After heading to Bon Temps for a heavily recurring role on the final season of HBO's True Blood, Riley Smith will be heading back to the premium cable network this winter, with word that the actor has landed a part in the hotly anticipated second season of acclaimed crime anthology series True Detective.
From HBO's Game of Thrones to Starz's Outlander, high-fantasy series are increasingly in demand on the small screen. This past summer, MTV announced its intentions to get in on the action, ordering a 10-episode first season of Shannara, based on Terry Brooks' massive fantasy book series. Now, the first bit of casting news for the show has emerged, with word that Downton Abbey actress Poppy Drayton has landed a lead role.
Proving that it learned absolutely nothing from Gracepoint, its inferior and low-rated remake of the terrific ITV miniseries Broadchurch, Fox is developing an American remake of the BBC crime drama Luther. To help with the project, Fox has brought in original creator Neil Cross to write and star Idris Elba to exec-produce.
The Machinist helmer Brad Anderson has signed on to direct Shadow Run, a mysterious actioner that is being broadly described as "Safe House on a plane."
Whether we really needed another big-screen Cinderella adaptation is up for discussion, but few would argue that Shakespeare-skewing thesp Kenneth Branagh is a poor choice to tackle the classic fairy tale. His visually sumptuous take, starring Downton Abbey breakout Lily James as the eponymous protagonist, doesn't open until next March, but with Disney gearing up to release the first trailer for the film tomorrow, the studio has seen fit to sneak a few seconds of footage online.
Casting continues to heat up on Yahoo's sixth season of the acclaimed comedy Community, formerly of NBC. Last week, it was reported that Keith David and Paget Brewster had joined the cast in major roles, playing new characters designed to fill a void left by the departure of former series regulars Yvette Nicole Brown, Jonathan Banks and John Oliver. And now, Entertainment Weekly has revealed that Community is set to introduce Britta's (Gillian Jacobs) parents - Martin Mull will play George Perry, and Lesley Ann Warren will play his wife Deb.
The LEGO Movie is one of the best films of the year, bursting with imagination and colorful characters, so you can understand our excitement to watch Warner Bros. expand that animated universe in the coming years. The studio certainly isn't resting on its laurels with the property - by 2019, we'll have seen LEGO Ninjago, The LEGO Batman Movie and The LEGO Movie 2. Recently, during an Empire interview, The LEGO Movie writer-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller revealed some details about upcoming titles in Warner's LEGO-verse.
If you thought 22 Jump Street effectively knee-capped any possibility of a third round of misadventures for Schmidt and Jenko, you weren't alone. A running joke in the sequel was the redundancy of sequels, and that film's credit sequence openly mocked the idea of future installments, presenting a slew of ridiculous posters for movies like 25 Jump Street: A Semester at Sea and 30 Jump Street: Flight School. Now, however, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller have again teased the possibility of an actual 23 Jump Street.
There's been a lot going on with Universal's Classic Monsters lately, now that the studio has brought together a team of veteran producers and writers to spearhead a new chapter of Universal Monsters that will reintroduce iconic characters to modern audiences. Recently, we heard that Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley and Prisoners scribe Aaron Guzikowski had been brought into the fold to pen entries in the new cinematic universe, and now we have another name to add to that growing lineup: Now You See Me screenwriter Ed Solomon.
"They're not 21 anymore," brags one tagline for 22 Jump Street, and that self-aware groaner is a good indication of much of the comedy that fuels the proceedings in this bigger-but-not-better sequel. Returning directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, along with returning writer Michael Bacall (credited alongside Oren Uziel and Rodney Rothman this time around), clearly understand the inevitable triteness of most follow-ups and, in a savvy move that still isn't a complete slam-dunk, make that part of the joke.
