Hey All,
Here are the news items for this past week:
RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS
Apple TV+ has pulled the plug on the Octavia Spencer drama Truth Be Told after three seasons, but the streaming service has given a fourth season renewal to The Morning Show, which stars Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. (TV Line)
FALL LINE-UP ADDITION
The CW has actually added a new drama to its fall 2023 line-up despite its recent ownership change. The network will air the Canadian series Sullivan’s Crossing based on the novels by Robyn Carr (who is the author of the books for which the Netflix series Virgin River are based). The series will star Morgan Kohan (When Hope Calls) as a neurosurgeon, who returns to her small hometown in the wake of a professional scandal. The series will also star Scott Patterson of Gilmore Girls fame and Chad Michael Murray from ONe Tree Hill. (The Hollywood Reporter)
TV SERIES ORDER NEWS
Looks like the husband and wife producing team Daniel Palladino and Amy Sherman-Palladino will be sticking around Amazon, as they have been handed a two-season, 16-episode order for the new ballet themed series Étoile, which will feature The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel alums Luke Kirby and Gideon Glick. The series will be set in New York City and Paris, following the dancers and artistic staff of two world-renowned ballet companies, as they embark on an ambitious gambit to save their storied institutions by swapping their most talented stars. (TV Line)
Movie star Keira Knightley will star as Helen in the Netflix series Black Doves. The series follows a woman with a secret identity who embarks on a passionate affair. When her lover falls victim to London’s shadowy underworld, Helen’s employers send an old friend, Sam, to protect her. The two of them soon embark on a high octane adventure set against a backdrop of diplomatic tension and Christmas. (Variety)
TV CASTING NEWS
Brandon Larracuente, who plays Dr. Danny Perez in The Good Doctor will not be returning to the show on a full-time basis for season 7; however, he could return as a guest star. (TV Line)
Veteran actor Donale Sutherland has joined the cast of the upcoming Paramount+ series about Bass Reeves that is now using the name Lawmen: Bass Reeves and will star David Oyelowo in the lead role. This anthology series, with future installments set to follow other iconic lawmen who have impacted history in subsequent seasons, will be based around Bass Reeves, known as the greatest frontier hero in American history, who worked in the post-Reconstruction era as a federal peace officer in the Indian Territory, capturing over 3,000 of the most dangerous criminals without ever being wounded. Sutherland will recur as Judge Isaac Parker, an imposing and commanding judge in the Fort Smith Courthouse with a complicated legacy. (Variety)
Friday Night Lights alums Connie Britton and Jesse Plemons will appear alongside Robert De Niro in the upcoming Netflix 6-episode conspiracy thriller series Zero Day that also includes Lizzy Caplan and Joan Allen as part of the cast. De Niro will play George Mullen, a massively popular former American President who is pulled from retirement to head a commission tasked with investigating a devastating global cyber-attack. Britton will play Valerie Whitesell, a savvy political operative who was Mullen’s former Chief of Staff, while Plemons will portray Roger Carlson, Mullen’s former “body man” who is seeking a return to the national stage alongside his onetime boss. Allen will play Sheila Mullen, the former First Lady and nominee to the federal bench while Caplan, will play erstwhile First Daughter Alexandra Mullen, a young Congresswoman who has sought to distance herself from her father’s political legacy. (TV Line)
Gabrielle Union will play the prime suspect in the new murder mystery Pretty Little Wife at Amazon Prime Video. Based on the Darby Kane best-selling novel, the series will be a cat-and-mouse thriller with a pulpy edge and some sexy soap that centers around two brilliant — and very different — Black women: Lily (Union), the pretty little wife suspected of murdering her husband, and Ginny, the detective on the case. Upon entering each other’s lives, they begin to crack open each other’s facade to reveal what really lies beneath. (The Hollywood Reporter)
MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS
It’s officially official: Hallmark Movies and Mysteries has announced the end of the Mystery 101 franchise of made-for-TV movies that starred Jill Wagner and Kristoffer Polaha in the lead roles. (Variety)
BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS
Actress Miriam Shor (Younger) has been cast in the Bradley Cooper movie Maestro, that is a biopic about Leonard Bernstein. She will play Cynthia O’Neal, an actor and model who was a friend of the legendary musician and his wife Felicia Montealegre. Cooper, of course, will play Bernstein in the flick and Carey Mulligan will play his wife. (Variety)
The animated prequel film Transformers One will feature the voices of Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Jon Hamm and Laurence Fishburne. This will be an origin story about how the brothers-in-arms turned into sworn enemies. (Variety)
Chris Pine has joined the cast of the upcoming Disney animated musical Wish that will also feature Ariana DeBose and Alan Tudyk lending their voices. The film revolves around an intriguing, slightly meta question: How did the wishing star come into the cosmos? The film unfolds in the magical kingdom of Rosas and introduces Asha, an optimist with a sharp wit who deeply cares about her community. When Asha turns to the sky in a moment of need and makes a wish, her plea is answered by a little ball of energy called Star. Together, they team up to save Asha’s community. (Variety)
Joel Kinnaman (For All Mankind and The Killing) wil play the lead in the upcoming alien abduction thriller flick They Found Us. In the film, a father (Kinnaman) and daughter undertake a camping trip in the Utah wilderness to heal their broken relationship. Attacked by a hostile extraterrestrial lifeform, their lives, not just their relationship, are at stake as they fight with a humanoid beast to stop their abduction to an unknown and terrifying alien world. (Variety)
Emily in Paris hottie Lucien Laviscount and Sophie Cookson (Kingsman: The Golden Circle) will star in the box office rom-com This Time Next Year, which is being adapted from the Sophie Cousens novel that charts the story of Minnie (Cookson) and Quinn (Laviscount) who are born in London on New Year’s Day, in the same hospital, one minute apart. Thirty years later — and very different people — they find themselves thrown together again in the same city on New Year’s Eve. (Deadline)
That’s it. Enjoy!
Rueben's Ramblings 