Brian Grazer News

National Geographic, with Fox 21 Studios and Imagine Television Studios, announced today that Grammy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated musician Raphael Saadiq has been tapped to serve as executive music producer on GENIUS: ARETHA. Saadiq is responsible for producing, arranging and recording all of the original song elements within the series featuring live performances. The score will be written and produced by multi-Grammy Award-winner and Academy Award nominee Terence Blanchard ('Harriet,' 'BlacKkKlansman').

National Geographic, with FOX 21 Studios and Imagine Television Studios, announced today that Grammy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated musician Raphael Saadiq has been tapped to serve as executive music producer on GENIUS: ARETHA. Saadiq is responsible for producing, arranging and recording all of the original song elements within the series featuring live performances. The score will be written and produced by multi-Grammy Award-winner and Academy Award nominee Terence Blanchard ('Harriet,' 'BlacKkKlansman').

With an average audience of 2 million total L+3 viewers, 68 Whiskey, Paramount Network's new scripted series, stands as the most-watched cable drama series premiere in over a year (November 2018). 68 Whiskey is also the highest-rated cable drama launch since June 2019 among P25-54 (1.0 L+3 rating) and M18-49 (.77 L+3 rating) and since September 2018 among M25-54 (1.2 L+3 rating).

Following a successful first season, Hulu announced today the renewal of Wu-Tang: An American Saga. Based on one of the most influential music groups in hip-hop history, the Wu-Tang Clan, the series chronicles the history and formation behind the music group as they deal with the daily struggle of balancing their music career amidst the drug induced early 90's. 

68 Whiskey, Paramount Network's new scripted series, ranks as the #1 cable drama premiere for L+SD viewing among M25-54 (.55 rating) and M18-49 (.37 rating) during the current TV season, which started on September 23, 2019.

Today, SHOWTIME announced that it will air the television premiere of Pavarotti from Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ron Howard on Monday, December 30 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

See the first image of Tony Award-winner, Cynthia Erivo, as soul legend, Aretha Franklin on the next installment of the National Geographic series, Genius!

Paramount Network announced today the additional casting of series regulars Adriana Paz, Kristyan Ferrer, Octavio Pisano, Cynthia Kaye McWilliams and Julio Cedillo in its new scripted drama series Coyote. Coyote, which stars Emmy(R) Award-winning Michael Chiklis and Juan Pablo Raba, comes to Paramount Network from MacLaren Entertainment, Dark Horse Entertainment and Sony Pictures Television. The series is scheduled to premiere in 2020.

SHOWTIME Documentary Films today announced a new limited docu-series, GOSSIP STARRING CINDY ADAMS (w/t), profiling the longtime columnist whose work at the New York Post made her the reigning queen of gossip. Imagine's Brian Grazer and Ron Howard are executive producing, with Emmy and BAFTA® nominee Jenny Carchman (THE FOURTH ESTATE) producing and directing. Scheduled to premiere in 2021, the series will be produced by Imagine Documentaries in cooperation with the New York Post. The announcement was made by Vinnie Malhotra, Executive Vice President, Nonfiction Programming, Showtime Networks Inc. 

Miranda recently chatted with Page Six about the project. 'I was a kid who wanted to be a filmmaker all my life,' Miranda explained. 'I was the kid who found it easier to have a camcorder on my arm than engage with people my age,' he said. 'So when I watched 'Rent' and there's a character who's always spinning a camera, and at one point, another character goes, 'You just film us because you're scared of connecting' ... I went [gestures to looking uncomfortable], in the last row of Nederlander Theatre was Jonathan Larson attacking me and my adolescence.'

National Geographic, with Imagine Television Studios and Fox 21 Television Studios, announced today that the Emmy- and Tony Award-winning actor Courtney B. Vance ('The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story') will star opposite previously announced Cynthia Erivo ('Harriet,' Broadway's 'The Color Purple') as Aretha Franklin in the next installment of the Emmy-winning global anthology series GENIUS: ARETHA. Additionally, Suzan-Lori Parks ('Topdog/Underdog') will serve as showrunner and executive producer and Anthony Hemingway ('Power,' 'The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story') will executive produce and serve as the producing director for the upcoming season. Filming will start this December for a spring 2020 premiere on National Geographic channels in 172 countries and in 43 languages.

Deadline reports that Alexandra Shipp, Vanessa Hudgens, and Robin de Jesus have joined the cast of Lin-Manuel Miranda's upcoming Netflix adaptation of Jonathan Larson's 'tick, tick... BOOM!' Andrew Garfield will star as Jon.

Andrew Garfield will star in the Netflix film adaptation of in tick, tick…Boom!, according to Deadline. Lin-Manuel Miranda will make his feature directorial debut on this adaptation of the autobiographical off-Broadway show written by  the late Jonathan Larson.

Casamigos threw its annual “Brought to You by Those Who Drink It” Halloween party at Casamigos Co-founder Mike Meldman's Beverly Hills home.

Rebecca Naomi Jones, Patrice Covington, Kimberly Hébert GregoryMalcolm Barrett, and Sanai Victoria are set to co-star opposite Cynthia Erivo in Genius: Aretha, according to Deadline. Erivo was previously announced to star as Aretha Franklin in the anthology series from National Geographic.