CW TO PRODUCE 'THE VALIANT' FEMALE CELTIC GLADIATOR EPIC TV SERIES! BILLY HOWLE IS PRINCE OF WALES IN 'OUTLAW KING' EPIC FILM WITH CHRIS PINE, AARON TAYLOR JOHNSON

'OUTLAW KING' EPIC MOVIE

BILLY HOWLE IS PRINCE OF WALES

Billy also starred in New Worlds epic TV series

We kick off epic Saturday with the latest casting info from Netflix movie OUTLAW KING in which Chris Pine will play the titular character, legendary Scottish hero Robert The Bruce, the king who led his country to freedom from the oppressive rule of England in Scotland. The latest addition to the cast is Billy Howle (we saw him last year in BBC's Witness for the Prosecution Agatha Christie series) who will play Prince of Wales, a direct rival to Robert The Bruce in the fight to secure the Scottish throne. Aaron Taylor Johnson is playing another legend from the isles, Scottish knight James Douglas, Robert the Bruce's right hand, while Florence Pugh is the female lead.

'THE VALIANT' EPIC TV SERIES

ABOUT A FEMALE GLADIATOR

2nd book The Defiant is out next February

CW is, meanwhile, preparing an epic new series for us! As 'Variety' reports, they are looking to adapt Lesley Livingston's novel THE VALIANT into an epic TV show about a female gladiator! After they ended Reign last season it could be CW's replacement in the genre of historical shows. The series would follow a Celtic princess on the run from an arranged marriage and a sheltered life who is captured and forced into slavery under Julius Caesar. She ends up training among the first wave of female Gladiators to compete in the Colosseum for fame, fortune and, ultimately, her freedom.

PERIOD SET FRIDAY: FIRST PICS FROM 'MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS' WITH SAOIRSE RONAN, 'HAPPY PRINCE' WITH RUPERT EVERETT, COLIN MORGAN,COLIN FIRTH

'MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS'

FIRST SAOIRSE RONAN PHOTO!

First photo has been released for historical drama MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS showing Saoirse Ronan as the Scotish ruler. The movie is currently shooting in United Kingdom under the helm of Josie Rourke. Margot Robbie stars as Elizabeth I, Jack Lowden is Lord Darnley, Joe

The 16th century film has started shooting in UK

Alwyn is Robert Dudley, Martin Compston is Earl of Bothwell with Guy Pearce, Brendan Coyle and David Tennat also in the cast! Gemma Chan will be one of Elizabeth's ladies.

MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS explores the turbulent life of Mary Stuart. Widowed as the Queen of France at 18, Mary defies pressure to remarry and returns to her native Scotland to reclaim her rightful throne. But Scotland and England fall under the rule of the compelling Elizabeth I. Each young

The movie will mostly focus on her effort to overthrow Elizabeth

Queen beholds her "sister" in fear and fascination. Rivals in power and in love, and female regents in a masculine world, the two must decide how to play the game of marriage versus independence. Determined to

First unofficial photo of Margot Robbie as Elizabeth i!

rule as much more than a figurehead, Mary asserts her claim to the English throne, threatening Elizabeth's sovereignty. Betrayal, rebellion, and conspiracies within each court imperil both thrones, and change the course of history.

'THE HAPPY PRINCE' PHOTOS

WITH RUPERT EVERETT, COLIN FIRTH AND COLIN MORGAN

First photos have arrived for another period set project: Rupert Everett's movie on Oscar Wilde THE HAPPY PRINCE which boasts the most stellar of casts including Colin Firth, Colin Morgan, Emily Watson, Miranda Richardson and Tom Wilkinson! 

Colin Morgan plays Oscar's lover Lord Alfred Bosie Douglas

HAPPY PRINCE IS THE UNTOLD
story of the last days in the tragic times of Oscar Wilde. This great mean of letters, once one of the most famous authors in England, is now a superstar on the skids. We are taken through his last nocturnal ramble through Paris. Totally inebriated Oscar falls off a table at a Varieté. In

The movie has been both directed and written by Rupert Everett

bed, dying, the past floods back. Friends appear. The room expands and shrinks inside his addled head, transporting him to other times and places. We immerge into the great love stories of Oscar Wilde, notably his relationship to Lord Alfred Douglas, which observed under the microscope of death is revealed for what it really is - a passionate affair

Colin Firth plays Reggie Turner in the movie

based on snobbery. And yet, through the smoky fumes of absinthe and cigars, appears a twinkle of love: Robbie. Sternly devoted to Oscar like no other friend ever has before, true and faithful. Oscar's visions intensify. Past scenes of passion, injured pride, ignorance and humiliation are reviewed in his minds eye.

TNT TO TURN HUGO WINNING SF SAGA 'FIFTH SEASON' INTO TV SERIES! BLAKE LIVELY AND JAMES BOND PRODUCERS TEAM ON 'RHYTHM SECTION' FEMALE SPY ACTION MOVIE

BLAKE LIVELY TO STAR

 IN 'THE RHYTHM SECTION'

Blake Lively starts shooting this Autumn!

Two adaptations today, starting with a new one for gorgeous Blake Lively who will topline spy thriller THE RHYTHM SECTION eyed for a possible action franchise. Based on a book by Mark Burnell it will be done by James Bond producers and director Reed Morano.

Blake Lively will portray a woman who is on a path of self destruction after her family dies in a plane crash, a flight that she was supposed to be on. After being told by a journalist that the crash was an act of terror covered up by intelligence agencies, and then watching that journalist get killed, the woman’s anger awakens a new sense of purpose and she rises to uncover the truth by adapting the identity of an assassin to track down those responsible. The new and lethal Stephanie Patrick is on a mission to fill the void between what she knows and what she is told.

'FIFTH SEASON' SF SAGA

TO BECOME A TNT TV SERIES

Here's another sf saga ready to move onto the small screens: as 'Deadline' reports TNT will turn sf novel THE FIFTH SEASON from Hugo award winning N.K. Jemisin into TV series! This epic story

The third book was published yesterday!

  is set in a world where civilization destroying earthquakes occur with deadly regularity. A small minority of inhabitants has the ability to quiet these earthquakes, but they also can cause them. The series follows three women, each of whom possesses these special, Earth controlling abilities: Damaya, a young girl training to serve the Empire; Syenite, an ambitious young woman ordered to breed with her bitter and frighteningly powerful mentor; and Essun, a mother searching for the husband who murdered her young son and kidnapped her daughter mere hours after a Season tore a fiery rift across the land.

CATE BLANCHETT TO STAR IN 'HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS'! TOM HOLLAND TO LEAD 'BENEATH A SCARLET SKY' WW2 BOOK ADAPTATION! DAPHNE DU MAURIER'S 'THE BIRDS' TO BECOME BBC DRAMA SET IN CORNWALL!

CATE BLANCHETT TO STAR IN

Cate is next seen in Thor:Ragnarok

HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS

She's been known for her outstanding dramatic roles so far, but it seems Cate Blanchett is ready to fulfil her kids' wishes and venture more into the field of commercial movies. After taking just about everybody's breath away with her Hela in Thor: Ragnarok, at least in what we've seen in the trailers, she will also star in THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS which will be a movie adaptation of 1973 fantasy horror novel by John Bellair directed by Eli Roth! The story follows a recently orphaned 10 year old boy who discovers a world of hidden passageways, magic and danger in his uncle’s old house. As you already know, we shall Blanchett comedy side as well in Lucille Ball biopic Lucy and Desi

BBC TO TURN 'THE BIRDS'

INTO A NEW TV DRAMA!
This has not been officially confirmed yet, but, as 'Digital Spy' reports today, BBC is planning on turning famous THE BIRDS novel by

Heyday Television is producing!

 Daphne du Maurier into a TV movie. Unlike the famous Hitchcock's classic movie, this one will be true to the novel with the action being set in British Cornwall! The new television adaptation will be set in picturesque rural Cornwall, where a farmhand and his community is being terrorised by flocks of birds and seagulls shortly after the end of the Second World War. This 1952. novel by Maurier isn't the only one to get a recent adaptation, since earlier this year My Cousin Rachel scored love of moviegoers in cinemas around world with Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin! Speaking of British series, second season of Victoria has been given August 27 airing date on ITV and January 14th on PBS in US.

TOM HOLLAND TO LEAD

 'BENEATH A SCARLET SKY' WORLD WAR 2 BOOK ADAPTATION

Speaking of adaptations, current bestselling hit by Mark Sullivan WW2 novel BENEATH A SCARLET SKY will be made into a movie with Tom Holland who will be Pino Lella a normal Italian teenager

The book is current US N1 bestseller

living an idyllic life in Italy, until bombs begin falling on Milan and word of Nazi atrocities begin to circulate. While waiting to join the fight, Lello joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, guiding hundreds of Jews to safety in a year. On his 18th birthday, Lello is forced to enlist with the German Army, and is immediately assigned as a personal driver to Adolf Hitler’s left hand, General Hans Leyers. This fly on the wall in the upper echelons of the Third Reich positions him to be recruited by the Allies as a spy. Known to Allied Intelligence only as “Observer,” Lella endures the horrors of WWII and the Nazi occupation by secretly feeding intel to the Allies that was strategically important enough to turn the tides of the war. When Lella’s courage falters, he is bolstered by his love for a young woman named Anna, and for the life he dreams they will one day share.

'WILDE WEDDING' TRAILER WITH GLENN CLOSE, PATRICK STEWART, JOHN MALKOVICH, JACK DAVENPORT! PATRICK DEMPSEY TO LEAD 'TRUTH ABOUT HARRY QUEBERT AFFAIR' MINI TV SERIES FROM JEAN JACQUES ANNAUD

PATRICK DEMPSEY TO LEAD

'TRUTH ABOUT HARRY QUEBERT AFFAIR' MINI TV SERIES

One of our favourite directors, visual genius Jean Jacques Annaud (Wolf Totem, Seven Years in Tibet, Black Gold, Enemy at the Gates) will

Patrick Dempsey will lead the Epix series

direct a ten episode TV series adaptation of 2014 massive best seller THE TRUTH ABOUT HARRY QUEBERT AFFAIR by Joel Dicker which has been sold for translation in more than 32 countries!

In the story set in a coastal New Hampshire town, Ben Schnetzer will play Marcus Goldman, a successful young novelist who needs inspiration for his next book. Marcus heads to New Hampshire to stay with his college professor, Harry Quebert (Patrick Dempsey), to focus on his writing. When the body of fifteen year old Nola Kellergan is found on his property 33 years after she went missing and Quebert is accused of her murder, Marcus works to uncover the truth. The result of his investigation becomes his next book. The cast also includes Virginia Madsen, Colm Feore, and Damon Wayans Jr. as the investigator in the case. The series will air on MGM's Epix cable channel.

'THE WILDE WEDDING' TRAILER

 WITH PATRICK STEWART, GLENN CLOSE, JOHN MALKOVICH

The only trailer I have for you today is a rather fun and delightful one for THE WILDE WEDDING with a stellar cast led by Glenn Close, Patrick Stewart, John Malkovich! It follows Eve Wilde (Glenn

The movie is out in limited release next month

Close) who prepares for her wedding to
husband number four, renowned English writer Harold Alcott (Patrick Stewart) after a whirlwind courtship. At her upstate New York home, in the presence of both Wilde's first husband, celebrated stage actor Laurence Darling (John Malkovich), and their collective families (Minnie Driver, Jack Davenport, Yael Stone, Peter Facinelli, Noah Emmerich, Grace Van Patten), the long summer weekend offers the opportunity for everyone to get to know each other a bit more intimately. As sexual sparks begin to fly, there are unforeseen consequences abound.

TRAILER AND POSTER FOR NETFLIX NEW SITCOM 'DISJOINTED' WITH KATHY BATES AND TONE BELL

'DISJOINTED' TV SITCOM

 KATHY BATES IS WASTED!

Smoking starts August 25th on Netflix!

A little bit of laughs today to bring some comedy into your boring summer Monday! Netflix has released the first trailer for their new multi camera sitcom DISJOINTED starring Kathy Bates, which starts airing this month, August 25th!

A modern twist on the American Dream, DISJOINTED is a story of the highs, the lows, and half baked drama of a family run marijuana dispensary. Kathy Bates stars as cannabis legend Ruth Whitefeather Feldman who employs her newly graduated son and a team of young

Kathy Bates and Tone Bell as her very troubled security guard!

"budtenders" to help run her Los Angeles marijuana dispensary. Twenty episode comedy also stars Tone Bell, Aaron Moten, Dougie Baldwin and Elizabet Alderfer! Check out the trailer below, it looks terribly unfunny!

PREMIUM SPOTLIGHT ON 'THE ORVILLE' NEW SF COMEDY SERIES WITH SETH MACFARLANE! CHARLIZE THERON TO GUEST STAR!

 'THE ORVILLE'

NEW SF COMEDY SERIES

I'm sure that you, just like your trustworthy spy, are among those that found themselves appalled after seeing the trailer for CBS's new Star

The series will premiere September 10 and 17th

Trek: Discovery television series, which disappointed so many trekkies around the globe with its almost offensive offer of non stop explosions, violence and fire, not to mention the randomly chosen cast. Star Trek is all about science, psychology, anthropology, other cultures not about beating some aliens up, so the new Star Trek series, which is heading towards becoming a major flop, seemed like a betrayal for most of the fans and I've noticed hordes of them saying they're more excited about Fox's THE ORVILLE than about the new adventures of Star Fleet ships. If I tell you THE ORVILLE is a comedy, you will understand the level of their

Seth MacFarlane is the captain of the ship

disappointment even more. Seth MacFarlane, the lead star and the creator of THE ORVILLE said that much himself saying that his series

Adrianne Palicki as Kelly Grayson

occupies the space Star Trek left behind en route to dystopia, opting for hopeful optimism of sf instead of the currently modern Star Trek grimness.

TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO COMEDY HAS GONE BEFORE
Set four centuries from now, The Orville follows the obviously Star Trek and Galaxy Quest inspired adventures in the final frontier of the

Seth Grimes as Gordon

middling USS Orville. Its human and alien crew tackles the battles and politics of speed of light galactic travel and the workplace dramas that

Penny Johnson Jerald as Dr Claire Finn

never change, no matter what century it is, travelling on the not-so-top-of-the-line exploratory ship in Earth’s interstellar fleet. Facing

Mark Jackson as Isaac

cosmic challenges from without and within, this motley crew of space explorers will boldly go where no comedic drama has gone before.

CHARLIZE THERON GUEST STAR

New sf comedy will launch it's two premiere episodes on Sunday evenings September 10 and 17th and will then move on to Thursday

Peter Macon as Bortus

nights from September 21st! Beside Seth MacFarlane the cast also includes Adrianne Palicki, Scott Grimes, Penny Johnson Jerald,

Halston Sage as Alara Kitan

Peter Macon, Halston Sage, J Lee, Mark Jackson and Chad Coleman with producers David A. Goodman and Brannon Braga. It

J.Lee as John Lamarr

has been confirmed recently that Charlize Theron will guest star in the 13 episode series which had a pilot directed by John Favreau.

NICK JONAS JOINS 'CHAOS WALKING' SF FILM WITH TOM HOLLAND, DAISY RIDLEY, MADS MIKKELSEN! 'DUCK DUCK GOOSE' HILARIOUS ANIMATED TRAILER

NICK JONAS IN 'CHAOS WALKING'

WITH TOM HOLLAND,DAISY RIDLEY

Here's a double treat for you something sf and something hunky at the same time: Nick Jonas has just joined the cast of science fiction adaptation CHAOS WALKING based on a book by Patrick Ness

The movie is out March 2019!

 directed by Doug Liman. He joins Tom Holland, Daisy Ridley, Mads Mikkelsen and Demian Bichir!

Tom Holland plays a guy who lives on the distant planet of New World, a new hope for humanity until struck by “The Noise,” a virus which inflicts immersive visions of ones’ every thought. The cacophony drives many mad until Todd makes a hidden, silent discovery: there is a girl named Viola (Daisy Ridley), who may be the key to unlocking New World’s many layered secrets. Together, the two unlikely companions are forced on an adventure into an unexplored planet, trying to escape and hide in an environment where all thought is heard, all movement seen, as they both discover the truth about the lives they left behind and the spectacular world they’ve learned to call home. Jonas will play Davy Prentiss Jr., a young soldier in Mayor Prentiss' army fuelled by jealousy over his father's (Mikkelsen) mentorship of longtime rival Todd!

'DUCK DUCK GOOSE' TRAILER

 FAMILY CAN BE A WILD RIDE

It's a Chinese American co production

I've mentioned this one before, but now we have a hilariously cute trailer for DUCK
DUCK GOOSE a delightful animated comedy which should fly into cinemas next April directed by Christopher Jenkins, who previously worked on films such as Hercules, Pocahontas, Aladdin, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast etc.

DUCK DUCK GOOSE follows Peng, a freewheeling bachelor goose who'd rather do anything than practice for the upcoming migration. He thinks he's better than everyone else and spends his time attempting crazy stunts at even crazier speeds. In one such stunt, Peng flies too near

Stephen Fry lends his voice in the movie

the ground, hits a flock of ducklings and separates brother and sister, Chao and Chi, from the rest. In this unlikely meeting, Peng will begin a journey that will break his wing and nearly break his heart as he

Jennifer Grey and Craig Ferguson are also in the voice cast

 grows to understand the power of unconditional love in the form of two ducklings, who likewise grow to see him as the best father they could ever have.

PERIOD SET FRIDAY: BRADLEY JAMES, SEAN BEAN, DANIEL SHARMAN, RAOUL BOVA, SARAH PARISH JOIN 'MEDICI: MASTERS OF FLORENCE' EPIC TV SERIES 2ND SEASON!

'MEDICI' EPIC SEASON 2 CASTS

 BRADLEY JAMES, DANIEL SHARMAN, SEAN BEAN, SARAH PARISH, JULIAN SANDS

Bradley James will be Guiliano Medici

The most beautiful piece of info ever as the highlight of our period set projects week! Those who know the spy probably remember when I said I was gonna ditch MEDICI: MASTERS OF FLORENCE after it was shockingly announced that Richard Madden won't be starring in the second season, but now that the new cast has been announced for the sophomore run of the magnificent epic TV series I'm definitely watching since our dearest King Arthur Bradley James has been cast in the role of Giuliano Medici! The main star of the second season, which starts shooting next month, will, however, be Daniel Sharman as his brother Lorenzo the Magnificent, the grandson of Madden's Cosimo Medici who was the star of the first season. The eight part series will also include Julian Sands as Lorenzo and Giuliano’s father, Piero, and Sebastian De Souza as their friend, Sandro Botticelli. The pope will be played, believe it or not, by sinfully gorgeous Italian superstar Raoul Bova and Sean Bean will

De Souza, Sharman and Bova, left to right, will star in the second season

portray the family's greatest rival and enemy Jacoppo Pazzi. Sarah Parish (who is no stranger to epic series as she already starred in Pillars of the Earth and Atlantis) will play the new, older version of Lorenzo's mother while Alessandra Mastronardi will play his mistress! Italian RAI and Netflix are producing the series again to air it sometime next year. 

MASTERS OF FLORENCE
The second season of the best epic series in last ten years, will be set 20 years after the events of the first. A young Lorenzo, the grandson of Richard Madden’s character Cosimo from the first series, is forced to

Alessandra Mastronardi and Sarah Parish will be the female leads

take over the family bank, which has been mismanaged by his father. As Lorenzo, his brother, and Botticelli set about trying to make Florence a great financial and cultural center, they face off against the Pazzi family, and Pope Sixtus IV.

'THE CROWN' 2ND SEASON PERIOD SET SERIES TRAILER AND PHOTOS WTH CLAIRE FOY, MATT SMITH, MATTHEW GOODE!

'THE CROWN' SEASON 2

 TRAILER AND PHOTOS RELEASED

We are continuing our period set projects week today with the first trailer for the second season of THE CROWN series alongside some new photos. The series which won tons of award nominations this season will

The second season starts this December

start its second ten episode run on Netflix December 8th globally following new years in the life of British queen Elizabeth II. Claire Foy

In this season the queen gives birth to Andrew and Edward

returns as the queen, Matt Smith is again her husband prince Philip and Vanessa Kirby is her sister Princess Margaret.

A TOUR AROUND THE WORLD
The second season starts with soldiers in Her Majesty’s Armed Forces fighting an illegal war in Egypt, and ends with the downfall of her third

Royal couple will visit Tonga, Papua and even Antarctic this season

Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan (Anton Lesser), after a devastating scandal. Covering her reign from 1956 to '64 it will depict the queen's

Matthew Goode plays Margaret's scandalous new lover

private life since in that decade she gave birth to Princes Andrew and Edward! The revolutionary era of the 1960s will also see the arrival of

The Kennedy's arrive to the Buckingham Palace this season

president Kennedy, played by Michael C. Hall! Jodi Balfour will be playing Jackie Kennedy! Another new addition to the cast is Matthew

Margaret is sporting some new fashion in the new season

Goode who is joining the royal family as Princess Margaret’s bohemian photographer husband, Tony Armstrong Jones. The third season next year will see the change in the two leading role.