Recaps
The Weekly Round-Up (Feb. 8 to 12)
Here are the entertainment news items for this week:
TV SERIES NEWS
Vampire Diaries and Supernatural will be on hiatus until March 25 then there are no episode breaks until the season finales air on May 13.
NBC announced the season finale dates for a number of their shows, including the following:
May 10 – Trauma at 9 PM
May 12 – Mercy at 8 PM
May 19 – Law & Order: Special Victims Unit at 10 PM
May 24 – Chuck (two-hours) at 8 PM
May 24 – Law & Order at 10 PM
ABC has added two more episodes to the season order of Brothers & Sisters. Their planned two-hour event, featuring flashbacks to 1986, will air in April.
It was announced this week that the fifth season of Friday Night Lights will be its last. The 5th season will air on DirecTV this fall. NBC will air the current and fourth season starting April 30 and the final season could very well air in 2011.
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
Drew Barrymore will act as executive producer on the Charlie’s Angels pilot for ABC and casting of the pilot is underway now.
Beau Garrett (who will be seen in Tron Legacy in theaters later this year) will appear as the female lead in the Criminal Minds spin off. Actors Michael Kelly (Generation Kill) and Matt Ryan will also appear in the pilot.
Brett Ratner has signed on to direct the drama pilot Chaos about rogue CIA operatives who combat bureaucratic gridlock, rampant incompetence and political infighting. Freddy Rodriguez (Ugly Betty) has been cast as the lead in the series.
Jesse Metcalfe (Desperate Housewives), Rose Rollins (The L Word) and Cole Hauser (K-Ville) will appear in the drama pilot Chase about a high-priority fugitive apprehension team in South Texas.
Aisha Hinds (Hawthorne) has been added to the cast of the pilot 187 Detroit, which is about a fictional documentary crew that follows a top homicide division.
Zach Gilford (Friday Night Lights) and David Strathairn will appear in the ABC drama pilot Matadors, which revolves around two rival Chicago-based families, one in the DA’s office and another in a high-powered law firm.
Jason Ritter (Joan of Arcadia) has been cast as the lead in the NBC drama pilot The Event.
Todd Williams (In Plain Sight) has joined the cast of the FOX drama pilot Ridealong.
Daniel Dae Kim (Lost) and Alex O’Loughlin (Moonlight) will appear in the CBS remake of the 1970’s classic series Hawaii Five-0.
Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights) will appear in the CBS comedy pilot True Love that focuses on four friends looking for love in New York.
Jennifer Finnigan (Close to Home) will star opposite Joanna Garcia in an as-yet untitled ABC comedy.
Patrick Flueger (The 4400) has joined the cast of ABC‘s eight-episode drama series Scoundrels based on New Zealand series Outrageous Fortune.
Hart Hanson, the creator of Bones, has come aboard the FOX drama pilot Pleading Guilty as an executive producer. Should the project go to series, he’ll oversee both Bones and Pleading Guilty.
Mick Jackson (Temple Grandin) will direct the NBC remake of the British crime drama Prime Suspect.
Matt Jones (Breaking Bad) will star opposite Gary Cole in the TBS comedy pilot Uncle Nigel.
Eamonn Walker (Kings) has been added to the cast of ABC drama pilot The Whole Truth.
Andrea Anders (Better Off Ted) has joined the Matthew Perry comedy pilot Mr. Sunshine about an aging stadium manager (Perry) who realizes after his 40th birthday that he can no longer skate by on his charming, non-committal ways. Anders will play Alice, Ben’s friend-with-benefits.
Laz Alonso (Avatar) has been cast in the drama pilot Breakout Kings about former fugitives who are tapped to work as U.S. Marshals.
Newcomer Jimmy Wolk will be the lead in the drama pilot Midland for FOX about a con artist who’s looking to get inside his wealthy in-laws’ oil business.”
David Krumholtz (Numb3rs) has been cast as the lead in FOX’s as-yet untitled Ron Howard IRS pilot comedy.
Keir O’Donnell (Paul Blart: Mall Cop) and Michael Stahl-David (Cloverfield) were cast in the ABC dramedy pilot Generation Y.
MADE FOR TV MOVIES NEWS
Queen Latifah will executive produce a new as-yet untitled made-for-TV movie for VH1 about two twentysomething African-American women in Atlanta: one an aspiring fashion mogul and the other a former music video dancer Keisha with very different takes on relationships.
The Hallmark Channel movie Friends to Die For will air on Saturday, April 10 at 9 PM, starring Gabrielle Anwar (Burn Notice) and Craig Sheffer (One Tree Hill). The film centers on seven college friends who reunite a decade after graduation for a weekend getaway, only to have one of the women found murdered and long-buried secrets must being dug up.
The movie After the Fall will air on the Hallmark Channel, starring Andrea Bowen (Desperate Housewives) and Greg Evigan (My Two Dads). The movie is about a champion horseback rider (Bowen) paralyzed in a serious accident. Evigan will play her father.
Kate Winslet will appear in the five-hour HBO mini-series Mildred Pierce about a proud, single mother struggling to earn her daughter’s love during the Depression in middle-class Los Angeles. The story is based on the novel by James M. Cain.
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen) will star in the psychological thriller The Unblinking Eye about a determined journalist hunting down a retired homicide detective (Morgan) who has become a recluse after nearly being killed by a serial killer. Dark stories from both their pasts come out as the pair face each other.
Kevin Costner will direct and star in A Little War of Our Own, which centers on a sheriff who has to try to keep a town from exploding into violence.
The final installment of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn will be split into two back-to-back films to begin shooting in mid-October. The question that still remains, though, is who will be directing the close of the series.
Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen have joined the cast of the political crime thriller The Promised Land, which details the events that lead up to the 1948 partition of Palestine and the subsequent creation of the state of Israel. Jim Sturgess co-stars.
Shailene Woodley (The Secret Life of the American Teenager) will appear in the movie The Descendants, based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, that follows an attorney (George Clooney) forced to get closer to his daughters after a family tragedy. Woodley plays the eldest daughter.
Cate Blanchett is to join Eric Bana and Saoirse Ronan in the movie Hanna about a 14-year-old Eastern European girl saved from a CIA breeding camp and raised to be a cold-blooded killing machine.
Amber Tamblyn will star opposite James Franco in the film 127 Hours about mountain climber Aron Ralston who cut off his arm with a dull knife to save his life after being unable to free the limb from under a boulder.
Katherine Heigl will star in One for the Money, an adaptation of the Janet Evanovich novel of the same name. This is the first of 15 novels to feature character Stephanie Plum, an unemployed lingerie buyer who becomes a bounty hunter to make ends meet.
Tom Cruise will reprise his role of Ethan Hunt in a 4th Mission Impossible film that will begin shooting this summer with an expected release date around Memorial Day 2011.
CASTING SCOOP
Sarah Wayne Callies (Prison Break) will guest star in a upcoming episode of House that is expected to air sometime this spring.
Marsha Thomason will return for the season finale of White Collar on March 9 and then will be back full-time in the series second season.
Heidi Klum and Paulina Porizkova will guest star in an upcoming episode of Desperate Housewives.
Kathy Najimy will appear in the March 24 episode of Ugly Betty as the orthodontist who removes Betty’s signature braces. Najimy will also serve as Betty’s guardian angel in an It’s a Wonderful Life-style sequence.
Christopher Lloyd will appear in an episode of Chuck slated for April or May as a therapist who Chuck turns to when the pressures of the spy biz become too much for him to bear.
Molly Shannon will join Glee at the end of the season as the new astronomy teacher and badminton coach at McKinley High School, who is both an alcoholic and a pill-popper and will serve as a potential nemesis for Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch).
Sheryl Crow will have a recurring role in the ABC comedy Cougar Town. She will appear in multiple episodes as Grayson’s (Josh Hopkins) new girlfriend.
Joe Jonas is out and Cody Longo (Make It or Break It) is in as the younger version of Tommy (Balthazar Getty) on Brothers & Sisters in the soon to air flashback episode. Daniel Cosgrove (Dirty Sexy Money) will appear as patriarch William in the flashback episode as well.
Leann Hunley (Days of Our Lives) will appear as Joann (to be played by Gena Rowlands), the ex mother-in-law of Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) in flashbacks set in the 1980s of an upcoming episode of NCIS.
Justin Kirk (Weeds) will guest star in at least one episode (if not more) of Modern Family.
John Rhys-Davies (Lord of the Rings) will be making a guest appearance in an upcoming episode of Legend of the Seeker.
Rena Sofer will have a recurring role in Bones as a potential love interest for Booth (David Boreanaz).
Leslie Hope (24) will be returning for the final two episodes of The Mentalist as psychic Kristina.
Gabrielle Carteris (Beverly Hills, 90210) will guest star in an upcoming episode of Criminal Minds, playing the mother of 15-year-old girl, who is questioned after she crosses paths with a suspected murderer.
Mark Sheppard will return to Supernatural near the end of the season as demon Crowley, and he will play a villain in two upcoming episodes of Chuck.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
The following movies, specials and new series will debut and/or air this weekend and throughout next week:
The Winter Olympics will air all week long on NBC. Check local listings for times and events.
The HBO movie Temple Grandin, starring Claire Danes, will reair on Tuesday, February 16 at 9 PM. This is a biopic about the animal scientist who overcame the stigma of autism to become an authority on livestock in the 1970s.
The movie StarStruck will air on Disney on Sunday, February 14 at 8 PM. It follows a teen star who falls for a girl in the Midwest, but he fears their relationship will harm his career.
NOTE: This movie will reair on Friday, February 19 at 8 PM.
The BBC America series Survivors debuts on Saturday, February 13 at 8 PM. It airs for two hours and follows what happens when a deadly virus spreads around the world.
The Hallmark Channel movie Elevator Girl airs on Saturday, February 13 at 9 PM and stars Lacey Chabert (Party of Five) and Ryan Merriman (The Pretender) as two very different people who fall in love after being trapped together in an elevator.
NOTE: This movie will reair on both Sunday, February 14 at 9 PM and Friday, February 19 at 9 PM.
NEW EPISODES OF EXISTING SHOWS
Here are the new episodes of the dramas that will be airing this coming week:
Saturday, February 13:
Legend of the Seeker will air a new episode in syndication this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.
Sunday, February 14:
Cold Case on CBS at 10 PM
Big Love on HBO at 9 PM
NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will air a new episode in syndication this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.
Monday, February 15:
Life Unexpected on the CW at 9 PM
24 on FOX at 9 PM
The Secret Life of the American Teenager on ABC Family at 8 PM
Make It or Break It on ABC Family at 9 PM
Greek on ABC Family at 10 PM
Damages on FX at 10 PM
Men of a Certain Age on TNT at 10 PM
Tuesday, February 16:
Lost on ABC at 9 PM
The Forgotten on ABC at 10 PM
Southland on TNT at 10 PM
Wednesday, February 17:
Human Target on FOX at 8 PM
Life Unexpected (reair) on the CW at 8 PM
Nip/Tuck on FX at 10 PM
Leverage on TNT at 10 PM
Psych on USA at 10 PM
Being Erica on SOAPNet at 10 PM
Thursday, February 18:
The Deep End on ABC at 8 PM
Grey’s Anatomy on ABC at 9 PM
Private Practice on ABC at 10:01 PM
Past Life on FOX at 9 PM
Burn Notice on USA at 10 PM
Friday, February 19:
Smallville on the CW at 8 PM
Spartacus: Blood and Sand on Starz at 10 PM
NOTE: Please check your local listings for the correct air dates and times for all of the above.
Have a great weekend!
Please note that I will feature a weekly round-up of sci-fi based (and similar genres) news items at our sister site located at http://scifitvzone.com/. Please visit there as often as you can. Thanks!
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