‘Colin’: Nick Offerman, Mary-louise Parker board Kaepernick bio
“Colin”: Colin Kaepernick’s “take the knee” protest was one of the biggest news stories of 2016. Fast-forward to 2021, and while the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback-turned-activist remains unsigned, he’s been busy off the field with a few TV projects and partnerships.
One of those projects is an
ESPN documentary series that falls under his first-look deal with Disney. Another is the six-episode Netflix series, “Colin in Black and White,” which will explore the influences and circumstances in his youth that ultimately shaped his activism. Kaepernick will serve as narrator and executive producer alongside Emmy-winning director Ava Duvernay (“When They See Us”), who will direct the first episode.
Although a premiere date hasn’t yet been announced, the cast has been steadily coming together. Jaden Michael (“Vampires vs. the Bronx,” 2020) will portray a teenage Kaepernick during his high school days in the predominantly white community of Turlock, California. Acting veterans Mary-louise Parker (“Weeds”) and Nick Offerman (“Parks and Recreation”) have also been cast as Kaepernick’s adoptive parents, Teresa and Rick Kaepernick — a move that has generated a lot of buzz.
While it seems we may expect a lot from “Colin in Black and White,” just don’t expect it to dive into the story and aftermath of Kaepernick’s national anthem protest.
Nick Offerman to star in “Colin in Black and White” The Netflix series is mostly focused on Kaepernick’s journey to becoming a star quarterback and on the events that laid the foundation for his activism today.
HGTV on Showtime: Is fame a blessing or a curse? Having to sacrifice your privacy while living up to others’ expectations is certainly a big downside to all that attention (and, presumably, wealth), but it seems there’s some comedy to be mined from that kind of situation, or at least some variation of it.
Showtime has handed a series order to the half-hour comedy “The Curse” from the Safdie Brothers (“Uncut Gems,” 2019) and Canadian comedian Nathan Fielder (“Nathan For You”). Fielder will star as the male lead in addition to his role as director and executive producer, and co-creator/executive producer
Benny Safdie also has a prominent role on screen, though all eyes may be on the show’s ultra-famous female lead.
Academy
Award-winning actress Emma Stone
(“La La Land,”
2016) is set to star in
“The
Curse” as one-half of a newly married couple whose relationship is disrupted by an alleged curse. The couple is trying to conceive a child while co-starring on their “problematic” new HGTV show, “Flipanthropy,” and from the description alone, it doesn’t sound like things go smoothly for them. Fielder stars as the husband and Safdie as an HGTV producer.
The series was ordered to pilot last February, and still hadn’t been filmed when Showtime formally ordered it to series. Though the project is still coming together and a premiere date has yet to be set, it promises to be Stone’s first starring TV role since Netflix’s “Maniac” and the first TV series for the Safdies — though it probably won’t be their last as they signed a first-look deal with HBO
last year.
“icarly”+: It’s official: “icarly” is coming back in 2021.
The series was a big hit for Nickelodeon when it originally aired from 2007 to 2012. Starring Miranda Cosgrove (“School of Rock,” 2003) as Carly, Jerry Trainor (“Drake & Josh”) as her older brother and legal guardian, Spencer, and Nathan Kress (“Into the Storm,” 2014) as friend Freddie, the show followed two teens and a young adult whose lives are upended by fame after Carly becomes an internet sensation.
The actors are set to reprise their roles in the reboot, which is being developed by producers Jay Kogen (“Frasier”) and Ali Schouten (“Diary of a Future President”) but, once production is complete, you won’t find it in the Nickelodeon lineup — the new “icarly” is heading directly to Paramount Plus.
Considering the network’s big push to shore up its streaming offerings, it’s not all that surprising to see the Nickelodeon show land at Paramount Plus (both are owned by Viacomcbs). And if you’re looking for a precedent for this kind of move, look no further than the “Saved by the Bell” reboot, which successfully launched on Peacock instead of the NBC network.
Shortly after the announcement, Kogen took to Twitter to answer fans’ questions about the reboot. He described the new series as being geared more to adults and the original series’ existing fan base rather than to kids, going on to indicate that it would have a multi-camera format with some single-camera elements mixed in. He also fielded questions about “icarly” stars Noah Munck and Jennette Mccurdy — Mccurdy played best friend Sam Puckett in “icarly” and in the 2014 series “Sam and Cat” opposite pop star Ariana Grande — as both stars were missing from the original announcement.