News Shotgun 2/4/23
Here’s all the movie and TV news you need to know from the past week, it’s the News Shotgun
1923 renewed for season 2: Yellowstone prequel 1923 has been renewed for a second season on Paramount+. The series comes from Taylor Sheridan and stars Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren as Jacob and Cara Dutton, the ancestors of the current Duttons on Yellowstone. 1923 had the biggest premiere in Paramount+ history with 7.4 million across Paramount+ and special airings on Paramount Network.
RIP Melinda Dillon: Actress Melinda Dillon passed away at age 85 this past week. She was best known for playing Ralphie’s mom in A Christmas Story and her roles in movies like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Absence of Malice, and Bound for Glory. She also appeared in Captain America (1990), Harry and the Hendersons, Nightbreaker, Heartland, and Magnolia
Gladiator 2 gets a release date: Ridley Scott’s sequel to Gladiator has a release date of November 22nd, 2024. The sequel will star Oscar-nominated Paul Mescal as Lucius, who was a young boy when Maximus rose in the ranks of the gladiators in Rome and killed the sadistic emperor Commodus. Ridley Scott is returning to direct the sequel.
That 90s Show renewed for season 2: Netflix has renewed their That 70s Show spin-off, That 90s Show, for a second season. The show debuted in the top 10 of Netflix English language shows and racked up more than 41 million hours watched. The show follows Leia Forman (Callie Haverda), who travels to Point Place, WI to visit her grandparents Kitty (Debra Jo Rupp) and Red (Kurtwood Smith) Foreman, and finds a new group of friends to hang out with.
Stephen King’s book Billy Summers getting a movie: Another Stephen King adaptation is on the way with Appian Way and Bad Robot optioning Billy Summers for a feature film. The book was initially pitched as a limited series but it was decided it would work better as a feature. The book follows the title character, Billy Summers, who is a hitman who hides in a small town as a writer. Summers is lying in wait for another hitman, Joel Allen, to be delivered for trial after killing two men in a poker game and Summers’ mobster bosses want Allen taken out. Appian Way is Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company and Bad Robot is JJ Abrams’ company. This will be Bad Robot’s fourth King adaptation after Lisey’s Story, 11.22.63, and Castle Rock.
Tom Hardy and Zazie Beetz in talks for Apple TV+ series Lazarus: Tom Hardy and Zazie Beetz are the latest star potentially coming to Apple TV+, as they are in talks to star in a limited series called Lazarus. Based on the Joona Linna series of books by Lars Kepler, which is a pseudonym for the team of Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril and Alexander Ahndoril, the show will follow Beetz as Inspector Saga Bauer, who goes undercover at a maximum security psychiatric hospital to try and gain information from serial killer Jurek Walter, who will be played by Hardy.
Hit-Monkey renewed for season 2: Hulu’s Marvel series Hit-Monkey has been renewed for a second season. The show follows Hit-Monkey, a Japanese snow monkey who becomes one of the world’s greatest assassins. Fred Tatasciore, Olivia Munn, Jason Sudeikis, and Ally Maki are returning from the voice cast and Leslie Jones will join the series in season 2 in an unknown role.
Stallone getting a reality show: Sly Stallone is continuing his relationship with Paramount+ after Tulsa King by starring in a reality show called The Family Stallone. The show will follow the lives of Stallone, his wife Jennifer Flavin Stallone, and his daughters Sistine, Sophia, and Scarlet. The show will have an 8-episode first season.
The Terminal List renewed for season 2 and getting a prequel spin-off: Chris Pratt’s The Terminal List was renewed for a second season this week and it’s also getting a prequel spin-off starring Taylor Kitsch. The show is based on the Jack Carr novels and the first season of The Terminal List peaked at #2 on the Neilsen streaming charts last year. Pratt will most likely appear in the prequel series as well as continue to star in the main series.
Pennyworth canceled at HBO Max: Warner Bros. Discovery has decided not to renew the Batman prequel series Pennyworth, ending it after three seasons. The show began life on EPIX before moving to HBO Max for its third, and now final, season. The show starred Jack Bannon as the younger version of Alfred Pennyworth, who builds a security company in the 1960s and partners with a young Thomas Wayne.
The Blacklist ending with current season: The upcoming 10th season (!) of The Blacklist will be its final one, as NBC announced the show will be ending before the 10th season debuts on February 26th. The show will reach 200 episodes on March 19th. The Blacklist has been a quietly strong ratings workhorse, moving around to various timeslots and drawing in a large delayed/digital viewership. The most recent season drew in 29.1 million viewers.
Matlock reboot in development: Possibly inspired by recent projects like Poker Face and Glass Onion, CBS is developing a reboot of the classic courtroom drama Matlock. Kathy Bates will star as the new Matlock and the series comes from Jennie Snyder Urman and Eric Christian Olsen. Andy Griffith played the titular character for 9 seasons, first on NBC and then ABC for its final seasons, and the show followed the folksy defense lawyer as he took on cases and tried to get his clients acquitted.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor delayed to April: Respawn’s highly anticipated sequel to Jedi: Fallen Order has gotten a slight delay, moving from March 7th to April 28th. Cameron Monaghan returns as Jedi Cal Kestis, who survived Order 66 and is trying to avoid the Empire, who are on the hunt for any surviving Jedi. Survivor is set 5 years after Fallen Order.
Westworld moving to Tubi and Roku: After making waves by canceling and then pulling shows like Westworld from HBO Max, Warner Bros. Discovery has made deals with Roku and Tubi to bring Westworld and some of the other canceled and pulled shows to those platforms. Roku and Tubi will both get WB-branded channels that will stream shows like Westworld, Raised by Wolves, F-Boy Island, The Nevers, and more. In total, around 225 titles will come to Tubi across 14 branded channels.
Night of the Living Dead audio drama in development: George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead is coming to podcasts with a new audio drama called The Dead being developed by Bloody Disgusting and the George A. Romero Foundation. The show will be set in the Living Dead universe and tell new stories along with expanding on characters featured in Romero’s movies and feature a full voice cast and cinema-style production values.
Bad Boys 4 in pre-production: Bad Boys 4 is in pre-production, according to a social media post from Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Bad Boys for Life, the third movie in the franchise, was one of the highest-grossing films of 2020 and made over $426 million worldwide. It was the last huge hit for Covid shut down theaters. Bad Boys for Life directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who made headlines when their Batgirl movie was canned by WB Discovery, will return to direct.
King of the Hill revival greenlit by Hulu: Hank and the rest of the King of the Hill gang are coming back on Hulu, as the streamer has greenlit a new season revival of the beloved series. Creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels are returning behind the scenes, with Judge also reprising his role as Hank Hill. Kathy Najimy, Pamela Adlon, Stephen Root, Johnny Hardwicke and Lauren Tom are all returning as well. This King of the Hill revival will join another Fox animated revival as Futurama is also returning for a new season on Hulu.
Luke Hemsworth starring in Gunner action movie: Luke Hemsworth has signed on to star in the new action movie Gunner, coming from Dimitri Logothetis, who recently brought us the new Kickboxer movies and Jiu Jitsu. Hemsworth will star as Special Forces soldier Lee Gunner, who is on a fishing trip with his sons when they stumble across a meth-cooking operation. His sons are kidnapped by the drug runners and Gunner will use all his skills to get them back.
Showtime getting rebranded: Showtime is permanently getting folded into the Paramount+ umbrella, as the premium cable network is getting rebranded “Paramount+ with Showtime”. The network will still be a premium cable network with shows like Yellowjackets but it will also feature Paramount+ originals. All of the Showtime content will also be available in the Paramount+ app in the app’s premium tier. Underperforming shows will also be cut, which led to the cancelation this week of American Gigolo, Let the Right One In, and Three Women.
RIP Annie Wersching: Genre favorite Annie Wersching passed away early this past week at age 45 from cancer. The actress had been diagnosed in 2020 but was still acting in projects like Star Trek: Picard, where she played the Borg Queen in Season 2. Wersching was also on 24 as Renee Walker and voiced Tess in The Last of Us Part I along with appearing on shows like Runaways, Timeless, Extant, The Rookie, and The Vampire Diaries.
RIP Lisa Loring: Also passing away this past week was Lisa Loring, who played Wednesday Addams on the original Addams Family TV series. Loring was 64 and suffered a “massive stroke”. She appeared in other shows like The Man from UNCLE, Fantasy Island, Barney Miller, and As the World Turns. Jenna Ortega paid tribute to Loring by incorporating some of Loring’s dance moves from the original Addams Family series into her social media-shattering dance sequence on Wednesday.
