If you already watch “The Great British Baking Show” and its American cousin, “The Great American Baking Show,” and that’s still not enough baking content, the Roku Channel is about to send you into carb overload. The streamer has not only added gay comic actor Andrew Rannells as a co-host to work alongside host Casey Wilson (“Schmigadoon!”), Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith, but the shows are multiplying. There’ll be a season four of “The Great American Baking Show, and new seasons of “The Great American Baking Show Celebrity Holiday Special,” “The Great American Baking Show Big Game” and “The Great American Baking Show Celebrity Summer.” Oh, you say you’re full? No, you’re not. You’re also getting “The Great British Baking Show: Juniors” and a new one: “The Great American Baking Show Celebrity Halloween Special.” Now you’re full.
Netflix sharpens its ‘Knives’
At Netflix Tudum 2025: The Live Event (Say “tudum” out loud; you’ll get it. See also: “Padam Padam”), Rian Johnson announced that the latest “Knives Out” movie, titled “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” will drop on the streaming service Dec. 12. The third film featuring gay detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) co-stars Jeremy Renner, Mila Kunis, Glenn Close, Kerry Washington, Cailee Spaeny, Andrew Scott, Thomas Haden Church and Josh O’Connor. Of course the plot is secret — it wouldn’t be a mystery otherwise. But one thing we hope becomes clear is Netflix’s intentions for a simultaneous limited theatrical run to qualify for Academy Awards. The last one picked up $15 million on fewer than 700 screens in its only week in cinemas, so that’s a hopeful sign. But fingers crossed anyway: Some of us just like the biggest screen we can get.
Aunjanue Ellis Taylor picks up Sister Rosetta’s guitar
Academy Award nominee Aunjanue Ellis Taylor (“King Richard”) has another choice project in the works: the story of Sister Rosetta Tharpe. If that name rings a bell it may be because of the song “Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us,” penned by singer-songwriter Sam Phillips and made popular by a duet from Robert Plant and Alison Krauss on their Grammy-winning album “Raising Sand.” Or you may be a serious music fan who knows Tharpe because she was an electric guitar-playing gospel music legend who influenced Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Tina Turner and Johnny Cash. Either way, Ellis Taylor will write a script and the film is being produced by Mick Jagger, another Tharpe fan. Will the “Nickel Boys” actress also star? That would seem to be a given, but is anything a given in Hollywood? Answer: It is not. Keep listening.
Ryan Murphy playing with ‘The Shards’
Ryan Murphy, still running Hollywood, has another project in the works: a TV adaptation of the recent novel, “The Shards,” from Bret Easton Ellis (“American Psycho”). FX is working with Murphy, and there are already two of his previous collaborators attached: actress-model Kaia Gerber (“American Horror Story”) and director Max Winkler (“Feud: Capote vs. The Swans”). Naturally the plot is pure Ellis, in that it’s dark fiction directly tied to his own personal and literary history. Set at an elite Los Angeles prep school in 1981, it involves a teenager based on Ellis and a mysterious new student at the school whose arrival coincides with murders committed by an infamous serial killer. Call it a deranged prequel to his own debut ’80s novel “Less Than Zero” and you’ll probably be on the right track. And dear Mr. Murphy: Please make it weird and get Andrew McCarthy (Brat Packer who starred in the film version of “Less Than Zero”) to play someone’s neglectful dad.
Romeo San Vicente makes a delicious apple pandowdy. Google it.
