Coming soon: Cruise, Thoreau, “Far Cry”

Some supersized shows are on the way.
They range from woolly mammoths in the ice to Tom Cruise leaping between planes. They also include the simple world of Henry David Thoreau and the complicated one of the “Far Cry” videogame. Chronologically, that includes:
— “Prehistoric Planet,” the epic documentary series from the BBC people, has just arrived on Apple. The first two seasons, narrated by David Attenborough, traced the dinosaur era. This third one, narrated by Tom Hiddleston, sees the Ice Age begin, with a few animals — giant sloths, saber-toothed cats, woolly mammoths — able to survive. It debuted Nov. 26 and has five episodes.
— “Mission Impossible — The Final Reckoning” reaches Paramount+ on Dec. 4. Like Cruise’s previous films, this brought some life to slumping theaters, making almost $600 million worldwide … two-thirds of that from ourside the U.S. and Canada. It did that with epic action scenes, culminating with Cruise jumping between old-time planes.
— Fresh from his sprawling, 12-hour “American Revolution, Ken Burns will have a three-hour portrait of writer/philosopher Thoreau. That will be March 30 and 31 on PBS. Burns is producing it with Don Henley, the Eagles musician who led a project to preserve 200 acres surrounding Thoreau’s favorite spot, Walden Pond.
— And sometime in the future, the “Far Cry” series will merge two of the favorite producers in the FX/Hulu universe — Noah Hawley and Rob Mac.
Hawley has written and produced several “Fargo” series, plus “Alien: Earth” and more.
Mac produces and stars in “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” (under his full name of Rob McElhenney) and co-produces the soccer documentary series “Welcome to Wrexham.” Now he’ll star in the first year of “Far Cry,” which has a separate story each season.