Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for the past week:

RENEWALS

Doom Patrol has been renewed for third season at HBO Max. (Variety)

Netflix has given a season two order to Julie and the Phantoms, which debuted on the streaming service on September 10. (The Cinema Spot)

Showtime has renewed The Chi for a 4th season. (Variety)

The Walking Dead will come to an end after the upcoming 11th season on AMC. (Variety)

PICK-UP ORDERS

AMC has ordered a spin-off series for The Walking Dead that will be built around the characters of Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride). (Variety)

Spectrum Originals and Paramount Network are teaming to co-produce a limited series that will star Jessica Chastain as country music legend Tammy Wynette. After a nine-month exclusive run for Spectrum subscribers, the series called George & Tammy, will have a second window on Viacom, the forthcoming CBS streaming service and Paramount Network. The series will chronicle the country music power couple, Wynette and George Jones, whose complicated relationship inspired some of the most iconic music of all time. (Variety)

Peacock has picked up two seasons of the planned drama series reboot of the classic sitcom Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to be called simply Bel-Air. Set in modern-day America, the serialized one-hour dramatic reimagining of the 90’s sitcom that leans into the original premise: Will’s complicated journey from the streets of West Philadelphia to the gated mansions of Bel-Air. (Variety)

CASTING NEWS

Actress Lisseth Chavez (Chicago P.D.) has joined the cast of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, playing Esperanza “Spooner” Cruz, an alien expert, who joins the “time ship crew in Season 6, which finds co-captains Sara Lance and Ava Sharpe and their team hunting down extraterrestrials who have been displaced throughout history.” (Variety)

Actress Shivaani Ghai (Dominion and The Catch) will recur on Batwoman for Season 2, playing Safiyah, the fiercely protective ruler of a small community on the island of Coryana. A woman with as many enemies as aliases. She is compassionate and charismatic with both physical and psychological prowess. She is beloved by her people and will stop at nothing to protect what’s hers. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

Actor Caleb Castille, who has been recurring as FBI Agent Devin Rountree on NCIS: Los Angeles, has been promoted to series regular. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for the past week:

CANCELLATION

Paramount Network has cancelled 68 Whiskey after only one season. (Variety)

AMC has cancelled NOS4A2 after two seasons. (Variety)

CASTING NEWS

Actor Alan Ritchson (Blood Drive and Titans) has landed the lead role in the upcoming Amazon adaptation of the Jack Reacher franchise, based on the Lee Child book series. (Variety)

Actors Andrew Leeds, Michael Thomas Grant and Kapil Talwalkar and actress Alice Lee have been promoted to series regulars on Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist for the show’s second season. (TV Line)

Actress Gina Torres (Firefly and Suits) has joined the cast of 9-1-1: Lone Star, playing paramedic Captain Tommy Vega, who was at the top of her game when she hung up her uniform to raise her twin daughters, until COVID-19 changed everything. (TV Line)

PRODUCTION NEWS

The next Marvel character to get her own TV series is Silk , aka Cindy Moon, a Korean-American superhero (sort of like the female Spider-Man). (Variety)

MOVIE NEWS

Ryan Murphy has announced that the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical The Prom will debut on Netflix around December 25. Among the cast are Meryl Streep,Nicole Kidman, Andrew Rannells and James Corden – who head to Indiana, where they help a teen (Jo Ellen Pellman) whose prom was cancelled when she tried to bring her girlfriend as her date. The cast cast includes Kerry Washington, Awkwafina, Keegan-Michael Key and Ariana Debose (who stepped in for Ariana Grande at the last minute). (TV Line)

REUNION PLANS

HBO Max will be bringing a reunion of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air this fall. Returning cast members include Will Smith, Tatyana Ali, Karyn Parsons, Joseph Marcell, Daphne Maxwell Reid, DJ Jazzy Jeff and Alfonso Ribeiro. (TV Line)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

CANCELLATION

Netflix has cancelled Altered Carbon after two seasons. (Variety)

ELECTION SPECIAL

The cast and creators of The West Wing are reuniting to perform together for the first time in nearly two decades in a special set at HBO Max. A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote will debut on the streamer this fall. It will feature a theatrical staging of the “Hartsfield’s Landing” episode from the show’s third season and will be shot at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles in early October. The special is meant to raise awareness for When We All Vote, a non-partisan, nonprofit organization co-chaired by Michelle Obama. The cast expected to be involved include Rob Lowe, Dulé Hill, Allison Janney, Janel Moloney, Richard Schiff, Bradley Whitford, and Martin Sheen. (Variety)

SERIES ORDERS

OWN has given a straight-to-series order to the drama Delilah, from Greenleaf creator Craig Wright. Actress Maahra Hill (The L Word: Generation Q) will star as Delilah Connolly, a headstrong, highly principled lawyer living in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is doing her best to raise two kids alone and keep her ties to family, friends and faith strong, all the while ceaselessly seeking justice for those who need it most, in a time when the rich and powerful of Charlotte and beyond will do anything to stop her. The series will air on OWN in 2021. (Variety)

Netflix has picked up a one-hour, live-action Resident Evil series, giving it an 8-episode order. Andrew Dabb, latest showrunner of the long-running series Supernatural, will serve as writer, executive producer and showrunner. The story of the series will unfold across two timelines: In the first timeline, 14-year-old sisters Jade and Billie Wesker are moved to New Raccoon City: a manufactured, corporate town, forced on them right as adolescence is in full swing. But the more time they spend there, the more they come to realize that the town is more than it seems and their father may be concealing dark secrets. Secrets that could destroy the world. In the second timeline, well over a decade into the future, there are less than 15 million people left on Earth. And more than 6 billion monsters — people and animals infected with the T-virus. Jade, now thirty, struggles to survive in this New World, while the secrets from her past – about her sister, her father and herself – continue to haunt her. (Variety)

ABC has given a series order to the limited anthology series Women of the Movement, which will tell the story of key female figures in the Civil Rights Movement. The series will focus on Mamie Till Mobley, who devoted her life to seeking justice for her son Emmett Till following his brutal murder in the Jim Crow South. The first 6-episode season is slated to debut in 2021. (Variety)

CASTING NEWS

Actress Keira Knightley (Love Actually and Pride and Prejudice) will star in and executive produce a drama series for Apple. A series order has been given to The Essex Serpent, a period drama based on the Sarah Perry British Book Award-winning novel. The series will center on Cora (Knightley), who has been released from an abusive marriage, and relocates from Victorian London to the small village of Aldwinter in Essex. She is intrigued by a local superstition that a mythical creature known as the Essex Serpent has returned to the area. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Actress Mary McCormack (In Plain Sight) will star opposite Stephen Amell (Arrow) and Alexander Ludwig (Vikings) in the 8-episode hour-long Starz drama Heels. The story will be about the men and women who chase their dreams in the world of small-town pro wrestling. Set in a close-knit Georgia community, following a family-owned wrestling promotion as two brothers and rivals, Jack Spade (Amell) and Ace Spade (Ludwig), war over their late father’s legacy. In the ring, somebody must play the good guy (Ludwig) and somebody must play their nemesis, the heel (Amell). But in the real world, those characters can be hard to live up to — or hard to leave behind. McCormack will play Willie, the business partner of Jack Spade and logistical brains behind the local wrestling organization who came up in the glory days as Wild Bill’s (Chris Bauer) valet but grew tired of babysitting and left him just as his career took off. His return to the local circuit complicates her life, as does the reflection of her younger self that she sees in Crystal (Kelli Berglund). (Deadline)

Actresses Danielle Brooks (Orange Is the New Black) and Daphne Rubin-Vega (Katy Keene) as well as actors Asante Blackk (This Is Us), Mike Colter (Luke Cage and Evil) and Oscar Nunez (The Office) are among the cast of upcoming Netflix anthology series Social Distance. The 8-part series is set in the first few months after the coronavirus pandemic sweeps the globe. Each episode is a standalone that was shot remotely in the actors’ real-life homes across the country. Brooks stars in an episode along with her real-life mother LaRita Brooks and her brother DJ Brooks. Blackk stars alongside his real-life father Ayize Ma’at. (Variety)

Actor Tim Rozon (Wynonna Earp) will star in the upcoming Syfy series The Surrealtor, which follows realtor Nick Roman (played by Rozon) and an elite team of specialists that handle the cases no one else can: haunted and possessed houses that literally scare would-be buyers away. Sarah Levy (Schitt’s Creek) will play Susan Ireland, an enormously successful real estate agent who is a realist and doesn’t believe in ghosts or hauntings. Savannah Basley (Wynonna Earp) will play Zooey L’Enfant, The Roman Agency’s office manager. (TV Line)

Actress Elizabeth Debicki (the box office movie Tenet) is set to star in and executive producer Code Name Hélène, an international limited series based on the New York Times bestselling author Ariel Lawhon’s World War II spy thriller. The series will tell the epic real-life story of Nancy Grace Augusta Wake, a New Zealand-born journalist who became a ferociously brave spy and one of the most powerful leaders of the French Resistance. The series will be told in interweaving timelines following each of the four code names used by Nancy during World War II. (Variety)

Actor John Harlan Kim (The Librarians) has been promoted to series regular on 9-1-1. He recurred throughout last season as Albert, the younger half-brother of Chimney (series regular Kenneth Choi. (Deadline and TV Line)

MOVIE NEWS

Actress Amy Adams (Man of Steel/Superman franchise) has joined the cast of the box office version of Dear Evan Hansen, the Tony-winning musical that opened on Broadway in 2016. The story follows a high schooler with social anxiety who gets caught up in a lie after Connor Murphy’s family mistakes one of Hansen’s letters for their son’s suicide note. Adams will play Cynthia Murphy, mother of Connor and Zoe Murphy, which will be played by Kaitlyn Dever (Unbelievable and Book Smart) while Ben Platt, who originated the part and won a Tony for his performance, is expected to reprise the title role. Also, actor Danny Pino (Mayans M.C. and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) will play the stepfather to the classmate who dies by suicide, a role conceived specially for the film. (Variety)

Actress Kelly Marie Tran (Star Wars franchise) has joined the cast of the upcoming Disney animated feature Raya and the Last Dragon, playing the titular heroine, marking the first Southeast Asian to lead a Disney animated film. This film is set in the fantasy kingdom of Kumandra, following a warrior who teams with a crew of misfits in her quest to find the Last Dragon and bring light and unity back to their world. The cast includes Awkawafina (Crazy Rich Asians), who plays a dragon in human form named Sisu. (Deadline)

Actor Justin Hartley (This Is Us) will play the lead in The Noel Diary, the Netflix film adaptation of the Richard Paul Evans novel. He will play Jacob, a bestselling author who returns home during the holidays to settle his estranged mother’s estate after she passes away. As he digs through the many items his mother hoarded over the years, he comes across a diary left by someone named Noel, which may hold secrets to Jacob’s own past. And when he receives an unexpected visitor named Rachel, a beautiful woman on a mysterious journey of her own, the two of them try to make sense of their pasts and rewrite their futures. Bonnie Bedelia (Parenthood) and Treat Williams (Everwood) will also star. (TV Line)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for the past two weeks:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

Hunters has been renewed for a second season by Amazon. (Variety)

Freeform has pulled the plug on their fantasy drama Siren after 3 seasons. (Variety)

Hulu has canceled the Zoe Kravitz led drama High Fidelity after only one season. (Variety)

Hulu has renewed Love, Victor for a second season. (Variety)

TV NEWS

It’s become almost a tradition on the Hallmark Channel that each year the Good Witch has a Halloween special EXCEPT for this year. There won’t be an installment this year (and we can all guess the reason: the pandemic) (TV Line)

TV MOVIE NEWS

Journalist Robin Roberts is extending her partnership with Lifetime with four new movies. One of those movies will be The Mahalia Jackson Story, which will star Tony Award nominee, SAG and Grammy Award-winning actress Danielle Brooks (Orange is the New Black) as the iconic gospel legend and civil rights activist while Tony winner Kenny Leon (A Raisin in the Sun and Lifetime’s Steel Magnolias) will direct. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

The box office has been devastated by the pandemic, desperately trying to find ways to release their latest movies and Disney has been struggling to get its big-budget live-action version of Mulan out to the movie going public. That hasn’t worked well so instead the 60 plus million subscribers of Disney Plus will get to watch the box office movie on its streaming service on September 4 (for the cost of $29.99). (Variety)

Actress Naomi Scott (the latest version of Aladdin and the latest version of Charlie’s Angels) will star alongside Broadway’s Anthony Ramos (from Hamilton) in the upcoming comedic sci-fi movie called Distant [she’s taking over for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star Rachel Brosnahan, who couldn’t appear due to her commitment to the popular series]. The movie tells the the story of an asteroid miner who, after crash-landing on an alien planet, must contend with the challenges of his new surroundings, while making his way across the harsh terrain to the only other survivor – a woman who is trapped in her escape pod. (Deadline)

Actress Rhona Mitra (The Last Ship and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans) will appear in the upcoming box office film Prisoners of Paradise, which will be set in 1925 following 17-year-old orphan Lucy Gladwell (Ellie Bamber from Les Miserables), who is sent from England to live under the guardianship of her uncle George Huyton (Rupert Penry-Jones from Spooks and the box office movie Persuasion). Mitra will play Lucy’s aunt Betty. (Deadline)

CASTING NEWS

Actor Stanley Tucci will star in the AMC limited series La Fortuna. The thriller, based on a graphic novel, centers on Alex Ventura (Spanish actor Álvaro Mel), a young Spanish diplomat who unintentionally becomes the leader of a mission to recover sunken treasure stolen by Frank Wild (Tucci), a notorious adventurer. The series has a targeted premiere date set for later in 2021. The cast also includes Clarke Peters (The Wire). (The Hollywood Reporter)

Actress Elle Fanning (The Great) will star in the real-life case of Michelle Carter in the Hulu series The Girl From Plainville. Carter was infamously convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2017 after texting her boyfriend encouragement to commit suicide three years prior. The series will be based on the Esquire article by Jesse Barron. (Variety)

Actress Lindsey Gort has been promoted to series regular on the CBS legal drama All Rise where she plays attorney Amy Quinn. (Deadline)

Actors Andrew Scott (Fleabag and Sherlock) and Dominic West (The Affair and Stateless) will join actresses Lily James (Downton Abbey and 2015’s Cinderella) and Emily Mortimer (The Newsroom) in the limited series (consisting of 3 episodes), The Pursuit of Love, which is an adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s novel. The romantic dramedy is set in Europe between World War I and World War II. The series will premiere on BBC One in the UK and on Amazon Prime in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. (TV Line)

Actress Regina Hall (Black Monday and the box office Girls Trip) and actor Bobby Cannavale (the box office movies Ant-Man and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) have joined the cast of the Hulu limited series Nine Perfect Strangers that takes place at a boutique health-and-wellness resort that promises healing and transformation as nine stressed city dwellers try to get on a path to a better way of living. Watching over them during this ten-day retreat is the resort’s director Masha (Nicole Kidman), a woman on a mission to reinvigorate their tired minds and bodies. Hall will play Carmel, one of the nine strangers and Cannavale will also play one of the nine strangers. The cast also includes Melissa McCarthy, Michael Shannon, Luke Evans, Samara Weaving and Tiffany Boone. The series is eyeing a 2021 debut. (The Futon Critic and Deadline)

Actress Michelle Gomez (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Doctor Who) will appear in the Kaley Cuoco-led HBO Max thriller The Flight Attendant. Cuoco will play Cassie, a flight attendant who wakes up in the wrong hotel, in the wrong bed, with a dead man – and no idea what happened. The cast includes Michiel Huisman, Zosia Mamet and Merle Dandridge. Gomez will play Miranda, a hardened, savvy businesswoman with anger-management issues who Cassie meets in Bangkok. (Deadline)

NEW DEVELOPMENTS

Apple has given a straight-to-series order to the series The Sting, based on a Lista’s Toronto Life article with Team Downey (the production company of Robert Downey Jr. and his wife Susan Downey). It follows a frustrated Canadian detective who takes on a decades-old cold case in hopes of winning a confession and becoming a hero. The case quickly spirals out of control when the undercover cop attempts an elaborate sting, adding playacting cops, taxpayer resources, and an unexpected friendship with the peculiar target. (Variety)

Actress Amy Adams will appear in the Netflix limited series Kings of America, based on real events. It will center on the stories of three women whose lives were inextricably intertwined with the world’s largest company: a Walmart heiress, a maverick executive, and a longtime Walmart saleswoman and preacher who dared to fight against the retail giant in the biggest class action lawsuit in US history. Adams will star in the series in one of the lead roles, though which has not been determined yet. (Variety)

Netflix will be moving forward with a limited series from The Witcher (the Henry Cavill fantasy series) universe. The Witcher: Blood Origin will be a 6-part, live-action prequel set in an elven world 1,200 years before the world of The Witcher that will chart the origins of the very first Witcher. No cast has been announced yet. (Deadline)

Amazon is planning a series adaptation of the popular box office film A League of Their Own that will tell the story of an entire generation of women who dreamed of playing professional baseball. Actress Abbi Jacobson (Broad City) will star – as well as executive produce – the series, which she co-created. The cast will include Chante Adams (The Photograph), D’Arcy Carden (The Good Place), Melanie Field (Heathers, You and The Alienist), Kelly McCormack (Killjoys), Roberta Colindrez (The Deuce and Vida) and Molly Ephraim (Perry Mason and Halt and Catch Fire). (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS

Grantchester has been given a sixth season renewal by PBS. (Deadline and @masterpiecepbs)

Burden of Truth has been renewed for a 4th season. (Facebook)

Perry Mason has been renewed for a 2nd season. (Variety)

The Boys has been renewed for a 3rd season. (Variety)

Netflix has given a second season order to Sweet Magnolias. (TV Line)

Netflix has also given a second season order to Outer Banks. (The Hollywood Reporter)

CASTING NEWS

Actress Mario Bello is leaving NCIS in the upcoming 18th season. She’ll leave the series eight episodes into the coming season, which is penciled in to premiere sometime this fall. (TV Line)

Veteran actor Terrence Stamp (General Zod in the Superman films) will appear in season 2 of His Dark Materials as Giacomo Paradisi, who lives in the Tower of Angels in Cittagazze where much of the season’s action unfolds. And, actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) will provide the voice of the daemon of Andrew Scott’s Colonel John Parry. (TV Line, The Futon Critic and Deadline)

Actress Sherri Saum (The Fosters) has joined the cast of the spin-off Power Book II: Ghost that picks up shortly after the earth-shattering events of Power as Tariq St. Patrick grapples with a new world order: his father dead and his mother, Tasha (Naturi Naughton), facing charges for the murder her son committed. Saum will play Paula Matarazzo, the top investigator and right-hand man of the arrogant defense lawyer Davis MacLean. (TV Line and Deadline)

Actress Tiffany Boone (Hunters and The Chi) has joined the cast of the upcoming Hulu drama Nine Perfect Strangers, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Big Little Lies author Liane Moriarty. The series stars Nicole Kidman and Melissa McCarthy; takes place at a swanky health and wellness resort called Tranquillium where nine frazzled city dwellers go to unwind. Kidman will play the resort’s director, Masha, who may not be exactly what she seems. Boone will portray Delilah, one of Masha’s employees. The cast also includes Samara Weaving (Hollywood and the box office film Ready or Not), Luke Evans (The Alienist). (TV Line)

Actress Margot Bingham (New Amsterdam and Boardwalk Empire) will appear in The Walking Dead as Stephanie, an enigmatic survivor of the zombie outbreak in Charleston, West Virginia, who connects via radio with Josh McDermitt’s Eugene Porter. This role has already appeared in voice during two episodes this past season. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

The USA Network has cancelled the Rosario Dawson-led drama Briarpatch after only one season. (Variety)

Hanna has been renewed for a third season by Amazon. (The Hollywood Reporter)

The Hallmark Channel has given Good Witch a 7th season renewal and has given Chesapeake Shores a 5th season renewal. Both shows are for slated for 2021 return along with the latest season of When Calls the Heart. (TV Line)

FALL TV SEASON

CBS has decided to air SEAL Team on Wednesday nights at 10 PM this fall instead of holding it until mid-season. (TV Line)

MOVIE NEWS

Actors Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans are set to appear in the new Netflix thriller The Gray Man, based on a series of best sellers by Mark Greaney. The film will follow ex-CIA operative turned killer for hire duel Court Gentry (Gosling) as he is pursued by an old colleague, now nemesis, Lloyd Hansen (Evans). (Variety)

Actress Viola Davis is set to star in the historical epic film The Woman King inspired by true events that took place in The Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful states of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries. The film would follow Nanisca (Davis), general of the all-female military unit, and her daughter Nawi, who together fought the French and neighboring tribes who violated their honor, enslaved their people and threatened to destroy everything they’ve lived for. Director Gina Prince-Bythewood (who directed the recently released The Old Guard movie on Netflix) will direct this new film. (Variety)

CASTING NEWS

Actress Kelly Marie Tran (Stars Wars franchise) has joined the cast of the upcoming Hulu anthology drama Monsterland, based on the collection of stories from Nathan Ballingrud. The series is set in a world that involves encounters with fantasy creatures like mermaids and fallen angels; following broken people driven to desperate acts in an attempt to repair their lives. Kaitlyn Dever, Taylor Schilling and Mike Colter will also star. Tran will appear as Lauren, who returns to her small Michigan hometown to be married. She had managed to build a new life for herself after her best friend, Elena, went missing when they were 16. (The Hollywood Reporter)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS/PICK-UPS

PBS has given a second season order to the period drama Vienna Blood. (The Futon Critic and Deadline)

The Crown was to end after the upcoming fifth season, but Netflix has given it a 6th season order because series creator Peter Morgan wants to do “justice to the richness and complexity of the story. The 6th season will now serve as the show’s final season. (Variety)

Netflix is pulling the plug on Chilling Adventures of Sabrina after two super-sized seasons. The final 8 episodes will premiere later this year. (TV Line)

A 2nd season of Stargirl has been ordered, and the show will now exclusively air on The CW. The current first season of the series has been airing on both DC Universe and The CW. (Variety)

Netflix has announced that Dead to Me has been given a third season renewal, but that will be its final season. (Variety)

Hulu has given a second season renewal to their new period piece drama The Great. (Variety)

Ozark has been given a 4th season renewal by Netflix, which will also be its last. The streaming service has also renewed Never Have I Ever been renewed for a second season. (Variety)

Katy Keene has been canceled after one season at The CW. (Variety)

The new streaming service Peacock (which will debut on July 15) has added both seasons of the Facebook Watch series Sacred Lies to their line-up. (The Hollywood Reporter)

NEW SERIES ORDER

NBC has ordered the alien spacecraft drama pilot Debris to series. This is the only pilot that managed to complete shooting before the production shutdown. The new series follows two agents from two different continents, and two different mindsets, who must work together to investigate when wreckage from a destroyed alien spacecraft has mysterious effects on humankind. Actor Jonathan Tucker (Kingdom and Westworld) will play agent Bryan Beneventi, a headstrong, smart CIA operative while British actress Riann Steele (The Magicians) will play MI6 agent Finola Jones. (Variety)

Star Wars alum Oscar Isaac and Michelle Williams will star in the HBO limited series adaptation of Scenes From a Marriage from legendary director/writer Ingmar Bergman that examines the depiction of love, hatred, desire, monogamy, marriage and divorce through the lens of a contemporary American couple. (Variety)

Actors Damian Lewis (Billions) and Dominic West (The Affair) are expected to star in and executive produce an adaptation of the novel A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal, for Spectrum Originals and UK streamer BritBox. The 6-episode Cold War espionage thriller follows the defection of notorious British intelligence officer and KGB double agent Kim Philby (West) through the lens of his complex relationship with MI6 colleague and close friend Nicholas Elliott (Lewis). The series is slated to premiere in fall 2021. (Deadline and TV Line)

Freeform has announced the cast of the upcoming limited series event Love in the Time of Corona that was filmed using remote technologies and shot in the actual homes of the cast members. This 4-part series follows four interwoven stories about the hopeful search for love and connection during this time of quarantine. Real-life couple Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton and Smash) and Nicolette Robinson (Hart of Dixie and The Affair) [who also serve as executive producers] will play James and Sade, a couple who have been living somewhat separate lives: He has a busy career that keeps him on the road, and she is at home raising their daughter. Once the pandemic puts them under one roof, their time together leads them to reevaluate their relationship and their priorities. Tommy Dorfman (13 Reasons Why and Jane the Virgin) will play Oscar, a successful non-binary stylist, and Rainey Qualley (daughter of Andie MacDowell) will play Elle, an aspiring singer-songwriter. With the uncertainty of the pandemic, Oscar and Elle’s mostly platonic friendship becomes increasingly complicated as Oscar’s latest online date progresses toward relationship territory just as Elle’s neighborly crush starts to blossom. Gil Bellows (Ally McBeal) will play Paul, his real-life wife Rya Kihlstedt (Heroes: Reborn and Dexter) will play Sarah, and their daughter Ava Bellows will play Sophie. After quietly separating months earlier, Paul and Sarah reluctantly decide to quarantine together when their sweet yet intense daughter returns home from college. But when Sophie’s high school sweetheart suddenly breaks up with her, Paul and Sarah struggle to continue their “happy couple” ruse for their daughter’s sake. L. Scott Caldwell (Lost and All Rise) will play Nanda, a headstrong woman determined to celebrate her 50th wedding anniversary with her husband, Charles (Charlie Robinson, Charles is unable to come home from a rehab facility when COVID-19 causes them to go into lockdown. The limited series will premiere in August. (The Futon Critic)

CASTING NEWS

Actress Javicia Leslie (God Friended Me) has landed the coveted lead role in The CW’s Batwoman, playing the new character Ryan Wilder, who spent years as a drug-runner, dodging the Gotham City Police Department and masking her pain with bad habits. Today Ryan lives in her van with her plant. She is the most dangerous type of fighter: highly skilled and wildly undisciplined. She is an out lesbian, athletic, raw, passionate, fallible, and very much not your stereotypical All-American hero. (Variety)

Actress Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread and the PBS mini-series World on Fire) will take over from actress Helena Bonham-Carter in the role of Princess Margaret in The Crown. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWAL/CANCELLATIONS

NBC has cancelled Council of Dads after only one season. (Variety)

Vagrant Queen has been cancelled after only one season. (The Hollywood Reporter)

A 6th and final season of Lucifer has been announced by Netflix. As fans will recall, the first 3 seasons aired on FOX but what then cancelled. Netflix picked it up for a 4th season which aired in 2018. The fifth season will begin on August 21. (Variety)

MOVING

Cobra Kai, the YouTube Premium series is moving from that service to Netflix. The series is a continuation of the original The Karate Kid movie, featuring Ralph Macchio and William Zabka reprising their films roles. The show’s 3rd season will premiere at the streaming service, but an official airdate has yet to be announced. The first 2 seasons will be available at Netflix later this year. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Actor Rob Benedict (Chuck/God on Supernatural) will guest star in season 5 of Lucifer, playing Vincent Le Mec, a hardened French Mercenary whose violent work brings him to Los Angeles and into the crosshairs of Lucifer, Chloe and the LAPD. Also, Actor Dennis Haysbert (24 and The Unit) will play God in the show as well. (TV Line)

Actor Luke Evans will star opposite Nicole Kidman and Melissa McCarthy in the upcoming limited series Nine Perfect Strangers set to debut on Hulu. The series takes place at a boutique health-and-wellness resort that promises healing and transformation as 9 stressed city dwellers try to get on a path to a better way of living. Watching over them during this ten-day retreat is the resort’s director Masha (Kidman), a woman on a mission to reinvigorate their tired minds and bodies. (Deadline)

MOVIE CASTING NEWS

Actress Margot Robbie is set to star in a new Pirates of the Caribbean movie – that will be written by Birds of Prey writer Christina Hodson. The project is not related to the other Pirates reboot that is in the works from Craig Mazin (creator of Chernobyl) and writer Ted Elliott. The Robbie-Hodson version will be an original female-fronted story with new characters that will be presented under the Pirates moniker, and was also inspired by the long-running Disneyland attraction. (The Hollywood Reporter and Collider)

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Hey All,

Here are the news items for the past week:

RENEWALS

ABC has renewed the drama For Life for a second season; meanwhile the network pulled the plug on The Baker and the Beauty after only one season. (TV Line)

Manifest has been given a third season renewal by NBC. (Variety)

The USA Network has given The Sinner a fourth season renewal, slated to premiere in 2021. There is no decision yet from the USA Network on the future of Briarpatch, however. (Deadline)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Amazon has given a series order to a new drama from Jason Katims (the man behind Roswell, Friday Night Lights and Parenthood) based on the Israeli series On the Spectrum that will be a comedic drama about three 20-something roommates on the autism spectrum, striving for the same things that we all desire: to get a job, keep a job, make friends, fall in love, and navigate a world that eludes them. Sosie Bacon (daughter of Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick), Chris Pang (Crazy Rich Asians) and Joe Mantegna (Criminal Minds) are set to star in the series. (Variety)

MOVIE CASTING NEWS

Actress Constance Wu (Crazy Rich Asians) and actor Sam Heughan (Outlander) have joined the cast of the upcoming box office period romantic comedy Mr. Malcolm’s List that already includes Freida Pinto, Sope Dirisu and Oliver Jackson-Cohen. Based on the novel of the same name, that is set to be published on July 28, the movie focuses on what happens when Julia (Wu) is jilted by Mr. Malcolm (Dirisu) – London’s most eligible bachelor – after she failed to meet one of the items on his list of requirements for a bride. Julia then enlists her friend Selina (Pinto) to help her take revenge. There is no word yet on what role Heughan or the others will play. (Deadline)

PRIME TIME LINE-UP

NBC has announced its fall TV season. The dramas will air as follows: Manifest on Mondays; This Is Us and New Amsterdam on Tuesdays; Chicago Med, Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D. on Wednesdays; Law & Order: SVU and the new spin-off drama Law & Order: Organized Crime on Thursdays and The Blacklist on Fridays. Law & Order: Organized Crime will find Christopher Meloni reprising his role of Elliot Stabler, who returns to the NYPD to battle organized crime after a devastating personal loss. Both dramas Good Girls and Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist are being held for mid-season. (Variety)

ABC has announced its fall TV season. The dramas will air as follows: The Good Doctor on Mondays; Big Sky (NEW SERIES) on Tuesdays; Stumptown on Wednesdays; Station 19, Grey’s Anatomy and A Million Little Things on Thursdays and The Rookie on Sundays. Big Sky, based on the book series by C.J. Box, is about private detectives Cassie Dewell (Kylie Bunbury) and Cody Hoyt (Ryan Phillippe), who join forces with his estranged wife and ex-cop, Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick), to search for two sisters who have been kidnapped by a truck driver on a remote highway in Montana. But when they discover that these are not the only girls who have disappeared in the area, they must race against the clock to stop the killer before another woman is taken. The cast includes Brian Geraghty, Dedee Pfeiffer, Natalie Alyn Lind, Jesse James Keitel and John Carroll Lynch. The drama For Life will premiere later in the season. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for the past couple of weeks:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

The Starz drama Hightown has been given a second season order. (Variety)

NBC has given Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist a second season renewal. (Variety)

Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector has been cancelled after only one season on NBC. (TV Line)

HBO Max has renewed its first original scripted series Love Life for a second season. The first season starred Anna Kendrick, who will make occasional appearances in the 2nd season, which will explore what happens when you’ve lived your whole life knowing who your soulmate is, only to find out years into a marriage that it’s not the right fit at all. (Variety)

PRODUCTION PLANS

Walt Disney Studios is developing an original movie musical (think Mamma Mia) based on the songs by Lionel Richie, tentatively titled All Night Long. (Variety)

CONGRATS

The following shows are among the Peabody Award winners for this year: Chernobyl, Dickinson, Stranger Things, Succession, Watchmen and When They See Us. (Variety)

MOVIE NEWS

Downton Abbey and Cinderella star Lily James is set to star in the true-crime love story Peggy Jo, which will be loosely based on the true story of the life of Texan Peggy Jo Tallas, a beautiful woman, prone to be romantically lost in books and films; who she is not the sort of person who lets life and people get the better of her. When her latest beau turns out to be married to his bank co-worker, she takes matters into her own hands, robbing his bank disguised as a man with a big beard and a back-to-front cowboy hat. (Variety)

It looks like Henry Cavill isn’t done playing Clark Kent after all, as he is in talks to return in an upcoming DC Comics movie. (Variety)

CASTING NEWS

Actor Hartley Sawyer has been fired from The Flash due to a collection of racist and misogynistic tweets he posted prior to joining the show. (Variety)

Actress Cush Jumbo is leaving The Good Fight ahead of the recently ordered fifth season. (TV Line)

As announced previously, actress Ruby Rose has left Batwoman not returning as lead character Kate Kane for the show’s second season; but instead of merely replacing her with another actress the network announced a new character will take on the mantle of the female caped crusader. The new character will be Ryan Wilder, an out lesbian in her mid-20s who is likable, messy, a little goofy and untamed. She spent years as a drug-runner, dodging the GCPD and masking her pain with bad habits. She is highly skilled and wildly undisciplined. (TV Line)

CHANGE OF PLANS

The Gal Gadot-led series about film legend Hedy Lamarr is moving from Showtime to a straight-to-series order at Apple. The series will follow the true story of the Hollywood glamour girl, spanning 30 years from Lamarr’s escape from pre-war Vienna to her meteoric rise in the Golden Age of Hollywood to her fall and eventual disgrace at the dawn of the Cold War. The show will also go into Lamarr’s life as an inventor, including one invention that became the basis for spread spectrum technology used today. (Variety)

LINE-UP ADDITION

The CW is adding another acquired series to its fall 2020 line-up. That series is Devils, an international thriller that follows Massimo Ruggero (Alessandro Borghi), the charismatic yet ruthless Head of Trading at NYL, one of the world’s most important investment banks, and his mentor, NYL’s CEO Dominic Morgan (Patrick Dempsey). After Dominic appoints another colleague over Massimo following a bitter promotion battle, Massimo finds himself named prime suspect in a murder investigation. Fighting to clear his name, Massimo becomes involved in an intercontinental financial war and is forced to choose between supporting Dominic or going up against him. Devils will air on Wednesday night at 8 PM followed by the acquired series Coroner, taking the place of the acquired series Dead Pixels, which is likely going to air this summer. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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