'Game of Thrones' pilot star Tamzin Merchant discusses being replaced by Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen

Police cars were peppered by glass bottles as carnage erupted in a Greater Manchester town centre over the weekend.

A warning has been issued to all drivers in the UK about the rising price of petrol.

Dwyane Wade has promised tougher games after The Cube was renewed for a second season by TBS.

We’ll be seeing more of Big L, Duffy and Derrick on the upcoming second season of Katori Hall’s Starz series P-Valley. Morocco Omari (Empire), Dominic Devore (PlayStation Girl) and Jordan M. Cox (The Outsider), who recurred as the characters, respectively, in Season 1, have been promoted to series regulars for Season 2 of the series from Lionsgate Television.

The Sundance Institute and Adobe today announced that their 2022 Sundance Ignite x Adobe Short Film Challenge, for emerging narrative and documentary filmmakers ages 18 to 25 who are looking to take their careers to the next level, will run from February 14 to March 14.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorActor Jaime King has joined the cast of action movie “Lights Out,” a Firebrand production, staring Frank Grillo, Mekhi Phifer and Scott Adkins. The Exchange, the world sales agent, is introducing the movie to buyers at the virtual European Film Market.King, the star of Netflix’s “Black Summer” season one (2019) and season two (2021), has notably appeared in Michael Bay’s “Pearl Harbor,” Keenan Ivory Wayans’ “White Chicks,” Robert Rodriguez’s “Sin City,” Frank Millers’ “The Spirit,” and Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez’s “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.”“Lights Out,” which is in production, is a gritty modern-day “Road House” meets “Kickboxer,” set against the seedy underworld of Los Angeles.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorAfter three years in the works, Critical Role’s animated “The Legend of Vox Machina” finally lit up streaming screens on Prime Video last month — delighting fans with a raucous, foul-mouthed spree of action and adventure.The show, based on Critical Role’s first Dungeons & Dragons campaign, is currently No. 3 on Prime Video’s Top 10 ranking in the U.S.

Happy Endings star Adam Pally and Jon Gabrus, who starred in Netflix’s comedy feature Game Over, Man!, are hitting the road to the party.

Zack Sharf David Fincher has finally weighed in on China’s “Fight Club” censorship. As reported by Variety last month, Fincher’s “Fight Club” was uploaded to Tencent Video, China’s largest video streamer, with an entirely new ending that was the exact opposite of the director’s finale.

Jordan Moreau Will “Spider-Man: No Way Home” mount an Oscars comeback after being left out of the best picture race? A new, fan-voted category at the 2022 Academy Awards may help pave the way for the Tom Holland-led blockbuster, Twitter and the Academy have announced.Starting on Monday, Twitter users can vote on their favorite film of 2021 by tweeting the title along with #OscarsFanFavorite and #Sweepstakes. The votes will count for any film, even if it did not receive a single Oscar nomination. Users can vote up to 20 times per day.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterABC has ordered a drama pilot from Kay Oyegun.In the untitled one-hour series, five therapists in Philadelphia find unique ways to solve problems in their patients’ lives while grappling with their own. Ellen Roman, the owner of the practice and a brilliant therapist, has her life shockingly turned upside down when she begins working with a sociopathic patient who may hold the key to the disappearance of her sister five years earlier.Oyegun will serve as the writer and executive producer on the pilot.

Not holding back. Marc Anthony revealed how he really feels about the possibility of his ex-wife Jennifer Lopez reuniting with her former fiancé Alex Rodriguez.

Alyssa Mora Shay Mitchell is staying busy. The early months of 2022 have seen Mitchell’s return for Season 2 of Hulu’s “Dollface” as well as this January’s premiere of “The Cleaning Lady,” the Fox drama for which she acts as executive producer. Her personal life has also seen changes: Mitchell recently announced her second pregnancy in a heartfelt post that also commemorated her grandmother, who’d died the week before.In Season 2 of “Dollface,” Mitchell returns as Stella — the carefree siren of spontaneity, who has an expansive codex of life experiences.

A couple struggles to process the aftermath of the Bataclan terrorist attack in One Year, One Night (Un Ano, Una Noche), an affecting Berlin Film Festival competition title from Spanish director Isaki Lacuesta (Between Two Waters). Inspired by a book from Ramón González entitled Peace, Love and Death Metal, it’s based on recollections from real survivors of the 2015 attack in Paris, and the level of detail is compelling.

Teen Titans Go! will be back for more action as Cartoon Network renews the animated series for Season 8.

There is a deep sadness and mourning a woman goes through when she is told she has little or no chance to have her own children. In the meantime, friends that never wanted kids get pregnant with the blink of an eye, celebrities get pregnant at the age of 50, people who don’t even want kids get pregnant — in short, it feels like everyone can get pregnant but you. This kind of sadness can keep you up at night, crying and angry at God, wondering what you did wrong in life to deserve this.

ABC has ordered a drama pilot about a group of therapists in Philadelphia from This Is Us writer/director Kay Oyegun.

Turner’s TNETs is going big with the return of Impractical Jokers. For the first episode since star Joe Gatto announced that he was leaving the comedy troupe, the company is simulcasting a special, supersized episode across all three of its networks — TBS, TNT and truTV.

Julia Roberts' tribute to husband Danny Moder is truly out of this world. The Pretty Woman star doesn't post to social media frequently, and so she made her rare tribute extra special. MORE: Julia Roberts shares rare family video in honor of 'magical' niece Emma RobertsThe actress went all out to celebrate her love for her husband, who she has been with since 2002. The video shared to Instagram featured a barefoot Julia clad in a cozy sweatshirt and shorts.

Maralee Nichols’ road to motherhood! The fitness model shared stunning glimpses of her baby bump ahead of welcoming her and Tristan Thompson’s son in December 2021.

It’s over. Kanye West and Julia Fox have ended their relationship after less than two months of dating, Us Weekly can confirm.

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Netflix series Inventing Anna.The series, which was released last Friday (February 11), chronicles the rise and fall of scammer Anna Delvey (aka Anna Sorokin) who is played by Ozark star Julia Garner.Williams who is a journalist played by Katie Lowes, makes an appearance in episode six of the series, as the show goes on to document a disastrous holiday that the real-life Williams went on with Sorokin in 2017.The journalist wrote in detail about her trip to Marrakesh in a 2018 article for Vanity Fair titled ‘My Bright-Lights Misadventure With A Magician Of Manhattan‘ and in a 2019 book titled My Friend Anna.She has since responded to her portrayal in the series in an article for Time Magazine in which she clarified that she “was not involved with the show”.Williams explained that she “expected there would be times when the dramatisation of my experience would make me uncomfortable” and added she “understood that stepping into the spotlight came with certain risks”.“I would only have so much control over how I was portrayed,” she wrote but added that “this Netflix description felt shocking”.She went on to quote one section of her character’s description which states that “the woman she becomes because of Anna” and said that these “seven little words in one fell swoop stripped me of my agency, accomplishments, and truth”.Williams added: “Were we meant to believe that the woman I had become was not on account of the parents who raised me, the love I shared with family and friends, my own efforts or personal growth, but because of Anna?” As reflected in Inventing Anna, the journalist was pressured into footing the bill for the lavish holiday when Sorokin said she was experiencing trouble with her bank.

Keeping it real. Zoë Kravitz may have topped a handful of 2021 Met Gala “best dressed” lists, but the 33-year-old actress isn’t immune to the harsh words of Instagram trolls who claimed she showed too much skin. 

Sunflower Bean’s Julia Cumming has shared that she almost performed with Manic Street Preachers at Wembley Arena last year before COVID forced her to change plans. Watch our full video interview with Cumming above.Speaking to NME for the latest ‘In Conversation’ interview, the singer discussed her experience singing with the Welsh rock veterans on ‘The Secret He Had Missed’ from their 14th studio album, ‘The Ultra Vivid Lament’.“I think that the Manics have an amazing way of writing great pop, and rock, and just art songs, and I got to be a part of that record,” she said.

Seriously starstruck! Mickey Guyton met Prince Harry at Super Bowl LVI on Sunday, February 13 — and the moment was one for the history books.

Frank Turner has opened up about how losing Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchison and the theme of “acceptance” shaped his new album ‘FTHC’.Hutchison, who died by suicide in 2018, was recently immortalised by his friend Turner on the single ‘A Wave Across The Bay‘ from his ninth album ‘FTHC’ – released last week (Friday February 11). The song addresses Turner’s relationship with the late singer, as well as coming to terms with Hutchison’s final days and his decision to take his own life.“I try to write in an unforced way, and that was an extreme example of that,” Turner told NME.

Game of Thrones super fans may know that wasn't the first to play Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons. However, nobody has heard from the OG actor, Tamzin Merchant, on the subject until now. Merchant (The Tudors, Carnival Row) was just 21 years old when she was cast in the original pilot for back in 2009.

Most big Game of Thrones fans know the story of the show that almost was. D.B. Weiss and David Benioff‘s original pilot was by all accounts an unwatchable mess that had no chance of becoming an international megahit. But HBO gave the creators another chance, and they were able to save the show — by reshooting about 90% of it and recasting several major roles. The biggest part that had to be redone? Daenerys Targaryen.

The Mother of Dragons was very nearly played by a different actress.

Game of Thrones, has opened up on filming the show’s scrapped pilot episode.Merchant filmed one episode of the hit HBO show before she was replaced by Emilia Clarke, admitting “it wasn’t in my heart” to continue with the role.“Shooting that pilot was a really great lesson,” Merchant told Entertainment Weekly of the experience. “It was an affirmation about listening to my instincts and following them, because I tried to back out of that situation and, during the contract process, I did back out.“I was talked back into it by some persuasive people.

Did you know that Emilia Clarke wasn’t the first actress to play Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones?

Did you know that Emilia Clarke wasn’t the first actress to play Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones?

Dracarys! The mother of dragons was almost a different person entirely. “Game of Thrones” notoriously threw out its first pilot that was rumored to be “a disaster.” The hit show then recast many of its key roles for a new version of the Season 1 premiere, “Winter Is Coming,” that aired on HBO in 2011. Among those recast roles was the franchise’s most recognizable character, the silver-haired Daenerys Targaryen. As the show became a global phenomenon, Daenerys became the role of a lifetime for Emilia Clarke — but it almost wasn’t.

Nobody’s perfect! A lot goes into the making of major Hollywood productions, so it’s understandable when mishaps go unnoticed from time to time.