"Downton Abbey" will return for a fourth season in January, but now PBS is announcing the series will be back for at least one more after that.
"Masterpiece" executive producer Rebecca Eaton says Downton fans can "rest easy knowing that a fifth season is on the way."
The celebrated British costume drama focusing on the elite Crawley family will air its fourth season on "Masterpiece" beginning Jan. 5. Michelle Dockery, Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern and Jim Carter are among its stars.
Earlier this year, more than 24 million viewers watched the third season of the series in the U.S., making it the most-watched drama in PBS history.
News Briefs
Displaying 6891 - 6900 of 6901
- Monday, Nov. 11, 2013
NEW YORK (AP) --
- Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013
NEW YORK (AP) --
For the first time in the franchise's history, a "Star Wars" film won't be released in the summer.
Walt Disney Studios announced Thursday that "Star Wars: Episode VII" will open in theaters on Dec. 18, 2015. The original 1977 film helped set the precedent of the summer blockbuster. But this latest installation in George Lucas' space opera will be a holiday season affair.
The project recently shuffled screenwriters, worrying much of the "Star Wars" fan universe. Screenwriter Michael Arndt exited, with director J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan taking over the script.
Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn said the December date will "ensure our extraordinary team has the time needed to deliver a sensational picture."
"Star Wars VII" is set to begin shooting in the spring at Pinewood Studios.
- Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013
LOS ANGELES (AP) --
The Walt Disney Co.'s earnings rose 12 percent in the company's fiscal fourth quarter, beating analysts' forecasts on the surprising strength of its new video game "Disney Infinity" and upbeat movie studio results.
But a worse-than-expected performance from Disney's stalwart pay TV unit housing its ESPN network led to a stock drop in after-hours trading.
Analyst Alan Gould of Evercore Partners said the market remained focused on the reliable profits of Disney's pay TV division, rather than the hit-and-miss results from the studio or its games division.
Net income in the three months that ended Sept. 28 came to $1.39 billion, or 77 cents per share. That's up from $1.24 billion, or 68 cents per share, in the same months a year ago. Revenue grew 7 percent to $11.57 billion.
Analysts polled by FactSet had expected earnings of 76 cents per share on revenue of $11.4 billion.
- Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013
BURBANK, Calif. (AP) --
Netflix is doubling down on original content, saying it will buy four new live-action TV series from Disney's Marvel and bring some lesser-known superheroes to the small screen.
The Internet streaming giant ordered multiple years of original programming that will start running on its service in 2015. The first series will focus on the character Daredevil, followed by Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and Luke Cage.
The four series of 13 episodes each will culminate in a miniseries called "The Defenders."
The deal builds on a tight relationship between the two companies already. The pair announced last year that Netflix Inc. will offer up The Walt Disney Co.'s latest movies starting with films released in theaters in 2016.
- Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) --
The final curtain is falling on the remaining Blockbuster video-rental stores that Dish Network Corp. runs in the U.S.
About 300 Blockbuster locations scattered around the country will be closed by early January. But 50 franchised stores will remain open in the U.S.
As part of Dish Network's retreat, Blockbuster's DVD-by-mail service is also shutting down next month.
About 2,800 people who work in Blockbuster's stores and DVD distribution centers will lose their jobs, according to Dish Network.
The cost-cutting measures culminate a Blockbuster downfall that began a decade ago with the rise of Netflix's DVD-by-mail service, followed by the introduction of a subscription service that streams video over high-speed Internet connections.
"This is not an easy decision, yet consumer demand is clearly moving to digital distribution of video entertainment," Dish Network CEO Joseph Clayton said in a statement More
- Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013
BERLIN (AP) --
Wes Anderson's new movie, "The Grand Budapest Hotel," is to open the 2014 Berlin Film Festival.
Festival organizers said Tuesday the event kicks off on Feb. 6 with the world premiere of the movie, which stars Ralph Fiennes, Adrien Brody, Jude Law and Edward Norton.
The Berlin event is the first of the year's major European film festivals. Director Dieter Kosslick said: "With unmistakable Wes Anderson charm, this comedy promises to kick things off in a big way."
The latest movie from the director of "Moonrise Kingdom," ''Fantastic Mr. Fox" and "The Royal Tenenbaums" features Fiennes as a concierge at a European hotel in an adventure that involves the theft and recovery of a priceless painting.
The Berlin Film Festival runs from Feb.6-16.
- Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013
LOS ANGELES (AP) --
A Southern California insurance broker who overcharged Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, hundreds of thousands of dollars has been sentenced to more than two years in federal prison.
City News Service says Jerry Goldman received a 27-month sentence Monday. He also was ordered to pay about $840,000 in restitution.
Prosecutors claimed that between 1998 and 2011, Goldman inflated premiums by as much as 600 percent and created phony invoices to hide the scam.
The original indictment claimed that Goldman also bilked others including Andy Summers, the former guitarist for The Police.
The 60-year-old Thousand Oaks man pleaded guilty in April to mail fraud involving Hanks and Wilson.
- Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013
NEW YORK (AP) --
Netflix has acquired the first-run rights to a documentary on the Egyptian protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square, signaling a new push by the subscription company to program movie premieres.
"The Square" will debut exclusively on Netflix early next year, Netflix announced Monday. Jehane Noujaim's documentary depicts the tumult of the Egyptian Revolution beginning in 2011.
"The Square" is playing in New York and Los Angeles theaters. The short theatrical run will qualify the film, an award-winner at the Sundance and Toronto film festivals, for Oscar consideration.
Netflix tried earlier to get into the first-run film distribution business with its indie label, Red Envelope. Several notable documentaries and independent films were co-produced by Netflix when it was just a DVD-by-mail business. But the company shuttered Red Envelope in 2008.
In a letter to shareholders this year, Netflix executives said the company would More
- Monday, Nov. 4, 2013
JOHANNESBURG (AP) --
British actor Idris Elba says he wanted to capture the spirit of Nelson Mandela, not impersonate him, while playing the role of the former South African president and anti-apartheid leader in a film.
Elba said Monday that acting as Mandela in "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" was a gift and that he read a lot to understand the man who spent 27 years in jail under white minority rule and guided South Africa to all-race elections in 1994 that propelled Mandela to the presidency.
Elba spoke at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg. The film, based on Mandela's autobiography, will be released in South Africa in late November before opening in the U.S. and other markets.
Mandela, 95, is critically ill and being treated by doctors at his Johannesburg home.
- Monday, Nov. 4, 2013
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) --
The painful story of a free black man lured from his home in New York in 1841 to be sold into slavery, now the basis of the new film "12 Years a Slave," has a little-known connection to a slave site that still stands near the nation's capital.
Alexandria's one-time slave pen complex, based out of a colonial-style rowhouse, was once the epicenter of the domestic human trade in the United States after the importation of slaves was banned, according to historians. The last slave trader at the site, James H. Birch, was the same dealer who paid kidnappers $250 for Solomon Northup of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and sold him into slavery in Louisiana.
Northup's story of 12 years in slavery, published in 1853, is the basis of the new film from British director Steve McQueen. Now curators hope the film will spark new interest from visitors and historians in a rare slave site that still stands near the Capitol. It has been open to visitors for More