"Six Triple Eight" casting / Warner Pass debut in France / "Mo" renewed / DGA Award nominations

Plus today's calendar, Netflix's "Your Place or Mine," Apple's "Sharper" first look, "Lockwood & Co." trailer, and more

Inside.com Part of   Network January 12, 2023

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Washington, Winfrey, Perry Kerry Washington, Oprah Winfrey, and Sam Waterston joined the cast of writer/director Tyler Perry's upcoming Netflix film, "Six Triple Eight." This is Perry's fourth original feature for the streamer. More: The film relates the true story of the 6888th Postal Directory Batallion, the only all-Black and all-female World War II battalion, which was tasked with sorting through a three-year backlog of undelivered mail. Perry's script is adapted from an article by Kevin M. Hymel for WWII History magazine. Washington also joined the project as an executive producer. Jeanté Godlock, Moriah Brown, Baadja-Lyne Odums, Gregg Sulkin, Dean Norris, and Susan Sarandon have also been cast in the film. HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

HBO's "The Last of Us" Warner Bros. Discovery will launch a new "Warner Pass" in France via Amazon Prime Video Channels. The collection will feature content taken from a variety of WBD networks and brands, including HBO, Warner TV, Eurosport, Discovery Channel, Cartoon Network, and CNN. More: The Warner Pass will become available to French Prime Video subscribers in March. This will apparently not impact plans to launch a merged HBO Max/Discovery+ platform in France down the road. Among the popular series included in the Warner Pass are "Succession," "Perry Mason," "Winning Time," "Barry," "Game of Thrones," "The Sopranos," and "True Detective." HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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DAILY CALENDAR THURSDAY, JANUARY 12 THE CLIMB: Reality competition series in which a group of amateur climbers tackles physical, mental, and endurance challenges -- including some intimidating ascents -- while seeking to claim a $100,000 cash prize and the title of the World's Best Amateur Climber. Jason Momoa and legendary climber Chris Sharma produce and co-host the series. [HBO Max] VELMA: Debut animated mystery-comedy series for adults, reimagining characters from the iconic "Scooby Doo" franchise before they teamed up as Mystery Inc. Mindy Kaling executive produces and voices Velma Dinkley; the cast also includes Glenn Howerton as Fred Jones, Constance Wu as Daphne Blake, and Sam Richardson as Norville Rogers (a new take on Shaggy). [HBO Max] VIKINGS: VALHALLA: The historical drama series -- a spinoff of History Channel's "Vikings" set more than 100 years after the original series -- returns on Thursday for a second season. Sam Corlett stars as 11th Century explorer Leif Eriksson, alongside Frida Gustavsson as his sister, Freydís Eiríksdóttir, and Leo Suter as Norwegian prince Harald Sigurdsson. [Netflix] KUNG FU PANDA: THE DRAGON KNIGHT: Animated series from DreamWorks, spun off from the popular movie and TV franchise, and following Po (Jack Black) and a no-nonsense English knight (Rita Ora) on a globe-trotting quest to find four elemental weapons. James Hong, Harvey Guillén, Richard Ayoade, Stephanie Hsu, and Shohreh Aghdashloo co-star. Season 2 hits Netflix today. [Netflix] THE MAKANAI: COOKING FOR THE MAIKO HOUSE: Debut period drama series from Japan, based on the manga by Aiko Koyama. Nana Mori stars as a young woman who takes a job as a cook at the Kyoto home for apprentice geisha where her childhood friend (Natsuki Deguchi) is in training. Acclaimed filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda ("Shoplifters") serves as showrunner. [Netflix] THE TRAITORS: First-year reality competition series in which veterans from previous reality shows square off in a string of grueling challenges, while covert traitors work against them and plot to steal the $250,000 cash prize. Participants include "Bachelor" vet Arie Luyendyk Jr., "Real Housewives" star Brandi Glanville, Cirie Fields of "Survivor," and former Olympian Ryan Lochte; Alan Cumming hosts. [Peacock] THE MAKERY: Debut live-action educational series for young kids -- produced as part of an ongoing collaboration with Sky Kids -- exploring simple arts, crafts, and baking projects that kids can try out for themselves at home. [Peacock] A HOUSE DIVIDED: The drama series centers on the members of the wealthy Sanders family of Los Angeles. The fifth and final season debuts today on AMC's ALLBLK service. Demetria McKinney, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Paula Jai Parker, and Brad James co-star. [ALLBLK] RIOTSVILLE, USA: 2022 documentary from filmmaker Sierra Pettengill looking at "Riotsvilles," model towns built in the 1960s by the US military where soldiers and police trained to respond to incidents of civil disorder. [Hulu] HOW I CAUGHT MY KILLER: True-crime docuseries examining cases in which murder victims left behind clues that ultimately helped investigators apprehend their killers. The full 9-episode first season hits Hulu today. [Hulu] NAME THAT TUNE: Fox's reboot of the classic game show returned on Wednesday night to TV for a third season; episodes hit Hulu on Thursdays. Jane Krakowski hosts while Randy Jackson serves as bandleader. [Hulu] ONE LANE BRIDGE: Season 3 of the New Zealand crime drama series begins streaming in the US today on Sundance Now. Dominic Ona-Ariki stars as Māori cop Ariki Davis, who investigates a string of deaths that all occurred around the same Queenstown bridge. [Sundance Now]

Netflix renewed the comedy series "Mo" for a second season, which will also be its last. The single-camera comedy stars comedian Mo Amer as a fictionalized version of himself and debuted on Netflix in August of 2022. More: Amer also co-created and produces the series, which centers on a Palestinian refugee living in Houston with his family. The first season holds a perfect 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from critics. "Mo" Season 1 picked up a Gotham Award, an Independent Spirit Awards nomination, and will be honored at the 2023 AFI Awards as well. VARIETY

Steven Spielberg The Directors Guild of America announced its 2023 DGA Award film nominations. No films produced by streaming platforms, and no films from women directors, were included among this year's top nominees. More: In the main Feature Film category, the nominees are The Daniels ("Everything Everywhere All At Once"), Todd Field ("Tár"), Joseph Kosinski ("Top Gun: Maverick"), Martin McDonagh ("The Banshees of Inishirin") and Steven Spielberg ("The Fabelmans"). Among the high profile women directors who were considered likely to score nominations this year were Sarah Polley ("Women Talking"), Gina Prince-Bythewood ("The Woman King"), Chinonye Chukwu ("Till"), and Maria Schrader ("She Said"). Other notable snubs include James Cameron for "Avatar: The Way of Water" and Baz Luhrmann for "Elvis." The DGA's TV nominations were announced earlier this week; the most-nominated shows include HBO's "Station Eleven," Apple's "Severance," and Comedy Central's "The Daily Show." The DGA Awards will be presented in Beverly Hills on February 18. VARIETY

Netflix dropped a trailer for the new romantic comedy feature "Your Place or Mine," starring Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher. "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" vet Aline Brosh McKenna wrote and directed the film, and also produced along with Witherspoon and Jason Bateman. More: Witherspoon and Kutcher co-star as Debbie and Peter, long-time platonic friends -- one from New York and the other Los Angeles -- who agree to swap apartments for a week. When they each embark on new romances in their new cities, both Debbie and Peter discover long-buried feelings for one another. Tig Notaro, Zoe Chao, Steve Zahn, and Rachel Bloom co-star. The film hits Netflix on February 10. HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Apple's neo-noir thriller "Sharper" -- starring Julianne Moore and Sebastian Stan -- arrives on February 17. It's the feature directorial debut of British TV veteran Benjamin Caron, who recently helmed three episodes of Disney+'s "Andor." More: The action centers around a group of characters in New York playing "a high stakes game of ambition, greed, lust, and jealousy." In addition to Moore and Stan, the cast includes Justice Smith, John Lithgow, and Briana Middleton. The film was produced by the A24 studio. THE PLAYLIST

Netflix's new ghosthunting series "Lockwood & Co." -- based on the popular YA books by Jonathan Shroud -- arrives on January 27. The series follows three teens in present-day London who open their own paranormal investigation agency. More: Ruby Stokes, Paddy Holland, Bobby Vernon, and Morven Christie co-star in the series. Joe Cornish ("Attack the Block," "Ant-Man") serves as showrunner and directed the pilot episode. THE PLAYLIST

Will Gonzalez NBCUniversal merged together all of its research and data science operations for both broadcast TV and streaming under a single division. Peacock executive vice president and chief data officer Will Gonzalez will oversee the newly-unified department. More: The previous teams that will now be collected into Gonzalez's group include applied analytics, data engineering, and data science. Previously, a number of NBCU networks and brands -- including NBC Sports, USA Network, Bravo, E!, Syfy, and Oxygen -- performed their own data analysis and research individually. Gonzalez will also continue with his current duties, overseeing direct-to-consumer data and consumer insight teams. VARIETY

QUICK HITS Delight your family, guests, or team like never before with Vestaboard, the award-winning messaging display. Learn more.* Prince Harry's ITV interview with journalist Tom Bradby will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+ on January 14 in the US. The first season of Disney+'s "Willow" spinoff ends with a tease for a potential Season 2. [CAUTION: This link contains spoilers!] The upcoming ABC workplace comedy series "Not Dead Yet" added a number of actors to its ensemble, including Rhea Perlman, Brittany Snow, Mo Collins, and Ed Begley Jr.; Gina Rodriguez stars as a struggling young woman who accepts a new job writing obituaries, then begins receiving visits from ghosts. DirecTV will lay off hundreds of workers, mostly managers, as cord-cutting continues to massively impact the pay-TV market. Netflix founder and co-CEO Reed Hastings plans to donate $20 million to San Francisco's Minerva University, a "next-generation institution of higher learning" founded in 2012 with venture capital from Benchmark. There’s a new email automation strategy that’s helping mailers double, even triple their email open rates.* *This is sponsored content

Lon Harris is the writer and editor of Inside Streaming and was the very first person to ever write an Inside newsletter. He lives in Los Angeles, California, and also writes about TV and film for Fandom, Screen Junkies, Rotten Tomatoes, Gamma Ray and others. Plus he has a Game of Thrones podcast called "Casterly Talk" and competes on The Movie Trivia Schmoedown as "The Professor." Editor Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade.

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