Also coming to streaming
I Am Groot (Disney+, from August 3)
Created by comics supremos Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby, Groot first appeared in issue 13 of Tales to Astonish in November 1960.
But most people will have got to know the tree-like alien via his appearances in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, as well as other entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where he’s voiced by
Vin Diesel. Now the infant version of the character – known as Baby Groot – has his own animated TV series, with Diesel reprising his vocal role, alongside Bradley Cooper as raccoon bounty hunter Rocket. Each episode follows Groot as he embarks on adventures across the universe, meeting new and unusual people and creatures who invariably get him into trouble.
Evil by Design: Exposing Peter Nygard (StarzPlay, from August 5)
For decades, Finnish Canadian executive
Peter Nygard was well known within the fashion industry for founding Nygard International, a Winnipeg-based company which made women’s clothing. He seemed to live a charmed life, but it all came crashing down in February 2020 when the firm’s headquarters was raided as part of a sex trafficking investigation led by the FBI. A month later the company filed for bankruptcy, but it was the story of Nygard himself that created the most headlines. He allegedly spent more than 40 years preying on women in the US, Canada and the Bahamas, with a list of suspected survivors running into the thousands. In a disturbing but fascinating three-part documentary which explores how the authorities built a case against him.
13: The Musical (Netflix, from August 5)
In the autumn of 2008,
Jason Robert Brown, Dan
Elish and Robert Horn’s musical 13 opened on Broadway and ran for 105 performances, eventually closing in January 2009. Now the tale has been adapted for the screen by Horn, while Tamra Davis, whose previous work includes episodes of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, directs. Eli Golden heads the cast as 12-year-old Evan Goldman, whose life is turned on its head when his mother decides they should swap their small-town Indiana home for New York following the collapse of her marriage to his father. Evan is devastated, but soon hits on a way to make new friends – by making his forthcoming bar mitzvah into the coolest party around.