Welcome to Rumorville! Here you can learn about casting news that’s about to break in Hollywood. These speculations might be only rumors, but that doesn’t mean you can’t follow the trail all the way to the audition room.
Untitled Negro League Baseball Drama Series
On deck for Apple: a drama series about Negro League Baseball. The streamer has reportedly acquired the rights to the non-fiction book “If You Were Only White: The Life of Leroy ‘Satchel’ Paige” by Donald Spivey to develop as a series that will be produced by Earvin “Magic” Johnson. According to Variety, the new series will explore the story of Negro League Baseball using the life and legacy of the legendary athlete and showman Leroy “Satchel” Paige, one of baseball’s greatest pitchers and star of Negro Leagues for many years. Apple and Kapital Entertainment will co-produce the series in partnership with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and in support of MLB. A creative team and cast have yet to be named.
“John Wick 4”
We’ll be seeing him soon: John Wick is back for the fourth chapter of the franchise, and the upcoming action feature is sealing the deal with its upcoming cast additions. Scott Adkins is reportedly in negotiations to join the cast of the Lionsgate project opposite Keanu Reeves, who will reprise the titular role. If the deal goes through, in addition to Reeves, Adkins will join the previously announced Donnie Yen, Rina Sawayama, and Shamier Anderson. Chad Stahelski returns as director, helming from a screenplay by Shay Hatten and Michael Finch. The film is set for theatrical release on May 27, 2022. Marisol Roncali and Mary Vernieu were the last film’s casting team.
“Unknown” Sequel Series
Adding to its growing catalog of movies-turned-series, TNT is reportedly developing “Unknown,” an hour-long drama based on the 2011 Liam Neeson action-thriller of the same name. Sean Finegan (“Free Fall”) will write the pilot and will executive produce with Karl Gajdusek (“Stranger Things”) and Speed Weed (“Arrow”) serving as executive producers and showrunners. The box office hit told the story of Martin Harris (Neeson), a doctor who lost his memory after a car accident and woke up to find his identity taken and the target of mysterious assassins. It’s unclear if Neeson will return in any capacity to the new series if it makes it to air or how the series will expand the movie’s plot, but TNT has been busy on film-to-series adaptation, including “Animal Kingdom,” “Snowpiercer,” and “Claws.”
“Leningrad”
First reported by Deadline, “Vikings” and “The Tudors” creator Michael Hirst will take on another era in history: the 872-day blockade of Leningrad during World War II. Hirst will reportedly write a series based on the events from an adaptation of Anna Reid’s 2011 book “Leningrad: The Epic Siege of World War II, 1941–1944.” Reid’s book draws mostly upon personal diaries; the series will take the same route. “Because the authentic voice of the people is crucial to telling the true story, one of the great resources are the diaries kept by so many people, specifically women, in the city,” Hirst says. “The majority of our main characters are women, not only because they are often overlooked or even ignored in historical accounts, but also because while many of Leningrad’s men went to war and died in battle, the women remained. I think it’s entirely right to tell the story of the Siege through the female experience.” The project is a co-production between Range Media Partners and Svetlana and Alexey Kuzmichev’s Orangery Productions. Frank Moiselle (and the late Nuala Moiselle) is the casting director on Hirst’s previous and current projects.
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