HBO Developing Adaptation Of Ibi Zoboi’s ‘Pride’ From Aziza Barnes, Natasha Rothwell, Alloy Entertainment & Warner Bros

Emmerdale's Jeff Hordley, 51, has been married to his wife and now co-star Zoe Henry, 48, since 2003. In an unearthed column, Zoe admitted that there are benefits to working together, as when Zoe has "upsetting" story lines, Jeff will always "completely understand" her if she is having a "bad day".Jeff was cast as Cain Dingle on Emmerdale in 2003, before having a short break from the show between 2006 and 2009.His wife, Zoe, who plays Rhona Goskirk, has had a permanent role on the show since early 2010.Zoe wrote a column back in March 2019, giving an insight to her daily life.The actress detailed her heavy storylines and how she deals with them.She said to The Sun: "Tough storylines can be heavy going."Rhona, my character on Emmerdale, has been through a lot, including rape and a hysterectomy."But when we cover difficult subjects there’s a really good rapport between the actors and crew as soon as the camera stops rolling."Zoe then continued to praise her husband, and how they both understand each other on set.She continued: "It’s important to have a laugh in-between takes so upsetting stories don’t get you down too much."Working on the same show as Jeff, who plays Cain Dingle, also helps because if one of us is having a bad day then the other will completely understand."Jeff recently addressed his long standing career and why he appeared to have gone on a television hiatus after not being on-screen for some years.It comes after the Cain Dingle actor had made the decision to leave Emmerdale 16 years ago.Speaking on Mike Artistik's Ego Podcast last year, the Dales star admitted that he had his fair share of setbacks.Jeff explained: "It's about knockbacks.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorNetflix bid farewell to several senior programming executives in recent weeks — and the company’s two co-CEOs, Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos, maintained that the turnover is business as usual for the streamer.In September, Sarandos named Bela Bajaria VP of global TV, while VP of original content Cindy Holland was given the “Keeper Test” after 18 years at the company. Other exits: Jane Wiseman departed after a little over six years as VP of originals and head of comedy, while Channing Dungey, VP of original content and head of drama, left two weeks ago and was just named chairman of Warner Bros.

Peter White Television EditorHBO is heading to Hawaii with its latest limited series, The White Lotus, from Enlightened creator Mike White.The premium cable network has ordered six episodes of the series, which will begin production this month on location in Hawaii under COVID-19 guidelines.Created, executive produced, written and directed by White, the series is set at an exclusive tropical resort and follows the exploits of various guests and employees over the span of a week.Murray Bartlett (Looking), Connie Britton (Nashville), Jennifer Coolidge (2 Broke Girls), Alexandra Daddario (True Detective), Fred Hechinger (Eighth Grade), Jake Lacy (Girls), Brittany O’Grady (Little Voice), Natasha Rothwell (Insecure), Sydney Sweeney (Euphoria)

Joe Otterson TV ReporterHBO has ordered the satirical limited series “The White Lotus.”Hailing from writer, director, and executive producer Mike White, the six-episode series is set at an exclusive tropical resort and follows the exploits of various guests and employees over the span of a week. Production is set to begin this month in Hawaii under COVID-19 guidelines.The cast includes: Murray Bartlett, Connie Britton, Jennifer Coolidge, Alexandra Daddario, Fred Hechinger, Jake Lacy, Brittany O’Grady, Natasha Rothwell, Sydney Sweeney, and Steve Zahn.“Mike is an unparalleled talent whose groundbreaking work has transformed both the film and TV space,” said Francesca Orsi, executive vice president of HBO Programming.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorWarnerMedia’s recent restructuring was “spot on,” and the company accelerated those changes to the media division — which had been eyed for 2021 — because of COVID to boost the streaming profile of HBO Max, according to AT&T CEO John Stankey.Stankey, speaking Monday at the Wall Street Journal’s WSJ Live streaming conference, praised WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar’s changes at the company. The changes have “been nothing short of significant and absolutely spot on in terms of the direction,” Stankey said.In August, WarnerMedia laid off hundreds of employees across Warner Bros., HBO and DC Entertainment.

A new superhero has entered the fold. Michael B.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment WriterWhen Warner Bros.

$150 million.Based on a series of historical romance novels by Julia Quinn, “Bridgerton” is a period drama set in England’s Regency era, 1811-1820. Expect top hats, petticoats and dance cards straight out of Jane Austen.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentDominated by the charisma of Swedish-Lebanese lead Fares Fares, a “Westworld” co-star, “Partisan,” a Warner Bros.- production for Scandinavia’s Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT) walked off Wednesday evening with best series at the 3rd Canneseries TV festival.Due to play on NENT’s SVOD service Viaplay, the slow burning and unsettling Nordic Noir sees Fares Fares’ character, Johnny, accept a job at an closed gate organic food farm which is some kind of front for far more sinister activities.Co-created by Amir Chandin and Fares and sold by Federation Entertainment, “Partisan” was part of a 10-title Canneseries competition which painted this year a fairly disturbing portrait of contemporary world.

Will Thorne Staff WriterMindy Kaling has found the four main players for her HBO Max series “The Sex Lives of College Girls.”The comedy has cast Pauline Chalamet (recent “King of Staten Island” star and sister of Timothée), Amrit Kaur (“The D Cut”), Reneé Rapp (“Mean Girls on Broadway”), and Alyah Chanelle Scott (“The Book of Mormon”) to play four roommates at Essex College, a prestigious New England university, who are described as “equal parts lovable and infuriating.”“Sex Lives of College Girls” hails from Kaling International in association with Warner Bros. Television and was picked up for 13 episodes by the streamer in Oct.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter“Insecure” star Nastasha Rothwell and Aziza Barnes have teamed to develop a series based on the Ibi Zoboi novel “Pride” at HBO, Variety has learned.“Pride” is described as a Haitian-Dominican coming of age story explores young love, teenage angst, and gentrification through magical realism fated by the gods of Santeria with an Austenian twist.Rothwell and Barnes both worked on the story for the project, while Barnes will be the writer. Both will serve as executive producers.

Potterheads, get ready for a serious dose of festive cheer courtesy of Hogwarts!

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorTwo of DC’s most iconic superheroes, Batman and Wonder Woman, are getting new serialized podcast stories.Under a licensing pact with Warner Bros.’ DC Entertainment, Serial Box is creating original scripted shows based on the two characters. In “Batman: The Blind Cut,” the Caped Crusader grapples with the fact that he is actually part of the 1%.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterJohn Wells Productions has set up a pair of drama projects to be developed at HBO Max. John Wells and Erin Jontow will executive produce both shows, with Warner Bros.

Peter White Television EditorJohn Wells has set up two more shows at HBO Max including a lifeguard drama from Animal Kingdom writer Matt Kester and a series inspired by the book Things That Make White People Uncomfortable.This comes after The West Wing and Shameless exec producer’s latest HBO Max project, pilot Red Bird Lane, named Susan Sarandon among its cast.Both shows, which are in development, come from John Wells Production via his overall deal with Warner Bros. Television.Ke Nui Road is a contemporary drama set on the North Shore of Oahu, focusing on the relationships between an elite crew of heavy-water lifeguards and the teens and young adults they mentor and train in the junior lifeguard program.

Peter White Television EditorGreg Berlanti’s television adaptation of Green Lantern for HBO Max has found its writers and showrunner.The latest remake of the DC Comics book will be written by Seth Grahame-Smith, writer of The Lego Batman Movie, and Marc Guggenheim, co-creator of Arrow and a writer on the 2011 Green Lantern movie.Grahame-Smith, who at one point was attached to write and direct the long-gestating feature adaptation of The Flash, will showrun the series, which has been handed a ten-part order by the WarnerMedia streaming service.The series is being produced by Berlanti Productions in association with Warner Bros.

Elaine Low Senior TV WriterWarnerMedia is expected to enact a new round of layoffs amid the AT&T-owned company’s ongoing restructuring.According to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, the company is looking to cut costs by as much as 20% and lay off thousands in the coming weeks.That would follow the hundreds of layoffs made in early August that saw Warner Bros. and HBO hardest hit.“Like the rest of the entertainment industry, we have not been immune to the significant impact of the pandemic,” said WarnerMedia in a statement shared with Variety.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media WriterApple TV Plus is joining the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, an entertainment industry group that seeks to crack down on piracy.The move represents a strengthening bond between Apple and the major studios, and draws the company deeply into industry efforts to check the flow of pirated content.Apple will be on the governing board of the group, along with Amazon and the six members of the Motion Picture Association: Disney, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount, Sony Pictures and Warner Bros.ACE was founded in 2017 by the MPA and 30 entertainment companies. At the time, it represented a novel partnership among the legacy studios and the streaming services.

Peter White Television EditorEXCLUSIVE: A sci-fi short story, written by Ken Liu, is being developed as a television series for Amazon by The OA writer Dominic Orlando with Orlando Bloom as exec producer.The Cleaners tells how, in the near future, inanimate objects carry the memories of people’s experiences, and a certain number of the population have the ability to relive those memories by touch. Cleaners are specialists hired to sanitize the objects and relieve emotional burdens these memories may hold.

Peter White Television EditorEXCLUSIVE: Passenger List, the mystery thriller podcast featuring Star Wars’ Kelly Marie Tran, is getting a television remake and has been renewed for a second season.The series, which is produced by Radiotopia from PRX and created by John Scott Dryden, is being developed for the small screen by Weimaraner Republic Pictures, the company behind Blake Lively film The Shallows and Warner Bros Television.It is the latest podcast series being adapted by Lynn Harris and Matti Leshem’s company, which teamed with Chernin Entertainment and Endeavor Content to remake true crime podcast The Clearing from Josh Dean, Pineapple Street Studios and Gimlet Media.

Peter White Television EditorJohn Requa and Glenn Ficarra, who directed the pilot episode of NBC’s This Is Us, have inked a broadcast first-look deal with Fox Entertainment.The pair, who run Zaftig Films with production partner Charlie Gogolak, previously had an overall deal with 20th Century Fox Television.This comes as John Slattery A.I. drama Next, which they directed the pilot for and exec produce, kicks off on Fox on Tuesday October 6 at 9pm.The pair will develop series as well as direct pilots under the deal.