Ryan Coogler attends the 10th Annual AAFCA Awards on Feb. 6, 2019, in Los Angeles. Disney on Monday, Feb. 1, 2021, announced a five-year exclusive TV deal with Coogler’s Proximity Media company that includes development of a series based in the Kingdom of Wakanda from Coogler’s “Black Panther” blockbuster. (Photo by Phil McCarten/Invision/AP, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) --
The Kingdom of Wakanda is staking out turf on the Disney+ streaming service.
A TV series set in the "Black Panther" kingdom will be developed as part of a five-year, exclusive television deal the Walt Disney Co. announced Monday with filmmaker Ryan Coogler's Proximity Media company.
Coogler wrote and directed 2018's "Black Panther," a box-office hit that turned Chadwick Boseman into a superstar. The actor died in August of cancer.
Coogler "brought a groundbreaking story and iconic characters to life in a real, meaningful and memorable way, creating a watershed cultural moment," Disney Executive Chairman Bob Iger said in a statement. The company looks forward "to telling more great stories with Ryan and his team."
A time frame for the series wasn't immediately announced.
The Black Panther character was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for Marvel Comics, which became part of Disney in 2009 when the media giant acquired Marvel Entertainment.
Chuck Woolery hosts a special premiere of the "$250,000 Game Show Spectacular" at the Las Vegas Hilton Saturday, Oct. 13, 2007, in Las Vegas. (Ronda Churchill/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, File)
Chuck Woolery, the affable, smooth-talking game show host of "Wheel of Fortune," "Love Connection" and "Scrabble" who later became a right-wing podcaster, skewering liberals and accusing the government of lying about COVID-19, has died. He was 83.
Mark Young, Woolery's podcast co-host and friend, said in an email early Sunday that Woolery died at his home in Texas with his wife, Kristen, present. "Chuck was a dear friend and brother and a tremendous man of faith, life will not be the same without him," Young wrote.
Woolery, with his matinee idol looks, coiffed hair and ease with witty banter, was inducted into the American TV Game Show Hall of Fame in 2007 and earned a daytime Emmy nomination in 1978.
In 1983, Woolery began an 11-year run as host of TV's "Love Connection," for which he coined the phrase, "We'll be back in two minutes and two seconds," a two-fingered signature dubbed the "2 and 2." In 1984, he hosted TV's "Scrabble," simultaneously hosting two game shows on TV until 1990.
"Love Connection," which aired long before the dawn of dating apps, had a premise that featured either a single man or single woman who would watch audition tapes of three potential mates and then pick one for a date.
A couple of weeks after the date, the guest would sit with Woolery in front of a studio audience and tell everybody about the date. The audience would vote on the three contestants, and if the audience agreed with the guest's choice, "Love Connection" would offer to pay for a second date.
Woolery told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2003 that his favorite set of lovebirds was a man aged 91 and a woman aged 87. "She had so much eye makeup on, she looked like a stolen Corvette. He was so old he said, 'I remember wagon trains.' The... Read More
