New this week: Red Hot Chili Peppers and ‘Apollo 101⁄2’
Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week.
Movies
Richard Linklater returns to animation with “Apollo 101⁄2,” which comes to Netflix on Friday. But this is no “Waking Life” or “A Scanner Darkly,” though parts do use the rotoscoping technology he used in those films. It’s about being a kid in Houston during the summer of the Apollo 11 Moon landing and is loosely based on Linklater’s own childhood. Glen Powell and Zachary Levi voice men of NASA, while newcomer Milo Coy takes on the leading role as Stanley, with Jack Black voicing the adult version.
Space travel is big on streaming this week, apparently, as HBO Max has its own sci-fi rom com, “Moonshot” available starting Thursday. Produced by Greg Berlanti and directed by Chris Winterbauer, “Moonshot” stars Cole Sprouse as a barista who sneaks on a shuttle to colonize Mars and teams up with “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” star Lana Condor to avoid getting caught. Zach Braff also co-stars.
And for the family set, Disney+ will start streaming “Better Nate Than Ever” on Friday. The musical comedy based on Tim Federle’s 2013 novel follows an unpopular 13-year-old in Pittsburgh (Nate, played by Rueby Wood), who dreams of being a Broadway star and decides to take matters into his own hands and go to New York City with a fellow theater kid, Libby.
– AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr
Music
The Red Hot Chili Peppers return on April Fool’s Day with a new album and some old friends. “Unlimited Love” marks their first recording with guitarist John Frusciante since 2006’s “Stadium Arcadium” and first with producer and longtime collaborator Rick Rubin since 2011. “Black Summer” is the slow-building, arena-ready first single and it features Flea’s energetic bass work and multiple solos from Frusciante. The second is a delicious slice of funk called “Poster Child” that celebrates music itself: “The ‘70s were such a win/singing the Led Zeppelin/lizzy looking mighty Thin/the Thomson’s had another Twin.”
Thomas Rhett will release “Where We Started,” with Katy Perry as the guest on the album’s title song and closing track. Riley Green, Florida Georgia Line’s Tyler Hubbard, and Russell Dickerson will also be featured as album collaborators. Everyone – including Rhett – expected him to follow “Country Again: Side A” with Country Again: Side B” but it was just pushed back. Of the new album, he says: “There are songs that’ll make you cry on this record, there are songs that make you kiss the person you love, there are songs that’ll make you want to dance and there are songs that’ll make you want to party.”
– AP Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy
Television
A decade after the loss of Whitney Houston, CBS remembers the music great’s life and final days with “Whitney, A Look Back,” airing Saturday, on the broadcast network (and streaming on its Paramount+ sibling). The hourlong special produced by “Entertainment Tonight” promises “lost performances and rare moments” with Houston, as well as new interviews including with Dionne Warwick, Clive Davis and Cece Winans. Houston, 48, died by accidental drowning in her hotel room bathtub in Beverly Hills, California in 2012.
Adam Mckay, the Oscar-winning writer-director of “Big Short” and a nominee this year for “Don’t Look Up,” turns to nonfiction TV as executive producer of the HBO docuseries “The invisible Pilot.” Filmmakers Phil Lott and Ari Mark explore the life of a small-town Arkansas family man and pilot who, in 1977, appears to have met a tragic end, leaving his family and friends bewildered. Years passed before a tangled story of a double life and drug smuggling came into focus – and that, HBO promises, is just the beginning. The three-part series, including interviews with Betzner’s intimates, law officers and journalists, will be released in weekly installments beginning April 4.
– AP Television Writer Lynn Elber