Orlando Bloom is a charming guy, but I’ve always believed his on-screen persona suffered because his talent is always chasing his unbelievable beauty.  The Good Doctor may have found a way around that problem.  First, director Lance Daly gave him a flat haircut, downgrading his looks from A to A-.  Second, the lead character, “an ambitious but anxious young doctor, eager to impress his superiors and colleagues,” is reserved and buttoned down.  So any perceived woodenness may well be in service of the performance.  The Good Doctor spent the last few months touring the festival circuit, receiving mostly good reviews and positive notices for Bloom’s performance.  A new trailer paints a vivid picture of the thriller, including some heavy lifting on Bloom’s part once “things take a dark turn as his enthusiasm begins to become an obsession.”  If Bloom pulls that off, I’m eager to check it out.

Riley Keough, Rob Morrow, Taraji P. Henson, and Michael Peña also star.  The Good Doctor opens on August 31.  Watch the trailer after the jump.

Newly minted Dexter showrunner Chip Johannessen has reached out to Julia Stiles (The Bourne Ultimatum) to come aboard Showtime’s flagship serial killer series for season five, which premieres in September.  Stiles is reportedly in advanced talks for a “major, top secret role”, so actual details on her role are scarce.

Still, speculation on what she might bring to the show verges on spoiler territory (especially given the events of season four).  So we’ll save that,  as well as the news that Maura Tierney (ER) may join the new ABC legal drama The Whole Truth, for after the jump.

Orlando Bloom has made us belief he’s an elf, a pirate, and a crusader, so it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch to convince us that he’s a doctor with a medical license and a stethoscope and everything.  THR reports that he’ll topline the indie “Hitchockian” thriller The Good Doctor, which is about, “a frustrated doctor looking to impress his superiors and colleagues. When his 18-year-old patient, admitted for a kidney infection, provides him with the esteem he so craves, the doctor tampers with her treatment so that she’ll have to stay at the hospital with him.”  So remember, next time you go to the hospital, make sure your doctor is feeling good about himself.  My advice for Bloom’s character would be to go look in the mirror and realize he looks like Orlando Bloom.

Michael Pena, Troy Garity, Courtney Ford, Taraji P. Henson, Rob Morrow and J.K. Simmons are in negotiations to co-star.  Here’s how THR breaks down Pena, Garity, and Ford’s roles: “Pena will play an orderly who discovers the doctor’s budding relationship and blackmails him for prescription painkillers. Garity is a successful, self-assured doctor, a counterpoint to Bloom. Ford is a woman who has eyes for Bloom’s character.”