Donald Glover as Earnest Marks in ‘Atlanta’ (Photo by Matthias Clamer/FX)
In a totally unsurprising move, FX has renewed the critically acclaimed series, Atlanta. The network confirmed the series has received a third season order and announced it plans to air season three in 2019.
Atlanta was created by series star Donald Glover who also serves as an executive producer. Paul Simms, Dianne McGunigle, Stephen Glover, and Hiro Murai also executive produced the award-winning series.
“Atlanta is phenomenal, achieving and exceeding what few television series have done,” said Nick Grad, president of original programming for FX Networks and FX Productions. “With Atlanta Robbin’ Season, Donald and his collaborators elevated the series to even greater heights, building on the enormous success of their award-winning first season. We’re grateful to the producers and our extraordinary cast and crew for achieving this level of excellence, and we share the excitement with our audience about the third season knowing they will continue to take us to unexpected and thrilling places.”
The series’ second season debuted on March 1, 2018 and aired on Thursdays at 10pm ET/PT. According to FX, Atlanta Robbin’ Season (season two) earned the highest ratings of an recent basic cable comedy. Season one collected two Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe awards, as well as AFI, Peabody, PGA, WGA, TCA, NAACP and Critics’ Choice Awards.
The Season Two Plot: In the recently concluded Atlanta Robbin’ Season, two cousins work through the Atlanta music scene in order to better their lives and the lives of their families. “Earn Marks” (Donald Glover) is a young manager trying to get his cousin’s career off the ground. “Alfred Miles” (Brian Tyree Henry) is a new hot rapper trying to understand the line between real life and street life. “Darius” (Lakeith Lee Stanfield) is Alfred’s right-hand man and visionary. “Van” (Zazie Beetz) is Earn’s best friend and the mother of Earn’s daughter.
20th Century Fox has released the official poster, photos, and the first full trailer for Bad Times at the El Royale, a new thriller from writer/director Drew Goddard (director 2012’s The Cabin in the Woods, writer of The Martian). The 2018 feature film reunites Goddard with one of his The Cabin in the Woods stars, Chris Hemsworth. Hemsworth didn’t survive long in Cabin in the Woods, but hopefully Goddard won’t be killing him off early in their latest collaboration.
Hemsworth, most recently seen reprising his role as Thor in Avengers: Infinity War, makes his entrance in the two-minute trailer doing a shimmy with an unbuttoned shirt. We’re also treated to clips of Hemsworth shirtless in the rain.
The cast also includes Jeff Bridges (Hell or High Water), Cynthia Erivo (Mr Selfridge), Dakota Johnson (the Fifty Shades film franchise), Jon Hamm (Baby Driver), Cailee Spaeny (Pacific Rim: Uprising), Lewis Pullman (The Strangers: Prey at Night), and Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation). In addition to writing and directing, Drew Goddard produced Bad Times at El Royale with Jeremy Latcham.
20th Century Fox will release Bad Times at the El Royale in theaters on October 5, 2018.
The Plot: Seven strangers, each with a secret to bury, meet at Lake Tahoe’s El Royale, a rundown hotel with a dark past. Over the course of one fateful night, everyone will have a last shot at redemption… before everything goes to hell.
Cailee Spaeny and Chris Hemsworth star in Twentieth Century Fox’s ‘Bad Times at the El Royale’ (Photo Credit: John P. Johnson)Dakota Johnson stars in Twentieth Century Fox’s ‘Bad Times at the El Royale’ (Photo Credit: Kimberley French)Chris Hemsworth stars in Twentieth Century Fox’s ‘Bad Times at the El Royale’ (Photo Credit: Kimberley French)Poster for ‘Bad Times at the El Royale’ (Photo Credit: 20th Century Fox)
The CW’s The Originals season five episode seven found Hayley’s friends honoring her life and mourning her death. It also found Klaus learning the agonizing news that any reunion of the Mikaelsons will ultimately lead to the death of all firstborns.
Episode seven also featured the return of Elijah and Antoinette to New Orleans, and an enraged Klaus reacted to their return by biting Antoinette. He then deposited Elijah and Antoinette in a cell where Elijah would be forced to watch the poison work its way through Antoinette’s system until it killed her. Elijah agreed to getting his memories back in order to save Antoinette, striking a deal with Vincent and Marcel – a deal Klaus was dead set against. However, Elijah resisted opening the door in his mind and something went terribly wrong with the spell. By the end of the emotional episode (Klaus said his own private goodbye to his “little wolf”), the feuding brothers were locked in a compound with no way to escape. And, Elijah’s memories still hadn’t returned.
Up next, season five episode eight titled “The Kindness of Strangers” airing June 13, 2018. Kellie Cyrus directed from a script by Beau DeMayo and Carina Adly MacKenzie.
The fifth and final season of The Originals stars Joseph Morgan as Klaus, Daniel Gillies as Elijah, Yusuf Gatewood as Vincent, Steven Krueger as Josh, Charles Michael Davis as Marcel, Riley Voelkel as Freya, Phoebe Tonkin as Hayley, Danielle Rose Russell as Hope, Nathaniel Buzolic as Kol, Candice King as Caroline, and Claire Holt as Rebekah.
“The Kindness of Strangers” Plot: CHAMBRE DE CHASSE — As pressing matters rage on in New Orleans, the Mikaelson siblings find themselves forced to set aside their differences and work together to escape a “chambre de chasse.”
The Season 5 Plot: The final season of The Originals begins seven years after the core members of the Mikaelson family – Klaus, Elijah, Rebekah and Kol — each absorb a quarter of the Hollow’s dark energy and flee New Orleans in order to keep both their beloved city and young Hope (guest star Summer Fontana) safe. In the interim, Vincent and Josh preside over a Big Easy almost devoid of conflict, while Hayley and Freya watch Hope grow into a teenager, eventually opting to send her to the Salvatore School so that Caroline can keep an eye on her.
With Marcel following Rebekah out of town and Elijah stripped of his memory, the danger seems to be contained… until a sudden tragedy forces the siblings to return home. As the Mikaelsons return to New Orleans, bringing the pieces of a centuries old evil with them, it becomes clear that the closing chapter of this family saga will be as bloody and emotional as ever.
Netflix will premiere the newly expanded critically acclaimed documentary series The Staircase on June 8, 2018. The Staircase is the grandfather of all true crime docuseries, originally airing as an eight-episode series in 2004. Two additional episodes were added in 2013, and now an additional three episodes have been added to The Staircase for its 2018 airing on Netflix.
In 1985, novelist Michael Peterson’s neighbor Elizabeth Ratliff fell down a flight of stairs in her home in Germany and passed away. Her death was ruled an accident, and Peterson subsequently adopted her two daughters, Margaret and Martha, and raised them as his own. On December 9, 2001, Michael’s second wife, Kathleen, met a similar fate. Kathleen stumbled down a flight of stairs in the Petersons’ North Carolina home and died surrounded by a large pool of blood and more questions than answers.
Michael, who was home at the time of Kathleen’s death and made what sounds like a frantic call to 9-1-1 for help, was immediately a suspect. The autopsy report lists seven large lacerations on Kathleen’s scalp that were suspicious and didn’t fit the scenario of a short fall down indoor stairs. The amount and locations of the blood splatter was also at odds with a fall.
Charged with murder, Peterson denied having anything to do with his wife’s death. His children stood by him as the prosecution built their case which posited the blood splatters reached too high and too far to have been made in a stumble down a flight of stars. The prosecutors suggested Michael had struck his wife with a blow poke – a long, slender pipe that the couple had received as a gift many years before.
As Michael Peterson and his highly respected defense attorney David Rudolf prepared for trial, they agreed to allow filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade and his team to film the process. The documentary crew was given an incredible amount of access to everyone involved. They followed Peterson throughout the trial and obtained hundreds of hours of footage including interviews with Michael, his legal team, and the Peterson family. The result of their lengthy undertaking is a documentary series that broke new ground when it originally aired and continues to be the source of fierce debate all these years after Kathleen Peterson’s murder.
The original eight episodes covered the trial, with two episodes added in 2013 during the appeals process. Peterson had already served eight years of his life sentence in 2013 when it was determined one of the key witnesses against him, forensic investigator Duane Deaver, falsified evidence in other criminal cases. Episodes 9 and 10 cover that period of time and show the emotional impact his eight-year absence had on his children as well as the physical toll those years in prison took on the novelist.
Peterson was ultimately released from prison in December 2011 and episodes 11, 12, and 13 pick up Peterson’s story as he and his defense team attempt to figure out their best option. Should he undertake another trial or plead guilty and get off with time served? The never before aired new episodes series examine the thought process behind Michael’s ultimate answer to that question.
Questions continue to linger about his guilt or innocence at the conclusion of the 13 hour-long episodes. His initial trial revealed the many skeletons that reside in Michael’s closet, including the fact he was engaged in relationships with men. He says Kathleen was aware of this facet of his life, but no one can back up his claim Kathleen knew he was bisexual. The death of his neighbor years earlier under similar circumstances was also introduced in his trial, with the prosecutors taking the extraordinary step of having her body exhumed and examined. After an initial ruling of accidental death, Elizabeth Ratliff’s cause of death was changed to homicide. Prosecutors were able to introduce details on Ratliff’s death into the trial, revealing that in addition to be being a neighbor and close friend, Michael Peterson was the last person to see Elizabeth alive.
Michael Peterson and David Rudolf in court in a scene from ‘The Staircase.’ (Photo Courtesy of Netflix)
Is Michael Peterson innocent of the murder of Kathleen Peterson? Is there a logical explanation for the similarity between the deaths of two women he was close to? What caused the multiple lacerations in the scalps of both Elizabeth and Kathleen? The case is now closed, but doubts remain as to what really happened to Kathleen Peterson.
The Staircase examines every aspect of the case from Michael Peterson’s point of view, and he never shies away from playing to the camera. There’s very little coverage of Kathleen the person rather than Kathleen the possible murder victim in the documentary series; she’s almost relegated to being a footnote in Michael’s story. The Staircase is all about Michael’s thoughts and feelings, tipping the scales toward Michael over his deceased wife throughout.
The Staircase is one of the few documentaries that allows the audience to see all the facets of the criminal defense process, guiding the audience through Michael Peterson’s arrest, his jury trial, and into the appeals process and beyond. It’s a fascinating series that well deserves to be held up as the gold standard among true crime documentary series.
The first official trailer for The Girl in the Spider’s Web teases that the past never forgets. The trailer also shows the first footage of Claire Foy taking over the lead role of Lisbeth Salander. The sequel to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo replaced Rooney Mara (who replaced the original Swedish film’s Noomi Rapace) with Foy, an Emmy Award-nominee for her starring role as Queen Elizabeth in The Crown.
David Fincher directed the 2011 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo while the sequel has Fede Alvarez at the helm. Alvarez’s credits include 2013’s Evil Dead remake and the 2016 horror film, Don’t Breathe. The book was written by David Lagercrantz, and Alvarez adapted the screenplay with Steven Knight and Jay Basu.
In addition to Claire Foy, the cast of the 2018 crime thriller includes Sverrir Gudnason, Lakeith Stanfield, Sylvia Hoeks, Stephen Merchant, Claes Bang, Christopher Convery, Synnøve Macody Lund, and Vicky Krieps.
Scott Rudin, Ole Søndberg, Søren Stærmose, Berna Levin, Amy Pascal, Elizabeth Cantillon, and Eli Bush produced the thriller. Robert J. Dohrmann, Line Winther Skyum Funch, Johannes Jensen, Anni Faurbye Fernandez, and David Fincher served as executive producers.
The Girl in the Spider’s Web, adapted from the fourth book of the Millennium series, opens in theaters on November 9, 2018.
The Book’s Plot: A genius hacker who has always been an outsider. A journalist with a penchant for danger. She is Lisbeth Salander, the girl with the dragon tattoo. He is Mikael Blomkvist, crusading editor of Millennium. One night, Blomkvist receives a call from a source who claims to have been given information vital to the United States by a young female hacker.
Blomkvist, always on the lookout for a story, reaches out to Salander for help. She, as usual, has plans of her own. Together they are drawn into a ruthless underworld of spies, cybercriminals, and government operatives—some willing to kill to protect their secrets.
The CW’s The 100 is taking a two week break and will return on June 19, 2018 with season five episode seven. The upcoming seventh episode is titled “Acceptable Losses” and was directed by Mairzee Almas from a script by Jeff Vlaming.
The season five cast includes Eliza Taylor as Clarke Griffin, Paige Turco as Dr. Abigail Griffin, Bob Morley as Bellamy Blake, Marie Avgeropoulos as Octavia Blake, Lindsey Morgan as Raven Reyes, Christopher Larkin as Monty Green, Henry Ian Cusick as Marcus Kane, Richard Harmon as John Murphy, Luisa d’Oliveira as Emori, Chelsey Reist as Harper, and Tasya Teles as Echo.
The “Acceptable Losses” Plot: FRIENDSHIP — Clarke (Eliza Taylor) and Bellamy (Bob Morley) make a startling discovery about Wonkru’s battle plans as Echo (Tasya Teles) risks her friendship with Raven (Lindsey Morgan) to complete her mission.
The Season 5 Plot: Over the last four seasons The 100 have fought to survive against unimaginable odds, only to see the world end for a second time. Season five begins six years later, with our heroes still separated: Bellamy’s team in space, Clarke on the ground, and hundreds trapped in the bunker below. But when a massive prison ship descends upon the last survivable place on earth, The 100 must come together to reclaim their home.
As two armies converge on one valley, alliances will shift, friends will become foes, and the march to war threatens to destroy all that’s left of the human race. Can our heroes break the cycle, or is humanity doomed to repeat the past? In this epic battle for survival, one thing is certain: there are no good guys.
Director Katt Shea, Sophia Lillis, and Zoe Renee on the set of ‘Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase.’ (Photo Courtesy of Warner Bros Pictures)
Filming is now underway on the live-action feature film Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase, directed by Katt Shea (Poison Ivy). Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Ellen DeGeneres’ A Very Good Production and Red 5 announced the start of production and confirmed It star Sophia Lillis is on board as the titular character.
The cast of the family-friendly film also includes Zoe Renee (The Quad) as George, Mackenzie Graham (The Purge TV series) as Bess, and Laura Slade Wiggins (Shameless) as Helen. Sam Trammell (True Blood) plays Carson Drew, Linda Lavin (Alice) is Flora, and Andrea Anders (Better Off Ted) is Nancy’s Aunt Hannah.
Jay DeVon Johnson (Vice Principals), Andrew Matthew Welch (Taylor Tate’s upcoming Ma), Jon Briddell (The Resident), Josh Daugherty (We Were Soldiers), Evan Castelloe (Queen Sugar), and Jesse C. Boyd (Hap and Leonard) are also on board the first Nancy Drew feature film in more than 10 years. Emma Roberts (American Horror Story, Scream Queens) starred in the most recent Nancy Drew movie released in 2007.
Nina Fiore and John Herrera (The Handmaid’s Tale, The Vampire Diaries) wrote the script. Ellen DeGeneres, Jeff Kleeman, and Chip Diggins are producing, and Wendy S. Williams is executive producing.
Per Warner Bros. Pictures, Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase is shooting in and around Monroe, Georgia.
Attached is the official start-of-production release and an image from the first day of filming. It features Sophia Lillis (redhead, center) in discussion with director Katt Shea (left) and actress Zoe Renee (right, playing “George”)
The Plot and Background: “The film focuses on Nancy Drew (Lillis), a smart high schooler with a penchant for keen observation and deduction, who stumbles upon the haunting of a local home. A bit of an outsider struggling to fit into her new surroundings, Nancy and her pals set out to solve the mystery, make new friends and establish their place in the community.
As the inspiration for Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase, Nancy Drew has intrigued and entertained audiences for nearly 90 years in books, comics, films and video games. An icon in American mystery novels, the character initially appeared in 1930, evolving through each incarnation to reflect the look, sensibilities and technologies of the times. Nancy Drew books have sold more than 100 million copies, and have been translated to accommodate young readers across the planet. A number of feature films and television series have featured the character, starting with Nancy Drew … Detective in 1938.”
Paramount Network is set to premiere the new half-hour drama American Woman starring Alicia Silverstone (The Killing of a Sacred Deer), Mena Suvari (Chicago Fire), and Jennifer Bartels (Friends of the People) on June 7, 2018. The dramedy takes place in the 1970s and focuses on the three long-time friends and the men who flit in and out of their orbits.
American Woman will air on Thursdays at 10pm ET/PT. The series is inspired by the life of Kyle Richards (Real Housewives of Beverly Hills) and is executive produced by Emmy Award-winner John Wells (Shameless, ER, The West Wing), with Richards serving as a co-executive producer. The half-hour scripted series is produced by John Wells Productions in association with Warner Horizon Scripted Television.
The supporting cast includes Cheyenne Jackson (American Horror Story), Tobias Jelinek (Stranger Things), James Tupper (Big Little Lies), Lia McHugh (Hot Summer Nights), and Makenna James (Transparent). Grammy Award-winner – and winning coach of The Voice – Kelly Clarkson performed a re-imagined version of the classic hit “American Woman” by The Guess Who that was featured in the season one trailer of the Paramount Network series.
The Plot:American Woman follows Bonnie (Silverstone) an unconventional mother struggling to raise her two daughters after leaving her husband amid the rise of second-wave feminism in the 70s. With the help of her two best friends, Kathleen (Suvari) and Diana (Bartels), these three women each discover their own brand of independence in a glamorous and ever-changing world reluctant to give it.
Jennifer Bartels, Mena Suvari and Alicia Silverstone star in ‘American Woman’ (Photo Credit: Paramount Network)Jennifer Bartels, Mena Suvari, and Alicia Silverstone in ‘American Woman’ (Photo Credit: Paramount Network)Mena Suvari stars in ‘American Woman’ (Photo Credit: Paramount Network)Jennifer Bartels as Diana (Photo Credit: Paramount Network)Alicia Silverstone as Bonnie Nolan (Photo Credit: Paramount Network)
Kelli Berglund as Carly and Avan Jogia as Ulysses in ‘Now Apocalypse’ (Photo Credit: Starz)
Starz has tapped Avan Jogia (Ghost Wars) to star in Now Apocalypse, a scripted comedy the network’s given a straight-to-series order. Now Apocalypse comes from Gregg Araki (Mysterious Skin, Smiley Face) and is described as a surreal coming-of-age comedy set in Los Angeles.
Araki, Steven Soderbergh (Logan Lucky, The Knick) and Gregory Jacobs (Magic Mike XXL, Red Oaks) will executive produce. Author and Vogue.com sex columnist Karley Sciortino is co-writing the episodes and is also involved as a consulting producer.
Season one will consist of 10 half-hour episodes.
Jogia’s credits include The New Romantic, A Year of Spectacular Men, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (as Puck), The Drowning, I Am Michael, and Ten Thousand Saints. His television credits include Tut, Twisted, Caprica, and Aliens in America.
Avan Jogia recently finished up work on the Shaft remake starring Samuel L. Jackson and directed by Tim Story. He also recently completed filming The Artist’s Wife with Bruce Dern, Lena Olin, and Juliet Rylance.
The Plot:Now Apocalypse follows Ulysses and his friends Carly, Ford and Severine, who are on various quests pursing love, sex and fame. The series explores identity, sexuality and artistry, while navigating the strange and oftentimes bewildering city of Los Angeles. Between sexual and romantic dating app adventures, Ulysses grows increasingly troubled as foreboding premonitory dreams make him wonder – is some kind of dark and monstrous conspiracy going on, or is he just smoking too much weed?
Jogia’s character, Ulysses, is described as a “recent transplant to Los Angeles, who is struggling to find his place in the world. Something of a thrill seeker, Ulysses admits that he’s always had an attraction to and fear of the unknown and is plagued by recurring nightmares, which he believes are a portent for a vast, sinister conspiracy.”
Scroll down the comment section on YouTube below Warner Bros Pictures’ official A Star is Born trailer and you’ll have a difficult time finding mentions of Bradley Cooper. 99% of the comments are about Lady Gaga, with many of her Little Monsters already claiming she’ll snag an Oscar for her role in this latest remake of A Star is Born.
A Star is Born will feature performances of original songs Lady Gaga wrote with Bradley Cooper and other artists including Lukas Nelson, Jason Isbell, and Mark Ronson. According to Warner Bros Pictures, the songs in the film are all original and were recorded live.
In addition to four-time Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper (American Sniper, American Hustle, Silver Linings Playbook) and Oscar nominee Lady Gaga (“Til It Happens to You” from The Hunting Ground), the cast of the 2018 music-driven drama includes Andrew Dice Clay, Dave Chappelle, and Sam Elliott.
Bradley Cooper makes his feature film directorial debut with the romantic drama. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Roth and Will Fetters, and served as a producer. Bill Gerber, Jon Peters, Todd Phillips, and Lynette Howell Taylor also produced the romantic drama, with Ravi Mehta, Basil Iwanyk, Niija Kuykendall, Sue Kroll, Michael Rapino and Heather Parry executive producing.
Cooper’s behind the scenes team includes Oscar-nominated director of photography Matty Libatique (Black Swan), production designer Karen Murphy, three-time Oscar-nominated editor Jay Cassidy (American Hustle, Silver Linings Playbook, Into the Wild), and costume designer Erin Benach.
Warner Bros Pictures has set an October 5, 2018 theatrical release date for the R-rated remake.
The Plot: In this new take on the tragic love story, he plays seasoned musician Jackson Maine, who discovers—and falls in love with—struggling artist Ally (Gaga). She has just about given up on her dream to make it big as a singer… until Jack coaxes her into the spotlight. But even as Ally’s career takes off, the personal side of their relationship is breaking down, as Jack fights an ongoing battle with his own internal demons.
