Cruella will be available free to Disney+ subscribers on Aug. 27. It stars Oscar winners Emma Stone (La La Land) and Emma Thompson (Howard’s End). The live-action film centers on the rebellious early days of one of cinema’s favorite villains: Cruella de Vil. Cruella is set in 1970s London amid the punk-rock revolution and follows a young grifter named Estella. Her design flair catches the eye of Baroness von Hellman, a terrifying fashion legend (Thompson). Their relationship causes Estella to embrace her wicked side and become the revenge-hungry Cruella.
Here are other deals and future projects:
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American Rust, based on Philipp Meyer’s celebrated novel, premieres on Showtime on Sept. 12. The story is told through the eyes of Del Harris (Jeff Daniels), the compromised chief of police of a Pennsylvania Rust Belt town. When a murder occurs, Harris must decide how far he will go to protect the son of the woman he loves (Maura Tierney). Coercion has also been picked up by Showtime, based on the life of Rebecca Bender, a survivor of sex trafficking. Sydney Chandler (Pistol) will star. It begins as Bender escapes that world and becomes an advocate for justice.
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Irreverent is a Peacock 10-episode series, a co-production between Peacock and Netflix Australia. Created by Paddy Macrae (Wanted), the show will be set and filmed in Australia. A criminal from Chicago bungles a heist and is forced to hide out in a small Australian reef town in Far North Queensland posing as the new church reverend.
Peacock
Peacock is a subscription video streaming service from NBCUniversal that gives access to up to 15,000 hours of content including original shows, blockbuster movies, and classic television series.
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Hank Azaria (Brockmire) will play Apple CEO Tim Cook in Showtime’s anthology series, Super Pumped. The first season tracks the rise of Uber. Based on Mike Isaac’s book “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber,” the series will “depict the roller-coaster ride of the upstart transportation company, embodying the highs and lows of Silicon Valley,” according to Showtime. “Even amid the radical upheaval generated within the global tech capital, Uber stands out as both a marvel and a cautionary tale …” Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick.
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AMC+ will kick off production on the original series Firebite in South Australia this week, with Yael Stone (Orange is the New Black), Rob Collins (Cleverman, Extraction), and Callan Mulvey (Avengers: Endgame) in leading roles. Firebite is a spin on the vampire genre and fantasy series that follows two Indigenous Australian hunters, Tyson (Collins) and Shanika (Barnes-Cowan), on their quest to battle the last colony of vampires in the middle of the South Australian desert. The eight, one-hour episodes will debut on the steamer this winter.
Netflix
Netflix is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 3,000+ movies, 2,000+ TV Shows, and Netflix Originals like Stranger Things, Mindhunter, Queer Eye, and Russian Doll. They are constantly adding new shows and movies — and have even begun creating original films like The Irishman (Robert De Niro, Al Pacino) and Dolemite is My Name (Eddie Murphy).
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YouTube Originals has released three new episodes of Kid Correspondent, with six more set to launch this fall and winter. Kid Correspondent, produced by SoulPancake, follows kid reporters as they investigate topics relevant to today’s children. The new episodes discuss preparing for going back to school, how to be a good friend, and making mistakes. More three-episode batches are set to be released in October and November/December. Planned guest appearances for the new episodes include Sophia Bush, Rainn Wilson, Marcus Samuelsson, the Merrell Twins, and Jerry O’Connell.
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Three new shows were announced by Disney+ UK. They include the 10-part, live-action Nautilus, based on the Jules Verne classic novel “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.” It tells the origin story of Verne’s iconic character Captain Nemo and his legendary submarine, The Nautilus. Also on board is Culprits, a funny heist series, starring Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Candyman), and Wedding Season starring Rosa Salazar (Alita: Battle Angel), who leads the rom-com series. It is about two people who shouldn’t be together, but who can’t stay away from one another. The commissions are part of Disney’s commitment to produce content with European companies. The goal is 50 productions in Europe by 2024.
Disney+
Disney+ is a new ad-free video streaming service which offers exclusive series and films from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, and more. Disney unveiled that their streaming service will debut in the U.K. on March 24th, 2020.
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Haystack News has added Africanews to its streaming roster of on-demand world-news providers. “Africanews offers a fresh and unique perspective consistent with the quality journalism we have from Euronews,” said Daniel Barreto, co-founder-CEO at Haystack TV. Haystack News’ portfolio includes Al-Jazeera English, CBC, DW, Euronews, FRANCE24, and i24NEWS. Africanews was launched as an independent news channel in 2016 as part of Euronews.
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CBSN Baltimore has just launched — the 12th local direct-to-consumer station in the CBSN streaming news services. WJZ Baltimore is the station behind CBSN Baltimore, which said it will add more hours of Ravens news coverage than any other station in the market. CBSN launched in 2014 and the final CBSN local platform in the station group will be CBSN Miami. All are ad-supported.