Tag Archives: Taika Waititi

Quibi to Stream All-Star Remake of “The Princess Bride” Featuring Jenna Ortega

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It’s a royal moment for Jenna Ortega…

Starting Monday, Quibi will stream an all-star remake of The Princess Bride filmed by actors at home while in quarantine, including the 17-year-old Puerto Rican and Mexican American actress.

Jenna Ortega

In addition to Ortega, the re-creation will feature an A-list cast that includes couples Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner,Common and Tiffany Haddish, Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka and Chris Pine and Annabelle Wallis, along with Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Garner, Elijah Wood, Jon Hamm, Beanie Feldstein, Lucas Hedges, Jack Black, David Oyelowo, Keegan-Michael Key, Patton Oswalt, Josh Gad, Andy Serkis, Diego Luna, Taika Waititi and Zazie Beetz and more.

Directed by Jason Reitman, the project will see Common playing the heroic Westley (originated by Cary Elwes), Haddish as Princess Buttercup (first played by Robin Wright), and Jackman as the villainous Humperdinck, to name a few.

The Princess Bride’s director, Rob Reiner, will also appear in the remake, along with Fred Savage, who reprises his role as the grandson in the film.

Beginning June 29, Quibi will release chapters of the made-at-home movie daily for two weeks.

The remake also is aiding a good cause. As part of the project, Quibi has donated $1 million to chef José Andrés’ charity World Central Kitchen, which provides meals to those who have been most affected by the coronaviruspandemic.

The remake of The Princess Bridewas first reported by Vanity Fair.

FX Renews Harvey Guillén’s “What We Do In The Shadows” for a Third Season

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Harvey Guillén will be seeing his shadow(s) for longer…

FX has ordered a third season of What We Do In The Shadows, starringthe 30-year-old Latino actor, producer and writer.

Harvey Guillen

The cable network ordered a third run of the show ahead of the  June 10 finale of its second season. FX said that the second season, which is averaging 3.2M total viewers across linear and digital platforms, including FX on Hulu, through its first six episodes, was up 25% on season one.

In addition to Guillen, the mockumentary series, which is based on Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi’s 2014 feature film, stars Matt Berry, Kayvan Novak, Natasia Demetriou and Mark Proksch.

It follows the lives of four vampires who’ve “lived” together for hundreds of years in the New York borough of Staten Island.

This group includes Nandor The Relentless (Novak), a great warrior and conqueror from the Ottoman Empire, British vampire Laszlo (Berry), a bit of a rogue and a dandy and a fop and Nadja (Demetriou), his lover, a wise seductress. Then there’s Guillermo (Guillén), Nandor’s familiar, who wants nothing more than to be made a real vampire just like his master, Colin Robinson (Proksch), an energy vampire and day-walker of sorts – he feasts on humans, but not on their blood.

The second season also featured a guest spot from Star Wars’ Mark Hamill as a vampire searching for Laszlo, who owed him money.

“We’re incredibly happy that critics and audiences are all in on Shadows,”Nick Grad, President, Original Programming, FX Entertainment said. “Week in and week out, the producers, writers and our amazing cast continue to make one of the funniest and best comedy series on TV.”

Guillen previously appeared on television in Huge, Eye Candy, The Magicians and The Good Place.

Pedro Pascal to Star in Disney+’s Live-Action Star Wars Series “The Mandalorian”

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May the Force be with Pedro Pascal…

The 43-year-old Chilean actor is joining the Jedi universe, portraying the title character in The Mandalorian, the live-action Star Wars series that will be a flagship program for Disney+, the ambitious streaming service launching in 2019.

Pedro Pascal

Pascal is in final negotiations to star in the series, which chronicles the lone-wolf odyssey of a character who hails from the planet Mandalore, which Star Wars fans know as the homeworld of the notorious bounty hunter Boba Fett and Jango Fett.

Pascal memorably portrayed the passionate warrior Oberyn Martell, aka the Red Viper, on the fourth season of the HBO series Game of Thrones. He also played DEA agent Javier Peña on three seasons of Narcos, when the Netflix series centered on the cocaine cartels of Colombia. Pascal also played Agent Whiskey in the Foxfeature film Kingsmen: The Golden Circle in 2017.

The Mandalorian is written and executive produced by Jon Favreau, the director of Jungle Book, Iron Man as well as the upcoming reinterpretation of The Lion King. Favreau’s official description of the show: “After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.”

The events depicted in the series are set after the events of Return of the Jedi, which concluded with the fiery funeral of Darth Vader on the forest moon of Endor.

The first episode of the series will be directed by Dave Filoni (Star Wars: The Clone Wars). Also on board to direct early episodes are Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok), Rick Famuyiwa (Dope), Deborah Chow (Jessica Jones) and actress Bryce Dallas Howard, whose previous directorial work has been limited to short films.