Now this is news we like: Josie Totah, who gets our vote for funniest, most effervescent young actor, transgender or otherwise (though she is trans), and whom we’ve admired since first seeing her slay her way through a few scenes in the indie comedy Other People, is going to star in a reboot of the early ’90s tween sitcom Saved By The Bell.
Original cast members Mario Lopez, Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Elizabeth Berkley will headline the new series, as the adults shepherding a new class of kids through wacky high school hijinks. Meanwhile, Totah will play a sharp-tongued cheerleader who rules the school. That’s all we know about the kid end of things this time around, but honestly, right now, that’s enough for us. It’ll show up soon on the new NBCUniversal streaming service, Peacock, which launches in April.
We have a thing for Ben Whishaw. We’ll follow his career anywhere, whether it’s to wondrous, life-affirming films like the Paddington movies (seriously, adults, you’ll cry) or to brazenly wicked queer series like A Very English Scandal, where respectability politics go to die. And it’s choices like these that make us excited to see Surge. The feature debut of UK television director Aneil Karia, it stars Whishaw as an empty man beaten down by work and an emotionless life. A momentary act of rebellion jump starts a much wilder side to his character, and he then careens through London looking for sensation wherever he can find it. The thriller will take its bow at the Sundance Film Festival before hitting theaters or streaming (who can say anymore where movies will find their audience, really) after that.
Romeo San Vicente Loves to be Saved By The Bell!
