Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATION

FOX has given a second season renewal to both Alert: Missing Persons Unit and Accused. (TV Line)

Netflix has given a 5th and final season renewal for the drama You. (TV Line)

Grey’s Anatomy has been given a season 20 renewal by ABC. (TV Line)

Showtime has pulled the plug on The L Word: Generation Q after three seasons. (Deadline and TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Michael Chiklis will star alongside Danny Pino in the upcoming crime thriller series Hotel Cocaine that will debut on MGM+ (formerly EPIX). The story will focus on Roman Compte (Pino), a Cuban expatriate who fought against Fidel Castro in the Bay of Pigs invasion and re-made his life in Miami. He is general manager of the Mutiny Hotel, the glamorous epicenter of the Miami cocaine scene of late ‘70s and early ‘80s. The Mutiny Hotel was Casablanca on cocaine, a glitzy nightclub, restaurant and hotel frequented by Florida businessmen and politicians, international narcos, CIA and FBI agents, models, sports stars and musicians. Chiklis will play Agent Zulio who will stop at nothing to shut down the drug trade, even if it means using innocent civilians to accomplish his ends. (Deadline)

Acclaimed actor Ciaran Hinds will join the cast of the second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. His role will be a recurring one, but there is no description on what role he will play, though. (The Hollywood Reporter)

BROADWAY NEWS

Smash, the NBC musical drama, is finally making its way to Broadway for the 2024-2025 season with Tony-winning director Susan Stroman at the helm with a score by the award-winning duo Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who wrote over two dozen songs for the television show and Emmy-winning choreographer Joshua Bergasse, who will reprise his role for the stage adaptation. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

The next project for Robert Downey Jr. just might be a remake of the 1958 classic psychological thriller Vertigo. (Variety)

Daveed Diggs (Hamilton and the small screen adaptation of Snowpiercer) has joined the cast of the new live-action film In the Blink of an Eye that will also star Kate McKinnon and Rashida Jones in the film that will follow three storylines spanning thousands of years, pondering hope, connection and the circle of life. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for the past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

Amazon Prime Video has renewed A League of Their Own for a truncated, 4-episode second and final season. (Puck, The Hollywood Reporter and TV Line)

Meanwhile, Amazon Prmie Video has pulled the plug on the Canada-set mystery series Three Pines, which starred Alfred Molina, after only one season. (Variety)

Disney+ has yanked the small screen adaptation Willow after only one season. (TV Line)

Peacock has given a third season renewal to Bel-Air. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Garrett Hedlun (Tulsa King) has joined the cast of the Taylor Sheridan western drama Bass Reeves that will air on Paramount+. He will play Garrett Montgomery, a posse man hired by Bass Reeves (David Oyelowo) for his riding know-how and expertise of the area. (Collider)

Actress Kelly McCreary will be leaving Grey’s Anatomy at the end of this season. (TV Line)

Rebecca Mader (Once Upon a Time) has joined the cast of the new CBS drama Fire Country in the key recurring role of Faye, the head of a private concierge firefighting company, who meets Manny (series regular Kevin Alejandro) at an AA meeting. Meanwhile Kanoa Goo (The Rookie) will play Kyle, a swim Adonis, who has arrived to attend a swim clinic. (Deadline)

INTERNATIONAL TV NEWS

Outlander alum Richard Rankin has lined up his new project now that Outlander has an end date in sight. Rankin will play Inspector Rebus in the new series Rebus that will air on the Nordic streaming service Viaplay. The series follows 40-year-old Inspector John Rebus at a psychological crossroads following an altercation with an infamous Edinburgh gangster. At odds with a job increasingly driven by technocrats, involved in a toxic affair he knows he needs to end, and all but supplanted in his daughter’s life by his ex-wife’s wealthy new husband, Rebus begins to wonder if he still has a role to play – either as a family man or a police officer. (Deadline)

REUNION MOVIE NEWS

Monk fans will be excited to learn that Peacock has officially ordered a reunion movie for the popular series, and Tony Shalhoub will back as the title character along with returning cast members Ted Levine, Traylor Howard, Jason Gray-Stanford, Melora Hardin (Trudy Monk) and Hector Elizondo. Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie will find Monk returning to solve one final, very personal case involving his beloved stepdaughter Molly, a journalist preparing for her wedding. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Game of Thrones actress and Fast and Furious franchise member Nathalie Emmanuel will star opposite Omar Sy in the upcoming Peacock flick The Killer, which is a reimagining of the 1989 John Woo movie that followed an assassin who takes one last assignment in order to use his earnings to pay for the surgery that will restore the sight of a singer he blinded. Details of this reimagining have yet to be revealed, though. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

NEW SERIES NEWS

Cowboy Way FAST Channel will be the home of the new action-crime series Blue Ridge, which is based on the made-for-TV movie of the same name that debut on INSP TV in 2020. The series will find Johnathon Schaech (That Thing You Do! and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) reprising his role of Sheriff Justin Wise, a former Green Beret, who leaves his dangerous life to be near his ex-wife and young daughter. As sheriff of a small, sleepy town cut out of the Blue Ridge Mountains, his quiet life is soon disrupted as he tries to keep the mountain community safe from violence and corruption. The first episode of Blue Ridge will debut in late 2023 or early 2024. This new channel can be viewed on Plex and Roku. (INSP TV Press Release)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Amazon Studios is developing a TV series based on the From Blood and Ash novels by author Jennifer L. Armentrout. The series will center on a young woman named Poppy, who is chosen at birth as The Maiden of her kingdom who will “Ascend” and bring in a new era of peace and prosperity. Duty-bound to fulfill her destiny, she’s also isolated from the world. (The Hollywood Reporter)

TV CASTING NEWS

MGM+ has set the cast for Belgravia: The Next Chapter, the sequel series to the Julian Fellowes historical drama. The 8-part series will pick up in 1871, three decades after the events depicted in the 2020 limited series. The series tells the love story of Frederick Trenchard (Ben Wainwright), who has grown up as the third Lord Trenchard, and his new love interest, Clara Dunn (Harriet Slater), who is a newcomer to London society. Unaware that his birth was the product of an affair between his mother Susan and the scoundrel John Bellasis, a troubled childhood has left Frederick deeply insecure, which challenges his courtship of and marriage to Clara. (Deadline)

Jesse Spencer will reprise his role of Matt Casey in an upcoming episode of Chicago Fire. This news comes as longtime series regular Taylor Kinney is taking a leave of absence. (Variety and TV Line)

Lesley-Ann Brandt (Lucifer) has landed a recurring role in the upcoming The Walking Dead spin-off series that will star Andrew Lincoln and Dania Gurira. She will play Pearl Thorne in the six-episode series. (Deadline)

Daniel Bruhl (Captain AMerica: Civil War) will star as late fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld in the upcoming Disney+ original series Kaiser Karl. The 6-part series will chronicle the rise of Karl Lagerfeld through the world of 1970s Parisian high fashion. (Variety)

Peacock is working with Bridgerton alum Rege-Jean Page, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Willmott on an 8-part event series about boxing icon Muhammad Ali. Excellence: 8 Fights will chronicle eight distinct and defining moments in the iconic life of Muhammad Ali. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Octavia Spencer will star in and produce the upcoming box office film Confessions in B-Flat, which will tell an emotional love story that will be set amid the Civil Rights Movement, following two young people, Anita and Jason, who meet and fall in love despite their clashing political beliefs. (Variety)

Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney will star in the feature film Echo Valley that will follow Kate Garrett (Moore), a woman reeling from a personal tragedy who spends her days boarding and training horses on the secluded and picturesque Echo Valley Farm. Late one night, her wayward daughter Claire (Sweeney) arrives at her doorstep, frightened, trembling and covered in someone else’s blood. (Variety)

Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty), Scott Eastwood (The Longest Ride and Suicide Squad) and Chaske Spencer (The English and Twilight franchise) will star in Wind River: The Next Chapter, the sequel to the Taylor Sheridan movie Wind River that starred Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Gil Birmingham, Graham Greene, Jon Bernthal, and Martin Senmeier. The movie will focus on Sensmeier’s character Chip Hanson—a lost drug addict in the original and the son of Gil Birmingham’s character— reformed and taking a lead role. It is unclear if any other actors from the original pic will make a return, though. (The Playlist)

Ted Lasso actress Hannah Waddingham will star opposite Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 8. (People)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

Hallmark Movies & Mysteries announced plans for a new Aurora Teagarden movie that will find Skyler Samuels (The Gifted, Scream Queens and The Nine Lives of Chloe King) taking over the lead role. This prequel-based film called Aurora Teagarden Mysteries: Something New will find Samuels playing a younger version of Aurora with Evan Roderick (Arrow and Spinning Out) as a younger version of Arthur (played by Peter Benson in the original franchise. Marilu Henner will continue to play Aurora’s mom Aida. (TV Line)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

Star Trek: Discovery will end with its upcoming 5th season, which is set to arrive in early 2014. (TV Line)

The Hallmark Channel has given a second season renewal to The Way Home. (TV Line)

ORDERED TO SERIES

The Netflix limited series, political thriller Zero Day, that is set to star Robert De Niro, has been ordered to series. The series will focus on how to find truth in a world in crisis. De Niro is reportedly playing a former President of the United States. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Veteran actor Clancy Brown has joined the HBO Max spin-off series The Penguin (a spin-off of The Batman box office film). He will have the recurring role of Salvatore Maroni, a notorious Gotham City crime boss. (Variety)

Demi Singleton (King Richard and Godfather of Harlem) has joined the cast of the upcoming Paramount+ series Bass Reeves, that will star David Oyelowo in the title role. Singleton will play Sally, the daughter of Bass Reeves and Jennie (Lauren E. Banks). (Variety)

Damian Lewis will be back in the role of Axe in the Showtime series Billions. He left at the end of Season 5. (Variety)

Jamie Dornan will be back as Elliott and Danielle Macdonald will be back as Helen Chambers in the off-beat thriller The Tourist. (Variety)

The Shondaland Netflix series The Residence has added new cast members. Among those new members are Andre Braugher, Jason Lee, Ken Marino, Bronson Pinchot and Susan Kelechi Watson. The series will be a screwball whodunnit set in the upstairs, downstairs and backstairs of the White House. (Variety)

STREAMING MOVIE NEWS

Brooke Shields, Miranda Cosgrove and Benjamin Bratt will star in the new rom-com Netflix movie Mother of the Bride, which will be a generational comedy of errors. When Lana’s daughter Emma returns from a year abroad in London, she drops a bombshell on her mother: she’s getting married. On an island. Next month. Things only get worse when Lana discovers that the mystery man who stole her daughter’s heart just so happens to be the son of the man who broke hers years ago. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

CBS has given renewals to the following dramas: NCIS, NCIS: Hawai’i and CSI: Vegas. (TV Line)

AMC has cancelled the sci-fi anthology series Soulmates, reversing the season two renewal it was given previously. (TV Line)

Succession will come to an end after its upcoming 4th season at HBO. (The New Yorker and TV Line)

The Hallmark Channel has given the long-running family friendly series When Calls the Heart an 11th season renewal. (TV Line)

Netflix has pulled the plug on Mindhunter after only two seasons. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Emily in Paris alum Ashley Park will appear in season three of Only Murders in the Building. (Entertainment Weekly)

Supernatural alum Ruth Connell will reprise her role of witch Rowena in the prequel series The Winchesters. (Entertainment Weekly)

Kari Matchett (Covert Affairs) will have a heavy recurring role in the upcoming Netflix thriller The Night Agent, which is based on the Matthew McQuirk best-seller that centers on a low-level FBI agent who works in the basement of the White House, manning a phone that never rings — until the night that it does, propelling him into a fast moving and dangerous conspiracy that ultimately leads all the way to the Oval Office. Matchett will portray the President. (Deadline)

Nicola Coughlan (Bridgerton) and Lydia West will co-star in the new comedy series Big Mood (currently the working title), which will air on Channel 4 in the UK. The series follows the friendship of Maggie (Coughlan) and Eddie (West) who spent their twenties living in each other’s pockets. But as they look forward to the next decade – with all its pressures, career-related and otherwise – Maggie’s bipolar disorder makes an unwelcome return. Suddenly Eddie finds herself questioning their friendship and whether it will survive the future. (Variety)

Margo Martindale and Chris Diamantopoulos will star in the upcoming Amazon series The Sticky, which is inspired by the true story of The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist. The series revolves around Ruth Clarke (Martindale), a tough, supremely competent middle-aged Canadian maple syrup farmer who’s had it with being hemmed in by the polite, bureaucratic conventions native to her country’s identity. Especially now that that very bureaucracy is threatening to take away everything she loves: Her farm, her comatose husband, and her right to freedom. With the help of Remy Bouchard, a local blockhead and Mike Byrne (Diamantopoulos), a low-level mobster, Ruth changes her fate and transforms the future of her community with the theft of millions of dollars’ worth of maple syrup. (Variety)

Mary Elizabeth Wintead will star opposite Ewan McGregor in the upcoming Showtime and Paramount+ series A Gentleman in Moscow, which is an adaptation of the Amor Towles novel. The series follows Count Alexander Rostov (McGregor) who, in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, finds that his gilded past places him on the wrong side of history. Spared immediate execution, he is banished by a Soviet tribunal to an attic room in the opulent Hotel Metropol, threatened with death if he ever sets foot outside again. As the years pass and some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history unfold outside the hotel’s doors, Rostov’s reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery. Winstead will star as Anna Urbanova, a glamorous, independent and self-made film actress, at the height of her fame. (Variety)

Alison Brie and Jake Lacy will star in the upcoming Peacock limited series Apples Never Fall, based on the novel by Liane Moriarty that is already set to star Annette Bening and Sam Neill. The series centers on the Delaneys, who from the outside appear to be an enviably contented family. Former tennis coaches Joy (Bening) and Stan (Neill) are parents to four adult children. After decades of marriage, they have finally sold their famed tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. But after Joy disappears, her children are forced to re-examine their parents’ marriage and their family history with fresh eyes. Brie stars as Amy Delaney, the oldest Delaney child, the black sheep of the family; while Lacy will star as Troy Delaney, the second-oldest Delaney child, a venture capitalist. (Variety)

Jason Clarke will star in the lead role of US Marshal Frank Remnick in the upcoming Apple drama The Last Frontier. The series will focus on Frank, whose jurisdiction is turned upside-down when a prison transport plane crashes in the remote wilderness, setting free dozens of violent inmates. Tasked with protecting the town he’s vowed to keep safe, he begins to suspect the crash wasn’t an accident, but the first step of a well-crafted plan with international political implications. (Variety)

The 4th and final season of The Umbrella Academy will find Nick Offerman, Megan Mullaly and David Cross joining the cast. Offerman and Mullaly, who are married in real life, will star as Drs. Gene and Jean Thibedeau, a married pair of community college professors from New Mexico who wear sensible footwear and suffer from the most extreme case of deja vu this timeline has ever seen. Meanwhile, Cross will play Sy Grossman, an upstanding, shy business owner and family man desperate to reconnect with his estranged daughter, who will stop at nothing to get her back. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

The Walking Dead alum Steven Yeun has joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He will join Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan and Julia Louis-Dreyfus in Thunderbolts. What role he will play has yet to be announced. (Variety)

It would seem that Warner Bros Pictures is planning to revamp the Lord of the Rings film franchise; a deal has been made to make multiple films based on the beloved J.R.R. Tolkien books. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWAL/CANCELLATIONS

Peacock has renewed the Natasha Lyonne-led mystery series Poker Face for a second season. (TV Line)

CBS/Paramount+ has made it official that Blood & Treasure will not be returning for a third season. (TV Line)

Disney+ has pulled the plug on both dramas Big Shot and The Mighty Ducks: Game Changer. (TV Line)

Outer Banks has been renewed for Season 4 at Netflix. (TV Line)

IN DEVELOPMENT

Veteran producers Amy Holden Jones (The Resident) and Matt Nix (Burn Notice) are teaming up on a new drama project at FOX. The series, Archie & Peter, will be a buddy-cop drama, which will follow an explosive, rule-breaking, fearless female detective with no filter who enlists the help of a polite and gentle brainiac who studies the biology of evil to solve cases for the Los Angeles Violent Crimes Unit. (The Hollywood Reporter)

TV CASTING NEWS

Rhenzy Feliz (The Runaways) has joined the ccast of the HBO Max series The Penguin that will find Colin Farrell reprising his role as Oswald “The Penguin” Cobblepot. Details on what character he will play is being kept under wraps though. It is believed the series will take place in the immediate aftermath of the events of the box office movie The Batman. (Variety)

HBO Max has also ordered the drama series Duster from J.J. Abrams and LaToya Morgan that will star Josh Holloway (Lost) and Rachel Hilson (This Is Us). The eight-episode series is set in 1972 and will focus on the first Black female FBI agent (Hilson) as she heads to the Southwest and recruits a gutsy getaway driver (Holloway) in a bold effort to take down a growing crime syndicate. The cast will also include Keith David, Greg Grunberg and Camille Guaty. (Variety)

Brandon Routh (Legends of Tomorrow and The Rookie) will guest star in an upcoming episode of the Quantum Leap reboot, playing Alexander Augustine, the father of Addison (series regular) Caitlin Bassett’s Addison. (IGN and Cinema Blend)

Barry Pepper has landed a role in the upcoming Bass Reeves series at Paramount+ that stars David Oyelowo in the lead role. The series is based on the true story of the titular lawman, the greatest frontier hero in American history, who worked in the post-Reconstruction era as a federal peace officer in the Indian Territory, capturing over 3,000 of the most dangerous criminals without ever being wounded. Pepper will play Esau Pierce, the leader of the 1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles and a battle tested warrior himself. Dennis Quaid will also star in the show from Taylor Sheridan. (Variety)

Briana Middleton (who appeared in the film The Tendar Bar and the new film Sharper) has landed the lead in the Apple series adaptation of the film Metropolis from Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail. Inspired by the 1927 Fritz Lang sci-fi film, Middleton will play the role of Finnie Polito. Exact plot details of the series are being kept under wraps, though. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS

Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians), Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Sam Neill (Jurassic Park franchise) and Daniela Melchior (Suicide Squad) will star in the upcoming action thriller Assassin Club that follows an assassin (Golding) who is given a contract to kill seven people around the world only to discover the targets are also assassins who have been hired to kill him. (Deadline)

Film legend Vanessa Redgrave and Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire) will star in the family feature film The Boy at the Back of the Class based on the acclaimed children’s book, which centers on a mysterious new boy called Ahmet who joins nine-year-old Alexa’s school. As Alexa learns that he is a refugee, separated from his family, she will do anything she can to help. With the adults out of the way, Alexa and her school friends come up with a daring plan to reunite Ahmet with his family – the start of an adventure that will take them all the way to Buckingham Palace. (Variety)

It look slike a live-action adaptation of the animated film franchise How to Train Your Dragon will be hitting theaters in 2025. The Oscar-nominated film took place in the mythical Viking village of Berk, following the adventures of a misfit teen named Hiccup who befriends an injured dragon he calls Toothless. (Variety)

Kiefer Sutherland (24) is set to star in the action-thriller The Winter Kills. He will portray a disgraced cop pursuing the serial killer who murdered his partner ten years ago — and has resurfaced to kill again. (Deadline)

The recent movie Plane, that starred Gerard Butler and Evil’s Mike Colter, will be getting a sequel. Ship will find Colter back as accused murderer Louis Gaspare; and the action will pick up where Gaspare’s storyline left off in Plane: with the legionnaire disappearing into the jungles of Jolo Island. It’s not yet clear whether Butler will return for the next film, though. (Variety)

Emma Corrin (The Crown and My Policeman) will be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in the next installment of Deadpool opposite Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman. The exact role she will be playing hasn’t been announced, but it is expected that she will play the villain. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS

Amazon Prime Video has renewed the drama series The Peripheral for a second season. (TV Line)

SERIES ORDER

Prime Video [aka Amazon] has ordered a television adaptation of the popular comic book series Wytches, from creators Scott Snyder and Jock. The series follows Sailor Rooks, a 17-year-old who moves to a far-off New England town with his family, but they soon realize that something unsettling lurks in the dark. (Variety and TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT ANNOUNCEMENT

It looks like Starz just might be resurrecting Spartacus. The network is calling it a “quasi-reboot” that will explore uncharted territory and new journeys of the original series’ iconic characters, but it will be set in the aftermath of defeat of Spartacus and his rebel army. (TV Line)

HOPPING TO A NEW HOME

The limited series Ripley that is set to star Andrew Scott (Fleabag) is leaving Showtime and hopping over to Netflix. Based on the Patricia Highsmith novels about Tom Ripley (to be played by Scott), a grifter scraping by in early 1960s New York, who is hired by a wealthy businessman to travel to Italy to try to convince his vagabond son to return home. Dakota Fanning and Johnny Flynn will co-star. (Variety)

UPHEAVAL

It looks like there is major drama going on behind the scenes at Yellowstone. There seems to be a dispute with leading man Kevin Coster and his shooting schedule; so much so that series just might come to an end this summer at the end of its current season, which is the show’s 5th season on Paramount Network. What’s more a new iteration of Yellowstone could possibly happen with Matthew Mcconaughey in a leading role. (Deadline and TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Veteran actor Sam Neill will be joining Annette Bening in the limited series Apples Never Fall that will be coming to Peacock. The series centers on the Delaneys, who from the outside appear to be an enviably contented family. Former tennis coaches Joy (Bening) and Stan (Neill) are parents to four adult children. After decades of marriage, they have finally sold their famed tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. But after Joy disappears, her children are forced to re-examine their parents’ marriage and their family history with fresh eyes. (Variety)

Kelly Hu (Arrow) will have a recurring role on the new CBS police drama East New York, playing Allison Cha, a political policy advisor who shadows Chief Suarez (series regular Jimmy Smits) to get a better grasp on the responsibilities of the New York Police Department. (Deadline and TV Line)

Henry Czerny (Sharp Objects and Revenge) and Doug Savant (Desperate Housewives) will recur in the upcoming Starz drama series The Venery of Samantha Bird as Teddy, the father of Katherine Langford’s titular character, and loyal businessman Al Minot, respectively. (Deadline and TV Line)

Outlander and Downton Abbey alum Ed Speelers has landed a role in Star Trek: Picard, portraying an aide to Beverley Crusher (Gates McFadden), a Next Generation mainstay who is making her comeback this year. (Express.co.UK)

Hawaii Five-0 and Lost alum Daniel Dae Kim will star in and executive produce a series adaptation of the graphic novel Butterfly from Amazon Prime. The character-driven spy thriller centers on David Jung (Kim), an enigmatic, highly unpredictable former US intelligence operative living in South Korea, whose life is blown to pieces when the consequences of an impossible decision from his past come back to haunt him, and he finds himself pursued by Rebecca, a deadly, sociopathic young agent assigned to kill him. (Variety)

Colman Domingo (Fear the Walking Dead) will star in the Netflix limited series The Madness, which is a conspiracy thriller, centering on media pundit Muncie Daniels (Domingo), who must fight for his innocence and his life after he stumbles upon a murder deep in the Poconos woods. (Variety)

Hugh Laurie (House) has joined the third season of the international Emmy-winning Apple TV+ series Tehran. He joins Glenn Close (returning from the show’s 2nd season) and series lead Niv Sultan, who plays Mossad agent Tamar Rabinyan, who goes on a deep-cover mission in the Iranian capital. Season three finds her reeling from the loss of her closest allies and looking for a way to reinvent herself and win back the Mossad’s support after going rogue at the end of season two. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis are joining forces at Amazon for the small screen adaptation of the Kay Scarpetta novels by author Patricia Cornwall. Kidman would star as Scarpetta with Curtis playing her sister, Dorothy. (Variety)

BROADWAY NEWS

The Oscar-winning musical film La La Land is being adapted as a stage show with plans to open on Broadway at an undetermined date. The Broadway cast has yet to be announced. (Variety)

NETFLIX MOVIE

The X-Files alum Gillian Anderson is set to play former BBC news anchor Emily Maitlis in the Netflix movie Scoop, which will be about the disastrous 2019 “Newsnight” interview of Prince Andrew, which will be played by Rufus Sewell. Billie Piper (I Hate Suzie and Doctor Who) and Keeley Hawes (Bodyguard will play TV producer Sam McAlister and Prince Andrew’s former private secretary Amanda Thirsk respectively. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Former Twilight star Kristen Stewart, who has fashioned herself a trend of portraying influential real life women, will portray Susan Sontag in the aptly titled film Sontag, who was an influential writer and intellectual who would often distill complex ideas about human rights and social justice into clear-headed essays. Her nonfiction work, which brought light to social issues like the AIDS epidemic and criticism of the Vietnam War, was often met with controversy. (Deadline)

Mary J. Blige (Mudbound) will star alongside Jay Will (Tulsa King) inthe upcoming dramatic film Rob Peace, which is set to be directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor [who also wrote the script]. The film follows a young man who grew up in a crime-ridden section of Newark, NY and later graduated from Yale with degrees in molecular biophysics and biochemistry earned on scholarship. Peace led a dual life living in the insular world of academia and as a lab researcher of cancer and infectious diseases, while at the same time making six figures from the sale of marijuana. He was killed in a drug-related shooting in 2011. Blige will play Rob’s mother, Jackie, with Ejiofor portraying his father. (Deadline)

Zachary Levi (Shazam! and Chuck) has landed on a new project called Not Without Hope, which will follow best friends Nick Schuyler (Zachary Levi) and Will Bleakley, and NFL players Marquis Cooper and Corey Smith, as they depart Clearwater, Florida for a day trip at their favorite fishing spot 70 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico. As a severe storm heads their way, a trapped anchor causes their boat to capsize, throwing the four friends violently into the freezing water. With the U.S. Coast Guard’s air and sea rescue mission thwarted by the ferocity of the massive storm, the group must fight to survive in the ultimate test of teamwork and endurance. (AV Club)

Lena Headey (Game of Thrones), Yara Shahidi (grown-ish), Isabela Merced (Father of the Bride), Lana Condor (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before franchise) [among others] will star in the action-thriller Ballerina Overdrive that finds a troupe of ballerinas fighting for survival as they attempt to escape from a remote inn after their bus breaks down on the way to a dance competition. (Deadline)

Bridgerton alum Phoebe Dynevor will star in the psychological thriller Wichita Libra, playing Frannie Jacobs, a woman who fled her hometown in rural Kansas after a triple murder and starts a new life in Chicago. But a decade later, she returns home after her brother’s death and must decode a cryptic letter he left behind that suggests the wrong man was charged for the crime that shattered her family and community. (Variety)

Tony winners Audra McDonald and Myles Frost (who played Michael Jackson in MJ the Musical) will star in the upcoming Ava DuVernay movie Caste, joining already announced cast members Aunjanue Ellis, Niecy Nash, Vera Farmiga, Nick Offerman, Connie Nielson, Jon Bernthal and Jasmie Cephas-Jones. The movie is being described as an instant American classic. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

NBC has given La Brea an early season three renewal. (TV Line)

Showtime has pulled the plug on both rookie dramas American Gigolo and Let the Right One In. (TV Line)

FX has pulled the plug on the drama series Kindred after only one season. (Spoiler TV)

The upcoming 10th season of The Blacklist will be its last on NBC. (TV Line)

HBO Max has pulled the plug on Pennyworth after three seasons. (TV Line)

The Cleaning Lady has been given a season three renewal by FOX. (TV Line)

CBS has given a second season renewal to So Help Me Todd. (TV Line)

AMC has given a second season renewal to Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches. (TV Line)

It’s officially official, the Yellowstone prequel 1923 will be getting a second season. (TV Line)

RENEWAL AND CASTING ANNOUNCEMENT

Starz has given a season four renewal to Power Book II: Ghost, and has announced that Michael Ealy (Stumptown and Being Mary Jane) will join the cast as Det. Don Carter who is a rising NYPD officer who was on track to become police commissioner, until his wife was killed in a crossfire between rival drug gangs. (TV Line)

RENEWAL AND PREQUEL ANNOUNCEMENT

Amazon has renewed The Terminal List for a second season; and the streaming network has also ordered a prequel series that will focus on the Taylor Kitsch character from the first season. (Variety)

NOT MOVING FORWARD, BUT…

It looks like Showtime will not be moving forward with a second season of Dexter: New Blood; but the network – which will soon merge with Paramount+ – is exploring a number of new iterations, including a prequel series centered around a young version of the titular antihero. (Variety)

NEW PRODUCTION

Hallmark Movies & Mysteries is launching a new original mystery franchise that will star Aimee Garcia (Lucifer) and Paul Campbell (Battlestar Galactica and a regular feature within the Hallmark movie world). The Cases of Mystery Lane will focus on a married couple (Garcia and Campbell) who find a new way to keep the mystery alive… quite literally. Garcia will play Birdie Case, a successful attorney married to Campbell’s Alden, a smart and charming man with an inability to settle, causing a rift in their relationship. (Variety)

NOT GONNA BE BACK

Looks another cast member is walking away from Bridgerton. Phoebe Dynevor (Daphne Bridgergon herself) will not be back for the streaming drama’s 3rd season. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Veteran actress Annette Bening will star in the upcoming Peacock limited series Apples Never Fall, which is based on the Liane Moriarty novel, which centers on the Delaneys, who from the outside appear to be an enviably contented family. Former tennis coaches Joy (Bening) and Stan are parents to four adult children. After decades of marriage, they have finally sold their famed tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. But after Joy disappears, her children are forced to re-examine their parents’ marriage and their family history with fresh eyes. (Variety)

Orange Is the New Black alum Uzo Aduba will star in the upcoming Shondaland series The Residence at Netflix. Inspired by the Kate Anderson Brower book, the series will be comedic murder mystery set at The White House. Aduba will star as Cordelia Cupp, a consulting detective for the Metropolitan Police Department. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Orphan Black and She Hulk star Tatiana Maslany and Scream star Jasmin Savoy Brown will star in the sci-fi horror flick Green Bank that takes place in a real American town where wifi, cell service and all other radio transmissions are heavily forbidden. The film follows infant sleep-trainer Sloan (Brown), who realizes that the parents of the child she’s caring for are much more than the clueless yuppies they seem to be. (Variety)

Octavia Spencer, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lucy Liu are set to star in the high-concept comedy Nobody Nothing Nowhere, which will tell the story of Ruth, one of the Non-People, human-looking beings designed and trained for the sole purpose of filling in a realistic world for a bland guy named Dave, the only person that actually exists on Earth. Tired of serving as an extra in someone else’s life, Ruth is ready to demand a life of her own. (Deadline)

Toni Collette and Odessa young will star in The Prima Donna, a twisted and darkly funny revenge thriller about two feuding opera singers and the lengths they’ll go for the limelight. (Variety)

Ellie Bamber (from Disney+’s Willow) will star as model Kate Moss in a new film that will detail Moss’s infamous relationship with Lucian Freud, who will be played by Derek Jacobi. (Variety)

More cast members have joined the cast of the upcoming biopic about Bob Marley, who will be played by Kingsley Ben-Adir. Those cast members include Doctor Who alum Tosin Cole, Michael Gandolfini and James Norton (Grantchester). (Deadline)

Actress Jurnee Smollett and writer-producer Misha Green will team up for the upcoming thriller flick Sunflower, which will be about two women struggling to escape from a deranged college professor who holds them hostage on a remote sunflower farm. (Deadline)

Emma Thompson is set to star in the upcoming action thriller The Fisherwoman with Thompson set to play a widowed fisherman who, while trapped in a Minnesotan blizzard, interrupts the kidnapping of a teenager and soon finds she is the young victim’s only hope. (Variety)

Looks like Will Smight and Martin Lawrence will be reteaming – again – for another Bad Boys movie. (Variety)

Pierce Brosnan (007 himself) and Helena Bonham Carter will star in the Irish romance Four Letters of Love, based on the Niall Williams best-selling novel. They will play the parents of fated lovers, to be played by up-and-coming actors Fionn O’Shea and Ann Skelly. (Variety)

Robert Pattinson will be back in The Batman Part II set to be directed, once again, by Matt Reeves. Plot details are, of course, being kept under wraps. (Variety)

Michael Jackson’s nephew Jaafar Jackson will portray the King of Pop in an upcoming biopic called Michael that will be directed by Antoine Fuqua. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

Netflix has given a second season renewal to The Recruit. (TV Line)

HBO Max is pulling the plug on both Titans and Doom Patrol. Both shows will come to an end when their respective fourth seasons wrap up later this year. (Deadline and TV Line)

HBO has given a second season renewal to The Last of Us. (TV Line)

Disney+ has pulled the plug on The Mysterious Benedict Society after two seasons. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

HBO is developing a limited series based on the Leila Slimani novel The Perfect Nanny. The series, created and written by Maya Erskine, who will also star alongside Nicole Kidman. They will both be executive producers. The series follows a seemingly perfect nanny, who goes to work for a couple with two young children, but her helpful personality eventually deteriorates into something sinister. (Variety)

Adelaide Kane (Grey’s Anatomy and Reign) has joined the cast of the upcoming season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, but no details are available on what role she will be playing. (Daily Star Trek News)

Lance Reddick and Toby Stephens have joined the cast of the upcoming small screen adaptation of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which will air at Disney+. Reddick will play Zeus and Stephens will play Poseidon. (Variety)

Jack Ryan alum Michael Kelly will have a recurring role in the upcoming Paramount+ series Lioness that already includes among its cast Zoe Saldana, Nicole Kidman, Morgan Freeman and Jill Wagner. He will play CIA Deputy Director Byron Westfield. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Real-life married couple Bill Camp (The Queen’s Gambit) and Elizabeth Marvel (The Dropout) will star alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Negga in the upcoming Apple TV+ limited series Presumed Innocent, which is inspired by the Scott Turow courtroom thriller. The series will focus on the horrific murder that upended the Chicago Prosecuting Attorneys’ office when one of its own is suspected of the crime. Camp and Marvel will portray husband and wife Raymond Horgan and Lorraine Horgan. (Deadline)

Michael Cudlitz (The Walking Dead and Southland) will play Lex Luthor in the upcoming third season of Superman & Lois on The CW. (Entertainment Weekly)

Real life married couple Ethan Embry (That Thing You Do and Sweet Home Alabama) and Sunny Mabrey (Hillbilly Elegy) will appear as husband and wife in the new DC-based series Gotham Knights that will soon debut on The CW. Ethan will play Arthur Brown (the alter ego of Batman villain Cluemaster) while Sunny will play Crystal Brown. (The Hollywood Reporter)

STREAMING MOVIE NEWS

The upcoming Netflix movie Family Leave will star Jennifer Garner and Ed Helms as well as film legend Rita Moreno. The movie follows Jess (Garner) and Bill Walker (Helms), who are doing their best to keep their family connected as their children grow older, more independent and more distant. When a chance encounter with an astrological reader causes the family to wake up to a full body switch, on the morning of the most important day of each of their lives, the Walkers must unite to land a promotion, college interview, record deal and soccer tryout. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

The cast of the upcoming movie Caste, which will be directed by Ava DuVernay, will now include Niecy Nash-Betts, Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Nick Offerman, Connie Nielson and Jasmie Cephas Jones. The movie is being described as an instant American classic that will examine the system of hierarchy that has shaped America. (Variety)

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni (Jane the Virgin) will star [and Baldoni will direct, by the way] in the upcoming box office movie It Ends With Us, based on the best-selling romance novel by Colleen Hoover. The movie follows small-town girl Lily, who moves to Boston to start her own business. Sparks immediately fly between her and neurosurgeon Ryle, but his complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. As Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his ‘no dating’ rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place. As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan — her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened. (Variety)

Heather Graham and Tom Hopper (The Umbrella Academy) will star in the upcoming western action movie Place of Bones, which will be set in 1876. A botched bank robbery sees vicious outlaw gang leader Bear John (Hopper) feverishly hunting down his traitorous accomplice, Calhoun, to recover the stolen money. Nearly dead, Calhoun drags himself to a remote ranch where Pandora (Graham) lives with her daughter. As Bear and his crew of bandits arrive, intent on delivering brutal revenge, Pandora has no choice but to defend her daughter. But Bear John and his men will soon discover that this isn’t Pandora’s first rodeo. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWAL/CANCELLATION

SEAL Team has been renewed by Paramount+ for a 7th season. (TV Line)

Netflix has given a 6th and final season order to Cobra Kai. (TV Line)

HBO Max has pulled the plug on the rebooted Gossip Girl after just two seasons. (TV Line)

Starz has announced that Outlander will come to an end after its 8th season. The drama will find its 7th season premiering on the cable network this summer. (TV Line)

CBS is pulling the plug on NCIS: Los Angeles after 14 seasons. The series finale will air on May 14. (TV Line)

Peacock has pulled the plug on Vampire Academy after only one season. (TV Line)

Apple TV+ has canceled The Mosquito Coast”after two seasons. (Variety)

AND THE STORY CONTINUES

PBS has ordered a series adaptation of Moonflower Murders, a follow-up to the Magpie Murders. Lesley Manville will return as editor turned sleuth Susan Ryeland with Timothy McMullan returning as famous literary detective Atticus Pünd. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Veteran actress Meryl Streep will join the cast of the 3rd season of Only Murders in the Building, but no details on her role have been released. (TV Line)

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s Rachenl Brosnahan has landed the lead role in the new Amazon limited series Lois & Varga, based on a short story by Lisa Taddeo. The show will follow a newly-married couple who moves to a small and vaunted island after inheriting a heavenly parcel of oceanfront property. But once they arrive, they meet Varga, the island’s only stripper and yoga teacher, who begins to sinisterly unravel their lives. (Variety)

Film veteran Dennis Quaid will star opposite David Oyelowo in the upcoming Paramount+ series Bass Reeves (which is an off-shoot of sorts from the Taylor Sheridan series 1883). Oyelowo will have the title role. Reeves was known as the greatest frontier hero in American history and also believed to be the inspiration for ‘The Lone Ranger.’ Quaid will play Sherrill Lynn, a Deputy U.S. Marshall. (Variety)

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air alum Tatyana Ali will join the cast of the Peacock reboot series Bel-Air for its upcoming second season. She will recur as Mrs. Hughes, the middle school English teacher who sees something special in Ashley (Akira Akbar), often giving her books from her personal collection. (Variety)

It looks like Oscar winner Rami Malek just might be starring in the Warner Bros. Television limited series based on the life of silent film star Buster Keaton. The story will be based on the James Curtis biography about Keaton, who lived from 1895 to 1966, and who is thought of as one of the most prominent stars of the silent film era aside from Charlie Chaplin. He got his start as a child in vaudevile acts alongside his parents, who were traveling performers, before transitioning into film in the late 1910s. (Variety)

Film legend Anthony Hopkins is set to star in the Peacock series Those About to Die, playing Emperor Vespasian. The series will be set in the “complex and corrupt” world of gladiatorial competition, following an ensemble of characters from all parts of Roman society who collide in the arena. (Variety)

It looks like Taylor Kinney will be taking a leave of absence for the long-running NBC drama Chicago Fire to deal with a personal matter. (TV Line)

Actress Martha Plimpton has joined the cast of the HBO limited series The Palace that will be set in a decaying authoritarian regime, chronicling a year inside an authoritarian government as it starts to unravel. The cast already includes Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Andrea Riseborough and Hugh Grant. Character details for all five actors are being kept quiet, though. (The Hollywood Reporter)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Looks like Jared Leto will appear in the third Tron movie which is set to be directed by Joachim Ronning. (Variety)

Rising star Xosha Roquemore (Atlanta, Black Monday and Space Jam: A New Legacy) has joined the cast of the upcoming box office film Captain America: New World Order that will find Anthony Mackie reprising his role as Sam Wilson. But, instead of playing his alter-ego Falcon he has been tapped as the new Captain America. Not much else is known regarding the project and Roquemore’s new role is also being kept under wraps. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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