Tom Ellis & Lucy Liu to Star in ‘Exploding Kittens’ Animated Series at Netflix

Rita Ora has joined the voice cast of “Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight” at Netflix.The pop singer will voice the Wandering Blade character, described as a “tough English bear knight that joins Po on his globe trotting adventure.”James Hong will return to the franchise, once again voicing Mr. Ping, Po’s adoptive, over-protective father who is always filled with pride for his boy.“Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight” stars Jack Black as the voice of Po.

Rita Ora and James Hong have joined the voice cast of Netflix’s Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight. The upcoming animated series features Jack Blank in his original film role of Po the Panda.

Disney Branded Television will bring Shawn Amos’ debut novel Cookies & Milk to screen with an animated series currently in development. The project hails from Laurence Fishburne and Helen Sugland of Cinema Gypsy Productions (black-ish), Jesse Murphy and James Sears Bryant of Jesse James Films and Shawn Amos.

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.

A slew of upcoming kids animated series will make their debut on Netflix, including Sonic Prime, Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight, Daniel Spellbound and We Lost Our Human.

Meghan Markle has reportedly had the production of her upcoming animated Netflix series cancelled by the streamer. It was announced last summer that The Duchess of Sussex, 40, was teaming up with the streaming giant on a series with the working title of Pearl.

Meghan Markle’s project ended up on the chopping block at Netflix!

Dead on arrival. Pearl, the animated series created by Meghan Markle, will not air after all amid cuts at Netflix.

EXCLUSIVE: Even Netflix’s in-house members of the Royal Family are not immune to a wave of cutbacks going on as the streamer recalibrates after a precipitous stock drop incurred after a drop in subscribers. Netflix has quietly dropped Pearl, the working title of an animated series that was created by Meghan Markle through Archewell Productions, the shingle the Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry set up at Netflix in fall of 2020 to create scripted series, docuseries, documentaries, features and children’s programming. Pearl was to be Archewell’s first animated series.

Meghan Markle‘s project is going away.

NBA star Carmelo Anthony has lined up a new gig voicing a character in the upcoming “Lil’ Heroes” animated series.Anthony and his producing partner Asani Swann, of Creative 7, have also joined the show, from Exile Content and Spanish artist Edgar Plans, as executive producers.The animated series is based on the “Lil’ Heroes” NFT collection. “We are excited to be partnering with Exile on what we believe is one of the most unique and innovative ideas for an animated series in a long time,” Anthony said in a statement. “At Creative 7, we are always looking to support dynamic projects like this that are reinvigorating the traditional content landscape.

EXCLUSIVE: NBA superstar Carmelo Anthony has boarded Lil’ Heroes, an animated series based on the NFT collection, from Exile Content Studio and Spanish artist Edgar Plans. Anthony and his producing partner and co-founder of his Creative 7 content company, Asani Swann, will executive produce the series and Anthony also will voice one of the characters in the series.

For the last decade, Clio Barnard has been at the forefront of the social-realist resurgence in Britain. Both her quasi-fictional documentary “The Arbor” and her Loach-ian scrap metal drama “The Selfish Giant” picked up BIFA and BAFTA Award nominations—the former also placed at #16 in our ‘Best Documentaries of the Decade [2010s],’ and her musical love story “Ali and Ava” is currently surging in popularity in the UK and abroad.

Apple continues attracting high-profile talent for their original films and series after being the first streaming platform to win Best Picture at the Oscars for “CODA.” Their television division continues to grow with some quality original content and they’ve landed yet another popular actor after securing folks in the past such as Gary Oldman (“Slow Horses“), Tom Hiddleston (“Essex Serpent“), Jason Momoa (“Chief of War“), and Elisabeth Moss (“Shining Girls“).

You should know the gist of “Love, Death & Robots” an adult animated anthology horror streaming television series on Netflix. The story goes something like this: for years, David Fincher wanted to remake the adult animated anthology movie “Heavy Metal,” based on the adult-oriented sci-fi fantasy magazine, and he wanted Tim Miller, a VFX artist who went on to direct his own films like “Deadpool” and “Terminator: Dark Fate” to work on it (Miller and Fincher go way back and he designed the title sequences of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”).

Angelique Jackson Longtime UNICEF ambassadors Orlando Bloom, Sofia Carson and Lucy Liu have signed on as executive producers for the documentary “If You Have,” which chronicles the 75-year history of UNICEF.Directed by Academy Award winner Ben Proudfoot, who won the 2022 documentary short prize for “The Queen of Basketball,” the film spotlights UNICEF’s life-saving work for children and families around the world, as told through the eyes of those who were there.“I could not be more thrilled to be working with Orlando Bloom, Sofia Carson, Lucy Liu and their teams to bring the world’s attention to the cause of children and the remarkable work of UNICEF over the years and of course today as it undertakes the largest vaccine supply operation of all time,” Proudfoot told Variety in a statement announcing the partnership. “After such a dark chapter in human history, having these three archangel executive producers lifting up ‘If You Have’ will bring this much needed story of optimism and inspiration to millions of homes around the world.” Founded in the aftermath of World War II, UNICEF has worked in over 190 countries to provide health care and immunizations, safe water and sanitation, nutrition, education, emergency relief and more to the world’s most vulnerable children and families.Bloom became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2009 and has traveled extensively with the organization, most recently to Moldova, in March of this year, where he met with children and their families who were fleeing the war in Ukraine.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNetflix has ordered an adult animated series based on the card game “Exploding Kittens,” starring “Lucifer” star Tom Ellis and Lucy Liu. A new mobile game adaptation, “Exploding Kittens – The Game,” is being co-developed and will launch via the streamer in May, well ahead of the TV show’s planned 2023 debut.The show, which is executive produced by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, follows the eternal conflict between Heaven and Hell as it reaches epic proportions when both God and the Devil are sent to Earth – in the bodies of chunky house cats.Along with Ellis and Liu, “Exploding Kittens” stars Abraham Lim (“Clickbait,” “The Boys”), Ally Maki (“Wrecked,” “Toy Story 4”), Mark Proksch (“What We Do In The Shadows,” “Better Call Saul”) and Sasheer Zamata (“Woke,” “Home Economics”).

Netflix has ordered an animated series and a mobile game based on the Exploding Kittens card game – the first time that the streamer will launch a videogame and a series from the same franchise.

Tom Hanks is getting some very unhelpful assistance.