Richard Plepler Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Wager from 1742 that crashes and washes up on the coast of Brazil and 30 survivors who had been marooned for months and managed to make it back to shores and safety. But the story takes a turn when a few months later, a different set of just three survivors arrives in Chile and tell a different story saying that the men were not hero survivors but mutineers and that the crew while stranded on the island had descended into anarchy.

In a competitive situation, Apple has acquired the rights to Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s upcoming novel Long Island Compromise to develop as a series.

Michael Douglas and the cast of Franklin touched down in Cannes today with a message. Speaking to press ahead of the world premiere screening of the series at Canneseries on Wednesday evening, the actor said the Apple TV+ period drama is a great reminder of “how fragile democracy is and how generous France was.”

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events When Michael Douglas was invited to play Benjamin Franklin in Apple TV+’s “Franklin,” he immediately took out a $100 bill. “I looked at Ben and thought, ‘I’ve got a long ways to go,’” the two-time Oscar winner tells Variety. Douglas didn’t just worry that he’d have to spend hours in the makeup chair — the series took more than 160 days to shoot.

Jon Stewart is leaving late-night, again.

Andrew Rannells attended the 2015 Golden Globes as the guest of his Girls co-star Lena Dunham, who was nominated for her work on the HBO show.

EXCLUSIVE: Jon Stewart is the latest star to cancel promotional duties as part of the writers strike.

Ben Wasserstein, who most recently served as SVP, original programing at HBO, is reuniting with his former HBO boss Richard Plepler. Wasserstein has signed an exclusive first-look deal with Plepler’s film and television production company Eden Productions. Based on the West Coast, he will develop new comedy and drama series, limited series and films for Eden’s exclusive multi-year deal with Apple TV+, working in conjunction with Heather Karpas who joined the company from ICM Partners in 2020.

EXCLUSIVE: Taron Egerton and the creators behind Apple TV+’s lauded drama Black Bird are re-teaming on crime series Firebug, inspired by events surrounding notorious California arsonist John Leonard Orr.

Leonardo DiCaprio is attached to star in an adaptation of David Grann’s book The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder from director Martin Scorsese that has been set up at Apple, Deadline can confirm. The project follows the pair’s collaboration on Apple’s Killers of the Flower Moon, which is likewise based on a non-fiction book by Grann.

Warner Bros Discovery, two months after closing its $43 billion merger, has taken the first step toward reducing its global workforce, initiating voluntary buyouts in its U.S. advertising sales division.

Taron Egerton is going deep undercover as a snitch in maximum security prison to entice a confession out of a suspected serial killer in a bid for his own early release in the trailer for “Black Bird.”The Apple TV+ series, which debuts with two episodes on July 8, finds Egerton playing Jimmy Keene, a decorated policeman’s son (Ray Liotta), who is sentenced to 10 years behind bars. But, with the authorities needing help in solving a series of gruesome murders, and suspect Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser) in supermax, Keene is offered the opportunity to go to the prison for the criminally insane, and elicit a confession.Things get hairy for Egerton’s Keene as the trailer shows, as he deals with violence, the mentally ill and solitary confinement.New episodes of the six-episode psychological thriller will drop every Friday though August 5.Author Dennis Lehane developed and wrote the drama, which is inspired by actual events, and is executive producer.The series stars “Rocketman” alum Egerton, Hauser, Greg Kinnear as Brian Miller, Sepideh Moafi as Lauren McCauley and Liotta as Jimmy Keene’s father, Big Jim Keene. “Black Bird” is based on the true crime memoir “In with the Devil: A  Fallen Hero, A Serial Killer, and A Dangerous Bargain for Redemption” by James Keene and Hillel Levin.Michaël R.

Selome Hailu Apple TV+ has debuted a trailer for “Black Bird,” the streamer’s upcoming psychological thriller limited series starring Taron Egerton and Ray Liotta. The project is set to premiere on July 8.The six-episode series follows Jimmy Keene (Egerton), a high school football hero and the son of decorated policeman “Big Jim” (Liotta), who is sentenced to 10 years in a minimum security prison. He is given the choice of a lifetime: enter a maximum-security prison for the criminally insane and befriend suspected serial killer Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser) or stay where he is and serve his full sentence with no possibility of parole.

Black Bird,” a limited series starring Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser, will premiere on Apple TV Plus this July 8, the streamer announced Thursday.Based on James Keene and Hillel Levin’s true crime memoir “In With The Devil: A Fallen Hero, A Serial Killer, and A Dangerous Bargain for Redemption,” “Black Bird” stars Egerton as Keene, a police officer’s son who is sentenced to 10 years in a minimum security prison for drug dealing. While serving his sentence, he is offered a chance for early parole, on the condition that he move to a prison for the criminally insane and befriend serial killer Larry Hall (Hauser). Keene reluctantly agrees to the unusual case, and develops a complicated relationship with Hall as he attempts to discover the truth behind the murders the convict is suspected of committing.

Apple TV+ has landed the rights to a feature documentary film about seven-time Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton, the streamer announced Wednesday. The untitled documentary on Hamilton will be directed by Matt Kay and focus on the racer’s life and career. It will feature access to Hamilton and his team on and off the track, as well as a series of guest interviews.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterMichael Douglas will star as U.S. Founding Father Benjamin Franklin in a new limited series for Apple, Variety has learned.The untitled series is based on the book “A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America” by Pulitzer Prize winner Stacy Schiff. Kirk Ellis, the writer behind HBO’s “John Adams” series, will write the show for Apple and serve as an executive producer.Emmy-winning director Tim Van Patten will direct and executive produce.

Apple TV+ has officially confirmed a limited event series starring Michael Douglas as Benjamin Franklin. The Oscar winner executive produces the project about the American polymath, from John Adams writer-executive producer Kirk Ellis, TV director, writer and producer Tim Van Patten (Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos), Tony Krantz and his Flame Ventures and Richard Plepler’s Eden Productions under the company’s deal with Apple Studios. Based on Pulitzer Prize winner Stacy Schiff’s book A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, the series, which has been casting for the past couple of months, is a co-production between ITV Studios America and Apple Studios.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticThe new documentary series “Lincoln’s Dilemma” begins and ends outside of Abraham Lincoln’s era — opening with footage of the siege on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and concluding only weeks later, with the journalist Jelani Cobb’s observation that the military “occupied” Washington to keep Joe Biden safe at his inauguration. But the point this series makes is that, indeed, we’re hardly outside Lincoln’s moment at all — that the tenuousness and the peril of his era persist, as does the fundamentally unresolved question of race in this country.Directed by Jacqueline Olive and Barak Goodman and executive produced by, among others, former HBO chief Richard Plepler, “Lincoln’s Dilemma” uses various techniques to illustrate the life and legacy of the 16th president, and the problems he faced while in office.

Abraham Lincoln‘s complex journey to end slavery will be explored in the upcoming docuseries from Apple TV+, Lincoln’s Dilemma. The four-parter, based on David S. Reynolds’ book Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times, is set to premiere on Feb. 18.

It’s no secret that fans of “Game of Thrones” would have happily tuned in for two more seasons of the HBO hit.

Real Sex” on HBO. The docuseries was raw and explicit, covering everything from masturbation classes to bisexual strip clubs.And Sheila Nevins, the producer and VP of Original Programming who brought the show to HBO, was thrilled to see just how much she could get away with. “We could now show penises,” she said to author James Andrew Miller, for his new oral history, “Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers Hardcover” (Henry Holt), out Nov.

Oscar nominee Greg Kinnear (Misbehaviour) and Sepideh Moafi (The Killing Of Two Lovers) are set to star alongside Taron Egerton, Paul Walter Hauser and Ray Liotta in Apple’s limited series In With The Devil, an adaptation of James Keene and Hillel Levin’s 2010 novel In With The Devil: A Fallen Hero, A Serial Killer, and A Dangerous Bargain for Redemption, from Richard Plepler’s Eden Productions, Imperative Entertainment and Apple Studios.

Emmy winner Ray Liotta will make a return to series television as a lead opposite Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser in Apple’s limited series In With The Devil, an adaptation of James Keene and Hillel Levin’s 2010 novel In With The Devil: A Fallen Hero, A Serial Killer, and A Dangerous Bargain for Redemption, from Richard Plepler’s Eden Productions, Imperative Entertainment and Apple Studios.

Nellie Andreeva Co-Editor-in-Chief, TVEXCLUSIVE: Richard Plepler’s Eden Productions has brought in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm co-producer Ashley Underwood as a development executive.Former HBO chairman and CEO Plepler formed Eden following his exit from the premium cabler in 2019.

Kevin Hart declared that he plans to become a media mogul. Richard Plepler promised that the premium subscription TV business is not a zero-sum game. Dana Walden explained why she took the big TV gig at Disney. Dawn Ostroff spoke about the humbling process of learning how to produce for digital platforms after a long career in TV.

By Nellie Andreeva

By Jill Goldsmith

Richard Plepler has hopped on the podcast train. The former HBO chief executive has invested in Luminary Media, a podcast-subscription service, and taken a seat on its board.