In Brief: ‘Reacher’ getting a spin-off, and more

September 6, 2024

Variety is reporting that Prime Video is developing a spin-off of its hit Reacher series. The trade speculates it will center on Frances Neagley, who is played by Maria Sten in the hit adaptation of Lee Childs‘ Jack Reacher books …

The ‘Burbs, a new TV adaptation of the 1989 movie of the same name, has been given a straight-to-series order from Peacock. Keke Palmer is set to star and executive produce, with Brian Grazer and Seth MacFarlane also on board as executive producers. The show follows a young couple who encounter new next-door neighbors with dark secrets …

The sci-fi film The Assignment, starring Alicia Vikander and Elizabeth Olsen, has been scooped up by Prime Video, Deadline is reporting. The movie centers on a resources-strapped future where the government decides who is allowed to have a baby — and the invasive, psychologically horrifying interview Olsen’s character must endure to prove she’s worthy. The film, which also stars Minnie Driver, will debut at the Toronto International Film Festival, which is just getting underway …

Jenn Tran’s journey on ‘The Bachelorette’ ends in dramatic final

Disney/Richard Middlesworth

Jenn Tran‘s journey on The Bachelorette didn’t end with a happily ever after.

The 26-year-old physician assistant student ended up proposing to Devin Strader in Hawaii because she wanted to “choose herself in this journey.” She also had a ring for him.

But during the after the final rose ceremony, Tran said that after leaving Hawaii, he started pulling away.

“It’s been a really hard couple of months,” Tran said. “We had left Hawaii engaged, it was the happiest day of my life. I thought I had found who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.”

“All the promises he had made to me of wanting to move somewhere together and wanting to have this future planned out,” she continued, saying that his efforts were inconsistent and that he wasn’t calling as much.

Tran said that they had a happy couple counseling appointment planned in August, but the night before their session, Tran said he broke off the engagement.

“He had basically said that he didn’t love me anymore and didn’t feel the same way,” she said.

“He was making bold proclamations of love,” she added. “Then suddenly the next day it was nothing.”

During the after the final rose ceremony, she came face to face with her ex for the first time in a month and shared how heartbroken she was, while also confronting him about why he broke off their engagement the way he did over a phone call.

She also questioned him about why after ending their engagement, he followed a former contestant on the previous season of The Bachelor, Maria Georgas, on Instagram.

“It completely invalidated our entire relationship, everything we felt for each other,” she told him.

Strader didn’t have any response for her other than he was “regretfully late” in letting her know how he was feeling the entire time and that he “can’t excuse” following Georgas on Instagram.

Selena Gomez, Viola Davis, Steve Martin and more named as Emmy Awards presenters

ABC/Television Academy

On Monday, the Television Academy announced the list of presenters for this year’s 76th Emmy Awards.

Among the presenters will be many of this year’s nominees, including Only Murders in the Building trio Selena Gomez, Martin Short, and Steve Martin, as well as their fellow nominees Kristen Wiig, Jean Smart, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Nava Mau, Jane Lynch, Matt Bomer, Lily Gladstone and Christine Baranski.

Also among the dozens of presenters announced are Oscar winners Kathy Bates, Viola Davis and Ron Howard, as well as Oscar nominee Colin Farrell, former Emmy winners Niecy Nash-Betts, Steven Yeun, and Candice Bergen, and country music legend and actress Reba McEntire.

The full list of presenters can be found here.

The 76th annual telecast, hosted by Eugene and Dan Levy, will broadcast live on ABC on Sunday, Sept. 15 from the Peacock Theater at L.A. LIVE in downtown Los Angeles. It will also stream on Hulu from Sept. 16 through Sept. 22.

Ryan Reynolds teases Nat Geo series ‘Underdogs’ with documentary clip about “boring” wolverines

Jed Cullen/Dave Benett/WireImage

In a bit of a hat trick, Ryan Reynolds managed to plug his blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine, tweak his friend and co-star Hugh Jackman and promote an upcoming nature series he’s narrating for Nat Geo in one fell swoop.

Reynolds captioned a social media video post, “Many of you haven’t been asking about the wolverine documentary we didn’t spend much time making.” He presented a nature video of an actual wolverine, “one of the largest and laziest members of the weasel family,” which “is actually pretty boring.”

“We shot 15 hours,” Ryan narrates of footage of the animal sleeping and scratching itself. “And these are the HIGHLIGHTS!”

He also deadpans that the animals are known for “their pungent aroma,” adding, “I can vouch for the ‘pungent aroma’ part, especially after a dance number.”

The nature video then cuts to a view of Jackman in his Wolverine — capital W — costume, to which Ryan says, “Here we can see an older male wolverine, sadly sulking out of its den one last time, probably for a paycheck.”

It cuts back to the footage of the actual animal, which Ryan insists “just f****** sucks.”

The snippet ends with a plug for Underdogs, which is a real nature documentary coming out in 2025 from National Geographic. It’s a project that Reynolds promised in 2023 to be “entertaining, surprising and will do justice to animals usually stuck as supporting cast.”

Disney is the parent company of National Geographic and ABC News.