HBO Max and WarnerMedia released details on the upcoming subscription service which is set to launch in May 2020. HBO Max will offer over 10,000 hours of “curated premium content” that will include all of HBO’s original content plus content from Warner Bros., New Line, DC, CNN, TNT, TBS, truTV, Turner Classic Movies, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Crunchyroll, Rooster Teeth, Looney Tunes, and more.
“With this entire company coming together, we will have one of the most robust collections of premium streaming content that will appeal to all demographics in the household, and be able to achieve incredible scale and reach right out of the gate,” stated Robert Greenblatt, chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment and Direct-to-Consumer. “We couldn’t achieve this without AT&T’s unprecedented and enthusiastic support. When you live in a world with ‘dragons’ — it feels very good to have one of your own in the game!”
HBO Max will be available for $14.99 per month. According to the press release, “at launch, AT&T will immediately offer HBO Max to the roughly 10 million HBO subscribers on AT&T distribution platforms, at no additional charge. HBO Now direct-billed users who subscribe directly through HBONow.com will also have access to WarnerMedia’s HBO Max product.”
HBO Max Originals will include:
The Fungies!, from Stephen Neary and Cartoon Network Studios, is a prehistoric comedy that explores Fungietown through the whimsical quests of Seth, a young student at Fungietown Elementary.
Tig N’ Seek from Myke Chilian and Cartoon Network Studios is about 8-year-old Tiggy and his gadget-building cat, Gweeseek, as they search for the lost items of Wee Gee City. With Tiggy’s cheerful attitude and Gweeseek’s exceptional inventing capabilities, the duo humorously navigate day-to-day dilemmas at the Department of Lost and Found.
Tooned Out, executive produced by Robert Zemeckis, is a half-hour, hybrid live-action and animated comedy. Things get a little cartoony for Mac when he starts seeing iconic cartoon characters in his life, but they’re not just there for laughs, they’re helping him get through a very rough patch in his life.
Looney Tunes Cartoons, an all-new series of 80 eleven-minute episodes and holiday-themed specials from Warner Bros. Animation starring the cherished classic Looney Tunes characters for today’s kids. Iconic characters will include Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Tweety, Sylvester, Granny, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Marvin the Martian, Tasmanian Devil, Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote and many more.
Jellystone, a new animated children’s comedy series from Warner Bros. Animation that will welcome viewers to the town of Jellystone, where their favorite Hanna-Barbera characters live, work, play, and stir up trouble together.
DC Super Hero High is a half-hour comedy series executive produced by Elizabeth Banks, which follows a group of students experiencing the fun and drama of adolescence at a boarding school for gifted kids. These teens are just trying to navigate the pressures of high school, but none of them realize that someday they will become legendary DC Super Heroes.
Rap Sh*t (working title) from Issa Rae is a half-hour comedy series that follows a female rap group from outside of Miami trying to make it in the music industry.
College Girls (working title), the latest series from Mindy Kaling, is a 13-episode half-hour, single-camera comedy following three 18-year-old freshman roommates at Evermore College in Vermont who are equal parts lovable and infuriating.
Strange Adventures, a DC Super Hero anthology series executive produced by Greg Berlanti, will feature characters from across the DC canon. This one-hour drama series will explore close-ended morality tales about the intersecting lives of mortals and superhumans.
A Green Lantern inspired series from Berlanti Productions that will finally introduce characters from this iconic comic in Berlanti’s biggest series yet.
A Series of Stand Up Specials presented by Conan O’Brien will feature five new comedy specials. O’Brien will host two specials, featuring short sets from multiple up-and-coming comics while also curating one-hour sets from three comedians. In addition HBO Max has purchased the rights to a one-hour special from comedian James Veitch.
Raised by Wolves, an epic serialized sci-fi series executive produced and directed by Ridley Scott centering on two androids tasked with raising human children on a mysterious virgin planet.
Bobbie Sue is a feature-length film starring Golden Globe® winner Gina Rodriquez following the story of a headstrong young lawyer who lands a career-making case with an upper crust law firm, only to realize she’s been hired for optics and not her expertise.
On the same day news broke HBO is passing on the Game of Thrones prequel starring Naomi Watts, the network confirmed the other GoT previously announced prequel is moving forward. House of the Dragon, which obviously explores House Targaryen, has received a straight-to-series order from HBO.
House of the Dragon was co-created by George R.R. Martin and Ryan Condal (Colony) and is based on Martin’s Fire & Blood. Condal and Miguel Sapochnik will share showrunner duties on the first season, which Condal will write.
Sapochnik is set to direct at least the pilot episode and will executive produce with Martin, Condal, and Vince Gerardis. Sapochinik won an Emmy in the Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series category for directing the “Battle of the Bastards” episode of Game of Thrones. All told, Sapochinik directed six episodes of GoT including “The Long Night,” “Winds of Winter,” and “Hardhome.”
HBO confirmed season one will consist of 10 episodes. The network’s announcement didn’t include a targeted premiere date or any casting information.
“The Game of Thrones universe is so rich with stories,” stated Casey Bloys, president, HBO programming. “We look forward to exploring the origins of House Targaryen and the earlier days of Westeros along with Miguel, Ryan and George.”
House of the Dragon takes place 300 years before Game of Thrones. The Naomi Watts-led prequel that’s not moving forward was set thousands of years prior to GoT. A pilot episode was already shot for the series which would have told the story of Westeros’ Age of Heroes prior to The Long Night war against the White Walkers.
HBO previously offered this description of the just-canceled prequel: “The series chronicles the world’s descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour. And only one thing is for sure: from the horrifying secrets of Westeros’ history to the true origin of the White Walkers, the mysteries of the East to the Starks of legend…it’s not the story we think we know.”
JD Pardo as EZ Reyes and Clayton Cardenas as Angel Reyes in ‘Mayans M.C.’ season 2 episode 9 (Photo by Prashant Gupta/FX)
Season two episode eight left the fates of Coco and Riz in the air after the attack on the Mayans by the Vatos Malditos. FX’s Mayans M.C. season two episode nine opens in the hospital with Coco (Richard Cabral) already being discharged from the hospital. He’s sporting an eye patch and in a rotten mood, but otherwise alive and well.
Coco explains the doctor believes he’ll eventually get his vision back, but for now he’s out of the sharpshooting business. He wants every member of the VM dead.
Elsewhere in the hospital, the club stands vigil at Riz’s bedside. Riz (Antonio Jaramillo) is out of surgery and still asleep, but he’s expected to pull through. Bishop (Michael Irby) jokes about Riz’s hair still being in place after the shooting, but Taza’s serious when he calls his friend a warrior. (You’ll remember Riz threw himself in front of Taza during the VM ambush.)
Bishop’s told the “kings” of the Mayans will be gathering in Santo Padre the next day. (Marcus Alvarez originally set up the Mayans to be ruled by three “kings,” with Bishop now in the lead chair.)
Over at the Galindo place, Emily (Sarah Bolger) is having a difficult time sleeping. Miguel (Danny Pino) wakes to find he’s alone in bed and Nestor informs him Emily’s been outside by herself for “about a half a bottle of Merlot.”
Miguel admits to Nestor he’s lost sight of what’s truly important by playing a shadow game with Potter. It’s ripping his marriage apart.
Bishop meets with the guys at the hospital, telling his club he’s sitting down with the kings in the morning. Although the Santo Padre charter was attacked, because of the deal with SAMCRO Bishop needs to work things out with all of the Mayans charters. His men aren’t happy about this because they were attacked after a sit-down on tribal land, and Tranq (Frankie Loyal) suggests they figure it out once they’re back home.
The kings meet and it’s made known that Chibs and Sons of Anarchy are pissed about what went down after they left. The Mayans’ leaders understand how upset Bishop is but warn him he needs to look at the big picture. The gun transfers won’t work without the VM, and they need that deal to continue to help out Mayans charters that are struggling financially.
Bishop’s enraged when he’s reminded that if Riz pulls through, then none of his guys died and the score is settled. Yuma’s president says to Bishop, “Your charter makes the call. They decide on retaliation. But if there is, it becomes a club-wide problem. You need to make that clear at your table, as their president and as a Mayans shot-caller.”
The kings leave the clubhouse, but they’ll be hanging around town until everything’s sorted out. Coco wonders what needs to be sorted since if he loses his eyesight, he might not be able to ride a motorcycle again.
Bishop explains there are millions of dollars at stake for the Mayans, but Coco’s having none of it. Angry, he accuses Bishop of treating the club like a corporation with a CEO making all the decisions for its employees. “I hope that involves a f**king health plan because I’m going to need it,” says Coco before leaving the table and getting a hug from his daughter.
All the guys pretty much agree this whole situation is screwed up.
And in the midst of all this, Felipe (Edward James Olmos) shows up to meet with his sons. Felipe talks about his childhood and how he grew up in a dirt-poor town with the Galindos. His grandmother took in a bastard son of the family, a favor Jose Galindo never forgot.
Fast-forward 20 years and as a Federales on an undercover sting, two innocent people were killed. That should have been the end of his career. It wasn’t…thanks to Jose Galindo making it go away. But that put Felipe in Jose’s debt.
Felipe reveals he knows his sons have been investigating their mother’s murder. EZ realizes the only way he would know that is through Emily, and Felipe confirms she talked to him about what she’d found. Felipe adds that what she dug up has left her terrified.
EZ confesses to his pop they know who pulled the trigger and that the murderer is a member of SAMCRO. Angel (Clayton Cardenas) has remained silent throughout this conversation, letting EZ take the lead but he finally speaks up. He asks Felipe what exactly Emily found.
Felipe doesn’t answer and instead tells his boys to bring everything they’ve dug up to his house that night. When Angel asks why he can’t just answer, Felipe replies, “I made a promise that all parties would be there. We all have a different piece of the puzzle.”
EZ’s concerned for Emily, and Felipe assures him he’ll get her to the house without Miguel knowing what’s going on.
Miguel, with encouragement from Nestor and Marcus, has decided to attempt reconnecting with Emily. When she interrupts a meeting he’s having with Marcus, Miguel opens up about what he’s working on. He lets her in on the fact he’s located a woman who has a young son by Potter. Potter apparently fell in love with her and it turns out she was a key witness in a murder case that was “one of Potter’s first big wins when working with the Mexican government.”
Emily’s stunned Potter slept with a witness and wonders if this information leaking would get the case overturned. Miguel’s sure that’s why Potter’s kept this relationship – and his son – a secret. Emily and Miguel believe the release of this information would put an end to Potter’s involvement in anything to do with Mexico.
Miguel admits he wants to use this info to help Adelita, claiming he doesn’t want any more secrets. He tells Emily she’s what’s important – as is his son and his life in America – and he doesn’t want any more lies between them. He promises to tell her whatever she wants to know and requests the same from her.
Miguel asks Emily what’s actually going on with Felipe and EZ, reminding her it also seems to involve his mother. She tries to lie again, saying she only visited Felipe to pick up steaks. Miguel knows that’s not the truth, but changes the subject to ask what really happened to the county clerk who killed himself.
Emily acts indignant, swearing that was a suicide. Miguel continues to dig in and Emily calls him on it. “You don’t trust me? Fine. Put a f**king tracker on my ankle,” she spits out as she leaves his office.
After she’s gone, Miguel instructs Marcus to dig into the Reyes family.
Speaking of the Reyes’, EZ and Angel accompanied Coco and his daughter to lunch. Why? Because EZ wants to see Gabriella who’s working at the restaurant. It turns out she’s not actually working in a restaurant; she’s working in her uncle’s food truck. Either way, she’s as happy to see EZ as he is to see her.
They make small talk about her family and then EZ finally gets around to sort of asking her out. She cuts him a break when he can’t actually manage to ask for a date and says she’ll go out with him.
Dita opens up to Emily, confirming she wanted to die in the fire because she no longer felt as though she had a purpose in life. She also confesses she feels partially responsible for the divide between Emily and Miguel. She warns her daughter-in-law marriages can’t take that much distance and survive.
Their chat’s interrupted by a phone call from Felipe. He asks Dita for a big favor.
Frankie Loyal and Michael Irby in ‘Mayans M.C.’ season 2 episode 9 (Photo by Prashant Gupta/FX)
Bishop meets with Marcus to fill him in on what went down. Bishop’s talked to Chibs and Chibs understands it’s Bishop’s call. But if he moves on the VM, the Irish will take their deal elsewhere. Bishop’s stuck between a rock and a hard place, and the club’s pretty much split. Coco wants revenge, but others are willing to look at the big picture.
It all comes down to Bishop. Marcus reminds him the Mayans are bigger and more profitable than ever before and asks Bishop if he’s up to the challenge. Bishop is.
After his meeting with Bishop, Marcus pulls EZ (who’s just arrived back from his lunch) aside. He grills him about what’s going on with Emily, Felipe, the dead clerk, and Dita. EZ claims innocence, although he acknowledges he’s known Emily for a long time.
Marcus continues to probe for answers and gets EZ to admit he’d help out Emily any time she asks. EZ says he cares about Emily, but he refuses to say if Emily asked him for help on the agri-park project. EZ thinks any information Marcus wants on that needs to come directly from Emily.
Marcus issues a warning, telling EZ he likes him but he better not be lying.
Bishop gathers Tranq, Coco, Angel, and Gilly (Vincent Vargas) around the table. He begins by reminding his men he’d take a bullet for any of them, but also admits Santo Padre is now the center of the Mayans empire. “Every charter will look to us for direction. We set the tone,” Bishop explains to the men, three of whom are on the side of hitting back at the VM.
He asks them to vote with their heads, not their hearts since so much is at stake. Gilly and Angel remain firm in seeking vengeance. Tranq is on the side of allowing business to move forward without vengeance. Coco doesn’t hesitate and also asks for vengeance.
“If Riz had died or Coco what happened to you was permanent, I would not hesitate to strike back,” says Bishop. He asks them to look again at the bigger picture for the entire MC and says he believes they shouldn’t retaliate. He also confirms Taza and Creeper have voted not to hit back. Riz is unable to vote, but even if he did it would be Bishop’s vote that broke the tie.
Coco wants to know who the Mayans are now. How will Bishop be able to sit at the same table with the VM and just act like this never happened? He’ll only be doing so because of money. Coco is enraged by the decision and yells at Bishop that he’s wrong as are those who voted against vengeance.
Coco leaves the table and Angel’s about to follow when Bishop calls him back. Bishop doesn’t believe Coco can hear anything right now and Angel comments, “No offense, Bish, he really can’t see anything either. We’re not living with the fear of that shit like he is.”
Back at the Galindo place, Dita announces she’s made a day spa appointment for them. Emily tries to get out of it, saying she doesn’t have time but Dita won’t take no for an answer. Dita also wants them to have dinner with Miguel afterward at a restaurant just down the street from the spa. Emily gives in and Nestor confirms he’ll tell Miguel their plans.
Creeper’s still by Riz’s bed when Taza delivers the news the vote came down on the side of no retaliation. Creeper believes Coco and Riz are going to hate them for that decision.
EZ’s at his dad’s place when Angel arrives with news of the vote. EZ thinks it’s probably the right decision. He then fills Angel in on his talk with Marcus about Miguel and Emily. He’s aware Marcus didn’t believe him when he tried to play dumb.
They were supposed to be meeting with Felipe at 7pm, but he’s nowhere to be seen.
Nestor and the driver deliver Emily and Dita to the day spa. Dita walks Emily through it and out the back, handing her off to Felipe who’s waiting in his truck. She reminds Emily she has an hour and a half before she’s due back.
Felipe apologizes for the subterfuge but didn’t have any other way to get her free to talk.
They return to Felipe’s place while over at the Galindo estate, Marcus informs Miguel he didn’t get anything specific from EZ. Marcus wonders if Miguel’s sure they had something to do with the clerk’s death, which leads Miguel to question if Marcus has conflicts because it involves the club.
Emily lays out what she discovered in the ledger along with the copies of the checks. Emily thinks the checks, signed by Dita, were used by Jose to avoid DOJ scrutiny. Felipe’s silent until EZ asks why Jose would want him dead.
Felipe confesses he had an affair with Dita after she lost her son. He was her protection and her confidante, but he let it happen even though he knew it was wrong. He ended it and then met their mother, but Dita couldn’t let it go.
Felipe didn’t trust Dita to not tell Jose and that’s why he left for America and why they changed their names to Felipe and Marisol. It took 20 years, but Jose finally discovered Felipe’s whereabouts 10 years ago when Miguel moved to the area.
Emily’s convinced Miguel’s innocent in all this. EZ and Angel are not. Angel thinks Jose told his son everything when Miguel stepped up and took over the cartel. There’s no other explanation for the timing.
Emily demands to know what happens next, but no one answers her.
EZ drives her back and there’s very little talk as they head to the spa. Emily knows he’s been chasing this revenge for a decade but doesn’t want Miguel hurt. EZ confesses he doesn’t know what he’s going to do but that she should do whatever it is she needs to do.
As they’re driving, EZ receives another text from Potter. Because Emily knows about his connection to Potter, EZ tells her the truth that Potter wants to deport his dad if they don’t do what he asks.
They arrive at the spa and Emily has come up with an idea. She’ll help him with Felipe if he promises to leave Miguel alone. She’ll give him info on Potter he can use to get Potter to back off. She warns EZ that Miguel’s ready to use this same info on Potter to help Adelita, so he has to decide soon if he’ll back off on seeking revenge against Miguel.
Meanwhile, over at the hospital Creeper’s stepped out and left Taza to watch over Riz. Taza is wracked with emotion as he bends over and gives Riz a kiss on the forehead. He asks for forgiveness and then cuts off Riz’s air supply. Riz’s body reacts by jerking around in his sleep.
The monitors plummet to zeroes as the doctors rush in to try and save Riz’s life.
A short while later, the guys are drinking at the clubhouse when Bishop delivers the news that Riz has died. Bishop then tells Tranq to call the kings and inform them the vote is null and void. “We’re going to war,” says Bishop.
Miguel joins Emily and Dita at the restaurant following their “spa” outing. (The steak knives would have a rough time cutting through the tension at the table.)
At the same time, EZ’s rushing into his dad’s place. He immediately begins rifling through the locked box. Angel and Felipe ask what he’s doing, and EZ explains he’s looking for a photo of Miguel’s mom. EZ has pieced together a memory he has of them at an amusement park and of seeing his dad kiss his mom. Felipe tells him where to find an old photo of Dita, and the photo matches EZ’s recollection of that night when he and Angel were teenagers. He remembers watching his parents kiss and seeing a woman lurking in the background watching Felipe and Marisol.
EZ realizes it wasn’t Miguel who knew Felipe and Marisol’s whereabouts…it was Dita. Angel’s confused as to why Dita would have told Jose about the affair, and EZ understands she didn’t.
Dita ordered the hit because she could never let go of Felipe. Felipe breaks down in tears, apologizing to his sons. He and EZ hug as the gravity of the situation sinks in.
Season three episode seven of Fox’s 9-1-1 explores a little more of Athena Grant’s backstory. Episode seven titled “Athena Begins” will air on Monday, November 4, 2019 at 8pm ET/PT.
The cast of season three includes Angela Bassett as Athena Grant, Peter Krause as Bobby Nash, Jennifer Love Hewitt as Maddie Kendall, and Oliver Stark as Evan “Buck” Buckley. Aisha Hinds plays Henrietta “Hen” Wilson, Kenneth Choi is Howie “Chimney” Han, Rockmond Dunbar is Michael Grant, and Ryan Guzman is Eddie Diaz.
“Athena Begins” Plot – When a murder weapon from a case close to Athena in the early ‘90s resurfaces, flashbacks to 1989 show how Athena joined the LAPD and became the police officer she is today.
9-1-1 Series Description, Courtesy of Fox:
Creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Tim Minear reimagine the procedural drama with 9-1-1, exploring the high-pressure experiences of police officers, firefighters and dispatchers who are thrust into the most frightening, shocking and heart-stopping situations. These emergency responders must try to balance saving those who are at their most vulnerable with solving the problems in their own lives.
Among the new shows set to launch with Apple TV+’s debut is For All Mankind, a drama about the space race but with a twist. Instead of America claiming the honor of landing the first man on the Moon, in For All Mankind it’s a Russian cosmonaut who’s first to leave his footprints on another planet.
Series creator/writer/executive producer Ronald D. Moore (Outlander, Battlestar Galactica) and executive producer Maril Davis (Electric Dreams, Helix) joined the For All Mankind‘s cast at the 2019 New York Comic-Con to discuss the intriguing new series. In addition to participating in a packed panel with NYCC attendees, Moore and Davis sat down for a roundtable interview to further delve into the origin of the series and what viewers can look forward to when For All Mankind premieres on November 1, 2019.
What was the genesis of the series and how much of the story focuses on the space travel aspect of the premise?
Ronald D. Moore: “Overall the show is kind of a split focus. It’s definitely about the people on the ground and the people in space. Some of the characters work at NASA at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and it’s about them and their family. And then there’s also astronauts and their families. So, it’s kind of like it’s trying to paint a portrait of NASA as a whole.
The genesis of it is a couple of years ago I got a call from Zack Van Amburg who’s one of the executives who runs Apple TV+ and he had been at Sony for a very long time where Maril and I had been working for a long time, so we knew each other. He invited me over to have a chat after he first started working at Apple and said there was this idea that we kicked around a few years ago about doing a show about NASA in the ‘70s. ‘What do you think about that? I still think about that idea,’ he said.
And I went, ‘That would be cool. We could revisit that, do sort of a Mad Men at NASA kind of a show. I went home and thought about it and the more I thought about it, I realized you could do that show – you could do the Mad Men at NASA but the story of NASA in the ‘70s, in my opinion, is kind of a sad one where the budgets keep getting cut back and the program keeps smaller. We’re not going to go to Mars. You know, things keep on happening. And when I was growing up I was excited about what the program was supposed to be, all the amazing things that were going to happen in space that didn’t come to pass. So, I went back to Zack and said, ‘What if we did the alternate version? What if we did the version of the space program that I thought we were going to get but we didn’t?’
He got excited about that. And then I was talking separately with Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi as a team of writers looking for some project to develop with them. I mentioned it to them, they all got very excited about it, and then we all just kind of said, ‘Let’s collaborate on this and we’ll create the show together.’”
There seems to be a new wave of projects that examine the space race. Why do you think it’s become so relevant now and has the billionaire space race influenced the renewed interest at all?
Ronald D. Moore: “My personal opinion, I think, is the billionaire space race has had a lot to do with it. People have gotten excited about the possibilities of going to space, and I think those different projects – like SpaceX – have sort of captured the public’s fascination. Kind of, ‘Oh, yeah, we used to do these really cool things. Let’s do more of them.’
And NASA’s kind of been stuck in a bureaucratic morass. Different presidents come in with different priorities and the program has never quite gotten back on its feet. And then you’ve got these other people that are actively doing things in space. The videos of them look cool, like when SpaceX took the rocket off and landed back down like that and then did two of them at once. It’s sexy and it’s fun. I think it captures the public’s imagination about space travel. That combined with the 50th anniversary – it’s all back in the zeitgeist.”
Joel Kinnaman in Apple TV+’s ‘For All Mankind.’
When envisioning an alternate history, did you consult with historians?
Ronald D. Moore: “I did. It started with a base of knowledge. I was always a fan of the space program and read a lot of books. I just was always interested in it. But then, yes, we consulted with a lot of outside people.
Garrett Reisman is one of our technical consultants who is a former astronaut at NASA. We also have Mike and Denise Okuda who come from Star Trek but who had also worked with NASA in various capacities. Then beyond that, all the different departments on the show had their own technical consultants and researchers. We had a full-time historical researcher in the writers room. There was a commitment to really getting as much authenticity in the show as possible.”
Are you addressing any big themes in this first season?
Maril Davis: “I think there’s so many themes. We talk about the idea of what it means to go beyond where you are. Relationships between the husband and wife and what happens when the woman all of a sudden goes out in the workplace as well, and what that means to a relationship. Obviously, optimism. We always talk about by losing the race to the Moon we ultimately will win. That’s a theme that we look at this first season and then hopefully beyond.”
Ronald D. Moore: “It’s an aspirational show. It’s a very optimistic show. It’s really about here’s the path that could have been that we can still do. It’s really sort of saying this was an amazing time that we could have gone this way. We could have expanded the footprint in space. We could have committed a lot of resources to something positive and uplifting to people in the United States and around the world. And by implication, you’re saying we still can. That’s the general big theme of the series.”
How did it feel going back into space? You’ve all been there a lot and you’ve been away for a little bit.
strong>Ronald D. Moore: (Laughing) “It’s fun to be in space, especially since I don’t have to be in the rigs and get on the wires to do it. But, it’s fun. There’s nothing quite like going on a sound stage and getting into a spacecraft. It’s a childhood fantasy where you can just put yourself there.
We had a Moon base on season one and it was completely contained. So, when you walk in – and there was actually a backing out the window that looked like the Moon – you were there. You were like on the Moon. It was really kind of special and cool and really fun. It was just as cool as being on the Battlestar Galactica or the Starship Enterprise at times. You could just imagine that you were really in space, which was really fun.”
Maril Davis: “Also I think…certainly Battlestar Galactica was obviously fictional…I think certainly for someone like Ron who loves space and also loves history, it’s a perfect blend of the two. Also, I know Ron talks about his memories of where he was when they landed on the Moon in ’69. I think that must be fun for you to kind of revisit that.”
Ronald D. Moore: “It is.”
Do you see any comparisons in terms of enthusiasm between 1969 and what’s happening now?
Ronald D. Moore: “A little bit. There’s just something about the effort to leave the planet that excites people. It’s sort of built into our DNA. For literally thousands of years we’ve looked up in the sky at the stars and the Moon and thought about what it would be to go there. And then when we see men and women actually doing it, everybody kind of leans forward because it’s such a compelling leap of the imagination. Something you can see with your eyes literally every day, every night, that you can’t touch, and then someone is going to actually do it. It’s just like a thrilling kind of moment.
I think it thrilled people in ’69 and it thrills people today.”
The series features a plotline about the first woman on the Moon. How did you decide to go in that direction?
Ronald D. Moore: “Once we said let’s make an alternate history, you’re going to pivot. Things are going to change. Russia is going to beat us to the Moon. What are the things that would cascade out of that? One of those became, what would be the cultural changes out of that as well. We came up with a story about how American women would get into the program and to the Moon, much earlier than they did historically which had a lot to do with the Soviets.
People forget the Soviets put the first woman into space a good 20 years before the Americans did, which is insane. So, when we were going and retooling history we said, ‘Let’s pivot on that. Let’s change a lot of things.’
Political things change. The course of nations change. Cultural things are going to change. So, it’s really an interesting, fun exercise to see all the things that could change from just turning one thing around.”
The newly expanded first season of The CW’s Batwoman continues with episode five, “Mine Is a Long and a Sad Tale.” Directed by Carl Seaton from a script by Jerry Shandy and Ebony Gilbert, episode five is set to air on November 3, 2019.
New episodes of Batwoman debut on Sundays at 8pm ET/PT.
Ruby Rose leads the cast as Kate Kane/Batwoman. The season one cast also includes Dougray Scott as Jacob Kane, Meagan Tandy as Sophie Moore, Elizabeth Anweis as Catherine Hamilton-Kane, and Rachel Skarsten as Alice. Camrus Johnson is Luke Fox and Nicole Kang plays Mary.
“Mine Is a Long And a Sad Tale” Plot – BECOMING ALICE – Alice (Skarsten) takes Kate (Rose) down the sad, winding road of her life in the days after the accident as Jacob (Dougray Scott) and Sophie (Tandy) attempt to track them. Mary (Kang) has an argument with Catherine (Elizabeth Anweis) which sends her looking for Kate at Wayne Tower, but instead she becomes unwelcome company for Luke (Johnson.)
The Season 1 Plot, Courtesy of The CW:
Kate Kane (Rose) never planned to be Gotham’s new vigilante. Three years after Batman mysteriously disappeared, Gotham is a city in despair. Without the Caped Crusader, the Gotham City Police Department was overrun and outgunned by criminal gangs. Enter Jacob Kane (Scott) and his military-grade Crows Private Security, which now protects the city with omnipresent firepower and militia.
Years before, Jacob’s first wife and daughter were killed in the crossfire of Gotham crime. He sent his only surviving daughter, Kate Kane, away from Gotham for her safety. After a dishonorable discharge from military school and years of brutal survival training, Kate returns home when the Alice in Wonderland gang targets her father and his security firm, by kidnapping his best Crow officer Sophie Moore (Tandy). Although remarried to wealthy socialite Catherine Hamilton-Kane (Anweis), who bankrolls the Crows, Jacob is still struggling with the family he lost, while keeping Kate –– the daughter he still has –– at a distance. But Kate is a woman who’s done asking for permission. In order to help her family and her city, she’ll have to become the one thing her father loathes –– a dark knight vigilante.
With the help of her compassionate stepsister, Mary (Kang), and the crafty Luke Fox (Johnson), the son of Wayne Enterprises’ tech guru Lucius Fox, Kate Kane continues the legacy of her missing cousin, Bruce Wayne, as Batwoman. Still holding a flame for her ex-girlfriend, Sophie, Kate uses everything in her power to combat the dark machinations of the psychotic Alice (Skarsten), who’s always somewhere slipping between sane and insane. Armed with a passion for social justice and a flair for speaking her mind, Kate soars through the shadowed streets of Gotham as Batwoman. But don’t call her a hero yet. In a city desperate for a savior, she must first overcome her own demons before embracing the call to be Gotham’s symbol of hope.
Los Angeles is on the verge of being attacked in ABC’s The Rookie season two episode six, “Fallout.” Directed by Bill Johnson from a script by Robert Bella, episode six will air on November 3, 2019 at 10pm ET/PT.
Episode six guest stars include Shawn Ashmore as Wesley Evers, Sarah Shahi as Jessica Russo, Jasmine Mathews as Rachel Hall, Matthew Glave as Oscar Hutchinson, Jon Snow (not that Jon Snow!) as Deputy Finn Nickerson, Enver Gjokaj as Donovan, Carsyn Rose as Lila and Crystal Coney as Lisa.
Nathan Fillion leads the cast as John Nolan. Alyssa Diaz is Angela Lopez, Richard T. Jones is Sergeant Wade Grey, Mekia Cox as Nyla Harper, Titus Makin is Jackson West, Melissa O’Neil is Lucy Chen, and Eric Winter plays Tim Bradford.
“Fallout” Plot – An emergency alert of an impending missile attack sends Los Angeles into chaos and uncertainty, while the officers each try to keep the peace and deal with their own disasters.
The Series Description, Courtesy of ABC:
“Six months into his career as a cop, John Nolan, the oldest rookie in the LAPD, has used his life experience, determination and sense of humor to keep up with rookies 20 years his junior. But as he embarks on the second half of his rookie year, Nolan will be put to the test by a host of new challenges, romantic relationships and deadly criminals, as he looks to figure out what kind of cop he ultimately wants to be.”
Nathan Fillion and Sarah Shahi in ‘The Rookie’ season 2 episode 6 (ABC/Mitch Haaseth)Sarah Shahi and Shawn Ashmore in season 2 episode 6 (ABC/Mitch Haaseth)Nathan Fillion, Sarah Shahi, and Shawn Ashmore in season 2 episode 6 (ABC/Mitch Haaseth)Jim Ortlieb, Nathan Fillion, Sarah Shahi and Shawn Ashmore in season 2 episode 6 (ABC/Mitch Haaseth)Shawn Ashmore, Sarah Shahi, and Nathan Fillion in season 2 episode 6 (ABC/Mitch Haaseth)
Jason begs to be sent to Yemen to help out his team in CBS’s SEAL Team season three episode five. Directed by Alexis Ostrander from a scrit by Tom Mularz, “All Along the Watchtower: Part 1” will air on Wednesday, Octobert 30, 2019 at 9pm ET/PT.
Scott Foxx, Emily Swallow, Jamie McShane, Lucca De Oliveira, and Khandi Alexander guest star in the episode. Troy Caylak, Clayton Farris, Anthony Azizi, and Behemoth also appear in “All Along the Watchtower: Part 1.”
David Boreanaz leads the cast as Jason Hayes. Max Thieriot plays Clay Spenser, Neil Brown Jr. is Ray Perry, AJ Buckley is Sonny Quinn, Toni Trucks is Lisa Davis, Jessica Paré is Mandy Ellis, and Judd Lormand plays Lt. Cdr. Eric Blackburn.
“All Along the Watchtower: Part 1” Plot – Jason pleads to be sent to help Ray and Clay, who are abroad on a mission to protect a U.S. ambassador (Khandi Alexander) when their compound is attacked.
Series Details, Courtesy of CBS:
SEAL Team is a military drama that follows the professional and personal lives of the most elite unit of Navy SEALs as they train, plan and execute the most dangerous, high-stakes missions our country can ask of them.
Jason Hayes is the respected, intense leader of the Tier One team whose home life has suffered as a result of his extensive warrior’s existence. His team includes his trusted confidant, Ray Perry, the longest-tenured operator with whom Jason shares an ingrained shorthand; Sonny Quinn, an exceptional, loyal soldier with a checkered past who still combats self-destructive tendencies; and Clay Spenser, a young, multilingual, second-generation SEAL with insatiable drive and dedication.
Vital to the team’s success are troop commander Lt. Cdr. Eric Blackburn, who serves as a leader and confidant both on and off the battlefield; CIA analyst Mandy Ellis, who has sacrificed everything in her drive to root out evil and take down terrorists; and Lisa Davis, a no-nonsense, take-charge logistics officer and unofficial den mother responsible for outfitting the team with the necessary gear for each mission.
Deployed on clandestine missions worldwide at a moment’s notice, and knowing the toll it takes on them and their families, this tight-knit SEAL team displays unwavering patriotism and fearless dedication even in the face of overwhelming odds.
That eerie croaking noise is back in the official trailer for the latest take on The Grudge. The full trailer warns “when someone dies in the grip of rage, a curse is born. Once you enter, it will never let you go.”
The cast includes Andrea Riseborough (The Kindness of Strangers), Oscar nominee Demián Bichir (A Better Life), John Cho (The Exorcist), and Betty Gilpin (GLOW). Lin Shaye (Insidious: The Last Key) and two-time Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook, Animal Kingdom) also star in the 2020 horror film.
The R-rated thriller comes from producers Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and Taka Ichise. Nicolas Pesce wrote and directed this version of The Grudge, based on the Ju-On: The Grudge written and directed by Takashi Shimizu. Nathan Kahane, Erin Westerman, Brady Fujikawa, Andrew Pfeffer, Roy Lee, Doug Davison, John Powers Middleton and Schuyler Weiss served as executive producers.
Sony and Screen Gems are targeting a January 3, 2020 theatrical release.
Imagine if Russia beat the United States of America to the Moon and it was a Russian astronaut and not Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong who first stepped foot on another planet. That alternate reality is the premise of Apple TV+’s new series, For All Mankind. Created by Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica, Outlander) and featuring a talented ensemble that includes Joel Kinnaman, Michael Dorman, Sarah Jones, Shantel VanSanten, Wrenn Schmidt and Jodi Balfour, For All Mankind is set to launch on the brand new subscription service on November 1, 2019.
The altered history put forth in Apple TV+’s For All Mankind will include an interesting shift in the timeline of when women joined NASA as key members of Mission Control and as astronauts. That alternate timeline will play a large part in season one of series, according to Jodi Balfour (“Ellen Wilson”).
During our interview at the New York Comic-Con, Balfour explained the drama poses the question: if Russia put a man on the Moon first, can America put the first woman on the Moon?
Balfour says that’s an important aspect of For All Mankind, but there’s much more going on within the series’ first season. “It’s basically this amazing ensemble story where we get to fall in love and get to know each of the…I think there’s probably 10 or so characters that have wonderful individual storylines,” said Balfour. “Basically, we’re looking at an America that’s been changed by the fact that Russia swooped in and took something from America that America thought was theirs, that they had in the bag – let’s say, anyway. And what the ripple effect is and does that necessarily mean that bad things happen because of that.”
The series posits that Russia beating America to land the first person on the Moon could actually change the American cultural and societal landscape for the better. “The first woman in Mission Control happens. A dystopian future doesn’t necessarily go hand-in-hand with this altered history premise,” teased Balfour.
Wrenn Schmidt plays Margo Madison, an intelligent, hard-working woman we meet as her efforts to advance at NASA are stymied due to gender discrimination. “For Margo, her experience in 1969 probably doesn’t vacillate all that much from any other woman who’s trying to find a place within NASA’s Mission Control,” explained Schmidt. “She very much feels locked out or on the fringes of where she would like to be. When you first meet her, she’s somebody who’s in the backup room who’s supporting flight controllers who are assigned on very specific pieces of the mission. She would very much like to be sitting in one of those chairs. Even though she’s more qualified than some other people, she’s not being given that shot simply because she’s a woman.
I really don’t think that varies all that much from our American history. That was before Title X. That was before people were starting to really understand that women were really kind of being pushed aside. So, I feel like it’s kind of in line with that. There was an article in the New York Times I think last year about women learning to code early on, and it was because men didn’t want to do it so women actually had opportunities to do it. So, yeah, I think there are a lot of parallels. I feel like it’s a while before our story really diverges.”
Wrenn Schmidt in ‘For All Mankind’ premiering November 1 on Apple TV+.
Schmidt recalled one scene in particular that struck her from reading the first script. “Margo’s in that backup room and she knows the answer to something. Somebody outside is totally dropping the ball, and if it was just okay for her to step in and say, ‘This is what you need,’ then everything would be fine. And she both can’t do it and at the same time can’t keep her mouth shut.”
Balfour describes the series as a lot like a period drama, and both she and Schmidt found the scripts to be refreshingly challenging as actors. “It’s always fun as an actor – I think Wrenn and I have this in common – when you have to take a giant leap to be able to play that character. It demands research; it demands knowledge acquisition. It’s nothing like the world she and I walk in day in and day out. The corny analogy is we talk about walking in someone else’s shoes and so much of that is acting, and when the shoes physically are from 1969 and everything that comes along with that, it’s just such a rich experience to get to time travel in a way.”
Asked about their favorite part of playing around with an alternative timeline, Balfour said, “It’s hard not to love the notion that the fact that Russia gets to the Moon first ends up aiding social progress, specifically in America and then that ripples out into the rest of the world. Specifically, for my character, we as women come into NASA more than a decade before women were actually first invited to join the astronaut program. That’s one symbolic thing that’s rippled out.”
Balfour added, “There are certain totems of social progress that happen sooner in our story because of this supposedly bad thing that happens.”
“I also love the fact that to me our show is a little bit…like, everybody knows Romeo and Juliet, you know what’s happening. I feel like people know enough about the space race to know just enough to not know when the show’s going to surprise them by taking a left turn or a right turn. That familiarity I think actually can create a lot of suspense because at any moment something goes slightly differently. Then the ripple moves out and can affect so much.”
The For All Mankind Season 1 Plot, Courtesy of Apple TV+
“Enter a captivating ‘what if’ take on history from Golden Globe nominee and Emmy Award winner, Ronald D. Moore. Told through the lives of astronauts, engineers and their families, For All Mankind imagines a world in which the global space race never ended and the space program remained the cultural centerpiece of America’s hopes and dreams.”
