Rueben's Ramblings

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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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATION

Audible has pulled the plug on the podcast Slayers: A Buffyverse Story. (TV Line)

HBO, on the other hand, has given a 5th season renewal to True Detective. (TV Line)

PBS has given All Creatures Great and Small a two-season renewal, extending it to seasons 5 and 6. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS

Colin Hanks and Mark O’Brien will star in the box office movie Nuremberg alongside Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, Michael Shannon, Richard E. Grant, Leo Woodall, John Slattery, Wrenn Schmidt and Lotte Verbeek [among others]. The film will chronicle the eponymous trials held between 1945 and 1946 by the Allies against the defeated Nazi regime. (Variety)

Director Sam Mendes has plans to make four separate movies about The Beatles, one movie for each band member: John, Paul, George and Ringo, telling the astonishing story of the greatest band in history, leading up to their 1970 breakup. (Variety)

America Ferrera will star in the upcoming drama The Lost Bus that will also star Matthew McConaughey. The film is based on the Lizzie Johnson book “Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire” about the devastating 2018 California wildfires that resulted in over 100 deaths and destroyed the majority of the town of Paradise. The fires were the deadliest in the state’s history. The movie centers on Kevin McKay (McConaughey) and Mary Ludwig (Ferrera), a bus driver and teacher who lead a school bus full of young students through the Camp Fire. (Variety)

Natasha Lyonne and Simon Baker will star opposite Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams in the box office film Klara and the Sun, which is to be directed by Taika Waititi. The film is based on the Kazuo Ishiguro best-selling novel that tells the story of Klara (Ortega), an Artificial Friend designed to prevent loneliness. Klara is purchased by a mother (Adams) and a bright teen named Josie who adores her new robot companion, but suffers from a mysterious illness. This is the story of Klara’s quest to save Josie and those who love her from heartbreak and how, in the process, Klara learns the power of human love. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Oscar-winner Troy Kotsur has joined the upcoming 3rd season of Foundation, playing Preem Palver, the leader of a planet of psychics in the sci-fi epic, which is based on the Issac Asimov novels. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Josh McDermitt (The Walking Dead) will star opposite Stephen Amell Arrow) in the spin-off drama Suits L.A., which will center on Ted Black (Amell), a former federal prosecutor from New York, who has reinvented himself representing the most powerful clients in Los Angeles. His firm is at a crisis point, and in order to survive he must embrace a role he held in contempt his entire career. Ted is surrounded by a group of characters who test their loyalties to both Ted and each other while they can’t help but mix their personal and professional lives. All of this is going on while events from years ago slowly unravel that led Ted to leave behind everything and everyone he loved. Fifteen years ago, Ted Black (Amell) joined forces with his old buddy, Stuart Lane (McDermitt), to build an L.A. law firm, Black Lane Law, that specializes in criminal and entertainment law. (Deadline)

Eva Longoria has joined the 4th season of the Hulu series Only Murders in the Building in a recurring role that has yet to be announced. (Variety)

Piper Perabo (Yellowstone and Covert Affairs) has joined the cast of the Amazon Prime series Butterfly that will star Daniel Dae Kim and is based on the BOOM! Studios graphic novel, which is centered on David Jung (Kim), an enigmatic, highly unpredictable former US intelligence operative living in South Korea, whose life is blown to pieces when the consequences of an impossible decision from his past come back to haunt him, and he finds himself pursued by Rebecca, a deadly, sociopathic young agent assigned to kill him. Perabo will star as Juno, a brilliant, formidable, Machiavellian woman, who was once an idealistic lawyer, but has since come to the conclusion that she needs power and money to get anything done in this world. (Variety)

The Flash alum Rick Cosnett will have a key recurring role in 9-1-1 when it premieres on its new home – ABC – on March 14. He will play the charismatic cruise director Julian Enes. (Deadline)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Netflix is in prequel mode with plans to develop a Virgin River preqel that could explore the origin story between Mel’s (series lead Alexandra Breckenridge) late mom, Sarah, and Everett Reid, who was recently revealed to be Mel’s biological father. (TV Line and Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWAL

Apple TV+ has renewed the sci-fi drama Invasion for a third season. (Variety)

While it hasn’t been officially announced yet, it’s looking like the CW could be renewing the new drama Wild Cards for a second season. According to CW President of Entertainment Brad Schwartz, they have not renewed it yet but a conversation is happening right now. (Deadline)

NEW SERIES ORDER

NBC has ordered a drama pilot from Jenna Bans and Bill Krebs, who both worked on Good Girls on NBC. The project is titled Grosse Pointe Garden Society and will center on four members of a suburban garden club, all from different walks of life, who get caught up in murder and mischief as they struggle to make their conventional lives bloom. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Jon Hamm is the latest addition to the growing cast of the next Taylor Sheridan series Landman that will be set in the proverbial boomtowns of West Texas and is a modern-day tale of fortune seeking in the world of oil rigs. The series will be an upstairs/downstairs story of roughnecks and wildcat billionaires fueling a boom so big, it’s reshaping our climate, our economy and our geopolitics. Hamm will have the recurring role of Monty Miller, a titan of the Texas oil industry who has a long personal and professional relationship with Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thornton). (The Hollywood Reporter)

The Netflix series adaptation of the Judy Blume novel Forever has cast its leads. Lovie Simone, who will soon be seen the the Apple TV+ period piece drama Manhunt) and relative newcomer Michael Cooper Jr will star in the epic love story of two Black teens exploring romance and their identities through the awkward journey of being each other’s firsts. (Variety)

The CW has given a TV series order to Sherlock & Daughter, which will see David Thewlis (the Harry Potter franchise and Wonder Woman) starring in the title lead role, which the renowned detective out of his comfort zone, mysteriously unable to investigate a sinister case without risking the lives of his closest friends. He then meets Amelia (Blu Hunt), an American who, after her mother’s mysterious murder, learns that Sherlock may be her missing father. Despite wildly different backgrounds and attitudes, the pair must work together to solve a global conspiracy, crack her mother’s murder and find out for sure if she really is Sherlock’s daughter. The cast also includes Dougray Scott as Holmes’ nemesis, Moriarty. (Variety)

Stephen Amell (Arrow and Heels) has landed the starring role in the spin-off series Suits: LA, which will center on Ted Black (Amell), a former federal prosecutor from New York who is described as a charismatic force of nature who puts his own needs above others. Ted joined forces 15 years ago with his old buddy, Stuart Lane, to build an L.A. law firm that specializes in criminal and entertainment law. No other casting details have been announced yet. (TV Line)

Leo Woodall, who can currently be seen in the small screen adaptation of One Day on Netflix and Quintessa Swindell (Black Adam) will star in the thriller series Prime Target at Apple TV+. The 8-episode drama will follow a mathematical genius as he’s plunged into a troubling conspiracy just as he’s about to make a major computational breakthrough. Woodall will play math post-graduate Edward Brooks, who’s on the verge of working out how to access every computer in the world via a unique mathematical pattern when he realizes someone is trying to stop him. Swindell will play NSA agent Taylah Sanders, whose job it is to watch and report on mathematicians with world-changing ideas. The cast will also include Stephen Rea, David Morrissey and Martha Plimpton [among others]. (Variety)

Simu Liu (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) will star in an espionage techno-thriller that has been ordered straight to series at Peacock but remains untitled. The premise of the series is five minutes in the future, a first-generation-American intelligence analyst Alexander Hale (Liu) realizes his brain has been hacked, giving the perpetrators access to everything he sees and hears. Caught between his shadowy agency and the unknown hackers, he must maintain a performance 24/7 to flush out who’s responsible and prove where his allegiance lies. (Variety)

Molly Shannon will be joining the cast of Only Murders in the Building on Hulu for the comedy’s 4th season, playing a high-powered Los Angeles businesswoman who finds herself drawn into the world of the investigation in New York. Also, Meryl Streep will reprise her role as Loretta Durkin. (Deadline and TV Line)

Season 2 of The Night Agent on Netflix has added to its cast. Michael Malarkey (The Vampire Diaries) and Keon Alexander (The Expanse) have joined as series regulars. Malarkey will play Markus, a military chief and loyal nephew to a dictator newly convicted of war crimes by the Hague. Alexander will play Javad, who oversees security for the Iranian Mission to the United Nations and monitors the loyalty of its employees. Meanwhile Navid Negahban (Homeland) and Rob Heaps (Station 11) will appear in the recurring roles of Abbas, the venerable U.N. ambassador for Iran and Tomas, the elitist son of the aforementioned deposed dictator, who is keen on restoring his family to power, respectively. Season 2 will follow Peter Sutherland (series lead Gabriel Basso) as he begins his career as a full-time Night Agent, while maintaining a relationship with Rose Larkin (series lead Luciane Buchanan). (Variety)

Venerable actor Tony Curran has joined the prequel series Outlander: Blood of My Blood, playing Lord Lovat, the grandfather of Jamie Fraser. (Deadline)

Brittany Snow (the Pitch Perfect franchise) and Malin Akerman (Watchmen) will star in the upcoming 8-episode drama series The Hunting Wives at Starz. Snow will play Sophie O’Neill, who moves with her family from the East Coast to deep East Texas. There, she succumbs to socialite Margo’s (Akerman) irresistible charms and finds her life consumed by obsession, seduction and murder. (Variety)

STREAMING MOVIE NEWS

Jennifer Garner just might be joining her ex-husband Ben Affleck’s latest movie, a crime thriller called Animals that is set up at Netflix. And, what’s more, she would be starring opposite Matt Damon in a crime thriller that centers on a mayoral candidate and his wife whose son is kidnapped. Surrounded by plenty of enemies, political and otherwise, the husband and wife have no choice but to get their hands dirty in order to save their son. Garner would play the wife opposite Damon as the candidate. (The Hollywood Reporter)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Ben Wang (American Born Chinese) has landed the lead role in the new version of The Karate Kid, which will find Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan reprising their roles from the movie franchise. Plot details are under wraps though. (Variety)

It would seem that the Gerard Butler disaster film Greenland is getting a sequel with the film going into production in April. Morena Baccarin (Firefly and Homeland) will also return for the sequel. (Variety)

Yet another version of the Fantastic Four is being made this time with Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian), Vanessa Kirby (The Crown), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Bear) and Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things) in the lead roles. Pascal will play Reed Richards (aka Mr. Fantastic), Kirby will play Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, Quinn will play Johnny Storm/The Human Torch and Moss-Bachrach will play Ben Grimm/The Thing. The film is slated to be released ono July 25, 2025. (TV Line)

Elizabeth Olsen and Charles Melton will star in the dark comedy film Love Child that follows Misty, who is stuck in a loveless marriage to a brutish husband. Junior, her precocious 11-year-old, is her only consolation. When Easy, a handsome vagabond stranger, appears, Junior hatches a plan to get rid of his father so that his mother can marry Easy instead. But things end up backfiring, so Junior comes up with yet another plan, this one even more devious, and with more disastrous—and unexpected—consequences. (Deadline)

Will Smith will star in the high-octane action thriller film Sugar Bandits based on the Chuck Hogan book “Devils in Exile,” which centers on an Iraq War veteran who teams up with a crew of fellow vets to target the drug trade in Boston. (Variety)

Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh will star in the box office movie The Mother, which will find her playing an immigrant mother and businesswoman trying to make a new life for her family in America. But when her two teenage sons stumble into trouble with a Boston crime ring, she’s forced to rekindle her past to save them. (Variety)

Laz Alonso (The Boys) has joined the cast of the Guy Ritchie film Fountain of Youth that will star John Krasinski and Natalie Portman as estranged siblings who partner on a global heist to find the mythological Fountain of Youth. (Deadline)

The much talked about two-part film from Kevin Costner – Horizon: An American Saga – which is not only starring the Yellowstone lead but was written and will be directed by him has announced its cast, including Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, Michael Rooker, Luke Wilson, Jeff Fahey and Jamie Campbell Bower. The film will center around the pre- and post-Civil War expansion, highlighting the land’s indigenous community. Information about the specific characters have yet to be announced. (The Pioneer Woman)

Lupita Nyong’o and Chloe Grace Moretz will star in the mixed martial arts film Strawweight, which follows the journeys of two fighters who find themselves competing against each other in the Octagon. One is a young woman (Moretz) whose life is changed forever when she discovers her passion for the UFC, while the other is a former champion (Nyong’o) who is determined to reclaim her title by reinventing herself. Both want the same thing — respect — but only one can come out on top. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWAL

Disney+ has given Percy Jackson and the Olympians a second season renewal. Disney+ has also given Goosebumps a second season renewal. (TV Line and Variety)

BACK FROM THE BEYOND

The series Wynonna Earp came to an end on April 9, 2021, but there is still life left in that Syfy series. The folks over at Tubi, the free streaming service, have give the show a 90-minute special tentatively titled Wynonna Earp: Vengeance that will find the original cast – Melanie Scrofano (Wynonna herself), Tim Rozon (Doc Holliday), Dom Provost-Chalkley (Waverly Earp) and Katherine Barrell (Nicole Haught) all reprising their role along with the show’s creator and executive producer Emily Andras back at the reigns. The special will come out later this year. (Vanity Fair)

NETWORK CHANGES

At the recent winter Television Critics Association press tour, the folks at Hallmark announced some big changes to two of their networks. After 20 years, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries will now be known as Hallmark Mystery, as of March 6 that is; and Hallmark Drama will become Hallmark Family starting on February 28. (Heavy.com)

TV DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Amazon Prime has ordered a psychological mystery thriller limited series from author Harlan Coben and screenwriter Danny Brocklehurst that is based on an original story idea by the two men. Sam Claflin and Bill Nighy are attached to star in Lazarus, which is to follow a man who returns home after his father’s suicide and begins to have disturbing experiences that can’t be explained. He quickly becomes entangled in a series of cold-case murders as he grapples with the mystery of his father’s death and his sister’s murder 25 years ago. Claflin will star as Laz, a well-respected forensic psychologist who has spent his whole life running from the pain of his past. It is only now when he returns home that he is forced to finally face up to it. While Nighy will play Doctor Lazarus, or Dr L., a psychologist and father to Laz, Jenna and Sutton. A beloved figure within his community, he shares his son’s charm, dry humor, and charisma. In death, he wants his son to understand that they are more similar than Laz thinks. (Variety)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

Former When Calls the Heart co-stars Erin Krakow and Daniel Lissing are reuniting for a new Hallmark holiday movie called Santa Tell Me. (Heavy.com)

STAGE ADAPTATION NEWS

Waitress composer and award-winning singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles and Pulitzer finalist playwright Sarah Ruhl are teaming up on a stage musical adaptation of The Interestings, based on the best-selling 2013 novel by Meg Wolitzer. Bareilles will compose the music and lyrics, while Ruhl will write the book that tells the story of six teenagers who meet at summer camp in the 1970s and form a lifelong bond over their shared dream of leading creative and inspiring lives. Decades later in New York City, that bond remains powerful, but so much else has changed. The story traces their lives as they grow together and apart to explore friendship, love, envy, class, art, money, and power; and how all of it can shift and tilt precipitously over the course of a friendship and a life. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS

Lauren Graham has landed her first movie role in 8 years. She will appear in the upcoming holiday movie The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which is based on the classic book by Barbara Robinson, which tells the story of six misfit children who volunteer to star in their town’s Christmas pageant. (Digital Spy and Deadline)

Jack Quaid and Amber Midthunder will star in the upcoming action thriller Novocaine. Quaid will play a sheltered bank executive named Nathan Caine, who has a rare genetic condition that prevents him from feeling physical pain when he is enduring it. When his bank is robbed and one of his co-workers kidnapped, he has to act and finds his greatest liability becomes his greatest strength. (CBR.com)

Toni Collette will star in the comedy A French Pursuit, which is a heartwarming and whimsical tale about a free-spirited woman pursuing love, only to go on a surprising journey of self-discovery. Collette will play Zoe Turner, an unconventional and lively British art teacher who is head over heels for fellow rebel spirit Jean-Louis. But when their plans for a romantic getaway are dashed, she’s heartbroken. (Variety)

Lily Gladstone will star in the Apple Original Films Fancy Dance, in which she also makes her feature directorial debut. The story follows Jax (Gladstone) on the Seneca-Cayuga Reservation in Oklahoma as she cares for her niece Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson) in the wake of her sister’s disappearance. The pair hit the road together in search of Roki’s missing mother, and unearth deep truths around the treatment of Indigenous women in a colonized world. (Variety)

America Ferrera will make her directorial debut in the upcoming Amazon MGM Studios flick I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter based on the best-selling novel by Erika Sanchez, which follows Julia Reyes, a teen with a sharp tongue, a fierce wit and big dreams of becoming a famous writer, somewhere far, far away from Chicago and her traditional Mexican immigrant parents who just can’t understand her love for Whitman, Dickinson and the Ramones. They wish she was more like Olga, Julia’s sister, now eternally perfect since her tragic death. As Julia seeks to break free of her oppressive home, she tries to uncover her sister’s truth, and in the process gains a deep understanding of the wounds her family carries. (Deadline)

Miles Teller has joined cast of Michael, the biopic about Michael Jackson, playing John Branca, the high-powered attorney who helped shepherd Michael’s career from boy band member to King of Pop. (The Wrap)

Naomie Harris and Jameela Jamil have joined the cast of the upcoming rom-com Lola and Freddie, which follows a couple who were once inseparable and totally in love but now, in their 40s and having grown in different directions, are getting a divorce. Lola is thriving in her career while Freddie continues to chase his dream of becoming a screenwriter. When Freddie is hired by a big studio and rekindles a relationship with an old flame, he matures and aligns more with what Lola desired in their marriage. (Variety)

The upcoming rom-com Worth the Wait will star Lana Condor (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before franchise) in a story about the intertwining lives of Asian-American strangers over the course of a year as they find new loves, mend their relationships, and create new connections. This fillm will be a modern approach to Love Actually with a star-studded Asian American cast, including Ross Butler (Shazam! franchise), Sung Kang (Fast & Furious franchise) and Elodie Yung (The Cleaning Lady) [among others]. (Variety)

Karen Gillan will play Mary Tudoer in the upcoming period comedy Fools about the monarch’s friendship with her female court jester. (Deadline)

Claire Foy and Brendan Gleeson will star in the upcoming movie H Is For Hawk, which is based on the memoir by Helen MacDonald that follows Helen (Foy) who, after losing her beloved father (Gleeson), finds herself saved by an unlikely friendship with a stubborn hawk named Mabel. Through the bond, Helen rediscovers the beauty of being alive. (Deadline)

An upcoming biopic called Mr Burton will focus on the man who inspired screen legend Richard Burton. Toby Jones stars in the title role in a story that tells the true story of the relationship between Welsh schoolmaster Philip Burton and a wild young schoolboy called Richard Jenkins. Richard dreamed of becoming an actor, but his ambitions were in danger of being derailed by a combination of family trouble, the pressure of war, and his own lack of discipline. Lesley Manville will play Ma Smith, Philip Burton’s landlady and close confidante, who acts as a watchful eye and guiding force over young Richard. (Deadline)

Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell will star in the upcoming box office flick A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, which is being described as an imaginative tale of two strangers and the unbelievable journey that connects them, but major plot details have not been revealed. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Don Cheadle has joined the cast of the Peacock limited series Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist, which tracks an armed robbery (and its fallout) on the night of Muhammad Ali’s 1970 comeback fight in Atlanta. Cheadle joins a cast that already includes Kevin Hart, Samuel L. Jackson, Taraji P. Henson, Terrence Howard and Dexter Darden (who’s playing Ali) [among others]. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Demi Moore has joined the cast of the newest Taylor Sheridan drama series Landman where she will play Cami, the wife of one of the most powerful oil men in Texas and a friend of Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thornton). The series will be set in the proverbial boomtowns of West Texas and will be an upstairs/downstairs story of roughnecks and wildcat billionaires fueling a boom so big, it’s reshaping our climate, our economy and our geopolitics. The cast will include Ali Larter (Heroes), Michelle Randolph (1923) and Kayla Wallace (When Calls the Heart) [among others]. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Veteran actor Scott Glenn has joined the cast of The White Lotus for season 3, but his role is being kept under wraps. (Variety)

Leslie Grossman (American Horror Story) has joined the cast of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, playing Judalon Smyth, who was Dr. Jerome Oziel’s former patient and mistress who found herself entangled in the Menendez case, and who ultimately played a key role in Lyle and Erik’s arrests. (Deadline)

The Netflix drama Department Q has added Matthew Goode and Kelly Macdonald to the cast; The series is based on the popular crime novel written by Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen. Goode will play DCI Carl Morck. After a violent incident turns Morck’s life upside down, the emotionally scarred detective is charged with setting up cold case unit, Department Q, upon his return to work. At first, the disillusioned cop is happy to waste his days away, but his detective instincts are ultimately reawakened and his new department becomes a magnet for a crew of misfits and mavericks. Macdonald will play Dr. Rachel Irving, a therapist tasked with getting officers back on the front line. (Deadline)

James Marsden, Sarah Shahi and Julianne Nicholson have joined the Sterling K. Brown-led Hulu series – which has yet to be given an official title – from This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman that will find Brown starring as the head of security for a former president. No character details have been released for Marsden, Shahi and Nicholson, though. (TV Line)

Haley Bennett and Dominic Cooper have joined the cast of the upcoming Apple TV+ series The Last Frontier, joining previously announced series lead Jason Clarke. The 10-episode series follows US Marshall Frank Remnick (Clarke), the lone Marshal in charge of the quiet, rugged barrens of Alaska, whose jurisdiction is turned upside-down when a prison transport plane crashes in the remote wilderness, setting free dozens of violent inmates. Tasked with protecting the town he’s vowed to keep safe, he begins to suspect the crash wasn’t an accident, but the first step of a well-crafted plan with international political implications. Bennett will star as Sidney, a CIA Agent who is tasked with working with Frank while Cooper will play Havlock, a former Navy Seal and fugitive who is being hunted by US Marshals and the CIA. (Variety)

Anthony Michael Hall and Sonya Cassidy will appear in season three of Reacher that will find the main man going undercover to rescue an informant held by a haunting foe from his past. Hall will play Zachary Beck, a formidable and successful businessman, while Cassidy will play Sarah Duffy, an extremely intelligent and tough DEA agent from Boston with a sharp and sarcastic sense of humor. (Deadline)

Beau Bridges will take over the role played by Jamey Sheridan in the pilot of the CBS series Matlock that will find Kathy Bates in the title role. He will recur as Senior, the managing partner of New York’s most prestigious law firm, with an indomitable presence that immediately alters the temperature of any room. The man’s influence reaches far and wide, and although he loves his son, Julian (Jason Ritter), he might respect his daughter-in-law, Olympia (Skye P. Marshall), more. (TV Insider)

Jessica Capshaw will be back as Arizona Robbins, in a guest star capacity, on Grey’s Anatomy while Natalie Morales will appear as Monica Beltran, a pediatric surgeon whose pragmatism and level-headedness have made her one of the best in her field. Her willingness to push boundaries can be admirable and aggravating, but it’s always aimed at providing top-quality care to her patients. (TV Line)

Ginacarlo Esposito will take over for the late, great Andre Braugher in the Shonda Rhimes Netflix murder-mystery drama series The Residence, which will star Uzo Aduba, in the screwball whodunnit set in the upstairs, downstairs and backstairs world of the White House, among the eclectic staff of the world’s most famous mansion. After a dead body is found, one wildly eccentric detective (Aduba) comes in to investigate 157 suspects attending a state dinner. Among the cast are Julian McMahon, Jason Lee, Ken Marino, Bronson Pinchot, Susan Kelechi Watson, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Randall Park, Kylie Minogue, Jane Curtin, Eliza Coupe, Brett Tucker and Rebecca Field. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWED

Apple TV+ has given the Idris Elba airline thriller Hijack a second season renewal. Unlike the first season, the new season might not take place on an airplane at all; there’s no word yet on what predicament Sam (Elba’s character) will find himself in this time. Also Elba is the only cast member who’s confirmed to return at this point. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Taraji P. Henson has joined the cast of the upcoming Peacock limited series Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist, joining previously announced cast members Kevin Hart, Samuel J. Jackson and Terrence Howard in a story that will be set in Atlanta in 1970, focusing on the infamous story of how an armed robbery during the night of Muhammad Ali’s historic 1970 comeback fight changed not only one man’s life, but an entire city’s destiny. (Variety)

Recent Emmy winner Matthew Macfadyen and Michael Shannon are set to star in Death by Lightning, a new Netflix series that will examine the rise and eventual assassination of US President James Garfield based on the book “Destiny Of The Republic” by Candice Millard. The drama series will bring to life the epic and stranger-than-fiction true story of James Garfield (Shannon), the reluctant 20th president of the United States, and his greatest admirer Charles Guiteau (Macfadyen) — the man who would come to kill him. (Variety)

Catherine O’Hara has officially joined the second season cast of the HBO series The Last of Us in an undisclosed role. (TV Line)

Sam Waterston is leaving his long-standing role of DA Jack McCoy in Law & Order with his last episode set to air on February 22. Tony Goldwyn (Scandal) will take over, but details on his role as the new district attorney have yet to be revealed. (TV Line)

TV IN DEVELOPMENT

FOX is developing a one-hour drama called Borrowed Time that will include McG as one of its executive producers. The proposed series will focus on Neuroscientist Mimi Peters, who is working to extract memories from the human brain. Her technology is too dangerous to test on the living, but after she proves she can peer into the minds of the dead, FBI Agent Casey Harden comes calling. Together, they form an uneasy partnership using her technology to solve his cases. (Variety)

HBO is developing a limited series based on the Gillian Flynn novel Dark Places. The story focuses on Libby Day who was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in the famous 1985 ‘Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.’ She survived—and famously testified that her teenage brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, a pair of mother/daughter true crime ‘detectives’ locate a grownup Libby and pump her for details, believing that Ben is innocent. Libby, having spent her youth working the talk show circuit, hopes to once again turn a profit off her tragic history: She’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings —for a fee. As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist traps, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started—on the run from a killer. (Variety)

It looks like an official pilot order has been made by NBC for a spin-off to the USA Network series Suits, which found a massive following on Netflix last summer. The new series – Suits: LA – would follow a brand-new character, Ted Black, a former federal prosecutor from New York who has reinvented himself representing the most powerful clients in Los Angeles. With his firm at a crisis point, and in order to survive, he must embrace a role he held in contempt his entire career. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE MOVIES NEWS

Recent Emmy winner Ayo Edebiri is leaving the Marvel’s Thunderbolts movie, due to scheduling issues, and will be replaced by Geraldine Viswanathan (Miracle Workers). The movie already boasts a massive ensemble cast of actors, including Sebastian Stan, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Hannah John-Kamen, Olga Kurylenko and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Specific plot details are being kept top secret though. (Variety)

House of the Dragon’s Milly Alcock will be the next actress to play Supergirl in the new DC Universe. She will headline the upcoming feature film Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. (Variety)

The upcoming biographical drama about Michael Jackson from director Antonie Fuqua will feature Nia Long as Jackson’s mother Katherine. (Variety)

Amazon MGM has acquired a documentary about Celine Dion titled I Am Celine Dion, but the doc won’t be an expansive look at the life and times of the iconic pop singer, instead it will span about a year of the her life, chronicling Dion’s battle with Stiff Person Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that affects the brain and the spinal cord. (Variety)

Real life couple Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon will appear in a new film together, the first time that they have starred in a project together in 20 years, The upcoming comedy titled Connescence finds Bacon playing Stan Olszewski, a sharp, funny, but chronically underachieving security guard who breaks up an attempted robbery at the home of Cynthia Rand (Sedgwick), a successful urologist married to brilliant former Watergate prosecutor Warren Rand (to be played by Judd Hirsch). (ABC News)

Luke Evans and Milla Jovovich will star in the sci-fi action thriller World Breaker that centers on a father and his daughter. Five years previously, a tear in the fabric of reality brought creatures to our world from an alternate dimension bent on our destruction. The father hides his daughter on an island to keep her safe, while he prepares her for survival and the battles to come. But no place is safe. (Variety)

Once Upon a Time alum Lana Parrilla has joined the cast of the action thriller Bad Day at the Office that will find The Mummy alum John Hannah and Pitch Black star Radha Mitchell starring in a story about Karl (Hannah), who wakes up in a wrecked hotel room with no memory of what’s happened, where he is, or even who he is. When he discovers a dead body in the bathtub, it sets into motion a terrifying and explosive series of events that force Karl and hotel maid Molly (Mitchell) on a blind descent into a deceptive world of confusion and conspiracy. There are no specific details on what role Parrilla will play. (Variety)

The box office movie The Last Showgirl wil boats an ensemble cast include Pamela Anderson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Bautista, Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka, and Billie Lourd. The film will follow a seasoned showgirl who must plan for her future when her show abruptly closes after a 30-year run. As a dancer in her fifties, she struggles with what to do next. As a mother, she strives to repair a strained relationship with her daughter, who often took a backseat to her showgirl family. (Deadline)

It looks like Amy Adams just might be starring alongside Wednesday star Jenna Ortega in the box Klara and the Sun, which is set to be directed by Taika Waititi. The movie will tell the story of Klara (Ortega), an Artificial Friend designed to prevent loneliness. Klara is purchased by a mother (Adams) and a bright teen named Josie who adores her new robot companion but suffers from a mysterious illness. This is the story of Klara’s quest to save Josie and those who love her from heartbreak and how in the process Klara learns the power of human love. (Deadline)

The urban thriller Break the Cycle will boast Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr., Vivica Fox, Vernon Davis and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson among its cast. The movie wil ldelve into the lives of two brothers whose childhood is marred by a horribly tragic incident. Raised by their loving but stern grandmother, the brothers take radically different paths as they come of age in the gritty streets of Memphis. Jay, a gifted basketball player with dreams of making it to the NBA, is a beacon of hope for his grandmother and a potential ticket out of their harsh reality. However, the allure of his charismatic yet troubled brother, Eddie, who’s deeply entrenched in the world of street crime, casts a shadow over Jay’s future. (Deadline)

MADE FOR TV MOVIE NEWS

Bryce Dallas Howard and Orlando Bloom will star in the Prime Video U.K Original movie Deep Cover, a British action-comedy that will also include among its cast Sean Bean, Ian McShane and Paddy Considine. The movie sees three improv actors hired by the police to help stage low-level stings. Their instinct to ‘always say yes’ without breaking character leads them deep inside the London criminal underworld. (Variety)

A new Hannah Swensen (formerly Murder She Baked) mystery movie will happen over on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries with Alison Sweeney returning in the title role. But this time without Cameron Mathison, who has played her online screen love in the previous 8 movies in the franchise. This new installment entitled One Bad Apple: A Hannah Swensen Mystery will find Hannah being asked to teach a baking class at the college in town. When a colleague ends up dead, she begins to put together the puzzle of the mysterious circumstances surrounding the murder. During the investigation, Hannah meets a different side of law and order when Lake Eden’s prosecuting attorney, Chad Norton (Victor Webster), enters her life. It should be noted that Sweeney and Webster have appeared together in other Hallmark movies (The Wedding Veil franchise). (TV Insider)

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

CANCELLATION

Paramount+ has pulled the plug on Wolf Pack, the series that starred Sarah Michelle Gellar, after only one season. (TV Line)

STREAMING MOVIE NEWS

Lindsay Lohan and Tim Meadows will pull a Mean Girls reunion of their own in the upcoming Netflix rom-com movie Our Little Secret, starring alongside Broadway alum Kristin Chenoweth. The film follows two resentful exes (Lohan and Pretty Little Liars alum Ian Harding) who are forced to spend Christmas together after discovering their current partners are siblings. (Variety)

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are teaming up yet again for a new crime thriller called Animals that was acquired by Netflix. Affleck will direct while Damon stars. Plot details are scarce but the story will focus on a kidnapping. (Variety)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Netflix has given a greenlight for two more adaptations of novels by Harlan Coben given how much of a global hit Fool Me Once has become for the streaming service. Those novels will be Missing You tells the story of detective Kat Donovan who stumbles across her estranged fiancé on a dating app, forcing her to delve back into the mystery surrounding her father’s murder. Meanwhile, Run Away centers on Simon, whose perfect life is shattered when his oldest daughter, Paige, runs away and is found vulnerable and strung out on drugs in a city park. Simon’s search takes him into a dangerous underworld, where a shocking act of violence further rocks his life. (Deadline)

Colin Firth will star in the upcoming Sky and Peacock original series Lockerbie that will focus on the 1988 flight disaster in which 259 passengers and crew members were killed. Firth will play Dr. Jim Swire, who tragically lost his daughter Flora in the disaster and has worked with his wife, Jane, to seek justice for the victims’ families ever since. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

The Umbrella Academy alum Tom Hopper has been cast in a key role in the upcoming THe Terminal List prequel that is set to air on Amazon Prime. He will play the series regular role of Raife Hastings, a hunter, protector, guardian and Navy SEAL. The Terminal List: Dark Wolf will be set five years prior to the events of The Terminal List. (Variety)

The upcoming new CBS drama Elsbeth, the spin-off of The Good Wife, has announced a list of guest stars, including Jane Krakowski, Linda Lavin, Retta and Blair Underwood. (Variety)

Yanic Truesdale (Gilmore Girls) will have a recurring role in the upcoming Amazon Prime drama Etoile from Gilmore Girls creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino. Set in New York City and Paris, the 8-episode series follows the dancers and artistic staff of two world-renowned ballet companies, as they embark on an ambitious gambit to save their storied institutions by swapping their most talented stars. Truesdale will play Raphael, the right-hand to Genevieve (Charlotte Gainsbourg) who heads the Parisian ballet company. (Deadline)

Morena Baccarin (Firefly, Homeland and the Deadpool movie franchise) is set to appear in an upcoming episode of Fire Country on CBS, playing a sheriff character that could lead her own series. She will guest star in the Season 2 episode with an option to become a series regular in a potential spinoff series. She’ll play Mickey, a Sheriff’s Deputy for fifteen years who knows every corner of Edgewater and every one of its inhabitants. This is her town and she’s fiercely protective of it. (Deadline)

Malin Akerman (Watchmen and 27 Dresses) will star in the small screen adaptation of The Hunting Wives by author May Cobb that will air on Starz. She will play Margo Banks in the series, which tells the story of Sophie O’Neil and her family’s move from the East Coast to deep East Texas, where she succumbs to socialite Margo’s irresistible charms – and finds her life consumed by obsession, seduction, and murder. (Variety)

Tom Ellis (Lucifer) has joined the cast of the Hulu original Tell Me Lies for the show’s second season. He will play the series regular role of Oliver, a professor at Baird College whose tough love attitude makes him an intimidating presence that isn’t appreciated by all students. He is married to Lucy’s professor Marianne (Gabriella Pession), but as one of the main characters begins seeking his approval, his influence will have chaotic repercussions. (Deadline)

Wilson Bethel (All Rise and Hart of Dixie) will reprise his role of Benjamin Poindexter aka Bullesye in Daredevil: Born Again. He is expected to appear in three episodes. (Deadline)

Maria Sten will be back as Frances Neagley in season three of Reacher, which will focus on Persuader, book number 7 of author Lee Child’s book franchise that finds Reacher going undercover to rescue an informant being held by someone from Reacher’s past. Neagley doesn’t appear in the book, so her presence in the series will diverge from the text. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Allison Janney has joined the cast of The Diplomat for its second season on Netflix. She will play Vice President Grace Penn. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS

Gillian Anderson has joined the cast of Tron: Ares, the third movie in the franchise that already includes Jared Leto, Evan Peters, Greta Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith and Cameron Monaghan in the cast. (Deadline and ComicBook.com)

The action thriller movie called G20 will star Violas Davis along with Anthony Anderson and Marsaid Martin (both from black-ish), Ramon Rodriguez (Will Trent), Antony Starr (The Boys) and Clark Gregg (Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD) [among others]. The movie is about terrorist laying siege on the annual G20 summit. (Deadline)

Fresh of hiis first Oscar nomination, Colman Domingo has landed two films. He will play legendary singer Nat King Cole in a movie musical from a script he co-wrote for which he will also make his feature directing debut. And, he will play Joe Jackson, the father of Michael Jackson in the biopic Michael, to be directed by Antoine Fuqua. (Variety)

Chris Pratt will star in the sci-fil film Mercy, which will be set in the near future when capital crime has increased. The picture will follow a detective (Pratt) who is accused of a violent crime and is forced to prove his innocence. (Deadline)

Edward Norton will be taking over the role of Pete Seeger from the departing Benedict Cumberbatch, due to scheduling issues, in the upcoming movie A Complete Unknown that will have Timothee Chalamet portraying legendary singer Bob Dylan. Elle Fanning will play Syliva Russo, Dylan’s early-’60s love interest, a university student and artist. (Deadline)

Aaron Eckhart, Olga Kurylenko and Alex Pettyfer will star in the spy thriller Chief of Station with Eckhart playing Ben, a former CIA European Station Chief whose world comes crumbling down after his wife, a former operative, dies in a terrible accident. After receiving cryptic information that his wife’s death might not have been an accident, Ben heads back into the shadowy underworld of Eastern Europe, teaming up with a former adversary to unravel a conspiracy that challenges everything he thought he knew about his wife and the agency he worked at for more than 20 years. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

CANCELLATION

Apple TV+ has cancelled the musical satire Schmigadoon/Schmicago after two seasons. (TV Line)

MAX has ended the Kaley Cuoco-led dramatic thriller The Flight Attendant after two seasons. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

FOX has announced the cast for its new, upcoming drama Rescue: Hi Surf, which was originally given a greenlight back in April 2023. The show will follow the personal and professional lives of the heavy-water lifeguards who patrol and protect the North Shore of O’ahu—the most famous and dangerous stretch of coastline in the world. Among the cast are Robbie Magasiva (Wentworth), Arielle Kebbel (The Vampire Diaries and 9-1-1), Adam Demos (UnReal), Kekoa Kekumano (The White Lotus), Alex Aiono (Doogie Kamealoha MD) and Zoe Cipres (Roswell, New Mexico). (Variety)

Millie Gibson, who just weeks ago made her Doctor Who debut in the show’s Christmas special, will be replaced by Varada Sethu (Andor and Strike Back) after only one season. (Daily Mail, Variety and TV Line)

Amazon Prime will launch a new prequel series The Terminal List: Dark Wolf, which will delve into the backstory of Ben Edwards and James Reece, who were portrayed by Taylor Kitsch and Chris Pratt (respectively) in the original Navey SEAL drama. What’s more both Kitsch and Pratt are set to reprise their roles in this spin-off. (Collider)

Josh Stewart will be leaving his recurring role in Criminal Minds: Evolution for the show’s second season. (TV Line)

Forest Whitaker will be pulling duty over at MGM+, as he is not only the star of the current series Godfather of Harlem, but he will also be part of the cast of the cabler’s new suspense thriller Emperor of Ocean Park, which will be set in the world of politics and Ivy League academia and the beaches of Martha’s Vineyard. It will revolve around Talcott Garland (Grantham Coleman from Lawmen: Bass Reeves), an Ivy League law professor whose quiet life is shattered when his father, Judge Oliver Garland (Whittaker, dies of an apparent heart attack. The nature of the judge’s death is questioned by Tal’s sister, Mariah (Tiffany Mack from Jessica Jones), a former journalist and inveterate conspiracy theorist, who believes that the judge, a failed Black nominee to the Supreme Court, met with foul play. (The Hollywood Reporter)

More cast members have been announced for the third season of the hit HBO series The White Lotus, including Walton Goggins (Justified) and Patrick Schwarzenegger (Gen V) [among others]. (TV Line)

The second season of the Netflix-Ryan Murphy anthology series Monster will focus on the Menendez brothers, who were convicted of killing their parents in 1989. Javier Bardem and Chloe Sevigny will play Jose and Kitty Menendez, the parents of Lyle and Erik, who will be played by Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch. (The Hollywood Reporter)

The new Netflix series Ransom Canyon has added more cast members, including Lizzy Greene (A Million Little Things), Eoin Macken (La Brea), veteran actor James Brolin, Philip Winchester (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), Brett Cullen (Winning Time) and Kate Burton (Grey’s Anatomy). They join leads Josh Duhamel and Minka Kelly in the romance-fueled, contemporary western saga that charts the intersecting lives of three ranching families, all set against the rugged expanse of Texas Hill Country. (Deadline and TV Insider)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Eiza Gonzalez (Baby Driver and Ambulance) and Domhnall Gleeson (The Patient and Peter Rabbit) have joined the cast of the feature film Fountain of Youth that will star John Krasinski and Natalie Portman as estranged siblings who partner on a global heist to find the mythological Fountain of Youth. Details on who they will play have not been announced. (Deadline)

Rosa Salazar (A Million Miles Away) will star opposite Mark Wahlberg in the crime thriller Play Dirty that finds Wahlberg playing professional thief Parker, who after being double-crossed and left for dead, sees his hunt for revenge giving him a shot at the biggest heist of his career. But even with the help of his partner, actor-slash-con artist Grofield (LaKeith Stanfield), he’ll still need to outsmart a South American dictator, the New York mob and the world’s richest man if he hopes to stay alive. Details on the role Salazar will play are being kept under wraps. (Deadline)

Comedian Pauly Shore will play fitness icon Richard Simmons in a new biopic that has already been given a thumbs down by its originator, who disavowed the project. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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