In today’s roundup, the live musical production of « Rent » will premiere in 2019, and Paramount Pictures gives a first look at « Waco. »
In today’s roundup, the live musical production of “ Rent ” will premiere in 2019, Paramount Network offers a first look at Taylor Kitsch in “Waco,” and Sanaa Lathan joins the cast of Showtime’s “The Affair.”
PREMIERE DATES
The live musical production of the musical “ Rent ” will air Sunday, Jan. 27,2019 on Fox. More details and casting will be announced later. Set in New York City’s East Village, “Rent” tells the story of seven artists struggling to follow their dreams during a time of great social and political turmoil. A re-imagining of Puccini’s “La Boheme,” the Broadway show celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. “Rent” will be executive-produced by Marc Platt (“Grease: Live,” “La La Land,” “Wicked”), Adam Siegel, Julie Larson, Al Larson, and Revolution Studios’ Vince Totino, Scott Hemming and Marla Levine.
The upcoming HBO documentary “ The Newspaperman: The Life and Times of Ben Bradlee ” will debut on Dec. 4. Told primarily in his own words, the documentary is an intimate portrait of the late Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee, an influential figure who played a key role in the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974 after Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate scandal. “The Newspaperman” traces Bradlee’s ascent from a boy who suffered from polio to the one of the most consequential journalistic figures of the 20th century. The film features previously unseen home movies, photographs, archival footage and interviews with a who’s who of American journalism, Washington insiders, and family and friends who knew him best, including: Woodward, Bernstein, Henry Kissinger, Jim Lehrer, John Dean, Norman Lear, Robert Redford, Sally Bedell Smith, Sally Quinn, Tina Brown and Tom Brokaw.
History’s new drama “ Knightfall ” makes its series debut on Wednesday, Dec. 6 at 10 p.m. The 10-episode season takes viewers from inside the medieval politics and warfare of the Knights Templar, the most powerful, wealthy, and mysterious military order of the Middle Ages who were entrusted with protecting Christianity’s most precious relics. “Knightfall” stars Tom Cullen (“Downton Abbey”) as Templar Knight Landry, Pádraic Delaney (“The Tudors”) as Gawain, and Simon Merrells (“Spartacus”) as Tancrede.
CASTING
Amazon ’s “ Carnival Row ” has added David Gyasi (“Interstellar”), Karla Crome (“Under the Dome”), Indira Varma (“Game of Thrones”), and Tamzin Merchant (“Salem”) to join the recently announced cast of Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne. Gyasi will play Agreus, a mysteriously wealthy faun who moves into an affluent human neighborhood in defiance of the social order. Crome will play Tourmaline, a quick-witted faerie love poet driven from her war-torn homeland and forced to work in a brothel on Carnival Row. Varma will play Piety Breakspear, the regal and cunning matriarch of the powerful family that rules the city of the Burgue. Merchant will play Imogen Spurnrose, a young woman who sees in Agreus an opportunity to turn her aristocratic family’s fading fortunes around. The series is scheduled to begin filming this fall for a 2019 release. “Carnival Row” is a fantasy set in a neo-Victorian city. Mythical creatures fleeing their war-torn homeland have gathered in the city, and tensions are simmering between citizens and the growing immigrant population. The series follows the investigation of a string of unsolved murders which are eating away at whatever uneasy peace still exists.
SundanceTV announced Louis Gossett Jr., Corbin Bernsen, and Andrew Dice Clay will join the cast of “ Hap and Leonard: The Two-Bear Mambo .” They will be joining series’ stars James Purefoy (Hap) and Michael Kenneth Williams (Leonard). Gossett Jr. will play Bacon, a veterinarian-turned-cook at the local diner. Bernsen will play Chief Cantuck, the foul-mouthed, morally ambiguous head of the Grovetown Police department. Dice Clay will star as Sonny Knox, the town’s politically incorrect radio disc jockey. In its third season, the anthology series, based on the books of the same name by Joe R. Lansdale, follows two lifelong best friends, Hap Collins and Leonard Pine. John Wirth returns as showrunner and executive producer for Season 3, and Jim Mickle, Nick Damici, Jeremy Platt, and Linda Moran return as executive producers.
Sanaa Lathan (“American Assassin”) will recur on Showtime’s “ The Affair .” Lathan will play Jenelle, the tough-as-nails principal of the charter school where Noah (Dominic West) teaches, who intrigues him. She’s got a lot to prove to her school’s oppositional administration and faculty, who seem to fight her at every turn. “The Affair” will return for its fourth season on Showtime in 2018. The series explores the emotional and psychological effects of an affair that destroyed two marriages, and the crime that brings these individuals back together.
EXECUTIVE NEWS
Kannie Yu LaPack has been promoted to senior vice president of Publicity and Public Affairs for Lifetime and Lifetime Movies. Yu LaPack oversees the Lifetime and Lifetime Movies publicity teams in all consumer, trade, awards strategy, and public affairs initiatives. She will be based in Los Angeles and report to Michael Feeney, executive vice president of Corporate Communications for A+E Networks. Previously, she was vice president of publicity. Prior to her tenure at Lifetime, Yu LaPack was a publicist with ABC Family (now Freeform).
DEVELOPMENT
Showtime announced R. J. Fried has been named showrunner and executive producer of the new untitled half-hour animated series featuring the two-dimensional avatars of President Donald Trump and his family. Stephen Colbert will also executive produce the 10-episode animated series, which will premiere on Showtime in early 2018. The series will present the truish adventures of Trump’s confidants — family, top associates, heads of government, golf pros and anyone else straying into his orbit — intrepidly exploring their histories and their psyches, revealing insights into what makes them so definitively Trumpian. It’s a workplace comedy where the office happens to be oval; it’s a character study in search of character, as seen through the eyes of an imaginary documentary crew. Tim Luecke, who co-created the “Late Show” version of Animated Trump, will serve as lead animator and co-executive producer.
AWARD SHOWS
Actresses Katherine Langford (“13 Reasons Why”) and Danielle Macdonald (“Patti Cake$) are among the honorees at this year’s Australians in Film Awards on Wednesday, Oct. 18. Actor Patrick Brammall will host the event at Neuehouse Hollywood. Langford and Macdonald, along with director Alethea Jones, screenwriter-cinematographer-director Warwick Thornton will receive the screen Australia breakthrough award, which recognizes Austrailian screen talent who have had major international presence over the past year.
