The Academy Awards are airing today and for the first time in many years (maybe the first time ever), I have no intention to watch it. I’m just not invested in any of the nominated films and there is nothing about the show itself that sounds like it’ll be anything less than just an effort to run through the motions. A host usually delivers a distinctive flavour. But… not this year.

Mostly my disinterest comes from the nominated films. I loved BlacKkLlansman, but I don’t imagine that will win anything. Honestly, I think it is crazy that First Reformed isn’t up for best picture (that film was incredible). But also, the wonderfully subversive Sorry To Bother You should have been nominated in there somewhere, even if just for best screenplay.

Ultimately, like most people, I’ll just watch a few clips on YouTube and listen to a podcast or two wrapping it up.

Ryan Murphy will use his Netflix budget to good use with his first series for the streaming service. Hollywood will begin production in the next few months, but beyond that little is known about the show other than it is said to be Murphy’s "love letter to the Golden Age of Tinseltown."

Like Orson Welles, Tommy Wiseau made his biggest impact on filmaking with his debut film. The Room is a tour de force of emotion, the human spirit, and non-sensical dialogue (and character development, and direction, and blue screen special effects, and abuse of a red dress, and and and….). The movie has its fans. Apparently one of them is TV’s Supergirl Melissa Benoist.

Malik Yoba will star in the 2019 version of New York Undercover, set 20 years after the first iconic (*cough* *cough*) series. It’s very fortunate that they were able to get him.

Written by Ben Watkins based on a story by Wolf and him, New York Undercover picks up 20 years after the end of the original series that changed the face of TV cop dramas. It will follow detectives Nat Gilmore and Melissa Ortiz as they investigate the city’s most dangerous criminals from Harlem to Battery Park. Some cast members from the original series are expected to reprise their roles.

Australian TV personality and one-time magazine publishing legend Ita Buttrose is expected to be put forth as the Chairperson of the ABC, following the departure of Justin Milne last year.

US drama Empire is still yet to be picked-up for a sixth season, but it is expected to happen. And when it does, it is likely that they will recast the Jussie Smollet role.

There’s a new Adam Pally sitcom on the way in which he’ll play an Adam Pally-type who moves with his wife into his parents home following financial trouble. The series, I presume, is just Pally biding his time until the inevitable Happy Endings reunion series. The new pilot is called Uninsured and is from The Goldbergs team.

Phillip Pullman’s book series Dark Materials has been mined for an adaptation before with the film The Golden Compass. The BBC and HBO have a new co-production with the series His Dark Materials set to debut soon. It will star Dafne Keen, James McAvoy, Ruth Wilson, and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

According to Deadline, this is among the most expensive series produced in the UK to date.

And finally…

There is a documentary on the way about the making of the 1990 mini-series It. The doco, Pennywise: The Story of It, will feature interviews with the cast and crew of the mini-series that still haunts me anytime I look at a drain.