Rueben's Ramblings

The made-for-TV movie Saving Westbrook High will debut at 7 PM on October 20 on the cable network UP.

Manny Cortez is uprooting his family – wife Teresa and daughters Selana, 14 and Gabriella, 12 – so that they can go to Westbrook High where his beloved late father was the football coach. Soon after the Cortez family moves into the Westbrook school zone, it is announced that Westbrook High will close due to budget reasons. Long known for being a wonderful environment with special teachers, the staff, students and parents decide to fight back – Westbrook High is worth saving. Charismatic English Literature teacher Elijah Bennett leads the charge for the teachers but has to deal with the new principal, Dr. Christine Walker, who has very different views on education and the value of protesting the school board’s decision. Elijah and Christine were students together at Westbrook many years ago and despite their differences there is a bond and some sparks. Perhaps most passionate about saving the school are the students, especially shy and insecure Jasper, who emerges as a leader. Selana joins the cause and learns why her father was so passionate about this school and her education.

The cast includes Esai Morales (Caprica), Salli Richardson-Whitfield (Eureka), Loretta Devine (Grey’s Anatomy) and Coby Ryan McLaughlin (The Secret Life of the American Teenager).

Here is a trailer for Saving Westbrook High.

Read Full Post »

The Hallmark Channel movie When Calls the Heart will debut on October 19 at 9 PM.

Based on the book series by Janette Oke, the movie tells the story of Elizabeth Thatcher (newcomer Poppy Drayton), a young teacher accustomed to her high society life, who receives her first classroom post in a small prairie town in the Western Frontier in Canada led by two strong coal miner widows, Abigail Stanton (Lori Loughlin) and Frances Tunnecliffe (Jean Smart).

The cast also includes Daniel Sharman (Teen Wolf), Stephen Amell (Arrow) and Maggie Grace (Lost).

NOTE: This movie has been picked up to series by the Hallmark Channel and will have its TV series debut sometime in 2014 with Erin Krakow (Army Wives) taking over the lead role and Daniel Lissing (Last Resort) joining the cast.

Here is a trailer for When Calls the Heart.

Read Full Post »

The Starz 5-part mini-series Dancing on the Edge will debut on October 19 at 10 PM.

Inspired by true accounts of the phenomenal Duke Ellington Band mingling with the future Duke of Windsor Edward VIII in Europe, the mini-series takes place in London during the early 1930s, illustrating the journey of a group of Black jazz musicians – the Louis Lester Band – as they steadily rise to stardom.

The cast includes Chiwetel Ejiofor (the upcoming film 12 Years of a Slave), Matthew Goode (Brideshead Revisited), legendary actress Jacqueline Bisset, John Goodman (Roseanne), Janet Montgomery (Human Target), Jenna-Louise Coleman (Doctor Who), Anthony Head (Buffy) and Angel Coulby (Merlin).

Here is a trailer for Dancing on the Edge.

Read Full Post »

The new drama Reign will debut on the CW on October 17 at 9 PM.

Hidden between the lines of the history books is the story of Mary Stuart (Adelaide Kane from Teen Wolf and Pretty Tough), the young woman the world would come to know as Mary, Queen of Scots. Queen of Scotland since she was six days old, the teenage Mary is already a headstrong monarch at the very beginning of her tumultuous rise to power. Arriving in France with four close friends as her ladies-in-waiting, Mary has been sent to secure Scotland’s strategic alliance by formalizing her arranged engagement to the French king’s dashing son, Prince Francis (Toby Regbo, the made-for-TV movie Treasure Island). But the match isn’t signed and sealed, it depends more on politics, religion and secret agendas than affairs of the heart.

The cast includes Alan Van Sprang (The Tudors and the Canadian series King), Anna Popplewell (The Chronicles of Narnia franchise), Caitlin Stasey (Tomorrow When the War Began), newcomers Celina Sinden and Jenessa Grant, Megan Follows (Anne of Green Gables) and Torrance Coombs (Heartland).

Here is the extended trailer for Reign.

Read Full Post »

The BBC America movie Burton and Taylor will debut at 9 PM on October 16.

Dominic West (The Hour) and Helena Bonham Carter (The King’s Speech) star as Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor — Hollywood’s most volatile on-again-off-again lovers who famously played out every high and low of their love affairs, multiple marriages and divorces right in the public eye.

Recognized as one of the most fascinating, glamorous and tempestuous relationships of the 20th century, Burton and Taylor made their last stage appearance together in the critically reviled 1983 revival of Noel Coward’s stage play, Private Lives. This is the story of their ill-fated reunion, on and off stage.

Here is a trailer for the BBC America movie Burton and Taylor.

Read Full Post »

On October 13, the made-for-TV movie The Wedding Chapel will debut on the cable network UP at 7 PM.

This made-for-TV movie focuses on uninspired and newly single painter Sarah (Emmanuelle Vaugier from Lost Girl) is down on her luck and wants nothing more than to get away from her problems. When she decides to take a trip to visit her mom, she becomes involved in a mission to save a local church in danger of being closed down. Determined to help preserve the historic building, Sarah embarks on a mission that not only gives her a new outlook on life, but enables her mother to rekindle a long lost love.

The film also stars Cheers alum Shelley Long, Mark Deklin (GCB), Barclay Hope (The Killing) and Cindy Busby (the Canadian series Heartland).

Here is a trailer for Chick Flick Sunday at UP that will feature The Wedding Chapel movie.

Read Full Post »

The Hallmark Channel movie Signed, Sealed, Delivered will debut at 9 PM on October 12.

This film introduces a dedicated quartet of civil servants in the Dead Letter Office of the U.S. Postal System who transform themselves into an elite team of lost-mail detectives. Their determination to deliver the seemingly undeliverable takes them out of the post office into an unpredictable world where letters and packages from the past save lives, solve crimes, reunite old loves, and change futures by arriving late, but always miraculously on time. The intrepid team is led by the charming and handsome, but idiosyncratic, Oliver (Eric Mabius) who still considers the stamped and mailed letter to be the gold standard of human communication. His hapless team of lost letter experts, free-spirited Rita (Crystal Lowe) and oddly-intuitive Norman (Geoff Gustafson), are thrown for a loop when a beautiful, no-nonsense technophile named Shane (Kristin Booth) is mistakenly transferred to their inner sanctum. Shane inspires the lovable crew to step up in a risky and unorthodox way, beginning with a chance to clear the name of a wrongfully accused man and reconnect him with the love of his life. Will this dead letter make the truth come alive?

NOTE: This is another back-door pilot for the network that will air as a new series sometime in 2014.

Here is a trailer for Signed, Sealed, Delivered.

Read Full Post »