What’s going on in the TV world?
Hope you all had a wonderful holiday. If you love Thanksgiving themed tv episodes as much as we do, read our post about our favorite ones. Also check out our red carpet coverage of the world premiere of Spike Lee’s Netflix original series She’s Gotta Have It, along with our official review.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDBwsMIXlMk&feature=youtu.be&linkId=45163035
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D released the first 17 minutes of their season 5 premiere today. The 2 hour season premiere comes out this Friday, December 1st, at 8 EST on ABC.
Carmen Ejogo, who was recently in Alien: Covenant and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, was just cast in the third season of True Detective. She will be starring alongside Moonlight‘s Mahershala Ali. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the third season “will tell the story of a macabre crime in the heart of the Ozarks and a mystery that deepens over decades and plays out in three separate time periods.” Ali will play an Arkansas police detective named Wayne Hays. It looks like the season will be set in 1980 with Ejogo playing schoolteacher connected to two missing children.
Issa Rae is adding a new show to her stable. Going into the third season of her popular show Insecure, she’s planning something new. She is working with HBO to develop a new show set in early 1990s Los Angeles. That time period was a turbulent one for L.A. and this show will revolve around an African-American family trying to deal with it. Angela Flournoy, author of The Turner House and winner of the National Book Award, will serve as executive producer and writer for the project.
Highly favored for the most depressing potential series ever, BBC is adapting Les Miserables into a TV series. Les Miserables was a novel by Victor Hugo that was later adapted into a wildly popular musical. It follows a criminal on the run from a relentless police officer. The musical was previously adapted into a 2012 film starring Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried and Russell Crowe. Andrew Davies, who has written for House of Cards, War & Peace and Bleak House, will be leading the BBC project. It seems that the BBC version will be an adaptation of the novel and not the musical so don’t expect all the iconic songs.
Alexander Skarsgard has just been cast in AMC’s adaptation of John le Carre’s Little Drummer Girl. Skarsgard, who was recently been in HBO’s Big Little Lies, will play an an Israeli intelligence officer who draws Florence Pugh’s character into a web of espionage in 1970s Greece. Little Drummer Girl will be the tv debut of Park Chan-wook, who directed The Handmaiden and Oldboy.
Daniel Dae Kim is having an interesting year. John Koblin wrote a feature on him for the New York Times. During the summer, he along with fellow co-star and Asian American Grack Park left Hawaii 5-0 after 7 seasons over a public payroll dispute. They thought they weren’t being paid as much as their white co-stars. CBS not only thought they were being paid just enough, they weren’t willing to fight for Kim and Park. Now everything is coming up roses for Kim. He recently was cast in Hellboy, which he is currently filming. Additionally, he has found production success with ABC’s The Good Doctor. The show is a medical drama about a young surgical resident with autism and savant syndrome. It’s based off a Korean drama. Kim has been working for a while to keep the project going, bringing it to CBS twice only to be rejected both times. Finally, he found a home at ABC and the show has given ABC a badly needed new success. The Good Doctor is Kim’s first time as an executive producer.
The NAACP Image Awards nominations were released. Queen Sugar, This Is Us and Underground all gained nominations for Outstanding Drama Series. For Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series, Kofi Siriboe was nominated for Queen Sugar, Mike Colter for Marvel’s The Defenders and Sterling K. Brown for This Is Us. For Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series Jurnee Smollett-Bell was nominated for Underground, Kerry Washington for Scandal, Rutina Wesley for Queen Sugar, Taraji P. Henson for Empire and Viola Davis for How to Get Away with Murder. black-ish, Dear White People and Insecure were all nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series. For Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series Issa Rae received a nomination for Insecure, Niecy Nash for Claws and Tracee Ellis Ross for black-ish. black-ish‘s Marsai Martin was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series along with Leslie Jones for Saturday Night Live, Uzo Aduba for Orange is the New Black and Yvonne Orji for Insecure. Caleb McLaughlin received a nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Youth (Series, Special, Television Movie or Limited-series) for his role in Stranger Things. The Hollywood Reporter has a full listing of nominations.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbZwDvtAPvN/
In happy news, Queen Sugar and True Blood star Rutina Wesley may have just came out and announced her engagement via Instagram. The Advocate reported on it earlier this week.
In Movie News…
From our Jurassic family to yours. @FilmBayona @PrattPrattPratt @BryceDHoward @LeDoctor #FALLENKINGDOM pic.twitter.com/KiR3et9Vx1
— Colin Trevorrow (@colintrevorrow) November 22, 2017
In honor of Thanksgiving, Colin Trevorrow, the director of the upcoming Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom released the first images from the movie via Twitter.
If feels like Warner Bros. has been promoting Justice League all year. They seemed to put the majority of their eggs in the Justice League basket, leaving little behind for Wonder Woman. It didn’t help that the filming was plagued by issues. After Zack Snyder had to leave the project for personal reasons, Joss Whedon took over. He reshot a substantial amount of the film pushing the budget to somewhere between $250 – $300 million. And who can forget Henry Cavill’s CGI’ed facial hair. There was a major rollout at San Diego Comic-Con to try to get things back on track but it doesn’t seem to have worked. The movie ended up earning $94 million its opening weekend. Wonder Woman opened to $103 million with less promotion. Aquaman has finished shooting but how will this affect the other solo movies is up in the air. As of now, Whedon is still the director of Batgirl. You can check out our review of Justice League here.
Joe Manganiello dropped a picture of him as Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke on his Instagram. Spoiler warning: Justice League‘s post-credit scene introduced this character. Deathstroke was meant to appear in the Batman stand-alone film but that was when Ben Affleck was directing it. Affleck has since stepped down from directing. He was replaced by Matt Reeves who has indicated that he would not be using Affleck’s script for the movie. Where does that leave Deathstroke? According to Manganiello, still alive and kicking. We’ll see how this plays out in the wake of Justice League‘s poor showing.
Yes, the Gambit movie is still happening. Gore Verbinski is directing the film which is still starring its most fervent supporter, Channing Tatum. It’s still coming out Feb. 14, 2019. Valentine’s Day 2019, we’ll see Channing Tatum with that sleek hairdo once again. This time with some kinda of Cajun accent added into the mix. Now, he may have a co-star. Lizzy Caplan, who was in Masters of Sex and Mean Girls, is currently in negotiations to play the female lead in Gambit. She may or may not be taking over the role of Belladonna Boudreaux from Lea Seydoux who was cast when Rupert Wyatt was the director.
During Coco‘s opening weekend, Pixar was rocked by shocking news when co-founder John Lasseter announced he was taking a leave of absence after what he called ‘missteps’ but were clearly sexual harassment incidents. After the purchase of Pixar by Disney in 2006, Lasseter became CEO of both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. He directed Toy Story and Toy Story 2. Lasseter wrote in his statement: “I’ve recently had a number of difficult conversations that have been very painful for me. It’s never easy to face your missteps, but it’s the only way to learn from them. As a result, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the leader I am today compared to the mentor, advocate, and champion I want to be. It’s been brought to my attention that I have made some of you feel disrespected or uncomfortable”. According to the Hollywood Reporter, some of those ‘missteps’ included “grabbing, kissing, making comments about physical attributes.”
The same Hollywood Reporter article that described John Lasseter’s behavior toward Pixar employees also alleged that Rashida Jones left Toy Story 4 along with her writing partner, Will McCormack, because of sexual harassment she experienced from Lasseter. Jones released a statement to combat the rumors, citing that Pixar has a culture “where women and people of color do not have an equal creative voice” as the reason why they left. The Hollywood Reporter is standing by their story that something happened between Lasseter and Jones.
In happier news for Pixar, Coco had a great opening weekend. It earned $71.2 million over the 5 day holiday. This puts them just behind other Disney hits Frozen and Moana as well as Pixar’s Toy Story 3 which earned $93.6 million, $82 million and $80 million respectively making it the fourth best Thanksgiving holiday opening ever. Coco is doing well internationally too. Interestingly it went from a $1.9 million Friday debut in China to $7.1 million Saturday debut. Coco ended up winning the Chinese market with $18.2 million, over Justice League‘s $15.8 million. Up until this film, Pixar was the worst performing animation studio in China. Way to go Coco! Justice League was just behind Coco, earning an additional $60 million in North America. You can read our review of Coco here.
Speaking of Disney, Aladdin turned 25 on Saturday. It’s hard to believe this movie has been around for so long. It was the number 1 film of 1992 and earned $217 million domestically and $504 million internationally. Mena Massoud, who will be starring at the titular character in the live-action remake, took to Instagram to celebrate the anniversary.
Jude Law is currently in talks to star in the Captain Marvel movie opposite Brie Larson who is playing the titular character. Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers is an Air Force pilot who gains superpowers after her DNA is fused with an alien’s. Law will possibly be playing Doctor Walter Lawson, a.k.a. Mar-Vell. He will serve as a kind of mentor for Danvers. The movie is set to premiere March 8, 2019. That is going to be a busy year for Law. He’s starring in the sequel to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them as a young Albus Dumbledore which also premieres that year.
Jordan Peele is having an amazing year. After the success of Get Out, he has numerous projects in the works. Going into awards season, Get Out is already starting to gain attention. This week it was announced that it received multiple Independent Spirit Award nominations including Best Feature, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Editing and Best Male Lead.
Honored to hear that ‘Get Out’ was nominated for 5 @NAACP Image Awards!!! Congrats to the team and other nominees!?? https://t.co/q6mIAAUUDN
— Jordan Peele (@JordanPeele) November 20, 2017
Detroit, Get Out, Girls Trip, Marshall, and Roman J. Israel, Esq all received nominations for NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Motion Picture. Get Out also received nominations for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture, Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture (Film) and Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture – (Film). Dee Rees’ Mudbound also did well, gaining 3 nominations. Tessa Thompson and Idris Elba were both nominated for Thor: Ragnarok.
Finally, as if to make up for the long break between trailers, Lucasfilm has been releasing short clips from Star Wars: The Last Jedi this week. The first one is entitled Heroes featuring a recently awakened Finn, followed by Tempt and finally Back which features the return of Luke Skywalker to the Millennium Falcon. Less than three weeks to go!
If you have anything I missed, email me at mel@blackgirlnerds.com or tweet me at @jane_anon. Check back in next Monday for all the exciting news happening next week.
. Channing is not Gambits biggest supporter…I am.