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WIRE Buzz: Andy Serkis shows Christmas Carol spirit; Riverdale casts Fred Andrews' brothers; more
Andy Serkis is getting into the Christmas spirit. Literally.
Thanks to some first-look images by Entertainment Weekly, we know what the actor/director will look like as he becomes a very Gandalf-like Ghost of Christmas Past for the upcoming retelling of the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol.
Along with Serkis' much more wizard-like take on 'the first of three ghosts,' there's also a look at Guy Pearce (one of the stars of the upcoming Bloodshot movie) as the much younger and suaver version of Ebenezer Scrooge. There's also The Favourite co-star Joe Alwyn as the put-upon employee Bob Cratchit and his family, who seem to hover closer to Dickens' version of the story than the other two characters.
While Serkis doubted the need for yet another version of A Christmas Carol, he said this new version "felt very contemporary and fresh," so he agreed to jump on board. Peaky Blinders scribe Steven Knight will write the three-episode miniseries, which is set to premiere this December on FX.
Next up, Riverdale is hoping to move on after the funeral of Fred Andrews (Luke Perry).
Ryan Robbins (Deadly Class, Arrow, The X-Files) is joining the show's fourth season as Frank Andrews, Archie's uncle and the younger brother to Perry's Fred Andrews, per a report from Deadline. Despite Frank's charming nature, he's prone to outbursts and addiction, partly due to living in the shadow of his brother for so long.
After joining the Army to find his own identity, three tours later he comes back broken, haunted, and in need of a home. There's no word on exactly when Robbins will be introduced, but Riverdale Season 4 is currently airing on The CW.
Finally, The Simpsons celebrated a pair of impressive milestones last night. First, it was the 30th installment of the long-running "Treehouse of Horror" Halloween special, as well as the show's 666th episode. To commemorate the occasions, Fox tweeted out a 60-second video that managed to summarize three decades of what's now a long-established Halloween tradition.
This year's Halloween special skewered the contemporary Netflix series Stranger Things, as well as the horror classic The Omen and the offbeat supernatural comedy Heaven Can Wait, but with a more smartphone-oriented twist.The Simpsons, which will have every episode available on Disney+ next month, airs every Sunday night on Fox.
