OLIVIA COLMAN, MATT SMITH TO LEAD SUPERWORM: The BBC is bringing Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler‘s book Superworm to life, with Olivia Colman narrating and Matt Smith starring as the amazing worm, who gets kidnapped by the wicked Wizard Lizard. They are joined by Patricia Allison (Sex Education) as Butterfly, and Rob Brydon (Gavin & Stacey) as the Crow. Colman said: “This is such a lovely project to be involved with. When reading the script, and imagining all those goings on at the end of the garden, I could really get a feel for the pure fun and joy that the film will bring.”
GHISLAINE MAXWELL DOC IN THE WORKS: Who is Ghislaine Maxwell? is in the works. The documentary will track Maxwell’s life growing up as the daughter of media baron and fraudster Robert Maxwell, her meeting with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and her involvement in his crimes. Producer Dorothy Byrne said: “Rarely does a woman face the heinous charges to which Ghislaine Maxwell must answer in a New York court this summer. She was the golden child of the notorious fraudster Robert Maxwell, his Lady Ghislaine. An Oxford graduate, a socialite across two continents who became the associate of the notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and then founded a charity to save the oceans. A woman of many faces who has lived several different lives. But who is Ghislaine Maxwell really and what does her story tell us about high society in London and New York?” Who is Ghislaine Maxwell? is being produced by Byrne, Lerner and Katherine Haywood, with Channel 4‘s Fozia Khan as commissioning editor.
BIG SHOT PAUSED: Disney+‘s upcoming series Big Shot starring John Stamos and produced by David E. Kelley, has been suspended for 10 days. The move comes after a positive COVID-19 test turned up. Big Shot was put on pause in November after a false positive; production resumed after a day.
WAYNE’S WORLD BROKE SNL CURSE? Mike Myers and Dana Carvey told The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that they broke the so-called Saturday Night Live curse: “The first very time we went on, we were the last sketch,” Carvey said. Fallon pointed out that Wayne's World was done on a portion of the Studio 8H stage where “sketches go to die.” Myers interjected, “The dead corner that doesn't have an audience looking at you at all. They have to watch you on a monitor. And you're like, 'Is anyone watching?' You feel like you're sending it out into space.”