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!
