Alexander Skarsgård as Becker in ‘The Little Drumer Girl’ episode 1 (Photo Credit: Jonathan Olley/AMC/Ink Factory)
AMC’s set a November 19, 2018 premiere date for The Little Drummer Girl based on John le Carré’s bestselling novel. The three night event series will kick off on November 19th at 9pm ET/PT with a two-hour episode. The second and third parts of the television event will air on November 20th and November 21st.
The three-part series stars Emmy and Golden Globe winner Alexander Skarsgard (Big Little Lies), two-time Oscar nominee Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals, Revolutionary Road), and Alliance of Women Film Journalists Best Breakthrough Performance nominee Florence Pugh (Lady MacBeth).
The Little Drummer Girl marks the television debut of filmmaker Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden, Stoker). Michael Lesslie and Claire Wilson adapted the book for the three-part series. The Little Drummer Girl was executive produced by author John le Carré, Park Chan-wook, Michael Lesslie, Simon Cornwell, Stephen Cornwell, Joe Tsai, Arthur Wang, Wonjo Jeong, Mona Qureshi, and Kristin Jones.
The series was shot in London, Prague, the Acropolis in Athens, and the Temple of Poseidon in Greece. The Ink Factory, 127 Wall, BBC, and AMC financed and produced the television event.
The Plot: Blurring the fine lines between love and hate; truth and fiction; and right and wrong; The Little Drummer Girl weaves a suspenseful and explosive story of espionage and high-stakes international intrigue. Set in the late 1970s, the pulsating thriller follows Charlie (Pugh), a fiery actress and idealist whose resolve is tested after she meets the mysterious Becker (Skarsgård,) while on holiday in Greece. It quickly becomes apparent that his intentions are not what they seem, and her encounter with him entangles her in a complex plot devised by the spy mastermind Kurtz (Shannon). Charlie takes on the role of a lifetime as a double agent while remaining uncertain of her own loyalties.
The first trailer for season two of Netflix’s American Vandal finds a school administrator calling 911 to report all of the students are pooping uncontrollably. The cause? Contaminated lemonade. And thus we discover the case at the heart of the series’ second season. There’s someone causing harm and embarrassment to students and he’s dubbed himself The Turd Burglar.
Season one was all about penis drawings. Season two is all about discovering the identity of The Turd Burglar, the person who caused the Great Brownout of 2018.
The cast of season two includes American Vandal season two stars Tyler Alvarez (Peter), Griffin Gluck (Sam), Travis Tope (Kevin), Taylor Dearden (Chloe), Melvin Gregg (DeMarcus) and DeRon Horton (Lou). Tony Yacenda, Daniel Perrault, Dan Lagana, Joe Farrell, Ari Lubet, Josh Lieberman, and Michael Rotenberg serve as executive producers. The series was produced by CBS Television Studios, Funny Or Die, and 3Arts for Netflix.
Season one earned Kevin McManus and Matthew McManus a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in the Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie or a Dramatic Special category. The first season earned a 98% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The eight-episode second season of American Vandal will premiere on Netflix on September 14, 2018.
The Plot: Having left its red spray-painted mark on pop culture with a breakout freshman season, American Vandal returns with an explosive new case, a (mostly) new cast and solid new conspiracy theories. Season 2 of the Emmy-nominated and Peabody Award-winning true-crime satire follows documentarians Peter Maldonado and Sam Ecklund as they bring their investigative skills to an elite Catholic school where someone has been taking poop-related pranks to new heights.
From co-creators Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault, and showrunner Dan Lagana, American Vandal‘s addictive second season will have everyone speculating: Who is the Turd Burglar?
Tyler Alvarez and Griffin Gluck in season 2 of ‘American Vandal’ (Photo Credit: Netflix)A scene from season 2 of ‘American Vandal’ (Photo Credit: Netflix)A scene from season 2 of ‘American Vandal’ (Photo Credit: Netflix)The Turd Burglar strikes in ‘American Vandal’ season 2 (Photo Credit: Netflix)
Starz has confirmed the cast of American Gods will be hosting their first ever panel at the New York Comic Con. Cast members and executive producer/author Neil Gaiman will be participating in a panel in support of season two.
The American Gods panel will be held on Friday, October 5, 2018 from 1:30-2:30pm ET at the Hammerstein Ballroom at the Manhattan Center. More details will be released closer to this year’s New York Comic Con.
The dramatic series is based on Neil Gaiman’s novel. The cast includes Ricky Whittle (The 100) as Shadow Moon, Ian McShane (Ray Donovan) as Mr. Wednesday, Emily Browning (Sucker Punch) as Laura Moon, Pablo Schreiber (Orange is the New Black) as Mad Sweeney, Orlando Jones (Sleepy Hollow) as Mr. Nancy, Yetide Badaki (Masters of Sex) as Bilquis, Bruce Langley (Deadly Waters) as Technical Boy, Crispin Glover (Back to the Future) as Mr. World, Cloris Leachman (Raising Hope) as Zorya Vechernyaya, Peter Stormare (Fargo) as Czernobog, Mousa Kraish (Fast & Furious) as The Jinn, Omid Abtahi (Damien) as Salim, Chris Obi (Snow White and the Huntsman) as Anubis, and Demore Barnes (12 Monkeys) as Mr. Ibis.
New additions to season two include Dean Winters (Divorce) as Mr. Town, Devery Jacobs (Cardinal) as Sam Black Crow, and Kahyun Kim (Shameless) as New Media.
Season 2 Details: Following the epic showdown at Easter’s party, season two ups the ante with Mr. Wednesday continuing his quest to pitch the case for war to the Old Gods with Shadow, Laura and Mad Sweeney in tow. But when things don’t go as planned at the House on the Rock, they all find themselves on a haunting journey through middle America.
A Look Back at Season 1: When Shadow Moon is released from prison, he meets the mysterious Mr. Wednesday and a storm begins to brew. Little does Shadow know, this storm will change the course of his entire life. Left adrift by the recent, tragic death of his wife, and suddenly hired as Mr. Wednesday’s bodyguard, Shadow finds himself in the center of a world that he struggles to understand. It’s a hidden world where magic is real, where the Old Gods fear both irrelevance and the growing power of the New Gods, like Technology and Media. Mr. Wednesday seeks to build a coalition of Old Gods to defend their existence in this new America, and reclaim some of the influence that they’ve lost. As Shadow travels across the country with Mr. Wednesday, he struggles to accept this new reality, and his place in it.
When Syfy’s The Magicians returns for season four it will be with Hale Appleman’s Eliot taken over by the monster. This dramatic change in circumstance means that Appleman will be sinking his teeth into what’s basically a different character, and that’s a challenge Appleman relished taking on.
During our roundtable interview at the 2018 San Diego Comic Con, Appleman discussed the show’s much-anticipated fourth season, whether we’ll ever see Eliot again, and who the monster will be spending time with.
Hale Appleman The Magicians Season 4 Interview
We’re really worried about Eliot.
Hale Appleman: “You should be.”
Should we really be?
Hale Appleman: “I have no words of encouragement or support to offer you. He’s maybe lost forever. We’ve shot up to episode four and I’ve seen no trace of him. Hopefully he’ll come back. I think it would be great if he did, obviously. But in the meantime, I’m hoping you all fall in love with the monster because I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
What is it like playing the monster?
Hale Appleman: “He’s really different. He’s really surprisingly different than Eliot. He’s sort of like a child with a complete lack of empathy or impulse control. Hopefully he’ll mature a little bit as the season moves forward.
I see him as kind of a collector. He’s in this human body and he’s in the world for the first time in thousands of years. I think that he’s sort of collecting these human experiences and trying to make sense of it. He doesn’t have any standard of context for anything that’s happening to him or any of the modern-day life that he’s exposed to.”
Will we get to see him interact with anyone other than Quentin?
Hale Appleman: “You’ll see him interact with Margo a little bit. The monster is a little pissed that the group of them tried to kill him, so you might see him try to round up the troups.”
Do you view him as a completely separate character?
Hale Appleman: “Oh, completely, yeah because he’s not Eliot at all. I took him in such a different direction I think the showrunners were a little surprised. They’re like, ‘Wait, he’s still in Eliot’s body so you could be a little more like Eliot.’ I was like, ‘No, he can’t. You’ve created a monster.’”
He’s not liable to break out in song?
Hale Appleman: “Well, I mean, it is The Magicians so I can’t say that either. I wouldn’t be surprised if he and Eliot had a duet. I don’t know. I’m spitballing here.”
Can you talk about Eliot’s journey to becoming a king and then realizing he was good at it?
Hale Appleman: “After the shit hit the fan and he realized how much over his head he was in and how he had to rise to challenges he didn’t realize he signed up for and yada, yada, yada. I have a great deal of empathy and love for Eliot because I think he’s someone who grew up needing to shield himself with a certain amount of armor in order to function in the world and in the surroundings that he was born into, which I think is very human and very universal. And I’m proud of him for evolving and taking challenges head-on.
Sometimes he makes decisions on a whim that aren’t necessarily the most measured or rational, but I think his heart’s really in the right place when all is said and done. I think that he actually does care. The thing that I love the most about him is the heart that exists inside of him that he doesn’t necessarily want people to know or see. But that’s definitely there and definitely beating. He kind of would do anything to sacrifice for the ones he loved. I mean, he’s in this situation in season four because he was trying to save Quentin from a life of purgatory in a dungeon cell.”
Summer Bishil as Margo Hanson and Hale Appleman as Eliot Waugh in a scene from ‘The Magicians’ season 3 (Photo by: Eric Milner/Syfy)
Eliot’s one half of maybe the greatest duo to hit TV. What is it like to get to create those moments with Summer Bishil on set?
Hale Appleman: “That’s so sweet. Thanks. Summer is one of my favorite people in the history of the universe and she’s one of the best actors I’ve ever seen. She’s so talented. I mean, I feel lucky that I get to work with her. I miss working with her every day. I hope we get to do more in the future. We probably will.
I guess the only thing I can add to that is that we really lucked out. There’s an innate chemistry between the two of us that just exists. We didn’t know each other before we started shooting and so we kind of just lucked out.”
You mentioned there will be scenes with Margo and the monster. How different is that?
Hale Appleman: “Very weird. Very strange. Very weird. It’s still Hale and Summer so I guess the chemistry remains but they have very different agendas. They’re not necessarily on the same page or the same team. If they are, there’s a little bit of bittersweetness because it’s Margo looking at this person that she loves but who’s being inhabited by a monster. It’s some sort of a gearshift type of thing, a readjustment. He’s just kind of like really happy to be there. He really loves this body.”
Do you like playing the villain?
Hale Appleman: “I’m really starting to enjoy it a lot. It was a little scary at first but he’s so different – so drastically different – and he’s kind of taking in the world around him for the first time so there’s a lot to explore with that. He’s collecting these human experiences so I feel like there’s several different ideas that he has about who humans are and so he’ll try on different voices and different personalities in order to get the most out of a given situation.”
That’s got to present an acting challenge for you. Has that been fun to sink your teeth into?
Hale Appleman: “It’s very fun. It was a little scary at first because I was treading new territory that I never ever had to explore before. But, yeah, I’m definitely enjoying it more and more as the season goes on.”
MTV’s revisiting the popular series The Hills with a new series titled The Hills: New Beginnings. The series was announced during MTV’s Video Music Awards on August 20, 2018.
Returning cast members are expected to include Heidi Montag (Celebrity Big Brother), Spencer Pratt (Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars), Audrina Patridge (Sorority Row), Jason Wahler (Celebrity Rehab with Dr Drew), Frankie Delgado (Stars Are Already Dead), Justin Bobby Brescia, and Stephanie Pratt (Made in Chelsea). Lauren Conrad and Kristin Cavallari did not join The Hills gang at the VMAs, and MTV has not officially confirmed either Conrad or Cavallari’s return for the new docuseries.
Lauren Conrad and Kristin Cavallari have both previously expressed an interest in a The Hills reunion. MTV expects The Hills reunion series will premiere in 2019.
The Hills: New Beginnings is produced by MTV and Evolution Media.
The original series premiered on May 31, 2006. The popular reality docuseries ran for six seasons, finishing up its run on July 13, 2010 with an episode titled “All Good Things.”
The groundbreaking show was created by Adam DiVello and during its six seasons it earned 16 Teen Choice Awards nominations, collecting seven wins. It also was nominated for a Directors Guild of America award in the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Reality Programs category for season six episode one. ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards gave the series the Top Television Series award in 2009.
The Plot: Based off the docuseries that changed the landscape of TV history, The Hills: New Beginnings will reunite original cast members, alongside their children and friends, and follow their personal and professional lives while living in Los Angeles. With new faces in the picture and returning favorites, The Hills is back for a new beginning.
Poster for ‘Hold the Dark’ (Photo Credit: Netflix)
Netflix’s dramatic film Hold the Dark just released the official poster along with two new photos. The film starring Alexander Skarsgard (The Legend of Tarzan, True Blood) and Jeffrey Wright (Westworld) will premiere on Netflix on September 28, 2018.
In addition to Emmy Award winner Jeffrey Wright (Angels in America) and Emmy Award winner Alexander Skarsgard (Big Little Lies), the cast of Hold the Dark includes James Badge Dale (Only the Brave), Riley Keough (It Comes at Night), and Julian Black Antelope (Blackstone).
Jeremy Saulnier (Green Room) directed from a script by Macon Blair. Russell Ackerman, John Schoenfelder, Eva Maria Daniels, Neil Kopp, and Anish Savjani are the producers.
The Plot: Retired naturalist and wolf expert Russell Core (Wright) journeys to the edge of civilization in northern Alaska at the pleading of Medora Slone (Keough), a young mother whose son was killed by a pack of wolves. As Core attempts to help Medora track down the wolves who took her son, a strange and dangerous relationship develops between the two lonely souls.
But when Medora’s husband Vernon (Skarsgard) returns home from the Iraq War, the news of his child’s death ignites a violent chain of events. As local cop, Donald Marium (Badge Dale), races to stop Vernon’s vengeful rampage, Core is forced on a perilous odyssey into the heart of darkness.
Alexander Skarsgard stars in ‘Hold the Dark’ (Photo Credit: Netflix)Jeffrey Wright in a scene from ‘Hold the Dark’ (Photo Credit: Netflix)
Tiffany Haddish plays a teacher who goes to extreme lengths to get her students ready to pass the GED exam in the comedy film, Night School. The latest trailer shows Haddish taking to the boxing ring as she attempts to get Kevin Hart to come up with the right answers to her pop quiz.
In addition to Kevin Hart (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) and Tiffany Haddish (If Loving You is Wrong), the cast of the PG-13 comedy includes Rob Riggle (12 Strong), Taran Killam (Saturday Night Live), Romany Malco (Think Like a Man Too), Anne Winters (13 Reasons Why), Mary Lynn Rajskub (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), Megalyn Echikunwoke (Vixen, Damien), and Al Madrigal (I’m Dying Up Here).
Night School was directed by Malcolm D. Lee from a script by Kevin Hart, Harry Ratchford, Joey Wells, Matt Kellard, Nicholas Stoller, and John Hamburg. Will Packer and Kevin Hart produced, and Malcolm D. Lee, Preston Holmes, and James Lopez served as executive producers. The behind the scenes team includes editor Paul Millspaugh, production designer Keith Brian Burns, and costume designer Sekinah Brown.
The 2018 comedy reunites director Lee with Tiffany Haddish. The two previously worked on the 2017 critically acclaimed ensemble comedy, Girls Trip. Lee’s credits also include Barbershop: The Next Cut, The Best Man Holiday, Scary Movie 5, Soul Men, and Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins.
Night School will open in theaters on September 28, 2018.
The Plot: Star Kevin Hart and producer Will Packer, who partnered for the hit Ride Along and Think Like a Man series, bring their signature style to Night School. The comedy from director Malcolm D. Lee (Girls Trip) follows a group of misfits who are forced to attend adult classes in the longshot chance they’ll pass the GED exam.
Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish, and Taran Killam in a scene from Night School.’
HBO’s released the official trailer for the documentary Jane Fonda in Five Acts. The documentary, which debuted earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, will arrive on HBO on September 24, 2018.
Jane Fonda in Five Acts was directed and produced by documentarian Susan Lacy (director of Spielberg and American Masters). Emma Pildes and Levin also served as producers. Benjamin Gray edited, Kris Liem co-edited, Sam Painter was the director of photography, and Paul Cantelon provided the music.
Discussing her past as a divisive political figure in the documentary, Jane Fonda said, “I’m proud of most of what I did, but very sorry for some of what I did.”
Daughter of classic movie star Henry Fonda, Jane’s film credits include Cat Ballou, Any Wednesday, Barefoot in the Park, Barbarella, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They, Klute, Fun with Dick and Jane, Coming Home, The China Syndrome, and On Golden Pond. She’s currently starring opposite Lily Tomlin in the comedy series Grace and Frankie.
Fonda was nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning two. In 1972 Fonda took home the Best Actress Oscar for her role in Klute. Her starring performance in Coming Home earned her the Best Actress Academy Award in 1979.
The Details: “The documentary draws on 21 hours of interviews with Fonda, who speaks candidly and frankly about her life and her missteps. She explores the pain of her mother’s suicide, her father’s emotional unavailability, 30 years of an eating disorder and three marriages to highly visible, yet diametrically opposed, men. Jane Fonda in Five Acts also includes interviews with family and friends — Robert Redford, Lily Tomlin, producer Paula Weinstein and former spouses Tom Hayden and Ted Turner — as well as rare home movies and verité footage of the 80-year-old Fonda’s busy life today at, as she puts it, ‘the beginning of my last act.'”
Jane Fonda speaking at an anti-war rally in San Francisco, 1972. (Photo: HBO)
A scene from ‘Random Acts of Flyness’ (Photo by Seher Sikander / HBO)
HBO has officially confirmed they’ve renewed Random Acts of Flyness for a second season. Season one of the series created by artist Terence Nance (An Oversimplification of Her Beauty) currently stands at 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
“We couldn’t be happier with the response to Random Acts of Flyness – it’s struck such a powerful chord with our viewers,” stated Nina Rosenstein, executive vice president of HBO Programming. “We’re thrilled to bring Terence and his team back for a second season of this provocative, remarkable series.”
The half-hour show premiered on August 3, 2018 and airs on Fridays at midnight. Season one is made up of six episodes. HBO did not confirm how many episodes will be in season two or when we can expect the second season to premiere.
Terence Nance wrote and directed the first season and serves as an executive producer. Tamir Muhammad, Jamund Washington, Kishori Rajan, Kelley Robins Hicks, Chanelle Aponte Pearson, Ravi Nandan and John Hodges also executive produce. Additional season one writers include Frances Bodomo, Mariama Diallo, Shaka King, Darius Clark Monroe, Nelson Nance, Terence Nance, Naima Ramos-Chapman, and Jamund Washington.
Random Acts of Flyness first season directors are Frances Bodomo, Mariama Diallo, Shaka King, Darius Clark Monroe, Terence Nance, Naima Ramos-Chapman and Jamund Washington.
The Plot: The show explores evergreen cultural idioms such as patriarchy, white supremacy and sensuality from a new, thought-provoking perspective. A fluid, stream-of-consciousness response to the contemporary American mediascape, Random Acts of Flyness features a handful of interconnected vignettes in each episode, showcasing an ensemble cast of emerging and established talent.
The show is a mix of vérité documentary, musical performances, surrealist melodrama and humorous animation. Nance and his collaborators weave together such themes as ancestral trauma, history, death, the singularity, romance and more, creating a television show like nothing seen before.
Ryan Hansen and Samira Wiley in ‘Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television.”
YouTube Premium’s bringing back the original comedy series Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television for a second season. Among the stars who’ll be joining Hansen in guest starring roles are Ballers‘ Rob Corddry, Scrubs‘ Donald Faison, and Son of Zorn‘s Tim Meadows.
The Handmaid’s Tale‘s Samira Wiley is also returning for the comedy’s second season along with Two and a Half Men‘s Jon Cryer.
YouTube announced the season two guest stars with a short letter about the new season:
“Dear Viewer,
Despite abysmally low ratings and a robust letter-writing campaign urging YouTube not to renew the series, a contractual obligation with SAG coupled with the threat of legal action from Ryan Hansen himself, has forcibly compelled YouTube Premium to announce that we will be releasing season two of Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television* at some point in the future.
Created and executive produced by an A-list Hollywood director who would prefer to remain anonymous in order to protect his reputation, season two of Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television will feature some of the same ‘hilarious’ hijinks that caused almost no one to watch season one.
Starring Ryan Hansen, the cast thankfully also includes Wood Harris who was desperately needed to add some semblance of legitimacy to the show. In addition, guest stars in season two include, but are not limited to: Jillian Bell, Rob Corddry, Jon Cryer, Rhys Darby, Donald Faison, Lucy Hale, Tom Lennon, Ken Marino, Tim Matheson, Joel McHale, Tim Meadows, Stephen Merchant, Ben Schwartz, Dax Shepard, Jessica St Clair, Pete Wentz, and Samira Wiley among others that will hopefully distract from the glaring fact that season two of Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television unfortunately still stars Ryan Hansen.
Thank you. And please continue to enjoy Cobra Kai – that show is awesome.”
