Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWAL/CANCELLATION NEWS

NBC has pulled the plug on the drama The Hunting Party after two seasons, leaving the show with a cliffhanger ending. It is expected that the show will be shopped around to other outlets. (Deadline)

Plans were in development to reboot the Stargate franchise over at Amazon, but the streamer has cancelled those plans. (Variety)

PBS has given The Marlow Murder Club a season four order with returning cast members Samantha Bond (Judith Potts), Cara Horgan (Becks Starling), Jo Martin (Suzie Harris) and Natalie Dew (DI Tanika Malik). (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Rachelle Lefevre and Charlotte Sullivan have joined the cast of the reboot of Little House on the Prairie for its second season on Netflix. The show’s first season will debut on July 9. Lefevre will play Eva Beadle, the town schoolteacher that Mary (Skywalker Hughes) and Laura Ingalls (Alice Halsey) immediately adore. Meanwhile, Sullivan will play Margaret Oleson, mother of Nellie Oleson. (Deadline)

Hugh Laurie has landed a mystery role in the BBC and MGM+ adaptation of Legacy of Spies by author John le Carre. Laurie joins Matthew Macfadyen as legendary spymaster George Smiley, Dan Stevens as the enigmatic Bill Haydon. (Deadline)

Joshua Jackson has joined the Season 3 cast of the Apple TV drama Your Friends & Neighbors, but the only details about what character he will play are being described as “a major recurring role.” (Deadline and TV Line)

MOVIE NEWS

Netflix is moving forward with a sequel to the Alan Ritchson movie War Machine. Ritchson is likely to return for the sequel as well. (Deadline)

Rising star Mason Thames and veteran actor Bill Nighy has joined the John Wick spin-off flick Caine that will be directed by and will star martial arts master and franchise actor Donnie Yen. What roles both actors will play are being kept under wraps. (Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter)

Broadway co-stars Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe will appear in the Vietnam War thriller Trust the Man, which will follow an ambitious Army Intelligence officer who’s assigned to investigate a decorated soldier with a mysterious past during the Vietnam War. As surveillance and interrogation deepen, the line between loyalty and obsession blurs, leading both men into a dangerous and uncontrollable connection. (Deadline)

Kelsey Asbille (Yellowstone) will star opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger and Liam Hemsworth in the action flick The Kellys that will follow Jack Kelly, a disgraced NYC cop whose wife, Molly, is taken hostage by terrorists inside an old armory building. Subsequently, he’ll have to join forces with the people he fears most to save her: his family. Character details are being kept under wraps, though. (Deadline)

Henry Cavill and Kevin Hart will team up for an untitled spy-action comedy at Netflix from director McG. Based on a short story by Sean Lewis, the film will follow two rival spies who cross paths in a Lamaze class, and whose wives become fast friends. Their double lives subsequently collide in unexpectedly hilarious and dangerous ways, forcing the two men to reluctantly become confidantes and partners on the road to fatherhood. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWAL

Acorn TV has given the Brooke Shields-led drama You’re Killing Me a second season order. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

The upcoming Western feature film Blood on the Promontory has set Sam Worthington, Jai Courtney, Jack Quaid and LaMonica Garrett for starring roles, but their character details are being kept under wraps. The movie will find five convicts trying to escape through the mountains following a violent train robbery, while shackled together by foot. (Deadline)

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

TV CASTING NEWS

Young actress Willa Dunn (Only Murders in the Building) will play Nellie Oleson in the reboot of Little House on the Prairie for the show’s second season, but this version of that antagonistic character will be taken in a slightly different approach. On the surface, Nellie is a world-class spoiled princess and a playground bully. Smart and supremely confident, sharp-tongued but easily wounded. Lives and breathes to make Laura Ingalls miserable. But beneath her mean-girl persona is tenderness and a yearning for true friendship — even if she doesn’t know exactly how to get it. (Deadline)

Jon Tenney will star opposite Olivia Colman and Brie Larson in the upcoming FX limited series Cry Wolf that is inspired by the Danish series Ulven Kommer. It will be a a psychological family thriller following a social worker, Kath (Colman), and a mother, April (Larson), thrust into crisis when the mother’s teenage daughter, Mia (Alyvia Alyn Lind), alleges abuse, pushing both women to their limits as they navigate an impossible situation. Tenney will play Ian Farr, polished, handsome, slick and smart as a whip. He’s ruthless and one step ahead of everyone else, able to control an entire courtroom and destroy the opposing council with ease. A former criminal defense attorney, he now sees himself as a champion for fathers after his own bitter divorce, which made him a “found man” with a whole new belief system. He masterfully controls the courtroom in the show’s climactic trial. (Deadline)

Looks like Downton Abbey alum Joanne Froggatt is in final talks to join the MGM+ TV western remake of The Magnificient Seven where she is set to play the leader of the Quaker group under siege. (Deadline)

Battlestar Galactica alum Mary McDonnell has joined the cast of the upcoming FOX reboot of Baywatch in which she will play Gayle, the mom of Hobie Buchannon now played by Arrow hunk Stephen Amell, a sophisticated woman with a wryly funny presence. She cares deeply for her family and is there for them even when they’re not sure they want her help. Gayle and Hobie have a long, complicated history, but no matter how much time or distance gets between them, family always seems to find its way back together. Also, OG cast members Michael Bergin and Kelly Packard will be returning to the show to reprise their roles of lifeguards Jack “J.D.” Darius and April Giminski. (Deadline and Variety)

In happy news for fans of the long-running Canadian police drama Hudson & Rex, original lead actor John Reardon will be returning for the show’s 9th season. Season 8 of the series which features new lead actor Luke Roberts will debut here in the States on UP Faith & Family starting on June 11. (TV Insider)

Monk star Tony Shalhoub has joined this fall’s new drama Einstein, which will debut on CBS. The series will follow Lewis Einstein (Matthew Gray Gubler), the brilliant but directionless great-grandson of Albert Einstein, who spends his days as a comfortably tenured professor until his bad-boy antics land him in trouble with the law, and he is pressed into service helping Teri (Melissa Fumero), a local police detective, solve her most puzzling cases. Shalhoub will play the recurring character of Jack Einstein, Lewis’s father. (Deadline)

TV DEVELOPMENT NEWS

A TV drama chronicling the early life of Canadian megastar Celine Dion and her family is in the works. The working title of the show, Growin Up Dion will trace her childhood in Quebec and her formative years growing up in a modest, music-filled household, where her bond with her mother Thérèse and close-knit dynamic of 14 sibling relationships shaped her path to global superstardom. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWAL/CANCELLATIONS

The Testaments has been given a second season renewal by Hulu. (Deadline)

Starz has pulled the plug on Spartacus: House of Ashur after only one season. (Deadline)

Emily in Paris will come to a close after its upcoming sixth season on Netflix. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Sullivan’s Crossing star Chad Michael Murray will star in the upcoming drama flick Disconnecting Peter that will center on a fractured family grappling with unresolved trauma stemming from a past tragedy. Peter Ruck (Murray), a troubled husband and father, finds himself trapped by his own destructive habits, threatening to unravel the family unit. His wife, Elizabeth, fights to hold things together at all costs, while their daughter, Jenna, confronts the collapse of her aspirations to attend Juilliard. As tensions mount, the family must decide whether to confront their pain or succumb to the chaos. (Variety)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Kerry Washington is set to star in and executive produce What Remains, a thriller drama for Hulu that is currently in development. The series will be based on the 2023 novel by Wendy Walker that will focus on Detective Elise Sutton (Washington), a devoted wife, loving mother, and cold case specialist, who relies from the guilt of her action after taking the life of a disturbed man in the line of duty. To convince herself that she did the right thing, she makes contact with a mysterious man that she saved that day, only to discover that he’s not at all what he seems. She’s soon caught in a dangerous game of cat and mouse, following the clues he leaves for her and realizing that the only person who can stop him is her. (Deadline)

It looks like Disney+ is working on a series adaptation of the 2004 box office movie Ella Enchanted with the movie’s original star, Anne Hathaway, coming on board as an executive producer. The series will keep the basic premise of the movie and the book on which it was loosely based, centering on the eponymous teen girl stuck with the unfortunate “gift” of obedience, but – unlike the movie – it will “pull away” from being largely a Cinderella retelling romantic fantasy by giving the story a coming-of-age feel with a boarding school setting. (Deadline)

TV SERIES ORDERS

FX has given a series order to Very Young Frankenstein, inspired by the classic Mel Brooks-Gene Wilder comedy film Young Frankenstein but exact details are still under wraps. (Variety)

ABC has given a greenlight to a Grey’s Anatomy spinoff for the 2026-2027 TV season. The currently untitled one-hour series will be an edgy drama about a team at a West Texas rural medical center, the last chance for care before miles of nowhere. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Luke Kirby will be taking over for Aden Young in the Canadian series Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Tom Hardy will not appear in the third season of the Paramount+ crime drama Mobland, as he was asked not to return to the series following onset issues with one of the show’s executive producers. How his character would be written out of the series remains to be seen. (Variety)

Harry Potter alum Harry Melling and 1923 cast member Aminah Nieves have joined the cast of the HBO crime dramaTask for its upcoming second season. Melling will play Brennan Boylan, a powder-keg DEA agent while Nieves will play Nataly Zamora, a no-nonsense FBI agent and dedicated young mother who fights hard to protect the community that raised her. (Deadline)

Heels co-star Kelli Berglund has joined the cast of the upcoming Prison Break reboot over on Hulu. This time around the story will focus on a soldier-turned-corrections officer, who takes a job at one of the deadliest prisons in America to prove just how far she’ll go for someone she loves. Berglund will play Cheyenne, a female inmate at that prison. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS

Amazon Prime has given the drama series Reacher a fifth season renewal. (Variety)

Netflix has given the drama My Life With the Walters Boys a fourth season renewal ahead of the show’s upcoming third season which is set to air later this year. Season four will air sometime in 2027. Also, The Lincoln Lawyer will come to a close after its upcoming fifth season. (Variety and Deadline)

Apple TV has given Margo’s Got Money Troubles a second season renewal. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

The 5th and final season of The Lincoln Lawyer has added the following cast members on a recurring basis: Nate Corddry (The Testaments) as Jimmy Finch, Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica and Lucifer) as Brooke Miller, Amy Aquino (Bosch) as Judge Olivia Alcott [among others]. (Deadline)

Breaking Bad alum Aaron Paul has joined the cast of the upcoming 3rd season of Fallout. There are no details on what character he will play, though. (Deadline)

The Hulu reboot of The X-Files from famed director Ryan Coogler has added the following as guest actors: recent Oscar winner Amy Madigan as well as Steve Buscemi, Ben Foster, Devery Jacobs, Lochlyn Munro, Tantoo Cardinal (among others). The reboot will star Himesh Patel and Danielle Deadwyler as two highly decorated but vastly different FBI agents. They form an unlikely bond when they are assigned to a long-shuttered division devoted to cases involving unexplained phenomena. (Deadline)

Michael Ealy (Power Book II: Ghost) will star opposite Matt Dillon and Will Patton in the upcoming small screen adaptation of The Magnificent Seven on MGM+. Ealy will play Vin Tanner, the role played by Steve McQueen in the original 1960 film. (Deadline)

White Collar and Doom Patrol alum Matt Bomer has joined the upcoming second season of the Peacock drama The Day of the Jackal that stars Eddie Redmayne. He will have a recurring role, but details are being kept under wraps about who he will play. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE CASTING NEWS

Russell Tovey and Olivia Colman will star in the upcoming box office movie Wild Bird with Tovey will play the late fashion designer McQueen while Colman will play Isabella Blow, the fashion editor credited with discovering him. (Variety)

English singer-songwriter FKA Twigs will star as jazz icon Josephine Baker in a new biopic that will begin filming this fall. The yet-to-be-titled biopic is expected to cover Baker’s remarkable life story: born in St. Louis in 1906, she rose to fame after moving to Paris in 1925. But Baker’s legacy resonates far beyond the stage. During World War II, she joined the French Resistance, supporting the Allied nations in the fight against fascism; then, in the 1950s and 1960s, Baker became a prominent voice in the American Civil Rights Movement. (Variety)

Sinqua Walls (Teen Wolf and Friday Night Lights) has joined the cast of the upcoming Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow, but details about who he will play is being kept under wraps. (The Hollywood Reporter)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Peacock is working on a small screen adaptation of the long-running movie franchise Fast & Furious. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for the past week:

RENEWALS

FOX has given Murder in a Small Town a third season renewal. (The Hollywood Reporter)

NBC has given Law & Order a renewal for its 26th (yep, you read that right!) season. (Deadline)

Hallmark+ has given its prequel series Hope Valley: 1874 a second season renewal. (Entertainment Now)

ABC has given a second season renewal to R.J. Decker (Variety)

HBO has given a second season order for the new Harry Potter small screen adaptation ahead of the first season’s Christmas premiere. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

James Marsden (Paradise) will star in the upcoming thriller series Disavowed at Apple TV that will follow legendary CIA Case Officer Brad Griffin (Marsden), who is abruptly fired in the middle of a global hunt for an elusive assassin responsible for killing his colleague. Disgraced and outcast from the world of intelligence, all bets are off when Brad decides to go after the 15 million dollar federal bounty on the assassin’s head. (Variety)

New cast members for the second season of the Amazon Prime series We Were Liars have been announced, including Once Upon a Time and Manifest alum Josh Dallas and Peyton List (The Rookie). They will play the younger versions of patriarch Harris and matriarch Tipper. (Deadline)

Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex and Party Down) has joined the upcoming 5th season of The Morning Show on Apple TV. She will play Gwen, a passionate and uncompromising Broadway theater director. (Deadline)

Veteran actor Peter Gallagher (The O.C. and Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist) has joined the cast of the upcoming third season of Murder in a Small Town on FOX. (Deadline)

The second season of the Nicole Kidman Amazon Prime drama Scarpetta has added the following to is cast David Arquette (the Scream franchise), Jodi Balfour (For All Mankind), William Zabka (Cobra Kai), Kim Dickens (Deadwood) and veteran actress Holland Taylor [among others]. There are no character details yet for these new cast members. (Deadline)

Will Patton (Falling Skies and Outer Range) will star opposite Matt Dillon in the upcoming drama The Magnificent Seven on MGM+, which will be a reimaging of the classic 1960 western film. Patton will play a new character to the series Cyrus T. Clemons, a confident, swaggering baron convinced of his own destiny in the 1880s American frontier-set series. (Deadline)

TV NEWS

The Netflix series The Night Agent will come to a close after its upcoming fourth season, which has added Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine), Annabeth Gish (Mystic Pizza and Mayfair Witches) and David Denman (The Office and Peacemaker) to the cast. Breslin will play Cahlin, a young FBI agent; Denman will playFord, a veteran CIA agent and former head of a Joint Terrorism Task Force and Gish will play Holland, an FBI agent who joins the DOJ investigation into Peter Sutherland (series lead Gabriel Basso). (Deadline)

FALL TV NEWS

FOX is rebooting the classic 80’s TV series Highway To Heaven. The plan is to keep the original show’s uplifting, emotional storytelling and themes of compassion, humanity and second chances while putting an original spin on its premise of a “probationary angel,” who is sent to Earth to earn his wings by helping people in need. Friday Night Lights creator Jason Katims will be at the helm of the series. (Deadline)

NBC is also moving forward with a reboot of The Rockford Files with Angel and SEAL Team star David Boreanaz in the lead role and 9-1-1 star Peter Krause taking the lead in the new drama Line of Fire. (Deadline)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

This Is Us star Mandy Moore is expected to star in and executive produce an as-yet titled HBO Max drama that tells the story of two families coming together against incredible odds and discovering a newfound extended family that they never could have imagined. The role of one of the parents is intended for Moore, sources said. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Downton Abbey alum Laura Carmichael and Nobody Wants This and The O.C. alum Adam Brody will star in the upcoming film A Night at Claridge’s (this is the working title), which will be based on the 1947 novel The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton, which will be set in the south of England in 1943, just before D-Day, when a small town is filled with American soldiers. It will follow Miss Roach (Carmichael), a publisher’s reader. After being bombed out of her London flat, Miss Roach moves to a small town where she finds lodgings at a guest house alongside Mr Thwaites, who delights in bullying her, and Vicki, a German woman. However, Miss Roach’s friendship with Vicki is soon tested by the arrival of American officer Lt. Dayton Pike, with the pair vying for his affections. (Digital Spy)

Oscar winner Brendan Fraser will star in the upcoming cosmic sci-fi thriller Starman, playing visionary technologist Tom Adams, an architect of the future, who launches a historic expedition to Mars, positioning himself at the forefront of humanity’s next frontier. But when unforeseen events find him millions of miles from Earth, his mission becomes an unexpected and urgent race against time, driven not by survival alone but by love. (Deadline)

The Superman sequel Man Of Tomorrow has added Matthew Lillard (Cross and Scooby Doo) to its cast, but there are no details as to who he will play. (Deadline)

Looks like there just might be another Hocus Pocus movie coming from Disney, but the project is still in its infancy so there’s not too much to tell other than Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy are expecting to reprise their roles as the Sanderson sisters. (Deadline)

Priyanka Chopra Jonas (Citadel) and Orlando Bloom (The Lord of the Rings franchise) will star in the upcoming survival thriller flick Reset that will follow a woman (Chopra Jonas) who wakes up in the middle of the wilderness days from civilization with no memory of how she got there, finding that her only chance at survival is to trust a charming stranger (Bloom), who may not be who he says he is. (Deadline)

Gerard Butler (Greenland and Plane) will appear in a new action-thriller flick, playing a sniper who receives an anonymous threat over the radio and must race against a ticking clock in order to save his family and 70,000 fans at the biggest sporting event on the globe: the World Cup. (Deadline)

Bridgerton and Wicked hunk Jonathan Bailey will star alongside Natalie Portman in the upcoming psychological thriller flick Pumping Black that follows cyclist Taylor Mace, who at 35-years-old is finding himself aging out of the sport. He is taken under the wing of Andrea Lathe, a doctor driven by her own thirst for victory and power. As the race to the Tour de France progresses, Taylor must take increasingly dark measures to protect his secret. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

CANCELLATION NEWS

NBC has pulled the plug on the medical drama Brilliant Minds, but the network will air the remaining six episodes of the show’s current second season with the series finale set to air on NBC on July 1. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS

Diego Luna (Andor) has joined the cast of the upcoming Disney+ live action movie Tangled that will find Teagan Croft and Milo Manheim in the lead roles of Rapunzel and Flynn Rider. There are no details on what part Luna will play in the movie nor are their details on the plot of the movie just yet. (Deadline)

Corey Mylchreest (Queen Charlotte) and Daniela Melchior (2024’s Road House) will star in the romantic dramedy A Night in Porto that will follow two former lovers who unexpectedly reunite on a Christmas night in Porto. Their encounter sparks a reflective journey into whether life offers second chances at happiness. (Deadline)

Vanessa Kirby (The Crown and Fantastic Four: First Steps) and Lewis Pullman (Lessons in Chemistry) will star in the feature film The Spacesuit follows an astronaut (Kirby), who is forced to make an impossible decision after an incident with her co-pilot (Pullman) leaves an indelible stain on a mission in the days leading up to lift off, setting off a tense race against the clock. (Deadline)

Chris Evans will star in the crime-thriller flick My Darling California, which already stars Jessica Chastain, Chris Pine, Oscar winner Mikey Madison, Charles Melton and Don Cheadle. Set in Los Angeles 1980, the film will chart how a single crime weaves together the lives of a TV host, his restless wife, a country music idol, two small-time crooks and an ex-con, all of whom are chasing the promise of a better life.  (Deadline)

Matthew Goode, Grey’s Anatomy alum Kate Walsh, Robert Patrick, Justin Bartha, Desperate Housewife’s alum Nicolle Sheridan and Yellowstone alum Ian Bohen [among others] have joined the cast of the indie drama flick Hal that will also star Alexander Ludwig and Emma Roberts. The movie is inspired by the true story behind the founding of humanitarian organization Convoy of Hope, following Hal Donaldson (Ludwig), a journalist shaped by early hardship who believes his voice is his path forward. When he meets Doree (Roberts), a gifted musician, their relationship becomes the foundation that steadies him as his career takes him to places marked by deep suffering. Character details are being kept under wraps, though. (Deadline)

STRAIGHT-TO-SERIES ORDER

Netflix has given a straight-to-series order for the new drama Lovesick based on the Israeli series The Best Worst Thing that will star Homeland alum Claire Danes in a story that is being described as a romantic epic that will follow the intense affair between two people whose lives unexpectedly intertwine. Annika (Danes), a renowned breast cancer surgeon, has just received her own cancer diagnosis. Her new patient, Nate, is a promising politician. No word yet on who will play Nate, though. (Variety)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

It looks like Netflix is planning to move forward with a prequel to The Crown that will focus on the period from Queen Victoria’s death in 1901 through the wedding of the future Queen Elizabeth to Prince Philip in 1947. (Town & Country)

PICK UP ORDER

Jason Priestley will be back on the CW, starring in the Canadian spin-off series Private Eyes West Coast, reprising his role of Matt Shade alongside his Private Eyes co-star Cindy Sampson, who is returning as Angie Everett. The 10 episode series is expected to air on the CW later this year and has already been renewed by its Canadian home, Corus Entertainment, for a second season. In this spin-offf, Shade (Priestley) and Angie (Sampson) have left behind their P.I. firm and settled into a new life on the West Coast, but their new quiet life is shaken when a night out lands them at the scene of a murder. A woman stands over her dead boyfriend with a bloody steak knife in hand. Believing in her innocence, Shade and Angie dive headfirst back into the high-stakes world of investigation. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Laura Dern (Palm Royale) has joine the cast of the fourth season of The White Lotus, seemingly taking the place of Helena Bonham Carter, who exited the series shortling after season four began filming. Dern will not be taking over Bonham Cater’s role, but will play a new character being developed by series creator Mike White. (Variety)

Michael Beach (Tulsa King) has joined the cast of the FOX drama The Interrogator that will center on former MI6 agent Conrad Henry (Stephen Fry) and his elite team. When conventional methods have failed, Henry’s quirky charm, superior intellect, and mind-bending behavioral maneuvers make him the only man able to lockpick the minds of the world’s most dangerous criminals. Beach will play Louis, the first member of Henry’s team. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

CANCELLATION

Amazon Prime has pulled the plug on The Boys spin-off series Gen V after only two seasons. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Julianna Margulies has joined season three of the Hulu drama Paradise, but details on the role she will play are being kept under wraps. (Deadline)

Ryan Phillippe will join season two of the ABC drama 9-1-1: Nashville, playing a brilliant, iconoclastic detective who moves to Nashville from New York. A seductive bad boy with a past, he’ll stir up all kinds of juicy drama with our first responders while leading an investigation into a mysterious criminal tormenting Nashville on a biblical scale. (Deadline)

David Lyons and Tobias Menzies will join Jennifer Connelly and Ana de Armas in the upcoming Apple TV thriller Safe Houses that is inspired by the espionage novel by Dan Fesperman, that will be set in the aftermath of the killing of a high-ranking CIA officer in Madrid. The show follows Sofia Jiménez (De Armas), a fugitive agent accused of the crime, and Ambassador Elizabeth Winters (Connelly), his widow, as they each investigate the murder from opposite sides, unraveling a vast conspiracy that could upend the balance of global power. Lyons will play Kevin Garvey, a special ops CIA agent while Menzies will play Elizabeth’s husband, Clarke Winters. (Deadline)

NEW DRAMA ANNOUNCEMENT

Anna Kendrick, Sam Heughan and J.K. Simmons will star in the upcoming Amazon Prime action-thriller series Embassy that will air in UK, Ireland, Canada, France, Australia and New Zealand. The series follows Layla (Kendrick), a sharp and resourceful American diplomat who faces an impossible choice to protect the U.S. Ambassador (Simmons) or follow his orders to exfiltrate a high-value asset when armed mercenaries storm the U.S. Embassy in London. She’s forced to rely on her instincts and the reluctant help of her battle-hardened ex-fiancé, Connor Wright (Heughan), in the tense hours before extraction. The cast will also include Katie McGrath and Natalie Mendoza. (Deadline)

Luke Kleintank, moving on from FBI: International, will star opposite Stephen Fry in the upcoming FOX drama The Interrogator that has been given a straight-to-series order for the 2026-2027 TV season. The series will center on former MI6 agent Conrad Henry (Fry) and his elite team. When conventional methods have failed, Henry’s quirky charm, superior intellect and mind-bending behavioral maneuvers make him the only man able to lockpick the minds of the world’s most dangerous criminals. Kleintank will play Voss, a member of Henry’s small circle of analyst-advisors. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

Amazon Prime has given the period piece drama Young Sherlock a second season renewal. (Deadline)

PBS has given the detective series Maigret a second season renewal. (Deadline)

ABC has given season renewals to The Rookie and Will Trent, meaning The Rookie will be back for season 9 and Will Trent for season 5. (Variety)

The Paramount+ drama The Madison already aired its first season and its second season was filmed at the same time, and that 2nd season will potentially air later this year or in early 2027. In the meantime, the Taylor Sheridan-created drama has been given a 3rd season renewal. (Deadline)

MGM+ has renewed the thriller series From for a fifth and final season. (Deadline)

NBC has pulled the plug on Law & Order: Organized Crime after 5 seasons; meanwhile, Law & Order: SVU will return for a 28th season in the fall. (Deadline)

For All Mankind has been renewed for a 6th and final season. (TalkAndroid.com)

Peacock has pulled the Simu Liu-led drama The Copenhagen Test after only one season. (Variety)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

It looks like CBS is planning to grow the Fire Country franchise as the network is in the very early stages of developing another show. This untitled drama would follow a medical team in the town of Edgewater, California. (Deadline)

PILOT NEWS

Erin Kellyman (Eleanor the Great) and country singer and actor Tim McGraw (1883) will star alongside Kevin Bacon in the upcoming Hulu drama pilot Southern Bastards which will follow a tenacious military vet into Craw County, Alabama, in search of her estranged father. What she finds is a murderous hornet’s nest of organized crime run by the winningest high school football coach in the South. Kellyman will play Roberta while McGraw will play Coach Boss. Bacon will play Earl, the son of the legendary Sheriff Bert, who ruled Craw County with an iron fist. (Deadline)

NEW INTERNATIONAL SERIES NEWS

A new sci-fi thriller will be airing on the BBC with Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Loki), Stuart Martin (Miss Scarlet and the Duke) and Iain De Caestecker (Agents of SHIELD and The Winter King) starring. Sutherland, the six-part series, will be set in the near future in the far north of Scotland, where Mbatha-Raw will play Mirren, who works as flight director at Paravel Space Hub for the UK’s first crewed mission to the stars. Martin will play local detective Logan, who is drawn back into Mirren’s world as a decades-old conspiracy begins to emerge while De Caestecker will play the central role of Callum. Just hours after launch, however, a series of unexplained events throws Sutherland into turmoil, threatening everything she has worked towards. There are no details on when the U.S. will get to see the show, though. (Radio Times)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

The Lin-Manuel Miranda-directed film Octet will include an impressive cast including Jonathan Groff (Glee and Hamilton), Rachel Zegler (West Side Story), Sheryl Lee Ralph (Abbott Elementary and Dreamgirls), Gaten Matarazzo (Stranger Things), Amanda Seyfried (Veronica Mars and The Housemaid), Phillipa Soo (Hamilton and Doctor Odyssey), Paul-Jordan Jansen (Broadway’s & Juliet and Sweeney Todd) and Tramell Tillman (Severance). The movie will follow eight internet-obsessed people meet in a church basement and lock their phones in a box. The musical follows the octet as they struggle with digital dependency, charting their compulsions using only the analog vibrancy of their own voices.  (Variety)

Adria Arjona (Andor) has landed the role of Maxima in the upcoming Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow. Maxima is the warrior queen from the planet Almerac. In the comic books, she arrives on Earth in search of a suitable mate and quickly sets her sights on, of course, Superman. (Deadline)

The White Lotus and Gen V alum Patrick Schwarzenegger and Bridgerton alum Phoebe Dynevor will star in the upcoming rom-com Beach Road, based on the best-selling novel from Emily Henry that follows January Andrews, a successful romance novelist who struggles with grief and writer’s block after her father’s death and the discovery of secrets he’s long kept hidden. While spending the summer in his Michigan beach house to prepare it for sale, she unexpectedly reconnects with Gus Everett, an author who was once her rival in college. Both creatively stuck, they agree to a writing challenge over the summer, swapping literary genres while promising that there will be no romance between them. (Deadline)

The upcoming biopic Good Thing will star Cate Blanchett as Martha Stewart. (Variety)

The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum will feature Jamie Dornan (the Fifty Shades franchise and Belfast) as Strider (an alias used by Aragorn, which was played in the original movies by Viggo Mortensen) and Leo Woodall (One Day and Vladimir) as Halvard. Andy Serkis will reprise his role of Gollum (and will direct the movie as well) along with Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen reprising their roles of Frodo and Gandalf, respectively. The movie will follow Aragorn’s perilous quest to capture Gollum before the creature can reveal the Ring’s location to Sauron. The story is set between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring. (Deadline)

The animated feature film Hexed from Disney has announced that Hailee Steinfeld and Rashida Jones will provide their voices in a story that will follow a teenager and her Type-A mom as they discover that what makes her unusual might just be magical powers that will turn their lives and a secret world of magic, upside down. (Deadline)

The upcoming Rambo prequel film that will have Noah Centineo (To All the Boys franchise and Black Adam) in the title role has added Stranger Things and Thunderbolts alum David Harbour to its cast as Major Trautman, the commanding officer Rambo. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Michelle Monaghan (The Family Plan and The White Lotus) has joined the third season of the Apple TV Jon Hamm-led drama Your Friends & Neighbors, but details about what role she will play are being kept under wraps. (Deadline)

Josh Charles (FOX’s medical drama Best Medicine) has joined the cast of the upcoming Netflix drama The 99’ers, which will tell the story of the inspirational 1999 U.S. Women’s Soccer Team. What role he will play is being kept under wraps, but he joins previously announced cast members Emily Bader, Emilia Jones, Lizzy Greene, Isabelle Fuhrman and Alessandro Nivola. (Deadline)

Original Baywatch alum Erika Eleniak will reprise her role as Shauni McClain, the former Baywatch lifeguard who is now a Santa Monica city councilwoman who returns to the beach to help Hobie Buchannon (Arrow’s Stephen Amell) kick off the annual “Beach Games” in the reboot of the series that will air on NBC. (Variety)

Ethan Embry (That Thing You Do and Sweet Home Alabama) has landed a series regular role in the Amazon Prime thriller Cross, the Aldis Hodge-led drama based on the legendary character created by author James Patterson. He will play Frederick, a charismatic sobriety coach known for leading with tough love. Strong, resilient, and generous with his time, he is widely admired for making others feel seen. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS

UPtv has given its new drama Blue Skies a second season renewal. (UPtv Press Release)

FOX has given the new Patrick Dempsey-led drama Memory of a Killer a second season renewal. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Amanda Arcuri, who plays the daughter of Sheriff Mickey Fox and Ian Quinlan who plays Hank Iglesias on Sheriff Country have been promoted to series regulars for its second season, which will happen this fall on CBS. (Deadline)

Lost alum Nester Carbonell has joined the season 5 cast of the Paramount+ drama Mayor of Kingstown, where he will play the recurring role of Enrique Molina, a boss who comes to Kingstown to avenge a relative who has gone missing. (Variety)

Game of Thrones alum Lena Headey, Brat Packer Andrew McCarthy and James Lance from Ted Lasso have joined the season 3 cast of the Netflix hit series Wednesday in guest starring roles which are being kept under wraps. (Variety)

Emmy winner Peter Dinklage has joined the second season cast of the FX thriller series Alien: Earth, but details on what role he will be playing are kept tightly under wraps. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Nobody Wants This series creator, and actress herself, Erin Foster will have a recurring role in the third season of the popular dramedy, playing Nicole, a terminally single and chaotic mess along with other new recurring cast members that will include comedian-actress Sarah Silverman, playing Rabbi Eden, who teaches an intro to Judaism course and Broadway alum Andrew Rannells as Sebastien, Joanne’s nemesis in her conversion class. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Bridgerton has added three new cast members to the show’s upcoming 5th season which will focus on the love affair between Francesca Bridgerton and Michaela Stirling. Those new cast members are: Tega Alexander (The Sandman) will play Christopher Anderson, the adult son of Lord Marcus Anderson; Jacqueline Boatswain (Carnival Row) as Helen Stirling, Michaela’s mother and the very source of her spirit; and Gemma Knight Jones (Mobland) as Lady Elizabeth Ashworth, an old friend of Michaela’s who serves as her confidante and London guide. (Variety)

The Pitt alum Katherine LaNasa and Lou Diamond Phillips will star alongside Shailene Woodley in the upcoming Hulu limited series Count My Lies which will focus on what happens when compulsive liar Sloane Caraway (Woodley) fibs her way into a nanny position for the gorgeous and charismatic Violet (Lindsay Lohan) and Jay Lockhart (Kit Harington). It seems she’s finally landed her dream job, but little does Sloane know, she’s just entered a household brimming with secrets that are about to explode, with potentially catastrophic consequences for all. LaNasa will play Sloane’s mom Tracy and Phillips will play Tracy’s boyfriend Paul. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS

Chris Hemsworth, Taron Egerton, Zazie Beetz and Alec Baldwin will all appear in the feature film Kockroach that will be a New York-set crime pic, based on the William Lashner novel, about a mysterious stranger who takes on the city’s criminal underworld, transforming himself into a larger-than-life boss in a city where power is everything. (Deadline)

Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell and Tom Waits will lend their voices to the upcoming Brad Bird-directed animated film Ray Gunn, which will be set in Metropia, a gigantic city in an alternate future as seen from 1939, where private eye Raymond Gunn is drawn into a case involving aliens, murder and a multimedia star named Venus Nova. (Variety)

Amanda Seyfried will provide her voice, playing Cinderella in the Netflix animated feature Steps that will be a twist on Cinderella’s evil stepsisters, following Lilith, who is blamed for hijacking the Royal Ball with a stolen magic wand. She accidentally turns her sister, Margot, into a frog and leaves the kingdom in the hands of a prince-obsessed mean girl. Now Lilith must team up with Cinderella, and a surprisingly dreamy troll, to save the kingdom, repair the fractured fairytale and prove that even so-called “villains” deserve a shot at happily-ever-after. (Variety)

Captain America’s Anthony Mackie and Logan alum Dafne Keen will star in the action-thriller flick Barracuda that will focus on what happens when Karl (Mackie), a former smuggler with a haunted past, storms a nightclub in Mexico to rescue Jodie (Keen), a kidnapped teenage girl. He ignites a chain reaction of blood and bullets that burns across 100 miles of deadly roads toward the U.S. border. The breakout turns into a high-speed race when Karl kills the brother of the ruthless club owner and steals his prized 1973 Plymouth Barracuda. Now hunted by relentless criminals, Karl and Jodie tear across the desert with no way to slow down. (Deadline)

The upcoming thriller film Ally Clark will include among its cast Viola Davis, Jason Clarke and Benjamin Bratt as well as Jefferson White (Yellowstone), Chris Sullivan (This Is Us), Lily Santiago (La Brea), Peter Macon (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes), Alice Halsey (Netflix’s upcoming Little House on the Prairie), and Sydney Lemmon (Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette). THe movie will take viewers from the towering skyscrapers of New York City to the sweltering bayous of Louisiana and the icy peaks of Alaska, following an investigator of the same name, played by Davis, as she embarks on a perilous inquiry into an international conglomerate following the suspicious death of a close friend. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWAL

Believe it or not, but ABC has renewed Grey’s Anatomy for a 23rd season. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Twilight alum Xavier Samuel has joined the cast of the upcoming Amzon Prime thriller drama Bishop that will star Altered Carbon and For All Man Kind alum Joel Kinnaman as homicide detective Bishop Graves, brilliant but battle-scarred, who will put all of his skills to the test in the hunt for an elusive killer targeting San Francisco’s moneyed class. As this increasingly audacious killer develops a devoted following among the city’s powerless, Bishop becomes convinced these murders connect back to SF’s most powerful man, his own father, Lincoln Graves (John Malkovich). Samuel will play Anthony ‘Ant’ Graves, Bishop Graves’ younger brother. (Deadline)

Look like Netflix is working on a new Peaky Blinders series with Jamie Bell (Washington’s Spies and Rocketman) taking over the role of Duke Shelby, the eldest son of Tommy Shelby (played by Cillian Murphy) [played by Conrad Khan in the final season of the original series and Barry Keoghan in the follow-up movie). (Deadline)

The Pitt will see some changes as Supriya Ganesh, who plays senior resident Dr. Samira Mohan, will be leaving the show at the end of the show’s current second season while Ayesha Harris, who plays senior night shift resident Dr. Parker Ellis, has been promoted to series regular for the show’s upcoming third season. (Variety)

Succession veteran actor Brian Cox has joined the second season of Dexter: Resurrection where he will play the series regular role of The New York Ripper, a serial killer who terrorized the City years ago. Though no longer active as a killer, he’s found a new way to live into his infamy by continuing to taunt the survivors of his long-ago murder spree. (Deadline)

The Boys prequel series Vough Rising that will air on Amazon Prime has added some new cast members including James Wolk (Zoo and Ordindary Joe), Josh Randall (Ed and Station 19), Dylan Arnold (Lady in the Lake) and Chad Willett (Beyond and the upcoming series Off Campus). The series will feature Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy and Aya Cash as Stormfront, but there are no details about what roles any of these actors will play in the prequel, though. (Deadline)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

The streaming service Tubi has a spooky teen movie coming up based on the 1989 Christopher Pike young adult novel Remember Me that will star Brec Bassinger (Stargirl) and Charlie Gillespie (Julie and the Phantoms). Bassinger will play Shari Cooper, who is dead. Like, fell from the top of a high-rise to the street below, dead. And one of her friends is her killer. Now she has to solve her own murder from beyond the grave, before the relentless, soul-sucking Shadow that’s stalking her gets to her first.” (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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