Anna Devlin (Chorus in “The End“) will be Primrose Chattaway in several episodes of THE NEVERS, Joss Whedon’s science fiction drama about a gang of Victorian women called The Touched. (It is not clear why the series isn’t called that as well. It may be that the group calls themselves “The Touched” and hostile outsiders call them “The Nevers”.) All of The Touched have unusual abilities. Their leader is Amalia True (Laura Donnelly), who is described as reckless, impulsive, and emotionally damaged. The only one whose powers have been defined so far is Annie Carbey (played by Rochelle Neil) who can control fire. Devlin’s character Primrose only wants to be an ordinary, proper teenage girl, but her height (she is ten feet tall) stands in the way of that. The women undertake to fight “relentless enemies” (presumably of Britain) and take on missions of global importance. Emmy Award winners Michelle Clapton (GAME OF THRONES) and Jane Petrie (THE CROWN), will design the costumes. The ten episode series began filming in London in July. HBO has not announced a release date.

Todd Stashwick (Deacon) will be Z’Oiseau in VIDE NOIR, a film exploration of the world of indie folk band Lord Huron‘s third album. The neo-noir mystery is set in 60s Los Angeles and chronicles a surreal, nocturnal trip “through the lens of a space and time bending drug”. Victor Mascitelli stars as Buck Vernon, and the film tells the story of Buck’s search for Lee (Ashleigh Cummings), his missing fiancée, who left Detroit and headed west in pursuit of a singing career. Buck’s plan is to drive to Los Angeles and search every lounge and club there, but he ends up searching in much stranger places. Written by Ben Schneider, the film features new arrangements of Lord Huron’s music, and will be released sometime next year. A trailer is available on YouTube.

David Dastmalchian (Kyle Slade in “Immortal“) is the ambitious and sadistic Mentat Piter de Vries in director Denis Villeneuve’s interpretation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel DUNE. Timothée Chalamet will star as Paul Atreides. Oscar Isaac, who plays Paul’s father, Duke Leto Atreides, described Villeneuve’s version of the story to Entertainment Weekley: “There are some things that are — for lack of a better word — nightmarish about what you see. There’s just this kind of brutalist element to it. It’s shocking. It’s scary. It’s very visceral.” Villeneuve told Indiewire: “David Lynch did an adaptation in the ’80s that has some very strong qualities…it was not what I had dreamed of, so I’m trying to make the adaptation of my dreams. It will not have any link with the David Lynch movie. I’m going back to the book and going to the images that came out when I read it.” DUNE will consist of at least two films, the first of which will be released in the US on 18 December 2020 .

Amy Sloan (Elena in “Divine Move“) is Enid in THE SONG OF NAMES, a film based on Norman Lebrecht’s 2004 novel of the same name. Martin (Tim Roth) and his brother Dovidl (Clive Owen), a gifted violin prodigy and Polish-Jewish refugee, were childhood friends during World War II. Hours before Dovidl’s debut concert at the age of 21, he vanishes without a trace. Forty years later, Martin sees a young violinist use a stylistic flourish that could only have been taught by Dovidl, and this sends Martin overseas in search of his lost brother. The soundtrack is available on Spotify and from Decca Records. Directed by Genie Award winner François Girard, THE SONG OF NAMES premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, and will be released in the US on 25 December . A trailer is available on YouTube.







