K.T Simpson
During today’s Summer Game Fest, Neil Druckmann, Co-President of Naughty Dog and Co-Creator, Executive Producer, Writer, and Director of the HBO’s “The Last of Us”, released a new image from the forthcoming drama series featuring Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie (see above).
Druckmann was joined onstage by Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker, who voiced Ellie and Joel in “The Last of Us” and “The Last of Us Part II” video games. Johnson and Baker announced that they will appear in HBO’s “The Last of Us” series playing characters different from those they voiced in the games.
Johnson and Baker join previously announced cast members Bella Ramsey, Pedro Pascal, Gabriel Luna, Merle Dandridge, Nico Parker, Murray Bartlett, Nick Offerman, Jeffrey Pierce, and Anna Torv.
Based on the critically acclaimed video game “The Last of Us,” developed by Naughty Dog for the PlayStation® platforms, the story takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.
Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin serve as Co-Creators, Executive Producers, Writers and Directors. Carolyn Strauss, Evan Wells, Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan, and Rose Lam are Executive Producers. Kantemir Balagov, Jasmila Žbanić, Ali Abbasi, Peter Hoar, Jeremy Webb, and Liza Johnson are Directors. THE LAST OF US is a co-production With Sony Pictures Television. PlayStation Productions, Word Games, The Mighty Mint, and Naughty Dog produce.
A new trailer for Stan’s “American Gigolo”, hitting the platform sometime this year, has been released.
Bernthal stars in the series as the iconic male escort Julian Kaye, who was originally played by Richard Gere in Paul Schrader’s classic 1980 film of the same name. Nikki Toscano serves as series showrunner and executive producer for American Gigolo. Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced the original film, will executive produce along with Jonathan Littman, KristieAnne Reed and Russell Rothberg. Bernthal also serves as a producer.
American Gigolo, a present-day reimagining of the iconic 1980 film, follows Julian Kaye (Bernthal) after his wrongful conviction release from 15 years in prison as he navigates his complicated relationships with his former lover Michelle (Gretchen Mol, Boardwalk Empire), his troubled mother, and the people who betrayed him. While Julian struggles to reconcile the escort he was in the past and the man he is today, Detective Sunday (Rosie O’Donnell, SMILF) seeks the truth about the murder that sent Julian to prison all those years ago, unearthing a much larger conspiracy along the way.
Additional casting includes Lizzie Brocheré (Falling Water) as Isabelle, the heiress to a ring of sex workers; Gabriel LaBelle (Dead Shack) as Johnny, a younger version of Julian; Leland Orser (Ray Donovan) as Richard Stratton, a self-made tech billionaire; and guest star Wayne Brady (The Wayne Brady Show) as Julian’s best friend and mentor Lorenzo.
Premiere details for the brand new series American Gigolo are still to come and will be announced soon. American Gigolo is a production of Paramount Television Studios. The series is distributed internationally by Paramount Global Content Distribution.
David Hyde Pierce, attached to return as Niles Crane in a reboot of the classic sitcom “Frasier”, told Deadline that the proposed series has inched too far forward in recent times.
“I don’t know where they stand. I haven’t talked to Kelsey in a while. The last time I talked to him, I knew that it was a work in progress, and I think it still is in the works.
“My feeling was always that they had gone on their way, and I wasn’t really thinking about where they had gone. I went on to other shows. But I think if I saw a script where I went, “Oh my gosh, how interesting. Who would have thought that this is what they’re doing?” That’s why I never say I wouldn’t do it. It’s about how their story is told, because I care a lot about those people, those actors. This is how I always pick my projects, now that I have the luxury of picking them: I take them because I have to. That’s what happened with Julia. I read this script and I thought, I have to do this part. I want to explore this person and explore this relationship. And so, if I were to see a script of a Frasier reboot that I had to do, I would do it.”
