ICYMI: HBO Greenlights Deadwood Movie, Gravity Falls and Rizzoli & Isles Finales Set, Tales From the Crypt Returns, and More TV News
Nearly ten years after its third season left us hanging, Deadwood will finally wrap up with a movie, HBO president Michael Lombardo told TVLine. “David has our commitment that we are going to do it,” says Lombardo. “He pitched what he thought generally the storyline would be — and knowing David, that could change. But it’s going to happen.” (TVLine)
John Oliver returned to his Last Week Tonight desk to not only give tips on how to manage disappointment, failure, and broken resolutions the New Year brings but also to announce that new episodes will resume on February 14th. (Deadline)
Bad news for Game of Thrones fans: George R. R. Martin has announced the much-anticipated ‘Winds of Winter’ novel will not be finished before the sixth season of the show premieres on April 24. However, Natalie Dormer, who plays Margaery Tyrell, told Jimmy Kimmel Live! this week that showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have fashioned the storyline of season six in such a way there will be no spoilers of the unfinished book and it will put the audience right where George R. R. Martin wants them. Game of Thrones is also in talks of being picked up for both season seven and season eight. (Deadline)
HBO announced the new seasons of Veep and Silicon Valley will premiere on Sunday, April 24 following the premiere of Game of Thrones. (Deadline)
All good things must come to an end. Disney has announced the final hour-long episode of Gravity Falls on Disney XD will air on February 15, after running for four seasons. (Deadline)
BBC and The Weinstein company teamed up to bring us the miniseries adaptation of War and Peace, which premiered – and knocked ratings out of the park – on BBC earlier this week. The period drama stars familiar names and faces like Paul Dano (Love & Mercy, Prisoners), Lily James (Cinderella, Downton Abbey) and James Norton (Rush, Belle). Lucky for American audiences, A+E is going to air the series, with the first episode premiering on January 18 on Lifetime, A&E, and History. (BBC)
After 44 seasons on PBS, Sesame Street has found a new home on HBO, and the first trailer for the new season was released this week with special guest stars Jon Hamm, Tina Fey and Pharrell, and a new character was announced. In light of the January 16th premiere date, Jimmy Kimmel Live! gave the beloved show a real HBO makeover. (Vanity Fair)
In other HBO news, the network has announced the pick up of a new documentary called Jim: The James Foley Story, which focuses on James Foley, an American journalist who was captured by ISIS in Syria in 2012 and was beheaded by the radical group in 2014. (Deadline)
HBO has also announced that season six will indeed be the final season for Lena Dunham’s Girls. (New York Times)
After the disaster that was season two of True Detective, HBO has yet to say whether or not they will make it up to fans with a third season. While we’re still waiting for that answer, HBO president Michael Lombardo has pointed the finger towards himself and his tight deadlines for last season being unworthy of the True Detective name. (Vanity Fair)
History has greenlit Knightfall, a period drama series chronicling the bizarre but true adventures of the Knights Templar, the exclusive warriors of the Crusades that produced by and also guest starring Jeremy Renner (The Bourne Legacy, The Hurt Locker). (Moviepilot)
TNT has announced that Rizzoli and Isles will come to an end after its seventh season, as well as dropping potential projects Teen Titans, Home, and Robbers.
On a more positive note, TNT also announced the casting of the new series Will, a scripted series about young William Shakespeare, and has released trailers for the series premieres of Good Behavior and Animal Kingdom.
TNT will also be reviving the classic horror anthology series Tales From The Crypt with the help of M. Night Shyamalan.(Entertainment Weekly)
A&E has set the check-in date for season four of Bates Motel for March 7th. The first trailer of former Walking Dead showrunner Glen Mazzarra’s Damien, the sequel series to the 1976 horror film The Omen, has been released and is also set to premiere March 7th. (Deadline)
Anthology series – shows that adopt a totally new story and set of characters from season to season, like True Detective, Fargo, or American Horror Story – are all the rage right now, and A&E is developing one about cult leaders with Jake Gyllenhaal’s production company Nine Stories. The first season is expected to revolve around the Jim Jones – the leader of the Peoples Temple who committed a mass murder-suicide of 918 of its members in 1978. (Variety)
HISTORY is teaming up with The Weinstein Company for Six, an action drama following the Navy SEAL team famous for finding and killing Osama Bin Laden, one of many real-life missions to inspire its eight episodes. (Deadline)
IFC’s cult comedy Portlandia, returning for its fifth season January 21, is releasing its first audiobook: a novel written and read by Candace (of the Women and Women First Bookstore, of course, whose striking resemblance to Fred Armisen is strictly coincidental) called ‘The Brussels of Antwerp Express.‘ (Variety)
TBS has added The Detour and People of Earth to its scripted series lineup. The Detour stems from the movie Vacation and is being brought to TBS by Samantha Bee – who has her own TBS show premiering in 2016 – and her husband Jason Jones. People of Earth – produced by the minds behind The Office and Conan – focuses on a journalist whose investigation of an alien abductee support group leads him to believe he’s been abducted, too. (Hollywood Reporter)
truTV continues its comedic makeover by picking up Billy On The Street and Adam Ruins Everything for new seasons, as well as adding No Dumb Questions, a show where comedic journalists pose questions you may never have thought to ask with answers you’re dying to know. (Splitsider)
Dreams do come true! Ray Romano, starring in Vinyl, HBO’s new series set in the 1970s rock scene and produced by Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger, and Terence Winter, says he gets naked in episode seven. The series premieres on February 14. (Deadline)