Javicia Leslie has been cast as the titular new Batwoman on the CW series. She replaced Ruby Rose who quit/fired from the show. It is confirmed that her character will be Ryan Wilder, an entirely new character to the Bat-universe.
Prior to Batwoman, Leslie co-starred in God Friended Me. Like Batwoman, that show was also produced by Berlanti Productions.
Source: Variety
Remember that fifth and final season of The Crown? The Queen is not dead after-all and The Crown will continue on for a sixth and final season.
Imelda Staunton will continue on in the lead role for the final season. It is believed that the decision for more episodes comes from series creator/writer Peter Morgan and not Netflix executives who are happy for the show to continue on.
Source: Variety
It’s a rough time for any friend of Archie. Last week saw the cancellation of Riverdale spin-off Katy Keene. Today comes news that the final batch of Archie comics off-shoot Chilling Adventures of Sabrina will be the last.
The final eight episodes will be released by the end of 2020.
Source: TV Line
As of Monday, the first Quibi subscribers have reached the end of their initial three-month trial. How are the figures looking for people moving from a free to a paid subscription?
Only 8% of consumers were converted to a paid subscription. With Quibi download volumes low to begin with, this doesn’t bode well. 8% equates to approx 72000 subscribers. And how many of that 72000 are people who forgot to cancel a service they might have checked out 1-2 times three months prior and scored a minor bill shock this week?
These estimates are courtesy of app analytics specialist Sensor Tower. Quibi has issued a statement in response:
To date, over 5.6 million people have downloaded the Quibi app. Our conversion from download to trial is above mobile app benchmarks, and we are seeing excellent conversion to paid subscribers — both among our 90-day free trial sign-ups from April, as well as our 14-day free trial sign-ups from May and June.
Source: Protocol
There’s a new HQ-style game show coming to your mobile phone. Tetris Primetime.
Something very cool about it is that they are producing local versions of this across the globe. To explain:
Games take place at 7:30 p.m. in the time zone of the closest “anchor city” to the player, with the current locations being Auckland, New Zealand; Perth, Australia; Moscow; Berlin; London; New York City; and Los Angeles. For example, someone in the Midwest would play at 6:30 p.m. Central, if New York is their anchor city.
Bit weird that Australia’s anchor is in Perth, which places the game in a not-very primetime of 10:30pm for the east coast of the country.
Source: Polygon
The UK is facing a huge question with its TV programming: Can the UK’s 3000 different evening panel shows (a conservative estimate) continue on without a live studio audience? They’ve maintained a stiff upper lip and moved ahead to provide some very quiet-sounding panel shows.
Source: Radio Times
Joy Reid has been confirmed as the replacement host for MSNBC’s 7pm slot - left vacant for a number of months since Chris Matthews flamed out.
Source: NYT
While production has been shut down on almost every scripted TV show and every movie in Hollywood, there have been a number of indie productions that have been quietly working. One of the most notable of these was the secret production of Malcolm & Marie.
This movie stars Zendaya and John David Washington and grew organically out of the production shutdown of Zendaya’s HBO show Euphoria.
On Monday, March 16, Levinson received the call from HBO that Euphoria’s Season 2 had to shut down. I understand that one night during quarantine, Zendaya phoned him and asked if he could write and direct a movie during quarantine. Within six days, Levinson had cracked Malcolm & Marie.
To make this happen, a very small crew were employed, a single location chosen, and a two-week quarantine observed by all involved.
Find out more: Deadline
Former Glee star Naya Rivera has been declared Presumed Drowned following an incident in California. Read more: TV Guide
Beyond International is beefing up following the acquisition of Seven Studios UK from Seven West Media. It has also bought the remaining 50.98% of Seven West Media’s US production venture 7Beyond.
Currently Seven Studios UK is making Pooch Perfect for BBC1.
Source: TV Tonight
New Girl star Lamorne Morris has a new Hulu series Woke. It debuts Sept 9.
Following the recent death of Joel Schumacher, there has been renewed conversation surrounding his two Batman movies. It turns out that the director may have edited a more serious 170-minute version of Batman Forever.
It could only be better, right?
Source: Dark Horizons
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