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Henry Cavill is developing a Warhammer 40,000 series for Amazon Studios. The studio, along with Playstation and Sony TV will also be bringing God of War to life. Robert De Niro will star in new crime drama Mr. Natural. Disney+ has ordered a pilot episode of Witch Mountain, reimagining the classic film franchise. Plus, trailers for Netflix’s non-linear heist anthology series Kaleidoscope, CBS’s first-ever NCIS-verse crossover event, the long-awaited return of Starz comedy Party Down, and more of the biggest news in TV and streaming from the past week.
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Cavill’s name has been in the news a lot lately, from his highly-publicized exit from The Witcher to hyping up his big screen Superman return only to have it taken away from him, as the actor announced on Instagram. His proverbial cookie isn’t all crumbles, though; Cavill is now attached to star in and executive produce a TV adaptation of the insanely popular fantasy miniature war game Warhammer 40,000 at Amazon.
“For 30 years I have dreamt of seeing a Warhammer universe in live action,” Cavill posted on Instagram. “Now, after 22 years of experience in this industry, I finally feel that I have the skill set and experience to guide a Warhammer Cinematic Universe into life.”
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The game in question, which involves miniature figures being maneuvered around a model-constructed world, is set in the future where the human civilization is involved in an endless war otherworldly beings like aliens, gods, demons, and the like.
While no writers or showrunners are attached as of yet, Cavill, who praises his partnership with Vertigo Entertainment, sounds fully motivated in bringing his life-long fandom to television and “be true to the massive scope of Warhammer.”
Cavill is an admitted huge fan of the game.
Related: Henry Cavill Departs The Witcher; Liam Hemsworth To Take Over as Geralt for Season 4
(Photo by Amazon Studios)
God of War is officially a go at Amazon Studios.
The live-action series adaptation of the popular PlayStation video game will follow Kratos, the God of War, who, after exiling himself from his blood-soaked past in ancient Greece, hangs up his weapons forever in the Norse realm of Midgard. But when his beloved wife dies, Kratos sets off on a dangerous journey with his estranged son to fulfill her final wish: to spread her ashes from the highest peak.
An epic quest in disguise, the journey tests the bonds between father and son and forces Kratos to battle Gods and monsters for the fate of the world.
“The God of War is a compelling, character-driven franchise that we believe will captivate our global customers as much with its expansive and immersive worlds as its rich storytelling,” Vernon Sanders, head of global television at Amazon Studios, said in a statement, “We are honored to share in the adventure of exploring the God of War mythology in such a momentous way with Sony Pictures Television, PlayStation Productions, and Santa Monica Studio.”
Wheel of Time’s Rafe Judkins is on board as the series showrunner and executive producer. Joining him are Oscar nominees Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (Iron Man, Children Of Men), who will serve as writers and also executive produce.
“We are so proud and excited to be working with our friends at Amazon Studios and our partners at PlayStation Productions to adapt this beautiful and heartbreaking game into a premium live-action series,” said Katherine Pope, president of Sony Pictures Television Studios. “Rafe, Mark, and Hawk are crafting a transportive series that charts a path through the ancient mythological journey of Kratos.”
Taking place over 25 years, Kaleidoscope follows a skilled team of thieves as they work to break into a vault that is, seemingly, unbreakable.
The anthology series, which is loosely based on the real-life story of $70 billion in bonds that went missing in downtown Manhattan during Hurricane Sandy, consists of eight episodes that span from 24 years before the heist all the way to six months after. And, in a compelling narrative twist, the series can be viewed in a non-linear manner, with the audience deciding the order in which they’d like to watch each episode.
Netflix revealed the episode titles:
“Yellow: 6 Weeks Before The Heist”
“Green: 7 Years Before the Heist”
“Blue: 5 Days Before the Heist”
“Violet: 24 Years Before the Heist”
“Orange: 3 Weeks Before the Heist”
“Red: The Morning After the Heist”
“Pink: 6 Months After”
“White: The Heist” the epic story finale.
Kaleidoscope stars Giancarlo Esposito, Paz Vega, Rufus Sewell, Tati Gabrielle, Peter Mark Kendall, Rosaline Elbay, Jai Courtney, Niousha Noor, Jordan Mendoza, Soojeong Son, and Hemky Madera. It will premiere on January 1 on Netflix.
More trailers and teasers released this week:
• White House Plumbers tells the story of how Nixon’s own political saboteurs and Watergate masterminds, E. Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson) and G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux), accidentally toppled the presidency they were zealously trying to protect. Premieres March 2023. (HBO)
• The 1619 Project documentary series seeks to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of our national narrative. Premieres January 26. (Hulu)
• Your Honor season 2 follows New Orleans judge Michael Desiato as he’s faced with a series of increasingly impossible choices and discovers just how far an honest man will go to save his son’s life. Premieres January 13. (Showtime)
• The Legend of Vox Machina season 2 finds the boisterous crew realizing that they are the only ones capable of restoring justice in the kingdom. What began as a simple payday is now the origin story behind Exandria’s newest heroes. Premieres January 20. (Prime Video)
• Party Down season 3 returns after a decade and while their lives went separate ways, a surprise reunion brings the gang back into the fold to once again stoically endure the procession of random parties and oddball guests all over Los Angeles. Premieres February 24. (Starz)
• The NCIS crossover event brings together NCIS agents from Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Hawai’i to the DC-based retirement party of a beloved Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) professor. But when he dies from a shocking suicide, the various teams come together to investigate in the first-ever 3-hour long NCIS-verse crossover. Premieres January 9. (CBS)
• Vikings: Valhalla season 2 finds our heroes shortly after the tragic fall of Kattegat as they discover themselves to be fugitives in Scandinavia and are forced to test their ambitions and courage in worlds beyond the fjords. Premieres January 12. (Netflix)
• Mayor of Kingstown season 2 follows the McLusky family, power brokers in Kingstown, Michigan, where the business of incarceration is the only thriving industry. Tackling themes of systemic racism, corruption and inequality, the series provides a stark look at their attempt to bring order and justice to a town that has neither. Premieres January 15. (Paramount+)
• Alert: Missing Persons Unit follows Philadelphia police officers Jason Grant (Scott Caan) and his ex-wife Nikki Batista’s (Dania Ramirez) on their series-long quest to find out the truth about their long-lost son. Premieres January 8. (Fox)
• Accused is based on the BBC’s BAFTA-winning crime anthology in which each episode viewers discover how an ordinary person can get caught up in an extraordinary situation, ultimately revealing how one wrong turn leads to another, until it’s too late to turn back. Premieres January 22. (Fox)
For all the latest TV and streaming trailers subscribe to the Rotten Tomatoes TV YouTube channel.
(Photo by Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images)
The project, which was created by Magic City’s Mitch Glazer who will co-produce with De Niro and Yellowstone’s Art and John Linson, follows “Mr. Natural” Baron (De Niro), who is released from federal prison after 30 sentence. First stop, Palm Springs. There, he sets his sights on a dangerous pursuit to grab a taste of the Salton Sea’s lithium billions. “There will be blood in the sand and bones in the desert,” the logline states, per Variety. “Palm Springs will never be the same.”
Reese Witherspoon will star in and executive produce All Stars, a comedy series set in the world of cheerleading at Amazon’s Prime Video. According to THR, the streamer ordered a two-season, straight-to-series order of the program which will center on a former cheerleader (played by Witherspoon) who cons her way across the pond to teach cheerleading in England. All Stars is a loose adaptation of the story of Andrea Kulberg, a former University of Texas cheerleader who founded a cheer school in the U.K. with her twin sister, Aly.
Sam Mendes will make his TV directorial debut in HBO’s comedy pilot, The Franchise, which has now rounded out its cast. Billy Magnussen, Jessica Hynes, Darren Goldstein, Lolly Adefope, and Isaac Powell will star in the program, which is set during the dysfunctional production of a superhero movie. Daniel Brühl and Richard E. Grant will have recurring roles if it goes to series. (THR)
Dune prequel series, currently titled Dune: The Sisterhood, has cast Josh Heuston and Edward Davis in recurring roles. (Variety)
Luke Kirby, Ashley Madekwe, and Gustaf Hammarsten have been added to the cast of Dr. Death season 2, which will take inspiration from the “Miracle Man” storyline featured in season 3 of the popular podcast. They will appear opposite series stars Edgar Ramirez and Mandy Moore. Kirby will play Dr. Nathan Gamelli, a cardiovascular surgeon working at a world class hospital in Sweden who faces pressure after voicing doubts about Dr. Paolo Macchiarini’s groundbreaking surgeries. Madekwe will play Dr. Ana Lasbrey, a doctor at the institute who joins Macchiarini’s team, hoping to fast-track her career in stem cell research. Hammarsten will play Dr. Svensson, a family man and researcher who is running Macchiarini’s clinical trials on lab rats when alarm bells begin to sound.
Netflix’s Black Death dramedy The Decameron has filled out its main cast. Tony Hale, Zosia Mamet, Tanya Reynolds, Amar Chadha-Patel, Leila Farzad, Lou Gala, Karan Gill, Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Douggie McMeekin, and Jessica Plummer have all joined the series, which will be set in 14th century Italy during the bubonic plague, THR reports.
Hulu’s Under the Bridge has added Lily Gladstone to the cast. She joins previously announced Riley Keough, Izzy G, Chloe Guidry, Ezra Faroque Khan, Archie Panjabi, Vritika Gupta, Javon “Wanna” Walton, and Aiyana Goodfellow. (Deadline)
Thomas Ian Nicholas, Tom Arnold, and Mark Pellegrino will star in limited series Underdeveloped. Samm Levine, Shelley Regner, Kelly Arjen Charlene Amoia, Nolan River, and Jaret Reddick round out the cast. The show will focus on a group of failed and inexperienced producers working together at a production company. (Variety)
Chuck Lorre’s comedy series How To Be a Bookie had added Maxim Swinton. He will play the stepson of Danny, Sebastian Maniscalco’s veteran bookie character in the HBO Max series. (THR)
Garcelle Beauvais has joined Hulu Original series The Other Black Girl, based on Zakiya Dalila Harris’s novel of the same name. (Deadline)
Disney+ series The Spiderwick Chronicles has cast Jack Dylan Grazer as the voice of Thimbletack, a boggart who lives in the walls of the Spiderwick Estate. He joins previously announced cast members Lyon Daniels, Noah Cottrell, Mychala Lee, Joy Bryant, and Christian Slater as Mulgarath. (Variety)
Related: Donald Glover to Portray Spider-Man Villain in New Solo Film, and More Movie News
(Photo by Courtesy of Disney+)
Witch Mountain is the latest intellectual property in Disney’s sights. In similar fashion to Willow, Disney+ has greenlit a reimagining of the successful film and its predecessors. According to the press release, the program will take place in the shadow of “Witch Mountain” and “follow two teens that develop strange abilities and discover their sleepy suburb may not be as idyllic as it seems.”
Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World: Dominion) it attached to star as Audrey, the loving and devoted mother to Tia (played by Isabel Gravitt). After her husband died from a mental illness, she tries to reassure her daughter that she didn’t inherit “her father’s dark spiral.”
Also starring in the pilot are Levi Miller, who will play Ben, a troubled teen who makes ends meet by writing papers for other students, Bianca “b” Norwood, who is Corey, Ben’s closest friend, a mature outsider with tattoos, and Jackson Kelly, who will play Peter, Tia’s closest (and lovesick) male friend.
12 Monkeys and Star Trek: Picard alums Travis Fickett and Terry Matalas co-wrote the pilot and are executive producers. Augustine Frizzell (Euphoria) is on board to direct and executive produce, as well.
(Photo by CBS)
Justin Hartley has a new project lined up at CBS. The Never Game, which is based on Jeffrey Deaver’s best-selling novel, will star Hartley (who will also get an executive producer credit) as Colter Shaw, a lone-wolf survivalist who roams the country as a “reward seeker.” In the series, he’ll use his expert tracking skills to help private citizens and law enforcement solve all manner of mysteries while contending with his own fractured family.
FX ordered an updated take on cult U.K. comedy series Peep Show with Succession creator Jesse Armstrong and Atlanta‘s Stefani Robinson on as writer and executive producer. (THR)
Selena Gomez and Stacey Abrams have partnered for a new music documentary titled Won’t Be Silent at Discovery+. The project will celebrate impactful songs which touch on a variety of issues, and the incredible female artists behind them.
Oscar-winning filmmaker Rodney Rothman (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) and Adam Rosenberg, his producing partner, have entered a broadcast direct agreement, under their recently launched company Modern Magic, to develop animated programming for FOX Entertainment. The duo “will develop and produce a new wave of half-hour and hour-long animated series for FOX,” according to the release. Under the deal, all the content created will be fully owned by FOX Entertainment and be produced by the company’s Emmy Award-winning animation studio, Bento Box Entertainment.
Peacock announced a straight-to-series order of a yet-to-be-titled contemporary horror thriller, inspired by Robert McCammon’s best-selling novel Stinger, which follow a disparate group of people on a ranch who must come together in the face of a mysterious threat.
James Wan (The Conjuring Universe, Archive 81, Malignant), Michael Clear (Archive 81, Swamp Thing), Rob Hackett (Archive 81, I Know What You Did Last Summer), and E.L. Katz (The Haunting of Bly Manor, Channel Zero) will executive produce, with Ian McCulloch tapped to write and executive produce. McCammon will also have an executive producer credit on the series.
The Mythic Quest world is growing. Apple TV+ has ordered Mere Mortals, an eight-episode extension series from Ashly Burch, John Howell Harris, and Katie McElhenney, with Megan Ganz, Rob McElhenney, David Hornsby, and Charlie Day serving as executive producers. The spinoff will center on the lives of the employees, players, and fans who are impacted by the game, essentially taking inspiration from the program’s acclaimed standalone episodes, like last season’s Everlight, which earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Narrator for Anthony Hopkins.
Dan Levy’s animated comedy Standing By has received a series order at Hulu. Levy co-created the series with Ally Pankiw and will also lead the voice cast opposite David Tennant, Natalie Palamides, Glenn Close, Poppy Liu, and Samira Wiley. (THR)
STARZ is developing Fightland, a drama set in the high stakes, cash rich, dangerous world of British boxing, executive produced by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. Writing duo Daniel Fajemisin-Duncan and Marlon Smith (Save Me, Run) will pen the project which will center on a retired disgraced world champion fighter drawn into the corrupt underbelly of the sport after the disappearance of his childhood best friend and training partner. To save his friend, the troubled fighter will have to return to a way of life that nearly destroyed him — one that cost him everything to leave behind.
Outlast is a new eight-episode unscripted competition series that will follow 16 lone wolves who must outlast each other in the Alaskan wilderness in an attempt to win $1 million dollars. There is the first unscripted program from Jason Bateman and Michael Costigan for Aggregate Films and Netflix. It will premiere to the streamer in 2023.
(Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
Adam Sandler will receive the 24th Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, announced the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.
“Adam Sandler has entertained audiences for over three decades with his films, music, and his tenure as a fan favorite cast member on SNL,” said Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter. “Adam has created characters that have made us laugh, cry, and cry from laughing. I am looking forward to a laughter-filled evening like no other as we celebrate his career at a ceremony that is sure to bring together the best in comedy.”
Previous recipients of the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize are Richard Pryor (1998), Jonathan Winters (1999), Carl Reiner (2000), Whoopi Goldberg (2001), Bob Newhart (2002), Lily Tomlin (2003), Lorne Michaels (2004), Steve Martin (2005), Neil Simon (2006), Billy Crystal (2007), George Carlin (2008), Bill Cosby (2009; rescinded in 2018), Tina Fey (2010), Will Ferrell (2011), Ellen DeGeneres (2012), Carol Burnett (2013), Jay Leno (2014), Eddie Murphy (2015), Bill Murray (2016), David Letterman (2017), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (2018), Dave Chappelle (2019), and Jon Stewart (2022).
The Prize will be awarded to Sandler on March 19, 2023, at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall among some of the biggest names in comedy. Broadcast details will be announced at a later date.
