TAGGED AS: Amazon, HBO, Netflix, streaming, Superheroes, The CW, TV
Where do you go after Game of Thrones? For the creators of the hit HBO fantasy series, it’s Star Wars and now Netflix. Plus, this year’s Emmy Awards show is going hostless. Bold. But perhaps not as bold as the timing of FX’s next American Crime Story topic.
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have signed an overall deal to develop new films and series for Netflix pic.twitter.com/57gLQOSTLE
— See What's Next (@seewhatsnext) August 7, 2019
Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have found their new home: Netflix. The duo has signed what sources told Deadline is a massive deal somewhere in the nine-figure range, after being courted by six different studios, including HBO.
“We’ve had a beautiful run with HBO for more than a decade and we’re grateful to everyone there for always making us feel at home,” the pair said in a statement. “Over the past few months we’ve spent many hours talking to Cindy Holland and Peter Friedlander, as well as Ted Sarandos and Scott Stuber. We remember the same shots from the same ’80s movies; we love the same books; we’re excited about the same storytelling possibilities. Netflix has built something astounding and unprecedented, and we’re honored they invited us to join them.”
The duo is also set to produce a series of Star Wars films, with the first expected in 2022.
RELATED: “5 Places Star Wars Could Go in the 2020s”
(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Fox boss Charlie Collier confirmed to reporters at the 2019 Television Critics Association summer press tour that, like the Oscars, there will be no host for the 2019 Emmys. Later that day, former Golden Globes host Amy Poehler said she understands the reluctance of people to sign on for such a massive gig.
“Those shows are a beast and the people who produce those shows have a specific, hard job,” she said. But without a host, “It should be a fun party. Think about how fun it is to go to a party, and you don’t know who’s throwing it. Your brain will probably decide who the host is.”
(Photo by JA/Everett Collection)
Immediately after FX announced that Impeachment would be the theme for the third season of American Crime Story, will focus on Bill Clinton’s impeachment through the eyes of the women involved in the case (starring Beanie Feldstein as Monica Lewinsky), and will premiere in late September 2020, an online backlash began denouncing the timing of the series. FX boss John Landgraf hit back at critics of the timing, saying that it’s scheduled then because people will be “interested in this right around the presidential election.”
“I believe very, very strongly in what we’re making. I’ve read it. I think it’s great,” Landgraf said. “I don’t believe it’s going to determine who’s the next president of the United States. I think that’s a little hysterical, from my standpoint, somebody saying that that’s going to influence the presidential election. And from my standpoint, I am insistent that I’m going to support artists who want to make great art, and they want to put it at the time and place where people are going to watch it. I will stand up here as long as I’m here, and I will stand for artists, and I will stand for art. And no one will shout us down in terms of you saying, ‘You can’t make that art,’ or ‘You can’t schedule at the time that most people want to watch it.’”
“Breezy, isn’t it?” Phoebe Waller-Bridge commented to journalists Laura Prudom and Emma Dibdin, who both wore her black Fleabag season 2 dinner scene outfit to present the Television Critics Association award for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy to the series. Fleabag also won Program of the Year and Individual Achievement in Comedy for star and creator Waller-Bridge when the industry organization handed out its annual honors on August 03, 2019 in Beverly Hills.
The awards included:
Individual Achievement in Drama: Michelle Williams (FOSSE/VERDON, FX)
Individual Achievement in Comedy: Phoebe Waller-Bridge (FLEABAG, Amazon)
Outstanding Achievement in News and Information: LEAVING NEVERLAND (HBO)
Outstanding Achievement in Reality Programming: QUEER EYE (Netflix)
Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming: ARTHUR (PBS Kids)
Outstanding Achievement in Sketch/Variety Shows: LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER (HBO)
Outstanding New Program: RUSSIAN DOLL (Netflix)
Outstanding Achievement in Movie Or Miniseries: CHERNOBYL (HBO)
Outstanding Achievement in Drama: BETTER CALL SAUL (AMC)
Outstanding Achievement in Comedy: FLEABAG (Amazon)
Program of the Year: FLEABAG (Amazon)
Lifetime Achievement Honoree: David Milch
Heritage Award: DEADWOOD (HBO)
(Photo by Dean Buscher/The CW)
As Supernatural heads into its 15th and final season, stars Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki reflected on the past and future of their demon-hunting brother characters.
“I don’t think these guys look in the past very often, unless it’s to help moving forward. I think they will continue to move forward, but this is just it’s a long journey that I don’t think is ever going to be over,” Ackles said . “I think we’re just going to go away for a while. How long, I don’t know.”
Cracked Padalecki, “And then 15 more seasons.”
But while Ackles noted “there’s a running joke on the set that this is Supernatural, and nothing ever stays dead,” executive producer Andrew Dabb said that he and the writers are planning a definitive ending.
“We’re looking at this as a true ending. And in a true ending, people can’t keep coming back over and over again. Through various machinations, some of the things that our guys have relied on to keep themselves going and going and going no matter what are going to go away. And they’re going to be facing life or death. Really, they face it a lot, but this time it’s for real,” Dabb said.
(Photo by Amazon Prime Video)
In the two weeks following its release, Amazon superhero series The Boys has already become one of the streamer’s most-watched series. From executive producers Eric Kripke (Supernatural) and Preacher executive producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, The Boys tells the story of entitled, dangerous superheroes managed by the nefarious Vought Corporation and the vigilantes seeking vengeance for wrongs committed by members of the Seven, the crème de la crème of the Vought superhero machine. Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, said the series “surpassed our predictions for viewing in its first two weeks, and has become one of our most watched Amazon Original series by our Prime Video customers.” The series also became one of the most binged series of 2019 with Amazon Prime Video customers, Amazon reported in a release. The first season is Certified Fresh at 81% on the Tomatometer with 74 reviews. Season 2 is now in production.
RELATED: “Why The Boys’ Twisted Take on the Superhero Genre Is So Deeply Satisfying”
The Nancy Drew novels have always contained a possible supernatural element that always turned out to be of human nature. But on The CW’s dark series featuring the classic teen detective, that supernatural element might be a little more real.
“There are ghosts in our show,” executive producer Noga Landau said. “The way to really look at it is that most of the things that are supernatural are rooted in something that’s happening mysteriously in the real world. Everything is rooted in emotion or some mystery amongst the living that has been unresolved.”
And while there will be a season-long mystery the characters solve, there will also be some case-of-the-week elements.
“The case in the pilot is the case that we will be unraveling through the course of the season,” executive producer Melinda Hsu Taylor said, “but every week there’s going to be a feel of, like, ‘Oh, this is the story this week.’ We’ve got this part of the mission to unfold, and another little mini mystery will become revealed to us through the things that we’re doing in that episode. I think it’s a really satisfying season-long mystery, but every week is going to be very satisfying as well.”
(Photo by JSquared Photography/The CW)
When the character of Batwoman was first introduced to The CW’s Arrowverse in the 2018 “Elseworlds” crossover, she was wearing the character’s trademark red wig. But in the pilot for the CW series, which takes place before the events of “Elseworlds,” there’s no wig in sight.
“That’s going to come up in episode 3, when she really embraces her role as Batwoman,” executive producer Caroline Dries said. “She puts on that suit, as we see in the pilot, because she’s trying to scare her enemy. And she’s not necessarily trying to become Batwoman. She’s just trying to be disguise her identity and be a fearful opponent to her nemesis. So she it’s a gradual story. It’s an origin story, so it’s a gradual realization of, ‘Oh, actually, I’m going to need my own identity.'”
In the upcoming crossover, the epic five-show “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” Dries worked hard to make sure the story line for Batwoman still made sense in the universe of the series.
“[What] was really important to me as we were breaking the crossover is that I want to keep the tone of our show in Gotham very grounded,” she said. “We are just starting out, and our characters — it’s not normal for them to interact with aliens and travel to different universes and stuff like that, so that is the first thing I brought up to the major writers’ room as we were breaking the crossover.”
(Photo by Josh Stringer/The CW)
In addition to the whopping five shows joining The CW’s annual Arrowverse crossover — Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, and Batwoman — “Crisis on Infinite Earths” will also introduce characters from the network’s other superhero series, Black Lightning. Arrowverse executive producer Marc Guggenheim said it was always the goal to make this crossover the biggest ever.
“Ever since we started talking about doing ‘Crisis’ — and we started it last year — the goal has always been how many different corners of the DC Universe can we touch? We already say, ‘It’s not “Crisis on CW,”‘ or ‘It’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths.”‘ And Black Lightning just makes so much sense. I’m a huge fan of that show, and I’m a longtime fan of that comic character. What it really came down to was Salim Akil deciding whether he wanted to do it. He and I had a great conversation last week talking about Black Lightning being part of the crossover. I think we’re both really jazzed and really excited that there are some phenomenal possibilities here.”
(Photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage; Michael Buckner/Getty Images)
Alicia Silverstone and Mark Feuerstein will play the parents of Baby-Sitters Club president Kristy in Netflix’s upcoming single-camera family series adaptation of The Baby-Sitters Club. Silverstone is Elizabeth Thomas-Brewer, the mother of Kristy Thomas and love interest of Feuerstein’s Watson Brewer. The series is based on Ann M. Martin’s best-selling book series about five Connecticut BFFs — Kristy Thomas, Mary Anne Spier, Claudia Kishi, Stacey McGill, and Dawn Schafer. Production is currently underway in Vancouver.
