'House of Cards' Ending With Sixth and Final Season at Netflix
Courtesy of Netflix
'House of Cards'
IN THIS STORY
Frank Underwood's Washington tenure is coming to an end.
Netflix is currently in production on a sixth and final season ofHouse of Cards, the landmark drama that signaled its aggressive push into original programming.
The final run ofHouse of Cards, which stars Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright as ruthless and ambitious beltway couple, will debut its last 13 episodes in 2018. Executive producers Melissa James Gibson and Frank Pugliese, who replaced exiting creator Beau Willimon last year, are both expected to return as co-showrunners.
Official word on its conclusion, which has been in the works since the summer, comes at a problematic time for Spacey. The star and executive producer is embroiled insexual assault scandal, with an actor alleging that Spacey made aggressive advances towards him when he was just 14. Spacey responded, in turn, by apologizing for "inappropriate drunken behavior" and coming out as gay.Neither the apology nor the admissionhave been met with a positive response. (Netflix released a reaction of its own, saying those at the streamer are"deeply troubled"by the allegations.)
House of Cardshas been especially important to the streamer. News that Spacey and director David Fincher were updating the project, an adaptation of a British series and Michael Dobbs novel of the same name, as a beltway drama for the U.S. sparked multiple bids from stateside programmers (including HBO) before finally going to Netflix with a straight-to-series order for two seasons at a price tag then estimated to be around $100 million. That was in 2011, before streaming had become a dominant player in original programming and when filmmakers such as Spacey and Fincher shifting from movies to television was still somewhat surprising.House of Cardspremiered in 2013.
The show has seen critical affection wax and wane over the years, but it has remained the de facto flagship at an increasingly diversified Netflix.House of Cardsis also a regular favorite at the Emmys, nabbing 46 nominations and six wins to date. (It also boasts a Peabody and two Golden Globes.)
Netflix has changed dramatically aroundHouse of Cards, upping its content spend to a flabbergasting $6 billion annually with more than 30 current series. And while the payoff of its unprecedented gamble is still a work-in-progress, it has grown its subscriber base substantially — recently topping 100 million worldwide users.
House of Cards' renewal also comes at a time of slightly shifting strategy at Netflix. The company only recently made canceling shows a regular practice, announcing relatively quick ends to pricey dramasThe Get DownandSense8as well as one-off comedyGirlboss. Still, it's batting average remains much stronger than those of its traditional TV competitors. Without any public ratings barometer, recent launchesStranger Things,The Crown,13 Reasons Why, Dear White PeopleandGLOWhave been deemed industry successes on cultural impact alone.
Executive produced by Spacey, Fincher, Wright, Dana Brunetti and quite a few other notables,House of Cardsis made by Media Rights Capital and Trigger Street Productions.
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'Walking Dead' Teaser Reveals More About Rick's New Enemy
[Warning: This story contains spoilers for season eight, episode two of AMC's The Walking Dead, "The Damned."]
We're a long way from Atlanta, Walking Dead viewers.
When the creative minds behind the AMC zombie drama promised a flurry of callbacks to its own past during the course of season eight, they weren't kidding. The second episode of the season, "The Damned," featured the return of one of the most obscure, but still kicking (for now), figures from the show's lore: Morales, one of the original survivors of the Atlanta camp, who parted ways with Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and friends right before the group reached the CDC at the end of season one.
Back then, Morales and his family were heading for Birmingham, Alabama, on a mission to reconnect with the rest of their loved ones. How did that turn out? Who knows, but somewhere between then and now, Morales became fully integrated with Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and the Saviors — at least, that's how the end of "The Damned," and the first look at next week's "Monsters," makes it look.
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In the first official clip for the third episode of the season, Morales keeps his gun trained on Rick and spits out threats about what's coming down the line. According to the man, Negan wants three people alive from the Alexandria side: Rick, Maggie "The Widow" Greene (Lauren Cohan) and King Ezekiel (Khary Payton). The way Morales states this information, it's almost as if it's coming from a different guy altogether. This is not the same even-mannered man who worked so well alongside Rick Grimes during their short time together in Atlanta. Then again, that short time was ages and ages ago.
Watch the scene in the video below:
Beyond the first clip for "Monsters," a new preview teases us up for what to expect from the third round of "All-Out War." As with the first two hours of the season, "Monsters" looks like it will take a shotgun burst approach to its storytelling, spreading out multiple plotlines rather than focusing on one or two individual stories.
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Among the stories in play next week: Ezekiel and his crew surrounded by Saviors, juxtaposed with a particularly ironic line about how not a single person will die from their side of the fight. Unfortunately, we have every reason to believe that Ezekiel's prediction is wrong — and wrong in a very big and personal way for the king.
'Chicago P.D.' Sets 'Chicago Fire' Crossover for 100th Episode
Elizabeth Sisson/NBC
IN THIS STORY
Chicago P.D. is celebrating its 100th episode in true Dick Wolf style.
The NBC cop drama will kick off a crossover with Chicago Fire for its milestone episode. The crossover will then conclude the following night on Chicago Fire. (P.D. airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m., while Fireairs Thursdays at 10 p.m.)
The cast of Chicago Med, which returns for its third season on Tuesday, Nov. 21, will also appear in the two-parter.
While castmembers from the three Windy City-set series regularly cross-pollinate, this marks the first major crossover between the hourlong dramas since the three-hour March 1 crossover between Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D. and Chicago Justice that was used to launch the latter. However, the latter was not renewed for a second season.
Also making things tricky was Chicago Fire's move to Thursdays at 10 p.m. this season after NBC opted not to move This Is Us to Thursdays after all. "The other thing is we're in new spots this year in terms of how that storytelling would flow. Fire's a great way to kick off a crossover because naturally you go from a big accident to the hospital to the police figuring it out, which has served us well in the past," Fire showrunner Derek Haas told THRin August. "This time, we would be the Thursday night show so unless we can manipulate the schedule — which we've done in the past — to put Fire first, we'd have to get into the nuts and bolts of how to do that."
In addition to crossovers with the other Chicago series, P.D. has also crossed over several times with Dick Wolf's long-running New York-based cop drama Law & Order: SVU. Former SVU showrunner Rick Eid took over as showrunner of P.D. earlier this year after the exit of Matt Olmstead.
There is no date yet for the crossover. However, P.D. is expected to hit its 100th episode sometime early next year.
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9:51am PT by Lesley Goldberg
Endeavor, Chernin Pact for TV Drama Development
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Peter Chernin
Endeavor Content and Chernin Entertainment have teamed to develop scripted dramas for a global audience.
The two companies will leverage global market opportunity to collaborate with top-tier creative talent for premium content with international appeal. Chernin Entertainment will produce all projects under the agreement, while Endeavor Content will handle international sales and provide advisory services.
"This is a new, leaner studio model with state-of-the-art distribution focused on today’s evolving global marketplace. The partnership with Endeavor Content will allow us to dedicate the bulk of our capital to championing artists and their creative vision," Chernin Group CEO Peter Chernin said.
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This is the first partnership announced since Endeavor Content was formed. The organization united WME and IMG's scripted TV and film financing and sales groups.
"Peter Chernin’s track record speaks for itself. He is one of the most prolific content creators in our business, demonstrating time and again his ability to identify great stories that resonate with global audiences,” said Endeavor Content co-president Chris Rice. Added Endeavor Content co-president Graham Taylor: “We look forward to combining his creative expertise and Endeavor Content’s platform to bring high-end scripted drama series to life.”
Chernin Entertainment's TV division includes Fox's New Girl, among others. Jenno Topping serves as president of Chernin Entertainment, while Kristen Campo is exec vp TV at the company.
The deal arrives after Chernin's two-year TV partnership with NBCUniversal came to an end. Before that, Chernin had a long-term pact at 20th Century Fox Television, which resulted in New Girl.
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9:00am PT by Josh Wigler
'Stranger Things' Creators Go Inside Season 2's Heartbreaking Death
Courtesy of Netflix
[Spoilers: This story contains full spoilers for season two of Netflix's Stranger Things.]
Goonies never say die ... except when they do.
In the penultimate installment of the second season of Stranger Things, the life-threatening stakes facing the denizens of Hawkins, Indiana, finally make their full impact known, by killing off one of the beloved main characters — a newbie, sure, but beloved all the same: Bob Newby (Sean Astin). Newby is, in fact, the goodhearted and ultimately ill-fated boyfriend of Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder), and was savagely killed by a pack of demodogs in full view of Joyce, Sheriff Hopper (David Harbour) and even the young party of friends once again caught in the thick of battle against the Upside Down.
"That was a tough one," says Caleb McLaughlin, who plays Lucas Sinclair, on the subject of losing Astin from the show. "He was so desperate to survive. And when Winona [as Joyce] watches it happen and she's crying? It was a really good scene. I cried."
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"We all loved him," adds Noah Schnapp, who worked closely with Astin, thanks to Bob's role as a hopeful father figure to Will. "He was like a kid. He was hilarious. I remember we were all with Winona, protesting to keep him on set and not have him get killed off. He was the best! He did get a really good kill scene, so that's pretty good. When I was watching it, I liked those scenes where you don't expect it. When I was watching, as an audience, you really don't expect it. It comes out of nowhere."
According to creators the Duffer Brothers, it was always part of the plan to kill off Bob, even if some of the circumstances changed along the way — including the fact that Bob wasn't always the most likable character.
"He wasn't supposed to be that big of a character, and he was supposed to die a lot earlier," says Matt Duffer. "Then we found Sean Astin and met him and fell in love with this guy as a person and as an actor. We really started to fall in love with his character."
According to executive producer Shawn Levy, there was initially some reluctance in hiring Astin as Bob, since The Goonies was already such an influence on season two: "When Sean Astin read this role, it was so immediately compelling. He got the part because he's a rad actor, not because he's the guy from Goonies. If anything, that gave us pause because we knew people would assume it was due to that linkage, but it's just because he gave an incredible audition."
During the course of the season, the Duffers started falling for Astin's performance as the hapless Bob Newby, once the head of the Hawkins Middle School audio/visual club when he was a kid, known by Hopper and others behind his back as "Bob the Brain." In his scenes with Joyce, Bob was frequently tickled with surprise over ending up with her all these years later, considering the different lives they led when they were kids. That star-crossed backstory only makes it more upsetting when the Radio Shack employee is ripped into by demodogs, defenseless due to having left one of Hopper's firearms behind elsewhere in Hawkins Lab.
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"Bob wasn't designed to be the likable character who perishes; he was designed to be kind of just an out-of-it dork," says Matt Duffer, in terms of how Bob was written. "Sean Astin really transformed that role, to the point where we kept kicking his death down the road. We kept pushing it and pushing it until we could push it no further — when we got to episode eight and we realized narratively we still had to do it. It was the hardest scene to write all year, just because it was hard to lose that character and lose Sean. We had such a great time working with him."
Describing Bob's death as season two's "central heartbreaker," Levy thinks the fatal moment serves to fuel the stakes heading into the finale: "It's an example of really what I hope season two succeeds at — a big emotional idea, told in a really ambitious and cinematic way. That's really what we're going with always for this series. Both seasons have a slower burn from everyday life and a desire for normalcy devolving into crazy-ass stuff, forcing heroism among our characters. That was the arc of season one and that was the arc of season two. Bob's death in the last third of season two was always a big pivot point to be our ramp into the finale action."
Ironically enough, Bob dies shortly before justice for Barb (Shannon Purser) is finally achieved, thanks to Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton). Can we expect fans to take up arms with "Justice for Bob," heading into season three? The Duffers aren't so sure: "I don't think you can ever re-create whatever happened with Barb." Newby nation, I believe that's your cue.
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for all of our continuing season two coverage.
JOSH WIGLER
8:56am PT by Kate Stanhope
'Law & Order: SVU' Taps 'Big Love' and 'Kingdom' Alums for Special Episode (Exclusive)
Melora Walters (left), Joanna Going
Law & Order: SVU will be doing things a little differently in an upcoming episode.
The long-running NBC drama has tapped Big Love grad Melora Walters and Kingdom alum Joanna Going for an episode that breaks from the traditional Law & Order structure and instead plays as one long interview scene between Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and a woman who believes she was raped.
Walters plays the suspected victim, Laurel Linwood, who knows she was raped but can't remember what happened the night before. As the trauma recedes and details start to emerge, Benson uses every tactic she can think of to get the full story. Going will play Laurel's sister, Leah, who is brought in to help fill in the blanks.
Titled "Something Happened," the episode is set to air Wednesday, Nov. 8.
Walters, whose other credits include Cold Mountain, The Butterfly Effect and Dead Poets Society, is repped by Don Buchwald and Associates, Media Vision Artists, Shelter Entertainment Group and Jackoway Tyerman.
In addition to Kingdom, Going's credits include House of Cards and Mad Men. She is repped by AKA Talent and Vanguard Entertainment Group.
The duo join recent season 19 guest stars including Brooke Shields and Will Chase.
Law & Order: SVU airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
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House of Cards' Ending With Sixth and Final Season at Netflix
Reviewed by Martbiz.blospot.com
on
October 30, 2017
Rating: 5
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