Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

AMC has pulled the plug on Talamasca: The Secret Order after only one season. (Variety)

CBS has pulled the plug on the medical drama Watson after two seasons while the new spin-off series CIA has been renewed for a second season. (Variety and Deadline)

Paramount+ has given School Spirits a fourth season renewal while Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will come to an end after its second season. (The Hollywood Reporter)

NBC has renewed Chicago Fire, Chicago Med and Chicago P.D. for new seasons. (Deadline)

Disney+ has given Wonder Man a second season renewal. (Variety)

For All Mankind has been renewed for its 6th and final season by Apple TV. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Oscar winner Mahersala Ali has joined the second season of the Mark Ruffalo-led HBO crime drama Task. (Variety)

Will & Grace alum Sean Hayes has joined the cast of The Morning Show for its upcoming 5th season, playing Wyatt, Bro’s (Boyd Holbrook) quick-witted older brother and manager. (Deadline)

Mary McCormack (The West Wing and In Plain Sight) will appear in the second season of the hit medical drama The Pitt on HBO Max. She will play neurosurgeon Dr. Linda Conley. Also, Sara Wyle, the real life wife of star Noah Wyle, will appear as ER patient Ashley Davis. (TV Line)

Chris Lee, who plays tech whiz Randy in the CBS drama Tracker, has been promoted to series regular. (Deadline)

Lost alum Sonya Walger will have the recurring role of Freya in the Amazon Prime live-action TV series God of War. (Variety)

Both Kim Raver and Kevin McKidd will be leaving the long-in-the-tooth ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy at the end of this season. They were informed of their leaving about a month ago, and their last appearances will be on the show’s upcoming season finale. (Deadline)

The MGM+ series Bosch: Start of Watch has added a few familiar faces to its cast, including Once Upon a Time alum Raphael Sbarge, Castle alum Seamus Dever and Chuck alum Ryan McPartlin. This prequel series will be set in 1991 Los Angeles, following 26-year-old Harry Bosch (Shameless’s Cameron Monaghan) during his earliest days as a rookie cop. Sbarge will play Sergeant “Sunshine” Finn, a cold and meticulous sergeant whose rigid, detail-oriented standards spark fear in rookies. Dever will play Officer Hastings, aka “Mr. Fix It”, a blunt, no-nonsense training officer assigned to boots on the brink of not passing probation. And, McPartlin will play Detective Mike Garner, a pigheaded CRASH detective who quickly shuts Bosch down for overstepping. (Deadline)

MOVIE NEWS

Vanessa Kirby (The Crown) and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Wonder Man and Aquaman) will star in the Apple sci-fi action-thriller Liminal, which will take place in a world where a tenth of the population suddenly gains telepathic powers as a result of electromagnetic disturbance. (Deadline)

Tom Hanks will appear in an upcoming box office movie based on the short story The Comebacker by Pulitzer Prize finalist Dave Eggers, which will be directed by Marielle Heller for whom Hanks worked with on the 2019 box office movie A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Rapper Bad Bunny and Emmy winner Colman Domingo are also eyeing roles in the project. (Variety)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Looks like Netflix is planning a reboot of the Jennifer Garner flick 13 Going on 30 with Lady Jane and People We Meet on Vacation alum Emily Bader and Hunters alum Logan Lerman in the lead roles. Garner will also serve as an executive producer. Plot details for the film reboot are under wraps, though. (Deadline)

Looks like filmmaker Ryan Coogler (the Oscar nominated Sinners) is working on a TV reboot of The X-Files with Himesh Patel (Yesterday and The Franchise) and Danielle Deadwyler (Till) set to star in the production that will focus on the unlikely bond formed when two people are assigned to a long-shuttered division devoted to cases involving unexplained phenomena. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS

Amazon Prime has given a third season renewal to Cross. (Variety)

Hulu has given Paradise a third season renewal. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Grey’s Anatomy alum Jesse Williams has joined the 5th season cast of The Morning Show. He will play Vernon, UBN’s newest Head of News, who is known as a brash pot-stirrer with a talent for grabbing and keeping an audience. (Deadline)

Veteran actress Judith Light has joined the cast of the Apple TV drama Presumed Innocent for its upcoming second season, but details about her character are being kept under wraps. (Variety)

Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams, Dirty Dancing alum Jennifer Grey, Terry Chen (Almost Famous) and character actor (and cousin to Tom Cruise) William Mapother [among others] have joined the cast of the upcoming Netflix limited series The Altruists, which will be about Sam Bankman-Fried, the “poster boy” of cryptocurrency who was convicted of fraud and related crimes. The series will focus on Bankman-Fried (Anthony Boyle) and Caroline Ellison (Julia Garner), two hyper-smart, ambitious young idealists who tried to remake the global financial system in the blink of an eye before they were accused of stealing $8 billion and became the Bonnie & Clyde of Gen Z.  (Deadline)

Some familiar faces will be showing up in season three of the CBS drama Elsbeth, including Broadway legend Patti LuPone, Ugly Betty alum Michael Urie and Madam Secretary cast member Erich Bergen. LuPone will play Ruby Lane, a legendary New York cabaret performer who makes her home in the hotel where she sings. Urie will play Monty Blakemont III, a dashing art connoisseur and philanthropist. And, Bergen will play Otis Langley, a TV personality and celebrity reporter with a charming smile and a nasty reputation. (Deadline)

The upcoming 5th season of the Netflix series The Lincoln Lawyer has added new cast members, including Doom Patrol alum Diane Guerrero, Richard Cabral (Mayans), Steve Howey (High Potential) and veteran actor Corbin Bernsen [among others]. Cobie Smulders, who was introduced in the recent 4th season finale, has been promoted to series regular for the new, upcoming season. There are no specific details about the roles these new cast members will play other than their names. (Deadline)

Amazon Prime is planning a limited series about astronaut Sally Ride with Twilight actress Kristen Stewart set for the lead role. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Netflix has announced additions to its upcoming live-action Scooby Doo cast, which already stars Mckenna Grace as Daphne Blake. Tanner Hagen (The Pitt and Dark Light) will play Shaggy Rogers; Abby Ryder Fortson (Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret) will play Velma Dinkley and Maxwell Jenkins (Lost in Space) will play Fred Jones. (Deadline)

PILOT CASTING NEWS

Actor Felix Solis, best known for The Rookie, Ozark and The Rookie: Feds, has joined the NBC pilot The Rockford Files where he will play the James Rockford’s (to be played by Angel and SEAL Team star David Boreanaz) best friend Nitty. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

The upcoming animated movie Minions & Monsters (from the long-running Minions franchise) will feature voices provided by Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Jeff Bridges, Zoey Deutch, Jesse Eisenberg and Trey Parker. (Deadline)

Looks like a sequel movie for A Minecraft Movie is in the works and Kirsten Dunst has officially joined the cast. There are no details on who she will play or what the movie will be about, though. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS

CBS has already given the brand new drama, and Yellowstone spin-off series, Marshals a second season renewal. (Deadline)

FOX has given the medical drama Doc a third season renewal. (Deadline)

The new period piece drama The Forsytes, which will debut on PBS next Sunday, has a second and third season coming up in the UK, and hopefully US viewers will eventually get to see those seasons at a later time. (Deadline)

NOT MOVING FORWARD

The Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot that was to bring Sarah Michelle Gellar back to her role from the original series along with newcomer Ryan Kiera Armstrong in the lead role is not moving forward at Hulu. The news arrives a year after the streamer ordered a pilot for the project. The decision follows weeks of speculation about the fate of the pilot. (Deadline)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Fans of Firefly and Serenity have been seeing short videos of Nathan Fillion and several of his cast mates from this classic TV series and its sequel movie on social media recently, and now we know what’s actually going on. Fillion and his production banner Collision33 along with married writing-producing team Marc Guggenheim (Arrow) and Tara Butters (Agent Carter), who will serve as showrunners, are in advanced development on an animated Firefly series that will be set in the timeline between the original 2002 television run and its 2005 feature film continuation, Serenity, expanding the universe while preserving continuity with the established lore. Fillion will be joined by all of his cast members including Alan Tudyk, Gina Torres, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, Sean Maher, Summer Glau and Adam Baldwin. The fully assembled package is expected to be taken out to buyers shortly. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Noah Beck (Sidelined and Sidelined 2), Brooks Nader (Love They Nader), Shay Mitchell (the original Pretty Little Liars) and Livvy Dunne (social media star and gymnast) have all been cast in the Baywatch sequel series on FOX, which will star Arrow alum Stephen Amell as the grown-up Hobie Buchannon (small screen son of original series star David Hasselhoff in his legendary role Mitch Buchannon). Beck will play Luke, a rookie lifeguard, and the youngest in a family of firefighters who chose the beach over the firehouse. Nader will play Selene, the sharp-tongued Captain of the Zuma Beach lifeguards; she and Baywatch Captain Hobie Buchannon have a very different approach to saving lives that is a constant source of friction. Mitchell will play Trina, a former lawyer who walked away from a white-shoe law firm to become a full-time lifeguard. And Dunne will have the recurring role of Grace, a highly enthusiastic junior lifeguard. (Deadline and Variety)

Jordana Brewster (Fast & Furious franchise) and Jennifer Jason Leigh (Single White Female) have joined the cast of the upcoming Amazon Prime drama series Bishop, which was recently given a greenlight. Joel Kinnaman (Altered Carbon and The Killing) and legendary actor John Malkovich also star. Kinnaman will play homicide detective Bishop Graves, who puts all of his skills to the test in the hunt for an elusive killer targeting San Francisco’s moneyed class. As this increasingly audacious killer develops a devoted following among the city’s powerless, Bishop becomes convinced these murders connect back to SF’s most powerful man, his own father, Lincoln Graves (Malkovich). Brewster will play Kat Claiborne, a seasoned inspector at the San Francisco Police Department and Leigh will play Lincoln Graves’ sister, and aunt to Bishop. (Deadline)

Zuri Red (National Treasure: Edge of History) will play the younger version of Tasha in the Starz spin-off prequel Power: Origins, which will be centered around the early years of the two lead characters from the original series, James “Ghost” St. Patrick (played by Omari Hardwick) and Tommy Egan (Joseph Sikora), who will be played in their younger years by Spence Moore II and Charlie Mann, respectively. (Deadline)

Jane the Virgin alum Gina Rodriguez will appear in the season finale of Matlock, but what role she will play is being kept under wraps. (Variety)

Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones will make his first TV appearance in nearly four decades in the FX Ethan Hawke-led drama The Lowdown, but there are no details on what role he will play. (Deadline)

Blair Underwood will join the cast of the FOX medical drama Doc for its newly announced third season, playing Dr. Ben Grant, a world-class trauma and cardiothoracic surgeon with an ego that somehow outpaces even his resume. A once-in-a-generation talent with the swagger to match, he doesn’t just save lives, he owns the OR. Impossibly magnetic and even more confident, he’s never not been the smartest person in the room until he meets Dr. Amy Larsen (series lead Molly Parker). Almost instantly, their approaches clash, egos collide, and sparks fly like Westside has never seen. Together, their brilliance is unmatched —as long as they can survive each other. He will appear in the show’s second season two-hour finale and then will be a series regular in the third season. (Deadline)

9-1-1 alum Lou Ferrigno Jr. has been cast in Season 2 of the HBO Max medical drama The Pitt, playing orthopedic surgeon Dr. Brendon Park. (TV Line)

Brillian Minds – which will be back at the end of May – has announced that Ed Begley Jr., Anne Archer, Mamie Gummer and Ana Ortiz will all appear in the final six episodes of the show’s second season. (Variety)

The Hunting Party over on NBC will see the following appear as escaped “residents” of the pit in upcoming episodes: Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly and Yellowstone), Kevin McHale (Glee), John Corbett (Sex and the City and My Big Fat Greek Wedding) and ventriloquist comedian Jeff Dunham will be one of the victims. (Variety)

Marco Grazzini and Lauren Hammersley will be leaving Virgin River after the show’s current season which is airing on Netflix, meaning they will not be the show’s 8th season, but both could return in subsequent seasons. (Deadline)

Merle Dandridge (Station 19 and The Last of Us) has joined the cast of the USA Network series The Rainmaker as a series regular, playing Amanda Vonn, a powerhouse attorney who provides a fresh gateway to power for Sarah (Madison Iseman) and a new kind of adversary for Rudy (Milo Callaghan). (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Universal Pictures is working on a biopic on the formative years of Bon Jovi, who emerged from humble beginnings in New Jersey to sell over 130 millions albums. (Deadline)

Aaron Pierre (Rebel Ridge and the upcoming Lanterns) will appear in the Man of Tomorrow, the sequel to the 2025 Superman movie from director James Gunn. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATION

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

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

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

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

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

TV CASTING NEWS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DEVELOPMENT NEWS/COMMISSIONED SERIES

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

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

PILOT CASTING NEWS

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

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

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWAL

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

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

TV CASTING NEWS

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

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

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

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

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

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

BOX OFFICE NEWS

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

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

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

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

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

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWAL

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

TV CASTING NEWS

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

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

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

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

BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS

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

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

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

PILOT NEWS

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

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

TV CASTING NEWS

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

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

TV SHOW DEVELOPMENT NEWS

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

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

BOX OFFICE NEWS

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

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

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

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

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

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS

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

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

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

PULLED FROM THE SCHEDULE

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

BOX OFFICE AND STREAMING MOVIE NEWS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWAL

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

BOX OFFICE NEWS

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

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

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

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

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

TV CASTING NEWS

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

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

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

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

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

NEW DRAMAS

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

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

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

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

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATION

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

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

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

TV CASTING NEWS

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

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

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

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

That’s it. Enjoy!

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