WIRE Buzz: Jingle Jangle drops jolly first trailer; His Dark Materials S3 mapped out; and more

It's never too early to get into the holiday spirit and boy, do we really need some this year. Thankfully, Netflix knows just how to make our day a little more holly jolly with the first trailer for Jingle Jangle, a musical Christmas tale that drops onto the streaming platform next month.

Set in the fictional town of Cobbleton, the film centers around Jeronicus Jangle (Forest Whitaker), a legendary toymaker, whose eye-popping inventions burst with whimsy and wonder. But when his most prized creation is stolen by a conniving apprentice (Keegan-Michael Key), it's up to Jeronicus' granddaughter (newcomer Madalen Mills) to save the day, with some help from a long-forgotten invention named Buddy.

Check it out:

The movie was written and directed by David E. Talbert, the cinematic mind behind First Sunday, El Camino Christmas, and Almost Christmas.  John Legend, Philip Lawrence, Davy Nathan, and the duo of Usher and Kiana Ledé contributed original songs for the project, which also stars Anika Noni Rose, Phylicia Rashad, Ricky Martin, and Hugh Bonneville.

"I’m so excited to be involved in this amazing project. As the Executive Music Producer, I know I’m part of an incredible all star team and I’m thrilled to be working with some of the best of the best in Director David Talbert, Producers John Legend and Mike Jackson, and Netflix. I’m really looking forward to making special music for this uniquely special film," Harvey Mason, Jr. said in a statement when the film was first announced in November 2018.

Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey rides into select theaters and onto Netflix in a one-horse open sleigh Friday, Nov. 13.

While the BBC-HBO adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials is still awaiting an official Season 3 renewal, the creative minds behind the show know where they're going to take the story next.

"Series 1 was about Lyra looking for a path. Now she needs to know what person she's going to be on that path. And in Series 3, you see what she's going to do with that path," series writer Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Enola Holmes) told Empire for the magazine's November 2020 issue.

Credit: Simon Ridgway/HBO

This comes on the heels of a tweet posted in early May from executive producer Jane Tranter, who revealed that development on scripts for a third season was about to kick off. The post has since been deleted.

Season 2 is scheduled to start rolling out episodes next month. Thorne described the next batch of episodes as "a coming-of-age story" for both Will (Amir Wilson) and Lyra (Dafne Keen).

In even more Netflix news, the streamer dropped the first teaser for Paranormal, a new horror series based upon the book series penned by Ahmed Khaled Tawfik. Set in the 1960s, the show, which hails from Egypt, follows Dr. Refaat Ismail (Ahmed Amin), a jaded hematology professor, who begins to question his own scientific convictions when he starts experiencing supernatural events. We get a sense of his refusal to accept the otherworldly in the short trailer below, which has Ismail attributing spooky occurences (i.e. blowing curtains, creaking doors) to the natural order of the world.

Take a look:

"We are so excited to be investing in more Middle Eastern productions by adapting the highly acclaimed Paranormal series of novels into an exciting show. We’re also pleased to collaborate with prominent producer Mohamed Hefzy and director Amr Salama whose creative vision we look forward to bringing to our international audience" Kelly Luegenbiehl, VP of International Originals at Netflix, said last May.

"I’m very excited about this project, It was my dream to adapt Paranormal of the late author Ahmed Khaled Tawfik and turn it into a drama since I ever wanted to be a filmmaker. I’m proud to present the books in a new light while still keeping the essence of Paranormal. I can't wait to introduce these exciting stories to the Netflix public in 190 countries around the world" added producer, director, and showrunner Amr Salama.

Paranormal will begin to haunt Netflix Thursday, Nov. 5.