‘Bedrock’, a sequel series to the legendary cartoon ‘The Flintstones’ is currently in the works at Fox from Warner Bros. The new series is set 20 years after the the original, and will be an adult animated comedy.

In addition to executive producing, Elizabeth Banks will star as the voice the now adult Pebbles Flintstone. In the show, Fred Flintstone is retiring from his job at Slate Rock and Gravel Company and Pebbles is beggining her own career. As the Stone Age evolves into the Bronze Age, the residents of Bedrock must get with the times as well.

Michael Thorn, president of entertainment for Fox Entertainment gives his thoughts on taking on this new look Flintstones…

“Long before the Simpsons and Springfield, the Griffins and Quahog or even when the Belchers started serving burgers on Ocean Avenue, there were the Flintstones and Bedrock,” said Michael Thorn, president of entertainment for Fox Entertainment. “Their imprint on the animation universe is undeniable and the idea of adapting it for today’s audience is a challenge we here at Fox are very much looking forward to taking on with Warner Bros., Elizabeth and Lindsay”

Michael Thorn, president of entertainment for Fox Entertainment.

The original series, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, ran for six seasons on ABC and was the first animated series to air in primetime. Fox’s free on-demand TV service Tubi has acquired the rights to all 6 seasons of the show and will launch it on May 1, riding on the back of its recent 60^th anniversary.

With May just around the corner, Disney has lots in store for their rapidly-growing streaming platform Disney+ that’s bound to appeal to a wide variety of audiences, including Star Wars fans, animation enthusiasts, or young children. As announced by the mass media conglomerate last year, these next few years will be their most ambitious yet, with the biggest content slate in the company’s nearly 100-year history.

In honor of May the Fourth Be With You, “Star Wars: The Bad Batch” will debut on May 4, with new episodes premiering every Friday of the month after that. Also releasing new episodes every Friday will be sports comedy series “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers”, based on Disney’s 1992 film, mockumentary musical “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series”, and new sports drama series “Big Shot” starring John Stamos.

For Disney+’s youngest viewers, seasons 1 and 2 of “Special Agent Oso” and the second season of “Bluey Shorts” will be arriving.

Disney’s newest film “Cruella” will also be released in May. The live-action origin story of Cruella De Vil from “One Hundred and One Dalmatians” starring Emma Stone will be available through Premier Access on May 28.

Robin Thede, the comedian behind HBO’s “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” is currently developing a zombie action-comedy at Amazon titled “Killin’ It.” Thede will be responsible for writing and producing. The story will follow a group of underachieving friends in Atlanta, which becomes overrun by zombies while the friends are taking part in Spelman College’s homecoming event, despite dropping out 10 years earlier from the HBCU. The film is being described as “Shaun of the Dead” meets “Girls Trip.”

The Amazon feature deal comes as Thede’s is making a name for herself and reaching milestones for Black female creators. She’s the creator of the HBO series “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” which also stars Issa Rae. The TV series that earned three Emmy nominations last year. The second season of the sketch comedy comes out April 23.

As an actor Thede was recently on screen in the 2020 horror comedy “Bad Hair” from “Dear White People” writer-director Justin Simien. Thede had previously host and executively produced BET’s series “The Rundown with Robin Thede,” and served as head writer and a correspondent for Comedy Central’s “The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore.”

Xtreme Fighting Championships announced Friday that their Main Card event will be taking place on May 28.

Airing live on XFCTV.com, FOX Deportes, and FOX Sports 2, the Main Event of XFC 44 will be happening in Des Moines, IA. Kicking off the event will be American Top Team fighter Andre “The Asian Sensation” Soukhamthath battling against veteran Jose “El Teco” Quinonez. Following their match will be heavyweights Chris “Beast Boy” Barnett vs. Brett “Big Dog” Martin.

Next up will be the lightweight semifinals, starting with Kurt Holobaugh vs. “Handsome” Scott Hudson and then going to Tom “Big Nasty” O’Connor, who hails from Canada, against Damonte Robinson, representing Ohio.

Finally, the event will end with the welterweight semifinals, kicking off with LaRue “The Cannibal” Burley, who won in XFC 43 against Alejandro Sanchez through submission, vs. Carson “The Perfect Storm” Hardman, representing Utah. Ending the night will be Ryan Dickson, also from Canada, vs. Bobby “Nashty” Nash, who got his start as a wrestler for Michigan State.

As coronavirus vaccines roll out across the globe and filming slowly resumes, Netflix has revealed that it will spend $17 billion on content in 2021.

The plan was disclosed in the streaming company’s first-quarter financial report. Netflix reported a drop in new subscribers in the first few months of 2021 due to 20% less original content than in previous years. Fortunately, the company has announced plans for later this year that will bring subscriber rates back up.

“While the roll out of vaccines is very uneven across the world, we are back up and producing safely in every major market, with the exception of Brazil and India,” the company announced in their shareholder letter. “Assuming this continues, we’ll spend over $17B in cash on content this year and we’ll continue to deliver an amazing range of titles for our members with more originals this year than last.”

The amount Netflix spends on their content is forecasted by analysts to increase over the next several years, who predict the company could spend $26 billion in 2026. With some of the world’s biggest media companies like WarnerMedia, ViacomCBS, and Disney creating streaming services in recent years, the long-time king of the streaming industry has competition that’s catching up fairly quick.

Most of the content slated for release on Netflix is scheduled to arrive later in the year, when filming is likely to be less restricted. The company has confirmed that the tail end of 2021 will see “the return of new seasons of some of our biggest hits and an exciting film lineup” in addition to “a large number of returning franchises.” Notable mentions include the return of hit shows like “Sex Education,” “The Witcher,” and “You,” and new movies including the final installment of “The Kissing Booth”, “Red Notice”, and “Don’t Look Up.”

Paramount+ is preparing to expand its appeal beyond the United States.

The recently rebranded version of CBS All Access is making plans to become bigger than the latter ever was. Shortly after their competitors WarnerMedia, Disney, and Discovery have unveiled larger content slates than ever before, ViacomCBS’s market for Paramount+ has been expanding since last month, rolling out to Latin America and Canada, with Australia, Europe, and New Zealand soon to come.

An estimated 350 million customers are expected to sign up for subscription-based streaming in the United States by 2024, but what about the rest of the planet? Kelly Day, president of streaming and COO of ViacomCBS Networks International, sees this as potential for the company. “We just look at it like this: There are seven and a half billion people outside the U.S.,” Day explained in an interview with Deadline. “By going into these markets, we have all this incredible opportunity to reach so many more viewers in so many different places.”

Paramount+ overseas will have a different catalogue than in the United States, featuring original shows (such as Kamp Koral, a spin-off of SpongeBob SquarePants) as well as programming from Showtime and CBS. The platform will also host regionally exclusive content, including Ib the Dog for the Nordics, while customers in Latin America can enjoy Acapulco Shore, Are You the One Brazil, and new, original programs Cecilia and The Envoys.

While Disney+, HBO Max, and Paramount+ are flourishing, they still have a long way to go before they’re at the top. Netflix has been at the top of the streaming hierarchy for years, reaching over 200 million subscribers last year. They, too, have content unique to the more than 130 countries it services, spending a whopping $20 billion on content yearly. With this to consider, Netflix’s status as the king of streaming services is one that’s tough to overthrow.

Amazon Prime’s superhero series “The Boys” is launching a podcast about the show’s creation and development.

With the release of season 2 last fall, fans of the show are anxiously awaiting season 3, which is confirmed to be in production. Launching this Thursday, The Boys: The Official Podcast will supplement the show, giving viewers something to hold them over until the third season is released. It will feature members of the cast and crew, from executive producers Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Erick Kripke to actors such as Antony Starr and Karl Urban, and even those who are more behind the scenes, like costume designer Laura Jean Shannon.

On the podcast, discussion topics will include favorite moments on set, challenges while working on the show, and how they brought some the show’s most well-known assets to life, such as The Boys’ super suits.

The Boys: The Official Podcast can be streamed on Amazon, Apple Music, and Spotify. Following its two-episode debut on April 15, one episode will premiere each week until May 27, making a total of eight episodes. Seasons 1 and 2 of “The Boys” are available to stream on Amazon Prime.

Discovery’s newest streaming service, Discovery Plus, has arrived on Comcast’s Xfinity Flex platform, and is now available for broadband-only customers.

The recently launched streaming service, which began on January 4, will also be rolled out to Comcast’s Xfinity X1 platform for pay-TV customers in a few weeks. It currently has an estimated 11 million subscribers across the United States, and can be accessed in the “Apps” section or by saying “Discovery Plus” into the Xfinity Voice Distant.

“We’re thrilled to develop our relationship with our valued accomplice Comcast to present their prospects with direct and easy accessibility to Discovery Plus and different functions throughout their industry-leading leisure platforms – Xfinity Flex, and shortly X1,” Gabriel Sauerhoff, SVP of digital distribution and industrial partnerships at Discovery, announced in a statement.

Discovery Plus runs for $4.99/month with ads, or ad-free for $6.99/month, and boasts a diverse catalogue featuring thousands of episodes of shows from Discovery’s networks that will appeal to a wide variety of audiences. Properties offered on the service include HGTV, Food Network, Discovery Channel, and Animal Planet.

Late “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman was honored at the 27th Annual Screen Actor’s Guild Awards on Sunday.

Already a heavily accomplished actor, having once accumulated four motion picture nominations for the SAG Awards in a single year, Boseman was honored at the ceremony for his performance as trumpeter Levee Green in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”. His widow, Simone Ledward Boseman, accepted the award on his behalf, delivering an emotional speech quoting the late actor.

“‘If you see the world unbalanced, be a crusader that pushes heavily on the seesaw of the mind,'” Simone recited. “That’s a quote from Chadwick Boseman.”

After a private, four-year battle with colon cancer, Chadwick Boseman passed away last summer at the age of 43. “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” was one of the final films he was in prior to his death, with the other film being “Da 5 Bloods,” which he had a supporting role in.

Less than a week into its release, “Godzilla vs. Kong” is shattering box office records for the ongoing pandemic.

This weekend, the movie raked in a monstrous $32 million. That’s nearly twice as much money as Wonder Woman 1984, which previously held the title for the biggest opening weekend during a pandemic, made during Christmas ($16.7 million). After only five days of release, the long-awaited monster brawl has grossed $48.5 million total. Even across the planet, “Godzilla vs. Kong” is excelling in the box office, bringing in $44 million from China over the weekend. In total, the film has grossed $285 million worldwide since its debut.

What do these numbers mean? Media professionals see them as promising, and evidence of recovery from a year of lockdown and dark, deserted movie theaters. Jeff Bock, a media analyst at Exhibitor Relations, explains, “This is a great sign that the release calendar will stabilize and audiences everywhere will have a bonafide summer of blockbusters. With vaccinations being dished out at a record pace and social distancing protocols still in place, we should see a nice ramp up into summer cinema.” Although we still have a ways to go before the pandemic ends and the world goes “back to normal,” we’re already seeing the light at the end of the tunnel after a long year of capacity restrictions and shut-down theaters.

The fourth MonsterVerse film’s successful premiere suggests that the films slated to debut this summer will perform well at the box office, including “Cruella” (May 28), “Fast and Furious 9” (June 25), and “Top Gun: Maverick” (July 2). In other words, it is highly likely that summer 2021 will be financially successful for Hollywood.