Diaz returns for "Back in Action" / Starz spin-off update / Hugh Grant joins "Kaos" / Amazon "Paper Girls" teaser

Plus today's calendar, "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" casting, Winslet in HBO's "Trust," ViX+ launch, "The Resort" trailer, and more

Inside.com Part of   Network June 30, 2022

Cameron Diaz announced her return to acting in the new Netflix action-comedy "Back in Action." The film, in which she'll co-star with Jamie Foxx, is Diaz's first new project since 2018's "Annie." More: In a social media post announcing the project, Foxx convinced Diaz to appear in the film with help from famously un-retired NFL quarterback Tom Brady. No synopsis for the film has been released; "Horrible Bosses" filmmaker Seth Gordan will direct from a script he co-wrote with Brendan O'Brien ("Neighbors"). Diaz and Foxx previously appeared together in the films "Annie" and "Any Given Sunday." DEADLINE

CNBC writer Alex Sherman makes the case that, once it's spun off from Lionsgate, Starz could be in a position to scoop up some other, similarly-sized media companies. Possible acquisition targets for the new Starz include AMC Networks or A&E. More: Starz merged with Lionsgate in 2016; then-controlling shareholder John Malone said at the time he planned to scoop up "other free radicals in the industry" but it didn't happen. Malone sold his Lionsgate shares in 2019, but Starz may still fulfill his vision following the spin-off. A 20% minority stake will be sold off from Lionsgate to set a market valuation for Starz as a new public company; Canal Plus and Roku (in collaboration with private equity firm Apollo Global) have made preliminary bids. A deal could be announced by August 4, the next scheduled Lionsgate earnings announcement. CNBC

DAILY CALENDAR THURSDAY, JUNE 30 SAY IT WITH PRIDE: DISNEY+ CELEBRATES PRIDE 365: Livestreamed Disney special celebrating the achievements of the LGBTQIA+ community through storytelling and song. Participants include Alan Menken, Alex Newell, Angelica Ross, Jessica Darrow, Reuby Wood, the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles, Juwan Crawley, Topher Ngo, and others. The special streams on Disney+'s social media channels Thursday night at 8 pm ET. [YouTube / Facebook] FRIGHT CLUB: The humorous panel discussion series finds paranormal investigators Jack Osbourne and The Ghost Brothers (Dalen Spratt, Juwan Mass, and Marcus Harvey) sharing particularly funny, strange, or inexplicable videos depicting supernatural phenomena, in an attempt to creep one another out. Season 2 debuts Thursday on cable's Travel Channel and Discovery+. [Discovery+] THE BRIDGE: Season 2 of the British reality series -- a remake of a Spanish series -- sends two groups of strangers to Vietnam's Ha Long Bay and challenges them to assemble a 1,000-foot bridge using only their bare hands and limited supplies. AJ Odudu and Aldo Kane co-host. All eight episodes hit HBO Max in the US today. [HBO Max] NAKED MOLE RAT GETS DRESSED: THE UNDERGROUND: Hour-long animated family musical comedy special, inspired by Mo Willems' picture book "Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed" and its associated stage show. The story takes the form of a rock opera, and begins when famously naked mole rat Wilbur (Jordan Fisher) decides to actually get dressed. The voice cast also includes Yvette Nicole Brown, Kate Micucci, Kevin Michael Richardson, Carol Kane, Ron Funches, and Thomas Lennon. [HBO Max] JULIA: Feature documentary from "RBG" vets Betsy West and Julie Cohen, profiling iconic TV chef Julia Child. Brian Grazer and Ron Howard executive produced the film, which had its premiere at last year's Telluride festival. [HBO Max] PCC – PODER SECRETO: 4-episode true-crime docuseries from Brazil examining the Primeiro Comando da Capital (or PCC) criminal organization, which operates out of São Paolo but has an international presence. The series features insights from a number of former PCC members, telling their stories for the first time. [HBO Max] CRACKING THE CODE: 8-episode British docuseries, originally produced for Sky History UK, looking back at the history of encryption and some of the most famous codes and codebreakers of all time. [CuriosityStream] THE FALLEN: Faith-based drama feature from writer/director (and gospel artist) Deitrick Haddon, serving as a follow-up to his 2010 film "Blessed and Cursed." Haddon stars as worship leader Dwight Hawkins, who gets a life-changing opportunity to potentially sign with major label TMG Records. Jo él Quinn, Johnathan Slocumb, MAJOR, Q Parker, B Slade, and Brittany Lucio co-star. [ALLBLK] MADAGASCAR: A LITTLE WILD: The DreamWorks Animation series -- a prequel to the "Madagascar" films, centering on the animal pals as kids at the Central Park Zoo -- concludes with a final 7-episode season. The new episodes are streaming on both Hulu and Peacock. [Hulu and Peacock] BASTARD!! – HEAVY METAL, DARK FANTASY: Anime series, based on the manga by Kazushi Hagiwara, about a volatile wizard who's called on to save his kingdom from the legendary Anthrasax, the God of Destruction. [Netflix] SHARKDOG: Animated kids series about a 10-year-old named Max and his best friend, a half-shark half-dog creature that leaves a trail of chaos in its wake. Season 2 debuts on Netflix today. [Netflix]

Grant, McTeer, Curtis, Thewlis Netflix announced the cast for its live-action present-day reimagining of Greek mythology, titled "Kaos." Hugh Grant will star in the series as the desperately insecure and vengeful Zeus, who senses he's on the verge of losing his status as "King of the Gods." More: Other actors appearing as gods include David Thewlis as Hades; Janet McTeer as Hera; Nabhaan Rizwan as Dionysus; and Cliff Curtis as Poseidon. Aurora Perrineau, Killian Scott, and Misia Butler will co-star as mortals who find themselves drawn into the conflict between the gods. "The End of the F***king World" writer and creator Charlie Covell created the new series; it goes into production later on this year. DEADLINE

Amazon dropped a teaser for the sci-fi series "Paper Girls." The show was inspired by a comic book by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang. More: The story centers on four newspaper delivery girls in 1988 who find themselves caught in the middle of a war between groups of time travelers. Sofia Rosinsky, Camryn Jones, Riley Lai Nelet, and Fina Strazza co-star as the Paper Girls; actor and comedian Ali Wong will also make appearances. "Paper Girls" arrives on Amazon Prime Video on July 29. THE VERGE

Coel, Turturro, Dano Michaela Coel, John Turturro, and Paul Dano will make guest appearances on the Amazon Prime Video series "Mr. and Mrs. Smith." Donald Glover and Maya Erskine star in the series as a married couple in the employ of a mysterious spy agency. More: Glover co-created and executive produces the series in addition to starring. Phoebe Waller-Bridge had originally been attached to co-star in the project; she was ultimately replaced by "Pen15" vet Erskine. Coel created, directed, and starred in the breakthrough limited series "I May Destroy You" and will next appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever." Dano and Turturro both co-starred in this year's superhero thriller "The Batman," but did not appear in any scenes together. VARIETY

Kate Winslet will star in and produce a series adaptation of the Hernan Diaz novel "Trust" for HBO. The story centers on a wealthy financier who is upset after reading a novel based on his life, and hires a ghostwriter to pen a memoir that will set the record straight. More: Author Diaz will also serve as an executive producer on the series. Winslet has previously collaborated on two HBO limited series: the crime drama "Mare of Easttown" and the 2011 miniseries "Mildred Pierce." Winslet's next project is a biopic about photographer Lee Miller titled "Lee"; she also appears in James Cameron's hotly-anticipated sci-fi sequel "Avatar: The Way of Water." HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

"Enfermo Amor" ViX+, the Spanish-language streaming service from TelevisaUnivision, launches across the US and Latin America on July 21. The service will cost subscribers $6.99 per month in the US. More: ViX+ launches with about 10,000 hours of ad-free programming, and has 70 original series and movies planned for its first year. The service will also stream about 7,000 hours of live sports during its first year, including live soccer matches from both the US and Mexico. A number of notable creators have signed on to develop original programming for ViX+, including Selma Hayek, Eugenio Derbez, Maria Dueñas, and Mario Vargas Llosa. ViX+ will include content from the existing ViX service and Pantaya, a platform acquired by TelevisaUnivision from Hemisphere Media earlier this year. VARIETY

Peacock posted the trailer for the comedic thriller series "The Resort." William Jackson Harper ("The Good Place") and Cristin Milioti ("Made for Love") co-star as a couple on a 10th-anniversary vacation in the Yucatan who become embroiled in a bizarre mystery. More: The action kicks off when the pair discover a phone with a connection to a 15-year-old missing person's case. The cast also includes Skyler Gisondo, Nina Bloomgarden, Luis Gerardo Méndez, Gabriela Cartol, and Nick Offerman. "Palm Springs" writer Andy Siara serves as writer, showrunner, and producer on the series; "Mr. Robot" vet Sam Esmail executive produced. The first three episodes of "The Resort" come to Peacock on July 28. EW

QUICK HITS Assets are getting larger, and end users have you stuck between the cloud and a hard place. Deliver far beyond user expectations with Cox Edge’s CDN.* Peacock set premiere dates for its remaining 2022 original series, including "Last Light" starring Matthew Fox; a new adaptation of "Vampire Academy"; and the "Pitch Perfect" spin-off series, "Bumper in Berlin." Disney+ released the first trailer for the third season of "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series," featuring guest stars Jesse Tyler Ferguson and JoJo Siwa; the new episodes find the cast going to overnight camp in California and rehearsing a new stage production of "Frozen." Amazon Prime Video expanded its "Watch Party" feature -- allowing groups to watch films and shows together in a chat room -- to smart TVs and streaming devices, including Roku and the Xbox and PlayStation gaming consoles. According to Deadline, Nexstar Media Group is nearing a deal to take over majority control of The CW; current CW partners Paramount Global and WB Discovery would each retain a 12.5% share in the company. Shudder reported that "Mad God," the stop-motion animated feature from visual effects icon Phil Tippett, was its most-watched movie premiere of 2022; the film is currently screening in selected theaters across the US and streaming on the horror-centric service. HBO released a teaser for the second season of the financial drama series "Industry," returning on August 1. A number of new cast members joined the forthcoming Apple comedy series "Platonic," including Alisha Wainwright, Guy Branum, Janet Varney, and Emily Kimball; Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen co-star as childhood best friends who reconnect as adults. Paramount+ dropped a teaser for "The Streaming Wars Part 2," the latest "South Park" animated special, which premieres on July 13. Amazon's "The Horror of Dolores Roach" -- a Sweeney Todd-inspired "urban legend" based on a Gimlet podcast series -- added a number of actors to its cast, including Marc Maron, Jean Yoon, Judy Reyes, and Jeffrey Self.  Hulu named Kelci Parker -- a programming executive who joined the company in July of 2020 -- as its Vice President of Animation, a newly created role; Parker will focus on expanding the streamer's slate of adult animated series. This AI-powered, UI test automation tool gives developers an easy way to author self-healing cross-browser tests.* *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 Jonathan Harris is a writer and editor who lives in Los Angeles.

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