News: Kristen Bell joins “The People We Hate at the Wedding”

Kristen Bell is joining Allison Janney and Ben Platt to star in The People We Hate at the Wedding, a comedy that sees Amazon Studios partnering with FilmNation to produce.

Adapting the novel by Grant Ginder, the comedy will be directed by Claire Scanlon and has a script by Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin and Wendy Molyneux, who are known for their Emmy-winning work on cartoon series Bob’s Burgers.

The story centers on a pair of struggling American siblings, Alice (Bell) and Paul (Platt), who reluctantly agree to attend the wedding of their estranged, wealthy half-sister in the English countryside alongside their mother, Donna (Janney). Over the course of the wedding week, the family’s many skeletons are wrenched from the closet, and the unlikely reunion gives everyone the motivation to move their own lives forward.

The companies see this as a modern wedding comedy with broad appeal, hitting anyone with a slightly dysfunctional family or anyone who’s been forced to attend a wedding they tried to avoid (which they hope is pretty much everyone).

Principal photography is due to commence September in London. Ashley Fox of FilmNation Entertainment and Margot Hand are producing. [Source]

07 / 08 / 2021

News: Kristen Bell Set to Return as ‘Gossip Girl’ Narrator

Spotted: A pajama-clad Kristen Bell inside a recording booth on the Warner Bros. lot.

TVLine has learned that the TV all-star (Veronica Mars, The Good Place) has signed on to reprise her role as Gossip Girl‘s omniscient narrator in HBO Max’s forthcoming reboot.

The original series’ creators, Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, are on board to EP the new version alongside former Gossip Girl EP Joshua Safran, who will serve as showrunner. “Kristen Bell has always been and will always be the voice of Gossip Girl,” the trio said in a statement.

News of Bell’s official return comes fourth months after HBO Max placed a 10-episode order for a new iteration of the former CW hit that will “introduce a fresh crop of gorgeous Manhattan private-schoolers to Gossip Girl’s all-seeing eye.” Per the streaming service, the reboot “will address just how much social media — and the landscape of New York itself — has changed in the intervening years.” [Source]

11 / 08 / 2019

News: Kristen Bell Joins ‘Mickey’s 90th Spectacular’ Special On ABC

Kristen Bell (Disney’s Frozen), Sarah Hyland (ABC’s Modern Family), Tony Hale (Veep, Arrested Development) and Sofia Carson (Disney’s Descendants, Freeform’s upcoming Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists) are set for Mickey’s 90th Spectacular two-hour television event celebrating 90 years of the beloved Disney mascot Mickey Mouse. Walt Disney Company Chairman and CEO Bob Iger will make a special appearance during the special set to air Sunday, November 4 at 8 PM on Disney-owned ABC.

The show also will include musical performances by Josh Groban, K-Pop band NCT 127, Leslie Odom Jr., Meghan Trainor and Zac Brown Band. Groban and NCT 127 will perform original songs, while Odom, Trainor and Zac Brown Band will pay homage to Mickey with Disney classics. Odom will perform “When You Wish Upon A Star” from the 1940 Disney adaptation of Pinnochio, Trainor will sing “You’ve Got a Friend In Me,” the theme song from the Toy Story franchise and Zac Brown Band will perform a rendition of “Bare Necessities” from Disney classic The Jungle Book. More names and performance details will be released in the coming weeks. [Source]

09 / 28 / 2018

News: Veronica Mars is officially back!

Hulu is heading to Neptune! The streaming service on Thursday officially announced that Veronica Mars will return for eight all-new episodes in 2019. The official logline for the revival reads as follows:

Spring breakers are getting murdered in Neptune, thereby decimating the seaside town’s lifeblood tourist industry. After Mars Investigations is hired by the parents of one of the victims to find their son’s killer, Veronica is drawn into an epic eight-episode mystery that pits the enclave’s wealthy elites, who would rather put an end to the month-long bacchanalia, against a working class that relies on the cash influx that comes with being the West Coast’s answer to Daytona Beach.

Series creator Rob Thomas is penning the first episode of the revival. He will executive-produce alongside returning vets Diane Ruggiero-Wright and Dan Etheridge, as well as leading lady Kristen Bell. [Source]

 

09 / 20 / 2018

News: Veronica Mars 8-Episode Limited Series Revival Eyed at Hulu

The case is almost closed on a second Veronica Mars revival. Hulu is nearing a deal to order an eight-episode revival of the beloved series, with Kristen Bell reprising her titular role. News of the project arrives four years after the fan-funded Veronica Marsfeature film hit theaters.

Back in 2016, Bell confirmed our initial scoop that she and series creator Rob Thomas were eyeing a limited-series format vs. a fan-funded feature film this time around, telling me at Comic-Con, “We are definitely striving to do it again… And this time around, we’re not going to ask the audience to pony up for anything.”

Several months later at the Television Critics Association winter press tour, Thomas revealed that the potential continuation would consist of at least a half-dozen hour-long episodes. “Kristen and I both want to figure out some way we could do a six-episode Veronica Mars mystery,” he shared. “If I were a betting man, I bet that it will happen. I just don’t know when it will be.”

Veronica Mars 3.0 — which would be shepherded by Thomas — would not interfere with Bell’s starring role on NBC’s The Good Place, as production on the upcoming third season has already wrapped. [Source]

08 / 22 / 2018

Feature: A forkin’ awesome conversation with the cast of ‘The Good Place’

I want to get just a taste of the upcoming season, and I have it on good authority that one of you has trouble keeping secrets.
Bell: Loose Lips Danson!

Danson: That’s absolutely true. I’m impossible. So let me guess: You probably want to know about what’s in store for our group of humans, who, last we saw them, were down on Earth pursuing their second chances. And Michael and Janet are monitoring them …

Bell: I think we can reveal that, metaphorically, this next season is about how you can play chess with people who don’t know you’re playing with them and doing so in a way that doesn’t affect the greater universe.

Danson: What she said. [Laughs]

Bell: Because our characters don’t know there’s a greater mission. We’re meandering on Earth. What I loved about that whole last episode from Season 2 was that it summed up everyone’s yearly existence from Jan. 1 to March 1. You make resolutions. You’re going to be a better person. You’re going to work out more. You’re going to eat broccoli. And by March, none of that is happening. You saw it with Eleanor. She vows to change, and then she gets bored.

So now we are all left on Earth separately. And what we learned from the first two seasons is that our strengths come when we’re together. But can Michael and Janet tamper with us without affecting the universe? [More at Source]

05 / 17 / 2018

News: Kristen Bell & Others to Announce Golden Globe Nominees Monday

Alfre Woodard, Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Bell and Sharon Stone will announce the nominees for the 75th Anniversary of the Golden Globe Awards on Monday, Dec. 11 from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.

The HFPA will livestream the nominations exclusively using Facebook Live on the Golden Globes Facebook Page and at GoldenGlobes.com beginning at 5:15 a.m PST. NBC’s Today Show will live broadcast the second set of categories beginning at 5:38:30 a.m. PST.

Woodard, Hedlund, Bell and Stone will be joined by the previously announced Golden Globe Ambassador, Simone Garcia Johnson; Hollywood Foreign Press Association President, Meher Tatna; and Barry Adelman, executive VP of Television at dick clark productions. [Source]

12 / 10 / 2017

News: Kristen Bell to Serve as First-Ever SAG Awards Host

Kristen Bell has been selected as the first-ever host of the SAG Awards and will emcee the 24th edition of the show on Jan. 21 at the Shrine Auditorium.

Executive Producer Kathy Connell made the announcement on Monday.

“We are delighted to have Kristen Bell as the first-ever host of the SAG Awards,” Connell said. “This has been a year in which assumptions have been challenged, stereotypes have been shattered, and precedents have been broken. We decided to capture the cultural mood by casting aside one of our own traditions, and we’re thrilled to have such a talented performer like Bell help us do so.”

Bell is currently starring in the film “A Bad Moms Christmas” and in NBC’s “The Good Place,” opposite Ted Danson. She will star in the Netflix comedy “Like Father,” with Kelsey Grammer as her titular dad. She is also reprising her voice role as Anna in the 2019 sequel to Disney’s “Frozen.”

“I am honored to be part of the SAG Awards, and am a little nervous about being its first-ever host,” Bell said. “I’m so glad that I’ll be in the company of my fellow actors, many of whom I’ve worked with before, so I know they’ll be warm and supportive. It’s going to be an amazing night.”

The awards show will be broadcast live on TNT and TBS. Nominations will be announced on Dec. 13 at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles. Morgan Freeman has been announced as the SAG Life Achievement Award recipient. [Source]
12 / 10 / 2017

Coverage: Disney Parks Presents a Disney Channel Holiday Celebration

   

Disney and ABC have lined up an act sure to please “Frozen” fans: Idina Menzel and Kristen Bell will perform together for the first time on prime-time television during “The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration.” The program airs 9 to 11 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 30.

Menzel gave voice to Elsa, and Bell supplied the voice of Anna in “Frozen,” the beloved 2013 animated film. The actresses will sing “When We’re Together” from the new featurette “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure.” They will be backed by a choir on the steps of Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland Resort in California. Menzel also will perform “When You Wish Upon a Star” during “Disney Parks Magical Christmas Celebration.” That special airs on Christmas morning on ABC affiliates.

Bell said in a statement: “This performance will combine two of my very favorite things: the holidays and singing alongside my ‘Frozen’ sister, Idina Menzel. I’m excited to sing a song with Idina that I feel has the potential to become a new holiday classic.” Menzel said: “Anytime I get to reunite with Kristen, whether it’s in the studio or on the stage, is very special for me. I think I can speak for her when I say we are both so proud of this story we get to tell and these sisters we get to portray.” [Source]

11 / 23 / 2017
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