Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for the past week:

RENEWAL/CANCELLATION

CBS has renewed Criminal Minds for a 15th season, which will be the show’s last season. The final season will consist of 10 episodes shot back-to-back with the Season 14 episodes currently in production. (Variety)

CASTING NEWS

Actress Sarah Shahi (Person of Interest) will have a recurring role on The Rookie, playing Jessica Russo, a smart and intense rock star FBI agent who now uses her expertise training others in the private sector. A straight shooter with a subversive sense of humor, Jessica is an expert in hostage negotiations, predictive analysis and profiling and wrote the definitive book on the subject to prove it. (TV Line)

Actress Phylicia Rashad (The Cosby Show) will guest star in an upcoming episode of This Is Us, playing Carol, the mother of Beth (series regular Susan Kelechi Watson). (Deadline)

Actor Daniel Dae Kim (Hawaii Five-0) will play a key recurring role in The Good Doctor (where he also serves as an executive producer), playing Dr. Jackson Han, a brash new Chief of Surgery at St. Bonaventure. (Deadline)

Actor Luke Wilson has joined the cast of the DC Universe series Stargirl, playing mechanic-turned-superhero Pat Dugan, who pilots Stripe, a hulking 15-foot robot of his own invention. (Deadline)

Actor Adam Rose will reprise his role of geeky Max in the Veronica Mars revival expected to air on Hulu next summer as a limited series. This time around, though, Max works as the owner and operator of High How Are You? Neptune’s marijuana dispensary. (TV Line)

HBO is planning the prequel to Game of Thrones, which will include among its cast actors Jamie Campbell Bower (the movies Shadowhunters and the Twilight franchise) and Toby Regbo (Reign). The series will be set thousands of years before the events of Game of Thrones, and will chronicle the world’s descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour. No character descriptions were released however. (E! Entertainment)

SERIES PICK-UP

Netflix announced they will adapt two of author Leigh Bardugo’s best-selling fantasy book series: The Shadow and Bone trilogy and the Six of Crows novels. They will be made into 8-episode series, which will incorporate characters and concepts from the two franchises. The series will be set in a world cleaved in two by a massive barrier of perpetual darkness, where unnatural creatures feast on human flesh. A young soldier uncovers a power that might finally unite her country, but as she struggles to hone her power, dangerous forces plot against her. (TV Line)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

There hasn’t been a lot of news since the week of Christmas, but here are a couple items worth sharing:

PILOT ORDER

The CW has given a pilot order to Batwoman, starring Ruby Rose (Orange Is the New Black) as the lead. In this latest version, Batwoman, aka Kate Kane, is described as an out lesbian and highly trained fighter who has no trouble speaking her mind. She’s pressed into service as a crime-fighter as mayhem overruns Gotham, although Kane has to overcome her own demons before she can save the city. (Variety)

CANCELLATION

The History Channel will be bringing Vikings to a close at the end of its current 20-episode 6th season. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for the past week:

CANCELLATIONS/RENEWALS

NBC has cancelled Midnight, Texas after two season. The final episode – which will now be the show’s series finale – will air this coming Friday, December 28. (Variety)

CBS All Access has renewed “Tell Me a Story” for a second season. (Variety)

Elementary is coming to an end on CBS. The procedural will wrap up following its upcoming seventh season on the broadcaster, which does not currently have a premiere date. (Variety)

OWN has canceled Love Is__ after one season. (Variety)

Z Nation has been cancelled by Syfy after five season. The December 28 episode will now serve as the show’s series finale. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Netflix has ordered two more seasons of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. The streamer has ordered another 16 episodes of the series, which will be split into two parts like Season 1 and 2. Season 3 and 4 will begin production in 2019. Season 2 is set to premiere April 5, 2019. (Variety)

Van Helsing has been given a fourth season renewal by Syfy. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Ray Donovan has been given a 7th season renewal by Showtime. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Netflix has given a sequel order to the very popular summer movie To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before with lead stars Lana Condor and Noah Centineo returning. (The Futon Critic)

CASTING NEWS

Star Trek alum George Takei will appear as a series regular (as well as a consultant) in the second season of the AMC anthology The Terror, which will take place during World War II and is set, in part, in a Japanese-American internment camp. He will play Yamato-san, a former fishing captain and community elder. (Variety)

Actor Connor Jessup (American Crime and Falling Skies) and actress Emilia Jones (Utopia) have been cast to star as Tyler and Kinsey Locke in the Netflix small screen adaptation of Locke & Key. The 10-episode horror, fantasy series revolves around the Locke siblings Kinsey, Tyler, and Bode (Jackson Robert Scott) who, after the gruesome murder of their father, move to their ancestral home in Massachusetts only to find the house has magical keys that give them a vast array of powers and abilities. Little do they know a devious demon also wants the keys and will stop at nothing to attain them. (Deadline)

Actor Alexander Ludwig (Vikings) and actress Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical) have joined the cast of the box office movie Bad Boys 4 Life, starring alongside Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. They will play a modern, highly specialized police unit that collides with the old school Bad Boys (Smith and Lawrence) when a new threat emerges in Miami. The film is slated for release on January 17, 2020. Additionally, Joe Pantoliano will return as Captain Howard. (Variety)

Actors Colin O’Donoghue (Once Upon a Time) and David Denman (13 Hours) and actresses Willa Fitzgerald (Scream: The TV Series) and Vanessa Rubio (Cobra Kai) will appear in an episode of the upcoming Netflix 8-episode anthology series Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings that showcases the stories, memories and inspirations behind Parton’s most beloved songs. They will appear in the JJ Sneed episode where O’Donoghue plays the title character while Fitzgerald plays Maddie, Denman plays Deke Fletcher and Rubio plays Cimmaron. This episode will be set in the 1880s, centering on a feisty young woman trapped in a mundane existence who dreams of more, until a seductive outlaw pulls her into the adventure of a lifetime. (Deadline)

Netflix has ordered 10 episodes of Virgin River, a contemporary romance based on the beloved Harlequin book series by author Robyn Carr. In this story Melinda Monroe (Alexandra Breckenridge from This Is Us and The Walking Dead) answers an ad to work as a nurse practitioner in the remote California town of Virgin River thinking it will be the perfect place to start fresh and leave her painful memories behind. But she soon discovers that small-town living isn’t quite as simple as she expected and that she must learn to heal herself before she can truly make Virgin River her home. The ensemble cast will include Martin Henderson (Grey’s Anatomy), Tim Matheson (The West Wing), Annette O’Toole (Smallville), David Cubitt (Medium and Siren), Lexa Doig (Arrow and The Arrangement), Daniel Gillies (The Originals and Saving Hope), Ben Hollingsworth (Code Black), Colin Lawrence (Riverdale) and Ian Tracey (Bates Motel and Travelers). (The Futon Critic)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/PICK-UP ORDERS

Amazon has renewed Goliath for a third season. (Variety)

Facebook has renewed the dramas Five Points and Sorry For Your Loss and the fairy-tale inspired anthology series Sacred Lies. (Variety)

JJ Abrams and Jennifer Garner will be reuniting in the Apple straight-to-series limited series My Glory Was I Had Such Friends, based on the 2017 memoir by Amy Silverstein, which follows a group of women who supported Silverstein as she waited for a second life-saving heart transplant. (Variety)

CASTING NEWS

Supernatural fans! Jeffrey Dean Morgan is coming back to play John Winchester in the show’s upcoming 300th episode. (Entertainment Weekly)

Actor Joel McHale has been cast as Sylvester Pemberton (aka Star-Spangled Hero and later Skyman) in the upcoming DC Universe series Stargirl. But in this version, Pemberton will be a version of the “Golden Age” Starman, who will be a recurring character in the series. Stargirl centers on Courtney Whitmore (Brec Bassinger), a high school sophomore who inspires an unlikely group of young heroes to stop the villains of the past. (Variety)

Actress Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing) will have a recurring role, in an as yet-to-be-revealed role in Grey’s Anatomy. (The Futon Critic and TV Line)

Actress Willow Shields (The Hunger Games) will star opposite Kaya Scodelario (who is replacing Emma Roberts) in the upcoming Netflix drama series Spinning Out that will be set in the world of competitive figure skating. The series centers on Kat Baker (Scodelario), an up-and-coming, high-level single skater who’s about to turn in her skates after a disastrous fall which took her off the competition track. When Kat seizes an opportunity to continue her career as a pair skater with a talented bad-boy partner, she risks exposing a fiercely kept secret that could unravel her entire life. (Deadline)

TEASER TRAILER

Downton Abbey The Movie

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for the past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS:

Netflix has renewed Narcos: Mexico for a second season. (Variety)

BET has cancelled the drama Hit the Floor after four seasons. (Variety)

Doctor Who has been renewed for a 12th season. (TV Line)

CASTING NEWS

Actor Christopher Lambert (NCIS: Los Angeles and Highlander) will guest in the season premiere of The Blacklist, playing expert assassin Bastien Moreau (aka The Corsican), who is shrouded in so much mystery that his mere existence has long been considered a myth and he is willing to go to any lengths to regain his anonymity after his true identity is uncovered. (TV Line)

Actress Jessica Meraz (Supergirl and Chasing Life) has landed the recurring role of Pamela Ferrer aka Menagerie on Supergirl. An iconic DC villain and a member of The Elite, an assembly of antiheroes led by Manchester Black (David Ajala), Menagerie in her live-action TV incarnation is a jewel thief who doesn’t mind hurting people. (TV Line and Deadline)

Actor Tom Mison (Sleepy Hollow) and Tommy Dewey (Casual) and actress Ashley Madekwe (Salem and Revenge) will recur in the Hulu limited series Four Weddings and A Funeral, based on the movie of the same name. The series revolves around four American friends — Maya (Natathalie Emmanuel), Craig (Brandon Mychal Smith), Ainsley (Rebecca Rittenhouse) and Duffy (John Reynolds) — who reunite for a fabulous London wedding. But after a bombshell at the altar throws their lives into turmoil, they must weather a tumultuous year of romance and heartbreak. Relationships are forged and broken, political scandals exposed, London social life lampooned, love affairs ignited and doused, and of course, there are four weddings… and a funeral. Mison will play Quentin, Madekwe is Julia and Dewey is Ted. The romantic comedy series is slated for a 2019 debut on Hulu. (Deadline)

Actress Jodie Whittaker will be back as Doctor Who in 2020. (TV Line)

TV SERIES NEWS

The Lifetime series You, which received a second season order before show debuted this past September, will actually air its 2nd season of Netflix instead of Lifetime. (Variety)

It looks like The CW is considering a Jane the Virgin spin-off that would have original series writer and co-executive producer Valentina Garza on board to write and executive produce the new project. The official plot details are being kept under wraps, but it is known that the potential spin-off will not be based on any characters currently appearing on Jane the Virgin. It is believed the series would be an anthology with each season based on a fictional novel written by Jane Villanueva (series lead Gina Rodriguez), with Rodriguez potentially onboard to narrate. (Variety)

Starz has acquired the 8-episode psychological thriller Dublin Murders, which is based on the Tana French Dublin Murder Squad crime novels. The series will star Killian Scott (Ripper Street) and Sarah Greene (Penny Dreadful) as two detectives investigating a young girl’s murder. (TV Line)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

CANCELLATION/RENEWALS/PICK-UPS

Netflix has cancelled Daredevil after three season. (Variety)

AMC has renewed Preacher for a 4th season. (Variety)

The First Wives Club which was going to air on the Paramount Network will actually air on BET. The small screen adaptation of the film will follow a group of New York women who band together after their marriages fall apart, and who find strength in their sisterhood and a little revenge. It will star Ryan Michelle Bathe, Michelle Buteau and Jill Scott in the lead roles. (Variety)

CASTING NEWS

Actor George Eads will be leaving the CBS drama MacGyver after three season. (The Futon Critic and The Hollywood Reporter)

Actor Dennis Haysbert (The Unit and 24) has joined the upcoming CBS drama pilot Surveillance that will star Sophia Bush (One Tree Hill and Chicago P.D.). He will play Barry, the NSA Deputy Director, a father figure to Maddy (Bush) and her longtime mentor. (The Futon Critic and Deadline)

Actor Griffin Dunne will play the present-day version of Nicky Pearson, Jack’s long-thought-dead younger brother on This Is Us. (Deadline)

Actress Mckenna Grace (Designed Survivor) and actor Alexis Denisof (Angel) will join the second season of the Netflix series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Grace will appear as Li’l Sabrina, a dead ringer for teenage Sabrina (series lead Kiernan Shipka). Denisof will play Adam Masters, the boyfriend of Mary Wardwell (series star Michelle Gomez). (Deadline)

Actors Gerald McRaney (This Is Us), Ben Lawson (Designated Survivor) and Tim Reid (Greenleaf) and actresses Brooke Elliott (Drop Dead Diva), Michele Weaver (Love Is ____) and Delta Burke (Designing Women) will star in Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings: If I Had Wings, an episode of the 8-episode Netflix series inspired by Parton’s most beloved songs. In this episode, after receiving invitations to the 70th birthday party of their decades-long estranged father Tom Freeman (McRaney), three disparate siblings, Clay (Lawson), Nancy (Elliott) and Phyllis (Weaver) converge on a Mississippi farm where they test the bonds of blood and issues of faith, all to confront the sins of their father. Each episode will feature a different cast and Parton will appear in some stories. (Deadline)

MOVIE CASTING NEWS

Actress Eiza Gonzalez (Baby Driver) will co-star with Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham in the Fast and Furious spin-off Hobbs and Shaw. The film will also star Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby and Eddie Marsan. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

Mr. Mercedes has been given a third season renewal at Audience Network (DirecTV). (Variety)

Take Two has been cancelled by ABC. (TV Line)

Salvation has been cancelled by CBS after two seasons. (Variety)

CASTING NEWS

Actor Jaime Camil (Jane the Virgin) will guest star in an upcoming episode of Charmed, playing Mr. Morales, the brash and eccentric new Music Director of Hilltowne University’s acapella group. It should be noted that Jane the Virgin star Gina Rodriguez will be directing that episode too. (TV Line and Entertainment Weekly)

Actress Andie MacDowell will guest star in the Hulu limited series Four Weddings and a Funeral, the small screen adaptation of the rom-com. Meanwhile, actress Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones) will replace original cast member Jessica Williams. The series revolves around four American friends Maya (Emmanuel), Craig (Brandon Mychal Smith), Ainsley (Rebecca Rittenhouse) and Duffy (John Reynolds), who reunite for a fabulous London wedding. But after a bombshell at the altar throws their lives into turmoil, they must weather a tumultuous year of romance and heartbreak. Relationships are forged and broken, political scandals exposed, London social life lampooned, love affairs ignited and doused, and of course, there are four weddings and a funeral. MacDowell will play Mrs. Howard, Ainsley’s mother. (Deadline)

Actresses Jocelyn Hudon (The Strain) and Morgan Kohan (Star Trek: Discovery and The Murdoch Mysteries) will appear in the upcoming When Calls the Heart Christmas movie special next month. They will be playing Grace and Lillian (respectively), who are caretakers for traveling orphans who end up in Hope Valley. Both Jocelyn and Morgan will in the spin-off series When Hope Calls, which is currently in development and scheduled to premiere on Hallmark Movies Now in 2019. (Entertainment Tonight)

MOVIE NEWS

Veteran actress Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music) will provide her voice to the upcoming box office film Aquaman. She will voice Karathen, a character described as a sea creature who can help assist Aquaman’s quest to broker a peace between Atlantis and the surface world. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here is the entertainment news for the past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

Good Cop has been cancelled by Netflix after one season. (Variety)

Bosch has been given a season 6 renewal by Amazon. (Variety)

ABC has renewed Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. for a 7th season before the show’s 6th season is even set to air in early 2019. The surprising (or not) news is that actor Clark Gregg is not listed as a cast member for the 7th season. Roh, roh! (Variety)

PICK UP ORDERS

Netflix has landed the directorial debut The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave). The film will be based on the best-selling book by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer that follows 13-year-old boy William who finds a way to save his village in Malawi from famine. (Variety)

Working Title and Netflix are developing a new version of Rebecca, the 1938 gothic thriller by Daphne du Maurier that follows a young woman who comes to live with her new wealthy husband in his estate on the coast of England and finds herself struggling to fight against the legacy of Maxim’s first wife, Rebecca, a mysterious and beautiful woman whose influence continues to haunt the house and its denizens. Cinderella star Lily James and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. alum Armie Hammer will star in the lead roles. (Entertainment Weekly)

CASTING NEWS

Actor Hugh Grant will star opposite Nicole Kidman in the upcoming HBO limited series The Undoing, based on the book You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz. The 6-episode series centers on Grace Sachs (Kidman), who is living the only life she ever wanted for herself. She’s a successful therapist, has a devoted husband, Jonathan (Grant), and young son who attends an elite private school in New York City. Overnight a chasm opens in her life: a violent death, a missing husband, and, in the place of a man Grace thought she knew, only a chain of terrible revelations. Left behind in the wake of a spreading and very public disaster, and horrified by the ways in which she has failed to heed her own advice, Grace must dismantle one life and create another for her child and herself. Jonathan is described as an acclaimed pediatric oncologist, devoted husband to Grace and doting father, whose past undergoes scrutiny when he suddenly disappears, leading to a chain of terrible revelations. (Variety)

More cast members have joined next summer’s new season of Veronica Mars that will air on Hulu. Actor Clifton Collins Jr. (Westworld) and J.K. Simmons (Whiplash and Counterpart) and actress Isabela Vidovic (The Fosters) will have recurring roles in the much anticipated return of the fan favorite. In the revival, spring breakers are getting murdered in Neptune, thereby decimating the seaside town’s lifeblood tourist industry. After Mars Investigations is hired by the parents of one of the victims to find their son’s killer, Veronica (Kristin Bell) is drawn into an epic mystery that pits the enclave’s wealthy elites, who would rather put an end to the month-long bacchanalia, against a working class that relies on the cash influx that comes with being the West Coast’s answer to Daytona Beach. Collins will play Alonzo, a mid-level hitman for a Mexican cartel. Meanwhile, Vidovic will portray teenaged Matty Ross, who loses the most important person in the world in an act of violence, she isn’t content to wait for justice. She goes after it herself in acts so brazen. And, Simmons will play Clyde Prickett, an ex-con who served 10 years for racketeering, who is now a fixer for Big Dick Casablancas (David Starzyk), the richest real estate developer in the town of Neptune, California. (Entertainment Weekly and Deadline)

Actor Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men) will appear as Lex Luthor on Supergirl while actress Hannah James (Mercy Street) and Kate Burton (Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy) will guest star as Nia Nal’s (new series regular Nicole Maines) older sister Maeve and mother respectively. (Deadline and Variety)

Actress Reshma Shetty (Royal Pains) has landed a recurring role on the CBS drama series Instinct that stars Alan Cumming as a former CIA operative who is lured back to his old life when the NYPD needs his help to stop a serial killer. Shetty will play Maya, a glamorous old love of Julian’s (Naveen Andrews), who comes back into his life with a proposal he cannot resist. (Deadline)

Actress Lauren Holly (Motive and NCIS) and actor Benjamin Watson (The L.A. Complex) have landed key recurring roles in the former ABC drama Designated Survivor which was picked up for season 3 by Netflix. The new season will find President Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) facing a political reality: campaigning. Holly will play Lynn Harper, the daughter of a renowned Virginia senator, who is married to Mars Harper, Kirkman’s new Chief of Staff. Watson will play Dontae Evans, a mid-20s Digital Officer in the West Wing. (Deadline)

Actor Matt Long (Helix and the recent Hallmark Channel movie Christmas Joy) has landed a major recurring role on Manifest, the new NBC supernatural thriller. He will play Zeke, a mysterious new character whose arrival triggers a new relationship triangle and upends the series’ mythology. (Deadline)

Actor Allen Leech (Downton Abbey and Bohemian Rhapsody) will star opposite actress Sophia Bush (Chicago P.D. and One Tree Hill) in the CBS drama pilot Surveillance, a spy thriller that will center on the head of communications for the NSA Maddy (Bush), a charming operative who finds her loyalties torn between protecting the government’s secrets and her own. Leech will play Mike, Maddy’s husband and an accomplished former CIA operative. (Deadline)

Actor RJ Cyler (Sierra Burgess is a Loser and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) has landed a recurring role on Black Lightning, playing Todd Green, the gangly and awkward tech genius who’s passed over for a research grant. He doesn’t take it well, until he gets an offer to join Tobias Whale (series regular Marvin “Krodon” Jones III). (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

PICK-UPS/CANCELLATIONS

The CW has given Charmed a full season order. (Variety)

ABC has given The Rookie a full season pick up. (Variety)

The Purge has been renewed for a second season by the USA Network. (Variety)

NBC has officially cancelled the drama Reverie after one season. (Variety)

Good Behavior has been cancelled after two seasons by TNT. (Variety)

CASTING NEWS

More cast members have been announced for next summer’s small screen return of Veronica Mars on Hulu. Actress Dawnn Lewis (iZombie and A Different World) will play the recurring role of Marcia Langdon, the new police chief of Neptune. Also, actress Kirby Howell-Baptiste (Killing Eve and Barry) will have the recurring role of Nicole, who owns and operates a Neptune nightclub; actor Max Greenfield (New Girl and The Neighborhood) will reprise his role of Leo D’Amato and actor Patton Oswalt (Happy!) will play the recurring role of Penn Epner, the best pizza delivery guy in Neptune. (TV Line and Deadline)

Actor Michael Sheen (Masters of Sex) has joined the cast of The Good Fight in the role of Roland Blum, a brilliant, charismatic and Machiavellian lawyer. The third season is set to premiere in early 2019 on CBS All Access. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Actors Jeremy Irvine (Mamma Mia 2) and Brian J. Smith (Sense8 and Stargate Universe) will star in the Jason Bourne spy thriller spin-off series Treadstone set to air on the USA Network. The series will explore the origin story and present-day action of the covert program that uses behavior modification protocol to turn recruits into nearly superhuman assassins. Irvine will star as J. Randolph Bentley, a spy dispatched by the CIA to eliminate a key target but who ends up embroiled in an international conspiracy. Smith will play Doug McKenna, an all-American oil-rig worker whose life changes after he discovers long-buried truths about himself. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Actress Kathleen Turner (Romancing the Stone) and Ginnifer Goodwin (Once Upon a Time) and actor Kyle Bornheimer (Casual) will star in Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings: These Old Bones, an episode of Netflix’s upcoming 8-episode anthology series showcasing the stories, memories and inspirations behind Parton’s most beloved songs. These Old Bones will be set in the 1940s, focusing on a determined D.C. lawyer who returns to her small Smoky Mountain hometown to prove herself professionally when a mysterious old mountain woman, who locals believe to be a fortune teller, threatens a lumber company’s business. What results is a test of faith along with shocking secrets from the past. Turner will play Miss Mary Shaw, aka Old Bones; Goodwin will play Genevieve; and Bornheimer will play Landon. All eight episodes will launch at once in 2019. (Deadline)

Actress Anna Paquin (True Blood and the X-Men franchise) has landed a series regular role in the 5th and final season of The Affair, which will introduce a flash-forward storyline. The season will center on Alison and Cole’s now-adult daughter Joanie Lockhart (Paquin), who returns some years in the future to a climate-change ravaged Montauk to piece together the truth about what happened to her mother and bringing the whole story full circle. (Deadline)

Actor Sendhil Ramamurthy (Heroes and Reverie) will have a recurring role on the new NBC medical drama New Amsterdam, playing a new doctor at the hospital. (Deadline and TV Line)

Actor Ian Harding (Pretty Little Liars) will appear in multiple episodes of Chicago Med, playing Phillip Davis, a man facing a medical crisis which bonds him with Dr. Manning (series regular Torrey DeVitto. (TV Line)

Actor James Wolk (Tell Me a Story) has joined the cast of the HBO adaptation of Watchmen, based on the cult classic Alan Moore comic book, which is set in an alternate history where “superheroes” are treated as outlaws. The new series embraces the nostalgia of the original groundbreaking graphic novel while attempting to break new ground of its own. Wolk will play a junior senator from Oklahoma. The series is slated for a 2019 premiere. (TV Line)

UPCOMING MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

Lifetime is planning a contemporary spin on the literary classic Pride and Prejudice that will star Jackee Harry (Sister, Sister), Tiffany Hines (Being Mary Jane), Reginald VelJohnson (Family Matters), Victoria Roswell (The Young and the Restless) and Keshia Knight Pulliam (The Cosby Show) [among others]. This present-day story will be set in Atlanta, Georgia as a church-based drama. The network has also ordered the movie Very Valentine, based on the Adriana Trigiani Valentine Trilogy books that follows a family-owned shoe store in Greenwich Village on the brink of financial collapse that will star Kelen Coleman (Big Little Lies) and veteran actress Jacqueline Bisset. (TV Line)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the news items for the past week:

RENEWALS/SERIES PICK-UP

CBS All Access has given a second season order to the streaming series Strange Angel. (Variety)

BBC America has given the greenlight for the new scripted series The Watch based on the popular Discworld novels by author Sir Terry Pratchett. The 8-episode series is a punk rock thriller inspired by the legendary ‘City Watch’ subset of the novels, centering on misfit cops as they fight to save a ramshackle city of normalized wrongness, from both the past and future in a perilous quest. (Press Release)

CASTING NEWS

FOX has announced the cast of the next upcoming live musical Rent. Recording artist Tinashe will play Mimi Marquez, a dancer who struggles with addiction and catches the eye of musician and recovering addict Roger, who will be played by Brennin Hunt (Nashville and X-Factor contestant). Meanwhile Singer/songwriter Jordan Fisher (Hamilton) will play Mark, Roger’s filmmaker roommate and best friend and Vanessa Hudgens (Grease: Live and High School Musical franchise) will play Maureen Johnson, a performance artist and Mark’s ex-girlfriend. Also, Kiersey Clemons (Extant and Eye Candy) will play Joanne Jefferson, an Ivy League-educated lawyer and Tony Award winner Brandon Victor Dixon (Jesus Christ Superstar Live) will play Tom Collins, a computer scientist who returns to New York after being expelled from MIT. There he meets and falls in love with Angel Dumont Schunard, a young drag queen and street percussionist, who will be played by Valentina from RuPaul’s Drag Race. Additionally, R&B and pop star Mario (Empire) will play Benjamin Coffin III, Mark and Roger’s former roommate-turned-landlord and Mimi’s ex who has married wealthy and now wants to gentrify the building in which he once lived. Lastly, Keala Settle (The Greatest Showman) will perform and join the ensemble in the live musical. (Variety)

Actress Jaime Murray (Dexter, Defiance and Warehouse 13) has landed a key recurring role in the 5th and final season of Gotham, playing Theresa Walker, who emerges as Jim Gordon’s (Ben McKenzie) principal nemesis in the season. She comes to Gotham harboring a dark secret about her past. (Deadline)

Actress Naomi Watts will star in the Game of Thrones prequel pilot at HBO that will take place thousands of years before the events of the original series. Actor Josh Whitehouse (Poldark) will also have a lead role in the prequel pilot. Character details are being kept under wraps, though. (Variety and Deadline)

Actress Kristine Froseth (Sierra Burgess Is a Loser) and actor Charlie Plummer (Boardwalk Empire) have landed the lead roles in the Hulu limited series Looking for Alaska. The 8-episode series, based on John Green novel centers on Miles “Pudge” Halter (Plummer), a teenager from Florida who enrolls at a prestigious boarding school in Alabama hoping to find a deeper perspective on life. He discovers that Culver Creek Academy isn’t that different from his old high school, except for the clique of outcasts that instantly accepts him. The group includes Alaska Young (Froseth), who is mercurial, unpredictable and instantly attractive to Miles. She’s also hiding a troubled past, and when she dies unexpectedly, Miles and his friends try to make sense of what happened. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Netflix has a new anthology series based on the music of Dolly Parton. The 8-episdoe series Heartstrings will feature a different cast and be based on a different song by the country music superstar. The first episode – based on the classic song Jolene – will star Julianne Hough (Grease Live and Footloose) will play the title character, a flirtatious free spirit who wants to escape her hometown of Coventry, Ga. and become a singer-songwriter. The cast will include Kimberly Williams-Paisley (Nashville) as Emily, a mother and wife starting a new chapter in life, who gets pulled into Jolene’s orbit while Dallas Roberts (Insatiable) will play Aaron, a loving husband and father on the verge of a midlife crisis. Parton will play Babe, the owner of Baby Blue’s, a honky-tonk known for its scantily clad servers and eclectic crowd. She looks after all her waitresses but feels especially close to Jolene. Heartstrings is set to premiere in 2019. (The Hollywood Reporter)

MOVIE NEWS

Actress Keesha Sharp (FOX’s Lethal Weapon) has picked up rights to 2013 biography America’s Mistress: The Life and Times of Eartha Kitt. Sharp and her husband will develop and produce the project as a feature film, with Sharp in the titular role. Eartha Kitt is best known for playing Catwoman on the 1960s Batman TV series and for singing hits including “C’est si bon” and the ubiquitous holiday tune “Santa, Baby.” (Deadline)

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