An upcoming Apple TV+ psychological thriller series joins three Oscar winners, trailers for And Just Like That… and The Book of Boba Fett drop, more castings announced for Star Wars: Ahsoka series, Ana de Armas joins Apple Original Films project opposite Chris Evans, and more of the biggest TV and streaming news from the past week.
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Apple TV+ has greenlit the first series from its multi-year deal with Oscar-, Golden Globe-, and BAFTA Award-winner Alfonso Cuarón: Disclaimer, a psychological thriller starring Oscar winners Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline.
The story is based on the book of the same name by author Renee Knight. Disclaimer will star Blanchett as Catherine Ravenscroft, a successful and respected television documentary journalist whose work has been built on revealing the concealed transgressions of long-respected institutions. When an intriguing novel written by a widower (played by Kline) appears on her bedside table, she is horrified to realize she is a key character in a story that she had hoped was long buried in the past — a story that reveals her darkest secret, one she thought was hers alone.
The series will be the first project to debut from a multi-year deal with Cuarón, who is developing television series exclusively for Apple TV. It also marks first time Cuarón has written and directed all episodes of an original series. He currently serves as producer on the Apple original film Raymond and Ray, which is now in production from Apple Studios.
Meanwhile, Blanchett will also serve as an executive producer on Disclaimer.
And Just Like That … Samantha, of course, is MIA – rumor has it she’s off living her best life in London, while her pals remain in NYC. But the rest of the official trailer teases much of the same of what we expect from SATC: Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Big (Chris Noth); Carrie and the girls (Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon) lunching; and Carrie expressing her love for shoes. There have been plenty of other rumors about what will unfold in these 10 new episodes of the series, including that, despite those happy moments in the trailer, the Prestons – Carrie and John – break up yet again. The only thing that would be less surprising: that Carrie has turned to podcasting. Premieres Dec. 9. (HBO Max)
More trailers and teasers released this week:
This Is Us season 6 is the show’s final season, and we predict: we’re gonna need copious amounts of tissues. Stars Sterling K. Brown, Milo Ventimiglia, Mandy Moore, Chrissy Metz, Justin Hartley, Susan Kelechi Watson, and Chris Sullivan. Premieres Jan. 4. (NBC)
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4 finds Midge dealing with some big changes. Like new roommates: her parents. Stars Rachel Brosnahan, Tony Shaloub, Marin Hinkle, Alex Borstein, Luke Kirby, and Michael Zegen. Premieres Feb. 18 (Prime Video)
The Book of Boba Fett is a seven-episode spin-off of The Mandalorian focusing on bounty hunter Boba Fett and starring Temuera Morrison as Boba Fett and Ming-Na Wen as Fennec Shand. Premieres Dec. 29 (Disney+)
Bel-Air is a dramatic spin on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which continues to tell a coming-of-age story, with a vibe that allows for telling deeper stories about Will and the Banks family. Stars Jabari Banks. Premieres 2022. (Peacock)
Saturday Morning All Star Hits! is a hybrid adult animated and live action taking us on an adventure celebrating ‘80s and ‘90s Saturday morning cartoons. Stars Kyle Mooney and Ben Jones, produced by Lorne Michaels. Premieres Dec. 10. (Netflix)
Dead Asleep is a true-crime documentary about a man who claims the murder he committed happened while he was asleep. The man, his family, the defense and prosecution attorneys, journalists who covered the case, forensic psychiatrists and world experts in violent parasomnia (sleep-walking) to give viewers an inside look at the shocking twists and turns of the controversial crime. Premieres Dec. 16. (Hulu)
For Auld Lang Syne is the first Peanuts original special in a decade, as Snoopy and the gang celebrate the new year, via Apple TV+’s terrific Peanut animation and writing. Premieres Dec. 10. (Apple TV+)
From is a new horror series about in Middle America that traps everyone who enters it. Lost and Claws star Harold Perrineau plays the town’s sheriff. Premieres Feb. 20. (Epix)
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(Photo by Getty Images: Stephane Cardinale/Corbis; Stefanie Keenan/Academy Museum of Motion Pictures)
Disney+’s The Mandalorian spin-off Star Wars: Ahsoka has added Pacific Rim: Uprising star Ivanna Sakhno and Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny) to the cast, joining star Rosario Dawson, who is reprising her Mandalorian character Ahsoka Tano for the limited series. Sakhno will play a newly created character, Deadline reports, and Bordizzo will play Sabine Wren, a character from the Star Wars: Rebels animated series.
No Time To Die star Ana de Armas has replaced Scarlett Johansson opposite Chris Evans in Apple Original Films’ Ghosted, a high-concept romantic action-adventure film that will be directed by Dexter Fletcher (Rocket Man). De Armas will also be an executive producer on the film
Cobie Smulders has joined the cast of Disney+’s Secret Invasion, reprising her role as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill, and joining previously announced cast members Samuel L. Jackson, Olivia Colman, Ben Mendelsohn, Emilia Clarke, and Ben-Adir in the Marvel series. (Variety)
The all-star casts are set for the latest edition of ABC’s Live in Front of a Studio Audience, live re-enactments of classic sitcom episodes. This time, the event series will feature episodes of The Facts of Life and Diff’rent Strokes, with the FoL re-enactment including Jennifer Aniston as Blair, Gabrielle Union as Tootie, Allison Tollman as Natalie, and Kathryn Hahn as Jo. For the Strokes cast, Kevin Hart will portray Arnold, John Lithgow will play Mr. Drummond, Damon Wayans will play Willis, and Ann Dowd will play Mrs. Garrett, the character who bridged the two series. Jon Stewart has also been added to the line-up, playing a “surprise role” in The Facts of Life episode. The special, executive produced by Norman Lear, Jimmy Kimmel, Brent Miller, Kerry Washington, Will Ferrell, Justin Theroux, and Jim Burrows, airs Dec. 7.
Cara Delevingne has joined the cast for the second season of Hulu’s Martin Short/Steve Martin/Selena Gomez comedy Only Murders in the Building. The Carnival Row alum will play an “art world insider” who gets involved in the mystery true-crime lovers Oliver, Charles, and Mabel left hanging at the end of season 1. Amy Ryan and Aaron Dominguez also return for the sophomore season.
Peacock’s upcoming reboot of Queer as Folk has rounded out its cast, with Juliette Lewis as a recurring guest star as a single mom who is more of a friend than a parent to her teenage son; Ed Begley Jr. as an emotionally distant father; Armand Fields (The Chi) as the reigning drag queen and matriarch of the local scene; Chris Renfro (Reno 911!) as a fun-loving hedonist who is always the life of the party; Eric Graise (Locke & Key) as a jaded barfly; Sachin Bhatt (Grace & Frankie) as a charming and empathetic sex worker; and Benito Skinner (Search Party) as a self-aggrandizing influencer. The series, a reimagining of the groundbreaking British series created by Russell T. Davies and remade in an American version set in Pittsburgh in 1999, will explore a diverse group of friends in New Orleans whose lives are transformed in the aftermath of a tragedy. Previously announced cast includes recurring guest star Kim Cattrall as a martini-soaked, high society Southern debutante with trailer-park roots; Ryan O’Connell (Special) as a pop-culture nerd with cerebral palsy who is more than ready for some independence (O’Connell will also serve as a writer and co-executive producer on the series); Jesse James Keitel (Big Sky), as a trans, semi-reformed party girl who is struggling to grow up; Candace Grace (Acts of Crime) as a non-binary professor navigating the rocky transition from punk to parenthood; and Johnny Sibilly (Hacks, Pose) as a successful lawyer who is not as put together as he seems.
Carson Daly is out as NBC’s New Year’s Eve host, at least this year. Instead, the network and streaming service Peacock, will ring in 2022 with the Lorne Michaels–produced Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party hosted by Miley Cyrus and Pete Davidson, a star-filled special that will air live from Miami from 10:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. on NYE.
Meanwhile, over at ABC, Ryan Seacrest is still hosting New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, where he’ll be joined by Ciara, Billy Porter, and Liza Koshy. This year’s special, originally hosted by the late Dick Clark, will celebrate its 50th anniversary.
Harry Potter and Servant star Rupert Grint has joined the cast of Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming Netflix anthology series Cabinet of Curiosities.
Wonder Woman star Connie Nielsen will star in The Dreamer – Becoming Karen Blixen, a six-part limited series about the life of the famous Danish writer played by Meryl Streep in the 1984 Oscar Best Picture winner Out of Africa. The series does not yet have a network or streaming home.
The Sopranos alum Michael Imperioli will costar in comedian Chris Estrada’s upcoming Hulu comedy This Fool, about Julio Lopez (Estrada), a self-proclaimed “punk ass bitch,” according to Deadline, who works at a gang rehab facility in South Central Los Angeles. Imperioli will play his boss at Hugs Not Thugs: Minister Leonard Payne, a former mortgage broker with a bad temper who tells Julio he has a bad habit of focusing on other people’s problems so he can ignore his own. Imperioli is also the co-author of the New York Times bestselling book Woke Up This Morning: The Definitive Oral History of The Sopranos, with Sopranos co-star Steve Schirripa.
(Photo by Penguin Random House)
AMC Networks announced it has greenlit Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches, a new drama series based on the author’s Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy, for AMC and AMC+. Mayfair will premiere late next year, and will follow Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire as the second entry in AMC’s burgeoning Rice universe. Esta Spalding (Masters of Sex) will be showrunner, executive producer, and writer on the series, while Michelle Ashford (Masters of Sex) will also be a writer and executive producer on Mayfair.
Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter is heading to the Old West for his next TV series: The Abandons is in development at Netflix, and Sutter told Deadline, he was inspired by HBO’s classic Western Deadwood to take his shot at making a Western series just as good. Sutter, who said he watched of old Bonanza episode during the pandemic for further inspiration, will focus on the “lost souls” of the Old West in The Abandons – “the outliers, the orphans, the prostitutes, the cripples, the bastards, basically the kind of lost souls living on the fringe of society.” (Deadline)
Patriot and Ultra City Smiths creator Steve Conrad has been tapped to write the HBO Game of Thrones prequel series Tales of Dunk and Egg. The drama will be based on the series of novellas by George R. R. Martin, about the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall (Dunk) and young Aegon V Targaryen (Egg), set 90 years prior to the events of A Song of Ice and Fire. (Variety)
CBS Studios is producing Tango, a limited series about the drama behind the scenes of production on Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1972 erotic drama Last Tango in Paris, starring Maria Schneider and Marlon Brando. The series will focus on Schneider’s feelings about being exploited for the making of the controversial, sexually-charged film and will follow the 18 months before, during, and after production on the movie. According to producers, the story will “explore questions of identity, fame, and artistic ambition,” by Bertolucci and Brando, who received Oscar nods for the movie, of Schneider, who has said her experience of making the movie led to addiction and mental health issues for her afterward. (THR)
The Night Of star Riz Ahmed and The Farewell director Lulu Wang are teaming up for the Amazon comedy series The Son of Good Fortune. Based on the book of the same name by author Lysley Tenorio about an undocumented Filipino teen in the Bay Area who maneuvers a chaotic time when he falls in love for the first time, manages a rocky relationship with his movie star mom, and had to pay back a huge debt before his life falls apart. Ahmed and Wang will also executive produce the series. (Variety)
Netflix has ordered a Money Heist spin-off that will revolve around Berlin, the fan-favorite character played by Pedro Alonso. The Berlin origin story is likely to premiere in 2023. (TheWrap)
Most baking competition shows are all about the sweets — cakes, cupcakes, cookies, etc. — but Hulu is looking for the best makers of a savory food we all love: pizza. Best in Dough, set for 2022, will bring together pizza makers from all walk of life and give them a chance to make the most delicious ‘za for a chance to win $10,000.
