HBO has updated several releases:
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 4, 2018 – HBO and RAI have renewed the drama series MY BRILLIANT FRIEND for a second season, it was announced today by Casey Bloys, president, HBO Programming and Fabrizio Salini, RAI CEO. The eight-episode first season of the show is based on Elena Ferrante’s bestselling book of the same name, which is the first of her four-part series published in the U.S. by Europa Editions. Season two will be based on “The Story of a New Name,” her second book in the series.
“We’re thrilled that Elena Ferrante’s epic story has resonated so powerfully with viewers and critics, and we look forward to the continuing journey of Elena and Lila,” said Bloys.
“RAI is deeply proud of the extraordinary success of MY BRILLIANT FRIEND. It’s an important milestone that confirms our commitment to focusing on international co-production, as well as on the value of Italian talent,” said Salini.
“We are profoundly proud that this story will continue to captivate audiences worldwide,” adds Lorenzo Mieli, CEO of Wildside and a producer of the series, along with Mario Gianani and Domenico Procacci. “We are even prouder that this result was achieved through the creativity, vision and passionate commitment of an extraordinary talented team of Italian professionals, led by Saverio Costanzo.”
MY BRILLIANT FRIEND is the tale of Elena Greco and the most important friend in her life. She met Raffaella Cerullo, whom she has always called Lila, in the first year of primary school in 1950. Set in a dangerous and fascinating Naples, their story goes on to cover more than 60 years of their lives and explores the mystery of Lila, Elena’s brilliant friend and – in a way – both her best friend and her worst enemy.
Filmed in Italian, the eight-episode first season of MY BRILLIANT FRIEND stars newcomers Elisa Del Genio and Ludovica Nasti as the younger versions of Elena and Lila, while Margherita Mazzucco and Gaia Girace portray teenage versions of the characters. All episodes are directed by Saverio Costanzo.
The HBO, RAI FICTION and TIMVISION drama series debuted Sunday, Nov. 18, followed by the second episode on Monday, Nov. 19, with other episodes debuting subsequent Sundays and Mondays, including the Dec. 10 season finale.
Among the early critical raves, Time said the series was “everything the adaptation of a great book should be,” while Rolling Stone observed that it “covers the material with beauty and grace,” adding, “This is a great show with a huge heart.” CNN hailed MY BRILLIANT FRIEND for a “sometimes aching, sometimes stirring, almost invariably beautiful world,” and the Wall Street Journal called the series “a stunning achievement.”
Season one credits: MY BRILLIANT FRIEND is an HBO-RAI Fiction and TIMVISION series, based on the bestselling novel “My Brilliant Friend,” the first of the quadrilogy by Elena Ferrante published in the U.S. by Europa Editions; a Wildside-Fandango Production; produced by Lorenzo Mieli and Mario Gianani for Wildside and by Domenico Procacci for Fandango, in collaboration with RAI Fiction, TIMVISION and HBO Entertainment and in co-production with Umedia. All episodes are directed by Saverio Costanzo. The story and screenplays are by Elena Ferrante, Francesco Piccolo, Laura Paolucci and Saverio Costanzo. Paolo Sorrentino and Jennifer Schuur are the executive producers. Fremantle is the international distributor in association with RAI Com.
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 6, 2018 – HBO received 9 Golden Globe nominations for the upcoming 76th annual Golden Globe Awards, which were announced today in Los Angeles. The Golden Globe Awards will be presented Jan. 6 in Los Angeles.
HBO’s Golden Globe nominations this year include:
* 3 nominations for “Sharp Objects”: Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television; Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television (Amy Adams); Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television (Patricia Clarkson).
* 1 nomination for “Succession”: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television (Kieran Culkin).
* 1 nomination for “The Tale”: Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television (Laura Dern).
* 1 nomination for “Westworld”: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television (Thandie Newton).
Fresh off of his two-month college comedy tour, Pete returns to New York City with newfound confidence in his comedic abilities. While growing more assured, he continues to struggle over what he really wants out of comedy and how to find a happy balance between his old, faith-based self and the new, more ambitious comic he’s becoming.
Created by and starring Pete Holmes, the critically acclaimed comedy series CRASHING returns for its eight-episode third season SUNDAY, JAN. 20 (10:00-10:30 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO. Executive produced by Pete Holmes, Judd Apatow (HBO’s “Girls” and “The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling”), Judah Miller (“Playing House”) and Igor Srubshchik (“Master of None”), the series draws on Holmes’ own experiences as a comedian, providing a nuanced, hilarious look at the state of comedy today.
CRASHING’s third season finds Pete reinvigorated – and no longer crashing on people’s couches – as he reenters the NYC stand-up comedy world following his college tour. But even though he’s improved, that doesn’t mean he’s at the head of the pack. While continuing to orbit around fellow comic and ex-girlfriend Ali (Jamie Lee), he connects with a new woman, Kat (Madeline Wise), who has a unique perspective on the comedy world and isn’t trying to make it big by telling jokes. As Pete edges closer to success one stand-up set at a time, he continues to navigate his faith, dating and the ever-changing comedy scene.
Series veterans featured on season three of CRASHING include: Lauren Lapkus (HBO’s “Animals”) as Pete’s ex-wife, Jessica; George Basil (“Wrecked”) as Leif, Jessica’s former lover; Jamie Lee (“Girl Code”) as fellow comic and former love interest Ali Reissen; Zach Cherry (“You”) as Pete’s manager, “Chicken Wing”; Dov Davidoff (“Shades of Blue”) as Jason; Jermaine Fowler (“Superior Donuts”) as Russell; and Aparna Nancherla (“BoJack Horseman”) as Anaya. Madeline Wise (“Peacekeepers”) joins the series in the recurring role of Kat, an outgoing city girl who inspires Pete to get serious about his career.
Returning guest comics Dave Attell, Artie Lange and John Mulaney appear as versions of themselves. Other established talents making appearances this season are: Ray Romano, Amy Schumer, Estee Adoram, Wayne Federman, Greg Fitzsimmons, Chris Gethard, Kevin Brennan, Elon Gold, Joyelle Johnson, Jessica Kirson, Emo Philips, Colin Quinn, Vanessa Ramos, Modi Rosenfeld, Wil Sylvinces, Marissa Jaret Winokur and Jaboukie Young-White.
The HBO Films presentation ICEBOX will be available for free streaming by nonsubscribers starting Monday, Dec. 10, three days after its debut on HBO, at https://www.hbo.com/movies/icebox or https://www.hbo.com/watch-free-episodes, and will be available for free streaming through Jan. 10.
ICEBOX debuts tonight, FRIDAY, DEC. 7 (8:00-9:25 p.m. ET/PT). Written and directed by Daniel Sawka, the drama tells the story of Óscar, played by Anthony Gonzalez (“Coco”), a 12-year-old Honduran boy who is forced to flee his home and seek asylum in the United States, only to find himself trapped in the U.S. immigration system. Filmed on location in New Mexico, the film was shot primarily in Spanish with English subtitles. CNN called it “wrenching, harrowing” and “beyond timely,” while the Wall Street Journal described it as “haunting.”
ICEBOX is an HBO Films presentation of a Gracie Films production and co-financed with Endeavor Content; producers, James L. Brooks, Richard Sakai, Julie Ansell, David Greathouse; casting by Carla Hool, C.S.A.; director of photography, Carolina Costa; production designer, Sue Tebbutt; editor, Salvador Pérez García; costume designer, Maria Bentfield; music by Steve Mazzaro; score produced by Hans Zimmer.
Medical error is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. It can happen to all ages – including children, espeically at childbirth. You can find out more here.
After a routine partial hip replacement operation leaves the mother of filmmaker and comedian Steve Burrows in a coma with permanent brain damage, what starts as a personal video diary becomes a citizen’s investigation into the state of American health care. Shot over the course of ten years, using archival footage, vérité scenes and interviews with family members and experts, the thought-provoking documentary BLEED OUT debuts MONDAY, DEC. 17 (8:00-9:30 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.
The film will also be available on HBO NOW, HBO GO, HBO On Demand and partners’ streaming platforms.
In 2009, Steve Burrows’ mother, Judie, an active and independent retired teacher, fell while riding her bike and was rushed to the hospital for hip surgery. After months of painful recovery, she fell again. Then, after eight days in the hospital and a second hip surgery, in which she lost approximately half her blood, the 69-year-old fell into a coma and suffered permanent brain damage.
Questioning whether his mother received adequate care in surgery and in the hospital’s “e-ICU” unit, in which doctors sometimes monitor patients remotely by camera, Burrows consulted friends and lawyers, eventually deciding, with his family, to sue for medical malpractice.
BLEED OUT is his harrowing, eye-opening account of the ten years that follow – an endless cycle of medical bills, emergency-room visits and insurance-company red tape. Part medical mystery and legal thriller, part investigative journey and meditation on family, this is a revealing, cautionary tale.
The documentary uses one family’s story to underscore deep flaws in America’s current healthcare system and highlights ways those problems could be fixed. In addition to intimate footage and interviews with members of the Burrows family, the film features observations from experts in the field, including Dr. Marty Makary, M.D., a surgeon at Johns Hopkins and author of “Unaccountable: What Hospitals Won’t Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Health Care,” who contextualizes the issues of health-care policy and medical error.
In Judie’s second year after surgery, Burrows travels bi-weekly from his home in Los Angeles to Milwaukee to assist in her limited recovery and tries to make sense of her medical bills, all while immersing himself in the details of medical error and the increasing use of e-ICUs in hospitals. Four years in, Judie is on Medicaid, her 50 years of life savings wiped out by medical bills. Meanwhile, BLEED OUT follows Burrows and his family over the years as the legal case proceeds and eventually goes to trial.
Throughout, Burrows remains committed to searching for the truth about what happened with his mother’s care, as well as exposing larger, universal issues concerning medical errors in the American healthcare system and how they are addressed.
BLEED OUT is an HBO Documentary Films presentation of a Creative Chaos and The Burrows of Hollywood film in association with Impact Partners; written and directed by Steve Burrows; producers, Ilan Arboleda, Steve Burrows, Tom Donahue; executive producers, Dan Cogan, Jenny Raskin, Geralyn Dreyfous, Steve Edwards; co-producers, Margo Burrows, Jessicya Materano. For HBO: executive producers, Nancy Abraham and Sheila Nevins.
NEW YORK, Dec. 10, 2018 – WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?, the acclaimed documentary from Morgan Neville (the Oscar -winning “20 Feet from Stardom”), will debut SATURDAY, FEB. 9 (8:00-9:35 p.m. ET/PT) on HBO. In addition, HBO will honor Fred Rogers’ contribution and commitment to public television with a special presentation of the film on PBS’ “Independent Lens,” coinciding with the HBO debut.
The documentary will also be available on HBO NOW, HBO GO, HBO On Demand and partners’ streaming platforms.
One of the most celebrated theatrical releases of 2018, WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? takes an intimate look at America’s favorite neighbor: Fred Rogers. The documentary tells the story of a soft-spoken minister, puppeteer, writer and producer whose show was beamed into homes across America daily for more than 30 years. In his beloved television program, “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” Rogers and his cast of puppets and friends spoke directly to young children about some of life’s weightiest issues in a simple, direct fashion. There hadn’t been anything like Mr. Rogers on television before, and there hasn’t been since.
Fred Rogers’ career represented a sustained attempt to present a coherent, beneficent view of how television could be used as a positive force in society. WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? explores his legacy, focusing on his radically kind ideas. While the nation changed around him, Rogers stood firm in his belief about the importance of protecting childhood. This intimate portrait goes beyond zip-up cardigans and the land of make-believe and into the heart of a creative genius who inspired generations of children with compassion and limitless imagination.
Morgan Neville notes, “We’re excited to have such a great partner in HBO to help spread Fred’s message back into the world. And we’re especially excited that HBO has forged a unique collaboration with PBS to ensure that the film reaches the broadest possible audience in February.”
Since its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Jan. 2018, the film has become the top-grossing biographical documentary of all time, earning more than $22 million at the domestic box office. It received three Documentary Critic’s Choice Awards, including Best Documentary, Best Director and Best Editing, as well as the Audience Award at the IFP Gotham Awards. Neville’s film is also nominated for five Cinema Eye Honors, including Best Documentary, the Producers Guild of America award for Best Documentary Motion Picture and the Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary.
WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? is a Focus Features presentation, in association with Impact Partners and PBS/Independent Lens, a Tremolo Production; executive producers, David J. & Linda A. Cornfield, David Stone & David Boies III, Rick Rosenthal & Nancy Stephens, John Boccardo & Derek Esplin, Andrea Van Beuren, Jenifer Westphal, Dan Cogan, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Regina K. Scully; cinematography by Graham Willoughby; edited by Jeff Malmberg & Aaron Wickenden; produced by Morgan Neville, Caryn Capotosto and Nicholas Ma; directed by Morgan Neville.
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 13, 2018 – Production has begun on the HBO Documentary Films presentation NATALIE WOOD: WHAT REMAINS BEHIND, a documentary about the legendary actress, it was announced today by HBO. The feature-length film will explore Wood’s life and career through the unique perspective of her daughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner, and others who knew her best.
From Amblin Television, the documentary will be produced by Gregson Wagner and Manoah Bowman (author of “Natalie Wood: Reflections on a Legendary Life”), with Laurent Bouzereau (“Five Came Back,” “Don’t Say No Until I Finish Talking”) directing and producing. Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey are executive producing for Amblin Television.
NATALIE WOOD: WHAT REMAINS BEHIND will feature previously unseen home movies, photographs, diaries, letters and artifacts, as well as intimate interviews with her friends, family, co-stars and colleagues. The film will re-examine her personal and professional triumphs and challenges, which have often been overshadowed by her tragic death at age 43. The documentary will debut on HBO in 2020.
“I’m looking forward to working with HBO, Amblin Television and our director, Laurent Bouzereau, to create this unprecedented portrait of a woman who was an actress, a legend and ultimately, my mother,” says Natasha Gregson Wagner.
ABOUT AMBLIN TELEVISION
Amblin Television, a long-time leader in quality programming, is a division of Amblin Partners, a content creation company led by Steven Spielberg, with investment partners that include Participant Media, Reliance Entertainment, Entertainment One (eOne), Alibaba Pictures and Universal Pictures. Amblin Television’s co-presidents, Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey, oversee all development, production and programming for the company. Amblin Television currently has ten series in various stages of production including “Bull” for CBS, “Roswell, New Mexico” for the CW, the adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting of Hill House” for Netflix, “Amazing Stories” for Apple, “Halo” for Showtime,”Animaniacs” for Hulu, “Days that Shaped America” for The History Channel, “Why We Hate” and “Cooper’s Treasure” for Discovery, and “Resident Alien” for SYFY. Some of Amblin Television’s previous credits include the Emmy Award-winning drama “The Americans” for FX, Emmy-nominated HBO movie “All The Way” starring Bryan Cranston, “Smash” for NBC, “Under the Dome” for CBS, “Falling Skies” for TNT, “The Borgias” and “The United States of Tara” for Showtime, and “Las Vegas” for NBC.
ABOUT HBO
HBO is one of the most respected and innovative entertainment brands in the world, serving iconic, award-winning programming to 142 million subscribers globally.A subsidiary of Time Warner, Inc., HBO is the world’s most successful pay TV service with an extensive array of programming that includes some of the most notable titles to be on television including Game of Thrones , Big Little Lies , Westworld , The Sopranos ,Sex and the City , Band of Brothers , and The Wire . In the United States, HBO and sister network Cinemax are available across multiple platforms including HBO On Demand , Cinemax On Demand , HBO GO and MAX GO , as well as HBO NOW . Internationally, HBO branded services, including television networks and the standalone streaming product HBO GO , are available in more than 70 countries across Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. HBO and Cinemax programming is also sold into more than 150 countries worldwide.
The HBO Films drama O.G., starring Jeffrey Wright, will debut SATURDAY, FEB. 23 at 10:00 p.m. (ET/PT).
The HBO Documentary Films presentation IT’S A HARD TRUTH AIN’T IT, filmed during the production of O.G., will be available for streaming SATURDAY, FEB. 23 starting at 11:45 p.m. (ET), following the debut of O.G. earlier that evening, and debut MONDAY, FEB. 25 at 10:00 p.m. (ET/PT) on the main HBO channel.
Filmed in Indiana’s Pendleton Correctional Facility, an active maximum-security prison, O.G. follows Louis (Jeffrey Wright), once the head of a prominent prison gang, in the final weeks of his 24-year sentence. His impending release is upended when he takes new arrival Beecher (Theothus Carter), who is being courted by gang leadership, under his wing. Coming to grips with the indelibility of his crime and the challenge of reentering society, Louis finds his freedom hanging in the balance as he struggles to save Beecher. William Fichtner also stars.
Filmed at Pendleton during the same production period as O.G., the documentary IT’S A HARD TRUTH AIN’T IT is co-directed by Madeleine Sackler and 13 men incarcerated at the facility, several of whom were also cast as first-time actors in O.G. These men study filmmaking as a vehicle to explore their memories and how they ended up with decades-long sentences. Animated sequences by Yoni Goodman bring their stories to life.
O.G. is an HBO Films and Maven Pictures Presentation in association with Brookstreet Pictures, a Great Curve Films production of a Madeleine Sackler film; directed by Madeleine Sackler; written by Stephen Belber; executive producers, Sharon Chang, Kareem “Biggs” Burke, Mark Steele, Nic Marshall; producers, Madeleine Sackler and Boyd Holbrook.
IT’S A HARD TRUTH AIN’T IT is an HBO Documentary Films presentation of a Great Curve Films and Stacey Reiss production; a film by Dennis Brown, Marshaun Buggs, Al’Jonon Coleman, James Collins, Franklin Cox, Brandon Crider, Clifford Elswick, Quentis Hardiman, Joseph Henderson, Charles Lawrence, Herb Robertson, Madeleine Sackler, Rushawn Tanksley, Mark Thacker; producers, Madeleine Sackler, Stacey Reiss; executive producers, Kareem “Biggs” Burke, Sharon Chang, Greg Gunn, dream hampton, Lisette Nieves, Marshall Sonenshine, Mark Steele.
