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Before the beloved sitcom Community, aired its final season, Alison Brie, who played Annie Edison, also starred in a controversial comedy: Get Hard. The comedy just recently hit Netflix, and it immediately became a hit.

Get Hard premiered in 2015, with comedy giants Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart in the lead. The comedy had Etan Cohen in his directorial debut, who co-wrote the script with Jay Martel and Ian Roberts. Get Hard was met with negative reviews, but it was a commercial hit, and its success continues on streaming 10 years later, per Tudum.

For the week between June 9 and June 15, Get Hard debuted in the global charts in sixth place. It received 4.4 million views, with 7.4 million hours viewed. The film's achievement was even more impressive, as all the views came from the U.S. Domestically, Get Hard was in fourth place behind Tyler Perry's Straw, Gerard Butler's Plane, and...

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Hulu is ready with an entertainment-packed November this year. The upcoming month will see the return of some popular K-drama shows The Fiery Priest and also new original movies like Nutcrackers. Just like every month, Hulu is ready to overload you with great content. So, we’re here to tell you about the 10 new movies and TV shows coming to Hulu in November 2024.

Gangnam B-Side Season 1 (November 6)

Gangnam B-Side is an action mystery crime thriller drama series directed by Park Noo Ri from a screenplay by Jo Won Gyu. The Disney+ series is set in Gangnam, Seoul and it revolves around the disappearance of a young woman who had information about a series of disappearances. Now, a detective, an outlaw, and a Prosecutor all try to find her for their own reasons. Gangnam B-Side stars Jo Woo-jin, Ji Chang-wook,...

Child actors shine in The Present, adding depth to the time loop scenario. The film presents a refreshing, magical atmosphere with an orchestral score. The story could have better character development and risks giving young viewers unrealistic expectations on marriage.

The Present stars Isla Fisher and Greg Kinnear as a couple on the brink of divorce, and for some reason, it's up to their kids to stop them from splitting up. Director Christain Ditter and writer Jay Martel toe the family-friendly line, but in a way that trusts their audience and lets the parents watching know they're in on the joke. Unlike other time loop movies, the characters aren't trapped in a never-ending existential cycle. The children choose to be in the loop to change the events of the day their parents break up.

5/10 ProsThe Present has great young actors who are really believable in their rolesThe time loop scenario...

Exclusive: Gravitas Ventures has acquired a pair of starry indies — Alice Englert’s dark comedy Bad Behaviour, starring Jennifer Connelly, and Christian Ditter’s family comedy The Present, starring Isla Fisher and Greg Kinnear. Bad Behaviour opens in limited theaters and on digital and VOD in the U.S. and Canada on June 14, with The Present to hit digital and cable VOD in the U.S. on June 18.

World premiering at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, Englert’s debut feature Bad Behaviour watches as a former child actress seeking enlightenment at a retreat navigates the close but turbulent relationship with her daughter. Also starring Ben Whishaw, Englert, and Ana Scotney, among others, the film is produced by Desray Armstrong and Molly Hallam. Exec producers included Stephen Braun of Bee-Hive Productions, Whishaw and Englert. The film was made with finance from the New Zealand Film Commission, the New Zealand Government’s Screen Production Rebate,...

Exclusive: CatchLight Studios today announced the launch of Nuts & Bolts, a new division specializing in production services, to be overseen by Executive Vice President of Production, Yolanda T. Cochran. The mission of Nuts & Bolts will be to service worldwide production, from basic production service and compliance requirements, up to full third-party production services and EP/producer oversight.

Cochran took on the role of SVP Live Action Production at ViacomCBS’ Kids & Family in the early days of the Covid pandemic, there overseeing scripted and unscripted series and specials for Nickelodeon & AwesomenessTV. Notable projects included Paramount+’s iCarly reboot, Nickelodeon’s Nick News revival and the launch of new series That Girl Lay Lay and NFL Slimetime.

The veteran executive previously served as VP Production at Walt Disney Television’s Freeform studio and network, overseeing such series as Good Trouble, The Bold Type, Siren and Motherland: Fort Salem, among others. She,...

Exclusive: Ryan Guzman (9-1-1) has taken over Ross Butler’s role in the family comedy The Present, from director Christian Ditter (How to Be Single). The reasons for Butler’s departure haven’t been disclosed, but Guzman is now set to star alongside Isla Fisher, Greg Kinnear, Easton Rocket Sweda, Shay Rudolph and Mason Shea Joyce.

In the film from Stuart Ford’s independent content studio AGC Studios, a brilliant boy discovers he can manipulate time using an enchanted family heirloom, then teaming up with his siblings to go back to the eve of their parents’ separation in hopes of changing the outcome. As their schemes become more elaborate, the siblings will learn about family bonds and what they can and can’t control. Fisher and Kinnear are playing the parents in search of reconciliation, with Sweda, Rudolph and Joyce portraying the siblings who just might be the only...

Isla Fisher and Greg Kinnear star for director Christian Ditter.

Production has begun in Los Angeles on AGC Studios’ The Present, a family comedy with Isla Fisher and Greg Kinnear starring and Christian Ditter directing.

German-born Ditter previously shot 2016 comedy hit How To Be Single.

The screenplay – about a brilliant boy who discovers he can manipulate time using an enchanted family heirloom – is by Jay Martel. The project is produced by Stuart Ford and Linda McDonough for AGC, and by Marcei Brown and Jessica Malanaphy for CatchLight Studios. The executive producers are Martel, CatchLight’s Jason Clark and AGC’s Zach Garrett and Miguel Palos.

Isla Fisher (Wolf Like Me) and Greg Kinnear (Shining Vale) will topline the family comedy The Present, from director Christian Ditter (How to Be Single), which has entered production in Los Angeles.

In the film from Stuart Ford’s independent content studio AGC Studios, a brilliant boy discovers he can manipulate time using an enchanted family heirloom, then teaming up with his siblings to go back to the eve of their parents’ separation in hopes of changing the outcome. As their schemes become more elaborate, the siblings will learn about family bonds and what they can and can’t control. Fisher and Kinnear are playing the parents in search of reconciliation, with Easton Rocket Sweda (General Hospital), Shay Rudolph (The Baby-Sitters Club) and Mason Shea Joyce (Euphoria) portraying the siblings who just might be the only people who can make that happen.

Ross Butler (Shazam!) also stars in the film...

Jay Martel, a former showrunner for Key & Peele, is seeking class action status for a lawsuit against ViacomCBS and the WGA which he alleges signed a secretive deal that slashed royalties due writers for streaming views of dozens of ViacomCBS series including Key & Peele, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and Tosh.0.

The suit — read here — filed yesterday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California alleges breach of a collective bargaining agreement and breach of duty of fair representation.

It claims that ViacomCBS for years violated royalty payment terms of the WGA’s Basic Agreement “by improperly computing or simply not paying residuals owed for “new media” use, in particular ad-supported video-on-demand services.

Between late 2019 and early 2020, the media company negotiated a collective settlement with the WGA for “systemic underpayment and nonpayment of royalties.” However, the suit claims, the settlement reached — which wiped out...

The showrunner of “Key & Peele” filed a class action lawsuit on Thursday accusing the Writers Guild of America of agreeing to a secret deal that shorted him out of streaming residuals from the show.

Shortly after the show ended its five-year run in 2015, Comedy Central made the entire series — more than 300 sketches — available on its website.

In the lawsuit, showrunner Jay Martel alleges that Viacom systematically underpaid residuals — or paid nothing at all — from those streams, and from streams on other ad-supported platforms. The complaint alleges that the company did the same thing with other Comedy Central shows, including “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah” and “Tosh.0.”

The Writers Guild of America has complained that ad-supported streaming (or AVOD) has largely replaced broadcast reruns, with far lower payments to creators.

According to the complaint, the WGA brought an arbitration claim against Viacom in October 2018, charging that the cabler had...

Are some of television’s top comedy writers getting all the money they can from the fact that thousands of episodes are available on streaming platforms? Perhaps not, according to a new lawsuit. On Wednesday, a putative class action was brought alleging that Viacom’s Comedy Central units are breaching a collective bargaining agreement — and that the Writers Guild is maintaining a clandestine settlement agreement.

Former Key & Peele showrunner Jay Martel is leading the charge with a suit on behalf of himself and others similarly situated.

His complaint alleges that for years, Viacom subsidiaries failed to abide by the terms ...

Are some of television’s top comedy writers getting all the money they can from the fact that thousands of episodes are available on streaming platforms? Perhaps not, according to a new lawsuit. On Wednesday, a putative class action was brought alleging that Viacom’s Comedy Central units are breaching a collective bargaining agreement — and that the Writers Guild is maintaining a clandestine settlement agreement.

Former Key & Peele showrunner Jay Martel is leading the charge with a suit on behalf of himself and others similarly situated.

His complaint alleges that for years, Viacom subsidiaries failed to abide by the terms ...

A funny thing happened at HBO Max today. The WarnerMedia streamer has inked with Comedy Central to run all episodes of the cable net’s comedies Chappelle’s Show, Inside Amy Schumer, Key & Peele, Nathan for You and the original Reno 911!

The nonexclusive streaming deal adds to HBO Max’s trove of Comedy Central content that also includes the full South Park series and upcoming seasons of The Other Two and South Side produced by Comedy Central Productions as Max Originals.

As a refresher for the converted or a primer for the uninitiated, here are descriptions of the five series included in the new deal:

Chappelle’S Show

Featuring stand-up, sketch comedy and musical performances, Dave Chappelle takes on culture with a no-holds-barred attitude. And with themes like race and fame at the forefront of the series, nothing is off limits. Creators Chappelle and Neal Brennan executive produced the Emmy-nominated series along with Michelle Armour.

Arturo Castro’s sketch comedy series “Alternatino” will move from Comedy Central to Quibi for its second season.

The series, which sees Castro play more than 40 different characters, debuted on Comedy Central last summer.

Quibi already has short-form reboots of other ViacomCBS properties like “Punk’d,” “Singled Out” and “Reno 911.”

Also Read: Jeffrey Katzenberg Blames Quibi's Lackluster Launch on Coronavirus

Castro is creator, executive producer and writer of the series. Avalon’s David Martin, Jon Thoday, Richard Allen-Turner and Sam Saifer are executive producers alongside Jay Martel and Ted Tremper. Ari Pearce and Manny Jaquez are the executives in charge for Comedy Central Productions. The series is produced by Comedy Central Productions.

Since it was released a little over a month ago, Quibi has only hit 2.9 million downloads, according to app analysis firm Sensor Tower (though co-founder Meg Whitman told TheWrap it’s closer to 3.5 million). However, co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg is...

“Alternatino” has had to find an alternative home for season 2.

The Comedy Central variety show, which debuted its first season on the ViacomCBS cabler in June 2019, has been picked up for a second season at Quibi. Jeffrey Katzenberg’s recently-launched platform is reviving a handful of old shows, including another Comedy Central-produced series in “Reno 911!,” but this marks the first time Quibi has picked up a series that was dropped by a linear network.

Sources with knowledge of the situation say that Comedy Central continues to own the show, and that this news does not necessarily mean that potential future seasons won’t return to the network. However, that doesn’t seem all that likely given this departure to a platform with a smaller audience. Season 1 will continue to stream on Comedy Central and other ViacomCBS platforms.

“I’m thrilled to launch ‘Alternatino’ in this exciting new platform while...

Arturo Castro’s Alternatino is headed to Quibi. The short-form mobile streaming platform has ordered the critically-acclaimed sketch series from the Broad City alum and Comedy Central Productions.

The first season of Alternatino debuted on Comedy Central in June 2019, and showcased Castro’s provocative, unique voice in the comedy landscape. Memorable sketches included “Welcome to America,” about a student in a class of recent immigrants trying to wrap his head around the reality of tragedy as well as “What the Sex Talk Looks Like Now” and “A Sick Child’s Dying Wish”. Castro is known for using modern LatinX identity (misconceptions and all) as a fresh filter for cultural commentary about our daily lives and the zeitgeist — and it is all rooted in his personal experience.

Castro is creator, executive producer, writer and star of the series. Avalon’s David Martin, Jon Thoday, Richard Allen-Turner and Sam Saifer are executive...

Paramount Players is developing a feature film adaptation of the sci-fi novel Channel Blue.

Jay Martel — the showrunner of Comedy Central's Key & Peele and more recently Alternatino With Arturo Castro — authored the book, which centers on an unemployed screenwriter who unwittingly stumbles upon Earth's most closely guarded secret: The planet is actually an ongoing reality show for an advanced race of aliens... and it's about to be blown up because of bad ratings.

Martel will adapt his novel for the screen.

The studio label most recently released the John Cena-fronted kids feature Playing With Fire, and ...

Paramount Players is developing a feature film adaptation of the sci-fi novel Channel Blue.

Jay Martel — the showrunner of Comedy Central's Key & Peele and more recently Alternatino With Arturo Castro — authored the book, which centers on an unemployed screenwriter who unwittingly stumbles upon Earth's most closely guarded secret: The planet is actually an ongoing reality show for an advanced race of aliens... and it's about to be blown up because of bad ratings.

Martel will adapt his novel for the screen.

The studio label most recently released the John Cena-fronted kids feature Playing With Fire, and ...

Exclusive: Agc Studios has picked up Jay Martel’s spec screenplay The Present, Deadline has learned.

The Present tells the story of a young boy who figures out a way to repeat the day leading up to his parents’ separation so he can relive the same day and try to keep them from splitting up. Martel will serve as an executive producer on the project, which we hear is in early development.

Martel, together with his former longtime writing partner Ian Roberts, won Emmy and Peabody awards for showrunning and executive producing Comedy Central’s sketch series Key & Peele. They also wrote Warner Bros’ Kevin Hart-Will Ferrell comedy Get Hard which made $112M at the global box office. Martel and Roberts also ran the TV Land series Teachers.

Most recently, Martel served as the showrunner of Comedy Central’s critically acclaimed Alternatino with Arturo Castro.

He also wrote...

Former Key & Peele executive producer Jay Martel is returning to Comedy Central as showrunner of Alternatino with Arturo Castro, based on the digital series of the same name.

Created by and starring Broad City regular Castro, Alternatino is a sketch show based on Castro’s experiences as a Latino millennial in the United States.

Martel will executive produce alongside Castro, Nick Jasenovec and Sam Saifer, David Martin, Jon Thoday and Richard Allen-Turner for Avalon Television, with Avalon Television producing. The first season will be shot in New York City this fall.

Martel and his former longtime writing partner Ian Roberts served as co-showrunners for all five seasons of the Emmy and Peabody-winning Key & Peele for Comedy Central. Martel and Roberts currently serve as executive producers/showrunners for TV Land’s Teachers, which is currently in its third season.

His feature work includes the screenplay for Warner Bros’ Get Hard starring Kevin Hart and Will Ferrell.

If you’re wondering what the future of women in comedy might look like, consider Caitlin Barlow’s armpits. “We’re painting my armpit hair on for this episode,” she said to IndieWire. “I grew it out for a week, but it wasn’t dark enough.”

That’s just one example of the sort of creative choice made regularly in the course of making “Teachers,” the bold, profane and hilarious comedy created by sketch comedy group the Katydids and executive produced by Ian Roberts and Jay Martel (“Key and Peele”). Having just wrapped the first half of its second season, the TV Land series features Katydids members Barlow, Katy Colloton, Cate Freedman, Kate Lambert, Katie O’Brien and Kathryn Renee Thomas as an eclectic group of educators who work at an elementary school, doing their best not to warp young minds with their outrageous behavior.

Read More: ‘Baroness Von Sketch Show...

Quick Hits

Last Year’s Winner: “Inside Amy Schumer” Was It an Upset? No. Still Eligible? Yes. Hot Streak: “SNL” has been nominated for Outstanding Variety Series nine years in a row. Previously, it was nominated for four straight years between 2001 and 2004, but it hasn’t won the category since 1993. Fun Fact: This is only the second year of this category’s existence. Previously, all variety series — sketch and talk — competed against each other.

Read More: Saying Goodbye to ‘Key & Peele,’ With Executive Producers Ian Roberts and Jay Martel

“Inside Amy Schumer” took home the trophy last year, making it the defending champ of the Variety Sketch category. But that was the year of Schumer, where the show really took off as “Trainwreck” dominated the box office. Can she keep things rolling in the new year without a hit film promoting her (extremely great) Comedy Central series?

Perhaps, but a...

How do you like them apples? TV Land has ordered a second season of the Teachers TV series. The show is written by and stars The Katydids, who wrote and acted in the Teachers web series.

The cast of Teachers includes: Caitlin Barlow, Katy Colloton, Cate Freedman, Kate Lambert, Katie O'Brien and Kathryn Renée Thomas. Along with The Katydids, Alison Brie and showrunners Ian Roberts and Jay Martel executive produce the series. Matt Miller and Cap Gun Collective are also executive producers.​

Read More…...

The Writers Guild of America has just announced the nominations for their annual awards for Best Screenplays (by writers who are guild signatories). That’s right, before you get nervous thinking that your favorite may have been left off the list, you must remember that the WGA is the group that is not all-inclusive and leaves out several of the top contenders each year due to them not being part of the guild or not following their very specific rules. For this reason, you won’t see Inside Out, The Hateful Eight, and Ex Machina in the Original Screenplay category or Room, Brooklyn, or Anomalisa in the Adapted screenplay category.

Taking a look at what’s left over for the nominations, we find many that were expected to make a showing, including Spotlight and Bridge of Spies for Original Screenplay, though they apparently had to sink to really low depths...

In advance of the official January 13 premiere, TV Land has released the pilot episode for its new sitcom, Teachers. Watch Teachers, season one, episode one, here.

Teachers stars improvisational group The Katydids: Caitlin Barlow, Katy Colloton, Cate Freedman, Kate Lambert, Katie O’Brien and Katie Thomas. In addition to writing for and starring in the show, they serve as executive producers, with Alison Brie and showrunners Ian Roberts and Jay Martel.Read More…...

Ryan Coogler's "Creed" topped the NAACP Image Awards nomination which were revealed this morning. "Creed" received nods for best picture, director for Coogler, actor for Michael B. Jordan, writing for Coogler and Aaron Covington, and supporting actress noms for both Phylicia Rashad and Tessa Thompson.

We'll find out the winners on February 5 on the live airing of the ceremony on TV one.

Here is the full list of nominees of the 47th NAACP Image Awards:

Entertainer Of The Year

Michael B. Jordan

Misty Copeland

Pharrell Williams

Shonda Rhimes

Viola Davis

Television

Outstanding Comedy Series

.black-ish. (ABC)

.House of Lies. (Showtime)

.Key & Peele. (Comedy Central)

.Orange is the New Black. (Netflix)

.Survivor.s Remorse. (Starz)

Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series

Andre Braugher . .Brooklyn Nine-Nine. (Fox)

Anthony Anderson . .black-ish. (ABC)

Don Cheadle . .House of Lies. (Showtime)

Dwayne Johnson . .Ballers. (HBO)

RonReaco Lee . .Survivor.s Remorse. (Starz)

Outstanding Actress...

The Writers Guild of America announced some of its nominees for its 2015 awards on Thursday, including television, new media, and radio, and among the TV nominees are series both new and old, and all beloved.

In the comedy series category, freshman Netflix show "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" scored a nomination for best series, as well as an overall best new series nod. "The Last Man on Earth" also landed in that latter category, and was singled out for its pilot episode writing, too.

On the drama side of the equation, lauded "Breaking Bad" spinoff "Better Call Saul" also got best series and best new series nominations, in addition to a an episode writing nod. Newly-minted Emmy winner "Game of Thrones" also scored a best drama citation, as well as an episodic writing nomination.

The full list of nominees released this week are below. Nominations in the theatrical and documentary categories will...

TV Land has changed the premiere date for season two of Younger and the series premiere of Teachers. The hour-long second season premiere of Younger airs Wednesday, January 13, 2016 at 10:00pm Et/Pt. The series premiere of Teachers follows at 11:00pm Et/Pt.

Starting January 20, Teachers will settle into its regular, Wednesday 10:30pm time slot, following Younger. Watch the official Teachers trailer, below.

The Younger cast includes: Sutton Foster, Debbi Mazar, Miriam Shor, Nico Tortorella, and Hilary Duff.

Teachers stars improvisational group The Katydids: Caitlin Barlow, Katy Colloton, Cate Freedman, Kate Lambert, Katie O’Brien and Katie Thomas. In addition to writing for and starring in the show, they serve as executive producers, with Alison Brie and showrunners Ian Roberts and Jay Martel.

Read More…...

With Key & Peele recently ending its five-season run, the hit sketch series’ executive producers/showrunners Ian Roberts and Jay Martel have sold another half-hour comedy with a male duo at the center — this one a little older. Titled The Romeos, the single-camera comedy has been set up at ABC and ABC Studios. Written and executive produced by Roberts and Martel, The Romeos (stands for Retired Older Men Eating Out) has a Grumpy Old Men vibe and revolves around two…...

It's never easy to say goodbye, but there's no denying that after five years of making one of the best sketch shows of the current century, everyone involved with "Key and Peele" will go on to great things.  Read More: 'Key & Peele' On Mastering Cinematic Sketch Comedy, with a Whole Lot of Improv (And Football) That includes executive producers Ian Roberts and Jay Martel, who were with the show from the beginning and oversaw every season of production of the Comedy Central sketch series starring Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. Reached by phone, they revealed to Indiewire what changed about making "Key and Peele" over the years and which sketches will stand the test of time.  In terms of looking back over the experience of the show, what strikes you most about the overall arc of it? Jay Martel: Well, first of all, it didn't seem like...

Even for its brief eight-episode first season, the writing team of Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele produced over 200 sketches that were later culled to 54. Tonight, Key & Peele wraps its fifth and final season having aired nearly 300 sketches. But what about the ones that never made it? Vulture spoke with Jay Martel and Ian Roberts, two of the head writers and executive producers on the show, who walked us through the sketches that got left behind, starring Jamaican crustaceans and Latin heartthrobs. The list of also-rans might make you wish for another five seasons and a movie. Illustrations by Mario Zucca.Sebastianasia This one was about a guy sitting in the hospital with his dying wife, and a guy comes in dressed in a lobster costume, the kind of thing that usually would happen in a children's ward. And he has a Jamaican accent, and he says, "Hey,...

15 years ago today, the Toros stepped out onto the football field and put some serious cheer back into the atmosphere. To steal a phrase from the film: Bring It On's the poo - so take a big whiff.

But what have Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku and the rest of the squad been cheering about since then? To mark the movie's birthday, we put down the pompoms and find out what they've been up to since.

Kirsten Dunst

A Hollywood star from the age of 12 thanks to her breakthrough role in Interview with the Vampire, Dunst's star was burning brightly when she led the Toros as Torrance Shipman. Two years later, she went on to land her biggest role as Mary Jane Watson in Sam Raimi's three Spider-man films.

In recent years, she's reinvented herself as a critical darling, winning Best Actress at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival for Melancholia,...

Key & Peele has proven time and again to be one of the funniest sketch shows on television, and obviously much of the show's success rests on its charismatic stars. But Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele don't often get enough credit for acting the hell out of their scenes with style and pathos, giving their insane characters and emotional straight men more conviction and heft than their counterparts on narrative television. On the cusp of K&P's fifth-season premiere on Wednesday, Vulture caught up with the show's head writers, Jay Martel and Ian Roberts, who discussed their ten favorite performances from each actor over the past year. In no particular order ...1. Key in “Manly Tears” Jay Martel: This might be my single favorite thing. Partly because I was there on the day they were shooting it, and I got to see how many ways Keegan figured out how to stop...

Scream Factory has added another Blu-ray release to their Summer of Fear Part 2: a double feature of the 1990 Italian horror films Metamorphosis and Beyond Darkness. Details on the season two world premiere of From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series, as well as the release details for James Cullen Bressack's Pernicious, are also included in our latest round-up.

Metamorphosis / Beyond Darkness Blu-ray: Scream Factory has slated their Metamorphosis / Beyond Darkness double feature Blu-ray for a late August release.

From Scream Factory: "Our "Summer of Fear Part 2" lineup continues to roll out with more retro Italian-made horror films both coming to blu-ray for the first time! 1990’s "mad science" film Metamorphosis will be doubled-billed with the 1990 haunted house-themed Beyond Darkness (and from the Director of Troll 2!) for a planned late August release. Pre-order links will go up next month."

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From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series: The sophomore...

The 2015 incarnation of the Atx Television Festival, the fourth one in the festival’s history, has added a number of new panels to their lineup to go with previously announced panels, which have included Justified, Bunheads, and Playing House.

The festival has added the Fox series Empire to its lineup. Titled “Empire: The Creatives”, the panel will feature the show’s producers Danny Strong, Ilene Chaiken, and Wendy Calhoun discussing the freshman series. The animated series Rick & Morty will also be making an appearance at the festival, as channel Adult Swim is set to present “Inside Rick and Morty”, which will feature a discussion with the show’s creators, Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland.

The most sizable presence, however, appears to be that of FX, as the channel has brought a number of its half-hour series to the festival. Among the panels will be the series Married, which will screen...

Chicago – Will Ferrell is a funny guy. Kevin Hart can be a funny guy. But the prison buddy comedy “Get Hard” is woefully less than the sum of its comedic parts. It fires buckshot of lame jokes at its audience, but precious few come anywhere near their targets as it squanders nearly every comic opportunity that comes its way.

Rating: 2.0/5.0

Ferrell stars as a wealthy hedge fund manager with a gold-digging fiancée (Alison Brie), and a house full of servants who can barely conceal their disdain for him. His life begins to crumble when he’s accused of fraud and embezzlement, and arrested at his own birthday party. No one is asking for “The Verdict” in a Will Ferrell/Kevin Hart comedy, but even by the lackadaisical standards of a studio comedy, Ferrell is convicted and sentenced to 10 years hard labor in San Quentin based on alarmingly little evidence and with little or no provocation.

Get Hard

Written by Jay Martel, Ian Roberts & Etan Cohen

Directed by Etan Cohen

USA, 2015

Get Hard is an episodic comedy that seems determined to botch its ‘can’t miss’ premise. No amount of riffing from Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart can overcome a script that’s obviously cobbled together from multiple projects. Director Etan Cohen’s feature-length debut lacks the big-ticket gags to overcome its flawed execution. Ultimately, this is a ‘star vehicle’ that should have stayed in the driveway.

There are three films battling for the soul of Get Hard. The first has a Trading Places vibe. We get the typical class warfare sequences, such as the obnoxious millionaire snob (Farrell) being terrified of minorities or flashing his wiener at house staff like it’s their duty to admire it. Nothing new to see here, but Farrell makes it (almost) work with his inherent likeability.

Hart’s character,...

[This is a re-post of my Get Hard review from SXSW 2015. The film hits theaters nationwide on March 27th.] The core concept behind Get Hard is pretty clever and had loads of potential, but director Etan Cohen and his co-writers, Jay Martel and Ian Roberts, don’t do much with it. If you’ve seen the film’s trailer, that’s really all there is to it. Will Ferrell leads as James King, a hedge fund manager living the dream. He’s got an incredible house, a beautiful fiancee (Alison Brie) and his boss/soon-to-be father-in-law (Craig T. Nelson) is making him a full blown partner at the company. But then he’s accused of fraud and embezzlement, sentenced to 10 years in a maximum security prison and given a mere 30 days to get his affairs in order. With absolutely no hope of surviving in San Quentin, James turns to Darnell (Kevin Hart) for help because he falsely assumes that he’s been to prison. That’s not the case...

Director: Etan Cohen; Screenwriters: Jay Martel, Ian Roberts, Etan Cohen; Starring: Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart, Craig T Nelson, Alison Brie, Edwina Findley Dickerson; Running time: 100 mins; Certificate: 15

Will Ferrell is looking at ten years in the slammer in a comedy that delivers a hard slap in the face to political correctness. As a superrich financial whizz he employs Kevin Hart to toughen him up on the basis of his 'urban' roots, but for all his bigotry, Ferrell always comes across like the biggest fool in the room and that's just how he likes it. This isn't up there with Anchorman, but if you're a fan of the big guy, you won't be disappointed.

If he wasn't so wide-eyed and eager to please his boss and future father-in-law (Craig T Nelson), then high-flying hedge fund manager James King (Ferrell) would be easy to hate. He becomes the poster boy for white-collar...

Chicago – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 50 pairs of advance-screening movie passes up for grabs to the new comedy “Get Hard” starring Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart!

“Get Hard,” which opens on March 27, 2015 and is rated “R,” also stars Alison Brie, T.I., Taryn Terrell, Edwina Findley Dickerson, Dan Bakkedahl, Dominique Perry, Paul Ben-Victor and Mariana Paola Vicente from director Etan Cohen and writers Jay Martel and Ian Roberts. Note: You must be 17+ to attend this “R”-rated screening.

To win your free “Get Hard” passes courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, just get interactive with our social media widget below. That’s it! This screening is on Monday, March 23, 2015 at 7 p.m. in downtown Chicago. The more social actions you complete, the more points you score and the higher yours odds of winning! Completing these social actions only increases your odds of winning; this doesn’t intensify your competition!

I'm on the set of "Get Hard," and Kevin Hart is cracking himself up. Some context is in order. Hart, Will Ferrell, actress Edwina Finley (as Hart's wife) and Ariana Neal (as Hart's young daughter) are sitting around a table on a New Orleans soundstage. It's a dinner scene. Ferrell's character James, a business executive wrongfully convicted of tax evasion, has hired Hart's character Darnell to prep him for prison under the assumption that the car wash owner has served time. There's just one problem: Darnell hasn't been behind bars a day in his life. In this scene, he's forced to concoct a story about his criminal past after James puts him on the spot during dinner. And by "concoct," I mean "pass off a scene from the movie 'Boyz N the Hood' as an episode from his own life." "Rickaaaaay! Rickaaaaay!" Hart screams near the tail end of his monologue.

South by Southwest, the multi-faceted film, music and technology festival held annually in Austin, TX will feature such upcoming films as Paul Feig’s Spy, David Gordon Green’s Manglehorn, Alex Gibney’s documentary Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, and Ondi Timoner’s Russell Brand profile Brand: A Second Coming as headliners in this year’s film festival lineup.

SXSW runs from March 13 to 21 in Austin and is now in its 22nd year. Variety has details of the 145 films and 100 world premieres bowing at this year’s festival. Brand, as previously reported, will be the festival’s opening night film.

Other notable titles on the list are the Will Ferrell/Kevin Hart comedy Get Hard, a rough cut of Judd Apatow’s Trainwreck, the directorial debut of 28 Days Later screenwriter Alex Garland, Ex Machina, and a new comedy by Michael Showalter, Hello, My Name is Doris.

On the small screen,...

Warner Bros. Pictures has releleased a second trailer for "Get Hard" starring Will Ferrell, Craig T. Nelson, Kevin Hart, Tip "T.I." Harris, and Alison Brie.

Film is directed by Etan Cohen from a screenplay he along with Jay Martel, and Ian Robert wrote.

"Get Hard" follows a millionaire hedge fund manager James (Will Ferrell) who is nailed for fraud and bound for a stretch in San Quentin, the judge gives him 30 days to get his affairs in order. Desperate, he turns to Darnell (Kevin Hart) to prep him for a life behind bars. But despite James’ one-percenter assumptions, Darnell is a hard-working small business owner who has never received a parking ticket, let alone been to prison. Together, the two men do whatever it takes for James to “get hard” and, in the process, discover how wrong they were about a lot of things – including each other.

"Get Hard" hit...

Following the first trailer released last month, Warner Bros. has released the second trailer for the upcoming comedy Get Hard, starring Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart. When millionaire hedge fund manager James (Will Ferrell) is nailed for fraud and bound for a stretch in San Quentin, the judge gives him 30 days to get his affairs in order. Desperate, he turns to Darnell (Kevin Hart) to prep him for a life behind bars. But despite James' one-percenter assumptions, Darnell is a hard-working small business owner who has never received a parking ticket, let alone been to prison.

Together, the two men do whatever it takes for James to "get hard" and, in the process, discover how wrong they were about a lot of things - including each other. Alison Brie, Paul Ben-Victor, T.I., Vanessa Amaya and Taryn Terrell round out the supporting cast in this upcoming comedy. Get Hard will debut...

For the second consecutive year, Warner Bros. Pictures International has exceeded the coveted $3 billion mark at the international box office. This benchmark comes on the heels of the release of The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies, a production of New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, which surpassed $400 million at the international box office this weekend and is still going strong.

Nine Warner Bros. Pictures films have exceeded $100 million internationally, topped by Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (with Paramount Pictures), which has taken in an astounding $467 million outside of the U.S. to date, and Godzilla (with Legendary Pictures), which has earned $327 million overseas.

Four titles – Doug Liman’s Edge Of Tomorrow (with Village Roadshow Pictures), Phil Lord & Christopher Miller’s The Lego Movie (also with Village Roadshow Pictures), and Noam Murro and Zack Snyder’s 300: Rise Of An Empire (with Legendary), along with the 2014 spillover grosses from The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug...

Warner Bros. has revealed the first trailer for Will Ferrell’s upcoming comedy, Get Hard. From director Etan Cohen, the Gary Sanchez-produced pic looks primed to kickstart Ferrell’s slapstick antics, which have been sorely missing from the cinema calendar as of late.

In the movie, the former SNL star appears as hedge fund manager, James. When the millionaire is indicted for fraud, his impending stint in prison fills him with dread. Luckily, Kevin Hart’s Darnell is on hand to prepare James for all of the experiences that await him behind the bars of San Quentin.

With the first preview now available (via Yahoo! Movies), we’re able to get a sense of what’s in store for the timid chappie while he gets himself ready for prison life. As stories go, the premise overall isn’t that enticing. It simply sounds like a re-hash of countless other...

"Please, don't sexually assault me, I'm already to sad." After debuting in theaters with Horrible Bosses 2, the trailer for the Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart comedy Get Hard has arrived. While I was hopeful that a teaming of Ferrell with Hart might make my distaste for the latter comedy star go away, that's not even my biggest problem with this trailer. Whether this film had Kevin Hart or not, this just doesn't look that funny. There's a couple amusing moments like Ferrell sadly sitting in a massage chair while drinking a glass of wine, but right now this just feels like a "Saturday Night Live" sketch that will go on far too long. Watch? Here's the first trailer for Etan Coen's Get Hard, originally from Yahoo: Get Hard marks the feature directorial debut of Etan Cohen (writer of Men in Black III, Tropic Thunder, Idiocracy) with a script he...

Warner Bros. Pictures has releleased the trailer for "Get Hard" starring Will Ferrell, Craig T. Nelson, Kevin Hart, Tip "T.I." Harris, and Alison Brie.

Film is directed by Etan Cohen from a screenplay he along with Jay Martel, and Ian Robert wrote.

"Get Hard" follows a millionaire hedge fund manager James (Will Ferrell) who is nailed for fraud and bound for a stretch in San Quentin, the judge gives him 30 days to get his affairs in order. Desperate, he turns to Darnell (Kevin Hart) to prep him for a life behind bars. But despite James’ one-percenter assumptions, Darnell is a hard-working small business owner who has never received a parking ticket, let alone been to prison. Together, the two men do whatever it takes for James to “get hard” and, in the process, discover how wrong they were about a lot of things – including each other.

"Get Hard" hit theaters...

Here’s your first look at the poster and photos from Get Hard. The film is scheduled to open nationwide on Friday, March 27, 2015.

When millionaire hedge fund manager James (Will Ferrell) is nailed for fraud and bound for a stretch in San Quentin, the judge gives him 30 days to get his affairs in order. Desperate, he turns to Darnell (Kevin Hart) to prep him for a life behind bars. But despite James’ one-percenter assumptions, Darnell is a hard-working small business owner who has never received a parking ticket, let alone been to prison.

Together, the two men do whatever it takes for James to “get hard” and, in the process, discover how wrong they were about a lot of things – including each other.

Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart join forces in the feature comedy Get Hard, also starring Tip “T.I.” Harris, Alison Brie, and Craig T. Nelson.

The film is directed by Etan Cohen,...

This week brought our first look at the forthcoming comedy Get Hard starring Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart, and it shows the latter comedian attempting to turn the former into a tough guy so he's prepared for prison after being convicted of a white collar crime. But the first poster for the film shows us something that we didn't see in the photos, and that's Ferrell getting cornrows in his bushy hair, courtesy of Hart. For those anxious to see how this comedy looks, the first trailer arrives next Tuesday evening, so stay tuned to see if Hart teaming up with Ferrell actually results in a solid comedy with big laughs. We're hoping for the best. Here's the first poster for Etan Cohen's Get Hard from Yahoo: Get Hard marks the feature directorial debut of Etan Cohen (writer of Men in Black III, Tropic Thunder, Idiocracy) with a script...