Weekly Update
The Weekly Round-Up for Oct. 4 to 8
Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:
TELEVISION NEWS
Kathryn Erbe will be rejoining ex-partner Vincent D’Onofrio for the 10th and final season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. The series will see its eight episode farewell season premiere sometime in 2011.
Sources close to the folks behind the long-running series One Tree Hill claim plans are in the works to bring back Chad Michael Murphy and Hilarie Burton. The original plan was to have the happy family with baby in tow return for Brooke’s (Sophia Bush) two-episode wedding, but with the show getting six additional scripts, their return may happen later.
Also, the ABC Family Channel has picked up freshman comedy Melissa & Joey for 20 more episodes.
Starz has officially started looking for an actor to replace Andy Whitfield on Spartacus: Sand & Blood. Whitfield left the show earlier due to being diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and has recently been advised by doctors to resume aggressive treatment against the disease.
ABC Family has canceled its freshman drama series Huge, which was based on the young adult novel by Sasha Paley. The series averaged 1.9 million viewers.
Buoyed by strong ratings and critical acclaim, Syfy announced a third season pickup of 13 episodes for its hit dramedy Warehouse 13, which will return in 2011.
By nabbing six places on the Billboard Hot 100 next week, the Glee cast will surpass The Beatles for most appearances among non-solo acts in the chart’s 52-year history.The Beatles charted 71 titles, but as of next week the Glee cast will have 75.
This is not surprising to learn, but NBC has shut down production on the low-rated new series Outlaw (which stars Jimmy Smits and airs on Fridays at 10pm), but plans to continue to air it at least for the next few weeks.Eight episodes of the show have been produced and only three have aired so far leaving five in the can. NBC says it will evaluate Outlaw’s performance over the next few weeks.
The first new show of the fall TV season to receive a full season pick up is the FOX comedy Raising Hope. The network gave the show an additional 9 episode order.
FX has renewed Sons of Anarchy for a fourth season.
The Disney Channel will be debuting what is being touted as TV’s first dance-driven sitcom called Shake It Up on November 7 at 8:30 PM. The series stars 13-year-old Bella Thorne and 14-year-old Zendaya(Wizards Of Waverly Place) as best friends CeCe and Rocky, whose dreams of becoming professional dancers are realized when they land roles as background dancers on the most popular teen dance show, “Shake It Up, Chicago!”
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
ABC Family Channel has give a pilot order to the series What Would Jane Do, which is about a 16-year-old girl who juggles life as a teenager and a demanding new job as a full time assistant for a design company.
Looks like David E. Kelley (the many behind Ally McBeal and The Practice) has secured a deal with Warner Bros. to bring Wonder Woman to the small screen. (Yes, you read that right: the small screen). The question now is which actress will fill those infamous boots? There is a lot of speculation but nothing concrete for quite some time.
Lifetime has ordered a pilot for an untitled drama about the female head of a university hospital psych department. The show would revolve around a woman who moves to Philadelphia to work as chief of staff in the psychiatry department alongside her sister and a diverse staff.
ABC is looking at another scripted summer series, this time an untitled female-centric spy drama that is described as Taken meets The Bourne Identity.
Fox has picked up a project about a woman living parallel lives. It’s a legal procedural about a young prosecutor who finds herself caught between two realities: one in which she is an incredible trial lawyer, and another in which she is the one on trial.
Ron Moore (the man behind the BattlestarGalactica reboot and Caprica) is in the VERY early stages of developing a remake of the ’60s classic The Wild Wild West, which originally ran on CBS from 1965 to 196 starring Robert Conrad and Ross Martin as secret service agents who get reassigned to the Old West.
Chris Mundy has left the CBS midseason Criminal Minds spinoff, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior. He will be replaced by Ed Bernero, who will now oversee both the flagship and spinoff series as show runner.
Fox has nabbed the rights to a series adaptation of the 2005 hit romantic comedy Hitch, which starred Will Smith. The series is described as an action-packed one-hour.
Tom Fontana (The Philanthropist) has booked the drama Chameleon with FOX. The series will be about a cop who goes missing for weeks, only to return a changed and delusional man – much to the chagrin of his partner.
The show runners for Smallville – Brian Peterson and Kelly Souders– will be working with producer Mc G on a potential new CBS drama called The Last Hope, which is loosely based on professional finder-of-lost-loves Troy Dunn. The project is being eyed for next fall.
MADE FOR TV MOVIE NEWS
Charles Dance (Alien 3, Bleak House and Gosford Park) has joined the cast of the Syfy 4-hour movie event Neverland based on the prequel to author J.M. Barrie’s classic Peter Pan. He will play the role of Dr. Richard Fludd, a 400-year-old former alchemist to Queen Elizabeth and the genius who holds the key to the “bridge” between our world and Neverland. He joins cast members Rhys Ifans, Anna Friel, Bob Hoskins, Raoul Trujillo and Charlie Rowe.
The Hallmark Channel movie Christmas in Canaan was named Best Show or Series: Family Friendly at the 3rd annual CableFAX Program Awards gala held in New York and the network announced that Billy Ray Cyrus has signed on to star in the sequel which will premiere in 2011. The original movie had Cyrus playing Daniel Burton, a farmer in Canaan, TX, during the civil rights movement who forces his young son to spend time with his black classmate, leading to an unexpected friendship.
The holiday movie Cancel Christmas will have its world premiere on the Hallmark Channel in 2011 and will star Judd Nelson as Santa Claus. [Yes, you read that right]. The story goes like this: Even Santa Claus (Nelson) reports to a board of directors and today, the “Chairmen of Christmas” have determined that children have become too greedy, and if Santa wants to keep them from cancelling Christmas altogether, he must prove the board wrong by changing the ways of two especially incorrigible boys, Farley and Steve.
The timeless tale Gift of the Magi will air as a movie on the Hallmark Channel on December 15 at 8 PM, starring Marla Sokoloff (The Practice) as Della Young and Mark Webber (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) as her husband Jim, financially strapped newlyweds about to spend their first Christmas together. Challenged to buy secret gifts for each other, both end up selling their most prized possessions.
Kevin Sorbo will appear in the Hallmark Channel movie The Santa Suit, which premieres on December 2 at 8 PM. The movies is about a greedy elitist and Hunter Toys CEO Derek Hunter (Sorbo), who looks down on the whole of humanity until he is suddenly transformed from Fortune 500 phenom to Santa Claus to learn that when people are stripped of worldly splendor, and have nothing except their humanity to define them, they tend to make more heartfelt and purposeful choices.
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Olivia Wilde (House) is set to play the mother of Justin Timberlake in the as-yet titled sci-fi movie formerly known as 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.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 whilst being pursued by a ruthless law enforcement officer (Cillian Murphy). Vincent Kartheiser(Mad Men) co-stars.
Emily Blunt will join Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willisin the time travel sci-fi movie Looper. The complicated plot involves a killer (Gordon-Levitt) who works for the mob of the future. He, along with other so-called Loopers, dispose of people that are sent from the future. When he recognizes one victim as his future self (Willis), he hesitates, letting the man escape. Now, in order to save his immediate future, the man needs to track down and kill his future self, while his future self is trying to find and kill a young boy who is the key to his survival in the future. Blunt will play the mother of the boy.
Live Schreiber (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and Alison Pill (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) have joined the indie hockey comedy Goon, which follows a bouncer (Seann William Scott) who joins a rag-tag hockey team and inspires them to greatness. Jay Baruchel(who co-wrote the script) co-stars.
Thomas Haden Church (Easy A) has joined the dark comedy Killer Joe alongside Matthew McConaughey and Emile Hirsch. The story follows a brother (Hirsch) who, along with his sister, plot the death of their mother for insurance money and hire “Killer Joe” Cooper (McConaughey) to get the job done.
Summit Entertainment has bought the rights to develop Tempest, the first book in a forthcoming trilogy by first-time author Julie Cross. The young adult novel follows a 19-year-old time traveler who witnesses his girlfriend’s murder and inadvertently jumps back two years. Stuck there, he’s recruited by a shadowy government agency run by the man he thought was his father and vows to save his girlfriend no matter the cost.
Zack Snyder (the Director of 300 and Watchmen) has been tagged to direct the upcoming Superman reboot.
Ray Liotta, VingRhames and Christian Slater are star in the indie thriller The River Sorrow with Liotta playing a detective on the trail of a serial killer, Slater playing an FBI agent overseeing the case and Rhames playing Liotta’s friend and captain.
Tom Hanks may be the first actor to join director Kathryn Bigelow’s first post-The Hurt Locker project called Sleeping Dogs. The story centers around five men of varying ages who all work in the Triple Frontier, the notorious border zone between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil where the Igazu and Parana rivers converge and a haven for organized crime and terrorist funding activities. Leonardo DiCaprio, Christian Bale, Sean Penn and Jeremy Renner have all been rumored to be potentially involved in the project
Idris Elba (The Losers) has joined the cast of the box office sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, playing an alcoholic warrior monk tasked with finding Ghost Rider (Nicolas Cage) while Johnny Whitworth (Gamer) plays a criminal who is recruited by the devil and is later turned into a demonic creature.
Thomas Haden Church has joined the cast of the film We Bought a Zoo, which has Matt Damon already set to star and Amy Adams apparently considering a role in the adaptation of a memoir from Benjamin Mee about his own family who bought a rundown mansion in the English countryside which included the 30-acre Dartmoor Wildlife Park, home to over 200 animals. Church’s role has yet to be revealed.
Robert Downey Jr. is set to star in the heist film Yucatan, which follows a group of thieves, lead by a deep sea salvage specialist (Downey), who head to Mexico to find Mayan treasure buried underwater for centuries in ruins beneath the Yucatan peninsula.
Ed Burns and Genesis Rodriguez have joined the cast of the crime thriller Man on a Ledge, which stars Sam Worthington as a cop falsely imprisoned who escapes after being let out for his father’s funeral and stands on a hotel ledge threatening suicide. A hard-living hostage negotiator (Elizabeth Banks), a former flame of the cop, tries to talk him down.At the same time the cop’s brother (Jamie Bell) plans the heist of a jewelery store across the street while his brother’s actions are keeping everyone occupied. Rodriguez plays Bell’s girlfriend who tries to prove Worthington’s innocence. Burns is a rival negotiator who tries to takeover when he believes Banks has a conflict of interest.
FOX Searchlight will present the box office movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, starring Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, and Dev Patel in a story about a group of British retirees who think India is the ideal — and less expensive — place to spend their golden years.
French actress Lea Seydoux (Inglourious Basterds and Robin Hood) will star as the lead female villain in Mission: Impossible 4.
Warner Bros. Pictures is developing a combination live-action and CG-animated movie featuring Pepe Le Pew, the lovelorn French skunk and Looney Tunes character with Mike Myers as the voice of the overly amorous skunk.
Joely Richardson (Nip/Tuck) has joined the cast of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which stars Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Robin Wright, Stellan Skarsgard and Christopher Plummer. It is unknown at this time what role Richardson will play.
The 7th Harry Potter movie will NOT be seen in 3-D when it is released this fall
Alice Eve (She’s Out of My League) will replace Margarita Levieva (Adventureland) in the box office movie ATM, which is follows three co-workers who, on a common visit to the nearest ATM to get some money, find themselves terrorized by large menacing man in a parka who won’t let them leave.
Victor Webster (Mutant X and soon to be seen in episodes of Castle) will star in the lead role in the straight-to-DVD sequel Scorpion King: Rise of the Dead, in which Mathayus (Webster) takes on impenetrable bad guys in the wilds of the Northern Tribes in 3000 BC.
CASTING SCOOP
Peter MacNicol (Ally McBeal and Numb3rs) has joined the cast of Grey’s Anatomy for a multi-episode arc, playing Dr. Stark, a pediatrics attending who will be working closely with Alex (Justin Chambers).
Robert Patrick (The Unit) will guest star in multiple episodes of Big Love, playing Bud Mayberry, the leader of a polygamist fringe group.
Scott Cohen (Gilmore Girls) has been cast opposite Callie Thorne in the USA drama pilot Necessary Roughness, where he will play a ‘fixer’ for a football franchise who works closely with Danielle (Thorne).
Sara Rue (Less Than Perfect) has joined the cast of the CBS comedy Rules of Engagement as surrogate Brenda. Joan Collins (yes, THAT Joan Collins) will appear in a November sweeps episode of the comedy as the mother of David Spade’s character.
Aquaman (Alan Ritchson) will make his return to Smallville later this season, and he’s bringing a wife in the form of Mera, played by Elena Satine (Melrose Place). The duo are set to turn up in the ninth episode, which is directed by Tom Welling.
Mary Lynn Rajskub (24),will guest star on Modern Family as the old high school girlfriend of then closeted Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson).
Aaron Douglas (Battlestar Galactica and Hellcats) is set to guest star on an upcoming episode of Eureka, which returns to the lineup early in 2011.
Two new characters have been added to the next season of Pretty Little Liars, but they are not characters from the books. Caleb, played by Tyler Blackburn (Days of our Lives and Cold Case), is a bad boy and Simone, played by Alona Tal (Supernatural and Veronica Mars), is going to cause a lot of drama for one of our Little Liars.
Ed Begley, Jr. (St. Elsewhere) will guest star in the 5th episode of the mid-season medical drama Off the Map, as a dentist named Hank.
Danny Trejo (Machete) will appear as the feared janitor at Luke and Manny’s school on Modern Family.
Raymond J. Barry (Lost) will appear on NCIS: Los Angeles, as a former secret agent who shares a past with Linda Hunt’s character.
Jamie Alexander (Kyle XY) will appear in at least four episodes of the Showtime dramedy Nurse Jackie, as Tunie, Kevin’s (Dominic Fumusa) never-before-seen younger sibling.
Rebecca Mader (Lost) is set to guest star in Law & Order: Los Angeles this season, playing a woman named Rebecca.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
With the fall season fully upon us, there is a lot of programming for which to keep track. The list below covers most of what you can expect this coming weekend and next week:
Saturday, October 9:
The Defenders on CBS at 9 PM (reair)
Chase on NBC at 9 PM (reair)
Boardwalk Empire on HBO at 10:15 PM (reair)
Monsterwolf movie on Syfy at 9 PM (Debut)
Sunday, October 10:
Desperate Housewives on ABC at 9 PM
Brothers &Sisters on ABC at 10 PM
CSI: Miami on CBS at 10 PM
Rubicon on AMC at 9 PM
Mad Men on AMC at 10 PM
Boardwalk Empire on HBO at 9 PM
Bored to Death on HBO at 10 PM
Eastbound &Down on HBO at 10:30 PM
Dexter on Showtime at 9 PM
Weeds on Showtime at 10 PM (reair)
The Big C on Showtime at 10:30 PM (reair)
Seduced by Lies movie on Lifetime Movie Network (Debut)
Wallander: The Man Who Smiled movie on Masterpiece Mystery on PBS at 9 PM (Debut)
Monday, October 11:
Hawaii Five-0 on CBS at 10 PM
Castle on ABC at 10:01 PM
90210 on the CW at 8 PM
Gossip Girl on the CW at 9 PM
House on FOX at 8 PM
Lie To Me on FOX at 9 PM
Chuck on NBC at 8 PM
The Event on NBC at 9 PM
Chase on NBC at 10 PM
Dexter on Showtime at 9 PM (reair)
Weeds on Showtime at 10 PM
The Big C on Showtime at 10:30 PM
Boardwalk Empire on HBO2 at 8 PM (reair)
Bored to Death on HBO2 at 9 PM (reair)
Reviving Ophelia movie on Lifetime at 9 PM (Debut)
Tuesday, October 12:
NCIS on CBS at 8 PM
NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS at 9 PM
The Good Wife on CBS at 10 PM
No Ordinary Family on ABC at 8 PM
Detroit 1-8-7 on ABC at 10 PM
One Tree Hill on the CW at 8 PM
Life Unexpected on the CW at 9 PM
Glee on FOX at 8 PM
Parenthood on NBC at 10 PM
Melissa & Joey on ABC Family Channel at 8 PM
Unnatural History on Cartoon Network at 8 PM (reair)
Sons of Anarchy on FX at 10 PM
Stargate Universe on Syfy at 8 PM (reair)
Stargate Universe on Syfy at 9 PM (New)
Caprica on Syfy at 10 PM
Weeds on Showtime at 9 PM (reair)
The Big C on Showtime at 9:30 PM (reair)
Dexter on Showtime at 10 PM (reair)
Wednesday, October 13:
Criminal Minds on CBS at 9 PM
The Defenders on CBS at 10 PM
The Whole Truth on ABC at 10 PM
Hellcats on the CW at 9 PM
Undercovers on NBC at 8 PM
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC at 9 PM
Law & Order: Los Angeles on NBC at 10 PM
Terriers on FX at 10 PM
Law & Order: UK on BBC America at 8 PM (reair)
Boardwalk Empire on HBO at 9:15 and 10:15 PM (reairs)
Dexter on Showtime2 at 8 PM (reair)
The Big C on Showtime2 at 9 PM (reair)
Weeds on Showtime2 at 9:30 PM (reair)
Thursday, October 14:
CSI on CBS at 9 PM
The Mentalist on CBS at 10 PM
Grey’s Anatomy on ABC at 9 PM
Private Practice on ABC at 10:01 PM
Bones on FOX at 8 PM
Fringe on FOX at 9 PM
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia on FX at 10 PM
The League on FX at 10:30 PM
Boardwalk Empire on HB02 at 10 PM (reair)
Dexter on Showtime at 10 PM (reair)
Weeds on Showtime2 at 9 PM (reair)
The Big C on Showtime2 at 9:30 PM (reair)
Bored to Death on HBO at 9:30, 10 and 10:30 PM (reairs)
Friday, October 15:
Medium on CBS at 8 PM
CSI: NY on CBS at 9 PM
Blue Bloods on CBS at 10 PM
Detroit 1-8-7on ABC at 9 PM (reair)
Smallville on the CW at 8 PM
Supernatural on the CW at 9 PM
The Good Guys on FOX at 9 PM
Outlaw on NBC at 10 PM
Law & Order: UK on BBC America at 9 and 10 PM (reairs)
Sanctuary on Syfy at 10 PM (RETURN)
Boardwalk Empire on HBO Signature at 9 PM (reair)
Weeds on Showtime at 8 PM (reair)
The Big C on Showtime at 8:30 PM (reair)
Dexter on Showtime at 9 PM (reair)
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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