New on HBO Now: All the Movies and TV Coming in April
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In these times of coronavirus, quality streaming entertainment is as precious as ever, so we’re pleased to inform you HBO is adding a quality collection of feature film and television titles to its library in April. The list is down below, but first, we’ll direct your attention to a smattering of highlights with which to most effectively allay your cabin fever.
On the movie front, an action classic—one of the action classics, as a matter of fact—hits HBO on April 1: Die Hard, starring Bruce Willis as intrepid lawman John McClane and the late Alan Rickman as arch-criminal Hans Gruber. Their epic showdown takes place entirely in one building, the fictional Nakatomi Plaza, making this an optimal self-quarantine viewing experience—plus, sequels Die Hard 2 and Die Hard with a Vengeance debut on the same date, so you can make a whole Die Hard day out of it. That’s just the start of HBO’s many April film additions, which also include a handful of theatrical premieres in Mélanie Laurent’s Ben Foster-starring, Nic Pizzolatto-scripted Galveston (April 1), S. Craig Zahler crime drama Dragged Across Concrete (April 1), Superbad-esque 2019 comedy Good Boys (April 4), horror hit It: Chapter 2 (April 11) and Kumail Nanjiani/Dave Bautista buddy action-comedy Stuber (April 18). Older films arriving April 1 include Shane Black’s cult-favorite The Nice Guys (as well as Black’s less-liked revival of The Predator franchise), Meryl Streep-starring Holocaust drama Sophie’s Choice, Jonathan Demme’s romantic crime-comedy Something Wild, Danny Boyle’s 2008 eight-time Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire, Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s (South Park) puppet-driven action-comedy Team America: World Police, Jeff Nichols’ interracial marriage drama Loving, Lisa Cholodenko’s acclaimed family dramedy The Kids Are All Right, Razzie-inspiring musical mess Xanadu, live-action cartoon adaptations The Flintstones and The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, Peter Jackson fantasy The Lovely Bones, Todd Phillips arms dealer crime-comedy War Dogs and more.
Meanwhile, where TV is concerned, HBO’s April slate includes multiple season and (limited) series premieres, as well as a couple of noteworthy season finales. Most eye-catching of all is the Season 4 premiere of Insecure (April 12), in which creator Issa Rae also stars as Issa Dee, a thirtysomething young woman who struggles to navigate the tricky professional and personal terrain of Los Angeles along with her best friend Molly (Yvonne Orji). The Golden Globe- and Emmy-nominated romantic comedy series has made numerous appearances on Paste’ TV’s Power Rankings, and landed on our 2017 list of HBO’s funniest sitcoms, so if you want to get caught up in time for S4, you’ll want to start now. Meanwhile, another HBO favorite’s fourth season is ending next month: High Maintenance (April 3), Katja Blichfeld and Ben Sinclair’s New York City-set, slice-of-life stoner comedy series. New five-part true-crime docuseries Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children premieres April 5, followed by Merritt Wever- and Domhnall Gleeson-starring “romantic comedic thriller” series Run on April 12 and six-part unscripted series We’re Here, featuring renowned drag queens Bob the Drag Queen, Eureka O’Hara and Shangela Laquifa Wadley, on April 23. David Simon’s acclaimed limited series adaptation of Philip Roth’s alt-history novel The Plot Against America, which we’ve praised as “another crash course in history, sociology, and political science from The Wire team that has all the power of a waking nightmare,” comes to an end on April 20. And stick around, because HBO’s latest TV addition is also one of its most notable: new limited series I Know This Much Is True (April 27), starring Mark Ruffalo as identical twin brothers—the six-part limited series, directed by Derek Cianfrance, follows their parallel lives, telling “an epic story of betrayal, sacrifice and forgiveness,” per HBO.
Update, March 31: Per HBO, “The six-part limited series I Know This Much Is True will now debut Sunday, May 10. The program was originally scheduled to debut Monday, April 27.”
As ever, all this good news comes with a bit of bad: HBO’s departures for the month of April include Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, The Mule, Upgrade, Mary Queen of Scots, Welcome to Marwen, Religulous, The Ladykillers, Bruce Almighty, George of the Jungle, The Day After Tomorrow, Rush Hour 2, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Object of My Affection and more, so make sure not to miss out.
You’ll find HBO’s April sizzle reel and slate below.