Streaming Roundup (3/3/21): HBO Max Streams ‘Prodigal Son,’ Peacock Greenlights ‘The End Is Nye’
HBO Max has secured rights to stream “Prodigal Son.” Season one began streaming on HBO Max on March 2, while season two premieres April 13 on Fox.
The drama stars Michael Sheen and Tom Payne, whose character was responsible for helping the police arrest his serial-killer father. Now a criminal profiler, he’s forced to confront the father he hasn’t seen in 10 years. The new recurring guest stars are Catherine Zeta-Jones and Alan Cumming.
Peacock has ordered science series “The End Is Nye,” hosted and executive produced by the Emmy-winning Bill Nye, a mechanical engineer and science host best known for “Bill Nye the Science Guy.”
The show sends Nye into various global disasters, then uses science to show how we can survive, mitigate and even prevent them. The series is produced by Universal Television Alternative Studio and UCP, divisions of Universal Studio Group, and Seth MacFarlane’s (“The Orville,” “Family Guy,” and “Ted”) Fuzzy Door.
Here’s a look at other deals and upcoming projects:
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Oscar winner Sissy Spacek (“Coal Miner’s Daughter”) and Ed O’Neill (“Modern Families”) were tapped for lead roles in Amazon Prime Video’s upcoming “Lightyears” series. The show, which begins filming later this year, follows a couple with a secret chamber buried in their yard that leads to a strange planet. They’ve guarded that secret — until now.
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Award-winning director Spike Lee and HBO Documentary Films are currently in production on “NYC Epicenters 9/11→ 2021½,” a film that will chronicle the life, loss and survival of New York City residents over the 20 years since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
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Dakota Fanning will play Susan Ford in six episodes of Showtime’s “The First Lady” series. The teenager is said to have introduced progressive ideas to her father, President Ford. Michelle Pfeiffer and Aaron Eckhart play Betty and Gerald Ford. “The First Lady” series will also star Viola Davis as Michelle Obama, Gillian Anderson as Eleanor Roosevelt and O.T. Fagbenle as President Barack Obama.
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Controversial boxer Mike Tyson is getting an eight-episode series ordered by Hulu. The “I, Tonya” team is involved: Steven Rogers will serve as executive producer, as will actress Margot Robbie. Craig Gillespie will direct. Tyson, a former heavyweight champ at 20, was convicted of rape and served several years in prison. He was also accused of battering his wife, Robin Givens. Tyson is not involved in the production of the show.
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A live-action “G.I. Joe” TV series is in development at Amazon — but it’s focused on Lady Jaye, an undercover operative that was first introduced in the 1984 cartoon TV series. She was later added to the comics and earned her own line of action figures. “Carnival Row” showrunner Erik Oleson will create and showrun the series. He’ll executive produce alongside Lorenzo DiBonaventura.
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Laverne Cox and George Wallace will star in a series for Norman Lear’s Act III Prods. and Sony Pictures TV, in development at IMDb TV. Both center on family relationships: “Clean Slate,” which stars Cox and Wallace, is about a man’s (Wallace) estranged son who returns home to Alabama after 17 years. But the son who left is now a trans woman (Cox). A second Lear project for the streamer, “Lotería,” centers on two estranged teen siblings who decide to reunite their family by going on a journey across Mexico to find 16 magical Lotería cards.