season this fall. (Radio Times)

Game of Thrones alum Richard Madden is set to star in a new Amazon Prime and Paramount+ thriller called Trauma, playing former Royal Marines medic turned ER doctor Jim Marchant, who must fight his way through busy London Hospital to save everyone inside when terrorists seize the building. (Variety)

GREENLIGHT GIVEN

Paramount+ has given a greenlight to the thriller series Ascent that will star Viola Davis. The series will be set in the dangerous world of global corporate crisis and damage control, centering on elite corporate fixer Catriona Vail (Davis), who must weaponize the ruthless skills that have made her indispensable to billion-dollar clients when her estranged daughter is in danger. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!