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First Look Media has promoted Maria Zuckerman to President of Topic Studios. She will continue to report to the company’s CEO Michael Bloom.

Zuckerman will continue to lead the Studio’s creative vision and overall strategy, including development, financing, and production across feature films, documentaries, television, and podcasts. She joined the Studio in May of 2019 as EVP & Head of Topic Studios.

During her tenure, Topic Studios has expanded with a broad range of award-winning film projects, as well as ramping up their TV division and full-service podcast studio. In addition, the Topic Studios has brought in world-class creators such as Pablo Larraín, Destin Daniel Cretton, Awkwafina, Kevin Macdonald, Chris Smith, Nikyatu Jusu, Adam Leon and Toni Collette.

Zuckerman’s promotion comes just weeks after Topic Studios, along with its partners The Intercept and the Invisible Institute, were lauded as a Pulitzer Prize finalist for the podcast Somebody, and the...

The third season of Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” centered on June’s (Elisabeth Moss) quest to plant the seeds of resistance against Gilead, but before she manages to smuggle hundreds of children into Canada, it’s Alexis Bledel’s Emily who escapes Gilead first. For this role, Bledel won the Best Drama Guest Actress Emmy in 2017 and bagged a supporting nomination the following year. Second in our odds, the actress is now back in the guest actress category and poised to scoop up her third career bid.

Bledel appeared in five of the third season’s 13 episodes: “Night” (3.01), “Mary and Martha” (3.02), “God Bless the Child” (3.04), “Under His Eye” (3.07) and “Mayday” (3.13). The first one sees Emily and baby Nichole cross into Canada, where they are granted asylum. Although there is, of course, a sense of relief to their successful escape, it isn’t all sunshine and roses for Emily, who,...

After competing as a supporting actor for the first two seasons of Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” at the Emmys, O-t Fagbenle has now ventured into the drama guest actor category for the third installment, where he vies for his maiden career nomination. On the show, he plays June’s (Elisabeth Moss) husband Luke Bankole, who was separated from his wife and daughter Hannah (Jordana Blake) before they were captured, but managed to cross the northern border into Canada early on. Will Fagbenle finally be sent good weather by Emmy voters?

Having appeared in six of the third season’s 13 episodes — “Night” (3.01), “Mary and Martha” (3.02), “God Bless the Child” (3.04), “Unknown Caller” (3.05), “Sacrifice” (3.12) and “Mayday” (3.13) — the actor just barely managed eligibility in the guest actor category, but could now greatly benefit from his character having substantial screen time as well as a fully fleshed-out arc. The season starts out with Luke...

“Praise be” to great guest stars! Amazingly, “The Handmaid’s Tale” has gone three-for-three at the Emmys in Best Drama Guest Actress, winning for Alexis Bledel (2017), Samira Wiley (2018) and Cherry Jones (2019). A fourth triumph would tie Hulu’s post-apocalyptic series with “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” which won a record four years in a row for Leslie Caron (2007), Cynthia Nixon (2008), Ellen Burstyn (2009) and Ann-Margret (2010), not counting its first category trophy for Amanda Plummer (2005). Can “Handmaid’s” keep up its wild winning streak this year with standout guest stars Julie Dretzin or Clea Duvall?

Dretzin plays Eleanor Lawrence, the unstable wife of Joseph (Bradley Whitford). She appeared in 6/13 episodes in Season 3, which means she just made the “less than 50%” cutoff required for guest star eligibility. The recognizable character actress has yet to be nominated for a major industry award, despite regularly working in Hollywood for three decades.

SEEEmmys 2020 predictions slugfest: ‘Ozark,...

At last year’s Creative Arts Emmys, Cherry Jones won Best Drama Guest Actress for her role on “The Handmaid’s Tale,” making it three in a row for Hulu’s post-apocalyptic series after Alexis Bledel (2017) and Samira Wiley (2018). One more consecutive victory in this category would tie “Handmaid’s” with “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” NBC’s long-running procedural drama that won a record four years in succession for Leslie Caron (2007), Cynthia Nixon (2008), Ellen Burstyn (2009) and Ann-Margret (2010). “Svu” took home an additional guest actress trophy, though not consecutively, for Amanda Plummer (2005).

The only other series to come close to matching “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Law & Order: Svu” in Best Drama Guest Actress is “The Practice.” ABC’s legal drama prevailed for Beah Richards (2000), Alfre Woodard (2003) and Sharon Stone (2004), though again, those three were not all in a row. Do you think “Handmaid’s” will triumph in this category at the upcoming 2020 Emmys?...

Louisa Mellor Jun 24, 2019

The Lawrence mystery continues to throw up fascinating questions in The Handmaid’s Tale season 3. Spoilers ahead...

This The Handmaid's Tale review contains spoilers. We have a spoiler free review of the season here.

The Handmaid's Tale Season 3 Episode 3

June Osborne never used to be an activist. Pre-Gilead, she led a bourgeois life: college, marriage to a man, a nice apartment, a job in publishing. To her firebrand mother’s disappointment, June didn’t protest or organize. She sleepwalked into Gilead, not realizing that her freedom was something that could be taken away until it had already gone.

Post-Gilead, June is an agent of the resistance. It took considerably more than the usual undergrad module or Crass LP to kick-start her political activism, but it happened, and season three is all about watching that activism at work.

This episode, in which June was visited by three ghosts of Gilead past – Fred,...

Image Source: Hulu

With the first three episodes of season three of The Handmaid's Tale now live on Hulu, we get a little more insight into what the future might hold for Emily's (aka Ofglen's aka Ofsteven aka Ofjoseph's) future in Canada. The very end of the new season's second episode, "Mary and Martha," teases an emotional reunion between Emily (played by Alexis Bledel) and her wife, Sylvia.

As we found out in season two during an episode devoted to Emily's backstory, the character used to be a microbiology professor who was married to a woman named Sylvia. The couple had a child together, a little boy named Oliver. Even though Emily was a talented young professor living and working in Boston, it didn't save her from the impending invasion of Gilead. We don't get to learn too much about her wife's life, but we do learn that Sylvia has...

Topic Studios has hired veteran HBO executive Maria Zuckerman as executive vice president to lead overall strategy including development, financing and production of films, documentaries, TV, podcasts and digital programming.

Zuckerman worked for nearly 20 years at HBO, where she most recently served as senior VP of HBO Films. She oversaw production of more than 30 titles during her tenure, resulting in 17 Emmy Awards. In 2015, Variety named Zuckerman one of Hollywood’s New Leaders in Television.

“Maria is a super smart, creative executive who filmmakers and talent love to work with,” said Michael Bloom, CEO of First Look Media & Topic. “Combined with her extensive experience at HBO and her impressive background working with established and new voices, we knew she had the right sensibility for us.”

Notable films shepherded by Zuckerman include “Bessie,” starring Queen Latifah and directed by Dee Rees, which won four Emmys; Stephen Frears’ “Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight...

He's hot, he's sexy and he's infallible – meet the new Pope. Jude Law is brilliantly ridiculous in HBO's superb The Young Pope, taking over the Vatican as the megalomaniac Pius the Thirteenth. He's the first American-born pontiff, a Brooklyn guy named Lenny Belardo. The College of Cardinals selects him on a whim; they figure he'll be naïve, photogenic, easy to control. They're wrong.

Law's Pope Pius turns out to be a ruthless fanatic who talks like a mob boss, scoffing, "Courtesy and good manners are not the business of men of God.

Production company launches with investment from BBC Worldwide and Access Entertainment.

Former Film4 head Tessa Ross and ex-Working Title TV chief Juliette Howell have joined forces to launch TV and film production company, House Productions.

The independent outfit launches in partnership with international distributor BBC Worldwide and Access Entertainment – a division of Access Industries, the media, industrial and technology group owned by Us industrialist Len Blavatnik.

House Productions will be based in London with Ross and Howell as joint CEOs, and will collaborate with talent with whom they have previously worked as well as striking up new relationships.

Announcing the new company, Ross said: “Juliette and I are truly excited about what we can achieve together, and with our partners at BBC Worldwide and Access Entertainment.

“We’re going to build a creative and supportive home at House Productions and look forward to growing something unique and long lasting with both new and old collaborators.

Howell added:...

Things have been pretty quiet lately for two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank. The actress hit a particularly bad streak of movies a few years back — “Amelia,” “Conviction,” “The Resident,” “New Year’s Eve,” “Mary and Martha” — which either didn’t connect with critics or audiences or both. And when she did find great material, like […]

The post Hilary Swank Joins The Gang In Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Logan Lucky’ appeared first on The Playlist.

The first wave of HBO content has landed on Amazon Prime. Subscribers can now stream dozens of HBO titles including The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Rome, Six Feet Under, Eastbound & Down, Enlightened, Flight Of The Conchords, and others. The content is available via an exclusive licensing agreement that HBO and Amazon negotiated last month. Under the multi-year pact, more content will be added in the future, including new seasons of current series as well as early seasons of other current shows such as Girls, The Newsroom and Veep. Other offerings include miniseries such as Band Of Brothers, The Pacific and John Adams, original movies Mary And Martha, Temple Grandin and You Don’t Know Jack, comedy specials from Louis Ck, Ellen DeGeneres, Lewis Black and Bill Maher and documentaries such as When The Levees Broke, Ghosts Of Abu Ghraib and the Autopsy and Iceman series.

Working Title Films’ Theory Of Everything will be released domestically by Focus Features in exclusive engagements beginning Friday, November 7th, 2014. Focus CEO Peter Schlessel made the announcement today.

Academy Award winner James Marsh (Man on Wire) helms the romantic drama starring Eddie Redmayne (of Working Title’s blockbuster Les Misérables) as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, world-famous as the author of A Brief History of Time, opposite Gotham Independent Film Award winner Felicity Jones (Like Crazy).

The movie explores the excitement of the 1960s for Stephen as he studies at Cambridge University. At the dawn of a brilliant life’s work, he falls passionately in love with arts student Jane Wilde. Their relationship leads him through personal and scientific challenges and breakthroughs, and as his world opens up he opens up the entire world to new ways of seeing.

Jane’s memoir Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen inspired the...

Working Title’s romantic drama Theory of Everything starring Eddie Redmayne as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking has been given a Nov. 7 exclusive engagements domestic release date by Focus Features, CEO Peter Schlessel announced today. Academy Award winner James Marsh (Man on Wire) helms the film, which explores the excitement of the 1960s for Hawking as he studies at Cambridge University. At the dawn of his brilliant life’s work, Hawking falls passionately in love with arts student Jane Wilde and their relationship leads him through personal and scientific challenges and breakthroughs. The film is inspired by Wilde’s memoir, Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen with the screenplay written by Anthony McCarten, who is the producer on the film with Lisa Bruce (producer of Working Title’s Mary and Martha) and Working Title co-chairs Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner. Redmayne (Les Misérables) will play opposite Felicity Jones (Like Crazy) in the lead roles.

What’s new, what’s hot, and what you may have missed, now available to stream on Netflix and Amazon Instant Video.

streaming now, while it’s still in theaters

The Colony: a small-scale science-fiction horror story full of big, troubling ideas about what a new Dark Ages might look like [my review] [at Amazon Instant Video]

streaming now, before it’s on dvd

Much Ado About Nothing: pure cinematic joy from Joss Whedon and Co.; a smart, snappy adaptation of perhaps Shakespeare’s funniest play, performed by supremely talented people having an enormous amount of infectious fun [my review] [at Amazon Instant Video] The Purge: mixes science fiction speculation with familiar horror tropes to create a startling satire on America’s culture of violence [my review] [at Amazon Instant Video] This Is the End: hugely funny jape in which the entire cast is having a ball making fun of themselves and the incongruity of the endless celebration that is L.A. facing the apocalypse [my review] [at Amazon Instant Video]

because...

Sometimes, it takes a familiar face to put a face on a problem ... even one that is international in scope.

Two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank is no stranger to championing social causes, and she takes up another as she and "My Left Foot" Oscar nominee Brenda Blethyn play the title roles in the HBO drama movie "Mary and Martha" Saturday, April 20. Written by Richard Curtis ("Love Actually," "Four Weddings and a Funeral") and filmed largely in South Africa, the BBC and NBC Universal co-production tells the story of two very different women who unite to crusade against malaria after both lose sons to the illness.

Mary (Swank) is an American who takes her child (Lux Haney-Jardine, "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter") away from bullying classmates for an "adventure" abroad, and Martha (Blethyn) is an Englishwoman whose son (Sam Claflin, "Snow White and the Huntsman") volunteers at an African orphanage. After both...

Update: A new teaser trailer has landed for Australian director Phillip Noyce's "Mary and Martha," starring Hilary Swank and Brenda Blethyn as mothers who form a bond over the loss of their sons to malaria. Watch below. The film premieres on HBO on April 20. Earlier: "Mary and Martha" has begun shooting in South Africa and North Carolina, with director Phillip Noyce and stars Hilary Swank ("Boys Don't Cry," "Million Dollar Baby") and Brenda Blethyn ("Secrets & Lies," "Pride & Prejudice"). Based on Richard Curtis' screenplay, the film is an HBO Films/Working Title production. A detailed synopsis is below. Joining Swank and Blethyn are James Woods, Frank Grillo, Ian Redford and Stephanie Faracy. HBO Films' Len Amato says they were "especially attracted to Richard Curtis’ approach to the story – bringing a human touch to this serious and often overlooked issue about a disease that is preventable and can be eradicated.

Oh hey, Hilary Swank, remember her? The two-time Oscar winner, who hasn't really made a decent movie since "Million Dollar Baby" (though if we're being charitable, "Conviction" wasn't awful, just forgettable -- bet you didn't even remember that one) heads to HBO for her next effort, which looks like a definite improvement over her last few movies. Directed by Phillip Noyce ("Salt," "Rabbit-Proof Fence") and penned by Richard Curtis ("Love Actually," "War Horse"), "Mary And Martha" certainly has its bonafides, telling the story of two women who emerge from a traumatic family tragedy to form a unique bond while fighting for the eradication of malaria. So yes, it all looks Very Important, with some heroic people doing life-saving things. But this is also the kind of material could veer into the wrong kind of tone very quickly, but as long as Blethyn is in it, we have some faith it could possibly deliver.