Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

Hallmark Channel has renewed ‘When Calls the Heart’ for a ninth season. (Entertainment Tonight)

Grey’s Anatomy will be back for an 18th season while Station 19 will be back for its 5th season. (TV Line)

FOX has cancelled Prodigal Son after two seasons. (TV Line)

UPFRONT NEWS

ABC has cancelled the dramas For Life and Rebel, while renewing The Rookie and A Million Little Things. The network has picked up the new drama Queen; and a reboot of the comedy Wonder Years (which I’m including only because of Dule Hill playing the patriarch). (Variety and TV Line)

NBC has announced that This Is Us will come to an end with its sixth season that will air during the 2021-2022 TV season. The shows on the bubble – Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, Manifest, Debris and Good Girls are currently MIA but they have NOT been cancelled yet. The network has picked up three new dramas: Ordinary Joe, La Brea and the new spin-off Law & Order: For the Defense. (The Hollywood Reporter and TV Line)

CBS has moved SEAL Team and Clarice over to Paramount+ for each show’s new season, and the network has picked up the new drama Good Sam for the fall TV season. Meanwhile, the legal drama All Rise has been cancelled after two seasons. (Variety)

The CW is going to add Saturday night programming to its weekly line-up, finally becoming a seven-nights-a-week network. This will happen starting on October 2. (TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

AMC is working with executive producer Peter Ocko (Lodge 49 and Black Sails) on Moonhaven, a new 6-episode suspense thriller set in a utopian community on the moon, centering on Bella Sway, a lunar cargo pilot and smuggler who’s accused of a crime and finds herself marooned on Moonhaven, a 500-square-mile utopian community on the moon that was built to find solutions to problems on Earth. She gets pulled into a conspiracy to control the artificial intelligence that runs the community, teaming with a local detective to stop forces that want to destroy Earth’s last hope. (The Hollywood Reporter)

A spin-off limited series to Bridgerton about a young Queen Charlotte has been ordered to series at Netflix. The series will delve into the origin story of Queen Charlotte as well as young Violet Bridgerton and Lady Danbury. (Variety)

FOX has given a straight-to-series order for Accused, a drama series from show creators David Shore (House) and Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa (both from Homeland) that will be based on the BBC series of the same name. It will be a crime anthology where each episode opens in a courtroom on the accused without knowing their crime or how they ended up on trial; told from the defendant’s point of view. Viewers will discover how an ordinary person got caught up in an extraordinary situation, ultimately revealing how one wrong turn leads to another, until it’s too late to turn back. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Greg Grunberg (Alias and Felicity) will guest star in this week’s episode of 9-1-1: Lone Star, playing someone who Tommy Vega (Gina Torres) encounters at the hospital while following up on her husband’s emergency that played out in the final seconds of last week’s episode. (TV Line)

Gillian Anderson will move from playing the prime minister of the U.K. to the mother of a future empress in her next TV role. Anderson (The Crown, Sex Education) has joined the cast of Hulu’s The Great in a recurring role. She’s set to appear in two episodes of season two as Joanna, Catherine’s (Elle Fanning) mother. Joanna is a glamorous socialite known as “the maestro of marriage” for her ability to arrange partnerships for her daughters. After hearing rumors of Catherine’s coup, she travels to Russia to see for herself. Though she’s a doting mom and Catherine loves her, Joanna may also have more sinister motives. (The Hollywood Reporter)

More cast members have been added to the HBO 5-episode limited series White House Plumbers based on the book by Egil “Bud” Krogh and Matthew Krogh (as well as public records) that follows how Watergate masterminds E. Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson) and G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux) accidentally toppled the Nixon presidency that they had been trying to protect. Gary Cole will play Mark Felt, the “incorruptible” deputy director of the FBI; Zak Orth (Revolution) will play Alfred Baldwin, a former FBI agent who answers a want-ad in a trade magazine to operate surveillance equipment, and becomes the Plumbers’ eyes and ears; Tony Plana (Ugly Betty) will play Eugenio “Muscolito” Martinez, a “hardened but melancholy” CIA commando who walks away from a failing marriage to help the Plumbers destroy the Democrats; and John Carroll Lynch will play John Mitchell, Nixon’s formidable and corrupt former Attorney General who is now the head of Nixon’s re-election campaign. The join the cast, which already includes Lena Headey, Domhnall Gleeson, Kiernan Shipka, Ike Barinholtz, Yul Vazquez, David Krumholtz, Rich Sommer, Kim Coates and Liam James. (Variety)

24 and Designated Survivor lead Kiefer Sutherland will star in a new drama series at Paramount Plus that has yet to be titled. The 8-episode series will find private espionage operative James Weir (Sutherland) in the midst of a battle over the preservation of democracy in a world at odds with misinformation, behavioral manipulation, the surveillance state and the interests that control these extraordinary powers. (Variety)

Emily Blunt will star in The English, a 6-part Western series under production by the BBC and Amazon Studios. The series will be set in the mid-American landscape of 1890, following Cornelia Locke (Blunt), an Englishwoman who arrives into the new and wild landscape of the West to get revenge on the man she sees as responsible for the death of her son. Upon meeting Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer from the Twilight movie franchise and the TV series Banshee), an ex-cavalry scout and member of the Pawnee Nation by birth, they join together and discover a shared history which must be defeated at all costs, if either of them are to survive. The cast will include Rafe Spall (Men in Black: International), Tom Hughes (A Discovery of Witches), Stephen Rea (The Crying Game), Toby Jones (the Avengers franchise) and Ciaran Hinds (Justice League). [among others]. (Variety)

Lauren Lyle (who plays Marsali on Outlander) will play lead character DS (that’s short for Detective Sergeant) Karen Pirie in the small screen adaptation of the Val McDermid novel “The Distant Echo,” a young and fearless Scottish investigator in the ITV (British network) drama series. (The National, National Newspaper in Scotland)

Stacey Abrams, the two-time New York Times best-selling author, fervent voting activist and former member of the Georgia House of Representatives, will see a small screen adaptation of her novel “While Justice Sleeps” that follows Avery Keene, a brilliant young law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Wynn, whose descent into a coma plunges the court, and the country, into turmoil and turns Avery’s life upside down. She is immediately notified that Justice Wynn has left instructions for her to serve as his legal guardian and power of attorney. Plunged into an explosive role she never anticipated, Avery discovers not only that Justice Wynn had been secretly researching one of the most controversial cases before the court — a proposed merger between an American biotech company and an Indian genetics firm, which promises to unleash breathtaking results in the medical field, but also that Justice Wynn suspected a dangerous conspiracy that infiltrates the highest power corridors of Washington. (Variety)

Torrey DeVitto and Yaya DaCosta will both leave Chicago Med at the end of this season, the show’s 6th season. While DeVitto doesn’t have a new TV gig lined up, she will appear in the upcoming indie film Skelly while DaCosta has been cast in the lead role of the upcoming FOX drama series Our Kind of People, that takes place in the aspirational world of Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard, a historical stronghold where the rich and powerful Black elite have come to play for over 50 years. The series will follow strong-willed, single mom Angela Vaughn (DaCosta) as she sets out to reclaim her family’s name and make an impact with her revolutionary hair care line that highlights the innate, natural beauty of Black women. But she soon discovers a dark secret about her mother’s past that will turn her world upside-down and shake up this community forever. (TV Line, Deadline and Variety)

Jenna Dewan (Witches of East End) was featured in the promo for this Sunday’s season finale of The Rookie, she will play Nolan’s new neighbor and romantic interest. [By the way, The Rookie was renewed for another season.] What wasn’t shown in that promo was that Bob Morley (The 100) will appear as someone “who threatens to be a big problem for Lucy Chen in her undercover operation. (TV Line)

TV MOVIE NEWS

A third Psych movie is coming to Peacock with James Roday Rodriguez and Dule Hill reprising their roles of Shawn and Gus. The movie title is Psych 3: This Is Gus and it picks up on the eve of Gus and Selene’s (Jazmyn Simon) shotgun wedding and the birth of their first child, “Baby Guster.” Before the nuptials can go down, Shawn and ‘Groomzilla’ Gus must embark on a mission to track down Selene’s estranged husband. Meanwhile, Lassiter (Timothy Omundson) grapples with the future of his career. Maggie Lawson, Kirsten Nelson and Corbin Bernsen will also be back too. (TV Line)

Did you watch the Netflix movie Enola Holmes? Well, a sequel is being planned with both Millie Bobby Brown (from Stranger Things) and Henry Cavill (Superman himself) returning in the title role and Sherlock Holmes respectively. (Variety)

The next live TV musical on NBC will be Annie Live, expected to air during the holidays. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Quite a number of stars are joining the cast of Knives Out 2, where they will try to outmaneuver Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig). They include Kathryn Hahn (WandaVision), Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy), Janelle Monae (Hidden Figures) and Edward Norton (Motherless Brooklyn). Plot details are being kept tightly under wraps, but chances are somebody will die mysteriously and there will be many, many suspects with iffy alibis, delicious backstories and ample motivation to commit murder. (Deadline and Variety)

Actress-director Regina King (A Night in Miami) will be taking the helm of a film adaptation of Bitter Root, the Harlem Renaissance-set comic book series that is set during 1924 that follows a fractured family of once-great monster hunters who face an unimaginable evil that descends upon New York City. For generations, the Sangeryes have hunted and cured those infected by a supernatural force that feeds off the prejudice of the era, transforming humans into monsters. With most of the kin dead, the surviving Sangeryes have the unenviable choice to save or kill the creatures in hopes of thwarting an invasion. (Variety)

James McAvoy (His Dark Materials and X-Men franchise) and Sharon Horgan (the Amazon series Catastrophe) will star in the box office movie Utopia that is set during the first days of the COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020 until the present day, telling the story of a husband and wife who are forced to re-evaluate themselves and their relationship during lockdown. Horgan will play a charity worker who is a coordinator for all of Europe at a refugee charity, while McAvoy will play a self-employed man who runs a boutique computing consultancy. He’s been forced to furlough his staff and take up growing vegetables. The couple share a 10-year-old son, who is the one thing that has kept his parents’ relationship together until lockdown. (Variety)

Gemma Arterton (Prince of Persia and Black Narcissus) and Shazad Latif (Star Trek: Discovery) will join James Norton (The Nevers and Grantchester) in the thriller Chasing Agent Freegard, based on the story of British conman Robert Hendy-Freegard, who masqueraded as an MI5 agent and fooled several people into going underground for fear of assassination by the IRA. (Variety)

Oscar Isaac (Star Wars franchise) will star in the revenge thriller The Card Counter. The story follows Tell (Isaac), whose spartan existence on the casino trail is shattered when he is approached by Cirk (Tye Sheridan), a vulnerable young man seeking help to execute his plan for retribution on a military colonel (Willem Dafoe). Tell sees a chance at redemption through his relationship with Cirk, but keeping him on the straight-and-narrow proves impossible and drags Tell back into his dark past. Tiffany Haddish also stars. (Variety)

Boyd Holbrook (the Quibi series The Fugitive and the box office film Logan) and Shaunette Renee Wilson (The Resident) have joined the cast of the upcoming box office film Indiana Jones 5, but no details are available about what roles they will play. The film will be release in July 2022. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hi All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

The CW has renewed DC’s Stargirl for a third season before the second season is set to air this summer; and the new drama Kung Fu has been given a second season renewal. (TV Line)

ABC has renewed The Good Doctor for season 5; and the new drama Big Sky has been given a second season renewal. (TV Line)

FX gave Mayans M.C. a fourth season renewal. (TV Line)

Netflix has pulled the plug on the Sherlock Holmes-adjacent drama The Irregulars after only one season. (TV Line)

Fan efforts actually work sometimes. Case in point: Sanditon, the PBS small screen adaptation of the final, unfinished book by Jane Austen. The fan favorite series is actually coming back for TWO seasons with Rose Williams back as heroine Charlotte Heywood. Unfortunately Theo James will NOT be back as Sidney. Other casting will be announced at a later date. (TV Line)

The Stana Katic cop drama Absentia will not be back, as it has come to an end after its previously released third season. (TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

NBC is expanding the Law & Order franchise with a straight-to-series order for Law & Order: For the Defense, which will take a look inside a criminal defense firm, putting the lawyers under the microscope, along with the criminal justice system with every week delivering the promise of a contemporary morality tale. (Variety)

The twin music duo Tegan and Sara have a best-selling memoir “High School” that will be adapted as an original series for IMDbTV with actress-writer-director Clean DuVall serving as executive producer. The coming-of-age scripted series will be a transcendent story of first loves and first songs that will be told through a backdrop of 90’s grunge and rave culture, weaving between parallel and discordant memories of twin sisters growing up down the hall from one another. (Variety)

EPIX has given a greenlight to a one-hour, eight-episode series about Billy the Kid, that will be an epic romantic adventure about the famous American outlaw whose real name was William H. Bonney, chronicling from his humble Irish roots, to his early days as a cowboy and gunslinger in the American frontier, to his pivotal role in the Lincoln County War and beyond. (The Futon Critic)

SERIES PICK-UPS

FOX has picked up the drama Monarch for the fall TV season. The series is about a Texas-sized, multi-generational musical drama about America’s first family of country music. The Romans are fiercely talented, but while their name is synonymous with honesty, the very foundation of their success is a lie. When their reign as country royalty is put in jeopardy, Nicky Roman, the heir to the crown, already battling an industry stacked against her, will stop at nothing to protect her family’s legacy. (The Futon Critic)

STREAMING SERVICE POTENTIAL

For those who have access to the cable network EPIX, you are aware of the period piece drama Pennyworth, starring Jack Bannon as a young Alfred Pennyworth, the former British SAS soldier who ends up working for young billionaire Thomas Wayne (Ben Aldridge), the father of Bruce Wayne aka Batman. Well, if you don’t get EPIX, you may just be able to see Pennyworth at some point via HBO Max. It looks like the two networks just might be “sharing” the show IF Pennyworth returns for a third season. Should that renewal happen, both EPIX and HBO Max will have all three seasons available for viewing. A deal has not been officially made just yet. (The Hollywood Reporter)

TV CASTING NEWS

Erika Alexander (Living Single and Black Lightning), Derek Luke (13 Reasons Why) and Sam Trammell (True Blood) will star in the EPIX TV movie American Refugee, that tells the story of a family seeking shelter in a neighbor’s bunker (Trammell), while the American economy is in collapse and the nation under martial law. There they find the danger inside is potentially greater than the danger outside. (Deadline)

More cast members have been announced for the revival of Nash Bridges that will return as a two-hour movie at the USA Network. Don Johnson, Cheech Marin and Jeff Perry will be reprising their roles with Bonnie Somerville (Code Black) and Joe Dinicol (Arrow) among the additions. Somerville will play Christina Hunter, a psychiatrist who contracts with SIU to evaluate cops; while Dinicol will play Steven Colton, a by-the-book millennial cop. (Deadline)

Amazon Studios has won the rights to adapt the sci-fi podcast From Now into a TV series with Richard Madden and Brian Cox in the lead roles and as executive producers since they appeared in the podcast. Madden and Cox play identical twin brothers separated by time. The story chronicles the aftermath of their historic reunion when astronaut Edward Fitz’s (Madden) spacecraft suddenly reappears in Earth’s orbit after having gone missing 35 years earlier and Edward emerges looking the exact same age as when he left. (Deadline)

Elodie Yung (Daredevil) will star in the upcoming FOX drama The Cleaning Lady in this fall’s TV season. The show is based on the Argentinian series La Chica Que Limpia that focuses on Thony (Yung), a whip-smart doctor who comes to the U.S. for a medical treatment to save her ailing son; but when the system fails and pushes her into hiding, she refuses to be beaten down and marginalized. Instead, she becomes a cleaning lady for the mob and starts playing the game by her own rules. The show will also star Adan Canto (Designated Survivor). (Variety)

After 12 seasons playing Dr. Jackson Avery, Jesse Williams will be leaving the cast of Grey’s Anatomy. (TV Line)

The Netflix drama Sweet Magnolias has promoted Jamie Lynn Spears, Dion Johnstone and Brandon Quinn to series regulars for the show’s second season, which is currently in production and expected to premiere in 2022. Based on the popular series of novels by Sherryl Woods, follows lifelong best friends Maddie (JoAnna Garcia Swisher), Dana Sue (Brooke Elliott), and Helen (Heather Headley) as they juggle relationships, family, and careers in the charming small town of Serenity, SC. Spears plays Noreen Fitzgibbons, the pregnant former mistress of Bill Townsend, Maddie’s now ex-husband; Johnstone plays Erik Whitley, the sous chef at Sullivan’s restaurant, and supportive friend to Dana Sue; and Quinn plays Ronnie Sullivan, Dana Sue’s estranged husband. (Deadline)

True Blood and Big Little Lies alum Alexander Skarsgard has landed a recurring role on the HBO drama Succession, playing Lukas Matsson, a successful, confrontational tech founder and CEO. And, Oscar winner Adrien Brody (The Pianist) has also joined the cast, playing Josh Aaronson, a billionaire activist investor who becomes pivotal in the battle for the ownership of Waystar. (TV Line and Variety)

Luke Evans has joined the cast of the upcoming 10-episode Apple action-thriller series Echo 3 that will be set in South America, following Amber Chesborough, a brilliant young scientist, who is the emotional center of a small American family. But, when she goes missing along the Colombia and Venezuela border, her brother, Bambi (Evans), and her husband — two men with deep military experience and complicated pasts — struggle to find her in a drama set against the explosive backdrop of a secret war. (Variety)

Paul Guilfoyle will reprise his role of homicide detective captain Jim Brass in the upcoming reboot of CSI, joining returning cast members William Petersen, Jorja Fox and Wallace Langham. He will appear in just two episodes of CSI: Vegas, which will debut this fall on CBS. The tagline for the reboot of the series is: Facing an existential threat that could bring down the Crime Lab, a brilliant new team of forensic investigators must welcome back old friends and deploy new techniques to preserve and serve justice in Sin City. (Deadline and TV Line)

Elizabeth Olsen will star in the new HBO Max limited series Love and Death that is based on the true story of Texas housewife Candy Montgomery (Olsen), who murdered her friend from church, Betty Gore, with an axe in 1980. The limited series hails from writer and executive producer David E. Kelley with Nicole Kidman also serving as an executive producer. (Variety)

Tom Cavanagh and Carlos Valdes will be leaving The Flash at the end of this current season, the show’s 7th on The CW. (TV Line)

Billy Crudup has signed on to star in the Apple dramedy Hello Tomorrow, a 10-episode ½-hour series set in a retro-future world, centering around a group of traveling salesmen hawking lunar timeshares. Crudup will play Jack, a salesman of great talent and ambition, whose unshakeable faith in a brighter tomorrow inspires his coworkers, revitalizes his desperate customers, but threatens to leave him dangerously lost in the very dream that sustains him. (Variety)

Ali Wong (Always Be My Maybe) will appear in the upcoming Amazon adaptation of Paper Girls, which follows four young girls who, while out delivering papers on the morning after Halloween in 1988, become unwittingly caught in a conflict between warring factions of time-travelers, sending them on an adventure through time that will save the world. As they travel between our present, the past, and the future — they encounter future versions of themselves and now must choose to embrace or reject their fate. Wong will play Adult Erin – the woman twelve-year-old Erin Tieng (Riley Lai Nelet) grows up to become. When the two Erins finally come face-to-face, they are forced to confront the gap between their childhood hopes, dreams, ambitions and the reality of their grown-up life. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE CASTING NEWS

Hannah John-Kamen (Killjoys and Ant-Man and the Wasp) will star as Red Sonja in the long-gestating feature adaptation of the sword-wielding comic book fantasy hero that was last played by Brigitte Nielsen back in 1985. (Variety)

Harry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians) will star alongside Dakota Johnson in the Netflix adaptation of the Jane Austen novel Persuasion, which will be a modern-day retelling of the romantic drama, centering on the conforming Anne Elliot (Johnson), who lives with her snobby family on the brink of bankruptcy. When Anne reconnects with Frederick Wentworth, a man she was once persuaded to reject, she faces a second chance at love. Golding will play Anne’s cousin Mr. Elliot. The character of Frederick Wentworth has yet to be cast. (Variety)

Mark Wahlberg will star in the Antoine Fuqua-directed sci-fi thriller Infinite that will debut exclusively on the streaming service Paramount Plus (formerly CBS All Access). The movie centers on a man named Evan McCauley (Wahlberg), who is haunted by the fact that he demonstrates skills he has never learned and has memories of places he has never visited. After encountering a secret group that call themselves “Infinites,” he discovers that his memories are real – but they are from multiple past lives. The cast will include Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sophie Cookson, Rupert Friend, Toby Jones and Dylan O’Brien. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

PICK-UP NEWS

FOX has ordered the one-hour dramedy The Big Leap for the 2021-2022 TV season. The show is inspired by the UK docuseries Big Ballet about a diverse, down-on-their-luck characters, who are attempting to change their lives by participating in a potentially life-ruining reality dance show. What this group of underdogs lack in dance training, they make up for with their edge, wit and desire. The cast includes Scott Foley (Scandal), Piper Perabo (Covert Affairs), Teri Polo (The Fosters), Mallory Jansen (Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD), Ser’Darius Blain (Charmed and the Jumanji movie remakes) [among others]. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Odette Annable has been promoted to series regular for the 2nd season of Walker. (Variety and The Futon Critic)

Vincent Kartheiser (Angel and Mad Men) has joined the cast of the HBO Max (formerly DC Universe) series Titans, appearing as Dr. Jonathan Crane, who – in DC lore – becomes the unhinged supervillain Scarecrow. (Variety and CBR.com)

Josh Hartnett (Penny Dreadful) will star in the original thriller series The Fear Index, based on the best-selling novel by Robert Harris. Hartnett will play Dr. Alex Hoffman, a computer scientist and genius who is ready with a new AI product launch that promises big returns, but whose roll-out plans go awry. What follows is a journey through the worst 24 hours of his life — cutting across reality, memory and paranoid fantasy, forcing him to question everything he sees with his own eyes. (Variety)

The Apple TV series The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey has added new cast members, including Walton Goggins (Justified and The Unicorn), Omar Miller (Ballers), Damon Gupton (Black Lightning) [among others]. They join a cast that already includes Samuel L. Jackson and Dominique Fishback. The show is based on the novel by Walter Mosley, which finds Jackson playing Grey, a 91 year old man forgotten by his family, by his friends, by even himself. On the brink of sinking even deeper into a lonely dementia, Grey experiences a seismic shift when he’s given the tremendous opportunity to briefly regain his memories, and uses this precious and fleeting lucidity to solve his nephew’s death and come to terms with his past. Goggins will play Dr. Rubin; Gupton will play Coydog, Grey’s childhood mentor and Miller will play Reggie Llyod, Grey’s grand nephew. (Variety)

FOX is planning a reboot of Fantasy Island that will debut on August 10. Roselyn Sanchez (Grand Hotel and Devious Maids) will star as Elena Roarke, a descendant of Mr. Roarke from the original series. Elena set aside her own ambitions, and even the love of her life, to uphold her family’s legacy. The new show is described as a modern semi-anthology series that delves into the “what if” questions, both big and small, that keep us awake at night. Each episode will tell stories about people who walk in with a desire, but end up reborn to themselves through the magical realism of Fantasy Island. (Variety)

Domhnall Gleeson (Star Wars) will play a key Watergate figure in the upcoming HBO limited series The White House Plumbers, joining already announced cast members Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux. The 5-part series will tell the story of how President Richard Nixon’s own political saboteurs and Watergate masterminds, E. Howard Hunt (Harrelson) and G. Gordon Liddy (Theroux), accidentally toppled the presidency they were zealously trying to protect. Gleeson will play John Dean, the brilliant, ambitious and youthful White House Counsel that ultimately orchestrates the illegal cover-up that brought down Nixon and his administration. Also, Lena Headey (Game of Thrones) will also appear in the limited series, playing Dorothy Hunt, the wife of E. Howard Hunt. (Variety)

Toni Collette will star alongside Colin Firth in the HBO Max limited series The Staircase. The 8-episode series is based on the docuseries that focused on the case of Michael Peterson (Firth), who was accused of murdering his wife, Kathleen (Collette), in 2001. He claimed she died after falling down the stairs at their home, but police suspected he bludgeoned her to death and staged the scene to look like an accident. (Variety)

JK Simmons will now star opposite Sissy Spacek in the Amazon sci-fi series Lightyears, taking over the lead role from Ed O’Neill who exited the production “for personal reasons.” The series will follow Irene (Spacek) and Franklin (Simmons) York, a couple who years ago discovered a chamber buried in their backyard which inexplicably leads to a strange, deserted planet. They’ve carefully guarded their secret ever since, but when an enigmatic young man enters their lives, the Yorks’ quiet existence is quickly upended and the mysterious chamber they thought they knew so well turns out to be much more than they could ever have imagined. (Variety)

Finn Wittrock (American Horror Story and Ratched) will star as Guy Gardner in the HBO Max 10-episode series Green Lantern, which is based on the DC superhero. (Variety)

The first casting announcement for the new spin-off series NCIS: Hawaii has been made. Vanessa Lachey (BH90210) will star as Jane Tennant, the first woman SAC of NCIS: Hawaii. She is as diplomatic as she is hard-charging. A woman in a male-dominated profession, she’s thrived in a system that’s pushed back every step of the way through equal parts confidence and strategy. But Tennant is more than just a job and a title. She’s a mother raising her kids mostly on her own. Like any parent who loves their career and their family – she’s a master juggler – balancing the duty to both her children and her country. Also, Yasmine Al-Bustami (S.W.A.T. and The Originals) will play Lucy. Confident in the way that reflects a lifetime of achievement and youthful enthusiasm, Lucy is the junior member of Tennant’s NCIS team. She is eager to be the first one to find that key piece of evidence, create a workaround in the bureaucracy, or tackle a suspect down a flight of stairs. And, Jason Antoon (Claws and Fresh Off the Boat) will play Ernie, the Cyber Intelligence Specialist, who is a polyglot with a keen mind for technology, history, literature and all things Hawaiian. He’s an essential component of the team, who can trace an anonymous ip address or profile a suspect using only their social media footprint. Ernie doesn’t have family on the island so he’s invited himself to join his Team’s families. (Variety)

The Rookie creator Alexi Hawley will be working with Netflix “golden boy” Noah Centineo (To All the Boys movie franchise and the Freeform drama The Fosters) in a new drama, tentatively titled Graymail where Centineo will play a fledgling CIA lawyer who becomes involved 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 for a serious crime. It should also be noted that Centineo will appear in the upcoming box office movie Black Adam alongside Dwayne Johnson; he will appear as He-Man in a new Masters of the Universe reboot and a new GameStop movie at Netflix. (Cinema Blend)

BOX OFFICE CASTING NEWS

Netflix has another film that will be added to its burgeoning roster. Gunpowder Milkshake will focus on three generations of female assassins who fight to stop a vicious cycle of violence that has haunted their lives. The cast includes Karen Gillan, Lena Heady and Angela Bassett as well as Paul Giamatti, Carla Gugino and Michelle Yeoh. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hi All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

CONGRATS

Here is a salute to the Academy Awards, including director Chloe Zhao, Emerald Fennell, Daniel Kaluuya, Soul, Yuh-Jung Youn (Minari), Frances McDormand, Anthony Hopkins and Nomadland.

RENEWALS

Netflix has renewed Ginny & Georgia for a second season. (TV Line)

CBS has given the go-ahead for the spin-off series NCIS: Hawaii. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Henry Lloyd-Hughes (The Irregulars) and Thalissa Teixeira (The Musketeers) will star alongside Lucy Hale in the six-episode AMC-Alibi series Ragdoll, which is based on the novel by Daniel Cole. Assigned to a shocking new case, nicknamed The Ragdoll, are DS Rose (Lloyd-Hughes), DI Baxter (Teixeira) and DC Edmunds (Hale). The “Ragdoll Killer” taunts the police by sending them a list of his next victims, with Rose’s name at the very end. And with those victims to protect, our heroes soon come under intense public scrutiny. (Variety)

LisaGay Hamilton (The Practice) will recur in the Netflix small screen drama adaptation of The Lincoln Lawyer, playing Mary Holder, presiding judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, the most powerful trial judge in the city and a no-nonsense jurist who doesn’t suffer fools. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

Edgar Ramirez (Netflix’s new movie Yes Day) will star in the 8-episode Netflix series Florida Man, which revolves around a struggling ex-cop who is forced to return to his home state of Florida to find a Philly mobster’s runaway girlfriend. (Variety)

Game of Thrones alum Emilia Clarke is expected to join the cast of the new Marvel Studios series Secret Invasion that is being put together at Disney+ that already boasts Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Kingsley Ben-Adir and Olivia Colman as part of its cast. The series is reported to follow a group of shape-shifting aliens who have been infiltrating Earth for years. Ben-Adir has been set as the main villain, but no word yet on Clarke’s role. (Variety)

Additional cast members have been added to the upcoming HBO drama series about the Los Angeles Lakers: Tracy Letts (Ford v. Ferrari), Julianne Nicholson (Mare of Easttown) and LisaGay Hamilton (The Practice) [among others]. The series chronicles the professional and personal lives of the 1980s Lakers. Letts will play Jack McKinney, the original architect of the Lakers’ fast paced running game; Nicholson will play Cranny McKinney, the coach’s wife; and Hamilton will play Magic Johnson’s mom, Christine Johnson. (Deadline)

Jamie McShane (Bloodline) and Reggie Lee (All Rise and Grimm) will recur in the Netflix small screen adaptation of The Lincoln Lawyer that stars Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Neve Campbell. Based on the Michael Connelly best-selling novels, the series revolves around Mickey Haller (Garcia-Rulfo), an iconoclastic idealist who runs his law practice out of the back seat of his Lincoln Town Car as he takes on cases big and small across the expansive city of Los Angeles. McShane will play Detective Lee Lankford. A cynical veteran of the police force who is working with Maggie (Campbell), Lankford has a contentious relationship with Mickey. Lee will play Angelo Soto, an intimidating, wealthy businessman who owns a string of successful nursing facilities. He’s under investigation by the DA’s office for possible illegal activity. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS

Downton Abbey will be back on the big screen for a follow-up movie with series creator Julian Fellowes back at the helm and the entire cast returning as well as four new additions, including: Hugh Dancy (Hannibal), Dominic West (The Affair), Laura Haddock (Da Vinci’s Demons and Peter Quill’s mom in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise) and French actress Nathalie Baye. Their roles are being kept under wraps, as are plot details. (TV Line)

Vin Diesel will be starring in the live-action movie Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em based on the Mattel children’s game, featuring battling robots. (Variety)

Dakota Johnson (from the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise) will be taking the lead in a modern-day approach of Jane Austen’s novel Persuasion that tells the story of Anne Elliot, a headstrong woman living with her snobby family on the brink of bankruptcy. Unmarried and 27-years-old, Anne reconnects with a man she was once persuaded to reject and faces a second chance at love. (Variety)

Oscar Nunez (The Office) will join Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum in the upcoming romantic action comedy The Lost City of D that will center on a romance novelist (Bullock), who gets stuck on a book tour with her cover model (Tatum). Straight out of a novella, a kidnapping attempt sweeps them both into a cutthroat jungle adventure, proving that life can be much stranger — and more romantic — than fiction. What character Nunez will play has yet to be announced. (Variety)

Steven Strait (The Expanse) will star in the high concept sci-fi thriller film Five Below. The plot is being kept under wraps, but is said to be a new take on the meta-human sci-fi genre. (Deadline)

Adria Arjona (Emerald City and Good Omens) will star alongside Andy Garcia in the reboot of Father of the Bride; this time revolving around a Cuban-American family. The film will tell the story of a father coming to grips with his daughter’s upcoming wedding through the prism of multiple relationships within a big, sprawling Cuban-American family. Also singer-songwriter Gloria Estefan will also star in the movie. (Deadline)

Additional cast members have been announced for the indie spy thriller Agent Game: Jason Isaacs (the Harry Potter franchise), Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips) and Adan Canto (Designated Survivor). The film also stars Dermot Mulroney, Katie Cassidy, Rhys Coiro, Annie Ilonzeh, and Mel Gibson. The film focuses on CIA officer Harris (Mulroney), who is involved in missions to detain and relocate foreign nationals for interrogation. When Harris’ superior (Isaacs) is murdered, he finds himself the scapegoat for the killing of a detainee (Abdi) and must run from a team of operatives sent to bring him in (Canto, Cassidy, Coiro), led by a ruthless double agent (Ilonzeh). Gibson will play a rogue intelligence official running the off-book operation to hunt down and kill Harris. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hi All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWAL

Netflix has given Bridgerton the green light for seasons 3 and season 4 well ahead of the season 2 premiere. (TV Line)

The Cinemax drama Warrior has been renewed for a third season with the show moving over to HBO Max. (Variety)

CBS has renewed Bull, S.W.A.T., Blue Bloods, Magnum P.I. and NCIS. It should be noted that Mark Harmon will actually be back for the show’s 19th season, but it hasn’t been determined how many episodes will include him. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Robert Buckley (iZombie) has joined the ensemble cast of the Hallmark Channel series Chesapeake Shores. His casting follows the announcement that series regular Jesse Metcalfe will be leaving the series at the end of the upcoming season. (Deadline)

The Netflix holiday franchise movie Princess Switch 3, which stars High School Musical alum Vanessa Hudgens in the lead roles, has added Will Kemp, Amanda Donohue and Remy Hii to the cast. Kemp will play Hunter Cunard, a suave and sophisticated international hotelier, with a particular interest in acquiring valuable antiques and rare artifacts. Details on who Donohue and Hii have yet to be announced. The “threequel” plot line is: When a priceless relic is stolen, Queen Margaret and Princess Stacy enlist the help of Margaret’s audacious look-alike cousin Fiona (all played by Hudgens) again who teams with a dashing, mysterious man from her past to retrieve it, rekindling the sparks of a tantalizing Christmas romance and resulting in a very unexpected switch. (Deadline)

Gabriel Luna (Terminator: Dark Fate and Matador) has joined the cast of the HBO series adaptation of The Last of Us that is based on the video game that will star Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as Joel and Ellie respectively. Luna will star as Tommy, Joel’s younger brother, a former soldier who hasn’t lost his sense of idealism and hope for a better world. The series takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse across the U.S. and depend on each other for survival. (Variety)

Italia Ricci (Designated Survivor and Chasing Life) will star in the 10-episode Netflix sci-fi drama The Imperfects that revolves around three twenty-somethings who, following an experimental gene therapy, are turned into monsters who band together to hunt down the scientist responsible and force him to make them human again. Ricci will star as Dr. Sydney Burke, a brilliant scientist looking to fix her past mistakes, both professional and ethical, by allying with Abbi, Juan and Tilda to track down the scientist responsible for their grim fates. (The Hollywood Reporter)

New Amsterdam fans are probably wondering what really happened with Dr. Vijay Kapoor (series regular Anupam Kher) after Tuesday night’s episode. It was announced that Kher is leaving the show due to a real life medical issue: his wife – actress Kirron Kher – has been diagnosed with a type of blood cancer. (Deadline)

Oscar Nunez (The Office) will appear in multiple episodes of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist as Dr. Tesoro, Zoey’s therapist who is a warm yet slightly sarcastic man who will help Zoey navigate her grief, powers and relationships. And for once, Zoey is able to tell someone about her special abilities without any consequences. (TV Line)

Benedict Cumberbatch (Dr. Strange and Sherlock) will star in the limited series The 39 Steps from Netflix that is based on the classic thriller novel by John Buchan. The series is a provocative, action-packed conspiracy thriller series that updates the classic novel for relevance in contemporary times. An ordinary man, Richard Hannay, becomes an unwitting pawn in a vast, global conspiracy to reset the world order: 39 Steps that will change the world as we know it, with only Hannay standing in the way. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

Jordan Belfi (Moonlight, Entourage and All American) will recur in Good Girls, playing Z, who is part of the multi-level marketing group Dean (Matthew Lillard) gets involved with to help him find a way out of his dire situation with his wife Beth (Christina Hendricks). (Deadline)

Regina Taylor (I’ll Fly Away) will appear in the upcoming Showtime anthology series The First Lady, playing Michelle Obama’s mother. Young actress Saniyya Sidney (Fences) will play Sasha Obama and newcomer Julian De Niro as young Barack Obama. The series already stars Viola Davis as Michelle Obama, Michelle Pfeiffer as Betty Ford and Gillian Anderson as Eleanor Roosevelt. (Deadline)

Young actresses Mckenna Grace (Designed Survivor) and Lexi Underwood (Little Fires Everywhere) will star in the Disney+ supernatural anthology series Just Beyond, which is based on the bestselling BOOM! Studios graphic novel from Goosebumps author R.L. Stine. The 8-episode series will tell astonishing and thought-provoking stories of a reality just beyond the one we know. Each episode introduces viewers to a new cast of characters who must go on a surprising journey of self-discovery in a supernatural world of witches, aliens, ghosts and parallel universes. Grace and Underwood will lead their respective-stand-alone episode. (Deadline)

Carlos Gomez (The Glades and The Baker and the Beauty) and Anja Savcic (Loudermilk) have landed recurring roles on the new ABC drama Big Sky. Gomez will play Gil Amaya, the former ranch manager who is forever entangled with the Kleinsasser family, including their darkest secrets while Savic is set to play Scarlet Leyendecker, the loving, protective mother of ten-year-old daughter, Phoebe, who will be played by Zoe Noelle Baker (The Haunting of Bly Manor). (Deadline)

Jane Seymour (Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman) will star in the 8-episode Irish mystery thriller Harry Wild that will air on Acorn TV. The series will be set in Dublin with Seymour playing Harriet Wild, a recently retired English professor who cannot help but take an active interest in the criminal cases assigned to her police detective son, Charlie. The series will premiere in 2022 on Acorn TV in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. (Deadline)

Common (Hell on Wheels) will appear in the second season of the Netflix series Never Have I Ever, set to premiere in July, in the recurring role of Dr. Chris Jackson, a suave and debonair dermatologist who works in Nalini’s (Poorna Jagannathan) building. His high-end practice and celebrity clients are impressive to everyone except Nalini. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE CASTING NEWS

Natalie Portman will appear in the upcoming HBO Film The Days of Abandonment, which is based on the Elena Ferrante novel. The film follows what happens when Tess (Portman), a woman who abandoned her own dreams for a stable home life, is in turn abandoned by her husband, and her world is thrown off its axis. (Variety)

Lucy Liu will appear in the sequel film Shazam! Fury of the Gods, playing the villain Kalypso, the sister of villain Hespera, who will be played by Helen Mirren. Zachary Levi will return as Shazam with Asher Angel back as the teenage alter ego Billy Baston. (Variety)

Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern will star in the box office movie The Son from writer-director Florian Zeller, which is an adaptation of Zeller’s acclaimed stage play. Jackman will play Peter, who has a busy life with his new partner Emma and their baby. Their lives are thrown into disarray when his ex-wife Kate (Dern) turns up with their teenage son, Nicholas, who is troubled, distant, and angry, playing truant from school for months – both Kate and Nicholas need Peter’s help. Nicholas’s wish is to live with his father for a change. Peter strives to be a better father, searching to help his son with those intimate and instinctive moments of family happiness – to solve, with understanding, what Nicholas is going through. But the weight of Nicholas’ condition sets the family on a dangerous course. They must do everything they can to maintain the bonds that hold them together. (Variety)

Guy Pearce and Monica Bellucci will star opposite Liam Neeson in the box office movie Memory, a crime thriller based on the book De Zaak Alzheimer by Jef Geeraerts as well as the Belgian film The Memory of a Killer. The follows Alex Lewis (Neeson), an expert assassin with a reputation for discreet precision. When Alex refuses to complete a job for a dangerous criminal organization, he becomes a target and must go on the hunt for those who want him dead. Veteran FBI agents Vincent Serra (Pearce), Linda Amistead and Mexican intelligence liaison Hugo Marquez are brought in to investigate the trail of bodies, leading them closer to Alex, but also drawing the ire of local tech mogul Davana Sealman (Bellucci). With the crime syndicate and FBI in hot pursuit, Alex has the skills to stay ahead, except for one thing: he is struggling with severe memory loss, affecting his every move. As details blur and enemies close in, Alex must question his every action, and who he can ultimately trust. (Deadline)

Mads Mikkelsen (Hannibal) will star alongside Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones 5. Plot details have not been announced nor are their details on what part Mikkelsen will play. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

CANCELLATION

The season finale of MacGyver set to air on April 30 will actually be the shows’ series finale, as CBS has pulled the plug on the reboot after five seasons. (TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Plans are still in the works for another NCIS spin-off: this one called NCIS: Hawaii; and sources confirm that this version will feature a woman – tentatively named Jane Tennant – in the starring role. (TV Line)

The long-gestating revival of Nash Bridges is set to go into production in May as a 2-hour movie with the hopes of that movie serving as backdoor pilot for a full series relaunch with series star Don Johnson returning. It’s believed that series regular Cheech Marin and Jeff Perry will reprise their roles along with at least 6 new characters. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Actress Adepero Oduye (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) will appear in the Apple TV+ limited series Five Days at Memorial, playing Karen Wynn, the nurse manager of the intensive care unit at Memorial Hospital and the head of its ethics committee. (The Hollywood Reporter and The Futon Critic)

Robyn Lively (from the iconic 80’s film Teen Witch and half-sister to Blake Lively) will appear as Sara Bellum in the upcoming live-action pilot of Powerpuff for The CW. Based on the original Powerpuff Girls cartoon, fans of the franchise will recall Miss Bellum was the Mayor’s right-hand woman, though we never truly got to see her face. This version of the character is a warm and witty career woman who has a complicated romantic history with Professor Utonium, who will be played by Donald Faison. (Deadline and TV Line)

Eli Goree (The 100 and One Night in Miami) will star opposite Chloe Grace Moretz and Jack Reynor in the Amazon sci-fi thriller drama The Peripheral that will be based on the best-selling novel by Willam Gibson. The book centers on Flynne (Moretz) and her brother Burton (Reynor). Burton, a veteran of the United States Marine Corps’ elite Haptic Recon force, is hired for a security job which takes place in what he thinks is cyberspace. When Flynne temporarily takes his place, she witnesses something that might have been murder. Goree will play the character of Conner. (Deadline)

Patricia Hodge (A Very English Scandal) will take over the role of Mrs. Pumphrey in the second season of the PBS drama All Creatures Great and Small from the late, great Diana Rigg. (Deadline)

The lead cast for the CBC (the Canadian network) and BET+ drama The Porter has been announced. First, the series is about a group of 1920s railway workers who unite to form the world’s first Black union. Cast members include: Aml Ameen (I May Destroy You and the box office film Yardie) will play Junior Massey, an intelligent, smooth, ambitious, and fearless risk-taker and war veteran employed as a porter with the transcontinental railroad; Ronnie Rowe Jr. (Star Trek: Discovery) will play Massey’s war buddy Zeke Garrett; and Mouna Traoré (The Umbrella Academy) will play Massey’s wife Marlene, a worker with the Black Cross Nurses, an offshoot of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association. (Deadline)

It’s been confirmed that Tatiana Maslany will not be returning to play Sister Alice in the upcoming second season of Perry Mason on HBO.  (This announcement makes sense given that Maslany will be the lead in the Disney+ series She Hulk.) (TV Line)

Game of Thrones alum Nikolaj Coster-Waldau will star in and executive produce a series adaptation of the Christina Clancy novel The Second Home that follows the Gordon and Shaw families beyond a fateful summer on Cape Cod. Told through two generations, the story explores how a devastating secret can derail young love, tear apart families, and change the fate of countless individuals forever if they let it. No network or writer is currently attached to the series. (Variety)

Hamilton alum and Tony winner Renee Elise Goldsberry is expected to join the cast of She-Hulk at Disney+, joining Orphan Black lead Tatiana Maslany, who will play the title role. The series will center on lawyer Jennifer Walters (Maslany), cousin of Bruce Banner, who inherits his Hulk powers after she receives a blood transfusion from him. Unlike Bruce, however, when she hulks out Jennifer is able to retain most of her personality, intelligence, and emotional control. Details on the character Goldsberry would play are being kept under wraps, though. (Variety)

Multi-hyphenate Wayne Brady will appear in The Good Fight, playing a new love interest for a Reddick/Lockhart staffer (but we don’t know which one). He will have the recurring role of Del Cooper, a comedian-turned-executive at a top streaming service who intersects romantically and professionally with the lawyers at the firm. (TV Line)

Jodie Turner-Smith (Queen & Slim and The Last Ship and recently married Dawson’s Creek alum Joshua Jackson) has exited the Witcher prequel series The Witcher: Blood Origin where she was set to play the warrior Elie, one of the leads in the six-episode limited series. (Variety)

Spider-Man Tom Holland will star in the 10-episode, anthology series The Crowded Room that has been ordered at Apple. The first season of the series will be based on the biography “The Minds of Billy Milligan” by Daniel Keyes, telling the story of Billy Milligan (Holland), the first person ever acquitted of a crime because of Multiple Personality Disorder (now known as Dissociative Identity Disorder). (Variety)

Bridgerton Season 2 at Netflix is officially adding four new cast members. Newcomer Charithra Chandran play Edwina Sharma, who has been taught by her older sister Kate to be the perfect debutante. She’s kind-natured and endlessly endearing. But while she may be young and naive, she also knows what she wants: a true love match. Shelley Conn (Terra Nova, The Liar and The Lottery) will play Lady Mary Sharma, whose marriage once embroiled her and her family in scandal; but now newly returned to London with her daughters, she’s forced to endure the scrutiny of the ton yet again. Calam Lynch (2020’s Black Beauty and Mrs. Wilson) will play Theo Sharpe, a hardworking printer’s assistant. And, Merlin alum Rupert Young will play Jack, the newest member of the ton with a connection to one of its most notable families. (Variety)

Robert I. Mesa has been promoted to a recurring role in Grey’s Anatomy where he was introduced as intern James Chee, the first indigenous doctor on the long-running medical series.
(Variety)

BOX OFFICE CASTING NEWS

Letitia Wright (Black Panther) and Tamara Lawrence (The Long Song) will star in the feature film Silent Twins, playing the title twin sisters in the haunting true story of June and Jennifer Gibbons, twins from the only Black family in a small town in Wales in the 1970s and ’80s. Feeling isolated from that unwelcoming community, the pair turn inward and reject communication with everyone but each other, retreating into their own fantasy world of artistic inspiration and adolescent desires. After a spree of vandalism inspired by an American boy they both idolize, the girls, now teenagers, are summarily sentenced to Broadmoor, the infamous UK psychiatric hospital, where they face the choice to separate and survive or die together. (Deadline)

Phoebe Waller-Bridge has joined the cast of the upcoming Indiana Jones 5 film that will find Harrison Ford returning in the title role. (Variety)

Helen Mirren, who won an Oscar for “The Queen,” will portray Israel’s legendary Prime Minister Golda Meir in “Golda.” The movie focuses on the intensely dramatic and high-stakes responsibilities and decisions that Meir, also known as the “Iron Lady of Israel,” faced during the Yom Kippur War. On Oct. 6, 1973, under cover of darkness, on Israel’s holiest day and during the month of Ramadan, the combined forces of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan begin a surprise attack on the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. Outnumbered and outgunned, Meir confronts the immediate, clear, and present danger of a ticking time-bomb that she hoped never to face. Surrounded, isolated, and frustrated by the infighting of her all-male cabinet, with little hope of rescue, one woman is in a race against time to save millions of lives on both sides of the conflict. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

There will be no 4th season for American Gods as Starz has pulled the plug on the series. (TV Line)

Miss Scarlet and the Duke has been given a second season renewal. (Masterpiece)

Disney+ has decided not to order a 2nd season of The Right Stuff, but Warner Bros. Television (the studio behind the series) is shopping the series to other outlets. (Deadline)

TV DEVELOPMENT NEWS

CBS has given CSI: Vegas, the reboot/revival of the original series CBS, a formal series order. The series will pick up six years after the original finale, finding vets Gil (William Petersen) and Sara (Jorja Fox) surrounded by a new crop of Sin City-based CSIs who will be played by Matt Lauria (Friday Night Lights and Kingdom), Paula Newsome (Chicago Med and NCIS), Mel Rodriguez (Last Man on Earth) and Mandeep Dhillon (After Life). Wallace Langham, who played lab tech David Hodges, will also be back as a series regular. (TV Line)

NBC has given a series order to the drama Ordinary Joe that will explore the three parallel lives of the show’s main character to be played by James Wolk (Tell Me A Story) after he makes a pivotal choice at a crossroads in his life. The series asks the question of how different life might look if you made your decision based on love, loyalty or passion. The series also stars Natalie Martinez (Under the Dome and The Fugitive), Charlie Barnett (Arrow and You) and Elizabeth Lail (Once Upon a Time and Dead of Summer). (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Breakout star Rege-Jean Page will not appear in season 2 of Bridgerton, but fans of the hit Netflix streaming series shouldn’t be upset, as season 2 will focus on Anthony Bridgerton’s quest to find a wife (as the 2nd season is based on the 2nd book in the Julia Quinn book franchise) and the fact that Page’s appearance was only set for the debut season. (Variety)

Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey and Legion) will replace Armie Hammer in the upcoming Starz drama series Gaslit that is set to star Julia Roberts and Sean Penn. The series is a modern take on Watergate, focusing on the untold stories and forgotten characters of the scandal — from Nixon’s bumbling, opportunistic subordinates, to the deranged zealots aiding and abetting their crimes, to the tragic whistleblowers who would eventually bring the whole rotten enterprise crashing down. Stevens will play John Dean, the young White House Counsel torn between his ambition and his struggle with whether he can lie to protect the President. (TV Line)

Jesse Metcalfe will be leaving the Hallmark Channel series Chesapeake Shores during its upcoming 5th season. (TV Line)

Colin Firth will play Michael Peterson in a series adaptation of The Staircase, which has been ordered to series at HBO Max. The series is based on the docuseries of the same name focusing on Peterson, who was accused of murdering his wife, Kathleen, in 2001. He claimed she died after falling down the stairs at their home, but police suspected he bludgeoned her to death and staged the scene to look like an accident. (Variety)

Jason Dohring (Veronica Mars, Moonlight and iZombie) has landed a recurring role in SEAL Team where he will play LCDR Whitshaw, a charismatic and intelligent, high ranking officer with a stellar reputation, who knows how to work the regulation and system to his advantage. He has a cunning ability to cover his own tracks, which makes him a formidable adversary. (Deadline)

Amanda Seyfried will take over the role of Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, from Kate McKinnon who exited the project. The series will tell the story of Holmes, the enigmatic Stanford dropout who founded medical testing start-up Theranos. She was lauded as a Steve Jobs for the next tech generation. Once worth billions of dollars, the myth crumbled when it was revealed that none of the tech actually worked, putting thousands of people’s health in grave danger. Holmes’ scam was so successful, that Theranos was at one time valued at nine-billion dollars, making her one of the richest women in the world. She was indicted by a federal jury in 2018, along with the former Theranos chief operating officer, on nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Also, Naveen Andrews (Lost) will play Sunny Balwani, Holmes’ business partner and secret boyfriend throughout the rise and fall of Theranos. He served as the president and chief operating officer of the company. (Variety)

To All the Boys 2 star Jordan Fisher will have a recurring role in The Flash, playing Bart Allen, the fastest teenager on the planet and the future son of Barry (series lead Grant Gustin) and Iris (series regular Candice Patton). (TV Line)

The upcoming Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi has added a number of cast members, including Moses Ingram (The Queen’s Gambit), Joel Edgerton (Red Sparrow), Kumail Nanjiani (The Lovebirds and Big Sick), Indira Varma (For Life and Game of Thrones), Rupert Friend (Homeland), O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Straight Outta Compton), Sung Kang (Power and the Fast & Furious franchise) and Simone Kessell (Terra Nova) [among others]. Details on what roles each will play are being kept under wraps. (Variety)

Jack Reynor (Strange Angel) has joined the cast of the upcoming Amazon series adaptation of the novel The Peripheral by author Willaim Gibson. He joins Chloe Grace Moretz and Gary Carr (The Deuce and 21 Bridges), who will play the characters Flynne and Wilf respectively. Reynor will play Burton, Flynne’s brother and a US Marine Corp veteran who served in the Haptic Recon unit. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE CASTING NEWS

Russell Crowe will appear in a small but undisclosed role in Thor: Love and Thunder that finds Chris Hemsworth back as Thor, Natalie Portman back as Jane Foster (who will become a Thor) and Tessa Thompson back as Valkyrie. Christian Bale will play villain Gorr the God Butcher while Chris Pratt and other members of the Guardians of the Galaxy will also appear. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Jeremy Strong (Succession) will play Jonas Salk, the inventor of the polio vaccine, in the upcoming film Splendid Solution based on the best-selling novel, which follows Dr. Salk on his quest to find a cure for the deadly virus. (Variety)

New cast members for the upcoming box office film Being the Ricardos, that will star Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem as Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, have been announced, including Tony Hale (Arrested Development and Veep), Alia Shawkat (Search Party), and Jake Lacy (High Fidelity). Hale will play I Love Lucy executive producer and head writer Jess Oppenheimer, while Shawkat and Lacy will play the show’s longtime writing partners, Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll Jr. Other cast members include Clark Gregg (Avengers franchise and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and veteran actors John Rubinstein, Linda Lavin, Robert Pine in as-yet announced roles. (The Hollywood Reporter)

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Hey All,

Here are the news items from this past week:

RENEWALS/DEVELOPMENT NEWS

CBS has renewed both FBI and its spin-off FBI: Most Wanted for a 4th and 3rd season respectively. In addition, the network has ordered a second spin-off FBI: International, which will follow a group of elite agents from the FBI’s International division as they travel the world with the mission of protecting Americans wherever they may be. (TV Line)

Ronald D. Moore has set sights on his next project. A small screen adaptation of the book franchise A Court of Thorns and Roses by author Sarah J. Maas. The series will be streamed on Hulu. (Cinema Blend)

TV CASTING NEWS

Steven Yeun and Ali Wong will team up for the Netflix 10-episode dramedy Beef that will be about two people who let a road rage incident burrow into their minds and slowly consume their every thought and action. (Deadline and TV Line)

Don Cheadle has signed on as narrator for the reboot of The Wonder Years. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

Katia Winter (Blood & Treasure and Sleepy Hollow) has joined the cast of the Amazon superhero series The Boys. She will play Little Nina, a Russian mob boss with penchant for sex toys whose death ranks among the comics’ most shocking moments. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

Patrick Schwarzenegger has joined the cast of the upcoming Amazon series The Terminal List that stars Chris Pratt in the lead role. Schwarzenegger will play Donny Mitchell, a baby-faced Special Warfare Operator. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

Daniel di Tomasso (Major Crimes and The Witches of East End) will recur in the upcoming series The Republic of Sarah on The CW. He will play Weston, a reporter who arrives in Greylock, New Hamphsire to chronicle the life and times of the new nation. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

Christopher Gorham (Covert Affairs and Insatiable) will appear in the Netflix small screen adaptation of The Lincoln Lawyer, based on the best-selling novels by Michael Connelly. Gorham will play Trevor Elliott, a brilliant but enigmatic video game mogul who stands accused of killing his wife and her lover, and turns to Mickey to take on his high-profile case. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

Stanley Tucci and David Tennant will appear in the Steven Moffat limited series Inside Man that has landed at Netflix. The 4-part series centers on a prisoner on death row in the U.S., a vicar in a quiet English town, and a math teacher trapped in a cellar, as they cross paths in the most unexpected way. (Deadline)

Chyler Leigh will return to Grey’s Anatomy as Lexie Gray in the April 1 episode. (The Hollywood Reporter)

The HBO series about the Los Angeles Lakes of the 1980s has added Jason Segal and Bo Burnham to its cast. Segal will play Paul Westhead, a Shakespeare professor who leaves grading papers behind to be assistant coach of the Lakers; while Burnham will play Boston Celtic star Larry Bird. (Variety)

Legendary director John Waters will appear in a guest starring role in the 4th season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The role he will play is being kept under wraps, though. (Variety)

Evan Peters, Niecy Nash, Penelope Ann Miller and Richard Jenkins have joined the cast of the latest Netflix production Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Peters will play the title role while Miller and Jenkins will play his parents Joyce and Lionel. Nash will play Glenda Cleveland, a neighbor of Dahmer’s who alerted police and the FBI to his suspicious behavior, but they did not listen. (Variety)

The Witcher has added new cast members for season 2, including Graham McTavish (Outlander), Kevin Doyle (Downton Abbey and Miss Scarlet and The Duke), Simon Callow (Outlander) and Adjoa Andoh (Bridgerton). (Facebook)

Jamie Foxx will play boxing legend Mike Tyson in a new biographical limited series simply titled Tyson. (Variety)

Naomie Harris will play a lead role in the Showtime series The May Who Fell to Earth, based on the Walter Tevis novel and the Nicolas Roeg film that starred David Bowie. The movie will star Chiwetel Ejiofor as an alien who arrives on Earth at a turning point in human evolution and must confront his own past to determine our future. Harris will play Justin Falls, a brilliant scientist and engineer who must conquer her own demons in the race to save two worlds. (Variety)

FILM CASTING NEWS

Pierce Brosnan will play Dr. Fate in the upcoming superhero movie Black Adam alongside Dwayne Johnson, who plays the title role. Dr. Fate, aka Kent Nelson, is a founding member of the Justice Society who gains superpowers through putting on the magical Helmet of Fate. (Variety)

Ron Livingson will take over the role of Henry Allen from Billy Crudup in the upcoming movie The Flash. (Variety)

Forest Whitaker will star alongside Tom Hardy in the upcoming Netflix crime drama film Havoc.  After a drug deal gone wrong, a bruised detective must fight his way through a criminal underworld to rescue a politician’s estranged son, while unraveling a deep web of corruption and conspiracy that ensnares his entire city. (Variety)

Keanu Reeves will star in and produce both a live-action film and an anime series adaptation of Brzrkr, which is a brutally epic saga about an immortal warrior’s 80,000 year fight through the ages. The man known only as ‘B’ (Reeves) is half-mortal and half-god, cursed and compelled to violence even at the sacrifice of his sanity. But after wandering the earth for centuries, B may have finally found a refuge: working for the U.S. government to fight the battles too violent and too dangerous for anyone else. In exchange, B will be granted the one thing he desires – the truth about his endless blood-soaked existence…and how to end it. (Variety)

Actress-director Emerald Fennell (the Oscar-nominated director of Promising Young Woman and actress, who played Camilla Bowles in The Crown) has been tapped to write Zatanna, a big-screen adaptation of the DC Comics heroine. (Variety)

Michael Urie (Ugly Betty), newcomer Philemon Chambers and Luke MacFarlane (Killjoys) will star in the holiday-themed romantic comedy Netflix film Single All the Way. Desperate to avoid his family’s judgment about his perpetual single status, Peter (Urie) convinces his best friend Nick (MacFarlane) to join him for the holidays and pretend that they’re now in a relationship. But when Peter’s mother sets him up on a blind date with her handsome trainer James (Chambers), the plan goes awry. The cast includes Barry Bostwick, Jennifer Coolidge, Kathy Najimy and Jennifer Robertson. (Variety)

Halle Berry will star opposite Mark Wahlberg in the upcoming Netflix spy movie Our Man from New Jersey. The film is described as a blue collar James Bond, but their roles are being kept under wraps. (Variety)

Dame Helen Mirren has joined the cast of the upcoming spin-off film Shazam: Fury of the Gods. Mireen will play the villain Hespera. (Deadline)

Katie Cassidy (Arrow) has joined the cast of the upcoming movie Agent Game that is set to star Dremot Mulroney, Mel Gibson, Katherine McNamara (Shadowhunters), Rhys Coiro (Graceland), and Annie Ilonzeh (Chicago Fire). Mulroney stars as Harris, a CIA officer involved in missions to detain and relocate foreign nationals for interrogation. When a political shift in Washington turns his allies into enemies, Harris finds himself the scapegoat for a detainee’s murder and must run from a team of operatives sent to bring him in (McNamara and Coiro), led by a ruthless double agent (Ilonzeh). Gibson appears as an intelligence official running the unsanctioned covert operation to hunt down the disgraced spy. There are currently no details on what role Cassidy will play in the film. (Deadline)

Morgan Freeman, Alfre Woodard, Common and Trevor Jackson (Grown-ish) will star in the movie Hate to See You Go that tells the story of Sonny Bell (Freeman), an aging Chicago Blues musician, who refuses to retire and defiantly hits the road with his band for one last long-shot to keep doing the only thing that makes them all feel truly alive––play Blues. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

CANCELLATION

AMC has announced that Killing Eve will end after its upcoming 4th season. However, the cable network is working to develop a number of potential spinoff ideas to extend the show’s iconic universe. (TV Line)

The Canadian series Burden of Truth will come to a close at the end of its upcoming fourth season, which has yet to get a premiere date on The CW. (TV Line)

RENEWAL

Syfy has renewed Resident Alien for a second season. (Variety)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Showtime has ordered the drama series Shaka: King of the Zulu Nation with Antoine Fuqua set to direct and executive produce. The series, rooted in actual events, will chronicle Shaka’s unlikely rise to power, uniting multiple tribes across vast stretches of Africa in the early 19th century to transform his power into legend, on par with history’s most seminal figures. (Variety)

SHOW DEPARTURE

Adriyan Rae just joined the cast of Chicago Fire this season, playing medic Gianna Makey, but she is now departing the show. (TV Line)

TV SHOW CASTING NEWS

Batwoman has announced who will take over the role of Kate Kane from Ruby Rose, who left the show at the end of its debut season. Krypton actress Wallis Day will play the “altered version” of Kane moving forward. (The Hollywood Reporter)

New cast members have been added to season 6 of Outlander (which is currently under production in Scotland). Relative newcomer Jessica Reynolds will play Malva Christie, the young woman who becomes Claire’s apprentice and eventually causes great trouble on Fraser’s Ridge; Mark Lewis Jones (Chernobyl) will play Tom Christie, Malva’s father and one of Jamie’s not-so-friendly acquaintances from his Ardsmuir Prison days; and Alexander Vlahos (Merlin) will play Allan Christie, Malva’s brother, who is wary of strangers. (TV Line)

Jason Behr (the original Roswell series) will recur on Supergirl as a famous Kryptonian who helps Kara (series lead Melissa Benoist) when she faces circumstances beyond her control. (Deadline and TV Line)

Tom Hiddleston will star alongside Claire Danes in the series adaptation of The Essex Serpent, based on the Sarah Perry novel, at Apple. The drama follows newly widowed Cora (Danes) who, having been released from an abusive marriage, relocates from Victorian London to the small village of Aldwinter in Essex, intrigued by a local superstition that a mythical creature known as the Essex Serpent has returned to the area. Hiddleston will star as Will Ransome, the trusted leader of a small rural community. (Variety)

Adrien Brody will play legendary basketball coach Pat Riley in the upcoming, untitled HBO drama series about the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980s, which will chronicle the professional and personal lives of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers. Also, Sally Field will star as Jessie Buss, mother of Lakers owner Jerry Buss, who will be played by John C. Reilly; and Michael Chiklis will play Celtics coach Red Auerbach. (Variety, Deadline and TV Line)

Anthony Boyle (The Plot Against America) will star in the upcoming Apple World War II drama Masters of the Air from Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, joining already announced cast members Callum Turner and Austin Butler. The series is based on the novel by Donald L. Miller that follows the true story of the American bomber boys in World War II who brought the war to Hitler’s doorstep. Boyle will star as Major Crosby. (Variety)

Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll) will star in a 10-episode mystery series called Poker Face from Peacock. It will be a character driven, case-of-the-week mystery series. (Variety)

Pam Dawber (best known for Mork & Mindy) will join her real life husband Mark Harmon in a 4-episode arc of NCIS. She will play Marcie Warren, a seasoned investigative journalist who uses her savvy wit and down-to-earth people skills to aid in her tireless pursuit of truth. (Entertainment Weekly)

Lena Headey will star in the Spectrum-AMC Networks series Beacon 23, based on the book by Hugh Howey that follows two people whose fates become entangled after they find themselves trapped together at the end of the known universe. A tense battle of wills unfolds at the edge of space where Halan, the beacon keeper, begins to question whether Aster (Headey) is friend or foe as her ability to disguise her agenda and motives could make her a formidable opponent. (Variety)

The drama series The Man Who Fell to Earth has landed at Showtime. It was originally developed for Paramount Plus (formerly CBS All Access). The series will star Chiwetel Ejiofor. (Variety)

Dianne Wiest will star with Jeremy Renner in the upcoming Paramount Plus series Mayor of Kingstown, which follows the McLusky family – power brokers in Kingstown, Michigan where the business of incarceration is the only thriving industry. Tackling themes of systemic racism, corruption and inequality, the series provides a look at their attempt to bring order and justice to a town that has neither. Wiest will play Miriam, the McLusky family matriarch who teaches at the Kingstown Women’s Prison. (Variety)

ABC is working on a reboot of The Wonder Years, which will find Psych and The West Wing alum Dule Hill starring as patriarch Bill Williams, a music professor by day and funk musician by night. Relative newcomer Laura Kariuki (Black Lightning) as Kim Williams, confident and popular teenage daughter who is starting to rebel against the idea of going to college; Elisha “EJ” Williams as Dean William, the 12-year-old lead role; and Saycon Sengbloh (In the Dark) as matriarch Lillian Williams. (TV Line)

Vera Farmiga will star in the lead role of the Apple drama Five Days at Memorial that is based on the novel by Sheri Funk that chronicles the first five days in a New Orleans, LA, hospital after Hurricane Katrina made landfall. When the floodwaters rose, the power failed, and the heat climbed, exhausted caregivers were forced to make life-and-death decisions that haunted them for years to come. Farmiga will play Dr. Anna Pou. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE CASTING NEWS

More cast members have been added to the upcoming box office film Mr. Malcolm’s List, which is based on the novel by Suzanne Allain. Zawe Ashton (Wanderlust and Guerrilla), Ashley Park (Emily in Paris) and Theo James (the Divergent franchise) have joined the cast. Ashton will play Julia, a society lady jilted by London’s most eligible bachelor Mr. Malcolm (Sope Dirisu from Gangs of Longdon), when she fails to meet one of the items on his list of requirements for a bride. Feeling shunned and humiliated, she enlists her friend Selina (Frieda Pinto from Slumdog Millionaire) to help her take revenge on Mr. Malcolm by tricking him into thinking he has found his perfect match. The plan appears to be working when Henry (Theo James) threatens Julia’s scheme by courting Selina as well. After the bumbling Lord Cassidy (Oliver Jackson-Cohen from The Haunting of Bly Manor) begins meddling in the foursome’s affairs, the course of true love becomes rocky. Details on what part Park will play has yet to be released. (Variety)

Newcomer Uche Agada will make his onscreen debut in the upcoming box office movie from Disney about Giannis Antetokounmpo, the NBA great nicknamed the “Greek Freak.” Yetide Badaki (American Gods) and Dayo Okeniyi (Shades of Blue) will as Antetokounmpo’s mother Vera and father Charles. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWAL

No great surprise: CBS has given a season 2 order for The Equalizer. (Variety)

Outlander has been renewed for a 7th season. The show is currently in production for season 6. (TV Line)

CANCELLATION

The USA Network has announced the upcoming 5th season of Queen of the South, which premieres on April 7, and consists of 10 episodes, will be the show’s last. (Variety)

TV SERIES DEVELOPMENT NEWS

A spin-off series to The Boys is nearing a series order at Amazon. The series will be set at America’s only college exclusively for young adult superheroes (and run by Vought International), and much like its predecessor it will be an irreverent, R-rated show that explores the lives of hormonal, competitive Supes as they put their physical, sexual, and moral boundaries to the test, competing for the best contracts in the best cities. (Variety)

The TV adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s “Wild Card” book series is moving from Hulu to Peacock. The show remains in development as a new writer is ongoing. In the series, an alien pathogen known as the Wild Card virus is released over Manhattan in 1946, altering the course of human history. The virus rewrites DNA, mutating its survivors. A lucky few are granted awe-inspiring superpowers, while the sad majority are left with often repulsive physical deformities. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Sarah Drew will reprise her role of Dr. April Kepner in an upcoming episode of Grey’s Anatomy. (Deadline and TV Line)

Lucy Hale (Pretty Little Liars) will star in the upcoming AMC-Alibi series Ragdoll, which is based on the novel by Daniel Cole. The series will focus on the murder and dismemberment of six people, who are sewn into the shape of one grotesque body: nicknamed the Ragdoll. Assigned to the shocking case are DS Nathan Rose, recently reinstated to the London Met; his best friend and boss, DI Emily Baxter; and the unit’s new recruit, DC Lake Edmunds (who will be played by Hale). The “Ragdoll Killer” taunts the police by sending them a list of his next victims, with Rose’s name among them. And with those victims to protect, our heroes soon come under intense public scrutiny. (Variety)

Kaley Cuoco will star as legendary singer-actress-animal rights activist Doris Day in a limited series that will be based on the 1976 biography by A.E. Hotchner. The series has yet to be picked up by any network, though. (Variety)

Michelle Gomez (Doctor Who and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) has joined the cast of the third season of Doom Patrol, appearing as Madame Rouge, the eccentric villainess, who arrives at Doom Manor with a very specific mission. Doom Patrol will move to HBO Max exclusively for its 3rd season after 2 seasons on the now-defunct DC Universe. (TV Line)

The limited series Lady in the Lake, based on the Laura Lipman novel, has been given a straight-to-series order at Apple with Natalie Portman and Lupita Nyong’o set to star. The series akes place in 1960s Baltimore, where an unsolved murder pushes housewife and mother Maddie Schwartz (Portman) to reinvent her life as an investigative journalist and sets her on a collision course with Cleo Sherwood (Nyong’o), a hard-working woman juggling motherhood, many jobs and a passionate commitment to advancing Baltimore’s Black progressive agenda. (Variety)

Netflix has another new series coming to the streaming service: First Kill, based on the short story by Victoria “V.E.” Schwab. In the show, when it’s time for teenage vampire Juliette Fairmont (relative newcomer Sarah Catherine Hook) to make her first kill so she can take her place among a powerful vampire family, she sets her sights on a new girl in town, Calliope Burns (Imani Lewis from the box office film Eighth Grade and the TV series Star). But much to Juliette’s surprise, Calliope is a vampire hunter, from a family of celebrated slayers. Both find that the other won’t be so easy to kill and, unfortunately, way too easy to fall for. (Variety)

Paul Bettany and Claire Foy will the BBC One and Amazon Prime drama A Very British Scandal, portraying the Duchess and Duke of Argyll, aka the key players in one of Britain’s most salacious divorce cases of the 20th century. (TV Line)

Katrina Law (Arrow and Hawaii Five-0) will have a recurring role in the current 18th season of NCIS, playing Special Agent Jessica Knight, a formidable woman whose specialty is hostage negotiations. There is the potential for Law to return as a series regular for the show’s 19th season. (TV Line and Deadline)

Dakota Fanning will join Andrew Scott and Johnny Flynn in the Showtime drama Ripley that will be based on the Patrick Highsmith novels about Tom Ripley. Scott will play Tom Ripley, a grifter scraping by in early 1960s New York, who is hired by a wealthy businessman to travel to Italy to try to convince his vagabond son to return home. Tom’s acceptance of the job is the first step into a complex life of deceit. Fanning will play Marge Sherwood, an American living in Italy who suspects darker motives underlie Tom’s affability. (Variety)

The planned NBC drama about the Dan Brown character Robert Langdon is moving to the streamer Peacock and will follow the early adventures of famed Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (to be played by Ashley Zukerman), who must solve a series of deadly puzzles to save his kidnapped mentor and thwart a chilling global conspiracy. (Variety)

The CW has announced the cast for its planned Powerpuff Girls live-action pilot. They include Chloe Bennet (Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD), Dove Cameron (from the Disney movie franchise Descendants) and Yana Perrault (Broadway’s Jagged Little Pill) as Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup Utonium, respectively. This series will pick up with the titular heroines as disillusioned twentysomethings who resent having lost their childhood to crime fighting. (TV Line)

Dominique Fishback will star alongside Samuel L. Jackson in the Apple drama series The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, based on the novel by Walter Mosley. Jackson will play the title character, a 91 year old man forgotten by his family, by his friends, by even himself. On the brink of sinking even deeper into a lonely dementia, Grey experiences a seismic shift when he’s given the tremendous opportunity to briefly regain his memories, and uses this precious and fleeting lucidity to solve his nephew’s death and come to terms with his past. Fishback will play Robyn, a friend of the family who helps Ptolemy. (Variety)

Josh Holloway (Lost) will star in the lead role in the HBO Max series Duster that will be set in the 1970’s Southwest, exploring the life of a getaway driver for a growing crime syndicate. (Variety)

Lexi Underwood (Little Fires Everywhere) will play Malia Obama in the upcoming Showtime anthology series The First Lady. (Variety)

Mandy Patinkin will appear in the upcoming season of The Good Fight, playing Hal Wackner, a layman with no legal training who spontaneously decides to open a court in the back of a copy shop. Against all odds, the court catches on, and the team at Reddick, Boseman & Lockhart find themselves contending with judgements that mean nothing legally, but are honored by much of the entertained public. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

The long-in-the-works NBC drama LA Brea will star Eoin Macken (The Night Shift) and Natalie Zea (Justified and The Detour). The show will focus on what happens when a massive sinkhole mysteriously opens in Los Angeles, it tears a family in half, separating mother and son from father and daughter. Macken and Zea will play the father and mother: Gavin and Eve Harris. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

Chelsea Harris, who recurs as Sykes, one of Wolford’s right hand people on Big Alice in the TNT series Snowpiercer will return as a regular for the show’s third season. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

Tom Mison (Sleepy Hollow) will appear in the second season of the Apple TV series See. (TV Line)

Famke Janssen (X-Men and Taken franchises) will recur in the Spectrum Original series Long Slow Exhale that follows J.C. Abernathy (Rose Rollins from The L Word), the successful head coach of a competitive women’s college basketball team who finds herself in the middle of a potentially career shattering sexual abuse scandal. Sorting through the secrets to unravel the truth, she is forced to make decisions that will affect her, her family and the young female athletes who depend on her. Janssen will play Dr. Melinda Barrington, Chancellor of the University. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE CASTING NEWS

Tiffany Haddish will star in the Netflix feature adaptation of Mystery Girl, which is based on the Dark Horse comic created by Paul Tobin and Alberto Alburquerque. Haddish will star as Trine who, living off the grid in Los Angeles as a street psychic, has no memory of who she is or where she came from but is guided by an omniscient VOICE in her head that knows everyone’s business and everyone’s darkest secrets. When a down on his luck LAPD officer, Cooper, seeks out Trine in hopes that she’ll help him crack a case, the two are framed for murder and must work together to clear their names and solve the ultimate mystery: the one behind Mystery Girl herself. (Deadline)

Elle Fanning will star as Ali MacGraw in the box office movie Francis and the Godfather that will be about the making of the classic mobster film. (Variety)

Mission Impossible 7 has added to its cast. Those new cast members include Cary Elwes (Princess Bride), Indira Varma (Game of Thrones), Charles Parnell (The Last Ship) and Mark Gatiss (Sherlock). They join returning stars Tom Cruise, Vanessa Kirby, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Angela Bassett, and Henry Czerny along with newcomers Pom Klementieff (Guardians of the Galaxy), Hayley Atwell (MCU alum), Shea Whigham (Perry Mason) and Esai Morales (who took over for Nicholas Hoult) as the film’s villain. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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