Monthly Archives: July 2017
Why The Wire Creator Is Making a Show About Porn
David Simon's new show on HBO has a lot of flashy elements going for it: it stars James Franco as twin brothers who become fronts for the Mob, it explores the emerging porn industry in '70s New York, and of course it comes from the creator of The Wire. But for Simon, the show is about much more than just those flashy elements; it's about exploring what happened to the porn industry at its start and how that's still relevant today.
"I'm much less interested in whether porn is good or bad in a moral sense ... as I am in the way power and money array themselves, and how society arranges themselves into some people are victims and some people are victimized," Simon said during a panel for The Deuce at the 2017 summer TV Critics' Association press tour. "I'm much more interested in the way when a product becomes a product and an industry becomes an industry and how that is now market capitalism, and also how labor is treated or not treated."
HBO Announces Chernobyl Mini-Series Starring Mad Men Actor
HBO has given the go-ahead to a five-part miniseries about Chernobyl.
It was announced at the Television Critics Association summer press tour (via Variety) that Mad Men and The Crown actor Jared Harris is attached to star as Valery Legasov, a Soviet scientist chosen by the Kremlin to investigate the 1986 nuclear disaster.
The series has been described by HBO as a "a tale of lies and cowardice, of courage and conviction, of human failure and human nobility."
Jared Harris in The Quiet Ones
Curb Your Enthusiasm: Larry David’s “Neurotic Superman” Returns
Curb is back!
Larry David's returning to HBO for an all new Curb Your Enthusiasm season on October 1st -- the first since 2011 -- featuring our perpetually perturbed hero taking his neighbor to court (on Judge Judy), not being able to open a shampoo bottle in the shower, getting sprayed in the face by an overly eager employee of a perfume counter, not saying "Namaste" at a yoga studio, not thanking a soldier for his service, and having to endure being sandwiched between two very annoying airline passengers. You know, typical things that would drive Larry nuts both in real life and on TV.
So why after all these years is Larry back? "Why now?" Larry asked himself at the Television Critics Association press tour. "Eh, why not?"
How HBO’s Room 104 is the Tinder of Television
Premiering Friday, July 28th on HBO, Room 104 is a 12-episode anthology series that all takes place in the same dreary motel room, with the story and stars changing from week to week. But that's not all that changes every episode - the genre changes as well.
Yes, viewers will see everything from heartbreaking drama to uncomfortable comedy to chilling horror to...an episode with no dialogue and its story all told through modern dance.
Creators Jay and Mark Dupless (Togetherness, Animals), along with directors Marta Cunningham and Sarah Adina Smith, appeared at the Television Critics Press Tour to answer questions about the new series, which Mark Duplass called the "Russian Roulette of Television."
Henry Cavill Addresses Those Justice League Reshoots
The mustache that Henry Cavill grew for Mission: Impossible 6 has been in the news quite a bit recently due to it resulting in reported complications surrounding the Justice League reshoots. Given that he now sports popular culture's most prominent mustache, it was only a matter of time before Cavill himself spoke on the matter.
For the uninitiated, reshoots for Justice League have dragged on considerably, as they have reportedly been ongoing for two months and cost Warner Bros. $25 million. Part of the problem is working around the schedules of the film's actors, and that includes Cavill. Cavill, who plays Superman, is currently working on the latest Mission: Impossible movie, for which he has grown a hearty mustache. Paramount, the studio behind that movie, won't let him shave the mustache, so Justice League is having to reportedly digitally remove the mustache from Cavill's face, lest Superman suddenly be sporting some lip fuzz.
HBO Defends GoT Showrunners’ Controversial New Series
Confederate, the next HBO series from Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, has been meet with some controversy, and the network as come forward to defend the new show.
"Hindsight is 20/20," HBO president of programming Casey Bloys said today at the Television Critics Association press tour regarding the way in which Confederate was announced. "Our mistake is the idea that we would be able to announce an idea that is so sensitive and requires such care and such thought from the producers in a press release was misguided."
Bloys went on to note that, since he spoke with the producers, he had the necessary context, and can understand why those who only read the press release would not. "People don't have the benefit of the context with the producers that we have," he said.
Game of Thrones Final Season Premiere Year Still Up in the Air
Will Game of Thrones' final season air in 2018 or be delayed until 2019? That's the big question as the HBO drama's penultimate season currently hits our airwaves, and HBO president Casey Bloys says it will remain unanswered for a while longer.
During his executive session during the 2017 summer TV Critics' Association press tour, Bloys confirmed that all the Season 8 scripts have been written, but showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are currently storyboarding them out to get a sense of how long they'll take to film.
"It's a big season," said Bloys. "They're trying to get a sense of how long it's going to take them to shoot this."
HBO’s Watchmen Series Won’t Be a Straight Adaptation
The Watchmen series that's currently in development at HBO -- to be helmed by Lost/The Leftovers' Damon Lindelof -- isn't going to be a straight adaptation, HBO prez Casey Bloys told IGN.
Which makes sense when you consider that Alan Moore's Watchman is a closed story that could probably serve as the inspiration for, say, a single season of TV and not an ongoing series.
"I don't want to talk too much about it, but Damon is thinking about it in a way exactly as you describe it," Bloys said. "Which is, how do you take the material and derive from it a TV show, without making it a literal translation?"
Would that mean creating material for the show that wasn't in the graphic novel? "I think so, yes," Bloys responded.
New Show From True Blood, Six Feet Under Creator Announced
Alan Ball is bringing a new series to HBO.
The new show is described as a mix of two of Ball's other creations, True Blood and Six Feet Under, by HBO programming chief Casey Bloys.
The news came during the Television Critics Association press tour, along with other big HBO news like a Chernobyl mini-series with Mad Men's Jared Harris.
Alan Ball's notable entertainment accomplishments extend into film as well, with Ball winning an Oscar for best original screenplay for 1999's best picture winner American Beauty.
If you're unfamiliar with True Blood and Six Feet Under, you can stream them on Amazon Prime if you're a member in the US, contrary to April reports of an HBO and Amazon split.
Ant-Man and the Wasp’s Goliath Explained
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is expanding in a big way thanks to Ant-Man and the Wasp. Not only does the film finally put Evangeline Lilly's Hope Van Dyne in costume and introduce her long-lost mother, Janet (played by Michelle Pfeiffer), but we also meet Dr. Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne), a brilliant scientist and future heir to the mantle of Giant-Man (in the comics anyway). As we learned in the trailers for the film, Foster worked with Hank Pym at one time on "the Goliath program"... though he never got quite as big as Ant-Man did!
Whether you call him Giant-Man, Goliath or Black Goliath, Bill Foster isn't a character many causal Marvel fans may be aware of. With that in mind, here's everything you need to know about this new addition to the MCU.