December 13, 2018 3:13PM PT Jordan Peele’s upcoming Nazi hunter drama at Amazon, “The Hunt,” has potentially found its lead. Logan Lerman is in talks to star in the drama series as Jonah Heidelbaum. When his grandmother is slain by a mysterious intruder in their apartment, Jonah sets out to track the culprit, only to find
Television
“This Is Us” critics and fans were shocked when the NBC hit received no love from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association earlier this week with zero Golden Globes nods. The show, after all, was nominated for three Golden Globes last year, including best television drama. Plus, Sterling K. Brown won the 2018 statue for best
December 13, 2018 12:00PM PT Kaya Scodelario has signed on for the lead role in the upcoming Netflix drama “Spinning Out,” Variety has learned. Scodelario takes over the role that was previously held by Emma Roberts, who bowed out in October. She stars as Kat Baker, an up-and-coming, high-level single skater who’s about to turn in
Seven Bucks Productions, the production company co-founded by Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia, has named Kevin Hill the head of television and digital development. In this role, Hill will identify, develop and produce new scripted and unscripted projects for Seven Bucks Productions and Seven Bucks Digital Studios. His background includes a six-and-a-half year stint at WME working
December 13, 2018 11:16AM PT Streaming services snatched their biggest piece of the TV pie ever in 2018. According to FX’s annual report on the number of scripted originals on TV, the number of streaming shows has surpassed the number of basic cable and broadcast shows for the first time ever. Out of 495 scripted
This year provided TV fans with one of the most promising pilots in years (“Barry”) and an all-time-great series finale (that of “The Americans”), but there was plenty in between, too. The following are 20 of Variety’s critics’ favorite episodes to have aired all year, across genres. Of note: while episodes of “Atlanta,” “Barry,” “BoJack
Apple has given a straight-to-series order to a limited series starring Jennifer Garner and executive produced by JJ Abrams, Variety has learned. “My Glory Was I Had Such Friends,” based on the 2017 memoir of the same name by Amy Silverstein, follows a group of women who supported Silverstein as she waited for a second life-saving
As the number of television series continues to grow, so too does the number of television character deaths. After all, what says “strong, emotional” material like asking actors to play grieving friends and loved ones of the newly deceased? To cap off the year in television, Variety selected the series that provided the most impactful losses
Rebecca Campbell, Diego Lerner and Uday Shankar are set to be Disney’s three key international chiefs when its deal for 21st Century Fox closes, the company announced Thursday. Campbell will run the Europe, Middle East and Africa team under the new structure, which is conditional on the Fox deal closing. She also adds Russia and
December 13, 2018 7:43AM PT Actress Cybill Shepherd, who once starred in the CBS sitcom “Cybill” alleged in a recent interview that former CBS CEO Leslie Moonves propositioned her while they were dining at a restaurant. “His assistant and my assistant made a dinner date and we went to it and he was, well he
December 13, 2018 7:14AM PT Both Diego Luna and Scott McNairy are set to star in “Narcos: Mexico” Season 2, reprising their roles from Season 1. Production recently began on the second season of the series, which is the fifth season total of the “Narcos” franchise. Luna was recently honored with a Critics’ Choice Award nomination
December 13, 2018 6:00AM PT The writer of upcoming BBC and Netflix series “Watership Down” and the producers behind hit animated specials including “The Gruffalo” are adapting the classic children’s tale “The Velveteen Rabbit” for TV. Magic Light Pictures and Tom Bidwell are in development on the project and already talking to broadcasters. For U.K.-based
With its international rollout well underway, the critically acclaimed TV series “My Brilliant Friend,” based on the first of Italian author Elena Ferrante’s bestselling “Neapolitan Novels,” is scoring strong ratings at home in Italy, and is also playing well in the U.S. and U.K. The show, which explores the bounds of female friendship, is being
December 12, 2018 11:59PM PT Himesh Patel and Ewen Leslie have joined “The Luminaries,” with production now underway on the highly anticipated series adaptation of Eleanor Catton’s Man Booker Prize-winning novel. The pair join Eve Hewson (“The Knick”), Eva Green (“Penny Dreadful”) and Marton Csokas (“Into the Badlands”) in the period piece. The high-end drama
Ryan Kadro, the executive producer of “CBS This Morning” and one of the architects of the A.M. program, is currently in contract discussions that could lead to his exit from the show, according to three people familiar with the matter. Kadro’s contract is slated to run out at the end of the year, and he
December 12, 2018 5:08PM PT NBC’s three California O&Os are set to launch a live daily lifestyle series dubbed “California Live.” The series will air at 11:30 a.m. Monday through Friday across KNBC-TV Los Angeles, KNTV-TV San Francisco and KNSD San Diego. The show will have some modular segments that will be customized for each
In Wednesday’s roundup, Netflix reveals the premiere date for “Tidying Up With Marie Kondo,” and Steven Yeun joins Jordan Peele’s “Twilight Zone” reboot. FIRST LOOKS Variety has an exclusive behind-the-scenes first look at Season 2 of Showtime’s “SMILF,” featuring creator and star, Frankie Shaw. The new season, which premieres Sunday, Jan. 20 at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT, finds Bridgette trying to move
December 12, 2018 2:21PM PT CBS News settled a lawsuit filed by three women who alleged they were harassed by former “CBS This Morning” co-anchor Charlie Rose, and claimed CBS did not act despite being aware of the situation. The amount awarded to the women was not disclosed at their request, according to a CBS
Spain’s Quirino Awards, Argentina’s Animation! and Mexico’s Pixelatl Festival, three key events in Ibero-American animation, will join forces to create La Liga (The League), as announced Wednesday at an Animation! round table hosted by the Quirino Awards, titled “Iberoamerican Alliance Models.” Speakers included Quirino Awards promoter José Luis Farias, Mexico’s Pixelatl director José Iñesta, Gonzalo
Fans of the Marvel Television series recently canceled by Netflix who hope to see the shows revived on Disney+ may be out of luck. Sources tell Variety that the deal for the original four Marvel shows includes a clause that prevents the characters from appearing in any non-Netflix series or film for at least two years after
“One Dollar” has the ignominious distinction of being the first CBS All Access original series to be canceled. Variety has confirmed that the streaming service will not be bringing the drama series back for a second season. The series was set in a small rust belt town in post-recession America, where a one-dollar bill changing
December 12, 2018 12:05PM PT “The Mandalorian” cast has taken shape. The upcoming live-action “Star Wars” streaming series has revealed that the cast now includes Giancarlo Esposito, Emily Swallow, Carl Weathers, Omid Abtahi, and Werner Herzog. They join previously announced cast members Pedro Pascal, Nick Nolte, and Gina Carano. As with all things “Star Wars,” the
With three SAG Award noms adding to the momentum of kudos recognition for Netflix’s “The Kominsky Method,” the show has quickly become the most well-received series in Chuck Lorre’s long career in television. It’s also among the most personal. “I wanted to write about getting older and all that that entails,” Lorre told Variety. “I wanted to
With approximately 500 scripted series premiering new seasons in 2018, sometimes it feels like the television landscape is like a bubble. If it keeps getting inflated larger and larger, eventually something will have to give and it will pop, right? Well, maybe not for the platforms on which these shows are released — after all,
At the SAG Awards nominations Wednesday morning, “A Star Is Born” led the film pack with four nods and while that wasn’t a surprise, there were plenty of snubs and surprises that caught us off guard. On the television side, a plethora of co-stars are competing against each other, as both male and female actors
December 12, 2018 8:30AM PT Freeform has given out a series order to the comedy “Everything’s Gonna Be Okay” from creator, writer, and comedian Josh Thomas. The network has ordered 10 episodes of the half hour series. Thomas also stars as Nicholas, a neurotic 25-year-old still living at home with his single dad and two teenage
December 12, 2018 8:01AM PT Netflix led the way among all networks and studios with this year’s SAG nominations, garnering 15 nods thanks to programming like “GLOW,” “Ozark,” “Grace and Frankie” and “The Kominsky Method.” “Ozark” was among the select group of titles to snare four nominations, along with “A Star Is Born” and “The
Musical drama “A Star Is Born” led the way with four SAG feature film nominations, while “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Ozark” each scored a quartet of TV nominations. “BlacKkKlansman” and “The Favourite” both took a trio of film nominations, followed by “Barry,” “GLOW,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and “The Kominsky Method,” each scoring three TV
The European Commission has started an in-depth probe into Vodafone’s proposed acquisition of a raft of Liberty Global assets in Europe. The commission cited concerns that the deal could reduce competition in Germany and the Czech Republic. “It’s important that all EU consumers have access to affordable and good quality telephone and TV services,” Commissioner
CBS News has promoted Major Garrett to the post of Chief Washington Correspondent. A veteran journo, Garrett has served as Chief White House Correspondent since joining CBS News in 2012. With the promotion, Garrett will expand his beat to a wider range of stories coming out of Washington as well as the 2020 presidential election