Jennifer Maas: Last News

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The second season of “Squid Game” launches Thursday and Netflix is doing everything in its power to get viewers to start watching as soon as the episodes drop — including offering free in-game rewards for the TV series’ new companion mobile game, “Squid Game: Unleashed,” for each episode you binge. Released Dec.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Daughter of Ruins” author and longtime “Extra” senior producer Yvette Manessis Corporon has been dreaming of her Greek-historical-and-mythology-laced novels being adapted for television since her debut title “When The Cypress Whispers” was released in 2014. Now, 10 years later, the author with Greek ancestry is more hopeful than ever for a chance to break into that side of Hollywood because she can see her latest book “so clearly” as a TV series above all her other novels. “From your mouth to [Reese Witherspoon’s production company] Hello Sunshine’s, everyone and anyone you know in TV production’s ears, yes,” Corporon told Variety during a recent interview, when asked about plans for “Daughter of Ruins” to be developed into a TV series.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Writer and director Nahnatchka Khan, who is best known for sitcoms “Fresh Off the Boat,” “Don’t Trust the B—- In Apartment 23,” and NBC’s “Young Rock” with Dwayne Johnson, is celebrating the launch of her latest laugh, the Stephanie Hsu-led murder comedy “Laid” on Peacock, Thursday with the reveal of her next projects: two more dark comedies, one starring Tony Hale and the other based on the LGBTQ graphic novel “Fuck This Place.” Titled “Boy Next Door,” the in-the-works TV series is inspired by John Hinckley Jr’s release from prison into his misguided and controlling mother’s house, this dark comedy follows a man who made a huge mistake a long time ago and now just wants to live a normal, unremarkable second half of his life: get a regular job, meet a regular girl, learn how to take a selfie. Per the project’s logline, “Boy Next Door” asks the question, are we defined by our worst possible moment? And also, how do you send the emojis that move in a text? Written by Corey Nickerson, the show — which is not yet attached to a network or streaming platform — is produced by Khan’s film and TV production company Fierce Baby Productions (which has a first-look deal with with Universal Television) and CBS Productions with Hale executive producing.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Max is jumping on the year-in-review bandwagon and releasing its own Spotify Wrapped-esque marketing campaign revealing subscribers’ personal viewing habits throughout the year. Launching Thursday, the “Max Rewind” offering will be pushed out across all adult profiles on the Warner Bros.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Two Epic Games board directors have resigned from their positions amid an antitrust inquiry by the Justice Department. The board members had been appointed to the privately held company’s board by minority investor Tencent, which is the China-based owner of Epic competitor Riot Games.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The Game Awards hit record viewership with its 2024 show on Dec. 12, which drew an estimated 154 million global livestreams. That’s up 31% over the 2023 show at 118 million livestreams.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are taking their talents back to Canada. The duo’s production company Point Grey Pictures and Lionsgate, where Point Grey has a first-look TV deal, have struck a pact to develop and produce an original scripted TV series for Bell Media‘s streamer Crave and linear network CTV.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Roku has struck a deal with the X Games for its Roku Channel to become the U.S. streaming home of both the upcoming Winter 2025 competition in Aspen as well as an event set for next summer.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer James Wan‘s Atomic Monster production company has acquired the rights to develop Game Award-nominated indie title “Pacific Drive” into a TV series. Created by Cassandra Dracott from Ironwood Studios, “Pacific Drive” is a retropunk-style driving and survival game set to an experimental electronic music soundtrack that challenges players to escape a surreal and abandoned exclusion zone with their car as their only companion in the dark and chilling world.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “The Boys” has begun shooting its fifth and final season and fans everywhere are speculating wildly on how the Prime Video superhero series will come to an end. Though he’s remaining tight-lipped on specifics, “The Boys” creator and showrunner Eric Kripke said in a recent FYC panel alongside his stars that he’s enjoying the freedom that comes with the final batch of episodes. “It’s really fun when it’s the end,” Kripke told Variety senior entertainment writer Angelique Jackson at the SAG-AFTRA-hosted panel.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Dunder Mifflin — the people person’s paper people — is sending its top employees into “Funko Fusion” as characters from NBC’s “The Office” join the action-adventure video game Friday. Developed by 10:10 Games, the game, which released in September, is filled with Funko Pop! figurine versions of iconic pop culture figures.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer A sequel to the beloved game “Okami” is in the works at Capcom with game director Hideki Kamiya. The untitled game is a followup to the 2006 action-adventure game developed by the now-closed Clover Studio and released for PlayStation 2.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Last of Us” studio Naughty Dog has revealed its next game set up for owner PlayStation: “Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.” The trailer for the title was unveiled out of the 2024 Game Awards Thursday and positioned as the final big announcement of the night ahead of the award for Game of the Year. Naughty Dog revealed the game will star Tati Gabrielle as Jordan with additional casting details to follow.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Netflix is going against its tradition of paywalling its steadily growing offering of mobile games by making its upcoming “Squid Game” battle royale title available for free to non-members for a “limited time” at launch. Debuting Dec.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Game developer Hazelight Studios has revealed its next co-op title for publisher Electronic Arts (EA) following the smash-hit success of 2021’s “It Takes Two“: “Split Fiction,” an action-adventure title, split-screen game where players will jump between sci-fi and fantasy worlds. Per EA and Hazelight Studios, “In ‘Split Fiction,’ players will discover a variety of sci-fi and fantasy mechanics and abilities.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The trailer for “Borderlands 4″ was revealed by Gearbox and 2K Games out of the Game Awards Thursday. Per 2K’s synopsis for “Borderlands 4“: “See if you have what it takes to go down in history as a legendary Vault Hunter as you search for secret alien treasure, blasting everything in sight.” No specific release date was revealed for “Borderlands 4” in the new announcement, but Take-Two’s 2K Games is sticking with promoting a 2025 launch.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The 2024 Game Awards are upon us. The big night for the gaming industry kicked off at 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer A game based on the Justin Timberlake-starring 2011 sci-fi action film “In Time” is launching Thursday on Fortnite as part of a new deal Snoop Dogg‘s Death Row Games has struck to adapted New Regency‘s film library into titles on the popular gaming platform. The collaboration between Death Row Games’ Good Game Champ division will be developed using Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), beginning with “In Time,” which is described as “a natural fit for the dynamic UEFN platform, delivering fans an unparalleled ‘AAA gaming experience.'” The film it’s based on was directed by Andrew Niccol and starred Timberlake alongside Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy and Olivia Wilde and currently holds a 36% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer When Walton Goggins, Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten and Moisés Arias signed on to Jonathan Nolan’s “Fallout” TV series at Amazon‘s Prime Video, the actors didn’t know where the adaptation of the popular Bethesda Game Studios franchise was headed. And that was fine by them, after reading the initial scripts that revealed the post-apocalyptic world their respective characters, Cooper Howard/The Ghoul, Lucy, Maximus and Norm, were surviving in. “We got two episodes.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Rumors are swirling ahead of the 2024 Game Awards Thursday — but they’re not about who will take home the show’s prizes. Instead, most of the buzz ahead of the 10th anniversary of the Geoff Keighley-hosted event, which kicks off at 7:30 p.m.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOILER WARNING: This story includes spoilers for Amazon Prime Video‘s “Secret Level.” Amazon’s new 15-episode adult-animated anthology series “Secret Level” features original stories set within the worlds of various video games. These run the gamut from classic ’80s games to today’s complex tactical titles.