Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

CANCELLATION/RENEWALS

CBS has given a second season renewal to Fire Country. (TV Line)

Netflix has finally given the thriller series Wednesday a second season renewal. (TV Line)

Netflix has canceled the German period piece drama 1899 after only one season. (Variety)

AMC has pulled the plug on the drama 61st Street, despite the show originally receiving a second season renewal. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Stephen Amell, David Ramsey, Keiynan Lonsdale and Sendhil Ramamurthy will all reprise their roles in the 9th and final season of The Flash on The CW. (TV Line and Collider)

Benedict Cumberbatch is in final talks to star in the upcoming Netflix 6-episode limited series Eric that will be set in 1980’s New York. Cumberbatch will play Vincent Sullivan, the lead puppet maker and puppeteer of America’s most popular children’s show, whose life begins to unravel when his young son, Edgar, disappears. Now homeless and dealing with substance addiction, Vincent finds his only companion is Eric, a seven-foot tall blue puppet, who leads him on a journey to find his son and to find a way home. (Variety)

Nicole Kidman has joined the cast of the upcoming Taylor Sheridan drama series Lioness that will air on Paramount+. Kidman is already set as one of the executive producers. The show is based on a real-life CIA program, following Cruz Manuelos (Laysla De Oliveira), a rough-around-the-edges but passionate young Marine recruited to join the CIA’s Lioness Engagement Team to help bring down a terrorist organization from within. The cast already includes Zoe Saldaña, Jill Wagner, Dave Annable and LaMonica Garrett [among others]. Kidman will play Kaitlyn Meade, the CIA’s Senior Supervisor who has had a long career of playing the politics game. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Paul Mescal (Normal People) is in talks to star in the Ridley Scott sequel to Gladiator, which made Russell Crowe a superstar. Mescal will play Lucius, the son of Lucilla (played by Connie Nielsen in the original film). (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for the past two holiday weeks:

ORDERED TO SERIES

NBC has given a series order to the new drama The Irrational, which is based on the best-selling novel by Dan Arielsy. The series will star The Flash and Law & Order alum Jesse L. Martin as a world-famous behaviorist who helps corporations, governments, and law-enforcement using his unique understanding of human behavior. While that description sounds like fellow superhero alum Tim Roth’s Lie to Me, well, that show has been off the air for awhile, and Martin is one of the easiest actors to root for in Hollywood. (Deadline and Giant Freakin Robot)

TV CASTING NEWS

Jason Ritter will appear in one episode of the upcoming second season of the Showtime drama Yellowjackets, starring opposite his wife Melanie Lynskey. (Variety)

T.V. Carpio (The Rookie and Big Sky) will have a recurring role in Chicago Med, playing Dr. Grace Song, who is hired by Jack Dayton (Sasha Roiz), who bought a controlling interest in Gaffney Medical Group. (Deadline and TV Line)

Jake Weber (Medium and Star Trek: Discovery) has joined the cast of the second season of NCIS: Hawai’i, playing Jim Carter, a former NCIS agent who is now head of security for a university. (TV Line and Digital Spy)

Broadway star and Tony winner Patti LuPone has joined the cast of the upcoming Disney+ series Agatha: Coven of Chaos that will find Kathryn Hahn reprising her role of Agatha from WandaVision. LuPone’s role is being kept under wraps, but it is believed she will be playing a witch. (Deadline)

Lyndsy Fonseca will be back on 9-1-1: Lone Star, reprising her role of Iris Blake, the sister of former series alum Liv Tyler, who played Michelle Blake. (TV Line)

Joely Richardson will appear in the upcoming drama adaptation of the best-seller “One Day” by David Nicholls, which will focus around the on/off relationship between Emma and Dexter, told in annual installments on the same day each year after Emma and Dexter first meet at a university graduation. (Variety)

MOVIE NEWS

X-Men franchise alum Famke Janssen and Rose Williams (Sanditon) will star in the Netflix contemporary psychological thriller Locked In, which pits the unhappy newlywed Lina (Williams) against her brittle, damaged mother-in-law, Katherine (Janssen). An affair sets Lina onto a journey of secrecy, betrayal and murder — and a plot to seemingly destroy her. But who is the real victim, and who can she truly trust? Monarch and Pushing Daisies star Anna Friel is also part of the cast. (Deadline)

Bridget Regan (Jane the Virgin, The Last Ship and Legend of the Seeker) will star in the psychological drama Canvas that tells the story of two estranged sisters named Marissa Hale and Eve Hale (to be played respectively by Regan and Joanne Kelly of Warehouse 13 fame). (Deadline and Digital Spy)

Adam Rodriguez (CSI: Miami) will star alongside Jenna Ortega and Percy Hynes White (both from the Netflix thriller Wednesday) in the romantic drama Winter Spring Summer or Fall, which is being described as Before Sunrise meets The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The movie tells the story of two teens (Ortega and Hynes White) on the cusp of adulthood who meet and fall in love over four significant days of the year. Rodriguez will play Ortega’s father. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy! Happy Holidays!!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWAL/CANCELLATIONS

The Charlie Hunnam drama Shantaram has been cancelled after only one season by Apple TV+. (TV Line)

Yellowjackets has been renewed for season 3 way ahead of its upcoming second season. (TV Line)

NBC has given the reboot of Quantum Leap a second season renewal. (TV Line)

HBO Max has pulled the plug on the dramedy Minx despite the show having been renewed for a season 2 back in May. (TV Line)

Sanditon will come to a close after its upcoming 3rd season on PBS. The final season will air in the US on PBS starting on March 19. (Deadline and TV Line)

Starz has cancelled the series Step Up, the small screen adaptation of the box office franchise, after three seasons. (TV Line)

Netflix has pulled the plug on Warrior Nun after two seasons. (TV Line)

HBO/ HB) Max has pulled the plug on the period piece series The Nevers, basically cancelling the show halfway through its first season. (Variety)

HBO Max romantic anthology ‘Love Life’ has been cancelled after two installments, will not return for Season 3. (TV Line)

ORDERED TO SERIES

CBS has given a series order to the new drama The Never Game that will star This Is Us hunk Justin Hartley. The series is based on the best-selling novel by Jeffery Deaver. Hartley will play Colter Shaw, a survivalist who roams the country as a “reward seeker,” using his expert tracking skills to help private citizens and law enforcement solve all manner of mysteries all while contending with his own fractured family. The cast also will include Mary McDonnell (Major Crimes and Battlestar Galactica) and Robin Weigert (Jessica Jones and Sons of Anarchy). (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power alum Joseph Mawle has landed a role in the Yellowstone prequel series 1923. He will play Captain Shipley, the captain of a British cargo ship, who has seen a lot during his years at sea. (Variety)

Robert De Niro will star in and executive producer the crime drama Mr. Natural. The series follows Louis “Mr. Natural” Baron (De Niro), who, fresh off a 30 year-stint in federal prison, hits Palm Springs driven by revenge, a dream to reunite with his stolen family and a dangerous scheme to grab a taste of the Salton Sea’s lithium billions. (Variety)

Jack Dylan Grazer (from the Shazam! franchise) has joined the cast of The Spiderwick Chronicles, which is in the works at Disney+. Based on the book series by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, the series will follow the Grace family as they leave New York to move to Michigan into their ancestral home, The Spiderwick Estate. Twin brothers Jared and Simon, along with their sister Mallory and mom Helen, discover that magical creatures like fairies, ogres, trolls, boggarts and more are all real and hiding among us.” Grazer will provide the voice of Thimbletack, a boggart, who lives in the walls of the Spiderwick Estate, a hundreds of years old, Thimbletack is still a teenager amongst his kind, a mischief-maker with an explosive temper. He could be a great help to the Grace children…if only he could learn to control his own larger than life emotions. (Variety)

Eric Szmanda will reprise his role as Greg Sanders during the latter half of the current second season of CSI: Vegas. (TV Line)

Luke Kirby (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) and Ashley Madekwe (Revenge) have joined the cast of the second season of the Peacock drama Dr. Death, which will star Edgar Ramirez and Mandy Moore. This upcoming season will tell the true story of Paolo Macchiarini (Ramirez), a charming surgeon, renowned for his innovative operations that earn him the nickname ‘Miracle Man.’ When investigative journalist Benita Alexander (Moore) approaches him for a story, the line between personal and professional begins to blur, changing her life forever. Kirby will play Dr. Nathan Gamelli, a cardiovascular surgeon working at a world class hospital in Sweden while Madekwe will play Dr. Ana Lasbrey, a doctor at the institute. (Variety)

Disney+ has given a greenlit to a small screen adaptation of Witch Mountain that will star Bryce Dallas Howard in the lead role. The series will have a modern take on the franchise, following two teens that develop strange abilities and discover their sleepy suburb may not be as idyllic as it seems. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS

Daisy Edgar-Jones (Where the Crawdads Sing) will play Carole King in the upcoming film adaptation of the stage musical Beautiful. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

CANCELLATION

FOX has pulled the plug on the drama Monarch after only one season. (TV Line)

ANOTHER ONE SIGNED ON

Actress Nikki DeLoach has signed an exclusive, multi-picture overall deal with Hallmark Media. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Hugh Grant will appear in a guest starring role in the upcoming HBO limited series The Palace that will star Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, and Andrea Riseborough. The drama tells the story of one year within the walls of the palace of an authoritarian regime as it begins to unravel. Exact character details for the series are being kept under wraps, though. (Variety)

Netflix has ordered a 6-episode limited series American Primeval that will star Taylor Kitsch that will be a raw, adventurous exploration of the birth of the American West. Kitsch will play Isaac, a traumatized man struggling to overcome his demons and find a reason to live in this brutal and punishing world. (Variety)

Margarita Levieva (In From the Cold and Revenge) and Sandrine Holt (House of Cards and 24) have joined the cast of the Disney+ drama Daredevil: Born Again, but character details are being kept under wraps. (Variety)

STREAMING MOVIES

Reese Witherspoon will reprise her role as go-getter Tracy Flick in Tracy Flick Can’t Win, a sequel to the 1999 movie Election that picks up with Tracy in adulthood as she continues to struggle to fight her way to the top at work. She’s the assistant principal at a public high school in suburban New Jersey, but she sets her sights on the top job as her boss announces plans to retire. The movie will air on Paramount+.  (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Broadway vet Ethan Slater has joined the cast of Wicked that is set to star Ariana Grande as Glinda, Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero. Additional cast members include Keala Settle (The Greatest Showman) as Miss Coddle and Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, the headmistress of Crage Hall at Shiz University. (Variety)

The upcoming movie The Book of Clarence has added a boot load of cast members to its roster, including Benedict Cumberbatch, James McAvoy, David Oyelowo, Alfre Woodard, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Anna Diop along with already announced cast members LaKeith Stanfield and Omar Sy. Set in Biblical times, it tells the tale of Clarence, a down-on-his-luck denizen of Jerusalem embarking on a misguided attempt to capitalize on the rise of celebrity and influence of the Messiah for his own personal gain. It is a journey that leads him on an exploration of the idea of faith and to a highly unexpected path of his own. Stanfield is playing Clarence. (The Hollywood Reporter)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hi All,

Here are the news items for the past two weeks:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

The Apple TV+ series Surface, which stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw (who also executive produces) and Oliver Jackson-Cohen, has been renewed for a second season. (TV Line)

AMC has pulled the plug on the series Moonhave despite it being given a second season renewal earlier. It’s reported the change in status is due to sweeping cost-cutting measures. (Deadline)

The Netflix supernatural thriller The Midnight Club has been cancelled. (TV Line)

Paramount+ has given Tulsa King a second season renewal. (TV Line)

Miss Scarlet and the Duke has been given a fourth season renewal by PBS. (TV Line)

The Hulu drama Tell Me Lies has been renewed for a second season. (TV Line)

PULLED THE PLUG

Despite being given a straight-to-series order back in February, ABC has pulled the plug on the drama series Avalon, which comes from David E. Kelley and was set to star Neve Campbell in the lead role. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

New cast members have been announced for the fourth season of The Boys on Amazon. Rosemarie DeWitt (The Staircase), Rob Benedict (Supernatural) and Elliot Knight (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II) will appear in the new season. DeWitt will play Hughie’s mom (series regular Jack Quaid). There are no details as to what characters Benedict and Knight will play, though. (Deadline)

Joseph Mawle, who played the villaninous Adar, the leader of the Orcs in the Amazon drama The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, is leaving the show ahead of its second season. He has been replaced by Sam Hazeldine (Peaky Blinders). (TV Line)

Scarlett Johansson will star in the upcoming limited series based on the John Katzenbach novel Just Cause. The series was given a straight-to-series order, marking her first major TV role. The series centers on Miami reporter Matt Cowart with Johansson set to play a female version of the character named Madison “Madi” Cowart. (Variety)

Isaiah Mustafa (It Chapter Two and Shadowhunters) and Ryan Eggold (New Amsterdam) have joined the cast of the upcoming Amazon series based on the James Patterson character Alex Cross that will star Aldis Hodge in the title role, a detective and forensic psychologist who’s uniquely capable of digging into the minds of killers and victims. Mustafa will play John Sampson, aka “Two-John” and “Man-Mountain” while Eggold will play Ed Ramsey, a charming Midwesterner who also has sharp enough elbows to carve out a space in elite social and political circles in Washington and New York. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Gilmore Girls alum Keiko Agena will appear in the fourth season of Doom Patrol, but it is unclear who she will play. (Startefacts)

Mandy Moore (This Is Us) has landed the female lead opposite Edgar Ramirez in the upcoming second season of the Peacock anthology series Dr. Death. Season 2 will focus on the “Miracle Man” that centers of Paolo Macchiarini (Ramirez), a charming surgeon, renowned for his innovative operations that earn him the nickname “Miracle Man.” When investigative journalist Benita Alexander (Moore) approaches him for a story, the line between personal and professional begins to blur. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Lance Reddick will reprise his role as Charon in the John Wick spin-off movie Ballerina that will star Ana de Armas as a young female assassin who seeks revenge against those who killed her family. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWED

HBO has ordered a third season of The White Lotus, which will introduce a new cast at a new location and could possibly include Jennifer Coolidge returning as Tanya McQuoid. (TV Line)

COMING TO AN END

Amazon has announced that the upcoming second season of Hunters, set to premiere on January 13, will be the dramas final season. (Variety)

CHANGE OF PLANS

The upcoming third season of the Syfy series Resident Alien has been shortened. It’s been reduced from 12 episodes to 8 episodes. (Deadline)

TV NEWS

Kate Winslet will star opposite her real-life daughter Mia Threapleton in the third season of I Am Ruth, the UK drama series that was conceived by Winslet and filmmaker Dominic Savage. Winslet will star as Ruth, a concerned mother who struggles to help her teenage daughter Freya (Threapleton) as she becomes increasingly consumed by social media. (Variety)

TV CASTING

More cast members have been added to the Disney+ series Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Jay Duplass (Somebody Somewhere) and Timothy Omundsen (Pysch and This Is Us) will play Hades, the God of the Underworld and Hephaestus, the God of Blacksmiths respectively. (Variety)

Millie Gibson (Coronation Street) will appear as the new companion on Doctor Who when actor Ncuti Gatwa takes over the role of the Doctor. She will play Ruby Sunday. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Bradley Cooper will star in the upcoming Steven Spielberg film based on the Steve McQueen character of Frank Bullitt, the no-nonsense San Francisco cop in the 1968 action-thriller Bullitt. (Variety)

It is possible that a third Princess Diaries movie MIGHT be in the making. Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews have not been confirmed to be returning; although Hathaway has continually expressed interest in reprising her role of down-to-earth Mia Thermopolis. Plot details haven’t been confirmed, but the threequel is expected to continue the story in The Princess Diaries and the sequel Royal Engagement rather than rebooting the film franchise. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

CANCELLATION

Netflix has pulled the plug on the legal drama Partner Track after only one season. (TV Line)

COMING TO AN END

Carnival Row will be back on Amazon for a second season on February 17, 2023, but that will be the show’s second and final season, as the streamer isn’t renewing the series beyond its second season. (TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Lily Collins will star in the series adaptation of the Lisa Lutz novel The Accomplice, which is currently under development at Amazon. The series will tell the story of Luna Grey and Owen Mann, best friends in college, bonded together forever by an unexplained death in their social circle, whose lives are once again rocked years later when Owen’s wife is brutally murdered. (Variety)

AMC is developing a series adaptation of the film Good Night, and Good Luck as a 6-episode series from George Clooney and Grant Heslov, who co-wrote the film and which was directed and starred Clooney. The series would follow Sy Steingartner, a young cameraman for Edward R. Murrow’s ‘See It Now,’ who is forced to juggle his admiration for Murrow with his own ambition. With the CBS brass pushing an anti-Communist Loyalty Oath on Murrow and his staff, Sy has an opportunity to rise straight to the top, but only by betraying his mentor in the process. With wit and keen observation, the series confronts how we respond to chaos and the values that pull us through. (Variety)

POTENTIAL SMALL SCREEN ADAPTATIONS

Netflix has ordered a series version of the Judy Blume novel Forever that will be an epic love story of two Black teens exploring romance and their identities through the awkward journey of being each other’s firsts. Mara Brock Akil (The Game, Being Mary Jane and Black Lightning) will be the showrunner and executive producer. (Variety)

Disney is looking to develop an Indiana Jones TV show for Disney+. As some TV viewers will recall ABC had the short lived The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles that aired in 1992-1993. This new version would be set in the world of the globe trotting archaeologist. (Variety)

PROMOTION

Brandon Larracuente has been promoted to series regular on The Good Doctor where he has been recurring as first-year intern Dr. Danny Perez. (TV Line)

ANOTHER SIGNED ON

Soap star Hunter King has signed a multi-picture deal with Hallmark Media, making her the latest talent to join the ever-growing list of faces at the cable network. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Marlee Matlin will guest star in an upcoming episode of New Amsterdam, playing a mentor to Dr. Elizabeth Wilder (Sandra Mae Frank). (People)

Lauren Stamile (Complications and Burn Notice) and Damon Dayoub (Stitchers and Monarch) will have recurring roles in the DC Comics-based series Gotham Knights that is anticipated to air on The CW [depending, of course, on what the network’s new majority owner Nextstar plans to do with shows that are hanging in the balance]. Gotham Knights picks up in the aftermath of Bruce Wayne’s murder, with his rebellious adopted son forging an unlikely alliance with the children of Batman’s enemies when they are all framed for killing the Caped Crusader. Dayoub and Stamile will play Lincoln and Rebecca March, parents of Brody March. (Deadline)

Travis Fimmel (Vikings) has joined the cast of the prequel series Dune: The Sisterhood that is set to air on HBO Max. The show is set 10,000 years before the events of Dune and is based on the novel Sisterhood of Dune that follows the Harkonnen Sisters (Emily Watson and Shirley Henderson) as they combat forces that threaten the future of humankind, and establish the fabled sect known as the Bene Gesserit. Fimmel will play Desmond Hart, a charismatic soldier with an enigmatic past, who seeks to gain the Emperor’s trust at the expense of the Sisterhood. (Variety)

Edgar Ramirez (The 355, Jungle Cruise and Yes Day) has been cast in the lead role for season two of the Peacock series Dr. Death. He will play Paolo Macchiarini, a charming surgeon, renowned for his innovative operations that earn him the nickname ‘Miracle Man.’ When investigative journalist Benita Alexander approaches him for a story, the line between personal and professional begins to blur, changing her life forever. As she learns how far Paolo will go to protect his secrets, a group of doctors halfway across the world make shocking discoveries of their own that call everything about the ‘Miracle Man’ into question. (Variety)

The Star Wars Disney+ series The Acolyte has announced its full cast, including Lee Jung-jae (Squid Game), Manny Jacinto (The Good Place), Dafne Keen (His Dark Materials), Jodie Turner–Smith (Queen & Slim and The Last Ship) and Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix franchise) [among others]. Amandla Stenberg was already announced as the lead. The series will be a mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era. A former Padawan reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes, but the forces they confront are more sinister than they ever anticipated. (Variety)

Lin-Manuel Miranda will join the cast of the upcoming Disney+ series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, based on the book series and the movie franchise, starring as the Greek God Hermes. (Variety)

Saturday Night Live alum Sasheer Zamata has joined the cast of the Disney+ WandaVision spin-off series Agatha: Coven of Chaos, joining Kathryn Hahn, in the lead role. It is believed Zamata will play a villainous role, but details are being kept under wraps. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso) will join Ryan Gosling in the big screen adaptation of the TV show The Fall Guy. In a switch from the original 1980s show that starred Lee Majors, the story doesn’t focus on a stuntman with a side hustle as a bounty hunter. Instead, the film will focus on a battered and past-his-prime stuntman (Gosling) who finds himself back on a movie with the star (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) for whom he doubled long ago and who replaced him. The wrinkle, however, is that the star has gone missing. Waddingham will play the producer of the stunt-packed movie which is now in trouble. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Keanu Reeves is expected to make an appearance as John Wick in the female-centric spin-off Ballerina that will star Ana de Armas (Knives Out and No Time to Die) in the title role, a young female assassin who seeks revenge against those who killed her family. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

The new Starz period piece drama Dangerous Liaisons has been renewed for a second season before its debut. (Variety)

HBO has pulled the plug on the drama Westworld after four seasons. (TV Line)

With all the changes that will be taking place over on The CW, another DC series is being pulled. Stargirl will come to an end after its current, 13-episode season. (TV Line)

Netflix has cancelled the drama Fate: The Winx Saga after two seasons. (TV Line)

NEW SERIES ADAPTATION

The spy thriller The Day of the Jackal is getting a reimagined TV adaptation and will air on Peacock. The new series is described as a “contemporary reimagining of the beloved and respected novel and film.” The project will remain true to the DNA of the original IP, but will delve deeper into the “anti-hero” of the story in a high-octane “cat and mouse thriller” that’s set amid a turbulent geo-political landscape. (Variety)

MORE EPISODES ORDERED

Netflix has ordered more episodes of The Sandman. While the series hasn’t been official renewed for a second season “more episodes and stories (are) to be adapted from multiple graphic novels.” (TV Line)

NOT MOVING FORWARD

HBO Max has scrapped plans to reboot the popular, long-running Canadian series Degrassi after all. (Variety)

STREAMING NEWS

Peacock and Hallmark Media are teaming up to bring live and on-demand programming from the Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries and Hallmark Drama to the streaming service. It’s a first-of-its-kind linear plus SVOD deal for the network. In addition to the live Hallmark channels, Peacock subscribers will have access to Hallmark content on demand, including live and next-day access to series like When Call the Heart and the new dramas Ride and The Way Home. (Deadline)

CHANGES IN SERIES ORDERS

As mentioned above, there are a lot of changes happening at The CW, and two new dramas – The Winchesters and Walker: Independence are being capped at only 13 episodes for each of their debut seasons. Season 2 renewals are still a possibility, though. (Deadline and TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

The box office movie The Gentlemen is bringing adapted to the small screen at Netflix. The cast will include Theo James (Sanditon and The White Lotus), Kaya Scodelario (The Maze Runner franchise), Joely Richardson, Giancarlo Esposito (Better Call Saul) [among others]. (Variety)

Joe Locke (the star of the Netflix hit series Heartstopper) has joined the cast of the Disney+ WandaVision spin-off series Agatha: Coven of Chaos that will star Kathryn Hahn in the title role. Details about what role Locke will play are being kept under wraps, though. In addition, Aubrey Plaza is also joining the streaming series and as-yet announced role. (Variety)

Jacob Elordi (Euphoria) will play the lead in the upcoming limited series The Narrow Road to the Deep Earth for Sony Pictures Television. He will play Dorrigo Evans, an army surgeon whose short but forbidden affair with Amy, the young wife of his uncle, sustains and haunts him through his darkest days as the reluctant leader of men held prisoner in a Thai-Burmese camp during WWII. (Variety)

Chicago Med is bidding goodbye to another actor. Asjha Cooper has exited the show and her role as Vanessa Taylor. (Variety)

The Batman spin-off series, which will be centered on Colin Farrell in the role of The Penguin has added Cristin Milioti (How I Met Your Mother). Plot details are being kept under wraps, but Milioti will play Sofia Falcone, the daughter of Gotham mob boss Carmine Falcone. (Variety)

New cast members have been added to season two of the Apple TV+ drama Severance. Those new cat members include Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones) and John Noble (Fringe), Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development), Merritt Wever (Unbelievable), Bob Balaban (The Chair) and Robby Benson (the voice of Beast in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, American Dreams). (TV Line)

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (The Watchmen and Aquaman) will star in the Disney+ series Wonder Man, playing Simon Williams, who transforms into the titular superhero. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) will play Constance Lloyd, an Irish author who was married to Oscar Wilde, in the upcoming box office film An Ideal Wife. Plot details are still being kept under wraps, though. (Variety)

Thomas Doherty (from the HBO Max reboot of Gossip Girl) will star opposite Kiki Layne in the box office movie Dandelion, a romantic drama which centers on an aspiring singer-songwriter named Dandelion (Layne), who can’t seem to make her dream come true when she reluctantly takes a gig at a motorcycle rally that’s ways away from her hometown of Cincinnati. At the event, she meets Casey (Doherty), a guitarist who walked away from his dream long ago. As Dandelion joins Casey’s electric and nomadic group of struggling musicians, the two kindred spirits make music together and strike up an intoxicating whirlwind romance that changes her artistic journey. (Variety)

Lupita Nyong’o (Black Panther and 12 Years a Slave) is set to star in the spin-off movie A Quiet Place: Day One. Story details are being kept under wraps, though. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWAL/CANCELLATION

HBO has given the drama Industry a third season renewal. (Variety)

Starz has given the period piece drama The Serpent Queen a second season renewal. (Variety)

The CW has pulled the plug on the drama Nancy Drew, which will come to an end after its upcoming fourth season. A premiere date will be announced at a later time. (TV Line)

Showtime has cancelled the drama City on a Hill after three seasons. (TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Disney+ has a WandaVision spin-off, currently titled Vision Quest, centered on the character Vision in development. Exact plot details are currently under wraps, but it is believed the show would follow the newly-created Vision as he tries to regain his memories. (Variety)

RELOCATING

The Peacock comedy Girls5eva will move over to Netflix for its upcoming third season. Sara Bareilles, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Paula Pell and Busy Philipps are all set to return, which is expected to debut next year. The first two seasons will also be available to stream on Netflix as well as on Peacock. (TV Line)

SERIES GREENLIT

FX has given a greenlight to the drama series Never Let Me Go, inspired by the 2005 sci-fi novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. The thriller series will follow Thora (Viola Prettejohn), a rebellious teenage clone who escapes from the boarding school where she and her fellow clones are kept hidden from society. As she starts living undercover in the outside world, she unwittingly sets in motion events that will spark a revolution and test the boundaries of what it means to be human. The cast will include Tracey Ullman and Kelly Macdonald [among others]. (Variety)

Aldis Hodge (Black Adam, City on a Hill and Leverage) will star as the titular detective Alex Cross in the Amazon Prime small screen adaptation of the legendary James Patterson books. In this version Cross is a detective and forensic psychologist, uniquely capable of digging into the psyches of killers and their victims, in order to identify — and ultimately capture — the murderers. (TV Line)

ANOTHER DEAL MADE

Erin Cahill and Will Kemp are the latest talent to sign multi-picture deals with Hallmark Media (aka the Hallmark Channel). (Deadline and Variety)

TV NEWS

It looks like the Yellowstone prequel 1923 will actually be extended to two seasons (rather than just one). Series creator Taylor Sheridan has decided he needs two eight-episode seasons in order to tell the epic story he has in mind. Producers are in negotiations now to bring the cast back for Season 2. (Deadline and TV Guide)

TV CASTING NEWS

There is a major shake-up happening at the Netflix fantasy drama The Witcher. Henry Cavill is leaving the lead role of Geralt of Rivia. The role will be taking over by Liam Hemsworth. (TV Line)

Jon Cor, who has recurred as Blaine (aka Chillblaine) on The Flash has been promoted to series regular for the show’s 9th and final season on The CW. (Deadline)

The Hulu drama Interior Chinatown, currently in the works, has added Chloe Bennet (Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD) and Ronny Chieng (Crazy Rich Asians) to the cast. The show is based on the book by Charles Yu and it follows the story of Willis Wu (Jimmy O. Yang, also from Crazy Rich Asians), a background character trapped in a police procedural trying to find his way into the larger story–and along the way discovers secrets about the strange world he inhabits and his family’s buried history. Bennet will play Detective Lana Lee, a new lead making her debut appearance in the procedural cop show ‘Black & White’ while Chieng will play Fatty Choi, Willis’ best friend. (Variety)

Jesse Williams will be joining the third season of Hulu’s comedic murder-mystery series Only Murders In the Building in a recurring role, playing a documentarian with a particular interest in the case. (Deadline and Entertainment Weekly)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

It’s being rumored that William Jackson Harper (The Good Place) will appear in the box office movie Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, though his role remains a closely guarded secret. (Variety)

Garrett Hedlund (Mudbount) and Mel Gibson (Braveheart) will star in the upcoming box office thriller Desperation Road that tells the story of ex-con Russell Gaines (Hedlund) who attempts to rebuild his life with help from his father Mitchell (Gibson). (Variety)

Paul Mescal (Normal People) will star in the modern espionage thriller A Spy By Nature, an adaptation of the first novel in the Charles Cumming best-selling Alec Milius spy series, that will follow Milius, a disillusioned twenty-something whose gift for deception catches the eye of MI6. Caught up in the thrusts of a geopolitical war on commodities involving the British and the Americans, at home he struggles to preserve his relationship with his girlfriend and build a future together. As his web of lies grows, Milius is forced to confront his own nature – whether he can be a good man as well as a good spy. (Variety)

Guy Pearce and Jeffrey Dean Morgan will appear in the box office movie Neponset Circle, a dark and gritty crime thriller based on a real-life murder that shook the Boston area and remains unsolved to this day. (Variety)

It looks like Jeff Goldblum just might be joining the cast of the two-part box office movie Wicked that will star Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in the lead roles along with Bridgerton hunk Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero. Goldblum is slated to play the Wizard. (Variety)

Henry Cavill and Eiza Gonzalez (Ambulance) will star in the Guy Ritchie World War II action spy movie The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warface. The movie, inspired by real events, will chart UK PM Winston Churchill’s and James Bond scribe Ian Fleming’s secret WWII combat organization. The clandestine squad’s unconventional and entirely ‘ungentlemanly’ fighting techniques against the Nazis helped change the course of the war and in part gave birth to the modern Black Ops unit. Cavill will play the leader of the secret combat organization while González will play a military sniper with extraordinary spy-craft abilities. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

FULL SEASON ORDERS

CBS has given full season orders to East New York, Fire Country and So Help Me Todd. (TV Line)

ABC has also given a full season order to The Rookie: Feds. (TV Line)

TV NEWS

While Jesse Lee Soffer has left the cast of Chicago P.D. he will be back to direct in the show’s 10th season. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Heroes alum Sendhil Ramamurthy will recur in the upcoming 4th season of HBO Max’s Doom Patrol, playing Mr. 104, a charming and mysterious man of many elements. (TV Line)

Missy Peregrym will be back from her maternity leave on the CBS drama FBI starting on November 15. (TV Line)

Natalie Morales (White Collar) will recur on season 3 of The Morning Show, playing Kate Danton, Stella’s (Greta Lee) best friend from Stanford where they were part of a start-up incubator run by Paul Marks (Jon Hamm). (Variety)

Temuera Morrison (Star Wars franchise and Aquaman) will join Jason Momoa in the upcoming Apple limited series Chief of War that will follow the epic and unprecedented telling of the unification and colonization of Hawaii from an indigenous point of view. Morrison will play King Kahekili, the King of Maui. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Harrison Ford will replace the late William Hut as Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” ross in the Marvel Universe, appearing in 2024’s Captain America: New Wolrd Order that will star Anthony Mackie. (Variety)

Angelina Jolie will star in the biopic Maria, playing famous opera singer Maria Callas. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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