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Last year it was announced that The CW would be producing a reboot of the classic 1990s sci-fi series Babylon 5 with creator J. Michael Straczynski. The network has yet to announce if the series has been officially picked up, but don’t worry, it’s still in development! Straczynski took to social media to assure fans that the reboot was still alive, and it was confirmed this morning by the CW chairman and CEO Mark Pedowitz:

“It is very much in active development, I personally spoke with Straczynski back when we picked up the pilot. I’m a huge fan of Babylon 5, on a personal basis, I’ve seen every episode of the series. I’ve known Joe for a long, long time. I’d love to bring back that story in some shape or form, I think it’s perfect for the CW.”

Straczynski, who is writing and executive producing the series, previously shared an update on the project after having a conversation with Pedowitz saying:

“Calling the [reboot] pilot ‘a damned fine script,’ he said he was taking the highly unusual step of rolling the project and the pilot script into next year, keeping B5 in active development while the dust settles on the [prospective] sale of the CW. Here’s the bottom line: Yesterday, Babylon 5 was in active development at the CW and Warner Bros. for fall 2022. Today, Babylon 5 is in active development at the CW and Warner Bros. for fall 2023. That is the only difference.”

The series is a “from-the-ground-up reboot” of the series that follows John Sheridan, “an Earthforce officer with a mysterious background,, who is assigned to Babylon 5, a five-mile-long space station in neutral space.”

Are you looking forward to this Babylon 5 reboot?

Source: Deadline

Paramount+ has released a new trailer for the third season of Evil! This is the best show on TV that you aren’t watching! Seriously, if you haven’t started watching Evil yet, you’ve got to give it a shot! It’s a favorite of mine, and I’m pretty pumped up about the upcoming season, especially after watching this trailer! This is a fun and playful horror series.

This new trailer teases all of the wacky terror that you’d expect from the series. The story centers on skeptical psychologist Kristen Bouchard who joins David Acosta, “who is training to be a Catholic priest, and a blue collar contractor as they investigate the church’s backlog of unexplained mysteries, including supposed miracles, demonic possessions and other extraordinary occurrences. Their job is to assess if there’s a logical explanation or if something truly supernatural is at work, examining the origins of evil along the dividing line between science and religion.”

Season 3 of Evil begins moments after the end of Season 2 “when a newly ordained David and Kristen kiss. In season three, the two not only have to navigate this fraught new reality, but contend with David’s involvement with ‘the entity,’ an espionage unit within the Catholic church. Meanwhile, Ben finds his brain breaking from their unsolved cases and turns to his sister for help.”

The series stars Katja Herbers, Mike Colter, Aasif Mandvi, Michael Emerson, Christine Lahti, Kurt Fuller, Andrea Martin, Brooklyn Shuck, Skylar Gray, Maddy Crocco and Dalya Knapp.

The series was created by Robert King and Michelle King, and it’s set to be released on June 12th, 2022.

I’ve got a new “Anatomy of a Scene” video for you to watch today from The NY Times. The video features Tom Gormican, the director of the meta Nicolas Cage action film, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, breaking down how Nicolas Cage parodies himself in the film. He focuses on one scene from the film and he offers some great insight that fans of the film are sure to appreciate!

Here’s the note that came along with the video:

Here, Cage, who plays the fictionalized version of himself named Nick Cage, is spending time with a superfan, Javi (Pedro Pascal). Javi has paid Nick to be his guest for his birthday. Reduced to taking such gigs instead of parts in major Hollywood movies, Nick has reached a low point in his career and has decided to give up acting. But Javi won’t allow that, creating a performance exercise with Nick that forces him to showcase his craft.

Discussing the sequence, Gormican said that Pascal had a lot of weight on his shoulders. “He had to act like a bad actor as the character,” he said, “but not bad enough that it would yank you out of the scene.” For his part, Cage delved into his screen history to deliver dual levels of self-parody, including a tongue-in-cheek line from “Con Air.”

At the scene’s end, the two characters leap from an 85-foot cliff, a moment that Gormican accomplished with two stunt performers who did the leap twice while five cameras were rolling to capture it.

If you haven’t watched The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent yet, you need to check it out! It’s an awesome and entertaining flick that was made for Cage fans!

Amy Adams is set to star in an interesting new film project titled Nightbitch. The movie is described as darkly comic neo-horror, and in it, Adam will think that she’s turning into a dog.

Adams stars in the project as a woman “thrown into the stay-at-home routine of raising a toddler in the suburbs, who slowly embraces the feral power deeply rooted in motherhood, as she becomes increasingly aware of the bizarre and undeniable signs that she may be turning into a canine.”

That certainly sounds like it’ll make for a wild movie! Adams is great when she plays crazy, so this is going to be a good project for her. The film will be written and directed by Marielle Heller for Searchlight Pictures and it’s an adaptation of the novel by Rachel Yoder.

Heller shared in a statement, “Rachel Yoder‘s book took my breath away. I haven’t felt this way about a book since I read The Diary of a Teenage Girl many years ago. Rachel’s darkly hilarious tale of motherhood and rage made me feel seen. And adapting it with Amy Adams in mind has been the thing that has kept me going through the pandemic. I am so thrilled to be bringing this movie to life with wonderful partners in Anne Carey, Annapurna Pictures and Searchlight. It is a dream come true.”

Searchlight Presidents David Greenbaum and Matthew Greenfield added, “We are long-time admirers of Amy Adams, and we are thrilled to join with Annapurna and this incredibly creative team of filmmakers to bring this unique story to the screen. We’re also delighted to reunite with Mari Heller and Anne Carey again following the collaboration on Can You Ever Forgive Me? Mari has brilliantly adapted Rachel Yoder’s stunning debut for what promises to be a provocative film.”

The movie is being produced by Megan Ellison’s Annapurna production company, and the film will eventually premiere on Hulu.

Source: Variety

Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers, Wolf Like Me) and Greg Kinnear (As Good as It Gets, Little Miss Sunshine) have signed on to star in the family comedy The Present from director Christian Ditter (How to Be Single). In the film, “a brilliant boy discovers he can manipulate time using an enchanted family heirloom, then teaming up with his siblings to go back to the eve of their parents’ separation in hopes of changing the outcome. As their schemes become more elaborate, the siblings will learn about family bonds and what they can and can’t control.”

Fisher and Kinnear are playing the parents in search of reconciliation, with Easton Rocket Sweda (General Hospital), Shay Rudolph (The Baby-Sitters Club) and Mason Shea Joyce (Euphoria) portraying the siblings who just might be the only people who can make that happen. Ross Butler (Shazam!) also stars in the film written by Emmy winner Jay Martel (Key and Peele).

Fisher was most recently seen alongside Josh Gad in the Peacock series Wolf Like Me, which was renewed for a second season last month, and has also been cast in Josh Greenbaum’s upcoming comedy Strays for Universal.

Kinnear stars opposite Courteney Cox in Starz’s horror-comedy series Shining Vale, which has also been picked up for a second season.

via: Deadline

Ian McKellen is set to star in a new film titled Hamlet Within, which is a part-documentary feature that investigates the mythology around Shakespeare’s classic play.

Hamlet Within is described as a “radical cinematic investigation into the myth of Hamlet, its origins and its enduring appeal across cultures and systems of beliefs.” It’s explained that movie is a part-doc and part-fictional discourse, “it is shot in five acts and framed by a prelude and an epilogue and billed as a collage of acted monologues and staged dialogues referencing Hamlet’s most famous soliloquies.”

The movie also features the late John Shrapnel (101 Dalmatian), his son Lex Shrapnel (Captain America), Ben Turner (The Kite Runner), Gabriella Wright (The Tudors), Anne Sophie Refskou, Shakespeare scholar Richard Wilson and the late French philosopher Jacques Derrida, who passed away in 2004.

John Shrapnel and Derrida will appear through archive interviews that director Ken McMullen conducted over the years.

The film is an Art Cinema and Scape Films co-production and it will be released as an NFT collection on newly formed Blockchain ecosystem platform Cineverse, which allows filmmakers, distributors and producers to market their features directly.

Source: Deadline

The big soda companies are always coming out with new flavors to engage their soda fans and get them to try new and intriguing combinations. Pepsi is now trying something completely out of left field – a Pepsi-Roni pizza featuring Pepsi-flavored pepperonis.

The famous soda brand is partnering with the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) to come up with the special Pepsi-branded pepperoni pizza.

Today, on Friday, May 20th, Pepsi and pizza fans in New York City are able to try the Pepsi-Roni Pizza from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Made in New York Pizza West Village at 561 Hudson Street in Lower Manhattan.

David Kamen, Director of Client Experience for CIA Consulting said in a press release:

“The concept is quite simple. Pepperoni brings a smokey spiciness and the Pepsi adds a citrusy sweetness. It’s an intriguing combination we think pizza fans will be excited to try.”

The specially-crafted pepperoni will carry similar caramel and cola notes of Pepsi, and it will also be shaped like the brand’s circle logo as well.

Pepsi chief marketer Todd Kaplan added:

“We have always known that pizza tastes better with Pepsi, so we’re thrilled to take this pairing to the next level with our #BetterWithPepsi campaign. The pepperoni was literally invented to enhance the taste of a pizza; since we know that pizza also taste better with Pepsi, we can’t wait to bring these tastes together to create the Pepsi™-Roni Pizza – a unapologetically delicious creation that merges the best pizza topping with the best pizza beverage into one amazing taste experience. You truly have to try it for yourself.”

This sounds kind of gross, but so do many of the other soda flavors that come out that I still feel like I need to try for whatever reason. If you’re intrigued, the Pepsi-Roni pizza is set to roll out to other locations across the country this summer. Will you be trying it?

Academy Award-winning actress Julianne Moore (Still Alice) and Killing Eve star Sandra Oh have signed on to star in the revenge thriller Stone Mattress. Lynne Ramsay (You Were Never Really Here) will direct from the script she co-wrote with Tom Townend, based on the acclaimed New Yorker short story by The Handmaid’s Tale scribe Margaret Atwood.

The story is set on a cruise ship in the Arctic, and is aiming to shoot in September on location in Greenland and Iceland.

“Moore will play Verna, a 60-year-old retired physiotherapist and twice a widow, who embarks on a luxurious cruise into the magnificent and silently thawing Arctic Northwest Passage, populated by a crowd of privileged influencers and wealthy retirees. On the ship, Verna meets the friendly and charming Grace (Oh), and the seemingly ordinary Bob (casting in process), an unaccompanied man in his mid-sixties who inherited a family business. Although he doesn’t have a fraction of Verna’s elegance and wit, Bob tries to seduce her. But he might not be the foolish yet harmless man he initially appears to be, and his presence troubles Verna. As wounds and humiliations from her past resurface, the smooth atmosphere of the cruise will be disturbed by a shocking act.”

Ramsay released a statement talking about the importance and timeliness of the project:

“I first read Margaret Atwood when I was a teenager, and her work has gripped me ever since. She is simply one of the most intelligent, prophetic and engaging writers around and Stone Mattress is another perfect illustration of that. I was immediately gripped by the way it framed the deeply buried trauma of a post-menopausal woman – an age group we hear from all too rarely – through the dynamic and multifaceted character of Verna.

From its tongue-in-cheek humor to its moments of icy vengeance and delicate portrayal of an emotional repression specific to the boomer generation, it is a story I’ve wanted to materialize on-screen since my first reading. With the current repeal in women’s rights across the world, particularly regarding the overturning of Roe v Wade in America, this story, with its themes of stolen motherhood and unaccounted sexual abuse, feels more important than ever. The opportunity to shoot in the Arctic, on the frontline of the most urgent threat to our world and on the verge of irredeemable transformation, will lend the story another layer of devastation. Just like the icecaps that melt to reveal ancient histories, Stone Mattress sees years of Verna’s pain and fury thaw before our eyes to expose the raw emotion underneath.”

This sounds like a strong cast and story that will resonate with a lot of people right now. We will keep you updates on the project as it develops.

via: Deadline

Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood are very popular anime. Much like other popular media titles, one of the aspects that draws in fans is the music and for the first time ever outside of Japan, fans can enjoy the digital release of 11 soundtracks for the franchise. The release is courtesy of Milan Records and includes songs from both series; the two feature-length films; a specialty album that has instrumental arrangements of the themes from the series; and 8 albums released by Aniplex featuring additional music composed by Michiru Oshima, Akira Senju, and Taro Iwashiro. The release of the music comes in the middle of the celebration of Fullmetal Alchemists’ 20th anniversary and is perfect for revisiting the franchise. You can stream the albums on your favorite platforms now.

Academy Award-nominated actor Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, The Trial of the Chicago 7) is set to lend his voice for an animated family special titled Chelm: The Smartest Place on Earth that is heading to Cartoon Network and HBO Max. Cohen is creating the special along with Greg Daniels (The Office, Parks and Recreation), Mike Judge (King of the Hill, Silicon Valley) and Michael Koman (Late Night With Conan O’Brien, Saturday Night Live).

“Chelm: The Smartest Place on Earth is set in the mythical ‘Town of Fools’ that has long existed in Yiddish folktakes and shares the original stories’ absurdist humor and interpretive questioning in a nod to Jewish intellectual traditions. Narrated by Baron Cohen, the special will present a new take on the exaggerated antics and conflicts of the town.”

Amy Friedman, head of kids and family programming at Warner Bros., said of the project:

“This pitch was so hilarious; we just knew the HBO Max audience needed to get a dose of this original brand of storytelling. ‘Chelm: The Smartest Place on Earth’ is a perfect pairing of comedy and satire, and no one does that combination better than Sacha, Greg, Mike and Michael. This unique project will breathe new, hysterical life into the nonsensical Chelmic wisdom that originated from this imaginary city of folks who aren’t quite the sharpest tools in the shed.”

This sounds like a hilarious premise and group of people to bring it to us. I look forward to seeing what they make, and watching Chelm: The Smartest Place on Earth when it comes to HBO and Cartoon Network.

via: Variety