Category: TV

Gee, this is all it takes?

On Penn Badgley’s Podcrushed podcast, the star of Netflix’s You revealed that he asked creator Sera Gamble to put the kibosh on sex in season 4– and she said yes.

That’s a tall order considering the show is about an obsessive charmer named Joe Goldberg (Badgley) who falls in love with a series of women. The first two seasons, in particular, were jam-packed with coitus because, well, that’s Joe.

But that’s not Badgley, apparently.

“I asked Sera Gamble can I just do no more intimacy scenes,” he told his co-host Nava Kavelin on the podcast from Stitcher Studios. “This is actually a decision I made before I took the show. I don’t think I have ever mentioned it publicly. One of the main things was, do I want to put myself back on a career path where I’m always playing the romantic lead?”

“Fidelity in every relationship, including my marriage, is important to me,” continues Badgley. “It’s got to the point where I don’t want to do that. So I said to Sera, ‘my desire would be zero, to go from 100 to zero.’ But I signed this contract. I signed up for this show. I know what I did. You can’t take this aspect out of the DNA of the concept. So how much less can you make it, was my question to them. She didn’t even bat an eye. She was really glad that I was that honest. She was sort of almost, I want to say empowered, it had a really positive response. They came back with a phenomenal reduction.”

Badgley’s character is headed to London in season 4, the first part of which dropped Feb. 9 on Netflix. The second part of the season will launch March 10.

Netflix didn’t reveal how many episodes were in season four but the previous three seasons have been ten episodes, suggesting a five-and-five split this year. Badgley is joined in season four by Charlotte Richie, star of the BBC’s Call The Midwife and Ghosts, and The White Lotus’ Lukas Gage.

Tilly Keeper, Amy Leigh Hickman, Tati Gabrielle and Ed Speelers are also series regulars.

Peacock’s upcoming gladiator drama Those About to Die has added seven names to its cast, with Marco Kreuzpaintner (Beat) now signed up as co-director and exec producer.

Lorenzo Richelmy, Tom Hughes, Sara Martins, Jojo Macari, Gabriella Pession, Dimitri Leonidas and Moe Hashim will join Anthony Hopkins in the AGC Television series, which Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) will co-direct with Kreuzpaintner. Robert Rodat is the writer.

The ambitious series, which is inspired by Daniel Mannix’s eponymous nonfiction book, is set in the complex and corrupt world of ancient Rome’s spectacle-driven gladiatorial competition and features an ensemble of characters from all corners of the Roman Empire. 

Oscar winner Hopkins was last month cast as Vespasian, Roman Emperor and head of the Flavian bloodline.

 Hughes (The English, Dancing on the Edge) will play Titus Flavianus, the elder son and of Vespasian and apparent heir to the Imperial throne, and Macari (Sex Education, Masters of the Air) plays younger son Domitian. Richelmy (Marco Polo, Fifteen Love) has now been cast as ambitious crime boss Tenax. Martins (Pigalle, Citadel) will play ruthless trader Cala, Hashim (Ted Lasso) is her son Kwame, Pession (Ferdinando e Carolina, Station 19) is politician and ruthless patrician Antonia, and Leonidas (The Monuments Men, Masters of the Air) plays Scorpus, the preeminent charioteer of the age.

Behind the cameras, Kreuzpaintner, known for Prime Video Germany series Beat, has signed up to direct alongside Emmerich. The pair worked together on the Kevin Kline-starring Trade – Welcome to America. Kreuzpaintner’s exec credits include Sky drama The Lazarus Project and upcoming Netflix and DC Comics show Bodies.

In the U.S., Those About to Die will stream on Peacock, which gave it a straight-to-series order last year.  

The series comes from AGC Television and will be co-financed by Europe’s High End Productions, the distribution and financing partnership between Herbert Kloiber Sr. and Constantin Film, is co-financier and owns distribution rights for Europe. AGC International owns the remaining worldwide rights.

Exec producers are Emmerich (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, Moonfall), Kreuzpaintner, Rodat (Saving Private Ryan, The Patriot), Hollywood Gang’s Gianni Nunnari (The Departed, 300), Street Entertainment’s Harald Kloser (2012, White House Down, Midway), High End’s Herbert G. Kloiber, Martin Moszkowicz, Oliver Berben and Jonas Bauer, Charles Holland (Black Lightning, The Quad, JAG), and AGC Studios’ Stuart Ford and Lourdes Diaz. 

As we reported last month, Production will begin at Cinecitta Studios in Rome in March. Italian co-producer Wildside Productions (The Young Pope, My Brilliant Friend) will provide local production services. 

Kreuzpaintner is repped by Independent Talent and Gersh in the US; Richelmy is repped by Independent Talent; Hughes by Gordon and French; Martins by Curtis Brown Group and Agence Adéquat; Macari by Curtis Brown Group and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner & Klein; Pession by Studio Legale Associato Morandi Cascone; Leonidas by Independent Talent; and Hashim by B-Side Management.

All deals were negotiated by Director of Legal and Business Affairs Conor McElroy on behalf of AGC.  

Melanie Lynskey didn’t appreciate criticism that she was a bit too zaftig for the role of a post-apocalyptic warlord.

Model Adrianne Curry made a tweeted observation (since deleted) on Feb. 8 that Lynskey wasn’t a great fit for “The Last of Us” role of Kathleen, a Kansas City warlord who apparently defeated the FEDRA militia in that city. She’s now after main characters Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) after they tangled with her crew.

Curry, an alum of “America’s Next Top Model,” tweeted a picture of Lynskey and noted, “Her body says life of luxury…not post apocolyptic (sp) warlord. Where is (The Terminator actress) linda hamilton when you need her?”

Lynskey wasn’t having it.

“Firstly- this is a photo from my cover shoot for InStyle magazine, not a still from HBO’s ‘The Last Of Us,’” she tweeted. “And I’m playing a person who meticulously planned & executed an overthrow of FEDRA. I am supposed to be SMART, ma’am. I don’t need to be muscly. That’s what henchmen are for.”

Lynskey continued, “I understand that some people are mad that I’m not the typical casting for this role. That’s thrilling to me. Other than the moments after action is called, when you feel like you’re actually in someone else’s body, the most exciting part of my job is subverting expectations.”

She concluded by thanking fans for their “overwhelming and powerful” amount of “love and support.”

Curry, though, was not daunted. She doubled down on her statement.

“i am so over everything anymore,” the model tweeted. “Actors can;t allow people to not like their characters? I am DONE. we are not the things we pretend we are on a set or stage. its ok if someone doesn’t like ’em. it isn’t personal in the slightest.”

She also accused Lynskey of cropping out “what I said about her perfect hour glass frame being the most desirable to men. Seems quite manipulative Also, she is NOT her character,” she added.

The fifth episode of “The Last of Us” will begin streaming on HBO Max on Friday, Feb. 10.