New “Obi-Wan Kenobi” Images Reveal Darth Vader & More
Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) is back. After being only hinted at in the Obi-Wan Kenobi trailer, we have our first official look at the Sith Lord’s return, with Christensen reprising the role for the first time in 17-years, since George Lucas’s final film in his prequel trilogy, 2005’s Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith. In that film, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) might have beaten Annakin Skywalker (Christensen) in a lightsaber duel in the film’s climactic final battle,...
“They Call Me Magic” Trailer Reveals the Rise of Earvin “Magic” Johnson
There are currently two Magic Johnsons streaming right now. There is the fictionalized Magic, played by Quincy Isaiah, on HBO’s dazzling, gleefully dramatic Winning Time, based on Jeff Pearlman’s book “Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s.” And now, there is the actual Magic in Apple TV’s They Call Me Magic, a four-part documentary series that hopes to do for the Lakers legend and business titan what The Last Dance did for Michael Jordan—give Magic the kind of in-depth,...
“The Man Who Fell to Earth” Creator Jenny Lumet Turns an Iconic Alien Tale Into a Modern Epic
The new Showtime limited series The Man Who Fell to Earth is inspired by the 1963 novel and subsequent 1976 cult classic of the same name. Highly anticipated, it is created by award-winners Jenny Lumet and Alex Kurtzman, of Star Trek Discovery and Strange New Worlds. In this story, Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as an alien called Faraday on an urgent mission to save his homeworld. He tracks down genius scientist Justin Falls (Naomie Harris) who somehow holds part of the secret to saving both his world and ours...
Nicole Kassell on Producing & Directing HBO’s Devilish New Comedy/Horror “The Baby”
Shooting a television series under any circumstance is arduous at best. But when your title character is too young to even walk, it certainly increases the degree of difficulty. Producer/director Nicole Kassell discovered this fact quickly on her latest project, The Baby, a sly horror/comedy created by Siân Robins-Grace and Lucy Gaymer.
“Even with everything I’ve already done before, I think this might have been the hardest shoot I’ve ever done,” says Kassell during a recent Zoom interview...
Paramount Makes Nickelodeon Content Free For Ukrainian Refugees in Europe
There are many ways to help Ukrainians in their ongoing time of need, from donating to charities like the World Food Programme, Share The Meal and many, many more (for a list of charitable organizations, this is a good place to start). For Paramount Global, their contributions began with a $1 million donation to support humanitarian relief organizations and, now, to make their Nickelodeon kids content free on various platforms in Europe and beyond for Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russia’s onslaught...
Disney+’s “Willow” Series Casts “Game of Thrones” Star
The cast for Lucasfilm and Disney+’s upcoming Willow series just got a major boost. Deadline reports that Game of Thrones alum Rosabell Laurenti Sellers is joining the eagerly-anticipated series, which is a spinoff of director Ron Howard’s 1988 classic fantasy feature film. The original Willow followed the journey of a young farmer named Willow (Warwick Davis) who was tasked to go on a dangerous quest to protect a special baby from the evil sorceress Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh)...
“Stranger Things” Season 4 Trailer is a Dark, Thrilling Rollercoaster Ride
The Stranger Things season 4 trailer is here, and it’s an absolute smash. Revealing a much darker tone and tenor, raised stakes, and a terrifying new threat, the Duffer Brothers’ promise that would be the biggest, scariest season yet looks utterly confirmed. It seems the years worth of trauma is really taking its toll on our assorted heroes. What’s more, season 4 will find these friends scattered, and all of it speaks to why the Duffer Brothers couldn’t fit the entirety of season 4 into a traditional single-volume release schedule...
“Squid Game” Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk Reveals Which Characters Are Returning For Season 2
Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has revealed that two of the big stars from his global phenomenon series will be returning for another round of devilish games in season two.
Deadline reveals that two characters you will be seeing again are SAG Award-winning actor Lee Jung-jae’s Gi-hun, season one’s main protagonist and the survivor of the deadly games, and Front Man, played by Korean superstar Lee Byung-hun, who spent almost all of the first season beneath a black mask...
“Winning Time” Scores a Second Season With HBO
When we spoke with Winning Time co-creator, writer, and executive producer Jim Hecht, he said he and his fellow writers were already at work on season two. Well, it seems like Hecht and the Winning Time team got out on a fast break a few steps ahead. HBO has officially renewed Winning Time for a season second, which will pick up where season one left off, with Magic (Quincy Isaiah) having joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Solomon Hughes) and the Lakers as Jerry Buss (John C...
“Russian Doll” Season 2 Trailer Reveals Natasha Lyonne’s Even Stranger Trip
“The universe finally found something worse than death,” Nadia Vulvokov (Natasha Lyonne) says at the top of the first trailer for Russian Doll, season two. “I broke time.” And a nation rejoices at the sound of Lyonne’s inimitable voice as she reprises the role she was born to play. Created by Lyonne, Lesley Headland, and Amy Poehler, Russian Doll appeared on Netflix in 2019, right before the real world became a time-subverting nightmare, and was centered on an ingenious plot contrivance—a cynical young New Yorker (Lyonne) keeps dying,...
“The Dropout” Composer Anne Nikitin Takes a Synthetic Approach to Elizabeth Holmes’s Treachery
Hulu’s limited biographical series The Dropout, which stars Amanda Seyfried as Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, has been getting rave reviews for both Seyfried’s performance and for its sharp take on the shocking real-life story of corporate and personal hubris. The show follows Holmes from her beginnings as an ambitious college student with Steve Jobs as her role model, through her attempts to develop healthcare technology, and then to her astonishingly fast rise to fame and fortune as CEO of a billion-dollar company...
“Winning Time” Co-Creator Jim Hecht on His Love Letter to the Lakers
Jim Hecht‘s road to co-creating Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers began in 2014. Hecht was, by his own admission, at a low point, and he was looking for a project that really spoke to him. During his daily meditation, which he admitted with the qualifier “this sounds very LA,” he had a thought: “You gotta stop writing sh*t that you think other people would want to see and start writing the show that you would want to watch.”...
“The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey” DP Shawn Peters on Lensing Samuel L. Jackson’s Rare TV Performance
Based on Walter Mosley’s eponymous novel, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey portrays 91-year-old Ptolemy (Samuel L. Jackson), a lonely widower suffering from Alzheimer’s, as he undergoes a transformation thanks to Robyn (Dominique Fishback), the teenage daughter of a family member’s friend, and an experimental new drug, offered at a beyond questionable clinic.
Jackson, who rarely takes on television projects, is sublime as the limited series’ Papa Grey: by turns helpless, vulnerable, determined, and all-knowing. The Alzheimer’s drug proffered by the unsettling Dr...
New “Ms. Marvel” TV Spot Teases Marvel’s First Muslim Superhero
Marvel Studios’ youngest superhero is set to make her big debut. Ms. Marvel arrives on Disney+ in two short months and a new TV spot reveals a bit more about Iman Vellani’s teenage superhero Kamala Khan. What makes Ms. Marvel so exciting is that not only does it offer a totally different kind of Marvel series, but the first-ever Muslim superhero to lead a Marvel Studios show or film.
Kamala Khan is a Pakistani-American teenager living in Jersey City,...
“Obi-Wan Kenobi” Will Arrive in a Two-Episode Burst
We know that when Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres on Disney+ we’ll be getting a more powerful Darth Vader, new villains, and the long-awaited return of Ewan McGregor to the title role—and now we know we’ll be getting two episodes at once. Disney+ announced yesterday, with McGregor himself doing the explaining, that Obi-Wan Kenobi‘s release date has been moved back—don’t worry, it’s just two days—from May 25 to May 27. When it does arrive on Disney+, however,...
“The Wheel of Time” Cinematographer David Moxness on Lensing Amazon’s Lush Fantasy Epic
Amazon Prime’s sprawling sci-fi saga The Wheel of Time was one of the streamer’s big hits in 2021, and also one of its biggest swings. Adapted from Robert Jordan’s sweeping fantasy novels (14 in all), The Wheel of Time arrived on Prime and swiftly became the most-watched series premiere of 2021 and one of the top 5 series launches for Prime Video, ever. The interest stemmed from the love for Jordan’s source material, but it was maintained by the level of craft that went into nailing the adaptation...
Getting Intentional With Jeanne Mau, SVP of TV Programming Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at NBCUniversal
Jeanne Mau joined NBCUniversal only seven months ago, in a new position that was tailor-made for her skill set and experience. The former Senior Vice President of Global Inclusion at ViacomCBS is now NBCUniversal’s Senior Vice President of TV Programming Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Mau’s position has her overseeing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives across NBCU’s vast television and streaming brands. It’s a thrilling opportunity for someone who has been doing the work for 20-years.
“It’s a little like running a start-up,”...
“Game of Thrones” Prequel “House of the Dragon” Premiering in August
HBO has revealed that their long-awaited Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon arrives on Sunday, August 21, on HBO and HBO Max. Based on George R. R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood” series, House of the Dragon will explore the rise of House Targaryen, and is set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones. Along with the long-awaited reveal of the release date, HBO has revealed a bunch of new photos from the series...
New “House of the Dragon” Video Teases HBO Max’s “Game of Thrones” Prequel
A new short video revealed by HBO Max teases their hotly-anticipated Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon. “Gods, kings, fire, and blood” we hear over the images of some of the series’ key players, including Paddy Considine’s King Viserys Targaryen, Matt Smith’s Prince Daemon Targaryen, Olivia Cooke’s Alicent Hightower, and Rhys Ifans’ Otto Hightower. These are the same words we heard in the first teaser, which gave us a glimpse of the first Game of Thrones spinoff to make it through production...
An “It” Prequel Series May Haunt HBO Max
Pennywise the Clown may be coming into your living room. Variety has confirmed that an It prequel series is in the works at HBO Max, currently titled Welcome to Derry. The series will be set in the 1960s and lead up to the events in director Andy Muschietti’s 2017 film It: Part One, which itself was based on Stephen King’s sprawling, massively influential horror novel.
Welcome to Derry will be a Pennywise origin story,...
