Tag Archives: TNT

Christina Ochoa Developing Sci-Fi Series “Empty Earth” with Freeform Studios

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Christina Ochoa is running on empty…

The 37-year-old Spanish actress, science communicator and producer is developing the sci-fi series Empty Earth, based on the Rick McManus book series of the same name, with Freedom Studios.

Christina OchoaIn Empty Earth, climate change has forced humanity to a dystopian bargain: seek safety, or risk everything to find the answers. The book trilogy is post-apocalyptic adventure series, with an empowered female protagonist, wrapped in an epic of love, family, and survival with science at the forefront.

“Freedom is constantly searching for great stories, great people, and content that matters. We knew this book needed to be brought to life. We are thrilled to be in partnership with QE Productions; we believe this will become one of the most impactful shows on TV,” said Salazar.

“I would partner with Freedom on pretty much anything… but the fact that they brought us such an epic, sci-fi, adventure show made it a project we not only want as filmmakers – but one we need as audiences,” added Ochoa.

Executive producers include Julia Carias-Linares, Meiling Macias-Toro, and Johanna Salazar from Freedom Studios and Ochoa, Jessica Heath, and Karen Goro from QE Productions. Freedom Studios is leading the project.

Ochoa is notably recognized for her role as Renn Randall in John Well’s Animal Kingdom, which recently concluded its six-season run on TNT. Additionally, she starred in ABC’s Promised Land from Matt Lopez and Adam Kolbrenner.

Her additional credits include CW’s Valor, ABC’s A Million Little Things, and NBC’s Blood Drive. Her company QE Productions focuses on STEM-infused content.

Freedom Studios is an award-winning, Latina-owned media company focusing on thought-provoking projects with strong female leads, and social awareness.

Shakira Barrera to Star in Marvel Studios’ “Ironheart

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Shakira Barrera has ironed out her latest plans…

The Nicaraguan-American actress/dancer has joined the cast of Marvel Studios’ Ironheart as a series regular, according to Deadline.com.

Shakira BarreraThe six-episode series created by Chinaka Hodge will star Dominique Thorne as Marvel character Riri Williams, a genius inventor and creator of the most advanced suit of armor since Iron Man.

The previously announced members of the cast include Anthony Ramos, Manny Montana, Alden Ehrenreich, Regan Aliyah, Shea Couleé and Zoe Terakes.

Sam Bailey and Angela Barnes are directing, with Ryan Coogler’s Proximity among the production entities.

Coogler, Ironheart head writer Chinaka Hodge, Zinzi Coogler, and Sev Ohanian serve as executive producers alongside Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum and Zoie Nagelhout.

Barrera can currently be seen as a series regular in the Freevee series Sprung opposite Garrett Dillahunt and Martha Plimpton. She also recently wrapped a recurring arc in OWN’s legal drama All Rise as part of the show’s third season.

She’s notably known for her portrayal of lady wrestler Yolanda in GLOW and Lulu in It’s Bruno, both for Netflix.

Her other TV credits include TNT’s Animal Kingdom, Showtime’s Shameless, and USA Network’s Queen of the South.

On the film side, she appeared in Daniela Garcia’s short film Huella, The Collection opposite Alex Pettyfer, and The Knocking opposite Shiloh Fernandez.

Outside of acting, Barrera serves as a goodwill ambassador for organizations that specialize in humanitarian aid in Nicaragua.

Ariana DeBose Makes SAG Awards History with Best Supporting Actress Win for “West Side Story”

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Life’s a real SAG for Ariana DeBose…

The 31-year-old half-Puerto Rican actress/singer/dancer earned her first-ever SAG Award.

Ariana DeBoseDeBose won the Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture prize from the Screen Actors Guild for her scene-stealing turn in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story.

With the win, DeBose becomes the first openly queer woman of color to win an individual film SAG Award.

“I think it’s just indicative that the doors are opening,” DeBose said in the SAG Awards press room while talking with the media. “It’s an honor to be seen, it’s an honor to be an Afro-Latina—an openly queer woman of color, a dancer, a singer, and an actor. It’s indicative to me that I will not be the last, and that’s the important part. Whatever firsts are attached to my name, they are immensely special to me, but I’m focused on the fact that if I’m the first of anything that means I won’t be the last.”

DeBose, the latest Latina to portray Anita in West Side Story, also honored her predecessors, Rita Moreno and Chita Rivera for paving the way.

“The legacy of Anita means a great deal to me, for many different reasons,” she shared. “I’m a Broadway girl at heart. We speak so frequently about Rita Moreno, as we should, she’s legendary. But the OG Anita on stage is Chita Rivera, and I have looked up to Chita for such a long time. She [paved the] way for me on the stage for me to be able to do what I do in that facet of the industry. So, to be able to be a part of the legacy of Anita that includes both Chita and Rita—and now Ariana— it’s really special to me. And we’re all very different types of Latinas, that’s beautiful and important too. There’s no one way to be Latina or Hispanic. There are many beautiful ways. I think each one of us is a testament to that.”

Eugenio Derbez has earned his first career SAG Award…

The 60-year-old Mexican actor, comedian, and filmmaker was among the winners in the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for their work in CODA.

The Apple film is the first movie with a predominantly deaf cast to win the top prize at the awards honoring actors. Derbez is not hearing impaired.

In the television categories, Cristo Fernandez picked up his first-ever SAG Award…

The 31-year-old Mexican actor, and former professional footballer for the Estudiantes Tecos Club of the Liga Premier de México and his Ted Lasso cast mates took home the Comedy Ensemble trophy.

The SAG Awards aired live on TNT and TBS from The Barker Hanger in Santa Monica, with a red carpet, a maskless crowd and a full roster of A-listers part of the show.

Here’s the complete list of winners:

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
CODA
EUGENIO DERBEZ / Bernardo Villalobos
DANIEL DURANT / Leo Rossi
EMILIA JONES / Ruby Rossi
TROY KOTSUR / Frank Rossi
MARLEE MATLIN / Jackie Rossi
FERDIA WALSH-PEELO / Miles

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
WILL SMITH / Richard Williams
KING RICHARD

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
JESSICA CHASTAIN / Tammy Faye Bakker
THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series
MICHAEL KEATON / Dr. Samuel Finnix
DOPESICK

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series
KATE WINSLET / Mare Sheehan
MARE OF EASTTOWN

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
SUCCESSION
NICHOLAS BRAUN / Greg Hirsch
JULIANA CANFIELD / Jess Jordan
BRIAN COX / Logan Roy
KIERAN CULKIN / Roman Roy
DAGMARA DOMINCZYK / Karolina Novotney
PETER FRIEDMAN / Frank Vernon
JIHAE / Berry Schneider
JUSTINE LUPE / Willa
MATTHEW MACFADYEN / Tom Wambsgans
DASHA NEKRASOVA / Comfrey Pellits
SCOTT NICHOLSON / Colin
DAVID RASCHE / Karl Muller
ALAN RUCK / Connor Roy
J. SMITH-CAMERON / Gerri Kellman
SARAH SNOOK / Shiv Roy
FISHER STEVENS / Hugo Baker
JEREMY STRONG / Kendall Roy
ZOË WINTERS / Kerry Castellabate

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series
JUNG HO-YEON / Kang Sae-byeok
SQUID GAME

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
LEE JUNG-JAE / Seong Gi-hun
SQUID GAME

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
TED LASSO
ANNETTE BADLAND / Mae
KOLA BOKINNI / Isaac McAdoo
PHIL DUNSTER / Jamie Tartt
CRISTO FERNÁNDEZ / Dani Rojas
BRETT GOLDSTEIN / Roy Kent
BRENDAN HUNT / Coach Beard
TOHEEB JIMOH / Sam Obisanya
NICK MOHAMMED / Nathan Shelley
SARAH NILES / Dr. Sharon Fieldstone
JASON SUDEIKIS / Ted Lasso
JEREMY SWIFT / Leslie Higgins
JUNO TEMPLE / Keeley Jones
HANNAH WADDINGHAM / Rebecca Welton

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
JEAN SMART / Deborah Vance
HACKS

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series
JASON SUDEIKIS / Ted Lasso
TED LASSO

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
ARIANA DeBOSE / Anita
WEST SIDE STORY

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
TROY KOTSUR / Frank Rossi
CODA

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture
NO TIME TO DIE

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series
SQUID GAME

SAG Life Achievement Award
HELEN MIRREN

The CW Orders Six Additional Scripts of Robert Rodriguez’s Zorro Reboot Project with a Female Lead

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Robert Rodriguez’s Zorro television project with a female lead is one step closer to becoming reality.

The CW has ordered an additional six scripts for the long-gestating Zorro reboot from the 53-year-old Mexican American filmmaker/writer, bringing the script total to 7.

Robert RodriguezIn addition to Rodriguez, the CW’s gender-swapped reimagining of the classic masked vigilante character also hails from writer-director Rebecca Rodriguez, Sean Tretta (Mayans M.C.), Ben Silverman and Howard T. Owens’ Propagate and CBS Studios.

The CW has not specified what the next step would be for Zorro if the network brass are happy with the new scripts, but a straight-to-series order is likely.

This is a variation of the straight-to-series model, which the network has employed with a different degree of success over the past two years.

The CW’s Zorro is a new incarnation of the project, which was in development at NBC during the 2020-21 cycle, with Tretta as a new addition to the brother-and-sister writing team of Robert and Rebecca Rodriguez.

Co-penned by the trio and to be directed by Rebecca Rodriguez, in Zorro, a young Latinx woman seeking vengeance for her father’s murder joins a secret society and adopts the outlaw persona of Zorro. The story by Robert and Rebecca Rodriguez was already in place when Tretta, who has an overall deal at CBS Studios, came on board earlier this cycle to write the script.

Tretta, who also will serve as showrunner, and Robert and Rebecca Rodriguez will executive produce with Silverman, Owens and Rodney Ferrell for Propagate.

Propagate originally set out to develop a Zorro TV series with a female lead in 2019 as one of the company’s first projects under its first-look deal with CBS Studios. The idea’s first incarnation, written by Alfredo Barrios Jr., was set up at NBC, as was the 2020-21 version with Robert and Rebecca Rodriguez, which also had Sofia Vergara attached as an executive producer. She is no longer involved in the project.

Robert Rodriguez was attached to direct The Mask of Zorro and cast Antonio Banderas as the title role before leaving the feature project.

In TV, he currently serves as an executive producer-director on Disney+’s The Book of Boba Fett. He previously developed and executive produced the series adaptation of his movie From Dusk Till Dawn for his television network El Rey and also executive produced the Spy Kids animated series offshoot for Netflix. He recently directed an episode of Disney+’s The Mandalorian.

Rebecca Rodriguez’s recent directing credits include episodes of HBO Max’s Doom Patrol, NBC’s Debris, TNT’s Snowpiercer and Showtime’s The Chi.

Rosario Dawson to Help Reveal This Year’s SAG Awards Nominations

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Rosario Dawson is helping with a big reveal…

The 42-year-old Puerto Rican and Cuban American actress and activist will team up with Vanessa Hudgens to announce this year’s SAG Awards nominations on Wednesday, January 12, at 10:00 am ET/7 am PT via Instagram Live.

Rosario DawsonThis marks the second consecutive year the SAG nominations will be announced via Instagram Live as part of the @sagawards’ Instagram Stories.

With the Golden Globes mired in a diversity scandal, resulting in a non-telecast of the awards show on NBC, the SAG Awards this year reps the first big awards show to honor the best of actors and actresses in television and film for 2021.

SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher will give an introduction before the SAG nominations are revealed.

Nominations for the Outstanding Action Performances by Television and Film ensembles will follow, with announcements made by SAG Awards Committee members Jason George and Elizabeth McLaughlin.

The 28th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will be simulcast live on TNT and TBS on Sunday, February 27, 2022 at 8:00 pm ET / 5:00 pm PT from The Barker Hangar in Santa Monica.

Dawson recently starred in the Hulu series Dopesick, and stars next in the Disney+/Lucasfilm series Ahsoka as Ahsoka Tano and the HBO Max/DC series DMZ. 

She’s filming Disney’s new Haunted Mansion movie with Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, LaKeith Stanfield and Danny DeVito.

Her feature credits include Harmony Korine’s Kids, Spike Lee’s He Got Game and The 25th Hour, as well as Alexander, Rent, Clerks II, Top Five, Trance, Unstoppable and Men in Black II, as well as the Sin City franchise.

For her performance in Seven Pounds, she won Best Actress in a Motion Picture Award at the 2009 NAACP Image Awards.

TNT Moves Up Premiere of Fourth & Final Season of Judy Reyes’ “Claws” By a Week

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Judy Reyes’ claws will be coming out earlier than expected…

 TNT has moved up the premiere date of the fourth and final season of Claws, starring the 54-year-old Dominican American actress.

Judy Reyes, ClawsThe final season will now kick off with a two-hour premiere on Sunday, December 19 at 9:00 pm, the network has announced. \

It was previously scheduled a week later, on Sunday, December 26.

The dark comedy follows Niecy Nash-Betts’ Desna Simms, who, alongside her crew of manicurists from the Nail Artisans of Manatee County salon, rises to power in the crime world to claim her share of cash and respect.

Co-stars include Reyes, Carrie Preston, Karrueche Tran, Jenn Lyon, Kevin Rankin, Jason Antoon, Harold Perrineau and Dean Norris.

“Over the seasons the friendships have deepened and the character of Polly has deepened thanks to the support of the women around her that helped her through some tough times and brought her to a stronger place,” Preston said of her character. “She has more confidence. She’s still going to con her way through things but at least she’s got the support of her friends.”

Tran, who plays Virginia in the series, looks back at far how her character has come and what she’s facing as the show prepares for its last hurrah.

“Virginia started off as a stripper, and the main thing about her has been her growth and her maturity,” Tran shared. “Towards the end of the season, she starts to get into the business side of things and really starts to become a grown-up. All while seeing all these layers pulled back and you’ll learn more about who she is and where she’s from. She’s also still looking for love but also finding the love within herself.”

Tran was also trying not to give away too much about Virginia’s special abilities, but she revealed a little teaser regarding what’s ahead.

“I don’t want to spoil it, but this is something we had a conversation about with the writers,” she said. “I will say it’s something that I really wanted to keep. … You’re going to have to watch Season 4.”

Jennifer Lyon also looked back on how her character Jen has come since the series premiere and where she’s headed now.

“For Jen, in the beginning, she was so ‘ride or die,’ and as the series progressed, she realized that riding or dying shouldn’t be the only two choices,” Lyon shared. “Is there something in the middle where I could live a life with my family safe, stay sober, love my girlfriends? Her journey of, ‘Can I be a saint in the city?’ continues to progress and at the end of the season you get the answer to that.”

Reyes celebrates Quiet Ann’s progress and laments her struggles.

“Quiet Ann started as the muscle and security for the group, she was just happy to be around and have an opportunity to take care of and learn from these women,” Reyes said. “And she was quiet, all of this has changed and progressed as the series has gone along. She’s found love and lost love and the bond that she had with the women was severed by the conflicts with Desna. I think we’ll see what the result of her having lost the love of her life.”

Claws is executive produced by Janine Sherman Barrois, Rashida Jones, Will McCormack, series creator Eliot Laurence, and showrunners Sharon Lee Watson and Emily Silver.

The series is produced for TNT by Jones and McCormack’s Le Train Train in association with Warner Bros. Television.

Maximiliano Hernandez to Star in Fox’s Sci-Fi Mystery Pilot “The Last Police”

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Maximiliano Hernandez is joining the force…

The 48-year-old Honduran American actor will star in the Fox pilot The Last Police, an adaptation of Ben Winters’ sci-fi mystery novel The Last Policeman.

Maximiliano Hernandez

Hernandez will serve as a series regular alongside Dawnn Lewis, Derek Phillips, Courtney Dietz and Troy Kotsur, as well as series leads Blu Hunt and Reno Wilson.

In The Last Police, as an asteroid races toward an apocalyptic collision with Earth, a small-town police detective (Hunt) believes she’s been chosen to save humanity, while her cynical partner (Wilson) can’t decide what he’ll enjoy more: her delusional failure, or the end of the world itself.

Hunt plays Detective MacKenzie Ward. She’s a sharp young police detective who as our story begins has decided to end her life on her own terms rather than wait for the Earth’s annihilation in its impending collision with an asteroid. When her suicide attempt fails, she attributes her survival to being chosen for a special purpose, and going forward she’s a relentless ambassador for optimism and hope in a world with an ever-shorter supply of both.

Wilson portrays Detective David Duran. He’s a drinking, smoking, unshaven wreck with a badge who, following a devastating personal tragedy unrelated to the asteroid, views the rest of his days alive as a penance and openly embraces the prospect of the world’s end. When they’re partnered in the pilot, he’s amused by what he considers Mackenzie’s delusions of grandeur, and her positivity only stokes his cynical fatalism.

Hernandez will portray Detective Alvaro Diaz. A former minor-league ballplayer from Cuba who segued to law enforcement when he first became a father, Diaz was a contented family man before news of the asteroid hit. Since that revelation he’s become a mess, openly weeping at his desk and distracted by savoring every moment he has left with the wife and children he loves more than anything.

Fox Entertainment and 20th Century Fox Television will produce.

Hernandez’s television credits include TNT’s The Last Ship, FX’s The Americans, Audience Network’s Mr. Mercedes and Amazon’s Hand of God and features such as Sicario, Avengers: Endgame and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

He will soon be seen recurring in CBS’ SEAL Team.

Showtime Picks Up “Let the Right One In” Vampire Drama Starring Demian Bichir

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Demián Bichir’s latest project is on the Right track…

Showtime has picked up to series the Let the Right One In, starring the 58-year-old Mexican Oscar-nominated actor, completing the vampire drama’s long journey to the small screen.

Demián Bichir

The project, which also stars Anika Noni Rose, Grace Gummer, Madison Taylor Baez, Kevin Carroll, Ian Foreman and Jacob Buster, hails from Andrew Hinderaker, who wrote the pilot and serves as showrunner; Seith Mann, who directed the pilot and will also direct additional episodes; and Tomorrow Studios, which has been the driver behind the drama in its various incarnations for about seven years.

Inspired by the bestselling 2004 novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist and its 2008 Swedish film adaptation, the series is described as an exploration of human frailty, strength and compassion through an elevated genre lens. It centers on Mark (Bichir) and his daughter Eleanor (Baez), whose lives were changed forever 10 years earlier when she was turned into a vampire. Locked in at age 12, perhaps forever, Eleanor lives a closed-in life, able to go out only at night, while her father does his best to provide her with the human blood she needs to stay alive.

The series, which has received a 10-episode order and will go into production in New York City in early 2022, is executive produced by Hinderaker, Mann, and Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements for Tomorrow Studios, a partnership between Adelstein and ITV Studios.

Alissa Bachner serves as co-executive producer, and Bichir is a producer.

Let the Right One In originally was developed by Tomorrow Studios and set up at A&E and A+E Studios in 2015. A year later, it moved to TNT, where a pilot was ordered and cast but did not go to production. That version was closer to the original source material and was described as an eerie drama about a young boy, long tormented by his classmates, who finds solace in a friendship with a charismatic female vampire who appears to be near his age. Tomorrow Studios shopped the project and it ultimately landed at Showtime for redevelopment with a new writer, resulting in the incarnation that went to series.

David DeSantos to Appear on Fifth Season of CBS’ “S.W.A.T.”

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David DeSantos is joining the team…

The 46-year-old Latino actor has landed a recurring role on the upcoming fifth season of CBS’ S.W.A.T.

David DeSantos

DeSantos will play Rodrigo Sanchez, a 20-year LAPD veteran and former SWAT member.

Sanchez is a gregarious, confident, and savvy political climber who left SWAT in pursuit of loftier jobs within the LAPD.

S.W.A.T. stars Shemar Moore as a former Marine and locally born-and-raised SWAT sergeant who is tasked with running a specialized tactical unit that is the last stop in law enforcement in Los Angeles.

DeSantos can be seen recurring on Season 3 of the CW’s Roswell, New Mexico, as well as on TNT’s Animal Kingdom.

On the film side, he recently appeared opposite Edward James Olmos and Richard Cabral in Windows on the World.

Grasie Mercedes to Star on NBC’s “Grand Crew”

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It’s a Grand opportunity for Grasie Mercedes.

The 43-year-old Afro-Latina actress has joined the cast of NBC’s Grand Crew as a series regular.

Grasie Mercedes

The comedy, from Phil Augusta Jackson and Dan Goor, follows a group of young L.A. professionals navigating the ups and downs of life and love. When they’re ready to unpack it all, they meet at their favorite local bar for a “wine down.”

Mercedes will portray Fay, a recently divorced transplant to Los Angeles who becomes fast friends with the regulars at Eastside Cru.

Jackson will write and executive produce. Mo Marable will direct and co-executive produce the pilot. Goor will executive produce.

Previously announced cast members include Nicole Byer, Justin Cunningham, Aaron Jennings, Echo Kellum and Carl Tart.

Mercedes most recently served as a staff writer on NBC’s Perfect Harmony. Her acting credits include roles in Fox’s 9-1-1, Freeform’s Good Trouble, TNT’s Southland, HBO’s The Affair and CBS’ Criminal Minds.