George R.R. Martin, photo via Henry Söderlund/WikiCommons George R.R. Martin is conjuring up more dragons for HBO, only this time, they’re not his own creations. The man behind Game of Thrones is executive producing an adaptation of novelist Roger Zelazny’s sci-fi book Roadmarks alongside writer, EP, and showrunner Kalinda Vazquez. Published in 1979, Roadmarks centers on an intertemporal highway constructed by the mysterious Dragons of Bel’kwinith. Off ramps along the route lead to different points in time in different places, with a special few individuals who have access to the Road able to travel between timelines. They can also change events in the past to alter the future, causing old exits to become inaccessible and new ones to open up. Zelazny was a personal friend of Martin before ...
Allen v. Farrow (HBO) HBO has shared the first teaser trailer for Allen v. Farrow, a four-part documentary about the allegations that Woody Allen sexually abused his daughter Dylan Farrow. The first episode debuts Sunday, February 21st, with new installments arriving on subsequent Sundays. From 1979 to 1992, Allen and Mia Farrow made 13 films together and had three children, two adopted and one biological. Their relationship unraveled after Farrow discovered Allen had begun a sexual relationship with 21-year-old Soon-Yi Previn, Farrow’s adopted daughter from a previous relationship. Soon afterwards, then seven-year-old Dylan accused Allen of sexually molesting her in Farrow’s home. Allen has repeatedly denied the allegations and suggested that she was pushed to make the claims by...
If you ask the folks on r/WallStreetBets, the saga of taking GameStop to the moon in order to stick it to hedge funds shorting the company’s stock isn’t nearly over. But even in the midst of this social media-based financial smack down, Hollywood is already seeing its own dollar signs. The latest studio seeking to adapt the real-life story is HBO, which is developing a project with Billions co-creator and financial journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin, former HBO Films head Len Amato, and Jason Blum’s Blumhouse. The Hollywood Reporter has it that the cable network is currently in search of a writer to pen the film. The outlet also continually refers to the production as a “project,” shying away from specifying if it might be a movie, TV show, or limited series. Any of those forms might work for t...
HBO Max is developing a Batman spin-off series for TV, and apparently they’re crafting a Batman miniseries for your ears, too. Say hello to Batman: The Audio Adventures, a new podcast by HBO Max starring Jeffrey Wright as the Caped Crusader. Don’t expect it to get too dark, however, because the roll call also includes comedic actors like Seth Meyers, Jason Sudeikis, and dozens more. Written and directed by Dennis McNicholas, Batman: The Audio Adventures is a multi-episode series that’s putting “a comedic take” on the Dark Knight, notes The Hollywood Reporter. It’s separate from DC’s multi-year deal with Spotify — which includes the new Batman Unburied podcast written by David S. Goyer — and as such it will hit WarnerMedia’s streaming service sometime in 2021. To help draw out the laug...
Do you want to play a stream? Well, you’re in luck. Starting in February, all seven films in the legendary Saw series will land on HBO Max. The streaming service has confirmed that the cult-classic horror franchise is included in the massive list of titles that are arriving on the platform in just a few days. To be clear, that means an extended version of the 2004 flick that started it all, followed by Saw II (2005), Saw III (2006), Saw IV (2007), Saw V (2008), Saw VI (2009), and Saw: The Final Chapter (2010). If that weren’t exciting enough, all of the sequels will be the director’s cuts, so that means all of the blood, guts, and squirm-inducing scenes of torture that are fit for home viewing. The only Saw-related flick that won’t be on the ser...
The Seven Kingdoms of Westeros may be getting drawn anew — and we’re not talking about maps. Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that an animated Game of Thrones series is being developed for HBO Max. While the dramatic cartoon is only in the very earliest of stages, WarnerMedia is apparently already in talks with writers about the potential series. THR notes the plan is to make the show “similar in tone to HBO’s Emmy-winning flagship” live-action series. The news comes as HBO is increasingly intent on expanding the fantasy world created by George R.R. Martin. After a number of potential spin-offs were floated initially, the prequel series House of the Dragon starring Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, and Matt Smith is currently in production with a targeted 2022 release date. The premium network...
It’s time to choose your wand and grab a spot in line for the Sorting Hat, because a new Harry Potter live-action TV series is in the works at HBO Max. According to The Hollywood Reporter, executives at the streaming service have been holding brainstorming conversations with potential writers to imagine new ways to steer the Harry Potter franchise. However, the TV series is still a long way off from becoming a reality. Right now, there’s no writer attached, no plot hammered down, and no cast in mind, which means they’re still in the “extremely early stages and no deals have been made,” notes THR Because the live-action Harry Potter TV show is still searching for a pitch, the creative teams at HBO Max and Warner Bros. are hesitant to announce this news themselves. As they said in a sta...
Although season 2 doesn’t wrap up until next week, HBO and BBC have a third and final season for His Dark Materials. The TV adaptation of Philip Pullman’s beloved book trilogy has already covered The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife, so season three will correspond with the events in The Amber Spyglass, thus bringing the fantasy-drama epic to a close. Production is set to begin in Cardiff, Wales in March 2021. According to Deadline, season two only consisted of seven episodes due to COVID-19 restrictions, but season three will take eight episodes to tell the conclusion of Lyra (Dafne Keen) and Will’s (Amir Wilson) journey. The series is produced by Bad Wolf in association with New Line Cinema for BBC One and HBO, with Pullman himself involved in New Line’s rost...
Over 200 days after it was launched, HBO Max is finally set to arrive on the popular Roku platform. HBO Max has some great programming, but its first year of existence has been nothing if not messy. Beyond the confusion of what the heck HBO Max is versus HBO Go/Now, there’s been the varied availability on TV platforms. It only just arrived on Amazon Fire last month, then earlier this week snuck onto Xfinity X1 and Xfinity Flex, followed closely by PlayStation 5. This left Roku out in the cold as the last remaining platform on which users didn’t have HBO Max access. And PS5 wasn’t even on the market when WarnerMedia’s streaming service arrived, adding insult to injury. Now, however, Roku and Warner have finally announced they’ve come to terms and will launch HBO Max on the Roku channel stor...
HBO is ready for another bite of True Blood. As Variety and The Hollywood Reporter note, a reboot of the sexy vampire drama is in the early stages of development. True Blood premiered in 2008 and ran for seven seasons. Adapted by Alan Ball, and based on the novels of The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris, it was set two years after the invention of Tru Blood, a synthetic substitute that allowed vampires to integrate into human society. The series centered on Sookie Stackhouse (Ana Paquin), a telepathic human waitress who fell in love with vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer). Within the world of the show, many other creatures went bump in the night, including witches, werewolves, and bible-thumping evangelicals. To help along the reboot,...