Sophie Turner has joined the cast of the HBO Max series “The Staircase.”

Turner joins previously announced cast members Colin Firth, Toni Collette, Parker Posey, Juliette Binoche, and Rosemarie DeWitt.

The eight-episode series is based on the docuseries of the same name as well as various books and reports about the case of Michael Peterson (Firth), who was accused of murdering his wife, Kathleen (Collette), in 2001. He claimed she died after falling down the stairs at their home, but police suspected he bludgeoned her to death and staged the scene to look like an accident.

Turner will play Margaret Ratliff, one of Michael Peterson’s adopted daughters. Turner is best known for her role as Sansa Stark in the megahit HBO series “Game of Thrones.” Her time on the show earned her an Emmy nomination for best supporting actress in a drama. She is also know for playing Jean Grey in the latest entries in the “X-Men” film franchise, “X-Men: Apocalypse” and “X-Men: Dark Phoenix.” Most recently, Turner starred opposite Corey Hawkins in the Quibi series “Survive,” which debuted last year.

She is repped by CAA and Independent Talent Group.

“The Staircase” was picked up to series at HBO Max in March. It is written and executive produced by showrunners Antonio Campos and Maggie Cohn. Campos will also direct six of the eight episodes. The series is a co-production between HBO Max and Annapurna Television.

The docuseries was originally released in 2004, with creator Jean-Xavier de Lestrade updating with new information years later. Netflix released it as a 13-episode series in 2018. [Source]

Electric Entertainment, the LA-based production, distribution and post-production company, has acquired North American rights to crime-thriller Heavy, starring Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones) and Daniel Zovatto (Penny Dreadful: City of Angels)

The feature centers on a couple living it up in the high-end drug scene of New York City. The TVOD release is due to rollout from February 9, 2021.

Directed by Jouri Smit and based on a screenplay by Seth Miller, the romantic crime-thriller sees Zovatto play Seven ‘Sev’ Max, a high-end drug dealer living in New York City. He has his game perfected: trust-fund clients, model parties, and crazed drug-fueled escapades. But troubled by his painful past and riddled with vices, he constantly tries to find comfort in all the wrong places. Sev realizes too late that his key to true happiness has been right in front of him all this time; his equally broken girlfriend and true love Maddie (Turner).

Pic is produced by David Atrakchi (Frank & Lola), Jouri Smit (War To Be Her), Jay Van Hoy (The Lighthouse), Dillon D. Jordan of PaperChase Films (Skin), Zachery Ty Bryan of Lost Lane Entertainment (Skin), Jonathan Bronfman (The Witch), and Gael Cabouat and Boris Mendza (My Old Lady).

Electric Entertainment CEO Dean Devlin commented: “This film is a great addition to our library of thrilling, edgy and intriguing independent films. Sophie Turner fans will enjoy her riveting performance — a very stark contrast to her prior characters, such as Sansa in Game of Thrones.” [Source]

Here, everything you need to know about the “movie in chapters” and the new app it’s streaming on.

Great news for Game of Thrones fans: Sophie Turner will be returning to our screens on April 6 thanks to a new streaming app called Quibi. Although there hasn’t been a lot of information released about the Survive “movie in chapters”—Quibi’s definition of “big stories told in chapters that are seven to 10 minutes in length”—here’s everything we know about Survive so far.

Quibi is an entertainment platform designed specifically for your phone (ahem, people who watch Netflix on the subway, this is for you) with content created by Hollywood stars. Everyone from Chrissy Teigen to Chance the Rapper will have content streaming on it. On April 6, the app will launch 50 shows and plans to launch 175 total in its first year.

According to Quibi, the three categories of content include:

Movies in Chapters: Big stories told in chapters that are 7 to 10 minutes in length.

Unscripted and Docs: This episodic category is food, fashion, travel, animals, cars, builds, music, sports, comedy, talk, variety, documentary and more. All with episodes in 10 minutes or less.

Daily Essentials: Curated daily into 5-6 minute quick bites of news, entertainment and inspiration. Quibi’s Daily Essentials will quickly give viewers everything they need to know—and why it matters.

Turner’s character, Jane, survives a plane crash with one other person (Corey Hawkins) and has to figure out how to stay alive. She’ll face the wilderness, harsh weather conditions, and personal trauma, and she struggled with thoughts of suicide before the crash. It’s based on the novel Survive by Alex Morel. Continue reading  »

The production team behind HBO’s blockbuster “Game of Thrones” will be given the BAFTA Special Award at this year’s British Academy Television Craft Awards.

Hannah Murray and John Bradley from the hit series will collect the award on behalf of the team. BAFTA said the accolade is recognition of the boundaries that have been pushed across all areas of production in the making of the fantasy epic.

Filming is underway on the eighth and final six-episode season of “Game of Thrones,” which will air in 2019. HBO is working on several potential spinoffs.

The award also recognizes the support that “Game of Thrones” has provided for high-end TV production in the U.K., BAFTA said. The show has filmed across various locations in Northern Ireland and set up a production headquarters at Titanic Studios in Belfast, the Northern Irish capital, which has been a base for the series since the pilot.

Speaking on behalf of the production team, executive producers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff said in a statement: “Many, many people work insanely hard to create any film or television show. They are creators every bit as much as actors, writers, producers or directors, and deserve to be recognized as such.”

“The craft behind what is one of the most popular dramas of our time is nothing short of incredible, from the breath-taking location shots to the intricately designed costumes and set pieces, and not forgetting the level of detail from the makeup and prosthetics team, to name a few,” added Krishnendu Majumdar, chair of BAFTA’s television committee. “Huge congratulations to everyone involved.”

The BAFTA Craft Awards take place on April 22 in London. They will be live streamed on YouTube and Twitter. [Source]

Game of Thrones stars Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner are teaming up to take the wheel and sing songs in an upcoming episode of Carpool Karaoke: The Series. The duo shared the news on Sunday via a video posted on the show’s Twitter page.

The actresses were on hand at SXSW in Austin, Texas to make the announcement that they were shooting an episode for Apple Music’s series.

Based on the hit Late Late Show segment, the upcoming series will feature 16 celebrity pairings riding along in a car together as they sing tunes from their personal playlists. While James Corden won’t be the driver for all the adventures, the stars will drive around and surprise fans who don’t expect to see them belting out tunes one lane over. Additional guests include Michael Strahan, Jeff Gordon, John Cena, Shaquille O’Neal and many more.

Produced by CBS Television Studios and Fulwell 73, Corden and Ben Winston serve as co-creators and executive producers along with executive producer and showrunner Eric Pankowski.

Williams and Turner also took part in the Game of Thrones panel on Sunday, which they moderated. During the discussion showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss announced that Season 8 of the hit HBO series will only consist of six episodes and that Ed Sheeran will have a guest role in the upcoming season.

No premiere date has been set for Carpool Karaoke: The Series. [Source]