Recaps
The Weekly Round-Up for August 9 to 13
Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:
NEWS
Congrats to the winners of the 2010 Teen Choice Awards.
Comic strip queen Cathy Guisewite has announced that she will end her iconic Cathy comic strip this October after 34 years. The strip has spawned over 30 books and an Emmy winning animated TV special in the ’80.
TELEVISION
The season two premiere of the FOX series Human Target has been moved a week later; now airing on Friday, October 1 at 8 PM. The premiere will pick up from the first season cliffhanger, with Chance (Mark Valley) and Guerrero (Jackie Earle Haley) racing to rescue their kidnapped associate, Winston (Chi McBride).
Looks like the FOX drama The Good Guys is rethinking a few elements for its fall run. In order to boost their female viewership, they are bringing on a new female character in the form of a yet-to-be-cast and potentially recurring young crime scene investigator. Her introduction also means an increased focus on the series’ romantic entanglements, which have thus far taken a back seat to the procedural aspects of the buddy cops. Another change for series brings more screen time for actor RonReaco Lee, who appeared in three episodes as criminal informant Julius.
There will be a crossover episode between the CW’s Tuesday companion shows One Tree Hill and Life Unexpected this fall. One Tree Hill songbirds Haley (Bethany Joy Galeotti) and Mia (Kate Voegele) will guest star on the October 12 episode of Life Unexpected, as they travel to Portland to perform at a music festival sponsored by Cate’s (Shiri Appleby) radio station.
Glee creator Ryan Murphy talked to LA radio DJ Ryan Seacrest and confirmed that Britney Spears is “I think 100 percent” going to appear on the show, whatever “I think 100 percent” means. The episode (date TBD), in which the Glee kids have hallucinations while under dental anesthesia, will praise the pop queen and won’t refer to her personal life.
The debut for Friday Night Lights final season on DirecTV has been announced: October 27. Mark your calendars.
Merlin will return for a third season on Syfy with 13 all new episodes in early 2011. The series is based on the mythical legends of Camelot.
Idris Elba will star in the new BBC America thriller called Luther, which premieres on the network on October 17 at 10 PM. The series is about a brilliant detective tormented by the darker side of humanity. Luther shines a light into the hearts and minds of psychopaths and killers, and the shadowy spaces of his own soul.
CONDOLENCES
Oscar-winning actress Patricia Neal passed away this past weekend from lung cancer at the age of 84. Best known for her roles in The Fountainhead, TheDay the Earth Stood Still, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and A Face in the Crowd, Neal was also noted for her unexpected comeback after suffering a series of strokes at the age of 39.
Lorene Yarnell, half of the mime-dance-comedy team Shields and Yarnell, died at the end of July at the age of 66 after suffering a brain aneurysm. She was best known for her partnership with then-husband Robert Shields. The duo worked the streets of San Francisco before hitting the small screen, where they starred in their own 1970s variety show and made appearanceson hundreds of programs including The Sonny & Cher Show, The Muppet Show, and the Christmas at Walt Disney World special. They were also a hit on the Vegas strip and in concert halls around the world.
Legendary producer David Wolper passed away last night of congestive heart failure and complications from Parkinson’s Disease. Wolper was the Emmy winning producer of the ABC mini-series Roots. He also produced the children’s classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which starred Gene Wilder and directed the 1959 documentary The Race for Space, which was nominated for an Academy Award. Deepest condolences are extended to his family, friends and fans.
MOMENT OF SILENCE, PLEASE…
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
Serinda Swan (Smallville) has been cast in the upcoming A&E drama series Breakout Kings, where she will be Erica Reed, an expert at finding people who don’t want to be found — then killing them. Swan has been contracted as a series regular for the thirteen episodes that A&E ordered earlier this summer after FOX passed on the procedural drama.
A medical drama by Privileged creator Rina Mimoun has landed at CBS with a put pilot commitment. The untitled project centers on a mother who reconnects with her adult children when she joins the family medical practice. Mimoun also worked behind the scenes on Everwood, Gilmore Girls, Pushing Daisies and Eastwick.
Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller has just sealed a deal with Syfy to adapt The Lotus Caves for the small screen. The Lotus Caves is uber-popular book by novelist John Christopher. In it, the rebellious lunar colonists dare to take a peek beyond their borders and discover a bunch of brainiac aliens living in the caves.
AMC is picking up another pilot. This one is called The Killing and it has a 13-episode order. Set in Seattle, the series is based on the wildly successful Danish television series Forbrydelsen, telling the story of the murder of a young girl and the subsequent police investigation. The series is slated to premiere in 2011 on AMC. MireilleEnos(Big Love) portrays the lead homicide detective who investigates the death of Rosie Larsen. The cast includes: Billy Campbell (Once and Again); Michelle Forbes (True Blood) and Brent Sexton (W. and In the Valley of Elah).
James Purefoy (Rome) has joined the cast of the HBO series Camelot in the recurring role of King Lot (Gawain’s father). Camelot is a retelling of the legend of King Arthur, and the series will begin with his birth. The series stars Joseph Fienne as Merlin, Eva Green as Morgana, Jamie Campbell Bower as King Arthur, TamsinEgerton as Guinivere, and Claire Forlani as Arthur’s mother, Queen Igraine. The first season of Camelot will have ten episodes and is set to air on Starz in early 2011.
More cast members have been added to the Syfy pilot called Alphas, which already stars David Strathairn, Ryan Cartwright, Malik Yoba, Warren Christie and Laura Mennell. The new cast members are Azita Ghanizada (who has appeared in episodes of Castle, Psych and The Closer, among others) and Callum Keith Rennie (Due South and Battlestar Galactica). Alphas follows a team of ordinary citizens whose brain anomalies imbue them with extraordinary mental and physical abilities.
ABC is planning to do an adaptation of the hit British series Spooks (also known as MI-5). Spooks follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service’s Thames House headquarters in highly secure offices known as The Grid. It is still to be determined if the “spooks” will be American or British.
Neal McDonough will executive produce and star in the Starz drama pilot called Vigilante Priest, which is about an ex-cop turned priest who is cleaning up the streets of Los Angeles ‘one sinner at a time.
Ben Esler (The Pacific) has been cast as a series regular in the AMC Western drama pilot Hell on Wheels, where he will play Sean, an Irish immigrant who opens a show for railroad workers.
MADE-FOR-TV MOVIES
Brigid Brannagh (Army Wives) and Sean Patrick Flanery (The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and The Dead Zone) will star in the Hallmark Channel original movie called Mystery Girl. The movie is about Ben (Flanery) who e-mails a beautiful “mystery girl” (Brannagh) who keeps crossing his path, but the message accidentally goes to the wrong address. When he continues e-mail exchanges with the girl at this wrong address and starts dating the beautiful “mystery girl,” he just can’t figure out why she’s not the same in-person as in her online messages. Eventually, he learns who he’s actually been “e-relating” to. The movie has begun production and will premiere on Hallmark Channel in 2011.
Jane Seymour is coming back to film the sequel to the very successful Hallmark Channel original movie Dear Prudence.
Jennifer Love Hewitt and Betty White will star in the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie called The Lost Valentine, which will air on CBS in early 2011. The project, based on the novel of the same name by James Michael Pratt, will revolve around a journalist working on a profile of a woman (White) whose husband was declared MIA during WWII.
The sequel to the Disney Channel’s popular Camp Rock movie – Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam – will be aired over the Labor Day weekend (September 3 to 7) with four event telecasts, each celebrating music and dance with a storyline that suggests life is about the way you play. The movie will once again star Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers. The movie’s soundtrack went up for grabs at iTunes on August 10. Check your local listings for all the dates and airtimes.
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins) has joined the cat of the box office feature called I’m.mortal. The story is set in a society where people are engineered to stop ageing at 25-years-old and time has become the currency of the realm. The wealthy are practically immortal while the majority of the populous struggles to bank what extra time they can. Justin Timberlake plays a ghetto rebel wrongly accused of murder, who is forced to go into hiding with a beautiful and rich hostage (Amanda Seyfried). They soon begin a steamy romance. Murphy will play a ‘Timekeepers’ officer.
Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) has joined the action thriller Drive, which is an adaptation of the James Sallis novel of the same name that has Ryan Gosling playing a Hollywood stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway driver for thieves. He’s soon in a race against time when he learns someone has put a price on his head.
Columbus Short (Stomp the Yard and Armored) and Alicja Bachleda (Ondine) are set to star in the box office movie The Girl Is In Trouble alongside Wilmer Valderrama (That 70’s Show) and Jesse Spencer (House). This noir thriller follows a Lower East Side bartender who unravels a mystery that connects a desperate young woman (Bachleda) to a missing drug dealer and the scion of New York’s most powerful stockbroker.
Reese Witherspoon will star in an untitled biopic about singer Peggy Lee, which is currently in development at 20th Century Fox. The story will explore the professional and personal life of the singer, prolific songwriter, composer and actress who is considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists in history. Nora Ephron is writing the script and is attached to direct, while Witherspoon will produce alongside Marc Platt. Witherspoon recently secured the rights to Lee’s story from the late singer’s estate.
Wentworth Miller isn’t the only Prison Break star who is making endeavours into the screen writing world. Now his on screen love interest, actress Sarah Wayne Callies, has seen her new screenplay optioned. Entitled Elena’s Serenade and adapted from the award-winning children’s book by Campbell Geeslin, this coming-of-age story fuses dreams, music and magic in its story of a girl who crosses the Mexican desert to become a glass blower.
Oscar winner Frances McDormand has been working behind the scenes as a producer to set up two high-profile projects. The first is a potential small screen adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, which is being set up at HBO. The book is comprised of 13 interconnected tales that involve the residents of a fishing village in Maine. McCormand is negotiating to play the town’s titular 7th-grade math teacher should the pilot go to series. Additionally, McDormand will produce a big-screen adaptation of the crime novel Every Secret Thing by Laura Lippman. Diane Lane is attached to star as a detective investigating the mysterious disappearance of several children. Every Secret Thing follows two pre-teenage girls who are sent home early from a birthday party for behaving badly. As they head home, they happen upon a baby in a carriage who later turns up dead. The girls are incarcerated for seven years and once they’re released, other children begin to go missing.
Caroline Goodall (Schindler’s List) has been cast as the wife of Bruce Willis’ character in the box office movie The Cold Light of Day. The thriller, which stars Henry Cavill (The Tudors) as a young American whose family is kidnapped while vacationing in Spain, and is given hours to find them. He uncovers a government conspiracy and discovers the connection between the kidnapping and his father’s secrets. Willis will play Cavill’s father, while Sigourney Weaver will play the villain.
Channing Tatum is set to produce and star in an adaptation of novel by Craig Clevenger called The Contortionist’s Handbook. He will play a forger capable of switching identities because of his adherence to a strict code of conduct. But, when he falls for a beautiful woman with a dark secret, his own troubled past threatens to re-emerge.
Isaiah Mustafa, better known as the guy from the Old Spice commercials, has swapped one Tyler Perry movie for another. He was scheduled to play a small role in Tyler Perry’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf currently scheduled to open early next year. Now it seems Perry has nixed his role in that film and given him the lead role in his next project Madea’s Big Happy Family instead. Mustafa plays a man struggling with his marriage and family relationships. Loretta Devine and Bow Wow also star.
Jamie Bell (Billy Eliot) will star alongside Cillian Murphy and Thandie Newton in the box office movie The Retreat, a British thriller that focuses on a couple vacationing on a remote island as they try to repair their marriage. When they find a soldier washed up on the beach in a biohazard suit, they discover everyone else has been killed by an airborne virus.
The Terminator franchise is coming back sooner than anticipated, but in an unexpected format. Hannover House and Red Bear Entertainment are teaming to develop “Terminator 3000”, a $70 million 3D animated feature based on the characters and storyline of the franchise. The project will tone down the violence as it plans to target a PG-13 rating. Story details, however, are being kept top secret.
The new issue of Entertainment Weekly confirms that the splitting point between the two parts of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will take place later in the book than expected. SPOILER ALERT!!: According to the magazine, Part 1 will end (around) Chapter 24 of the book, with Voldemort gaining possession of the Elder Wand. This comes later than expected as the book itself is 36 chapters long, making the cut off point at the end of the first film around the two-thirds mark of the story. This would mean the second film opening next July would mostly consist of the Battle of Hogwarts, while the Gringotts break-in would likely kick off the film.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen) will play the lead role in the upcoming action film The Courier. He will play the title character, a renegade courier who takes on near-impossible missions and yet has never failed. When he’s given a job to deliver a briefcase to a shady crime lord that can’t be found, he finds himself being pursued by everyone from crooked cops, shady federal agents and underworld rivals to the mysterious crime boss.
CASTING SCOOP
Sebastian Roche (Fringe) has been added to the cast of Supernatural in the recurring role of Balthazar, an angelic friend of Castiel (Misha Collins). Roche will also be back on Fringe this fall.
Megan Boone (HMS) has been cast in the upcoming NBC series Law & Order: Los Angeles, where she will play Laura Gardner, the DDA for Terence Howard’s ADA.
Wayne Brady will return to How I Met Your Mother for the 6th season’s second episode, playing James Stinson, the gay, black brother of Barney (Neil Patrick Harris). And, this time James will be bringing along his dad, who will be played by legendary Ben Vereen.
Zach Gilford (Friday Night Lights) is joining the upcoming ABC Shonda Rhimes-produced medical drama Off the Map as a series regular. He will play a plastic surgeon in the South America-set drama, which is slated to premiere at midseason.
Bret Harrison (Reaper) has landed a pivotal recurring role on V, playing Dr. Sidney Miller, an evolutionary biologist who may have the scoop on what caused the sky to turn red in the finale. His character will show up in the season 2 premiere (slated for November) when Erica (Elizabeth Mitchell) appears on his doorstep looking for answers.
Judd Hirsch will appear on Warehouse 13, playing Artie’s estranged father in the Syfy show’s first-ever stand-alone holiday episode. Paul Blackthorne (The Gates) will also appear in the hour as a workaholic who runs afoul of a thief with a Santa fetish.
Chris Parnell (Saturday Night Live alum and 30 Rock star) will guest star in an episode of Eureka, playing a Global Dynamics scientist who endangers more than the office Christmas party when one of his experiments goes awry.
Kevin Alejandro (True Blood and Southland) is joining the NBC drama Parenthood for a multi-episode arc as a possible love interest for Sarah (Lauren Graham). Also, Zosia Mamet (United States of Tara‘s Courtney) will play the recurring role of Kelsey, Amber’s moneyed new best friend.
Edwin Hodge (Jack & Bobby and Boston Public) will guest star in early Season 8 episode of One Tree Hill, play a character who crosses paths will Clay (Robert Buckley), who remains in the hospital following his shooting in the Season 7 finale. One Tree Hill returns September 14 at 8 PM.
Jay Mohr (Gary Unmarried and Ghost Whisperer) will face off against Jimmy Smits in the 4th episode of the new upcoming fall drama Outlaw, arguing over a case involving a mother who leaves her baby locked in a car, resulting in the unfortunate tot’s demise.
Ken Baumann (The Secret Life of the American Teenager) will play the recurring role of Alexis’ new boyfriend in Castle. He will appear starting in the 4th episode. The new season of Castle will start on September 20.
Masi Oka (Heroes) will guest star as a coroner in the 4th episode of the new CBS drama Hawaii Five-0. There is a potential, however, that his character could recur. Comedian/Actor D. L. Hughley will also guest star in the series as a character named Skeet.
Broadway veterans Anika Noni Rose and Bobby Steggert, will guest star on the same episode of The Good Wife. No information is available on Rose’s character, but Steggart will play the son of a deceased man who had been the suspect in a series of sniper attacks. The Good Wife returns with new episodes on September 28.
Jeremy Davidson (Roswell and Army Wives) will have a recurring role in Brothers & Sisters this fall as a love interest for the widowed Kitty Walker (Calista Flockart). His character will debut in late October/early November. The series returns to ABC for its 5th season on September 26.
Michael B. Jordan (Friday Night Lights) will be playing the love interest to rebellious teen Haddie Braverman (Sarah Ramos) on the NBC series Parenthood this fall. Right now, he will only appear in two episodes. Jordan will be back on Friday Night Lights as a series regular when the show returns to DirecTV starting October 27.
Daniel J. Travanti (Hill Street Blues) will guest-star as Mr. Mullens, a crotchety 75-year-old whose brutal murders 20 years ago earned him the nickname “The Butcher” in an upcoming episode of Criminal Minds. His character, now suffering from Alzheimer’s and depending on the live-in care of his adult son, crosses paths with Hotch (Thomas Gibson) and the rest of the Behavioral Analysis Unit when he comes out of retirement in a desperate attempt to reprise his violent past — a past he can no longer remember.
Eric Winter (Brothers & Sisters and Moonlight) is joining the CBS series The Mentalist this fall in the recurring role of Craig O’Laughlin, an FBI agent who catches the attention of Grace Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti).
General Sam Lane (Michael Ironside) and Lucy Lane (Peyton List), the father and wild-child sister of Lois (Erica Durance), will return to Smallville in a late-October episode. Details on the duo’s arrival are sparse, though. Smallville’s 10th and final season premieres September 24 at 8 PM on the CW.
Marcia Gay Harden is making a return visit as Federal Agent Dana Lewis on Law & Order: SVU in the eighth episode of the series upcoming 12th season.
Bonita Friedericy, who plays General Beckman on Chuck, has been promoted to series regular.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
The following new movie will air this weekend and throughout next week:
The Hallmark Channel movie Class will air on Saturday, August 14 at 9 PM. The movie stars Jodi Lyn O’Keefe and Justin Bruening.
NOTE: This movie will reair on Sunday, August 15 and Friday, August 20 at 9 PM both nights.
Here are the new episodes of the dramas that will be airing this coming week:
Saturday, August 14:
Being Human on BBC America at 9 PM
Sunday, August 15:
Leverage on TNT at 9 PM
Scoundrels on ABC at 9 PM
The Gates on ABC at 10 M
The Glades on A&E at 10 PM
Rubicon on AMC at 9 PM
Mad Men on AMC at 10 PM
Unnatural History on Cartoon Network at 8 and 9 PM
True Blood on HBO at 9 PM
Drop Dead Diva on Lifetime at 9 PM
Army Wives on Lifetime at 10 PM
Monday, August 16:
The Secret Life of the American Teenager on ABC Family Channel at 8 PM
Huge on ABC Family Channel at 9 PM
The Closer on TNT at 9 PM
Rizzoli & Isles on TNT at 10 PM
Lie to Me on FOX at 9 PM
Tuesday, August 17:
Make It Or Break It on ABC Family Channel at 9 PM
HawthoRNe on TNT at 9 PM
Memphis Beat on TNT at 10 PM
Rescue Me on FX at 10 PM
Warehouse 13 on Syfy at 9 PM
White Collar on USA at 9 PM
Covert Affairs on USA at 10 PM
Unnatural History on Cartoon Network at 8 PM
Wednesday, August 18:
Psych on USA at 10 PM
Dark Blue on TNT at 9 PM
Thursday, August 19:
Rookie Blue on ABC at 9 PM
Burn Notice on USA Network at 9 PM
Royal Pains on USA Network at 10 PM
Friday, August 20:
Flashpoint on CBS at 10 PM
Eureka on Syfy at 9 PM
Haven on Syfy at 10 PM
The Pillars of the Earth 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!
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