‘Crazy Rich Asians’ TV series coming to Max, Tatiana Maslany to star in comedic thriller for Apple TV+, and more of today’s top stories

Gold Derby's top news stories for Feb. 28, 2025

Crazy Rich Asians TV series being readied at Max

A series adaptation of Crazy Rich Asians is being developed at Max. Adele Lim, the screenwriter who co-wrote the his 2018 feature that starred Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh, Gemma Chan, Lisa Lu, Awkwafina, and Ken Jeong, is on board as showrunner and executive producer. And director Jon M. Chu of Wicked and Wicked: For Good fame is returning as an executive producer.

The TV project is, like the film, based on Kevin Kwan's book series of the same name. "Crazy Rich Asians" was published in 2013, followed by "China Rich Girlfriend" in 2015 and "Rich People Problems" in 2017. Kwan, an exec producer on the film, will have the same role on the Max series. Casting for the show remains unknown.

Tatiana Maslany set to star in comedy thriller series for Apple TV+

Tatiana Maslany, who won an Emmy in 2016 for her multiple roles on BBC America's Orphan Black, is on tap to star in a comedic thriller series titled Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed from creator David J. Rosen. who is set as showrunner, with David Gordon Green as director and executive producer. The show is described as a darkly comic thriller abo9ut a newly divorced mother (Maslany) who falls down a dangerous rabbit hole of blackmail, murder, and youth soccer. It's planned to be 10 episodes.

Maslany currently stars in the horror feature The Monkey.

Academy teases Miley Cyrus and Miles Teller as 'The Final Presenters...or are they?'

The Motion Picture Academy is doing its best to tease the element of surprise in advance of Sunday's Academy Awards, releasing a post over Instagram on Friday that teased, "The Final Presenters: Miley Cyrus, Miles Teller...or are they?" It was followed by: "Miley Cyrus and Miles Teller round out our presenters...or do they?" and then "Expect the unexpected."

There are "expected" to be plenty of surprise guests involved on Sunday, including cast reunions and more. The Oscars air live on ABC at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Bill Murray recalls Gene Hackman as 'brilliant' but 'a tough nut'

Speaking to the Associated Press in the wake of the Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman's death, Bill Murray - who starred with Hackman in their 2001 feature The Royal Tenenbaums - recalled that Hackman was "really tough" on the film's writer-director Wes Anderson. "He was a tough nut," Murray said, "but he was really good. And he was really difficult, we can say it now, but he was a tough guy. Older, great actors do not give young directors much of a chance. They're really rough on them, and Gene, while he was brilliant, was really rough on Wes. I used to kind of step in there and just try to defend my friend."

Hackman played the family patriarch in the film that helped Anderson make his bones as a filmmaker. Anderson was just 32 at the time. Murray played neurologist Raleigh St. Clair in the movie. Hackman, who won Oscars for The French Connection and Unforgiven, was found deaf on Wednesday in his Santa Fe, New Mexico home along with his wife Betsy Arakawa. Their deaths have been ruled "suspicious" and are currently being investigated by police.

Cop-turned-screenwriter Joseph Wambaugh of The Onion Field fame dies at 88

Joseph Wambaugh, a Los Angeles Police Department cop for 14 years who used that experience write the novels "The Onion Field," "The New Centurions," "The Blue Knight," and "The Glitter Dome" - all of which he adapted for the big screen - died Friday at 88. He succumbed to esophageal cancer at his home in Rancho Mirage.

Wambaugh also co-created the long-running Police Story series for NBC in the 1970s. He found perhaps his greatest film success with the film adaptation of The Onion Field in 1979, which helped make stars of James Woods and John Savage and also featured a young Ted Danson.

Disney/ABC/Hulu sells out Oscar advertising inventory in advance of Sunday's show

Disney, the parent company for ABC and Hulu, announced on Friday that it has sold our all commercial inventory tied to Sunday's 97th Academy Awards - TV, streaming, social, and more. The company had been charging $1.7 million to $2.3 million  for 30 seconds of commercial time on the TV broadcast, long seen as something of the Super Bowl of annual entertainment events, according to Variety.

Top sponsors of the Oscars include Rolex, Prudential, and T-Mobile, but also include some less traditional advertisers including Audible, L'Oreal Paris, Planet Oat, Skinny Pop Popcorn, Wingstop, and Hiscox Insurance. "We are seeing people and brands really want to attach themselves to cultural currency and cultural conversations," John Campbell, senior VP of entertainment and streaming solutions for Disney Advertising, told Variety. Disney saw "this flurry of demand coming out of our upfront last year. We had the vast majority of our units sold weeks in advance of the show."

Juliette Binoche, Pedro Almodóvar, Mohammad Rasoulof join support of persecuted Iranian filmmakers

Juliette Binoche, Pedro Almodóvar, and Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof have joined a petition campaign in support of persecuted Iranian filmmakers Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha, the husband-and-wife directors who have run afoul of Iran's authoritarian Islamic Republic since 2023 over their feature My Favourite Cake, which had its world premiere a year ago at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival.

Binoche, Almodóvar, and Rasoulof, who fled Iran last year to escape a prison sentence tied to his work, are among 3,500 people working in film who have signed the petition calling on Islamic Republic authorities to immediately and unconditionally clear all charges targeting Mogadam and Sanaeeha. The petition can be accessed here. My Favourite Cake tells a story of love and loss surrounding a 70-year-old widow who reconnects with life's small pleasures following her husband's death.

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