News
The Weekly Round-Up for November 15 to 19
Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:
TELEVISION NEWS
TNT has canceled Dark Blue after two seasons.
Sources confirm that actor Harry Shum Jr., who plays Mike will become a series regular next season on Glee.
A message to Medium fans from series creator Glenn Gordon Caron: “It’s true. Allison Dubois will dream her last dream on “Medium”, Friday, January 21st. In what we believe will be a series defining episode, Allison and her family will stare destiny in the eye. And destiny will not blink.”
The first season of Damages will be reaired on DirectTV starting on January 5 at 10 PM followed by the airing of the second season of the show on April 6 at 10 PM. The third season will then launch on May 25 at 10 PM leading up to the summer debut of the all new fourth season.
Syfy has scheduled the start of the third season of UK import Merlin for January 7 at 10 PM and the five remaining episode of the recently canceled Caprica will air in a 5-hour marathon on the network on January 4 starting at 6 PM.
Fox has picked up the comedy pilot Breaking In for mid-season with a 7-episode order. The work place comedy stars Christian Slater.
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
Amy Pietz (Aliens in America)has joined the cast of the ABC Family drama pilot Nine Lives of Chloe King, which is about a seemingly normal teen (Skyler Samuels from The Gates) who starts developing heightened abilities (super speed, agility, hearing…claws), and discovers she’s being pursued by a mysterious figure. Pietz will play Chloe’s adoptive mother and protector.
Actress Amanda Walsh (Sons & Daughters and the movie Beauty & the Briefcase) has landed the lead in the hour- long CW dramedy pilot Dannie Lowinski based on the German series of the same name. The pilotis being targeted for next fall. The series is about a scrappy hairdresser (Walsh) who has worked her way through law school and finally graduates only to be brushed off by law firms that aren’t interested in her type. Determined to make her way in the professional world, she sets up her own practice in a shopping mall kiosk.
Rachael Leigh Cook will star alongside Eric McCormack in the TNT drama pilot Perception, which centers on Dr. Geoffrey Pierce (McCormack), an eccentric, frequently erratic and absolutely brilliant university professor in neuropsychiatry who helps the FBI solve complex cases. Cook will play sexy, sharp-tongued and smart FBI agent Kate Rossi who recruited her former professor Pierce to work for the bureau.
Director Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth and the Hellboy movie franchise) and David Eick (Battlestar Galactica executive producer) are finalizing a deal to create the new TV series version of The Hulk for ABC. This will be del Toro’s first TV project. Details of the premise are sketchy but rumor has it the project will follow the origin story of physicist Bruce Banner, whose alter ego is the green and raging Hulk. He will be in his mid-twenties, less reactive and more energized as the world is still his oyster.
Actress Clare Danes is in talks to return to TV for the Showtime pilot Homeland, which is based off the Israeli format Hatufim (aka Prisoners of War). The pilot would center on U.S. Marine Sergeant Scott Brody, who is found 10 years after going missing during the invasion of Baghdad. Danes would play Carrie Anderson, a smart, driven CIA case officer who handles threats to homeland security from the Middle East. She gets a tip that Brody has turned up and is leading a strike against the United States. Homeland would follow her efforts to get to the truth. This would be her first regular TV series role since her days on My So-Called Life in 1994.
Dylan Walsh (Nip/Tuck) will star in a procedural about an agent at a Washington D.C.-based government agency for CBS.
Molly Parker (Deadwood) has landed the lead in Meet Jane a Lifetime pilot about an unhappily wed mother of two who is recruited by the FBI to snoop on her computer tech hubby.
Singer-Actress Raven Symone (The Cosby Show and That’s So Raven) will star in the comedy pilot The Great State of Georgia for the ABC Family channel. The pilot centers on Georgia (Raven Symone), an exuberant curvy performer from the south who is trying to make it big as an actress in New York City. Actor Brock Cuchna (Melrose Place) stars as Georgia’s Southern ex-boyfriend who, still madly in love with her, comes to New York to bring her back home.
Pierce Brosnan is working on a new project that would mark his return to series television. Brosnan would appear in and produce the show, centered on an international operative and problem solver for hire. The main character is called into situations such as kidnappings and business espionage.
Actress Angela Bassett has been cast in the new ABC drama project called One Police Plaza, she will play New York City’s first female commissioner in the project, which is currently in development.
Katelyn Tarver (Nick’s Big Time Rush), Valerie Tian (Juno), Ana Lucasey (Lie to Me), and Christian Serratos (Twilight) have joined the ABC Family Channel’s new pilot from The Secret Life of the American Teenager creator Brenda Hampton that centers on a diverse group of private high schoolers.
MADE FOR TV MOVIES NEWS
Sara Rue (Eastwick) and Barry Watson (7th Heaven) will star in the ABC Family movie Always and Forever that is set to premiere in Spring 2011. The movie is about P-A-X-497/341, aka “Pax” (Watson), a young man from the well-ordered but loveless future who travels to present day New Orleans in search of romance novelist Elizabeth Barrett (Rue) – whose book he has come upon during an archeological dig in the year 3125. Hoping Elizabeth can explain the concept of love to him, which is now nonexistent in his time, Pax embarks on an adventure filled with new discoveries. Elizabeth introduces Pax to life in the year 2011, filled with love, music and of course, destiny. Valerie Harper plays a confidante and colleague to Elizabeth; meanwhile, Fred Willard portrays Bob, Pax’s scientific superior from the future who reluctantly helps him go back in time.
Lucy Liu (Ally McBeal and Charlie’s Angels) will star in the Lifetime original mini-series called Marry Me. Liu stars as Rae Ann Carter, a single aspiring artist-turned-social worker who always wanted a fairytale romance – to fall madly in love and live happily ever after. But when her two-year relationship falls apart, Rae unexpectedly falls for a new man, Luke (Steve Pasquale from Rescue Me), who asks her to marry her after a few short dates. Just as everything seems to fall into place for Rae, her ex-boyfriend Adam (Bobby Cannavale from Third Watch) suddenly re-emerges into her life with a proposal of his own. Things get even further complicated when a third man (Enrique Murciano from Without a Trace), smitten by Rae, enters the picture and asks for her hand in marriage, as well. With three men after her heart, who will be Rae’s Prince Charming? The movie also co-stars Annie Potts (Designing Women), Vanessa Marano (Dexter), Elizabeth Bogush (The Big Bang Theory) and Danielle Nicolet (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation).
Mark your calendars, Doctor Who fans!! BBC America announced today that the latest Doctor Who Christmas Special called A Christmas Carol will air on December 25th at 9 PM. The Dickens-inspired installment, written by head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat, is described as: Newlyweds Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) are joined by Harry Potter’s Michael Gambon and Opera diva Katherine Jenkins, for what may be the Doctor’s most Christmassy adventure yet. The next season of Who will make its way to the airwaves in Spring 2011 as Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill, Alex Kingston (reprising her role as River Song) and Mark Sheppard shoot the two-part premiere in Utah. Meanwhile, the channel will air a Doctor Who marathon beginning December 24th at midnight, featuring a slew of favorite episodes, Christmas specials, and the US premiere of Doctor Who at the Proms, all leading up to the launch of Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol.
Jane Seymour (Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman) returns to the Hallmark Channel in the made for TV movie Perfectly Prudence, which will premiere on January 8 at 9 PM. This movie is the sequel to the 2008 Hallmark Channel movie Dear Prudence. In the sequel Prudence MacIntyre (Seymour), infamously clever deviser of unique remedies for common, household problems, is being asked to make changes to her successful television show and she is resistant. But much to her surprise, one of the new producers who is eager to revamp her image (Joe Lando, Seymour’s former co-star in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman) is an old flame. Unfortunately, the other is a seedy womanizer (Adam Kaufman) who enchants Prudence’s daughter. Once again, Prudence will have the assistance of her faithful sidekick Nigel (Matt Jones) as she attempts to rekindle a love she thought she lost, protect her daughter from the wrong guy, and find a way to keep her show on the right path. Hopefully, the head of the network (James Keach, Seymour’s off-screen husband) will have her back when the battle draws down!
The Syfy movie Ice Quake will debut on December 11 at 9 PM and stars Brendan Fehr (Roswell and Bones) and Victor Garber (Alias and Eli Stone). The movie focuses on the melting Alaskan permafrost creates underground rivers of volatile liquid methane, causing a succession of violent and destructive earthquakes. One family, separated by the disastrous events, must find each other during Christmas and together stop the deadly rivers before a catastrophic explosion threatens the entire planet.
BOX OFFICE NEWS
David Tennant (Doctor Who) will star in the BBC soccer film called United, which is the true story of Manchester United’s Busby Babes, the youngest team to win the English soccer league before eight players died in the Munich air crash of 1958. Though the role of Matt Busby is yet to be cast, Tennant will play coach Jimmy Murphy. In addition, Jack O’Connell (Skins) has landed the role of Bobby Charlton and Sam Clafin will play Duncan Edwards, a player who dies 15 days after the plane crash.
Three major movie projects have seen their female leads recently depart with two of them finding replacements already. First, the film adaptation of the play Albert Nobbs was to star Amanda Seyfried, but who has been replaced by Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland). Second, Rachel Weisz had been signed to play the female lead in a new untitled comedy from Lynn Shelton. Weisz and Emily Blunt were to play sisters who end up fighting over a man.Rosemarie DeWitt (Rachel Getting Married) is now taking over for Weisz. Lastly, as briefly mentioned in yesterday’s update, Katherine Heigl has dropped out of the box office movie he last Adaline, but no replacement has been cast as yet.
Carey Mulligan (An Education) is confirmed to be playing Daisy Buchanan the upcoming new film adaptation of The Great Gatsby. She will star alongside Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, while the role of Nick Carraway is not yet set though will probably go to Tobey Maguire.
Karen Gillan (Doctor Who)will play a Jersey girl who finds herself trapped in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Brittney will find Gillen playing a high school drama clubber who magically wakes up in 13th century Verona, as the mythical Juliet, surrounded by the characters she knows all too well. The X-Files veteran Gillian Anderson is set to play the dual role of both Juliet’s Nurse and Brittney’s real-world mother.
Director Steven Soderbergh has become associated with the film adaptation of the 1960 classic NBC TV series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. The original series starred Robert Vaughn and David McCallum as two agents of the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement (U.N.C.L.E.), who fought the forces of Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity (T.H.R.U.S.H.).
Michael Caine, Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter), Emily Mortimer, Joe Mantegna (Criminal Minds), Peter Jacobson (House) and Thomas Kretschmann (King Kong) have joined Owen Wilson and Larry the Cable Guy, lending their voices to the forthcoming animated sequel Cars 2.
Daniel Day-Lewis will star as the 16th President of the United States in the movie Lincoln to be directed by Steven Spielberg. The film will be based on the best-selling book, Team of Rivals, by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. The film is expected to be released in the latter part of 2012.
Leonardo DiCaprio will star in and produce the movie Legacy of Secrecy, an adaptation of Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann’s non-fiction book of the same name. DiCaprio would play FBI informant Jack Van Laningham who apparently witnessed the confession of Mafia godfather Carlos Marcello for the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Apparently the confession came about after a dangerous and long-secret undercover operation, wherein the FBI positioned Van Laningham to become a confidant to Marcello, who ruled organized crime in Louisiana and most of Texas for decades.
CASTING SCOOP
Actor Stephen Colletti has been promoted to series regular on One Tree Hill.
Actor Daniel Sunjata (Rescue Me) will have a recurring role in Grey’s Anatomy as a nurse who just might be making Bailey happy during her off hours. He will first appear in the December 2nd episode.
Nia Long (Third Watch) will appear in the NBC series Chase, as Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Randolph, a feisty lady who will face off with the show’s Deputy U.S. Marshal Jimmy Godfrey (Cole Hauser). The will possibly be multi-episode arc, staring in mid-December.
Actress Mayim Bialik (Blossom) has been promoted to series regular on the CBS comedy The Big Bang Theory. She plays Sheldon’s quasi-girlfriend.
Annette O’Toole will be back in Smallville in early 2011.
Actress Lindsay Price (Eastwick) will guest star in an episode of CSI: New York in February. She will play Kate, a young woman who experienced a past trauma that she can’t forget. Her character ends up forming a bond with Det. Lindsay Monroe Messer (Anna Belknap) when her past returns to haunt her.
When Balthazar Getty returns to Brothers & Sisters in January for the show’s 100th episode, his character Tommy won’t be coming home along. His new lady love Rose (Cara Buono from Mad Men) will be joining him. They are expected to appear in at least three episodes this season.
Actor Tim Guinee (Lie To Me) has been cast in the potentially recurring role of Wiley, an investigator working for the State’s Attorney’s office for the CBS series The Good Wife. Wiley (who will debut in early 2011) agrees to do a little reconnaissance for now-prosecutor Cary (Matt Czuchry) and hits pay dirt.
More guest stars have been added to the second half of the fourth season of Eureka. Wallace Shawn (Gossip Girl), Dave Foley (News Radio) and Aaron Douglas (Battlestar Galactica) will be seen in 2011 episodes of the popular Syfy series. Shawn will portray Warren Hughes, a relationship auditor sent to Eureka to shadow and report on Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson) and Allison Blake (Salli Richardson- Whitfield). Douglas appears as Ray, the exuberant leader of Galaxy Camp while Foley will appear in the finale as Drew Plotkin, a former weapons specialist turned eco-scientist whose research may be wreaking havoc in Eureka.
Actress Megan Ward (General Hospital) will guest-star in a February episode of CSI: NY. She will play a lawyer who helps out a woman haunted by her past.
Shelly Long will encore on the ABC comedy Modern Family, reprising her role of rather unpredictable Jay’s ex-wife, DeDe, in a January episode celebrating Lily’s birthday.
Actor Anthony Carrigan (The Forgotten) is joining Parenthood as Adam’s (Peter Krause) new wunderkind-esque boss. His character, Cory, is described as a super-smart and highly opinionated young millionaire who replaces William Baldwin’s Gordon as the head honcho at T&S Footwear.
Beau Bridges will appear in a “handful of episodes” as a new love interest for Nora (Sally Field) on Brothers & Sisters. Meanwhile, Calista Flockhart will be gone from the show for three episodes, including the 100th episode). This absence is part of her personal request to work a little less this season. There also might be interest in a sixth season, but nothing has been confirmed yet. And, actor Christopher J. Hanke (he played the waiter for Scotty cheated on Kevin) is coming back and that could be trouble for Scotty and Kevin (or could it?).
Jennifer Esposito is joining the cast of Blue Bloods as a series regular in the role of Detective Jackie Curatola.
Adrianne Palicki (Friday Night Lights and Lone Star) will guest star in an episode of Criminal Minds that pays homage to Oliver Stone’s seminal criminal satire Natural Born Killers. Palicki will play Syd, a tough, irreverent and sexually manipulative lunatic who sets out on a cross country killing spree with her badass sociopath husband Ray (Jonathan Tucker from The Black Donnellys). The episode is slated to air in early 2011.
Claudia Black (Farscape and Stargate SG-1) will appear in the CW series 90210, starting in late January. She will appear in a three episode arc as Sona, a yoga guru who the West Beverly girls meet on a yoga retreat.
James Van Der Beek (Dawson’s Creek and Mercy) will guest star on the new TNT series Franklin & Bash, which stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Breckin Meyer, as two young, fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants street lawyers who cause a seismic culture clash when they join a legendary, button-down law firm. Meyer plays Jared Franklin, who loves sticking it to authority every chance he gets, while Gosselaar plays Peter Bash, who has a knack for connecting with jury and judge. Van Der Beek will play Nathan Connor, Peter’s ex-girlfriend’s fiancé. Nathan hires Peter after his bachelor party gets too wild in a hotel.
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, November 20:
The Big C on Showtime at 8 PM (reair)
Weeds on Showtime at 8:30 PM (reair)
The Night Before the Night Before Christmas movie on Hallmark at 8 and 10 PM (Debut)
One Angry Juror movie on Lifetime at 9 PM (reair)
Sunday, November 21:
American Music Awards on ABC at 8 PM
CSI: Miami on CBS at 10 PM
The Walking Dead on AMC at 10 PM
Dexter on Showtime at 9 PM (New)
Weeds on Showtime at 10 PM (reair)
The Big C on Showtime at 10:30 PM (reair)
Boardwalk Empire on HBO at 9 PM
One Angry Juror movie on Lifetime at 9 PM
Sandra Brown’s Smoke Screen movie on Lifetime Movie Network at 8 PM (Debut)
Lennon Naked movie (as part of Masterpiece Contemporary) on PBS at 9 PM (Debut)
Monday, November 22:
Hawaii Five-0 on CBS at 10 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)
Boardwalk Empire on HBO2 at 8 PM (reair)
In Treatment on HBO at 9 and 9:30 PM (New)
Tuesday, November 23:
No Ordinary Family on ABC at 8 PM
NCIS on CBS at 8 PM
NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS at 9 PM
The Good Wife on CBS at 10 PM
Glee on FOX at 8 PM
Parenthood on NBC at 10 PM
Sons of Anarchy on FX at 10 PM
Tower Prep on Cartoon Network at 8 PM
Stargate Universe on Syfy at 9 PM
Glory Daze on TBS at 10 PM
Dexter on Showtime at 10 PM (reair)
In Treatment on HBO at 8 and 8:30 PM (reairs)
In Treatment on HBO at 9 and 9:30 PM (New)
Sandra Brown’s Smoke Screen movie on Lifetime Movie Network at 8 PM
Wednesday, November 24:
Human Target on FOX at 8 PM (Return)
Terriers on FX at 10 PM
Friday Night Lights on DirecTV at 9 PM
Boardwalk Empire on HBO at 8, 9 and 10 PM (reairs)
In Treatment on HBO Signature at 9, 9:30, 10 and 10:30 PM (reairs)
Dexter on Showtime2 at 8 PM (reair)
Thursday, November 25:
HAPPY THANKSGIVING
Taylor Swift – Speak Now Special on NBC at 8 PM
NBCs’s People of the Year on NBC at 9 PM
Dexter on Showtime at 10 PM (reair)
Boardwalk Empire on HBO2 at 10 PM (reair)
The Town Christmas Forgot movie on Hallmark at 8 and 10 PM (Debut)
Friday, November 26:
TV’s Funniest Holiday Moments special on NBC at 8 PM
The Walking Dead on AMC at 10 PM (reair)
Law & Order: UK on BBC America at 8, 9 and 10 PM (reairs)
Sanctuary on Syfy at 10 PM
Dexter on Showtime2 at 9 PM (reair)
Boardwalk Empire on HBO at 9 PM
The Night Before the Night Before Christmas movie on Hallmark at 8 PM (reair)
Firebreather on Cartoon Network at 8 PM (Debut)
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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