Comedy film The Lost City, starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum, premieres on Paramount Plus May 10. Bullock portrays romance author Loretta Sage, who is kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire played by Daniel Radcliffe who hopes she can help him find a legendary lost city. Tatum plays a book cover model who sets off on a “heroic but hapless rescue mission” in the jungle, according to Paramount Plus. 

Adam Nee and Aaron Nee direct. Brad Pitt is in the film as well. 

The Lost City arrived in theaters March 25. The NY Times likened it to 1984 adventure-comedy Romancing the Stone. “If you don’t have a few hours to watch the cheerfully dumb comedy The Lost City, just stare at the poster,” goes the review. “Almost everything you need to know about this nonsensical lark is crammed into the one sheet: the stars, the tropical location, the Bruckheimer-esque fireball. The poster is selling sex and violence and obvious laughs, with Sandra Bullock’s sequined purple onesie doing the heavy comic lifting. And while she and Channing Tatum are the headliners, the studio has hedged its bets by also cramming in a leering goat and a Fabio-ed Brad Pitt.”

The movie is produced by Paramount Pictures and Fortis Films, 3dot Productions and Exhibit A. It “delivers thrilling adventure, fabled treasure and epic entertainment,” promises Paramount Plus. 

JJ Hook, Dana Fox, Julia Gunn and Margaret Chernin are the executive producers. ■

Discovery channel’s Ted Kaczynski close-up, Manhunt: Unabomber, starts off August 1. The scripted series is also a close-up of Jim “Fitz” Fitzgerald, the FBI profiler who tracked Kaczynski down. Sam Worthington plays Fitz. He said he chose not to meet Fitzgerald until shooting started. Instead, Worthington sent Fitz a 1,000-question questionnaire that he figured would help him get an honest read on the guy.

“It’s like an interview with him, but he’s not looking at me,” Worthington said. “I’m trying to profile a profiler. He’s in a profession where he can hide [himself] really well.”

Worthington, who played Jake Sully in Avatar, said he was drawn to the “mechanics” of Manhunt: Unabomber — the nuts and bolts of how the FBI caught a terrorist in the pre-internet age. He mentioned digging Discovery’s Deadliest Catch and “the mechanics of how these guys operate on these big ships.”

Paul Bettany plays Kaczynski. Bettany’s film credits, which include The Avengers and Captain America: Civil War, go on and on. He said he was eager to pick up some television work, and was struck by how fast the shooting goes in TV. “I’m used to shooting one-and-a-half pages a day,” he said. “Shooting 12 pages a day felt really fast.”

Bettany said Manhunt’s eight episodes allowed him to dig deeper into his character’s background, including psychological experiments Kaczynski went through as a teen at Harvard. “What he did was heinous and disgusting and disgraceful,” Bettany said. “But you can have empathy. I did when I learned about his childhood.”

Another crafty take on ’80s crime is Amazon’s Comrade Detective. Premiering on Aug. 4, it’s a Romanian police show dubbed in English. At least it appears to be. In fact, while it was shot in Bucharest with a Romanian cast and crew, Comrade Detective was never an ’80s detective show.

Rhys Thomas, executive producer, described falling into a YouTube hole of Eastern European cop shows, often with a pro-communist, and anti-capitalist, message. That’s what the producers set out to make, and spoof.

Thomas said he gives Amazon major points for getting on board with Comrade Detective. “It’s a high-concept idea,” he said. “The fact that they are up for it speaks a lot to their bravery.”

Comrade Detective follows cops Gregor Anghel and Iosef Baciu as they investigate the murder of a fellow officer. Executive producer Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt voice the main characters. While investigating, the cops unearth a plot to bring capitalism to Romania.

Thomas said the series is a celebration of ’80s thriller directors such as Brian DePalma. “It’s a fun, pulpy story,” he said. “I don’t know that there’s anything else like it out there.”

Digital video streaming service YouTube will enter the scripted series arena in 2017 with the development of dance-themed series Step Up.

The series, based on the 2006 film the same name, will be executively produced by the film’s producers Adam Shankman, Jennifer Gibgot and Meredith Milton, as well as Step Up stars Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan Tatum, said network officials.

The Lionsgate produced film will debut exclusively as the first original scripted series on YouTube Red next year, according to the service.

“I’ve been a fan of the Step Up movies for years and always believed the films would translate into an awesome original series,” said Susanne Daniels, YouTube Global Head of Original Content in a statement. “We know that dance is a hugely successful global category on YouTube, so I’m excited to have a series rooted in such an enormously popular genre on our platform.”