Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

CANCELLATION

New Amsterdam will end after its fifth season. The show is currently in its fourth season on NBC. (TV Line)

TV SERIES ORDER

Amazon has picked up the series adaptation of Shelter by Harlan Coben. The YA thriller will star Jaden Michael (Colin in Black and White) as Mickey Bolitar as he navigates his new life with a mom in rehab, a dead father, an annoying aunt, and a new school in New Jersey with a camel as its mascot. When a creepy old lady who may or may not be a ghost tells Mickey that his father isn’t dead, Mickey is sure he’s losing his mind on top of everything. Mickey finds a grounding force in Ashley Kent, another new student who’s lived through her own tragedy. But then Ashley goes missing, and as Mickey searches for her, he learns that everything she told him was a lie—and that he is in serious danger unless he gets to the bottom of what happened to her and his father. Mickey’s search thrusts him into a world of conspiracy, lies, and the darkest aspects of humanity. (Variety)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

Hallmark veteran Brennan Elliott has signed an exclusive multi-picture deal with the folks over at Hallmark Channel. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Veteran actor Frankie Faison (The Wire) has joined the proposed spin-off from The Rookie that will be set at the FBI that will star Niecy Nash. Faison will guest star in a two-episode arc in the current fourth season of The Rookie, which will serve as a backdoor pilot for the potential spin-off. (Deadline)

Paul Wesley (The Vampire Diaries) has joined the cast of the second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – which will debut on Paramount+ on May 5. He will play iconic Captain James T. Kirk. (TV Line)

Alexandra Daddario (The White Lotus) will play the lead role in the AMC series Mayfair Witches that is based on the Anne Rice novel The Lives of the Mayfair Witches. She will play Rowan, a brilliant doctor who grapples with her fate as the heir to a family of powerful witches. (Variety)

Lincoln Younes (a rising Australian star) has been cast in the lead role of Last King of the Cross, a biographical series about a notorious nightclub owner and gangster being produced for Paramount+. The series is an operatic story of two brothers, Sam and John Ibrahim who organize the street but lose each other in their ascent to power. (Variety)

Comedy actors Amy Sedaris and Neil Flynn will join the cast of the second season of the Peacock hit comedy Girls5Eva. They will play the parents of Summer Dutkowsky (Busy Philipps), one of the members of the titular girl group fighting for a comeback. (Variety)

The forthcoming Amazon Studios drama Anansi Boys – based on the Neil Gaiman novel – has added more members to his cast. They include Fiona Shaw (Harry Potter franchise and Killing Eve), CCH Pounder (NCIS: New Orleans) and Jason Watkins (Around the World in 80 Days and The Crown). The series will follow Charlie Nancy (Malachi Kirby), sometimes known as Fat Charlie (it was his father’s nickname for him), a young man who is used to being embarrassed by his estranged father. But when his father dies, Charlie discovers that his father (Delroy Lindo) was Anansi, the trickster god of stories, and that he has a brother. Now that brother, Spider (to also be played by Kirby), is entering Charlie’s life, determined to make it more interesting, but making it a lot more dangerous instead. Wakings will play Grahame Coats, a successful theatrical agent and self-made man who is Charlie’s boss; Shaw will play Maeve Livingstone, a retired dancer and widow of famed comedian Morris Livingstone; and Pounder will play Mrs. Higgler, the matriarch of her clan, and an old family friend of Charlie’s. (Variety)

Season 2 of the HBO Max comedy-drama Hacks has added Laurie Metcalf (The Conners) and Ming-Na Wen (Agents of SHIELD and The Book of Boba Fett) will have recurring roles; and comedian Margaret Cho will guest star. Descriptions of the characters they will be playing are being kept under wraps, though. (Variety)

Laysla De Oliveira (Locke & Key) has joined the cast of the upcoming Paramount+ drama series Lioness that is based on a real-life CIA program and follows Cruz Manuelos (De Oliveira), a young Marine, who is 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 series is set to go into production in June. (Variety)

Veteran actor Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future franchise) will appear in season 3 of The Mandalorian in a guest starring role, but no details on his character are being provided. (Deadline)

Adina Porter (Underground) and Clark Backo (Letterkenny) will star opposite LaKeith Stanfield in the upcoming Apple TV+ drama The Changeling, based on the best-selling book by Victor LaValle. The series is an adult fairytale; a horror story, a parenthood fable and a perilous odyssey through a New York City you didn’t know existed. Porter will play Lillian, the mother of Apollo, who will be played by Stanfield. Backo will play Emmy, Apollo’s wife. (Deadline)

Natalie Martinez (Ordinary Joe) will star opposite Vince Vaughn in the Apple TV+ drama Bad Monkey that is based on the Carl Hiaasen 2013 novel. The series tells the story of Andrew Yancy (Vaughn), a onet-ime detective demoted to restaurant inspector in Southern Florida. A severed arm found by a tourist out fishing pulls Yancy into the world of greed and corruption that decimates the land and environment in both Florida and the Bahamas. And yes, there’s a monkey. Martinez will Rosa, a Miami medical examiner who is starting to realize she may not be cut out for her job, so is happy to ditch work and help Yancy try to figure out the story of the severed arm he brings into her lab. The cast includes Michelle Monaghan, Jodie Turner-Smith and Meredith Hagner. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWAL/CANCELLATION

Netflix has announced that Never Have I Ever has been given a fourth season renewal, which will be its last season. The third season of the show will premiere later this year. (TV Line)

Vikings: Valhalla have been renewed for two additional seasons. (Screen Rant)

Power Book IV Force has been renewed for a second season by Starz. (Variety)

The Baby-Sitters Club will have to find a new way to make some spending money: Netflix has cancelled the middle school dramedy after two seasons. (Deadline and TV Line)

TV SERIES NEWS

HBO Max has given a spin-off series order to The Penguin based on the character played by Colin Farrell (who will appear in the series) from the box office movie The Batman. The limited series will, of course, focus on Oswald Cobblepot as he rises through the ranks of Gotham’s criminal underworld. (Variety)

AMC has given a greenlight to Isle of the Dead, another The Walkind Dead spin-off series, that will be centered around Maggie (Lauren Cohen) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). The series, which is set to premiere in 2023, will follow the unlikely pair into what is being described as a post-apocalyptic Manhattan long ago cut off from the mainland. (TV Line)

A new murder mystery drama from Shondaland (the Shonda Rhimes production company) has been given a series order at Netflix. The Residence, inspired by the Kate Andersen Brower book, will be a screwball whodunnit set in the upstairs, downstairs and backstairs of the White House, among the eclectic staff of the world’s most famous mansion. The show has received an eight-episode order. (Variety)

Hulu has picked up the drama series Career Opportunities in Murder and Mayhem. The 10 episode, one-hour drama asks the question, “how do you solve a murder in a post-fact world?” (Variety)

FOLLOW THE YELLOWSTONE ROAD

There has been some confusion (lately) about the future of the Yellowstone spin-off series 1883, as there have been stories that the western has been renewed for a second season while other stories have said it was only meant as a 10-episode limited series. The truth is when this: Yellowstone returns for the start of its 5th season this summer with 7 episodes airing; when it goes on its break, Paramount+ will air “additional episodes” of 1883 (how many episodes is unclear). Then the final 7 episodes of Yellowstone will air at the end of the year, at which time the new spin-off 1932 will air its first two episodes before moving over to Paramoount+. (Cheat Sheet)

TV MOVIE NEWS

Heather Hemmens (Roswell, New Mexico) has signed a deal to star in multiple original films with the Hallmark Channel. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

As fans of the small screen adaptation of Teen Wolf, which aired from 2011 to 2017 on MTV, know there will be a reunion movie airing with nearly all of the cast returning EXCEPT it has been confirmed that break-out star Dylan O’Brien will NOT be returning. (TV Line)

Hot on the heels of her small screen starring role in the NBC drama The Thing About Pam, Renee Zellweger will star in the Peacock drama Avenger Field that tells the story of those that established a clandestine all female US Airforce program called the WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilots) to battle Hitler from home. Inspired by the true story of WASP leader Jackie Cohran (Zellweger) and the diverse group of women who fought the system, skeptics and even sabotage to bring everyone home safely. (Variety)

Giancarlo Esposito will star and executive produce in the 6-episode new drama series The Driver that will focuse on a taxi driver (Esposito) whose life is turned upside down when he agrees to chauffer a New Orleans-based Zimbabwean gangster notorious for exploiting undocumented immigrants at the U.S. southern ports. The show is expected to debut on AMC and AMC Plus in 2023. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Florence Pugh (Black Widow and Little Women) is expected to join the cast of Dune, Part 2 where she will play Princess Irulan Corrino, a royal who becomes romantically entangled with Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet). (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Hi All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWAL/CANCELLATIONS

Starz has given a 3rd season renewal to Hightown. (Variety)

FOX has cancelled The Big Leap after only one season. (TV Line)

NBC has pulled the plug on Ordinary Joe after only one season. (TV Line)

SERIES ORDER

AppleTV+ has given a series order to Metropolis, inspired by the Fritz Lang 1927 German sci-fi film which was based on the 1925 novel by Thea von Harbou that takes place in 2026 when the populace is divided between workers who must live in the dark underground and the rich who enjoy a futuristic cidy of splendor. The new drama comes from SamEsmail, the creator of Mr. Robot. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Skylar Astin (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist and the Pitch Perfect franchise) has joined the cast of Grey’s Anatomy in the recurring role of Todd Eames, a charming, gentel soul who holds a PhD in environmental sciences whose sister is a pregnant patient at Grey Sloan Memorial. Also, Richard Flood has left the series after three seasons. (Variety and TV Line)

Kal Penn has joined the cast of the Disney+ limited series Santa Clause that finds Tim Allen reprising his role of Santa alongside Elizabeth Mitchell who is back as Mrs. Claus. Penn will play Simon Choksi, an ambitious game inventor and product developer, who is a devoted single father. (Variety)

Spectrum Originals has ordered the 8-episode dramedy Panhandle that will star Luke Kirby (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) and Tiana Okoye (The Good Place and Nancy Drew). The series will be set in the Florida panhandle, following agoraphobic arm-chair detective Bell Prescott (Kirby) and reluctant traffic cop Cammie Lorde (Okoye) as they wrestle with personal demons, shocking twists and a few Florida gators on their journey to heal themselves and their town. (Variety)

ABC has given a straight-to-series order to the drama Avalon that takes place in the main city of Avalon on Catalina Island, where LA Sheriff Department Detective Nicole “Nic” Searcy heads up a small office. The show is slated to debut during the 2022-2023 broadcast season from David E. Kelley based on a short story by Michael Connelly. (Variety)

Peacock has given a series order to the series Twisted Metal that will star Anthony Mackie (who will also executive produce. The series is based on the video game franchise; the half-hour action comedy will feature Mackie as John Doe, a smart-ass milkman who talks as fast as he drives. With no memory of his past, he gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make his wish of finding community come true, but only if he can survive an onslaught of savage vehicular combat. With the help of a trigger-happy car thief, he’ll face savage marauders driving vehicles of destruction and other dangers of the open road, including a deranged clown who drives an all too familiar ice cream truck. (Variety)

Jessica Brown Findlay (Downton Abbey and Brave New World) and Anthony Welsh (Master of None) will star in the 6-episode Paramount+ drama Flatshare that will tell the story of two twentysomethings trying to get by – by sharing not only an apartment but a bed. Brown Findlay will portray Tiffany, a minimum wage worker employed by a clickbait news site, while Welsh will portray Leon, who works night shifts in a hospice. To save money, they capitalize on their opposing timetables and time-share their apartment and their bed, with Tiffany sleeping through the night, while Leon is working, and Leon catching up on his sleep during the day, when Tiffany is at her desk in the office. They communicate entirely by Post-It note. Despite never meeting, however they soon start to develop feelings for each other. (Variety)

Veteran actor Michael Douglas will star as Benjamin Franklin in a new limited series for Apple that will explore the story of one of the greatest gambles of Franklin’s career. At age 70, without any diplomatic training, Franklin convinced France – an absolute monarchy – to underwrite America’s experiment in democracy. By virtue of his fame, charisma, and ingenuity, Franklin outmaneuvered British spies, French informers and hostile colleagues, all while engineering the Franco-American alliance of 1778 and the final peace with England of l783. The eight-year French mission stands as Franklin’s most vital service to his country, without which America would not have won the Revolution. (Variety)

FILM NEWS

Jordan Fisher (The Flash) and Talia Ryder (Never Rarely Sometimes Always) will play the leads in the new Netflix teen rom-com entitled Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between that centers around Claire (Ryder) and Aidan (Fisher) who after making a pact that they would break up before college, find themselves retracing the steps of their relationship on their last evening as a couple. The epic date leads them to familiar landmarks, unexpected places, and causes them to question whether high school love is meant to last. (Variety)

SAG Award winner Ariana DeBose (West Side Story) has joined the cast of the upcoming superhero action-adventure movie Kraven the Hunter that will feature Aaron Taylor Johnson (Avengers: Age of Ultron) as one of Spider-Man’s most deadly antagonists. DeBose will play Calypso, a voodoo priestess who is the on-and-off lover of Kraven. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWAL/CANCELLATION

NBC has given The Blacklist a 10th season renewal. (TV Line)

Netflix has pulled the plug on the sci-fi Katee Sackhoff-led series Another Life after two seasons. (TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

An Outlander prequel series is in development at Starz with current executive producer and showrunner Matthew B. Roberts attached to write and executive producer. There are no specific plot details for the prequel just yet. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Dan Stevens (Legion and Downton Abbey) will star in the Hulu limited series Immigrant [which is the working title] that will tell the true story of Somen “Steve” Banerjee (Kumail Nanjiani from The Big Sick and Eternals), the Indian-American entrepreneur who started Chippendales. The series will detail the insane, darkly comedic, crime-ridden story behind the unique male revue that became a cultural phenomenon. Stevens will play Paul Snider, a hustler and serial schmoozer, who stumbles upon the opportunity of a lifetime in the form of Banerjee and his struggling LA backgammon club. Through their unlikely partnership, the iconic male stripping institution Chippendales is born. (Deadline)

Lyric Ross (This Is Us) has joined the cast of the Disney+ series Ironheart, joining Dominique Thorne (If Beale Street Could Talk) and Anthony Ramos (Hamilton and In the Heights). Throne will play Riri Williams, a brilliant teenage inventor who builds her own version of the Iron Man suit in an MIT dorm. Ross will play Williams’ best friend. While the character that Ramos will play is being kept under wraps, it is believed he will play the villain. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Ashley Reyes (American Gods and How I Met Your Father) will join the cast of The CW series Walker as Walker’s new partner Cassie Perez, a Texas Ranger who previously served as a Texas state trooper for eight years. (Deadline and TV Line)

Emma Rossum (Shameless and The Day After Tomorrow) will star opposite Tom Holland (Spider-Man and Uncharted) and Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia and The Dropout) in the Apple anthology series The Crowded Room that will explore inspirational stories of those who have struggled with mental illness and learned to live successfully with it. The cast will also include Emma Laird (Mayor of Kingstown) and Sasha Lane (Loki). (TV Insider and Deadline)

FILM NEWS

Social media influencer and lead of the recent Netflix flick He’s All That (the sequel of sorts to the box office hit She’s All That) Addison Rae will star in the film Fashionista. Details on the movie, however, are being kept under wraps. (Deadline)

Simu Liu (Shang-Chi And the Legend Of The Ten Rings) will star alongside Sam Worthingon, Jordana Brewster, Robbie Amell and Alicia Sanz in the thriller film Hello Stranger that will follow Faye, a woman who attempts to replace her newly deceased husband, Evan, with an android simulant (SIM). Although SIM Evan appears like human Evan in every way, Faye does not feel the same love for SIM Evan as it does for her. SIM Evan tries to win Faye back while at the same time being on-the-run from a government agent chasing down SIMs who have become “conscious” and could potentially be a threat to humankind. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWAL

Fargo has been renewed for a 5th season by FX. (TV Line)

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel will end after its newly ordered fifth season on Amazon. (TV Line)

Stranger Things has been given a fifth season renewal in advance of its 4th season premiere; but that 5th season will be the show’s last season on Netflix. (TV Line)

HBO has given The Gilded Age a second season renewal after only 3 episodes of the debut season having aired. (Variety)

Billions has been renewed for a 7th season by Showtime. (Variety)

Paramount+ has given a second season renewal to the Halo, the small screen adaptation of the popular video game, in advance of the show’s upcoming debut). (Variety)

Peacemaker has been given a second season renewal by HBO Max. (TV Line)

The anthology series Super Pumped has been given a second season renewal in advance of its upcoming series debut on Showtime. (Variety)

Paramount+ has also given a second season order to the Yellowstone prequel series 1883. (Variety)

The Canadian medical drama Transplant has been given a 3rd season renewal. Season 2 of the series will premiere here in the US on NBC starting on March 6. (TV Insider)

SERIES ORDER

Paramount+ has given a series order to a live action adaptation of Dora the Explorer. (Variety)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

NCIS is heading to Australia. NCIS: Sydney will debut in 2023 in the land down under, featuring local stories with Australia actors and producers. (Variety)

SERIES ORDER NEWS

The new drama series The Girls on the Bus that includes Julie Plec (of The Vampire Diaries fame) as one of its executive producers is moving from The CW to HBO Max. The show will be a comedic character-driven drama chronicling four female journalists who follow every move of a parade of flawed presidential candidates, while finding friendship, love, and scandal along the way. AND, Melissa Benoist (Supergirl and Glee) is nearing a deal to star in this new drama. (Variety and TV Line)

TV MOVIE NEWS

Paramount+ has announced there will be a SEAL Team movie coming up. Also, the streamer has announced that the upcoming Teen Wolf: The Movie will find original series cast members Tyler Posey (Scott McCall), Holland Roden (Lydia Martin), Shelley Hennig (Malia), Crystal Reed (Allison Argent), Orny Adams (Coach Bobby Finstock), Linden Ashby (Sheriff Noah Stilinski), JR Bourne (Chris Argent), Seth Gilliam (Dr. Alan Deaton), Colton Haynes (Jackson Whittemore), Ryan Kelley (Deputy Jordan Parrish), Melissa Ponzio (Melissa McCall) and Dylan Sprayberry (Liam Dunbar) all returning FIVE years after the thriller went off the air. Missing from the cast list include Dylan O’Brien (Stiles), Superman and Lois‘ Tyler Hoechlin (Derek) and Arden Cho (Kira). The movie, which will be written by franchise creator Jeff Davis, will find a full moon rising in Beacon Hills along with a terrifying evil emerging. The wolves are howling once again, calling for the return of banshees, werecoyotes, hellhounds, kitsunes and every other shapeshifter in the night. But only a werewolf like Scott McCall (Posey), no longer a teenager yet still an alpha, can gather both new allies and reunite trusted friends to fight back against what could be the most powerful and deadliest enemy they’ve ever faced. (Deadline; TV Line and Variety)

Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor will not only star in but also executive produce a new feature film at Amazon Studios. The Outlaws Scarlett & Browne will be a futuristic thriller set in a fragmented future England where gunfights and monsters collide, and where the formidable outlaw Scarlett McCain fights daily against the odds. When she discovers a wrecked coach on a lonely road, there is only one survivor: the seemingly hapless youth Albert Browne. Soon, new and implacable enemies are on their heels and a relentless pursuit continues across the broken landscape of England. Scarlett must fight to uncover the secrets of Albert’s past — and come to terms with the implications of her own. (Variety)

ANOTHER ONE JUMPS THE SHIP

Another Hallmark actor is jumping ship to rival network GAC Family. Jessica Lowndes has signed a four-picture deal where she will not only star in and write but also direct and executive produce original movies for the network. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

The Young and the Restless alum Victoria Rowell will play a key recurring role on the new CBS medical drama Good Sam, playing Tina Kingsley, a high-powered, sophisticated, chairwoman of the hospital board with the kind of power that does not assert itself. Alienated from her son Malcolm (Edwin Hodge), Tina possesses a strong will to take what’s in her sights, even when it means navigating complicated relationships from her past. (Deadline)

Walton Goggins will star in the small screen adaptation of the video game Fallout that is set in a world where the future envisioned by Americans in the late 1940s explodes upon itself through a nuclear war in 2077. There is no confirmation on what character he will play, but is possible he MIGHT play a ghoul, humans who have been horribly disfigured due to exposure to radiation, but are also largely immune to radiation and nuclear fallout as a result. (Variety)

Actress Caitlin Carver (The Fosters and Dear White People) will recur on Chicago Fire during the second half of season 10 playing a paramedic Emma. (TV Line)

Amanda Seyfried will star opposite Tom Holland in the upcoming Apple TV+ anthology series The Crowded Room that will explore inspirational stories of people who have struggled and learned to successfully live with mental illness. Seyfried will play Rya, a clinical psychologist faced with the most challenging case of her career. She cannot help but put her patients first, all the while trying to balance her life as a single mother. (Variety)

Keri Russell (Felicity and The Americans) has landed the lead role in the upcoming Netflix series The Diplomat. In the midst of an international crisis, a career diplomat (Russell) lands in a high-profile job she’s unsuited for, with tectonic implications for her marriage and her political future. (Variety)

Season 2 of the Apple TV+ series The Mosquito Coast has added new season regulars to its upcoming second season. Natalia Cordova-Buckley (Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD and Mayans M.C.), Ariyon Bakare (His Dark Materials and Carnival Row) and Ian Hart (Harry Potter franchise and The Last Kingdom) will join returning stars Justin Theroux, Melissa George, Logan Polish, and Gabriel Bateman. There are no details what characters they will be portraying, however. (Deadline)

Peacock has made a straight-to-series order for the scripted drama A Friend of the Family. The true crime drama will focus on the harrowing story of the Broberg family, whose daughter was kidnapped multiple times. The cast will include Anna Paquin (True Blood) as Mary Ann Broberg, a mother of three who realized too late that she missed warning signs and became close to her charismatic neighbor, Robert Berchtold, and trusted him around her oldest daughter, Jan; Jake Lacy (The White Lotus and Being the Ricardos) as Robert, a businessman, Mormon father, husband and expert manipulator who plots the abduction of Jan; and Colin Hanks as Bob Broberg, Mary Ann’s husband, who begins to fear that something is amiss with their neighbor. (The Hollywood Reporter)

TV CRITICS ASSOCIATION WINTER PRESS TOUR NEWS

Paramount+ has ordered another Taylor Sheridan-created origin-story following the Dutton Family from Yellowstone and 1883. This series entitled simply 1932 will follow a new generation of Duttons during the time of western expansion, Prohibition and the Great Depression. The streaming service also has the new series Lioness on tap to debut in 2023. The series, which will star Zoe Saldana, is based on a real-life CIA program, following a marine recruited to befriend the daughter of a terrorist to bring the organization down from within. Saldana will play Joe, a strong-willed, hard-nosed, station chief of the CIA’s Lioness Program, tasked with training, managing and leading her female undercover operatives working to assassinate the world’s most dangerous terrorists. Among the executive producers on the show are box office veteran Nicole Kidman and Hallmark alum Jill Wagner. The streamer is also still developing a series, potentially slated for a 2022 start, on Bass Reeves, the legendary lawman of the wild west who is believed to be the inspiration for The Lone Ranger. Box office actor David Oyelowo is attached to star as the title character as well as serve as one of the executive producers. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Tom Welling (Smallville and Lucifer) will star in the action-thriller film Deep Six in which he will star as Terry, who is released early from prison only to be forced to go undercover to take down the Cosa Nostra in Italy. On his first day, his fellow six-man undercover unit is taken out. Terry must then ride shotgun all day with a psychopath killer who may know he is working for the police. Cam Gigandet (the original Twilight film and Without Remorse) will co-star. (Deadline)

The 4th film in the reboot of the Star Trek franchise expects to see cast members Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, John Cho and Simon Pegg [hopefully] reprising their roles. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWAL

Amazon has given Reacher a second season renewal. (TV Line)

IMDbTV has given the Christian Kane-led drama Almost Paradise a second season renewal. (Deadline)

The Disney Channel supernatural mystery series Secrets of Sulphur Springs has been renewed for a 3rd season. (Deadline)

The Spectrum Originals series Joe Pickett has been given a season two order. (Deadline)

CANCELLATION NEWS

Disney+ has pulled the plug on its planned Beauty and the Beast prequel series. The decision not to move forward with the series was made for creative reasons, as well as due to delays with the scripts and original music. (Deadline and TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Amazon is developing a live-action Blade Runner sequel series titled Blade Runner 2099. Plot details are, of course, being kept under wraps. (Variety)

FOX has given a script commitment to a series adaptation of the 2012 box office film End of Watch that would follow the daily grind of two young police officers in Los Angeles who are partners and friends, and what happens when they meet criminal forces greater than themselves. (Variety)

PILOT ORDER

CBS has ordered a pilot for a reboot of the network’s former series Early Edition that starred Kyle Chandler in the lead role. This new version would follow an ambitious but uncompromising journalist who starts receiving tomorrow’s newspaper today. She then finds herself in the complicated business of changing the news instead of reporting it. (Variety)

SPIN-OFF PLANS

ABC is jumping on the spin-off bandwagon with plans for spin-off for The Rookie that will star Claws lead Niecy Nash. The new show will be introduced in a two-episode backdoor pilot during the current 4th season of The Rookie. The potential new show would focus on the FBI with Nash starring as Simone Clark, the oldest rookie in the FBI Academy. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Marg Helgenberger will be back as Supervising Judge Lisa Benner on All Rise when the show makes its official move to OWN for its third season. Also Christian Keyes (The Boys and Legends of Tomorrow) will take over the role of Lola’s husband Robin (who was previously played by Todd Williams). (Deadline and TV Line)

Speaking of Marg Helgenberger: she will reprise her role of Catherine Willows on CSI: Vegas in the show’s second season. (TV Line)

Apple TV+ has landed the new period drama series The New Look about the meteoric rise of French fashion designer Christian Dior. Ben Mendelsohn (Bloodline) and Juliette Binoche (The English Patient) will star. The series is a World War II-era thriller that will open in Nazi-occupied Paris, when Coco Chanel’s (Binoche) reign as the world’s famous fashion designer ends and Christian Dior (Mendelsohn) rises thanks to his ground-breaking creations. (Variety)

Daniella Pineda (The Originals and Jurassic World franchise) has joined the cast of the upcoming AMC 6-episode anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead that will feature both new and established characters from The Walkind Dead universe. The cast already includes Terry Crews, Parker Posey and Anthony Edwards. The series is slated to debut this summer on AMC and AMC+. (Variety)

Anthony Ramos (the original Broadway cast of Hamilton and the box office movie In the Heights) has joined the cast of the upcoming Disney+ drama Ironheart that will star Dominique Thorne (If Beale Street Could Talk and Judas and the Black Messiah) as Riri Williams, a brilliant teenage inventor. What role Ramos will play is being kept under wraps. (The Hollywood Reporter)

HBO has picked up the series Doomsday Machine, adapted from the best-selling book by Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang that chronicles the political and social minefields Facebook has navigated on its relentless quest for growth. The series examines how Sheryl Sandberg (who will be played by The Crown’s Claire Foy) and Mark Zuckerberg’s work are shaping the way that billions of people around the world communicate and consume information. (Variety)

The Disney+ small screen adaptation of National Treasure has added box office veteran Catherine Zeta-Jones to its cast. She will play Billie, a badass billionaire, black-market antiquities expert, and treasure hunter who lives by her own code. She transformed herself from a penniless orphan to a shrewd, stylish businesswoman and adventurer. (Variety)

Cast members have been added to season 2 of the HBO drama The White Lotus. Theo James (Sanditon and the upcoming Time Traveler’s Wife) and Meghann Fahy (The Bold Type) have joined the Sicily-set second season satire of wealth and privilege. (TV Line)

Christ McNalley (When Calls the Heart) has two recurring roles upcoming. The first is the Paramount+ drama Rise of the Pink Ladies that takes place in 1954, four years before the original Grease, before rock ‘n’ roll ruled and before the T-Birds were the coolest in the school. It follows four fed-up outcasts who dare to have fun on their own terms, sparking a moral panic that will change Rydell High forever. He will play Mr. Daniels, a young, cool teacher, so he’s well-liked by many, but he is actually a bad guy who threw a 16-year-old student under the bus for coming onto her, and tries to gaslight her into thinking he didn’t. The second is season 2 of Firefly Lane, starring Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke. He will play Mr. Waverly, a charismatic new English teacher who pushes Kate and Tully out of their comfort zones and inspires them to reach for new heights. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Paramount has finally cast the lead role in their upcoming Bob Marley biopic. Kingsley Ben-Air (One Night in Miami) will play the reggae legend. (Variety)

Ugly Betty alum America Ferrera and Shang Chi star Simu Liu will both star opposite Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in the upcoming live action Barbie movie. Robbie will play Barbie and Gosling will play Ken. What roles Ferrera and Liu will play are being kept under wraps. (Variety)

The upcoming box office movie Ferrari about the ex-racecar drive and auto manufacturing giant Enzo Ferrari has announced its main cast. Adam Driver has taken over the lead role from Hugh Jackman while Penelope Cruz will play Enzo’s wife Laura and Shailene Woodley will play mistress Lina Lardi. (Variety)

Mayim Bialik will make her directorial debut in the upcoming movie As They Made Us, which will be a dysfunctional family dramedy also written by Bialik. The movie will follow Abigail (Diana Agron from Glee), a divorced mother of two, who is struggling to balance the dynamic forces within her dysfunctional family as she attempts to cultivate new love. The cast will include Simon Helberg (The Big Bang Theory), veteran actress Candice Bergen and film legend Dustin Hoffman. (Deadline)

Yara Shahidi (black-ish and grown-ish) will executive produce and star in the Amazon romantic comedy Sitting in Bars with Cake based on the blog and book by Audrey Shulman. Based on a true story, the movie will follow a quiet young woman who is unlucky in love and discovers an unlikely guy magnet when she bakes a cake for her best friend’s birthday and brings it to a bar, only to be swarmed by men. She believes it’s a fluke, but her friend convinces her to commit to a year of baking cakes and bringing them to bars, with the goal of finding true love. The shy young woman’s life subsequently opens up in ways she couldn’t have imagined. (Deadline)

Box office legend Morgan Freeman and Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games franchise) will star alongside each other in the upcoming time-bending sci-fi thriller film 57 Seconds that will follow a tech blogger (Hutcherson) who lands a career-defining interview with a visionary technology guru (Freeman). After thwarting an attack against the celebrated technophile, the blogger picks up a mysterious ring that allows its possessor to travel 57 seconds into the past. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS

Paramount Plus has given Mayor of Kingstown a second season renewal; as well as giving The Game (revival series) a second season renewal. The streamer has also given SEAL Team a 6th season renewal. (TV Line and Variety)

HBO has given Euphoria a third season renewal. (TV Line)

Disney+ has given Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. a second season renewal. (Deadline and TV Line)

Yellowstone has been given a fifth season renewal. (Deadline and TV Line)

SERIES ORDER

Apple has given a limited series 8-episode order to the drama Presumed Innocent, which is inspired by the Scott Turow novel. The courtroom thriller tells the story of a horrific murder that upends the Chicago Prosecuting Attorneys’ office when one of its own is suspected of the crime. (Variety)

A new Goosebumps TV series has been picked up by Disney+, receiving a 10-episode order. Based on the beloved R.L. Stine books the series follows a group of five high schoolers who unleash supernatural forces upon their town and must all work together to save it, learning much about their own parents’ teenage secrets in the process. (Variety)

PILOT ORDERS

The CW has three new pilots in development: Gotham Knights, Walker: Independence (a Walker prequel spin-off) and The Winchesters (a Supernatural prequel spin-off). Original Supernatural star Jensen Ackles will be one of the executive producers on the spin-off The Winchesters, which will center around Dean and Sam Winchester’s parents, John and Mary. It will be the epic, untold love story of how John met Mary and how they put it all on the line to not only save their love, but the entire world. It will be told from the perspective of Dean, with Ackles narrating. The live-action Gotham Knights [which is NOT a spin-off of Batwoman] find Bruce Wayne’s rebellious adopted “son” forging an unlikely alliance with the children of Batman’s enemies, when they are all framed for killing the Caped Crusader. Now branded the city’s most wanted criminals, this renegade band of misfits must fight to clear their names — but in a Gotham with no Dark Knight to protect it, the city descends into the most dangerous it’s ever been. Meanwhile, Walker: Independence, set in the latte 1800’s, will follow Abby Walker, an affluent Bostonian whose husband is murdered before her eyes while on their journey out West. On her quest for revenge, Abby crosses paths with Hoyt Rawlins, a lovable rogue in search of purpose. Abby and Hoyt’s journey takes them to Independence, Texas, where they encounter diverse, eclectic residents running from their own troubled pasts and chasing their dreams. Also, The CW is holding off on ordering a pilot of its in-the-works, female-led Zorro series until after it reads six additional (and just-ordered) scripts. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Veteran actor Bill Nighy will star in the upcoming Showtime series The Man Who Fell to Earth, joining previously announced cast members Chiwetel Ejiofor, Naomie Harris, Jimmi Simpson, Kate Mulgrew and Clarke Peters [among others]. The series will follow a new alien character named Faraday (Ejiofor) who arrives on Earth at a turning point in human evolution and must confront his own past to determine our future. Nighy will play Thomas Newton, the first alien to arrive on earth over 40 years ago. Alone and desperate, Newton summons Faraday to complete his original mission. But Newton’s time marooned among human beings has cost him everything, possibly even his sanity. (Variety)

Yellowstone has promoted two cast members to series regular status: Kathryn Kelly, who portrays Jimmy’s newly minted fiancess, and Jen Landon, who portrays ranch hand Teeter. (Deadline and TV Line)

Jennifer Beals will recur in Law & Order: Organized Crime, playing the yet-to-be-named wife of New York drug kingpin and Marcy Corporation head Preston Webb (Mykelti Williamson). (Deadline and TV Line)

Lifetime has acquired rights and licenses to the entire book catalog by V.C. Andrews, which currently stands at 138 titles. The cable network previously greenlit a limited series called Flowers in the Attic: The Origin, which will track the twisted origin and dark secrets of the Foxworth family, and which is set to premiere in the summer. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Jada Pinkett Smith will guest star in an upcoming episode of The Equalizer, playing Jessie Cook, a savant-level thief with a photographic memory. Though she’s brilliant and the best at what she does, she’s also devious, unpredictable and amoral. Briefly recruited by the CIA for her skills, Jessie and Robin McCall (series star Queen Latifah) once worked a mission together back in the day, and though the two get along like oil and water, they’re a whole lot of fun to watch. (Deadline)

Apple has given a series order to the drama series Dear Edward, which is based on the novel by Ann Napolitano, that will star Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights and 9-1-1) and Taylor Schilling (Orange Is the New Black). The series will tell the story of Edward Adler, a 12-year-old boy who survives a devastating commercial plane crash that kills every other passenger on the flight, including his family. As Edward and a diverse ensemble of others affected by the tragedy try to make sense of life after the crash, unexpected friendships, romances and communities are formed. (Variety)

Tom Ellis (Lucifer) has joined the cast of the upcoming Hulu limited series Washington Black that will also star Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us). Ellis will play steam-punk inventor Christopher “Titch” Wilde. The epic 9-episode adventure, based on the Esi Edugyan novel, follows the extraordinary 19th-century adventures of George Washington “Wash” Black, an 11-year-old boy on a Barbados sugar plantation who must flee after a shocking death threatens to upend his life. Brown will play the gregarious, larger-than-life Medwin Harris, who traveled the world after a traumatic childhood as a Black refugee in Nova Scotia as the de facto Mayor of Black Halifax prioritizes the community over everything except Washington Black, his young protégé. Meeting Wash sends him down a challenging path of self-discovery. And as the barricades around his heart start to fall, Medwin will learn to dream again. (Variety)

Joseph Morgan (The Vampire Diaries and The Originals) and Franka Potente (Claws and the Bourne franchise) have joined the cast of the HBO Max drama Titans for the show’s 4th season. Morgan will play Sebastian Blood, aka Brother Blood while Potente will play May Bennett, aka Mother Mayhem. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Kiernan Shipka (Mad Men and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) and Diane Kruger (The 355 and National Treasure) will star in psychological drama Swimming With Sharks on The Roku Channel [which was originally expected to air on Quibi in 2020]. Kruger will play Joyce Holt, studio head of Fountain Pictures, while Shipka will play Joyce’s intern, Lou Simms, who develops an extreme obsession with her boss. The six half-hour episodes will follow the great undertakings Lou (Shipka), who is anything but a naive newcomer to the industry, will go to get closer to Joyce (Kruger). Other cast members of this series include Donald Sutherland, Ross Butler, Thomas Dekker and Finn Jones. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Evan Rachel Wood, Eliza Scanlen, Rufus Sewell and Vanessa Redgrave will star in the World War II flick All That I Am that brings to light a heroic true story about four German-Jewish literati-turned-anti-Nazi activists who are forced to flee to London following the rise of Adolf Hitler’s regime in Germany. Sixty years later, one of the group members, Ruth Wesemann, is living in Sydney, Australia, and is the sole survivor of the four. One day she receives a package containing the posthumous memoirs of her old friend Ernst Toller and is drawn back into her memories, and the years in which the four emigrés smuggled highly classified documents from Hermann Goering’s office into the hands of Winston Churchill. Scanlen will play Ruth while Wood will play Dora Fabian. Redgrave will play the older Ruth, in Australia, while Sewell is Ernst. (Variety)

Dakota Johnson (Fifty Shades franchise) has been cast as Madame Web in Sony’s next stand-alone superhero movie. This flick will mark the studio’s first modern comic book adaptation to feature a female in the title role. (Variety)

Taraji P. Henson (Person of Interest and Empire) will star as Shug Avery in the latest, upcoming movie adaptation of The Color Purple, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker. Also, American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino and Peacemaker actress Danielle Brooks will reprise their Broadway roles of Celie and Sofia in the film. (Variety)

THEATRE NEWS

It looks like a stage adaptation of the TV series Smash is one step closer to becoming a reality. A workshop is planned for this summer with producer Robert Greenblatt aiming (if all goes well) for a Broadway opening in 2024. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

CANCELLATIONS

Peacock has pulled the plug on the drama Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol after only one season. (Variety)

Showtime has cancled the drama American Rust after only one season. (Variety)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

FOX is developing a series adaptation of The White House Doctor, based on the memoir by Dr. Connie Mariano, with Charmed star Alyssa Milano, who will not only star but also as an executive producer. Inspired by the memoir of the first woman of color to serve as physician to three presidents, the series will be about a smart but impulsive White House physician as she navigates the dangerous intersection of medicine and politics and struggles to keep her own life together while safeguarding the life of the most powerful patient on Earth. (Variety)

PILOT ORDER

NBC has given a pilot order to the drama Unbroken from Shaun Cassidy. The show will follow three dynastic ranch families on the central coast of California make love and war in a passionate struggle to survive, ultimately setting the stage for a group of fiercely determined young women to win big for all at the National Championship of Rodeo. (NBC and The Futon Critic)

SERIES ORDER

Netflix has given an 8-episode series order for the political thriller The Diplomat that will be executive produced by Debora Cahn (The West Wing and Homeland). The series will center on a career diplomat who lands a high-profile job that puts her on the front lines of an international crisis. The gig finds her in way over her head, with tectonic implications for her marriage and her political future. (TV Line)

Executive producers Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec (The Vampire Diaries) are reteaming for the supernatural drama Dead Day, which has been given a straight to series order by Peacock. Based on the AfterShock comic book series by Ryan Parrott, the show will follow an ensemble of characters as they navigate the annual ‘dead day,’ when for one night the dead come back to complete unfinished business: be that to celebrate a night back on earth or to torment the living. (TV Line)

Disney+ has ordered Percy Jackson and the Olympians, based on the Rick Riordan fantasy novels, to series. The live-action series will follow Percy Jackson, a 12-year-old modern demigod who’s just coming to terms with his newfound supernatural powers when the sky god Zeus accuses him of stealing his master lightning bolt. Now Percy must trek across America to find it and restore order to Olympus. (TV Line)

Syfy has picked up the drama series The Ark from Dean Devlin (Independence Day, Stargate and Leverage). The series takes place 100 years in the future when planetary colonization missions have begun as a necessity to help secure the survival of the human race. The first of these missions on a spacecraft known as Ark One encounters a catastrophic event causing massive destruction and loss of life. With more than a year left to go before reaching their target planet, a lack of life-sustaining supplies and loss of leadership, the remaining crew must become the best versions of themselves to stay on course and survive. Syfy has ordered 12 episodes. (Variety)

Hulu has given a series order to Saint X, based on the Alexis Schaitkin novel. Told from multiple perspectives and across multiple timelines, the series aims to explore and upend the missing-girl story, examining how a young woman’s mysterious death during an idyllic Caribbean vacation creates a traumatic ripple effect that eventually pulls her surviving sister into a dangerous pursuit of the truth. (The Hollywood Reporter)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

The new original Hallmark Channel movie A Second Chance at Love will star ER alums Gloria Reuben and Eriq La Salle along with Jarod Joseph (The 100 and Rogue) and Alvina August (Nancy Drew). On the surface, Alicia (August) and Arnold’s (Joseph) marriage is picture perfect, however, there is something amiss. Arnold is ready to grow their family, but subconsciously Alicia is hesitant to the idea. Rather than face the problem head on, Alicia, the self-proclaimed “love doctor,” immerses herself in her divorced parents Jack (La Salle) and Brenda’s (Reuben) dating affairs by setting them each up on a blind date dating app. The movie is slated to debut on March 26. (Deadline)

CHANGE OF PLANS

It looks like the Paramount Network will not be rebranded after all. The rebrand plans to turn Paramount Network into Paramount Movie Network are on hold (at least for now). (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Dylan McDermott has signed on to play the new lead in the CBS drama FBI” Most Wanted, replacing the recently announced departing star Julian McMahon. (TV Line)

Jorja Fox will not be back for season 2 of CSI: Vegas on CBS. (TV Line)

The upcoming Apple anthology series Extrapolations has added new cast members, including Murray Bartlett (The White Lotus), Yara Shahidi (grown-ish and black-ish), Diane Lane (Under the Tuscan Sun), Heather Graham (Boogie Nights) and Judd Hirsch (Taxi and Independence Day) [among others]. The 8-episode series will tell eight interconnected stories that will track the worldwide battle for our mutual survival spanning the 21st century and how changes to our planet will affect love, faith, work and family. The cast already includes Meryl Streep, Matthew Rhys, Marion Cotillard, Eiza Gonzalez, Tobey Maguire, Forest Whitaker, Edward Norton, Kit Harrington, Sienna Miller, Gemma Chan, Tahar Rahim, Daveed Diggs, David Schwimmer, Indira Varma, Keri Russell, Cherry Jones, and Michael Gandolfini. (Variety)

Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost) will return as Mrs. Claus in the upcoming Disney+ limited series The Santa Clause based on the box office franchise that will find Tim Allen returning as Santa. (Deadline)

Josh Duhamel has joined the cast of the Disney+ drama The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers where he will play Gavin Cole, a former NHL player-turned-coach who runs the super-intense summer hockey institute where the series is set this season. Duhamel will take over for Emilio Estevez, who will not be back as Gordon Bombay. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Ivory Aquino (Tales of the City) will join Leslie Grace in the upcoming Batgirl feature film, playing Alysia Yeoh, the best friend of Barbara Gordon (Grace). Both Aquino and Yeoh are transgender, marking the first time a live-action feature film adaptation of a DC Comics title will feature an openly trans character. (Variety)

Kyle Allen (West Side Story) will star in the upcoming live-action film adaptation of Masters of the Universe, playing an orphan named Adam who discovers he is a prince destined to be the savior of a faraway land. He must quickly learn of his power and the importance of saving his true home from an evil force. (Variety)

Jason Momoa has joined the cast of the Fast & Furious franchise that will find Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Michelle Rodriguez and Sung Kang expected to return along with franchise star Vin Diesel. Plot details, of course, are unknown. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS

Paramount Plus has given Star Trek: Discovery a 5th season renewal while Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been given a second season renewal before its debut season has even aired. (Variety)

Netflix has given Squid Game a second season renewal. (Variety)

CANCELLATION

CBS is pulling the plug on the drama Bull in the wake of lead star Michael Weatherly deciding to quit the show. The series finale will air this May. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Julian McMahon will be exiting FBI: Most Wanted during its current, third season. It is being reported he is leaving to pursue “additional creative pursuits.” His last episode will air on March 8; that episode is expected to introduce a new team leader to fill the void left by Jess LaCroix’s departure. (TV Line)

Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin) has signed on to star in the small series adaptation of the 1988 box office film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown that follows the rocky romantic lives of a number of women, including one who works as a voice actor dubbing for foreign films. Rodriguez will play Pepa and she will also serve as an executive producer. (The Hollywood Reporter and TV Line)

Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Birds of Prey) has joined the cast of Ahsoka Tano on Disney Plus that will star Rosario Dawson in the title role. Details on Winstead’s character are currently, however, being kept under wraps. (Variety)

There will be a One Tree Hill reunion on the new CBS medical drama Good Sam that stars Sophia Bush as Hilarie Burton and Bethany Joy Lenz will guest star in an upcoming episode. Burton and Lenz will play sisters Gretchen and Amy Taylor, who cross paths with Bush’s Dr. Sam Griffith when Amy is admitted as a patient at Detroit’s Lakeshore Sentinel Hospital. (Entertainment Weekly)

Elizbeth Mitchell (Lost) has landed a recurring role on the CBS drama FBI: International, playing Angela Cassidy, the long lost mother of Scott Forrester (series lead Luke Kleintank). who worked for the U.S. government before selling information to the Russians. (Deadline)

Actor Fra Fee (Hawkeye) has joined the cast of the upcoming Disney Plus Beauty and the Beast prequel series that will find Luke Evans and Josh Gad reprising their roles of Gaston and LeFou (aka Louie). Newcomer Briana Middleton will play Tilly, Louie’s stepsister. Fee will star as Prince Benoit Berlioz, a childhood friend of Tilly’s, who has grown into a handsome, charismatic, confident prince. Also, actor Jelani Alladin (The Walking Dead: World Beyond) has also joined the cast, playing Jean-Michel, a talented artist who has a quik wit, a sharp intellect and a fierce independent streak. (Deadline and Variety)

The HBO dramedy The White Lotus has added new series regular cast members to its upcoming second season. Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hollander (The Night Manager), Adam DiMarco (The Magicians) and Haley Lu Richardson (Five Feet Apart) have joined the cast. Abraham will play Bert Di Grasso, an elderly man traveling with his son Dominic (newly added cast member Michael Imperioli from The Sopranos) and grandson Albie (DiMarco). Hollander will play Quentin, an English expat, vacationing with his friends and his nephew. Lastly, Richardson will play Portia, a young woman traveling with her boss. (TV Line)

Joshua Jackson (The Affair and Dr. Death) has landed the lead role in the upcoming Paramount Plus small screen adaptation of the box office film Fatal Attraction. The series will explore the timeless themes of marriage and infidelity through the lens of modern attitudes towards strong women, personality disorders and coercive control. Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex) will star as Alex, who becomes obsessed with her lover Dan (Jackson) after a brief affair. (Variety)

Toks Olagundoye (Castle and The Neighbors) has joined the revival of L.A. Law on ABCthat will once again be set at the venerable law firm of McKenzie Brackman. She will play the new character, Assistant District Attorney Erika Jackson, starring opposite original series stars Blair Underwood and Corbin Bernsen, who are reprising their roles as Jonathan Rollins and Arnie Becker, respectively. (Deadline and TV Line)

MOVIE CASTING NEWS

Daniel Radcliffe will play Grammy-winning musician ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic in the upcoming Roku original movie Weird: The Al Yankovic Story that will follow every facet of Yankovic’s life, from his meteoric rise to fame with early hits like ‘Eat It’ and ‘Like a Surgeon’ to his torrid celebrity love affairs and famously depraved lifestyle. (Variety)

Johnny Depp will star as French King Louis XV in an upcoming movie set to be directed by French director Maiwenn who will also star as Jeanne du Barry, a countess who was Louis XV’s last mistress. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS

Emily in Paris has been renewed for seasons 3 and 4 at Netflix. (TV Line)

Grey’s Anatomy has been renewed for season 19 and Station 19 has been renewed for a 6th season by ABC. (TV Line)

Apple TV+ has renewed The Morning Show for a third season. (TV Line)

Hulu has given The Great a season 3 renewal. (Variety)

EPIX has given Godfarther of Harlem a 3rd season renewal. (Variety)

Peacock has given a second season order to the teen mystery drama One of Us Is Lying. (TV Line)

REBOOT NEWS

Looks like Timothy Olyphant will be reprising his role of Raylan Givens in Justified: City Primeval, a follow-up limited series to the original FX drama Justified. The reboot will find Raylan still living in Miami where he relocated to as seen in the series finale. A walking anachronism balancing his life as a U.S. Marshal and part-time father of his 14-year-old daughter with Winona. A chance encounter on a desolate Florida highway leads him to Detroit, where he crosses paths with Clement Mansell aka “The Oklahoma Wildman,” a violent, sociopathic desperado who’s already slipped through the fingers of Detroit’s finest once and aims to do so again. (TV Line)

Disney+ has ordered a limited series small screen adaptation of The Santa Clause box office movie franchise. Tim Allen will return as Scott Calvin, who, on the brink of his 65th birthday, realizes that he can’t be Santa forever. He’s starting to lose a step in his Santa duties, and more importantly, he’s got a family who could benefit from a life in the normal world, especially his two kids who have grown up at the Pole. With a lot of elves, children, and family to please, Scott sets out to find a suitable replacement Santa while preparing his family for a new adventure in a life south of the pole. (Variety)

PILOT ORDER

Kellie Martin will be back on the small screen on NBC via a sequel to her 80’s TV show Life Goes On that has been given a put-pilot order (which is basically one step shy of the network officially ordering a pilot to be produced/filmed) that will find her back as Becca Thatcher. The series will revisit grown-up Becca Thatcher, now an accomplished doctor, and her extended family as she returns to her hometown. (TV Line)

It looks like NBC is working on a reboot of Quantum Leap that would pick up 30 years after Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) stepped into the Quantum accelerator and vanished. Now whether Bakula will be involved in the new project is “to be determined” a new team has been assembled to restart the project in the hopes of understanding the mysteries behind the machine and the man who created it. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Andrew Burnap, who won a Tony Award for his role in The Inheritance, has landed the male lead in the upcoming Disney live-action film based on the classic animated story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves that will find West Side Story actress Rachel Zegler in the title lead and Wonder Woman Gal Gadot playing the Evil Queen. Burnap will play a new male character created for the film. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Emeraude Toubia (Shadowhunters and With Love) will executive produce and star in the rom-com The Redo that follows three female best friends who, upon realizing they’re not getting the love they deserve, make a pact to reconnect with their biggest “almost” from their romantic pasts. Toubia will play Cara, an underpaid but ambitious lackey at a record label, who decides to lean into her infatuation with one of her boss’s clients. (Deadline)

JUMPING SHIP

It looks like another Hallmark alum has signed a contract with competitor GAC Family. Jen Lilley has signed a two-year contract, and it looks like she won’t be making Hallmark movies during that time. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Mark Ruffalo and Hugh Laurie have joinced the cast of the upcoming Netflix limited series All the Light We Cannot See that is based on the best-selling novel by Anthony Doerr that stars newcomer Aria Mia Loberti as Marie-Laure, a blind teenager at the heart of the story. Marie-Laure’s path collides with Werner, a German soldier, as they both try to survive the devastation of World War II in occupied France. Ruffalo will play Marie-Laure’s father, Daniel LeBlanc, the principal locksmith at the Museum of Natural History in Paris; while Laurie will play Etienne LeBlanc, an eccentric and reclusive World War I hero suffering from PTSD. (Variety)

Mahershala Ali will executive produce and star in the Hulu limited series The Plot based on the Jean Hanff Korelitz novel. He will play Jake, a struggling author who is primed to take advantage of any opportunity that might help revive his career. When a once in a lifetime opportunity presents itself, Jake commits an act of literary theft that changes his life. (Variety)

Sendhil Ramamurthy has landed a recurring role on the new CBS medical drama Good Sam, playing Asher Pyne, the new spouse of Vivian (cast member Wendy Crewson), who is also a licensed therapist. (TV Line)

TV DEVELOPMENT NEWS

FX has ordered a TV adaptation of the Octavia E. Butler novel Kindred. The 8-episode sci-fi series centers on Dana (newcomer Mallori Johnson), a young Black woman and aspiring writer who has uprooted her life of familial obligation and relocated to Los Angeles, ready to claim a future that, for once, feels all her own. But, before she can get settled into her new home, she finds herself being violently pulled back and forth in time to a nineteenth-century plantation with which she and her family are surprisingly and intimately linked. An interracial romance threads through her past and present, and the clock is ticking as she struggles to confront the secrets she never knew ran through her blood, in this genre-breaking exploration of the ties that bind. The cast includes True Blood alum Ryan Kwanten. (Variety)

FOX has a series adaptation of the box office film Hell or High Water in the works. The series version will focus on what happens when a ruthless oil tycoon attempts to plunder a West Texas ranching community, finding two local brothers dodging a zealous Texas Ranger and fighting to keep what’s theirs, one bank robbery at a time. (Variety)

HBO Max has ordered a reboot of Degrassi, the popular Canadian series, for 10 hour-long episodes that will premiere in 2023. The series will focus on a new group of teenagers and school faculty living in the shadow of events that both bind them together and tear them apart. (TV Line)

Arrow alum David Ramsey could be back playing John Diggle in a stand-along series at The CW. Justice U is a drama series currently in development that would find Diggle, after spending years fighting alongside masked heroes, embarking on a new mission to recruit five young meta-humans to live undercover as freshmen at a prestigious university. There he will oversee their education and train them to become the heroes of tomorrow. The show is based on characters from the DC pantheon. (Variety)

Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez and his sister writer-director Rebecca Rodriguez are developing a gender-swapped version of Zorro for The CW that will follow a young Latino woman looking for vengeance for her father’s murder. In her mission, she joins a secret society and takes on the outlaw persona of Zorro. Meanwhile, Disney is working on a new Zorro series set to star Wilmer Valderrama (NCIS) in the title role. (Deadline and TV Insider)

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »