- ‘True Detective’ Renewed for Season 5 With ‘Night Country’ Creator Issa López Returning Under New HBO Overall Deal Variety
- ‘True Detective’ Renewed For Season 5 At HBO As Showrunner Issa López Strikes Overall Deal Deadline
- ‘True Detective’ Renewed for Season 5 With Issa López at the Helm Hollywood Reporter
- HBO Renews ‘True Detective’ for a Fifth Season; Issa López Will Return Pajiba Entertainment News
- ‘True Detective’ Renewed for Season 5 at HBO with Issa López to Return IndieWire
Tag Archives: Issa
Issa Rae Feels There “Aren’t a Lot of Smart Executives Anymore,” Expresses Concern for Hollywood’s Future – Hollywood Reporter
- Issa Rae Feels There “Aren’t a Lot of Smart Executives Anymore,” Expresses Concern for Hollywood’s Future Hollywood Reporter
- Issa Rae and Hollywood’s Unkept Promises | TIME TIME
- Issa Rae Says Hollywood Is ‘Scared, Clueless and at the Mercy of Wall Street’ and Black Stories Are ‘Less of a Priority’: ‘There Aren’t a Lot of Smart Execs Anymore’ Variety
- Issa Rae Sees Hollywood Falling Down On Promises Of Diversity And Inclusion Deadline
- After Issa Rae’s Max Show Was Canceled, She Got Candid About How Black TV Shows Are Being Impacted By Corporate Changes Yahoo Entertainment
Issa Rae Sees Hollywood Falling Down On Promises Of Diversity And Inclusion – Deadline
- Issa Rae Sees Hollywood Falling Down On Promises Of Diversity And Inclusion Deadline
- Issa Rae and Hollywood’s Unkept Promises | TIME TIME
- Issa Rae Says Hollywood Is ‘Scared, Clueless and at the Mercy of Wall Street’ and Black Stories Are ‘Less of a Priority’: ‘There Aren’t a Lot of Smart Execs Anymore’ Variety
- After Issa Rae’s Max Show Was Canceled, She Got Candid About How Black TV Shows Are Being Impacted By Corporate Changes Yahoo Entertainment
- Issa Rae Feels There “Aren’t a Lot of Smart Executives Anymore,” Expresses Concern for Hollywood’s Future Hollywood Reporter
Issa Rae Says Hollywood Is ‘Scared, Clueless and at the Mercy of Wall Street’ and Black Stories Are ‘Less of a Priority’: ‘There Aren’t a Lot of Smart Execs Anymore’ – Variety
- Issa Rae Says Hollywood Is ‘Scared, Clueless and at the Mercy of Wall Street’ and Black Stories Are ‘Less of a Priority’: ‘There Aren’t a Lot of Smart Execs Anymore’ Variety
- Issa Rae and Hollywood’s Unkept Promises | TIME TIME
- Issa Rae Sees Hollywood Falling Down On Promises Of Diversity And Inclusion Deadline
- NFL’s Brian Flores Named to Time’s ‘The Closers’ List for Work on Racial Wealth Gap Bleacher Report
- Issa Rae Feels There “Aren’t a Lot of Smart Executives Anymore,” Expresses Concern for Hollywood’s Future Hollywood Reporter
Issa Rae says she’s taking steps to be ‘independent’ after several Black-led TV shows were canceled – Entertainment Weekly News
- Issa Rae says she’s taking steps to be ‘independent’ after several Black-led TV shows were canceled Entertainment Weekly News
- Issa Rae Says Studio Cancellations of Black Shows Have Her Considering the Indie Route: “You’re Seeing Very Clearly Our Stories Are Less of a Priority” Hollywood Reporter
- Issa Rae On The Changing TV Landscape: “You’re Seeing So Many Black Shows Get Cancelled” Deadline
- Issa Rae Says ‘It’s Frustrating’ to See ‘So Many Black Shows Get Canceled’: I May ‘Try to Be Independent Down the Line’ IndieWire
- Issa Rae Speaks On Black Show Cancellations Bossip
Night Country—Issa López and Barry Jenkins taking over
It’s been more than three years now since HBO rolled out a new season of True Detective, Nic Pizzolatto’s once-zeitgeist-seizing true crime anthology. And while we may be 8 years distant now from ubiquitous “time is a flat circle” jokes, breathless appreciations for bravura tracking shots, and fevered attempts to tie the franchise into the Cthulhu mythos, the series maintains a certain mystique—not least of which because of the work Mahershala Ali and his cohorts did on the show’s inconsistent, but interesting, third outing back in 2019
Now it sounds like the series might be coming back, with one of Ali’s old collaborators at the helm. Deadline reports that HBO is apparently gearing up for a revival, or possible spin-off, of the series—supposedly titled True Detective: Night Country—that’ll be headed up by Tigers Are Not Afraid writer/director Issa López and Moonlight’s Barry Jenkins.
Details about the series are being kept under wraps, although HBO president Carey Bloys did hint recently that the network might be trying to get back into the “grim meditations on time, memory, loss, etc. through the lens of detective work” game. Per Deadline, López will write, direct, and produce the show’s pilot, while Jenkins will serve as an executive producer. (The Oscar-winner has been working a bit in TV of late; he was nominated for an Emmy for his recent The Underground Railroad.)
López has been an established novelist and filmmaker in Mexico for years now, although she’s just started to break into American markets through films like 2019’s Tigers. Given what a career-boosting effect earlier True Detective seasons have sometimes had for creators—and how divisive responses to the series have been across its various eras—it’ll be interesting to see what reception she’s greeted with here.
No word yet on what involvement, if any, Pizzolatto will have with the series. He most recently penned the screenplay for 2021 Jake Gyllenhaal feature The Guilty.
‘Insecure’ Season 5 Premiere: AKA Backlash, Amanda Seales, Issa Rae
Social media can be stranger than fiction at times. This is what actress Amanda Seales learned after Sunday’s Insecure Season 5 premiere.
Seales’ character Tiffany — who is an Alpha Kappa Alpha “soror,” or sister — wore several pink-and-green AKA-inspired outfits and the sorority’s shield in the college reunion-themed episode, as she’s done a number of times in the show’s five-year history. (Read our full premiere recap here.) But for whatever reason, this time around, her fashion caught the attention of women who are actually in the sorority, who then took to Twitter to angrily attack the show and its costar because she is not an AKA in real life.
“I don’t know why people keep asking me if I’m a soror,” Seales said in an Instagram video in response to the AKA backlash. “I am not a soror. Tiffany is a soror. Tiffany is a character on a TV show. I didn’t write the character. I play the character. I’m an actress, and I’m playing a character on a TV show.”
Seales then said in another video that she would’ve crossed the burning sands and pledged AKA if she’d had the time in graduate school at Columbia University, but she didn’t. Insecure‘s Molly, played by Yvonne Orji, is also an AKA but rarely wears as much pink-and-green insignia as Tiffany. Orji is also not a member of the sorority in real life.
“I think reality TV done really got folks f–ked-up… I’m just playing a character,” Seales added. “I feel like some folks really forget like it’s a TV show.”
In one tweet, a fan of the show demanded that co-creator and star Issa Rae and HBO not disrespect AKAs by allowing a non-member to play one. Ever the jokester, Rae responded, “Oh s–t, let me tell @HBO to delete one of the upcoming episodes then, hold on.”
What do you think of Amanda Seales playing an AKA on Insecure? Is it disrespectful or fictional fun? Drop your thoughts in the comments.
Issa slams ‘betrayal’ as State Dept admits number of Americans still in Afghanistan higher than prior claims
The State Department on Friday conceded that there are significantly more Americans in Afghanistan than previously estimated — leading to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and other Republicans to accuse the administration of a “betrayal” of Americans abroad.
State Department officials briefed congressional staff this week and told them that it is in touch with 363 Americans in Afghanistan and nearly 176 legal permanent residents, a congressional source who was on the call told Fox News.
SAN DIEGO COUPLE TRAPPED IN AFGHANISTAN RETURNING TO US AFTER WEEKS OF TALIBAN HARASSMENT, DARRELL ISSA SAYS
That 363 number is significantly higher than previous estimates by the Biden administration, which had put the number at around 100 in September — and is only the number with whom the State Dept. is in contact. CNN first reported the 363 figure.
It comes amid continuing fallout from the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan ahead of the Aug 31 withdrawal deadline — which saw a scramble of Americans and Afghans trying to get out of the country before the Taliban took over.
At a press briefing Friday, State Department spokesman Ned Price did not confirm to reporters the number the department was in touch with as a whole — but said that the number of Americans who actually wish to leave was at one point below 100 but was now between 100 and 200 amid a fluid situation on the ground.
“That figure has risen in recent days as more Americans in Afghanistan have decided to depart in light of our successful facilitation of dozens of departures in recent weeks,” he said.
So far the State Department has facilitated the departure of 234 citizens and 144 lawful permanent residents, he said.
Issa, who has been working to evacuate a number of Americans stuck in Afghanistan back to the United States, said he saw the numbers as proof the administration had lied about the withdrawal.
CNN GIVES BIDEN A PASS ON AFGHANISTAN, COMPLETELY IGNORES TOPIC DURING 90-MINUTE TOWN HALL
“What we long suspected is now confirmed: what the White House calls a historically successful airlift was in reality the worst ever betrayal of American citizens in a foreign land,” he told Fox News. “So they lied about it from the beginning.”
Issa’s reaction was shared by Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., who accused the administration of having shamelessly and repeatedly lied about the number of Americans trapped behind Taliban lines.
“For weeks, their official number was ‘about a hundred’ and it magically never changed — as Americans slowly got out the total number never went down,” he said.
The staffer who was on the call suggested there were many more the State Department was not yet in touch with, perhaps because they are scared to come forward out of fear of reprisals by the Taliban.
“What about the people they’re not in touch with?” the staffer told Fox News. “Those who are scared to speak out, how do you put a number on that, or that are scared to use WhatsApp or text a +1 American number, or to even text in English?” they said.
The staffer told Fox that the State Department said it was working with third parties to get people out of Afghanistan, setting up conduits to streamline the process — while admitting that the guidance had been confusing about what chartered flights needed to take off and land in assisting with the evacuation effort.
On Friday, Price said the department’s goal is to make flights out of Kabul more routine in order to facilitate even more departures of Americans and others — “and we are committed to doing so.”
“We’ve also consistently said there’s a slightly larger universe of Americans with whom we’re in touch and who are not yet ready, for whatever reason, to leave,” he said. “That number is also far from immutable as Americans reach out to us, and given the dynamic – the very dynamic nature of human decision-making.”
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On Friday, Issa announced that an American citizen, Prince Wafa, who had worked as a translator and traveled to Afghanistan to bring his wife home, had been successfully evacuated. Issa’s office said it was in contact regularly with the man, as well as State Dept. personnel. The man had previously written to President Biden pleading for help.
“Prince Wafa provided outstanding support for our troops and bravely served our country when we were in need,” Issa said in a release. “This time, he risked all by returning to Afghanistan to bring his wife home. The Biden Administration left them behind and we didn’t rest until they were on their way home.”
As the situation in Afghanistan continues to unfold, the staffer who spoke to Fox said that the situation felt like the administration “has broken a social contract between America and its citizens.”
“When I go overseas there’s never a question in my mind that if something happened that blue passport would get me out of trouble — I have doubts about that now.”