Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for the past week:

RENEWALS

Fear the Walking Dead has been renewed for an 8th season by AMC. (TV Line)

Leverage: Redemption has been given a 2nd season renewal from IMDbTV. (Variety)

Truth Be Told has been given a third season renewal by Apple TV+. The streaming service has also given Invasion a second season renewal. (Variety)

Netflix has renewed Outer Banks for a third season. On the other spectrum, Netflix has cancelled Cowboy Bebop after only one season. (TV Line and The Hollywood Reporter)

Power Book II: Ghost has been given a third season renewal. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

The return of Law & Order on NBC – after 12 years off the air – will now include The Practice alum Camryn Manheim as part of the cast. She will fill the lieutenant role that was played by S. Epatha Merkerson. The series will return to the network on February 24. (The Hollywood Reporter)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Director Christopher Nolan has added more cast members to his upcoming World War II drama Oppenheimer, which will be a story about the development of the atomic bomb. The cast already includes Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Cillian Murphy and Emily Blunt; and now includes Oscar winner Rami Malek and Oscar nominee Florence Pugh. (Variety)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

The CW is planning on expanding the Walker universe with an origin story. Walker: Independence, which will include series star Jared Padalecki as creator and one of the executive producers, will be set in the late 1800s, following 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. Our newfound family will struggle with the changing world around them, while becoming agents of change themselves in a town where nothing is what it seems. (Deadline)

It looks like HBO is in the early development phase of a follow-up to Six Fett Under; however, no writer is attached to the project nor has any plotline been decided. This follow-up could then possibly be a reboot or more of a sequel series following up on existing characters from the show in the present day, but no decision has been made. (Variety)

STREAMING SERVICE NEWS

Netflix has found the star for their upcoming 4-part adaptation of the Pulitzer-Prize winning novel “All The Light We Cannot See.” Newcomer Aria Mia Loberti has landed the role of Marie-Laure, the blind teenager whose greatest strength is the tenacity of her hope and the power of her voice across the airwaves during wartime. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items from the past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATION

David Tennant will star in the new adaptation of Around the World in 80 Days on PBS on January 2; and a second season has already been ordered. It is being reported that Tennant is almost certain to return in the lead role of Phileas Fogg. (Variety)

Men in Kilts will be back for a second season with Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish back for the reality series that will head to New Zealand for 6 episodes this time around. (TV Line)

Disney+ has pulled the plug on the small screen adaptation of Turner & Hooch after only one season. (PopCulture.com and Deja View)

STREAMING CASTING NEWS

The 10 episode adaptation of the 2013 best-selling novel Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen will debut on Apple with Michelle Monaghan, Jodie Turner-Smith and Meredith Hagner in the lead roles alongside Vince Vaughn. The straight-to-series drama revolves around Andrew Yancy (Vaughn), a one-time detective demoted to restaurant inspector in South 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 Florida and the Bahamas. And yes, there’s a monkey. Monaghan will play Bonnie, a woman trapped in an abusive marriage who complicates Yancy’s life as a secret from her past resurfaces; Turner-Smith will play Dragon Queen/Gracie, who is both revered and feared on Andros Island as she practices Obeah alongside her contentious grandmother; and Hagner will play Eve, who is questioned by Yancy about her dead husband and whom he feels might know more than she’s saying. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Cara Delevingue has joined the cast of the second season of Only Murders in the Building. She will play Alice, a sophisticated art world insider who becomes enmeshed in the mystery. (Variety)

Apple has ordered a thriller called Disclaimer, based on the novel by Renee Knight, that will star Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline. Blanchett will star as Catherine Ravenscroft, a successful and respected television documentary journalist whose work has been built on revealing the concealed transgressions of long-respected institutions. When an intriguing novel written by a widower (Kline) appears on her bedside table, she is horrified to realize she is a key character in a story that she had hoped was long buried in the past. (Variety)

PICK-UP ORDER

A new series to air on AMC and AMC+, based on the Anne Rice trilogy Lives of the Mayfair Withces has been given a greenlight. The series will focus on an intuitive young neurosurgeon who discovers that she is the unlikely heir to a family of witches. As she grapples with her newfound powers, she must contend with a sinister presence that has haunted her family for generations. This is the second Anne Rice series with Interview with the Vampire set for a late 2022 premiere. (AMC Press Release and Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Phoebe Dynevor (Bridgerton) will star opposite Alden Ehrenreigh in the upcoming film Fair Play. The film is set after a woman’s promotion at a cut-throat hedge fund threatens to uncover unspeakable secrets that might impact her relationship with her fiancé. (Deadline and Digital Spy)

While doing PR for the upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home, lead star Tom Holland confirmed that he will step into the shoes of the one and only Fred Astair in an upcoming biopic, which is still in its early stages of development, about the legendary actor, dancer and singer. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the few news items for this past holiday week:

TV CASTING NEWS

Anthony Anderson will be reprising his role of Det. Kevin Bernard in Law & Order when the flagship series returns to NBC. Hugh Dancy (Hannibal and The Path) will also join the cast, playing an assistant district attorney. (TV Line)

John Gabriel Rodriquez has been promoted to series regular in the FOX reboot of Fantasy Island where he plays the character Javier. (Deadline)

STREAMING SERVICE CASTING NEWS

New cast members for season 4 of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan have been announced. They include Zuleikha Robinson (Lost and Homeland), who will play a character named Zeyara; Louis Ozawa (Hunters), who will play a character named Chao Fah and Okieriete Onaodowan (Station 19), who will play a character named Adebayo ‘Ade’ Osoji. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWAL/CANCELLATIONS

OWN has renewed Queen Sugar for its 7th and final season. (Variety)

Netflix has cancelled YA skating drama Zero Chill after one series. (Deadline)

The Sinner will come to a conclusion at the end of its current fourth season, meaning the December 1 episode on the USA Network will be its series finale. (Variety)

STREAMING CASTING NEWS

More cast members have been added to the upcoming Netflix, live-action series Avatar: The Last Airbender. Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (Kim’s Convenience and The Mandalorian) will play Uncle Iroh, a retired Fire Nation general and the wise and nurturing mentor to his hot-headed nephew, Prince Zuko. Lim Kay Siu (Anna and The King and Nightwatch) will play Gyatso, a kind and caring Air Nomad monk who is the guardian, father figure and best friend to Aang; and Ken Leung (Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Lost ) will play Commander Zhao, a scheming and ambitious Fire Nation military officer who’s eager to leverage an unexpected encounter with a desperate Prince Zuko to advance his personal goals. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Newcomer Senan West, the 13-year-old, real-life son of actor Dominic West – who will be playing Prince Charles in the upcoming 5th season of The Crown – will portray Prince William in the streaming series. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Derek Luke will be reuniting with Katie Holmes (nearly 2 decades after they starred in 2003’s Pieces of April) in the upcoming movie Rare Objects which Holmes will not only star in, but also produce and direct. The movie, based on the Kathleen Tessaro novel, tells the story of a young woman with a traumatic past who seeks to rebuild her life when she begins working at an antique store. Luke will play antiques dealer Winshaw. (Variety)

Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us) will star in the box office movie The Defender as pioneering lawyer Scipio Africanus Jones, who risked his life and career to defend the Elaine Twelve: a group of 12 Black sharecroppers sentenced to death for allegedly being involved in the murder of a white man during the Elaine Massacre of 1919 in Arkansas. (Variety)

Jurnee Smollett (Lovecraft Country and Birds of Prey) has landed the female lead in the new courtroom drama The Burial from Amazon Studios. She will star opposite Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones in thefilm that is based on a true story. The film follows a bankrupt funeral home owner who decides to sue a rival businessman over a handshake deal gone wrong. The owner hires a flamboyant attorney (Foxx) to handle the case. Smollett will play Foxx’s opposing counsel. (Variety)

The one and only Delroy Lindo has joined the cast of the Marvel Studios movie Blade that will star Moonlight actor Mahershala Ali as the titular human-vampire hybrid. It is unclear who Lindo will be playing, but one strong possibility is Jamal Afari, who in the Marvel comics is the man who raised and mentored Blade (aka Eric Brooks) in the ways of vampire hunting when Eric was young. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS

Squid Games, the popular Korean thriller, has been renewed for a second season. (Variety)

NBC has renewed La Brea for a second season. (TV Line)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

Jane Krakowski has stepped down from the role of Lily St. Regis in the upcoming NBC made-for-TV movie Annie Live! due to being diagnosed with a breakthrough case of COVID. The role will be taken over by Megan Hilty (Smash and Wicked). (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Colby Lewis (Chicago Med) has been tapped to portray Peter, Alina Park (Laura Sohn)’s protective husband on The Blacklist. (Deadline)

HBO is developing a limited series based on the Mob Queens podcast that will star Lena Dunham and Ruth Wilson. The series tells the story of Anna Genovese (Wilson), most widely known as the second wife of infamous crime boss Vito Genovese and a fixture in the Village’s drag bar scene in the 1930s who later broke Cosa Nostra law when she spilled the illegal dealings of her husband in divorce hearings. (Variety)

The FX eight-episode limited series Class of ‘09 has added new cast members including Jake McDorman (The Right Stuff), Sepideh Moafi (The L Word: Generation Q), Brian J. Smith (Sense8 and Stargate Universe) and Brooke Smith (Grey’s Anatomy) [among others]. The series follows a class of FBI agents set in a near future where the U.S. criminal justice system has been transformed by artificial intelligence. The show already stars Brian Tyree Henry (Eternals) and Kate Mara (A Teacher and Shooter). (Deadline)

City On a Hill has added new cast members in recurring roles for its upcoming third season, which will premiere in 2022. Those cast members include Corbin Bernsen (Psych and L.A. Law), Joanne Kelly (Warehouse 13) and Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters franchise). Season three brings us to Boston’s high society Beacon Hill. Following his dismissal from the FBI, Jackie Rohr (series lead Kevin Bacon) lands a lavish new gig running security for a wealthy family. Life is good until secrets begin to unravel. When an investigation opens – implicating local and federal authorities – assistant district attorney Decourcy Ward (series lead Aldis Hodge) sees an opportunity to finally rip out the machinery perpetuating a broken system.  Bernsen will play Sinclair Dryden, an old money Beacon Hill socialite and former outstanding FBI agent who has been a mentor to Jackie; Kelly will play Letitia, the strong-willed wife of Sinclair and Hudson will play Franklin Ward, the widowed father of Decourcy, who is a Baptist minister in Brooklyn. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

It looks like MGM is going to remake the Patrick Swayze movie Road House with Doug Liman set to direct and Jake Gyllenhaal set to star. There are no details yet on who Gyllenhaal would play, however. (Variety)

The new rom-com film Loveboat, Taipei, based on the best-selling novel by Abigail Hing Wen, will star Ashley Liao (Fuller House, Physical and Secret Society of Second Born Royals) and Ross Butler (Shazam! franchise, Riverdale and 13 Reasons Why). The movie will center on Ever Wong (Liao), whose summer takes an unexpected turn when her parents surprise her with a trip to Taipei for a cultural immersion program. Ever is surprised to discover that she hasn’t signed up for homework and history lessons, but instead for a summer-long free-for-all the locals and other students call “Loveboat.” It quickly lives up to its name when Ever finds herself trying not to fall for two attractive, but wildly different boys who are vying for her attention, while at the same time finding the courage to defy her parents’ high expectations and pursue her true passion: dancing. Butler will play the dashingly handsome Rick Woo. Embarrassingly nicknamed “Boy Wonder” by the smitten Ever, Rick is an infamous prodigy in both sports and scholastics who has yet to meet his match until he meets her. (Deadline)

STREAMING CASTING NEWS

Netflix fave Noah Centineo (To All the Boys franchise, Charlie’s Angels and The Fosters) will star in a currently untitled Netflix thriller created by Alexi Hawley. The 8-episodes series revolves around a fledgling lawyer (Centineo) at the CIA, who becomes enmeshed in dangerous international power politics when a former asset threatens to expose the nature of her long-term relationship with the agency unless they exonerate her of a serious crime. The cast includes Vondie Curtis Hall (Harriet), Kristian Bruun (Orphan Black), Laura Haddock (The Capture) and Colton Dunn (Superstore) [among others]. (Deadline)

Timothy Olyphant has joined the cast of the upcoming Amzon drama Daisy Jones & The Six. Based on the novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, the 10-episode series focuses on the rollercoaster journey of a 1970s rock band coping with the trials of tribulations of becoming famous. Olyphant will play the character responsible for bringing The Six together. The cast includes Riley Keough, Suki Waterhouse and Sam Coflin [among others]. (The Hollywood Reporter and Outsider)

The upcoming Peacock 8-episode crime drama The Missing from David E. Kelley will star Jeff Wilbusch (from the HBO film Oslo and the Netflix series Unorthodox) in the lead role. Based on the novel by Dror A. Mishani focuses on Avraham Avraham, an NYPD detective with the 77th precinct, whose belief in mankind is his superpower when it comes to uncovering the truth. He is left to question his own humanity when a seemingly routine investigation turns upside down. (Variety)

Paramount+ has ordered a small screen adaptation of the box office film Fatal Attraction that will star Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex and Party Down) in one of the lead roles. 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. Caplan will star as Alex (the role played by Glenn Close in the film), who becomes obsessed with her lover after a brief affair. (Variety)

Michael Ealy (Stumptown and Secretsand Lies) will star opposite Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars and The Good Place) and Tom Riley (Da Vinci’s Demons and The Nevers) in the upcoming Netflix 8-episode limited series The Woman in the House, that is set to premiere in early 2022. The series centers around heartbroken Anna (Bell), for whom every day is the same. She sits with her wine, staring out the window, watching life go by without her. But when a handsome neighbor (Riley) and his adorable daughter (Samsara Yett) move in across the street, Anna starts to see a light at the end of the tunnel. That is until she witnesses a gruesome murder… Or did she? Ealy will play Douglas, Anna’s ex-husband. (Deadline)

Jennifer Garner will take over for Julia Roberts in the upcoming Apple drama The Last Thing He Told Me, which is based on the novel by Laura Dave. The series follows a woman (Garner) who forms an unexpected relationship with her sixteen-year-old stepdaughter while searching for the truth about why her husband has mysteriously disappeared. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

Starz has given Heels a second season renewal. (Variety)

The Amazon series Hanna will come to an end after its upcoming third season. (Variety)

FOX has renewed the reboot of Fantasy Island for a second season, and it will also air a two-hour holiday special on December 21. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo will play Glinda and Elphaba (respectively) in the big-screen adaptation of Wicked that will be directed by Jon M. Chu (In the Heights). (Variety)

Chris Pratt will provide his voice to Garfield in a new animated movie. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) will play the Evil Queen in the upcoming live-action adaptation of Snow White, playing opposite Rachel Zegler (the new version of West Side Story). (Variety)

Robert Downey Jr. and Matt Damon will star in the upcoming World War II epic film Oppenheimer about the development of the atomic bomb. What roles they will play has not been announced, but a star-studded cast is being assembled by director Christopher Nolan, that includes Cillian Murphy and Emily Blunt. (Variety)

Katie Holmes will not only star in but direct, produce and co-write the box office film Rare Objects that is an adaptation of the Kathleen Tessaro novel that tells the story of a young woman with a traumatic past who seeks to rebuild her life when she begins working at an antique store. Receiving wisdom and guidance from the kind souls that own the shop, she gains a new level of confidence that will then be put to the test when those from her past draw her back into their world and challenge her fragile stability. (Variety)

Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Edgar Ramirez will star in the upcoming romantic drama film Nobody’s Heart that will be set in Lisbon in the 1930s, centering on a new widow, Lily, who inherits her husband’s cork factory, and begins to form an unexpected relationship with his enigmatic co-worker, igniting repressed imagination and passion, and discovering unknown truths about both herself and her late husband. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Jason Ralph (The Magicians) and Blair Redford (Satisfaction and The Gifted) will have recurring roles in the upcoming Showtime drama Three Woman that is based on the best-seller by Lisa Taddeo. Shailene Woodley, DeWanda Wise and Betty Gilpin with star with Blair Underwood in the series that focuses on a group of women who are on a crash course to radically overturn their lives. (Deadline)

Netflix has announced that Dolly Parton will guest star in the 7th and final season of Grace and Frankie, reuniting with her former 9 to 5 co-stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. Details about her character or plot details are being kept under wraps. (TV Line)

Emilio Estevez will not return as Coach Bombay in season 2 of The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers. Disney has “passed on the actor’s option for next season after a back-and-forth over the series’ requirement for COVID vaccination,” as he “refused to give assurance that he would comply with the vaccine mandate, so the studio decided to move on.” (Deadline and TV Line)

Daniel Dae Kim has joined the Netflix live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series that will be a reimagined take on the beloved Nickelodeon animated franchise. Kim will play Fire Lord Ozai, the ruthlessly driven leader of the Fire Nation who demands everyone live up to his impossible standards, especially his teen son, Prince Zuko. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Regina King will be teaming up with David E. Kelley to adapt the Tom Wolf novel “A Man in Full” as a Netflix limited series. The project received a straight-to-series six one-hour episodes. In the series, when Atlanta real estate mogul Charlie Croker faces sudden bankruptcy, political and business interests collide as Charlie defends his empire from those attempting to capitalize on his fall from grace. (Variety)

Rekha Sharma (Battlestar Galactica) will have a recurring role on Roswell, New Mexico, playing Shivani, an internationally recognized futurist and tech entrepreneur with a distinct warmth and wisdom underneath her genius antics. (Deadline)

Jenna Dewan has been promoted to series regular on The Rookie where she has been recurring as firefighter Bailey Nune. (Deadline)

Jeffrey Donovan has been tapped to join the revival of the original Law & Order where he will play a New York Police Department detective. (TV Line)

Sofia Vergara will star in the upcoming Netflix limited series called Griselda, playing notorious drug trafficker Griselda Blanco. The series will chronicle the real life of the savvy, ambitious Colombian business woman who created one of the most profitable drug cartels in history. The show will consist of six 50-minute episodes. (Variety)

Brett Daltonwill be joining the cast of Chicago Fire, recurring as new interim Lieutenant Jason Pelham. (TV Line)

Peyton List and James Remar will be joining the cast of The Rookie playing Tim Bradford’s (series regular Eric Winter) sister – Gennifer “Genny” Bradford – and father, respectively. (Outsider)

STREAMING MOVIE NEWS

Chord Overstreet (Glee) will star alongside Lindsay Lohan in as-yet-to-be-titled upcoming holiday rom-com on Netflix, the actress’s first acting role in years. She will play a newly engaged, spoiled hotel heiress who gets into a skiing accident and suffers from total amnesia. During her recovery, around Christmastime, she finds herself in the care of a handsome, blue-collar lodge owner, to be played by Overstreet, and his precocious daughter. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items from this past week:

RENEWAL

Succession has been renewed for a 4th season by HBO. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

The Showtime limited series Comeback Girl about the life of Joan Rivers that was to star WandaVision alum Kathryn Hahn will not be moving forward after all. (Variety)

Lindsey Morgan is leaving The CW series Walker after two seasons. It’s not yet known when her character – Micki Ramirez – will be written out or how many episodes Lindsey will actually be seen in during the show’s current second season. (Deadline and Variety)

Mark Ghanime (Private Eyes and Reign) will join the 4th season of Virgin River on Netflix, playing Dr. Cameron Hayek, a “dashing” new physician at the clinic who catches the attention of the women in town while Kai Bradbury (Motherland: Fort Salem), who was featured in the season three finale episode, will also be a series regular. He plays Doc’s (Tim Matheson) long-lost grandson, Denny Cutler. (TV Guide)

Jenna Dewan will reprise her role of Lucy Lane from Supergirl in the upcoming 2nd season of Superman & Lois. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Newcomer Lisette Alexis has landed the lead role in the upcoming Disney+ drama small screen adaptation of the National Treasure film franchise. This version will be told from the point of view of a young heroine, a DREAMer in search of answers about her family, who embarks on the adventure of a lifetime to uncover the truth about the past and save a lost Pan-American treasure. (Deadline)

Desmond Chiam (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) and Tehmina Sunny (Chicago Med) will have recurring roles in the upcoming 10-episode Netflix drama Partner Track based on the 2013 novel by Helen Wan. The series follows an idealistic young lawyer Ingrid Yun (Arden Cho from the MTV thriller Teen Wolf), who struggles with her moral compass and her passions as she fights to climb the partner track at an elite New York City law firm. Chiam will play Zi-Xin “Z” Min, a handsome idealist with a strong sense of right and wrong; while Sunny will play Victoria St. Clair, a British hotelier who’s as rich as she is glamorous. The cast includes Dominic Sherwood (Shadowhunters) and Nolan Gerard Funk (The Flight Attendant). (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) will star in the upcoming sci-fi romantic comedy film The Pod Generation that will be set in a near future where artificial intelligence is all the rage and nature is becoming a distant memory. The story will revolve around Rachel (Clarke) and Alvy (Ejiofor), a New York couple who are ready to take their relationship to the next level and start a family. Rachel’s work gives them a chance to use a new tool developed by a tech giant, Pegasus, which offers couples the opportunity to share pregnancy on a more equal footing via detachable artificial wombs, or pods. Alvy, a botanist and devoted purist, has doubts, but his love for Rachel prompts him to take a leap of faith. And so begins the wild ride to parenthood in this brave new world. (Variety)

Brendan Fraser (Doom Patrol and The Mummy movie franchise) has been cast as the villain in the upcoming Batgirl movie that will star In the Heights alum Leslie Grace; but details on who he will be playing is being kept under wraps. (Variety)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

The cable network Bounce has announced a new original movie entitled Don’t Hang Up, which is based on real-life events. The action-thriller revolves around Chris Daniels (Wendell Pierce from Jack Ryan and Suits), a husband and father whose life is upended when he gets a phone call that hurls him into a harrowing journey to save his family. Told his daughter has been taken hostage, Chris is ordered by the kidnappers to complete a series of missions to get her back, all while maintaining one deceptively simple rule: Don’t hang up. Meanwhile, the growing number of unanswered texts and calls from his wife Tracy (Lauren Holly from NCIS) leads to escalating fear and even police interference – which unwittingly puts the safe return of their daughter (Eden Cupid from Umbrella Academy) in even greater jeopardy. The world premiere will air in the spring of 2022. (The Futon Critic)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

NEW SERIES ORDER

A John Wick (the box office franchise) prequel series The Continental from Starz has cast Mel Gibson in the lead role. The series will explore the origin behind the hotel-for-assassins through the eyes and actions of a young Winston Scott, who is dragged into the Hell-scape of a 1975 New York City to face a past he thought he’d left behind. Gibson will play a new character named Cormac, but no further details are available about his character. The series will be a three-night event series, but no premiere has been set yet. (Variety)

CANCELLATION

Syfy has cancelled the thriller SurrealEstate after only one season. (Twitter)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Disney is delaying several upcoming Marvel movies, including Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness from March 25 to May 6; Thor: Love and Thunder from May 6 to July 8 and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever from July 8 to November 11. The Marvels has been postponed to early 2023 and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will be released on July 28, 2023. The 5th Indiana Jones movie will open on June 30, 2023. The scheduling overhaul is related to production and not box office returns. (Variety)

It looks like Ryan Gosling just might be starring alongside Margot Robbie in the upcoming Warner Bros. and Mattel film live action movie about Barbie and Ken with the two A-listers starring in the lead roles. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Brett Tucker, who was introduced in this week’s episode of The Big Leap, will join the cast in the heavily recurring role of Linus, the hunky boom operator who works on the set of the reality series within the drama. He will be a potential love interest for Julia (series regular Teri Polo). (Deadline)

Corbin Bernsen will reprise his original role in the ABC reboot of L.A. Law. (The Hollywood Reporter)

The Netflix movie franchise To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before will be getting a TV show spin-off called Xo, Kitty, focusing on teen matchmaker Kitty Song Covey (portrayed by Anna Cathcart in the movie franchise). The half-hour long series will consist of 10 episodes, finding Kitty moving halfway across the world and reuniting with her long-distance boyfriend only to realize that relationships are a lot more complicated when it’s your own heart on the line. (Variety)

Ryan Hansen (Veronica Mars), Azie Tesfai (Supergirl) and Mario Van Peebles will all recur on A Million Little Things. Hansen will play Camden, a handsome and charming professional hockey player while Tesfai will play Cassandra, a very good publicist helping Rome with his documentary. Van Peebles, who will play Regina’s father Ronald. (TV Line)

Uma Thurman will portray Arianna Huffington in the upcoming Showtime series Super Pumped that will chart the rise of Uber. Based on the Mike Isaac book, the series will focus on Uber CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his sometimes tumultuous relationship with his mentor Bill Gurley (Kyle Chandler). (Variety)

The upcoming Apple anthology series Extrapolations will focus on climate change, and among its cast will be Meryl Streep, Sienna Miller, Kit Harington, Matthew Rhys, Daveed Diggs, Gemma Chan and David Schwimmer. The series will examine how impending changes to the planet will affect love, faith, work and family in people’s lives over eight interconnected episodes. Streep’s role has yet to be disclosed; Miller will play a marine biologist named Rebecca Shearer; Harington will play Nick Bilton, the CEO of an industrial giant. Meanwhile, Rhys will play a real estate developer named Junior; Diggs will play Marshall Zucker, a rabbi in South Florida; Chan will play Natasha Alper, a single mother and micro-finance banker; and Schwimmer will play Harris Goldblatt, a man with a teenage daughter. (Deadline)

Jonathan Tucker (Debris, Kingdom and Charlie’s Angels) will star opposite Michelle Monaghan in the upcoming Netflix psychological limited series thriller Echoes, which is about identical twins Leni and Gina (both portrayed by Monaghan), who share a dangerous secret. Since they were children, Leni and Gina secretly have swapped lives, culminating in a double life as adults: They share two homes, two husbands and a child, but everything in their perfectly choreographed world is thrown into disarray when one of the sisters goes missing. Tucker will play Dylan James, a troubled and mysterious local townie and childhood associate of Leni and Gina’s. The cast includes Matt Bomer, Daniel Sunjata, Ali Stroker and Karen Robinson. (Deadline)

Kaley Ronayne (Gotham) will have a recurring role on The Resident, appearing as Cade, a badass emergency room doctor, who takes no prisoners, but also has her own brand of no-nonsense empathy for her patients. (TV Line)

SERIES PICK-UPS

The CW will be adding a new international drama to its upcoming line-up. The new Italian drama Leonardo, starring Aiden Turner (of The Hobbit and Poldark fame), will recount the extraordinary life through da Vinci’s works that made him famous, through the stories hidden within those works, revealing little by little the inner torment of a man obsessed with attaining perfection. The cast will include Freddie Highmore (The Good Doctor) and James D’Arcy (Dunkirk and Agent Carter). (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWAL

Netflix has renewed the drama You for a fourth season. (TV Line)

Jack Ryan has been renewed for a 4th season by Amazon. (Variety)

Titans and Doom Patrol have both been given a 4th season renewal by HBO Max. (DC Fandome 2021)

Sweet Tooth officially announced it will be back on Netflix for a second season. (DC Fandome 2021)

Pennyworth has been renewed for a 3rd season and heading to a new home. It will now air on HBO Max (moving over from EPIX). Seasons 1 and 2 will also stream on HBO Max early next year. (TV Line and DC Fandome 2021)

FULL SEASON ORDER

CBS has given full season order to NCIS: Hawai’i and FBI: International, the first broadcast network to do so. (TV Line)

CANCELLATION

Y: The Last Man has ended on FX on Hulu after only one season, but executive producer Eliza Clark hopes the show will find a new outlet. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS

Will Poulter (Dopesick) has landed the role of Adam Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. (Variety)

Jensen Ackles (Supernatural and The Boys) has joined the ensemble cast of the upcoming Western feature film called Rust that will star Alec Baldwin. The film follows an infamous Western outlaw Harland Rust (Baldwin) who has a bounty on his head for as long as he can remember. When his estranged 13-year-old grandson Lucas is convicted of an accidental murder and sentenced to hang, Rust travels to Kansas to break him out of prison. Together, the two fugitives must outrun the legendary U.S. Marshal Wood Helm (Ackles) and bounty-hunter Fenton “Preacher” Lang (Travis Fimmel from Vikings) who are hot on their tail. Deeply buried secrets rise from the ashes and an unexpected familial bond begins to form as the mismatched duo tries to survive the merciless American Frontier. (Deadline)

Jesse Metcalfe (Chesapeake Shores) has joined the cast of the new faith-based family drama On a Wing and a Prayer that will also star Dennis Quaid and Heather Graham. Based on a true story, Quaid stars as Doug White, who’s forced to fly a plane after the pilot dies unexpectedly mid-flight. (Variety)

Millicent Simmonds (A Quiet Place) and Rachel Brosnahan (Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) will play Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan in the upcoming feature film Helen & Teacher. (Variety)

Louis Partridge (from the Netflix film Enola Holmes) will appear in the epic fantasy romance film Ferryman, which is adapted from the best-selling young adult novel trilogy by author Claire McFall that follows Tristan, a mysterious being tasked with leading departed souls through limbo and into the afterlife. When a train crashes in the Scottish Highlands, he meets Dylan, a spirited young woman struggling against her fate. While Tristan’s duty is to protect Dylan from an encroaching darkness, his task and their journey become increasingly perilous as they find themselves falling in love and Dylan refuses to leave Tristan behind. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

It’s official: Mark Harmon is exiting NCIS after 19 long seasons. (TV Line)

Patricia Clarkson (Six Feet Under and Sharp Objects) and Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones and the Fast & Furious franchise) will star in the espionage thriller series Gray, based on an original concept by best-selling novelist David Baldacci. Clarkson will play CIA spy Cornelia Gray, who is coming in from the cold after 20 years in hiding, dodging the government agents who suspected her of being a traitor. She returns to her old life just as it is discovered that there is a new mole within her old spy network putting her and her network in jeopardy. (Variety)

Starz has announced the recurring cast members for the upcoming original series Gaslit, the untold story of Martha Mitchell’s role in exposing Watergate. Those cast members include Patton Oswalt, Nat Faxon, Raphael Sbarge, Anne Dudek and Reed Diamond [among others]. They join Julia Roberts and Sean Penn, who are the leads, in a modern take on Watergate, which focuses on the untold stories and forgotten characters of the scandal – from Nixon’s bumbling, opportunistic subordinates, and the deranged zealots aiding and abetting their crimes, to the tragic whistleblowers who would eventually bring the whole rotten enterprise crashing down. (The Futon Critic)

Common (Hell on Wheels) has joined the cast of the Apple TV+ dystopian drama Wool that will also star Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Robbins, Rashida Jones and David Oyelowo. The series is set in a ruined and toxic future where a community exists in a giant underground silo, hundreds of stories deep. There, men and women live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them. (Deadline)

Kathleen Robertson (Northern Rescue and Murder in the First) has joined the sixth and final season of the Amazon (formerly Syfy) sci-fi drama The Expanse where she will play Rosenfeld Guoliang, a cynic and fierce believer in Belter independence who is a key member of insurgent leader Marco Inaros’ inner circle. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWAL/CANCELLATION

Apple TV+ has given the sci-fi series Foundation a second season renewal. (TV Line)

Dash & Lily has been cancelled after only one season by Netflix. (TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

HBO Max is developing a series adaptation of the upcoming novel “A Flicker in the Dark” by Stacy Willingham that is slated for publication in January 2022. The production will hail from Emma Stone’s production company Fruit Tree and the independent production company A24. The novel follows Chloe Davis, who was shocked to discover at 12 years old that her own father confessed to the murder of six teenage girls in their small Louisiana town. Twenty years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge whose life begins to unravel when local teens start to go missing. (Variety)

BROADWAY NEWS

James D. Stern, the veteran producer and director, who won best musical Tonys for The Producers and Hairspray, has acquired the rights to develop the 2012 motion picture Silver Linings Playbook for the Broadway stage. The film told the story of two fragile people coming together. Pat Solatano, Jr. loses his job and his wife, spending eight months in a mental facility and then moves back in with his parents. While trying to win back his wife, he meets Tiffany, a widow who offers to help him in his effort if he will be her partner in a dance competition. Along the way, they find silver linings in their troubles and new ways of looking at their lives. (The Hollywood Reporter)

MUSIC NEWS

Adele, the 15-time Grammy-winning singer will have a new single out this coming Friday (October 15); her first single since 2016. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Another Outlander cast member will appear in the Game of Thrones spin-off called House of Dragons. Former cast member Graham McTavish and Bill Paterson were announced earlier, and now it’s been seen in the show’s trailer that Wil Johnson, who played Joe Abernathy, is part of the cast. He will play Ser Vaemond Valaryon, the younger brother to Coryls Velaryon and commander in the Valaryon navy. (Daily Record)

Newcomer Bailey Bass, who will appear in the upcoming THREE Avatar films, has landed the key role of Claudia in the upcoming AMC small screen adaptation of Interview With the Vampire that will star Jacob Anderson (Game of Thrones) and Sam Reid (The Astronaut Wives Club), who will play Louis and Lestat respectively. (Variety)

Wentworth Miller will reprise his role of Leonard Snart aka Captain Cold in the October 27 episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, which will mark the show’s 100th episode on The CW, which will also be directed by leading lady Caity Lotz. (TV Line)

Claire Foy (The Crown) will play Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook in a scripted series adaptation of the best-selling book “An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination. The series, which doesn’t have a designated home network yet, will be called Doomsday Machine, and will lift the veil on the relationship between Mark Zuckerberg and Sandberg and the obstacles Facebook has faced on its relentless quest for growth. Several journalists will serve as consultants to ensure the plot’s accuracy. (Variety)

Damian Lewis (Homeland and Billions) and Guy Pearce (Mare of Easttown) will appear in A Spy Among Friends, the upcoming limited series for BritBox U.K and Spectrum based on the 2014 best-selling book by Ben Macintyre that will dramatize the true story of spies and lifelong friends Nicholas Elliott (Lewis) and Kim Philby (Pearce), one of whom was betraying the other all along. (Variety)

Kiernan Shipka, who starred on Netflix’s Riverdale spinoff Chilling Adventures of Sabrina from 2018 through to its 2020 series finale, is bringing her titular character to Riverdale in Season 6. (TV Line)

STREAMING SERVICE NEWS

Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us) will star in and executive produce the Hulu series adaptation of the novel Washington Black that will follow the 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. (Variety)

Jessica Biel (The Sinner) will replace Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale) in the upcoming Hulu scripted true crime series about Candy Montgomery, a Texas housewife who infamously murdered her friend Betty Gore with an ax in 1980. (Variety)

Kathryn Hahn will return as Agatha Harkness in the proposed WandaVision spin-off at Disney+ that will focus on her Agatha persona who was trapped inside the town of Westview by Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen). (TV Line and Variety)

Luke Grimes (Yellowstone) will appear in the Netflix rom-com Happiness for Beginners, which is based on the Katherine Center novel that tells the story of Helen, a recently divorced woman who’s struggling with her new reality and reluctantly agrees to sign up for a wilderness survival course. Three weeks in the mountains of Wyoming spent battling swarms of mosquitos, one annoying male companion (expected to be played by Grimes), and her own inner demons. In the end, Helen figures out how to survive plenty more than just a surprise snowstorm or an insect bite. (Yahoo Entertainment)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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