News Shotgun 1/14/23
Here’s all the movie and TV news you need to know from the past week, it’s the News Shotgun
Snowpiercer Season 4 won’t air: Despite being filmed and finished, the final season of TNT’s Snowpiercer won’t air on the cable network. As part of the restructuring and cost-cutting following the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, TNT and TBS will no longer feature any scripted programming, focusing on cheaper reality and other non-scripted content. Snowpiercer’s previous seasons were also removed from HBO Max but it will be attempted to be shopped to another outlet.
Phineas & Ferb revival in the works: Mid-2000s animated favorite Phineas & Ferb is coming back with a new 40 season with original creator Dan Povenmire making a new overall deal with Disney. It wasn’t specified if this will be a Disney+ exclusive or air on one of the cable networks like Disney Channel. Disney Branded Television is the division behind the deal and produces content for Disney+, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, and Disney XD.
Crouching Tiger TV series in development: Sony is developing a TV series based on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the entire Crane-Iron book series, of which Crouching Tiger is the fourth novel. Jason Ning, who previously worked on Burn Notice and The Expanse, is behind the series and he’s also working on the Prime Video Spider-Man adjacent series Silk: Spider Society and the other Sony Marvel projects heading to Prime Video.
Criminal Minds: Evolution renewed for season 2: The Criminal Minds continuation, Criminal Minds: Evolution, will be back on Paramount+ for another season. The show was renewed this week and Paramount+ stated it’s one of the top 5 best-performing shows on the streaming platform. The new season will begin production later this year.
Morgan Freeman joins Lioness: Taylor Sheridan has added another big star to his upcoming CIA thriller Lioness, with Morgan Freeman joining the cast. Zoe Saldana, Laysla De Oliveira, and Nicole Kidman were previously cast and the show follows De Oliveira as a Marine who gets recruited into a CIA program codenamed Lioness and sent to infiltrate and take down a terrorist group from within. The show is based on a real-life CIA program and Freeman is playing Edwin Mullins, the Secretary of State of the US.
Mayans MC ending with Season 5: Sons of Anarchy spin-off Mayans MC will be ending with its upcoming fifth season. The show was created by Kurt Sutter and Elgin James and the final season will begin airing later this year on FX and FX on Hulu.
Noah Hawley’s Aliens series goes into production this year: First announced in 2020, Noah Hawley’s take on the Alien franchise will go into production later this year. The show will take place before the movie series and is set on Earth around 70 or so years in the future from our current time period. Hawley is currently working on the fifth season of Fargo.
Universal attraction coming to Las Vegas: Universal Studios is expanding its themed entertainment with a new, year-round horror attraction in Las Vegas. The attraction will be in the Area15 entertainment complex, which also features MeowWolf’s Omega Mart. Universal said the attraction will feature classic horror, like the Universal Monsters, along with newer horror classics. Along with what seems like Halloween Horror Nights style attractions, there will be themed dining and bar experiences as well. Universal is also building a family-focused new theme park in Texas that may be Dreamworks Animation themed and meant to appeal to younger children and their families.
Dungeons & Dragons TV show greenlit at Paramount+: Paramount+ has greenlit a Dungeons & Dragons TV series for their service with an 8-episode first season. Rawson Marshall Thurber, who most recently directed Red Notice, is behind the series and wrote and will direct the first episode. There’s no word on the plot or casting yet but it most likely won’t be related to the upcoming movie, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
Rabbit Hole gets a premiere date: The new Kiefer Sutherland spy series Rabbit Hole will premiere on Paramount+ on March 26th this year. Sutherland plays John Weir, who is a master corporate spy but gets framed for murder by powerful forces. Charles Dance, Meta Golding, Enid Graham, Jason Butler Harner, Walt Klink, and Rob Yang co-star. The first season will be 8 episodes.
Workaholics movie canceled at Paramount+: Scheduled to begin shooting in a few weeks, the Workaholics movie is no longer happening at Paramount+. Co-star and co-creator Adam Devine revealed on Instagram that he and the other guys, Blake Anderson and Anders Holm, were informed that the movie no longer fit the “new global strategy” of the streaming service. The movie was being developed since 2021 and was going to follow the main trio as they dealt with the pandemic. Devine said they are trying to shop the movie to another streamer.
Inside Job canceled at Netflix: Despite originally getting a season 2 renewal, Netflix has reversed its decision and canceled the animated series Inside Job. The series was created by Gravity Falls writer Shion Takeuchi and Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch and starred Lizzy Caplan as Reagan Ridley, who worked for Cognito Inc, who are responsible for creating and maintaining all the various conspiracies around the world for the shadow government.