movies
‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ Creator On Less-Explored ’30-Eras Subplot In King’s Novel
It: Welcome to Derry creator/director/executive producer Andy Muschietti continues to mine author Stephen King’s source novel for compelling nuggets he can expand and refine into prequel story arcs for HBO’s horrific hit limited series, having settled on the core of the first season.
Muschietti says Season 2 will explore the story of a subplot King planted in the original 1986 IT novel. “It’s 1935 – we’re now working on it, and it’s so much fun,” Muschietti said during Deadline’s Contenders TV panel for the series. “For the ones of you who read the books, probably the Bradley Gang sounds familiar. The Bradley Gang was a gang of bank robbers that — not accidentally, but they were on their way somewhere and they stopped in Derry to buy some ammo and something horrible happens.”
King himself took inspiration from a ’30s-era true-crime incident in his Maine homebase. “The Bradley Gang is based on the Brady Gang, which is a real-life gang of robbers that were executed in the streets of Bangor, Maine,” said Muschietti. “And now we’re not creating the event that the big paroxysm of violence in this case will be the massacre of a Bradley gang.”
RELATED: Full Coverage Of Deadline’s Contenders TV Event
He added: “There’s like three big events in Welcome to Derry Season 1 … and Season 3 would be the explosion of the Kitchener Iron Works, which is a big explosion during an Easter egg hunt where a hundred kids lost their lives. It’s always there f*cking around, so that much I can tell you.”
He elaborated: “It’s fascinating because the thing that is so much fun in this stage of development is that we’re facing an era which is the Depression Era that changes dramatically the setup of things. There’s no suburban comfort — the trope of the kids that live in suburbia and they ride their bikes and suddenly one of them disappears is nothing like this. This is in 1935. It’s a very dire situation. People are very poor. They’re struggling to survive, so the setup will be very different.”
Plumbing the intriguing nooks and crannies of the source material is the same kind of extrapolation that fueled the first season, said Muschietti, who helmed the two IT movies. “The feeling that we still had so much ground to cover. I had read this book many, many decades ago, and it was very close to me and very close to my heart. And there’s so many stories in that book that I couldn’t possibly cover in two movies.
“During the shoot of IT 2,” he added, “we kept having these conversations about the possibilities of making an origin story of, how did Bob Gray become [Pennywise] the clown? How did it become Pennywise? Who was Bob Gray? Bob Gray is one of the big enigmas in the book that are intentionally put there to create tension and are never solved. Our idea was to just like open another window into that enigma.”
Check back Monday for the panel video.
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movies
‘Real Time’: Bill Maher Makes Boob Joke About Dolly Parton
As Dolly Parton leaves behind an untouchable legacy, Bill Maher went for an easy boob joke in his on-air tribute.
On Friday’s episode of Real Time, the comedian mentioned the 11x Grammy-winning Queen of Country’s death at age 80 this week in his opening monologue, before making a quip about her signature busty appearance.
“All this was going on, and all America could really talk about this week was how sad it is we lost Dolly Parton,” began Maher. “Everybody around the country, even around the world—London, they’re doing things, the Santa Monica ferris wheel is lit up with hearts, the Empire State Building was put up in pink. The Sphere in Las Vegas added a nipple.”
Parton’s family announced that she died in Nashville on Tuesday following a brief sickness with cancer. Although she remained busy until her final days, the “I Will Always Love You” artist had dealt with health issues over the past year.
In addition to her legendary country music career and Golden Globe-nominated screen career, Parton was also heavily involved in philanthropy through the Dollywood Foundation, advocating for children’s education and literacy. She also raised money for HIV/AIDS research and helped fund the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, as well as dedicating herself to disaster relief, animal welfare and LGBTQ causes.
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movies
Judge Jackie Glass Dead: ‘Swift Justice’ Host Was 70
Judge Jackie Glass, the former Clark County judge who hosted the syndicated court show Swift Justice, has died. She was 70.
Glass died on Friday afternoon in Las Vegas, TMZ reported after Glass’ daughter Rachel Wolfson posted a tribute to her late mother on social media.
“RIP my rock,” wrote Wolfson on Facebook. “I don’t know how I’ll do this life without you, I love you so much mommy Jackie Glass, I’ll see you again someday.”
Judge Glass made headlines in 2008 when she sentenced O.J. Simpson to 33 years in prison for armed robbery in a Las Vegas hotel. Simpson was released on parole in 2017 before dying of cancer in Vegas in 2024.
In 2011, Glass took over for Nancy Grace as host of the small claims court show Swift Justice in Season 2, which moved production from Atlanta to Los Angeles. Glass hosted the syndicated reality series until it ended in April 2012.
Glass is survived by husband, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson, and two daughters.
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movies
CA Lawmakers Compromise With Film Industry On Corporate Tax Credit Cap
The California production community can breathe a sigh of relief: State lawmakers have officially introduced a bill meant to allow studios a few key exemptions from a recently enacted restriction on corporate tax credits.
AB136, introduced Friday evening, addresses concerns raised from stakeholders including the Motion Picture Association about the threat of undermining the efforts to expand California’s Film & TV Tax Credit pool to $750 million.
Lawmakers have to consider legislation for 72 hours before voting. With that in mind, a vote on AB136 is likely to come Monday evening, hours before the midnight end to the legislative session.
The state budget, passed this summer, seeks to stabilize revenue by preventing corporations from offsetting more than $5 million in tax liability annually for the next three years. Several advocacy groups pushed for a complete exemption, but the solution introduced by lawmakers on Friday evening does fall short of that.
Instead, only independent productions will be completely exempt from the $5 million cap. The legislation also addresses concerns about the payback period for studios that have elected to refund credits for cash. Current law allows studios to get cash instead of claiming the credit against tax liability for a 10% discount on the total with a payback period of five years. The fix accelerates that to two years with just a 5% discount.
The new legislation will also extend the expiration date of the non-refundable tax credits that were issued prior to 2025.
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