Oscar winner Melissa Leo (“The Fighter”) is heading back to television to co-star with Matt Dillion in M. Night Shyamalan’s “Wayward Pines.” Fox is putting together the event series based on Blake Crouch’s novel “Pines” and hopes to have it out by fall 2014. Described as a “Twin Peaks“-esque show (high hopes), the story follows Secret Service agent Ethan Burke (Dillion) as he searches for two missing federal agents in Wayward Pines, Idaho. Of course, not everything is at it seems in Wayward Pines and Burke only finds more mysteries. One of which is Nurse Pam (Leo) who tends to Burke when he winds up in the town hospital, only to become a lethal advisory with deep ties to Wayward’s secrets.
Meanwhile, Ridley Scott‘s Scott Free Productions has tapped Rob Lowe — aka Chris Traeger, and also coming off a fantastic turn as Dr. Jack Startz in “Behind The Candelabra” — to play JFK in the upcoming “Killing Kennedy.” Co-starring Ginnifer Goodwin and Michelle Trachtenberg, the Nat Geo production based on Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard‘s book will follow the lives of John F. Kennedy (Lowe) and Lee Harvey Oswald starting in 1959 and lead up to the tragic assassination in 1963. Goodwin will play First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and Trachtenberg will play Marina, Oswald’s Russian wife. There’s no word on who will play Oswald yet. The drama is being timed for release later this year so as to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the assassination.
Lastly, Mary Steenburgen has joined Anne Hathaway in Kate Barker-Froyland’s “Song One.” Steenburgen will play Hathaway’s mother in the film about a young woman who develops a relationship with her comatose brother’s favorite indie rock star played by Johnny Flynn. Here’s an interesting side note, both women have won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Hathaway recently won hers for “Les Miserables” while Steenburgen received hers in 1980 for “Melvin and Howard.”