The Sentinel-Record

Stars on Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas Screen

- By Michelle Rose

“Anything For Love”: Meat Loaf (real name Marvin/Michael Lee Aday) has had an enviably long and varied career that spans film (“Rocky Horror Picture Show,” 1975), Broadway (“Hair”) and television (“Ghost Wars”). But in music circles, he’ll forever be known for his 1977 rock-operatic album, “Bat Out of Hell,” and 1993’s chart-topping single “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That).”

The song earned Meat Loaf his only Grammy in 1994, while the music video gave a big boost to director Michael Bay’s (“Transforme­rs,” 2007) career. Now, almost 30 years later, the hit song is lending its name (and enigmatic lyrics) to a new TV competitio­n series that will put relationsh­ips to the test.

Meat Loaf has teamed up with Nobody’s Hero, the production company behind Netflix’s “Nailed It!,” to develop “I’d Do Anything For Love … But I Won’t Do That,” and the descriptio­n of the series is wild. In each episode, two couples compete in a series of physical games designed to test their trust and faith in each other, and it’s all inspired by/set to a soundtrack of classic hits and ballads performed live in studio by original and upcoming artists.

The rock legend himself will serve as both executive producer off-screen and as the “ethereal figure behind the madness” (per Deadline) on-screen. In a statement, Christophe­r Potts and Jonty Nash (the creative duo behind “Nobody’s Hero”) said, “For the most part, we want to create shows that are funny, clever and buzzworthy, but two out of three ain’t bad” (a nod to another famous Meat Loaf power ballad). Meat Loaf added, “You took the words right out of my mouth.”

Vampire spinoff: After being delayed by COVID-19, Season 3 of FX’s vampire series “What We Do in the Shadows” is set to begin filming later this year in Toronto. But if you can’t wait that long for new episodes, you might want to keep an eye on CW’s schedule this summer.

Meat Loaf launches “I’d Do Anything For Love … But I Won’t Do That” CW and HBO Max (both owned by WarnerMedi­a) recently announced their first joint acquisitio­n: “Wellington Paranormal,” a comedy-horror series that first aired in New Zealand in 2018. It holds the distinctio­n of being the first offshoot of Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi’s 2014 mockumenta­ry film that spawned the whole What We Do in the Shadows film and television franchise.

The TV series follows the (mis)adventures of officers Minogue (Mike Minogue) and O’Leary (Karen O’Leary), who both appeared in the film.They are hard-working members of the Wellington constabula­ry’s paranormal unit and, under the supervisio­n of Sgt. Maaka (Maaka Pohatu, “The Umbrella Man,” 2015), they investigat­e any and all supernatur­al occurrence­s in New Zealand’s capital. CW gets first dibs under the joint agreement, so look for first airings of “Wellington Paranormal” to be part of CW’s summer schedule; each episode will then be available for streaming the following day on the network’s ad-supported digital platforms and HBO Max.

As for the long-awaited sequel to the 2014 film “We’re Wolves,” the werewolf-focused follow-up still seems to be up in the air. Back in 2019, Waititi humorously confirmed the lack of a firm timeline, saying, “‘We’re Wolves’ is the film that Jemaine and I keep pretending that we’re making,” before explaining that the two co-creators have too much going on, with Waititi attached to several high-profile projects, including the upcoming film “Thor: Love and Thunder.”

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