“I can’t be in denial about what you are any longer.” Wall Street has been in the news lately, as usual, and now here is a first look at Season 2 of Billions, Showtime’s mega-money drama starring Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis. The clip is a combination trailer and behind-the-scenes featurette with footage from the…

EXCLUSIVE: AMC has given a 10-episode straight-to-series order to drama Lodge 49, from creator Jim Gavin, showrunner Peter Ocko and executive producer Paul Giamatti. Lodge 49 — about a young knucklehead from Long Beach who joins a dusty old fraternal lodge — was one of three drama projects AMC identified in spring 2015…

Gerald “Jerry” Heller, the N.W.A music manager played so memorably — and, to Heller himself, hurtfully – by Paul Giamatti in Straight Outta Compton, died Friday of a heart attack in California. He was 75. His death and cause were confirmed to Billboard by Heller’s cousin Gary Ballen, who said Heller died Friday…

Peter Ocko (Elementary, Pushing Daisies) has signed an overall deal with AMC. Under the pact, he is joining the network’s drama project Lodge 49, exec produced by Paul Giamatti, as executive producer and showrunner. I hear Ocko, partnered with Lodge 49 writer-creator Jim Gavin, is assembling a small writers room for…

EXCLUSIVE: Ethan Hawke is one of those few actors who can segue comfortably between playing the sensitive guy (Before Sunrise, Reality Bites) and man at his most primal (the upcoming The Magnificent Seven, Training Day). In The Phenom, the four-time Oscar-nominated actor portrays an ex-con father, whose tough love has…

RLJ Entertainment has acquired baseball drama The Phenom, starring Ethan Hawke and Paul Giamatti. The company has all U.S. rights and plans to release the picture day-and-date theatrically and on VOD on June 24. Written and directed by Noah Buschel (The Missing Person), the film is making its world premiere at the…

Gkids has announced the English-language voice cast for its French toon feature April and the Extraordinary World, and it’s stocked with names you likely recognize. Oscar winners Susan Sarandon and J.K. Simmons are joined by Emmy winners Paul Giamatti and Tony Hale for the sci-fi adventure pic set in an alternative…

Having first seen the light of day online during Amazon's early 2015 pilot season, and then a preview at the just-wrapped Sundance Film Festival, The New Yorker Presents is launching its full 10-episode first run February 16. The result is compelling and entertaining. In fact, The New Yorker Presents is, as my video…

Debuting on January 17, Showtime's drama Billions is a very different take on the lifestyles of the ultra-rich and infamous. As my video review above says, the 12-episode Wall Street-set soapy series created by Brian Koppelman, David Levien and the New York Times‘ Andrew Ross Sorkin presents a very nice way to spend…

Demonstrating the increasing importance of the network’s original programming in bringing in new customers, Showtime will be providing subscribers and non-subscribers alike with the opportunity to watch the pilot episode for its upcoming series Billions, as well as the sixth season premiere of Shameless. Starting on…

Ahead of the film’s premiere, Universal Studios is “partnering” with movie theaters that request support during screenings of NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton. Specific details are scant, and we’re hearing that the matter isn’t as simple as the studio outright reimbursing theaters for any costs associated with…

Don't cast the ambitious hedge-fund king as the bad guy in Showtime's new series Billions, hedge-fund portrayer Damian Lewis and New York Times financial columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin advised reporters today at TCA. When one reporter asked Lewis if playing Bobby "Axe" Axelrod was similar to playing Henry VIII on PBS's…