Wow! Didn't see that coming. Of course Iron Man 3 and The Great Gatsby were on the top of the this weekend's B.O. chart with Gatsby, which was predicted by many to be one the first major flops of this summer season, doing much better than anyone expected, grossing $51 million, while IR3, to date, has earned some $950 million worldwide. But let's get to the real surprise which was how disastrously Tyler Perry's Peeples performed this weekend, not even cracking $5 million. And this means that the film won't even make back its very modest $15 million production budget, and it will be out of most theaters by the end of the week. So what in the hell happened? I admit I...

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Here's another one that we missed, likely because its title was changed. ABC picked up The Returned, which is now officially titled Resurrection, which is said to be one of Paul Lee's, the president of ABC Entertainment's favorite pilots; so that's a good sign, right? In March, Omar Epps landed the top role in the serial adaptation of author Jason Mott's debut novel, The Returned.You might recall the December announcement that Mott's novel had been optioned by Brad Pitt's Plan B production company, with the goal being to develop a TV drama series for ABC, based on the "high concept" novel. In light of...

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That's right - meet Armando, a new neighbor on Sesame Street, who, I'm sure, will be bringing a dose of cultural diversity along with him to the Sesame neighborhood. Armando (or "Mando" as he'll apparently be called by the rest of the community) is a writer, and will be played by actor Ismael Cruz Cordova (above) an NYU Tisch School of the Arts graduate as well as an actor who's appeared in TV shows like The Good Wife. Armando will make his debut on the series, on September 16, when Sesame Street premieres its 44th season on PBS. He joins other new additions to the series: Maria (played by Sonia Manzano), Luis (Emilio Delgado) and Rosita and Ovejita (both played by...

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Missed this one in all the hullabaloo yesterday and the day before, with cancellations, new pickups and drops. Now titled Crisis (it didn't have a title before), NBC has picked up the Lance Gross thriller from writer/executive producer Rand Ravich. Gross stars alongside, Dermot Mulroney and Gillian Anderson, in what is described as an emotionally-charged political action thriller set in Washington DC, that will follow Marcus Finley (played by Gross), an idealistic Secret Service agent who finds himself at the center of an international crisis on his first day on the job as the President's son's protection, when the son, along with several of his schoolmates, are...

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The Weinstein Company has announced that they have moved up the release date for their film The Butler, from its original October 18th slot to August 16th. The argument is that, the mid-August slot has tended to do well for more serious adult films, such as The Help and Eat Pray Love, for audiences who are either burned out by, or desperately looking for something other than those huge, CGI bloated, superhero comic book films, which dominate the summer season. One thing for sure, it's going to be one of the most controversial films of the year, judging from the response we got when we posted the trailer for the film HERE; Well, The Butler and that Nina Simone film with Zoe...

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Well, damn! It's rough out there folks. This has been one hell of a week for TV drops and pickups. Compared to this same period last year, we've had much more to cover. Here's another casualty, which I'm actually surprised by. I foolishly thought this was a lock, given the brand, and who was involved (notably Shawn Ryan and Eddie Murphy). Nobody's safe. CBS has passed on the Beverly Hills Cop TV series adaptation, which Brandon T. Jackson was to star in as Axel Foley's (Eddie Murphy's) son. Murphy, who was to appear in the pilot (at least), teamed up with Shawn Ryan (creator of shows like The Shield and The Last Resort)...

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In this week's totally non-essential news, singer Cee Lo Green has signed a deal for a six-episode reality series for TBS, to be called The Cee Lo Life (Or as I think the show should be called, Living a 4 Foot 5 Life in a Six Foot World, but that's me). The show will chronicle his life along with his Goodie Mob group mates - Big Gipp, Khujo and T-Mo - as they work on their new long-awaited hip-hop album. According to Michael Wright, who is the head of head of programming for TBS: "With his distinctive voice, winning personality and remarkable ability to tap into a wide range of musical styles, Cee Lo Green has risen to the top of the music industry... (and...

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It's officially official that @greysabc and @scandalabc are picked up for Season 10 and Season 3, respectively.#bestfansever!!-- shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) May 11, 2013 Well, there you go Scandalistas and Gladiators... directly from the queen herself. So you can enjoy your summer breaks without worry now. I'm sure a press release with all the details from ABC, will follow eventually. But for now, you can do your happy dance.

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Last November, I playfully thought up a fictitious scenario in which Chad Coleman's casting as Tyreese in The Walking Dead was all part of a master plan to set-up his eventual casting as Luke Cage in the long-awaited, much-anticipated and discussed big screen adaptation of the Marvel character. Here's how it all went, in brief: Marvel and the producers of The Walking Dead are in cahoots on it. Marvel has a Luke Cage movie in its development slate, and want Chad Coleman for the role. So they had to think of a way to work Coleman into mainstream consciousness, so that by the time the studio is set to package its Luke Cage movie, Coleman would practically be a household name, given the...

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Fruitvale Station, Ryan Coogler's multiple award-winning Sundance Film Festival drama, was acquired by The Weinstein Company and will be released on July 12. Based on the 2009 murder of 22-year old Oscar Grant, the film stars Michael B. Jordan, who is joined by Octavia Spencer, Kevin Durand and Melonie Diaz, with Forest Whitaker producing. Anticipation is high for this one, and July 12 can't come soon enough, I'm sure. An awards season push by TWC is also very likely. Zeba Blay reviewed Fruitvale Station for S&A after screening it at Sundance; In short, she dug it. Read that review HERE. Not...

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