Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

FOX has given The Cleaning Lady a fourth season renewal. The network also given Alert: Missing Persons Unit a third season renewal. (TV Line)

Apple TV+ cancelled the sci-fi thriller Constellation after only one season. (TV Line)

Hallmark Channel has given When Calls the Heart a 12th season renewal. (Variety)

Showtime has given a 7th season renewal to The Chi. (TV Line)

Paramount+ has given Special Ops: Lioness a second season order, but the show will just be known as Lioness in its new season. (TV Line)

Law & Order: Organized Crime has been renewed for a 5th season, but instead of returning to NBC it will move to Peacock, the network’s streaming service. (TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Amazon Prime is developing a TV adaptation of the novel Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson, which revolves around a young lawyer who promised God that she’d never return home to Alabama but is forced to go back to the South to defend a high school classmate accused of a murder she knows something about. In returning home, she’ll confront a simmering stew of family conflict, a hometown that hates her for defending the alleged killer of a local hero and all of the ghosts of her past. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh has been cast in a lead role in the Blade Runner series that is in the works at Amazon Prime. Exact plot details are being kept under wraps, though. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones) will star in the Amazon Prime new thriller Haven, a new heist series where she will star as an employee of a pension fund management company, until a group of would-be mass thieves threaten her into helping them with a scheme to rob the organization. (Collider)

Frank Grillo (Captain America franchise) has joined the cast of the second season of Peacemaker where he will play Rick Flag Sr., the father of Rick Flag Jr. (Variety)

The second season of Criminal Minds: Evolution will find Clark Gregg (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. appearing in multiple episodes as FBI Director ray Madison; Brian White (The Black Hamptons) will appear in 4 episodes as Vincent Orlov and Tuc Watkins (The Mummy) will appear in multiple episodes as Frank Church. (TV Line)

Camryn Manheim will not be returning for season 24 of Law & Order. (Variety)

The people behind Gen V, the Amazon Prime spin-off of The Boys, will not recast the role played by Chance Perdomo, who recently tragically died in a motorcycle accident in March. The producers are “working to find a way to best honor him.” (The Hollywood Reporter)

Eamonn Walker will be leaving Chicago Fire after this current season while he won’t appear as a series regular, he will not be missing entirely from the long-running series. He is expected to appear in a recurring capacity in the future. (Deadline and TV Line)

Yunjim Kim (Lost) will guest star in two upcoming episodes of Station 19, playing the sister of Natasha Ross (Merle Dandridge). (Shondaland.com)

Melissa Roxburgh (Manifest) will star in the upcoming NBC drama The Hunting Party, a high-concept crime procedural about a small team of investigators who are assembled to track down and capture the most dangerous killers our country has ever seen, all of whom have just escaped from a top-secret prison that’s not supposed to exist. Roxburgh will play Rebecca “Bex” Henderson, an ex-FBI agent recruited to an elite government task force due to her reputation as a savvy profiler who’s caught some of the world’s most dangerous serial killers. (Deadline)

It looks like despite his character dying in All American on CW, Taye Diggs will return as the late Billy Baker. It’s not clear how his character will return, though. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Looks like actor Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, the star of The Lincoln Lawyer, the small screen series adaptation of the movie on Netflix, could be joining the new Jurassic World movie, starring opposite Scarlett Johansson and Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey. (Deadline)

Mahershala Ali (two-time Oscar winner) and Tom Hardy (Venom) will star in the crime thriller 77 Blackout that is set on the night when the city that never sleeps lost power and plunged into chaos and lawlessness. In 1977, five rogue police officers formulated a plan to rob three criminal strongholds – the Hong Kong Triads, the Italian Mafia, and the Harlem Mob – all in one night. When a blackout sweeps the city the night of the robbery, the crew is forced to navigate a hellish landscape as years of being overworked and underpaid forces each of them to confront their own morality. (Deadline)

John Malkovich has joined the upcoming version of The Fantastic Four in an undisclosed role. This new version will star Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/the Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/the Human Torch and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/the Thing. (Variety)

Olivia Cooke and Jamie Bell will star in the upcoming contemporary romance Takes One To Know One. They will playEleanor and Lucas (respectively), two people who meet in Rome and immediately feel a spark, connecting over their shared passion for Italy and art, despite both already being in relationships. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Charlie Cox (Daredevil) and Zooey Deschanel (New Girl) will star in the upcoming rom-com movie Merv that follows an estranged couple who learn that the dog they share is suffering from depression following their break-up. Subsequently, they awkwardly reconcile to take their pup on a sunny vacation in Florida over the holidays, in hopes of lifting his spirits. (Deadline)

Samuel L. Jackson and Henry Golding will star in the upcoming sci-fi thriller Head Games. The movie will be about a corporate spy who poses as a personal chef to infiltrate the villa of a former founder of a neuroprosthetics firm in order to steal his seismic-shifting new invention. (Deadline)

Jeff Bridges, Dave Bautista and Bryan Cranston will star alongside Thomasin McKenzie, Aidan Turner and T Bone Burnett in the upcoming live-action monster tale Grendel. (Variety)

Shailene Woodley, Ben Foster and Pablo Schreiber will star alongside Alan Ritchson in the upcoming action thriller Motor City that follows John Miller (Ritchson), a Detroit auto-worker whose life and girlfriend (Woodley) are taken away from him when he’s framed by a local gangster (Foster) and sent to prison. On his release, Miller unleashes a maelstrom of vengeance on those who wronged him as he attempts to win his girl back. (Variety)

Bella Ramsey (The Last of Us) will star in the upcoming film Girl Next Door, playing Samantha Lewthwaite, who became known as ‘The White Widow,’ one of the world’s most wanted women. Lewthwaite fell in love with Islam long before being Muslim was politicized and militarized. What began as teenage curiosity about an “exotic” and welcoming faith as embodied by her neighbors and best friend, ended with Samantha being consumed by its more radical fringes. (Variety)

Sam Claflin and Rupert Friend will star in the action thriller Perdition that is set in December 1944 against the war-torn Belgian landscape as World War II pushes toward a brutal climax, following the journey of a lone American soldier (Claflin), who miraculously survives a POW camp execution. As he ventures into the bone-chilling landscape to save himself and a precious cargo salvaged from the camp, a ruthless Nazi SS officer on horseback (Friend) discovers his tracks and becomes obsessed with hunting him down. (Variety)

Tatiana Maslany and Rossif Sutherland will star in the genre movie Keeper that follows a couple as they escape for a romantic anniversary weekend at a secluded cabin. But when Malcolm (Sutherland) suddenly returns to the city, Liz (Maslany) finds herself isolated and in the presence of an unspeakable evil that unveils the cabin’s horrifying secrets. (Deadline)

Tom Hiddleston and Willem Dafoe will star as Sir Edmund Hillary and Colonel John Hunt respectively in the upcoming biopic Tenzig that will focus on the legendary Nepalese-Indian mountaineer who summited Mount Everest in 1953, becoming one of the first men to stand on the top of the world. (Variety)

Glen Powell, Anthony Mackie and Laura Dern will star in the upcoming movie Monsanto that will follow the true story of young, untried attorney Brent Wisner (Powell), who in 2019 took on a seemingly insurmountable case against the giant U.S. chemical company Monsanto on behalf of Dewayne “Lee” Johnson (Mackie) who used the company’s best-known product Roundup, a wildly financially successful weed and grass pesticide killer, as part of his job as a high school groundskeeper. Dern plays Dr. Melinda Rogers, the Monsanto Company’s chief toxicologist, who testifies with certainty that Roundup is safe during the landmark cancer trial. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWAL

The Amazon Prime series Alex Cross, based on the James Patterson novels, which is set to star Aldis Hodge in the lead role, has been renewed for a second season BEFORE the first season has even aired. What’s more Jeanine Mason (Roswell, New Mexico and Upload) hs been cast in season two in an undisclosed role. (Variety)

SERIES ORDER

The Fire Country spin-off series Sheriff Country has been given an early series order by CBS for the 2025-2026 TV season. (Variety)

NEW TV ADAPTATION

PBS Masterpiece will introduce a new audience to The Forsyte Saga, a sweeping portrait of a wealthy British family in 1880s London, which will feature Stephen Moyer (True Blood), Tuppence Middleton (Downton Abbey: A New Year), Eleanor Tomlinson (One Day), Jack Davenport (The Morning Show), Mille Gibson (Doctor Who) and Tom Durant Pritchard (Miss Scarlet) among its cast. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel will star in the Amazon Prime series The Better Sister, which is an adaptation of the Alafair Burke novel, which is being described as a thriller about Chloe (Biel), who moves through the world with her handsome lawyer husband Adam and teenage son Ethan by her side while her estranged sister Nicky (Banks) hustles to make ends meet while trying to stay clean. But when Adam is brutally murdered, the prime suspect sends shockwaves through the family, laying bare long-buried secrets. (Variety)

Sean Teale (The Gifted and Who Is Erin Carter?) has joined the cast of the ABC series Dr. Odyssey, a medical show set on a cruise ship, which comes from series creator Ryan Murphy. Joshua Jackson has been cast in the title role along with Phillipa Soo and Don Johnson. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Robin Wright and Olivia Cooke (House of the Dragon) will star in the Amazon Prime series The Girlfriend which is an adaptation of the Michelle Frances novel that focuses on Laura (Wright) who wants for nothing. She has a glittering career, a loving husband, Howard, and, above all, she has Daniel, her precious only son. But Laura’s seemingly perfect life is blown apart when Daniel brings home Cherry (Cooke), the girlfriend who changes everything. After an uncomfortable first meeting, Laura grows convinced that Cherry isn’t who she says she is. While no one else can see what she sees, Laura refuses to stand by and watch Daniel be deceived. She’ll do anything to protect him. As things go from bad to deadly, the question is, is Cherry a manipulative social climber? Or is Laura paranoid and possessive? The truth is a matter of perspective. (Variety)

Neal McDonough (Arrow and 9-1-1: Lone Star) has joined the second season of Taylor Sheridan created series Tulsa King, which stars Sylvester Stallone, and airs on Paramount+. McDonough is set to play a territorial Tulsa businessman. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS

Carla Gugino (The Girls on the Bus) will play screen legend Vivien Leigh (Scarlett O’Hara in the 1939 classic Gone With the Wind) in the new movie titled The Florest that takes place in the 1960s, following Leigh as she prepares to star in a Broadway production of Ivanov. The movie will depict Leigh’s struggles with bipolar disorder and electroconvulsive therapy, as well as an unexpected romance with Joseph Penn, a World War II veteran and florist who first encounters Leigh while making a delivery. (Variety and Entertainment Weekly)

Rosamund Pike (The Wheel of Time and Saltburn) has joined the cast of Now You See Me 3, the third chapter in the magician movie franchise, but her role is being kept under wraps. Original cast members Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco and Morgan Freeman are expected to reprise their roles while Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa and Ariana Greenblatt have been cast in new roles. (Variety)

Anthony Hopkins is set to star as George Frideric Handel in the upcoming box office film The King of Covent Gardens. The film will be set during the period the famed opera composer worked on his choral masterpiece Messiah. (Variety)

Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas will star in the upcoming musical comedy Power Ballad, which will chart the story of a wedding singer (Rudd), a rock star (Jonas) and the song that comes between them. (Deadline)

Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy will star in the magical family adventure flick The Magic Faraway Tree, which is based on the beloved children’s classic by Enid Blyton, following Polly (Foy) and Tim (Garfield) and their children Beth, Joe and Fran — a modern family who find themselves forced to relocate to the remote English countryside. Soon after the family’s arrival in the countryside, the children discover a magical tree and its extraordinary and eccentric residents including treasured characters Moonface, Silky, Dame Washalot and Saucepan Man. At the top of the tree, they are transported to spectacular and fantastical lands and, through the joys and challenges of their adventures, the family learn to reconnect and value each other for the first time in years. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

CBS has given a 5th season renewal to The Equalizer, but the network has pulled the plug on NCIS: Hawai’i after its current third season. (TV Line)

Looks like Law & Order: Organized Crime just might be moving from NBC to their streaming service Peacock for its 5th season. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Luke Kleintank, who is the series lead of FBI: International will the leave show as it nears the end of its current 3rd season, and Colin Donnell (Chicago Med and Arrow) will be coming in to guest star for the show’s final two episodes, but no details have been released about what role he will play or if he will be replacing Kleintank. (TV Line)

Thandiwe (formerly Thandie) Newton has joined the cast of Wednesday for its second season, but exact details on her character are being kept under wraps. (Variety)

Dule Hill (Psych) and Sarayu Blue (Expats and To All the Boys movie franchise) will have recurring roles opposite Ellen Pompeo (Grey’s Anatomy) and Mark Duplass (The Morning Show) in the 8-episode Hulu limited series Orphan, which is the working title. The series is inspired by the true story of a Midwestern couple, Michael and Kristine Barnett (Duplass and Pompeo), who adopt a girl with a rare form of dwarfism. But as they begin to raise her alongside their three biological children, questions emerge around her age and background, and they slowly start to suspect she may not be who she says she is. As they grow to believe their new daughter is a threat, she fights her own battle to confront her past and what her future holds, in a showdown that ultimately plays out in the tabloids and the courtroom. Hill will play Brandon Drysdale, the detective investigating the criminal allegations made against the Barnetts while Blue will play Valika, the parent of one of the kids at Kristine’s daycare center. (Deadline)

Jensen Ackles (Supernatural and The Boys) will appear in Tracker, playing Colter’s (series lead Justin Hartley) estranged brother Russell. (TV Line)

Callum Turner (Masters of the Air) will have the lead role in the Apple TV+ series adaptation of Neuromancer from author William Gibson. The 10-episode drama will follow a damaged, top-rung super-hacker named Case (Turner) who is thrust into a web of digital espionage and high stakes crime with his partner Molly, a razor-girl assassin with mirrored eyes, aiming to pull a heist on a corporate dynasty with untold secrets. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS

Toni Collette (The Power), Andy Garcia (Ocean’s 11), Alex Pettyfer (The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare) and Eva De Dominici (The Cleaning Lady) will star in the upcoming rom-com movie Under the Stars that will also star Rob Estes (the After movie franchise). The picture follows a struggling romance novelist stuck in a passionless relationship. When he goes to Italy looking for inspiration, he unexpectedly finds the girl of his dreams. (Deadline)

Jodie Comer (Killing Eve), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kiss-Ass and Bullet Train) and Ralph Fiennes (Harry Potter franchise) will star in the box office film 28 Years Later, which is a continuation of the 28 Days Later franchise. Plot details, though, are being kept under wraps. (Variety)

Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones and The Last of Us), Louis Partridge (Enola Holmes) and Ruby Stokes (Lockwood & Co.) will star in the box office film Sunny Dancer, which follows Ivy (Ramsey), a teenager in remission from cancer, whose gloriously outspoken mum and well-intentioned dad insist she attend Children Run Free Camp, a summer retreat for young adults affected by cancer. The camp’s slogan, “Where kids come to kid,” does little to alleviate Ivy’s apprehension, and a quick Google search confirms her fears when she stumbles upon a cringeworthy promotional video filled with tacky messages and clichéd sunsets. As if conquering cancer wasn’t enough of a challenge, Ivy now faces the prospect of spending her summer at what she calls “chemo camp.” However, as Ivy is reluctantly dragged through camp experience, she discovers new feelings with new friends. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

Apple TV+ has given For All Mankind a fifth season renewal. And, the streamer has also ordered a spin-off titled Star City that will take viewers back to a key moment in For All Mankind‘s retelling of the space race: when the Soviet Union became the first nation to put a man on the moon, exploring the story from behind the Iron Curtain, showing the lives of the cosmonauts, the engineers and the intelligence officers embedded among them in the Soviet space program, and the risks they all took to propel humanity forward. (TV Line)

Only 8 days after Fallout debuted online on Amazon Prime, the series has been given a season two order. (TV Line)

CBS has renewed Elsbeth for a second season, but the network has pulled the plug on So Help Me Todd after two seasons and on CSI: Vegas after four seasons. (TV Line)

A 5th and final season of The Witcher has been announced by Netflix. (TV Line)

ABC has given The Rookie a season 7 renewal order. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Tom Durant Pritchard (This Is Going to Hurt and Feel Good) has joined the now named Miss Scarlet (formerly Miss Scarlet and the Duke) as Alexander Blake, a handsome former soldier and respected detective inspector, who joins the force at Scotland Yard to replace William “The Duke” Wellington who has gone to America. (TV Line)

Veteran actor John Amos (Good Times and Roots), Victoria Justice (Victorious) and Kevin Weisman (Alias) will make guest appearances in the spin-off (of sorts) series Suits: L.A. that will center on Ted Black (Stephen Amell from Arrow), a former federal prosecutor from New York, who has reinvented himself representing the most powerful clients in Los Angeles after joining forces with his old buddy Stuart Lane (Josh McDermitt from The Walking Dead) to build Black Lane Law, which specializes in criminal and entertainment law. Amos will play himself while Justice will play Dylan Pryor, a young movie star and Weisman will play Lester Thompson, a smart and powerful man who has been charged with murder. (Deadline)

Robert Taylor (Longmire) will step into the shoes of Jackson Gibbs (played by the late Ralph Waite) in the upcoming prequel series NCIS: Origins. (TV Line)

Steve Buscemi has joined the cast of season 2 of Wednesday at Netflix, but exactly who he will be playing is being kept under wraps, but some sources believe he will play the new principal of Nevermore Academy. (Variety)

Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson are set to star in the Apple TV+ series adaptation of Down Cemetery Road based on the book series by Mick Herron. The official logline for the series is: When a house explodes in a quiet Oxford suburb and a girl disappears in the aftermath, neighbor Sarah Tucker (Wilson) becomes obsessed with finding her and enlists the help of private investigator Zoë Boehm (Thompson). Zoë and Sarah suddenly find themselves in a complex conspiracy that reveals that people long believed dead are still among the living, while the living are fast joining the dead. (Variety)

Manifest alum Melissa Roxburgh will play Dory, the sister of Colter Shaw in the next CBS hit series Tracker. (TV Line)

Phillipa Soo (the original cast of the Broadway hit Hamilton) has joined the cast of the upcoming Ryan Murphy ABC series Dr. Odyssey that will star Joshua Jackson and Don Johnson. This series is anticipated to be a medical procedural set on a cruise ship, but details on who Soo, Jackson and Johnson will be portraying is being kept under wraps. (Variety)

Varada Sethu (Andor and Jurassic World Dominion) will be joining Doctor Who as a new companion. (BBC)

MADE FOR TV MOVIE NEWS

Hallmark alums Lacey Chabert and Kristoffer Polaha will star in the upcoming Hallmark holiday movie The Christmas Quest. (People)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Looks like CBS just might be rebooting the TV series Cold Case, which aired for seven seasons from 2003 to 2010. This new iteration would follow an entirely different group of detectives dedicated to investigating unsolved crimes. (Deadline and TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Kingsley are expected to star in the upcoming murder mystery film The Thursday Murder Club, which will be directed by Harry Potter director Chris Columbus. The film will be based on the book by Richard Osman that follows a group of four elderly friends living in a retirement home in the United Kingdom. In their spare time, the group solves cold case mysteries for fun. However, they find themselves launched into a case that hits close to home when a local property manager is murdered, launching an effort to find the culprit. Mirren, Brosnan, and Kingsley would play three of the four elderly mystery solvers. (Collider)

Lily Rabe (American Horror Story), Jodie Turner-Smith (Queen & Slim and The Last Ship) and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) will star in the box office film A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, which will star Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell. Plot details are being kept under wraps, but is described as an imaginative tale of two strangers and the extraordinary emotional journey that connects them. (Deadline)

Pruitt Taylor Vince has joined the cast of the latest incarnation of Superman, playing the role of Jonathan Kent. (The Wrap)

Keanu Reeves will provide his voice to the character Shadow in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. (Variety)

It looks like Bridgerton alum Jonathan Bailey just might be joining Scarlett Johansson in Universal’s new take on Jurassic World. (The Hollywood Reporter)

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 a second season renewal to Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and there is a deal in play to develop multiple spinoff series set in the so-called Monsterverse. Exact plot details for the spinoffs are being kept under wraps. (Variety)

Paramount+ has renewed Star Trek: Strange New Worlds for a 4th season. The third season is currently in production for a 2025 premiere). (TV Line)

S.W.A.T. is back again. The long-running CBS drama has been given a season 8 renewal. Also, the network has given FBI another 3 seasons, running through the spring of 2027 while FBI: International has been renewed for a 4th season and FBI: Most Wanted has been renewed for season 6. And, NCIS has been renewed for a 22nd season, but a decision has yet to be made on NCIS: Hawai’i. (Variety and TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

It looks like Tim Kring is working on ANOTHER sequel to his former successful series Heroes. The new iteration – Heroes: Eclipsed – will be set years after the events of the original show’s series finale and will center on new Evos being awakened and discovering their life-altering powers. (Deadline and TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

The third season of Dark Winds on AMC will see Jenna Elfamn guest starring as FBI Special Agent Sylvia Washington while Bruce Greenwood will play Tom Spencer and Christopher Heyerdahl will play Dr. Reynolds. (TV Line)

Malcolm Jamal Warner will guest star in 4 upcoming episodes of 9-1-1 on its new home: ABC. He will play Amir, a nurse in a hospital burn unit who is connected to Bobby’s past. (Deadline)

Paul Bettany will star opposite The White Lotus star Will Sharpe in the upcoming limited series Amadeus that will air on the BBC channel Sky. Sharpe will play the title character while Bettany will play Italian composer Antonio Salieri, Mozart’s longtime rival. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Glen Powell (Anyone But You and Top Gun: Maverick and the upcoming Twister sequel) will play the lead in the box office remake of the Arnold Schwareneggar cult film The Running Man. (Variety)

Henry Cavill, Jake Gyllenhaal, Rosamund Pike and Eiza Gonzalez will star in the next Guy Ritchie feature film In the Grey. Set to release in theatres on January 17, 2025 the movie will follow a group who operate in the middle of criminality and the law. (Collider)

Julianne Moore and James McAvoy will star in the upcoming action thriller Control, which will revolve around the troubled Dr. Conway (McAvoy), who wakes up one morning to the sound of a mysterious voice in his head. With his reality now in question, the voice makes a series of escalating demands he must follow or devastating consequences will unfold. Specifics on Moore’s role have not been disclosed. (Deadline)

Peter Dinklage will provide the voice of Dr. Dillamond in the upcoming movie adaptation of Wicked. (The Hollywood Reporter)

It looks like Renee Zellweger will be back as Bridget Jones in the adaptation of Helen Fielding’s best-selling novel Bridget Jones: Mad About a Boy. Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson will be back with newcomers to the franchise including Chiwetel Ejiofor and Leo Woodall (The White Lotus and One Day). The movie will debut in cinemas internationally and on Peacock in the U.S. on Valentine’s Day 2025. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATION

NBC has pulled the plug on the Quantum Leap reboot series after two seasons. (Deadline and TV Line)

ABC has given Grey’s Anatomy a renewal for its 21st season while transplant series 9-1-1 has been renewed for an 8th season and Will Trent has been renewed for a 3rd season. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Rome Flynn who joined Chicago Fire at the start of its current season in January has exited after only 6 episodes. It’s currently unclear whether he will return down the road, though. (TV Line)

Emmy winner and Academy Award nominee, and former inmate in the college scandal, Felicity Huffman will guest star during the upcoming season of Criminal Minds: Evolution on Paramount+, playing Dr. Jill Gideon, a brilliant biological psychiatrist who winds up helping the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit investigate a murderous conspiracy theory. Jill is reluctant to assist the BAU, given her complicated history with both David Rossi (Joe Mantegna) and her late ex-husband, Jason Gideon (Mandy Patinkin), but she comes to realize that her skill set could help them uncover another clue to the elusive Gold Star mystery. (TV Line)

New cast members have been announced for season 4 of The Witcher that will find Liam Hemsworth taking over the lead role from Henry Cavill. Those new members are Sharlto Copley will play the infamous bounty hunter Leo Bonhart; James Purefoy will play Skellen, a high-ranking spy and court advisor to Emhyr who is also a prominent figure in the novels and Danny Woodburn will play Zoltan, a fan favorite dwarf character. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman will star in the upcoming box office movie The Roses, a reimagining of the 1989 classic The War of the Roses. The dark comedy, based on the novel by Warren Adler, follows picture-perfect couple Theo (Cumberbatch) and Ivy (Colman), who have successful careers, great kids and an enviable sex life. But underneath the façade of the perfect family is a tinderbox of competition and resentment that’s ignited when Theo’s professional dreams come crashing down. (Variety)

Halle Bailey (The Little Mermaid and The Color Purple) will star in the upcoming untitled Pharrell Williams and Michel Gondry project that will co-star Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Da’Vine Joy Randolph in this coming-of-age musical set in Virginia Beach in the summer of 1977. (Variety)

Emmy and Golden Globe winner Julia Garner has joined the cast of the upcoming The Fantastic Four reboot, playing Shalla-Bal, a version of Silver Surfer from the Marvel comics. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

Apple TV+ has given a second season renewal to the Jennifer Garner series The Last Thing He Told Me, which was originally announced as a limited series. This 2nd season will be based on the sequel book by Laura Dave. Garner, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Angourie Rice and David Morse will all return for the second season. (TV Line)

Hulu has pulled the plug on the Mandy Patinkin series Death and Other Details after just one season. (TV Line)

Starz has given a 5th season renewal to Power Book III: Raising Kana. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

John Ortiz (Promised Land and Messiah) will have a recurring role in Will Trent, playing Will’s uncle Antonio Miranda. (TV Line)

Kerry Washington and Elisabeth Moss will star in the upcoming Apple TV+ limited series Imperfect Women, an adaptation of the novel by Araminta Hall, which is an unconventional, psychological thriller examining a crime that shatters the lives of a decades-long friendship of three women. (Variety)

Noah Wyle will executive produce and star in the new Max medical drama from John Wells called The Pitt, a realistic examination of the challenges facing healthcare workers in today’s America as seen through the lens of the frontline heroes working in a modern-day hospital in Pittsburgh. (TV Line)

John Leguizamo is joining Taron Egerton and Jurnee Smollett in the upcoming Apple TV+ drama series Firebug, which is loosely based on true events and also draws from events documented in truth.media’s “Firebug” podcast that will follow a troubled detective and an enigmatic arson investigator (Egerton) as they pursue the trails of two serial arsonists.” Leguizamo will play Esposito, a former policeman with a lot of bad habits and a lot of good instincts. (Variety)

Claire Danes will star inthe Netflix series The Beast in Me from Homeland creator Howard Gordon. The mystery thriller will revolve around acclaimed author Aggie Wiggs, who since the death of her young son has receded from public life, unable to write, a ghost of her former self. But she finds an unlikely subject for a new book when the house next door is bought by Nile Sheldon, a famed and formidable real estate mogul who was once the prime suspect in his wife’s disappearance. At once horrified and fascinated by this man, Aggie finds herself compulsively hunting for the truth — chasing his demons while fleeing her own — in a game of cat and mouse that might turn deadly. (The Hollywood Reporter)

The upcoming Netflix medical procedural Pulse, which will star Willa Fitzgerald, Colin Woodell and Justina Machado, has added to its cast, including Jack Bannon (Pennyworth), Jessie T. Usher (The Boys) and Daniela Nieves (Vampire Academy) [among others]. The synopsis of the series is: While the staff of Miami’s busiest Level 1 Trauma Center navigate medical emergencies, young ER doc Danny Simms (Fitzgerald) is unexpectedly promoted to Chief Resident amidst the fallout of her own provocative romantic relationship. Bannon will play Tom Cole, a witty and charming Brit who is a surgical resident while Usher will play Sam Elijah, a third-year emergency medicine resident and Nieves will play Camila Perez, a a third-year medical student who, despite long hours and an endless workload, always manages to stay optimistic. (Deadline)

NEW SERIES NEWS

Elizabeth Banks and Matthew Macfadyen will star in the Peacock romantic dramedy The Miniature Wife, which is based on the short story written by Manuel Gonzalez. The series is described as a high-concept marital dramedy examining the power (im)balances between spouses, Lindy (Banks) and Les (Macfadyen), who battle each other for supremacy after a technological accident induces the ultimate relationship crisis. (The Hollywood Reporter)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Jeremy Allen White (The Bear and Shameless) is in talks to play Bruce Springsteen in an upcoming narrative feature film about the making of his 1982 album Nebraska. Nothing has been finalized though. (Variety)

Austin Butler (Masters of the Air and Elvis) will star in the new Darren Aronofsky-directed crime thriller Caught Stealing, which be about Hank Thompson, a burned-out former baseball player, as he’s unwittingly plunged into a wild fight for survival in the downtown criminal underworld of ‘90s NYC. (Variety)

Kit Connor (Rocketman and Heartstopper), Cosmo Jarvis (this year’s Shogun), Will Poutler (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3) and Finn Bennett (True Detective: Night Country) will star in feature film Warfare, but there are no details about the film nor the roles these actors will play, though. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWAL

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

Paramount+ has given the Canadian medical drama Skymed a 3rd season renewal; and announced that cast member Aaron Ashmore (who plays Wheezer) has been promoted to series regular and that Anthony Grant (Star Trek: Discovery) and Nicola Correia-Damude (Shadowhunters) have joined the cast in recurring roles. Grant will play TJ, a fun-loving, social pilot who is easy to crush on but secretly carries some heavy baggage of his own while Correia-Damude will play Marianne, an appealing city-slicker who struggles to fit in up north despite her electric chemistry with Chopper (series regular Praneet Akilla). (Deadline)

NBC has renewed Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for new seasons for the 2024-2025 TV season. (TV Line)

CBS has renewed NCIS: Sydney for a 2nd season. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Friends alum David Schwimmer and Ana Ortiz (Ugly Betty and Devious Maids) will star in season 2 of the Disney+ series Goosebumps, based on the book series by R.L. Stine. Season two will focus on teenage siblings who discover a threat stirring, triggering a chain of events that unravel a profound mystery. As they delve into the unknown, the duo find themselves entangled in the chilling tale of four teenagers who mysteriously vanished in 1994. Schwimmer will play Anthony, a former botany professor and divorced parent of teenage twins whose world takes a tumultuous turn as he juggles the responsibilities of overseeing an aging parent while having his kids for the summer. While Ortiz will play Jen, a dedicated police detective who remains rooted in her Brooklyn neighborhood after experiencing a tragic event that involved her friends in adolescence. (Variety)

Hulu has added cast members to the second season of Nine Perfect Strangers, which includes Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians), Mark Strong (Shazam and The Kingsman franchise) and Lena Olin (Alias and Hunters), joining Nicole Kidman, who will be back as resort director Masha. Details about season 2 are being kept under wraps, though. (Variety)

Mark Duplass (The Morning Show) will star alongside Grey’s Anatomy alum Ellen Pompeo in the Hulu limited series Orphan, which is inspired by the true story of Natalia Grace. The 8-episode series will follow a Midwestern couple — Kristine and Michael Barnett (played by Pompeo and Duplass) — who adopt what they believe is an 8-year-old Ukrainian girl with a rare form of dwarfism. But as they begin to raise the girl alongside their three biological children, they slowly start to believe she may not be who she says she is. When the couple question their adopted daughter’s story, they’re confronted with hard questions of their own about the lengths they’re willing to go to defend themselves, falling into a battle that winds up “fought in the tabloids, the courtroom, and ultimately their marriage. (TV Line)

Kyle Schmid (Blood Ties, Copper and Six) has joined the cast of the CBS prequel series NCIS: Origins that will focus on a young Leroy Jethro Gibbs. Schmid will play the younger version of Special Agent Mike Franks, who was portrayed by Muse Watson in the flagship series. (TV Line)

Season 2 of The Sandman on Netflix has added new cast members including Barry Sloane (Revenge, Longmire and Six), who will play the Endless Destruction, a sibling of series lead Tom Sturrige’s Dream. Destruction is different from his siblings, as he is the only one of the Endless to abandon his realm and responsibilities. Also joining the cast are Esme Creed-Miles (Hannah) and Indya Moore (Pose) both in unknown roles. (Redanian Intelligence)

Anna Camp (the Pitch Perfect franchise) and Griffin Matthews (The Flight Attendant) have joined the cast of the Netflix series You as series regulars for season 5. Camp will play both Raegan and Maddie Lockwood, twin sisters-in-law to Joe Goldberg (series lead Penn Badgley) while Matthews will play Teddy Lockwood, the snarky yet loyal brother-in-law of Joe Goldberg. (Variety)

Jessica Biel will executive produce and star in a limited series at Peacock called The Good Dauther, adapted from the Karin Slaughter novel. The series will focus on sisters Charlotte (Biel) and Samantha Quinn, who have spent the last 28 years trying to piece together the lives that were fractured by a single night of violence. When another attack splinters the small town of Pikeville, Charlotte is the first witness on the scene. Now a lawyer like her father, she’s forced to confront her own demons as the case twists through one shocking revelation after another. In the end, both she and Samantha find themselves wondering if the price of being the good daughter was worth it after all.  (Variety)

Douglas Smith (Big Love and Big Little Lies as well as the younger brother of Everwood alum Gregory Smith) will play Jimmy Olsen in the third and final season of Superman & Lois on CW. (TV Line)

Starz has added cast members to its upcoming thriller The Hunting Wives based on the novel by May Cobb, including Chrissy Metz (This Is Us), Katie Lowes (Scandal) and Jaime Ray Newman (Eureka and Dopesick). The series follows Sophie O’Neill (Snow), who moves with her family from the East Coast to deep East Texas, where she succumbs to socialite Margo Bank’s (Malin Akerman) irresistible charms — and finds her life consumed by obsession, seduction, and murder. Lowes will play Jill, the wife of a minister and queen of the megachurch who is overly invested in her son’s life, who is dating Abby, Sophie’s daughter. Meanwhile Newman will play Callie, the wife of the town’s powerful sheriff and second in command of the Hunting Wives behind Margo. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Before The Good Doctor comes to an end on ABC, Antonia Thomas will be back as Dr. Claire Brown and Brandon Larracuente will be back as Dr. Danny Perez. (Deadline and TV Line)

The new FOX international drama series Murder in a Small Town, that will star Rossif Sutherland (the 2003 box office film Timeline and The Handmaid’s Tale) and Kristin Kreuk (Smallville, Beauty and the Beast and Burden of Truth), have added guest stars to its roster, including James Cromwell (Babe and Succession), Stana Katic (Castle and Absentia) and Aaron Douglas (Battlestar Galactica and The Watchful Eye) [among others]. The show follows Karl Alberg (Sutherland), who moves to a quiet Pacific Northwest coastal town to soothe a psyche that has been battered by big-city police work. But this gentle paradise has more than its share of secrets, and Karl will need to call upon all the skills that made him a world-class detective in solving the murders that, even in this seemingly idyllic setting, continue to wash up on his shore. Kreuk will star as Cassandra, a local librarian who becomes Alberg’s muse, foil and romantic interest. (Variety)

ORDERED TO SERIES

ABC has ordered an untitled drama series from Ryan Murphy that will star Joshua Jackson (Dawson’s Creek and Fatal Attraction). Exact plot details are being kept under wraps, but it is rumored the series is to be a medical procedural, slated to premiere during the 2024-2025 TV season. (Variety)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

NBC is eyeing a return to the medical drama New Amsterdam with a sequel that would center on Max’s adult daughter Luna Goodwin, who was featured in the series finale. Tentatively titled New Amsterdam: Tomorrow, the potential offshoot would be set 30 years in the future and would explore the role of artificial intelligence in advancing medicine as Luna steps into her father’s role as Medical Director of New Amsterdam Hospital. It is unclear if Molly Griggs, who played Luna in that series finale episode, would reprise her role if the sequel series moves forward, though. (Deadline and TV Line)

BOX OFFICE CASTING NEWS

Maisy Stella (the younger of the Stella sisters who appeared as Connie Britton’s daughters in the ABC musical drama Nashville and made heads turn in this year’s Sundance hit My Old Ass, yep that’s the movie title!) and Christian Covery (who stars in the Netflix series Sweet Tooth) will star in a mysterious new project alongside Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor. Plot details are being kept under wraps though. (Variety)

Brian Cox (Succession) will provide the voice for Santa Claus in the upcoming Netflix festive animated feature film That Christmas, starring alongside Fiona Shaw (the Harry Potter franchise), Jodie Whittaker (Doctor Who) and Bill Nighy (Love Actually). (Variety)

Ilfenesh Hadera (Godfather of Harlem) will star opposite Denzel Washington in the crime thriller flick High and Low, an English-language reinterpretation of the Akira Kurosawa 1963 crime thriller, which is loosely based on the 1959 novel King’s Ransom by Evan Hunter. (Deadline)

Looks like the cult favorite film The Boondock Saints will be back for more in what is being called a universe expansion of the action film franchise about the fraternal twin Irish brothers who raise holy hell to rid their Boston hometown of all criminals. Original stars Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flanery will be back as the MacManus brothers, with Billy Connolly playing their father. (Deadline)

Elizabeth Olsen (the Marvel franchise), Miles Teller (Top Gun: Maverick) and Callum Turner (Masters of the Air) will star in a new rom-com. Plot details are being closely guarded, though. (Digital Spy and Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWAL/CANCELLATION

CBS has renewed Fire Country already for a 3rd season. (TV Line)

Power Book II: Ghost will come to an end after its upcoming 4th season on Starz. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Alice Lee (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist) will guest star in the pilot episode of the Suits spin-off, Suits L.A., and if they show is ordered to series, she will recur as Leah, a young associate attorney at Black Lane Law who has been assigned to work with (or, as it turns out, for) entertainment attorney Erica Rollins (Lex Scott Davis). (TV Line)

Mariel Molino (The Watchful Eye) will play the female lead opposite Austin Stowell in the spin-off prequel NCIS: Origins, which will be narrated by Mark Harmon, who originated the role of Leroy Jethro Gibbs, to be played by Stowell. Molino will play Special Agent Lala Dominguez, a former Marine who navigates her 1990s male-dominated field with a steely resolve and a dark sense of humor. When a tormented Leroy Jethro Gibbs joins her team, the ensuing story between these two enigmatic outsiders is filled with sparks and turns that will keep the audience guessing. (Deadline)

Eric Bana will star in, and executive producer, the Netflix limited series Untamed, a character driven mystery thriller, playing Eric Inman, 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 Inman on a collision course with the dark secrets within the park, and in his own past. (Variety)

Jurnee Smollett (Lovecraft Country has joined the cast of the Apple TV+ series Firebug that will star Taron Egerton. She will play Michelle, a rising star detective. The series will be loosely based on true events and inspired by a podcast of the same name. Egerton will star as an enigmatic arson investigator. They will pursue two serial arsonists. (Variety)

The 1000th episode of the NCIS franchise will feature guest stars Daniela Ruah, from the now defunct NCIS: Los Angeles and Vanessa Lachey from NCIS: Hawai’i. Also, Spence Moore II (All American and Superman & Lois) will appear in the episode as well as Jared, Director Leon Vance’s son. (TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Starz is developing another series in the Power franchise. This time it will be a prequel called Origins, which will follow the beginning story of characters Ghost and Tommy. (Variety)

ORDERED TO SERIES

Netflix has announced the following new shows set for 2025:

The Undertow, a crime noir series, to star Jamie Dornan;
The Choice, a high-stakes political thriller, to star Surane Jones (Vigil) and Julie Delpy as the French President and British Prime Minister respectively; and,
Black Rabbit, a limited series that will star Jason Bateman and Jude Law. (Variety)

MOVIE NEWS

Zachary Levi, Zooey Deschanel, Lil Rel Howery and Jemaine Clement will all star in the box office film Harold and the Purple Crayon, based on the 1955 picture book by Crockett Johnson with Levi playing an adult version of the titular character, setting the stage for an adventure filled with imagination, color and bringing a world of fantasy to life in the modern day. (Collider)

Arnold Schwarenegger will star with Alan Ritchson in the family Christmas comedy The Man With the Bag from Amazon MGM Studios. The film will center on Santa Claus learning that his magic bag has been swiped, leading Old St. Nick to team up with Vance, a reformed thief and denizen of the naughty list, to get it back. The duo also enlist Vance’s daughter and a team of misfit elves to help them save Christmas. (The Hollywood Reporter)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

CANCELLATION

Netflix has pulled the plug on the Michelle Yeoh-led series The Brothers Sun after only one season. (Deadline and TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Sara Ramirez won’t return for the upcoming season 3 of And Just Like That…, the sequel series to Sex and the City. There has been no official reason behind her departure. (TV Line)

The Outlander prequel series: Outlander: Blood of My Blood announced more casting for younger versions of well-known characters from the original series. Rory Alexander (Hulu’s mini-series Pistol) will play Murtagh Fraser; Sam Retford (the UK’s Coronation Street) will play Dougal MacKenzie; newcomer Seamus McLean Ross will play Colum MacKenzie and Conor MacNeil (The Tourist and Industry) will play Ned Gowan. (TV Line)

Funny man Eugene Levy has joined the cast of Only Murders in the Building for the show’s upcoming 4th season. He will have a recurring role, but exact details on what that role will be are being kept under wraps. (Variety)

Nick Offerman and Betty Gilpin have joined the cast of the upcoming Netflix historical drama Death by Lightning, joining Matthew Macfadyen and Michael Shannon in a story about U.S. President James Garfield (Shannon) and his assassination by Charles Guiteau (Macfadyen). Gilpin will play Crete Garfield, the First Lady and President Garfield’s wife while Offerman will play Chester A. Arthur, Garfield’s vice president and eventual successor. (Variety)

Actress Lex Scott Davis (the box office film The First Purge and The L Word: Generation Q) has joined the cast of the spin-off series Suits L.A. that will star Arrow alum Stephen Amell in the lead role. Davis will play Erica Rollins, a savvy and strong-willed rising star at the firm who is shrewd enough to test the loyalty of her associates only to admire some of them for not having any. (TV Line)

Peacock has a new horror thriller series set to debut called Teacup, which is inspired by author Rogert McCammon’s novel called Stinger. Yvonne Strahovski (The Handmaid’s Tale and Chuck), Scott Speedman (Felicity and Grey’s Anatomy) and Chaske Spencer (Echo and The English) have all been cast in the series with Strahovski set to be a producer on the project too. The series will center on a group of people in rural Georgia, who must come together in the face of a mysterious threat in order to survive. Strahovski will play Maggie Chenoweth while Speedman will play James Chenoweth and Spencer will play Ruben Shanley. No other details are available about their roles in the series. (The Hollywood Reporter and Variety)

Jessica Green (The CW’s sci-fi series The Outpost) will be back on the CW as a series regular in The Librarians: The Next Chapter, a spin-off series, which will center on a Librarian from the past, who time traveled to the present and now finds himself stuck here. When he returns to his castle, which is now a museum, he inadvertently releases magic across the continent. He is given a new team to help him clean up the mess he made, forming a new team of Librarians. Green will play Charlie Cornwall, the Guardian. Charlie, having been rejected by the Library to serve as a Guardian – essentially the bodyguard of The Librarian – was at a low point in her life when she got the call to be a “special guardian” on a trial basis. Trained in the military, her dedication and martial art skills are unquestionable. If she can keep the powers that be in line, she can achieve her dream to become a permanent member of the Library. (Deadline)

Attention fans of the PBS period drama Miss Scarlet & the Duke. Some shocking news was announced this week. Stuart Martin will not be returning as the Duke for the show’s 5th season! Instead, the show will now be called Miss Scarlet. (TV Line)

Netflix has picked up the medical procedural Pulse that will star Justina Machado. The official description of the show is: While the staff of Miami’s busiest Level 1 Trauma Center navigate medical emergencies, young ER doc Dani Simms is unexpectedly promoted to Chief Resident amidst the fallout of her own provocative romantic relationship. Machado will play Natalie Cruz, a brilliant and politically-savvy doctor, who oversees both administration and medicine in her role as the Chair of Surgery and Emergency Medicine. (Variety)

The Netflix upcoming western drama The Abandons, from Kurt Sutter (Sons of Anarchy) has added new cast members, including Nick Robinson (Love, Victor and Jurassic World) and Lucas Till (the MacGyver remake and the X-Men film franchise). They will star alongside Lena Headey and Gillian Anderson in a story about a group of diverse, outlier families who pursue their Manifest Destiny in 1850s Oregon, as they face a corrupt force of wealth and power, coveting their land, and who are trying to force them out. (Variety)

NEW SERIES ORDERED

Amazon Prime has ordered El Gato, a drama series that will be based on the comic book El Gate Negro by Richard Dominguez; and will star Diego Boneta (the box office movies Rock of Ages and Terminator: Dark Fate) as Frank Guerrero, who returns home to Mexico after the death of his father, finding himself neck deep in a nest of vipers – his estranged family – who are vying for control of his father’s business empire. But Frank’s grief is interrupted when he learns his only inheritance, a seemingly worthless parcel of land on the border, sits atop the lair of a famous costumed vigilante. His father was ‘El Gato.’ Now, Frank is in the crosshairs. To survive, he’ll have to solve mysteries decades in the making and unravel the truth about his father’s connections to a modern-day terror plot. (Variety)

Paramount+ has ordered an NCIS off-shoot series that will reunite Michael Weatherley and Cote de Pablo, on-screen for the first time since October 2013, reprising their roles of Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David. The series has yet to be given an official title, but the show is expected to open with Tony and Ziva raising their daughter together; but when Tony’s security company is attacked, they must go on the run across Europe, trying to figure out who is after them — and maybe even learn to trust each other again? — so that they can finally have their unconventional happily ever after. (TV Line)

Apple TV+ has ordered a series adaptation of the novel Neuromancer by author William Gibson. The 10-episode series will follow a damaged, top-rung super-hacker named Case who is thrust into a web of digital espionage and high stakes crime with his partner Molly, a razor-girl assassin with mirrored eyes, aiming to pull a heist on a corporate dynasty with untold secrets. (Variety)

NBC has given a series order to a new drama series called The Hunting Game that will be a high-concept crime procedural about a small team of investigators who are assembled to track down and capture the most dangerous killers our country has ever seen, all of whom have just escaped from a top-secret prison that’s not supposed to exist. (Variety)

Paramount+ is expanding the Ray Donovan universe with a 10-episode order for The Donovans, a new drama “loosely based” on the original series. But this time, no one from behind or in front of the camera on the original show will be involved. Instead, this version will center on a similarly-named family of “elite fixers” in London whose client list includes some of the most powerful people in Europe. (TV Line)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

Lauren Holly (NCIS and Picket Fences) and Bruce Boxleitner (Babylon 5 and Scarecrow and Mrs. King) are joining Jill Wagner and Jesse Hutch for the holiday movie Aurora Christmas, which will air over on Great American Family. The movie follows Erin (Wagner), who joins her dad Doug (Boxleitner) for a Christmas in the family’s former hometown of Aurora on a mission that is part business and a major bucket list item for Erin to see the Aurora Borealis light up the Northern sky. Realtor Lori (Holly) and family friend and local tour guide Trevor (Hutch) create a Christmas inspired at every turn by faith, love, and hope, so much so that Christmas bells hung over decades in a forest grove ring an unbroken song, a harbinger of miracles to come. (Deadline)

Also over on Great American Family there will be a new mystery movie series starring Candace Cameron Bure, who until recently had been the lead star in 18 Aurora Teagarden mystery movies over on Hallmark. Now, Bure will play Ainsley McGregor based on the books by Candace Havens. The new franchise will follow Ainsley McGregor, a former Chicago criminologist who returns to her hometown of Sweet River, Texas. She has chosen to trade full-time crime work to open Bless Your Arts, a market for artisans to sell crafts and wares. But Ainsley cannot deny her first love is crime solving and accepts a position teaching a criminology class at the local community college. Her skills quickly become a major asset to the quaint town, when a murder occurs at a winery owned by her friend, who now stands accused of the crime. The Sweet River Sheriff, who just happens to be Ainsley’s brother, Ryan, wants her to stay out of the investigation. But Ainsley knows the pieces of this puzzle do not fit. To help her friend and with the unexpected assistance from some goodhearted local busybodies – Ainsley McGregor is back on the case. The franchise will co-star Aaron Ashmore (Veronica Mars and Killjoys) and BJ Harrison (Family Law and a long-time co-star of Hallmark movies). (Variety)

BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS

Emily Blunt is expected to star, once again, alongside Dwayne Johnson in the upcoming box office movie The Smashing Machine. Johnson will play MMA and UFC champion Mark Kerr with Blunt in talks to play Dawn Staples, Kerr’s wife. (Variety)

Joshua Jackson has joined the cast of the upcoming reboot of The Karate Kid that will find Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan both reprising their roles of Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Han respectively. Little is known at this time about this reboot nor the role Jackson will play in the movie. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Priyanka Chopra Jonas will star in the box office flick The Bluff with Karl Urban in talks to also star. The movie will be set in the 19th century Caribbean, following a former female pirate (Chopra Jonas) who must protect her family when the mysterious sins of her past catch up to her. (Deadline)

Wendell Pierce (Suits and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan) has joined the cast of the latest Superman movie coming from James Gunn. He will play Perry White, the iconic editor-in-chief of The Daily Planet. (The Hollywood Reporter)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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