Around the Tubes: 6/3/16

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on Purity, The Look of Silence, Masters of Sex, Shameless, The Affair, Homeland, Mind of a Giant, and White Famous.

- Showtime announced the pick-up of the new limited series Purity, based on the novel of the same name from best-selling author Jonathan Franzen, and starring and executive produced by internationally-acclaimed actor Daniel Craig. Todd Field (Little Children, In the Bedroom) will write, direct and executive produce, along with executive producers Scott Rudin, Eli Bush, David Hare and Jonathan Franzen. Hare and Franzen will also serve as writers on the series. Field will direct every episode. Purity will be a 20-episode limited series set to air over the course of two years on Showtime. Production will begin in 2017.

- Joshua Oppenheimer’s Oscar®-nominated The Look of Silence is the incredible story of a man confronting his brother’s killers and demanding they accept responsibility for their crimes. Adi, an optometrist who survived the 1965 Indonesian genocide, takes this unimaginable step in a society where murderers remain in power. To break the spell of submission and terror, he forces them, and us, to reckon with his country’s dark history. A companion piece to Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing, also an Oscar® nominee, The Look of Silence has been hailed as a “masterpiece” by The New York Times for bearing witness to the collapse of 50 years of silence. Winner, Grand Jury Prize, Critics Prize and Human Rights Award, 2014 Venice Film Festival. Trailer.

- Showtimw announced its fall premiere schedule, with the critically-acclaimed drama series Masters of Sex returning for a fourth season on Sunday, September 11th at 10:00, and the seventh season of the network’s No. 1 comedy series Shameless premiering on Sunday, October 2nd at 9:00. Then, on November 20th at 10:00, the third season of the Golden Globe-winning hit drama series The Affair will make its debut. The three series will be available on Showtime on-air, on demand and over the internet. Also Homeland will shift from its regular slot in the fall to a winter premiere in January 2017. The series will return to the U.S. after spending the last two seasons shooting in South Africa and Berlin. Season six is set to begin production in New York starting in August.

- Across Africa, elephants are in crisis. Each day, 96 elephants fall victim to poachers, human-elephant conflict and habitat loss. In 2013, Paul G. Allen launched the Great Elephant Census, the first pan-African aerial survey of savanna elephants in more than 40 years. Soon after surveyors began their work, they observed something that truly surprised them. In the past 40 years, in the face of growing threats, elephants have changed where and how they live in their historic ecosystems. This incredible discovery, combined with the latest studies from the top elephant researchers in the world, revealed that elephants are learning to adapt and survive in ways we’ve never seen before. We join the experts in Africa to see their work firsthand in Mind of a Giant, premiering Sunday, June 19, at 9:00 on Nat Geo WILD.

- Showtime has given a pilot order to White Famous, a half-hour comedy executive produced by Academy Award® winner Jamie Foxx and Tom Kapinos. White Famous will be written by Kapinos, based on an idea by Jamie Foxx, who will guest star in a recurring role. A co-production between Lionsgate Television and Showtime, the project will focus on a talented, young African-American comedian whose star is rising, forcing him to navigate the treacherous waters of maintaining his credibility as he begins to cross-over towards becoming “white famous.” White Famous marks a return to Showtime for Kapinos who created, wrote and executive produced seven seasons of the hit series Californication.