The “Good Omens” cast just keeps getting better. The newest addition is Benedict Cumberbatch.
The Academy Award-winning actor has signed on to voice Satan in the Amazon series, as creator Neil Gaiman announced Wednesday. He revealed the news during a TCA event, and the “Good Omens” team later joked in a video about “taking a chance” on the “up-and-comer.”
Cumberbatch comes to the role as anything but an up-and-comer. He has not not only starred in a number of Marvel Cinematic Universe films, he plays the titular character in the acclaimed crime drama series “Sherlock.” He also recently starred in the miniseries “Patrick Melrose,” and some of his other film credits include 2015’s “Black Mass,” and 2013’s “12 Years a Slave” and “Star Trek Into Darkness.”
In “Good Omens,” Cumberbatch joins a number of big names. The show’s cast includes David Tennant, Michael Sheen, Anna Maxwell Martin, Josie Lawrence, Adria Arjona, Jon Hamm, Jack Whitehall, Nick Offerman, Michael McKean, Miranda Richardson, and Frances McDormand. Based on Gaiman’s 1990 novel written with the late Terry Pratchett, it centers on an angel (Sheen) and a demon (Tennant) as the Apocalypse and Final Judgment near.
“Good Omens” premieres May 31 on Amazon Prime Video.
“Catastrophe” is returning with all new headaches, heartaches, and hilarity for one last time.
Amazon released a trailer and announced that the relationship dramedy will return for a fourth and final season on March 15.
Season 4 will pick up where the show left off, after Rob (Rob Delaney) was in a car accident and revealed he had broken his sobriety to Sharon (Sharon Horgan). Now, Rob is going to AA, while Sharon tries to keep the family together.
Looming on the horizon is the funeral of Rob’s mother (the late Carrie Fisher). As ever, their nutty friends Fran Ashley Jensen) and Chris (Mark Bonnar) are around to add even more weird drama to their lives. And this season, the cast adds Chris Noth, Michaela Watkins, and David Alan Grier to the mix.
The final season of “Catastrophe” has already finished airing in the U.K.
There won’t be a second “Homecoming” for Julia Roberts.
The actress, who earned Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Award nominations for her lead performance on the Amazon drama, is not returning for Season 2. “Homecoming” was Roberts’s first TV series regular role and was always meant as a one-season gig, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Roberts will remain an executive producer on the series, which landed at Amazon with a two-season commitment.
The drama was adapted from the popular Gimlet Media podcast by “Mr. Robot” creator Sam Esmail. Roberts played Heidi, a former therapist at a military facility whose memory of her time there is strangely missing. In flashbacks, viewers see her develop an emotional connection with young soldier Walter (Stephan James).
At the end of the first season, the show made a major departure from the podcast, when Heidi finds Walter living happily in a small town. In the podcast, Heidi spends the entire second season searching for Walter.
“We’ve deviated from very much of the podcast, so [season two of] the podcast doesn’t really have anything to do with the way the show is going. We’re working on a second season, but we have a very different trajectory for our show,” Esmail told THR.
It’s unclear which, if any, of the show’s original cast will return, including Stephan James, Bobby Cannavale, Shea Whigham, Alex Karpovsky and Sissy Spacek.
Though Heidi’s story is seemingly at an end, a post-credits scene in the finale indicated that Season 2 will explore the inner workings of the Geist Group, the shadowy organization that ran the military facility. The scene featured Cannavale’s blustery executive Colin getting fired by his newly-promoted superior, Audrey (Hong Chau), who uses a mysterious medicine to calm herself after their encounter.
Al Pacino is apparently ready to try something new.
The longtime movie star is reportedly close to reaching a deal to take on his first role as a series regular. He is in negotiations to star in an upcoming Amazon series called “The Hunt,” Deadline reports. He’d play a Nazi hunter who belongs to a larger group that takes justice into its own hands.
Logan Lerman has also been cast in the series, which is set in 1977, and his character, Jonah Heidelbaum, finds the group after his grandmother’s murder. The members are hunting down Nazis who moved to the United States and took on new identities. Pacino’s character becomes Jonah’s mentor.
Pacino has, of course, had a long career in film, but he has never been a regular on a TV series. Although his television work has been limited, it has garnered accolades. He received an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his role in the HBO miniseries “Angels in America” as well as another Emmy for the made-for-TV biopic “You Don’t Know Jack.”
“The Hunt” is set for 10 episodes after a straight-to-series order in May. It is based on an original idea and also takes inspiration in real-life events. The series comes from creator David Weil. He is writing the series, as well as executive producing and co-showrunning alongside Nikki Toscano. Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld of Monkey Paw Productions are also excecutive producing, alongside Sonar Entertainment’s Tom Lesinski and Jenna Santoianni. Monkeypaw and Sonar are producing.
So far, a premiere date for “The Hunt” has not been announced.
Amazon’s upcoming anthology series based on the popular New York Times column “Modern Love” has just revealed its sprawling cast, and the starry ensemble is absolutely brimming with A-listers, award winners, and familiar character actors.
Among the biggest names in the bunch are Anne Hathaway, Tina Fey, John Slattery (who also stars in Amazon’s other high-profile, star-filled anthology series, “The Romanoffs”), and Dev Patel. And that’s not all.
The rest of the impressive cast includes: Catherine Keener (“Get Out”), Andy Garcia (“Ocean’s Eleven”), Cristin Milioti (“Black Mirror”), Brandon Victor Dixon (“Power”), Olivia Cooke (“Ready Player One”), Andrew Scott (“Sherlock”), Julia Garner (“Ozark”), Shea Whigham (“Homecoming”), Gary Carr (“The Deuce,” “Downton Abbey”), Sofia Boutella (“Kingsman: The Secret Service”) and John Gallagher, Jr. (“The Newsroom”).
Behind the camera, the talent is equally impressive. Emmy Rossum (“Shameless”), Sharon Horgan (“Catastrophe,” “Divorce”) and Tom Hall (“Sensation”) are all set to direct installments of “Modern Love,” and the series will also be written, directed, and produced by John Carney (“Once,” “Begin Again,” “Sing Street”).
“It’s like I woke up in the actor candy store,” Carney said in a statement. “We’ve managed to assemble a dream cast of my favorite actors. It’s a testament to the reach of the original column and of how, now more than ever, love is the only certainty.”
“Modern Love” will feature eight standalone episodes, and “explore love in its multitude of forms – including sexual, romantic, familial, platonic, and self love,” according to the show’s official description. It’s currently in production in New York City.
Amazon Prime Video just dropped the official trailer for Season 2, which premieres December 5.
The series is hot off its eight 2018 Emmy wins — including Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series for Rachel Brosnahan, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for Alex Borstein, plus writing and directing awards for its creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino.
Season 2 will feature Zachary Levi in a recurring role as Midge’s new love interest. Amazon has already renewed the show for Season 3.
Here’s the the bright, lively, effervescent official trailer:
Here’s more on the show, and the new season, per Amazon:
About ‘The Marvelous Mrs.Maisel’: In 1958 New York, Midge Maisel’s life is on track- husband, kids, and elegant Yom Kippur dinners in their Upper West Side apartment. But when her life takes a surprise turn, she has to quickly decide what else she’s good at – and going from housewife to stand-up comic is a wild choice to everyone but her. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is written and directed by Amy Sherman-Palladino (Gilmore Girls).
About ‘The Marvelous Mrs.Maisel’ Season 2: After Midge’s triumph at the Gaslight, the fallout from her takedown of Sophie Lennon looms large, making her climb up the comedy ladder more challenging than ever. As the actual grind of being a comic begins to take its toll on Midge, the pressure to come clean to her family weighs on her – especially as her choices have a ripple effect on everyone around her.
Amazon is not playing when it comes to fantasy epics. Not only did it spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the rights to make a “Lord of the Rings” TV show, the tech giant is also greenlighting a “Wheel of Time” series.
“Wheel of Time” is a bestselling 14-book fantasy series written by Robert Jordan (he died before completing the final three novels; they were finished by author Brandon Sanderson from Jordan’s notes). They have sold over 90 million copies worldwide.
The one-hour series, adapted by “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D” writer Rafe Judkins, will follow Moiraine, a member of the shadowy and influential all-female organization called the Aes Sedai as she embarks on a dangerous, world-spanning journey with five young men and women. Moiraine believes one of them might be the reincarnation of an incredibly powerful individual, whom prophecies say will either save humanity or destroy it.
The “Wheel of Time” series has been in development at Amazon for a year, but its journey to the screen has been as long and arduous as that of the heroes’ in the books.
Jordan’s first book, “Eye of the World,” was published in 1990. NBC optioned the rights in 2000 but didn’t turn it into a series. Jordan then sold the TV, film, and video game rights to Red Eagle, which made a half-hour pilot starring Billy Zane that aired on FXX. Now, Red Eagle is partnering with Amazon on this series.
It’s clear Amazon is looking for its own “Game of Thrones,” the mega-hit HBO drama that will conclude next year. Not only is it developing its billion-dollar “LOTR” property, Amazon is also adapting Neil Gaiman’s “Good Omens” into a series and signed the author to an exclusive development deal.
They have a lot of new content to check out in October, including the Prime Original movie “You Were Never Really Here” coming to Prime Video on October 26. You can also finally watch the Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder reunion in “Destination Wedding,” which arrives on Prime Video starting on October 1.
The Emmys had eight very different nominees this year:
“Atlanta” “Barry” “black-ish” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” “GLOW” “Silicon Valley” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”
What an eclectic mix — everything from classic network comedies like “black-ish” to streaming dramedies like “GLOW” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” plus shows like “Atlanta” that could fit in either drama or comedy.
The Amazon series took the win, after writer/director Amy Sherman-Palladino picked up two trophies earlier in the night, along with stars Rachel Brosnahan and Alex Borstein.
“Maisel” Season 2 just wrapped filming, and should be coming to Amazon fairly soon. You have plenty of time to catch up, if you’re not already following this freshman hit.
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