We met them in The Sandlot, and now they are Dugout Dads. Patrick Renna is set to star and produce a new series about an idealistic dad who volunteers to coach his kid’s Little League team, only to discover the parents are more unruly than the ten-year-olds. While not directly related to the cult classic 1993 film, several of the original cast members will return in new roles for Dugout Dads.

Anthony Guidera, an actor known for his roles in The Godfather Part III (1990) and Species (1995), has died at 65. Guidera made his film debut as a bodyguard in Francis Ford Coppola’s sequel and later appeared in titles including The Rock (1996), Armageddon (1998), and L.A. Dicks (2005).

Mary McDonnell (The Boroughs) joins the cast of Fox’s Baywatch reboot. The show follows Hobie Buchannon (Stephen Amell), a Baywatch captain and the son of legendary lifeguard Mitch Buchannon. McDonnell will play Gayle, the mother of the protagonist Hobie.

Zsa Zsa Zemeckis, the daughter of Forrest Gump director Robert Zemeckis, is making her acting feature debut in Star-Crossed Lovers, a modernized Romeo and Juliet film. Zemeckis will play the secretly pregnant 17 year old, Mila, navigating a relationship with a much older man and her conservative parents who don’t approve.

Paul Sparks (House of Cards) joins Apple’s sci-fi action thriller Liminal. Based on the AWA graphic novel Telepaths, the film explores a world in which a tenth of Earth’s population suddenly gains telepathic powers, and the newly telepathic Boston Police force has to deal with it. He will star alongside Vanessa Kirby and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Aquaman franchise)

Kelli Berglund (Heels) stars in Hulu’s new Prison Break series. The show will follow a soldier-turned-corrections officer who takes a job at one of the deadliest prisons in America. Berglund will play Cheyenne, a female inmate. Elgin James (Showrunner: BBC’s The Outlaws) serves as showrunner, EP, and director of the pilot.

Amita Rao (FX’s Adults) stars in horror-comedy mockumentary See Bot Run. The film follows the underpaid workers of a tech company on the day of their AI product launch, only to find out that their invention begins to turn against them. Rao will play Deena, an overenthusiastic intern at the tech startup.

A new pilot from Young Sheldon producer David Bickel adds a TV comedy veteran, Jason Alexander (Seinfeld), to the cast. In To Life (clip), Alexander will play a mental health professional who recommends microdosing mushrooms to his anxiety-ridden patient whose hallucinogenic side effects don’t go away.

HBO’s highly anticipated pilot, How To Survive Without Me, adds to its lengthy ensemble, none other than series lead Ray Romano’s son Joe, who will make his TV acting debut as a younger version of his dad’s character.

Jason Clarke may join Michael Mann’s Heat 2. We’ll have more details if this confirms.

In more Amazon casting news, the anticipated second season of Mr. and Mrs. Smith has cast Francesca Scorsese in a recurring role. After building a name for herself outside of her father’s shadow with her viral social media following, Scorsese has recently begun acting in projects like the HBO miniseries We Are Who We Are and the new Netflix movie Roommates. Season two has just started production in L.A.

Jennifer Beals, known for Paramount+’s The L Word, is also moving over to Amazon, joining the cast of the upcoming thriller series Bishop. Alongside Joel Kinnaman as a brilliant but troubled homicide detective, Beals will play a psychologist within San Francisco’s Police Department. An exact release date has yet to be announced.

Rob Delaney (FX’s Dying for Sex) joins the untitled Apple TV comedy show, starring Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games franchise). The show will follow a woman fresh off a divorce, setting out to secure a living for herself and her kids. No info on his role. The show will be written and EPed by Liz Heidens (Wri: Will Trent) and Matt Ward (EP: Best Medicine).

Disney+’s hit Korean superhero show Moving Season 2 starts production. Many of the original cast, including Ryu Seung-ryong, Han Hyo-joo, and Zo In-sung (Hope), are set to return. The show follows three high school students whose lives turn upside down when they realize they are superheroes, being hunted down by a secret government organization.

Tom Kane, the voice actor behind Master Yoda in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Professor Utonium on The Powerpuff Girls, dies at 64. His voice performance as Woodhouse in FX’s Archer, Lord Monkey Fist in Kim Possible, and Magneto and Ultron in various Marvel projects left a mark on the childhood memories of many viewers. He will be missed.

HBO’s Harry Potter series is losing a Weasley, with young actress Gracie Cochrane exiting the show ahead of its Christmas Day premiere. The role of Ginny Weasley will be recast for the second season.

Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here) is ready for a hug. The Oscar-nominated actress has been cast in Barbara Paz’s debut feature Cuddle. Torres will play an immigrant woman who meets a professional cuddler (Willem Dafoe) who offers platonic comfort to strangers craving connection.

Dacre Montgomery (Stranger Things) joins the cast of John Wick spinoff Caine, directed by and starring Donnie Yen (Caine in the John Wick franchise). The film will follow Caine (Yen) right after the events of John Wick: Chapter 4, as he is freed from serving The High Table. No info on Montgomery’s role.

Freya Allen (The Witcher) and Maria Pedraza (Money Heist) join the cast of road movie Europa. The film will follow a young British woman who escapes from London and drives across Europe, only to form an intense relationship with another woman. Think of it as a European Thelma & Louise (1991). Shia LaBeouf (Transformers) also stars in the film.

Isabella Rossellini will play a woman plagued by lost love in Vermillion. A film about Marie Antoinette’s pre-war love triangle. Directed by Jon Amiel (The Core). Shooting early 2027. Rossellini will also be honored with the coveted Excellence Award at this year’s Locarno Film Festival.

Connor Storrie (Heated Rivalry) has his eyes set on A24 boarding his second project with the studio in just a few months. After just joining the Molly Gordon comedy Peaked, the new A24 project, Please, comes from Bodies Bodies Bodies director Halina Reijn and, unfortunately, both the plot and Storrie’s role are being kept under wraps for now.

Michael Ealy (Power Book II: Ghost) stars as MGM+’s upcoming The Magnificent Seven remake. Based on the legendary 1960 Western film of the same name (Trailer), the show follows seven elite gunfighters who are hired to defend their village from a ruthless bandit. Ealy will play Vin Tanner, who was played by the iconic Steve Mcqueen in the 1960 film and Chris Pratt in Antoine Fuqua’s 2016 remake.

Slow Horses breakout star Ruth Bradley is joining the Irish coming-of-age comedy Bender alongside comedian Bill Burr and Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids). Billed as Superbad meets Derry Girls, like her role in the Apple drama, Bradley will play a sharp-tongued and no-nonsense character, a matriarch trying to keep her family together. Filming will begin this summer.

“Nerds!” Actor Donald Gibb has died at 71. He’s best known for unforgettable supporting turns in cult classics like the fraternity comedy Revenge of the Nerds (1984) and the Jean-Claude Van Damme-led martial arts movie Bloodsport (1988). Clip

Melissa Barrera (Scream VI) stars in the upcoming horror feature Inhabit. Written and directed by Adam Alleca (The Last House on the Left), the film will follow a young woman who moves into a rundown apartment only to be terrorized by a possessive entity.

Will Patton (Yellowstone) is adding another western to his resume, set to join MGM+’s The Magnificent Seven series. Inspired by the 1960 original feature, Patton will play a new character, a ruthless and cruel land baron and one of the show’s primary antagonists. From Heroes creator Tim Kring, the series remake is starting production early next month.

The season five cast of Apple TV’s The Morning Show continues to grow with Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex) set to join. In the New York-set drama, Caplan will play Gwen, a passionate Broadway theater director, though there’s still no word on how her onstage antics will factor into the series’ cutthroat world of morning news.

HBO and Sky Television’s legal drama War has cast Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny) and David Harewood (Sherwood) to lead the next case in its second season. Following two rival law firms, both taking on one explosive defamation case, season two has already begun production prior to season one’s premiere at the end of this month.

Golden Globe nominee Alma Pöysti (Fallen Leaves) stars in the new drama Beatrice. The film follows a woman who returns to her husband and child after dying in a car accident, in a new body that they can not recognize. Valentina Bellè (Ferrari) also joins her in the cast.

Squid Game’s Front Man as a martial arts master. Korean star Lee Byun-hun (No Other Choice, Squid Game) will lead a Korean martial arts action film, Nambeol. The project is being described as a hard-boiled martial arts action film set in the early Joseon dynasty. Nambeol means Northern Expedition or Northern conquest in Korean, so we can expect to see some hand-to-hand combat between a rag-tag group of Korean warriors and Japanese pirates in this film.

Apple TV promotes James Marsden from guest star to series lead for new thriller Disavowed. The Paradise actor recently joined the second season of Apple’s ongoing crime dramedy Your Friends & Neighbors, as a suspicious, bold billionaire, unafraid to get his hands dirty. In Disavowed, Marsden will play the opposite type of character, a legendary and respectable CIA officer, with the series coming from Iron Man (2008) co-writers Art Marcum and Matt Holloway.

Get your broomsticks out, Disney is developing Hocus Pocus 3. Serving as the sequel to Disney+’s most-watched original film in 2022, writer Jen D’Angelo is returning with Hannah Waddingham’s mother witch character set to take more of the focus. Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker have not signed on yet, but are expected to reprise their roles.

The “Purple Guy” from the FNaF franchise joins Superman 2. Matthew Lillard (Five Nights at Freddy’s) is set to join the Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow. No info on his role, but we would love to see him in a slightly unhinged Superman-villain role, like Trickster or Toyman, that could highlight his ability to swing from comedic to crazy real fast.

Mini Tidbits:

Vision Films (Extinction) has acquired the rights to the Jeff Bridges-narrated documentary In the Company of Wolves: An American Journey (trailer). The doc follows wolves and other animals throughout history, exposing how the wild reflects the state of our society. The film will premiere at Cannes next week.

David Arquette (The Mess We Made), Jodi Balfour (For All Mankind), and William Zabka (Cobra Kai) join Season 2 of Prime Video’s Scarpetta. The show follows Kay Scarpetta (Nicole Kidman) and Dorothy Farinelli (Jamie Lee Curtis) as they solve a grisly murder in their hometown.

Abigail Bresline (Little Miss Sunshine) and David Denman (Brightburn) join the cast of the final season of Netflix’s The Night Agent. Bresline will play a young FBI agent, and Denman will play a veteran CIA agent and former head of a Joint Terrorism Task Force.

HBO Max’s drama pilot How to Survive Without Me casts Rita Wilson (Sleepless in Seattle) in a lead role. An ensemble family drama, Wilson plays the “Me” the title is referring to, a lovely and accomplished mother who finds a way to keep her family connected even after losing her battle with cancer.

Melissa Collazo (Motorheads) will lead Prime Video’s The Probability of Miracles. Based on the novel of the same name, the show will follow a teenager dying of cancer who moves to the town of Promise, where miracles are said to happen. Henry Eikenberry (Euphoria) will lead alongside Collazo.

Disney is not letting go of Diego Luna that easily. The Andor actor has been cast in the upcoming live-action Tangled movie in an unknown, presumably new role. Luna can currently be seen on his journey to becoming a devoted rebel leader in the ongoing second and final season of Disney+ and Lucasfilm’s Andor (S2 trailer). Tangled will begin filming next month in Spain.

Mexican cartels, possessed children, and the supernatural. Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers) and Demián Bichir (The Nun) star in action-thriller Hold The Devil, directed by Álex de la Iglesia (The Day of the Beast). The film follows a police officer, Sara Myall (Randolph), and a security guard, Henry Campos (Bichir), who are trapped in a remote house with a young boy whose supernatural power makes him the target of a ruthless cartel leader. Randolph nailed the role as a lonesome cafeteria manager and grieving mother in Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers; we’re excited to see that nurturing performance carried into the thriller genre.

Mini Tidbits:

Fox’s Marriage Market has found their host in actress and comedian Whitney Cummings (NBC’s Whitney). The newest matchmaking series will follow singles who relinquish all control of their love lives to their families, with an engagement as the end goal.

The many nurses of M*A*S*H, Gwen Farrell Adair, has passed away at 94. The actress starred as multiple nurses, as well as an anesthesiologist, popping up all throughout the CBS war dramedy’s eleven-season run.

Beau Starr, actor best known for the Halloween franchise and playing Ray Liotta’s abusive father in Goodfellas, dies at 81.

Evie Templeton (Netflix’s Wednesday) joins Gothic thriller Victorian Psycho, which will premiere in the Un Certain Regard competition in Cannes. The film follows a governess as she arrives at a remote gothic mansion, where strange things start happening around her. Alongside Templeton are Maika Monroe (It Follows), Thomasin McKenzie (Jojo Rabbit), and Jason Isaacs (The White Lotus).

Ahead of its season one premiere, Amazon has already started casting for season two of its college-set romance series Off Campus. The lead of Netflix’s Fear Street: Prom Queen (2025), India Fowler, will play a sociology major freshman and the season’s main love interest. The show premiere is scheduled for May 13th.

Spooky Pictures’ newest horror, Sundowning, brings on two rising stars to its cast. Heated Rivalry breakout actor Robbie G.K. and Elizabeth Dulau, who was able to go toe to toe with Stellan Skarsgård in Disney+’s Andor. The film exposes the terrifying secrets of a secluded end-of-life facility.

Ulrich Thomsen (Legends), Erik Svedberg-Zelman (Helicopter Heist), John Larroquette (Night Court), and Rob Yang (Succession) join the cast of Prime Video’s thriller Bishop. The show follows Bishop Graves (Joel Kinnaman), who is on a hunt for a serial killer targeting San Francisco’s rich class.

Éanna Hardwicke (A Very Royal Scandal) joins Channing Tatum in Amazon MGM’s Motorsports film Isle of Man.

Horror-comedy hybrid film Curse in a Frame, headlined by Enola Holmes (2020) actress Susan Wokoma, has just wrapped filming. From the U.K. based New State Pictures, the film tells the real story of a painting that, with every purchase, leads to strange events until it is inevitably returned to the same eerie Hastings shop.

“It’s time I did another movie.” After several years of fighting his stage-three diagnosis, New Zealand/Irish actor Sam Neill (Jurassic Park, Peaky Blinders) is officially cancer-free!

A return of a fan-favorite. Desmond Harrington, who played detective Joey Quinn in the original Dexter series, is returning for Dexter: Resurrection S2 as a series regular. He appeared in two episodes of the first season, but he will play a much more pivotal role in the story of the sequel series’ second season. Quinn was one of the few characters who deeply investigated Dexter, and we may be seeing Dexter’s ghosts of the past catch up to him.

Netflix’s limited series adaptation of Harlan Coben’s bestseller I Will Find You casts Vas Saranga (CBC Gem’s You’re My Hero) in a recurring role. Joining Sam Worthington (Avatar) and Severance’s Britt Lower, The Handmaid’s Tale actor will play an agent part of the FBI Fugitive Task Force.

Luke Kleintank (FBI: International) joins Fox’s drama series The Interrogator. The show will follow a former MI6 agent and his elite team as they try to negotiate with the world’s most dangerous criminals.

Sorry Baby’s Naomi Ackie and Wuthering Heights’ Alison Oliver have wrapped production on To Make Ends Meat, a thriller-drama feature ahead of its launch at the Cannes Market. They each star as a woman in debt to despicable men, determined to survive in whatever ways necessary. The film is the sophomore feature from Luna Carmoon (Venice-winning Hoard) with Goodfellas attached to handle all international sales.

Orville “Shaggy” Burrell joins Amazon MGM’s Honeymoon with Harry. Based on a book by Bart Baker, the film will follow a down-to-earth man (Jake Gyllenhaal) who ends up sharing a trip with his fiancée’s overprotective father (Kevin Costner). No word on Burrell’s role yet, but he is the second musical artist to join this project, following British pop star Rita Ora.

Country singer-songwriter Morgan Wade joins Paramount+’s Yellowstone spinoff, Dutton Ranch. The series follows Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) as they leave Yellowstone for Texas, only to be followed by the same troubles they found back home. Wade will play Carol, a local bartender at the local watering hole in Rio Paloma, Texas.

Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife) joins the cast of Hulu’s Paradise S3. Created by Dan Fogelman, the show follows a murder investigation taking place in a serene community inhabited by the world’s wealthiest individuals. No info on her role.

Austin Amelio (Dwight in AMC’s The Walking Dead) joins FX’s The Lowdown S2. The show follows a citizen journalist, Lee Raybon (Ethan Hawke), as he fights corruption and crime in the city of Tulsa. No info yet on his role, but we loved and hated him as Negan’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) right-hand man in The Walking Dead franchise. Amelio is great at depicting deeply conflicted characters, committing heinous crimes while all the while letting the audience know he feels the full range of guilt for his actions.

Apple TV’s newest thriller series Safe Houses casts Game of Thrones’ Tobias Menzies alongside Jennifer Connelly and Ana de Armas. Menzies was recently seen as the smarmy, fast-talking tech bro in F1: The Movie, having a lot of fun playing a character you love to hate. In Safe Houses, he’ll star as Connelly’s husband, with production ongoing.

Rita Ora (He Bled Neon) joins Amazon MGM’s dramedy Honeymoon With Harry. Based on a book by Bart Baker, the film will follow a down-to-earth man (Jake Gyllenhaal) who ends up sharing a trip with his fiancée’s overprotective father (Kevin Costner). No info on Ora’s role yet.

Ryan Phillippe (Crash) has been cast in ABC’s 9-1-1: Nashville. He’ll be a series regular, playing a brilliant bad boy detective.

Joey Pollari (American Crime) joins FX’s horror anthology series American Horror Story. Pollari is among the new faces in the cast that most notably includes Ariana Grande (Wicked), who will appear in AHS S13. No info on the plot or on Pollari’s role.

Disney+’s Wizards Beyond Waverly Place is bringing back a familiar face with the return of Gregg Sulkin (MTV’s Faking It). The heartthrob will guest star as werewolf Mason Greyback, reprising the role from the original series. The third and final season will drop sometime this summer.

Mean Girls’ Jonathan Bennett is making his daytime television return on ABC’s General Hospital. A full circle moment for the actor who began his career on All My Children; he will make his GH debut this May.

Richard Harmon (Final Destination Bloodlines) to star in horror thriller A Most Delightful Game. Set in the 1980s, the film follows a young woman’s investigation of her sister’s death that leads her to a death-plagued highway. This film will be the theatrical directorial debut for Boman Modine (Amazon Prime’s Dark/Web), who has mainly worked in TV. No info on Harmon’s role, but we would love to see him in a nonchalant role whose intensity suddenly gets dialed up to max – similar to his performance as tattoo artist Erik in Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025).

Josh Charles (Best Medicine) joins Netflix drama The 99’ers. The series follows the true story of the 1999 U.S. Women’s soccer team, which won the FIFA Women’s World Cup against China. Charles will join an ensemble cast led by Zoey Deutch (Zombieland: Double Tap).

Tom Pelphrey (Ozark) joins Apple’s sci-fi action thriller Liminal. Based on the AWA graphic novel Telepaths, the film explores a world in which a tenth of Earth’s population suddenly gains telepathic powers, and the newly telepathic Boston Police force has to deal with it. He will star alongside Vanessa Kirby and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Aquaman franchise)

The star of I Love LA, Rachel Sennott, is the newest addition to Kockroach, the ensemble crime film from Captain Fantastic director Matt Ross. Sennott will play a supporting role opposite Chris Hemsworth and Alec Baldwin in a story that dives into New York City’s criminal underworld. Filming begins in Australia next week.

Emma Elle Paterson (The Boys) will star and produce thriller Candy. The film is described as a genre-bending thriller, directed by Jessica Michael Davis (Escaping Ohio), who will also star in the film. The film will follow a young woman who goes through a body transformation into a persona of Candy, who becomes a seductive yet dangerous being.

Grammy-nominated artist Tyga is making his feature debut in musical drama Baby, You’re a Star. Madison Bailey (Outer Banks) and Ashton Sanders (Moonlight) will star alongside Tyga. Set in 1989, the film will follow a young artist as he struggles to escape his environment and achieve musical stardom.

Comedic actor Rob Corddry (Hot Tub Time Machine) is giving another genre a chance, joining Netflix’s thriller An Innocent Girl. From director Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan), the film follows a young woman who gets manipulated by a high-powered D.C. couple. Corddry’s role is unknown, but he’ll be joining Kerry Washington and Colman Domingo.

Sadie Calvano (Mom) and Gabe Gibbs (Schooled) join the main cast of the untitled NBC comedy pilot. The show has Katey Sagal (Futurama) and Jane Lynch (Glee) as its leads, following two friends-turned-foes who run into each other at a mutual ex’s funeral.

“You’ve got a real attitude problem, McFly.” - James Tolkan as Vice Principal Gerald Strickland in Back to the Future (1985). James Tolkan, the man behind the cigar-chomping naval commander in Top Gun (1986), has died at 94. A legendary character actor, Tolkan carved out a niche of playing stern authority figures from Miami Vice to Masters of the Universe (1987). His on-screen work has left a lasting imprint on generations of filmgoers, myself included.

TV actor Ed Bernard best known as an undercover cop on NBC’s Police Woman (1974-78) has died at 86. The Philadelphia native made a number of notable TV appearances on shows like NYPD Blue and ER, getting his next big role in the CBS drama The White Shadow as a principal of an inner-city high school.

Three-time Tony nominee Mary Beth Hurt (Six Degrees of Separation) has died from her decade-long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Her first onscreen role was opposite Diane Keaton as the sensitive sister Joey in Woody Allen’s Interiors, he would go on to have a long career going back and forth between the stage and the screen.