Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATION

FOX has given the new medical dramedy Best Medicine a second season order. (Deadline)

Apple TV has pulled the plug on the Kristen Wiig comedy Palm Royale after two seasons. (Deadline)

Netflix has already given a second season renewal to the remake of Little House on the Prairie that is set to debut on streaming service on July 9. The streaming service has also given The Night Agent a 4th season renewal. (Variety)

PBS has renewed the period piece drama Miss Scarlet for its 7th and final season. (Deadline)

ABC has renewed 9-1-1 for a 10th season, renewed 9-1-1: Nashville for a second season and High Potential for a third season. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Eliza Coupe (Happy Endings) will guest star in the final two episodes of the debut season of Best Medicine on FOX. She will play the ex of Dr. Best (series lead Josh Charles). (Deadline)

Actress Cathy Belton and actor Simon Ludders, who play Ivy Potts and Barnabus Potts respectively, in Miss Scarlet on PBS will not be returning for the show’s 7th and final season. (Grand Rapids Herald-Review)

The Netflix sports-themed drama The 99’ers have added more cast members: newcomer Julia McDermott as defender Brandi Chastain; Shaunette Renee Wilson (The Resident) as goalkeeper Briana Scurry; Perry Mattfeld (Chad Powers and In the Dark) as forward/midfielder Michelle Akers; Lizzy Greene (A Million Little Things and Ransom Canyon) as midfielder Kristine Lilly; Isabelle Fuhrman as defender Joy Fawcett and Annabel O’Hagan (Fallout) as 1999 World Cup team captain Carla Overbeck. The series, which already includes Zoey Deutch, Emily Bader and Emilia Jones, will focus on the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team in 1999, as they defied the odds to emerge victorious in a dramatic penalty kick shootout against China in the World Cup final, under the scorching summer sun and in a stadium filled with 93,000 fans. (Deadline)

Season three of the Netflix series XO, Kitty will find Lana Condor (from To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, the precursor to this series) reprising her role of older sister Lara Jean Covey. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Bridget Moynahan (Blue Bloods) has joined the cast of the upcoming Dan Fogelman (the creator of This Is Us) drama The Land that will air on Hulu. The show will be set inside the world of the NFL and has a generational family component to it. Chris Meloni will play the lead, the team’s head coach Danny. Moynahan is believed to be playing Belinda, Danny’s ex-wife. (Deadline)

Melissa Fumero (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) will take over the lead role recently vacated by Rosa Salazar due to scheduling conflicts alongside Criminal Minds alum Matthew Gray Gubler in the CBS drama Einstein, which will be focused on Albert Einstein’s great-grandson, to be played by Gubler. Fumero will play Teri, a Detective Inspector for the New Jersey State Police. (Deadline)

The Baywatch reboot over on FOX has added to its cast. Jessica Belkin, who will be seen in the Legally Blonde prequel series Elle, has landed the central role of Charlie Vale, the biological daughter of Baywatch captain Hobie Buchannon (Arrow’s Stephen Amell), the child he never knew. Meanwhile, Hassie Harrison (Yellowstone) will play Nat, a former foster kid turned Olympic athlete. And, newcomer Thaddeus LaGrone will play Brad, who served two tours in an elite division of the Marines before returning back home to Venice Beach to care for his ailing father. (Variety)

The Gilded Age has promoted Kelley Curran, who plays Enid “Turner” Winterton to a series regular while adding the following new cast members: Comedian Jim Gaffigan as Grover Cleveland, the 22nd President of the United States, who comes to New York to curry favor with the elite class; Dallas Roberts (Tulsa King and Insatiable) as Daniel Manning, a seasoned politician and Secretary of the Treasury under President Grover Cleveland and Elizabeth Marvel (Law & Order: SVU and Presumed Innocent) as Nurse Virginia Saville, a kind nurse who works at the Neighborhood Settlement House in the Lower East Side. (Deadline)

Betty Gilpin (G.L.O.W.) has joined the second season of The Lowdown, the Ethan Hawke series on FX. She will play a character named Ginger. (Deadline)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS/COMMISSIONED SERIES

Hilarie Burton Morgan (One Tree Hill) is working with the folks at AMC on a new series development called The New Gothic that will follow the collision of the enterprising Bloom family with the resurrected Mississippi Mafia. (Deadline)

The folks at MGM+ US and Paramount+ UK have commissioned a new 6-part series inspired by the Robert Louis Stevenson swashbuckling epic Treasure Island which will star David Oyelowo (box office movie Selma and the TV series Silo) as iconic pirate Long John Silver. Also, Agent Carter star Hayley Atwell will play Bess Hawkins; Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire) will play Aaron Graham, Tomer Capone (The Boys) will play Billy Bones and Tom Sweet (Great Expectations) will play the key role of Jim Hawkins. The classic story is set across the Atlantic, in a Caribbean on the brink of revolution and on the terrifying Skeleton Island. (Variety)

PILOT CASTING NEWS

Hope Davis (Your Honor) will co-star alongside 9-1-1 alum Peter Krause in the planned NBC pilot Protection. The show, if picked up to series, will follow what happens when a U.S. Marshal falls in the line of duty, a seemingly cut-and-dry case turns into a deadly conspiracy as a family of law enforcement agents become the target of a mysterious assassin. Bridging personal differences and crossing professional boundaries, the Thornhill family must use the expertise from a lifetime of protecting civilians and politicians to protect one another and bring the killer to justice, even if it means betraying their sworn code.” (Variety)

Jon Beavers (Paradise and One Battle After Another) will star opposite Bones star Emily Deschanel in an untitled drama pilot that is inspired by the work of expert profiler and author Dr. Ann Burgess. The series will follow Professor Georgia Ryan (Deschanel), a trailblazing psychologist who challenges the field of criminology by shifting the investigative focus to the victim rather than just the perpetrator in order to uncover the crucial clues that more traditional methods leave behind. Alongside her team, this pioneering expert consults with the FBI to solve the most baffling and elusive cases. Beavers will play Will Andover, who was the top profiler in his class at Quantico, but then he had a fall from grace. Now at a crossroads in his career, he desperately needs a win. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWAL

MGM+ has given the latest drama adaptation of Robin Hood for a second season. (Variety)

HBO has renewed the drama Industry for a 5th season, which will be the show’s final season. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Winona Ryder has joined the cast of season three of Wednesday, but her guest starring role is being kept under wraps. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Ed Skrein (Jurassic World Rebirth) has joined the cast of the Amazon Prime upcoming series God of War based on the mythology-themed PlayStation game that will star Ryan Hurst in the role of Kratos. Skrein will play Baldur, the youngest son of Odin. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Moon Blood good (Falling Skies) and Kekoa Kekumano (Hi-Surf) have joined the second season of the Netflix series Untamed, the mystery-thriller that follows Kyle Turner (Eric Bana), a special agent for the National Parks Service who works to enforce human law in nature’s vast wilderness. The investigation of a brutal death sends Turner on a collision course with the dark secrets within the park and in his own past. In its second season, the series follows Turner as he’s called to investigate a mysterious death in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, where local tensions and the volatile, living landscape become an unpredictable force. (Deadline)

The White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood is set to lead a series adaptation of Jane Eyre. (Variety)

Matt Dillion executive produce and star in the upcoming MGM+ 8-episode drama The Magnificent Seven, playing Chris Adams, who becomes the leader of seven gunslingers determined to protect a group of innocent villagers from a mercenary land baron hellbent on stealing their land. (Deadline)

Busy Philipps has joined the cast of the upcoming CBS drama Cupertino that will include among its cast Mike Colter and Renee Elise Goldsberry. The legal drama will follow a lawyer (Colter) who is being cheated out of his stock-options by his former employer, a tech start-up. Refusing to back down, he joins forces with another recently fired attorney to represent those taken advantage of by the tech elite, and help them fight back in a high-stakes battle against the Goliaths controlling Silicon Valley. Philipps will star as Natalia, the beautiful and delightfully blunt first wife of an AI Billionaire, who divorced her when she turned forty. Now Natalia wants revenge and agrees to finance Michael and Olivia’s start-up law firm in order to go after his and other AI businesses. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Emily in Paris star Lily Collins will play Audrey Hepburn in a film about the screen icon and the making of her 1961 classic flick Breakfast at Tiffany’s. (Deadline)

Tom Hanks is set to play Abraham Lincoln in the upcoming live-action/stop-motion animation hybrid film Lincoln in the Bardo. (Deadline)

Andrew Scott and Emily Blunt will star in the upcoming flick Walk the Blue Fields that follows a woman on her wedding day being confronted with a heart-wrenching decision as a love triangle from her past threatens to be revealed. (Deadline)

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (Never Have I Ever) will appear in the second season of the Legally Blonde prequel series Elle that focuses on young Elle Woods (Lexi Minetree) during her high school years. Ramakrishnan will play Sam, Elle’s foil – possessing all our hero’s ambition and none of her optimism. She’s the founder, editor-in-chief, and lord baron of the school newspaper, the commissioner of the grammar police, and the enemy of joy. If Cosmo is Elle’s bible, The AP Stylebook is Sam’s holy grail. (Variety)

Michael McManus (Memory of a Killer and SEAL Team) will reunite with David Boreanaz in the planned NBC reboot of The Rockford Files. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWAL

The Hallmark Channel has given a third season renewal to Mistletoe Murders. (Hallmark Ever After)

TV CASTING NEWS

Mckenna Grace (Captain Marvel and Ghostbusters reboot franchise) will star in the upcoming live-action Scooby-Doo series at Netflix. The 8-episode TV series as yet untitled series will be an origin story about how the Mystery Inc. group got together and first teamed up to crack the haunting case that started it all. During their final summer at camp, old friends Shaggy and Daphne (Grace) get embroiled in a haunting mystery surrounding a lonely lost Great Dane puppy that may have been a witness to a supernatural murder. Together with the pragmatic and scientific townie, Velma, and the strange, but ever so handsome new kid, Freddy, they set out to solve the case that is pulling each of them into a creepy nightmare that threatens to expose all of their secrets. (Deadline)

Emilia Jones (Task and CODA) and Alessandro Nivola (Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale) have joined the cast of the upcoming Netflix sports drama series The 99’ers that will focus on the 1999 World Cup US soccer champs. Jones will play Julie Foudy, a prominent member of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team for 17 years, who played midfielder and ultimately elevated to co-captain, and then captain of the team. Nivola will play Tony DiCicco, who was the team’s head coach from 1994-1999, leading them to become world champions in 1999, with 103 wins overall. They join Zoey Deutsch and Emily Bader, who will play Marla Messing, the trailblazing soccer executive who oversaw the massively successful 1999 World Cup tournament, star forward and striker Mia Hamm respectively. (Deadline)

Original cast member David Chokachi will reprise his role of Cody Madison in the planned reboot of Baywatch over on FOX that will find Arrow star Stephen Amell playing the adult version of Hobie Buchanon, the son of legendary lifeguard Mitch Buchanon from the original show. (Variety)

Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD alum Ming-Na Wen and Flashdance star Jennifer Beals will be seen in season three of Percy Jackson and the Olympians with Wen playing Hera, the queen of Olympus and wife to Zeus. She is the goddess of marriage and family, so the infidelity of Zeus (Courtney B. Vance) rankles her. Regal, maternal and no-nonsense, Hera is the only god besides Zeus who has children who are also members on the Olympian council, which gives her leverage in the family politics. Meanwhile, Beals will play Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, the harvest and the cycle of life and death. A respected sister of Zeus, Demeter remembers the war against the Titans very well and will do what she must to prevent the return of her father Kronos. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS

Walton Goggins (The White Lotus and Fallout) will star alongside Chloe Grace Moretz (Oh. What. Fun. and Kick Ass) in the action-comedy feature film Mister that will follow a man (Goggins) who wakes up in a strange house covered in blood and comes to realize his true identity while fighting off contract killers from his past, including everyone from his exes to his best friend. To get out, he teams up with his estranged daughter (Moretz) who also has ended up in the family business, but they will need to repair their relationship in order to survive. (Deadline)

Leo Woodall (One Day and Prime Target) will co-star with Sydney Sweeney in Custom of the Country, a movie adaptation of the Edith Wharton classic novel. Sweeney will play Undine Spragg, a fiercely ambitious woman from the Midwest, who strives for the social heights of turn of the century New York. Armed with beauty, daring/hustle and sheer force of will/unwavering ambition, Undine battles an entrenched elite, fearlessly courting controversy, until love and fortune align. (Deadline)

Bridgerton alum Phoebe Dynevor will have the lead role in Beach Read, the movie adaptation of the best-selling novel by Emily Henry that follows January Andrews, a successful romance novelist who struggles with grief and writer’s block after her father’s death and the discovery of secrets, he’s long kept hidden. While spending the summer in his Michigan beach house to prepare it for sale, she unexpectedly reconnects with Gus Everett, an author who was once her rival in college. Both creatively stuck, they agree to a writing challenge over the summer, swapping literary genres while promising that there will be no romance between them. Of course, you know what they say about the best-laid plans. (Deadline)

PILOT NEWS

Orange Is the New Black alum Taylor Schilling will star in the NBC crime drama procedural pilot What The Dead Know that will center on highly intelligent, hyper-vigilant death investigator Ava Ledger (Schilling) who is really good with dead bodies. It’s the living that gives her trouble. The series follows Ava as she teams with the NYPD to solve their toughest cases. Also, Peter Krause (9-1-1) will star in the drama pilot Protection, playing Mike Thornhill, a former Secret Service agent who’s now an assistant director of intelligence and Bones alum Emily Deschanel will play the lead in an untitled drama about a criminal profiler. (Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

TV CASTING NEWS

The spin-off series S.W.A.T. Exiles has added Selma Blair and Jerry O’Connell to its guest star roster. (Variety)

Stephen Amell will be back on the small screen in the reboot of Baywatch that has already been picked up for the 2026-2027 FOX TV season. He will play Hobie Buchannon, the son of Mitch Buchannon (played by David Hasselhoff in the original series), who is now a Baywatch Captain, following in his father’s legendary footsteps. In this version, Hobie’s world is turned upside down when Charlie, the daughter he never knew, shows up on his doorstep, eager to carry on the Buchannon family legacy and become a Baywatch lifeguard alongside her dad. (Variety)

TV SHOW DEVELOPMENT NEWS

NBC is looking to reboot the classic 1970’s drama The Rockford Files with Angel and SEAL Team star David Boreanaz set to play the lead role. (Deadline)

The spin-off pilot The Rookie: North has added some series regulars, including Janet Montgomery (New Amsterdam) and Karen Fukuhara (The Boys). The series, should it go forward, will follow Alex Holland (Jay Ellis from Insecure and Running Point), who believed his midlife wasn’t worthy of a crisis. But after a violent home invasion ignites a dormant purpose, Alex battles a lifetime of failed commitments in Los Angeles by joining the Pierce County Police Department in Washington as its oldest rookie. Montgomery will play Charlotte Dru, Alex’s training officer. A former MP-turned-Pierce County Police Officer, Charlotte is precise, disciplined and calm under pressure with a subversive sense of humor. Meanwhile, Fukuhara as Leah Mizuno, Odell’s training officer. Leah comes from the high expectations of overachievers, where becoming a cop did not go over well. But unlike most youthful acts of rebellion, Leah loves what she does. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Jason Momoa is set to star in the film adaptation of the Helldivers video game that will be directed by Justin Lin. The story centers around an elite unit of soldiers, known as Helldivers, who must battle alien creatures threatening to destroy the fictional planet of Super Earth. (Deadline)

Catherine Zeta-Jones is set to star in the psychological thriller Cupid, playing a marriage counselor whose methods push a fractured relationship into increasingly dangerous territory. (Variety)

Jessica Gunning (Baby Reindeer) is attached to play The Mama and the Papas singer Cass Elliot in the feature film adaptation of My Mama Cass, based on the best-selling memoir on the legendary, late singer that was written by her daughter Owen Elliot-Kugell. The planned production will explore how, in a musical landscape that was not short on iconoclasts, Elliot was a trailblazer. But her true power was that she took things the world didn’t want to give her…a gifted, outspoken singer who refused to be defined by her weight or the men around her, forging a singular career and choosing motherhood on her own terms at a time when the culture wasn’t ready for any of it. (Deadline)

Colman Domingo, Kerry Washington and James Marsden are set to star in the upcoming Netflix film An Innocent Girl, a psychological thriller about a young and ambitious woman seduced by a high-powered D.C. couple who draw her into a dangerous world of sex, power and murder. (Deadline)

It would appear that Sony Pictures is in early development of (yet) another feature film version of Charlie’s Angels, which seems apropos since this is the show’s 50th Anniversary. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS

Apple TV has given the Jon Hamm-led drama Your Friends & Neighbors an early third season renewal. (Deadline)

Netflix has given a second season renewal to the new drama Finding Her Edge and the streaming also renewed the Ted Danson-led comedy A Man on the Inside. (Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter)

AMC has given a 4th season renewal for Dark Winds. (Variety)

PULLED FROM THE SCHEDULE

For whatever reason, NBC has pulled the return of the medical drama Brilliant Minds, which was to be back after The Olympics comes to a close. It would seem that the show MIGHT return at some point later in this TV season or over the summer. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE AND STREAMING MOVIE NEWS

Jessica Chastain and Chris Pine will star in the upcoming box office movie This Is Pleasure that will follow Margot (Chastain) as accusations of misconduct unravel the career of her closest friend, the charming publisher Quin (Pine). Margot must decide whether loyalty, forgiveness or truth will define the end of their long, heady friendship. (Variety)

Helena Bonham Carter, Outlander’s Caitriona Balfe, rising star Emma Laird (The Brutalist) will join Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins in the upcoming box office movie The Housekeeper, which is the inspiration for Rebecca. Set against the wild, brooding landscape of Cornwall, the story centers on Danni (Balfe), the housekeeper at Manderville Hall, a grand historic house owned by the wealthy and widowed Lord Grenville-Whithers (Hopkins). When the young writer Daphne du Maurier (Laird) arrives, Danni is drawn into a clandestine and intoxicating affair. For one, it is an all-consuming love; for the other, an awakening of long-suppressed desires. Their fragile secret threatens to unravel under the watchful gaze of Adelaide (Bonham Carter), Lord Grenville-Whithers’ calculating niece. (Variety)

Chris Pratt and Linda Cardellini will star in the Apple TV movie Way of the Warrior Kid that focuses on how middle school has been a nightmare for Marc (young actor Jude Hill), a good kid who’s bullied by his classmates and feels like he’s behind in everything, from academics to P.E. to just making friends. That changes when his injured Uncle Jake (Pratt), a decorated Navy SEAL, comes to spend the summer and recuperate with Marc and his mom, Sarah (Linda Cardellini). To help Marc defend himself, Jake devises an ambitious program he calls “Operation Warrior Kid” based on his SEAL training. Instead of teaching his nephew how to fight, Jake shows Marc what real courage is, facing down his own demons along the way. (Deadline)

Benedict Cumberbatch will star in the thriller flick Last Flight about a U.S. man who helped persecuted people find safe passage out of Iraq and Afghanistan. (Deadline)

Meryl Streep will portray legendary singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell in an upcoming biopic about the icon with Anya Taylor-Joy reportedly set to play the younger version of Mitchell. (Radio Times)

Chris Hemsworth will star alongside Taron Egerton and Zazie Beetz in the upcoming crime flick Kockroach, taking over for the departing Channing Tatum, in the story of a mysterious stranger who takes on New York’s criminal underworld, transforming himself into a larger-than-life crime boss in a city where power is everything.” (Deadline)

Javier Bardem and Kate Hudson are set to star in Hello & Paris, the film adaptation loosely inspired by the Deborah McKinlay novel That Part Was True that will focus on what happens after a prickly first encounter in Paris between a fiercely independent landscape architect and a crisis-ridden bestselling novelist who begin a sparky, transatlantic exchange over books and recipes—only to discover that the one thing harder than being alone might be choosing not to be”. (Deadline)

Kerry Washingon and James Marsden will star in the upcoming Netflix film An Innocent Girl, a psychological thriller about a young and ambitious woman seduced by a high-powered D.C. couple who draw her into a dangerous world of sex, power and murder. (Variety)

Alexander Ludwig and Emma Roberts will star in the upcoming feature film Hal that is inspired by the true story behind the founding of humanitarian organization Convoy of Hope that will follow Hal Donaldson, a journalist shaped by early hardship who believes his voice is his path forward. When he meets Doree, a gifted musician, their relationship becomes the foundation that steadies him as his career takes him to places marked by deep suffering. As Hal witnesses crisis and inequality firsthand, the line between observing and acting begins to blur. Confronted with the limits of telling stories alone, he is drawn toward a calling that requires more than words — setting in motion the events that lead to the creation of Convoy of Hope. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWAL

Netflix has given The Lincoln Lawyer a 5th season renewal in advance of its 4th season premiere. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Mary Stuart Masterson (Benny & Joon and Some Kind of Wonderful) will star in the box office movie Sunny, a mafia thriller that will also star Angelina Jolie, Method Man and Charlie Plummer. The movie will follow a female gangster who fights to protect her sons — and herself — from an abusive drug kingpin. But when a devastating event occurs, she only has a matter of hours to plot their permanent escape. Details about who Masterson will play are being kept under wraps. (Deadline)

Erin Doherty (Adolescence) and James McAvoy (The X-Men franchise) will star in the feature film Faith, which is a supernatural drama that follows Gina, a hard-working and devoted single mother who meets a quietly enigmatic stranger, Michael. The presence of someone who appears to care for her brings a new and exciting dynamic to her life, despite the fact she knows nothing about him or what his intentions towards her really are. Is he a friend, a potential lover or something more sinister? (Variety)

Kate Beckinsale is set to star in the upcoming action-thriller The Savior that will follow a mother, Jordyn Parker (Beckinsale) struggling with addiction who is forced to resurrect a violent past to rescue her kidnapped daughter from ruthless human traffickers. (Deadline)

Antonio Banderas will star in the upcoming supernatural thriller Unmerciful Good Fortune that will also star Rosario Dawson, Scott Eastwood and Susan Sarandon. The movie will center on Maritza Cruz (Dawson), a high-end celebrity attorney pulled into a headline-making case involving a young woman accused of multiple murders — only for the defendant to claim she possesses psychic abilities and kills to prevent worse fates, plunging Maritza into a moral and spiritual labyrinth. (Deadline)

Orlando Bloom and Ethan Hawke will star in the jungle thriller film The Last of the Tribe that will be set in the Amazon rainforest, following William Phelan (Hawke), a washed-out Chicago cop turned corporate gun-for-hire, who is sent to investigate a death. During his mission he encounters the last surviving member of an Indigenous tribe. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Helena Bonham Carter and Chris Messina have joined the cast of the upcoming 4th season of The White Lotus. (The Hollywood Reporter)

More cast members have been announced for the Amazon Prime series adaptation of God of War. Olafur Darri Olafsson (Severance) and the one and only Mandy Patinkin have joined the cast as Thor and Odin respectively. The series will be based on the PlayStation ancient mythology-themed video game. (Variety and Deadline)

Beanie Feldstein (Booksmart) and Griffin Dunne (This Is Us) will both guest star in upcoming episodes of the CBS drama Elsbeth. Feldstein will play Rachel, who attends and plans all of her friends’ milestone celebrations: baby showers, bachelorette parties, weddings, gender reveals, you name it. But when it’s finally time to celebrate her special day, her bestie isn’t there for her. Meanwhile, Dunne will play Elliott, a world-famous novelist with a massive ego and a thin skin. When a childhood acquaintance and book critic points out the flaws in Elliott’s latest opus, the plot turns deadly. (Deadline)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

The Way Home star Andie MacDowell will join Holland Roden and Niall Matter in the sequel movie to A Biltmore Christmas that will be featured in this winter’s Countdown to Christmas on Hallmark Channel. MacDowell will play the aunt to Roden’s character. (Entertainment Now)

NEW DRAMAS

Anthony Starr (The Boys) will star in the newly greenlit Netflix series Breakers, that will follow two best friends from the U.S. who go backpacking in Australia and are soon drawn into a seemingly perfect community of surfers led by a charismatic but mysterious figure, Brando, which will be played by Starr. (Deadline)

Regina Hall (One Battle After Another) and Star Wars alum Adam Driver will star in the upcoming hostage thriller series Rabbit, Rabbit which will air on Netflix. The series will focus on what happens when escaped convict J-Will (Driver) is cornered by law enforcement at a truck stop. He takes hostages in an effort to bargain for his freedom. But the standoff soon escalates into an unmanageable social experiment with his captives, as well as an emotional poker match with a veteran FBI Crisis Negotiator (Hall) trained in tactical empathy. (Deadline)

Hamilton alum Renée Elise Goldsberry has joined the cast of the upcoming CBS legal drama Cupertino which will be a David vs. Goliath story set in the heart of Silicon Valley, following Michael (Mike Colter), a lawyer who is being cheated out of his stock options by his former employer, a tech start-up. Refusing to back down, he joins forces with another recently fired attorney to represent those taken advantage of by the tech elite and help them fight back in a high stakes battle against the Goliaths controlling Silicon Valley. Goldsberry will play Renee, a brilliant opposing attorney who has a professional and romantic history with Michael. (Deadline)

Zoey Deutch will join Emily Bader in the upcoming Netflix sports drama The 99’ers that will focus on the U.S. Women’s Soccer team during the 1999 World Cup. Deutch will play Marla Messing, the trailblazing U.S. Women’s soccer executive who oversaw the massively successful 1999 World Cup tournament that set attendance and TV viewership records. Bader will play legendary soccer player Mia Hamm. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATION

CBS has renewed the following dramas for the 2026-2027 TV season: Tracker, Matlock, Elsbeth, Fire Country, NCIS, NCIS: Origins and NCIS: Sydney. (Variety)

Netflix has pulled the plug on the western-themed period drama The Abandons after only one season. (The Hollywood Reporter)

The prequel series Elle, based on the Legally Blonde films, which won’t debut on Amazon Prime until July 1, has been renewed for a second season already. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Laura Donnelly (Outlander and The Nevers) and Nick Robinson (Jurassic World and Love, Victor) will star opposite Michael Fassbender in the Netflix drama series Kennedy that will explore the lives, loves, rivalries and tragedies of the Kennedy family. Fassbender will play Joe Kennedy, Sr., Donnelly will play his wife Rose Kennedy, Robinson will play their son Joe Kennedy Jr. (Deadline)

Rosanna Arquette (Pulp Fiction and Desperately Seeking Susan) will recur in the upcoming second season of Amazon Prime’s Ballard that stars Maggie Q as Renee Ballard. Arquette will play Jenny Ballard, Renee’s mother. (Deadline)

Sam Heughan (Outlander) will star alongside Anna Kendrick and J.K. Simmons in the upcoming geo-political action thriller series Embassy. Heughan will play a British SAS soldier in the six part-series that follows Layla (Kendrick), a sharp and resourceful American diplomat, who faces an impossible choice to protect the U.S. Ambassador (Simmons) or follow his orders to exfiltrate a high value asset when armed mercenaries storm the U.S. Embassy in London. She’s forced to rely on her instincts and the reluctant help of her battle-hardened ex-fiancé, Connor Wright (Heughan), in the tense hours before extraction. Embassy has yet to be picked up by any platform in the U.S. just yet though. (Deadline)

The Chicago Fire character Chief Dominick “Dom” Pascal, as portrayed by Dermot Mulroney, will be spending some time off-camera for the latter part of the show’s 14th season, and this break will last until the end of the current season. Meanwhile, Rob Morgan (Mudbound and The Last Black Man in San Francisco) will have a recurring role in the show playing Battalion Chief Hopkins, who has a long, haunted past in overseeing several Chicago firehouses and is quick to assert authority over his colleagues. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

TV CASTING NEWS

Ryan Hurst (Sons of Anarchy) and Teresa Palmer (A Discovery of Witches) will star in the upcoming small screen adaptation of God of War based on the PlayStation ancient mythology-themed video game that received a two-season order from Amazon Prime. The show comes from Ronald D. Moore (Outlander and For All Mankind) that follows father and son, Kratos and Atreus, as they embark on a journey to spread the ashes of their wife and mother, Faye. Through their adventures, Kratos tries to teach his son to be a better god, while Atreus tries to teach his father how to be a better human. Kratos, the titular character of the entire franchise, is Spartan by birth and a god by nature. Raised in a martial culture, he rose to command armies in the service of his homeland until one day he made a fateful deal with Ares, the Greek God of War, and lost his soul in exchange for being victorious in battle. Hurst will play Kratos while Palmer will play Phoebe/Sif, Thor’s wife and the goddess of family. (Deadline)

Paramount+ has given a greenlight to Fear Not, a six-part limited series that will star and be executive produced by Anne Hathaway. The story on which this series is based tells the story of prolific serial killer Stephen Morin — accused of more crimes than Ted Bundy — and the unlikely bond he formed with Margy Palm (Hathaway), the last woman he ever kidnapped. (Deadline)

This Is Us alum Susan Kelechi Watson will have a “key role” in season two of High Potential, playing an intriguing figure who shares a long history with Karadec (series regular Daniel Sunjata). Her first appearance will be in the January 27 episode. (TV Line)

Speaking of This Is Us, Chris Sullivan has joined the cast of the ABC drama pilot, and spin-off, The Rookie: North, playing Sgt. Nix, a recently promoted Watch Commander whose heart still wants to be out on the street. If the series gets picked up, this role will be a series regular starring opposite Jay Ellis (Insecure) who will play Alex Holland, who believed his midlife wasn’t worthy of a crisis. But after a violent home invasion ignites a dormant purpose, Alex battles a lifetime of failed commitments in Los Angeles by joining the Pierce County Police Department in Washington as its oldest rookie. Policing from the urban coast to the rural forest where backup isn’t just five minutes away, Alex must prove to his skeptical training officer, his fellow rookies and himself that he’s finally found something worthy of the fight. (Deadline)

Edwin Hodge (FBI: Most Wanted) will guest star in season two of Matlock, which stars his real-life wife Skye P. Marshall. He will play Langston, the kind of guy who can show up late, knowing he’ll charm everyone into forgetting about it as soon as he arrives. A double PhD in neuroscience and philosophy, he is a deep thinker and a smooth talker. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE MOVIE CASTING NEWS

Emily Bader (My Lady Jane and People We Meet on Vacation) will play legendary soccer star Mia Hamm in the upcoming film The 99’ers based on the book by Jeré Longman. The story catches up with the 1990s U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team in 1999, as they defy the odds to emerge victorious in a dramatic penalty kick shootout against China in the World Cup final, under the scorching summer sun and in a stadium filled with 93,000 fans. This monumental win captivated millions worldwide and forever altered the course of women’s sports. (Deadline)

Michelle Williams will star alongside Cillian Murphy in the next Damien Chazelle movie, which is untitled as of right now. The film is supposedly to be set in a prison, but there are no specific details. (Deadline)

Glen Powell is in negotiations to star in the upcoming box office movie Tesseract that will be written and directed by Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail. (Deadline)

Omari Hardwick (Power) will star alongside Gerard Butler and Hayley Atwell (Marvel movie franchise) in the hostage crisis action-thriller flick Empire City that will chart a hostage crisis that erupts inside New York’s Clybourn Building. Butler will play Rhett, a firefighter who, alongside his squad and his NYPD wife Dani (Atwell), must fight and navigate his way through the building to rescue captives trapped inside. Hardwick will play Hawkins, the film’s antagonist. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS

Emily in Paris has been renewed for a 6th season by Netflix. The streaming service has also renewed Black Mirror for an 8th season. (Variety)

Paramount+ has renewed Mayor of Kingstown for a 5th and final season. (Variety)

The Pitt has been renewed for a 3rd season by HBO Max. (Variety)

FX and Hulu have given The Lowdown a 2nd season renewal. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Austin Nichols (One Tree Hill and The Walking Dead) has joined the cast of The Rainmaker on USA Network, playing Bruiser’s (series regular Lana Parilla) ex-husband, a minor league baseball coach and former player who finds himself in the middle of a dangerous conspiracy. (Deadline)

The small screen adaptation of Tomb Raider on Amazon has confirmed that Jason Isaacs and Sigourney Weaver will star in the series as Atlas DeMornay, one of the canon roles, and Evelyn Wallis, a mysterious, high-flying woman who is keen to exploit Lara’s talents, respectively. Game of Thrones alum Sophie Turner will play the lead role of Lara Croft. (Deadline)

Once Upon a Time and Manifest alum Josh Dallas will guest star in The Hunting Party, appearing alongside his Manifest sister Melissa Roxburgh. He will play Elliot Carr, aka the Connecticut Cobbler, a master craftsman and high-end shoemaker who specialized in extraordinary custom shoes made from only the rarest and most exotic of leathers — think alligator, rhino and people, skinning his victims alive. Fresh off his escape from the Pit, Elliot is on the loose and making a whole new set of kicks, this time with a twist. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

The live-action roles of Rapunzel and Flynn Rider in Tangled have been cast. Teagan Croft (Titans) and Milo Manheim (School Spirits and the Disney Zombie movie franchise) will play those roles with Kathryn Hahn (Agatha All Along) in talks to play Mother Gothel. (Variety)

Sebastian Stan is in talks to join the cast of the upcoming sequel to The Batman Part II. (Deadline)

Billy Bob Thornton (Landman) and Arianna Greenblatt (Barbie) will star in the upcoming feature film Somedays that follows a weary delivery driver with months to live who saves a brilliant but troubled teenage girl. The two form an unlikely, life-changing bond that teaches them both what it truly means to live. (Deadline)

Michelle Randolph (1923 and Landman) will star alongside The Summer I Turned Pretty alum Chrisopher Briney in the upcoming feature film Clashing Through the Snow. (Deadline)

It looks like Gal Gadot and Paramount Pictures just might be working together to bring the Janet Evanovich “Recovery Agent” book series to the big screen. The books center on Gabriela Rose, a globe-trotting recovery agent who specializes in retrieving stolen or lost high-value items, typically under dangerous circumstances. Paired with her unpredictable ex-husband and partner Rafer Burke, she bounces from tropical islands to international hotspots, outsmarting criminals, rival treasure hunters, and law enforcement alike in the pursuit of the goods. (Deadline)

REALITY NEWS

I rarely, if ever, talk about reality programming, but the hosts selected for the reboot of Star Search that is being set at Netflix have been announced: Jelly Roll, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Chrissy Tiegen will be the judges while Anthony Anderson will be the host of the five-week event that will air on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the few entertainment news items for this past week:

TV CASTING NEWS

Season 3 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians will find Holt McCallany (Mindhunter and The Waterfront), Jesse L. Martin (The Irrational) and David Costabile (Billions) appearing. McCallany will have the recurring role of Titan, the Bearer of Heaven, who was condemned by Zeus to hold up the celestial heavens after the last Titan war against the Olympians. Costabile will recur as Dr. Thorn, a stern military academy headmaster who demands obedience from his students while Martin will guest star as Annabeth’s mortal dad Frederick Chase, a sometimes absentminded but truly brilliant military historian that Athena deemed worthy to parent her daughter. (Variety)

Thomas Jane (The Expanse) will play Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy in the upcoming season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. (The Hollywood Reporter)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

Holland Roden and Niall Matter will take on the lead roles inthe sequel love story to the 2023 Hallmark Channel movie A Biltmore Christmas with Jonathan Frakes reprising his role of Winston. The new movie will be part of 2026 Countdown to Christmas that will focus on the Biltmore House as it opens for the first time on Christmas Eve 1895. 13-year-old Elizabeth and her family are holiday guests. When she notices Michael, a fellow teen caught trespassing by the staff, Elizabeth comes to his rescue by claiming to know him, much to his relief. The two share an instant connection and set out to explore Biltmore but Michael inexplicably vanishes. Twenty years later, Elizabeth is spending Christmas at Biltmore and this time, is accompanied by James, a suitor her Aunt Maysilee is keen for her to wed. When a stranger asks Elizabeth to dance at the Christmas gala, she’s shocked to discover it’s Michael. Thrilled to reunite with her friend, she throws herself into his arms. But the world around her changes in an instant when Elizabeth is transported into the modern world with Michael, a tourist from the present day who had traveled to the past 20 years prior with the help of a magical hourglass in Biltmore’s library. Now, Elizabeth and Michael must find a way to send her back to her time, while not arousing the suspicion of Michael’s mother and sister during their family vacation. As Elizabeth experiences life and Christmas in the 21st century, she and Michael become close. When the time comes for her to return to 1915, Elizabeth must decide whether she’ll resume the life that’s been chosen for her or if her heart will lead her down a new path in the present. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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