Max series announcements / "Die Hart" renewed / "League of Their Own" S2 plans finalized / F1-Paramount+ deal

Plus today's calendar, "The Idol" at Cannes, Bowen joins "Hysteria!," "Never Have I Ever" S4 teaser, and more

Inside.com Part of   Network April 13, 2023

"The Penguin" During Wednesday's Max launch event, Warner Bros. Discovery executives presented the soon-to-be-merged platform's first programming line-up. Featured series include a new retelling of the "Harry Potter" saga, a "Game of Thrones" prequel based on the "Dunk and Egg" books, "The Batman" spinoff "The Penguin," another "Bing Bang Theory" spinoff, a "Conjuring" series, a new season of "True Detective," a live staged version of the "SmartLess" podcast, an animated "Gremlins" prequel series, and the Kate Winslet limited political thriller series "The Regime." More: A number of unscripted originals -- including the dating series "Love and Translation," adventure series "Survive the Raft," home renvoation series "Barbie Dream House Challenge," and true-crime doc "Lost Women of Highway 20" -- will stream on Max along with Discovery+, while also airing on WBD's linear cable channels. In addition to other content from their Magnolia cable network, Joanna and Chip Gaines will also co-host "Fixer Upper: The Hotel" for Max, which finds them renovating a large Waco, Texas hotel. The list also includes the limited series "The Sympathizer" from "Decision to Leave" and "Oldboy" filmmaker Park Chan-wook; it's based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen and co-stars Sandra Oh and Robert Downey Jr. DAILY BEAST

"Die Hart 2: Die Harter" Roku Channel renewed the Kevin Hart meta-comedy series "Die Hart" for a third season. Season 2 apparently had a record-breaking premiere weekend on the free ad-supported streaming platform; according to Roku, it's now their #1 original premiere of all time, in both overall viewers and hours viewed. More: Season 2 of "Die Hart" -- subtitled "Die Harter" -- arrived on March 31, and doubled the viewership over Season 1's first weekend on the platform. The series -- which started life on the mobile-only Quibi streaming service -- features Hart playing a fictionalized version of himself, seeking to become a bonafide action movie star. Season 2 co-stars Nathalie Emmanuel, Ben Schwartz, Paula Pell, and John Cena. DEADLINE

DAILY CALENDAR THURSDAY, APRIL 13 TITANS: The superhero drama series -- based on the "Teen Titans" from DC Comics -- returns today for the second half of its fourth and final season, which finds the team taking on supervillains Brother Blood (Joseph Morgan) and Mother Mayhem (Franka Potente). Brenton Thwaites, Anna Diop, Teagan Croft, Ryan Potter, Joshua Orpin, and Jay Lycurgo co-star. [HBO Max] FLORIDA MAN: Limited crime comedy-drama series from creator Donald Todd ("This Is Us"), starring Édgar Ramírez as an ex-cop and gambling addict who visits Florida on an increasingly complicated mission to retrieve a Philadelphia mobster's runaway girlfriend. Anthony LaPaglia, Abbey Lee, Ottmara Marrero, and Emory Cohen co-star; Jason Bateman executive produced. [Netflix] OBSESSION: Romantic thriller series from the UK, based on the 1991 novel "Damage" by Josephine Hart, starring Richard Armitage as a wealthy and respected surgeon who develops an all-consuming fixation with his son's fiancée (Charlie Murphy). Indira Varma and Rish Shah co-star. The same book previously inspired the 1992 film "Damage," starring Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche. [Netflix] THE BOSS BABY: BACK IN THE CRIB: Animated DreamWorks series following up on the action of the 2021 film "The Boss Baby: Family Business," following the ongoing adventures of infant CEOs Ted (JP Karliak) and Tina (Mary Faber). It's back for a second season. [Netflix] TIL DEATH DO US PART: KOURTNEY & TRAVIS: Reality special spun off from "The Kardashians," featuring footage from Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker's three different weddings, held in Las Vegas, Santa Barbara, and Italy. [Hulu] SINGLE DRUNK FEMALE: Freeform comedy-drama series starring Sofia Black-D'Elia as an alcoholic in her late 20s whose life begins anew after she hits rock bottom and joins AA. Ally Sheedy, Sasha Compere, Lily Mae Harrington, and Garrick Bernard co-star. Season 2 debuted last night on cable; new episodes hit Hulu on Thursdays. [Hulu] DOOR MOUSE: This 2023 Canadian thriller is the feature debut of writer/director Avan Jogia. Hayley Law stars as a burlesque dancer and wannabe comic book artist who teams up with a colleague to investigate a series of disappearances from the club where she works. Donal Logue, Famke Janssen, and Jogia co-star. [Hulu] FROM BLACK: Horror film starring Anna Camp as a recovering drug addict, traumatized by guilt over the disappearance of her young son, who's given a bizarre chance to set things right, but only if she's willing to pay a horrible price. Thomas Marchese ("Fallen") co-wrote and directed. [Shudder / AMC+]

After a month of speculation, Deadline and Amazon confirmed that "A League of Their Own" will return for an abbreviated second and final season. The series was adapted from a 1992 film and inspired by the true story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. More: Season 2 will consist of just four hour-long episodes. The renewal plans were first reported back in March, but co-creator Will Graham suggested on social media that they were not yet finalized, and encouraged fans to campaign for an expanded season. 95-year-old Maybelle Blair, a veteran of the real All-American Girls league, will return as a consultant for the series. DEADLINE

F1 finalized a promotional deal with Paramount+, including advertising for the streamer's shows and films at races and events. US streaming and broadcast rights to F1 races are locked in by Disney's ESPN through the end of 2025; it's possible Paramount plans to pursue them for 2026 and beyond. More: The league and Paramount inked a temporary marketing deal last year; the new agreement expands their relationship. At the recent Australian GP event, ads for Paramount+'s "Rabbit Hole" were featured heavily. MOTORSPORT

Controversial HBO series "The Idol" will screen out-of-competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival. The show is a collaboration between "Euphoria" creator Sam Levinson and R&B artist The Weeknd (aka Abel Tesfaye). More: Tesfaye is apparently a regular at Cannes and frequently attends screenings incognito. "The Idol" isn't the first TV series to screen at Cannes; previously, David Lynch brought two episodes of "Twin Peaks" to the festival. The series stars Lily-Rose Depp as an up-and-coming pop star who begins dating an enigmatic club owner and secret cult leader, played by Tesfaye. A Rolling Stone expose, published in March, alleged that the show's creative direction went "wildly, disgustingly off the rails" after original director Amy Seimetz exited the project and Levinson personally took over; Tesfaye responded on social media, suggesting the report was a response to his character's mockery of Rolling Stone in the series. DEADLINE

Amazon signed a first look deal with actor and filmmaker Sylvester Stallone and his company, Balboa Productions. Stallone and business partner Brian Aftergood will develop both scripted and unscripted projects for Prime Video. More: Balboa and Amazon are already collaborating on the film "Scavenger Hunt" for MGM. Balboa previously produced the 2022 MGM superhero film "Samaritan," which is now streaming on Prime Video. Stallone also appears in two series for Paramount+: the crime drama "Tulsa King" and an upcoming reality show about his family life. He'll also be appearing in a new installment of the "Expendables" action movie franchise for Lionsgate. DEADLINE

QUICK HITS These robots are knee deep in a $19.4B joint surgery market potential. Invest in Monogram ahead of their planned Nasdaq listing.* "Modern Family" vet Julie Bowen grabbed a lead role in Peacock's forthcoming series "Hysteria!," a coming-of-age thriller set during the "Satanic Panic" scare of the 1980s. Netflix dropped a teaser for the fourth and final season of the teen comedy series "Never Have I Ever," arriving on June 8. The sci-fi adventure film "Crater" centers on a group of kids who live in a domed colony on the moon, but venture outside the safety of their community to investigate a mysterious crater; the film, co-starring rapper Kid Cudi, hits Disney+ on May 12. Netflix canceled the "On My Block" spinoff "Freeridge" after a single season. According to filmmaker Rob Savage ("Host"), Stephen King was instrumental in securing a theatrical release for his new adaptation of the author's short story, "The Boogeyman." "The Expanse" vet Wes Chatham joined the cast of Disney+'s "Ahsoka" series; he'll play a lieutenant to the villainous Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen). Eliminate application bottlenecks by bringing the performance and data portability of open source, lightweight SQL close to your users with low overhead.* *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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