Entertainment News Roundup: HBO ditches 'Game of Thrones' prequel series; 'For All Mankind' imagines a (better) path not taken in space race

Following is a summary of current entertainment news briefs.

After 20-year wait, Emmerich recounts WW2 battle in drama 'Midway'

Twenty years after first toying with the idea, German film director Roland Emmerich brings his World War Two drama "Midway" to cinemas next month, focusing on the 1942 Battle of Midway. Known for big-budget disaster movies filled with special effects like "Independence Day" and "Godzilla", Emmerich long wanted to recount the giant air and sea battle in the Pacific during which U.S. forces defeated an attacking Japanese fleet.

Want to binge watch? New streaming TV services will make you wait

In 2013, Netflix Inc shook up television by delivering 13 episodes of "House of Cards" in one batch, a move that helped popularize streaming video and fueled a culture of binge watching. But Apple Inc, Walt Disney Co and AT&T Inc are largely rejecting that path as they prepare their own efforts to hook the online audiences that embraced Netflix.

HBO ditches 'Game of Thrones' prequel series: Hollywood media reports

The "Game of Thrones" prequel television series starring Naomi Watts has been ditched by cable channel HBO, Hollywood media reported on Tuesday. Deadline, Entertainment Weekly and Variety all cited sources as saying that HBO had decided not to go ahead with the series co-created by author George R.R. Martin.

AT&T to reveal HBO Max pricing, details at WarnerMedia investor day

AT&T Inc executives on Tuesday are expected to reveal new details about pricing, programming and distribution of the company's forthcoming HBO Max streaming video service as they plot the phone giant's entrance into the streaming war. The stakes are high for AT&T, which is saddled with debt from a $134 billion acquisition spree to combine media conglomerate Time Warner and satellite TV provider DirecTV with the second-largest U.S. wireless phone company by subscribers.

'For All Mankind' imagines a (better) path not taken in space race

Imagine a world where Neil Armstrong was not the first man on the moon and the Soviet Union won the space race instead. That's the premise of "For All Mankind," one of the first original television series from Apple Inc. It sets the stage for an alternate history with sweeping ripple effects on everything from women's rights and the environment to the Vietnam War.

Celebrities flee, multimillion-dollar homes burn in Los Angeles wildfire

A fast-moving wildfire on Monday destroyed at least five multimillion-dollar homes in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Los Angeles and forced celebrities to flee in the middle of the night. Among neighborhoods under evacuation orders was the posh area of Brentwood, a section on the west side of the city that became world famous in 1994 when former football star O.J. Simpson was accused of killing his ex-wife and a waiter there.

Linda Hamilton's existential crisis about return to 'Terminator' franchise

Linda Hamilton set a new standard for female action heroes more than 30 years ago, but her return to the "Terminator" movie franchise prompted more than a little soul searching. Hamilton, 63, reunites with Arnold Schwarzenegger and director James Cameron for "Terminator: Dark Fate," out in U.S. movie theaters on Friday.

New 'Star Wars' movie era in disarray after 'Game of Thrones' creators exit

The exit of the "Games of Thrones" creators from the next "Star Wars" film left future stories in the science fiction saga up in the air on Tuesday, although some fans welcomed their departure. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had been hired in 2018 to write and produce a trilogy of new movies in the blockbuster Walt Disney Co franchise, with the first scheduled for release in December 2022.

Ahead of auction, Olivia Newton-John recalls being stitched into 'Grease' costume

Olivia Newton-John's black leather jacket and very tight pants from "Grease", complete with a broken zipper, go up for auction this week as the top item in a sale to help raise money for her cancer treatment center in Australia. The outfit that marked the singer's transition from demure high schooler to sexy Sandy Olson for the "You're the One That I Want" duet with John Travolta in the 1978 movie musical is expected to fetch up to $200,000, Julien's Auctions said.

Geena Davis receives honorary Oscar for work against gender bias

Actress Geena Davis urged Hollywood filmmakers to take new steps to address an ongoing gender imbalance in media as she accepted an honorary Oscar on Sunday for her work to promote more women on screen. While equality for women lags throughout U.S. society, it is even worse in film and television, said Davis, the "Thelma and Louise" star who founded a nonprofit research group called the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media in 2004.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)