A&E’s just released teaser trailers for the upcoming documentary Biography: Bobby Brown and the series Bobby Brown: Every Little Step. The Bobby Brown documentary will be released over two nights – May 30 and 31 – at 8pm ET/PT. The 12 episode series premieres on May 31st at 10pm ET/PT.
Both projects feature interviews and exclusive footage, with the series delving into Brown’s professional life and personal struggles.
A&E Network released the following descriptions of the two upcoming Bobby Brown projects:
“From growing up in the housing projects of Roxbury, Massachusetts, through his rise to fame with New Edition and beyond, Bobby Brown shares his personal journey like never before in Biography: Bobby Brown. In exclusive interviews, the R&B icon unveils his struggles with substance abuse, his marriage to Whitney Houston, the devastating loss of Houston and his two children and his life as a devoted father and husband to Alicia Etheredge-Brown.
Confronting his very personal yet very public struggles, Brown recounts what it was like to become a music phenomenon at such a young age in this tell-all documentary. In an effort to come to terms with his tumultuous past, Bobby, for the very first time, visits the gravesite of Whitney Houston and daughter Bobbi Kristina and holds a deeply moving tribute in honor of Bobby Junior. The documentary includes interviews with Usher, Jermaine Dupri, Keith Sweat, Babyface, New Edition’s Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Ronnie DeVoe and Johnny Gill, as well as his family, friends, and those who experienced this journey with him. Over the course of two nights, viewers will get to hear never-before-heard stories as they reflect on Bobby’s life both on and off stage.
After facing immense tragedy and adversity in the public eye, the Browns are ready to invite fans into their world as they embark on a new chapter of life in the 12-episode docuseries Bobby Brown: Every Little Step. Through exclusive access into their day-to-day lives, follow along as Bobby juggles his music career, raising a family, dealing with the recent loss of his son, sobriety, and focusing on his physical health. There’s never a dull moment in the Brown household as they move through the triumphs and travails of everyday life and prepare for new adventures.”
Universal Pictures’ trailer for the new adaptation of Stephen King’sFirestarter finds the parents of a young girl with extraordinary powers arguing over the best approach to keeping her safe. The dad’s certain that if the feds ever discover her pyrokinetic powers the authorities will lock her away forever.
King’s Firestarter was previously adapted into a feature film in 1984 with Drew Barrymore playing the young girl with special powers. This version has Ryan Kiera Armstrong (American Horror Story: Double Feature) starring as Charlie. Zac Efron (Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile) plays her dad, Andy, and Sydney Lemmon (Succession) is her mom, Vicky.
Kurtwood Smith (Amityville: The Awakening), John Beasley (The Purge: Anarchy), Michael Greyeyes (Home Before Dark), and Gloria Reuben (Mr. Robot) also star.
Keith Thomas (The Vigil) directed from a screenplay by Scott Teems (Halloween Kills). Blumhouse’s Jason Blum and Weed Road Pictures’ Akiva Goldsman produce, with Ryan Turek, Gregory Lessans, Scott Teems, Martha De Laurentiis, J.D. Lifshitz, and Raphael Margules executive producing.
John Carpenter (Halloween, Christine, The Fog) joins his fellow Halloween franchise composers Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies to compose Firestarter‘s score.
Universal will release Firestarter in theaters and on Peacock on May 13, 2022.
The Plot:
In a new adaptation of Stephen King’s classic thriller from the producers of The Invisible Man, a girl with extraordinary pyrokinetic powers fights to protect her family and herself from sinister forces that seek to capture and control her.
For more than a decade, parents Andy (Efron) and Vicky (Lemmon) have been on the run, desperate to hide their daughter Charlie (Armstrong) from a shadowy federal agency that wants to harness her unprecedented gift for creating fire into a weapon of mass destruction.
Andy has taught Charlie how to defuse her power, which is triggered by anger or pain. But as Charlie turns 11, the fire becomes harder and harder to control. After an incident reveals the family’s location, a mysterious operative (Greyeyes) is deployed to hunt down the family and seize Charlie once and for all. Charlie has other plans.
Students, a stay-at-home dad, a healthcare worker, and a retired firefighter are among the 18 castaways who will be competing on CBS’s Survivor season 42. The new season will kick off on Wednesday, March 9, 2022 at 8pm ET/PT with a special two-hour extended premiere.
Emmy Award-winner Jeff Probst returns to guide the castaways through the challenges as host.
CBS’s cast announcement included details on the upcoming season:
“After 20 years, the CBS Original groundbreaking reality television show continues to evolve when these 18 new players face one of the most intense versions of Survivor ever. This season continues to define a bold new era of the series with the return of risky beware advantages, game-changing twists, and a relentless pace that will push these castaways to their limits. Values will be tested and the players’ motivations highlighted when the fierce competition unfolds on the beautiful islands of Fiji.
These determined players will be divided into three tribes of six and face a faster, more extreme season from the moment they step foot on the beach. The unpredictable situations will test even the strongest competitor, as food is scarce, rewards and supplies are minimal, and the mental and physical challenges force players to make impossible decisions and adjust their strategies, while still navigating the complex social game.
The individuals competing on season 42 are from diverse backgrounds and bring a fresh perspective to this new era of the game; but the ultimate goal remains the same: to outwit, outplay and outlast, and in the end, only one will remain to claim the title of Sole Survivor and win the $1 million prize.”
Pictured Top Left to Right: Lydia Meredith, Rocksroy Bailey, Marya Sherron, Jonathan Young, Mike Turner, Drea Wheeler, Romeo Escobar, Lindsay Dolashewich, Hai Giang, and Chanelle Howell. Pictured Bottom Left to Right: Zach Wurtenberger, Tori Meehan, Daniel Strunk, Maryanne Oketch, Jackson Fox, Jenny Kim, Omar Zaheer, and Swati Goel in ‘Survivor’ season 42 (Photo: Robert Voets / CBS Entertainment 2021 CBS Broadcasting, Inc)
SURVIVOR SEASON 42 CASTAWAYS
Name: Chanelle Howell
Age: 29
Hometown: Hamden, Conn.
Current Residence: New York, N.Y.
Occupation: Executive recruiter
Name: Daniel Strunk
Age: 30
Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio
Current Residence: New Haven, Conn.
Occupation: Law clerk
Name: Drea Wheeler
Age: 35
Hometown: San Antonio, Texas
Current Residence: Montreal, Quebec
Occupation: Fitness consultant
Name: Hai Giang
Age: 29
Hometown: Atlanta, Ga. / Gia Rai, Bac Lieu, Vietnam
Current Residence: New Orleans, La.
Occupation: Data scientist
Name: Jackson Fox
Age: 48
Hometown: Pasadena, Texas
Current Residence: Houston, Texas
Occupation: Healthcare worker
Name: Jenny Kim
Age: 43
Hometown: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Current Residence: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Occupation: Creative director
Name: Jonathan Young
Age: 29
Hometown: Gadsden, Ala.
Current Residence: Gulf Shores, Ala.
Occupation: Beach service co. owner
Name: Lindsay Dolashewich
Age: 31
Hometown: Morganville, N.J.
Current Residence: Asbury Park, N.J.
Occupation: Dietitian
Name: Lydia Meredith
Age: 22
Hometown: Fredericksburg, Va.
Current Residence: Santa Monica, Calif.
Occupation: Waitress
A24’s trippy teaser trailer for Men gives away absolutely nothing other than the fact Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley (Lost Daughter) is front and center in the story. There are only a couple lines of dialogue in the teaser, however, one – “What the F*ck?” – perfectly captures the reaction while watching this first glimpse at writer/director Alex Garland‘s latest film.
In addition to Jessie Buckley, the cast includes Rory Kinnear (Penny Dreadful: City of Angels) and Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You).
Alex Garland’s filmography includes 2018’s Annihilation starring Natalie Portman and Ex Machina with Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac, and Domhnall Gleeson. Garland earned a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination for Ex Machina in 2014. He recently turned his attention to television, creating the FX on Hulu sci-fi limited series Devs starring Sonoya Mizuno, Nick Offerman, and Alison Pill.
A24 has set a May 20, 2022 theatrical release date.
The Men Plot, Courtesy of A24:
“In the aftermath of a personal tragedy, Harper (Jessie Buckley) retreats alone to the beautiful English countryside, hoping to have found a place to heal. But someone or something from the surrounding woods appears to be stalking her. What begins as simmering dread becomes a fully-formed nightmare, inhabited by her darkest memories and fears in visionary filmmaker Alex Garland’s feverish, shape-shifting new horror film.”
Apple TV+ will launch season one of the riveting dramatic thriller Severance on February 18, 2022. Created by Dan Erickson, Severance is set in a world in which a new procedure’s been developed that allows employees of a fictional corporation (Lumon Industries) the ability to literally separate their work lives from their personal lives. The personal life has no idea what the work life does during their time in control of the body and vice-versa.
Severance stars Adam Scott as Mark Scout, the Lumon Industries employee at the center of season one. Britt Lower plays Helly, Mark’s co-worker and a newcomer to the severance procedure.
Scott, Lower, and series creator, writer and executive producer Dan Erickson joined executive producer and director Ben Stiller for Apple TV+’s 2022 Television Critics Association’s virtual winter press tour. During the panel, Stiller said he was excited to dig into something that felt different than other projects he’s been involved in.
“You know, I didn’t really know exactly what the tone was going to be going into it. I had an idea. I think we all had an idea but that’s what I really loved about the writing,” explained Stiller. “It felt very unique, and so it was exciting to go into something that was different, for sure.”
Creator Dan Erickson described the series’ setting as deliberately ambiguous. Severance takes place somewhere in America but neither the geographic location nor year are ever discussed.
“We obviously shot mostly in New York, in New Jersey, so there’s sort of a vague New England, East Coast-y feel to the city. But we didn’t really want to know exactly where it was or tie it to a specific locale,” explained Erickson. “And then the time…I would just say it is around now. It’s like vaguely now-ish. We’re not going for something where like, you know, this is 10 years in the future where severance has existed or has been invented and already exists. It’s sort of an alternate, vaguely now-ish timeline.”
Tramell Tillman, Zach Cherry, John Turturro, Britt Lower and Adam Scott in ‘Severance’ (Photo Courtesy of Apple TV+)
Erickson was also deliberately vague when it came to the actual severance process. When Adam Scott as Mark enters Lumon Industries, how does he suddenly lose his memories of life outside of work? Those who’ve gone through the severance process label their two halves as innies and outies, but how does the switch take place?
Erickson joked that he has files in his laptop that explain how he made it make sense scientifically, but viewers don’t need all the intricate details to understand when the innie/outie swap happens.
“…Suffice it to say there’s some sort of a barrier that, you know, if you’re basically halfway down the elevator, you pass it,” said Erickson. “We’ve talked about it as a [trip] wire; we talked about it as just some sort of a threshold. You pass that and it sends a frequency in the chip in your head that causes you to switch to your innie mode and then it just comes back up when you’re going home.”
Essentially, the actors playing characters who’ve undergone the severance process are playing two versions of their characters. Adam Scott said the actors were given all nine of season one’s scripts before shooting so they knew exactly what the innie and outie versions of their characters would be going through.
“We didn’t go episode by episode. We were shooting it all basically at once. We were jumping around constantly, so we got all of them. And it was great to know exactly where things are going because often in TV, or at least in TV I’ve done, you’re finding out week by week what’s unfolding for your character. Which is super interesting, as well, but this was really handy to be able to know where you’re going and be able to jump in and know exactly where you are in the arc.
And as far as the innie and outie of Mark, it was important to Ben and Dan and I that this not feel like…that we not approach it like it’s two different characters,” explained Scott. “I think for an actor, often your first instinct in a situation like that is to be like, ‘Yeah, I want one of them to have like a mustache and a limp or something like that.’ But this, it was very important that this be one guy and it’s just different parts of one guy or almost different halves.”
Scott continued: “And so the differences are subtle. I mean, one of them has 40-odd years-worth of life experience and the sorrow and grief and joy and all of the stuff that goes along with that. And the other one is, for all intents and purposes, two or two and a half years old but physiologically is bringing in a lot of that stuff and a lot of the feelings from the outside world but just doesn’t know how to locate it or name it. And so it was a matter of figuring out what those differences are from one to the other, the addition/subtraction of that and how it may manifest physically or in the voice or you know, and how that changes over the course of the story. That’s kind of how we approached it.”
Describing her approach to playing Helly, the most recent Lumon employee to undergo severance, Britt Lower said, “So Helly obviously wakes up on an office table, having no clue who she is. And so, as an actor, I was doing a lot of homework outside of work but primarily when I was coming to set as Helly, my job was to be in a state of discovery, investigating what is going on.
One of the lines I say most often is, ‘What the hell?’ and I think Helly is operating as kind of this avatar for the audience, understanding what it’s like to have the severance procedure, to have no clue who you are and to immediately be in this place that you’re like…she immediately knows she’s got to get out of there. Her instinct is to escape right away. And so being able to just be present to the elements of design that were contributing to that eeriness and to be in a state of investigation was kind of the way I went.”
Severance addresses the work/life balance and takes the division between the two to the extreme. Erickson found it ironic that writing a script about hating work wound up getting him a job that he loves.
“It’s sort of been a strange evolution for me. But I will say you know going into this, I think in this industry in this particular job, it’s one of many, many jobs where it is hard to separate work/life balance. I think since the pandemic, certainly, a lot of people are working from home. You’re doing your job 10 feet from where you sleep. So, for me, it’s been a challenge to sort of teach myself to be like, ‘Okay, it’s 5 p.m., I’m done. I’m gonna sit on the couch and watch something and not think about this anymore.’ And it’s a challenge, especially when it’s something you love,” said Erickson.
Britt Lower describes Severance as being about the very human desire to want to compartmentalize parts of our lives. “And what really struck me about the role of Helly is that she really becomes her own worst enemy in this series, and she thinks of herself as…you know, she’s at odds with herself. And I think the core question is does forgetting about the painful parts of life or the parts of yourself that you don’t like for half the day, does that make life better or worse? And there’s a lot to chew on in there,” said Lower.
Ben Stiller thinks Dan Erickson’s created a series that’s more than just a metaphor for the work/life balance. He believes Severance addresses how we live our lives in general.
“Like what we’re doing in our lives and how we’re going through this experience that we all have of being alive and how we spend our time and what we question and don’t question,” said Stiller. “I feel like that’s so there in that workspace, that that idea, that really resonates and made me think about it a lot. As we were sort of toiling to make the show about people toiling and doing things, we were all sort of like wondering what are we all doing here, doing all this stuff, keeping ourselves busy? I mean, it’s not just that, but I think ultimately, those bigger questions are interesting and kind of somehow resonate for me with this show.”
Adam Scott’s takeaway was less philosophical. “I feel like one of many things I learned was never let a stranger put a microchip into your brain. It’s just not a good idea, no matter how terrific the promises sound. Just stop. Or just really think about it before you let it happen,” joked Scott.
Owen hunts for aliens while Tommy believes her house is haunted on Fox’s 9-1-1: Lone Star season three episode six. “The ATX-Files” will air on Monday, February 14, 2022 at 8pm ET/PT.
Season three stars Rob Lowe as Owen Strand, Gina Torres as Tommy Vega, Ronen Rubinstein as T.K. Strand, Sierra McClain as Grace Ryder, and Jim Parrack as Judd Ryder. Natacha Karam plays Marjan Marwani, Brian Michael Smith is Paul Strickland, Rafael Silva is Carlos Reyes, Julian Works is Mateo Chavez, and Brianna Baker plays Nancy Gillian.
“The ATX-Files” Plot: In an attempt to bond with Wyatt, Owen and Judd take the teen alien hunting, but their search takes a different turn when they find two dead bodies. Meanwhile, Tommy joins a grief group for widowers, as mysterious events around her house lead her to believe Charles is communicating from the beyond with her and the twins. Then, a woman fears she is cursed and takes drastic measures to cure herself.
The Season 3 Plot:
In the third season, a slight time-jump takes place after the events of the previous season finale found the 126 shut down and the crew dispersed across the city. In the multi-episode opening storyline, a massive and unexpected arctic front hits Austin. As the ice storm causes widespread chaos, Owen and Tommy must not only save the city but find a way to resurrect and reunite the former 126.
Melissa O’Neil and Niecy Nash in ‘The Rookie’ season 4 episode 20 (ABC/Raymond Liu)
Niecy Nash’s upcoming guest-starring appearance in two episodes of ABC’s The Rookie season four will pave the way for a possible starring role in a The Rookie spinoff. The two-episode arc sets up an untitled spinoff that could join the network’s primetime lineup next season. According to ABC, The Rookie and its spinoff will be able to swap characters as they’ll exist in the same universe.
ABC describes Nash’s character, Simone Clark, as “a force of nature, the living embodiment of a dream deferred – and the oldest rookie in the FBI Academy.” Simone Clark will be introduced in an episode that finds Officer John Nolan and the LA division of the FBI turning to her for help when her former student is suspected of terrorism.
“I’m so excited to guest star on The Rookie and bring Simone Clark to life! She is a spirited and spicy fish out of water,” stated Nash. “The cast is amazing and I can’t wait to play!”
The Rookie season four stars Nathan Fillion as John Nolan, Mekia Cox as Nyla Harper, Alyssa Diaz as Angela Lopez, and Richard T. Jones as Wade Grey. Melissa O’Neil is Lucy Chen and Eric Winter stars as Tim Bradford.
Season four airs on ABC on Sundays at 10pm ET/PT.
Niecy Nash earned two Emmy nominations for her supporting role in Getting On and an additional nomination for her work in When They See Us. Her television credits also include Scream Queens, Masters of Sex, Claws, and Reno 9-1-1.
Disney and Pixar’s new trailer for Lightyear reveals what the Space Ranger was up to in the years before we met him in Toy Story. Chris Evans lends his voice to Buzz during the character’s early career as a Space Ranger.
“Buzz’s world was always something I was excited about,” stated director Angus MacLane. “In Toy Story, there seemed to be this incredible backstory to him being a Space Ranger that’s only touched upon, and I always wanted to explore that world further. So my Lightyear pitch was, ‘What was the movie that Andy saw that made him want a Buzz Lightyear toy?’ I wanted to see that movie. And now I’m lucky enough to get to make it.”
In addition to Chris Evans in the title role, the voice cast of the animated prequel includes Keke Palmer, Dale Soules, and Taika Waititi as ambitious recruits. Peter Sohn is voicing Sox, Buzz’s feline robot companion. Uzo Aduba, James Brolin, Mary McDonald-Lewis, Efren Ramirez, and Isiah Whitlock Jr also lend their voices to Lightyear characters.
“The cast for Lightyear is truly a dream team,” said director MacLane. “Each of the performers immediately inhabited their character, which gave us the opportunity to play a bit during recording sessions. This resulted in a level of specificity that elevated the material and brought additional depth to the characters’ relationships. It has been a privilege to work with such a talented and generous cast.”
Disney and Pixar’s trailer was accompanied by the announcement that Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino (Up) will score Lightyear. Giacchino was also responsible for the scores of Pixar’s The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Cars 2, Inside Out, Coco, and Incredibles 2.
Sam Richardson, Jamie Demetriou, Ben Schwartz, John Early, Tiffany Haddish, Tiya Sircar, Kelvin Yu, Genevieve Angelson, Illana Glazer, Zoë Chao and Ike Barinholtz in Apple TV+’s ‘The Afterparty’
Fans of Apple TV+’s The Afterparty can rest assured the killer will be revealed by the end of the season. Plus, executive producer/writer Phil Lord swears The Afterparty is a “fair play mystery.” There won’t be some random stranger showing up in the finale who turns out to be the killer. The person who murdered Xavier (played by Dave Franco) during a high school reunion party is definitely someone viewers meet during the season.
The Afterparty creator, writer, executive producer, director, and showrunner Chris Miller joined Lord and six of the series’ talented cast members for the 2022 Television Critics Association’s virtual winter press panel. No spoilers were revealed, however, The Afterparty gang did deliver quite a few interesting tidbits – including a surprising revelation about the characters’ names.
Miller explained the characters came first, followed by creating a mystery that worked, with the genre aspect coming in later. “[…] We were sort of looking at each character and thinking about how can we approach the style of what their worldview is, and then as we picked genres for each person then it’s sort of we had to adjust everything and adjust our characters to sort of fit into the world of that style,” said Miller. “And so, it did keep evolving back and forth, but it started with the characters and the mystery first, and then the genres sort of built out of who they were.”
Miller added: “It was a math problem at first. That’s why all the characters’ names start with A, B, C, D, W, X, Y, Z. (Aniq, Brett, Chelsea, Danner, Walt, Xavier, Yasper, and Zoe.)
Each of the suspects has a specific episode in which they lay out the events leading up to Xavier’s murder from their point of view. And each episode unfolds in a different, specific genre.
Ben Schwartz’s character, Yasper, tells his story to Detective Danner (Tiffany Haddish) as if he’s part of a musical.
“My email when I got it from Chris said, ‘This is what the format of the show is. It’s going to be a murder mystery. Each episode is going to be a different genre. And he said, ‘And your genre is going to be musical.’ And first of all, getting anything from Phil or Chris, I say yes. It could have been anything. And then, literally, a week later when it was time to record the song Chris texted me and said, ‘Hey, do you know how to sing? Do you know how to sing or dance?’ after he had already cast me for the musical.
And I go, ‘Not like Ben Platt, but I can kind of pull it off.’ He goes, ‘Okay, good. I figured you’d be pretty good at it.’ And I was like, ‘Great.’
It was very funny to get cast as that role and then a week later, Chris being like, ‘Oh, and by the way, can you dance or sing?’” explained Schwartz.
Filming in different genres and from various points of view meant the actors had to change up how they played their characters, which sometimes meant taking things way over the top.
“I think it was a really fun way to shade your character too because you kind of get to play how other people see you. So, in Aniq’s romantic, I’m the best friend that idolizes him but I’m in the background. And then when it’s the musical time, it’s time where I think everything is all about me. My character barely notices anything that’s not about him,” said Schwartz. “It’s a really fun tool that Chris used to kind of shade your character in so many different ways. And as an actor, it’s so fun to play in a thriller and then to play in a romantic comedy and to play into this. And everybody’s so talented and amazing, so it’s so fun to watch.”
Ike Barinholtz (“Brett”) gives props to Chris Miller for making it easy on the actors, even with all the shifts in tone.
“He’s been sitting with this story in his head for a long time, so he has kind of mapped it out so specifically and knows all the answers. He kind of comes up to you after you shoot a take and he’s like, ‘That was great. So now we’re going to shoot this, and this is for 104 which is kind of a thriller, and this is Ilana’s POV, and in that, you’re trying to kill her.’ It’s a lot of explanation but he made it so clear and concise that there was never a minute where we were like, ‘Wait, what is this? What am I supposed to be doing?’ He allowed us just to kind of go in there and really just tear it up and have fun,” said Ike Barinholtz.
Ilana Glazer (“Chelsea”) described the switching up of genres as an excellent way to exercise their acting muscles. “And with this incredible cast, it was like we were athletes just stretching it out,” said Glazer.
Dave Franco joked that it was fun to play eight different shades of douche. “Where like in Ike’s episode, I get to be aggro douche. And then Ilana’s episode, I get to be kind of vulnerable awkward douche. It was a good time.”
And speaking of Dave Franco’s douchey pop star/murder victim character, Franco confirmed he did a little research to nail his obnoxious personality.
“I definitely looked at some interviews on YouTube. I probably shouldn’t say who because they might take offense,” said Franco. “I sympathize [with] this character. In the flashback episode, you kind of get to see that he wasn’t the coolest kid in high school, and he wasn’t accepted, and so you kind of get to see why he is acting out now. But I think for anyone who knew that this was based on them, they might take offense because on the surface, he’s a huge douche.”
Even with all the genres covered in season one, Phil Lord joked they have “roughly seven seasons and a movie worth of genres” in mind that wasn’t included in the first season.
“I would have loved to do magic, the magical genre,” said Tiffany Haddish. “And I would love to have done fantasy…a Dungeons and Dragons episode, in particular. I love playing Dungeons and Dragons.”
And what would Franco’s genre be? “I’d like to do a self-serious student film. [That] would have been fun.”
Ike Barinholtz suggested a softcore pornography episode while Ilana Glazer thinks there should be a The Afterparty episode shot in black and white and featuring Buster Keaton-style slapstick.
“Or do like a very grandiose sort of operatic kung fu film like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Like things balancing and every gesture is like spinning with wires,” suggested Sam Richardson (“Aniq”).
“I think I would love to do a film noir, like a full-on like detective-type film noir with like Colin Money Cabbage and stuff like that,” added Chris Miller.
Season one of Apple TV+’s The Afterparty premiered on January 28, 2022. New episodes arrive on Fridays.
Disney Junior’s animated series Alice’s Wonderland Bakery is a fresh, kid-friendly take on Alice in Wonderland. The new series focuses on Alice’s great-granddaughter and features new versions of beloved characters including The Mad Hatter, The March Hare, Queen of Hearts, and the Tweedledee and Tweedledum twins. And in this peppy yet educational series, Alice is a budding baker who whips up special treats in the enchanted Wonderland Bakery.
Alice’s Wonderland Bakery premieres on February 9, 2022, on the Disney Channel, Disney Junior, and Disney+. In support of its upcoming launch, executive producer Chelsea Beyl (Doc McStuffins) joined voice cast members Libby Rue (“Alice”), Donald Faison (“Harry the March Hare”), Eden Espinosa (“Queen of Hearts”), and one half of the renamed Tweedledee twins, Bobby Moynihan (“Tweedle Don’t”) for the Television Critics Association’s virtual winter press tour.
Executive producer Chelsea Beyl confirmed they used the 1951 animated feature film as a jumping-off point. “We did take all those wonderful, curious characters, but then we adapted them for preschoolers,” explained Chelsea Beyl. “So, we took the zany, the silliness, the whimsy of Wonderland and that’s what kind of made it so natural for kids.”
Beyl and art director/co-executive producer Frank Montagna studied the film and drew inspiration from its style and color palette. ”We really wanted to make the connection between the 1951 Disney feature and our show because there’s a lot of versions of Alice in Wonderland out there, but our show is inspired by the 1951 feature. So, of course, we wanted to include a lot of that Mary Blair influence of the curvy shapes and the beautiful colors,” said Beyl. “The movie is very dark in palette, but I think even some of our framing shots are straight out of the movie – colors and shapes, and even if you look at Alice’s outfit, she’s got the blue chef’s coat, the white apron, the bow. It’s a different look for a modern Alice but it’s very much reminiscent of original Alice.”
Donald Faison, the voice of Harry the March Hare, declared himself a huge fan of the original film. “I felt like it was really dark so when I found out that they were making a version that is more kid-friendly and they were interested in me being a part of it, I jumped at the opportunity. And so, personally, I’m just really excited to be able to sing for y’all because I never get that opportunity in the first place,” said Donald Faison, laughing.
Bobby Moynihan and Vanessa Bayer provide the voices of the Tweedledee twins, although in this version of the story the twins have been renamed Tweedle Don’t and Tweedle Do. Moynihan was happy to join the animated series and to play one of Disney’s legacy characters.
“Tweedle Don’t is…he’s the safe one. He’s the one that tells you not to do things, while Tweedle Do is kind of the one who’s like, ‘Do it, do it! which I think in real life is possibly the complete opposite of me and Vanessa Bayer,” joked Moynihan. “It just seemed like fun to play. And I love Disney and I love Vanessa.”
A scene from ‘Alice’s Wonderland Bakery’ (Disney)
“Alice is just so kind and one of the things that I think is her biggest superpower is she loves baking,” said Libby Rue, commenting on the series’ lead character. “And when she’s baking, she gets to cheer up her friends when they’re having a bad day and she gets to bake for all of Wonderland. And that makes her happy and it makes people around her happy. I think that’s such a great story for little kids because it tells you that when somebody’s having an off day, there’s always a way to cheer them up.”
Eden Espinosa, the series’ Queen of Hearts, was born in Anaheim and grew up spending lots of time at Disneyland. She even worked at the theme park, including a stint as the voice in the sky during the fireworks show.
“That created a lot of amazing opportunities with the Disney family. And now, diving into animation is such a dream come true for me. So to be able to collaborate with such a creative and amazing company is a blessing,” said Espinosa.
Asked if her experience playing Elphaba on Broadway helped her get into character as the Queen of Hearts, Espinosa replied, ”It definitely helps me tap into a different side of myself, but I think these two women in particular are very different. Elphaba really comes from a place of hurt and insecurity, and the Queen thinks very highly of herself.
So it’s actually fun to live that out, to really be like my biggest fan and to think that I’m amazing and everyone else should think I’m amazing. ‘Why don’t you think I’m amazing?’ That is so fun. So I don’t know if it prepared me, but I think playing both extremes and acting in that way is really a treat for anyone.”
Espinosa added: “I feel like these incarnations of these characters are more well-rounded and more human. They have a lot more sides to them. Especially, I feel, for the Queen. You see a lot more of her humanity and soft side and fun side, as well as, ‘Off with her head.’ But we don’t take anyone’s heads off.”
