CBS has given the summer reality series Big Brother a two season renewal order, guaranteeing summer 2015 and summer 2016 spots for the popular show. The network’s also confirmed Julie Chen will be back as host for the show’s 17th and 18th seasons, and they’ve renewed the after-show Big Brother After Dark for the 2015 season.
“Big Brother continues to be the one of the summer’s most dominant programs, and with each season, Allison and Rich produce the most twisted ways to evolve the series creatively,” said Chris Castallo, CBS Executive Vice President, Alternative Programming. “With its one-of-a-kind format, coupled with its passionate, socially engaged fan base, no other show comes close to duplicating it.”
This current season has seen a rise in viewership of 2% overall, drawing in an average of 7.56 million viewers. Season 16 is wrapping up tonight with a 90 minute finale airing at 9:30pm ET/PT. Derrick, Cody, and Victoria are the remaining Houseguests and will be competing to be named this season’s winner.
Details on the Series, Courtesy of CBS:
Big Brother follows a group of people living together in a house outfitted with 76 HD cameras and more than 100 microphones recording their every move, 24 hours a day. Each week, the Houseguests vote someone out of the house. The last remaining Houseguest will receive the grand prize of $500,000.
Whitley Strieber’s Alien Hunter is being made into a series tentatively titled Hunters on Syfy. The network announced it’s moving forward on a 13 episode season one with Gale Anne Hurd (The Walking Dead) and Natalie Chaidez executive producing. Chaidez is also working on the scripts and Syfy’s aiming for a 2016 premiere.
“We were so impressed by the pilot script from this outstanding and accomplished creative team led by Gale Anne Hurd and Natalie Chaidez,” said Syfy President Dave Howe. “This fast-paced and innovative story takes viewers inside a chilling yet all too familiar world. Adding Hunters to new series such as The Expanse, 12 Monkeys, and the miniseries Childhood’s End, provides us with a formidable lineup of diverse, high-end science fiction.”
“As a longtime fan of Whitley’s, I am absolutely thrilled to collaborate with everyone at Syfy and UCP, as well as the uber-talented showrunner, Natalie Chaidez, to bring Hunters to life,” added Hurd.
The Plot:
In Hunters, the disappearance of a decorated Philadelphia cop’s wife leads him to a secret government unit assembled to hunt a group of ruthless terrorists – shadowy figures that may or may not be from this world.
Christopher Walken’s nearly unrecognizable as Captain Hook in NBC’s Peter Pan Live! production. This first photo of Walken in full costume and makeup was tweeted by executive producer Neil Meron, and features Walken as Hook and Allison Williams as Peter Pan.
The musical will air live on December 4, 2014 and also features Taylor Louderman as Wendy Darling, Alanna Saunders as Tiger Lily, Kelli O’Hara as Mrs. Darling, and Christian Borle as Smee/George Darling.
Announcing Walken’s casting back in July, Robert Greenblatt, Chairman, NBC Entertainment, said, “We are absolutely delighted that Christopher Walken will be putting his unique stamp on Captain Hook for our holiday musical event Peter Pan Live!. He’s not only one of the most versatile actors in our business, but his love of musicals and uncanny abilities as a dancer make him perfect for stepping into this classic James M. Barrie character. Get ready to be charmed, amused, frightened, and dazzled by Captain Hook in an entirely original way.”
After taking a look at this photo, we now understand why Greenblatt said we’ll be frightened and dazzled by Walken’s portrayal of Hook.
There are big changes in store at Oxygen and as the network moves toward a rebrand they’ve announced five new series have been given the go-ahead. With these new fives shows, Oxygen Media’s now up to 13 new original series all targeting women. The five new shows are aimed at young, modern women and include The Investment Club, The Prancing Elite Project, The Wilkersons, and Finding My Father. The network’s also working on a spinoff of Preachers of L.A. titled Preachers of Detroit.
“Oxygen is committed to delivering more authentic originals geared to young, multicultural women,” said Rod Aissa, Executive Vice President of Original Programming and Development. “These vibrant series reinforce the network’s new programming direction as we continue to shape the future of Oxygen.”
The network’s new tagline “very real” sums up the rebranding which will officially take place on October 7, 2014.
Details on Oxygen’s New Series:
The Investment Club (working title)
Produced by Fremantle Media with Thom Beers serving as Executive Producer.
The outlook for young business owners hoping to turn their ideas into billions has never looked better. This risk-taking new series brings together passionate millennial hopefuls attempting to make their mark in entrepreneurial history with young, self-made business moguls who have already paved the way. These aspiring professionals will pitch their innovative new products to the “Investment Club” where they are given the opportunity to make large funds on the burgeoning businesses. Cameras will also follow these successful CEO’s outside the boardroom as they personally invest in each business they want to help evolve.
The Prancing Elite Project (working title)
Produced by Crazy Legs Productions with Tom Cappello and Alana Goldstein serving as Executive Producers.
Set in the high-stakes world of Southern dance teams, this show chronicles the story of the Prancing Elites—an all-male competitive dance team in Mobile, Alabama who are looking to go from a one-click-wonder to a national sensation. With big personalities and even more heart, these five best friends will navigate the pitfalls of stardom and interpersonal drama all while attempting to break down the stereotypes and barriers put in their path towards success.
The Wilkersons (working title)
Produced by Magical Elves with Jane Lipsitz and Dan Cutforth serving as Executive Producers, along with Executive Producers Giuliana Rancic, Jason Kennedy and Rich Wilkerson.
Pastor Rich Wilkerson made international headlines when he married friends Kanye West and Kim Kardashian in a glamorous wedding in Florence, Italy. But even though he preaches to the A-list, his true passion is sharing his faith with the world and being part of a movement of young believers. A more entertaining way of spreading the gospel, this series not only walks with people through the struggles of their lives, but also sheds light on how Rich Wilkerson and his wife DawnCheré are committed to making church and faith fun as well as unexpected. With the entire family involved in the church, they are ready to share their innovative and thought-provoking ministering with both the believers and non-believers.
Finding My Father (working title)
Produced by Asylum Entertainment with Steve Michaels, Jonathan Koch and Stephanie Lydecker serving as Executive Producers.
These men and women who grew up without their fathers are now on a mission to find him and try to fill the void they’ve felt their whole lives. Each episode will follow two people as they search for the truth about their past with the help of a private investigator. As these people are at a crossroads in their life, they must decide if they want closure or to start the relationship they’ve always longed for.
Preachers of Detroit
Produced by L. Plummer Media in association with Relevé Entertainment with Lemuel Plummer, Holly Carter and Chris Costine serving as Executive Producers.
Oxygen is expanding the network’s popular franchise and heading to Motown for Preachers of Detroit, set to premiere winter 2015. The series will also focus on powerful themes of faith, family, and friendship as these seven men and women of the cloth share their lives, transformations and triumphs in and out of the pulpit in Detroit, Michigan. The prominent pastors include Bishop Charles Ellis, Pastor David Bullock, Evangelist Dorinda Clark-Cole, Pastor Don Shelby, Bishop Corletta Vaughn, Bishop-Elect Clarence Langston, and Pastor Tim Alden.
Kerry Washington and Jimmy Fallon on ‘The Tonight Show’ (Photo by Douglas Gorenstein/NBC)
The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon took on Scandal star Kerry Washington in a game of Box of Lies, a one-on-one competition that’s one of Fallon’s favorites on the show. In order to win the challenge, either Jimmy or Kerry had to correctly decide whether their opponent was telling the truth about the contents of their mystery box. The first to make it to two won the challenge, and this one was over very quickly.
“Just like old times, eh Finch,” says John Reese (Jim Caviezel). “Hardly,” replies Harold Finch (Michael Emmerson) who has reluctantly rejoined his old partner and Sameen Shaw (Sarah Shahi) in trying to save an electronics shop owner and his son who are in deep with a street gang that’s trying to become a bigger force in New York City in the season four premiere episode of CBS’ crime series Person of Interest.
It’s been a few months since Reese, Finch, Shaw, and Root (Amy Acker) blinded Decima’s A.I. master computer called Samaritan to their existence by going underground and taking on new identities. Finch is a college professor, Reese a narcotics cop, Shaw a perfume sales lady at Bloomingdales – yeah she hates it – and Root still comes in and out of their lives when Finch’s machine tells her to. But now the machine reaches out to Reese and calls him with a new number of a Person of Interest. Eager to get back to their old mission of helping people, Reese quickly tries to enlist both Shaw and Finch to join him. Alas, Finch warns Reese it’s impossible with Samaritan constantly watching and never stopping its search for them. Reese, however, will not be stopped and keeping a low profile discovers the number belongs to an electronics store owner who is being forced by a gang who kidnapped his son to create a new non-tappable mobile network to avoid being discovered by the police.
Meanwhile, Root pays a visit to Finch and tells him that he can’t sit this out. “You have to pick a side because this is war…and you have a god in this fight and she’s fighting for her life,” says Root who has always liked to believe that Harold’s machine is female. Realizing Root is right, Finch meets up with Reese and begins to help the store owner finish the untraceable mobile device to have something to bargain with for his son. Using his expertise with computers, Finch is able to locate the gang’s hideout to allow Reese and Shaw to head out and try to save the store owner’s son with the help of an unexpected ally.
Suspenseful and engaging, Person of Interest’s season four premiere titled “Panopticon” brings back the show’s heroes with a glimmer of hope and a reconnecting of the main characters. It was the darkest hour at the end of last season for Reese, Finch, Shaw, and Root who were on the run and attempting to disappear from Decima and its super machine Samaritan. They were struggling to stay alive and being forced to part ways and take on new identities, but now that they’re reunited and slowly beginning to make a difference again, Reese, Finch, and Shaw just might be able to begin again while needing to stay under the radar of Samaritan’s watchful eye.
Jim Caviezel is still perfect as John Reese a.k.a “The Man in the Black Suit” who yearns the most out of his five colleagues to get back to helping and saving people. The season four premiere offers a pleasant twist and change for his character who has always been the most lethal of the group and who could turn cold and do what was necessary to help or save a life. This time it’s Reese the machine reaches out to, as if already knowing he needs to get back to work. Reese and Root are now the two characters who have become the moral center of the show as they try to bring Finch back from his desolation, fear, and depression and remind him that it was HE who started all of it because every life matters.
Michael Emerson is flawless as Harold Finch, the brilliant billionaire genius who’s lost his faith in the machine he created – still haunted from the time his machine wanted Reese to kill a senator to prevent Samaritan from going online – and even finds himself doubting if he, Reese and the others have made a positive difference at all. For the first time since the series started the man who never once doubted their mission and purpose is lost and alone. And it’s still the scenes between Reese and Finch that are the highlights of the show.
Sarah Shahi gets most of the laugh and smile moments in the show as Shaw, the trained assassin who’s now forced to smile and spray perfume for customers…a few of whom get a face full of perfume they were never interested in. The writers have lightened her character up a little, giving her some very funny lines such as when she reteams with Reese and finds out his cover identity is being a narcotics cop. She says, “Not fair! At least you get to bang in a few heads here and there.” She’s almost become the comic relief in a very dark cloak and dagger show.
With stunning action scenes, sharp and crisp dialogue, loud car and truck crashes, intense shoot-outs, and intelligent and deadly villains who still have the upper hand against our heroes, Person of Interest season four is shaping up to be the most compelling season yet of the best crime drama series on television.
Adam Wingard’s The Guest finds Dan Stevens playing a sensual shark, a predatory beast with a gorgeous smile and blue eyes that flash with warmth and humor while he’s in the presence of anyone he wants to impress. But watch him alone in a room away from anyone’s eyes and it’s a different story completely. Those eyes turn steely cold and the mouth goes grim.
In The Guest, Stevens proves he’s leading man material in a way he’s never had the opportunity to do before, stretching those muscles, putting on the charm when needed, and turning lethal at the drop of a hat. The Guest gives Stevens a juicy role and he eats it up, obviously relishing every delicious bite.
Director Wingard and writer Simon Barrett (the team that brought us You’re Next) created a brutally vicious horror film yet one with a flair for fun. Stevens stars as David, a veteran who knocks on the door of the family of one of his fallen brother-in-arms, Caleb, politely introducing himself with all the requisite ma’ams and sirs and earning a stay in the dead soldier’s room.
David plays nice with the family but there’s a cruel undercurrent flowing through his actions. Something’s not quite right with this veteran and it’s not explained away with PTSD as Caleb’s dad (Leland Orser) hypothesizes. Caleb’s mom is blind to any of David’s faults but then again, she’s so shut down following the death of her son that she wouldn’t notice if there was, literally, an elephant sitting in her living room.
Daughter Anna (Maika Monroe) and son Luke (Brendan Meyer) are cautious with this stranger who’s worked his way into their lives, protective of their mom and dad and leery of letting David get too close. But while they initially hold David at arm’s length, he charms his way into their confidence by saying exactly what they want to hear and by being a badass that no one will mess with. Plus, Anna doesn’t want to admit it but this hunky stranger’s getting her all hot and bothered, something that’s evident to David when he notices her reaction after he emerges from a shower wearing nothing but a towel.
So what’s David’s real story? It’s very vaguely discussed but he was apparently part of an “experimental military program” run by Major Carver (Lance Reddick). And while David’s a killer and has plans to add to his kill count, this bare minimum knowledge of his past allows us to view him as both a villain and a victim. Does he actually want to kill or is this something programmed into him that he has no control over whatsoever? Mulling over David’s motivation for murder is just one of the joys of sitting through The Guest.
Wingard plays the horror straight, with the characters never once winking at the camera. This is a solid, taut, and delightfully clever horror/thriller that doesn’t hit a single wrong note. Any jokes are organic to the story and the storytelling is so smooth that not once are we laughing at these characters. As the tension ratchets up in the final act, The Guest takes the story to an actual fun house maze, complete with fog machine and mirrors. But instead of being a silly letdown that comes across as a generic horror movie ripoff, this maze of mirrors and smoke provides the perfect atmosphere in which to play out the showdown that’s been set up so carefully throughout the film.
Season two of The Curse of Oak Island is set to premiere on November 4, 2014 at 9pm ET/PT followed by the series premiere of Search for the Lost Giants at 10pm. Kevin Burns, Matt Ginsburg, Mike Stiller and Elaine Frontain Bryant are executive producers of The Curse of Oak Island and Search for the Lost Giants is executive produced by Ken Druckerman, Banks Tarver, Matt Ginsburg, Wendy Greene and Elaine Frontain Bryant.
Here are the details on what viewers can expect from both shows when they debut in November:
In season two of The Curse of Oak Island, brothers Rick and Marty Lagina are ratcheting up their search for an elusive treasure that sits at the heart of a 200-year-old mystery. Located in the North Atlantic, Oak Island is believed by many to be hiding one of the greatest treasures in history. Since the late 1700’s, fortunes have been spent and lives have been lost, but no one has ever been able to crack the code to get at the prize. A prophecy says that seven people will die before the treasure is found. So far, six have perished in accidents across the years.
In the new season, Rick and Marty are upping the stakes after their invigorating find of a 17th century coin they discovered at the end of season one. This time around, the brothers and their team of experts are digging deeper and pushing their search further. They will use new technology and explore new theories, hunting clues from around the world to find out what lies beneath Oak Island.
The bible says, “There were giants in the earth in those days.” In Search for the Lost Giants, brothers Bill and Jim Viera set off on a nationwide quest for the truth. Several years ago, these hard-working stonemasons stumbled upon something in the Massachusetts woods that would change their lives forever: the brothers found a set of ancient stone structures and tunnels that could be the clue to a lost civilization. Further research led them to dozens of published accounts of giant bones and skeletons, some of which were found in similar structures across the country. These stone structures could be the clue to a lost civilization of giants that has never been mentioned in the history books.
According to articles from the turn of the 20th century and various town histories, many of the remains were those of 9-12 feet tall humanoids, with double rows of teeth. But none of the reported skeletons can be found in any museum. If a race of giants once existed, where is the evidence today?
In Search for the Lost Giants, the Vieira brothers take their search for proof across America. They’ll explore secret chambers, underground tunnels, and mysterious burial mounds. Their startling discoveries could ultimately unearth a secret chapter in American history.
Aaron Paul (Photo by Richard Chavez/ShowbizJunkies)
Emmy-winner Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) has signed on to star alongside Jamie Dornan (Fifty Shades of Grey) in the thriller The 9th Life of Louis Drax. Alexandre Aja’s attached to direct and Max Minghella adapted Liz Jensen’s book for the screen.
Filming’s expected to kick off next month in Canada. Minghella, Aja, Tim Bricknell, and Shawn Williamson are producing the supernatural thriller.
The Plot:
The 9th Life of Louis Drax begins on Louis Drax’s 9th birthday, when a lifetime of curious mishaps culminates in the boy’s near-fatal fall. Desperate to reveal the strange circumstances behind the young boy’s accident, Dr. Allan Pascal (Dornan) is drawn into a thrilling mystery, testing the boundaries of fantasy and reality.
Per the official announcement by Miramax, Paul will be playing Louis Drax’s father, Peter, who becomes the target of a criminal investigation when his son suffers a near fatal accident.
A scene from ‘Let’s Kill Ward’s Wife’ (Photo Provided by Tribeca Film and Well Go USA Entertainment)
Actor Scott Foley’s directorial debut Let’s Kill Ward’s Wife has been picked up by Tribeca Film and Well Go USA Entertainment. Foley also stars in the dark comedy along with Amy Acker, James Carpinello, Dagmara Dominczyk, Marika Dominczyk, Donald Faison, Greg Grunberg, Nicollette Sheridan, and Patrick Wilson. In addition, Foley wrote the script and co-produced the film.
“Scott Foley leads a stellar ensemble in his delightful directorial debut, the pitch black comedy Let’s Kill Ward’s Wife,” said Tribeca’s Geoff Gilmore. “A playful, funny even slightly perverse look at marriage and friends, this is a wonderfully funny satire that will engage and provoke anyone who has ever contemplated ways to end a bad relationship.”
“Patrick, James and I are thrilled that our passion project has garnered so much interest. Let’s Kill Ward’s Wife is a movie that we’re all very close to and we know that Tribeca Film and Well Go USA is the perfect home for our film,” added Foley.
Let’s Kill Ward’s Wife will arrive first on Video-on-Demand in December with a theatrical release to follow in January 2015.
The Plot:
Let’s Kill Ward’s Wife is a hilariously dark comedy about helping a friend out of a bad relationship by any means necessary. Everyone hates Ward’s wife and wants her dead, Ward most of all. But when his friends’ murderous fantasies turn into an (accidental) reality, they have to deal with a whole new set of problems — like how to dispose of the body and still make their 3 p.m. tee time.
