News
The Weekly Round-Up for Sept. 13 to 17
Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:
NEWS
Glee, Modern Family, The Good Wife, Nurse Jackie and the box office movie Precious were named winners of the 2010 Humanitas Prize, an honor given to films and TV shows that explore the human condition in a nuanced, meaningful way. Congrats to all of those involved in these projects.
TELEVISION NEWS
The Glades has been renewed for a second season by cable network A&E with a 13-episode order.
TNT will be celebrating the 6th season premiere of Supernatural (which will air on the show’s home network the CW) with a 21-hour marathon of episodes, including episodes from the 5th season. The marathon will start at 12 midnight on September 24.
Looks like TBS has cancelled the comedy series My Boys after four seasons on the air. This could possibly open up lead Jordana Spiro’s chances of returning to the NBC series Love Bites for which she was one of the leads. That show is anticipated to arrive mid-season.
TNT has picked up its medical drama HawthoRNe for a third season. The new season will contain 10 episodes.
Doctor Who has entered the new Guinness World Records book as the longest-running prime-time sci-fi series in television history, airing 769 episodes, including 212 storylines and a full-length TV movie. It first aired in 1963.
Law & Order: UK will be coming to US television sets via BBC America starting on October 3 at 10:30 PM before moving to Fridays at 9 PM. The series is set, of course in London, starring Jamie Bamber (Battlestar Galactica), Bradley Walsh (The Old Curiosity Shop), Ben Daniels (The State Within) and Freema Agyeman (Doctor Who).
TNT has renewed their new series Memphis Beat for a second season. The series received a 10 episode order for the new season.
Warehouse 13 will be back with a third season although an official announcement from Syfy will probably not be made until October
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
Director James Cameron (the man behind Terminator, Titanic and Avatar) is reportedly bringing his 1994 action comedy film True Lies to television. For those who may not know or have forgotten, True Lies centered on on Harry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a computer salesman/family man who lives a double life as a government spy. During a top-secret mission, Harry discovers that his mousy wife Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis) is seeking adventure. Harry sets out to give her the excitement she craves while battling Middle Eastern terrorists who threaten nuclear war with the U.S.
ABC is developing an untitled drama pilot about the vice president of the United States and his female chief of staff. The as-yet untitled series is less about politics and more about office dynamics, including a budding romance between the chief of staff and the Vice President’s son.
MTV has greenlit two new projects: That Girl, which follows a 15-year-old who gains notoriety after an accident leads her classmates to think she attempted suicide. And, Death Valley, a documentary-style series, including cast members Caity Lotz (Mad Men) and Tania Raymonde (Lost), which follows the Undead Task Force, which battles zombies, vampires and werewolves that have overrun the San Fernando Valley.
FOX has giving a pilot order to the much buzzed about J.J. Abrams and Elizabeth Sarnoff Alcatraz project that revolves around the infamous San Francisco island prison that was shut down in 1963
Lou Diamond Philips (Stargate Universe) has been cast in the as-yet untitled Josh Berman drama pilot for Lifetime. He will play a police lieutenant and the boss to Sherry Stringfield’s (ER) Molly Collins and Jamie-Lynn Sigler’s (The Sopranos) Brooke Kross.
CBS has given a script order to an untitled New Jersey crime drama pilot Gary Lennon (Justified). The project revolves around the first female police chief of Newark who must battle crime and law-enforcement corruption as well as a difficult home life.
ABC is developing a show based on the Pat Conroy best-selling novel The Prince of Tides, which was adapted into a film in 1991, starring Barbra Streisand and Nick Nolte. The TV project will follow the novel more closely, telling the story of a married Southern football coach from an abusive and dysfunctional family who falls in love with a New York psychiatrist.
ABC has picked up the Darren Star-produced dramedy based on the Kim Gatlin book Good Christian Bitches. The as-yet untitled project centers on Amanda Vaughn, a recently divorced mother of two who, to get a fresh start, moves back to the affluent Dallas neighborhood where she grew up to find herself in the whirling midst of salacious gossip, Botox, and fraud.
The network has also made a pilot commitment to a thriller from Paranormal Activity writer-director Oren Peli and Michael R. Perry.
Ryan Murphy (the man behind Glee) and Howard Gordon (one of the men behind 24) are teaming up for a new procedural TV drama that is near to getting a deal from FOX for a pilot order. Details are scarce on the project but it is being called a “high-concept character-driven supernatural procedural about a psychiatrist that deals with people facing their worst fears and phobias”.
Jennifer Love Hewitt (Ghost Whisperer) just may be coming back to TV in the form of a half-hour comedy described as a female Big Bang Theory. The project would reunite Hewitt with FOX where she got her break as co-star on Party of Five.
J.J. Abrams is a busy man lately. Yet another one of his project, teaming him with Jonah Nolan (brother of Christopher Nolan, the man behind such films as Dark Knight and Inception), has gotten the attention of the folks at CBS. The project currently called Person of Interest and is to be a crime thriller.
MADE FOR TV MOVIE NEWS
Daphne Zuniga (the original Melrose Place) and Faye Dunaway will star in the Hallmark Channel movie A Family Thanksgiving that is set to premiere on November 6 at 9 PM. The movie is about a wealthy, successful corporate lawyer (Zuniga), who is living the high life in New York City with little time for anything except her lavish lifestyle until a close encounter with a bizarre mystic (Dunaway) drops her into an alternative reality to see what her life might have been like had she made different choices.
Lifetime has given the green light to the made-for-TV movie Unanswered Prayers, an adaptation of the Garth Brooks song, which will star Samantha Mathis, Eric Close, and Madchen Amick. The movie will premiere in November.
The Hallmark Channel will debut the sequel movie to Dear Prudence, which starred Jane Seymour (Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman), sometime next Spring. This movie to be called At Home With Prudence will reunite Seymour with her on-screen, Dr. Quinn love – Joe Lando – as well as her real-life husband, James Keach, and her daughter Katie Flynn. The movie will focus on Prudence MacIntyre (Seymour) who is asked to make changes to her successful television show when the network sends in new producers to revamp her image. To her surprise, one of the producers is an old flame, and the other is a seedy womanizer who enchants Prudence’s daughter. With the help of her faithful sidekick Nigel (Matt Jones), Prudence rekindles the love she thought she lost, protects her daughter from the wrong guy, and finds a way to keep her show right on track.
Catherine Bell (Army Wives) will reprise her role of Cassie Nightingale in another sequel to the popular Hallmark Channel movie The Good Witch, filming the 4th movie in November during her hiatus from Army Wives. The third movie in the franchise – The Good Witch’s Gift – will debut on the Hallmark Channel on November 13 at 8 PM.
Stockard Channing and Ivan Sergei (Jack & Jill) have been added to the cast of the Alyssa Milano-led, Lifetime made-for-TV movie Sundays at Tiffany’s, which is based on the James Patterson best-selling novel. The movie is about Jane (Milano), who as a young girl regularly accompanied her mother to the titular NYC landmark – with her imaginary friend “Michael” in tow. Now a grown businesswoman, Jane is set to be married. The return of Michael (Eric Winters from Brothers & Sisters) after a 23-year absence, however, threatens to throw Jane’s plans askew when he prompts his old “friend” to rethink her life path. Channing will play Jane’s mother and Sergei will be her fiancé.
Jewel Staite (Firefly and Stargate: Atlantis), Eric Johnson (Rookie Blue) and Lauren Holly (NCIS) will star in the Hallmark Channel movie Debbie Macomber’s Call Me Mrs. Miracle that is set to air on November 27 at 8 PM. The film is about Mrs. Miracle (Doris Roberts) who is back to ensure that this Christmas is the most magical and meaningful of all. When Mrs. Miracle appears as a seasonal employee in the toy department at the financially troubled Finley’s Department Store, neither the store’s owners, nor the customers, have any idea of the saintly events that are about to unfold.
Lifetime has ordered the four-hour miniseries Marry Me, which will star Lucy Liu (Charlie’s Angels), Steven Pasquale (Rescue Me), Bobby Cannavale (Third Watch), Enrique Murciano (Without a Trace) and Annie Potts (Designing Women). The movie revolves around a woman (Liu) looking for Mr. Right.
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Swedish actress Noomi Rapace (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) has been cast as the female lead in Sherlock Holmes 2, which will reteam Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law as his trusty sidekick Dr. Watson, and Guy Ritchie, returning to his role of director.
Malin Akerman (Watchmen) is set to join the comedy film Wanderlust that centers on a couple (Paul Rudd, Jennifer Aniston) who, after losing all of their money and move from New York to Atlanta, take refuge at a hippie commune. Akerman’s role has not been specified yet. Additionally, Lauren Ambrose, Paul Rudd, Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux will co-star.
Saoirse Ronan and James Gandolfini have joined the indie drama Daisy and Violet, which centers on a pair of teenage female assassins who are lured into what is supposed to be just another quick and easy job, only to find complications as the man they’re supposed to kill is not what they expected.
Gillian Anderson, Dominic West and Rosamund Pike will join Rowan Atkinson in the comedy sequel Johnny English Reborn. The plot finds English trying to stop a group of hit men who are out to kill the Chinese premiere. The movie is to hit theatres in 2011.
Steve Buscemi, Sigourney Weaver, Anne Heche, Cynthia Nixon and Robin Wright have joined the cast of the thriller Rampart, which is based on a story by James Ellroy. The story follows a single cop against the backdrop of the corruption scandal surrounding the anti-gang unit of the LAPD’s Rampart Division in the late 1990s. Over 70 officers were implicated in misconduct which included unprovoked shootings, beatings, planting of evidence, framing of suspects, stealing and dealing narcotics, bank robbery, perjury and covering up evidence. The cast already includes Woody Harrelson, Ice Cube and Ben Foster.
Christian Slater will play the lead in the indie horror thriller Playback that follows a group of high school students digging into their town’s infamous past and unwittingly unlocking an evil that preys upon their classmates. Slater plays a sinister cop who is pivotal in exposing the town’s secret.
Sam Riley (who will be seen in the adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road) will play British playwright Christopher “Kit” Marlowe in the movie A Dead Man in Deptford. He joins James Purefoy, Ray Winstone, Ed Speleers and Adam Sinclair. The movie is based on the Anthony Burgess novel of the same name and follows the intriguing theory that Marlowe, a notorious bar room brawler, was also a royal spy for Elizabeth I and that his death in Deptford at age 29 may have been an assassination ordered by the English Secret Service.
Demi Moore, Kate Bosworth, and Thomas Haden Church will star in the comedy The Reasonable Bunch, which is about messy exes and their splintered relatives getting into it at a family wedding. The supporting cast includes Martin Landau, Ellen Barkin, and Ellen Burstyn.
Ron Perlman (Sons of Anarchy) has joined the cast of the box office movie Drive, starring opposite Ryan Gosling, who plays a loner Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver and lands in hot water when he helps the ex-con boyfriend of his beautiful neighbor.
Olivia Wilde (House) will appear in the box office movie The Change Up with Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman. Bateman plays a married man who switches bodies with his slacker best friend (Reynolds). Wilde will play the married guy’s law firm co-worker, who’s an impetus for the body switch.
Bryan Fuller (Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies) has been selected to write the live-action feature film Pinocchio.
Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat) will portray Queen front man Freddie Mercury in an as-yet untitled movie that will follow Queen’s formative years, leading up to the band’s performance at Live Aid in 1985.
CASTING SCOOP
Dylan Baker (The Good Wife) has been cast in a potentially recurring role on the USA Network series Burn Notice, where he will play Max, a power broker who could hold Michael’s fate in his hands. He will first appear in the fourth season finale and could return in Season Five.
Michael Badalucco (The Practice) has been cast in a recurring role on the CBS daytime soap The Young and the Restless, where he will play Hogan, who is a tough bookie who helps Jeff (Ted Shackelford) and Kevin (Greg Rikaart) come up with cash to help pay for Jeff’s nightclub/restaurant, Gloworm. He’s set to make his first appearance on October 13th.
Lennie James has been promoted to series regular on the HBO series Hung, where he previous recurred as Charlie the pimp.
Arie Verveen (Cold Case) has been cast in a six-episode story arc on FX’s Sons of Anarchy, where he will play Liam O’Neill, a high-ranking member of a motorcycle club in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Sean Maher (Firefly) has landed a recurring role on the ABC Family series Make It or Break It, playing Max, a cute new gymnast that the Rock Girls run into when the series makes its mid-season return in early 2011.
Ana Gasteyer (Saturday Night Live) will guest star on Chuck this fall as Dasha, a ruthless operative for the nefarious Volkoff organization. She will appear in the 7th episode. Chuck is back starting September 20.
Rachael Taylor (Transformers and Shutter) will appear in a multi-episode arc on Grey’s Anatomy, but there is no confirmation on what part she will be playing. Grey’s Anatomy will be back on September 23.
Another Twin Peaks alum is joining the planned Twin Peaks-inspired episode of Psych, which will air during the show’s fall run. Julee Cruise – the singer who frequently appeared in the series as the singer at the local biker bar “The Roadhouse” – and whose song “Falling” (an instrumental version that is) served as the theme song for the series – will appear. Other Twin Peaks alums in the episode include Sherilyn Fenn and Sheryl Lee.
Matthew Lillard (Scream and the Scooby Doo movies) will gust star on an upcoming episode of House. He will be playing a bass player in a band who has been struggling for years and years. He finds himself in a very extreme circumstance in the beginning of the episode and becomes an unexpected hero. Amy Irving (Alias), Dylan Baker (The Good Wife) and Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing) will also guest star in upcoming episodes of House.
David Newsom (Homefront) will guest star on an episode of Men of a Certain Age, playing the younger brother of Terry (Scott Bakula). This will be a reunion (of sorts) for Newsom and Bakula as they played siblings in Quantum Leap. Men of a Certain Age is back on TNT for its second season starting December 6 at 10 PM. Newsom is expected to appear in the January 3 episode.
Sterling Beaumon (who played young Ben on Lost) will guest star on Criminal Minds, playing Jeremy, young boy who is suspected of killing families in the Midwest. Mare Winningham will also guest star as Nancy Riverton, a woman who takes in Jeremy. Criminal Minds returns on September 22 at 9 PM. This episode is slated for October.
Cristián de la Fuente (In Plain Sight) will play the potential recurring role of Eric Rodriguez, a self-possessed, confident, wickedly funny doctor on Private Practice this fall. His first appearance will be sometime in late October or early November.
John Schneider (Smallville) will play the dad of Brian Austin Green (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) in upcoming episodes of Desperate Housewives. The series is back with new episodes on September 26.
John Larroquette will appear in a multi-episode arc on CSI: NY, playing Deputy Chief of Manhattan Borough Detectives Ted Carver. His first episode is slated for November 5.
Jamie Hector (The Wire and Heroes) will guest star in the third season premiere of Lie to Me, where he will play a character involved in a major bank heist.
Victor Garber (Alias and Eli Stone), French Stewart (3rd Rock from the Sun), Kathleen Quinlan (Prison Break) and former Stargate franchise stars David Hewlett and Robert Picardo will be guest starring in upcoming episodes of Stargate Universe, which returns for its second season on September 28 at 9 PM.
Tracie Thoms (Cold Case) and Roger Bart (Desperate Housewives) will guest star in the same upcoming episode of Human Target on FOX.
Candice Bergen will guest star in a multi-episode arc on House, starring as the mother of Dr. Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein).
Elizabeth Reaser (The Twilight Saga franchise) and Lili Taylor (Six Feet Under) are joining The Good Wife. Reaser will play a sports writer who will serve as a new love interest for Will (Josh Charles) while Taylor will guest-star as a possible romantic foil for Kalinda (Archie Panjabi). It is not yet known when each actress will make her first appearance on the CBS legal drama. The Good Wife returns on September 28 at 10 PM.
Rachel Ticotin is replacing Wanda De Jesus on the upcoming NBC series Law & Order: Los Angeles, playing the new Lieutenant who heads the LAPD Robbery Homicide Division. She will star alongside Skeet Ulrich, Corey Stoll, Alfred Molina, Terrence Howard, Megan Boone and Regina Hall. The series debuts on September 22, at 10 PM.
Geoff Stults (October Road and Happy Town) will guest star in the fifth episode of How I Met Your Mother, playing Max, the new guy in Robin’s (Cobie Smulders) life at least for that one episode.
Lee Tergeson (Oz) will appear in Castle as Gates, a shrewd, hardened, and violent felon who becomes the prime suspect in this season’s big “3XK” serial-killer investigation. He will turn up in episode 7. Castle is back on September 20.
Nancy Travis (Becker and The Bill Engvall Show) will play the mother of Brian Austin Green’s character in Desperate Housewives. The series is back with new episodes on September 26.
CONDOLENCES
Legendary actor (and Golden Globe winner) Kevin McCarthy – who starred in the original sci-fi film Invasion of the Body Snatchers – passed away over the weekend. He was 96 years old.
Character actor Harold Gould, who appeared in the movie The Sting as well as recurring roles in Rhoda and The Golden Girls, passed away this past week at the age of 86.
Billie Mae Richards, a Canadian actress, who got her start in radio and went on to be best known for voicing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in the 1964 animated special, passed away this week. She was 88.
Deepest condolences are extended to their families, their friends and their fans.
RUMOR PATROL
Rumor has it that Stephen Lang (Avatar) is in talks to play the merciless leader of a prehistoric settlement in the much-anticipated FOX time travel drama Terra Nova, which has Jason O’Mara (Life on Mars) in the lead role. FOX has announced it will preview the new series for one night in May 2011 and then will bow the drama officially in the fall of 2011.
Jennifer Garner is in talks to star in the dramatic thriller Better Living Through Chemistry, which follows a small-town pharmacist (Jeremy Renner) who is stuck in a loveless marriage and rediscovers himself through an affair with a trophy wife (Garner) who introduces him to the pleasures of prescription drugs. Things spin out of control when the affair escalates and the lovers begin plotting to kill the woman’s husband.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
With the fall season fully upon TV viewers, there is a lot of programming for which to keep track. The following list, for the upcoming week, shows all the new and returning shows, as well as new episodes of shows that have already returned or debuted AND any summer shows that are still finishing up their runs:
Saturday, September 18:
Boardwalk Empire debut on HBO at 9 PM
Being Human on BBC America at 9 PM (Finale)
Sunday, September 19:
The Gates on ABC at 9 and 10 PM (Two Hour Finale)
The Glades on A&E at 10 PM
Rubicon on AMC at 9 PM
Mad Men on AMC at 10 PM
Monday, September 20:
90210 on the CW at 8 PM
Gossip Girl on the CW at 9 PM
Weeds on Showtime at 10 PM
The Big C on Showtime at 10:30 PM
Hawaii Five-0 on CBS at 10 PM (DEBUT)
Castle on ABC at 10 PM (Return)
House on FOX 8 PM (Return)
Lone Star on FOX at 9 PM (DEBUT)
Chuck on NBC at 8 PM (Return)
The Event on NBC at 9 PM (DEBUT)
Chase on NBC at 10 PM (DEBUT)
Tuesday, September 21:
NCIS on CBS at 8 PM (Return)
NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS at 9 and 10 PM (Return)
Detroit1-8-7 on ABC at 10 PM (DEBUT)
Glee on FOX at 8 PM (Return)
One Tree Hill on the CW at 8 PM
Life Unexpected on the CW at 9 PM
Unnatural History on Cartoon Network at 8 PM
Parenthood on NBC at 10 PM
Melissa & Joey on ABC Family Channel at 8 PM
Sons of Anarchy on FX at 10 PM
Warehouse 13 on Syfy at 9 PM (Conclusion of Finale)
Wednesday, September 22:
Criminal Minds on CBS at 9 PM (Return)
The Defenders on CBS at 10 PM (DEBUT)
The Whole Truth on ABC at 10 PM (DEBUT)
Undercovers on NBC at 8 PM (DEBUT)
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC at 9 PM (Two-Hour Opener)
Hellcats on the CW at 9 PM
Terriers on FX at 10 PM
Thursday, September 23:
CSI on CBS at 9 PM (Return)
The Mentalist on CBS at 10 PM (Return)
My Generation on ABC at 8 PM (DEBUT)
Grey’s Anatomy on ABC at 9 PM (Return)
Private Practice on ABC at 10 PM (Return)
Bones on FOX at 8 PM (Return)
Fringe on FOX at 9 PM (Return)
The Vampire Diaries on the CW at 8 PM
Nikita on the CW at 9 PM
Friday, September 24:
Smallville on the CW at 8 PM (Return) (Final season)
Supernatural on the CW at 9 PM (Return) (Final season)
The Good Guys on FOX at 8 PM (Return)
Medium returns to CBS at 8 PM (Return)
CSI: NY is back on CBS at 9 PM (Return)
Blue Bloods on CBS at 10 PM (DEBUT)
Outlaw on NBC at 10 PM
Haven on Syfy at 10 PM
NOTE: Please check your local listings for the correct air dates and times for all of the above.
Also, the following new movie will air this weekend: The Lifetime movie The 19th Wife will air on Saturday, September 18 at 9 PM. The movie stars Patricia Wettig (Brothers & Sisters) in a story about a Mormon wife who is accused of killing her polygamous husband. The movie also stars Chyler Leigh (Grey’s Anatomy) and Matt Czuchry (The Good Wife).
SIDEBAR: This movie will reair on Sunday, September 19 at 9 PM.
Have a great weekend!
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