+ Screen News

* Ethan Hawke has recently delivered some of his best work in years, courtesy of riveting performances in the screen dramas, Maudie, Juliet, Naked and First Reformed. Now Hawke is heading for the small screen as star, co-writer and executive producer of a major new eight-part series, Good Lord Bird will feature Hawke in the role of 19th-Century abolitionist John Brown, a key figure in the run-up to the US Civil War. Based on one of his favourite novels (by James McBride), Hawke describes the project as “one of the biggest endeavours of my life.”

* Following their success with The Grand Tour, Amazon has just commissioned a new six-part series from co-host James May. Well-known for his TV specials covering specialist hobbies, May’s new show, Our Man in Japan, will see him travel the length and breadth of the island nation in order to understand its people and traditions. “Japan is the most amazing place I’ve ever visited,” says May. “Everything about it is a surprise: a boiled sweet, a bullet train, an unexpected ancient temple and the challenge of eating a single edamame bean with chopsticks.”

* Fresh from her success as Captain Marvel, Brie Larson will star (and act as executive producer) for a new TV series about the real-life experiences of a CIA undercover operative. The asyet-unnamed series is based on Amaryllis Fox’s upcoming memoir, Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA.