HBO Renews Westworld for Season 4

However this wacky, gorgeously shot third season of Westworld concludes, we now know that the story will continue. HBO has officially confirmed that the sentient hosts and morally vacuous humans they alternately fight and befriend will be back for a fourth season. The news came via Tweet and press release—rejoice, Westworld fans!

This is now.#Westworld has been renewed for Season 4. pic.twitter.com/GTnF4YVB6e

— Westworld (@WestworldHBO) April 22,...

The Last Dance Soars as ESPN’s Most Watched Documentary Ever

Have you been watching ESPN’s The Last Dance? If so, you’re one of the millions of people who have devoured the first two episodes of their new documentary, which focuses on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls and their run for a sixth championship in the 1997/98 season. ESPN has revealed that the first two episodes of the 10-part series averaged 6.1 million viewers. The premiere episodes “rank as the two most-viewed original content broadcasts on ESPN Networks since 2004,...

HBO Max Reveals Release Date & New Trailers

It’s official—HBO Max will begin streaming on May 27, 2020. The new platform from Warner Media has revealed its release date and a slew of its upcoming Max Originals, which will all be available on the very first day. These new titles include the intriguing unground ballroom dance competition series Legendary, which includes celebrity judges like Megan Thee Stallion (and looks absolutely terrific.) There’s scripted comedy on the docket in the form of Love Life, ...

VFX Producer Andrea Knoll on Creating the Futuristic Yet Natural World in Tales from the Loop

Tales from the Loop, Amazon’s latest sci-fi offering which stars Rebecca Hall and Jonathan Pryce, resists easy definition. Set in Ohio but based on paintings of Sweden, the residents of the small town at the center of the series are all loosely bound by a machine known as the Loop, a technology intended to unlock the universe’s mysteries and the town’s main employer. Thanks to decades in business and the abandonment of various detritus—robots and body-switching contraptions left in the woods,...

Here’s the Trailer For Ryan Murphy’s Ambitious New Netflix Series Hollywood

Ryan Murphy taking on Hollywood in the glamorous (and often odious) period after World War II? Yeah, that sounds like a series we could get into. Netflix has revealed the first trailer for Murphy’s glam, grand, intriguing new series, which takes on Hollywood’s Golden Age by following a slew of up-and-coming actors and filmmakers as they attempt to succeed in a town that crushes dreams as quickly as it makes them.

What makes Murphy’s Hollywood fascinating is that it’s not just a glitzy look at what Hollywood was like when the dinosaurs of the industry were in total,...

Unorthodox Director Maria Schrader on Creating Netflix’s Surprising Hit Series

Maria Schrader is best known for her award-winning acting roles — she starred in the acclaimed wartime romance Aimee and Jaguar (1999) and plays Stasi agent Lenora Rauch in the spy thriller Deutschland 83 and Deutschland 86 now on Hulu — but she’s also an esteemed director. In both her exquisite biopic about the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe (2016) and, now, as director of all four episodes of the hit Netflix series Unorthodox,...

Under Lockdown, Tech & Film Meet in New Ways to Un-Stall an Industry on Hold

The first feature film made entirely over Zoom may still be a blessed long way off, but in accordance with COVID-19 social distancing procedures, formerly eschewed technologies are finding a current warm welcome among the film and television industry. Whether it’s a newfound acceptance of older, familiar names like Skype, or industry-specific digital tools being put to creative off-label uses, it’s thanks to technology that film crews can, in any capacity, make the show go on...

The Mandalorian Gets a Documentary Series on Disney+

For all you Star Wars fans out there mourning the end of the Skywalker Saga and the gaping, galactic hole between now and any fresh films or TV series, Disney+ has some good news for you. You will now be getting an eight-episode docuseries that will reveal how their first-ever live-action Star Wars series, The Mandalorian, was made.

Assuming you’ve already watched The Mandalorian (and The Clone Wars),...

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. Krasinski and his nimble production team (which includes his super-talented wife,...

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. And while the wildly talented cast can elicit laughs from just about anywhere,...

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.

Straight from the source...

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, whose dreams of running the Air Force are dashed when he’s instead tapped to lead the titular (and brand new) sixth branch of the US Armed Forces...

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, “I was sitting at home,...

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, too. AFI announced a brand new movie club,...

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,...