While we are waiting to see the epic TV series later this year at Amazon, a prequel movie to Robert Jordan's epic fantasy saga The Wheel of
The project is planned as film trilogy
Time has set Zack Stentz to pen the story in the first of three planned films which will complement the story in the upcoming TV series. AGE OF LEGENDS, the first one, will be set several millennia before the time of the books, in a period known as the “Age of Legends”— a futuristic utopia powered by a magical force shared by men and women known as the “One Power.” When an unspeakable evil is unleashed upon the world, civilization descends into chaos, and war blankets the globe. When men using the One Power become insane and destroy much of the planet, a small band of women unite under the White Tower, and are humanity’s last hope of survival.
PIXAR'S TURNING RED TEASER
GROWING UP IS A BEAST!
A week ago I first presented you this one and now we have a delightful first teaser and a new poster: TURNING RED is scheduled to arrive into
Turning Red arrives March 11th next year
theatres next March and it will be Pixar's first cinematic project beside Luca since corona outbreak started. This delightful animated
comedy will revolve around a confident thirteen year old little girl
Mei Lee who poofs into a giant red panda whenever she gets overly excited
and that happens a lot in the awkward teenage years. Sandra Oh voices Mei Lee’s protective, if not slightly overbearing mother, Ming, who is never far from her daughter — an unfortunate reality for the teenager. The movie comes
from Domee Shi who both wrote and directed the flick. Check out the highly delightful and fun trailer below (not counting her mom kicking a school guard, that was disgusting - violence against men) and tell us what you think.
One of the most popular books in the world Paolo Coelho's THE ALCHEMIST is getting a movie adaptation directed by Kevin Frakes and with the production ready to start in September in Morocco, they've announced Sebastian De Souza, Tom Hollander and Shohreh Aghdashloo in the cast. Jordi Molla, Youssef Kerkour and Ashraf Barhom will also star in the movie which follows a young Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago on an epic quest for life changing treasure. With versions in 56 different languages and sold in over 100 million copies, Alchemist is world's most translated book of a still living author. The crew behind the camera also includes a lot of Oscar winning or nominated cinematographers, editors and composers!
LIE WITH ME TV DRAMA
STARS TONIGHT AT CHANNEL 5
And it is interesting that all of its four episodes will air next four consecutive nights starting tonight, Monday, July 12th, over at Channel 5. Charlie Brooks stars as Anna Fallmont in LIE WITH ME, a chilling tale of
Lie With Me will air next four nights at Channel 5
Anna and her family who move to Australia after infidelity rocks her marriage. The family hires a young local nanny who isn’t as innocent as she appears, and deadly consequences follow. Seeking a fresh start for their marriage, Briton
This new mini series was shot Down Under in Australia
Anna and her Australian husband Jake (Brett Tucker) move to Melbourne with their two small children. With Anna resuming her career, they hire a young live-in nanny (Phoebe Roberts) to help - but local girl Becky is
Charlie Brooks leads the cast as Anna Fallmont
anything but the innocent stranger she pretends to be.
Lulled into a false sense of security, Anna recommits to Jake. She continues to confide in Becky, unaware that Becky is under Jake's spell and plotting together with him
Gorgeous Brett Tucker is Jake Fallmont in the new series
against her. Later, a shocking turn of events leads Anna to discover the truth of what is going on, and she decides she is not going to be a victim any more. Becky is conflicted when Anna tells her that Jake is physically abusive,
Phoebe Roberts plays the new nanny Becky Hart
showing her a bruise on her shoulder and claiming that Jake hit her. When Jake lures Becky back, Anna realises she has to take drastic measures to protect her children and comes up with a deadly plan.
When I first announced this series a few years ago I told you it would consist of ten episodes, but when the first season of Amazon Prime's EL CID historical series started last December it had just five of them. It was because they have actually split them into two five episode seasons and this is why the second one is ready to launch next week, July 15th, just half a year after the end of the first one. I cannot say I was overly impressed with the opening chapter last winter, it was rather bland, lacking in glamour, originality, thrills,
Alfonso and Sancho are newly proclaimed kings!
and even the acting, costumes and sets were extremely subpar, but for some reason the historical saga, that brings the story of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, a
Urraca will stay evil, while Jimena will keep dreaming of Rui
Castilian nobleman and war hero in medieval Spain, is continuing its run this summer, but I do feel it might be its last circle. Today you can check out
Sancha is getting a new daughter in law in Alberta
photos and trailer from the second season. Let us hope, the return will have better
scripts, better acting and a better hairdo for the lead hero who was
humiliated with the fugliest mullet in the first season, poor sod.
THE SECOND SEASON SHOULD
continue the story where it left off last
December when King Fernando (Jose Perez), poisoned by his horrid
daughter Urraca (Alicia Sanz) died and,
Forces of evil are still plotting around Rui and his king
instead of proclaiming his
oldest son as his sole heir, divided the kingdom to all of his three sons
Sancho (Francisco Ortiz), Alfonso (Jaime Olias) and
Rui is still faithfully serving prince Sancho, now a king
García (Nicolas
Illoro) making them the new kings of Castilla, León and Galicia. Devious
princess Urraca will continue to weave her dark plots in the
Alicia Sanz is back as evil and treacherous princess Uraca
shadows,
while our hero Ruy (who, played by rather weak and non charismatic Jaime
Lorente, did not even feel like the hero in the first season with not a
lot of screen time) will have to fight to save the land, the royal
family as well as
Amparo Alcaraz is Alberta, Sancho's new wife
his own one. Disputes between them will transform the Iberian Peninsula into a field of bloody battles despite Queen Sancha's (Elia Galera) attempts to stop an inevitable war between her own children. Ruy is knighted and is forced
Francisco Ortiz returns as hotheaded prince, now king Sancho
to make very difficult decisions, for which he will have to sacrifice what he loves most to become a true hero. Actress Amparo Alcaraz has joined the cast as Alberta, the Saxon noblewoman who contracts a marriage of convenience with Sancho.
I think we are the first ones to break this news in English, but Gaga Antonijevic, who directed last year's Serbian Oscar representative
The production should start next year
Dara from Jasenovac, is preparing a massive new historical adventure JANISSARY based on real historical custom of the Ottoman empire to steal babies from occupied lands and then raise them as killer Janissaries who would then be sent to pillage their own villages often unknowingly killing their own mothers and sisters in the process. He has already set Christian Bale as the male lead in the film that he has been preparing for twenty years now.
Set at the end of the 16th century, the film will see Bale playing a
Serb taken as a child to Istanbul where he becomes a pasha in their
army. The sultan eventually sends him to his fatherland to end the
Serbian rebellion and this is where he gets faced both with his past and
with a moral dilemma of what to do.
Gaga has also revealed that he is currently negotiating with Sharon Stone to take the role of Bale's mother in the film. Bale, who is married to a Serbian woman in real life, has worked with the director on the script which should start shooting sometime next year in Serbia and Turkey.
SAMARA WEAVING TO JOIN
CHEVALIER DE SAINT GEORGES
We mentioned the movie a few months ago, and now Hollywood Reporter writes that Samara Weaving has joined CHEVALIER DE SAINT GEORGES historical drama as opera singer! Kelvin Harrison Jr plays the
Samara Weaving will take the female lead
lead as Joseph Bologne, or the Chevalier de Saint Georges, also known as the Black Mozart. Born in the Caribbean, Bologne was the illegitimate son of a plantation owner and a slave who was then educated in France and became a fencing master, which served as an entrée into French high society. With his music and operas, he ascended to the upper echelons of Marie Antoinette’s Paris society until a court scandal laid him low. Weaving will play Marie Josephine, a woman who yearns for creative fulfillment outside of her empty, loveless marriage and defies her controlling husband to become the voice of Bologne’s opera. Stephen Williams is directing for Searchlight.
Witchercon has brought us the first trailer for season two of epic TV series THE WITCHER which will arrive to Netflix December 17th
Witcher returns December 17th to Netflix
with six brand new episodes. We also got a new poster announcing the return of world's favourite epic saga. Burdened with covid outbreaks and cast injuries, the Witcher team has managed to finish the production in April.
Season two will follow Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), convinced
Yennefer’s life was lost at the Battle of Sodden, who seeks to bring
Princess Cirilla (Freya Allan) to the safest place he knows, his
childhood home of Kaer Morhen. While the Continent’s kings, elves,
humans and demons strive for supremacy outside its walls, he must
protect the girl from something far more dangerous: the mysterious power
she possesses inside.
The adventures of Geralt, a monster hunter, based on the super popular novels by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski, will have some new cast
Princess Ciri will be practicing new skills in the new season
additions in the second season: Adjoa Andoh, Cassie Clare, Liz Carr, Graham McTavish, Kevin Doyle, Simon Callow and Chris Fulton are new
Jaskier is back and will sing many merry songs again
names in the cast. Joey Batey as minstrel Jaskier and MyAnna Burning as high witch Tissaia are back again from the first season.
MOONHAVEN SF SERIES
CASTS DOMINIC MONAGHAN
We're sf all the way today, continuing with news coming from AMC who are making a MOONHAVEN sf series and have cast Dominic Monaghan as lead. The story follows Bella Sway, a lunar cargo pilot and smuggler 100
Dominic Monaghan will take one of the lead roles
years in the future who finds herself accused of a crime and marooned on Moon haven, a utopian community set on a 500 square mile Garden of Eden built on the Moon to find solutions to the problems that will soon end civilization on Mother Earth. A skeptic in Paradise, Bella is sucked into a conspiracy to gain control of the artificial intelligence responsible for Moonhaven’s miracles and teams with a local detective to stop the forces that want to destroy Earth’s last hope before they are destroyed themselves. Monaghan will be Paul Serno, a detective on the Moon in a utopian community tasked with solving the problems of Earth.
WHEEL OF TIME EPIC SERIES
FIRST LOOK AT THE HEROES
Next Friday is bringing us the start of a new Comic Con and one of the exciting things presented there will be Amazon Prime's epic TV adaptation of famous saga WHEEL OF TIME which might mean we will get photos,
The Wheel of Time will air sometime later this year on Amazon
posters or maybe even a trailer? Set in a high fantasy world where magic exists, but only some can access it, the eight episode saga follows a woman named Moiraine who embarks on a dangerous, world-spanning journey with five young men and women.
FIRST CHARACTER TEASERS!
A few days ago Amazon has released a logo for the series and two teasers
which, although extremely short, show two characters from it: Rosamund
Pike's Moiraine Damodred and Daniel Henney's al’Lan Mandragoran! The
Rosamund Pike takes the lead role of sorceress Moiraine
series follows Rand al'Thor (Josha Stradowski), who leads a small and
humble life in a small town called the Two Rivers. There is danger
lurking,
Daniel Henney plays al'Lan Mandragoran in the new saga
however, in the potential attacks from the Dark One, an evil
entity that wants to destroy everything. A sorceress by the name of
Moiraine (Rosamund
Pike) takes Rand and his friends away from their
home, as she believes one of them might be the reincarnation of the
Dragon, an ancient hero who is prophesized to either save or destroy the
world.
The premiere date has been set for November 12th with first photo revealed from RED NOTICE which will be the most expensive movie Netflix has ever made costing them $200 million. As Dwayne Johnson said himself, the
Red Notice will arrive to Netflix November 12th
photo shows the FBI's top profiler, the world's most wanted art thief and the greatest conman the world has never seen. An Interpol issued Red Notice is a
With $20 million pay, Gal has become 3rd best paid actress in Hollywood
global alert to hunt and capture the world's most wanted. But when a daring heist brings together the FBI's top profiler (Johnson) and two rival criminals
There will be Ancient Egypt vibes in the film as well
(Gal Gadot, Ryan Reynolds), there's no telling what will happen. It is interesting that all three of them got about $20 million each for their job in this movie, which is taking them into top five best paid actors in Hollywood currently.
WITCHER: BLOOD ORIGIN
CASTS LAURENCE O'FUARAIN
Laurence O'Fuarain will be Fjall
Netflix has cast Michelle Yeoh a few days ago in their six episode prequel series THE WITCHER: BLOOD ORIGIN which will be set a thousand years before the original series depicting the origin of witchers, but I forgot to tell you that Laurence O'Fuarain was also cast previously. He will play Fjall. Born into a clan of warriors sworn to protect a King, Fjall carries a deep scar within, the death of a loved one who fell in battle trying to save him. A scar that won’t let him settle, or make peace with himself or the world around him. In his quest for redemption, Fjall will find himself fighting beside the most unlikely of allies as he carves a path of vengeance across a continent in turmoil. Sophia Brown will play Éile, an elite warrior blessed with the voice of a goddess, who has left her clan and position as Queen’s guardian to follow her heart as a nomadic musician.
I cannot remember if we have seen her before in a costume drama, but Screen Daily reports today straight from Cannes that Michelle Williams will take the lead role in Karim Ainouz' FIREBRAND historical movie about Katherine Parr, the last of King Henry VIII's six wives. Jessica and Henrietta Ashworth are currently writing the script for this historical psychological horror film set at the dangerous Tudor court; a story of intrigue, agency and survival which tells how Katherine Parr outlasted Henry VIII’s brutal reign.
Kathe- rine Parr previously beautifully played by gorgeous Joely Richardson in ultra popular The Tudors
series, was the queen of England and Ireland for four years before
Henry's death. She had four husbands herself and was involved in raising
Henry's heir, future queen Elizabeth and his ill son as well. She even acted as a regent while
Henry was on a campaign in France and would have become the ruler of the country if he died in battle. She was also the first woman to
publish a book in England under her own name. After Henry's death she
assumed the role of
The film will start shooting sometime next year in England
Elizabeth's guardian and continued with publishing
books. She was allowed to keep the Crown Jewels and act as his official dowager queen. Half a year after Henry's death she married her fourth husband
baron Thomas Seymour but she died just a few months after that at childbirth when she
was only 36.
And she will wield a sword in it. As you know, Netflix is preparing a prequel series to their best ever watched show The Witcher titled BLOOD ORIGIN which will be set in an elven world 1,200 years before the world of The Witcher, telling a story lost to time — the creation of the first prototype Witcher, and the events that lead to the pivotal ‘conjunction of the spheres,’ when the worlds of monsters, men, and elves merged to become one! In the six part epic drama, Michelle Yeoh will play Scían, who is the last member of her nomadic tribe of sword elves. No one can come close to her artistry with the blade, and no one carries as much loss within their heart. When a chance presents itself to retrieve a stolen sacred sword, taken from her fallen tribe by nefarious means, she launches herself into a deadly quest that will change the outcome of the Continent! Witcher writer and producer Declan de Barra will be the show runner.
THE DROVER'S WIFE TRAILER
IS HERE WITH SAM REID!
Speaking of period set projects, check out the trailer for Australian historical movie THE DROVER'S WIFE: THE LEGEND OF MOLLY JOHNSON starring Leah Purcell and our dearest Sam Reid! Set in 1893 Australia, the film follows the life of Molly Johnson. Her husband is a drover,
Drover's Wife movie will play in Australian cinemas this October
who is away droving cattle, leaving her alone to care for their four children at their remote Snowy Mountains homestead. Despite being heavily pregnant,
Leah Purcell takes the title role in the new Australian drama
Molly keeps various threats, from nature and other people, at bay. But when Yadaka, an Aboriginal man on the run from white law enforcement, intrudes
Our dearest Sam Reid also stars in the film as a policeman
on the sanctuary she has carved out, the brutal hardships and secrets that have followed them both throughout their lives must be confronted. The film is out in Australian cinemas October 14th.
There is literally just one new series coming to US networks this Autumn that I plan to watch and it is LA BREA epic adventure series starring
La Brea will start with the new Autumn season
Eoin Macken, Natalie Zea, John Seda and Nicholas Gonzales in the lead roles. The series is currently shooting in Australia and will air in Autumn.
THE STORY OF LA BREA
begins
when a massive sinkhole opens in the middle of Los Angeles, pulling
hundreds of people and buildings into its depths. Those who fell in find
themselves in a mysterious and dangerous primeval land, where they have
no choice but to band together to survive. Meanwhile, the rest of the
world desperately seeks to
Click on the photo to see the exotic world in which La Brea is set! La Brea is a real massive tar pit in Los Angeles which scientists use as a gateway to Ice Age as the tar has preserved lots of primeval animals and their bones.
understand what happened. In the search for
answers, one family torn apart by this disaster will have to unlock the
secrets of this inexplicable event to find a way back to each other.
It has been such a slow week when it comes to finding new movie and television news for you, spylings, I guess it is that part of the summer when
Ottilie aired in Germany back in 2019
Hollywood goes into slumber, so I will entertain you with something a bit old today. Period set television series OTTILIE VON FABER CASTELL has already aired some time ago in Germany, Portugal and Italy (where it scored rather high viewing numbers over at RAI), but German network ZDF has now sold it to broadcasters around Europe and also to new streamer Globi that covers North America, so a lot of you will be able to see this story about a brilliant young woman navigating the pitfalls of 19th century business, family and forbidden love. Kristin Suckow, Martin Wuttke, and Johannes Zirner
Count Castel will not find much luck in love with Ottilie
star in the series about the heiress to world's most famous pen and office material production company. Check out the short trailer below.
OTTILIE VON FABER CASTELL
is set at the end of the 19th century in Germany, when a
16 year-old girl, Ottilie von Faber, inherits her grandfather’s global
manufacturing business. In this male dominated world, Ottilie uses all
her talent and knowledge to prove
Although rich as Midas, Ottilie cannot choose the one she loves
herself and steer the company to
greater success. She marries Count Castell and starts a family, but the
unconventional Ottilie finds herself deeply in love with someone else,
the dashing Philipp von Brand.
