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Exclusive: The Walking Dead: World Beyond’s Alexa Mansour has joined Paramount+’s esports series Players.

The docu-style series comes from Peabody-Award winning American Vandal co-creators Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault, Funny or Die, Riot Games and CBS Studios.

Co-created and executive produced by Yacenda and Perrault, who also directs, Players follows a fictional pro League of Legends esports team, as they pursue their first championship after years of close calls and heartache. To win it all, they will need their prodigy, a 17-year-old rookie, and their 27-year-old veteran to put their egos aside and work together.

Players is produced by CBS Studios in association with Funny Or Die. Funny Or Die’s Joe Farrell and Mike Farah also serve as executive producers alongside Tim McAuliffe, Riot Games, 3Arts’ Ari Lubet and Brillstein Entertainment Partners’ Todd Sellers.

Mansour will recur as Emma, a popular streamer who has a true love...

Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx and Will Forte will star in Strays, an animated comedy that Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar director Josh Greenbaum is helming for Universal, Deadline has confirmed.

The film combining CGI and live-action elements follows an abandoned dog (Ferrell) who teams up with other strays, including one portrayed by Foxx, to get revenge on his former owner (Forte).

American Vandal‘s Dan Perrault scripted the film, which is now in post-production. Greenbaum is producing alongside Picturestart’s Erik Feig, Louis Leterrier, Phil Lord, Chris Miller and Lord Miller President of Film, Aditya Sood, with Jessica Switch and Lord Miller’s Nikki Baida exec producing, and Picturestart’s Julia Hammer serving as co-producer.

SVP of Production Development Jeyun Munford and Director of Development Tony Ducret are overseeing the project for the studio.

The new film currently being shot by Mabrouk El Mechri - a Les Films du Kiosque production sold by Gaumont – gathers together a cast composed of Sabrina Ouazani, Ramzy Bedia and Eye Haïdara. Having kicked off on 8 June, filming on Kung Fu Zohra by Mabrouk El Mechri is now set to wrap on 31 July at the Épinay Studios. This will be the filmmaker’s 4th feature film following on from Virgil (2005), Jcvd (2008) and the American work The Cold Light of Day (2012). Also the focus of much acclaim for the series Maison close and Nox, the director is uniting the likes of Sabrina Ouazani, popular actor Ramzy Bedia (at his best in South Terminal and Vandal, among other works,...

Netflix’s latest true crime documentary anthology series “Trial by Media” opens with a chapter on a story from the periphery of ’90s daytime TV that may not be a collective household memory. Still, the story of the murder of Scott Amedure makes for an illustrative first chapter in the way that legal proceedings and press coverage have become intertwined in the national consciousness.

It tells the story behind an unaired episode of “The Jenny Jones Show,” a daytime TV installment that saw Amedure profess his feelings for Jonathan Schmitz in front of a live studio audience. Just days after the taping, Schmitz approached Amedure and shot him. Charged with murder, the heated public debate over Schmitz’s guilt or innocence centered on whether or not his feelings of embarrassment were justification for his actions.

The subsequent trials — both in the Schmitz murder case and the Amedure family’s lawsuit...

HBO Max has ordered a pilot and five additional scripts for Head of the Class, a half-hour multi-camera comedy based on the popular 1986 ABC comedy series, from American Vandal writers Amy Pocha and Seth Cohen, Uncle Buck creators Steven Cragg and Brian Bradley, Bill Lawrence and his Doozer Productions and Warner Horizon Scripted Television, which produced the original series and where Doozer is based.

Written by Pocha and Cohen, based on the original series created by Rich Eustis and Michael Elias, the reimagined Head of the Class revolves around a group of overachieving high school students who meet their greatest challenge — a teacher who wants them to focus less on grades and more on experiencing life.

Pocha and Cochen will pen the pilot. They will also executive produce and serve as co-showrunners, along with Cragg and Bradley. Doozer’s Bill Lawrence and Jeff Ingold executive produce. Liza Katzer is co-executive producer for Doozer,...

Nicolas Cage is headed to television — as Joe Exotic, the subject of Netflix's breakout docuseries Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness.

Cage will play Joe in an eight-episode scripted series from CBS Television Studios and Imagine Television. It is based on a Texas Monthly story published in 2019.

American Vandal showrunner Dan Lagana, who has an overall deal at CBS TV Studios, and Paul Young optioned the article in June 2019, well before Tiger King became a word-of-mouth phenomenon. Cage had been in talks to play the lead role since April. CBS TV Studios and Imagine are taking the show out to ...

The lineup for the 23rd annual Urbanworld Film Festival was announced Friday, with Tony-award winning broadway actor Cynthia Erivo and Emmy award-winning director Roger Ross Williams making appearances at the event, which is geared towards representing and celebrating diverse, international voices in film, music videos, television, screenplays and shorts.

Director and co-writer Kasi Lemmons will open the festival Sept 18 with her Focus Features biopic “Harriet,” following the influential life of abolitionist Harriet Tubman who led slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad. Following the screening, star Erivo, Lemmons and executive producers Debra Martin Chase and Daniela Taplin Lundberg will discuss the film with CBS This Morning Saturday’s Michelle Miller moderating. Lemmons is this year’s festival ambassador.

Other notable films include HBO’s documentary “The Apollo,” which features archival footage to chronicle the history of Harlem’s landmark venue the Apollo Theater. A Q&a with director Williams and...

With Netflix continuing to churn out more and more original content, it’s no surprise to see that the streaming giant amassed a whopping 117 Emmy nominations this year, up slightly from 112 last year. (See the network-by-network breakdown.) That huge number is led by limited series “When They See Us” (16 noms), comedy “Russian Doll” (13), nature doc “Our Planet” (10) and drama “Ozark” (9). However, seven of your favorite Netflix shows were snubbed by the TV academy this year, including former Emmy contenders and several new offerings. See the list below:

“After Life” — Ricky Gervais‘ latest Netflix series tells the story of Tony Johnson (Gervais), who becomes depressed and suicidal following the death of his wife. The dark comedy had an outside chance at getting in for Best Comedy Actor for Gervais, a two-time Emmy champ for producing “The Office” (2006) and starring in “Extras” (2007).

SEE2019 Emmy nominations complete list: All the nominees for the...

After competing at the Primetime Emmys for seven years as a limited series, FX’s “American Horror Story” has been shifted to the outstanding drama categories.

The Television Academy announced its ruling on Tuesday, also announcing that two other series that previously entered as limited series, USA’s “The Sinner” and Netflix’s “American Vandal,” would also now compete in traditional series categories — “Sinner” in drama, “Vandal” as comedy.

“American Horror Story: Apocalypse” featured characters from previous seasons of “American Horror Story,” which impacted its previous strategy of the show being framed as an anthology, with each season as a standalone.

As for “The Sinner,” the show featured an entirely different mystery in Season 2, but brought back a central character: Bill Pullman as Detective Harry Ambrose. Similarly, “American Vandal” also featured a different story in Season 2, but the show — a parody of true-life documentary series — also brought back two central characters,...

The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences on Tuesday announced that it will no longer consider FX's American Horror Story: Apocalypse, USA's The Sinner season two or Netflix's American Vandal season two — new incarnations of existing shows — as limited series, but rather as regular series, either drama (Ahs: Apocalypse and Sinner) or comedy (Vandal).

The reason for this decision, the TV Academy said in a statement, is "continuing story threads, characters and actors reprising those same character roles from previous seasons." A limited series, according to TV Academy rules, is, among other requirements, one that ...

The new “New York Undercover” pilot in the works at ABC is rounding out its cast.

Otmara Marrero, Toby Sandeman, Anna Enger, Mc Lyte, and Octavio Pizano have all been cast in the drama pilot, which picks up 20 years after the end of the original series, “New York Undercover” will follow detectives Nat Gilmore (Sandeman) and Melissa Ortiz (Marrero) as they investigate the city’s most dangerous criminals from Harlem to Battery Park. This time around, Williams is overseeing the unit and the next generation of detectives.

They join previously announced cast members Malik Yoba and Luna Lauren Velez, who will reprise their roles from the original show.

Ortiz is described as a fiery young detective who blends well undercover, while Gilmore is said to be charismatic with an easy smile and a quick fuse. Enger will play Lisa Kim, an ambitious climber. Pizano will play Moses Hernandez, an eager beaver with a hero complex.

Mc Lyte (Power), Otmara Marrero (StartUp), Toby Sandeman (She’s Gotta Have It), Anna Enger (Chicago Med) and Octavio Pizano (If Loving You Is Wrong) are set as series regulars opposite Malik Yoba and Luna Lauren Velez in ABC’s New York Undercover pilot, a contemporary reboot of the cop drama, from Dick Wolf, Hand of God creator Ben Watkins and director Anthony Hemingway.

Written by Watkins based on a story he wrote with Wolf, New York Undercover picks up 20 years after the end of the original Fox series that changed the face of TV cop dramas. It will follow detectives Nat Gilmore and Melissa Ortiz as they investigate the city’s most dangerous criminals from Harlem to Battery Park.

They join previously announced Yoba and Velez, who reprise their respective roles as Jc Williams and Nina Moreno from the original series.

Lyte is Lt. April Freeman, a hard-driving boss with a genius Iq.

Variety has announced this year’s 10 Latinxs to Watch, and has also selected the Miami Film Festival as a partner for the annual celebration of promising talent in the Latino community that will include a panel and film screenings.

This year’s honorees are Isabela Moner (“Dora the Explorer”), Rosa Salazar, Lila Avilés (producer/writer/director of “The Chambermaid”), Lali Esposito, Gigi Saul Guerrero (actress/director/writer of “La Quinceañera”), Marcel Ruiz, Jayro Bustamante, Daniel Zovatto, Whindersson Nunes, and Augusto Aguilera (“The Predator”).

“Variety is pleased that the Miami Film Festival is generously hosting our ’10 Latinxs to Watch’ honorees this year,” said Michelle Sobrino-Stearns, group publisher and chief revenue officer of Variety. “We are excited to launch a platform dedicated to up-and-coming talent from the Latinx community. Some of the most vibrant and insightful content is emanating from this group of rising stars and we are thrilled to feature their work at our event.

Jimmy Tatro, the YouTube star who headlined the first season of Netflix's hit docu-spoof American Vandal, is bringing his latest project to Facebook's fledgling Watch video hub.

The Real Bros Of Simi Valley, a comedy about four friends attempting to figure out their floundering lives a decade after graduating from high school, first debuted on Tatro’s YouTube channel, which counts 3 million subscribers. In April 2017, Simi Valley's first four episodes rolled out, ultimately garnering upwards 4.5 million collective views -- though the venture was put on hold amid the success of Vandal.

Now, on Nov. 30, the second season of Simi Valley, comprising 10 episodes, will debut exclusively on Facebook Watch, The Hollywood Reporter reports. Tatro is pulling quadruple duty on Simi Valley as star, co-writer, director, and executive producer. His co-writer is Christian Pierce, and the series stars fellow digital comedians Tanner Petulla, Nick Colletti, and Cody Ko.

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“American Vandal” is coming into Emmy season as a strong candidate for awards after earning Critics’ Choice nominations for Best Limited Series and Best Movie/Mini Actor (Jimmy Tatro), as well as a Writers Guild nom for Best New Series. But it faces a significant hurdle: its sense of humor. The movie/miniseries categories at the Emmys don’t distinguish between comedies and dramas like the continuing-series categories do, so you might expect to find a mix of comedies and dramas competing from year to year. But in reality the categories are overwhelmingly flooded with dramas. Will “Vandal” inspire the television academy to lighten up?

“Vandal” premiered on Netflix in September 2017 with its eight-episode first season. It parodied true crime documentaries like the “Serial” podcast or Netflix’s own “Making a Murderer,” with a doggedly determined high school filmmaker (Tyler Alvarez) trying to get to the bottom of a mystery:...

At the start of April, a spattering of American and French journalists gathered, Champagne in hand, at the home of French consul general to Los Angeles Christophe Lemoine for the lineup announcement of the 22nd City of Lights, City of Angels film festival, which kicks off tonight with Eric Barbier’s Romain Gary biopic “Promise at Dawn.” It was the perfect setting to announce a film about the French writer, a former Los Angeles consul general himself, who managed to keep one foot in his native land and another in Hollywood, through both his diplomatic appointment and his marriage to Jean Seberg. Colcoa has been striving to strike a similar balance for the past two decades.

Initially commissioned as the flagship project of the Franco-American Cultural Fund — a joint project among the MPAA, DGA, WGA and France’s Sacem — Colcoa provides a week’s worth of French film premieres in the middle of L.

Yesi Ramirez, a casting director on Oscar Best Picture winner Moonlight, has been named VP Feature Casting at 20th Century Fox Film. The 14-year veteran will report to Evp Feature Casting Ronna Kress and she starts today. Her credits include Fox broadcast’s Liz Meriwether single-camera comedy pilot Thin Ice starring Bridgit Mendler, the SXSW pic Gemini which was just acquired by Neon, and the indie drama Vandal which is wrapping production. Ramirez won the Artios Award…...