Amy Poehler To Star In & Produce Scripted Comedy Podcast ‘Say More with Dr? Sheila’

Veteran British actor Murray Melvin who’s best known for his role in “The Phantom of the Opera,” “A Taste of Honey” and the “Doctor Who” spin-off “Torchwood,” died April 14 at St Thomas’ hospital in London. He was 90.London-based creative director Kerry Kyriacos Michael made the announcement on Twitter and said Melvin died after taking a bad fall in December “from which he never fully recovered.” “He was one of my closest friends and will be missed by so many of us who had the privilege to know him,” Michael wrote.He had a fall in December, from which he never fully recovered.

Canadian Screen Week is officially underway — it’s the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television’s annual week-long celebration of the best in Canadian film, TV and digital media. With in-person ceremonies returning for the first time since 2019, nominees across 145 categories are being honoured over four days of live award shows at Toronto’s Meridian Hall. It’s all leading up to a star-studded broadcast hosted by Samantha Bee on Sunday night, when the winner of the Cogeco Fund Audience Choice Award will be revealed.

Paul Feig already has one intriguing upcoming comedy with “Grand Death Lotto,” starring John Cena, Awkwafina, and Simu Liu — now it’s time to add another to the list. Deadline reports that Feig is set to direct an upcoming spy comedy over at Paramount, with Sebastian Stan and Maria Bakalova to star.   READ MORE: ‘Grand Death Lotto’: John Cena, Awkwafina & Simu Liu To Star In Paul Feig’s Upcoming Action-Comedy On Prime Video Exact plot details are under wraps, but “Welcome To Flatch” writer Jenny Bicks pens the script, and its pitch is about a failed double agent who somehow becomes an unlikely success.

EXCLUSIVE: Rob Corddry is set as a lead opposite Terry Crews and Ryan Michelle Bathé in JumpStart, CBS’ multi-camera comedy pilot based on Robb Armstrong’s long-running comic strip, from Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment, Wendi Trilling’s TrillTV and CBS Studios. He rounds out the series regular cast of the pilot, which Glynn Turman has joined as a guest star in a recurring role.

Some very big Hollywood stars started off on Saturday Night Live!

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “The Masked Singer” staple Ken Jeong is set to lead a new Fox single-cam sitcom based on Dan Harris’ popular book and podcast “10% Happier,” Variety has learned. Hailing from Lionsgate Television and Fox Entertainment, the comedy, which has a script-to-series commitment at the broadcaster, the centers on a family man and mid-level juice company executive who finds himself in a major life rut. After a panic attack at work, he has an epiphany where he realizes he needs to change everything about the way he lives in order to become…”10% Happier.” Apple’s “Acapulco” and Fox’s “The Cool Kids” writers and producers Michael Lisbe and Nate Reger are penning the script and executive producing alongside Jeong, author Harris, Brett Carducci and The Tannenbaum Company’s Eric Tannenbaum, Kim Tannenbaum and Jason Wang.

BreAnna Bell “Murder Mystery 2” was Netflix’s top film title after its March 31 debut. In its first three days of availability, the film took the title for Netflix’s second biggest opening weekend for a comedy film with over 42 million views. The sequel starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston earned 64.42 million hours viewed total during the viewing window and also appeared in the Top 10 in 91 countries. The first film in the franchise also joined the list of film titles at No. 2 with 24.7 million hours viewed. On the English TV side, “The Night Agent” continued to stay ahead of the competition taking the No. 1 spot for the second week. The action-thriller has pulled in an 385 million total hours viewed in its first two weeks and now has more than 47 million views. Netflix calculates total views by taking the total hours viewed and dividing that by the show’s runtime hours, which in this case was 8.2 hours. The streamer also recently renewed the series for a second season.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Natasha Lyonne is enjoying something of a career renaissance, and she’s attributing the undeniable success to her female friendships. As she took the stage at Variety‘s annual Power of Women event — on her birthday, no less — she toasted to her “community of women,” among them Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph, who have cheered on each other’s rise in Hollywood. “It’s pretty eccentric to see how much we grow up together in this business and how meaningful it is to stick together along that ride,” she said on Tuesday afternoon at midtown Manhattan’s The Grill. Lyonne joked that she and her “dear pal” Rudolph started the production company Animal Pictures to “ensure we’d have time to hang out with each other,” and that she co-created “Russian Doll” as an excuse to “get existential with my friend and co-creator Amy Poehler.”

EXCLUSIVE: The roster of talent set for Prime Video‘s Paul Feig-helmed action comedy Grand Death Lotto has continued to expand with the addition of Michael Hitchcock (Your Place or Mine), Becky Ann Baker (Girls), Sam Asghari (Lioness), Leslie David Baker (The Office), Murray Hill (Life & Beth), Adam Ray (Young Rock), Taylor Ortega (Welcome to Flatch) and Holmes (Welcome to Flatch).

Emily Longeretta Ever since she was little, Ego Nwodim has loved performing. In fact, that was why she was a ballerina for 10 years. Eventually, she stumbled, begrudgingly, into an improv comedy class and fell in love with it. Never in her wildest dreams did she think she’d be making millions laugh on a stage as big as “Saturday Night Live.” Nwodim, who joined the show in 2018, is set to host Variety’s Power of Women event in New York on April 4. When did your love for comedy begin? It started long before I could name what it was. I grew up watching “Martin” and “In Living Color,” but I grew up in a Nigerian household, so it was like, “These are TV shows you’re watching.” I didn’t know they were called comedy because they weren’t introduced to me that way. I think truly being able to name that it was comedy, I feel like such a late bloomer in that regard. I didn’t really even know that was a career option until 15 years ago.

EXCLUSIVE: Josie Totah (Saved By The Bell) has joined Barbie Ferreira (Euphoria) and Dacre Montgomery (Stranger Things) in the “reimagining” of 1978 horror Faces Of Death, which will begin filming this month.

Todd Gilchrist editor Joining an illustrious list of honorees that includes Clint Eastwood, Amy Poehler and Geena Davis, Josh Brolin is set to receive the 2023 Sun Valley Film Festival’s Vision Award, which recognizes entertainment veterans for the impact on the industry. Brolin began his career more than 35 years ago as one of the stars of Richard Donner’s “The Goonies,” and he’s since won acclaim for work in films as varied as Ethan and Joel Coen’s “No Country for Old Men,” Oliver Stone’s “W.,” Gus Van Sant’s “Milk,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Inherent Vice,” Joe and Anthony Russo’s “Avengers: Infinity War” and its sequel, “Endgame,” and more. That many of those high-profile roles came to him more than 20 years after becoming an actor isn’t something Brolin resents now — in fact quite the opposite. “That feels amazing as opposed to somebody who came out of the gate and was hugely famous and then had to uphold that for the rest of his career or her career, which never happens,” he tells Variety. Ahead of being feted at Sun Valley, Brolin reflected on the kind of career-overview recognition that comes with the Vision Award and the strange and unpredictable journey he’s taken as an actor, which includes auditions for “Almost Famous,” going from the whiff of “Jonah Hex” to the wow of “The Avengers,” and discovering “for what” as great and enriching motivation in one’s creative choices.

EXCLUSIVE: Annette Bening has been tapped to narrate the documentary War Unfolding from Sypher Studios, with Eliza Bennett, Rachel Bloom, Gary Cole, Abigail Cowen, Laura Dern, Monique Edwards, Michael C. Hall, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Paul Walter Hauser, Thurn Hoffman, Richard T. Jones, Jay Lee, Erick Lopez, Sandra Seacat, Wes Studi and DeWanda Wise among those set to appear in the film from director John B. Benitz.

in an interview with NBC News that was to air Thursday night on “Nightly News with Lester Holt,” said her boss’ text message was part of an effort at Fox News that suddenly threw “caution to the wind.”“There was no one to be found,” said Grossberg, who is suing Fox News, alleging she was set up to take undue blame in the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit against the network. “And these were the individuals that were ultimately responsible for the programming at the network.” Grossberg paraphrased a text message from her boss in the interview with NBC News, indicating there had been a change in approach.“You can let Maria know there will be no fact-checking today,” Grossberg said.

Chad Michael Murray is taking a trip down memory lane!

Emily Ratajkowski is opening up about her platform.

Game of Thrones alumna Lena Headey has been tapped to headline Kurt Sutter’s Western action drama series The Abandons at Netflix.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Amy Poehler kids because she loves. The actor, writer and producer will spoof podcast tropes in a new three-season scripted comedy podcast franchise for Cadence13. Poehler’s Paper Kite Productions together with writer-producer Liz Cackowski inked a 30-episode deal with Audacy’s Cadence13 for the series, featuring stories that parody — and pay homage to — popular themes in the podcast space. “We are huge fans of podcasts and we can’t wait to poke fun at all the things we love about them, and to do so with Cadence13,” Poehler and Cackowski said in a joint statement.

Y2K.The film is set to be helmed by Saturday Night Live alumnus Kyle Mooney in his directorial debut.

 musical movie continues to add A-list actors to its cast! Based on the Tony-nominated Broadway musical, Paramount Pictures' new  film will see the return of some familiar faces and a host of new ones too. With Jon Hamm stepping into the role of Coach Carr, Busy Philipps confirmed in the role of Regina George's mom, and Jenna Fischer set to star as Cady Heron's mom, ET is taking a look at the cast — from newcomers like Reneé Rapp to the OG of the  squad, Tina Fey.The  star will play Coach Carr, who appears in the movie — as a sexual predator exposed in the Burn Book -- but was not featured in the original Broadway musical. This is far from Hamm's first collaboration with Fey, however. The actor received Emmy nominations for his guest appearances on and Philipps will step into Amy Poehler's shoes, playing Mrs.