Episode 3 of John Krasinski’s Some Good News Features Another Epic Cameo
John Krasinski and his talented family released the third episode of their now beloved YouTube series Some Good News yesterday, and, spoiler alert, it was just as charming as the previous two episodes. After managing to get the entire original cast of Hamilton together for episode two, Krasinski was back with a new episode that featured another look at the heroic healthcare professionals fighting the spread of COVID-19.
SNL Delivered Their First-Ever Remotely Produced Episode
Joining their late-night, weeknight comedy brothers and sisters in delivering episodes from home, Saturday Night Live filed their first remotely produced episode during the COVID-19 pandemic. Considering the large ensemble, highly complex sets, celebrity hosts and musical guests, SNL is a very hard show to pull off remotely. You can’t just whip up an instant classic digital short like Grouch via Zoom.
Run DP Melds Drama and Rom-Com Elements in HBO’s New Series
Merritt Wever won a comedy Emmy for Nurse Jackie, picked up a drama Emmy as the rifle-wrangling pioneer in Godless and last year wowed critics for her empathetic turn as a sex crimes detective in Unbelievable. Now she’s mixing it up in HBO’s black-humored thriller Run (it premiered this past Sunday night, April 12). Job one for cinematographer Matthew Clark: capture the chemistry between Wever’s bored housewife Ruby and Domhnall Gleeson,
Disney+ Reveals Maggie Simpson Short Film Playdate With Destiny Coming Tomorrow
Yes, your streaming options are bountiful, but there’s something special about finding out there’s a brand new animated short revolving around The Simpsons’ most reliably adorable character, Maggie. Disney+ has announced that Playdate With Destiny, a new animated short film starring the one and only Maggie, will be available for streaming starting tomorrow, Friday, April 10. Disney+ made the announcement via Twitter, with a note from The Simpsons creator Matt Groening.
Netflix Reveals First Images of Steve Carell’s Space Force + Release Date & Cast
When Netflix announced that it had tapped Steve Carell and The Office creator Greg Daniels to create a new show for the streaming giant, hopes were high that we’d get something as irresistibly funny (and perfectly cast) as their now legendary collaboration. We now have our first glimpse at their effort, Space Force, which stars Carell as four-star general and highly accomplished veteran pilot Mark R. Naird,
CBS Bringing Back Sunday Night Movies, Sony Pictures Reveals KIDS ZONE!
Studios all across the world are dealing with production shutdowns due to the spread of COVID-19. Now that we’re weeks into this unprecedented scenario, we’re starting to see how the folks who make our films and television shows are getting creative. Universal Pictures is already running first-run films in your home, with other studios following suit, including Warner Bros., Disney, and Lionsgate. HBO has made 500 hours worth of programming free for a limited time,
Good Deeds Give us Reason to Hope (And Applaud)
If you’re lucky enough to be able to social distance and healthy enough to “simply” worry and absorb a relentless amount of bad news, then you’re probably primed for a little bit of positivity. If you live in a city where there’s nightly applause for our heroic healthcare workers, you’ve gotten a taste of how good it feels to take a moment to marvel at the courage and compassion of people all around us. People we usually don’t think about that much about.
Little Fires Everywhere Cinematographer Jeffrey Waldron on Crafting Chaos Beneath the Surface
One of the many, many odd things about life mid-pandemic is how suddenly bizarre it is to watch shows and films that depict people touching, hugging, kissing, and gathering in large numbers. Even the folks who just filmed these series agree. There’s a kind of pre-coronavirus surreality to it, and if the show or movie doesn’t hold your attention, you can, at least for this viewer, find yourself more invested in how weird it is to see people cavalierly not keeping their distance than you are in the actual story.
John Krasinski & Emily Blunt Reunited the Hamilton Cast on Some Good News
The second episode of Some Good News, John Krasinski’s charming DIY series on YouTube, is epic. Not that the first glimpse of Krasinski’s surprise show, which is produced with help from his talented family, wasn’t sensational. The first episode included an interview between Krasinski and Steve Carell about their work on The Office, which was timed to the show’s 15th anniversary, some love for the heroes working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Never Have I Ever Director Kabir Akhtar on Filming Mindy Kaling’s New Netflix Series
When director Kabir Akhtar heard the news that producer/writer/star Mindy Kaling was, along with co-creator Lang Fisher, putting together a new series at Netflix that would focus on a first-generation Indian American teenage girl, he thought, I need to be a part of this.
“Just the idea that a show could be made about a first-generation South Asian American,” Akhtar says, a first-generation South Asian American himself, who grew up in suburban Philadelphia,
HBO Makes 500 Hours’ Worth of Programming Available for Free
There have been watch lists galore since millions of people started practicing social distancing, self-quarantining, and sheltering in place due to the spread of COVID-19. Rian Johnson and Edgar Wright shared their favorite 70s musicals and comedies, respectively, while James Gunn offered a top-10 list of films you probably haven’t seen but should. Our own Desson Thomson gave us a thorough compendium of shows and films we could be enjoying,
Late-Night TV Adapts to a Changed World
As the spread of COVID-19 stalled productions and delayed film premieres, you could make a case that the most visible manifestation of the global pandemic on the entertainment industry was the lack of late-night TV shows. Starting around mid-March, every single one of the late-night programs, from The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to Full Frontal With Samantha Bee to Conan, went dark. The folks that millions of Americans invite into their living rooms and bedrooms every night,
ESPN’s Michael Jordan Documentary The Last Dance Reveals 1st Trailer
There’s a certain beat that will instantly transport those of us who were avid sports fans in the 90s. The beat comes from a song (which I’d never known until this moment, after Googling it) by the British rock band The Alan Parsons Project. The song is called “Sirius.” This brief instrumental, under two minutes long, was adopted by the Chicago Bulls to introduce their starting lineup during their epic run of six NBA championships between 1991 and 1998.
Rick and Morty’s Season 4 Trailer is as Bonkers as You’d Hope
Need a laugh? Yeah, us too. We all do about now, and there are few more reliable places to get a bunch of them then Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon’s Rick and Morty. Season four continues on May 3, which, yes, feels like a very long time from now. The Emmy Award-winning animated comedy aired five episodes of season four at the end of last year (December 15 to be exact),
John Krasinski Creates Some Good News & Interviews Steve Carell
If you’re looking for something funny and heartwarming (and frankly, who isn’t right now?), John Krasinski has got you covered. The writer/director of A Quiet Place (parts I and II) and, of course, a former member of The Office‘s phenomenal ensemble cast, has a new YouTube series called Some Good News, which delivers exactly what its title promises. The first episode, now streaming,
Post-Production Crews Pivot To Homework To Keep The Lights On
Anybody walking down West 45th Street in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood on a recent Tuesday might not have noticed them. In the narrow parking lot of the eight-story building marked 432, men loaded equipment cases into waiting vehicles. Two of those enclosures contained Sony BVM-X300s, top-of-the-line professional monitors that colorists use to finish tv shows and films for broadcast. Each can easily cost $30,000.
This wasn’t the scene of a brazen heist in broad daylight;
Go Inside Warworld, Westworld’s New WWII-Themed Park
It feels like several years ago when we interviewed Westworld cinematographer and director Paul Cameron about the series’ ambitious third season (it was actually only 11 days ago). Since then, the world has gotten significantly scarier thanks to the spread of COVID-19, which makes Westworld‘s third season, fully wrapped long before the pandemic hit, extra comforting right now. That is, as comforting as HBO’s wildly ambitious,
Star Trek: Picard Director Hanelle Culpepper Makes History (And a Home in Space)
With news of rising numbers of COVID-19 infections and the economic fallout the disease destined to come with it, everyone is looking for watch lists for some quality home entertainment. Highly recommended by critics and viewers alike is CBS All Access’s Star Trek: Picard, which has been the most-watched original series to date for the streaming service. The first three episodes of the series were helmed by director Hanelle Culpepper,
Watch the Trailer for Solar Opposites From Rick and Morty Co-Creator
We could all use a laugh in these dire times, and there have been few shows on TV that so reliably elicit actual LOLs than Rick and Morty. So, the news that Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland and writer Mike McMahan have a new animated series coming to Hulu is manna from outer space. Behold the first teaser for Solar Opposites, Roiland and McMahan’s alien comedy.
The Walking Dead & Better Call Saul Director Bronwen Hughes Talks Drama, Real & Imagined
“For the two months leading up to this moment, I was writing. I was already leading an isolation style life,” says writer/director Bronwen Hughes. Her usually intense TV directing schedule had this lull so she could complete a screenplay for a feature (a spy thriller she’s sending off to a major studio, she’d say no more), and then the world changed.
“Well, every physical shoot I’ve had or have, booked or about to book,
