The flow of television news is constant, and what follows is Empire's round-up of some of those recent headlines, covering broadcast and streaming shows.
The Nix
For anyone wondering how writer/producer John Logan was going to follow up crushing the hearts of Penny Dreadful fans by (Spoiler alert) killing its leading lady and abruptly ending the show three seasons in, you've got your answer. He's taking on this limited series that will star Meryl Streep and be produced by J.J. Abrams and Nathan Hill, whose 2016 novel the show is based on. The premise focuses on college professor and struggling writer Samuel Andresen-Anderson, whose mother re-enters his life for the first time since childhood, accused of a crime described as “absurd,” but one that catches the attention of social media and the nightly news. Notes The Hollywood Reporter, “To save her, Samuel will have to embark on his own journey, from the suburban Midwest to New York City to the 1968 riots that rocked Chicago, uncovering long-buried secrets about the woman he thought he knew.” Those secrets will reportedly cross generations. No network has picked up The Nix as of yet.
Straight Outta Heaven
Director/producer John Singleton, Emmy nominated for an episode of The People V. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, has, along with producing partner Dallas Jackson, sold to the CW network in America this concept that is going to mix the worlds of hip-hop and faith-based storytelling. The set-up is that death is only an inconvenience to a hip-hop artist, who finds that he has been transformed into a guardian angel. Singleton also currently serves as executive producer of the shows Snowfall and Rebel.
Arrow
From the start, Green Arrow has had Batman envy,which explains why he has so heavily tapped into the Dark Knight's mythology on this series, particularly when it comes to Ra’s al Ghul, the Lazarus Pit and the League Of Assassins. And while audiences have already met Ra’s’ daughter Nyssa, now they’re going to encounter her half-sister, Talia al Ghul. The character has been described as “worldy and cultured, an elite warrior who doesn’t pick sides but rather creates her own.” Highly intelligent, she’s a master of weaponry and hand-to-hand fighting. Playing the role is actress Lexa Doig, whose credits include Continuum, Stargate SG-1 and Saving Hope, and she'll be making her first appearance on Arrow soon.
Stranger Things
Nostalgia for 1980s Amblin'-like films continues to run high on Netflix, most notably in the fact that season two of Stranger Things has begun production, a point made in the appropos tweeted image above. Season one cast members returning for the sophomore year are Millie Brown, Cara Buono, Natalia Dyer, David Harbour, Charlie Heaton, Joe Kerry, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Matthew Modine, Winona Ryder, Noah Schnapp and Finn Wolfhard. New additions are Dacre Montgomery, who also plays the Red Ranger in next year’s Power Rangers feature film; and Sadie Sink from Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. As was the case last year, series creators/writers Matt and Ross Duffer will be scripting each of season two’s nine episodes. The show deals with the search for a missing boy, which leads to a government conspiracy and elements of the supernatural.
American Gigolo
How do you stand out in a market that has something like five hundred hours of original programming competing against you? You go after name brands, which is what Paramount continues to do by reaching into its rich film library for subjects that could work as television series. Recently they've locked on to Jack Ryan, Shutter Island and The Italian Job, among others, and have now turned their attention to 1980's American Gigolo,which starred Richard Gere and Lauren Hutton. Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced the feature film, will serve as producer of the Showtime series as well. Neil LaBute is writing the script, while the feature’s writer/director, Paul Schrader, is executive consultant. In American Gigolo, Gere plays a Los Angeles-based male escort whose clientele consists mostly of older women. Over the course of the story he’s accused of a murder he didn't commit.
Man In The High Castle
The second season of Amazon’s adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s Man In The High Castle is available for streaming as of December 16th. The show, offering up an alternate history in which the Nazis and Imperial Japan won World War II and have taken over America, picks up where season one left off. Amazon has released two minutes of footage from the first episode of season two, which successfully conveys the show's overall chilling quality.