Moviefone Editorial

Tag: renee zellweger

  • Netflix Unveils Renee Zellweger’s ‘What/If’ Teaser, Premiere Date

    Netflix Unveils Renee Zellweger’s ‘What/If’ Teaser, Premiere Date

    Netflix

    “What if I made you an offer too extraordinary to refuse?” Renée Zellweger asks in the first teaser for Netflix’s neo-noir social thriller “What/If.”

    Netflix also announced the show’s premiere date: Friday, May 24. Created by “Revenge’s” Mike Kelley, the 10-episode first season explores the ripple effects of what happens when acceptable people start doing unacceptable things.

    Zellweger — in her first TV role since guest-starring on “King of the Hill” in 2001 — plays a mysterious woman who makes a lucrative offer to a cash-strapped San Francisco newlywed couple. How very “Indecent Proposal.”

    “Welcome to the game,” she purrs in the teaser, while dropping a chess piece.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQcPqm3EqY8&feature=youtu.be

    The ensemble cast includes Jane Levy, Blake Jenner, Dave Annable, Samantha Ware, Keith Powers, and Daniella Pineda.

    The series is intended to be an anthology, with each season tackling a different morality tale inspired by culturally consequential source material.

  • Renée Zellweger Heading to Netflix to Lead New Social Thriller Series ‘What/If’

    Renée Zellweger Heading to Netflix to Lead New Social Thriller Series ‘What/If’

    Bridget Jones's Baby
    Universal Pictures

    Welcome to series television — and the world of streaming — Renée Zellweger!

    We haven’t seen too much of the Oscar winner in the past few years, except for “Bridget Jones’s Baby” in 2016 and “Same Kind of Different as Me” in 2017. She has some film projects lined up, but now she also has this new Netflix series “What/If.”

    According to Netflix, “What/If” is a “social thriller” series that will explore the ripple effects of what happens when acceptable people start doing unacceptable things. Each season is meant to tackle a different morality tale inspired by culturally consequential source material, and the power of a single fateful decision to change the trajectory of an entire life.

    Zellweger has a one-year series regular deal for “What/If.” This will be her first major TV role. She plays a character named Anne; Deadline shared more details:

    “I hear the 10-episode first season focuses on two struggling newlyweds who accept a powerful woman’s (Zellweger) ethically perilous proposition to secure a badly needed financial windfall.

    Zellweger’s Anne is a shrewd and mercurial San Francisco venture capitalist. She is magnetically charismatic, seductive, charming, even vulnerable when it serves her purpose. But she’s also a virtuoso of deception with a cauldron of destructive secrets, including a deeply buried metaphorical deal with the devil that set the course for her life back when she was still just a girl herself.”

    Interesting. So it sounds like this will be another anthology (like so many other shows these days, which is fine) focusing on new characters and stories each season.

    “What/If” comes from “Revenge” creator Mike Kelley. The rest of the executive team is pretty impressive, too. Executive Producers: Mike Kelley, Melissa Loy (Page Fright); Alex Gartner, Charles Roven (Atlas Entertainment); Robert Zemeckis, Jack Rapke (Compari Entertainment).

    In addition to this series, we can also look forward to seeing Zellweger as Judy Garland in the musical biodrama “Judy,” which will arrive in theaters either in late 2018 or sometime in 2019.

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  • Renee Zellweger Transforms into Judy Garland in First Look at Biopic

    The tumultuous final years of actress Judy Garland‘s life are the subject of a new biopic, “Judy,” and now, fans have their first look at Renee Zellweger playing the titular star.

    “Judy” begins in 1968, when Garland arrived in London to play a series of sold-out shows to adoring fans. But it also chronicles the behind the scenes drama that marred the end of her too-short life, including clashes with her management and a complicated relationship with fame.

    In the first image shared by international distributor Pathé, we see Zellweger seamlessly transform into the iconic entertainer, complete with Garland’s signature brunette updo.

    The resemblance is striking, especially when compared side by side with a real picture of Garland from that time. It looks like Oscar winner Zellweger is certainly the perfect visual match for the late superstar; it’s unclear yet if she will be doing her own singing, or if Garland’s voice will be used for the film’s soundtrack.

    Here’s the official synopsis for “Judy,” per The Hollywood Reporter:

    Judy will chronicle Garland’s arrival in swinging 1968 London to perform in a series of sellout shows. It has been 30 years since “the world’s greatest entertainer” shot to global fame in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and as she prepares for the concerts, she battles with management, charms musicians and reminisces with friends and adoring fans, while also embarking on a courtship with Mickey Dean, her soon-to-be fifth husband. Yet Garland is also fragile, and having spent 45 of her 47 years working, she is haunted by memories of a childhood lost to Hollywood and a desire to be back home with her kids. Will she have the strength to go on?

    Featuring some of her best-known songs, including the timeless classic “Over the Rainbow,” ‘Judy’ celebrates the voice, the capacity for love and the sheer pizzazz of “the world’s greatest entertainer”.

    Principal photography on the film began Monday in London. No word yet on when “Judy” is set for release, though it’s expected in theaters sometime in 2018.

  • Renee Zellweger Addresses Criticism of Her Appearance: ‘It Upset Me’

    Renee Zellweger Visits "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon"Renee Zellweger has kept a relatively low profile in Hollywood recently, with her last starring role hitting theaters six years ago, but the actress made headlines in 2014 for a disheartening reason: her appearance, which gossipmongers attributed to plastic surgery. Earlier this year, Zellweger was under the microscope once again when a vicious Variety column slammed her new look. As she starts the promotional tour for her new film, “Bridget Jones’s Baby,” the actress is opening up about the hurtfulness of that criticism and scrutiny — and how she’s rising above it.

    In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Zellweger reflected on all the unwanted attention she’s gotten over her looks these days, and how she’s still struggling to understand why someone would choose to focus on her face rather than her acting. Speaking about the fallout from the Variety column specifically, the actress admitted, “It upset me.”

    “I could never sit down and make fun of somebody that I didn’t know,” Zellweger continued. “I would just assume that that would be hurtful in some regard. And I have no interest in being the person who causes anybody else unnecessary pain. For any reason — ever.”

    That now-infamous column, penned by critic Owen Gleiberman, eventually prompted a response from the actress, who wrote an essay on the subject for The Huffington Post. In the op-ed, she denied having plastic surgery, and said Gleiberman’s column should instead inspire a dialogue about “society’s fixation on physicality.”

    Zellweger explained that she chose to write the op-ed because “if I didn’t comment … it was going to escalate.” Ultimately, the actress told the Times, “I was glad [the Variety critic] made the decision that he made, because it did encourage my standing up for myself and discussing some things that I find disheartening.”

    Cheers to Zellweger standing up for herself. We think Bridget Jones would approve.

    [via: Los Angeles Times]

    Photo credit: Getty Images