Here’s What’s New on HBO Max in April 2022

HBO's Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty. The former Los Angeles Lakers player, who went on to work as head coach before ultimately serving as general manager of the team between 1982 and 2000, is seeking an apology, retraction and damages from HBO, Warner Bros. Discovery, Adam McKay and Kevin Messick, according to a letter sent by West's attorney, Skip Miller, and obtained by ET. “The portrayal of NBA icon and LA Lakers legend Jerry West in  is fiction pretending to be fact — a deliberately false characterization that has caused great distress to Jerry and his family," Miller said in a statement. «Contrary to the baseless portrayal in the HBO series, Jerry had nothing but love for and harmony with the Lakers organization, and in particular owner Dr.

J. Kim Murphy Los Angeles Lakers legend and NBA icon Jerry West has declared the portrayal of himself in HBO’s drama series “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” as “a deliberately false characterization” and a “baseless portrayal.”In a letter issued to executive producer Adam McKay, as well as HBO and its parent company Warner Bros.-Discovery, on Tuesday, West’s attorneys state that the series has “caused great distress to Jerry and his family,” demanding a legal retraction from HBO within two weeks.“Winning Time,” which was recently renewed for a second season by HBO, follows the Los Angeles Lakers at the beginning of the “Showtime” era in the 1980’s, a legacy led by players such as Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, as well as leaders within the basketball organization such as Jerry Buss and Pat Riley.

Zack Sharf “How did so many talented people go so terribly wrong?” Kareem Abdul-Jabbar writes in a new blog post criticizing HBO’s drama series “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.” The basketball icon goes on to call the series “deliberately dishonest” and “drearily dull.”  The show, which is executive produced by Adam McKay, tracks the 1980s Showtime era of the Los Angeles Lakers and stars Solomon Hughes as a younger Abdul-Jabbar.Abdul-Jabbar starts his blog post by clarifying that his critical reaction to “Winning Time” has nothing to do with how he is portrayed by Hughes in the show. Instead, he writes that the show “commits the sin” of being boring “over and over.” Abdul-Jabbar also knocked Adam McKay, whose work he used to admire.

A nearly three-hour Batman film, bordering on R-Rated, certainly not for kids, that’s nihilistic, darker than the Christopher Nolan films, and not really much of a traditional superhero movie released during a pandemic seemed like a risky endeavor for Warner Bros. earlier this year (read our review here).

The BBC has acquired HBO Max’s Ansel Elgort-starring Tokyo Vice from Endeavor Content.

Michael Mann (“Collateral,” “Ali”) fans can rejoice that he’s finally back with the HBO Max crime series “Toyko Vice.” In the series, which Mann produces and directs the excellent pilot of (read our review here), we get to see the legendary filmmaker wade into the waters of cops and crooks yet again. Set in Japan, the series focuses on an American crime reporter (Ansel Elgort) who attempts to embed himself in both the worlds of Japanese police and the criminal syndicate known as the Yakuza.

Charlize Theron is getting into the “superhero business,” but we should clarify, an atypical one that doesn’t seem all that connected to the superheroes you know. At least not yet.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterHBO Max is developing a series version of “You Brought Me the Ocean,” the YA graphic novel about the origins of DC’s Aqualad, Variety has learned from sources.The one-hour dramedy is based on characters from DC and the graphic novel by Alex Sanchez and Jul Maroh. The series will explore the life of Jackson “Jake” Hyde, a gay teenager living in New Mexico. All his life, he has had a strange attraction to the water and yearns to escape his desert surroundings for the ocean.

HBO has renewed Adam McKay’s critically praised drama series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty for a second season.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter“Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” has been renewed for Season 2 at HBO, Variety has learned.The news comes after the series has aired just five episodes of its 10-episode first season.“It’s been a thrill to bring ‘Winning Time’ to life with Adam McKay, Max Borenstein, our phenomenal producing team, and this incredible cast,” said Francesca Orsi, executive vice president of HBO Programming. “This series not only tells the riveting story of the Lakers’ rise, but is also a look back at a transformative era in basketball, celebrity, and the city of Los Angeles.

HBO Max executive vice president and general manager Andy Forssell is leaving WarnerMedia ahead of the close of the company’s merger with Discovery, which is now set to close as early as Friday, Variety has learned.News that Forssell is out the door comes just as sources confirmed WarnerMedia studios and networks group chairman and CEO Ann Sarnoff was informed on Tuesday by leadership that her position would be eliminated, and follows WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar’s resignation this morning.As Variety reported earlier Tuesday, though insiders previously said the transaction between Discovery and WarnerMedia’s current owner AT&T would be formally completed on April 11, leading to the creation of new company Warner Bros. Discovery, two sources with knowledge of the situation say the merger is now expected to potentially be finalized by the close of business Friday.

After his stint as Marvel‘s “Iron Man,” Robert Downey Jr. has been moving into the role of producer.

EXCLUSIVE: Cree Cicchino and Felix Mallard have landed supporting lead roles in New Line’s film adaptation of John Green’s No. 1 New York Times best seller Turtles All the Way Down for HBO Max, Deadline has learned.

Michael Mann’s first directorial effort since 2015’s “Blackhat” comes to HBO Max this Thursday, April 7th, with the highly anticipated debut of “Tokyo Vice,” the loose adaptation of the memoir of the same name by Jake Adelstein. At first, the series seems like a perfect fit for the director of “Miami Vice,” “Collateral,” and “Public Enemies.” It’s another stylish venture that centers on morally questionable men and the women who find themselves both drawn to them and betrayed by them.

“TokyoVice“ is an HBO Max companion piece to the Michael Mann-produced TV series “Miami Vice,” which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989. That show somehow hasn’t yet been revived beyond a single Mann-directed 2006 feature film, and now “Tokyo Vice” even boasts Mann as both its executive producer and its pilot-episode director.

On the heels of the success of HBO Max’s post-apocalyptic limited series Station Eleven, created by Patrick Somerville based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Emily St. John Mandel, Somerville and St. John Mandel Mandel are teaming up for series adaptations of Mandel’s most recent book, The Glass Hotel, and her upcoming novel Sea of Tranquility.

EXCLUSIVE: Vivian Bang, the co-writer and star of the Sundance Film Festival debut White Rabbit, has boarded the New Line ensemble comedy The Parenting for HBO Max.

HBO Max original series picks up 15 years later, with the beloved original cast spending two months in Rivera Maya in Mexico.  Three generations of Garcias sit in a beautiful room, while the family matriarch makes an announcement.

HBO Max is slowly turning into the home for projects directly connected to the cinematic side of WarnerMedia. The streaming service hosts multiple feature films set in the DCEU and even two shows directly set in the world of Matt Reeves‘ “The Batman.” Now, HBO Max is setting its sights on a recent billion-dollar horror film property.

The true-crime phenomenon—documentaries, movies, documentaries, series, and everything in between—has obviously hit an absolute zenith in recent years. This inexorable truth would explain why HBO Max would bother rehashing the mysterious circumstances of the death of Kathleen Peterson with their new scripted series “The Staircase” from showrunners Antonio Campos and Maggie Cohen (“American Crime Story”)—there’s still so much meat on the bone.