TV Talk: Golden Globes-nominated ‘Queen’s Gambit’ has Pittsburgh tie; Paramount+ launches

Sunday’s NBC telecast of the “Golden Globes” awards (8 p.m., WPXI-TV) includes a few ties to Pittsburgh, including Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit.”

Former Pittsburgher Susan Schulman, a New York-based literary agent, represented the estate of Walter Tevis, author of the 1983 novel of the same name that was the basis for the Netflix show, which has nominations for best limited series and best actress in a limited series for star Anya Taylor-Joy.

Schulman taught English literature at Ohio University before moving to New York, becoming a literary agent and eventually founding her own agency. She said most books that are optioned by film and TV producers don’t make it to the screen.

“Perhaps 5% at most,” Schulman explained via email. “Other movies I’ve sold that actually got distributed include Michael Ondaatje’s ‘The English Patient,’ Louis Sachar’s ‘Holes’ and for television a series like Louis Sachar’s ‘Sideways Stories from Wayside School.’”

Additional Golden Globes nominees with Pittsburgh ties include “The Mandalorian” (best TV drama), executive produced by Mt. Lebanon native Dave Filoni with fellow Mt. Lebanon High School grad Ming-Na Wen in the cast.

Netflix’s filmed-in-Pittsburgh “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” based on the stage play by Hill District native August Wilson, received best actress (Viola Davis) and actor (the late Chadwick Boseman) nominations.

Carnegie Mellon University grad Leslie Odom Jr. is nominated for supporting actor in Amazon Prime Video’s movie “One Night in Miami” (he also got a nomination for the film’s original song, “Speak Now”) and Monessen High School grad Frances McDormand was nominated for best dramatic actress in a motion picture for Hulu’s “Nomadland.”

Globes winners are chosen by approximately 90 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which has come under increasing scrutiny for its practices as detailed in Los Angeles Times coverage this week.

Paramount+ readies its launch

If you watched “Super Bowl LV,” you couldn’t miss ads for the launch of ViacomCBS streaming service Paramount+.

One thing the ads failed to mention: Existing streamer CBS All Access will become Paramount+ on March 4.

Those who already subscribe to CBS All Access should see their accounts convert to Paramount+ automatically. (Those who use a CBS app only to watch CBS shows for free will need to download a new version of the CBS app.)

In addition to existing franchises like “Star Trek” and series such as “The Good Fight,” the final season of “Younger” will stream on Paramount+ later this year before it runs on long-time cable home TV Land. (Nickelodeon’s upcoming animated show, “Star Trek: Prodigy,” will stream on Paramount+ before it’s on Nick.)

When it launches next week Paramount+ will be home to a new SpongeBob SquarePants movie, “Sponge on the Run,” and six episodes of a new prequel series, “Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years.”

Instead of “Yellowstone,” which saw its reruns licensed to Peacock, Paramount+ will eventually be the home of a prequel series, “Y: 1883,” and a sequel series, West Texas ranch-set “6666.”

Homewood native Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day”) will executive produce “Mayor of Kingstown,” a prison drama from the creator of “Yellowstone,” Taylor Sheridan, that will star Jeremy Renner.

Beginning in June Paramount+ will cost $5 per month with ads/$10 per month without ads (on sale for $30 a year with ads; $50 per year with no ads if you buy a year’s subscription before March 4 using discount code PARAMOUNTPLUS)

In a presentation to investors and press Wednesday, ViacomCBS chairman Shari Redstone promised the new service will blend live sports (1,000 sporting events this year, including CBS’s NFL games), news/breaking news (including “60 Minutes+”) and entertainment (36 original scripted series including “Frasier” and “The Game” sequel series) and monthly new unscripted reality shows (new seasons of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” and drag queen singing competition “Queen of the Universe”).

A reboot of CBS’s “Criminal Minds,” which has only been off the air for a year, will follow one crime over a season rather than its former one-crime-per-episode format.

Paramount+ will carry the long-gestating “Halo” series adaptation in early 2022. (“Halo” was announced as a series for ViacomCBS’s Showtime in 2018.)

Comedy Central properties “Inside Amy Schumer,” “Workaholics,” “Beavis and Butt-head” and “Reno 911!” and MTV’s “Road Rules,” “Behind the Music,” “Unplugged” and “Yo! MTV Raps” and Nick’s “Rugrats” will get movies and/or series revivals.

Paramount+ ordered to series new takes on “Flashdance” (no word on where it will be set; my guess is it won’t be Pittsburgh), “Love Story,” “Fatal Attraction,” “The Italian Job,” “The Parallax View,” “Grease” and a scripted series about the making of “The Godfather.”

Streaming premiere dates

This week streamer Disney+ announced premiere dates for several anticipated programs, including Marvel’s “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” (March 19), “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers” (March 26), animated “Star Wars: The Bad Batch” (May 4), “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” season two (May 14), Marvel’s “Loki” (June 11) and “Turner & Hooch” the series (July 16).

Hulu brings back “The Handmaid’s Tale” (April 28), “Shrill” (May 7) and “Love, Victor” (June 11).

‘Rust’ seeks extras

Showtime’s “Rust,” delayed for a year due to the pandemic, will film in Western Pennsylvania from mid-March to early August and the production seeks paid extras of all ages, genders and ethnicities.

No experience is required and those interested can find details and an application link at movieextraspittsburgh.com.

Kept/canceled/spun off

McCandless native Greg Nicotero’s horror anthology “Creepshow,” available on streamers Shudder and AMC+, was renewed for a third season ahead of its April 1 season two premiere.

Netflix renewed “Fate: The Winx Saga” for a second season.

Hulu renewed “Animaniacs” for a 10-episode third season ahead of its second season premiere later this year.

ABC will bring back mini-golf competition “Holey Moley” for a third and fourth season.

CBS’s “Mom” will end its eight-season run May 6th; “NCIS: New Orleans” will wrap its seven-season run on May 16.

CBS All Access canceled its “Twilight Zone” reboot after two seasons.

“Smallville” executive producers Al Gough and Miles Millar have created a live-action “Addams Family” spin-off series, “Wednesday,” about the Addams’ daughter, for Netflix with Tim Burton directing the first episode.

Nickelodeon’s “Avatar: The Last Airbender” will get a slate of movies and series spin-offs.

Mt. Lebanon native David Hollander will co-write and direct a “Ray Donovan” movie for Showtime that picks up where the show’s seventh and final season left off, setting up a potential movie franchise.

Channel surfing

The hour-long “South Parq Vaccination Special” (8 p.m. March 10, Comedy Central) seems likely to poke fun at QAnon. … Nick Jonas will be host and musical guest this weekend on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.” … Peacock late-night entry “The Amber Ruffin Show” will air on NBC at 1:30 a.m. Saturday and March 6 in place of “A Little Late with Lilly Singh” reruns. … Streamer BBC Select, a home for programs on British culture, politics and ideas, is now available via Apple TV or as an Amazon Prime Video Channel for $5 per month. … WQED will participate alongside Carnegie Mellon University and eight other institutions picked by the University of Michigan Center for Social Solutions to share in the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Just Futures Initiative grant that addresses reparations through community-institutional partnerships. The three-year project — WQED will get $800,000 for its role — will culminate in a WQED-produced documentary that the Pittsburgh public media station will present to PBS in 2023. Darryl Ford Williams, who is retiring this week as WQED vice president of content, will executive produce the documentary via her own media management company.