News
The Weekly Round-Up for January 24 to 28
Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:
TELEVISION NEWS
CBS has acquired 7 more episodes of the Canadian series Flashpoint, now giving it 13 episodes for the summer. Meanwhile, cable network ION has purchased the repeat rights to all 62 episodes of Flashpoint, but it is not clear when ION will air these repeats.
It looks like TNT may be trying to keep their popular series The Closer around for additional episodes with or without Kyra Sedgwick. There is a possibility that another character will step up to take over or the network may launch a new spin-off series. Among the scenarios currently discussed by the network is super-sizing the 15-episode seventh and final season to 21-episodes with an order for 6 extra episodes. That, of course, is contingent on a deal with Sedgwick, whose contract is up at the end of Season 7. Additionally, the cable network is eying a possible 9-episode order for a new series, either without Sedgwick or a spinoff series featuring characters from The Closer in a new setting. (The latter will probably be a little easier to pull off as Sedgwick plays the title character in the original series.)
Congrats to the winners of the Producer’s Guild Awards that were presented this past weekend. They include the following for Television: Mad Men, Modern Family and The Pacific. And, the following for Film: The King’s Speech, Toy Story 3 and Waiting For Superman.
The original UK series Being Human will be back with a new season of episodes on BBC America starting February 19 at 9 PM. The show is about (now) four friends — two werewolves, a ghost and a vampire — coping with the supernatural challenges in their lives while trying to blend in with their human neighbors.Mark your calendars!!
Congrats to all of the Oscar nominees, which were announced earlier this week.
Looks like 90210 will be down two more adults: Lori Loughlin and Ryan Eggold will not be returning to the show next season. The fourth season will find the West Beverly crew transitioning to college.
The Lifetime series Army Wives will be back for its fifth season on Sunday, March 6 at a new earlier time – 9 PM, serving as the lead-in for the new reality series called Coming Home that will document the surprise reunions of soldiers and their families at 10 PM.
Peter Cambor will be returning to NCIS: Los Angeles as operational psychologist Dr. Nate Getz, whose mysterious absence since the beginning of this season has kept the show’s fans wondering if he’ll return and what he’s been doing while “on assignment.” It looks like audiences will get to see a new side to Nate. He has undergone some specialized training (pet Hetty’s request) and he gets to show off his newfound skills in an upcoming episode.
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
The Ethan Hawke-led drama called Exit Strategy has been ordered to pilot by FOX. The pilot is about CIA agents who are sent in to “fix” operations that have gone bad. Hawke will play the team leader, the architect of exit strategy who also empathizes with the people they extract and would rather die than let them get hurt.
The Showtime drama, from executive producers Steven Spielberg, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, called Smash has found a new home at NBC. The pilot is a show-within-a-show about a group of people who come together to put on a Broadway musical.
David E. Kelley’s take on the DC Comics icon Wonder Woman has finally found a home at NBC. The show will chronicle the life of a vigilante crime fighter in L.A. who is a successful corporate executive and a modern woman trying to balance all of the elements of her extraordinary life.
Actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan is “this close” to landing a deal with cable network Starz to star in their upcoming 1960s drama series called Magic City. If everything works out, Morgan will play a suave Miami hotel owner who opens up his new digs just as Fidel Castro takes over Cuba.
CBS has picked up two drama pilots. The first is The Doctor, from Rina Mimoun (creator of the CW series Privileged), which centers on a mother who reconnects with her adult children when she joins the family medical practice. The second is called Hail Mary, which is a buddy private investigator drama centered on a suburban single mom living in Atlanta who teams upwith a hustler to solve crimes.
Actor Jeffrey Nordling (Desperate Housewives) and actress Katherine LaNasa (The Defenders) have both landed roles on the as-yet untitled Lifetime drama pilot from Michael Sardo, which is about Ann Brown (Carrie-Anne Moss), who is New York’s premiere celebrity psychiatrist who leaves town to join her sister, the Dean at a teaching hospital, and becomes the chief of staff of the hospital’s psych ward. Nordling will play Mark Maddux, a brilliant psychiatrist who was in line for the chief of staff job until Ann got hired in by the Board, while the role for LaNasa has not been specified yet.
A pilot by Oscar-winning writer Stephen Gaghan (Traffic and Syriana) has been picked up by NBC. The pilot is described, of course, as a Traffic/Syriana-like look at Los Angeles through multiple perspectives in law enforcement, legal communities, city hall, the land of privilege and criminal enterprise.
ABC has given a pilot order to two dramas. The first is Pan Am, which is described as a sexy soap set against the Jet-Age about pilots and flight attendants working at the iconic Pan Am airline in the 1960s. And the second is Poe, a crime procedural following Edgar Allan Poe, the world’s very first detective, as heuses unconventional methods to investigate dark mysteries in 1840s Boston.
UK actor Luke Pasqualino (Skins) will play young William Adama in the much anticipated Battlestar Galactica prequel Blood & Chrome while actor Ben Cotton (Hellcats and the online series Riese) will play Adama’s commanding officer. The show will debut with a two-hour pilot on Syfy.
Tom Verica, Lolita Davidovich and Laura Bell Bundy have joined the hour-long pilot called Hound Dogs for TBS. The series follows a minor league team – the Nashville Hound Dogs – as they try to handle life’s ups and downs, both in and out of the locker room. Verica will play Marty Crowley, the team’s endlessly upbeat, endlessly spinning general manager. Meanwhile, Davidovich will play Iris Hammer, the woman who takes over the team following her much older husband’s death and Bundy will play Ginger Ledoux, an unattainable waitress/lounge singer.
ABC has picked up a new summer show called Missing, which centers on a worried mom who, after her son disappears in Italy while overseas for a summer internship, takes it upon herself to travel to Europe and track him down. It soon becomes clear that this isn’t any ordinary woman, but a former CIA agent who will stop at nothing to bring her son home alive. This summer Missing will join two Canadian scripted series, the recently picked up untitled medical drama set in Afghanistan and Rookie Blue, which will be returning for a second season.
Actor Jack McGee (Rescue Me) has landed a role on the USA drama pilot Common Law, which is about two mismatched cops: Michael Ealy as the jeans-wearing, unshaven Travis Marks and Warren Kole as the tailored suit-wearing, clean-cut Wes Mitchell. These copes are sent to therapy by their boss. McGee will play said man, Phil Sutton, an ex-Marine turned captain at the L.A.P.D.’s Southern Bureau. Amy Acker also stars as Dr. Elyse Ryan, their attractive therapist.
Looks like zombies are becoming even more the rage. Case in point: The CW is developing a script for the hour-long drama Awakening, about two sisters who face off against one another just as a zombie uprising begins. And not to be outdone, NBC is developing a show called Zombies vs. Vampires.
NBC has given a green light to a pilot called Grimm, which is a dark but fantastical cop drama about a world in which characters inspired by Grimm’s Fairy Tales exist.
CONDOLENCES
The original TV fitness guru, Jack LaLanne, passed away yesterday afternoon at the age of 96.
ME: Deepest condolences are extended to his family, friends and followers.
MOMENT OF SILENCE, PLEASE….
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Anthony Hopkins has entered talks to play legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock in the planned film called Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. The story would track how Hitchcock, at the height of his game as a director, decided to make a ‘lowly’ horror movie that no studio wanted to touch initially.
The Olsen twins have a younger sister name Elizabeth Olsen, who is currently a big sensation at Sundance for her role in the indie film Martha Marcy May Marlene, will join Robert De Niro, Sigourney Weaver and Cillian Murphy in the thriller Red Lights. Weaver will play a psychology professor whose study of paranormal activity leads her to investigate a world-renowned psychic (De Niro). Olsen will play one of Weaver’s students.
Writer Nick Pustay (Ramona and Beezus) is set to adapt the Sophie Jordan young-adult fantasy novel called Firelight for Mandalay Pictures. The story follows Jacinda, a young girl who is a “draki,” a descendant of dragons who can morph into human form, and who is ordained to marry another of her kind. When the girl’s mother moves the family to live among humans for safety reasons, Jacinda puts her family at risk when she falls for a member of a secret dragon-hunting society. Additional, Pustay is also working on an adaptation of the teen werewolf romance tale called Shiver for Unique Features.
Jon Bon Jovi, Seth Meyers, Josh Duhamel and Til Schweiger have all joined the cast of ensemble romantic comedy called New Year’s Eve that is to follow various lovers preparing for the New Year holiday. Bon Jovi will play a successful rock star who once dumped Halle Berry’s character but who he now finds himself face to face with again at a party. Meyers and Jessica Biel will play a broke couple with a baby due who are in a race to make sure it is the first one born in the year in order to claim a $25,000 prize. It is unclear what role Schweiger will play. Among the other cast members are Abigail Breslin, Robert De Niro, Zac Efron, Ashton Kutcher, Lea Michele, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hilary Swank and Sofia Vergara.
James Gandolfini will star in the film called Twylight Zones, which will be set in 1960s New Jersey, playing a father who is concerned about his son’s (John Magaro) new role as the lead singer of a band called The Twylight Zones.
Naomi Watts has signed on to star in the biopic J. Edgar, playing Helen Gandy, J. Edgar Hoover’s loyal secretary for 54 years. The cast includes Leonardo DiCaprio as Hoover, Armie Hammer as his alleged lover Clyde Tolson, Josh Lucas as aviator Charles Lindbergh, Ken Howard as Attorney General Harlan F. Stone, Ed Westwick as the author of Hoover’s biography, and Damon Herriman as Bruno Hauptmann.
Actor Ruben Blades – who has served as Minister of Tourism for Panama from 2004 to 2009 will join Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington in the thriller flick Safe House follows is about a CIA agent (Reynolds) whose safe house is attacked requiring him to get a criminal (Washington) to safety.
Viggo Mortensen is in talks to star as the Huntsman in the upcoming box office movie Snow White and the Huntsman with Charlize Theron nearly in line to star as the evil queen Ravenna. In this story, the Huntsman is ordered by the evil queen to take her stepdaughter Snow White into the woods and kill her. Huntsman Eric instead lets her go and becomes something of a mentor who teaches her how to fight and survive. Rumor has it that both Emily Browning (who will be seen in the upcoming Sucker Punch movie) and Kristin Stewart (from the Twilight franchise) are being touted for the lead role. The film isn’t expected in theatres until December 21, 2012.
Chris Pine, Hugh Jackman, Jude Law, Alec Baldwin and Isla Fisher will all lend their voices to the animated movie Rise of the Guardians, which follows a group of heroic childhood legends, each with extraordinary abilities. When Pitch (Law), an evil spirit akin to the boogeyman, lays down the gauntlet to take over the world, the immortal Guardians must join forces for the first time to protect the hopes, beliefs and imagination of children all over the world. Pine will play Jack Frost, Jackman is Bunnymund (the Easter Bunny), Baldwin is North (Santa Claus) and Fisher is Tooth (the Tooth Fairy). A 2012 release is being targeted.
Young actress Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones) has joined the cast of The Hobbit, but here part is still unknown.
Broadway actor Benjamin Walker has scored the title role in the supernatural action thriller Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which is a film adaptation of the Seth Grahame-Smith comedic horror novel that exposes Abe’s secret diaries recounting his mission to eradicate the world of the undead bloodsuckers. The film is expected to hit theatres n June 22, 2012.
Carey Mulligan and Jodie Foster are now out and Mia Wasikowska is in for upcoming film Stoker, which tells the story of a moody teenager whose mysterious uncle comes back into her family’s lives after the death of her father. The script for this movie comes from Prison Break actor Wentworth Miller.
Orlando Bloom and Imogen Poots are set to star in the biopic called The Laureate, which follows the life of the young British war poet Robert Graves (Bloom), his wife Nancy Nicholson (Kerry Condon) and the passionate young American writer Laura Riding (Poots). The focus will cover the open love triangle between them as they lived in London and Cairo and will explore the notion of intense relationships.
CASTING SCOOP
Actress Brittany Snow (currently on the new NBC drama Harry’s Law) will guest-star on the upcoming new romantic comedy on CBS called Mad Love, starring the sister to Sarah Chalke. The series follows the story of Kate (Chalke) and Ben (Jason Biggs), who find romance on top of the Empire State Building. Unfortunately, their respective best friends (played by Judy Greer and Tyler Labine) are not too fond of one another.
Actor Sebastian Spence (Battlestar Galactica) will appear on Smallville as inventor-turned-superhero Ted Kord.
Meanwhile, Days of Our Lives actor Eric Martsolf will appear as Booster Gold on an upcoming episode of Smallville; and relative newcomer Jaren Brandt Bartlett will appear as Jaime Reyes/Blue Beetle in an upcoming episode of the series.
Actress Rachel Taylor (Transformers) will join Grey’s Anatomy as Dr. Lucy Fields, who will play a major character’s obstetrician and maybe a new love interest for Alex (Justin Chambers).
Actress Betsy Brandt (Breaking Bad) will appear in the February 8 episode of No Ordinary Family as a research scientist pal of Stephanie’s (Julie Benz) who falls victim to a crime.
Actress Sarah Jane Morris (Brothers & Sisters) will appear in a major arc on NCIS, as Erica Jane “EJ” Barrett, a new NCIS agent who hakes upthe team dynamic. Her first episode is slated to airthis spring.
Actress Sonya Salomaa (who had a small role in the box office film Watchmen) will guest star in Supernatural as Rachel, a tough angel who is expected to appear in the 19th episode of this season. While the part is only scheduled for this one episode, the role is to recur.
Nancy Travis (The Bill Engvall Show and Three Men and a Baby) will appear in an upcoming episode of Grey’s Anatomy, playing Allison who is a patient in Derek’s Alzheimer’s clinical trial. Her 10-year-old son takes more care of her than the other way around, which will make Dr. Stark (Peter MacNicol) insist that Social Services be contacted.
Bradley Whitford (The West Wing and The Good Guys) will guest star in the USA series In Plain Sight, playing a career military man who is a star witness for a Blackwater-style military contract company. The series is expected to return with new episodes sometime this spring.
Actress Beth Riesgraf (Leverage) will guest star on an upcoming episode of NCIS, playing Maxine Edwards, an infamous online gamer who still has bad blood with her Marine ex-boyfriend, who cheated her in more ways than one. When his dismembered fingertips and teeth are discovered in a pickpocket’s stolen purse, she naturally becomes one of NCIS’ suspects.Luckily for Maxine, her gaming obsession piques the curiosity of fellow gamer McGee (Sean Murray), with whom she shares many common interests and a whole lot of chemistry. This episode is slated to air on February 22.
Actor Mark Deklin (from the short-lived FOX series Lone Star) will guest star on Hawaii Five-0, playing Stan, the current husband of Danny’s ex-wife Rachel. He will appear in the February 7 episode.
Actor Callum Blue will be back on Smallville as Zod, Clark’s sworn enemy who tried to take over the world last season. He was last seen being sucked into a one-sided portal that leads to New Krypton. He’ll appear in one of the final five episodes of the series.
Actress Lucy Lawless (Spartacus: Blood and Sand and its prequel Gods of the Arena) will appear in five episodes of No Ordinary Family. She will play a potential adversary for the Powells. Her agenda might put the Powell family in danger.
Actor Geoff Stults (7th Heaven, October Road and Happy Town) will play Walter Sherman (aka “the Locator), a former military policeman who can find anything, on the upcoming Bones spinoff, which is based on The Locator series of two books written by Richard Greener. He joins Michael Clarke Duncan, who will appear as Walter’s partner, Leo, a tough cowboy philosopher.
Legendary actor John Lithgow will play Barney Stinson’s (Neil Patrick Harris) dad on How I Met Your Mother.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
There is a lot of programming to keep track of each, so, the list below covers most of what you can expect this coming weekend and next week (including reairs, new episodes and made-for-TV movies):
Saturday, January 29:
CSI on CBS at 8 PM (Reair)
Criminal Minds at 9 PM (Reair)
The U.S. Figure Skating Championships on NBC at 9 PM
Primeval on BBC America at 8 PM (Reair)
Primeval on BBC America at 9 PM (NEW)
Treme on HBO2 at 9 PM (Reair)
Boardwalk Empire on HBO2 at 10 PM (Reair)
Goodnight for Justice on Hallmark Movie Channel at 9 PM (Debut)
Mega Piranha on Syfy at 7 PM (Reair)
Mega Python vs. Gatoroid on Syfy at 9 PM (Debut)
Sunday, January 30:
Desperate Housewives on ABC at 10 PM (Reair)
The Lost Valentine on CBS at 9 PM (Debut)
Downton Abbey mini-series on PBS at 9 PM (Final part of mini-series)
Big Love on HBO at 9 and 10 PM
Big Love on HBO2 at 8 PM (Reair)
The Tudors on Showtime2 at 8 and 9 PM (Reairs)
Spartacus: Gods of the Arena on Starz at 10 PM (Reair)
Screen Actors Guild Awards on TNT at 7 PM
Monday, January 31:
Castle on ABC at 10:01 PM (Reair)
Hawaii Five-0 on CBS at 10 PM (Reair)
90210 on The CW at 8 PM
Gossip Girl on The CW at 9 PM
House on FOX at 8 PM (Reair)
Lie to Me on FOX at 9 PM (Season Finale)
Chuck on NBC at 8 PM
The Cape on NBC at 9 PM
Harry’s Law on NBC at 10 PM
Pretty Little Liars on ABC Family at 8 and 10 PM (NEW and Reair)
Greek on ABC Family at 9 PM
Rizzoli & Isles on TNT at 10 PM (Reair)
Being Human on Syfy at 8 PM (Reair)
Being Human on Syfy at 9 PM (New)
Big Love on HBO2 at 10 PM (Reair)
Avalon High movie on Disney at 8 PM (Reair)
Taken From Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story movie on Lifetime at 9 PM (Debut)
Tuesday, February 1:
No Ordinary Family on ABC at 8 PM (Reair)
V on ABC at 9 PM
Detroit 1-8-7 on ABC at 10:01 PM
NCIS on CBS at 8 PM
NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS at 9 PM
The Good Wife on CBS at 10 PM
One Tree Hill on The CW at 8 PM
Hellcats on The CW at 9 PM
Glee on FOX at 8 PM (Reair)
Parenthood on NBC at 10 PM
Southland on TNT at 10 PM
Lights Out on FX at 10 PM
White Collar on USA Network at 10 PM
16 Wishes movie on Disney at 8 PM (Reair)
Uncorked movie on Hallmark at 8 PM (Reair)
Wednesday, February 2:
Off the Map on ABC at 10 PM
Criminal Minds on CBS at 9 PM (Reair)
Blue Bloods on CBS at 10 PM
Nikita on the CW at 8 PM (Reair)
The Vampire Diaries on the CW at 9 PM (Reair)
Human Target on FOX at 9 PM
Friday Night Lights on DirecTV at 9 PM
Chase on NBC at 9 PM (Part 1 of 2)
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC at 10 PM (Reair)
Being Erica on SOAPNet at 11 PM
Spartacus: Gods of the Arena on Starz at 10 PM (Reair)
Big Love on HBO at 8, 9 and 10 PM (Reairs)
Reviving Ophelia movie on Lifetime at 9 PM (Reair)
Thursday, February 3:
Grey’s Anatomy on ABC at 9 PM
Private Practice on ABC at 10:01 PM
Criminal Minds on CBS at 9 PM
The Mentalist on CBS at 10 PM
The Vampire Diaries on The CW at 8 PM
Nikita on The CW at 9 PM
Bones on FOX at 9 PM
Royal Pains on USA Network at 9 PM
Fairly Legal on USA Network at 10 PM
Big Love on HBO at 8 PM (Reair)
Mega Python and Gatoroid movie on Syfy at 9 PM (Reair)
Friday, February 4:
The Defenders on CBS at 8 PM (New Night)
CSI: NY on CBS at 10 PM
Smallville on The CW at 8 PM
Supernatural on The CW at 9 PM
Fringe on FOX at 9 PM
Law & Order: UK on BBC America at 9 and 10 PM
Merlin on Syfy at 10 PM
Spartacus: Gods of the Arena on Starz at 10 PM
Big Love on HBO Signature at 9 PM (Reair)
A Valentine’s Date movie on Hallmark at 9 PM (Debut)
Downton Abbey mini-series on PBS at 9 PM (Four-part mini-series) (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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