News
The Weekly Round-Up for February 7 to 11
Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:
TELEVISION NEWS
Lifetime has given series pickups to two new police dramas to series: Against the Wall and Exit 19.
Smallville will conclude its 10th and final season with a two-hour series finale on Friday, May 13 and Supernatural will have its 2-hour season finale on May 20.
Actress Audra McDonald will be leaving the ABC drama Private Practice at the end of this season.
Cinemax will embark on original programming with it first scripted prime-time drama called Strike Back, based on the UK series, which was, in turn, based on a book by Chris Ryan. This new program would be a 10-hour action series, which will follow a charismatic former U.S. Special Forces operative Rhidian Scott (actor Sullivan Stapleton) who teams up with a British military unit led by Section 20 officer Michael Stonebridge (actor Philip Winchester) to stop an international terrorist group. The series is expected to premiere this summer.
DirecTV has added the Canadian comedy Call Me Fitz, which debuted on HBO Canada last fall) to its line-up starting on April 21 at 9 PM. The comedy stars Jason Priestly (Beverly Hills 90210) as Richard “Fitz” Fitzpatrick, a morally bankrupt, yet charismatic, used-car salesman who is forced to become business partners with his inner “conscience” – a lanky do-gooder named Larry.
It looks no amount of money or fan outcry will budge Michael Rosenbaum into coming back to Smallville for its final season. It’s being reported at various outlets all over the net that he will not appear in any of the final episodes let alone the series finale. Here is the quote that’s being ‘heard round the world’: “He has put the show behind him and moved on. He’s pursuing his other creative outlet [writing]. By all indications, he is not going to be involved.”
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
Actress Debra Messing (Will & Grace) is “this close” to landing a lead role in the upcoming NBC hour-long musical pilot called Smash from Steven Spielberg and the duo of Craig Zadan and Neil Meron as well as Hairspray songwriters Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. The pilot follows a diverse cast of characters who come together to stage a Broadway show about Marilyn Monroe. Messing will play Julia, the musical’s good-natured lyricist who is slow to embrace the commercially-iffy subject matter. Meanwhile Broadway actress Megan Hilty (Wicked and 9 to 5) has joined the cast, playing the go-to girl for acting out scenes in progress who is hugely disappointed when she is told she is too old to play Marilyn and has to be part of the chorus.
Starz has another project that was ordered directly to series this past November called Boss, which is a political drama starring Kelsey Grammer as the Mayor of Chicago who is diagnosed with a degenerative mental condition that only he and his doctor know about. There are no other details available as to when the show will be broadcast.
Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights) may be teaming with FX for an as-yet untitled new potential drama for the network, but no other details are currently available.
NBC is currently retooling the British series Prime Suspect for American television and one of the front-runners for the lead role is actress Maria Bello. But no decisions have been made on the casting as yet.
The CW has ordered the drama Secret Circle, based on the L.J. Smith young adult novels about a young woman who discovers that she’s a witch and part of a secret coven that holds the key to unlocking ancient battle of good and evil to pilot. Kevin Williamson (the man behind The Vampire Diaries alongside Julie Plec) is supervising the hour along with writers-producers Elizabeth Craft, Sarah Fain, Leslie Morgenstein and Gina Girolamo.
Actress Gretchen Egolf (Journeyman) will have a lead role on the USA Network pilot called Eden that centers on a young hotel worker (Nick D’Agosto) who, with the help of his escaped con artist cousin (Enver Gjokaj), gets a job as the concierge at an elite NYC hotel. Together they manage to provide the hotel guests with whatever they desire.
Actor Edi Gathegi (the Twilight franchise) has a lead role in the USA Network pilot called Wild Card, which is about people behaving badly at night in Las Vegas and two very different lawyers, Will Garratt (Ben Lawson) and Eliza Evans who solve their problems before morning. Gathergi will play the duo’s smart, ambitious and resourceful investigator, a former hotel concierge who knows everyone in town.
Actress Amanda Detmer (Private Practice) has joined the cast of the comedy pilot Man Up for ABC, which centers on happily married father of two Will, his brother-in-law Kenny and the lovelorn Craig (Chris Moynihan). Detmer will play Kenny’s ex-wife who has a complicated relationship with him.
Actor Ken Leung (Lost) has joined the A&E pilot Big Mike, which stars Greg Grunberg (Heroes) as a plus-size detective with the San Diego Police Department. Leung will play the department’s doctor.
Actress Rachel Bilson (The O.C.) is in negotiations to star in the CW drama pilot called Hart of Dixie that is about an adorable, spoiled New Yorker who inherits a medical practice in a small Southern town inhabited by an eclectic and eccentric group of characters. Bilson will play Zoe Hart, the title character.
Box office actress Kerry Washington and film actor Columbus Short (Stomp the Yard) are the first to be cast in the drama pilot called In Crisis for ABC, which is about the life and work of a professional fixer and her dysfunctional staff. Washington will play the lead character, Olivia Price, who is stylish but weary and too smart for her own good. Short is believed to be playing Harrison Jones, a lawyer and the newest addition to Price and Associates. Meanwhile, actor Henry Ian Cusick (Lost) has also joined this pilot, playing Stephen, a litigator who works for her firm.
Actress Zooey Deschanel (500 Days of Summer) will star in a FOX comedy pilot sold under the name Chicks and Dicks (but that name MAY change), which is about an optimistic Midwestern woman who moves into a New York apartment with three juvenile guys. She will play the lead role named Jessica Day.
Actor Anthony Carrigan (The Forgotten) has been cast in the USA Network pilot called Over/Under, which centers on Paul, a day trader with a massive gambling problem fired from his job who settles in Brooklyn where he finds an unlikely partner, expectant father with a failing business Marino (Carrigan), to start a high-end bookie business.
Actor Nestor Carbonell (Lost) is expected to star opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar in the CBS drama pilot Ringer, which centers on a troubled young woman Bridget (Gellar) who, while on the run from the mob, hides out by inhabiting the life of her wealthy twin sister, until she learns that her twin’s life has a bounty on it as well. Carbonell will play an FBI agent in charge of keeping Bridget safe so she can testify against the mob that tracks her down and gets to know her “sister.”
Actress Scottie Thompson (Trauma and NCIS) has been cast in the ABC drama pilot called Partners, which is about two female police detectives who are fiercely loyal to one another since they’re also secretly sisters. Thompson will play one of the sisters, Mattie Scott. Meanwhile, actor Kenneth Mitchell (Jericho) will has joined the cast as play Ray Henry, a fellow detective.
FOX is bringing the memoir by Julie Holland called Weekends at Bellevue to the small screen. The pilot is about a psychiatrist in charge of the weekend shift of Bellevue Hospital psychiatric unit.
CBS has green lit another project by J.J. Abrams. This one is called Person of Interest, which is an hour-long drama, but very few details are known about the plot.
Amanda Peet and Minnie Driver are close to signing pilot deals with NBC. Peet is likely to star in the comedy pilot called Bentabout a recently divorced Type A mom (Peet) trying not to fall for the “surfer-dude” contractor she hires to redo her kitchen. While Driver is poised to be in the pilot called Free Agents which isan adaptation of a British series about co-workers at a Hollywood talent agency – one getting over a divorce and the other a broken engagement.
Actor Ramon Rodriguez (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) has joined the cast of the ABC pilot Charlie’s Angels where he will play John Bosley, their able sidekick who is described as a perfect specimen of 21st-Century American manhood – a chiseled, whip-smart, tech-savvy, preppy charmer.
Australian actress Margot Robbie has been cast in the ABC pilot called Pan Am, a period drama about the iconic airline in the 1960s. She will play Laura, a radiantly beautiful new stewardess whose candid graduation shot is on the cover of Life Magazine.
Production has begun on the new Syfy 2-hour pilot Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome. Here is the breakdown of the story: It takes place in the 10th year of the first Cylon war. As the battle between humans and their creation, the sentient robotic Cylons, rages across the 12 colonial worlds, a young, talented fighter pilot, William Adama (Luke Pasqualino from the UK series Skins), finds himself assigned to one of the most powerful Battlestars in the Colonial fleet: the Galactica. Full of ambition and in pursuit of the intense action that the Cylon war promises, Adama quickly find himself at odds with Coker (Ben Cotton from the online series Riese), the battle-weary officer to whom he reports. With 47 days left in his tour of duty, Coker desires an end to battle just as much as Adama craves the start of it. Though they clash at first, the two men forge an unlikely bond when a routine mission turns dangerous and becomes a pivotal one for the desperate fleet. Actress Lili Bordan will play Dr. Beka Kelly, a Ph.D. who worked for Graystone Industries that created the Cylon robots. Currently assigned to a secret military mission, Beka and Adama quickly establish a rapport.
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Actor Ryan Gosling will appear in the upcoming box office film The Place Beyond the Pines as a motorcycle stunt rider who learns he has a baby, and then starts changing his life to be a father.
Actress Famke Janssen will play the leader of the witches in the upcoming Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters film. She will join Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton as the title characters who, 15 years after their narrow fairy tale escape from the gingerbread house, become specialized bounty-hunters looking to take down the witches that almost killed them.
It looks like actress Julia Roberts will appear as the Evil Queen in the upcoming film The Brothers Grimm: Snow White. This film should not be mistaken for the other upcoming film Snow White and the Huntsman, which has Charlize Theron in the equivalent role. Both of these films are set for a release in 2012. While a third Snow White-themed movie called Snow and the Seven is slated for 2013.
Actress Dakota Fanning will play British royal Princess Margaret in the romantic fairytale Girls’ Night Out, which is based on a true story. It follows a teenage Margaret on V.E. Day in 1945 when she and her sister Elizabeth are allowed out from Buckingham Palace for one night to join in the celebrations.
Former American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino is set to appear in film adaptation of the 1993 biographical book called Got to Tell It: Mahalia Jackson, Queen of Gospel, which recounts the life of the late American gospel singer, a civil rights activist who was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Actors Diane Keaton and Ed Harris are set to star in the film called The Look of Love. Keaton will play a widow who, several years after the death of her husband, mysteriously meets a man who looks exactly like her deceased husband.
Actor Richard Jenkins has joined the cast of the comedy-toned crime caper called Cogan’s Trade, which stars Brad Pitt as Jackie Cogan, a professional enforcer investigating a heist which takes place during a mob-run high stakes poker game. Jenkins will play a lawyer who provides Cogan with inside information regarding the game. Javier Bardem, Mark Ruffalo, Sam Rockwell, Casey Affleck, James Gandolfini and Bella Heathcote also star.
Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges), Liam Cunningham (Clash of the Titans), Robert Patrick (Walk the Line) and Sam Shepard (Black Hawk Down) have all landed roles in the upcoming thriller Safe House that stars Ryan Reynolds as a CIA agent who has to protect a criminal (Denzel Washington) and get him safely to Washington after their safe house is attacked.
Actress Rosamund Pike (An Education) is in negotiations for the role of Andromeda in the Clash of the Titans sequel, replacing actress Alexa Davalos, who played the same Andromeda role in the predecessor. Other returning actors include Sam Worthington, Gemma Arterton, Liam Neeson, Danny Huston and Ralph Fiennes. The sequel is set for release on March 30, 2012.
British actor Nicholas Hoult will not only be seen this summer in the film X-Men: First Class, playing young Hank McCoy (aka Beast), but also the lead role of Jack the Giant Killer in the box office movie of the same name. The story is about a long-standing peace between humans and giants that is threatened when a young farmer (Hoult) tries to rescue a princess who was kidnapped and taken to the giants’ kingdom. This is a project I’m definitely looking forward to in the future. Actor Stanley Tucci will appear as the villain, an advisor to the king with designs on usurping power. Meanwhile, actors Bill Nighy and John Kassir will play Fallon, the two-headed leader of the giants.
Actor John Turturro will lend his voice to the animated sequel Cars 2, voicing Francesco Bernoulli, an Italian racecar who becomes Lightning McQueen’s (Owen Wilson) chief rival in Europe.
Writer Melissa Rosenberg (the woman behind the scripts for all of the Twilight movies) is in negotiations to work on a remake of the 80’s Highlander movies for Summit Entertainment.
Andrew Garfield, Jennifer Garner and Marcia Gay Harden are all to star in the upcoming movie Back Roads, which is an adaptation of the Tawni O’Dell bestselling novel about the Pennsylvania-set murder mystery where a young man (Garfield) who is forced to care for his three younger sisters after their mother is sent to prison for killing her abusive husband. Garner will play one of the family’s neighbors who becomes romantically involved with him. Harden will play his court-appointed therapist.
Actress Amanda Seyfried will star in the thriller movie called Gone. The story revolves around a young woman named Jill (Seyfried) who returns home from her night shift to find her sister’s bed empty and is convinced a serial killer who kidnapped her two years before has come back to finish the job. The police don’t believe her. With no one to turn to, and time running out, she plans to face her abductor once and for all.
Gary Oldman, Guy Pearce and Mia Wasikowska have joined the cast of the upcoming Prohibition movie The Wettest County In The World. The story is based on three infamous brothers (Shia Labeouf, Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke) who made up a fierce criminal gang at the center of the American South’s moonshine trade. Oldman will play a gangster who engages the boys to deliver alcohol. Wasikowska plays a local Mennonite girl and love interest for the youngest brother Jack (Labeouf).
Michael Caine has joined the cast of the upcoming film Mr. Morgan’s Last Love, which centers on a widowed and retired American philosophy professor who meets a much younger woman in Paris. The pair forms a special relationship, not about sex but more than friendship, and rekindles the lost joy in both their lives.
Actor Goran Visnjic (ER) will appear in the American version of the film The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, playing Dragan Armansky, the head of a security firm that employs the main character, Lisbeth Salander. Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara star.
Actor Dominic Cooper (Momma Mia) is in final negotiations to star as Henry in the upcoming film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Cooper joins Broadway actor Benjamin Walker, who signed on to play Abraham Lincoln last month.
Actor Scott Speedman (Underworld and Felicity) will play a gentleman bank robber in the independent true-crime movie called Edwin Boyd. Boyd was a World War II veteran and a family man who rose to 1950s media fame as a gentleman bandit who undertook dramatic bank hold-ups and two prison breaks. Actress Kelly Reilly will star as his wife, actor Brian Cox will play Boyd’s father, actor Brendan Fletcher as a fellow gang member, and actress Charlotte Sullivan and actor Kevin Durand in undisclosed roles.
CASTING SCOOP
Actress Nia Vardalos – who is the real life wife of actor and Cougar Town star Ian Gomez – will play a woman with more than a passing interest in his character on the show…a woman who just happens to be his brother’s wife. She will appear in April.
Actress Rose McGowan (Charmed) will appear in an upcoming spring episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, playing a grafter names Cassandra who strikes swinging men who frequent sex clubs. Actor Ryan Hurst (Sons of Anarchy) will also appear in this episode.
Actors Ken Leung (Lost) and John Benjamin Hickey (The Big C) will guest star on an upcoming episode of The Good Wife. Leung will play a man who sues a social networking site for failing to protect his privacy. After he posts an anonymous blog about democracy in China, the government then jails and tortures him. Hickey will play the CEO of the social networking site. This episode is scheduled to air Tuesday, March 1.
Actress Hilarie Burton (One Tree Hill) has been made a series regular on the USA Network drama White Collar. Her character, Sara Ellis, a top-shelf insurance investigator,has appeared in several episodes thus far.
Actress Camille Sullivan (Reunion and the Canadian cop drama Shattered) will play a recurring role on the CW series Hellcats. She will be an old adversary of cheerleader coach Vanessa (Sharon Leal).
Actress Gabrielle Carteris (from Beverly Hills 90210) will appear on the March 14 and 21 episodes of the NBC drama The Event. She will be Diane Geller, an old friend of Michael Buchanan who has been living amongst the human population since the crash at Inostranka. When Michael and Sophia undertake a mission to hunt down Thomas, Michael leaves his daughters Leila and little Samantha in the care of Diane and her husband, Carlos.
Veteran character actor Jay O. Sanders will play the new captain of the Major Case Squad and boss to Robert Goren (Vincent D’Onofrio) and Alexandra Eames (Kathryn Erbe) on Law & Order: Criminal Intent when it returns for its final season.
Actor Jesse Metcalfe (Desperate Housewives and Chase) has landed the role of Bobby and Pam Ewing’s adopted son Christopher on the “in-the-works” TNT Dallas sequel series. Also, actress Julia Gonzalo (Veronica Mars and Eli Stone) will play Christopher’s fiancée.
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, February 12:
NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS at 8 PM (Reair)
CSI: Miami on CBS at 9 PM (Reair)
Chuck on NBC at 8 PM (Reair)
Law & Order: Los Angeles on NBC at 9 PM (Reair)
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC at 10 PM (Reair)
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)
Accidentally in Love movie on Hallmark at 9 PM (Debut)
The Sunset Limited movie on HBO at 9 PM (Debut)
Iron Invader movie on Syfy at 9 PM (Debut)
Sunday, February 13:
Desperate Housewives on ABC at 9 PM
Brothers & Sisters on ABC at 10:01 PM
Grammy Awards on CBS at 8 PM (Special)
British Academy of Film Awards on BBC America at 5 and 8 PM (Special)
Big Love on HBO at 9 PM (NEW)
Big Love on HBO at 10 PM (Reair)
The Tudors on Showtime at 8 and 9 PM (Reairs)
Spartacus: Gods of the Arena on Starz at 10 PM (Reair)
Accidentally in Love movie on Hallmark at 9 PM (Reair)
Burn Notice marathon on USA Network (check local listings for airtimes)
Monday, February 14:
Castle on ABC at 10:01 PM
Hawaii Five-0 on CBS at 10 PM
90210 on The CW at 8 PM
Gossip Girl on The CW at 9 PM
House on FOX at 8 PM
The Chicago Code on FOX at 9 PM
Chuck on NBC at 8 PM
The Cape on NBC at 9 PM (Part 1 of 2)
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)
Tuesday, February 15:
No Ordinary Family on ABC at 8 PM
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
Parenthood on NBC at 10 PM
Southland on TNT at 10 PM
Lights Out on FX at 10 PM
Westminster Kennel Dog Show on USA at 8 PM (Special)
The Sunset Limited movie on HBO at 8:30 PM (Debut)
Wednesday, February 16:
Off the Map on ABC at 10 PM
Criminal Minds on CBS at 9 PM
Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior on CBS at 10 PM (Debut)
Nikita on the CW at 8 PM (Reair)
The Vampire Diaries on the CW at 9 PM (Reair)
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC at 10 PM
Being Erica on SOAPNet at 11 PM
Justified on FX at 10 PM
Spartacus: Gods of the Arena on Starz at 10 PM (Reair)
Big Love on HBO at 10 PM (Reair)
Thursday, February 17:
Grey’s Anatomy on ABC at 9 PM
Private Practice on ABC at 10:01 PM
CSI 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)
Friday, February 18:
The Defenders on CBS at 8 PM
CSI: NY on CBS at 9 PM
Blue Bloods 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)
Accidentally in Love movie on Hallmark 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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