Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWAL

Apple TV+ has given a second season renewal to Presumed Innocent, but it is unclear who from season one, including Jake Gyllenhaal, will return for the sophomore season. (TV Line)

REBRANDING NEWS

Hallmark Movies Now will be relaunched as Hallmark+. (TCA Press Tour)

TV CASTING NEWS

Halle Berry and Glenn Close will star in the upcoming Hulu legal drama from Ryan Murphy called All’s Fair, which will focus on an all-female law firm in Los Angeles. Specific character details are being kept under wraps, though. (Variety)

Starz has added cast members to its sequel series Spartacus: House of Asher, which will be led by franchise star Nick Tarabay, who is back as Ashur. The 10-episode series will pose the questions: What if Ashur hadn’t died on Mount Vesuvius at the end of Spartacus: Vengeance? And what if he had been gifted the gladiator school once owned by Batiatus in return for aiding the Romans in killing Spartacus and putting an end to the slave rebellion? Among the new cast members are Graham McTavish (Outlander and The Witcher) who will play Korris, a former gladiator who won his freedom in the arena and is now Ashur’s Doctore, training the gladiators in Ashur’s Ludus; Ivana Baquero (Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shannara Chronicles), who will play Messia, a house slave; and Claudia Black (Farscape and The Nevers), who will play Cossutia, a politician determined to keep Ashur in his place and is constantly plotting his downfall. (Deadline)

Lamorne Morris (New Girl and the commercial spokesperson for BMO) will star alongside Nicolas Cage in the upcoming live-action Amazon series called Spider-Man Noir, which debut on MGM+. The series will tell the story of an aging and down on his luck private investigator (Cage) in 1930s New York, who is forced to grapple with his past life as the city’s one and only superhero. Morris will appear as Robbie Robertson, who is driven, hard-working and won’t take no for an answer. A dedicated journalist trying to make it with the odds stacked against him as a black professional in 1930s New York. He takes on riskier stories that no one else would touch in order to catch attention and a paycheck. He is willing to do whatever is necessary for his career. Also, Brendan Gleeson has also joined the cast in a role that is being kept under wraps, however, it’s being reported that he will play the show’s villain. (Variety)

Mireille Enos will be reunited with her former co-star from The Killing, Joel Kinnaman, in the upcoming 5th season of the Apple TV+ series For All Mankind. She will have a series regular role as Celia Boyd, a member of the Peacekeeper Security Force on Mars. (Variety)

Emilia Clarke and Luke Evans will join Charlie Hunnam, Richard Jenkins, Adria Arjona and Kadeem Hardison [among others] in the upcoming Amazon Prime series Criminal, which is an adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name. Clarke will appear as Mallory, a slick and daring armed robber, as quick with a gun as she is with her wits; while Evans will play Tracy Lawless, who was pushed out of the outlaw life of his family at the age of 18 when a judge gave him a choice of prison or the military. In the Army, Tracy thrived, his wild outlaw instincts getting funneled into the strict discipline of the military. He was placed into the Special Forces and trained to be an expert in covert operations and guerilla warfare. But underneath it all, the Lawless blood still pumps in his heart. The series will include an interlocking universe of crime stories. (Variety)

Renee Zellweger will have the lead role in the currently-in-development series at Max currently titled Jane Smith, which is based on the novel “12 Months to Live” from James Patterson and Mike Lupica, which centers on a brilliant, tough and darkly funny defense attorney in the Hamptons. Up to this point, Jane has only cared about winning; however, her world is completely turned upside down when, on the eve of the biggest case of her career, she is diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor. While the investigation becomes more dangerous and deeply personal, Jane refuses to let her death sentence stop her from solving this case. (Variety)

Amazon Prime has given a greenlight to the first-ever authorized scripted series about the life of Muhammad Ali. Relative newcomer Jaalen Best will star as Ali. (Variety)

Hallmark+ (formerly Hallmark Movies Now) will present its first-ever holiday series called Holidazed that boost a large ensemble cast, which includes Ser’Darius Blain (The CW’s Charmed and the Jumaji remake movies), Lindy Booth (The Librarians), Erin Cahill (Red Widow), Osric Chau (Supernatural), Nazneen Contractor (24), Loretta Devine (Grey’s Anatomy), Noemi Gonzalez (East Los High), Ian Harding (Pretty Little Liars), Dennis Haysbert (24), Rachelle Lefevre (Under the Dome), Virginia Madsen (Witches of East End), John C. McGinley (Scrubs), Holland Roden (Teen Wolf) and Lucille Soong (Fresh Off the Boat). The limited series will showcase six diverse families, each with distinct backgrounds, cultures, and generations, residing on the same cul-de-sac. As they navigate the joyous chaos of the holiday season, they embrace a family dynamic unique to them. Amid heightened emotions, these families and neighbors engage in both humorous and heartfelt celebrations of their traditions and quirks. Throughout the festivities, they uncover the universal thread binding them all: the various manifestations of love. (TV Line)

Edward Bluemel (My Lady Jane and Belgravia: The Next Chapter) has joined the cast of the upcoming Agatha Christie series The Seven Dials Mystery, which will feature breakout star Mia McKenna-Bruce in the lead role. The series will follow a lavish country house party where a practical joke appears to have gone murderously wrong. It’s down to the fizzingly inquisitive Lady Eileen “Bundle” Brent (McKenna-Bruce) to unravel a chilling plot that will change her life, cracking wide open the country house mystery. Bluemel will play Jimmy Thesiger, a charming and witty man who becomes Bundle’s ally in the murder investigation. The cast also includes Helena Bonham Carter and Martin Freeman. (Variety)

Courtney Taylor (Abbott Elementary) has joined the currently untitled Bosch spin-off, which will star Maggie Q as Detective Renee Ballard, who is tasked with running the LAPD’s new cold case division — a poorly funded, all-volunteer unit with the largest case load in the city. Taylor will play Samira Parker, a wary ex-cop who returns to the force five years later at her former mentor Ballard’s behest. There, she’ll work to right past wrongs and restore her sense of justice. (Deadline and TV Line)

The prequel series NCIS: Origins has added Lori Petty and Bobby Moynihan to its ranks. Petty will play an assistant medical examiner while Moynihan will take over as a lead forensic analyst. (Deadline)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Looks like a sequel to The Devil Wears Prada is in the works with Meryl Streep returning as Miranda Priestly, the high-powered fashion magazine editor from hell. It is unclear, at this time, if any other original cast members will be back as well, though. The sequel will reportedly follow Priestly as she navigates her career amid the decline of traditional magazine publishing and faces off against Emily Blunt’s character, who is now a high-powered executive for a luxury group with advertising dollars that Priestly desperately needs. (Variety)

Bridgerton beauty Simone Ashley has joined the cast of F1, the Formula 1 racing movie that will star Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes, a former Formula 1 driver who returns to the sport and partners with and mentors rookie Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris) on APXGP, a fictional 11th team on the grid. The details of Ashley’s role are being kept under wraps, though. (Variety)

The upcoming animated feature Watchmen Chapter I will feature the voices of Matthew Rhys, Katee Sackhoff and Titus Welliver [among others]. The two-part film will be set in an alternative world in which costume vigilantes are real with Rhys as Dan Dreiberg (aka Nite Owl), Sackhoff as Laurie Juspeczyk (aka Silk Spectre), Welliver as Walter Kovacs (aka Rorschach). (Variety)

Regina King will star opposite Austin Butler and Zoe Kravitz in the upcoming crime thriller Caught Stealing, that will follow Hank Thompson (Butler), a burned-out former baseball player, as he’s unwittingly plunged into a wild fight for survival in the downtown criminal underworld of ’90s NYC. What role King will play is being kept under wraps, though. (Deadline)

STREAMING MOVIES NEWS

Speaking of Simone Ashley, she will also appear in the upcoming Amazon Prime rom-com Picture This that will focus on single, and without a man on the horizon, Pia (Simone Ashley) who runs a failing photography studio in London with her best friend Jay (Luke Fetherston). As her sister Sonal (Anoushka Chadha) prepares to get married and her mother Laxmi (Sindhu Vee) urges the resolutely independent Pia to partner up, a spiritual guru at Sonal’s engagement party predicts Pia will meet the love of her life among the next five dates she goes on. As her family intervenes, setting her up on a series of increasingly desperate blind dates, Pia begins a hilarious but heartfelt quest for real love. (Glamour Magazine)

Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Sam Worthington and Gugu Mbatha-Raw have joined the cast of the David Mackenzie-directed flick Fuze, which will be a ticking thriller that ignites when a long-buried WWII bomb is found in central London, sparking a citywide evacuation, while a group of men exploit the chaos to their own ends. (Variety)

The Amblin and Netflix movie The Thursday Murder Club already boosts a cast including Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, Helen Mirren, David Tennant and Jonathan Pryce [among others], but now Richard E. Grant and Tom Ellis have also joined the ranks of this movie that will a group of friends in a retirement home who gather to solve murders for fun but find themselves caught in a real case. (Deadline)

Jennifer Lawrence will star in the upcoming dark comedy Why Don’t You Love Me, which follows a miserable couple, Claire and Mark, struggling through their marriage while feeling like something is not quite right in their reality. (Variety)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

Great American Family is planning their first holiday ensemble movie, which will be a modern-day retelling of Little Women. A Little Women’s Christmas will star Jillian Murray as Jo March, Trevor Donovan as Friedrich “Fritz” Baehr, Laura Osnes as Beth March, Jen Lilley as Meg March, Jesse Hutch as John Brooke and Julia Reilly as Amy March. Gladys Knight wil also star and perform her new original Christmas song, “Joy.” (Variety)

Also on Great American Family, Candace Cameron Bure and Cameron Mathison will star in the upcoming holiday movie Jingle Bells, Wedding Bells. The movie will follow Gracie (Bure) who is Peachtree Inn’s perfect wedding planner whose mantra “No problems, only solutions waiting to be discovered” makes blushing brides’ dreams come true. When Charlie (Mathison) brings his sister and future brother-in-law to their former hometown of Butler, South Carolina, expecting to create a magical Christmas Eve wedding at the Inn, the trio is stunned when Gracie stubbornly declines the job, saying it is not possible to pull off the perfect wedding two weeks before Christmas. Eventually, Gracie relents and agrees to plan the wedding, only to discover there are more hurdles to overcome than expected. (Deadline)

Speaking of Hallmark+ (see above), the new movie franchise The Groomsmen will star Tyler Hynes, Jonathan Bennett and B.J. Britt in three connected movies: First Look, Second Chances and Last Dance. The three films will follow the lives and romances of three longtime best friends who stand up for each other at their weddings. Bennett will play Danny, a baseball coach with a heart of gold; while Britt will play Pete, a kind-hearted pediatrician with a penchant for planning and Hynes will play Jackson, a stylish and charming social media agent. (Heavy)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

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

CANCELLATION

The Amazon Prime series Outer Range has been canceled after two seasons. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Richard Gere will take on his first major TV series role in the upcoming Showtime political thriller The Agency where he will play Bosko, a London Station Chief with a storied past after serving as an 8-year undercover agent. He joins previously announced stars Michael Fassbender and Jeffrey Wright in the upcoming series. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Julianne Moore, Meghann Fahy (The White Lotus and The Bold Type) and Milly Alcock (House of the Dragon and the upcoming new Supergirl flick) will star in the upcoming Netflix dark comedy limited series Sirens. The synopsis of the series is as follows: Devon (Fahy) thinks her sister Simone (Alcock) has a really creepy relationship with her new boss, the enigmatic socialite Michaela Kell (Moore). Michaela’s cult-ish life of luxury is like a drug to Simone, and Devon has decided it’s time for an intervention. When Devon tracks her sister down to say WTF, she has no idea what a formidable opponent Michaela will be. Told over the course of one explosive weekend at The Kells’ lavish beach estate, Sirens is an incisive, sexy, and darkly funny exploration of women, power, and class. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Jeremy Irons has joined the cast of season 4 of The Morning Show on Apple TV+, playing Martin Levy, the father of Jennifer Aniston’s character Alex. (TV Line)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWAL

AMC has given Interview With the Vampire a third season renewal. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Chicago Med series regular Dominic Rains will not be returning to the NBC drama for its upcoming 10th season. (TV Line)

La Brea alum Lily Santiago and Wilson Bethel (Hart of Dixie and All Rise) have joined the cast of the upcoming Netflix limited series Untamed that will star Eric Bana as Kyle Turner, a special agent for the National Parks Service who works to enforce human law in nature’s vast wilderness. The cast already includes Sam Neill and Rosemarie Dewitt. Santiago will play Naya Vasquez, an ambitious young, former Los Angeles cop while Bethel will play Shane Maguire, a former army ranger who now uses his skills as the park’s Wildlife Management Officer. Maguire’s a loner, preferring to live by himself in the wilderness where it’s easier to follow his own rules. (Variety)

Daniel Ezra will not return to All American as a series regular for the drama’s 7th season, but he will still remain an “integral part” of the franchise by appearing as a guest star. (Variety)

ER alum Gloria Reuben has joined the cast of the Amazon Prime upcoming series The Better Sister, which also stars Jessica Biel, Elizabeth Banks and Matthew Modine. Based on the novel by Alafair Burke, the series stars Biel as Chloe, a woman whose life is upended when her husband Adam (Corey Stoll) is brutally murdered and the prime suspect shocks the family and exposes secrets. Banks will Chloe’s sister, Nicky, who hustles to make ends meet while trying to stay clean. Reuben will play Michelle Sanders, a respected lawyer who has made a career of standing up when she’s told to sit down. Michelle Sanders faces a new kind of challenge when she crosses paths with the sisters. (Variety)

Jeffrey Wright has joined the cast of the Paramount+ With Showtime upcoming political thriller series The Agency that will also star Michael Fassbender as Martian, a covert CIA agent. Wright will play Henry, the CIA’s director of operations overseeing non-official cover agents, and a mentor to Martian. (Variety)

Buffy star Sarah Michelle Gellar has joined the cast of the Dexter prequel series Dexter: Original Sin that will air on Paramount+ With Showtime. Gellar will play Tanya Martin, the CSI Chief at the Miami Metro Police Department and Dexter’s new boss. (TV Line)

The Young Sherlock series from Guy Ritchie has cast the boy genius’s parents. Joseph Fiennes and Natascha McElhone will play Silas and Cordelia Holmes. The series will air on Amazon Prime and will star Hero Fiennes Tiffin (Joseph Fiennes real-life nephew) in the lead role. (Deadline)

New cast members have been added to season 3 of the Sex and the City sequel series And Just Like That. Logan Marshall-Green, Mehcad Brooks and Jonathan Cake will recur as guest stars in roles that have not been announced yet. (Variety)

Broadway alum and Schmigadoon cast member Aaron Tveit has joined the cast of MGM+’s Earth Abides series that will take place on an Earth that has been ravaged by a deadly, measles-like disease that wiped out most of its population. A small handful of survivors must crawl from the wreckage and attempt to rebuild civilization. The story takes place over decades, and details the history of a small community founded by graduate student Ish and his wife, Emma. Tveit will play Charlie, the handsome and charismatic leader of a band of travelers on the post-apocalyptic Earth. Other cast members include Alexander Ludwig (Vikings and Heels), Elyse Levesque (Starage Universe and The Originals), Luisa D’Oliveira (The 100) and Hilary McCormack (Killjoys). (Collider)

STRAIGHT-TO-SERIES ORDER

HBO has given an 8-episode straight-to-series order to a live action Green Lantern series that follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, Earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland. (TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Snatchback is a new series in development at Universal Television, and this potential new series will find Prison Break brothers Dominic Purcell and Wentworth Miller starring. The series will be inspired by the life of a real covert intelligence officer who is still active in the field today, following a highly skilled privately contracted team of operatives as they recover hostages across the globe from some of the most exotic, and equally dangerous locations on the planet. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS

PBS has given a 10th season order to the mystery series Grantchester. (Deadline)

Resident Alien has been given a fourth season renewal, but it will be moved from Syfy to the USA Network. (TV Line)

BROADWAY NEWS

Singer-actor Nick Jonas and Tony Award-winning actress Adrienne Warren (Tina) will star in the first-ever Broadway production of the musical The Last Five years where they will play rising author Jamie and aspiring actor Cathy, two New Yorkers who fall in and out of love over the course of five years. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Season 3 of The Gilded Age has added Phylicia Rashad and Broadway vet Brian Stokes Mitchell to the cast. Rashad will recur as Mrs. Elizabeth Kirkland, a woman from a prominent family in Newport with ties dating back to the American Revolution who has high standards and an occasionally sharp tongue. She is unwilling to compromise the standards and expectations of her elite and exclusive social group — particularly when it comes to her son. Mitchell will guest star as Frederick Kirkland, Elizabeth’s husband and the patriarch of the Kirkland family. (Variety)

The upcoming Netflix drama series adaptation Man on Fire, based on the book series by author A.J. Quinnell, will star Billie Boullet (A Small Light) and Aquaman alum Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. The eight-episode series will tell the story of John Creasy (Abdul-Mateen II), once a high-functioning and skilled Special Forces Mercenary, known for surviving even the most desolate of situations, who is now plagued with intense PTSD. Determined to overcome his personal demons, he sets out on a path to redemption. But, before he can adjust to this new life, he finds himself back in the fire, fighting harder than ever. Boullet will play Poe Rayburn, a role loosely based on the young character in the novel. (Deadline)

Sam Neill, Eric Bana and Rosemarie DeWitt will star in the Netflix limited series Untamed that follows Kyle Turner (Bana), a special agent for the National Parks Service who works to enforce human law in nature’s vast wilderness. The investigation of a brutal death sends Turner on a collision course with the dark secrets within the park, and in his own past. Neill will play Paul Souter who has been the chief park ranger in Yosemite for half his life. He’s a dedicated husband, father, grandfather, and friend to Turner (Bana). He’s comfortable in all facets of his job, whether it’s dealing with crime inside the park or with the bureaucracy around it. And, DeWitt will play Turner’s ex-wife Jill Bodwin, a former teacher and park counselor, who remarried a few years after their divorce. Despite the fracturing of their marriage, Jill and Turner maintain a strong bond, held together by events from their past. (Deadline)

Dexter alum Jennifer Carpenter will have a recurring role in the second season of the Yellowstone prequel 1923, playing Mamie Fossett, a highly capable U.S. Deputy Marshall who serves warrants and makes arrests with confidence ahead of her time. (Deadline and TV Line)

Jesse Lee Soffer (Chicago P.D.) will play a new, yet-to-be-named character on FBI: International thus taking over the void created last season by the exit of Luke Kleintank. (TV Line)

Matt Bomer, Nathan Lane and Linda Lavin will star in Mid-Century Modern, a multi-camera Hulu series from Ryan Murphy and Will & Grace series creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan. This new series will be similar to The Golden Girls with Bomer playing a ditzy Rose-like character (originally played by Betty White) while Lane will play the Dorothy character (originally played by Bea Arthur. Meanwhile, Lavin will play Lane’s mother. The series will be set in the gay mecca of Palm Springs, following three best friends — gay gentlemen of a certain age – who, after an unexpected death, decide to spend their golden years living together in Palm Springs where the wealthiest one lives with his mother and a naked Gen Z housekeeper. (Variety)

Patrick Dempsey has joined the Dexter prequel series Original Sin. He will play Aaron Spencer, the Captain of the Miami Metro Homicide who has a decades-long relationship with Harry Morgan, who will be played by Christian Slater). (TV Line)

STREAMING MOVIE NEWS

Sofia Carson (Netflix’s movie Purple Hearts) and Corey Mylchreest (Queen Charlotte) will star in the new movie My Oxford Year, based on the book by Julia Whelan. The film follows Anna, an ambitious young American, who sets out for Oxford University to fulfill a childhood dream only to meet a charming and clever local who profoundly alters both of their lives. (Netflix)

Elizabeth Olsen, Natasha Lyonne and Carrie Coon will star in the Netflix movie His Three Daughters, which will center on three estranged sisters who reunite to care for their ailing father. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Best known as the AT&T spokesperson, Milana Vayntrub will star in the upcoming Amazon MGM Studio movie Project Hail Mary that is already set to star Ryan Gosling and Sandra Huller. The movie will focus on middle school science teacher Ryland Grace (Gosling), who wakes up on a spaceship with no memory of who he is or how he got there. He must figure out how to complete his interstellar mission to save Earth from an astronomical catastrophe completely alone, until he meets a mysterious alien who has traveled light years to save his own species from the same fate. (Deadline)

Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence will star in the Apple Original Films movie The Wives, a murder mystery that’s along the lines of The Real Housewives. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here is the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATION

Power Book IV: Force will come to an end after its upcoming third season. (TV Line)

House of the Dragon has been renewed for a third season at HBO, mere days after the season two premiere. (TV Line)

While The Boys is currently airing its fourth season on Amazon Prime, the series will actually be coming to an end after its 5th season. (TV Line)

The John Leguizamo drama The Green Veil, which is airing on the new independent, ad-supported streamer The Network, has been renewed for a second season. The show will pick up between 10 and 15 years later, amidst the women’s rights movement and the occupation of Alcatraz by Native Americans in 1969. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Station 19 alum Danielle Savre has joined the second season of the NBC drama Found in a recurring role that is being kept under wraps. (TV Line)

The second season of the Apple TV+ thriller series Hijack, which stars Idris Elba, will now include cast members Toby Jones (Mr. Bates vs The Post Office), German actress Lisa Vicari and FBI: International alum Christiane Paul. Plot details for season two are being kept under wraps, though. (Deadline)

Paul Giamatti has joined the upcoming Paramount+ series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy where he will play a recurring guest role as the first season’s main villain, who has a sinister connection to the past of one of the (yet to be cast) cadets. (Variety)

Julianna Margulies will not be back for season four of The Morning Show on Apple TV+. (Variety)

Jason George will return to Grey’s Anatomy as a series regular after being on the show’s spin-off series Station 19 after seven seasons. (Variety)

Grey’s Anatomy alum Eric Dane has joined the cast of the Jensen Ackles upcoming thriller-drama series Countdown that will air on Amazon Prime. The series will follow a suspicious murder that happens in broad daylight, leading LAPD officer Mark Meachum (Ackles) being recruited to join a secret task force of undercover agents from all branches of law enforcement to investigate. Dane will play Nathan Blythe, Special Agent in Charge and a veteran with the Bureau for 22 years. (Bleeding Cool)

Anthony Michael Hall (The Dead Zone) has joined the cast of season three of Reacher. He will play the main antagonist Zachary Beck, a kingpin of wholesale drug dealing. (Collider)

BAFTA Rising Star winner Mia McKenna-Bruce (How to Have Sex) will star in the upcoming Netflix Agatha Christie series The Seven Dials Mystery that will also star Helena Bonham Carter and Martin Freeman. Set in 1925, the series follows a lavish country house party where a practical joke appears to have gone horribly, murderously wrong. In the end, it’s up to the unlikeliest of sleuths — the fizzingly inquisitive Lady Eileen “Bundle” Brent (McKenna-Bruce) — to unravel a chilling plot that will change her life, cracking wide open the country house mystery. Bonham Carter and Freeman will play the characters Lady Caterham and Superintendent Battle, respectively. (Variety)

ADAPTATION NEWS

Amazon MGM Studios is adapting the novel The 500 from author Matthew Quirk, who is the author behind the Netflix hit series The Night Agent. This new adaptation will focus on a former con artist who is plucked from his Harvard Law School classroom to become an associate at Washington’s most high-powered consulting firm. Quickly pulled into a seductive, dangerous web of power and corruption, he struggles to find his way out. (Deadline)

SERIES ORDER

AMC has given a greenlight to Anne Rice’s The Talamasca [currently the working title], the third series in the network’s Anne Rice Immortal Universe. The series is set to debut in 2025 and will follow a secretive society called the Talamasca that’s responsible for tracking and containing witches, vampires, werewolves and other creatures. (Variety)

The USA Network has ordered to series a scripted drama based on the 1995 John Grisham novel The Rainmaker. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Paramount is updating the classic 80’s movie An Officer and a Gentleman this time with Miles Teller (Top Gun Maverick) in the lead role. (Deadline and Variety)

Universal Pictures has landed the rights to the Stacey Abrams novel Rules of Engagement that follows an operative for a top-secret intelligence organization, who knows that her undercover work has its risks. So she doesn’t hesitate when asked to infiltrate Scimitar, the terrorist group that has stolen lethal environmental technology. But when she’s assigned a partner, brooding, sexy Adam Grayson to pose as her lover, Raleigh discovers that the most dangerous risk of all is falling in love. Scandal alum Kerry Washington will be one of the producers. (Deadline)

After 26 years, Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman are in talks to return for a sequel to Practical Magic. (Variety)

Newcomer Catherine Laga’aia (whose only credit is playing Young Candy in The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart) has been cast in the lead role of the upcoming live-action Moana film. SHe will star opposite Dwayne Johnson, who will reprise his role as demigod Maui. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here is the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

CW has given the drama All American a 7th season renewal while its spin-off series All American: Homecoming will come to an end after its current 3rd season. (TV Line)

Paramount+ has given Criminal Minds: Evolution a third season renewal. (The Hollywood Reporter)

The Canadian drama Sight Unseen has been given a second season renewal in its home country, but CW has yet to announce if they will air the new season or not. The first season of the series just aired its season finale earlier this week. (TV Line)

Max has pulled the plug on the drama Tokyo Vice after only two seasons. (TV Line)

Apple TV+ has renewed the comedy-drama Palm Royale for a second season. (TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Blue Bloods may be coming to an end on CBS, but it looks like its home company Paramount Global could possibly be moving forward with a spin-off series, but it’s unclear if that potential offshoot will be for CBS or Paramount+.  (TV Line)

White Collar series creator Jeff Eastin shared at a recent TV Fest that he is working on a reboot of the series. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Former Charlie’s Angels and Twilight alum Kristen Stewart will play former astronaut and physicist Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space, in the upcoming Amazon MGM Studios limited series The Challengers. (Deadline)

Nick Wechsler (Revenge and the original Roswell) has joined the cast of the upcoming NBC drama The Hunting Party that currently includes Melissa Roxburgh (Manifest) and Josh McKenzie (La Brea) as part of the cast. The series will be a high-concept crime procedural about a small team of investigators who are assembled to track down and capture the most dangerous killers our country has ever seen, all of whom have just escaped from a top-secret prison that’s not supposed to exist. Wechsler will play Oliver Odell. (Deadline)

Supernatural and The Boys alum Jensen Ackles will star in the upcoming Amazon Prime thriller series Countdown, which has been given a 13-episode order. The series begins with a suspicious murder in broad daylight, leading Los Angeles Police Department officer Mark Meachum (Ackles) to be recruited to a secret task force of undercover agents from all branches of law enforcement that will investigate the death. Also, Jessica Camacho (All Rise and The Flash) has been cast in the new series as Amber Oliveras, a Special Agent with the DEA. (TV Line and Variety)

Colman Domingo (Fear the Walking Dead) has been cast in the new Netflix series The Four Seasons, which is based on the 1981 film. Tina Fey and Steve Carell have already been cast in the series that follows three married couples who take vacations together each season, but things are thrown for a loop when one of the husbands leaves his wife and begins bringing a younger woman with him. (Variety)

S.W.A.T. alum Rochelle Aytes is exiting that long-running series to join the cast of the upcoming new medical drama Watson, which stars Morris Chestnut as the titular character, who resumes his medical career in the year after the death of his friend and partner, Sherlock Holmes. She will play Dr. Mary Morstan, Watson’s ex-wife and a top surgeon working at the same hospital. Also, So Help Me Todd alum Inga Schlingmann and The Night Agent alum Eve Harlow have also joined the cast. Harlow will play Ingrid Derian, an accomplished neurologist whom Dr. Watson recruits to work at his clinic not only because he recognizes her indisputable skill, but because she herself is a mystery. Meanwhile, Schlingmann will play the unflappable Dr. Sasha Lubbock, who double-boarded in both rheumatology and immunology. (Deadline and TV Line)

Hamish Linklater, who recently played Abraham Lincoln in the limited series Manhut has joined the cast of season 2 of Gen V on Amazon Prime. He will play Cipher, the charismatic and charming newly-appointed Dean of Godolkin University. Trained as a scientist, he’s politically brilliant and has the trust and admiration of officials at the highest level. (Variety)

Marion Cotillard (Inception and Rust and BOne) has joined the cast of season four of The Morning Show at Apple TV+. She will play Celine Dumont, a savvy operator from a storied European family. (TV Line)

The Gilded Age’s alum Morgan Spector has joined the cast of the upcoming Netflix limited series Black Rabbit. He will star alongside Jason Bateman and Jude Law. The series will focus on the owner of a New York City hotspot (Law) who allows his turbulent brother (Bateman) back into his life, only to realize he’s opened the door to escalating dangers that threaten to bring down everything he’s built. Spector will play Campbell, a high powered lawyer. (Collider)

Looks like 9-1-1: Lone Star will be saying goodbye to cast member Sierra McClain, who has played 9-1-1 operator Grace for all four seasons of the drama. She will not be back for the show’s upcoming 5th season. (Deadline and TV Line)

MADE-FOR-STREAMING TV MOVIE NEWS

An as-yet-untitled feature film production for Peaky Blinders is under production at Netflix with Oscar winner Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) reprising his role as Tommy Shelby. Plot details are being kept under wraps, though. (Deadline and TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Josh Brolin (Marvel franchise) and Daryl McCormack (Good Luck to You, Leo Grande) have joined the growing cast of the upcoming murder mystery sequel Knives Out 3. (Variety and The Hollywood Reporter)

Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan, Nonso Anozie (Sweet Tooth) and Jessica Gunning (Baby Reindeer) will appear alongside Claire Foy and Andrew Garfield in the upcoming box office film The Magic Faraway Tree, based on the series of books by Enid Blyton. The film will follow the Thompson family as they move to the English countryside and discover a magical tree. The fantastical tree’s residents transport visitors to distant lands, setting the stage for a series of whimsical adventures. Coughlan will play woodland fairy Silky, while Anozie will play Moonface. Gunning will play Dame Washalot. (Variety)

Billy the Kid and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes alum Tom Blyth will appear in the upcoming box office movie Watch Dogs, an adaptation of the popular UbiSoft hit video game which immerses players in the world of skilled hackers who use technology to combat oppressive forces controlling major cities across the world. (Deadline)

Speaking of The Hunger Games, author Suzanne Collins has announced another book in the franchise – the fifth to be exact, and another prequel – will be released next year. Sunrise on the Reaping is the title, and it takes place 40 years after the events of the most recent tale: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. And it looks like the film adaptation is set to release on November 20, 2026. (Variety)

Oscar-winner and 30 Seconds to Mars rocker Jared Leto will produce and star in a new film that is currently untitled, but will focus on the story of Dr. Lawrence Gray, a retired political science professor from John Cabot University, charged with orchestrating a sophisticated theft operation involving high-value jewels and art pieces. Known for his impeccable manners and elite social connections, Gray allegedly stole over $1 million worth of valuables from homes in five states. (Deadline)

BROADWAY NEWS

It looks like a new musical will be heading Broadway – in 2026 – based on the life of country-pop superstar Dolly Parton. Hello, I’m Dolly will be based on her life and career with a mixture of newly written songs and “all your favorites.” (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

FOX is developing a one-hour drama called The Miracle Department about a brilliant, but disgraced, former FBI agent who joins forces with a quirky task force to hunt for genuine miracles. (Variety)

Warner Bros Television is in early development on a TV series adaptation of the box office film 300. Exact plot details are still being worked out, but it said that the show would serve as a prequel to the 2006 film, which starred Gerard Butler, Lena Heady, Michael Fassbender and Davie Wenham. (Variety)

SERIES ORDER

Amazon Prime has ordered a series based on the Young Sherlock Holmes novels by author Andy Lane with Hero Fiennes Tiffin (the After movie franchise and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare) in the lead role. The 8-episode series has attached Guy Ritchie as the director. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Adria Arjona (Hit Man) and Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy) have joined the cast of the upcoming Amazon Prime series Criminal, which is based on the graphic novels by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. The series is described as an interlocking universe of crime stories with Arjona set to play Greta, a sharp-tongued top-level car thief and driver and the widowed mother of Angie. Ever since her husband died in a bank job gone bad, Greta has been battling with herself about how to escape the only life she’s ever known – and the only place she’s ever thrived. The problem is, she’s good at this. She’s looking for a big score, a lump of money she can use like a gun to shoot her and Angie out of this life and into another one. Meanwhile Hunnam will play Leo, a brilliant master thief who sees all the angles and specializes in plans with no guns and no violence. Like a chess player, he thinks three moves ahead. Other crooks think he’s a coward, especially compared to his father Tommy, who went to jail for murdering the most feared man in the city, Teeg Lawless. (Variety)

Rome Flynn (How To Get Away With Murder and With Love) will recur in the MGM+ series Godfather of Harlm, playing real-life gangster Frank Lucas, a country boy from North Carolina who ventured to Harlem and, after initial friction with gangster Bumpy Johnson (series lead Forest Whitaker), eventually rose to become Bumpy’s fierce defender and right-hand man. (Deadline)

Jack Reynor (Flora and Son) has joined the cast of the Amazon Prime spy drama Citadel, but exact character and plot details for the second season are being kept under wraps. Reynor will appear alongside returning series leads Richard Madden, Priyanka-Chopra Jonas and Stanley Tucci. (Variety)

Camila Morrone (Daisy Jones & the Six) will play a major role in the 2nd season of The Night Manager that will find Tom Hiddleston back in the lead role. No specific details are available on who she will play or what season two will be about. (Deadline)

Actress Nazanin Boniadi will not be returning as Bronwyn in the second season of the Amazon Prime series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. It is said Boniadi has stepped away from acting – as of September 2022 – to focus on activism. (The Hollywood Reporter)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Theo James (Sanditon and The Gentleman) will star alongside Aaron Taylor-Johnson (The Fall Guy) will star in the heist thriller Fuze, which opens on the discovery of an unexploded World War II bomb in a London construction site sparking a mass evacuation; the perfect cover for a heist. (Variety)

Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Glenn Close and Andrew Scott have joined the ever-growing cast of the next Knives Out feature film that already includes Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor (The Crown) and Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla) among its cast. (Variety)

The upcoming long-awaited sequel Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, which will premiere on Valentine’s Day next year, will include among its cast Isla Fisher, Nico Parker (How to Train Your Dragon), Josette Simon (Anatomy of a Scandal) and Leila Farzad (Black Mirror). They, of course, join Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson in the movie along with newcomers to the franchise Chiwetel Ejiofor and Leo Woodall (One Day). (Variety)

The ubiquitous Nicholas Galitzine (The Idea of You) has been cast as He-Man, the blond barbarian who inspired the popular Mattel toy, in the upcoming film adaptation Masters of the Universe. (Variety)

Oscar winner Mahershala Ali is in talks to join the growing cast of the reboot of Jurassic World, joining the already announced Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Ruper Friend.  Plot details are under wraps, though. (Variety)

Oscar nominee Sandra Huller and The Fall Guy and Barbie hunk Ryan Gosling are expected to star in the box office film Project Hail Mary, which is based on the Andy Weir novel about middle school science teacher Ryland Grace (Gosling), who wakes up on a spaceship with no memory of who he is or how he got there. He must figure out how to complete his interstellar mission to save Earth from an astronomical catastrophe completely alone, until he meets a mysterious alien who has traveled light years to save his own species from the same fate. (Deadline)

BROADWAY NEWS

The one and only Audra McDonald will play Mama Rose in the upcoming Broadway revival of Gypsy, which tells the story of an ambitious stage mom’s unflinching efforts to propel her two daughters into show business. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

CANCELLATIONS

After four seasons, CW has pulled the plug on Walker, which will come to an end on June 26 while the network announced a second season of the Canadian import drama Wild Cards has been ordered. (TV Line)

Max has pulled the plug on The Girls on the Bus after one season. (TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Looks like Amazon Prime is developing a sequel series to Nurse Jackie that will find original star Edie Falco returning. The series would be set 10 years after the final episode that found Jackie Peyton (Falco) clinging to life. She is now back on her feet in spite of having lost her nursing license. The continuation of her story will find her facing new dilemmas in trying to be good in a world where being bad is often not only easier, but a lot more fun. (Variety)

Marvel is working on an untitled series fo**r Disney+ that will come out in 2026 centered around the Paul Bettany character Vision, who was last seen in the WandaVision finale, when Wanda’s Vision restored the ghost Vision’s memories then Wanda allowed her Vision to fade from existence. Bettany will return for the role of ghost Vision. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Genesis Rodriguez (Man on a Ledge and The Umbrella Academy) has joined the second season of Lioness on Paramount+. She will play Captain Josephina Carrillo, a dedicated soldier with a fierce personality who is a skilled helicopter pilot. (Variety)

Holly Hunter will play the lead role in the upcoming Paramount+ series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. She will play the captain and chancellor of the Academy, presiding over both the faculty and a new class of Starfleet cadets as they learn to navigate the galaxy in the 32nd century. (Variety)

The new Netflix Nordic noir series Detective Hole will feature Tobias Santelmann (Exit and The Arctic Convoy in the lead role of Harry Hole, an obsessive but introverted homicide detective alongside Joel Kinnaman (The Suicide Squad and Altered Carbon) as Tom Waaler, a corrupt cop and Hole’s long-time nemesis within the Oslo police department. The first season of the series will be based on the Jo Nesbo novel The Devil’s Star, the fifth in his Harry Hole series. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Anna Chlumsky (Veep) has been cast in the fourth and final season of Evil, playing Ellie, a guest at the Bouchards’ house for a wake, where she befriends a grieving Kristen (series lead Katja Herbers). Also joining the cast are Nate Corddry (Sugar) and Tony Award winner Christian Borle. (TV Line)

Paramount+ with Showtime is behind the upcoming 10-episode prequel series Dexter: Original Sin that will star Patrick Gibson (Shadow and Bone) as a young Dexter Morgan with Christian Slater (Mr. Robot) playing Dexter’s adoptive dad, homicide detective Harry MOrgan and Molly Brown (Billions) playing Dexter’s sister Debra. The series will be set in 1991 Miami, 15 years before the original series, as Dexter transitions from student to avenging serial killer. (TV Line)

Jeffrey Wright has joined the cast of the second season of The Last of Us, playing Isaac, the quietly powerful leader of a large militia group who sought liberty but instead has become mired in an endless war against a surprisingly resourceful enemy. (TV Line)

The upcoming Netflix series Death by Lighting, about the rise and eventual assassination of the U.S. President James Garfield, has added Bradley Whitford, Shea Whigham, Paula Malcomson and Tuppence Middleton to its cast. The series brings to life the epic and stranger-than-fiction true story of James Garfield (Michael Shannon), reluctant 20th president of the United States, and his greatest admirer Charles Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen) — the man who would come to kill him. (Variety)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Mark Ruffalo is in talks to star alongside his Marvel co-star Chris Hemsworth in the film adaptation of Crime 101, based on the novella by Don Winslow. Plot details are being kept under wraps, but the original story follows high-level jewel thefts that are taking place up and down the Pacific Coast, which police have linked to Colombian cartels. (Deadline)

Rupert Friend (Homeland and Pride & Prejudice) will star alongside Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (The Lincoln Lawyer), Scarlett Johansson and Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey in the all-new Jurassic World feature film. Plot details are being kept under wraps, though. (The Hollywood Reporter)

The Crown’s Vanessa Kirby will appear alongside Jennifer Jason Leigh, Randall Park, Michael Kelly and Stephan James in the upcoming feature film Night Always Comes that will follow Lynette, a woman who risks everything to secure a future for herself and her brother by setting out on a dangerous odyssey in Portland, in doing so confronting her own dark past over one propulsive night. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS

Amazon Prime has given Mr. and Mrs. Smith a second season renewal, but it is unclear if Donald Glover and Maya Erskine will be back in their lead roles. The streamer also announced The Boys is getting a 5th season renewal in advance of the show’s upcoming fourth season premiere that will happen on June 13. (TV Line and Variety)

Netflix has given 3 Body Problem an undetermined number of “all new episodes,” but has not officially given the sci-fi series a season renewal order. (TV Line)

TV CASTING NEWS

Matrix alum Carrie-Anne Moss has joined the second season of the Arnold Schwarenegger-led FUBAR series on Netflix. Moss will play Greta Nelso, a former East German operative who shares a passionate history with Luke (Schwarenegger). He’s tasked with stopping her threat to destroy the world — if she doesn’t destroy his life first. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Two actors are leaving Grey’s Anatomy: Jake Borelli who has played Dr. Levi Schmitt for the past seven years and Midori Francis, who has played surgical intern Dr. Mika Yasuda for two seasons. (Deadline and TV Line)

La Brea star Josh McKenzie has joined the upcoming NBC drama series The Hunting Party, which will star Manifest lead Melissa Roxburgh. The series is a high-concept crime procedural about a small team of investigators who are assembled to track down and capture the most dangerous killers our country has ever seen, all of whom have just escaped from a top-secret prison that’s not supposed to exist. (Variety)

SERIES DEVELOPMENT/ORDERED TO SERIES

The Hallmark Channel is developing The Chicken Sisters, a new series based on the best-selling novel by KJ Dell’Antonia. The series will be a family drama with southern charm and romance set in the fictional town of Merinac, where a generations-old rift between dueling fried chicken restaurants – Mimi’s and Frannie’s – has left the founders’ families fractured and the locals taking sides. When a popular cooking show comes to town, things get more complicated as sparks begin to fly and secrets are uncovered. The cast will include Schuyler Fisk, Genevieve Angelson, Lea Thompson and Wendie Malick. (Variety)

Apple TV+ is getting close to a series order for the heist series 12 12 12 that will star Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan. The series would follow a disgraced FBI agent (Mackie) and an American career criminal (Dornan) who play a zero-sum game of cat and mouse across Europe. At the center of it all is the daring, epic raid on a bank vault deep beneath the streets of Zurich. The series will take place across three timelines — the 12 months prior to the heist, the 12 hours of the heist and the 12 days after. (Variety)

Netflix has given a greenlight to a family drama called The Waterfront from Kevin Williamson (creator of Dawson’s Creek). The series is inspired by true events and dives into the flawed Buckley family as they attempt to retain control of their crumbling North Carolina fishing empire drive them to increasingly dangerous means to keep themselves afloat. (Variety)

A new version of Tomb Raider has been ordered to series at Amazon Prime from writer-executive producer Phoebe Waller-Bridge. The streaming service has also given an order to a Legally Blonde prequel that would focus on the high school years of Elle Woods. (Variety)

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS

Sarah Drew (Grey’s Anatomy) will star in a new movie franchise at Hallmark. She will play Emily Lane in Mistletoe Murders. Emily runs a small-town Christmas-themed store, Under the Mistletoe, but finds herself compelled to investigate local murders with the help of a handsome local police detective and his teen daughter. (Deadline)

Looks like the CW will be getting into the business of holiday movies (ala the Hallmark Channel). The network announced it will soon be getting into the original TV movie business with as many as ten made-for-TV movies going into production. (Variety)

Hallmark alum Lacey Chabert will appear in a holiday rom-com, but this one will be airing on Netflix with Dustin Milligan, Craig Robinson and Lauren Holly as part of the cast. Hot Frosty will pick up with Cathy two years after losing her husband, as she magically brings a handsome snowman to life. Through his naïveté, the snowman helps Cathy to laugh, feel and love again, as the two fall for each other just in time for the holiday and before he melts. (Deadline)

Looks like Amazon Prime has a Road House seqel in the works with Jake Gyllenhaal set to reprise his role as Dalton. No other details have been announced. (Variety)

Omar Sy (Lupin) will star in the upcoming Netflix rom-com French Lover, playing Abel Camara, the biggest star of the moment, who crosses paths with girl-next-door Marion. Neither of them suspects this will be the beginning of a great love story. (Variety)

Netflix has announced a new holiday movie called The Merry Gentleman that will find The Rookie: Feds alum Britt Robertson starring alongside Chad Michael Murray (One Tree Hill and Sullivan’s Crossing) in a story about a woman trying to save her parents’ small-town performing venue. Marla Sokoloff, Beth Broderick, Michael Gross, Maxwell Caulfield and Colt Prattes will co-star. (Tudum)

BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS

Janet Montgomery (New Amsterdam) will play a young Faye Dunaway in the supernatural love story flick Fate that will toggle between a yesteryear version of the character (Montgomery) and a present-day incarnation, spanning much of the protagonist’s entire lifetime. The film will revolve around a firefighter (Brandon Routh) who connects with a stranger from the past Tilly (Montgomery) while he’s healing at a rehabilitation center and is transported through time to find the only thing saving his soul – his realization of true love. (Variety)

Noomi Rapace (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) will play Mother Teresa in a new film that will follow seven consecutive days at a pivotal moment in Mother Teresa’s life, the period where she decides to leave the Loreto Entally convent in Calcutta and launch her own order. (The Hollywood Reporter)

The third Downton Abbey movie is actually happening with Paul Giamatti and Joely Richardson joining the cast. Giamatti will reprise his role as Harold Levinson, the brother of Elizabeth McGovern’s Cora Grantham, but there is no word yet on who Richardson will play nor are there any details about the plot. (Variety)

Poker Face alum Natasha Lyonne has joined the cast of the upcoming The Fantastic Four reboot, but it is unclear who she will portray. (Variety)

Walker alum Jeff Pierre has joined the ensemble cast of the upcoming box office flick Mercy that will star Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson, Annabelle Wallis, Chris Sullivan and Kenneth Choi [among others]. Set in the near future when capital crime has increased, the film will follow a detective (Pratt) who is accused of a violent crime and is forced to prove his innocence. (Deadline)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

FOX has given The Cleaning Lady a fourth season renewal. The network also given Alert: Missing Persons Unit a third season renewal. (TV Line)

Apple TV+ cancelled the sci-fi thriller Constellation after only one season. (TV Line)

Hallmark Channel has given When Calls the Heart a 12th season renewal. (Variety)

Showtime has given a 7th season renewal to The Chi. (TV Line)

Paramount+ has given Special Ops: Lioness a second season order, but the show will just be known as Lioness in its new season. (TV Line)

Law & Order: Organized Crime has been renewed for a 5th season, but instead of returning to NBC it will move to Peacock, the network’s streaming service. (TV Line)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Amazon Prime is developing a TV adaptation of the novel Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson, which revolves around a young lawyer who promised God that she’d never return home to Alabama but is forced to go back to the South to defend a high school classmate accused of a murder she knows something about. In returning home, she’ll confront a simmering stew of family conflict, a hometown that hates her for defending the alleged killer of a local hero and all of the ghosts of her past. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh has been cast in a lead role in the Blade Runner series that is in the works at Amazon Prime. Exact plot details are being kept under wraps, though. (Variety)

TV CASTING NEWS

Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones) will star in the Amazon Prime new thriller Haven, a new heist series where she will star as an employee of a pension fund management company, until a group of would-be mass thieves threaten her into helping them with a scheme to rob the organization. (Collider)

Frank Grillo (Captain America franchise) has joined the cast of the second season of Peacemaker where he will play Rick Flag Sr., the father of Rick Flag Jr. (Variety)

The second season of Criminal Minds: Evolution will find Clark Gregg (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. appearing in multiple episodes as FBI Director ray Madison; Brian White (The Black Hamptons) will appear in 4 episodes as Vincent Orlov and Tuc Watkins (The Mummy) will appear in multiple episodes as Frank Church. (TV Line)

Camryn Manheim will not be returning for season 24 of Law & Order. (Variety)

The people behind Gen V, the Amazon Prime spin-off of The Boys, will not recast the role played by Chance Perdomo, who recently tragically died in a motorcycle accident in March. The producers are “working to find a way to best honor him.” (The Hollywood Reporter)

Eamonn Walker will be leaving Chicago Fire after this current season while he won’t appear as a series regular, he will not be missing entirely from the long-running series. He is expected to appear in a recurring capacity in the future. (Deadline and TV Line)

Yunjim Kim (Lost) will guest star in two upcoming episodes of Station 19, playing the sister of Natasha Ross (Merle Dandridge). (Shondaland.com)

Melissa Roxburgh (Manifest) will star in the upcoming NBC drama The Hunting Party, a high-concept crime procedural about a small team of investigators who are assembled to track down and capture the most dangerous killers our country has ever seen, all of whom have just escaped from a top-secret prison that’s not supposed to exist. Roxburgh will play Rebecca “Bex” Henderson, an ex-FBI agent recruited to an elite government task force due to her reputation as a savvy profiler who’s caught some of the world’s most dangerous serial killers. (Deadline)

It looks like despite his character dying in All American on CW, Taye Diggs will return as the late Billy Baker. It’s not clear how his character will return, though. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Looks like actor Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, the star of The Lincoln Lawyer, the small screen series adaptation of the movie on Netflix, could be joining the new Jurassic World movie, starring opposite Scarlett Johansson and Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey. (Deadline)

Mahershala Ali (two-time Oscar winner) and Tom Hardy (Venom) will star in the crime thriller 77 Blackout that is set on the night when the city that never sleeps lost power and plunged into chaos and lawlessness. In 1977, five rogue police officers formulated a plan to rob three criminal strongholds – the Hong Kong Triads, the Italian Mafia, and the Harlem Mob – all in one night. When a blackout sweeps the city the night of the robbery, the crew is forced to navigate a hellish landscape as years of being overworked and underpaid forces each of them to confront their own morality. (Deadline)

John Malkovich has joined the upcoming version of The Fantastic Four in an undisclosed role. This new version will star Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/the Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/the Human Torch and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/the Thing. (Variety)

Olivia Cooke and Jamie Bell will star in the upcoming contemporary romance Takes One To Know One. They will playEleanor and Lucas (respectively), two people who meet in Rome and immediately feel a spark, connecting over their shared passion for Italy and art, despite both already being in relationships. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Charlie Cox (Daredevil) and Zooey Deschanel (New Girl) will star in the upcoming rom-com movie Merv that follows an estranged couple who learn that the dog they share is suffering from depression following their break-up. Subsequently, they awkwardly reconcile to take their pup on a sunny vacation in Florida over the holidays, in hopes of lifting his spirits. (Deadline)

Samuel L. Jackson and Henry Golding will star in the upcoming sci-fi thriller Head Games. The movie will be about a corporate spy who poses as a personal chef to infiltrate the villa of a former founder of a neuroprosthetics firm in order to steal his seismic-shifting new invention. (Deadline)

Jeff Bridges, Dave Bautista and Bryan Cranston will star alongside Thomasin McKenzie, Aidan Turner and T Bone Burnett in the upcoming live-action monster tale Grendel. (Variety)

Shailene Woodley, Ben Foster and Pablo Schreiber will star alongside Alan Ritchson in the upcoming action thriller Motor City that follows John Miller (Ritchson), a Detroit auto-worker whose life and girlfriend (Woodley) are taken away from him when he’s framed by a local gangster (Foster) and sent to prison. On his release, Miller unleashes a maelstrom of vengeance on those who wronged him as he attempts to win his girl back. (Variety)

Bella Ramsey (The Last of Us) will star in the upcoming film Girl Next Door, playing Samantha Lewthwaite, who became known as ‘The White Widow,’ one of the world’s most wanted women. Lewthwaite fell in love with Islam long before being Muslim was politicized and militarized. What began as teenage curiosity about an “exotic” and welcoming faith as embodied by her neighbors and best friend, ended with Samantha being consumed by its more radical fringes. (Variety)

Sam Claflin and Rupert Friend will star in the action thriller Perdition that is set in December 1944 against the war-torn Belgian landscape as World War II pushes toward a brutal climax, following the journey of a lone American soldier (Claflin), who miraculously survives a POW camp execution. As he ventures into the bone-chilling landscape to save himself and a precious cargo salvaged from the camp, a ruthless Nazi SS officer on horseback (Friend) discovers his tracks and becomes obsessed with hunting him down. (Variety)

Tatiana Maslany and Rossif Sutherland will star in the genre movie Keeper that follows a couple as they escape for a romantic anniversary weekend at a secluded cabin. But when Malcolm (Sutherland) suddenly returns to the city, Liz (Maslany) finds herself isolated and in the presence of an unspeakable evil that unveils the cabin’s horrifying secrets. (Deadline)

Tom Hiddleston and Willem Dafoe will star as Sir Edmund Hillary and Colonel John Hunt respectively in the upcoming biopic Tenzig that will focus on the legendary Nepalese-Indian mountaineer who summited Mount Everest in 1953, becoming one of the first men to stand on the top of the world. (Variety)

Glen Powell, Anthony Mackie and Laura Dern will star in the upcoming movie Monsanto that will follow the true story of young, untried attorney Brent Wisner (Powell), who in 2019 took on a seemingly insurmountable case against the giant U.S. chemical company Monsanto on behalf of Dewayne “Lee” Johnson (Mackie) who used the company’s best-known product Roundup, a wildly financially successful weed and grass pesticide killer, as part of his job as a high school groundskeeper. Dern plays Dr. Melinda Rogers, the Monsanto Company’s chief toxicologist, who testifies with certainty that Roundup is safe during the landmark cancer trial. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

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