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Tag: TV News

  • Peacock Sets Premiere Dates for ‘Vampire Academy’ and ‘Pitch Perfect’

    Peacock Sets Premiere Dates for ‘Vampire Academy’ and ‘Pitch Perfect’

    Peacock has set premiere dates for a slew of upcoming series. On deck for the streaming service are the small screen adaptations of both Vampire Academy and Pitch Perfect. The former, of course, is based on the best-selling book series by author Richelle Mead, while the Pitch Perfect series is a continuation of the beloved film franchise.

    Vampire Academy, which consists of six books, was originally adapted for the big screen in 2014. The film starred Zoey Deutch, Dominic Sherwood, Lucy Fry and Danila Kozlovsky. The film was both a critical and box office failure, receiving a 16% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and earning just $15 million at the worldwide box office. The new series hails from Julie Plec, who helped adapt The Vampire Diaries for the small screen, and Marguerite MacIntyre. It stars Sisi Stringer, Daniela Nieves and Kieron Moore.

    Set to debut on Sept. 15th, the synopsis for Vampire Academy is as follows:

    From executive producers Julie Plec & Marguerite MacIntyre comes a story of friendship, romance and danger. In a world of privilege and glamour, two young women’s friendship transcends their strikingly different classes as they prepare to complete their education and enter vampire society. One as a powerful Royal, the other a half-vampire Guardian trained to protect against the savage ‘Strigoi’ who threaten to tear their society apart. That is, if Royal infighting doesn’t do the job first.

    The small screen continuation of Pitch Perfect is titled Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin. It will debut on Peacock on Nov. 23rd. The television series will take place several years after the last Pitch Perfect film. Adam Devine‘s character, Bumper Allen, has since moved to Germany in hopes of reviving his music career and soon finds one of his songs has become huge in Berlin.

    Source: Variety.

  • Glen/Glenda to Return in ‘Chucky’ Season 2

    Glen/Glenda to Return in ‘Chucky’ Season 2

    It looks like an icon will make their return in the second season of Chucky, as SyFy has announced that Lachlan Watson will take on the role of Glen/Glenda in the season. They are the genderfluid child of Chucky and Tiffany that made their debut in Seed of Chucky. While they were briefly referenced in the first season, this will mark their first return since 2004, when Billy Boyd voiced the Chucky offspring. Check out the special message from Watson on taking on the role:

    It’s unclear how they’ll make their return to the franchise, especially given where we last saw the character. They join an already stacked cast that already saw the return of Brad Dourif and Jennifer Tilly. The first season continued where Curse and Cult of Chucky left off, which set up a new direction for the murdering kid’s toy.

    The series was pitched as a new take on the mythos and characters, especially after a remake was put in place that tried to reinvigorate the franchise on the silver screen, but just couldn’t bring the same kind of magic as the original. So, the series offered what everyone was hoping for and continued the franchise with the creative minds that made it an iconic part of everyone’s horror collection.

    Source: Twitter

  • ‘Moon Knight’ Head Writer Has Not Yet Heard About a Second Season

    ‘Moon Knight’ Head Writer Has Not Yet Heard About a Second Season

    Ever since Moon Knight completed its first season on Disney+ earlier this year, fans have been hopeful that the series would return for another outing. While the series was initially billed as a limited series, leading up to the show’s finale, Marvel Studios notably changed its promotional wording from “series finale” to “season finale.” This led to plenty of speculation that, unfortunately, has yet to result in an official confirmation that the series has been renewed. In a new interview with head writer Jeremy Slater, he revealed that he has not yet been contacted about a second season.

    When asked by Playlist if he’d heard about a second season of Moon Knight, Slater revealed that hadn’t heard anything. “I haven’t had any conversations with Marvel. I think a lot of those decisions are ultimately going to be in the hands of Kevin Feige because he’s the guy with the master plan,” he told the outlet. “And of course, Oscar Isaac, because he’s not signed up for the sort of traditional seven-film contract or whatever other actors have signed. Oscar has the ability to do as much or as little “Moon Knight” as he wants to. I think he had a great time playing the character, and I think he really enjoyed the process and is happy he did it. But I also think he’s not a guy who’s going to rush in and just sort of churn out a sequel just because the first one was popular.”

    Isaac, of course, stated he would gladly return for a second season, but only if the story under the right circumstances. He’d confirmed back in May that there’d been no official plans to continue the series, however, the right story could get him to return so long as it made sense.

    Moon Knight is currently streaming on Disney+.

    Source: Playlist.

  • ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Series to Use StageCraft Technology

    ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Series to Use StageCraft Technology

    Percy Jackson and the Olympians is set to continue the trend of Disney affiliated productions to utilize Industrial Light & Magic’s (ILM) StageCraft LED systems. The upcoming Disney+ series will specifically be the first project to be produced on their newly built Vancouver stage. 

    This type of technology came into prominence with The Mandalorian and has risen in notoriety thanks to the ability to digitally create settings that look realistic for both the performers working on them and the fans watching the series. Since then, the StageCraft technology has been used for the productions of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. The Vancouver stage is the fifth permanent StageCraft volume created by the division of Lucasfilm, with two others in Manhattan Beach, one at Burbank’s Walt Disney Studios, and the other at Pinewood Studios in London.

    Upon the announcement of this technology being used for the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, novel author Rick Riordan spoke about his excitement for how it will positively impact the show.

    The story of Percy Jackson has such an epic scope. I am over the moon that we have forged such a great relationship [with ILM] to give this show such a cutting-edge look and feel.

    Rick Riordan

    The series is set to star Walker Scobell in the titular role of Percy Jackson. As well, Leah Sava Jeffires and Aryan Simhadri will be in co-leading roles as Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood, respectively. Production for the series began in early June with director James Bobin helming the pilot episode. It certainly will be interesting to follow how this series progresses with this advanced technology enhancing its visual experience.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • Prime Video’s ‘Fallout’ Adaptation Adds Kyle MacLachlan to Cast

    Prime Video’s ‘Fallout’ Adaptation Adds Kyle MacLachlan to Cast

    Amazon Prime has released some very impressive comic book adaptions over the past few years with shows like The Boys and Invincible becoming the talk of the town. Next up, Prime seeks to venture into adapting a new medium, video games. Fallout, the post-apocalyptic set video game franchise is set to be adapted into a live-action series at the streamer, and has already begun adding some big names.

    The upcoming series has added three more to its expanding cast with Twin Peaks star Kyle MacLachlan joining the cast alongside Xelia Mendes-Jones and Aaron Moten. The three join the previously announced Walton Goggins and Ella Purnell, who will play the series leads.

    It’s unknown if the story will follow any of the games or take on an entirely original story in the series but it may not be a bad thing to tell an original story in such a rich world. The project could instead exist in canon alongside the games.

    Filming on the series is currently set to begin at some point later this year with Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet serving as co-showrunners on the series. Todd Howard is involved with the project as well, serving as an executive producer via Bethesda Game Studios with James Altman serving alongside him via Bethesda Softworks.

    SOURCE: Variety

  • Disney+’s ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Was Originally Pitched as a Movie Trilogy

    Disney+’s ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Was Originally Pitched as a Movie Trilogy

    Lucasfilm’s latest Disney+ series, Obi-Wan Kenobi, saw the return of Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen in their iconic roles from the Prequel Trilogy. Many wondered how the series came together and what may have led to the project ending up on the Disney+ streaming service. It turns out that writer Stuart Beattie initially pitched the project as a film trilogy. Initially, he wrote the first of three films that would eventually be stretched out into the six episodes of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.

    I wrote the film that they based the show on. So, yeah. I spent like a year, year-and-a-half working on it. And then, when the decision was made not to make any more spin-off films after Solo came out, I left the project and went on to other things. Joby came on and took my scripts and turned it from two hours into six. So, I did not work with them at all, I just got credit for the episodes because it was all my stuff

    Stuart Beattie

    He goes on to highlight how he initially pitched the project to Lucasfilm, which would’ve been three stories that explore the different stages of his evolution into Ben Kenobi from the Original Trilogy, most notably how we meet him in A New Hope.

    So when I pitched my Obi-Wan story to Lucasfilm, I said, ‘There’s actually three stories here. Because there’s three different evolutions that the character has to make in order to go from Obi-Wan to Ben.’ And the first one was the first movie, which was the show, which was, ‘Surrender to the will of the Force. Transport your will, surrender your will. Leave the kid alone.’ So then, the second [movie] was thinking about where Kenobi ends up.

    Stuart Beattie

    He also highlights that very transformation and wanting to explore that storyline of how he goes from the man we see in the Prequels into the role of sacrificing his life to let Luke Skywalker follow his own fate.

    And one of the most powerful and probably the most powerful moment in all of Obi-Wan’s story is that moment where he sacrifices himself in A New Hope. Great moment, you know, makes you cry. But, if you stop and think about it, it’s a pretty sudden thing, to just kind of go be fighting a guy, to see Luke and go, ‘I’m gonna die.’ You know, that to me, that required forethought. That required pre-acceptance that this was going to happen.

    Stuart Beattie

    Hearing that an initial film idea was stretched out into the first six episodes doesn’t seem too surprising given the slower pace of the project. Obi-Wan Kenobi has strengths but there are moments where it felt like it was initially planned as a singular film that was broken down into three arcs with two episodes each. It was marketed as a limited series, which makes it curious that the initial pitch of a trilogy could’ve been made for at least three seasons. So, we’ll have to see if they backpedal on the idea after all.

    Source: The Direct

  • ‘Succession’ Season 4 Kicks Off Production With First Set Photo

    ‘Succession’ Season 4 Kicks Off Production With First Set Photo

    It was back in October that the HBO series Succession was renewed for a fourth season. Not much was known about the upcoming new season, which continues to follow the Roy family, a group of dysfunctional entrepreneurs in the media and entertainment world. Brian Cox plays the role of Logan Roy and is joined by a stellar cast that includes Kieran Culkin, Sarah Snook, Matthew Macfadyen, Jeremy Strong, and more.

    Cox and Strong have been praised as the series went on to nab quite a few nominations, and it seems after quite a few months of waiting, production has finally started don the fourth season of Succession. The official Twitter account has shared a photo from the set, which sadly doesn’t include any of the cast but confirms that production has begun.

    HBO has continued to offer a powerhouse of productions, even as it expanded into streaming with HBO Max. With a stellar cast, Succession was surely to draw in an audience and it’s great to see a successful series enter the fourth season as most streaming alternatives sadly barely make it past a second season. Each one ran for around ten episodes, with only the third ending on a ninth episode. So, showrunner Jesse Armstrong might stick to that format moving forward. The above image also confirms that Mark Mylod is back in the directing chair after working on last season’s finale.

    Source: Twitter

  • Warner Bros. SDCC Plans Revealed

    Warner Bros. SDCC Plans Revealed

    The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that while certain properties from Warner Bros. Discovery will be showcased at San Diego Comic-Con next month, CEO David Zaslav is looking to make big changes to the company’s approach at the convention. Per the outlet, this year will mark the first time that Warners – including DC. – will not have a presence on the convention floor. In recent years, the company has had a huge presence on the convention floor, including signings from the Justice League cast in recent years.

    Perhaps the biggest news, however, is that there will be no presence for the CW at SDCC. Fans of The Flash and Superman & Lois, unfortunately, should not expect the panels and promotion of recent years. This, of course, shouldn’t be too surprising. Along with cleaning most of its slate, the CW is expected to go up for sale which more than likely had an impact on the decision to forgo SDCC. The lone exception will be Riverdale, with the series set to make its final Hall H appearance ahead of its sixth and final season on the network.

    While Warner Bros. Discovery will not have a floor presence, titles such as House of Dragons and Sandman will make a huge splash at the convention thanks to HBO and Netflix. There will also be panels by DC Publisher and CCO Jim Lee, as well panels for animated titles (for young and old), and Warner Bros. Games. There will also be a special screening of the first two episodes of Harley Quinn, as well as the premiere of the animated film Green Lantern: Beware My Power, which will be followed by a Q&A.

    The decision to rethink how Warner Bros. Discovery approaches Comic-Con is said to be so that the company can be “more strategic” as the convention has cost Warners approximately $25 million in past years due to the floor installation, travel for its talent and tech costs for presentations. It remains to be seen whether or not this change is permanent in coming years, or if this is merely a one-time change.

    Source: THR

  • Disney + Series ‘American Born Chinese’ Adds ‘Hacks’ Star to Cast

    Disney + Series ‘American Born Chinese’ Adds ‘Hacks’ Star to Cast

    The news comes courtesy of Variety, with the outlet revealing the Hacks breakout has nabbed a guest role in the forthcoming series. She joins a cast that includes the likes of Michelle Yeoh, Yeo Yann Yann, Daniel Wu, Chin Han, and Ke Huy Quan. Liu will portray Princess Iron Fan, a character described as “enchanting” and having magical powers.

    The Disney+ series, American Born Chinese, is based on the graphic novel of the same name by Gene Luen Yang. It follows Jin Wang, who’ll be played by Ben Wang, who is described as a high schooler trying to juggle a social life with his immigrant home life. After meeting a foreign exchange student named Wei-Chen, played by Jim Liu, the duo soon see their worlds colliding as Jin soon finds himself in a battle of Chinese mythological gods.

    Liu, who first broke out with the role of Kiki on the HBO Max series, Hacks, is building a busy resume. Along with American Born Chinese, Liu is confirmed to appear in the AMC anthology series, Tales of the Walking Dead, as well as the Amazon series adaptation of Dead Ringers. Outside of Hacks, she has previously appeared in shows like Better Call Saul and Hulu’s recently canceled Dollface.

    American Born Chinese hails from writer and showrunner Kelvin Yu, as well as Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), who’ll serve as a director and executive producer on the series.

    Source: Variety

  • Arlong Actor Wraps Up Work on Netflix’s ‘One Piece’ Series

    Arlong Actor Wraps Up Work on Netflix’s ‘One Piece’ Series

    One Piece is a major project worldwide and with 25 years on its back, the story is slowly nearing its end. Netflix has quickly jumped on board with Tomorrow Studio to find a talented cast and crew to bring the series to life in live-action. We’ve gotten a tease from the production sets that tease a massive project that has been filming since the beginning of the year. While we may have to wait a bit longer for more updates, it seems that one actor has wrapped production.

    Actor McKinley Belcher shared at the end of May that he had joined the production of Netflix’s One Piece series. Yet, it turns out he may have already wrapped up his work on the project. Belcher took to his personal Instagram to share that he’s leaving Cape Town, seemingly confirming he’s finished his work as Arlong. So, it seems that he’s been working for around a month on bringing his sequences to life.

    Some may be wondering how that works considering that we’ve recently got the tease they were working on the Baratie episodes, especially as Doctor Who director Emma Sullivan was confirmed working on them. Yet, they aren’t necessarily filming sequences from the manga back-to-back and may be working on various sequences simultaneously. It’s not uncommon especially as they have to work around actors’ tight schedules. Still, it’s geat to know that the production is coming along.

    Source: Instagram