Casting and Industry: Michelle Gomez is Doomed, and Natalie Portman Joins the 'Lady in the Lake'

At this point, thanks to the pandemic, I have caught up on nearly every TV show that I have been wanting to catch up on, except Gareth Evans’ Gangs of London, which I started this week (and holy sh*t!), and HBO Max’s Doom Patrol, of which I have heard nothing but glowing things. Production on the series’ third season is ramping up now, and they have smartly cast Michelle Gomez (Doctor Who, Flight Attendant) in the role of Madam Rouge, “a complicated and electrifying eccentric who arrives at Doom Manor with a very specific mission, if only she could remember it.”

— This photo of Lady Gaga and Adam Driver from House of Gucci is rightly getting a lot of attention right now …

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… but don’t sleep on the first look of Macauley Culkin and Leslie Grossman from the next season of Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story.

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Likewise, filming has finally begun on the sixth and final season of Better Call Saul. It won’t debut until the first quarter of 2022, but showrunner Peter Gould released this image:

Yes! And awaaaaaaaay we go! BCS S6 D1! #BetterCallSaul pic.twitter.com/PxDHAynFma

— Peter Gould (@petergould) March 10, 2021

— I have zero interest in anything that Johnny Depp is involved with, although it’s a shame that City of Lies — based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author Randall Sullivan’s book LABrynth — is going to be tainted by Depp’s involvement. The movie, about the investigation into the murder of The Notorious B.I.G., was shelved a couple of years ago because Depp is a bad man, but the film is finally going to see the light of day. It’s hard to separate Depp from the project, however.

— Evil Dead Rise, the next movie in the Evil Dead franchise and a sequel to the 2013 reboot, will begin shooting later this year in New Zealand, according to Bruce Campbell.

— Speaking of Cambell, he’s joining the cast of Adopted, a single-camera comedy pilot co-written and executive produced by Jimmy Kimmel. It’s based on the life of co-creator Shawn Vance, who will also star along with Wendie Malick.

— Natalie Portman and Lupita Nyong’o are joining forces for Lady in the Lake, a murder series based on the murder-mystery novel by Laura Lippman. The show is being set up by Apple TV+. I’ve read the book, too, and it’s very good, and Portman and Nyong’o are well cast. Alma Har’el, Honey Boy, will direct and co-write. Portman, by the way, is looking pretty jacked on the set of Thor: Love and Thunder.

— Finally, Josh Holloway of Lost is joining JJ Abram’s HBO Max drama Duster, which is set in the 1970s Southwest and is about how the “life of a gutsy getaway driver for a growing crime syndicate goes from awful to wildly, stupidly, dangerously awful.”