Catherine Zeta-Jones will play the leading role in “Queen America,” an upcoming show on Facebook Watch, TheWrap has confirmed.
Facebook has green lit 10 episodes of the one-hour dark comedy series. Zeta-Jones will play Vicki Ellis, a cutthroat pageant coach in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who is tasked with coaching a luckless Samantha Stone into a Miss America contender.
“Queen America” is created, written, and executive produced by Meaghan Oppenheimer, best known for writing on “Fear the Walking Dead.” Made Up Stories’ Bruna Papandrea and Casey Haver, and Entertainment 360’s Guymon Casady and Suzan Bymel will also executive produce alongside Janice Williams.
The show is the first straight-to-series order for wiip, a new independent studio spearheaded by longtime TV executive Paul lee. Made Up Stories will serve as wiip’s co-studio partner.
“wiip is focused on creating extraordinary content that remains true to the authentic vision of artists who want to take creative risks to tell original stories,” said Lee in a statement. “We are thrilled to collaborate with Meaghan, Bruna, Entertainment 360 and their remarkable creative team, along with our partners at Facebook Watch, to bring this uniquely dark, female-driven comedy, starring celebrated actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, to audiences around the world.”
Zeta-Jones won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for 2002’s “Chicago,” and recently starred in the Lifetime movie “Cocaine Godmother.” She’s also known for her roles in “The Mask of Zorro” and “Traffic.”
“I’m so excited to be making this show, set in my hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma — and beyond grateful to be partnered again with Bruna Papandrea, who has championed this project from its earliest stages and proven to be one of the biggest supporters of women in the industry,” said Oppenheimer in a statement. “We have been very lucky to have found such great collaborators in wiip, Entertainment 360, and Facebook. To have one of my favorite actresses, Catherine Zeta-Jones, bringing this character to life is a dream come true.”
6 Tech Giants Shaking Up News, From Jeff Bezos to Laurene Powell Jobs (Photos)
Tech leaders are increasingly intertwined with the news business. While some want to support old properties, one set out to destroy a new one. Here they are.
Jeff Bezos – Washington Post
The Amazon founder purchased the Washington Post in 2013 for $250 million in cash. President Trump has called the paper the “Amazon Washington Post.”
The Facebook co-founder purchased The New Republic in 2012, becoming executive chairman and publisher. However, he sold the venerable political magazine to Win McCormack in 2016, saying he "underestimated the difficulty of transitioning an old and traditional institution into a digital media company in today’s quickly evolving climate."
The eBay founder is a well-known philanthropist who created First Look Media, a journalism venture behind The Intercept. Inspired by Edward Snowden's leaks. Omidyar teamed up with journalists Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill and Laura Poitras to launch the website “dedicated to the kind of reporting those disclosures required: fearless, adversarial journalism.”
The PayPal co-founder doesn’t own a news organization, but he makes this list because he essentially ended one -- Gawker -- proving once again the power of an angry billionaire. Thiel secretly bankrolled Hulk Hogan’s sex-tape lawsuit against Gawker Media because he was upset that the website once outed him as gay. Hogan won the defamation lawsuit against the site that sent its parent company into bankruptcy, and Gawker.com is no longer operating.
OK, so Facebook isn’t technically a news organization… yet. However, the company is preparing to launch its much-anticipated lineup of original content later this summer, and there are also signs that it's on the verge of becoming an even bigger media platform.
Campbell Brown, Head of News Partnerships at Facebook, confirmed last week it’s developing a subscription service for publishers willing to post articles directly to Facebook Instant Articles, rather than their native websites.
Tech is increasingly intertwined with news, for better or worse
Tech leaders are increasingly intertwined with the news business. While some want to support old properties, one set out to destroy a new one. Here they are.