TV news roundup: HBO Max, The Flintstones, The Fugitive, Poldark, Paper Girls and much more

Welcome to the weekly TV news round-up, where we go into the latest TV news regarding renewals, cancellations, and pick-ups. This week we have the news over the past two weeks.

Renewed

Netflix has renewed its supernatural school drama The Society for a second season.

HBO has renewed its bleak teen drama Euphoria for a second season. The series follows high school student Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman (Spider-Man: Far From Home) as she is just released from drug rehab.

Cancelled

Freeform had picked up and now has already cancelled Unrelated, a comedy series from Kenya Barris (Black-ish). According to Deadline, Freeform will not go forward with the comedy about two estranged sisters that come together again after a genetic test, before even one episode was shot. It is expected the network will retool the series with a new writer.

Internationally co-produced crisis and hostage negotiation series Ransom has been cancelled after three seasons. American broadcaster CBS and German broadcaster RTL originally cancelled the series after its first season, but CBS and Canadian broadcaster Global and French broadcaster TF1 then renewed it for a second season. Season 3 was renewed by CBS and Global, but a fourth season will now clearly not happen.

Picked up

Netflix has ordered an animated TV series adaption of (notoriously difficult) 1930s cartoon styled platformer Cuphead from developer Studio MDHR. The Cuphead Show!, as it will be called, will be animated in the same style (obviously) and will expand on the world in which brothers Cuphead and Mugman have their adventures. The series will be produced by Netflix Animation and has Dave Wasson (Mickey Mouse Shorts) and Cuphead creators Chad and Jared Moldenhauer among its executive producers. Here is a trailer of the video game, available on PC, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch (sadly not on PlayStation 4), to get a taste…

Amazon Prime Video has given a series commitment to an adaption of Brian K. Vaughan (Marvel’s Runaways, Saga) and Cliff Chiang’s (Wonder Woman) Image comic Paper Girls. The story follows a group of four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls uncover the story of a lifetime in the early hours of Halloween 1988. Going with that synopsis it is possible it series will be Amazon’s answer to Netflix’s Stranger Things, which also is about a group of teens in the 1980s dealing with otherworldly stuff. Stephany Folsom (Toy Story 4) is set to write the new series.

The Paramount Network has given a series order to a prequel TV series to Jonathan Glazer’s British crime movie Sexy Beast, starring Ray Winstone (Black Widow), Sir Ben Kingsley (The Jungle Book) and Ian McShane (John Wick), from 2000. The series will be written by Michael Caleo (The Sopranos) and will tell the origin of Winstone’s Gal Dove, a master thief and his descent into the London underworld in the 1990s. Here is the trailer of the movie to get a taste…

Upcoming mobile optimized video platform Quibi, which presents scripted and non-scripted videos upwards to 10 minutes, has been giving a number of series orders. From Nick Santora (Scorpion) and Warner Bros. TV comes a reboot of The Fugitive, based upon the original 1963-1967 ABC series created by Roy Huggins about a wrongfully convicted escapee, which in 1993 was adapted as a movie starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones of which the latter would also star in the sequel U.S. Marshals. Also coming from Santora is a currently untitled Liam Hemsworth (The Hunger Games) starring action series, about a man who before he dies wants his pregnant wife to be taken care and therefore accepts to participate in a deadly game. Wait, didn’t he already play in such a movie? Then there is The Now, a comedy series about a suicidal man who turns his life around when he finds out his brother and father already committed suicide from Oscar winner Peter Farrelly (Green Book), Steve Leff (The Ranch) and Pete Jones (Hall Pass). Musical comedy Royalties will follow a songwriter duo and their work of making one hit after another, with real-life entertainment personalities portraying fictional music stars, written by and starring Darren Criss (Glee). And then there is a series adaption of Brian Robbins’s 1999 high school American football movie Varsity Blues, written by Tripper Clancy (Stuber). Here are the trailers of the movie The Fugitive and Varsity Blues to get a taste of what the series could be…

Other developments

CBS All Access has released a new (animated) poster for the upcoming Star Trek: Picard.

Another step forward for Amazon Prime Video’s big-budget epic fantasy series based upon J.R.R. Tolkien’s works set in Middle-earth, as Deadline knows that J.A. Bayona (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Penny Dreadful) will direct the first two episodes of the Second Age set series, which is centuries before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Variety knows that Warner Bros. Animation and Elizabeth Banks’ Brownstone Productions are developing a prime time animated and adult orientated reboot of Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Flintstones. No outlet is currently attached to the project, but the original series ran for six seasons of 166 episodes in total between 1960 and 1966 on ABC. This is also not the first attempt of bringing The Flintstones back, as Seth McFarlane (Family Guy, The Orville) was busy with a revival in 2011.

Netflix is teaming up with Zack Snyder (Watchmen, 300) and Jay Olivia (Batman: The Dark Knight Return, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox) in developing an anime original series based upon Norse mythology. Both Snyder and Olivia will write the series and be executive producers. Olivia will also be the director, while Snyder, his wife Deborah Snyder and Wesley Coller will produce through Stone Quarry Animation, which is owned by all above.

WarnerMedia has confirmed that the rumoured name of their upcoming streaming service will indeed be HBO Max. The service will carry HBO programming, like the upcoming Watchmen and Game of Thrones prequel series; original series, like Dune: The Sisterhood and Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai; new The CW series, like Batwoman; and of course the Warner Bros. TV library with hit series like Friends and The Big Bang Theory. The service has no exact launch date or official price yet, but the trailer below indicated sometime in 2020 and rumours are that the service will cost you $17 a month. It is unclear what the plans are or even if there are plans internationally for the service. Going with the tweet below from Netflix WarnerMedia series seem to stick with the platforms they are currently are internationally. If that is the case, what will happen with the HBO Max original series, will they become HBO Originals, for example?

Trailers

The BBC has released a promo for the fifth and final series of Cornwall-set costume drama Poldark, which starts on Sunday, July 14.

Facebook Watch has released a trailer for their animated stone age comedy series Human Discoveries. It premieres on Tuesday, July 16.

Hulu has released a trailer for the second season of horror series Light as a Feather, which will drop the first eight episodes on Friday, July 26 and then continue the season on Friday, October 4.

Fox has released a short look at their Beverly Hill 90210 revival, which starts on Wednesday, August 7.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip0rXqKETSs

HBO has released a trailer for the second season of Succession, which starts on Sunday, August 11.

AMC has released a trailer for the second season of Lodge 49, which begins airing on Monday, August 12.

Starz has released a trailer for the sixth and final season of Power, which starts on Sunday, August 25.

Hulu released a first teaser for Wu-Tang: An American Saga, which premieres on Wednesday, September 4.

That’s it for this week, but join us next time when we round-up the TV news of that week.

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