Netflix Strikes Third African Talent Deal As It Unveils Splashy Slate; South African Series ‘The Brave Ones’ & Kunle Afolayan’s Nigerian Film ‘Anikulapo’ Among New Orders

 fans are getting an extra treat! Netflix dropped a special two-part episode at midnight on Friday, featuring the stories of «A Dream of a Thousand Cats» and «Calliope.» The first half of the bonus episode is an animated feature with series star Tom Sturridge reprising his role as Morpheus, known as Dream and the titular Sandman. The voice cast also includes creator and executive producer Neil Gaiman as Crow/Skull Bird, Sandra Oh as The Prophet, Rosie Day as The Tabby Kitten, David Gyasi as The Grey Cat, Joe Lycett as The Black Cat, James McAvoy as Golden-Haired Man, David Tennant as Don, Georgia Tennant as Laura Lynn, Michael Sheen as Paul, Anna Lundberg as Marion, Nonso Anozie as Wyvern, Diane Morgan as Gryphon and Tom Wu as Hippogriff.Directed by Louise Hooper, «Calliope» is live-action and stars Melissanthi Mahut as the titular character. Arthur Darvill also stars as Richard Madoc, as well as Nina Wadia as Fate Mother, Souad Faress as Fate Crone, Dinita Gohil as Fate Maiden, Kevin Harvey as Larry, Amita Suman as Nora and Derek Jacobi as Erasmus Fry.Hisko Hulsing, director and product designer of «A Dream of a Thousand Cats,» said in a statement that the production team worked to make the animation «as mesmerizing and hypnotic as we could» through the use of real oil paintings on canvas.«We combined the paintings with classically drawn 2D animation, based on realistic 3D animation of telepathic cats in order to create a trippy world that feels both grounded and dreamy at the same time,» Hulsing explained. «Untold Studio’s in London created the breathtaking 3D animation of the cats.

EXCLUSIVE: Seth Carr, known for his work in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther and Disney+’s The Mysterious Benedict Society, among others, has signed with Gersh for representation.

Angelique Jackson With Netflix’s “Never Have I Ever” now speeding toward its senior season, series star Maitreyi Ramakrishnan shared what sets it apart from other high school shows — its heart.“We pack a punch into a good old half-hour comedy,” Ramakrishnan told Variety in an interview ahead of the show’s Season 3 launch. “It’s very heartwarming. Real things are being spoken about, in a way that it’s natural.

EXCLUSIVE: Maria Bakalova (Bodies Bodies Bodies) has joined the casts of Andrew Durham’s feature directorial debut Fairyland for American Zoetrope, and Jerry Seinfeld’s first film Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story for Netflix. Details as to the roles she’ll be playing in the features have not been disclosed, though we hear she’ll only be making a cameo in the latter.

Netflix has shared the first teaser for its upcoming original Korean thriller series Narco-Saints.Created by The Spy Gone North filmmaker Yoon Jong-bin, Narco-Saints stars Ha Jung-woo (Ashfall, Entourage) as protagonist Kang In-su, an unassuming entrepreneur who visits Suriname for business but ends up framed by a Korean drug lord operating in the South American country.He’s later roped into a secret mission by Choi Chang-ho (Squid Game’s Park Hae-soo), an agent of the Korean National Intelligence Service, in order to apprehend Jeon Yo-han (Hush’s Hwang Jung-min), who is moonlighting as a pastor as a cover for his operations as the head of a notorious drug cartel.Narco-Saints is slated to make a global premiere on Netflix on September 9. Watch its teaser, which was released on August 11, above.Narco-Saints also features a supporting cast that includes Yoo Yeon-seok (Hospital Playlist, Dr.

Deadline on Monday launched the streaming site for its Contenders Television: The Nominees, our annual TV awards-season showcase that took place Saturday with 31 panels featuring the year’s buzziest Emmy-nominated scripted and unscripted series and documentaries.

Manori Ravindran International EditorBET+ has picked up the U.S. streaming rights to South African-produced sci-fi survival thriller “Pulse.”“Pulse” tells the explosive story of an electromagnetic pulse that disables a secure building and disrupts the bio-electric signals in everyone’s minds, trapping a group of video game designers and turning each floor into a psychotic battlefield.

Naman Ramachandran Netflix has released the trailer of the second season of “Delhi Crime.”Shefali Shah returns in the lead role of deputy commissioner of police Vartika Chaturvedi AKA ‘Madam Sir.’ In the new season, the Delhi police must deal with a series of grisly murders in the face of escalating public fear and the growing demands for answers.The cast also includes Rasika Dugal, Rajesh Tailang, Adil Hussain, Anurag Arora, Yashaswini Dayama, Sidharth Bhardwaj, Gopal Dutt, Denzil Smith, Tillotama Shome, Jatin Goswami, Vyom Yadav and Ankit Sharma. The writing team includes Mayank Tewari, Shubhra Swarup, Vidit Tripathi, Ensia Mirza, Sanyuktha Chawla Shaikh and Virat Basoya.Shah said: “I love every character I’ve played but Vartika Chaturvedi will always be super special. And I’m so proud of the role and ‘Delhi Crime’ as a show.

Drama series Locke & Key is set to return to Netflix for a third season this summer. Netflix describes Locke & Key as a "coming-of-age mystery about love, loss, and the unshakable bonds that define family.”

Barack and Michelle Obama stop by the 2022 Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival (MVAAFF) on Friday (August 5) in Edgartown, Massachusetts.

MVAAFF) kicked off Friday with great pomp and circumstance — and a few bars of “Hail to the Chief” — as Barack and Michelle Obama made a special appearance for the opening night screening of Netflix documentary “Descendant.”When Netflix acquired worldwide rights to the Sundance award-winning documentary in January, the Obamas’ production company Higher Ground signed on to present the feature alongside the streamer and Participant. The documentary, which earned the U.S.

Netflix has entered into a multi-year creative partnership with Indian filmmaking duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, who will develop and produce upcoming projects for the streamer through their D2R Films production banner.

More supes are joining The Boys. Amazon is rounding out cast for the upcoming fourth season of Emmy-nominated superhero series The Boys, from Sony Pictures TV and Amazon Studios. Valorie Curry (The Lost Symbol) and Susan Heyward (Orange Is The New Black) join as new series regulars for the upcoming season, and Cameron Crovetti, who recurred as Ryan, son of Homelander (Antony Starr) in Seasons 2 and 3, has been promoted to series regular for Season 4. Crovetti has appeared in eight episodes over both seasons.

Mark Dacascos (Hawaii Five-O) and Chelsea Muirhead (Slo Pitch) are set as series regulars on the upcoming third season of martial arts crime drama Warrior on HBO Max.

After receiving some of the best reviews of his career for his role in Apple’s Black Bird series, Taron Egerton looks to have found his next feature project. He is set to star in the Netflix and Amblin action thriller Carry On, with Jaume Collet-Serra on board to direct. TJ Fixman penned the first draft of the screenplay, with Michael Green doing the most recent polish. Dylan Clark will produce. The film marks the first production to come out of the overall deal Amblin signed with Netflix last June.

Netflix has greenlit a premium documentary on software pioneer John McAfee, who went on the run after his neighbor was murdered in Belize.

Netflix will release its long-gestating drama about the real-life rescue of 12 boys who were trapped in a cave in northern Thailand on September 22. Thai Cave Rescue will show how the Wild Boars soccer team’s afternoon exploring with their 25-year-old coach went disastrously wrong when heavy rain trapped them inside, leading to a massive international recovery mission that engrossed the world.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefNetflix has set a Sept. 22 release date for “Thai Cave Rescue,” its six-part mini series about the dramatic events of July 2018 when 12 boys and their football coach were trapped in flooded limestone caves near Chiang Rai. Their plight sparked an unprecedented international rescue effort that ended with the loss of just one life and a flurry of film and TV productions.