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The Dolby Theater in Hollywood is ready to host the celebrities this year at the 96th Academy Awards on Sunday. A total of ten films are nominated for the Best Picture category. The films in the current nomination list include American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Oppenheimer, Past Lives, Poor Things, and The Zone of Interest. Fans already have certain favorites to win the Best Picture and anything other than that will surely cause a social media meltdown.

Best Picture nominees at the 96th Academy Awards

Some of the previous Oscar favorites have failed to secure the award, and the voting body picked other surprising entries from the list. There are at least 5 such cases of Academy voters opting for the second-best (or the third or even the worst) movies for the Best Picture Award.

Shakespeare In Love (71st Academy Awards)

Who should have won?...

Exclusive: Emmy Award-winner Tammy Blanchard has been cast in FX’s American Sports Story, the new FX anthology limited series from creator Stu Zicherman, in a series regular role, sources tell Deadline.

American Sports Story, a new extension of Ryan Murphy’s “American Story” franchise, focuses on a prominent event involving a sports figure and re-examines it through the prism of today’s world, telling that story from multiple perspectives.

The first installment charts the rise and fall of NFL superstar Aaron Hernandez, played by Josh Andrés Rivera, and explores the connections of the disparate strands of his identity, his family, his career, his suicide and his legacy in sports and American culture. Season 1 is based on the podcast Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc. and hails from the Boston Globe and Wondery.

Blanchard will portray the mother of the disgraced football star and convicted murderer, Terri Hernandez, we hear.

I loved "Driving Miss Daisy" before I even saw the movie, actually. I remember running around as a kid teasing slow drivers — and slow-moving people in general for that matter — by calling them Driving Miss Daisy because I thought the movie was about an old lady who drove slowly and held up traffic. When I finally watched the 1989 comedy-drama, it only reinforced my adoration. Jessica Tandy shined in her role as Daisy Werthan, an elderly but prideful white Jewish widow who, from the late 1940s and into the early '70s, develops a bond with her kindly Black chauffeur, Hoke Colburn (Morgan Freeman) in Georgia. In my eyes, "Lean on Me," "The Shawshank Redemption," and "Driving Miss Daisy" are Freeman's best movie roles.

Miss Daisy and Hoke's relationship helped shape my knowledge of race relations during the civil rights era beyond the documentaries I watched in school. For example,...

Four top TV cinematographers will reveal the secrets behind their crafts when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Btl Experts” Q&a event with key 2021 guild and Emmy contenders this month. Each person will participate in two video discussions to be published on Monday, November 30, at 5:00 p.m. Pt; 8:00 p.m. Et. We’ll have a one-on-one with our senior editor Joyce Eng and a group chat with Joyce and all of the DPs together.

RSVP today by clicking here to book your reservations. We’ll send you a reminder a few before the start of the show so you won’t miss watching.

This “Meet the Btl Experts” panel welcomes the following 2021 guild and Emmy contenders:

“The Boys” (Amazon Prime): Dan Stoloff

Stoloff’s career has included “Amazing Stories,” “The Americans,” “Suits,” “The Prince” and “Fairly Legal.”

“The Queen’s Gambit” (Netflix): Steven Meizler...

Showtime is making a bet on "Billions," a new drama series set in the world of high finance, co-created by journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin and starring Emmy winners Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis. The pay cable channel has ordered it to series, with a 12-episode first season to debut sometime next year. Per the Showtime announcement, "'Billions' is a fictional drama that takes an insider look at the world of high finance by tracking the approaching collision between two titanic figures – the hard charging, politically savvy U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades (Giamatti), and the brilliant, ambitious hedge fund king, Bobby "Axe" Axelrod (Lewis). Maggie Siff, Malin Akerman, Toby Leonard Moore, David Costabile and Condola Rashad also star." Sorkin, who knows this world well from his reporting (including "Too Big to Fail," the movie version of which featured Giamatti), and is writing and producing it with Brian Koppelman and David Levien.

Showtime capped off a busy week of pilot casting by landing a pair of Emmy winners to topline its drama pilot "Billions." Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis will star in the pilot, which will shoot in New York City in early 2015. Written by Brian Koppelman, David Levien and Andrew Ross Sorkin, "Billions" is described a fictional drama that "takes a forensic look at the world of high finance by tracking the approaching collision between two titanic figures." Those figures are U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhodes (Giamatti) and hedge fund king Bobby "Axe" Axelrod (Lewis). Showtime also announced that Neil Burger ("Limitless") has signed on to direct the pilot. An Oscar nominee for "Cinderella Man," Giamatti has been making an aggressive push into TV in recent years. The "John Adams" Emmy winner earned Emmy nods for HBO's "Too Big to Fail" and earlier this year for "Downton Abbey." While FX opted...

(Cbr) If you were looking forward to a weekly dose of hardboiled Paul Giamatti madness, today is not the day for you. Deadline reports FX has passed on "Hoke," the drama pilot starring Giamatti as a “hardboiled and possibly insane homicide detective” named Hoke Moseley. The series was set to take place in Miami in 1985. In addition to Giamatti, the pilot featured Robert Wisdom, Tammy Blanchard and John Carroll Lynch. "Hoke" was one of three drama pilots FX ordered over the past year. The other two pilots, "Tyrant" and "The Strain," are both premiering this summer.

Power

Starz have officially announced a season two pick up of their New York-based drama series "Power" starring Omari Hardwick and produced by Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson.

Production is set to begin on the slightly longer ten-episode second season in and around New York and Brooklyn this September. [Source: Starz]

Hoke

FX has passed on picking up the Scott Frank penned and directed drama pilot "Hoke" to series. Paul Giamatti starred in and executive produced the pilot which follows a hardboiled and possibly insane homicide detective Hoke Moseley in pre-chic Miami circa 1985. [Source: Deadline]

Under the Dome

Writer/executive producer Brian K. Vaughan has exited CBS' monster hit summer sci-fi series "Under the Dome". Vaughan arced out season two with veteran producer Neal Baer who remains onboard as show runner. Vaughan penned the pilot episode, and the first season finale. [Source: The Live Feed]

East of Exurbia

Xbox Studios is developing the scripted comedy "East of Exurbia" with...

Lifetime is giving Grumpy Cat something to smile about.

The Internet sensation — who’s just a perpetually frowny-faced cat, for those of you who don’t know her – is set to star in her first made-for-tv movie this holiday season, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Titled Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever, the Lifetime original movie tells the story of a pet-store cat (Cat) who can somehow communicate with a 12-year-old girl.

Prior to Worst Christmas Ever, Cat has appeared on American Idol and had a front-row seat at the 2014 MTV Movie Awards.

It has been a very interesting time for the FX Network, hasn’t it? Veteran dramas Justified and Sons Of Anarchy have continued to thrive over the years, with the latter show approaching its seventh season. Meanwhile, other series such as The Americans, Louie and Archer are genuine critical success stories, with The Americans receiving high praise for its latest season. The cable network does not look to be slowing down anytime soon, either, as the well-received Fargo wraps up its debut season and upcoming shows like The Strain and Tyrant are getting some pretty solid buzz as well. Unfortunately, there is one promising TV drama pilot that FX has decided to move on from.

That drama pilot is Hoke, which starred Paul Giamatti as Hoke Moseley, a hardboiled and “possibly insane” homicide detective living in the world of pre-chic Miami during the early-1980s. The show was to be...

FX has passed on Hoke, its drama pilot starring and executive produced by Paul Giamatti. Written, directed and executive produced by Scott Frank, the project told the story of midlife crisis and murder that features the hardboiled and possibly insane homicide detective Hoke Moseley (Gianatti) in pre-chic Miami circa 1985. Robert Wisdom, Tammy Blanchard and John Carroll Lynch co-starred. While FX picked up some nine comedy pilots over the past year as it is ramping up comedy-centric sibling Fxx, the network only ordered three drama pilots, Hoke as well as Tyrant and The Strain, both of which went to series. On the drama side, FX also is making a push in limited/event series with such programs as Fargo.

Exclusive: FX Productions has signed a two-year overall production deal with writer-producer David Manson and his production company Sarabande Prods. Under the pact, Peabody Award-winning Manson will develop, write and produce series for FX Networks. The pact stems from Manson and FX’s recent collaboration on the network’s drama series pilot Hoke starring Paul Giamatti. Manson serves as executive producer on the project, from writer/executive producer/director Scott Frank, which just wrapped production. Manson first worked with FX on the limited series Thief, which won star Andre Braugher an Emmy. “David is an incredibly talented writer-producer and highly respected in the creative community,” said FX Networks and FX Prods President Nick Grad. “It’s great to have him under the Fxp umbrella, and we expect to announce some projects with him very soon.” Related: Louis Ck Inks Overall Deal With FX Productions For New Series CAA-repped Manson served...

Something like a consensus seems to have developed among fans of the excellent "Justified" (FX) that the show's 5th season, which ended on Tuesday, has been the show's best since the sainted second. That was the one for which Margo Martindale won her Emmy as hillbilly Queenpin Mags Bennett. We agree, and would add that the blueprint for the 6th and final season offered in the episode's final minutes was thrilling, promising both the fulfillment of burgeoning fatherly impulses in Raylan, hinted throughout the season, and a cathartic resolution of his contentious lifelong relationship with eloquent sociopath Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins). (FX is already developing a series that could be a natural successor to "Justified," an adaptation of Charles Willeford's Hoke Moseley novels from Scott Frank and Curtis Hanson, to star Paul Giamatti.) As his hugely entertaining scenes sparring with Goggins have demonstrated from the beginning, Olyphant is at...

FX knows how to accumulate good TV watching: Archer, Louie, The League, It’s Always Sunny, The Bridge, Wilfred, American Horror Story, and Justified. Today I’ve read [Via EW] about Michael Cera and John Hawkes leading a Charlie Kaufman’s FX comedy pilot How And Why, the “story of a man who can explain how and why a nuclear reactor works, but is clueless about life”. Now we learn that Zach Galifianakis will be leading will star in an untitled comedy pilot from executive producer Louis C.K., which is the first project under C.K.’s recent development deal with the network. Details are unknown but Galifianakis created the potential series and will co-write the pilot script with C.K.

FX has also finalized a cast for the drama series pilot Hoke [via THR] with Paul Giamatti already attached to produce and star in the potential show, which is described as a “darkly...

News and notes from around the TV world:

- MTV announced the premiere dates for new and returning comedies at the winter press tour on Friday (Jan. 10). "Awkward" Season 4 -- led by new showrunners Chris Alberghini and Mike Chessler -- premieres with a special one hour episode on Tuesday, April 15 at 10 p.m. Et. Senior year brings Jenna more boy trouble, drama with her friends, a new girl in town who has eyes for Matty, and even some cat fishing.

- "Game of Thrones" alum Oona Chaplin has a role in "Hoke," a pilot at FX starring Paul Giamatti, who plays a middle-aged homicide detective in early 80s Miami. Other cast additions include Robert Wisdom ("The Wire") and John Caroll Lynch ("Body of Proof").

- The season premiere of the coming-of-age comedy series from Carter Covington, "Faking It," airs on Tuesday, April 22 at 10:30 p.m. Et. The new comedy...

The Driver

"The Walking Dead" star David Morrissey is set to top line the three-part TV thriller "The Driver" for The BBC. Danny Brocklehurst ("Shameless") is penning the script and shooting starts in and around Manchester this week.

Morrissey plays taxi driver Vince McKee, who blames himself for a family mystery and accepts an offer to start driving for a criminal gang. Ian Hart, Colm Meaney, Shaun Dingwall, Claudie Blakeley, Sacha Parkinson and Lee Ross also star. [Source: Variety]

The Kitchen Boy

Kristin Scott Thomas has joined the cast of Stefan Ruzowitzky's "The Kitchen Boy". Sir Ronald Harwood ("The Pianist," "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly") is adapting the script from Robert Alexander's novel with filming beginning in Europe in the summer.

Told though the eyes of a young servant, the story follows the final weeks in the lives of Russia's last tsar and tsarina, Nicholas II and Alexandra Romanov (Thomas), and their children,...

Tony-nominated actress Tammy Blanchard is the newest addition to join FX’s dark comedic-drama “Hoke”, according to a report by Deadline. “Hoke,” adapted from Charles Willeford’s detective novels, stars Paul Giamatti as Hoke Moseley, a homicide detective in 1980s Miami struggling with cracking his own mid-life crisis in addition to murder cases. Blanchard is set to [...]

The post TV: Tammy Blanchard Cast in FX Drama “Hoke” Opposite Paul Giamatti appeared first on Up and Comers.

FX has finalized the cast for its upcoming drama pilot Hoke, based on the Charles Willeford novel series.

Game of Thrones alum Oona Chaplin, John Carroll Lynch, Robert Wisdom, Jordi Mollà and Tammy Blanchard are among the new additions to the cast for the show, which will star Paul Giamatti as the title character, a hardboiled homicide detective Hoke Moseley.

Chaplin will play Ellita Sanchez, a sharp young homicide detective recently promoted from dispatcher to Hoke’s (Giamatti) new partner. Lynch will play an Hoke’s former partner. Wisdom will play the head of the Miami Pd Homicide Squad who...

FX has rounded out the cast of its Paul Giamatti comedy pilot Hoke. John Carroll Lynch (Body of Proof), Oona Chaplin (Game of Thrones), Robert Wisdom (Nashville), Jordi Molla (Bad Boys) and Tammy Blanchard (Guiding Light) have joined the cast of the darkly comedic take on Charles Willeford's series of novels Sideswipe, New Hope for the Dead and The Way We Die Now. Story: Paul Giamatti Drama Ordered to Pilot at FX Hoke is the story of mid-life crisis and murder that features the hard-boiled and possibly insane homicide detective, Hoke Moseley (Giamatti), in pre-chic Miami circa

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FX has finalized its casting for the upcoming drama series pilot "Hoke," now set to star Paul Giamatti, Oona Chaplin, John Carroll Lynch, Robert Wisdom, Jordi Mollà and Tammy Blanchard. Scott Frank wrote and will direct the pilot episode, and he will be co-showrunner with David Manson if "Hoke" goes to series. Frank, Manson, Curtis Hanson, Carol Fenelon, Paul Giamatti and Dan Carey serve as executive producers. "Hoke" is a darkly comedic drama based on Charles Willeford's series of novels "Sideswipe," "New Hope for the Dead" and "The Way We Die Now". It is a story of mid-life crisis and murder that features the hardboiled and possibly insane homicide detective, "Hoke Moseley" (Giamatti), in pre-chic Miami circa...

EXClUSIVE: Tony-nominated actress Tammy Blanchard has landed a series regular role on FX series Hoke, the darkly comedic drama series adapted by Scott Frank (Get Shorty, Out Of Sight) from Charles Willeford’s detective novels Sideswipe, New Hope For The Dead and The Way We Die Now. Paul Giamatti stars as Hoke Moseley, the hardboiled homicide detective hero of Willeford’s novels who investigates crimes while wrestling with his own mid-life crisis in 1980s Miami. Blanchard will play Loretta Hickey, the striking mother of a murdered drug addict whose case Hoke investigates and a key character in Willeford’s second Hoke Moseley book, New Hope For The Dead. Blanchard recently filmed the role of Florinda in Disney’s Into the Woods musical film adaptation. She’s repped by Soffer/Namoff and the Gersh Agency. Related: Paul Giamatti To Star In FX Pilot Based On Charles Willeford’s Novels...

Robert Wisdom (Nashville) is set to co-star opposite Paul Giamatti in Hoke, FX’s darkly comedic drama pilot based on Charles Willeford’s series of novels. Written by Scott Frank, who will direct and showrun the pilot, Hoke is a story of mid-life crisis and murder that features the hardboiled and possibly insane homicide detective Hoke Moseley (Giamatti) in pre-chic Miami circa 1985. Wisdom, repped by Don Buchwald & Associates and Klwgn, will play Hoke’s boss Major Brownley, the head of the Homicide Squad. He’s known Hoke for a very long time and knows all of Hoke’s strengths, weaknesses, eccentricities and prejudices. Wisdom just shot a guest star/recurring role on Syfy’s 12 Monkeys pilot, based on the Terry Gilliam movie, playing Jeremy, a former CIA operative who’s content to apply his talents in the kitchen. He is filming his fifth episode of NBC’s Chicago Pd as...