TV News Wrap Up: ‘Penny Dreadful’ S2 Teaser, ‘Adventure Time’ Loses Showrunner & More
This Week in TV:
Showtime releases a teaser trailer for Penny Dreadful season 2; Pendleton Ward announces that he stepped down as Adventure Time showrunner; Cameron Crowe kills a developing Say Anything sequel series at NBC; and ABC begins development on a show based on the 1989 film Uncle Buck.
-
Showtime has released a teaser for the much-anticipated season 2 of Penny Dreadful. Check it out below.
Unfortunately, we don’t actually get a peek at any footage from season 2 here, but the short teaser is chilling nonetheless as Eva Green’s Vanessa Ives realizes that there’s no escaping the past.
Despite featuring just eight episodes, season 1 of the Showtime horror drama made quite a splash when it premiered this past spring. Many critics – including our own Perri Nemiroff – named strong characters and award-worthy performances as some of the first season’s many highlights, while also noting that the finale (read our review) left the series with plenty of room to grow.
Look for Penny Dreadful season 2 to premiere on Showtime in early 2015.
Source: Showtime’s YouTube channel
-
In a recent interview, Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward revealed that he has stepped down as series showrunner.
Pendleton Ward Adventure Ti TV News Wrap Up: Penny Dreadful S2 Teaser, Adventure Time Loses Showrunner & More
In talking with Rolling Stone, Ward admitted that he hasn’t been running the Cartoon Network show since season 5, but said that he is still involved with the series as a writer and storyboard artist.
As far as his reasoning for the decision, Ward said:
“Dealing with people every day wears on you. To spend that extra energy and time you don’t have, to make something that’s worth making, to make it awesome, wears you out. It’s a beast of a show. And the more popular it gets, the more the ancillary things – like the merchandise and games and everything – keep getting bigger. For me, having quality of life outweighed the need to control this project and make it great all the time.”
To those following the cartoon closely, the news of a showrunning change was far from a shock, considering Ward’s now confirmed replacement, Adam Muto, had made appearances and had participated in interviews on the show’s behalf in recent months.
Adventure Time will return to Cartoon Network on October 28, continuing season 6 with “Ghost Fly.”
Sources: Rolling Stone, Cartoon Brew
-
After learning that NBC was working on a sequel series to his 1989 romantic comedy Say Anything, writer/director Cameron Crowe voiced a strong objection against the project, leading the network to pull the plug on the potential series.
say anything boombox TV News Wrap Up: Penny Dreadful S2 Teaser, Adventure Time Loses Showrunner & More
Earlier this week, multiple outlets reported that the network had closed a deal on the show, angering Crowe, who had not been notified a series was even in the works. Along with the film’s star, John Cusack, Crowe then immediately took to Twitter to express his outrage and his plans to stop the show (which proved successful less than a day later).
Legally speaking, NBC was not forced to back out from the project, but executives reportedly decided not to proceed without the director’s blessing.
Picking up 10 years after the events of the film – but set in 2014 – the TV series would have followed Cusack’s character Lloyd Dobler in his quest to win back Diane, who had dumped him years earlier.
According to sources, Crowe might have been open to the idea of revisiting his past work had he been brought into the loop at an earlier stage of development. If another network pursues a show based on Say Anything, they’ll certainly know to call Crowe first now.
Sources: Cameron Crowe, Deadline
-
Coincidentally, ABC announced it is also working on a series based on a beloved comedy from 1989 – this one being the John Hughes classic Uncle Buck.
Uncle Buck TV series TV News Wrap Up: Penny Dreadful S2 Teaser, Adventure Time Loses Showrunner & More
Produced by Universal TV, the show is currently being developed as a half-hour multi-camera sitcom for the network. Steven Cragg and Brian Bradley (MADtv) are on board as the series’ writers and co-executive producers, along with Ride Along producer Will Packer, who also helped bring the project together.
Like the film – which starred the late John Candy in the titular role – the series will center on a childish man who is forced to grow up after looking after his brother’s kids.
After scoring $80 million at the box office in August of 1989, Uncle Buck first became the subject of a TV adaptation in 1990 at CBS, but that show lasted just one season with stand-up comic Kevin Meaney playing Buck. There’s little doubt that the success of this new series will hinge on its star, as the film did with the larger-than-life personality and unique comedic sensibility of Candy.
