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WIRE Buzz: Jon Favreau going prehistoric for Apple, Starz mixes spies with supernatural
Top o' the Buzz to ya! We've got development news on the next project from John Favreau (Iron Man), an espionage series with supernatural elements over at Starz, and an upcoming horror film from Mathieu Turi.
After remaking The Lion King for Disney, it seems that Jon Favreau was craving a project with even bigger predators with very sharp teeth. According to Variety, the prolific director/writer/actor/producer is pursuing a natural history series about dinosaurs with BBC Studios.
The show, Prehistoric Planet, has been ordered by Apple for the company's upcoming streaming service, which already has an impressive lineup of genre-centric programming from some of the most talented writers and filmmakers working in Hollywood today.
"The show will use CGI to take viewers back in time, experiencing the wonders of planet Earth 66 million years ago," reads Variety's description of the show.
Planet Earth II's Mike Gunton is also on board as a producer. Apple TV+ launches this fall in over 100 countries. No pricing info about the service is known just yet.
Starz is mashing up genres like no one's business with The Rook, a supernatural spy thriller series that revealed key art and a premiere date today.
Emma Greenwell (The Path) leads the show as Myfanwy Thomas, an amnesiac woman who wakes up under London’s Millennium Bridge surrounded by dead bodies wearing latex gloves. Soon after this, Thomas discovers that she's a high-ranking official in Checquy, a secret British agency for those with paranormal abilities. The main impetus for the plot revolves around Myfanwy trying to find out who wiped her memory and why they're trying to kill her.
Joely Richardson (Red Sparrow), Olivia Munn (The Predator), Adrian Lester (The Day After Tomorrow), and James D’Arcy (Agent Carter), among others, make up the rest of the cast.
Season 1 will premiere on June 30. Stephenie Meyer (Twilight) and Stephen Garrett (The Night Manager) are executive-producing.
Mathieu Turi's horror film Meander is set to start shooting in August, Variety has confirmed. Starring Skyfall's Berenice Marlohe in the central role, the film centers on a woman who wakes up in a maze of tubes filled with deadly traps.
“Meander is a movie I’ve wanted to make for a long time," Turi told Variety. "It will be intriguing and intense on so many levels… and scary as hell!”
Turi will start drumming up buzz for the project (which was meant to film last year) at Cannes.
