Recaps
The Round-Up for December 6 to 10
Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:
TELEVISION NEWS
Sadly, FX is not renewing their acclaimed new series Terriers (due to low ratings).
ABC is finally pulling the plug on The Whole Truth, taking it off the schedule with 7 episodes remaining to air. There is no word if these episodes will be available online. Episodes of Modern Family and Cougar Town will fill the open time slot.
The final two episodes of the CW series Life Unexpected will air back-to-back on January 18 and yes, it has been confirmed by the show’s executive producer Liz Tigelaar that the show has been cancelled.
Syfy has decided to give their new pilot Alphas an 11 episode order in addition to the 90-minute pilot. The show is expected to get a summer 2011 debut. The series stars David Strathairn and follows a team of ordinary citizens who possess extraordinary and unusual mental skills. The cast also includes Warren Christie, Malik Yoba, Laura Mennell, Ryan Cartwright and Azita Ghanizada. Callum Keith Rennie (Battlestar Galactica) guest stars in the pilot.
FOX will not be ordering the “back nine” episodes of Lie to Me, making the third season only 13 episodes long; but the network claims the show has not been canceled. A final decision on the show’s future is expected to be made in the spring.
When the finale of Dexter airs on Showtime this Sunday, viewers will get a 20 minute sneak peek at the network’s new series Shameless which stars William H. Macy as Frank Gallagher, a far-from-stellar working-class patriarch of an unconventional Chicago brood of six motley kids whose eldest daughter (Emmy Rossum) keeps the home afloat while he’s out drinking and carousing. Shameless will debut on January 9.
Want to see season 3 of True Blood again? Or maybe you missed some of the episodes or perhaps all of the season? Well, you can catch up on it all by watching back-to-back episodes of True Blood on HBO starting on December 27 at 8 PM and continuing through December 30.
TNT has announced the 7th season of The Closer will be its last, getting 15 episodes out of that season.
NBC has decided to cut back on the episode order of the upcoming new mid-season series Love Bites. Rather than having 13 episodes there will now only be nine. The series is a romantic anthology that will star Becki Newton (Ugly Betty) and Greg Grunberg (Heroes and Alias).
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
The search for a Smallville replacement continues: First with talk of a Blue Beetle TV project and now with the CW looking to one of the Teen Titans for a possible TV series in the form of the DC Comics character Raven, a half-demon also known as Rachel Roth, who has empathic abilities and divine secrets. But, nothing has been confirmed yet and the presumed project is still in the talking phase.
Rick Schroder (24) has joined the cast of the Molly Parker-led Lifetime drama pilot called Meet Jane, which is about an unhappily married mother of two daughters in the Washington, DC area who is suddenly re-energized and empowered when the FBI enlists her to spy on her husband, a computer technician the government suspects is selling top-secret information to Russia. Schroeder will play her husband.
Easy come, easy go. Eliza Dushku (Buffy and Dollhouse) has departed the TNT drama pilot Bird Dog, due to creative differences. And, it looks like actress Ashley Williams will now star as Gail McGrath, a cop who is forced to partner with her estranged father, also a policeman, who will be portrayed by Gerald McRaney (Undercovers and Major Dad).
Starz has greenlit production on Magic City, a drama centering on the gritty side of Miami in the 1960s from executive producer Mitch Glazer (The Recruit). This project revolves around Ike Evans, the head of the Miramar Hotel who meets pressures from the mob, his own family, and the changes brought on by Fidel Castro taking charge of Cuba. The 10-episode series will begin casting soon, and is slated to premiere in 2012.
Anthony Zuiker, the creator of the CSI franchise has four dramas in the works; three for CBS and one for the CW. The CBS projects include:
Detail, loosely based on bodyguard Kim Maree Penn, is about a female bodyguard protecting a different high-risk client of the week. She’s not only a bodyguard to her clients, but also a de facto counselor. Next up is Desperado, which about a band of lawmen doling out very Texas-centric cowboy justice. And third is Treadstone, which is about spies in our daily lives. Then the CW project is called Spirits, which is about three women at a startup company who try to help people with otherworldly problems.
Hot on the heels of FOX’s success with the musicomedy Glee, it looks like the CW is developing a struggling rock-band drama for next season. Tentatively dubbed The Prickly Spheres, the show is expected to revolve around a classical-music prodigy who turns down a full ride at Julliard and instead ends up joining an alternative-rock band in Minneapolis filled with quirky but super-talented musicians.
FOX has picked up the medical thriller pilot called The Danger List about a doctor with a complicated past who investigates medical abuses, crimes and conspiracies. While the CW has picked up the pilot Beautiful Strangers, about two young thieves who are given a second chance as informants for a new FBI division. The latter comes will be executive produced by Veronica Mars and Party Down veteran Rob Thomas.
Author John Grisham is working with NBC to turn his short story collection “Ford County” into a primetime drama. Brothers and Sisters creator Jon Robin Baitz has signed on to write the adaptation, but no other details are available just yet.
Actor Warren Kole (24 and Mental) is set to star in the USA Network buddy cop dramedy Common Law opposite Michael Ealy (FlashForward).
Actor Michael Gambon (the Harry Potter franchise) has joined the new HBO drama Luck, which is set in the provocative world of horse-racing, following the owners, gamblers, jockeys and industry players. The cast includes Dustin Hoffman and Joan Allen.
Syfy is reportedly considering redeveloping the drama pilot Three Inches as a comedy. The story revolves around professional daydreamer and underachiever, Walter Spackman (Noah Reid) [who] is struck by lightning, and develops a unique “super” power — the ability to move any object using just his mind… but only a distance of three inches. He’s soon recruited by a covert team of superheroes each gifted with their own extraordinarily ordinary abilities. The cast includes James Marsters, Kyle Schmid, Naoko Mori and Stephanie [among others].
Actor Mandy Patinkin (Criminal Minds) has joined the cast of the Showtime drama pilot Homeland, which stars Claire Danes. The story is about an American soldier taken prisoner during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Left for dead, the soldier miraculously returns to the U.S. after years in captivity. Danes plays Carrie Anderson, a driven CIA officer battling her own psychological demons, who becomes convinced that the intelligence that led to his re-capture was a setup and that this national hero may be connected to an Al Qaeda plot to be carried out on American soil. Patinkin is set as the smart and politically savvy CIA Division Chief emeritus Saul Berenson who is Carrie’s main champion in the intelligence upper echelon and her sounding board.
A contemporary re-imagining of the classic novel The Count of Monte Cristo taken from a female perspective is being considered for TV by ABC Studios and Temple Hill, the producer of the Twilight movie franchise. In this reboot the story would chronicle a mysterious young woman who comes to the Hamptons to exact revenge on the people who destroyed her family. The team of ABC Studios and Temple Hill are also considering a series adaptation of Romeo & Juliet. Temple Hill also has the drama Garden Spells set up at the CW.
Jurassic Park actor Sam Neill (who was last seen in the short-lived TV series Happy Town) will star opposite Sarah Jones in the J.J. Abrams FOX pilot Alcatraz. The project follows a cop (Jones) and a team of FBI agents trying to track down a group of missing Alcatraz prisoners and guards who reappear in the present day after disappearing thirty years earlier. He will play Emerson Hauser, the intelligent and authoritative head of a government agency.
MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE NEWS
Actor Eddie McClintock (Warehouse 13) will star in the upcoming Syfy movie The Boogeyman, which is scheduled to air on Syfy in 2011. The movie is a modern-day retelling of the Cain and Abel story, co-starring Emma Samms (Dynasty, General Hospital). The story centers on a deadly supernatural creature who escapes into the world after its keeper suddenly dies, killing indiscriminately while hunting for a new human to be its brother. It finally targets a young boy – the son of a widowed cop, played by McClintock.
A sequel to the box office movie Mean Girls (Mean Girls 2)will be airing on the ABC Family Channel on January 23 at 8 PM. The movie stars Meaghan Martin (10 Things I Hate About You and Camp Rock 1 & 2), Maiara Walsh (Desperate Housewives and The Vampire Diaries), Jennifer Stone (Wizards of Waverly Place), Nicole Gale Anderson (Make It or Break It), Claire Holt (H20: Just Add Water) and Diego Boneta (Pretty Little Liars). The movie is about new girl Jo (Martin), who arrives at North Shore High School, with her main goal being to skate under the radar to survive her senior year and definitely not get involved in any of the typical high school trappings. But her plan goes awry quickly when she meets Abby (Stone), a girl stuck at the low end of the high school food chain and favorite target of “The Plastics” (Walsh, Holt and Anderson). After defending Abby against the queen bee of the school and lead Plastic, Mandi (Walsh), Jo is dragged into the very same girl drama she was hoping to avoid. Tim Meadows returns as the school’s principal, Mr. Duvall.
The Hallmark Channel movie Smooch – loosely based on the Brothers Grimm short story The Frog King – will air on February 5 at 9 PM. In this version, Kiernan Shipka (Mad Men) plays Zoe, a young girl obsessed by fairytales and happy endings who is searching for the perfect man for her widowed mother Gwen (Kellie Martin). It is Zoe’s belief in a frog’s potential charm that compels her to abduct one from her middle school science class, carrying him to Golden Gate Park in a water-filled lunchbox where she intends to set him free. Having skipped class, Zoe is surprised to see another schoolmate at the park, and in her anxiety, accidentally loses her green friend into a pond. As she surveys the scene, a male monarch (Simon Kassianides) in full royal regalia and who was mugged the night before, appears in a dinghy. The dazed prince, sporting a goose egg on his head, has little memory of who he is or how he got into such a predicament. But he is in luck. Zoe knows precisely how this fairytale ends.
Procter & Gamble and Walmart will premiere their latest made-for-TV family movie called Change of Plans on FOX on January 8 at 8 PM. The movie demonstrates how our lives can be turned upside down with a single phone call. When Sally Danville (Brooke White – a formerly American Idol top 10 contestant) finds out that her best friend from college died in a tragic accident while serving in the Peace Corps, she also learns that she has been named the legal guardian of her friend’s four children three of whom were adopted from third-world countries. Now Sally and her husband, Jason (Joe Flanigan from Stargate Atlantis), must quickly learn to parent this instant family and help the kids deal with culture clashes and life in America. Phylicia Rashad (The Cosby Show) also co-stars as social worker Dorothy. Three songs from the movie’s soundtrack are from star Brooke White as well as tracks from various recording artists.
The next Hallmark Hall of Fame movie The Lost Valentine will air on CBS on January 30 at 9 PM, starring Jennifer Love Hewitt as a TV reporter whose own love life is impacted by her Valentine’s Day-themed assignment to profile a woman (Betty White) whose love for her husband remains as strong as when she last saw him several months before he was declared MIA while serving during WWII. The movie also stars Meghann Fahy, Billy Magnussen and Sean Faris.
LITERARY NEWS
Author Sara Shepard will add four new books to her Pretty Little Liars series, starting with a July 2011 release. The new books will bring the total in the series to 12. The series follows the aftermath of a popular girl’s disappearance and is the basis for the ABC Family Channel drama of the same name. The first new installment, Twisted, will be on sale July 5. The Lying Game was just released.
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Actor Irrfan Kahn (Slumdog Millionaire and The Namesake) is negotiating to take the role of Van Atter, a villain that no fan seems to be aware of in the Spider-Man universe. Meanwhile, Campbell Scott (Royal Pains) and Julianne Nicholson (Law & Order: Criminal Intent) will play Richard and Mary Parker, the parents of Peter Parker. Annie Parisse (Rubicon) is also negotiating to play Van Atter’s wife. But who is this unknown villain anyway? The theory is that Van Atter might be Proto-Goblin, a villain who only ever appeared in one Spider-Man comic book.
Aaron Johnson (Kick Ass) and Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland) have joined the cast of the film adaptation of the 1980 Broadway play called Albert Nobbs, which is set around a luxury hotel in Dublin in the 19th century. Glenn Close will reprise her award-winning stage role of a woman who impersonates a man to survive. Michael Gambon, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Janet McTeer also star.
Chris Colfer (Glee) will make his feature-film debut in an independent movie for which he also wrote. The movie is called Struck by Lightning and is a coming-of-age comedy. There is no studio or distributor attached yet, though.
Ryan Phillippe has joined the cast of the heist film Set Up, which stars Bruce Willis and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. Jenna Dewan Tatum (Step Up) also stars. The film is to follow a group of friends who are catapulted into the middle of a diamond heist that turns deadly.
Lucy Punch and Rich Sommer have signed onto the romantic comedy The Giant Mechanical Man that follows a quiet zoo worker (Jenna Fischer) who is torn between a street performer (Chris Messina) and a pompous motivational speaker (Topher Grace). Punch will play the street-performer’s girlfriend. Malin Akerman also stars.
Oprah Winfrey may star in an HBO Films adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lynn Nottage play Ruined, which is set in a brothel in the war-torn Congo and captures the experiences of the women working there.
More names are being attached to the upcoming box office film The Hobbit. Among them is Cate Blanchett, who will reprise here role of the ethereal elf Galadriel. The others are Ken Stott (Charlie Wilson’s War) who will play the Dwarf Lord Balin; Sylvester McCoy (Doctor Who) who will play the wizard Radagast the Brown; Swedish actor Mikael Persbrandt who will play the shape-shifting bear-man Beorn; British actor Ryan Gage who will play Drogo Baggins; and New Zealand actors Jed Brophy and William Kircher who will play the dwarves Nori and Bifur, respectively.
Actress Pauley Perrette (NCIS) will topline the science-fiction romance film The Girl From Mars, which is about a lonely geek whose life is transformed when he meets the girl of his dreams (Perrette) who claims to be a visitor from another planet.
Anne Hathaway has signed on to the play the lead while Bradley Cooper is in contention to play opposite her in the box office movie The Silver Linings Playbook that focuses on a man who, after a mental collapse, is released from a health facility determined to find the silver linings in his life. In total denial that his wife has remarried and moved on, he moves home with his parents and befriends a depressed woman who offers to act as a liaison between him and his wife.
Jessica Biel and Sofia Vergara (Modern Family) are in negotiations for roles in the box office film New Year’s Eve that is a sequel of sorts to the film Valentine’s Day. Biel would play a pregnant woman who tries to win a cash prize given by a hospital to the couple who are first to give birth on New Year’s Day. Lea Michele and Abigail Breslin are already confirmed while Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hilary Swank and Ashton Kutcher are in various stages of negotiations to join the cast.
Alan Cumming (The Good Wife) will have a small part in a film called Maladies with James Franco, Claire Danes and Catherine Keener. The film centers on a successful actor who retires at a young age due to what is believed to be a mental illness.
Carey Mulligan is joining Michael Fassbender in the indie drama Shame. The film is said to examine the nature of need, how people live their lives and react to the experiences that shape them.
Gerard Depardieu, Adil Hussain, and Irrfan Khan will star in the adaptation of the novel Life of Pi. Khan is set to play the adult version of the title character, while Hussain is on board to play Pi’s father and Depardieu to play a chef.
Taylor Lautner (the Twilight franchise) is attached to star in the upcoming movie Incarceron, an adaptation of the Catherine Fisher young adult novel. Lautner will play Finn, a young man who has lived his entire life on Incarceron, a savage, futuristic prison society where he meets the warden’s daughter, who is trapped in her own prison, a futuristic world constructed to look like the 17th century. Together, she and Finn find a crystal key that allows them to communicate and hatch an escape plan for Finn.
Actress Lily Collins (who play Sandra Bullock’s daughter in the movie The Blind Side) will play Clary Fray in the adaptation of The City of Bones, the first book in Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series. The description of book one of the trilogy goes like this: When Clary Fray witnesses three tattoo-covered teenagers murder another teen, she is unable to prove the crime because the victim disappears right in front of her eyes, and no one else can see the killers. She learns that the teens are Shadowhunters (humans who hunt and kill demons), and Clary, a mundie (i.e., mundane human), should not be able to see them either. Shortly after this discovery, her mother, Jocelyn, an erstwhile Shadowhunter, is kidnapped. Jocelyn is the only person who knows the whereabouts of The Mortal Cup, a dangerous magical item that turns humans into Shadowhunters. Clary must find the cup and keep it from a renegade sector of Shadowhunters bent on eliminating all nonhumans, including benevolent werewolves and friendly vampires.
CASTING SCOOP
Actress Dawn Olivieri (True Blood and Heroes) will guest star on The Vampire Diaries as Andie Star, a local newscaster for Mystic Falls.
Actress Rachel Nichols (Alias and G-I Joe: The Rise of Cobra) is set to become a series regular on Criminal Minds, playing FBI cadet Ashley Seaver. This comes on the heels of the departure of former regular A.J. Cook and the currently questionable status of Paget Brewster.
More actors have joined season 4 of True Blood, including Christina Moore (Hawthorne), who will play Suzanne McKittrick, a WASPy Texas housewife who possesses certain special abilities. Neil Hopkins (Lost) will have a multi-episode arc as Claude, Claudine’s (Lara Pulver) mysterious brother while Chris Butler (The Good Wife) will play Emory, a prissy and conservative shape shifter with his own agenda.
Actress Adrienne Barbeau (Maude and Carnivale) will guest star on CSI: New York in February, playing a clinic manager who plays an important part of an investigation to track down a hit man played by Ne-Yo.
Veteran actor Larry Hagman (Dallas) will guest star on Desperate Housewives later this season, as the love interest of Lynette’s mother, Stella Wingfield (Polly Bergen).
Actress A.J. Cook (formerly of Criminal Minds) will play opposite Jeremy Irons in an upcoming episode of Law & Order: SVU.
Actor Michael Gross (Family Ties) will guest star on an upcoming episode of Brother & Sisters, as a man who tries to come between Saul (Ron Rifkin) and his boyfriend (to be played by Richard Chamberlain). Gross is only expected to appear in one episode, but the role could be expanded.
Comedian/Actor Dane Cook has been cast to play the brother of Danny “Danno” Williams (Scott Caan) on Hawaii Five-0. Yes, you’re ready that correctly; it’s not a joke. He is set to appear in one February episode.
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, December 11:
In Treatment on HBO2 at 8, 8:30, 9 and 9:30 PM (reairs)
Big Love on HBO2 at 10 PM (reair)
Amish Grace movie on Lifetime Movie Network at 10 PM (reair)
Sunday at Tiffany’s movie on Lifetime at 9 PM (reair)
An Old Fashioned Christmas movie on Hallmark at 8 and 10 PM (Debut)
Ice Quake movie on Syfy at 9 PM (Debut)
Sunday, December 12:
Desperate Housewives on ABC at 9 PM
Brothers & Sisters on ABC at 10:01 PM
CSI: Miami on CBS at 10 PM
Leverage on TNT at 9 PM (Return)
Leverage on TNT at 10 PM (reair)
Dexter on Showtime at 8 PM (reair)
Dexter on Showtime at 9 PM (NEW)
Spartacus: Blood and Sand on Starz at 10 PM (reair)
Sunday at Tiffany’s movie on Lifetime at 7 PM (reair)
Marry Me movie on Lifetime at 9 PM (Debut) [Part 1 of 2)]
Christmas Cupid movie on ABC Family Channel at 8 and 10 PM (Debut)
Monday, December 13:
Castle on ABC at 10:01 PM (reair)
Hawaii Five-0 on CBS at 10PM
The Vampire Diaries on the CW at 8 and 9 PM (Week-Long Marathon)
Chase on NBC at 10 PM (reair)
Dexter on Showtime at 9 PM (reair)
Boardwalk Empire on HBO2 at 9 and 10:15 PM (reairs)
In Treatment on HBO at 8, 8:30, 9 and 9:30 PM (reairs)
The Closer on TNT at 9 PM
Men of a Certain Age on TNT at 10 PM
Marry Me movie on Lifetime at 7 PM (Part 1)
Marry Me movie on Lifetime at 9 PM (Part 2)
Christmas Cupid movie on ABC Family (reair)
Tuesday, December 14:
NCIS on CBS at 8 PM
NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS at 9 PM
The Good Wife on CBS at 10 PM
The Vampire Diaries on the CW at 8 and 9 PM (Week-Long Marathon)
Detroit 1-8-7 on ABC at 10 PM (reair)
Glee on FOX at 8 and 9 PM (reairs)
Tower Prep on Cartoon Network at 9 PM
Glory Daze on TBS at 10 PM
Dexter on Showtime at 10 PM (reair)
In Treatment on HBO at 8, 8:30, 9 and 9:30 PM (reairs)
Boardwalk Empire on HBO2 at 9 and 10 PM (reairs)
Three Wise Women movie on Hallmark at 8 and 10 PM
Wednesday, December 15:
Criminal Minds on CBS at 9 PM
The Defenders on CBS at 10 PM
The Vampire Diaries on the CW at 8 and 9 PM (Week-Long Marathon)
Human Target on FOX at 8 PM
Friday Night Lights on DirecTV at 9 PM
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC at 10 PM (reair)
Psych on USA Network at 9 and 10 PM
Boardwalk Empire on HBO2 at 9 and 10 PM (reairs)
In Treatment on HBO Signature at 9, 9:30, 10 and 10:30 PM (reairs)
Dexter on Showtime2 at 9 PM (reair)
The Santa Incident movie on Hallmark at 8 PM (reair)
Thursday, December 16:
Grey’s Anatomy on ABC at 9 PM (reair)
Private Practice on ABC at 10 PM (reair)
CSI on CBS at 9 PM (reair)
The Mentalist on CBS at 10 PM (reair)
The Vampire Diaries on the CW at 8 and 9 PM (Week-Long Marathon)
Bones on FOX at 8 and 9 PM (reairs)
Burn Notice on USA Network at 9 and 10 PM (Finales)
Dexter on Showtime at 10 PM (reair)
In Treatment on HBO at 8, 8:30, 9 and 9:30 PM (reairs)
Boardwalk Empire on HBO2 at 9 and 10 PM (reairs)
Gift of the Magi movie on Hallmark at 8 and 10 PM (NEW)
Friday, December 17:
Blue Bloods on CBS at 10 PM (reair)
The Vampire Diaries on the CW at 8 and 9 PM (Week-Long Marathon)
Law & Order: UK on BBC America at 9 and 10 PM (reairs)
Sanctuary on Syfy at 10 PM
Dexter on Showtime2 at 9 PM (reair)
In Treatment on HBO Signature at 8, 8:30, 9 and 9:30 PM (reairs)
An Old-Fashioned Christmas movie on Hallmark at 8 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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