NBC’s New Streaming Service Appears To Be For Comedy Fans Only
Network’s new Seeso service is s a subscription video on demand service designed for the “comedy super fan,” and it will begin streaming in January. The service will cost $3.99 per month and will give subscribers access to original content, as well as old episodes from NBC’s comedy library. NBC is promising 20 original comedy series in the first year from Dan Harmon, Amy Poehler, Tom Lennon, as well as a new stand-up series hosted by Wyatt Cenac. (CB)
Universal’s Record Year Is Not All Roses, as Studio Faces Lawsuit Over Tom Cruise Flick ‘Mena’
The Doug Liman-directed film covers how Seal was recruited by U.S. officials in efforts to bring down drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. Universal made a $350,000 deal with Seal’s third wife and three children from that marriage for Seal’s life story, but now Lisa Seal Frigon, his daughter from his first marriage and the claimed executor of his estate, is coming forward with the allegation that it was her consent that was required. (HESQ)
Hulk Smash! ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ Is Getting a Big, Green, Angry Co-Star
Marvel Studios is near a deal with Mark Ruffalo to bring his Hulk character to the third installment of the series that stars Chris Hemsworth as the hammer-wielding Norse god. The film will be directed by Taika Waititi, the New Zealand-born filmmaker whose credits include the indie Eagle Vs Shark and last year’s Sundance vampire mockumentary What We Do In The Shadows. Disney has set a November 3rd, 2017, release date for Thor 3. (DH)
Taron Egerton’s Robin Hood Movie Might Have Been Pushed a Bit, but He Has Still Found His Maid Marian
Even Hewson, best known for the Cinemax show The Knick (and for being Bono’s daughter), is aboard for what is being planned as a gritty, revisionist take on Hood’s story, with Joby Harold providing the script and Otto Bathurst directing for Lionsgate. Just this week, word came down that the mini-major pushed the shoot for this film to accommodate Egerton’s Kingsman 2 shoot. Both will go before cameras in 2016. (EMP)
Rachel Weisz Replaces Kate Winslet In Yorgos Lanthimos’ Period Drama ‘The Favourite’
Oscar-winning actress in talks to join the film alongside Emma Stone and Olivia Colman, replacing Winslet, who was originally cast. Script is by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara, with the 17th century set story finding Colman all dressed up as Queen Anne, with Weisz as Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, and Stone as Sarah’s distant relative Abigail, with the tale detailing the various political machinations of royalty. (TP)
Donald Glover’s ‘Atlanta’ Series Gets Itself a Full Season Order From FX For 2016
Actor’s comedy pilot is now officially an FX comedy series, as the network has ordered 10 episodes of what will be a half-hour dramedy, with a premiere set for sometime in 2016. Brian Tyree Henry, Lakeith Lee Stanfield and Zazie Beetz all join Glover in the series, which he created. Show revolves around two cousins on their way up through the Atlanta rap scene whose opposing views on art versus commerce, success and race complicate things. (VUL)
‘Hack/Slash’ Now the Latest Comic Book Looking To Make the Jump To TV Series
EPs Adrian Askarieh and Ray Ricord are developing an adaptation of the property, which follows Cassie, the girl who survives at the end of every horror movie. Not content with simply outliving whatever creature/serial killer was after her, she seeks out the slashers who inflict harm on the innocent. Skip Woods is penning the script for Relativity Television while producers are out to directors to craft a series in the vein of The Walking Dead. (COL)
HBO Wants To Be In the Issa Rae Business, Orders Her Comedy Pilot To Series
Insecure will focus on “the awkward experiences and racy tribulations of a modern day African American woman.” Rae is starring, with Jay Ellis and Yvonne Orji joining her in front of the camera. The series is created by Rae and funnyman/late night talk show host/Emmy winner Larry Wilmore. (SAA)
Today In Remake News: ABC Is Taking a Crack At Re-Doing ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’ as a Sitcom
Network has ordered a script from the pair who wrote the 1997 Julia Roberts-Cameron Diaz comedy, Ron Bass and Jessica Amento, to be produced as a single-camera half-hour comedy. This modern update won’t necessarily be a reboot, but rather something of a sequel. It would pick up where we last left Roberts’ character, Julianne Potter, a restaurant critic with a rocky romantic track record, who lives in New York with her gay friend George. (HTV)
Screenwriters: ‘Analyze This’
The 132-page screenplay by Peter Tolan and Harold Ramis and Kenneth Lonergan, story by Kenneth Lonergan and Peter Tolan. Script is dated July 1998 Draft. (DS)