Even with major networks pulling out ambitious series like Gotham and Gracepoint, the only new show that people are really talking about isn't on television at all. Amazon's hilarious, deeply affecting Transparent, which stars Jeffrey Tambor as Mort/Maura Pfefferman, a man transitioning to become a woman, is by all accounts the biggest breakout of the fall. And now, the tech giant has opted to order a second season, which will air in 2015.
It's been a long while since we've seen Will Smith in a movie that we didn't quickly want to purge from our memory banks (here's looking at you, Winter's Tale and After Earth), but the actor's upcoming comedy caper Focus looks (dare we say it) promising.
It's almost surprising that it took four seasons for American Horror Story to make its way to the freak show. After all, under Ryan Murphy's watchful eye, it has always been one of television's most passionate and potent celebrations of misfits and monsters. The real monsters aren't the ones society always fingers as such, a season of American Horror Story typically notes, before proceeding to expose the real atrocities hidden behind locked doors and faceless institutions.
Universal is staying in business with 2 Guns and Contraband helmer Baltasar Kormákur (who's currently in post-production on the big-budgeted survival pic Everest for the studio), as they've signed him to direct a historical epic titled Vikingr.
Though Antoine Fuqua has been earning a reputation as a talented action director in recent years with popcorn flicks like Olympus Has Fallen and The Equalizer, he's taking a different tack with his next project. Fuqua is now attached to direct The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, based on the book of the same name by Jeff Hobbs.
Ahead of the season premiere of American Horror Story: Freak Show tomorrow, FX announced today that it has ordered 10 episodes of a companion anthology series from Ryan Murphy, entitled American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson.
Though writer-director J.C. Chandor's attention is currently occupied by A Most Violent Year, his buzzy period drama (out in limited release this December) which could be one of this year's major awards players if it connects with Academy voters, Summit Entertainment has already turned its gaze forward, to thinking about the director's next effort. Yesterday, the studio dated Chandor's Deepwater Horizon for September 30th, 2016.
When you score an Oscar nomination at the age of 9, as Quvenzhané Wallis did for the fantastical Beasts of the Southern Wild, people tend to notice. And with the title role in Screen Gems' flashy Annie redo this December, the young actress doesn't look to be stepping away from the spotlight anytime soon. Recently, Wallis signed on to star in Counting By 7s, to be adapted from the bestseller of the same name.
Though donning a black stovepipe and slaying bloodsuckers in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter didn't land Benjamin Walker on the A-list in the manner that some had expected, the actor appears to have another chance at breakout stardom, now that he's been tapped to lead Nicholas Sparks adaptation The Choice.
Season 1 of The Strain started out small, with Eph and Nora investigating a plane that had mysteriously gone dark on the runway outside JFK, and finding inside something both horrifying and inexplicable. At that time, the show played more like a Contagion-esque scientific thriller than anything else, especially with two quasi-believable eggheads in the main roles. However, as the weeks ticked by, the unfortunate citizens of New York weren't the only ones to undergo a dramatic transformation. The Strain itself morphed from a grounded, modern horror thriller into something much more wild, divisive, flawed and entertaining.
