Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

CANCELLATION

Peacock has pulled the plug on the Queer as Folk reboot after only one season. (TV Line)

SURPRISE ANNOUNCEMENT

Despite being disgraced by the college admissions scandal, the folks over at Great American Family (the rival network to Hallmark) are giving actress Lori Loughlin a second chance to get back her “glory” by casting her in a new movie under the network formerly known as GAC Family. The movie entitled Fall Into Winter will start production next month and will premiere on the cabler this coming January. (People)

DEAL NOTICE

Another Hallmark alum has signed a multi-picture over deal. This time its Alison Sweeney. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

New cast members for season 4 of True Detective have been announced. Among them are John Hawkes (Deadwood), Christopher Eccleston (Doctor Who), Fiona Shaw (Harry Potter franchise and Killing Eve). True Detective: Night Country follows what happens when the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska. The six men that operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanish without a trace. To solve the case, Detectives Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) will have to confront the darkness they carry in themselves and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice. Hawkes will play Hank Prior, a police officer with old grudges hiding under a quiet surface; Eccleston will play Ted Corsaro, the regional Chief of Police and a political animal with a long history tying him to Liz Danvers and Shaw will play Rose Aguineau, a survivalist with a past full of secrets. (Variety)

Minnie Driver will not only be the narrator of the prequel series The Witcher: Blood Origin she will also play Seanchai, a shapeshifting collector of old lore with the abilities to travel between time and worlds. The series is set 1,200 years before the events of The Witcher, in an elvish civilization that has yet to interact with humans or monsters. It follows a trio of warrior elves (Michelle Yeoh, Laurence O’Fuarain, and Sophia Brown) who become entangled with the creation of the first prototype Witcher. It also spans the events leading up to the Conjunction of the Spheres — the moment the human, elf and monster worlds collide. (Netflix)

More cast members have been announced for the Yellowstone prequel series 1923. Robert Patrick (Terminator 2: Judgment Day and The Unit) will play Sheriff William McDowell, an ally to the notorious Dutton family; and Jerome Flynn (Game of Thrones) will play Banner Creighton, a hard-headed Scot and the leader of the local sheep men. (Variety, Digital Spy and Entertainment Weekly)

Parker Posey (Lost in Space) and Wagner Moura (Narcos) have joined the upcoming Amazon series Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which includes Donald Glover and Maya Erskine in the lead roles. The cast already includes Michaela Coel, John Turturro and Paul Dano. Posey and Moura will have recurring roles in the series, but all character details are being kept under wraps. (Variety)

Molly Ringwald has joined the cast of the upcoming new season of the anthology series Feud: Capote’s Women. She will play Johnny Carson’s second wife Joanne Carson, a good friend of Capote’s who remained close to him until his death. (Deadline)

Donal Logue (Sons of Anarchy) and Gloria Reuben (ER) have joined the cast of The Equalizer for the show’s upcoming 3rd season. Logue will play Colton Fisk, one of the CIA’s most decorated agents, an ex-CIA union chief in the Middle East during the 1990s. Meanwhile, Reuben will play Trish, a recently widowed gallerist who is rekindling a romantic relationship with her former girlfriend, Vi (Lorraine Toussaint). (Deadline)

Sarah Paulson will play cult leader Gwen Shamblin in the HBO Max series The Way Down, which is being adapted from the streamers own 5-part docuseries. (Variety)

SPECIAL PRESENTATION NEWS

New cast members have been announced for the upcoming live action musical Beauty and the Beast. David Alan Grier will play Cogsworth; and Martin Short and country star Shania Twain are in final talks to play Lumiere and Mrs. Potts respectively. (Variety)

STREAMING MOVIE NEWS

Saoirse Ronan is set to star in the Apple TV+ World War II epic Blitz that tells the stories of a group of Londoners during the aerial bombing of the British capital during the war. (Variety)

Anne Hathaway will star in the Amazon flick The Idea of You, playing Sophie, a divorced mother who sparks a passionate love affair with a pop star she meets after taking her daughter to a music festival. Nicholas Galitzine, who starred in the Netflix movie Purple Hearts and Amazon’s Cinderella), will play Hayes Campbell, the 24-year-old lead singer of August Moon, the hottest boy band on the planet. The film follows Sophie, who saves the day after her ex-husband Dan (who left her for a younger woman) cancels his Coachella trip with their 15-year-old daughter. When she decides to brave the crowds and desert heat to take her daughter to the music festival, Sophie meets Hayes and the 40-year-old’s life really heats up. (Variety)

Netflix will reunite Eddie Murphy with his Beverly Hills Cop co-stars Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser and Bronson Pinchot in the upcoming sequel Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Bridgerton hunk Jonathan Bailey will play Fiyero in the upcoming big screen adaptation of Wicked that will star Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda. The movie will actually be released in two-parts set for release on Christmas in 2024 and 2025. (Variety)

Darren Barnet (Never Have I Ever) has joined the adaptation of the best-selling racing video game Gran Turismo that will include David Harbour (Stranger Things), Orlando Bloom (The Lord of the Rings franchise) and Archie Madekwe (See) among its cast. The project is described as the ultimate wish-fulfillment tale of a teenage Gran Turismo player whose gaming skills won him a series of Nissan competitions to become an actual professional race-car driver. Madekwe is playing the teen, while Harbour will play the retired driver who teaches him to drive. Bloom will play a hungry marketing exec and Barnet will play a racer who is ranked at the top at the GT academy, who is not thrilled to see the upstart teen excel. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Kelly Marie Tran (Star Wars franchise) is developing a biopic about one of her close friends, the civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen. Tran would portray Nguyen who transformed from a survivor of college sexual assault to an activist for survivors’ rights, including penning a Survivors’ Bill of Rights (which inspired the federal law passed in 2016) and founding the civil rights accelerator Rise. (The Hollywood Reporter)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

DISAPPOINTING TV NEWS

It looks like, despite how great it would be, that Scott Bakula has decided to not be involved in the Quantum Leap reboot – at all. Oh boy! (TV Line)

SERIES ORDER NEWS

It looks like Amazon has given an order for a new live-action limited series Blade Runner 2099 with Ridley Scott on board as an executive producer. (TV Line)

NOT MOVING FORWARD

The small screen adaptation of Constantine that was being developed by J.J. Abrams for HBO Max is now dead. [See more below about Constantine the movie.] (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Brandon Sklenar (Westworld and The Offer) has joined the cast of the Yellowstone spin-off series 1923. He will play Spencer, the nephew of Jacob Dutton (Harrison Ford) and the brother to John Sr. (James Badge Dale). (TV Line)

Dennis Quaid has joined the cast of the HBO Max series Full Circle that already includes among its cast the likes of Claire Danes, Zazie Beetz, and Timothy Olyphant. The 6-episode series will follow an investigation into a botched kidnapping that uncovers long-held secrets connecting multiple characters and cultures in present day New York City. Character details are currently being kept under wraps. (Variety)

Demi Moore will appear in season 2 of Feud on FX that will tell the true story of how Truman Capote was friends with numerous members of New York high society until he published excerpts of his unfinished novel “Answered Prayers,” with the excerpts serving as a tell-all about the city’s elite. It is being reported that Moore is expected to star as socialite Ann Woodward, a former showgirl and radio actress who was infamously accused of murdering her husband in 1955. (Variety)

Manny Jacinto (The Good Place) is expected to join Amandla Stenberg, Jodie Turner-Smith and Lee Jung-jae in the upcoming Disney+ Star Wars series The Acolyte. (Variety)

Shaun Sipos (Outer Range) has joined season 2 of Reacher on Amazon, playing David O’Donnell, the member of Reacher’s old 110th MP unit. (TV Line)

Bridgerton hunk Rege-Jean Page and Top Gun Maverick alum Glen Powell will star in the small screen adaptation of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. Exact plot details are being kept under wraps, though. (Variety)

The Peacock detective series Poker Face has added to its cast. Brandon Michael Hall (God Friended Me), Colton Ryan (The Girl From Plainville) and Megan Suri (Never Have I Ever) will appear in the series that will star Natasha Lyonne in the lead role. Character details are being kept under wraps, but the expansive cast will include Adrien Brody, Chloë Sevigny, Clea DuVall, Ellen Barkin, Jameela Jamil, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Judith Light, Lil Rel Howery, Luis Guzmán, Nick Nolte, Ron Perlman, among many others. (Variety)

Disney+ has another new series in the works. This time is a small screen adaptation of Spiderwick Chronicles that already includes Christian Slater and Joy Bryant as cast members. The latest cast to be added is Mychala Lee (the Netflix movie End of the Road and Truth Be Told). Based on the book series by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, the series follows a family who leaves New York for Michigan, moving into their run-down ancestral home: The Spiderwick Estate. Lee will play Mallory, the sister of two brothers Jared and Simon, and the daughter of Bryant’s character. (Variety)

Chad L. Coleman (The Orville) has joined the cast of the upcoming 3rd season of Superman & Lois, playing infamous DC baddie Bruno Mannheim, a philanthropist who’s revived the struggling neighborhoods of the city. For years, Lois Lane (series lead Elizabeth Tulloch) has worked to prove that behind that facade is a career criminal and the head of the notorious organization Intergang. (TV Line)

Rodrigo Santoro has joined the cast of the upcoming Paramount+ series Wolf Pack (a sequel-of-sorts to the MTV thriller series Teen Wolf) that boasts Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy herself) as part of the cast. The show follows two teens whose lives are changed when a California wildfire awakens a supernatural creature. Santoro will play Garrett Briggs, am Angeles park ranger dedicated to protecting the environment, and adoptive father to the remarkable teenagers. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

The 1985 best-selling memoir Elvis and Me by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley will be coming to the big screen with Cailee Spaeny (Mare of Eastown) and Jacob Elordi (Euphoria) playing the title roles. (Variety)

It looks like Keanu Reeves will be back as Constantine in a sequel to the 2005 supernatural action film that will find director Francis Lawrence back at the helm. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWAL/CANCELLATION

HBO Max has given a second season renewal to Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin. (TV Line)

The Handmaid’s Tale has been renewed for its 6th and final season. (TV Line)

Amazon has pulled the plug on the sci-fi series Paper Girls after only one season. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Criminal Minds will be back for another rebooted season on Paramount+ this time under the name Criminal Minds: Evolution. There will be 10 episodes in this season and Friday Night Lights vet Zach Gilfrod will join the cast as the season-long villain Elias Voit, an operations analyst for a global cyber-security firm who has a dark side and obsession with death. Veteran cast members Joe Mantegna, A.J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Aisha Tyler, Adam Rodriguez and Paget Brewster will be back but Matthew Gray Gubler and Daniel Henney will not be back. (TV Line)

Claire Danes has joined hte cast of the upcoming limited series Full Circle coming to HBO Max The series follows an investigation into a botched kidnapping that uncovers long-held secrets connecting multiple characters and cultures in present day New York City. The series will star Zazie Beetz Characters details are being kept under wraps, though. (Variety)

Lee Jung-Jae (from Squid Game) has been cast as the male lead in the upcoming Disney+ drama series The Acolyte that is set a century before the events of Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace. The series promises to depict the galaxy at the peak of the era of the High Republic, when the Jedi were at their strongest and the Sith were believed to have been eradicated from the galaxy. (Variety)

The Yellowstone offshoot series 1923 has added to its cast. Starring alongside Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford, who will play Jacob and Cara Dutton, will be James Badge Dale, who will play John Dutton, Sr., the oldest nephew and right-hand man of Jacob; Marley Shelton, who will play Emma Dutton, the dutiful wife of John Dutton Sr.; Darren Mann, who will play Jack Dutton, son of John Sr. and Emma; Michelle Randolph, who will play Elizabeth Strafford, a feisty and capable young woman set to marry into the Dutton family; Brian Geraghty, who will play Zane, a fiercely loyal ranch foreman; relative newcomer Aminah Nieves, who will play Teonna Rainwater (believed to be an ancestor of Gil Birmingham’s Thomas Rainwater), a young woman at a government residential boarding school; and Julia Schlaepfer, who will play Alexandra, a British woman who meets one of the Duttons abroad. (TV Line)

Kathryn Prescott (Finding Carter) will recur on New Amsterdam, playing Dr. Lauren Bloom’s estranged sister, Vanessa. (TV Line)

The role of Jonathan Kent on The CW’s Superman & Lois has been recast – after series regular Jordan Elsass decided not to return for the show’s upcoming third season. Australian actor Michael Bishop (Disney Channel’s Spin) will take over the role. (TV Line)

The upcoming Taylor Sheridan CIA drama Lioness that will debut on Paramount+ has added to its cast. The series is based on a real-life CIA program that will follow 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. Zoe Saldaña will play Joe, the station chief of the Lioness program tasked with training, managing and leading her female undercover operatives. The new cast members are James Jordan, LaMonica Garrett, and Dave Annable, but details on the characters they will play are being kept under wraps. (Variety)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIES

The upcoming Beauty and the Beast live-action/animation production that is set to air ABC will star Grammy winner H.E.R. as Belle and now also includes among its cast actor-singer Josh Groban, who will play Beast; Joshua Henry who will play Gaston and legendary actress Rita Moreno who will serve as the show’s narrator, guiding viewers along the classically enchanting tale. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Actress Shira Haas and actor Tim Blake Nelson have joined the cast of the upcoming box office movie Captain Ameria: New World Order that will star Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson aka Falcon. Haas will play Sabra and Nelson will play The Leader. Also, Carl Lumbly will reprise his role as Isaiah Bradley. (Variety)

The cast members for the upcoming team-up movie Marvel’s Thunderbolts will include Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, David Harbour, Olga Kurylenko, Julie Louis-Dreyfus and Hannah John-Kamen. (TV Line)

Winona Ryder, Dan Levy and Hasan Minaj have joined the cast of the Disney remake of Haunted Mansion. The movie already includes Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson, LaKeith Stanfield, Jared Leto, Tiffany Haddish, Jamie Lee Curis and Danny DeVito. The supernatural comedy will follow Gabbie (Dawson), a single mom with a nine-year-old son, who is looking to start a new life. She buys a strangely affordable mansion in New Orleann, which they soon discover is haunted. (Variety)

Ariana DeBose will provide her voice to the upcoming Disney film Wish that will blend the classic watercolor-esque Disney animation style with a newer, CGI look. DeBose will play Asha, the 17-year-old heroine and protagonist. Alan Tudyk will also provide his voice to an adorable goat named Valentino. (Variety)

Benedict Cumberbatch and Mark Strong will star alongside Jodie Comer in the upcoming film The End We Start From. The film will focus on what happens when an environmental crisis sees London submerged by flood waters, causing a young family to be torn apart in the chaos. The cast will include Katherin Waterston, Joel Fry, Nina Sosanya and Gina McKee. (Variety)

The upcoming action thriller Land of Bad will star Liam Hemsworth, his brother Luke Hemsworth, Milo Ventimiglia, Ricky Whittle and Russell Crowe. The film will follow Reaper (Crowe), an Air Force drone pilot supporting a Delta Force special ops mission in the South Philippines. After the mission goes terribly wrong, Reaper has 48 hours to remedy what has devolved into a wild rescue operation. The Tier-One team, led by Cpt. Sugar (Ventimigila) and Sgt. Abel (Luke Hemsworth) is re-deployed to return and retrieve their captured man and the asset. They are joined by Kinney (Liam Hemsworth), a green Air Force JTAC officer, who is thrust into the middle of a high-stakes extraction. But the ground mission suddenly turns upside down and becomes a full-scale battle when the team is discovered by the enemy. With no weapons and no communication other than the drone above, Reaper becomes the young operator’s only ticket out. (Variety)

Nicolas Cage and Joel Kinnaman will star in the upcoming psychological thriller Sympathy for the Devil, which will follow The Driver (Kinnaman), as he finds himself in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse after being forced to drive a mysterious man known as The Passenger (Cage). (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

TV CASTING NEWS

Carla Gugino has joined the cast of the upcoming HBO Max series The Girls on the Bus, joining cast member Melissa Benoist in a story inspired by a chapter in the Amy Chozick book Chasing Hillary. The series is a comedic character-driven drama that chronicles four female journalists who follow every move of a parade of flawed presidential candidates, while finding friendship, love, and scandal along the way. (Variety)

Sebastian Roche has joined the cast of the Yellowstone prequel 1923 in a recurring role, but details on his role are being kept under wraps. The series will star Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford as a new generation of the Dutton family, exploring the early 20th century when pandemics, historic drought, the end of Prohibition and the Great Depression all plague the Mountain West, and the Duttons who call it home. (Deadline)

Naveen Andrews has joined the cast of the 2nd season of The Cleaning Lady. He will play Robert Kamdar, Nadia’s (Eva De Dominici) gregarious and charming ex-lover, who is intent on driving a wedge between Arman (Adan Canto) and Nadia. (Variety)

Chicago P.D. alum Jesse Lee Soffer will be leaving the show at the end of the upcoming 10th season. (Variety and TV Line)

James Cromwell, Anna Gunn and Lindsay Pulsipher (among others) have joined the cast of the upcoming Apple series Sugar that will star Colin Farrel, Amy Ryan and Kirby Howell-Baptiste. Exact plot and character details for the show are being kept under wraps though. (Variety)

Jennifer Connelly will star opposite Joel Edgerton in the Apple series Dark Matter, based on the Blake Crouch novel. The nine-episode series follows Jason Dessen (Edgerton), a physicist, professor, and family man who – one night while walking home on the streets of Chicago – is abducted into an alternate version of his life. Wonder quickly turns to nightmare when he tries to return to his reality amid the multiverse of lives he could have lived. In this labyrinth of mind-bending realities, he embarks on a harrowing journey to get back to his true family and save them from the most terrifying, unbeatable foe imaginable: himself. Connelly will play Daniela, Jason’s wife. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Justin H. Min (The Umbrella Academy) will star opposite Lucy Boynton (Bohemian Rhapsody) in the upcoming movie The Greatest Hits. The characters they will play are being kept under wraps, but the movie is a love story centering on the connection between music and memory, and how the two transport us. (Variety)

Russell Crowe will play a former homicide detective tasked with re-examining a brutal murder case from his past in the upcoming box office movie Sleeping Dogs. He will play Roy Freeman, who is undergoing a cutting-edge Alzheimer’s treatment. He is forced to grapple with the impact of an investigation from his former life after a death row inmate that Freeman arrested 10 years prior starts to proclaim his innocence. Intrigued and fighting to regain his memory, Freeman enlists his former partner to help him revive the case and discover the truth. Together, they set off to unravel a tangled web of secrets, forcing Freeman to make some horrific discoveries. (Variety)

Tessa Thompson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt will star in the sci-fi thriller Ash. Thompson will play a space station worker who wakes up on a distant planet to find her colleagues viciously killed, and then forced to work together with the man (Gordon-Levitt) sent to rescue her. But as their investigation into what happened sets in motion a terrifying chain of events, the rescuer begins to wonder how innocent she really is. (Variety)

STREAMING MOVIE NEWS

Simu Lu will appear in the upcoming Netflix production Atlas alongside Jennifer Lopez and Sterling K. Brown. Lu will play the antagonist in the film that follows Atlas, a woman fighting for humanity in a future where an AI soldier has determined the only way to end war is to end humanity. To outthink this rogue AI, Atlas must work with the one thing she fears most — another AI. (Deadline)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

Teri Hatcher and James Tupper will star in the upcoming Hallmark Movies & Mysteries movie Mid-Love Crisis, playing former high school sweethearts. Hatcher will play Mindy, a single mom approaching her 50th birthday who realizes she’s in the throes of a bonafide mid-life crisis. During a long weekend at the family’s lake house with her daughter Rita and Rita’s girlfriend, Emily, Mindy is surprisingly reunited with her former boyfriend — Emily’s uncle, Sam (Tupper), who she hasn’t spoken to in three decades. As Rita plans to surprise Emily with a proposal, she tells her mom she wants her dad to join them, leading to Mindy’s two exes under one roof. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

Netflix has given The Umbrella Academy a fourth and final season. (TV Line)

House of the Dragon has been renewed for a second season already by HBO. (TV Line)

Netflix has pulled the plug on Resident Evil after only one season. (TV Line)

SURPRISE POTENTIAL CHANGE

It looks like NBC just might be looking to eliminate their 10 PM programming block. The idea, which could take effect in the Fall of 2023, would be done as a way to cut costs amid (ever) declining linear ratings. (Wall Street Journal and TV Line)

SERIES ORDER

ABC has given a series order to The Company You Keep, an hour-long drama that will star This Is Us alum Milo Ventimiglia. The official taglin for the show is: A night of passion leads to love between con man Charlie (Ventimiglia) and undercover CIA officer Emma (Catherine Haena Kim from Good Trouble), who are unknowingly on a collision course professionally. While Charlie ramps up the ‘family business’ so he can get out for good, Emma’s closing in on the vengeful criminal who holds Charlie’s family debts in-hand, forcing them to reckon with the lies they’ve told so they can save themselves and their families from disastrous consequences. The cast includes William Fichtner, Sarah Wayne Callies, Polly Draper and James Saito. (TV Line)

TV ORDER

Netflix has ordered a limited series adaptation of the Elin Hilderbrand novel The Perfect Couple, a soapy mystery, that focuses on Celeste Otis, who is about to marry the perfect man, who just so happens to be from the wealthiest family on Nantucket. But when a body is discovered floating in the harbor on the morning of what was to be the wedding of the year, suddenly everyone at the party is a suspect. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Sasha Roiz (Grimm) will have a recurring role on Chicago Med this fall, playing Jack Egan, a multimillionaire renaissance man. (TV Line and Deadline)

Kelli Giddish will be leaving Law & Order: Special Victims Unit during the show’s upcoming season 24. The exact timing of her exit remains unclear, but it’s being reported that her final episode will air during the first half of the season. (TV Line)

Barbie Ferreira is leaving the cast of the HBO drama Euphoria before the start of its upcoming third season. (TV Line)

Ewan McGregor will star in A Gentleman in Moscow, the Paramount+ and Showtime adaptation of the Amor Towles novel where he will play Count Alexander Rostov, who finds himself going from riches to rags following the Russian revolution. (Variety)

Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Supernatural and The Walking Dead) will recur in The Boys for the show’s upcoming 4th season. What role he will play is being kept firmly under wraps, however. (TV Line)

Dania Ramirez (Devious Maids and Sweet Tooth) will have a lead role in the upcoming FOX drama Alert that was ordered to series in May. She will play Nikki, a salt-of-the-earth woman whose life was ripped apart six years ago by the disappearance of her 11-year-old son. She found her calling as the head of the Missing Person’s Unit. Her zeal and personal connection to the victims and their families infuses each and every case, and she helps others find their loved ones even as she couldn’t find her own. (Variety)

The upcoming Amazon series The Power will include Toni Collette and Josh Charles in lead roles. The show is described as our world, but for one twist of nature. Suddenly, and without warning, all teenage girls in the world develop the power to electrocute people at will. The show follows a cast of characters from London to Seattle, Nigeria to Eastern Europe, as the Power evolves from a tingle in teenagers’ collarbones to a complete reversal of the power balance of the world. Collette will play Margot Cleary-Lopez, the mayor of Seattle; while Charles will play Daniel Dandon, the governor of Washington. The cast will include Auli’i Cravalho, John Leguizamo and Eddie Marsan. (Variety)

Julianna Margulies will be back for the third season of The Morning Show in a recurring capacity, once again playing Laura Peterson, UBA News talking head. (TV Line)

Scott Foley (Scandal and Felicity) has joined the cast of the upcoming HBO Max drama The Girls on the Bus, joining cast member Melissa Benoist (Supergirl). The show will be a comedic character-driven drama that chronicles four female journalists who follow every move of a parade of flawed presidential candidates, while finding friendship, love, and scandal along the way. Foley will play a little-known mayor from Kansas who has joined the presidential race. (Variety)

Paul Rudd will join the cast of Only Murders in the Building for the show’s third season, play8ing the role of Ben Glenroy, who was introduced in the show’s 2nd season finale. (Variety)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

ABC is developing a spin-off to The Good Doctor. The Good Lawyer would center on Joni, a twentysomething woman who battles obsessive compulsive disorder but is a brilliant lawyer. Casting is currently underway. (TV Line)

COMING TO AN END (MAYBE?)

It looks likely that A Million Little Things will potentially come to an end with its upcoming 5th season on ABC. (TV Line)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

James Denton (Desperate Housewives and Good Witch) and Sherri Saum (The Fosters” will appear in the upcoming Hallmark Channel Perfect Harmony. Denton will play Jack Chandeller, and Saum will play Barrett Woodword, who are like oil and water since they met 10 years prior but when thier mutual friends, Naomi (Julia Benson) and Simon (Peter Benson), are ready to tie the knot, they ask the duo to be Best Man and Maid of Honor. In order to support Naomi and Simon, they agree to set aside their differences. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

The cast of the Road House remake starring Jake Gyllenhaal has added to its cast. Joaquim de Almedia (24), Darren Barnet (Never Have I Ever), JD Pardo (Mayans M.C.) and Kevin Carroll (Let the Right One In) have joined the cast. This version of the movie will follow former UFC fighter (Gyllenhaal) who takes a job as a bouncer at a rough-and-tumble roadhouse in the Florida Keys, but soon discovers that not everything is what it seems in this tropical paradise. (Deadline)

Billy Zane and rapper/singer Quavo will star in the action thriller flick Takeover. Zane will play Gamal Akopyan, the leader of an international heist ring, who uses street takeovers to get away with mass robberies. When his latest heist goes awry, he must do whatever it takes to escape the Atlanta takeover scene alive – with nine figures worth of diamonds. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items from this past week:

RENEWALS

The Chi has been renewed for a 6th season by Showtime. (TV Line)

NOT HAPPENING (AFTER ALL)

The proposed reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was to feature a black actress as the titular heroine and has been in development since 2018, is now “on pause”. (The Hollywood Reporter and TV Line)

OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

It looks like Nexstar, the TV station group giant has acquired a 75% stake in The CW; and with that announcement it appears the network won’t be “a hub for broadcast-TV’s teen dramas anymore, as it was revealed that the average age of the network’s viewers is 57.4 years of age. Tom Carter, the COO and President of Nexstar, stated that the network “will add more cost-effective unscripted programming and high-quality syndicated programming to its lineup.” The network’s co-owners – Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global – will continue to produce original scripted content, primarily for the 2022-23 broadcast season. Beyond that, Nexstar will extend its creative partnership with the two companies “if mutually agreeable.” (TV Line)

MOVING

The John Wick prequel series will move from Starz over to Peacock. The 3-part “special event” will premiere sometime in 2023. The event series will be told from the perspective of hotel manager, a young Winston Scott (played by Colin Woodell and based on Ian McShane’s character in the John Wick films), who is dragged through 1975 New York to face a past he thought he’d left behind. In an attempt to seize control of the iconic hotel, which serves as a meeting point for the world’s most dangerous criminals, Winston charts a deadly course through the mysterious underworld of New York City. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Viola Davis has joined the cast of The Hunger Games prequel movie The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, playing Volumnia Gaul, the mastermind of the diabolical teen death-match. (Variety)

Black-ish creator Kenya Barris will write and direct a reimagining of Wizard of Oz. Specifics about the film are being kept under wraps. (Variety)

It looks like Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie may be working together again (they are currently filming a live-action version of Ken and Barbie). It is being reported the well-known actors will appear in a reboot of the Ocean’s Eleven franchise. (Variety)

The creators of Cobra Kai are working on their next project. Sam and Victor’s Day Off, a spin-off of the box office film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, is their latest project. Based on unnamed characters from the original movie, Sam and Victor were valets who took Cameron’s father’s red Ferrari on a joy-ride. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

The Lord of the Rings alum Elijah Wood will have a season-long guest arc in season two of Yellowjackets, playing Walter, a dedicated Citizen Detective who will challenge Misty (series regular Christina Ricci) in ways she won’t see coming. Also, Simone Kessell (Obi-Wan Kenobi) has joined the cast of Yellowjackets, playing the adult version of Lottie. (TV Line)

Kirby Howell-Baptiste (The Sandman and season 4 of Veronica Mars), Colin Farrell and Amy Ryan will star in the upcoming Apple series Sugar. Details on the show are scarce, but it is to be a genre-bending contemporary take on the private detective story set in Los Angeles. (Variety)

Neve Campbell (Lincoln Lawyer and Party of Five) and Steven Pasquale (Rescue Me) will star in the upcoming ABC series Avalon from David E. Kelley and Michael Connelly. The series takes place in the main city of Avalon on Catalina Island, where LA Sheriff Department Detective Nicole “Nic” Searcy (Campbell) heads up a small office. Meanwhile, Pasquale will play Detective William Claypool, a Los Angeles County Sheriff detective. (Variety)

The following cast members will return for season 19 of Grey’s Anatomy Chandra Wilson, James Pickens, Jr., Kevin McKidd, Kim Raver, Kelly McCreary, Anthony Hill, Caterina Scorsone, Camilla Luddington, Chris Carmack and Jake Borelli. Series regular Scott Speedman, will now appear in a recurring capacity. (TV Line)

Jordan Elsass is leaving Superman & Lois, where he plays twin Jonathan Kent, for the show’s upcoming 3rd season. The exact nature of his departure is unknown, but it’s being reported that it is not the result of a “workplace-related issue.” The role will be recast. (Variety and TV Line)

The 2nd season of FX’s Feud will star Tom Hollander, Diane Lane and Calista Flockart, who are joining Naomi Watts and Chloe Sevigny. This season of the anthology series will tell the true story of how Truman Capote was friends with numerous members of New York high society until he published excerpts of his unfinished novel “Answered Prayers.” Watts will play famed socialite Barbara “Babe” Paley, while Sevigny will play C.Z. Guest. Hollander will star as Capote, with Lane playing Nancy “Slim” Keith and Flockhart playing Lee Radziwill. (Variety)

A DIFFERENT ADAPTATION

While The Time Traveler’s Wife was cancelled by HBO after only one season, the story will continue in a different adaptation. It will now take the shape of a musical to premiere at the Chester Storyhouse (in England) this autumn, before it takes on a West End run. David Hunter will play the titular time traveller, Henry DeTamble while Joanna Woodward will play Clare Abshire. Grammy Award-winning composers Joss Stone and Dave Stewart are in charge of the score. (Radio Times)

STREAMING ORIGINAL FILMS NEWS

Jason Momoa and producer Peter Safran are teaming up to develop a feature biopic about Duke Kahanamoku, the legendary Hawaiian Olympic swimmer who is widely credited with popularizing surfing as a sport. (Variety)

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RENEWALS

Starz has given a third season renewal to Power Book III: Raising Kanan. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Apple TV+ has given the dramedy Physical a 3rd season renewal. (TV Line)

PICK-UP ORDER

ABC has officially ordered the drama series Will Trent for mid-season 2023. The series, based on the novel by Karin Slaughter, follows Special Agent Will Trent (Ramón Rodríguez) of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI). Trent was abandoned at birth and endured a harsh coming-of-age in Atlanta’s overwhelmed foster care system. But now, determined to use his unique point of view to make sure no one is abandoned like he was, Will Trent has the highest clearance rate in the GBI. The cast will include Erika Christensen, Sonja Sohn and Jake McLaughlin. (Variety)

CHANGE OF PLANS

Charter is phasing out Spectrum Originals as the cable provider moves out of the original scripted series space. Among the shows that appeared on Spectrum Originals includes LA’s Finest, the Mad About You reboot, Joe Pickett, The Bite and Paradise Lost. (Variety)

TV NEWS

The Blacklist, which is going into its 10th season this fall, will introduce a character name Siya Malik (a role which has yet to be cast), an MI6 intelligence officer, who is also the daughter of the last season 1 character Meera Malik, who was played by Parminder Nagra. Meera, a CIA agent, appeared in nearly the entire debut season of the long-running NBC drama, serving as an OG member of Raymond Reddington’s special task force. She was ultimately killed by an assassin in the Season 1 finale, and our sources say that Siya will arrive on the task force in pursuit of answers about her mother’s work and death. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Max Martini will recur opposite Titus Welliver in the upcoming 2nd season of spin-off of the long-running Amazon series Bosch: Legacy that airs on Freevee (formerly IMDbTV). Martini will play Detective Don Ellis, a hardened vice cop in the LAPD. He’s intelligent and fierce, and not above getting down and dirty with the criminals he polices to get the job done. (Deadline)

The Apple TV+ 6-episode dramedy Land of Women, inspired by the award-winning novel by Sandra Barneda, has been ordered to series. The show will star Eva Longoria (who will also serve as executive producer) as Gala, a New York empty nester whose life is turned upside down when her husband implicates the family in financial improprieties and she is forced to flee the city alongside her aging mother and college-age daughter. To escape the dangerous criminals to whom Gala’s now vanished husband is indebted, the three women hide in the same charming wine town in northern Spain that Gala’s mother fled 50 years ago, vowing never to return. The women seek to start anew and hope their identities will remain unknown, but gossip in the small town quickly spreads, unraveling their deepest family secrets and truths. (Apple TV+ Press Release)

Lucy Liu has joined the cast of the upcoming Netflix limited series A Man in Full that already includes Jeff Daniels and Diane Lane in the lead roles. Based on the Tom Wolfe novel the straight-to-series series comes from David E. Kelley and focuses on Atlanta real estate mogul Charlie Croker (Daniels) who faces sudden bankruptcy. Political and business interests collide as Charlie defends his empire from those attempting to capitalize on his fall from grace. Liu will play Joyce Newman, the founder of a successful clean beauty company. Joyce struggles with a crisis of conscious that threatens to undo friendships and business ventures The cast include William Jackson Harper, Aml Ameen, Tom Pelphrey, Sarah Jones, Jon Michael Hill, and Chanté Adams. (Variety)

Newcomer Sarah Pidgeon (The Wilds) will play the younger version of the character to be played by Kathryn Hahn in the upcoming Hulu series Tiny Beautiful Things that will be based on the best-selling book by Cheryl Strayed. The half-hour drama will center around Claire (Hahn), a woman who reluctantly becomes “Dear Sugar,” an anonymous, revered advice columnist whose own life is falling apart. Told in multiple timelines with astonishing intimacy, nerve and candor, she excavates the beauty, struggle and humor in her own life to show us that we are not beyond rescue, that it’s our stories that will ultimately save us. Young Claire is described as rebellious, sharp-tongued and acting out irresponsibly after her mother’s death. (Deadline and TV Line)

Lauren Ambrose has been cast in the 2nd season of Yellowjackets as the adult version of the character Vanessa “Van” Palmer. (TV Line)

Tatiana Maslany will have a starring role in the AMC series Invitation to a Bonfire, a psychological thriller that will be set in the 1930s at an all-girls boarding school. The 6-episode series, based on the novel by Adrienne Celt, will follow Zoya (Industry‘s Freya Mavor), a young Russian immigrant and groundskeeper who is drawn into a lethal love triangle with the school’s newest faculty member Leo, an enigmatic novelist, and his bewitching wife Vera (Maslany). (TV Line)

Jon Hamm has joined the 3rd season of The Morning Show, starring in a key role opposite Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Billy Crudup. Hamm will play Paul Marks, a corporate titan who sets his sights on UBA, pulling Cory, Alex and Bradley into his powerful orbit,” according to the official character breakdown. (TV Line)

Supergirl alum Chyler Leight will star opposite Andie MacDowell in the upcoming Hallmark Channel series The Way Home, a family drama about three generations of women who make up the Landry family. Leigh will play Kat Landry, a newly divorced and recently laid off single mom who moves back to her small Canadian farm town of Port Haven after receiving a letter from her estranged mother Del (MacDowell) urging her to return home. Her 15-year-old daughter Alice isn’t happy about moving, and the family reunion isn’t what Kat had pictured. As the multi-generational household slowly comes together as a family, they embark on an enlightening — and surprising — journey none of them could have imagined. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

The next movie from actor-turned-director Justin Baldoni (Jane the Virgin) will focus on the video game Pac-Man. Details for the live-action movie version, including but not limited to the plot and the character’s physical iteration, remain vague. (Variety)

Crystal Clarke (Sanditon) will star in the upcoming movie Empire of Light alongside some heavy hitters like Olivia Colman, Colin Firth and Toby Jones. Details on the film have yet to be revealed, but it is being described as a romantic story set around an old cinema in the South coast of England in the 1980s. (Hello Magazine)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

The CW has announced that The Flash will end with its upcoming 9th season, which will consist of only 13 episodes. (TV Line)

Showtime has pulled the plug on The First Lady after only one season. (Variety)

Netflix has cancelled the teen vampire drama First Kill after just one season. (TV Line)

Freeform has renewed the drama Good Trouble for a 5th season. (The Hollywood Reporter)

MOVING

After 57 years on NBC, the soap opera Days of Our Lives will move to the streaming service Peacock. (TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Starz has officially announced that the prequel Outlander: Blood of My Blood is in development. The proposed series will center on the the love story of Jamie Fraser’s parents, Ellen MacKenzie and Brian Fraser. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Nancy Travis (The Kominsky Method) and Tiera Skovbye (Riverdale) have joined the cast of the new, upcoming Hallmark Channel series Ride that will center on a rodeo dynasty. Travis will play Isabel McMurray, the tough-as-nails family matriarch fighting to keep her family legacy afloat following a tragedy while Skovbye will play Missy, a former rodeo queen who is a McMurray by marriage and struggles to find her place in the family. The cast includes Beau Mirchoff (Good Trouble and Awkward.) will play Cash McMurray, the second-born son who will carry on his family’s legacy; Sara Garcia (The Flash), who will play Valeria Galindo; and Jake Foy (Designated Survivor) who will depict Tuff McMurray, Isabel’s youngest son. Tyler Jacob Moore (Shameless) will play Gus, a handsome stranger who comes into their lives. (Deadline)

Rosanna Arquette has joined the cast of the ABC drama Big Sky for the show’s upcoming 3rd season. She will play Virginia “Gigi” Cessna, Jenny’s (series lead Katheryn Winnick) charismatic and fast-talking mother, who is also a world-class scam artist who used childhood Jenny in some of her grifts, much to the now grown Jenny’s resentment. When Gigi returns to Helena, Montana, to pull her latest con, Jenny catches on to her, and mother and daughter have to work through their relationship. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Aidan Turner (Poldark and the upcoming Leonardo) will star in the Amazon U.K. drama Fifteen-Love that will explore the fictional story of Justine Pearce (Ella Lily Hyland), a young sports prodigy, who enjoyed a meteoric rise in the world of Grand Slam Tennis, aided by her coach Glenn Lapthorn (Turner), with whom she shared an intense rapport. Together they reached the semi-final of the French Open but Justine’s dream was cut brutally short by a devastating injury and the end of her professional career. Five years later, now aged 22, Justine has a new life as a therapist at her old tennis academy Longwood, but when she makes an explosive allegation against her former coach, everyone is forced to reconsider what they thought they knew about Justine and Glenn’s past success. (Variety)

Keanu Reeves will executive produce and star inthe Hulu series Devil in the White City, based on the best-selling novel by Erik Larson, that tells the story of Daniel H. Burnham, a demanding but visionary architect who races to make his mark on history with the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and Dr. H. H. Holmes, America’s first modern serial killer and the man behind the notorious ‘Murder Castle’ built in the Fair’s shadow. It is unclear which of the two characters Reeves will play. (Deadline and TV Line)

Merle Dandridge (Greenleaf), Josh Randall (Ed) and veteran actor Pat Healy have been promoted to series regulars on Station 19. Dandridge plays Chief Natasha Ross; Randall returns as Captain Sean Beckett; and Healy plays former chief Michael Dixon, who stands for everything our team despises and who has a history of undermining the crew at Station 19; and he is currently running for mayor. (Deadline)

Georgina Reilly (City on a Hill) has booked a key recurring role in the NBC reboot of Quantum Leap that will debut on the major network this fall. The series follows Dr. Ben Seong (Raymond Lee from Here and Now) as he takes the Quantum Accelerator into the past, leaving his team to figure out why he did it and bring him back. There are no specifics on what role she will play, though. (Deadline)

Susan Heyward (Orange Is the New Black) and Valorie Curry (The Following) have joined the cast of season 4 of the Amazon series The Boys, playing rookie Supes named Sister Sage and Firecracker, respectively. (TV Line)

Elizabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale and Mad Men) will appear in the FX limited series called The Veil, that will be exclusively for Hulu. The show is being described as a thriller that will explore the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret, the other a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost. (Variety)

An end of an era is starting: Ellen Pompeo will be scaling back her duties as Meredith Gray in the exceedingly long-running ABC drama Grey’s Anatomy. Pompeo will appear in a “limited capacity” (translation about 8 episodes out of roughly 20 to 23 episodes set to be produced for the show’s 19th season. Pompeo will remain as an executive producer, and will continue to narrate every episode. She will move onto a new Hulu series that has yet to be given an official name that is inspired by the true story of a Midwestern couple who adopt what they believe is an 8-year-old girl with a rare form of dwarfism. But as they begin to raise her alongside their three biological children, they slowly start to believe she may not be who she says she is. As they question her 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’s fought in the tabloids, the courtroom and ultimately their marriage. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

As everyone has undoubtedly read by now, the theatrical release of Batgirl that was set to star In the Heights cast member Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon (aka Batgirl) is not going to happen after all. (Variety)

STREAMING MOVIE NEWS

In a move that has movie fans at odds is the announcement that Jake Gyllenhaal will take on the remake of Road House, which – of course – starred Dirty Dancing hunk Patrick Swayze. This version will follow a former UFC fighter (Gyllenhaal) who takes a job as a bouncer at a rough-and-tumble roadhouse in the Florida Keys, but soon discovers that not everything is what it seems in this tropical paradise. The cast will include Billy Magnussen (No Time to Die and Into the Woods), Travis Van Winkle (The Last Ship) and Daniela Melchior (The Suicide Squad). (TV Line)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

CANCELLATION

Prime Video has cancelled the survivalist teen drama The Wilds after just two seasons (and a big cliffhanger too). (TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

PBS is developing a drama series based on the public and private life of Clementine Churchill, wife of British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. Each episode of the limited series will follow Clementine through pivotal moments of her life. Raised by an unstable mother in relative poverty, caring for her siblings, Clementine became a suffragette working two jobs. Known as the “Broke Beauty,” she refused to marry for money or to a man she didn’t love. The series will follow her courtship with Winston and struggle with motherhood, her broken relationship with her young niece, Diana Mitford, who was brainwashed by fascism, her pivotal relationship with American Harry Hopkins, known as FDR’s conscience, who held the purse strings to (yet to be created) Land Lease, ensuring England could survive against the Germans until America joined the war, and a climactic trip to Russia where she goes toe to toe with Stalin. (Deadline)

NETWORK RENAMING AND NEW STREAMING SERVICE

It looks like the folks at GAC Media TV (the rival network to Hallmark Channel) are making some changes. First some name changes to their existing channels: GAC Living will now be known as Great American Living and GAC Family will now be known as Great American Family. The media “giant” is also launching a new network in the form of a free streaming TV channel that will be called Great American Adventures. (Heavy.com)

TV CASTING NEWS

The Orphan Black off-shoot series Orphan Black: Echoes has announced that Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones and Veronica Mars) will star in the series that is set to premiere next year on AMC+ and AMC. The 10-episode season will be set in the near future, exploring the scientific manipulation of human existence. The series will follow a group of women as they weave their way into each other’s lives and embark on a thrilling journey, unravelling the mystery of their identity and uncovering a wrenching story of love and betrayal. Ritter (who will also serve as an executive producerO will play Lucy, a woman with an unimaginable origin story, trying to find her place in the world. (TV Line)

Oscar winner Troy Kotsur (CODA) will star in a Disney+ series based on the football team from the California School for the Deaf Riverside (CSDR). He will play the team’s coach in the drama that will tell the true story of the CSDR Cubs’ 2021 football season, when the team went undefeated and got all the way to the California State Championship. The series will portray the students, teachers, and their families. The writing and production team, both in front of and behind the cameras, will include artists from the Deaf community. (Variety)

Kim Rhodes (Supernatural) and Ben Levin (Legacies) have joined the upcoming 3rd season of The CW’s Kung Fu. Levin will play Bo, a barista/vigilante who lives across the Bay in Oakland while Rhodes will play Carrie, a blunt, funny professional who works as a representative for a large restaurant investment group. When Carrie’s company takes an interest in Harmony Dumplings, Mei-Li (Kheng Hua Tan) is quick to decline their overtures, but when an unexpected friendship blooms between her and Carrie, Mei-Li opens herself up to a possible alliance. (Deadline)

Kate Winslet is set to star in her 4th HBO limited series called The Palace. The series tells the story of one year within the walls of the palace of an authoritarian regime as it begins to unravel. It was announced in June that Winslet is also attached to star in the HBO limited series The Trust. (Variety)

Disney+ is in early development on a live-action TV series based on Eragon, the young adult novel by author Christopher Paolini, which was also made into a box office movie. The story is about a farmboy named Eragon who discovers an egg that hatches into a dragon he names Saphira. Through their bond and the help of his mentor Brom, Eragon learns to be a Dragon Rider, an ancient order that had long been thought to be wiped out by the evil king Galbatorix. Eragon and Saphira set out to defeat Galbatorix and free the land of Alagaësia from his tyranny. (Variety)

Harry Shum Jr. (Glee and Crazy Rich Asians sequel) has joined the cast of Grey’s Anatomy for the show’s upcoming 19th (19th?!) season, playing Daniel “Blue” Kwan, a sharp-witted, impatient, and brilliant new surgical resident. Also, Adelaide Kane (Reign and This Is Us) has joined the cast where she will play Jules Millin, a first-year surgical resident who was raised by drug addled artist/hippies and somehow emerged as the only real grown-up in the family. (Deadline and TV Line)

Rick Gonzalez (Arrow) and Brent Antonello (Dynasty) have joined the cast of the upcoming season of Law & Order: Organized Crime where they will play NYPD detectives assigned to the Organized Crime unit, where they’ll work alongside Elliot Stabler. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

It’s been revealed that Ben Affleck will return as Bruce Wayne/Batman in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Star Jason Momoa posted the news on Instagram this week. (The Hollywood Reporter and Instagram)

Embattled actress Ruby Rose (former star of The CW’s Batwoman) will be back on the big screen in a new movie called Stowaway, starring alongside Frank Grillo (the Marvel Universe movies) and Patrick Schwarzenegger (The Terminal List and The Staircase). The film is a cat-and-mouse chase about a tenacious party girl who fights to survive after three thieves commandeer her luxury yacht. Unable to escape and trapped on the yacht at high seas, she turns the tables on the intruders and takes matters into her own hands. (Deadline)

STREAMING MOVIE NEWS

It looks like Netflix is planning to turn the new movie The Gray Man, which starred Chris Evans, Ana de Armas and Ryan Gosling) into a spy franchise. The streaming service plans to expand the franchise with a movie sequel and a spin-off, both of which are in development. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items (other than what was released from Wednesday to today at San Diego Comic Con):

RENEWAL

Apple TV+ has given For All Mankind a fourth season renewal. (I)

Amazon has given a 3rd season renewal to its fantasy drama The Wheel of Time ahead of its upcoming second season, which has yet to be given an official air date just yet. (TV Line)

SERIES PICK-UP NEWS

NBC has ordered the new drama Found to series. The show is built around the fact that, in any given year, more than 600,000 people are reported missing in the U.S. More than half that number are people of color that the country seems to forget about. Public relations specialist Gabi Mosley (Shanola Hampton from Shameless) — who was once herself one of those forgotten ones — and her crisis management team now make sure there is always someone looking out for the forgotten missing people. But unbeknownst to anyone, this everyday hero is hiding a chilling secret of her own. The show also stars Brett Dalton (Agents of SHIELD) and Mark-Paul Gosselaar. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Midori Francis (Netflix’s Dash & Lily) is joining the cast of Grey’s Anatomy, playing Mika Yasuda, a first-year surgical resident. (TV Line)

Amandla Stenberg (The Hunger Games and The Hate U Give) will star in upcoming Disney+ series The Acolyte, a mystery-thriller set in the final days of the High Republic era. The series will unearth a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark side powers. Additional plot specifics as well as details about Stenberg’s potential role are being kept under wraps, though. (TV Line)

Edwin Hodge (The Tomorrow War) has joined the cast of season 4 of FBI: Most Wanted. (TV Line)

Kurt Russell and his son Wyatt Russell have joined the cast of the upcoming Apple and Legendary live-action series about Godzilla and the Titans. In the show, following the thunderous battle between Godzilla and the Titans that leveled San Francisco and the shocking new reality that monsters are real, the series will explore one family’s journey to uncover its buried secrets and a legacy linking them to the secret organization known as Monarch. (Variety)

Freema Agyeman will not be returning to New Amsterdam for the show’s 5th and final season. (TV Line)

LIVE ACTION TV SPECIAL NEWS

Grammy-winning singer H.E.R. will play Belle in the upcoming ABC live-action take on Beauty and the Beast that is set to air on December 15. (TV Line)

PODCAST NEWS

Christina Ricci (Yellowjackets) will play the title role in a new podcast telling the origin story of Harley Quinn (from her perspective) that will be coming to Spotify. Billy Magnussen (No Time to Die) will play The Joker and Justin Hartley (This Is Us) will play Bruce Wayne. There is no release date set for the podcast as yet. (Variety)

STREAMING MOVIE NEWS

Olivia Colman (Landscapers), Jessie Buckley (Men) and Luke Evans (Crossing Swords) will provide their voices to the upcoming Netflix CG animated feature Scrooge: A Christmas Carol that will be a supernatural, time-travelling, musical adaptation of the beloved Christmas story. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) has joined the cast of The Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, playing Casca Highbottom. (Variety)

Storm Reid (Euphoria) will star in the Paramount Pictures feature film called Becoming Noble that will follow a high school senior who learns she’s a princess of an African nation and travels to her home country on the continent to discover her roots, and to determine if “royal” is something she really wants to be. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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