Season 5 of The Crown will be delayed until 2022 to accommodate filming delays. That’s fine - we still have an already-filmed season 4 yet to be screened.
Source: Deadline
Another victim of the stupid virus was the pop culture convention Comic-Con. The convention would usually be held this weekend in San Diego, but this year will be held online. In fact, it started about an hour ago.
You can access the full schedule of events at the website with video streaming for the rest of the week, into the weekend. Day one is a bit of a non-event (though this panel on conspiracies and propaganda in pop culture seems kind of appealing).
Alternative history fiction books can be great, trashy fun as they explore what-if’s about major events that happened in the real world.
What doesn’t really strike me as a whole lot of fun is the alternate history Hillary Clinton book Rodham. Hulu has announced plans for a series based on the book that asked: “What if Hillary didn’t marry Bill Clinton?”
Personally, I enjoyed Hillary’s own alternate history book What Happened in which she blamed everyone for her election loss except for herself.
The show will be run by Sarah Treem, fresh off a controversial run with The Affair.
Source: Variety
Could Donald Glover be returning to the role of Lando Calrissian for a new Disney+ TV show? That’s the hot rumour.
Source: Dark Horizons
One of the most complicated unscripted series being broadcast these days is US political show The Circus. Every episode has its three hosts crisscrossing the country following the news story if the week. They shoot about 15 interviews for each 30-minute episode.
Host John Heilemann spoke to Deadline about the challenges of bringing the show back:
“What [will] the country would look like?” Heileman said. “What’s the state of testing? How much travel can we do? What are the campaigns actually doing? How much are they out in the world, and are they virtual? What is the state of play? Then [we’ll] design a bunch of scenarios … and try to figure out all of the health protocols that would attend to those given scenarios.”
The series will run up to the November election. But possibly longer:
“If Trump decides to not accept the election result on Election Night, which I think is a high probability if he’s lost, we’re going to keep making episodes through November if there’s an overtime here,” he said.
Read: Deadline
Perry Mason will be back for a second season on HBO. Hopefully he’ll do some lawyering this time.
Source: Vulture
Britbox has four new original UK dramas on the way:
The Beast Must Die
A five-part revenge thriller set to star Jared Harris (Mad Men, Chernobyl), Cush Jumbo (The Good Wife), Billy Howle (MotherFatherSon) and Nathaniel Parker (Vanity Fair) and follows a grieving mother who infiltrates the life of the man she believes killed her son.
It is to be be directed by Dome Karukoski (Tolkien, Tom of Finland) and is based on a novel by Nicholas Blake.
Crime
Irvine Welsh adapts his own novel of the same name, with Dougray Scott (Mission: Impossible 2) starring as detective inspector Ray Lennox, who is investigating the disappearance of a schoolgirl while battling his own personal demons.
Magpie Murders
Adapted from the bestseller written by Anthony Horowitz. The series is described by BritBox as a “beguiling murder mystery with a solution that will both astonish and shock viewers” and revolves around an editor who is given an unfinished manuscript of author Alan Conway’s latest novel, but has little idea it will change her life.
A Spy Among Friends
Based on Ben Macintyre’s best-selling novel of the same name.
Read more: Radio Times
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