News Analysis India

Tag: Netflix

  • ‘Stranger Things’ star Joe Keery says action is the big part, but relationships core of the show

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Amid its big action moments, “Stranger Things” is a globally popular phenomenon with a strong emotional core, says series star Joe Keery.

    Relationships are the “backbone” of the sci-fi horror drama show, said Keery about part one of the fourth season of the series which is streaming on Netflix.

    “This whole season, a big part of it, is action. Reading it on the page I felt, ‘Wow, there is a lot for everyone to do’. Everybody has a lot of moments. The relationships are the core of the show, that is the backbone of why we are rooting for these characters. That continues and evolves in this season,” Keery said in a virtual group interview.

    The 30-year-old actor plays Steve Harrington, one of the most beloved characters on “Stranger Things”, who rose to prominence in season two.

    Set in the 1980s, the popular Netflix series takes a look at the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, in the US where a secret government lab accidentally opens the door to another dimension referred to as the Upside Down.

    Keery, who started out in a recurring role during the show’s debut in 2016 before being promoted as a series regular, said the “camaraderie” among the ensemble cast made work more fun.

    The latest season of the series, created by Matt and Ross Duffer, also stars Winona Ryder, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Millie Bobby Brown, Natalia Dyer and Maya Hawke, among others.

    “The action is fun, but the reason the show is so great to work on is because of the cast we have. Everything feels more natural, it is encouraging and a collaborative environment. That is really all you could ask for, something that I love and look forward to each time I come to film,” he added.

    ALSO READ: Matt, Ross Duffer on ‘Stranger Things’ S4: This is our ‘Game of Thrones’ season

    “Stranger Things 4” has been split into two parts – while the first volume released on May 27, the second will launch on July 1. With three successful seasons, “Stranger Things” has emerged as one of the biggest series of recent times with a loyal fan following across the world.

    The hysteria around the show is “kind of unbelievable”, said Keery. “It is cool to be a part of something that so many people love,” he added.

    Hawke, who joined the show’s third season as Robin, said she is grateful that the fans were welcoming of her despite her being a new entrant in the universe.

    “I was nervous about it, because whenever you join a beloved environment, it is always possible that fans would feel, ‘We don’t like this new character! Give us more screen time with people we already love’. I have definitely felt that way with shows before when they have brought new storylines. But I am so grateful that their (fans) reaction has been positive,” she said.

    “Stranger Things” has also been credited for bringing back the 1980s to pop culture with its visual grammar, inspired by the works of filmmaker Steven Spielberg, horror film legend John Carpenter, and author Stephen King, among others.

    Hawke, daughter of Hollywood stars Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, said the show doffs its hat to the references from her parents’ generation. “It’s also so much (about) our parents’ generation. The different aspects of their youth are there and that has always been a cool, familial thing because there are so many sentimental references to things that were important to them as teenagers or young adults. That is a nice familial thing,” she added Caleb McLaughlin, Gaten Matarazzo, Charlie Heaton, and David Harbour round out the cast of “Stranger Things”.

  • Hollywood star Kevin Spacey charged with sexual offences against men in UK

    By PTI

    LONDON: Hollywood star Kevin Spacey has been charged with four counts of sexual assault against three men, the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Thursday.

    The 62-year-old Oscar-winning American actor, behind famous films such as ‘Usual Suspects’ and ‘American Beauty’ and the Netflix political drama ‘House of Cards’, has also served as artistic director of London’s Old Vic theatre from 2004 to 2015.

    “The CPS has authorised criminal charges against Kevin Spacey, 62, for four counts of sexual assault against three men,” said Rosemary Ainslie, Head of the CPS Special Crime Division.

    “He has also been charged with causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent. The charges follow a review of the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police in its investigation,” she said.

    “The Crown Prosecution Service reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against Mr Spacey are active and that he has the right to a fair trial,” she added. The CPS said it is extremely important there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.

    The charges date back to March 2005 in London against a man now in his 40s and two others dated August 2008 against a man now in his 30s. A charge dated April 2013 relates to sexual assault in Gloucestershire, south-west England, against a man now in his 30s. The charges announced this week follow an investigation launched by Scotland Yard back in 2017.

    “The CPS’ charging decision follows a review of the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police Service in its investigation,” the Met Police said.

    The CPS highlighted that it is not for the prosecution service to decide whether a person is guilty of a criminal offence, but to make “fair, independent and objective assessments about whether it is appropriate to present charges for a criminal court to consider”.

    It noted that the CPS assessment of any case is not in any sense a finding of, or implication of, any guilt or criminal conduct.

    It is not a finding of fact, which can only be made by a court, but rather an assessment of what it might be possible to prove to a court, in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors, the CPS said. The actor, whose full name is Kevin Spacey Fowler, has previously denied allegations against him.

  • Ricky Gervais defends new Netflix ‘SuperNature’ after uproar over trans jokes

    By PTI

    LOS ANGELES: British actor-comedian Ricky Gervais has defended his latest Netflix special “SuperNature”, which has attracted criticism from the transgender community for a string of graphic jokes aimed at them.

    In the hour-long special, which was released on the streaming service on Wednesday, Gervais made several remarks about the community that trans activists have slammed.

    Trans rights organisation GLAAD criticised the comedian for the special which it said was full of “graphic, dangerous, anti-trans rants masquerading as jokes”. Talking to UK’s The Spectator, Gervais said his jokes were not aimed at “trans folk, but trans activist ideology”.

    “I’ve always confronted dogma that oppresses people and limits freedom of expression. It was probably the most current, most talked about, taboo subject of the last couple of years. I deal in taboo subjects and have to confront the elephant in the room,” the 60-year-old actor-comedian said.

    In a separate interview with BBC One’s The One Show, Gervais said comedy is for “getting us over taboo subjects”. 

    “I think that’s what comedy is for, really – to get us through stuff, and I deal in taboo subjects because I want to take the audience to a place it hasn’t been before, even for a split second. Most offense comes from when people mistake the subject of a joke with the actual target,” he said.

    On Wednesday, GLAAD had issued a statement, lambasting the comedian for his “anti-gay rhetoric” and spreading “inaccurate information about HIV”.

    “We watched the Ricky Gervais ‘comedy’ special on Netflix so you don’t have to. It’s full of graphic, dangerous, anti-trans rants masquerading as jokes. He also spouts anti-gay rhetoric and spreads inaccurate information about HIV,” the organistion said.

    “Attention Ricky and Netflix: people living with HIV today when on effective treatment, lead long and healthy lives and cannot transmit HIV to others,” it added. GLAAD also criticised Netflix for giving a go-ahead to anti-LGBTQ content.

    “While Netflix is home to some groundbreaking LGBTQ shows, it refuses to enforce its own policy in comedy. The LGBTQ community and our allies have made it very clear that so-called comedians who spew hate in place of humor, and the media companies who give them a platform, will be held accountable. Meanwhile, there are PLENTY of funny LGBTQ comedians to support,” the statement concluded.

    Last year, Dave Chappelle’s Netflix special “The Closer” generated a huge backlash over remarks about the trans and LGBTQ+ communities and even sparked an employee walkout at the streaming service’s Sunset Boulevard building in Los Angeles.

  • Russo Bros ‘big fans’ of Dhanush, tease actor’s return if ‘The Gray Man’ gets sequel

    By PTI

    LOS ANGELES:  Joe Russo says he and his directing partner-brother Anthony Russo are big fans of Dhanush, who plays “one of the top assassins of the world” in their upcoming Netflix film “The Gray Man”, a role they specifically wrote for the Indian actor.

    The one half of the director duo, best known for Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame”, said if “The Gray Man” receives audience’s love, there is a possibility that the actor will feature in the films of the potential franchise.

    “Anthony and I are big Dhanush’s fans. We wrote this role specifically for him. He’s a sort of classic bada** character, who shows up to combat the hero and complicate the film. He’s a fun character. He’s unique.”

    “Dhanush has a great presence on camera and the character is almost mystical in a way. The intention is if audiences like this film, we expand out the storytelling from here, and this is a fascinating character to move forward in that world,” Joe Russo said on Tuesday night in a Twitter space session hours after the streamer dropped the trailer of “The Gray Man”.

    While the details of the role played by Dhanush are yet to be disclosed by the makers, as per the new poster shared by Netflix on Monday, the National Award winner’s character is described as a “lethal force”.

    Joe Russo said Dhanush plays “one of the top assassins of the world” who is sent after the titular ‘Gray Man’, played by Ryan Gosling in the movie. “He’s got two incredible fights in the film,” he added.

    According to the streamer, The Gray Man is CIA operative Court Gentry (Gosling), aka, Sierra Six, who is plucked from a federal penitentiary and recruited by his handler, Donald Fitzroy, played by Billy Bob Thornton. 

    Gentry was once a highly-skilled, Agency-sanctioned merchant of death. But now the tables have turned and Six is the target, hunted across the globe by Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans), a former cohort at the CIA, who will stop at nothing to take him out.

    Agent Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas) has his back. He’ll need it,” reads the film’s official synopsis. Based on the novel “The Gray Man” by Mark Greaney, the screenplay is by Joe Russo, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.

    Joe Russo also said while the film was a complete story as a standalone, there were a lot of elements that speak to possibilities about where characters can go further. “With our partners, Chris Markus and Stephen Mcfeely, we are starting to conceive a large part of what we do as universes and ‘The Gray Man’ is definitely an example of that.”

    The film also stars Regé-Jean Page, Jessica Henwick, Wagner Moura, Alfre Woodard, Julia Butters, Eme Ikwuakor, and Scott Haze. It will premiere on Netflix on July 22.

  • J K Simmons joins Netflix thriller ‘Our Man from Jersey’

    By Express News Service

    Academy Award-winner JK Simmons is the latest actor to be cast in Netflix’s upcoming spy thriller, Our Man from Jersey, which has Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry in the lead. The film, which is helmed by Julian Farino, also features Jackie Earle Haley, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jessica De Gouw and Alice Lee in pivotal roles.

    Written by David Guggenheim and Joe Barton, the story revolves around Mike (Wahlberg), a down-to-earth construction worker from Jersey, who is quickly thrust into the world of super spies and secret agents when his high school ex-girlfriend Roxanne (Berry) recruits him on a high-stakes U.S. intelligence mission.

  • ‘Daredevil’ series in the works at Disney Plus 

    By PTI

    LOS ANGELES: A new series based on Marvel superhero Daredevil is being developed by streaming platform Disney Plus.

    According to Variety, Matt Corman and Chris Ord are attached to write and executive produce the show.

    The “Daredevil” series was expected to return in a new form after it was cancelled by Netflix in 2018 following a three-season run.

    Rumours about the show started doing the rounds after actor Charlie Cox reprised his role of Matt Murdock aka Daredevil in “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and Vincent D’Onofrio appeared as Wilson Fisk in the Disney+ series “Hawkeye.” Marvel Studios has not announced the project officially as of now.

  • Matt, Ross Duffer on ‘Stranger Things’ S4: This is our ‘Game of Thrones’ season

    In 2020, the streamer had confirmed that Harbour's Jim Hopper will return for the fourth season after the character had seemingly died towards the end of the third season.

  • Black Mirror set to return as an anthology series

    By Express News Service

    Three years after Season 5 of the dystopian drama premiered on Netflix in June 2019, as per sources, a new anthology series of Black Mirror is shaping up and is in development at Netflix, which was recently rocked by subscriber loss.

    While details about specific stories are being kept under wraps, Variety said that Season 6 will have more episodes than Season 5, which comprised just three starring Andrew Scott, Anthony Mackie, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Topher Grace, and Miley Cyrus.

    A source close to the production told Variety that the latest season is more cinematic in scope, with each instalment being treated as an individual film.  This is, of course, in line with recent seasons of Black Mirror, for which episodes usually exceeded 60 minutes and had incredibly high production values.

    The new season of Black Mirror is the first to emerge since creator Charlie Brooker and his creative partner Annabel Jones left their production company House of Tomorrow, which was backed by Endemol Shine Group, in January 2020. It wasn’t long before the pair set up shop under the new production banner Broke and Bones, and Netflix quickly invested in the company through a mega-deal in which it acquired parts of the business over five years, for a sum that could reach $100 million.

    After the exit of Brooker and Jones from House of Tomorrow, the rights of the hit dystopian drama show stayed with parent company Endemol Shine Group, which was ultimately acquired by Banijay Group in the summer of 2020. That arrangement effectively prevented Brooker and Jones from producing any more seasons for Netflix until a deal was hammered out with Banijay.

  • Chris Evans teases ‘The Gray Man’ character Llyod Hansen: All he wants is anarchy

    By PTI

    LONDON: Hollywood star Chris Evans says his character Llyod Hansen from “The Gray Man” is the antithesis of Steve Rogers/Captain America, the fan-favourite superhero he played in multiple Marvel movies.

    For the upcoming Netflix actioner, Evans has reunited with Anthony and Joe Russo with whom he worked on two “Captain America” films as well as two “Avengers” movies.

    Also starring Ryan Gosling, the movie is based on Mark Greaney’s 2009 novel of the same name and revolves around freelance assassin and former CIA operative Court Gentry.

    It follows Gentry (Gosling) as he is hunted across the world by Lloyd Hansen (Evans), a former member of Gentry’s CIA team.

    “It does seem that I’ve aggressively gone 180 (degrees) from Steve Rogers. But it just kind of unfolded that way,” Evans told Empire magazine. The 40-year-old actor said Hansen is a “trainwreck of a human being”.

    “That guy can be anything in any scene, because all he wants is anarchy,” Evans added.

    The “Knives Out” star said he is a fan of The Russo Brothers and can do “pretty much anything they ask me to do”.

    “And this is a character I’ve never been able to play. He’s so liberated and free and honest. What I like about him is that you should almost fear his smile more than his scowl. I think he understands that what he does is bad and harmful, but I think he considers himself necessary. He thinks he’s a disrupter,” Evans added.

    “The Gray Man” will also feature Dhanush, Ana de Armas, Rege-Jean Page, Jessica Henwick, Billy Bob Thornton, Alfre Woodard and Wagner Moura. The Russo Brothers have produced the project through their AGBO banner.

    Joe Russo wrote the script with “Avengers: Endgame” screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. The film is set for a limited release on July 15, followed by its premiere on Netflix on July 22.

  • Never Have I Ever  Season 3 premiere date revealed

    By Express News Service

    Devi and her goof-ups will continue as the third season of Never Have I Ever is returning to Netflix soon. The streaming giant announced that the show will premiere on August 12. The successful coming-of-age drama, created by Mindy Kaling of The Office fame, chronicles the struggles of Devi (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), an Indian-American student grappling with the sudden loss of her father.

    The second season ended with Paxton (Barnet) and Devi patching things up and dancing at the prom. According to season three stills, it appears that the couple is doing well. Netflix also released new photos featuring cast Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Darren Barnet, Jaren Lewison, Richa Moorjani, Poorna Jagannathan, Lee Rodriguez, and Ramona Young.

    Created by Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher, the fourth and final season is expected to premiere sometime in 2023. The show also has tennis great John McEnroe as the narrator. Never Have I Ever is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with 3 Arts Entertainment, Original Langster, and Kaling International.