Television and Film

the sixth and final season of FX’s What We Do In The Shadows premieres 10.21 on FX

Reports first emerged last week that O'Brien was expected to visit the country in the coming days to film his Emmy-nominated travel show, Conan O'Brien Must Go. Part of that was said to include O'Brien participating in a world record haka attempt that had already been in the works in Auckland.

Writer/director/actor Taika Waititi joined O'Brien at the Kiwi celeb-filled event.

The world record attempt was a resounding success, with 6,531 people performing the ceremonial dance to beat the previous record of 4,028 participants held by France.

O'Brien’s Max travel series, Conan O'Brien Must Go, is currently in production on its six-episode second season.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20404230

Last June, fans of Comedy Central – the long-running channel behind beloved programmes such as The Daily Show and South Park – received an unwelcome surprise. Paramount Global, Comedy Central’s parent company, unceremoniously purged the vast repository of video content on the channel’s website, which dated back to the late 1990s.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18113853

Terry Gilliam has had such a hard time trying to fund his last few projects that he’s hinted about retirement. However, back in April, fansite Gilliam Dreams reported that the director was set to direct a new, maybe final, film, titled “The Carnival at the End of Days.”

This past May, Gilliam claimed he had found funding for ‘Carnival.’ We already know that Johnny Depp will play Satan and that the rest of the cast would be composed of Jeff Bridges, Adam Driver and Jason Momoa. A January 2025 shoot was being eyed. (via Premiere)

No surprise, five months later, Gilliam is now telling Czech media that he doesn’t have the sufficient funds to make ‘Carnival,’ and that he would have to creatively compromise his vision to make it happen (via Novinky).

I don't have all of the money for it right now. I would have to compromise some of my ideas. Which I don't want to. I’m angry with myself for not being able to do it. Which is not always a bad thing. When I get angry, some interesting ideas come out [..] Maybe I’ll start shooting it soon, albeit with a smaller budget.

...

Here’s Gilliam describing the plot of ‘Carnival’:

This is a simple tale of God wiping out humanity for fucking up his beautiful garden Earth. There’s only one character who’s trying to save humanity and that’s Satan, because without humanity he’s lost his job and he’s an eternal character and so to live without a job is terrible. So he finds some young people and he tries to convince God that these young people are the new Adam and Eve. God still gets to wipe out humanity. It’s a comedy.

The last time Gilliam directed a feature was 2018’s “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote,” a film he was trying to make for more than two decades. It came and went without much excitement, although I thought it was his, de facto, best film since the late ‘90s. The lack of commercial success on ‘Don Quixote’ is essentially the reason why Gilliam can’t find funding for his next projects. His films of the last 25 years have been both critical and commercial misfires.

The 6th & Idaho movie scripted by Matthew Aldrich is being made by a new animation studio out of New Orleans named Swaybox and that studio’s husband-and-wife creators Arthur Mintz and Theresa Andersson. Mintz will direct this movie, which follows the early days of Dick Grayson and Jason Todd aka the Robins.

Note the storyline here isn’t connected to Matt Reeves’ Batman and The Penguin canon.

Swaybox uses a technology known as “Momo animation,” which is a cross between CGI animation, practical elements of stop-motion, and live-action real-time performance. The result is long-form storytelling billed as visually breathtaking, dynamically expressive and more human.

Jim Gaffigan joined Maya Rudolph in the season premiere cold open as the affable Minnesota Governor and Harris’ running mate, while Andy Samberg appeared as the Second Gentleman. Also, Dana Carvey debuted his Joe Biden impression on “SNL.”

“SNL” cast member James Austin Johnson returned as Donald Trump, and Bowen Yang stepped in as his running mate, JD Vance.

Cast members for “Black Mirror” Season 7 have been revealed during Netflix‘s Geeked Week.

Awkwafina, Peter Capaldi, Emma Corrin, Patsy Ferran, Paul Giamatti, Lewis Gribben, Osy Ikhile, Rashida Jones, Siena Kelly, Rosy McEwen, Chris O’Dowd, Issa Rae, Paul G. Raymond, Tracee Ellis Ross and Harriet Walter are joining the sci-fi anthology series.

Cristin Milioti, Billy Magnussen, Jimmy Simpson, Milanka Brooks and Osy Ikhile will also return for a follow-up to the Season 4 episode “USS Callister.” Season 7 will consist of six episodes and air on Netflix sometime in 2025.

'Hacks' was named best comedy series, while 'Shogun' won best drama series. 'Baby Reindeer' won best limited or anthology series. 'The Bear' also was a big winner.

Hacks was a surprise winner over The Bear, which won best comedy series last year.

The Bear set a new record for most wins in a single season for a comedy with 11, besting its own tally from last year when it won 10.

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver was named best scripted variety series, beating Saturday Night Live, while The Traitors dethroned perennial winner RuPaul’s Drag Race as best reality competition program. The Daily Show won the Emmy for best talk series.

Overall, Disney dominated the awards with a record-breaking total 60 wins.

Heading into the ceremonies, Shogun led the nominations and also topped the Creative Arts ceremonies last week with 14 wins. Other top nominees include The Bear, Only Murders in the Building, True Detective: Night Country and The Crown.

• Set to celebrate its 25th anniversary next year, Titmouse Animation is a little-known powerhouse in the entertainment industry, working with almost every major Hollywood studio to create unique and diverse animated content.

• Titmouse's work can be seen on Netflix's "Big Mouth," Amazon Prime Video's "The Legend of Vox Machina," and "Star Trek: Lower Decks" on Paramount+.

¡CASA BONITA MI AMOR! tracks the rise, fall and revival of the beloved Colorado landmark Casa Bonita by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

During his “Office Hours” YouTube show this week, comedian Tim Heidecker acknowledged the surge of support from his fans, or as he called it, facetiously, “a huge outcry, a huge movement, I would say, to get me to play JD Vance, perhaps on SNL?”

https://youtu.be/oanKBd8bpUA

Robert Downey Jr stunned fans as the Iron Man star removed a mask during the San Diego Comic-Con Hall H panel to reveal that he will play Doctor Doom, one of Marvel’s biggest villains, in the upcoming film Avengers: Doomsday.

The panel on Saturday was flooded with hooded figures wearing masks of the comic book villain known for his sorcery and science when Downey Jr revealed his face. “I like playing complicated characters,” he said as fans began to chant his name.

This week, Disney and Marvel showed members of the press 40 minutes of Deadpool & Wolverine ahead of the film’s press junket. The idea, presumably, is to give us enough context to talk about in interviews without spoiling any of the big surprises. Because of that, what I wasn’t expecting was that the first 40 minutes actually has a bunch of big, big surprises in it. From the very first scene, you will instantly be shocked at how far this movie is willing to go, and how focused and smart its commentary is. Especially if you’re a huge Marvel movie fan.

It’s weird to write about just the first 40 minutes of a movie but, when it’s something as highly anticipated as Deadpool & Wolverine, it seems worth it. Obviously though, you can’t review a movie by its first third, so we’ll end with this: the first 40 min of Deadpool & Wolverine are a tiny bit confusing and even a little clunky, but we loved them anyway. If the next 80 minutes continue to build off those at the same pace as is suggested, this could be a very special movie. We have a feeling, when those credits roll, small issues at the beginning could be wiped clean by big swings at the end.

Full reviews for Deadpool & Wolverine go up Tuesday July 22. We’ll have one for you then. It’s in theaters July 26.