‘Succession’ Star Nicholas Braun Teams With Chris Buongiorno to Develop Music Series at HBO (EXCLUSIVE)

Joe Otterson TV ReporterGarrett Hedlund has joined the cast of the Sylverster Stallone-led Paramount+ series “Tulsa King,” Variety has learned exclusively.The series follows New York mafia capo Dwight “The General” Manfredi (Stallone) just after he is released from prison after 25 years and unceremoniously exiled by his boss to set up shop in Tulsa, OK. Realizing that his mob family may not have his best interests in mind, Dwight slowly builds a “crew” from a group of unlikely characters, to help him establish a new criminal empire in a place that to him might as well be another planet.Hedlund will appear in the series regular role of Mitch Keller, an Oklahoma native and ex bull-rider who retired prematurely after injuries led to addiction.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterStephanie Hsu is set for a guest starring role in Disney+ series “American Born Chinese,” Variety has learned exclusively.The role reunites Hsu with previously announced cast member Michelle Yeoh, with whom Hsu starred in the hit film “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”Based on the graphic novel of the same name by Gene Luen Yang, the series follows Jin Wang (Ben Wang), a teenager juggling his high school social life with his immigrant home life. When Jin meets foreign exchange student Wei-Chen (Jim Liu) on the first day of school, their worlds collide as Jin becomes entangled in a battle of Chinese mythological gods.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorSPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not seen “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” in theaters now. When Benedict Wong was introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2016’s “Doctor Strange” as Wong, the titular superhero’s sidekick and fellow sorcerer, the British actor quickly became a fan favorite. Since, Wong has appeared in “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Avengers: Endgame,” “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” the animated series “What If…?” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” But with sequel “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” Wong steps into the spotlight as more than just Doctor Strange’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) right-hand man, but the Sorcerer Supreme.

Warning: The following podcast has major spoilers about Disney/Marvel’s  Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, in particular its epilogue.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” breaks new ground among the more recent “Trek” shows by going back to the old ways — that is to say that the show is much more episodic as compared to the heavily serialized “Star Trek: Discovery” and “Star Trek: Picard.”In an interview with Variety, series star Anson Mount said that the idea of the show following that format was always the intention of its creators and allowed the cast to “get ourselves out of the way a little bit.”“I like to think that Pike is not the star of the show,” said Mount, who plays Captain Christopher Pike. “The star of the show is the Enterprise.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter“Julia” has been renewed for Season 2 at HBO Max.The series is inspired by the life of Julia Childs and her long-running cooking show “The French Chef.” Through Childs’ perspective, the series explores the emergence of public television as a new social institution, feminism and the women’s movement, the nature of celebrity and America’s cultural evolution.Sarah Lancashire stars as Childs. The cast also includes David Hyde Pierce, Bebe Neuwirth, Brittany Bradford, Fran Kranz, and Fiona Glascott.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterDerek Kolstad is teaming with Magic Machine and animation company Titmouse to write an animated series based on the NFT fantasy property “Forgotten Runes Wizard’s Cult,” Variety has learned exclusively.Kolstad will write and executive produce the eight-episode series, with each episode being one hour. Titmouse’s Chris Prynoski as well as Magic Machine’s @ElfJTrul, @Dotta and @BearSnake will also executive produce.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterViola Davis is eyeing a return to the role of Amanda Waller in her own spinoff series currently in the works at HBO Max, Variety has learned from sources.Exact plot details are mostly under wraps at this point, but sources say the show will build off of Waller’s appearance at the end of the “Suicide Squad” spinoff series “Peacemaker.”SPOILER ALERT: In the Season 1 finale of “Peacemaker,” Waller’s daughter and spy Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) outs her mother publicly for her work with Task Force X and the Suicide Squad. Davis made brief cameo appearances in the first and last episodes of the show.Davis would executive produce the series in addition to starring.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterLouis Partridge has joined the cast of the upcoming Apple psychological thriller series “Disclaimer,” Variety has learned exclusively.Partridge joins previously announced series leads Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline and cast members Sacha Baron Cohen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Hoyeon.Based on the novel of the same name by Renee Knight, “Disclaimer” will star Blanchett as Catherine Ravenscroft, a successful and respected television documentary journalist whose work has been built on revealing the concealed transgressions of long-respected institutions. When an intriguing novel written by a widower (Kline) appears on her bedside table, she is horrified to realize she is a key character in a story that she had hoped was long buried in the past.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticThe announcement of winners for the  ASCAP Screen Music Awards, being held virtually again for 2022 and announced Monday morning, included revealing the top vote-getters for several Composers’ Choice Awards, including the scores for “Encanto” and “The White Lotus.”Germaine Franco prevailed for film score of the year for “Encanto.” Cristobal Tapia de Veer won two of these peer-voted awards, for television score of the year and television theme as well, for “The White Lotus.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterBruce Greenwood is joining “The Fall of the House of Usher” series at Netflix, taking over the role previously held by Frank Langella.Langella exited the series earlier in April after it was reported that he was under investigation for misconduct on the set, which it was later confirmed involved making an inappropriate joke to a female co-star.Greenwood will now star in the series as Roderick Usher, the head of the Usher family in creator Mike Flanagan’s modern re-telling of the Edgar Allan Poe story. The show draws on other Poe works as well.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterMelissa McBride is no longer going to star in a Daryl-Carol “Walking Dead” spinoff at AMC, Variety has confirmed with sources.The show was originally announced in September 2020 with McBride and Norman Reedus set to star. The pair have long been praised for their characters’ onscreen chemistry, with Reedus and McBride currently being the only two cast members of the flagship show who have been onboard since Season 1.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterThe “Dune” prequel series at HBO Max has brought Johan Renck onboard to direct the first two episodes.Renck will also serve as an executive producer on the show, currently titled “Dune: The Sisterhood.” It was ordered straight-to-series at HBO Max in June 2019. Previously, “Dune” director and co-writer Denis Villeneuve was attached to direct the pilot for “Dune: The Sisterhood,” but his work on the “Dune” sequel film will prevent him from doing so.The show is set 10,000 years prior to the events of “Dune” and follows the Harkonnen Sisters as they combat forces that threaten the future of humankind, and establish the fabled sect known as the Bene Gesserit.Renck won two Emmys for his work on the critically-acclaimed HBO limited series “Chernobyl” — one as an executive producer when the show won best limited series and another for best directing for a limited series, as he directed all five episodes.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter“Wolf Like Me” starring Isla Fisher and Josh Gad has been renewed for Season 2 at Peacock.Both Fisher and Gad will return for the second season of the series, which is described as a romantic dramedy. In the series, Gary (Gad) is an emotional wreck and struggles to provide for his daughter since the death of his wife. Mary (Fisher) has a secret she can’t bring herself to share with anyone.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterLuna Lauren Vélez has been promoted to a recurring role on “Power Book II: Ghost” at Starz, Variety has learned exclusively.Vélez originally appeared on the show during its second season in the role of Evelyn Castillo, the wife of Frank Tejada (David Zayas) and the sister-in-law of Lorenzo Tejada (Berto Colon). She was in one episode of Season 2 and will now appear in five episodes of Season 3.Vélez is known for her roles on shows like “New York Undercover,” “Oz,” and “Dexter.” She also appeared in the third and fourth seasons of the Emmy-winning ABC drama series “How to Get Away With Murder.” On the film side, she will next be seen in “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” and will lend her voice to “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” after having previously voiced Rio Morales in the first film.

Succession star Nicholas Braun is working on a series centred on an indie band in the 2000s.The actor, who is best known for playing Cousin Greg in the hit HBO show, is co-writing One For The Road with Chris Buongiorno (Spider-Man: No Way Home) for the same network.The half-hour show will be an intimate and candid story focused on a talented but chaotic band in the changing landscape of indie rock in the early noughties as they struggle to survive.The show is currently in the development stage, according to Variety, with Braun and Buongiorno also acting as executive producers.One For The Road isn’t the only writing work Braun has been involved with lately, the star revealing last year that he was developing the script for a “social horror movie” about reality shows.“I find reality shows to be kind of horrific,” he told GQ, explaining that he had been watching reality shows while in lockdown.During lockdown, the actor was also signed to Atlantic Records on the back of creating song ‘Antibodies (Do You Have The)‘, which was played more than a million times across Spotify and YouTube.Meanwhile, Succession writer Georgia Pritchett revealed last month that Braun’s character Greg was nearly written as gay on the HBO series.“It’s interesting how characters take on a life of their own,” she said on the Homo Sapiens podcast.“I had sort of advocated for Greg to be gay – until last season he hadn’t really done anything with anyone.” Pritchett went on to state her belief that the Roy children also move “in a circle where I think anything goes”.“I don’t think anyone’s closeted or not gonna do what they want to do,” the writer added, suggesting Kieran Culkin’s character Roman “feels a bit fluid and pan”.“I don’t think he’d hold back

Joe Otterson TV ReporterIlana Glazer is in talks to star in and executive produce a comedy series currently in the works at Amazon, Variety has learned exclusively.The series is titled “The Suck” and hails from writer and executive producer Ally Israelson. The show asks the question “What if the last year on earth was the best year of your life?” It follows Lydia (Glazer) to London, in search of an other-worldly end.

Tom Hardy‘s “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” first linked the Sony-made spinoff to the Tom Holland films with a post-credit scene and was further linked in “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” It looks like in an alternate universe that connection might have been stronger in the billon-dollar hit. ‘No Way Home’ co-writer Chris McKenna is detailing the bigger role Hardy’s Venom would have had if two other scenes hadn’t been scrapped from the final version of the superhero sequel.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterDavid Castañeda is the latest addition to the cast of the Natasha Lyonne & Rian Johnson series “Poker Face” at Peacock, Variety has learned exclusively.Lyonne will lead the drama series, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Stephanie Hsu also set to appear along with Castañeda. Plot and character details for the series are being kept largely under wraps, though sources say the show will follow a procedural format and see Lyonne’s character working to solve different murders in each episode.Castañeda is best known for his role in the hit Netflix series “The Umbrella Academy,” on which he plays Diego. The third season of the show is due out on June 22.

Tom Hardy‘s “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” first linked the Sony-made spinoff to the Tom Holland films with a post-credit scene and was further linked in “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” It looks like in an alternate universe that connection might have been stronger in the billon-dollar hit. ‘No Way Home’ co-writer Chris McKenna is detailing the bigger role Hardy’s Venom would have had if two other scenes hadn’t been scrapped from the final version of the superhero sequel.