Welcome to The Rundown report (as gathered by Taryn Belle) with Nerd Union for May 7th, 2021.
MOVIES
Deadline gives a first look at Ben Kingsley as Salvador Dalí in Dalíland: “The movie tells the story of the later years of the strange and fascinating marriage between the iconic Spanish painter and his domineering wife, Gala, as their seemingly unshakable bond begins to stress and fracture. Set in New York and Spain in 1973, the story is told through the eyes of James, a young assistant keen to make his name in the art world, who helps the eccentric and mercurial Dalí prepare for a big gallery show.” Mary Harron of American Psycho directs and Ezra Miller, Barbara Sukowa & Andreja Pejić are among the co-star lineup.
Millennium films is rebooting Red Sonja and they have officially cast Hannah John-Karmen (Killjoys, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Brave New World) in the lead role according to The Mary Sue: “Joey Soloway, best known for their work on Transparent and Six Feet Under, will be the director. And they are joined by Tasha Huo, known for their Tomb Raider animated series coming to Netflix, who will act as co-writer with Soloway. And in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Soloway praised Hannah for her talent while talking about how excited they were to work with her. ‘Hannah is a very talented actress who we’ve been following for years and she IS Red Sonja,’ said Soloway in the statement to THR. ‘Her range, sensibilities and strength are all qualities we have been looking for and we couldn’t be more excited to embark on this journey together.’”
SHOWS & SERIES
Deadline reports that Nexstar Media is planning to offer a “multicast network Rewind TV on September 1, offering nearly 50 million TV households (roughly 40% of the U.S.) a menu of 1980s and 1990s sitcoms. Shows in the initial lineup include The Drew Carey Show, Murphy Brown, Growing Pains, Wings, Sabrina The Teenage Witch, Who’s the Boss and Family Ties. The new network is meant to complement Nexstar’s Antenna TV, which specializes in 1960s and ’70s fare, including weeknight reruns of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.”
Millarworld is slowly growing over at Netflix, according to EW: “The Magic Order TV series lives again. As part of a preview of upcoming Millarworld projects at Netflix, Mark Millar announced that the show, based on his comic with artist Olivier Coipel, is back in active development. The Magic Order was postponed last year ‘due to all the uncertainty’ with the pandemic, Millar writes in a Netflix blog post: ‘Some time away has given us a chance to come back with a completely fresh look at the material, and we should be getting into our new writers’ room very shortly.’ … Jupiter’s Legacy, premiering on Netflix [May 7th], is the first live-action Millarworld project. But, aside from The Magic Order, there’s lots more in store. Millar’s blog post mentions development on ‘a six-episode live-action spy series,’ which will be his first spy story since Kingsman ‘but a very different kind of property.’”
Deadline announced that Pose star Mj Rodiguez is starring opposite of Maya Ruldoph in an upcoming Apple TV+ 30 minute comedy series by Alan Yang and Matt Hubbard: “the series follows Molly (Rudolph), a woman whose seemingly perfect life is upended after her husband leaves her with nothing but $87 billion. Rodriguez will play Sofia, the hard-working executive director of the non-profit funded by her absentee billionaire boss, Molly.”
The CW has renewed both Kung Fu and DC’s Stargirl. EW reports: “The network has ordered a second season of freshman drama Kung Fu, which premiered last month, and a third season of DC’s Stargirl, which won’t even return for its sophomore run until August. This news arrives three months after the CW renewed almost its entire line-up of returning shows, including Riverdale, The Flash, and All-American, as well as newcomers like Walker and Superman & Lois, for the 2021-2022 season.”
EW shared the first photos HBO released for the upcoming House of the Dragon prequel series to Game of Thrones. Images of the actors in costume include Emma D’Arcy, Matt Smith, Steve Toussaint, Olivia Cooke, and Rhys Ifans. “Miguel Sapochnik and Ryan Condal showrun the series, which was created by Martin and Condal. [George R.R.] Martin serves as executive producer.”
EW also reported on Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s return to TV in his new series Mr. Corman: “Joseph Gordon-Levitt isn’t playing himself in Mr. Corman, but he’s not not playing himself. Suffice it to say, it’s no coincidence that his character’s name, Josh Corman, sounds a bit like ‘Joe Gordon.’ ‘This character is like if I had some different luck and made some different choices,’ explains Gordon-Levitt, who also created the ‘slice of life’ comedy series, debuting Aug. 6 on Apple TV+.”
Variety released data for Disney+’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier April audience levels and it blew away programs on Netflix and Amazon Prime.
GamesRadar helped break the news that Disney+ has decided Loki will be airing weekly on Wednesdays instead of Fridays for the show’s entire duration. The series will now premiere on June 9th.
The set of Andor has been having all sorts of images leaked by fans and paparazzi!
First, Murphy’s Multiverse shared a video of photos collected by channel streetrogue photography.
Then, ComicBook.com added some clearer snaps of Diego Luna in costume from Film Updates’ Twitter.
Finally, The Direct shared a collection of Shore Trooper candids from The Star Wars Underworld’s Twitter.
GAMING
Publishers Weekly featured an article on book publishing companies giving gaming a go: “Books were a hot commodity during the pandemic, with book sales up between 8-9% in the U.S. market in 2020 despite the economic downturn. Another successful sector? The board games market, which grew by 20% globally last year, making games a potentially attractive sideline for publishers. And at least two of them are ahead of the curve: Electric Literature, the web publication, took its Papercuts party game online last year, while Clarkson Potter released Stet!, a grammar game inspired by Random House copy chief Benjamin Dreyer’s book Dreyer’s English. Papercuts is a literature-themed expansion pack for the popular (and perverse) party game Cards Against Humanity, although it can be played on its own. (One example of a question card, as shown on EL’s website: ‘What is the one thing Stephen King is truly scared of?’ An example of an answer: ‘Atticus Finch before he was racist.’) The game debuted in 2016 after a successful Kickstarter funded the printing of the initial run.”
SOFTWARE
The Verge has a few updates for Windows 10.
Microsoft plans to have Adobe Flash completely removed from Windows 10 by July 2021: “The Windows 10 “Update for Removal of Adobe Flash Player,” which permanently removes Flash as a component of the operating system, will become mandatory starting in July. Updating to Windows 10 version 21H1, expected to start rolling out this month, will also remove the software.” Microsoft is also planning to fix the annoying feature of reshuffling things in Windows 10 when using apps on multiple monitors, with The Verge reporting: “‘The technical terminology we use to describe this problem is known as Rapid Hot Plug Detect (Rapid HPD),’ explains Michelle Xiong, a program manager on the graphics team at Microsoft. ‘This behavior impacts DisplayPort multi-monitor setups which results in unwanted desktop rearrangements.’”
THEME PARKS
Collider showed off some cool shots of Disney’s Imagineers latest incarnation of Groot for guest enhancement. A lifelike “toddler-sized” Groot in the red Ravager jumpsuit is meant to roam freely and intereact with guests – even making eye contact! According to Collider: “Project lead at Project Kiwi, R&D Imagineer Principal Scott LaValley, had this to say about his team’s goal with bringing Groot to life: ‘Project Kiwi started about three years ago to figure out how we can bring our smaller characters to life at their actual scale in authentic ways. It’s an exciting time for bipedal robotics and with an incredible team and our combination of technology, artistry and magic, we are bringing characters to life that could not have happened anywhere but Disney.'”
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