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When Game of Thrones ended their riveting 8-year run with a lackluster and disappointing final season in 2019, many fans were skeptical of HBO’s planned prequel series, House of the Dragon as we were still salty about how things played out in the original adaptation to George R.R. Martin’s brainchild.
Interestingly enough the series not only surprised critics with an enticing and exciting storyline, but left fans wanting more after it’s debut in 2022, and more we shall get as HBO released it’s first teaser trailer for the second season to their newest hit show.
Picking up where season one left off, the new teaser trailer to House of the Dragon which asks fans to choose a side in the upcoming war between King Aegon’s Green Council and the Black Council which is that of Queen Rhaenyra. Though we have an idea of how this will end given that Game of Thrones takes place hundreds of years later and basically spelled out the events of this feud, we still can’t wait to see it play out before our very eyes as we’ve learned that drama and dragons go pretty well together.
To amp up the upcoming season, HBO dropped a few dueling trailers to get fans to choose a side (black or green) and we just know that if Wesley Snipes was here he’d say “Always bet on Black” but in this case, it’s kind of a tossup.
With that being said, when the hell is HBO gonna give us an update on that Jon Snow spinoff series that we were promised two years ago?? We desperately want to see what the OG King of The North is up to after killing his queen/lover/aunt, Daenerys Targaryen. Just sayin.’
Check out the trailers for House of the Dragon and let us know if you’re as amped as we are about the second season in the comments section below.
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Source: Michele K. Short/HBO / Max / True Detective
True Detective: Night Country had television fans in a chokehold every Sunday night, and HBO is rewarding creator Issa Lopez for delivering a masterpiece.
Issa Lopez will helm the fifth season of the HBO anthology series True Detective under a new, well-deserved overall deal with the cable network.
Variety reports the decision was a no-brainer following the show’s success in its fourth season, starring Jodie Foster and fan-favorite Kali Reis, where Lopez put a more supernatural spin on the show this time.
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Per Variety:
The renewal comes as little surprise, given the success of “Night Country,” which saw Jodie Foster and Kali Reis star in the fourth installment of the HBO anthology series. Per HBO, the season is the most-watched installment of the show to date, with 12.7 million cross platform viewers. The season finale on Feb. 18 was the most-watched episode of the season, drawing 3.2 million viewers across HBO and Max. That represents a 57% increase over the show’s premiere viewership in January.
Issa Lopez Is Excited To Run It Back
Speaking about returning for a season 5, Lopez said, “From conception to release, ‘Night Country’ has been the most beautiful collaboration and adventure of my entire creative life. HBO trusted my vision all the way, and the idea of bringing to life a new incarnation of ‘True Detective’ with Casey, Francesca, and the whole team is a dream come true. I can’t wait to go again.”
Francesca Orsi, executive vice president of HBO Programming and head of HBO drama series and films, adds, “Issa Lopez is that one-of-a-kind, rare talent that speaks directly to HBO’s creative spirit. She helmed ‘True Detective: Night Country’ from start to finish, never once faltering from her own commendable vision, and inspiring us with her resilience both on the page and behind the camera. Alongside Jodie and Kali’s impeccable performances, she’s made this installation of the franchise a massive success. We are so lucky to have her as part of our family.
True Detective is one of HBO’s most consistent shows, and we can’t wait to see what Lopez cooks up with season 5 and who will be starring in it.
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Two women who have been previously involved with Jonathan Majors have now come forward publicly with allegations of abuse by the movie star.
A new report from the New York Times released on Thursday (Feb. 8) has revealed that two former girlfriends of actor Jonathan Majors have come forward to publicly accuse him of abuse. Emma Duncan, who was engaged to Majors from 2015 to 2019, and Maura Hooper who dated Majors from 2013 to 2015 are the women who made their claims to the press. The allegations come two months after the former Marvel actor was convicted in New York on charges of reckless assault and harassment of his ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari stemming from an incident last March.
The women initially gave accounts of their experiences with him in interviews and statements delivered to the court before Majors’ trial under the Molineux rule which allowed the court to determine if the prosecution could submit evidence to show a past pattern of behavior. Duncan stated that Majors was emotionally abusive during their relationship, and had also choked and bruised her at several points in addition to making disturbing threats against her. Priya Chaudhry, Majors’ defense attorney, said in a statement that Majors denied those acts but also said he was “choosing to take responsibility for his own part in that toxic relationship, focusing on himself, and addressing his lifelong depression.”
Hooper’s statement also contained allegations of emotional abuse directed towards her by Majors while they were students at the Yale School of Drama, including one instance where he told her he’d “rip you out of my heart the way they ripped our baby out of you” about an abortion she had months into their relationship. Chaudhry’s statement says that Majors remembers the “mutually intense conversations” but “regrets saying hurtful things.” Ultimately, the court didn’t allow the statements to be entered into evidence.
In separate statements to the New York Times, two women who worked on the set of HBO’s Lovecraft Country with Majors in 2019 delivered statements of their confrontational experiences with Majors which made for a “hostile work environment.” Multiple women crew members had complained to higher-ups at the network about his behavior, forcing HBO to compel him to deliver an apology to the women, which he reportedly did so gruffly, saying it was “a misunderstanding.” Chaudhry said that Majors had “never been told that anyone objected to his behavior.”
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Curb Your Enthusiasm, the long-running HBO comedy series starring Larry David has delighted fans since 2000 and is returning for a new season next year. Sadly, for fans of the well-meaning curmudgeon that is Larry David, this will be the series’ final season.
Curb Your Enthusiasm follows the exploits of Larry David, who most know from being the co-creator of fellow comedian Jerry Seinfeld’s Seinfeld television series. While it is a fictionalized version of David, the show features a number of real-life celebrities as themselves and follows an improvisational yet plot-based style throughout.
In a press release statement, David, 76, shared his, ahem, enthusiasm in his usual clever way as he sends off the grumpy yet lovable character in style.
“As Curb comes to an end, I will now have the opportunity to finally shed this ‘Larry David’ persona and become the person God intended me to be – the thoughtful, kind, caring, considerate human being I was until I got derailed by portraying this malignant character, David writes. “And so ‘Larry David,’ I bid you farewell. Your misanthropy will not be missed. And for those of you who would like to get in touch with me, you can reach me at Doctors Without Borders.”
Returning to the series are Jeff Garlin, Susie Essman, Cheryl Hines, J.B. Smoove, Richard Lewis, Ted Danson, Vince Vaughn, and Tracey Ullman along with a cast of other celebrities as is the Curb Your Enthusiasm experience.
The show has been pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good for years and we’re thankful for the laughs, Larry David. Enjoy saving lives in your new career as a physician.
The 12th season airs in February 2024.
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Photo: Marcus Yam / Getty
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The story of one of the most successful restaurateurs is about to be told. HBO is going to release a documentary on Mr. Chow.
Hypebeast is reporting that the legendary chef will have his journey explored in a feature film this October, AKA Mr. Chow. Directed by Nick Hooker (AgnelIi) and produced by Academy Award-nominated Diane Quon (Minding The Gap), AKA Mr. Chow aims to detail the culinary icon’s early beginnings in Shanghai and making Chinese food global.
“In an intimate, spirited, and no-holds-barred interview, Michael Chow unveils the irrepressible spirit and personal philosophy that led him to counter the hardships of his early life” a press release states. “By single-handedly building a business empire in the 1960s and 1970s with his restaurants, he showcased the richness and opulence of Chinese food and culture and by capturing the cultural zeitgeist, they became dazzling hubs for the most celebrated artists, film stars, musicians, designers, and models of the times.”
Not only will AKA Mr. Chow feature an in depth interview with Michael Chow but it will also have contributions from Calvin Klein, Peter Blake, Julian Schnabel, and Ed Ruscha. According to the chain’s website “the first MR CHOW restaurant opened in London on Valentine’s Day in 1968 with top chefs serving authentic Beijing cuisine and with creative original recipes such as Chicken Satay and Ma Mignon.”
The site adds that “MR CHOW has since expanded to the USA opening the Beverly Hills location in 1974, then New York where the first location opened in 1979 on 57th Street, and the second location in New York TriBeCa in 2006. The fifth location opened in the summer of 2009 at the W Hotel in Miami Beach. The sixth location opened in 2016 at the Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.”
AKA Mr. Chow will debut Sunday, Oct. 22 (9:00-10:30 p.m. ET/PT) on HBO and will be available to stream on Max.
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Yesterday (July 31), fans of HBO’s hit series, Euphoria, were heartbroken to learn that one of the show’s brightest stars, Angus Cloud, had passed away at the young age of 25.
News of Cloud’s passing began spreading quick on social media on Monday afternoon (July 31) as his Euphoria character, Fez, quickly became a fan favorite and catapulted him to stardom over the past few years. Though his cause of death hasn’t yet been revealed, his family’s statement seemed to imply that Cloud was dealing with some mental health issues due to the passing of his father.
Vulture reports:
“It is with the heaviest heart that we had to say goodbye to an incredible human today,” Cloud’s family said in a statement confirming the news. “As an artist, a friend, a brother and a son, Angus was special to all of us in so many ways. Last week he buried his father and intensely struggled with this loss. The only comfort we have is knowing Angus is now reunited with his dad, who was his best friend. Angus was open about his battle with mental health and we hope that his passing can be a reminder to others that they are not alone and should not fight this on their own in silence. We hope the world remembers him for his humor, laughter and love for everyone. We ask for privacy at this time as we are still processing this devastating loss.”
As a fan of Euphoria, this one hurts, b.
Since taking on the role of Fez when Euphoria premiered in 2019, Cloud quickly gained a following with his nonchalant, yet insightful drug-dealing character. Since then, he’s appeared in ads for Polo and has even starred in music videos for artists like Juice WRLD, Becky G and Noah Cyrus. The man was going places in life, but unfortunately, we’ll never know how far he would’ve gotten.
Rest In Power.
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Source: MEGA / Getty / Kanye West
Kanye West’s life right now is a joke that would honestly make for great television, but there was dead a** an attempt by the Chicago rapper to drop a comedy show, and now the pilot has leaked online.
Spotted on Hypebeast, tights, and socks, wearing rapper at one point in his career, wanted to drop a show modeled after Seinfeld creator Larry David’s improvisational comedy show Curb Your Enthusiasm.
The show’s aptly titled A Little Inappropriate pilot episode popped up on YouTube. West got help from Curb director Larry Charles after hearing the Chicago rapper expressed interest in making the show modeled after the hit HBO original show after watching one season.
The nearly 30-minute episode featured Ye visiting a fan for the Make-A-Wish foundation only to discover that the fan was not even sick—definitely, a situation Larry David would hilariously find himself in.
Joining West in the show was Don C, GLC, and ironically Curb stars Jeff Garlin and JB Smoove, plus Wyatt Cenac, who also had an HBO series, Problem Areas.
Per Hypebeast, Cenac revealed the “Through The Wire” crafter sucks at improvising but took the advice of Jerry Seinfeld by surrounding himself with talented people who could.
Sadly for Yeezy, that was not enough to get the show’s pilot picked up by HBO or any other network. But, for those BIG SAD that the show didn’t happen, you can watch it by heading here.
Kanye West Is Still Doing The Most
As for West, right now, he is going through it. adidas is getting rid of whatever stock of his ugly ass sneakers that are left, and he’s out in the streets with his “wife,” Bianca Censori, looking ridiculous.
Oh, and he is still trying to ruin our lives and be President of the United States.
Bruh.
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Photo: MEGA / Getty
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The Weeknd is about to take over your TV screens once HBO’s highly-anticipated new drama, The Idol, premieres on Sunday (June 4).
Besides having a stellar cast lineup, which also includes actress Lily-Rose Depp as the leading lady and Schitt’s Creek star and creator Dan Levy, the series from Euphoria creator Sam Levinson tells the story of Jocelyn (played by Depp), an aspiring pop star who after having a nervous breakdown, begins an entangled relationship with Tedros, a self-help guru and the head of a contemporary cult (played by The Weeknd).
The Weeknd Reveals ‘The Idol Vol. 1’ Soundtrack Release Date & Cover Art
06/02/2023
“Angel Baby” singer Troye Sivan, Moses Sumney, Suzanna Son and BLACKPINK’s Jennie Ruby Jane also appear in the series.
Read on for ways to watch and stream The Idol from anywhere.
How to Watch The Idol Without Cable
The Idol premiers Sunday, June 4, at 9 p.m. ET. In order to catch the premiere without cable — and avoid any spoilers from social media — you’ll need to make sure you have Max, HBO’s new streaming service. If you’re already a subscriber to HBO or previously subscribed to HBO Max, then you don’t need to worry about downloading a new streaming service, but for those who don’t have a subscription, there’s an easy way to sign up. Simply log into Max.com to join.
New episodes of The Idol will air on HBO on Fridays starting on June 4 until June 25.
You can watch HBO without cable through streamers such as DirecTV Stream and Hulu (use ExpressVPN to access the cable channel and other streaming platforms from outside of the U.S.)
Amazon Prime members have the ability to add Max as a premium channel onto their Prime Video subscription.
Max on Prime Video
$15.99/month after 7-day free trial
Click here or the buy button above to take advantage of a 30-day free trial to Prime Video and a week free trial to Max to stream The Idol and other content in the mega-library of films, movies, and TV shows.
Max, which launched on May 23, carries a large selection of content including Max Originals as well as programs from HBO, Discovery, TLC, HGTV, TCM, Food Network, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, Trvl Channel and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Stream HBO hits, original movies and shows such as Love & Death, Succession, Barry, The Last of Us, Reality, Clone High, White House Plumbers, And Just Like That, Love to Love You: Donna Summer, Bama Rush and Being Mary Tyler Moore.
Check below to watch the trailer for The Idol.
The guys of 5 Seconds of Summer chatted with Billboard News’ Rania Aniftos to talk through recording their Royal Albert Hall show, working with their musical idols and more. The Weeknd has been teasing his fans all week on social media with clips of him in the studio with Mike Dean for ‘The Idol’ and a mention of a potential Coachella appearance and more!
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Source: HBO / The Last of Us
HBO’s The Last of Us exceptional first season is in the books but, as expected, left many with questions and wondering if we are getting a season two and if one of the first season’s stars is returning.
Right off the bat, we are happy to report that, yes, there is a second season coming. In a no-brainer decision, HBO renewed its new hit series based on the PlayStation video game franchise in January.
The one question lingering was if Bella Ramsey would return as Ellie. Speaking with Deadline, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckman (who wrote the video game) talked about Ramsey’s return and her backstory, plus the infected or lack thereof in the show.
One burning question many had about the show was why didn’t Joel and Ellie encounter waves of infected or clickers as the season went along. For those who played the game, there are numerous encounters with raiders, cannibals, and the infected.
In the show, we saw people infected by the cordyceps in the first episode when things first popped off, and sparingly in episodes. We saw a new idea that everyone infected is connected, and if you step on a live vine, you can trigger a swarm. We also saw how real sh*t gets when waves of hordes arrive and how bad that can be.
So it’s not like we didn’t see any infected in the show, but according to Mazin, it’s much more complicated than that.
Mazin Explains The Process of Turning A Game Into A TV Show
“Part of the adaptation process is trying to figure out how to take source material that was built around gameplay and port it over to a medium that is passive,” Mazin said. “And a lot of the gameplay centered on non-playable characters that you have to get around by either avoiding them or stealth killing them or just confronting them head-on. That’s sort of your choices when you’re playing. And the NPCs were either raiders or cannibals, or they were the infected.”
“So there’s a lot of fighting. I don’t know what your ultimate kill count is on a typical run of The Last of Us, but it’s in the triple digits for sure. So we did at times have choices to make about how we wanted to present the infected. I will say that even though we were green-lit for a season of television, Neil and I felt like we couldn’t just make a season of television without considering what would come after. ”
Mazin Says More Infected Is Coming In Season 2
He continues, “There is more The Last of Us to come. I think the balance is not always just about within an episode or even episode to episode, but season to season. It’s quite possible that there will be a lot more infected later. And perhaps different kinds. But within the episodes that we were concentrating on, I think ultimately, we generally stressed the power of relationships and trying to find significance within moments of action. So there may be less action than some people wanted because we couldn’t necessarily find significance for quite a bit of it, or [they had a] concern that it would be repetitive. After all, you’re not playing it, you’re watching it. And although a lot of people do like to watch gameplay, it needs to be a little bit more focused and purposeful when we’re putting it on TV.”
The Last of Us HBO also gave us a lot more information than the game did. In the season finale, we finally saw Ellie’s backstory and met her mother, played by Ashley Johnson (the voice actor of Ellie in the video game).
Neil Druckman Explains The Last of Us HBO Resurrected A Storyline Originally Set To Be Its Own Game
“So trying to come up with a story, I wrote this short script about Ellie’s mom and how she gave birth to Ellie, how she was bitten at the same time, and wasn’t sure if she was infected during that birth,” Neil Druckman said. “And it just became this little character drama that spoke to the same themes of parental love and how much you’re willing to do even at when you’re on death’s door. That deal fell apart. Then we were talking to another game company to potentially do it as a whole other game. That deal fell apart. Then I became interested in live-action, and I was talking to Ashley Johnson about her starring in it, and then we both got busy, so that fell apart.”
The Ellie’s Backstory Helped Build An Important Storyline In The Show
Druckman continues, “I just kind of forgot about it until Mr. Mazin and I started meeting to talk about the show. Craig was like, ‘What do you have that we haven’t seen? What is Ellie’s backstory?’ And I was just telling him all this stuff. I’m like, oh, right, there’s this other story about Ellie’s mom and blah, blah, blah. I just kind of told him about it. He’s like, ‘Oh my God, we, that has to go in the show.’ And then we talked about how would it fit.”
“Does it make sense to put it in now? It does gives some theories about why Ellie’s immune, even though we don’t answer that conclusively. But I think, more importantly, it builds the relationship between Marlene and [Ellie’s mom] Anna, so that when you get to the ending, and we pit Marlene against Joel, they have their own opposite philosophical terms over how to approach of the end justify the means. Anna’s dying wish was, take care of my kid. I think it gives it more weight and maybe shows more of the tragedy behind Marlene’s sacrifice, that she was trying to make for the betterment of mankind, “Druckman continued.
Bella Ramsey Will Be Back As Ellie
Speaking of Ellie, there was also a question if Bella Ramsey would return for season two. Mazin put all of that to rest, confirming the young actress will be picking up things right where season one left off.
“When she joined us, she was 17. She’s only, she’s 19 now. Which by the way is the age of Ellie in The Last of Us, part 2. People were like, ‘She doesn’t look like [Ellie]. I’m like, it doesn’t matter. Just watch what happens,” says Mazin.
He continues, “It will be the show that Neil and I wanna make. But we are making it with Bella.”
Well, there you have it.
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Photo: HBO / The Last of Us