Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWAL/CANCELLATION

Disney+ has announced that a 2nd season of Ahsoka is in development. (TV Line)

The Good Doctor will end after its upcoming 7th season on ABC. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Carrie Coon (The Gilded Age) has joined the cast of The White Lotus for its 3rd season, but there are no details on what role she will play. (TV Line)

Kaitlyn Dever (Dopesick) has been cast in the 2nd season of The Last Us, playing Abby, a skilled soldier whose black-and-white view of the world is challenged as she seeks vengeance for those she loved. Also, actor Young Mazino (BEEF) will play Jesse, a pillar of his community who puts everyone else’s needs before his own, sometimes at terrible cost; and Isabela Merced (Sweet Girl and the upcoming box office movie Madame Web) will play Dina, who is warm, brilliant, wild, funny, moral, dangerous and instantly lovable. (TV Line and Variety)

Laurence Fishburne has joined the cast of season 4 of The Witcher on Netflix. He will play Regis, a world-wise Barber-surgeon with a mysterious past who joins Geralt (now to be played by Liam Hemsworth – since Henry Cavill left at the end of season 3) on his journey. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

The Mandalorian & Grogu, a theatrical film, has been put into production by Walt Disney Studios and Lucasfilm with Jon Favreau set to direct. (TV Line)

John Krasinski and Natalie Portman will appear in the upcoming Guy Ritchie global heist movie Fountain of Youth. The film centers on two estranged siblings (Krasinski and Portman) who partner on a global heist to find the mythological Fountain of Youth. They must use their knowledge of history to follow clues on an epic adventure that will change their lives — and possibly lead to immortality. (The Playlist)

Selena Gomez will play singer Linda Ronstadt in an upcoming biopic. (Variety)

NEW SERIES

Great American Family is adding its first original scripted series to its line up. County Rescue, the 5 episode series, is an action-adventure medical drama about an EMT in training who is vying for one of three openings on the team. The series will debut on February 17. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for the past two weeks, covering December 25 through January 7:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATION

Netflix gave a second season order to My Life With the Walter Boys, just 12 eyas after the premiere of the series. (AugustMan.com)

Disney+ has pulled the plug on American Born Chinese after only one season, but the folks behind the scenes of the streaming series are shopping it around to other outlets. (TV Line)

Apple TV+ has given the Gary Oldman spy drama Slow Horses a 5th season renewal just days after the third season wrapped. Season 4 was already ordered in 2022. (TV Line)

NEW SERIES ORDERED

CBS has given a straight-to-series order to NCIS: Origins, a new series that will turn back the clock on Leroy Jethro Gibbs, played by Mark Harmon for 18 seasons. Set in 1991, the series will pick up with Gibbs as a newly minted special agent at the fledgling NCIS Camp Pendleton office where he forges his place on a gritty, ragtag team led by NCIS legend Mike Franks. Harmon will not only executive produce the series, but he will also narrate. (TV Line)

CBS has also given a straight-to-series order to Watson, a contemporary story based on the Sherlock Holmes character. The series will star Morris Chestnut in the title role, which will see Dr. John Watson resuming his medical career as the head of a clinic dedicated to treating rare disorders one year after the death of Holmes at the hands of archnemesis Moriarty. Watson’s old life isn’t done with him, though, as Moriarty and Watson are set to write their own chapter of a story that has fascinated audiences for more than a century. Watson is expected to air during the 2024-2025 TV season. (Variety)

CBS has given a straight to series order to a drama series that will see Morris Chestnut star as the iconic literary character Dr. John Watson, the companion of master detective Sherlock Holmes. Watson is a contemporary story set one year after the death of Holmes at the hands of his archnemesis Moriarty. Per the official logline, the show will find Dr. John Watson resuming his medical career, one year after the death of Holmes at the hands of the archnemesis Moriarty, as the head of a clinic dedicated to treating rare disorders. Watson’s old life isn’t done with him, though, as Moriarty and Watson are set to write their own chapter of a story that has fascinated audiences for more than a century.  Watson is expected to air during the 2024-2025 TV season.  (TV Line)

STREAMING MOVIE NEWS

Jacob Elordi seems to be everywhere right now. Coming off roles in Priscilla and Saltburn, he will next be seen in Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming adaptation of Frankenstein, taking over the role from Andrew Garfield, who has to departe the Netflix project due to scheduling conflicts. Elordi will play Frankenstein’s monster while Oscar Isaac will Victor Frankenstein with Mia Both, Christoph Waltz, Lars Mikkelsen, David Bradley and Christian Convery also starring. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

The third season of The White Lotus had added Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monaghan, Parker Posey and Leslie Bibb to the cast. (TV Line)

Despite his near fatal injury last year, Jeremy Renner will be back for a third season on the Paramount+ series Mayor of Kingstown. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Topher Grace and Michelle Dockery will star opposite Mark Wahlberg in the upcoming suspense thriller Flight Risk from director Mel Gibson. Wahlberg will play a pilot transporting an Air Marshal (Dockery), who’s been tasked with accompanying a fugitive (Grace) to trial. As they cross the Alaskan wilderness, tensions soar and trust is tested, as not everyone on board is who they seem. (Deadline)

Jack Black will star opposite Jason Momoa, Emma Myers (Wednesday) and Danielle Brooks (The Color Purple) in the live-action adaptation of the popular video game Minecraft. It’s unclear what the movie will be about though. (Variety)

BEEF and The Walking Dead alum Steven Yeun is no longer involved in the upcoming Marvel movie Thunderbolts, and it’s unclear whether his undisclosed role is being rethought or will simply be recast. (Variety)

NEW SERIES NEWS

Samuel L. Jackson will star in the upcoming limited series Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist that is set to air on Peacock. The series will be set in Atlanta in 1970, telling 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. Jackson will star as notorious gangster Frank Moten, who was given the moniker the Black Godfather by New York tabloids. Kevin Hart will also star. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATION

Netflix has renewed My Life With the Walter Boys for a second season. (Variety)

The Buccaneers has been renewed for Season 2 at Apple TV+. (TV Line)

HBO has renewed The Gilded Age for a third season. (TV Line)

MGM+ (formerly EPIX) has renewed Beacon 23 for a second season. (The Hollywood Reporter)

The martial arts/crime drama Warrior has been cancelled and will not return for a fourth season on Max. (Deadline and TV Line)

NEW TO THE LINE-UP

The now defunct Hallmark Channel drama Ride will get a second lease of life over on The CW, which will air the 10-episode first season of the series starting on January 22. There will not be a second season, though. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Pride & Prejudice star Jennifer Ehle will appear in the queer indie film In Transit that tells the story of a small town bartender called Lucy who agrees to model for painter Ilse (Ehle), who is existentially floundering as she seeks solitude away from her career and complicated personal life while on an artists retreat. “Through their relationship, both women must confront their preconceptions of what makes a good life,” reads the logline. Alex Sarrigeorgiou (who also wrote the film) will play Lucy while Francois Arnaud will play Lucy’s boyfriend Tom, a local chef. (Variety)

After being convicted last week of two misdemeanor counts of harassment and assault, Jonathan Majors has not been booted out of Marvel Studios and fired as Kang, the central antagonist in the Multiverse Saga of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Hannah Waddingham and Octavia Spencer will star in the untitled action-adventure series for Amazon Prime. Waddingham will play Judith, who has secretly been working as a highly trained assassin. That’s a double life that Judith’s best friend Debbie (Spencer) knows nothing about — until a hit goes wrong. Now Judith and Debbie are on the run, aiming to stay one step ahead of a mysterious enemy. And while they try to figure out what’s going on, they also have to fix their now-ruptured friendship. (Variety)

An untitled HBO project will star Mark Ruffalo, Tom Pelphrey, Emilia Jones, Thuso Mbedu [among others] as well as Fabien Frankel and Alison Oliver. The series will be set in the working-class suburbs outside of Philadelphia, where an FBI agent named Tom (Ruffalo) heads a task force to put an end to a string of drug-house robberies led by an unsuspecting family man. Frankel will play Anthony, an integral member of Tom’s task force, while Oliver will play Lizzie, an underperforming state police officer who is added to Tom’s team. (Variety)

Molly Parker will star in the upcoming FOX medical drama Doc, based on the hit Italian series Doc – Nelle tue mani. Parker will play Dr. Amy Elias, the chief of internal and family medicine at Westside Hospital in Minneapolis, who must pick up her professional and personal pieces after she loses the memory of the last eight years. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWAL

Starz has given a third season order to Power Book IV: Force; and the cabler has given Hightowen a third and final season order as well. (TV Line)

Prime Video has given a third and final season order to Good Omens. (TV Line)

TV NEWS

A TV series based on Otherland, the 4-book series by Tad Williams, is in the works. The story is described as an epic cyberpunk-fantasy adventure. The world as we know it has an additional layer here – hyper-realistic VR arenas that have become a new place for fun, work, education but also debauchery, crime and abuse. The mysterious Otherland, supposedly another layer of the network, becomes a mere starting point for a multi-realm adventure. There are no details on where the potential series will air has been announced yet. (Deadline)

FOX has picked up the psychological crime drama Murder in a Small Town for the 2024-2025 TV season. The series stars Rossif Sutherland and Kristin Kreuk, and is based on the Karl Alberg books by L.R. Wrigh. This marks FOX’s first green light to a scripted series co-produced with an international studio. (Deadline)

The Hugo Award-winning The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells are becoming a 10-episode series on Apple TV+. The story follows a self-aware “SecUnit” robot that must hide its free will in order to complete a dangerous assignment. The series will star Alexander Skarsgård. (Engadget)

Lisseth Chavez has been promoted to series regular for season 6 of The Rookie. She has played Officer Celina Juarez since season 5. (Deadline)

Season 2 of Nine Perfect Strangers on Hulu will find Christine Baranski, Annie Murphy and Murray Bartlett joining the cast along with Dolly De Leon, Maisie Richardson-Sellers and others. (Variety)

Actor Rome Flynn has joined the cast of Chicago Fire in the recurring role of Jake Gibson, a quietly confident former amateur boxer with a dark past. The physically fit and fearless Jake earns a spot on Truck 51’s radar thanks to a heroic act. (Deadline)

Alexander Siddig has joined the cast of the Apple TV+ sci-fi series Foundation for its upcoming third season. He will play Dr. Ebling Mis, a self-taught psychohistorian and diehard fan of Hari Seldon (Jared Harris). (Deadline)

Actor Santiago Cabrera and telenovela star Kate del Castillo are joining the FOX drama The Cleaning Lady as series regular for the drama’s upcoming third season. They will play siblings Ramona Sanchez and Jorge Sanchez. (Variety)

Simone Missick has found her next new project now that All Rise has come to an end. She will star alongside David Oyelowo in the upcoming Apple TV+ dramedy Government Cheese that follows Hampton Chambers (Oyelowo), a man recently released from prison who struggles to keep his criminal past at bay and win back his family, all while processing moments of divine intervention that seem to happen with increasing frequency. Missick will play Astoria, Hampton’s wife. (Variety)

Emilia Jones (the Oscar-winning movie CODA and Thuso Mbedu (The Woman King) have joined an as-yet-to-be titled Task Force series at HBO. The series tells the story of an FBI agent leading a Task Force to put an end to a string of drug-house robberies led by an unsuspecting family man. It’s set in the working class suburbs outside of Philadelphia. (Variety)

Dean Norris will join the cast of Law & Order: Organized Crie for its fourth season, playing Randall Stabler, Elliot’s older brother, in a multiple-episode arc. (TV Line)

Kevin Hart will star in a true crime limited series on Peacock called Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist that tells the story of an armed robbery during the night of Muhammad Ali’s historic 1970 comeback fight that changed an entire city’s destiny, focusing on the cop and the hustler at the center of it all. (Variety)

Amy Adams will star and executive produce the limited TV series project The Holdout based on the novel of the same name. A legal drama–meets–murder investigation in the vein of The Night Of with a dual-timeline mystery, the series is set in Los Angeles and follows a woman (Adams) who finds herself playing multiple roles – juror, attorney, investigator, and suspect. Ten years after Maya Seale turns the tide in a hugely controversial verdict, a fellow juror is found dead in her hotel room, all evidence points to her. Now, she must prove her own innocence – by getting to the bottom of a case that is far from closed. As the present-day murder investigation weaves together with the story of what really happened during their deliberation, told by each of the jurors in turn, the secrets they have all been keeping threaten to come out – with drastic consequences for all involved. (Deadline)

Jon Hamm will star in and executive produce the Apple TV+ crime drama Your Friends and Neighbors, playin Coop, a recently divorced hedge fund manager who, after being fired, resorts to stealing from the wealthy residents in his tony upstate New York suburb in order to keep his family’s lifestyle afloat. (TV Line)

The upcoming Netflix dark comedy No Good Deeds has added Linda Cardellini, Luke Wilson, Teyonah Parris, Abbi Jacobson and Poppy Liu to its cast. The series revolves around three different families who are all trying to buy the same 1920s Spanish-style home, but as the sellers have already discovered, sometimes the home of your dreams can be a totle nightmare,” the logline teases. Ray Romano also stars. (Variety)

Outlander cast memer Lauren Lyle has joined the Netflix drama Toxic Town that will star Jodie Whittaker and Robert Carlyle (among others). The series tells of the scandalous waste spillages in Corby, Northamptonshire, and the ensuing legal battle that has been dubbed the ‘British Erin Brokovich.’ (Deadline)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Sunny Hostin, one of the co-hosts of The View, is in the early stages of developing her first novel, “Summer on the Bluffs,” as a TV series for Amazon MGM Studios. The book follows the tales of three god sisters and their godmother, as well as the rich history of Oak Bluffs, an exclusive historically Black beach community in Martha’s Vineyard, exploring personal journeys, hidden secrets and the transformative power of heritage. (Variety)

Looks like CBS is considering a spin-off of the network’s new hit drama Fire Country. The studio is in the process of casting a female sheriff character, who will first appear in a Season 2 Fire Country episode. The yet-to-be-cast actor would appear on Fire Country as a guest star, with an option for a series regular role in a potential spinoff, if Sheriff’s Country (the working title of the potential drama) is ordered to series. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Younger and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 alum Miriam Shor is the latest addition to the reinvented James Gunn Superman Legacy film. (The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline)

Uma Thurman will star opposite Richard Gere, Jacob Elordi and Michael Imperioli in the drama flick Oh, Canada that tells the story of Leonard Fife (Gere), a famed documentary filmmaker who takes stock of his life, with not long to go after being stricken with cancer at 80 years old. The most unreliable of narrators — and of men — Fife offers the viewer a look at his home life, as a draft-dodging artist who abandoned one family for another, consistently evading any sense of responsibility for actions as he starts a new life in Canada. Thurman plays Emma, the present day spouse and creative partner of Fife. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

Peacock has given Twisted Metal, the video game adaptation that stars Anthony Mackie, a second season renewal. (TV Line)

The revival series Leverage: Redemption has been renewed for a third season but will be moving from Amazon’s Freevee over to Prime video. (Variety)

The Apple TV+ sci-fi/fansasy series Foundation, which stars Lee Pace, has been given a third season renewal. (TV Line)

The ABC drama Station 19 will come to an end after its upcoming 7th season. (Deadline and TV Line)

The AMC Bob Odenkirk-led drama Lucky Hank has been cancelled after only one season. (TV Line)

Freeform has cancelled its last two remaining scripted shows: Good Trouble and Cruel Summer, leaving the future of cable network’s scripted slate up in the air. (TV Line)

TV SERIES DEPARTURE

Actress Heida Reed will be leaving FBI: International early in the show’s upcoming third season. (TV Line)

FILM NEWS

Russell Crow, Rami Malek and Michael Shannon will star in the historical drama Nuremberg, which will follow Malek as an American psychiatrist who is tasked to determine if Nazi prisoners are fit to stand trial for their war crimes. He finds himself in a battle of the wits with Hitler’s right-hand man (to be played by Crowe). Shannon will play Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, the chief prosecutor in the Nuremburg trials. (Variety)

Tom Blyth (Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and Billy the Kid) will star in the new film adaptation of A Farewell to Arms, playing protagonist Frederic Henry, a young volunteer ambulance driver for the Italian Army during World War I who gets wounded and falls in love with his nurse. (Variety)

Devery Jacobs (Reservation Dogs) and Evan Rachel Wood (Westworld) will star in the sports drama Backspot about an ambitious cheerleader (Jacobs), who faces both new adversity and the increased drive for perfection and triumph when she and her girlfriend are selected for an all-star cheer squad with an overbearing head coach (Evan Rachel Wood). (Deadline)

Peter Facinelli (Twilight movie franchise) will star in the sci-fi action thriller Convergence, playing Sam Reilly, a Supervisory ICE Officer who comes to question his worldview as he’s forced into conflict with an alien threat, fighting to save the Earth from an invasion and rescue a young girl who lost her family in the chaos. When an alien satellite crash lands in the desert of New Mexico, it infects two geologists sent to investigate with a mysterious, terrifying, and deadly condition. As the contagion begins to spread and threatens all of humanity, Sam’s joined in his fight for the future of the planet by a CDC Doctor. (Deadline)

Charlize Theron and Daniel Craig will star in the Justin Lin-directed movie Two for the Money, a heist thriller. Specific details about the story are being kept under wraps. (The Hollywood Reporter)

TV SERIES ORDER

Netflix has given a 10-episode order to the drama Ransom Canyon, which will star Josh Duhamel and Minka Kelly in a romance-fueled family drama and contemporary Western that will chart the intersecting lives of three ranching families, all set against the rugged expanse of Texas Hill Country. Duhamel will star as Staten Kirkland, the owner and sole occupant of the sprawling Double K Ranch while Kelly will play Quinn, who has often found herself in the shadow of others, but after a stint in New York pursuing her career as a concert pianist, she has returned to Ransom Canyon to carve out a new path for herself. (Variety)

The 8-episode TV series adaptation of the box office movie Cruel Intentions will officially air on Prime Video. The series is expected to take place at an elite Washington, D.C. college, where two ruthless step-siblings will do anything to stay on top of the cutthroat social hierarchy. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Judith Light and Billy Crystal will star in the Apple TV+ limited series Before, a 10-episode atmospheric, character-driven psychological thriller about Eli (Crystal), a child psychiatrist who, after recently losing his wife, Lynn (Light), encounters a troubled young boy who seems to have a haunting connection to Eli’s past. Seductively enigmatic, Lynn (Light) is the love of Eli’s life, but her recent death may not be quite what it seems. As Eli digs deeper into the hidden life of the wife he thought he knew, he soon finds Lynn haunting him from beyond the grave. (Deadline)

Reina Hardesty (The Flash TV series) will star alongside Daniel Dae Kim in the upcoming Prime Video spy thriller Butterlfy, playing Rebecca, a deadly, sociopathic young agent assigned to kill David Jung (Kim) an enigmatic, highly unpredictable former U.S. 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. (Variety)

Amanda Warren (East New York) has joined the cast of the second season of the Netflix hit series The Night Agent, playing Catherine Weaver, a veteran of the top-secret Night Action investigative program, who trains and oversees various Night Agents. The next 10-episode installment of the conspiracy action-thriller will be released sometime next year. (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 Reacher before the show’s second season is set to premiere. (The Cinemaholic)

MGM+ has given Godfather of Harlem a 4th season order. (Variety)

NBC has given both Found and The Irrational a second season order. (TV Line)

Starz has given Power Book III: Raising Kanan a 4th season renewal. (TV Line)

IN DEVELOPMENT

Amazon is currently developing a Spanish-language spin-off of The Boys that will be set in Mexico, but exact plot details are being kept under wraps. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

James Norton and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau will star in the new period drama series King and Conqueror that is based on the 11th-century figures Harold of Wessex (Norton) and William of Normandy (Coster-Waldau). The show focuses on the story of the clash that defined the future of a country – and a continent – for a thousand years. (Deadline)

Charithra Chandran (Bridgerton) will star in the drama series Arzu, which is based on the novel of the same name by Mumbai-based Riva Razdan, which follows a brilliant, young heiress who escapes scandal in Mumbai and lands in New York City. But while training to enter into glamorous Manhattan high society, she risks throwing it all away for the adventure of living life on her own terms. (Variety)

Kelli Giddish will be back on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit again, reprising her role of Det. Amanda Rollins. (TV Line)

Alberto Rosende is leaving Chicago Fire after four seasons playing Blake Gallo. He will exit in the upcoming season 12 premiere that is set to air on January 17. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Victoria Pedretti (The Haunting of Hill House and You) has joined the cast of the box office movie The Book of Jobs, which will be a coming-of-age story that will also star Rich Sommer (Mad Men) and Judy Greer (Jurassic World). The film will follow Claudia (Abigail Donaghy) as she grows up in Silicon Valley in the shadow of Steve Jobs’ triumphant return to Apple, and his outsized influence on her imagination, ambitions and relationships. Pedretti will play an older version of Claudia, with Greer and Sommer playing her mother and father. (Deadline and Digital Spy)

UNSCRIPTED SERIES NEWS

Hallmark Media is launching an inspirational series to be hosted by fan favorite Lacey Chabert. The first foray into unscripted series will be called Celebrations with Lacey Chabert with the actress surprising kids, families and adults who are making a positive impact in their communities by throwing them the celebration of a lifetime. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

Hulu has renewed the Kerry Washington and Delroy Lindo dramedy UnPrisoned for a second season. (TV Line)

Amazon Prime has cancelled The Horror of Dolores Roach after only one season and the dramedy With Love after two seasons. (TV Line)

Disney+ has pulled the plug on The Muppets Mayhem after only one season. (TV Line)

Netflix has renewed Black Mirror for a 7th season. (Variety and TV Line)

All good things come to an end: Blue Bloods will wrap its run on CBS with its upcoming 14th season. The show will be back starting on February 16 and then the final 8 episodes will air next fall. (TV Line and Deadline)

NBC has confirmed that season 3 of La Brea will be the sci-fi show’s last. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Superman: Legacy, the superhero reboot (AGAIN!), has added Nicholas Hoult to the cast as Lex Luthor while Skyler Gisondo (The Righteous Gemstones) will play Jimmy Olsen and Portuguese model Sara Sampaio will play Eve Teschmacherr. David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan will play Clark Kent and Lois Lane respectively. (Variety)

Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chen are teaming up for a brand new Karate Kid movie that will release sometime next year, where they will reprise their roles. The movie will fuse and continue the movies’ mythology. This new version will focus on a teen from China who finds strength and direction via martial arts and a tough but wise mentor. A global search for a Chinese actor to play the new “Karate Kid” has officially launched. (The Hollywood Reporter and TV Line)

It would seem that Universal is in early development on a new movie about super spy Jason Bourne. Sources familiar with the project have stressed that it’s still in early development, so any grand return to the world of Jason Bourne may be far into the future. There’s currently no script in the works, nor is there a writer attached to the prospective film, so it’s unclear if the plan is to bring back original cast members or entirely reboot the property. (Variety)

TV MOVIE NEWS

Cameron Mathison has signed a multi-picture deal that will run over several years with Great American Media. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Reid Scott (Veep) has joined the reboot of Law & Order, filling the void left by Jeffrey Donovan’s departure. (TV Line)

Michael Sheen and Ruth Wilson will star in the Amazon Prime limited series A Very Royal Scandal that will focus on Prince Andrew’s disastrous interview with Newsnight journalist Emily Maitlis. Sheen will play Prince Andrew, while Wilson will play Maitlis. (Variety)

Jeremy Irons and Sam Claflin will star in the limited series adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo. (Variety)

Hill Harper will not return to The Good Doctor for season 7 because of his intentions to run for a U.S. Senate seat. (TV Line)

Veteran actor Ciaran Hinds and Jacob Elordi (from Euphoria and the box office movie Priscilla) will star in the Australian mini-series The Narrow Road to the Deep North, which is an adaptation of the Booker Prize-winning novel by Richard Flanaghan. The 5-part series is a love story set against the backdrop of World War II, chronicling a century dominated by war, with the forced labor on the Thai-Burma Railway as its dramatic heart. The story is told by an Australian doctor who was taken prisoner during World War II and became an unlikely and uncomfortable hero after the war’s end. (Variety)

FESTIVAL NEWS

A Suits reunion will take place at the ATX TV Festival, that is held annually in Austin, Texas. Following its record-breaking streaming year, the festival will host a five-year anniversary panel for the cast and creatives of Suits. So far stars Sarah Rafferty (Donna), Patrick J Adams (Mike) and Dulé Hill (Alex) as well as creator/EP/showrunner Aaron Korsh have confirmed their attendance. (TV Line)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

MAY STILL HAVE A FUTURE

Netflix may have dropped the proposed live-action movie Masters of the Universe centered on the animated hero He-Man, but it seems that Amazon MGM Studios are in serious talks to move forward with the project. (Variety)

CANCELLATIONS

Netflix has pulled the plug on the fantasy series Shadow and Bone after two seasons while the Kim Cattrall-led drama Glamorous has been cancelled after only one season. (Deadline and TV Line)

SEAL Team will be coming to an end with its upcoming 7th season, which will air sometime next year. (TV Line)

The Hallmark Channel has pulled the plug on the drama Ride after only one season. (Vulture)

LEAVING THE CAST

Jeffrey Donovan will not be coming back to the rebooted Law & Order for its 23rd season. It hasn’t been confirmed, but it would seem he was let go for creative reasons. (TV Line)

Actress Kara Killmer will return to Chicago Fire for its upcoming season 12, but that will be her last year as paramedic Sylve Brett, the character she has been portraying on the show since its third season. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE MOVIE CASTING

Denzel Washington will have the leading role in the as-yet untitled Netflix movie directed by Antoine Fuqua based on the ancient Carthaginian general Hannibal, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest military commanders in history. The film covers the pivotal battles he led against the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War.” Hannibal invaded Italy while riding a Northern African war elephant. (Variety)

TV SHOW CASTING NEWS

The British series Suspect will return for a second season this time with Dominic Cooper, Tamsin Greig, Eddie Marsan and Anne-Marie Duff in the cast. Duff will star as Dr Susannah Newman. In the eight-part series, she is on a desperate quest to track down a self-confessed serial killer before he kills again that night. When a mysterious new client Jon (Cooper) admits under hypnosis that he is a murderer and intends on killing another young female that evening, Susannah knows he must be stopped at all costs. (Deadline)

Karen Gillan and Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville will star in a new dramedy from Steven Moffat. The series, called Douglas Is Cancelled, will find Bonneville playing middle aged and widely respected news anchor Douglas Bellowes, who lives a perfect life. He enjoys his privileged status as national treasure and host of current affairs show “Live at Six” while off-air he shares a harmonious home with wife Sheila, a newspaper editor. But their world is turned upside down when, at a family wedding, he’s overheard making an “ill-advised joke.” As a guest threatens to expose Douglas on social media the rumor mill goes into overdrive and sparks off a digital storm that quickly upends his life and career. With her 2 million social media followers, tech-savvy co-anchor Madeline, played by Gillan, could throw Douglas a lifeline by posting in his defense, but will she? The cast will include Ben Miles, Alex Kingston, Nick Mohammed and Simon Russell Beale. (Variety)

SERIES ORDER

Prime Video has given a former order to an untitled spin-off series to Bosch that will focus on LAPD detective Renée Ballard, who is tasked with running the LAPD’s new cold case division — a poorly funded, all-volunteer unit with the largest case load in the city. Ballard approaches these frozen-in-time cases with empathy and determination. When she uncovers a larger conspiracy during her investigations, she’ll lean on the assistance of her retired ally, Harry Bosch, to navigate the dangers that threaten both her unit and her life. (TV Line)

JUST MIGHT BE BACK FOR MORE

Suits, which has been having a stellar rewatch by LOTS of viewers on Netflix, isn’t the only USA Network series looking to make a comeback. It would seem that, at least according to Matt Bomer, there is “very legitimate talk” about a revival of White Collar. The powers that be have been silent, but fans can certainly hope for more of the popular series. (TV Line)

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

FINALLY THERE’S AN AGREEMENT

The SAG-AFTRA strike has finally come to an end with the national board approving the new contract with the AMPTP (aka the studios) with an 86% approval vote as of Friday.

NEW SERIES

The Dead Boy Detectives, which was originally set up at Max, will now officially air on Netflix. The series is based on character created for DC by Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner. The official description for the 8-episode series is: Do you have a pesky ghost haunting you? Has a demon stolen your core memories? You may want to ring the Dead Boy Detectives. Meet Edwin Payne (George Rexstrew) and Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri), ‘the brains’ and ‘the brawn’ behind the Dead Boy Detectives agency. Teenagers born decades apart who find each other only in death, Edwin and Charles are best friends and ghosts who solve mysteries. They will do anything to stick together – including escaping evil witches, Hell and Death herself. With the help of a clairvoyant named Crystal (Kassius Nelson) and her friend Niko (Yuyu Kitamura), they are able to crack some of the mortal realm’s most mystifying paranormal cases. (Variety)

CASTING NEWS

Bridgerton’s own Nicola Coughlan, who plays Penelope Featherington SPOILER ALERT aka Lady Whistledown will be making a guest appearance in the new season of Doctor Who in 2024 when Ncuti Gatwa takes over the legendary role. (Variety)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Looks like Nintendo is developing a live-action film based on The Legend of Zelda, but plot and casting details are being kept under wraps. The video game, on which the film will be based, follows the elf-like warrior Link, who sets out to defeat the evil Ganon and rescue Zelda, the princess of Hyrule. (Variety)

SERIES ORDER

The world of Spartacus is expanding at Starz with the 10-episode series Spartacus: House of Ashur, which will find actor Nick Tarabay reprising his role of Ashur, the villanous character he played in the original series, which ran from 2010 to 2013. The series is being described as a history-bending, erotic, thrilling, roller-coaster experience that builds on everything that made the original series a colossal hit. (TV Line)

CANCELLATIONS

ABC has pulled the plug on the spin-off series The Rookie: Feds after only one season and the network is also not moving forward with The Good Lawyer, the proposed spin-off series from The Good Doctor. (TV Line)

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

COMING TO AN END

Superman & Lois will return to The CW for its fourth season (whenever the actors strike is over), but that will be its last season. (TV Line)

CANCELLATION NEWS

The former Spectrum series Joe Pickett, which found a new home on Paramount+, has been cancelled after two seasons. (TV Line)

RETURNING TO THE SMALL SCREEN

Chicago Fire fans can be excited to learn that Taylor Kinney will be returning to the series after his leave of absence. He will be back for at least the start of season 12, but it has yet to be determined if he will be back as a series regular. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Jennifer Esposito (NCIS), Kellan Lutz (FBI: International), Grace Van Dien (Stranger Things), Neal McDonough (9-1-1: Lone Star) and veteran actor Judd Hirsch will star in the upcoming film The December Cross that will be set in a town called Bethlehem, where border agents have just intercepted a coyote smuggling in a group of tired, desperate and frightened refugees. There, an 11-year-old girl runs into a 7-year-old boy, Yosef, seeking refuge. Maya and Yosef become fast friends, and their ensuing adventure nearly kills them both but ends up warming the hearts of the townspeople with life lessons stretching far beyond their own borders. (Deadline)

The upcoming rom-com That’s Amore! will star John Travolta and Katherine Heigl in a story about a never-married man, Nick (Travolta) and a woman named Patty, whose personal life has prevented her from dating, until the pair meet. The movie will also star Christopher Walken, Talia Shire, William Fichtner, D.B. Sweeney and Drea de Mateo. (People)

Superman & Lois alum Emmanuelle Chriqui and Hayes MacArthur (Angie Tribeca) will star in the indie rom-com A Love Like This, which is about two lovers who rent a beach house for the weekend, but there is more to their relationship than it seems. (Deadline)

LIMITED SERIES NEWS

Josh Andrés Rivera (2021’s West Side Story) and Patrick Schwarzenegger (Gen V) will star in the FX limited anthological series American Sports Story that will examine the “rise and fall” of football star Aaron Hernandez, to be played by Rivera, looking into his identity, his family, his career, his death and his legacy. Schwarzenegger will play football star Tim Tebow. (Variety)

BROADWAY NEWS

Grant Gustin, the star of the small screen series The Flash, will be making his Broadway debut in the spring musical Water for Elephants, which is based on the best-selling novel by Sara Gruen. He will play Jacob opposite Isabelle McCalla (The Prom and Broadway’s Shucked) as Marlena. The story follows Jacob Jankoswki (Gustin), as he remembers his life from a nursing home in old age. As a young man, Jacob, an aspiring veterinarian hops a train, which turns out to be a circus train. There, he befriends Camel, who gets him a job with the circus, and finds a life beyond his wildest dreams with the cruel animal trainer August and his beautiful wife and circus performer, Marlena (McCalla), whom Jacob falls for. (Entertainment Weekly)

Broadway alums Aaron Tveit (Moulin Rouge) and Sutton Foster (Music Man) will replace Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford in the revival of Sweeney Todd. (Page Six)

NEW HOME FOR NEW SERIES

AMC and AMC+ will air the former Disney+ series Nautilus, a Captain Nemo origin story, as a special TV event in 2024. The 10-episode series will explore the early life of Captain Nemo (to be played by Shazad Latif from Star Trek: Discovery. (Variety)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Amazon MGM Studios has a TV series in the works based on the best-selling fantasy book Fourth Wing by author Rebecca Yarros. The logline for the show is: Enter the brutal world of Basgiath War College where there is only one rule: Graduate or Die. Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail expected to live a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general― her tough-as-talons mother―has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. If the fire-breathing beasts don’t kill her, one of her fellow riders just might. (Variety)

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