Around the Tubes: 3/2/2018

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 the Smithsonian Channel, Beyond the Opposite Sex The Maestro The Rollie Massimino Story, I Think We’re Alone Now, Snowpiercer, Animal Kingdom, and The Alienist.

- Smithsonian Channel launches into space with four premieres centered around space exploration and humans‘ impact on the solar system. The first special, Billionaire Space Club, on Sunday, March 25 at 8:00, highlights the efforts of billionaire Sir Richard Branson and others to make space travel more accessible to the average person. The Sunday block also takes viewers on a journey revealing how humans have changed the planet Earth and how they will continue to shape its future on Sunday, March 25 at 9:00 in Earth From Outer Space. The following Sunday, April 1 at 8:00, Finding Life in Outer Space explores one of the greatest mysteries of the universe – why life exists – and at 9:00, Leaving Earth: Or How to Colonize a Planet featuring Stephen Hawking reveals the secrets of space travel and what the future holds for exploration and potential habitation beyond Earth. These four hour-long premieres highlight innovators and pioneers who are forging ahead with space exploration to plan for an unknown future.

- In 2004, Showtime introduced viewers to the story of Rene and Jamie with the documentary The Opposite Sex, showing two brave people going through their long-awaited gender affirmation surgeries. Beyond the Opposite Sex, premiering on Showtime on Friday, March 16 at 9:00 on-air, on demand and over the internet, is a follow-up documentary that picks up 14 years later to find that their surgeries, which had been lifelong goals, were far from the finish line of their difficult journeys.

- FOX Sports pays tribute to one of college basketball’s all-time great coaches with a new original documentary, The Maestro The Rollie Massimino Story, debuting Wednesday, Feb. 28, at 11:00 PM ET on FS1 following the Seton Hall at Villanova college basketball game. The Maestro chronicles former NCAA Champion coach Rollie Massimino’s final season with Keiser University, an NAIA Division II program, while he battled brain and lung cancer.

- Momentum Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to I Think We’re Alone Now, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Reed Morano, Emmy Award-winning director of the acclaimed series The Handmaid's Tale, the film had its world premiere in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section at the festival and was awarded a Special Jury Award for Excellence in Filmmaking. I Think We’re Alone Now follows Del (Peter Dinklage) who finds himself alone in the world, literally, after the human race is wiped out. He’s content in his solitude - until he discovers Grace (Elle Fanning), an interloper on his quiet earth. Her history and motives are obscure, and worse yet, she wants to stay. A visceral psychological journey, the film explores human behavior and the undeniable need for companionship.

- Turner's TNT has tapped award-winning writer and producer Graeme Manson (Orphan Black) to serve as showrunner on Snowpiercer, a futuristic thriller based on the acclaimed movie of the same name. The series stars Oscar® winner Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind), Tony Award® winner Daveed Diggs (Hamilton, Black-ish), Mickey Sumner (American Made), Alison Wright (The Accountant), Susan Park (Ghostbusters), Sasha Frolova (The Interestings), Sheila Vand (Argo), Katie McGuinness (Dirty Filthy Love), Roberto Urbina (Narcos), Sam Otto (Jellyfish), Tony Award® winner and Grammy® nominee Lena Hall (All My Children), Annalise Basso (Bedtime Stories) and Benjamin Haigh (The Conjuring 2).

- Turner’s TNT has cast Denis Leary (Rescue Me) in season three of the hit drama Animal Kingdom. In this bold, gritty series about a Southern California crime family, the Emmy®-nominated actor joins Emmy® and Tony® winner Ellen Barkin, the matriarch of the Cody clan, along with Scott Speedman, Shawn Hatosy, Ben Robson, Jake Weary, Finn Cole, Molly Gordon and Carolina Guerra. Leary will play Billy, Deran’s (Weary) drifter dad who Smurf (Barkin) kicked out years ago.

- TNT’s The Alienist scored another impressive week’s premiere Monday night holding claim to cable’s #1 new drama series this season and continuing to show strong momentum to achieve an extraordinary 40 percent in-season growth, a trajectory that only two top dramas (in a universe of more than 500 dramas on television) managed to achieve in 2017.

- Over the last two weeks, the editorial boards of Dallas Morning News, Corpus Christi Caller Times, and Bryan-College Station Eagle endorsed Stefano de Stefano, a traditional, pro-business, pragmatic Republican and Houston-based energy attorney in the upcoming Texas Republican Primary Election for U.S. Senate. Forbes followed up with a feature article of their own.