Arrested Development‘s Mitch Hurwitz and Netflix are back together and working on a new comedy series. Lady Dynamite, which has just been given a series order, will star Maria Bamford and is inspired by her life experiences. Bamford also executive produces the series with Hurwitz and Pam Brady, and Hurwitz and Brady wrote the pilot episode.
The season one order consists of 13 half-hour episodes.
According to Netflix’s announcement, Lady Dynamite is “is based on what [Bamford] has accepted to be ‘her life.’ The occasionally surreal episodes, refracted across multiple periods inspired by the actor/comedian’s life, tell the story of a woman who loses – and then finds – her s**t.”
Vince Vaughn, host Jimmy Fallon and actor Colin Farrell play “True Confessions” on June 18, 2015 (Photo by: Douglas Gorenstein / NBC)
True Detective co-stars Colin Farrell and Vince Vaughn sat down with The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon to engage in a game of True Confessions. The object of the game is to read a random statement about something that supposedly took place years ago and have the other two players decide whether it’s a true statement about the person who read it.
In my oh so humble opinion (hey, stop snickering), Pixar has been in a bit of a slump lately. Oddly enough, it seems like while Disney’s animation unit has made a number of improvements in storytelling and overall entertainment in the past few years, the once-flawless run of films Pixar was putting out became rather dull and uninspired.
Part of this is resorting to sequels that had initially been espoused as the direction they would not head into. I can forgive the first Cars, realizing I’m not in the demo for a NASCAR theme (unless it’s Days of Thunder since that’s Top Gun on wheels!). But Cars 2?!? That should have been titled 2 Ugh 2 Blech. And Monsters University?!?!? Considering it was centered at a place of “learning,” someone should have known better than to write that script.
Now, of course, there are exceptions. The Toy Story franchise has managed to make sequels some would consider better than the original. I’m worried about what #4 will bring us, but it may be okay if they are truly launching off a new series of adventures with characters other than Woody and Buzz, letting the nicely wrapped-up initial trilogy of events stand on their own. I’m also worried about what Finding Dory might wash ashore, considering Finding Nemo seemed like a standalone film that wrapped everything up in a neat little bow, but again, time will tell.
Thankfully, Pixar’s latest is something original and the studio has, for the moment, hit pause on the sequel train. Inside Out is a rather ambitious story idea. The premise is that each of our emotions has a physical embodiment within us and they help to guide us along in life. Basically, imagine that the crew of the USS Enterprise ran your emotions from your cerebral cortex … I’ll let you discuss which crewmember represents each emotion (I find that this may be easiest with Deep Space Nine but please feel free to use whatever incarnation of the franchise you prefer).
Getting back to the film at hand, the five main emotions represented in Inside Out are Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Anger, and Fear. They are the emotional sherpas for 11-year-old Riley, a generally happy little girl having to cope with the stress of moving to a new city and all that it entails (new school, new friends, unfamiliar settings). Of course, in order to create conflict, a mishap by Sadness spirals Riley’s outward emotions out of control, and it’s up to each of the internal emotions to right the ship.
There are plenty of clever ideas, metaphors, and concepts at play here. The notion that certain core memories create the foundations of our personalities is well developed and factors in greatly to the story. Perhaps most important to the overall arc of things is the interplay of emotions and how it’s by combining them that we are able to express more complex feelings and relationships. It was also nice to see the inner emotion teams of each parent from time to time. Not only did it provide some of the best comic relief for the adults in the audience, but also showed the differences and qualities of the emotions we develop over the course of our lives.
If I had to nitpick, and you know that I have to (I’m like a critiquing shark, if I don’t do it, I might die), there are some significant pacing issues. While the movie clocks in at a typical runtime for kids’ films (94 minutes), a huge chunk in the middle slows down the movie quite a bit. I found myself getting more than a little restless, as did some of the kids in the audience. However, the film pulls it together in the end, and I’m certainly not ashamed to admit I had a tear or two rolling down my cheeks in the final scenes.
Inside Out is the best effort Pixar has put out since Toy Story 3 … which isn’t saying much considering what those films in-between were … but still, it’s a sign that the lack of creativity and emotional engagement we’ve received of late might hopefully just be a blip on the radar for the studio that once could do no wrong. With that said, I wouldn’t put this on a pedestal or match it with some of their best work (Wall-E, Up), and unless you have little rugrats who are dragging you to the theater, this can safely be seen at home when it becomes available in that market.
GRADE: B-
MPAA rating: PG for mild thematic elements and some action
How I Met Your Mother‘s Alyson Hannigan has joined the cast of the romantic film Modern Love starring Anthony Rapp and Jonathan Bennett. Written and directed by Joshua Tunick, Modern Love‘s cast also includes Thomas Dekker, Alona Tal, Sam Anderson, Lee Garlington, Mackenzie Astin, and Hutchi Hancock.
No release date has been set, however, filming is currently underway.
The Plot:
The film centers on an intimate group of friends and family who gather at the home of two gay men (Anthony Rapp and Jonathan Bennett) to celebrate their nuptials. When the wedding hits a snag, this group helps the grooms to see that gay or straight, all marriages have their challenges, and love is just the start.
This intimate, independently financed feature film addresses one of today’s most prominent issues in the U.S. – gay marriage. At a time when 36 states have legal same-sex marriage, 13 ban it, and Alabama is not clear on the issue; the film couldn’t be more topical, especially as we head into an election year. While this is obviously a film about gay marriage, the intention is to remove the importance of the “gay” or “straight” descriptor and tell a story about the importance of the commitment of marriage.
Presenting the story in this way, with these universal themes and issues, makes a statement without saying a word – in love we are all the same.
GSN is going after thrill-seeking horror fans with Hellevator, a new game show from Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions. Set to debut later this year, the eight episode season one takes contestants into an abandoned warehouse where they compete in different challenges for cash prizes.
“You’ve never seen anything like this show,” stated executive producer Todd Lubin of Matador. “The contestants have almost no idea what they’re in for and then find themselves immersed in a horror story where they have to move past their deepest fears, to both survive and win money.”
“Our company has always wanted to create a horror-themed game show,” said executive producer Jason Blum. “Hellevator is a unique and new way to scare the living hell out of people and we are excited to be partners with GSN and Matador.”
The Hellevator Premise: “In Hellevator, a team of three friends rides a haunted elevator into various levels of an abandoned warehouse. One player must get out on each floor and conquer a frightening challenge in order to earn money for the team. But if they don’t make it back in time, the elevator moves on without them. Horror film icons Jen and Sylvia Soska, aka the “Twisted Twins,” pull the strings throughout the game – taking delight in the horror.
TNT’s riveting drama The Last Ship returns for season two on June 21, 2015 with a two-hour premiere episode airing at 9pm ET/PT. In season two, the crew of the U.S.S. Nathan James are attempting to figure out how to get the cure produced and out to those in need. However, the world has changed since the virus first spread and attempting to save humanity will not be easy.
Among the returning cast members for this second season are Rhona Mitra and John Pyper Ferguson. Teamed up to discuss the series, Mitra and Pyper Ferguson provided a little insight into what fans of the series can expect and what’s happening with their characters in season two.
At the 2015 WonderCon, I asked if the tone would be different than season one, and Pyper Ferguson replied, “Yes. It’s pretty clear that there’s new challenges. We have a vaccination where we can now go out amongst people and not be contaminated or contaminate, so it’s all new problems. It’s a whole slew of introducing new people who are going to come in and create more challenges for us as well as help us out a little bit. And, it’s a save the world show.'”
As for Rachel’s journey in season two, it will be all about figuring out a way to distribute the vaccine.
“There’s one thing that she’s figuring out, and that’s the actual way you distribute it, the most efficient way because we’ve got a time issue because the virus is still rampant,” explained Mitra. “It’s the world we come back to and what we’re confronted by are these different sort of subcultures that are now rising up. Granderson [played by Alfre Woodward] is one example and then it’s all other different people with their different agendas trying to get in the way. And obviously they understand that I have this cure, so it’s about how you guard that and then putting it out there and how we can spread it as quickly as possible.
So, I’m still under the same sort of pressure because something like this hasn’t happened before so it’s about getting the intelligence to actually do this in the most effective way.”
“I’m still a little mollycoddled. I’m still in my little nest and taken care of by all these boys,” said Mitra about her status among the crew of the ship.
“I want to look up mollycoddled!” joked Pyper Ferguson.
Watch the rest of the interview with Rhona Mitra and John Pyper Ferguson:
The official trailer has arrived for the third film of DreamWorks Animation’s animated Kung Fu Panda franchise. Kung Fu Panda 3 brings back voice cast members Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, and David Cross, with Kung Fu Panda 2‘s Jennifer Yuh Nelson co-directing with Alessandro Carloni. Bryan Cranston, Rebel Wilson, and J.K. Simmons make their Kung Fu Panda debuts as part of this film’s voice cast.
Kung Fu Panda 3 opens in theaters on January 29, 2016.
The Plot:
In 2016, one of the most successful animated franchises in the world returns with its biggest comedy adventure yet, Kung Fu Panda 3. When Po’s long-lost panda father suddenly reappears, the reunited duo travels to a secret panda paradise to meet scores of hilarious new panda characters. But when the supernatural villain Kai begins to sweep across China defeating all the kung fu masters, Po must do the impossible—learn to train a village full of his fun-loving, clumsy brethren to become the ultimate band of Kung Fu Pandas!
A24’s just unveiled a new official trailer and poster for the dramatic thriller, Dark Places, starring Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, and Corey Stoll. Gilles Paquet-Brenner adapted Gillian Flynn’s bestselling novel for the screen, with A24 releasing the movie first on DirecTV beginning June 18, 2015, followed by a theatrical and On Demand release on August 7th.
The film adaptation of Flynn’s Gone Girl directed by David Fincher was released in 2014 and earned the movie’s female lead, Rosamund Pike, a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Gone Girl made $37.5 million domestically over its opening weekend and pulled in $368 million worldwide before exiting theaters.
The Dark Places Plot:
Libby Day (Charlize Theron) was only seven years old when her mother and two sisters were brutally murdered in their rural Kansas farmhouse. In court, the traumatized child pointed the finger at her brother, Ben (Tye Sheridan), and her testimony put the troubled 16-year-old in prison for life. Twenty-five years later, a broke and desperate Libby has run through donations from a sympathetic public and royalties from her sensational autobiography, without ever moving past the events of that night.
When Libby accepts a fee to appear at a gathering of true-crime aficionados led by Lyle Wirth (Nicholas Hoult), she is shocked to learn most of them believe Ben is innocent and the real killer is still at large. In need of money, she reluctantly agrees to help them reexamine the crime by revisiting the worst moments of her life. But as Libby and Lyle dig deeper into the circumstances surrounding the murders, her recollections start to unravel and she is forced to question exactly what she saw – or didn’t see.
As long-buried memories resurface, Libby begins to confront the wrenching truths that led up to that horrific night. Also starring Christina Hendricks, Corey Stoll and Chloë Grace Moretz.
Doctor Who‘s Matt Smith, Claire Foy, and John Lithgow have signed on to star in Netflix’s The Crown, an original series written by Peter Morgan (The Queen). Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot), Philip Martin, and Julian Jarrold (Kinky Boots, Becoming Jane) will be directing the drama series which focuses on Queen Elizabeth II, Duke of Edinburgh Philip Mountbatten, and Sir Winston Churchill.
Foy will play Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Smith is Mountbatten, and Lithgow was cast as Churchill. Morgan, Daldry, Martin, Andy Harries, Suzanne Mackie, Tanya Seghatchian, Robert Fox, and Matthew Byam Shaw are executive producing.
According to the casting announcement, all ten episodes of the series will debut on Netflix in 2016.
The Plot: The Crown tells the inside story of two of the most famous addresses in the world – Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street – and the intrigues, love lives, and machinations behind the great events that shaped the second half of the 20th century. Two houses, two courts, one Crown.
CBS will have its primetime lineup well represented at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con. The network just released details on its Comic Con plans, revealing they’re bringing Under the Dome, Extant, and Scorpion to the sold-out fanfest along with new shows Limitless and Zoo. William Shatner is also part of CBS’ Comic Con lineup, with the actor making the trek to San Diego to read excerpts from The Autobiography of James T. Kirk as part of CBS’ presentation on Thursday, July 9th in Ballroom 20.
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JAMES T. KIRK (Ballroom 20) #KirkReturns #SDCC
William Shatner (Star Trek: The Original Series) will make a special guest appearance and read excerpts from The Autobiography of James T. Kirk, as James T. Kirk himself. This in-world memoir chronicles the greatest Starfleet captain’s life, from his boyhood on an Iowa farm and his youth spent on Tarsus IV, to his time in Starfleet Academy, his meteoric rise through the ranks of Starfleet and his illustrious career at the helm of the Enterprise. David Goodman (author, former Family Guy executive producer) will moderate and advance copies of the book are available at the Titan Booth.
Exclusive Sneak Peek & Panel – Academy Award winner Halle Berry (X-Men) returns to Comic-Con with her new co-star, Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen), for a panel discussion and an exclusive tease of the mystery summer thriller series, back for its second season with higher stakes and new faces. When Molly Woods discovers she has unwittingly put the human race on a path to destruction, she and a mysterious stranger may be the only hope for survival. A glimpse at what’s to come in Season 2, followed by a panel discussion with cast members, executive producer Craig Shapiro and executive producer/creator Mickey Fisher.
Exclusive Sneak Peek & Panel – It has been weeks since the dome descended upon Chester’s Mill with Barbie and the residents of Chester’s Mill being urged to follow Melanie “home.” Season 3 will pick up where Season 2 left off, and the community will rise to new heights of ingenuity, courage and often darkness in their quest for freedom. There will be new faces, new alliances and betrayal of trust as residents learn what you “see” may not always be the truth, and that the real enemy is within. Join series stars (subject to availability) Mike Vogel (Bates Motel), Rachelle Lefevre, special guest star Marg Helgenberger (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation) and executive producers Neal Baer and Tim Schlattmann for an exclusive look at the new season, followed by a panel discussion.
Exclusive Sneak Peek & Panel – The wild shall inherit the Earth in ZOO, CBS’s newest summer event series, based on the #1 bestselling novel by James Patterson. ZOO is a global thriller about a wave of violent animal attacks against humans that are sweeping the planet. The series spans eight countries and features real lions, tigers, bears and more. Join series stars James Wolk (Mad Men), Kristen Connolly (Cabin in the Woods), Billy Burke (Revolution), Nora Arnezeder (Safe House) and executive producers Jeff Pinkner (Fringe) and Josh Appelbaum (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) for an exclusive sneak peek of the first season, followed by a panel discussion.
Exclusive Premiere Screening & Panel – Picking up where the hit feature film left off, Limitless follows Brian Finch (Jake McDorman) as he discovers the power of the brain-boosting drug NZT. From executive producer Bradley Cooper, the fast-paced drama will explore what happens when there are no limits to man’s potential, as Finch is coerced by the FBI to use his newfound extraordinary abilities for good. The exclusive screening of the pilot episode will be followed by a panel discussion with series stars Jake McDorman (American Sniper) and Hill Harper (CSI: NY), with director Marc Webb (The Amazing Spider-Man series) and executive producers Craig Sweeny, Alex Kurtzman and Heather Kadin.
Exclusive Sneak Peek & Panel – CBS’s high-octane breakout hit about a team of brilliant misfits who use their smarts to solve the nation’s crises while helping each other fit in returns to Comic-Con. Team Scorpion will unveil an exclusive sizzle reel highlighting all of the best action scenes and fan-favorite moments from the first season. Fans will have the chance to hear firsthand about what’s ahead in season 2 and discuss the series with stars (subject to availability) Elyes Gabel (World War Z), Robert Patrick (Terminator 2), Katharine McPhee (Smash), Eddie Kaye Thomas (American Pie), Jadyn Wong (Broken Trail), Ari Stidham (Huge) and executive producer Nicholas Wootton.
