Creators of ‘Abbott Elementary,’ ‘Cobra Kai,’ ‘Ghosts’ and More Talk Broadcast Comedy Comeback and Honoring IP

Joe Otterson TV ReporterThe Netflix action-comedy series “Obliterated” from the creators of “Cobra Kai” has found its first two cast members, Variety has learned.Nick Zano and Shelley Henig are set to star in the series, which was picked up at Netflix in May after having originally been ordered to series at TBS.The show tells the story of an elite special forces team who thwarts a deadly threat to Las Vegas. After their celebratory party, filled with booze, drugs and sex, the team discovers that a bomb they deactivated was a fake.

Nick Zano (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) and Shelley Hennig (Teen Wolf) are set as the leads of Obliterated, Netflix’s hourlong action comedy series from Cobra Kai creators Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg and Josh Heald as well as Sony Pictures Television.

Richard Gere caused a sexual awakening in Anderson Cooper.

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix is hoping to solve the legend of D.B. Cooper, the mystery man who hijacked a Northwest Airlines passenger jet in November 1971 and escaped with $200,000, never to be seen again.

Wilson Chapman editorParamount+ has ordered a new YA drama to series, based on the upcoming graphic novel “School Spirits.”The series is set to star “Cobra Kai” and “Jessie” actor Peyton List, with “Pretty Little Liars” and “Bridgerton” writer Oliver Goldstick serving as the showrunner.Goldstick also executive produces with Nate Trinrud and Megan Trinrud, who wrote the graphic novel. The Trinruds wrote the pilot for the series, which will be directed by Max Winkler, whose prior credits include “Cruel Summer” and “Minx.” Awesomeness Live-Action Studio produces the series for Paramount+.

Emily Longeretta UCP and Littleton Road are developing “Vanderbilt,” a new series based on Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe’s book, “Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty.”Patrick Macmanus, “Dr. Death” showrunner and “The Girl From Plainville” co-creator, will write and executive produce the project.

BJ Novak is looking for American truth in his directorial debut dark comedy film, Vengeance. He’s amassed an all-star cast of actors including Issa Rae, Dove Cameron, and Boyd Holbrook, for the movie about a city-slicking mid-thirties man travels to Texas and got more than he bargained for in a comedy of errors created by his own hubris. The story is told in a way that only Novak knows how: with biting wit, and fiery sarcasm. 

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaIt’s that time of year again. That post-July 4th period when media barons and billionaires break out the Brooks Brothers casual and don their sweater vests to hit an idyllic Idaho resort town of Sun Valley for another edition of “lets make a deal.”Many of the names expected to rub elbows next month are familiar ones. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Liberty Media’s John Malone, Comcast chairman Brian Roberts, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Apple pasha Tim Cook and Berkshire Hathaway guru Warren Buffett are among those who have once again made the cut for Allen & Co.’s annual media conference.

Beginning with movies like “Mortal Kombat” and “Super Mario Bros,” video game projects have fascinated Hollywood since the ’90s. While the genre has been a mixed bag quality-wise, there’s an argument to be made there have been very few great movies ever based on a video game, but studios keep trying.

Selome Hailu The conclusions of dramas like “Ozark” and “Better Call Saul” have ruled cultural conversation about TV in 2022, while new shows such as “Bel-Air” and “As We See It” are a sign of the innovation and creativity to come. Creators and showrunners of some of the top dramas on the small screen came together for Variety’s “A Night in the Writers’ Room” to discuss bringing new ideas to old properties, what it’s like to write a series finale and more.Moderated by TV features editor Emily Longeretta, the event began with a conversation about what it looks like to run a writers’ room under pandemic restrictions.

last year and described Duke as “Deadpool on steroids,” envisioning a story in which the egotistical, misogynistic brute from the ’90s transports into an alternate universe to meet a more respectful, woke version of himself in the future. Various producers have been trying to get a “Duke Nukem” movie off the ground since the ’90s, including a version by Lawrence Kasanoff, another by “Max Payne” producer Scott Faye during the late 2000s and again in 2018 when it was even set at Paramount and Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes with John Cena attached to star.Counterbalance Entertainment is the creative force behind “Cobra Kai.” Baronnet is the co-founder of Marlas Studios, a production company specializing in adapting video games into movies and TV shows.

Legendary Entertainment is developing a Duke Nukem film after acquiring rights to the video game franchise from Gearbox, Deadline can confirm. Legendary will produce the feature along with Cobra Kai creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg for Counterbalance Entertainment and Marla Studio’s Jean Julien Baronnet.

Menudo: Forever Young,” the HBO Max docuseries about the titular Latin American boy band, has been released.Directed by filmmakers Angel Manuel Soto and Kristofer Ríos, the four-part docuseries follows the rise of Menudo, a Puerto Rican musical group formed in 1977 by producer Edgardo Díaz that became one of the most popular boy bands in history, selling 20 million records worldwide during the 1980s. The series chronicles the group’s meteoric rise in the ’80s, and the fall it suffered during the ’90s, after sexual abuse allegations against Díaz surfaced.

Bradley Cooper and Matt Bomer get close on the set of their new movie.

Abbott Elementary” on ABC in December, creator, executive producer and star Quinta Brunson has been credited with spearheading “the return” of the network comedy. She’s grateful for the love, but she isn’t so sure about that particular compliment.“Network, all this time, has still been putting big comedies on the air,” she says. “CBS especially was banging out shows with super high ratings, like ‘Young Sheldon.’ ‘The Big Bang Theory’ was on the air forever.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeHulu’s “Dopesick” is the first program honored as the Peabody Awards starts announcing the winners of its 2022 awards this morning.The virtual announcements kicked off with Jon Stewart presenting the award for “Dopesick,” which was accepted by star Michael Keaton. “Tackling such an important issue as the opioid crisis in America was not only daunting but well worth it. We are so honored to receive this award from an institution like the Peabody Awards,” Keaton said.

Anderson Cooper is celebrating his birthday with his boys!

This week’s panel discussion featured Michael Shellenberger, a California gubernatorial candidate, cofounder of the California Peace Coalition, and author of San Fransicko: W,hy Progressives Ruin Cities; and Douglas Murray, columnist for the New York Post and The Sun, and author of War on the West: How to Prevail in the Age of Unreason.