TAGGED AS: Amazon, FX, HBO, Hulu, NBC, Netflix, YouTube Premium
This week in TV has brought more revival news, massive studio deals, a long-awaited literary adaptation, and plenty of casting announcements.
#TeamMiyagiDo’s social media marketing push tweaks Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) in the first teaser trailer for Cobra Kai season 2. The new season premieres April 24 and features Ralph Macchio as MiyagiDo owner Daniel LaRusso. Martin Kove also returns as John Kreese, and it looks like he plans to stir up some stank, while Johnny pushes his Cobra Kai recruits to win at all costs. Season 1 of the YouTube Premium series is Certified Fresh at 100% on 42 reviews, putting it in a very exclusive TV club.
An angel and a demon hunt the Antichrist before Armageddon is ruined in a trailer for upcoming Amazon Prime series Good Omens. The May 31 release stars David Tennant (Doctor Who), Michael Sheen (Underworld), and Jon Hamm (Mad Men) as Archangel Gabriel. Scottish actor Brian Cox (Succession) will voice Death in the adaptation, author and series creator Neil Gaiman revealed the day before on Twitter.
(Photo by TriStar Television/Courtesy Everett Collection)
Another major TV reboot is headed to a small screen near you: ’90s comedy Mad About You, starring Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt as a married couple living in New York City, will return in late 2019 as a “limited event series.” Both original stars will return, with Peter Tolan running the show and Hunt directing the first episode. There’s one catch, though: the series will launch on Spectrum Originals, a.k.a. the new channel exclusive to Spectrum Cable subscribers. Mad About You will be the second Spectrum original series to launch, following Jessica Alba and Gabrielle Union’s Bad Boys spinoff L.A.’s Finest in May.
(Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)
The Jonas Brothers are reuniting to make new music for the first time in nearly six years, but they’re also making a movie as well. The band has teamed up with Amazon for an upcoming documentary that will give a behind-the-scenes look as the brothers reunited for their new album and upcoming tour. In a statement, Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke called the doc, which does not yet have a release date, a “personal, behind the scenes look at the Jonas Brothers as they reunite for this exciting tour.”
Netflix is planning a 50th anniversary tribute to Dan Rowan and Dick Martin’s influential sketch comedy series Laugh-In. Joining star Lily Tomlin are Billy Crystal, Tiffany Haddish, Neil Patrick Harris, Taye Diggs, Michael Douglas, Jay Leno, Rita Moreno, Rita Wilson, JoAnne Worley, Maria Bamford, Margaret Cho, Ron Funches, Brad Garrett, Nikki Glaser, Lisa Ann Walter, Bobby Moynihan, Cheri Oteri, Rob Riggle, Jeff Ross, J.B. Smoove, Tony Hale, Jon Lovitz, and Natasha Leggero.
HBO has ordered a new rom-com thriller series called Run from Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Vicky Jones. The series stars Merritt Wever as Ruby, a woman whose humdrum life is upended when her childhood sweetheart (Domhnall Gleeson) texts her an invitation to fulfill a pact they made when they were young.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s famed novel One Hundred Years of Solitude is finally coming to the screen: Netflix announced that it will develop the Colombian author’s bestselling 1967 work into a Spanish-language original series. The Nobel laureate’s sons, Rodrigo Garcia and Conzalo Garcia Barcha, will serve as executive producers on the series, which will be filmed mainly in Colombia.
“For decades our father was reluctant to sell the film rights to Cien Años de Soledad because he believed that it could not be made under the time constraints of a feature film, or that producing it in a language other than Spanish would not do it justice,” Garcia said in a statement. “But in the current golden age of series, with the level of talented writing and directing, the cinematic quality of content, and the acceptance by worldwide audiences of programs in foreign languages, the time could not be better to bring an adaptation to the extraordinary global viewership that Netflix provides. We are excited to support Netflix and the filmmakers in this venture, and eager to see the final product.”
FX, meanwhile, has announced a TV adaptation of Don Winslow’s “Cartel” trilogy, which includes The Power of the Dog, The Cartel, and The Border. The new series will follow the book series’ main protagonist, DEA agent Art Keller, during his harrowing 45-year journey in the War on Drugs.
(Photo by ABC)
Country music primetime soap Nashville has already lived two lives — first, on ABC, and second, on CMT after ABC cancelled it — but it’s about to get a third: A Broadway stage show is in the works based on the five-season series that starred Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere as dueling country singers.
“Nashville, with its complex, relatable characters and sweeping emotional gestures, has all of the narrative elements that I look for in great theatrical source material. From that rich DNA, we will be building an original story with entirely original music, written by major Nashville and Broadway songwriters,” Broadway producer Scott Delman said in a statement. “We are particularly excited to deliver Broadway’s first score of true contemporary country music — a genre that has exploded with mainstream audiences in recent years.”
(Photo by Evans Vestal Ward/Universal Television)
Parks and Recreation, The Good Place, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine creator Mike Schur has signed a massive new deal with Universal Television that is reportedly worth nine figures. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the comedy writer will make $25 million a year for five years as he creates new series for the production company.
“There are very few people in this business who have been as instrumental to the success of both NBC and Universal Television as Mike Schur,” NBC Entertainment co-chairmen George Cheeks and Paul Telegdy said in a statement. “Mike is a comedy genius. His television résumé is second to none and we couldn’t be more excited to see all of the projects he’ll be developing in the coming years ahead.”
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NBC is postponing its latest Law & Order spin-off, Hate Crimes, which was announced back in September. The series, which the network ordered in the fall and was scheduled to debut as an episode of the long-running SVU, would have focused on New York’s actual Hate Crimes Task Force. Per NBC, it is “the second oldest bias-based task force in the U.S. The unit, which pledges to uphold a zero tolerance policy against discrimination of any kind, works under the NYPD’s real Special Victims Unit and often borrows SVU’s detectives to assist in their investigations.” The series was created by Dick Wolf and former SVU showrunner Warren Leight. Wolf told reporters in the fall, “Hate crimes are the fastest growing segment of law enforcement, unfortunately. It’s not limited to anti-Semitism and anti-LGBT: Every group has a group that would like to have them killed or burned or mutilated; it’s an unfortunate reality. We’ll never run out of stories.”
Theon Greyjoy has joined Harlots, it will surprise absolutely no one to learn. Alfie Allen’s first role following Game of Thrones’ wrap will be in the third season of the 18th century–set Hulu drama, in which he’ll play Isaac Pincher, an ambitious man who wants to take over London. After returning from the Seven Years War, he leases a tavern with his brother and starts a pimping business. Ash Hunter will play his brother, Hal Pincher, who is less impulsive but just as ambitious as Isaac. His good looks and charm lure women in, but his new love Emily Lacey (Holli Dempsey) is the first person he really lets in. Together, they share an ambition to achieve something with their lives.
In other Michael Sheen news, the acclaimed British actor has been cast in a lead role in Fox pilot Prodigal Son, Variety reported. The police drama is about a criminal psychologist, Malcolm Bright, who has a knack for hunting serial killers that developed because his father, Martin Whitly (Sheen), was a notorious serial killer called “The Surgeon.” The series is from Deception creator Chris Fedak and writer-producer Sam Sklaver, Berlanti Productions, and Warner Bros TV.
Timeless star Abigail Spencer is headed back to Grey’s Anatomy to reprise her role as Owen’s younger sister, Megan Hunt. She’ll appear in a spring episode of the show, according to TVLine, and her on-screen love Nathan will not be returning with her.
Lifetime-turned-Netflix series You has cast Chris D’Elia in a recurring role as Henderson, a famous comedian fond of designer hoodies, expensive sneakers, and black Ray-Bans.
