FULL 'FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS' TRAILER WITH MERYL STREEP, HUGH GRANT! 'RANCH' SITCOM TRAILER WITH ASHTON KUTCHER, DANNY MASTERSON! 'STILL STAR CROSSED' SERIES CASTS TORRANCE COOMBS, WADE BRIGGS

'STILL STAR CROSSED' SERIES

TORRANCE COOMBS, WADE BRIGGS, LASHANA LYNCH CAST

In today's TV news, another of the series pilots we're looking forward too has found its lead stars. As 'Deadline' reports ABC's historical drama STILL STAR CROSSED will be lead by British actress Lashana Lynch and Wade Briggs, and will also star Zuleikha Robinson as Lady Capulet. Meanwhile, Torrance Coombs is leaving REIGN to play Count Paris of Mantua in this one. Based on the book by Melinda Traub it will be set in 16th century Verona picking up where William Shakespeare’s ROMEO AND JULIET left off. It charts the treachery, palace intrigue and ill-fated romances of the Montagues and Capulets in the wake of the young lovers’ tragic fate.

ILL FATED LOVERS  
The story centres on Rosaline (Lashana Lynch), a gorgeous, intelligent and headstrong Capulet and Juliet’s cousin. Following the death of her parents, she is taken in by her aunt and uncle, Juliet’s parents Lady (Zyleikha Robinson) and Lord Capulet, and forced to work as a servant. She does her best to tolerate her aunt’s cruelty, and focuses on finding a way to free herself of the humiliation. She is eventually ordered to marry Benvolio (Wade Briggs), a Montague.

'THE RANCH' SITCOM TRAILER

 WITH ASHTON KUTCHER AND DANNY MASTERSON

Netflix has released the first trailer for their new multi camera sitcom THE RANCH out April 1st! Set in present day on a Colorado ranch, it follows Colt’s (Ashton Kutcher) return home after a brief and failed semi- pro football career to run the family ranching business with his older brother Jameson “Rooster” (Danny Masterson) and father Beau (Sam Elliott), whom he hasn’t seen in 15 years. Debra Winger stars as their mother, Maggie, who runs the local town bar.

'FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS' 

TRAILER WITH MERYL STREEP

And check out this delightful treat - the first full trailer for FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS in which Meryl Streep plays the worst opera singer the world has ever known... although she does not know it herself! Hugh Grant plays her trusted manager. The voice she heard in her head was beautiful, but to everyone else it was hilariously awful. Her manager and partner was determined to protect his beloved Florence from the truth.

'MIDDLE SCHOOL: THE WORST YEARS OF MY LIFE' TRAILER WITH LAUREN GRAHAM! GORAN VISNJIC IS VILLAIN IN 'TIME' SF SERIES! JONO KENYON TO LEAD ABC'S 'TOAST' HYBRID SITCOM

JONO KENYON TO LEAD

ABC'S 'TOAST' HYBRID SITCOM

With the news that AMC has renewed INTO THE BADLANDS epic series for second season and PBS their civil war saga MERCY STREET for a second run, there is also a piece of TV news coming from ABC that they have cast stunning Jono Kenyon as the lead in their hybrid sitcom TOAST! Coming from Shondaland and Scott Foley, if follows an engaged couple Max Leeds (Kenyon) and Paige, who, over their wedding rehearsal dinner, have their eclectic family and friends give toasts recalling anecdotes about the couple — but flashbacks reveal that the toasts don’t always get it right, as we watch the true story of their complicated, funny and relatable road to marriage. Tessa Ferrer will play Max' closest friend.

GORAN VISNJIC IS VILLAIN

IN 'TIME' SF ADVENTURE SERIES
 In other TV news, NBC's adventure series TIME has just cast Goran Visnjic as the main villain! It follows an unlikely trio (Abigail Spencer, Matt Lanter, Malcolm Barrett) who travel through time to battle a master criminal (Visnjic) intent on altering the fabric of human history with potentially catastrophic results. Vulnerable, damaged and oddly emotional, Visnjic’s Garcia Flynn is a dangerous man who’s recently stolen a time machine and travelled with his team of soldiers to the hours prior to the Hindenburg’s explosion. Flynn is guided by a strange journal from some other period of time, and while his full plan is still shrouded in mystery, it’s clear that he must be stopped. Don't confuse this one with ABC's TIME AFTER TIME which will have young H.G. Wells chasing Jack the Ripper through time!

'MIDDLE SCHOOL: THE WORST YEARS OF MY LIFE' TRAILER

 JAMES PATTERSON ADAPTATION

Your trailer for today is for the movie adaptation of  James Patterson's MIDDLE SCHOOL: THE WORST YEARS OF MY LIFE with Lauren Graham and Girffin Gluck! A quiet teenage artist Rafe Katchadorian has a wild imagination and is sick of middle school and the rules that have been put before him. Rafe and his best friend Leo have come up with a plan; break every rule in the school hand book and as you expect trouble follows.

ANNABELLE WALLIS TO JOIN TOM CRUISE IN 'THE MUMMY' REBOOT! AMANDA SEYFRIED & CLIVE OWEN IN ANDREW NICCOL'S SF THRILLER 'ANON'! LUKE ALLEN GALE TO LEAD 'TRANSYLVANIA' EPIC TV SERIES

ANNABELLE WALLIS

 TO JOIN TOM CRUISE IN 'THE MUMMY' MOVIE REBOOT

Another reboot that will plague us some time in the future, the remake of the most popular adventure saga ever THE MUMMY, this time with Tom Cruise in the lead role, has just got itself the female lead: gorgeous Annabelle Wallis from THE TUDORS (although she played the queen in it, in next year's KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE: KING ARTHUR she will be just a maid) and PEAKY BLINDERS will take lead female role in the modern day set movie. Sofia Boutella was announced previously for the title role of the monster. Cruise will play an ex soldier, while Annabelle will be, according to 'Variety' an archaeologist! Alex Kurtzman is helming the second movie in Universal's Monsters series, started by Luke Evans' DRACULA UNTOLD. Johnny Depp has already been announced as the lead in THE INVISIBLE MAN movie, while VAN HELSING and THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN are also in plan.

AMANDA SEYFRIED JOINS

CLIVE OWEN IN SF 'ANON' 
Since it seems we're having a blond beauty day, 'Deadline' reports that Amanda Seyfried will work with sf director Andrew Niccol again after Justin Timberlake's IN TIME a few years ago. She has boarded ANON, a sf thriller in which Clive Owen plays a detective in a world with no privacy, ignorance or anonymity. All our lives are transparent, traceable and recorded by the authorities. It’s the end of crime, it seems. However, when Owen’s character stumbles on a young woman (Amanda Seyfried) with no digital footprint and invisible to the police, he discovers it may not be the end of crime but the beginning. Owen is also shooting Luc Besson's sf epic VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS.

LUKE ALLEN GALE TO LEAD

 'TRANSYLVANIA' EPIC TV SERIES

Earlier last week I reported that Australian actress Laura Brent has been cast as female lead in CW's upcoming new epic TV series TRANSYLVANIA and now 'Deadline' writes that DOMINION's Luke Allen Gale will take the male lead. Canadian actor Evan Stern has also been cast.

TRANSYL- VANIA is set in 1880 and centres on Victoria (Brent), a headstrong young woman in search of her missing father who ventures from NYC to Transylvania where she teams with a wrongfully disgraced Scotland Yard Detective, Inspector Godfrey (Allen Gale), and together they witness the births of the most famous monsters and villains in history. Stern will play Igor, a gentle hunchback known for his technical genius.

LENA OLIN, TOM BRITTNEY TO LEAD ABC'S STEAMPUNK FANTASY SERIES 'SPARK'! TEN DANSON, KRISTEN BELL, MANNY JACINTO IN 'GOOD PLACE' SITCOM, NICK ZANO, ROSS KIMBALL IN 'REAL GOOD PEOPLE' SITCOM

'SPARK' STEAMPUNK SERIES

LENA OLIN, TOM BRITTNEY CAST

TV news for you today, new stars are being added to the cast of ABC's fantasy series SPARK pilot! Lena Olin (Welcome To Sweden) and gorgeous Tom Brittney (The Syndicate) will play mother and son in this lavish drama series of passion, greed and hope in a Steampunk reality, circa 2016. Set in an alternate history where gas and coal fuel the world, the drama centres on the battle for power between two rival families and a rebellious young woman with a spark of invention that could level both their empires.

Olin will play Hazel Stockton who now controls the powerful Stockton Coal Company using her wealth more altruistically than her arch rivals at Lavelle Gas — but despite her philanthropic outreaches to the city’s poor, she still craves absolute power, and is not above using strong-arm tactics to achieve it. However, when deadly sabotage starts claiming innocent lives across the city, she denies any involvement to her son Aiden, Captain of the Investigative Division of the Watch, who is investigating the incidents. Tracy Ifeachor will play one of the forensic investigators.

'REAL GOOD PEOPLE' SITCOM

ROSS KIMBALL JOINS NICK ZANO

CBS is rounding up cast for their new multi camera sitcom REAL GOOD PEOPLE! Ross Kimball has joined the cast which already has Nick Zano and Lenora Crichlow! It centres on a conservative small-town family forced to reconcile their values when they discover their children’s lives are less than perfect. As 'Deadline' reports, Kimball will play Beau, the eldest son, a good ol’ boy who adores his momma and worships his father, but didn’t inherit their strong moral compass.

NBC'S 'GOOD PLACE' SITCOM 

MANNY JACINTO JOINS TEN DANSON AND KRISTEN BELL
In other sitcom news, beside the info that Freeform has just renewed YOUNG & HUNGRY for the 4th season (starts shooting today), NBC is adding new faces into the cast of their new comedy GOOD PLACE! Manny Jacinto is the latest to join Ted Danson and Kristen Bell in the sitcom that centres on Eleanor (Bell), a woman from New Jersey who comes to realize that she hasn’t been a very good person. She decides to turn over a new leaf by learning what it actually means to be “good” or “bad,” and then trying to make up for her past behavior. Jacinto will play the sweet and good-natured Jason.

PREMIUM SPOTLIGHT ON 'INDIAN SUMMERS' PERIOD SET TV SERIES SEASON TWO WITH JULIE WALTERS, BLAKE RITSON, RACHEL GRIFFITHS, HENRY LLOYD HUGHES, OLIVIA GRANT

'INDIAN SUMMERS' SEASON TWO

 FOR EXOTIC SUNDAY EVENINGS!

As the highlight of our British TV week, in which I presented you with a number of brilliant trailers for upcoming new English dramas, today you can enjoy our premium spotlight on the second season of period set series INDIAN SUMMERS which will air on Channel 4 from March 13th and later this year at PBS in USA too! Channel 4's most watched series in ten years, which is planned for a five season run, charts two families living in Simla during the last days of the British Raj, a period when tensions are running high as the nation strives for independence from their colonial rulers. Series two will again consist of 10 episodes set in the summer of 1935, several years after the events of the first series, as the Indian nationalist movement gains traction.

BLAKE RITSON AND RACHEL GRIFFITHS JOIN JULIE WALTERS
Rachel Griffiths, Blake Ritson, Art Malik and James Fleet join Julie Walters in the second series. Summer of 1935 – a season where  old allegiances will be broken and new ones forged, where unbridled passions run wild and where revolution hangs heavy in the air. An assassination attempt on the Viceroy Lord Willingdon (Patrick Malahide), and the surprise arrival of Lord Hawthorne (James Fleet), puts Ralph’s (Henry Lloyd-Hughes) future in the balance. Meanwhile, Cynthia’s (Julie Walters) Royal Simla Club plays host to an important royal guest, the Maharaja Maritpur (Art Malik) and his elegant and mysterious mistress Sirene (Rachel Griffiths). Blake Ritson arrives as Ralph's sister Alice's (Jemima West) banker husband. Meanwhile, Ralph now has a daughter with gorgeous Madeleine (Olivia Grant) and has brought his secret Indian son under their roof as his house-boy unbeknownst to her.

CHILDREN'S BOOK MOVIE ADAPTATIONS: LASSE HALLSTROM TO HELM DISNEY'S 'NUTCRACKER AND THE FOUR REALMS' FILM! SARA PENNYPACKER'S 'PAX' BESTSELLER TO GET MOVIE VERSION

LASSE HALLSTROM TO HELM

DISNEY'S 'NUTCRACKER AND FOUR REALMS' LIVE ACTION MOVIE

With Disney's ZOOTOPIA currently breaking animated movie records, it is perfect time for a kids' Saturday, don't you think? Starting with our fave Lasse Hallstrom who will direct the live action big screen version of THE NUTCRACKER AND THE FOUR REALMS for Disney!

It is an adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffman’s Christmas Eve tale about a young girl who finds a Nutcracker doll among the family’s gifts and is charged by her parents to take special care of it. Under the cover of darkness, the Nutcracker comes to life, along with an evil Mouse King with seven heads, introducing Marie to the magical world of toys and the brave Nutcracker who will change her life forever.

SARA PENNYPACKER'S 'PAX'

TO BE ADAPTED INTO A MOVIE

Meanwhile, 'Deadline' reports that Sara Pennypacker's New York Times' No1 bestselling childrens' book PAX has been sold for feature movie adaptation.  The story about love and defining your family deals with a boy who is separated from his pet fox and how they try to find each other again during the devastation of war. It speaks about devastating costs of wars.

'HOUDINI & DOYLE' EPIC TV SERIES TRAILER IS HERE! GEORGINA HAIG, NEAL BLEDSOE TO LEAD CW'S MARS SET SF SERIES! SYFY ORDERS 'AFTERMATH' POST APOCALYPTIC TV SERIES WITH LEVI MEADEN, TAYLOR HICKSON

CW'S MARS SET SHOW

CASTS NEAL BLEDSOE AND GEORGINA HAIG AS LEADS

We're going mostly sf today, starting with the news from CW's untitled MARS set series which is rounding up its cast! Georgina Haig has been set as the female lead while Neal Bledsoe will be the male lead in the series about an explorer team that arrives on Mars to join the first human colony on the planet, only to discover that their predecessors have vanished. Led by a woman whose husband is among the missing, the colonists are forced to change their mission from exploration and settlement to investigation and survival, while navigating the hostile planet and their own personal demons.

MARS EXPLORERS
 Georgina Haig (ONCE UPON A TIME) plays Gina Nolan, the mission’s botanist, a woman who is intense, motivated and sharp, a true explorer! Magnetic Neal Bledsoe (MYSTERIES OF LAURA) plays handsome, charming, brilliant and resolute Lewis, who’s charged with selecting members of the explorer team who will follow him to the Red Planet. The cast also includes Mouzam Makkar, Carl Beukes, Tongayi Chirisa and Peter Mark Kendall!

SYFY ORDERS 'AFTERMATH' 

POST APOCALYPTIC TV SERIES

Meanwhile, later this summer SyFy will air  Canadian 13 episode sf series AFTERMATH  following a couple Karen and Joshua Copeland and their children Dana, Brianna and Matt, who must battle for survival after civilization comes to an apocalyptic end, triggered by massive storms, meteor strikes, earthquakes and plague – and the rise of supernatural creatures. Julie Sarah Stone, Levi Meaden, and Taylor Hickson will play the three siblings coming of age in the Apocalypse. As 'Deadline' reports Stone is Dana Copeland, the practical, sardonic and quick-witted twin with a thorough knowledge of science. Hickson is the emotional, romantic and rebellious twin, Brianna Copeland. Meaden plays Matt Copeland, the fierce competitor pushed into brutality.

'HOUDINI & DOYLE' TV SHOW

THE NEW TRAILER IS HERE!

Continuing our week of new British series trailers (with the highlight on Sunday), here's the new trailer for ITV's new drama HOUDINI & DOYLE! In the ten episode series, the two of the great characters of the 20th century, Houdini (Michael Weston), master magician, escape artist and paranormal debunker, and Doyle (Stephen Mangan), creator of the world’s greatest detective and a paranormal aficionado, grudgingly join forces to investigate crimes with a supernatural slant. Although they’re both rich, famous and brilliant, they’re the original odd couple, with Houdini believing in nothing, Doyle in everything! It starts March 13th!

NEW EPIC TV SERIES ON GRAND DUCHESS ANASTASIA OF RUSSIA! 'THE DURRELLS' PERIOD SET TV SERIES TRAILER WITH KEELEY HAWES, LESLIE CARON! 'GHOSTBUSTERS' TRAILER WITH MELISSA MCCARTHY, KRISTEN WIIG

  FREEFORMS ORDERS SERIES

ON GRAND DUCHESS ANASTASIA

It seems BBC's WAR AND PEACE has made Russia's glorious history in again, so the next project from that field will be Freeform's series on GRAND DUCHESS ANASTASIA produced by McG! Set in vibrant Paris during the roaring 1920’s, it will follow Anastasia Romanova after her escape from Russia. While her sights are set on avenging the death of her family, she joins forces with an elite espionage agency that’s working to prevent another world war. By day, Anastasia is a former princess trying to blend into a normal life, but by night, she’s acting as the world’s first female spy, influencing some of the biggest events in the first part of the 20th century. Daniel Mackey, Seth Fisher (SAINTS & STRANGERS) are scribes.

  'GHOSTBUSTERS' TRAILER

WITH MELISSA MCCARTHY IS HERE 
It was about time for them to release the first trailer for new female centric and entirely unwanted reboot of GHOST BUSTERS since the busting starts July 15th! Kristen Wiig plays particle physicist Erin, Melissa McCarthy’s character is an expert in the paranormal, Kate McKinnon’s the nuclear engineer who creates the team’s inventions, and Leslie Jones is a former subway employee who knows her way around New York City. Chris Hemsworth is their hunky secretary!

  'THE DURRELLS' PERIOD SERIES

THE FIRST TRAILER IS RELEASED!

Your second trailer is a truly delightful one for British ITV's new family drama series THE DURRELLS which arrives sometime this spring! The six part series is a small screen adaptation of  MY FAMILY AND OTHER ANIMALS memoir by Gerald Durrell! Keeley Hawes leads the cast alongside legendary Leslie Caron and Greek star Alexis Georgoulis.

KEELEY HAWES LEADS THE CAST 

The 1930's six part series focuses on Louisa Durrell (Keeley Hawes), whose husband died years before and his money has almost run out. Her four children Larry (Josh O'Connor), Leslie (Callum Woodhouse), Margo (Daisy Waterstone) and Gerry (Milo Parker) are running riot and making life very difficult. Louisa decides to escape from Britain for a new adventure in Corfu, taking her family with her. Alexis Georgoulis will play the dependable Spiro Halkiopoulos, while Leslie Caron will  be shrewd Countess Mavrodaki, who hires Margo as her companion.

'DOCTOR THORNE' PERIOD SET SERIES PICS & TRAILER WITH TOM HOLLANDER, IAN MCSHANE! AMC & RIDLEY SCOTT TO ADAPT DAN SIMMONS' 'THE TERROR' INTO 19TH CENTURY TV SERIES!

'TERROR' 19TH CENTURY

EPIC SERIES FROM RIDLEY SCOTT

Only some period set series for you today, people, starting with the report coming from 'Deadline' that AMC has ordered THE TERROR into ten episode series! Based on the bestselling novel by Dan Simmons it will air sometime in 2017! Ridley Scott will produce the series set in 1847, when a Royal Naval expedition crew searching for the Northwest Passage is attacked by a mysterious predator that stalks the ships and their crews in a suspenseful and desperate game of survival. It is a fictionalized account of Captain Sir John Franklin’s lost expedition of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror.

'DOCTOR THORNE' PERIOD SET

DRAMA STARTS THIS SUNDAY!

If you can't hardly wait for the second season of POLDARK to start at BBC this spring, here's something you can pass your time with: ITV will launch their new Julian Fellowes three part historical series DOCTOR THORNE this Sunday evening based on Anthony Throllope novel! 

IAN MCSHANE, TOM HOLLA- NDER LEAD THE CAST

Tom Hollander (Rev, A Poet In New York, Pirates of the Caribbean) takes the role of Dr Thomas Thorne, who lives in the village of Greshamsbury in Barsetshire with his young niece, Mary (Stefanie Martini), a girl blessed with every gift except money. Mary Thorne has grown up alongside the Gresham family, whose house, Greshamsbury Park, and status dominate the county. With Francis Gresham Senior (Richard McCabe) having frittered away the family fortune, however, his wife, Lady Arabella Gresham, played by Rebecca Front (War and Peace, Humans, Lewis, The Thick of It), their daughters Augusta (Gwyneth Keyworth) and Beatrice (Nell Barlow), and their handsome brother Frank (Harry Richardson) face losing their home. Ian McShane also stars.

NICOLE SCHERZINGER JOINS 'DIRTY DANCING' REMAKE! 'ICE AGE: COLLISION COURSE' NEW TRAILER! MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY, IDRIS ELBA, ABBEY LEE IN STEPHEN KING'S 'DARK TOWER'

NICOLE SCHERZINGER

JOINS 'DIRTY DANCING' REMAKE

You cannot have a good musical without a huge music star with a stunning voice and even more stunning looks: Nicole Sherzinger is the latest one to join the cast of ABC's three hour TV remake of DIRTY DANCING which already has Abigal Breslin as Baby and Pink's dancer Colt Prattes as Johhny! Nicole Scherzinger will play Penny, the troubled dancer whose unexpected pregnancy starts off a chain of events that leads dance instructor Johnny to good girl Baby. Beside a number of hit albums, and acclaimed roles in stage musicals, Nicole, who is also an operatic singer, also guest starred in HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER and is the most popular X FACTOR judge beside Paula Abdul. Listen to gorgeous Scherzy showing off her mindblowing voice in her stunning version of I AM TELLING YOU sung with Sam Bailey! She will make you shake!

'THE DARK TOWER' ADAPTATION

MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY, IDRIS ELBA, ABBEY LEE CAST
Meanwhile, it seems that Stephen King has kinda confirmed over his Twitter account that Matthew Mc Conaughey and Idris Elba will lead the movie adaptation of his sf novel DARK TOWER to be directed by Nikolaj Arcel! Elba will be the gunslinger Roland Deschain who, in a post apocalyptic setting, is chasing villainous Man In Black, to be played by Mc Conaughey, across a wasteland! Meanwhile, Abbey Lee from GODS OF EGYPT will play cold, snake eyed, dangerous and sexy Tirana! The first, in the planned trilogy of movies, should cover Roland's relationship with his young protege who is yet to be cast. 

'ICE AGE: COLLISION COURSE'

SECOND TRAILER BRINGS FUN

Your animated delight today is the 2nd trailer for the new part of your favourite adventure ICE AGE: COLLISION COURSE out this July! Scrat’s epic pursuit of the elusive acorn catapults him into the universe where he accidentally sets off a series of cosmic events that transform and threaten the Ice Age World. To save themselves, Sid, Manny, Diego, and the rest of the herd must leave their home and embark on a quest full of comedy and adventure, travelling to exotic new lands and encountering a host of colourful new characters.