|
Archive for the ‘News & Gossip’ Category
Josh Lucas Says Reese Witherspoon Has to Give the Go-Ahead on ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ Sequel
Josh Lucas is ready to return to Alabama!
ET’s Nischelle Turner caught up with the 48-year-old actor at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s annual grants banquet on Wednesday, and he revealed that he’s definitely down to reprise his beloved role as Jake Perry in the 2002 flick Sweet Home Alabama. Before Lucas heads down south, though, he shared that it’s his co-star, Reese Witherspoon, who’d get the final say on if the romantic comedy could score a sequel.
“I’m up for it. I know Reese’s said she is as well,” Lucas told ET. “The director [Andy Tennant] is absolutely up for it. I spoke to him about it a couple of times recently. So look, I throw it out to you, Reese.”
“… I think the person who’s the one to put it together is Reese, so I’m hoping,” he continued. “Who knows? She’s got a lot of irons in the fire to say the least. Hopefully this is one of them.”
As for if there’s any movement to make the sequel a reality, Lucas revealed that Tennant “has a script and a development he has done,” but cautioned that this “doesn’t mean” that there’s anything official just yet.
“I think the thing about the story, it’s one of those [where] they’re eternally in love,” Lucas said. “So, even if they’re going through a rough time, whatever it is, they’re eternally in love. That’s kind of the beauty in that magical film.”
During a Facebook Live chat back in 2016, Witherspoon gushed over starring as Melanie Smooter in the film and revealed that she’d be down for making a sequel.
“I love Sweet Home Alabama!” Witherspoon said. “We are not making a sequel that I know of, but if Disney wants to call me, I would happily make a Sweet Home Alabama 2!”
(Entertainment Tonight)
‘Big Little Lies’ Author Already Has a Spinoff in Mind
A third season of “Big Little Lies” seems unlikely, but some inventive viewers might be wondering whether a spinoff could be an option.
It wouldn’t be completely out of character with the series — the A-list drama, which was adapted from Liane Moriarty’s novel of the same name, began as a limited series and was never intended to receive a second season. After the first set of episodes were a hit and won several Emmys, however, Moriarty agreed to write new stories that would specifically serve as the source material for Season 2.
Now, though, the “Big Little Lies” author says she’s “done” with further stories for the Monterey Five. But that doesn’t mean she’s ruled out other possibilities.
Speaking to Variety earlier this summer at the Season 2 premiere in New York City, Moriarty revealed, “The only thing I had sometimes thought, even before any of this had happened, was maybe jumping ahead to when the children are in high school — years ahead. So, that’s a possibility, but not for years to come. I feel like I would need a break, too, before I did that.”
A TV spinoff is might not see the light of day for a while, however, because Moriarty says her idea would be, at least initially, for a novel.
“That would be for me, for a book,” she explained, “Which maybe wouldn’t even have the same characters. Maybe I’m in the same town. But I don’t know. It’s just thoughts.”
While the high school kids spinoff appears far off (at best), Moriarty is plenty busy, in the meantime. Nicole Kidman nabbed the television rights to her novel “Nine Perfect Strangers,” which landed a straight-to-series order at Hulu. The show, which is expected to premiere in 2020, will serve as a “Big Little Lies” reunion, of sorts, with Kidman starring and executive producing alongside Bruna Papandrea and David E. Kelley.
As for the novella that inspired the second HBO season, Moriarty isn’t planning on publishing that material because, she says, the stories were written expressly for the show, so the content wouldn’t make sense as a novel. “I wrote it to follow on from the series, so I wrote it with an American accent,” she quipped. “The book is set in Australia. I changed some of the backstories of the characters from the book to suit the series…it would feel clunky. It wouldn’t work.”
In other words, don’t hold your breath for a “Big Little Lies” book series just yet. And don’t get your hopes up for more “Big Little Lies” on HBO, either.
Earlier this week at the Television Critics Association press tour, HBO president Casey Bloys teased, “Never say never,” but he confirmed that there are no plans on Season 3, at this point. “To me, there’s no obvious place to go, no obvious story,” Bloys said. “I would certainly be open to it because I love working with all of them.”
(Variety)
Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon on all things Big Little Lies season 2, possible season 3
The second season finale of Big Little Lies — and that epic court battle between Celeste (Nicole Kidman) and her mother-in-law Mary Louise (Meryl Streep) — had fans sitting on the edge of their seats.
Now, Kidman and fellow BLL star/executive producer Reese Witherspoon talk with EW exclusively about that ending, the reports that have surfaced that season 2 director Andrea Arnold supposedly lost creative control to season 1 director Jean-Marc Vallée, and whether fans will be able to enjoy another season of the women from Monterey, Calif.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What was it like to get everyone back for another season?
REESE WITHERSPOON: The collaboration was otherworldly, particularly having Meryl joining the cast. And then having audiences respond the way they do and love these characters and take them into their homes and hearts. That’s a big deal. That’s lightning in a bottle. I think Nicole and I frequently text each other and say, “Can you believe this is happening?”
NICOLE KIDMAN: Meryl in that cardigan, with those teeth and delivering that dialogue, I mean, that is such a unique character. I’ve never seen that on screen. That makes me happy. I’ve not seen that kind of strangely unique, woman-in-a-cardigan, wielding those verbal swords. It was sort of delicious. We’ve always said this show needs to be delicious. And hopefully it will still culturally penetrate. Obviously, so much of what we are grappling with is, “I believe you, I don’t believe you.” And to have a woman on the stand saying “I don’t believe you” with such vehemence to another woman, a momma to a momma, all of those things — for that to get lost is sad. We are trying to interweave all of these story lines, six women and their story lines, and having seven hours is still not really enough. We started to put our toe in the water with euthanasia; we started to deal with the cultural ideas of… once again there is a society that says “I don’t believe you; I believe you brought it upon yourself.” Those things are still very much in existence: “you caused someone to rape you,” “maybe you didn’t realize what you were doing,” “maybe actually it’s your fault that he wanted to hit you.” All of those things are very prevalent in this culture right now. To have them discussed and still in an entertaining way, and then to be dealing with the weight of a secret, how do you heal when you are still holding on to secrets? All of that is very complicated. Trying to deal with these complicated issues and have them still resonate with people in an entertaining way was something we were open for. Did we succeed or fail? Reese and I always say, “Hey, we are always going keep trying.”
Continue reading this entry »
Big Little Lies: One of the Monterey Five Was Supposed To Die
CONTAINS BIG LITTLE LIES SEASON 2 FINALE SPOILERS!
Poorna Jagannathan is a veteran actor of stage and screen with a long CV that included a central role on HBO’s The Night Of. But when she got the call to appear in Big Little Lies, the actor was immediately overwhelmed by both absolute joy and enormous stress. As Katie Richmond, the lawyer originally hired to represent Celeste (Nicole Kidman), Jagannathan had a front-row seat to the prestige drama TV showdown of the century: Kidman vs. Meryl Streep.
“I would have taken this role no matter what,” Jagannathan said in an interview for the latest episode of Vanity Fair’s Still Watching podcast. But the chance to work with the most “elite cast in the world” was frosting on the cake. You can listen to Jagannathan’s full interview—including her revelation that in her version of the script, one of the main characters didn’t make it through to the end of the season—here.
Continue reading this entry »
‘Big Little Lies’ Goes Out Large With Season 2 Finale Viewership
CONTAINS BIG LITTLE LIES SEASON 2 FINALE SPOILERS!
It was pure courtroom drama and David E. Kelley playing to his strengths for the Season 2 finale of Big Little Lies on Sunday – and viewers flocked to it in record numbers.
Continue reading this entry »
How Reese Witherspoon went from A-list actor to bankable producer of Big Little Lies
Reese Witherspoon took control of her career as a teen and is still calling the shots as a producer of successful films and TV shows including Big Little Lies.
It pays not to underestimate Reese Witherspoon.
The Oscar-winning actor, mother of three and super producer of Foxtel’s Big Little Lies has been finding a way to go after what she wants since her teenage years.
Enrolled to study at prestigious Stanford University, the then 18-year-old was largely taking on college at the urging of her mother Betty.
Having played small roles in movies since the age of 14, Witherspoon had already set her heart on a career in showbiz, but was being thwarted by her more sensible mother determined her daughter would get a tertiary education.
That was until Hollywood kept calling.
“I called my mother and I said, ‘Mum, they want me to be in a movie and it pays more than my tuition.’ I could barely afford my tuition, so she was like, ‘OK, well as long as you promise to go back.’ I did the movie and then I got another movie. I called her and she was like, ‘It’s fine if you are doing it but as long as you go back to college’,” a routine conversation that would continue, Witherspoon explained, “until I bought her a house when I was 27 years old. Then she was fine!,” she laughed.
More than 40 movies later, Witherspoon is still calling the shots in her career — plotting her own course and creating her own opportunities with her production company, Hello Sunshine.
She would apply this same single-minded focus and determination when it came to her latest success story — co-producing HBO drama hit, Big Little Lies with Australia’s own Nicole Kidman.
Continue reading this entry »
WarnerMedia Streaming Service Gets A Name, Will Include ‘Friends’ Library, Greg Berlanti & Reese Witherspoon Films, CW Series
WarnerMedia has officially anointed its soon-to-launch streaming service HBO Max, which will carry full-season libraries of Friends as well as The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Pretty Little Liars.
Under new arrangements with Warner Bros Television and others, all 236 episodes of Friends — a longtime mainstay of Netflix — will come to the new service, as will an estimated rollout of 10,000 hours of programming at launch. WarnerMedia has said a beta version of HBO Max will be out by the end of 2019, with a full-bodied version in spring 2020. An ad-supported offering is also in the works, though subscription will be the first phase.
Pricing remains a key strategic question. Disney’s reveal in April of its Disney+ service at just $7 a month has set forth a challenge for many competitors. WarnerMedia is in a particular bind, with HBO’s relationships with pay-TV operators (who have partnered to develop the network over many decades) keeping the price of stand-alone service HBO Now at $15 a month. Most observers expect WarnerMedia to price HBO Max above the current level for HBO Now, though the company and its parent, AT&T, have not yet disclosed pricing details. It is also unclear how — or if — HBO Max will be differentiated from HBO Now, the stand-alone service that has racked up 8 million subscribers since its 2015 launch.
Disney, NBCUniversal and Apple are all preparing major new entrants in the streaming wars, a long-developing response to Netflix’s steady climb to more than 150 million global subscribers.
Greg Berlanti, who is locked into a rich Warner Bros deal, is also going to be supplying four new movies for the service, and Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine will produce at least two films.
Continue reading this entry »
‘Big Little Lies’ & ‘Euphoria’ Viewership Hit Series Highs For HBO
The Fourth of July holiday weekend turned out to be a great cause for celebration for HBO’s Big Little Lies and Euphoria.
The July 7 airing of the fifth episode of Season 2 of the multiple Emmy-winning drama starring Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon and the fourth episode of the first season of the Zendaya-fronted teen drama both hit highs for the premium cabler.
The custody battle-vexed “Kill Me” episode snared 1.8 million viewers in its 9 PM airing on HBO, which was the best Big Little Lies ever has done in an original linear broadcast. With yet another piercing performance from Season 2 addition and 2020 Emmy contender Meryl Streep, BLL actually rose 10% in sets of eyeballs from its June 30 show.
Then, jump forward a few days and the Andrea Arnold-directed show has leaped up to a total audience of 2.8 million with HBO Go, HBO Now and other online viewing. An evolving result that is also a best for Big Little Lies and expected to grow further in the coming days as more delayed-viewing data come in.
Coming off the uptick of Big Little Lies, lead-out Euphoria found itself in a very good place too.
(Deadline)
(Page: 25 of 96) « First «...10 ...21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 ...40 50 60 ...» Last »
|
The Morning Show (2019)
