Bill Abbott’s Great American Community To Launch With 15 Short-Form Series

BBC Breakfast icon Bill Turnbull kept a secret for his co-presenter Sian Williams for over 25 years, she has now revealed. Bill, who passed away aged 66 on Wednesday, acted as a listening ear for Sian when she suffered an accident in the '90s and asked him to keep it to himself.

Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. Col. Sanders and Bill Gates both had business failures early in their career. Joe Biden had several presidential runs derail.

Carson Burton Amiah Miller and Bill Heck are rounding out the cast of Searchlight Pictures’ upcoming horror thriller film “Dust.” The film stars Sarah Paulson of “American Horror Story,” Annaleigh Ashford and Ebon Moss-Bachrach in a story set in 1930s Oklahoma. It follows a woman who, during the region’s increasingly perilous dust storms, is convinced that a sinister presence is threatening her family. The film is directed by Will Joines and Karrie Crouse, and Crouse penned the script. “Dust” commenced principal photography this week in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Miller previously starred as Nova in the 2017 film from 20th Century Studios “War for the Planet of the Apes” alongside Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson and Steve Zahn. In 2020, she was also seen in David Oyelowo’s feature directorial debut “The Water Man.”

BBC Breakfast host Bill Turnbull has passed away at the age of 66. His family released a statement with the sad news saying that his death came after the presenter’s battle with prostate cancer which he was diagnosed with five years ago.They wrote: “Following a challenging and committed fight against prostate cancer, Bill passed away peacefully at his home in Suffolk surrounded by his family on Wednesday, 31st August”.They continued: “Bill was diagnosed in 2017 and has had outstanding medical care from the Royal Marsden and Ipswich Hospitals, St Elizabeth Hospice and his GP.” Bill became a beloved voice of morning television when he landed his role at BBC Breakfast.The presenter first appeared on the show in 2001 as a weekend host and while he regularly appeared on the weekday version of the show, it wasn’t until 2008 that he became the main weekday presenter. However Bill had actually started his career on radio in 1978 and became a regular on USA radio while corresponding from the region for the BBC.

Manori Ravindran International Editor Don DeLillo’s debut novel, “Americana,” is set to be adapted 51 years after it was first published. “White Noise” producer Uri Singer (“Tesla,” “The King of Oil”) has bought the rights to the 1971 novel, continuing his streak of adapting a string of DeLillo works that have been deemed “unadaptable.” “Americana” tells the story of David Bell, an out-of-touch television executive who sets off on a road trip with his female colleague, Sullivan, to make an avant-garde film. The book explores the intricacies of corporate culture and examines how we create realities, whether they are true or not.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Travis Fimmel (“Vikings,” “Warcraft”), Simon Baker (“The Mentalist,” “Breath”) and Phoebe Tonkin head the adult cast of “Boy Swallows Universe,” an Australia-set fantasy-drama series. Production has now begun in Brisbane, Queensland. The eight-part limited series is an adaptation of Trent Dalton’s international best-selling novel “Boy Swallows Universe” and is being produced by Brouhaha Entertainment, together with Anonymous Content and Chapter One, for streaming platform Netflix. “Boy Swallows Universe” follows working-class Brisbane teenager Eli Bell in a whirlwind story about drug addiction, ex-cons, poverty, violence and the discovery of hope through the power of love. Dalton has pitched the story as involving “a boy who receives a message on a red rotary dial phone in a secret underground room that tells him he must bust into Brisbane’s notorious Boggo Road Prison to save his mum’s life on Christmas Day.”

As new Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences CEO Bill Kramer continues his inaugural outreach tour, he stopped in Venice today to discuss AMPAS’ relationship with global cinema and declared, “I think our future is with international cinema as much as with American cinema.”

Manori Ravindran International Editor Bill Kramer, the newly appointed CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, kicked off his charm offensive with the international film community at the Venice Film Festival, telling a small audience of journalists that the Academy’s “future is with international cinema as much as it is with American cinema.” Kramer — who is in Italy this week and will also be at Telluride — is keen to demonstrate the Academy’s support of its international contingent, which makes up more than 25% of its overall membership. Kramer said that international members comprised 50% of the latest class of new Academy members. Kramer, who was interview by Variety’s Rome-based international correspondent Nick Vivarelli, suggested the org is looking to “educate” and “encourage” its international members to submit to more Oscar categories apart from best international feature film, and cited the multi-category success of films such as “Worst Person in the World” and “Drive My Car” in the recent Oscar season.

EXCLUSIVE: Bill Camp (The Queen’s Gambit) will reunite once again with his American Rust and The Looming Tower co-star Jeff Daniels in A Man in Full, Netflix’s six-episode limited series from David E. Kelley and Regina King based on Tom Wolfe’s 1998 novel.

The Hill.The bill would also prohibit medical schools and colleges from providing instruction on gender-affirming care and bar doctors who have provided gender-affirming care to a minor from receiving visas or being admitted to the United States.“When it comes to ‘gender-affirming care,’ which is really child abuse, this is actually an assault and it’s child abuse,” Greene said during a Thursday evening appearance on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight.“This practice should never happen,” Greene said. “It’s so disgusting and appalling…this needs to be illegal.”Greene’s bill is similar to bills passed in a handful of states, including Arkansas, where a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors has currently been blocked by a federal judge, and Alabama, which passed a law earlier this year penalizing doctors who prescribe or perform treatments to transgender youth under the age of 19, or assist them in obtaining such treatments, with up to 10 years in prison.In May, a federal judge partially blocked Alabama officials from trying to enforce the law, ruling that the state had not produced any credible evidence that gender-affirming health care is “experimental,” as the law’s proponents claim.

Great American Family, formerly known as GAC Family, has just announced 15 new shows that are launching on the network.

Ellie Kemper and Zach Cherry have signed on to cohost the Roku Original eality series The Great American Baking Show.