Hot off her starring turn in FX’s Fargo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead takes on the role of a struggling comedian in All About Nina. The film’s just released a new trailer and poster featuring Winstead and Oscar winner Common (Best Original Song for “Glory” in Selma).
All About Nina was written and directed by first-time feature film director Eva Vives. In addition to Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Common, the cast includes Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl, What To Expect When You’re Expecting), Clea DuVall (Argo, Veep), Kate del Castillo (The Book of Life), and Beau Bridges (The Fabulous Baker Boys).
The Orchard is set to release All About Nina in theaters on September 28, 2018.
The Plot: Nina Geld is an up-and-coming comedian in New York City. She’s funny, smart and has worked hard to build a career for herself in the male-dominated world of stand-up. When it comes to romantic relationships though, Nina’s life is a mess. When we meet her, she has picked up a random guy in a bar and brought him home, only to find Joe, a married policeman, waiting for her against her wishes. Unable to stand up for herself, Nina sleeps with Joe again, bringing up old issues of self-hatred.
Nina decides to focus on work and later gets Larry Michaels, producer of the legendary television show, Comedy Prime, to come see Nina’s stand-up. Amazingly, he asks Nina to audition! She will need to create characters/impersonations and move to LA to audition. In LA, she meets Rafe Hines, a dream-come-true, quintessential good-guy who makes all of Nina feel good. But when Joe shows up in LA unexpectedly, Nina has to deal with her past. She has a breakdown on stage and reveals a history of abuse that has driven her reckless behavior. Finally confronting the truth in such a public setting has terrifying and unexpectedly liberating consequences.
Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones star in ‘The Aeronauts’ (Photo Credit: Amazon Studios)
Filming has just begun on Amazon Studios’ The Aeronauts starring Felicity Jones (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) and Eddie Redmayne (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Danish Girl). In support of the start of production, Amazon’s released an official photo featuring Jones and Redmayne on board a hot air balloon.
The film’s shooting in London and across the UK with Tom Harper (War & Peace, Peaky Blinders) at the helm. Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Wonder, Radioactive) wrote the screenplay. Harper produces along with Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman. Richard Hewitt serves as executive producer.
“A top priority for us on The Aeronauts is authenticity. With that in mind, we intend to do as much balloon filming in the sky as the weather will allow. This image was taken after we launched Felicity and Eddie 2,000 feet in the air, performing their scripted scene, while a helicopter captured it all. We’re fortunate that Felicity and Eddie have the nerve to do these stunts themselves as it authenticates our entire approach” said Todd Lieberman.
The Aeronauts reunites Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne following their award-winning performances in The Theory of Everything. Redmayne won the Best Actor Oscar for portraying Stephen Hawking in the film, and Jones was nominated in the Best Actress category.
Joining Redmayne and Jones are Tom Courtenay (45 Years), Anne Reid (The Last Tango in Halifax), Rebecca Front (The Thick of It), Vincent Perez (Riviera), Tim McInnery (Game of Thrones), Phoebe Fox (The Hollow Crown), and Himesh Patel (EastEnders).
The behind the scenes team includes director of photography George Steel (War & Peace, Peaky Blinders), costume designer Alexandra Bryne (Oscar winner for Elizabeth: The Golden Age), with hair and make-up by Jenny Shircore (Beauty and the Beast). Production designers are David Hindle (The Death of Stalin, The Theory of Everything) and Christian Huband (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), and the VFX supervisor is Louis Morin (The House with a Clock on its Walls).
The Plot: Set in 1862, The Aeronauts follow wealthy young widow Amelia Wren (Felicity Jones) and ambitious scientist James Glaisher (Eddie Redmayne) as they mount a balloon expedition to fly higher than anyone in history. This is a journey to the very edge of existence, where the air is thin and the chances of survival are slim. As their perilous ascent reveals their true selves, this unlikely pair discover things about each other – and themselves – that help them find their place in the world they have left behind.
The second trailer for Widows focuses on Viola Davis’ character as she gathers together widows to finish the job their husbands were planning before their deaths. Directed by Oscar-winner Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave), the heist thriller was co-written by McQueen and novelist/screenwriter Gillian Flynn (author of Gone Girl, Dark Places). The film’s based on the six-part 1983 mini-series written by Lynda La Plante.
Oscar-winner Viola Davis (Fences) leads a cast that includes Michelle Rodriguez (the Fast and the Furious films), Elizabeth Debicki (The Cloverfield Paradox), Cynthia Erivo (Mr. Selfridge), Colin Farrell (Killing of a Sacred Deer), Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta), Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), Garret Dillahunt (Fear the Walking Dead), Carrie Coon (The Leftovers), Jacki Weaver (Secret City), and Jon Bernthal (The Punisher). Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Robert Duvall, Lukas Haas, and Liam Neeson are also featured in the crime drama. Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Steve McQueen, and Arnon Milchan served as producers.
20th Century Fox and Regency Enterprises will release Widows in theaters on November 16, 2018.
The Plot: From Academy Award-winning director Steve McQueen and co-writer and bestselling author Gillian Flynn comes a blistering, modern-day thriller set against the backdrop of crime, passion and corruption. Widows is the story of four women with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their dead husbands’ criminal activities.
Set in contemporary Chicago, amid a time of turmoil, tensions build when Veronica (Viola Davis), Alice (Elizabeth Debicki), Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) and Belle (Cynthia Erivo) take their fate into their own hands and conspire to forge a future on their own terms.
A scene from ‘Widows’ (Photo Credit: Regency Enterprises and 20th Century Fox)
A scene from ‘Disenchantment’ (Photo Credit: Netflix)
Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons and Futurama, is set to launch his first new animated series in more than two decades with the premiere of the fantasy series, Disenchantment. Setting the series up at Netflix provided writer/executive producer Matt Groening and executive producer Josh Weinstein with new opportunities to tell a story, and during roundtable interviews at the 2018 San Diego Comic Con they talked about how it changed their approach to Disenchantment. Groening also described the main characters audiences will be introduced to when the series premieres on August 17, 2018.
The Disenchantment Plot: In Disenchantment, viewers will be whisked away to the crumbling medieval kingdom of Dreamland, where they will follow the misadventures of hard-drinking young princess Bean, her feisty elf companion Elfo, and her personal demon Luci. Along the way, the oddball trio will encounter ogres, sprites, harpies, imps, trolls, walruses, and lots of human fools.
Inside Disenchantment with Matt Groening and Josh Weinstein
What do you think about having the series on Netflix? How does that change the way you approach the series?
Matt Groening: “Working with Netflix has been a dream, in part because they’ve been enthusiastic about every single thing we’ve mentioned. And they’re equally enthusiastic when we change our minds and go the other way. It’s incredible.
Both the idea of telling stories in a new way, having 10 episodes in which to tell a story and having more time and no commercials…”
Josh Weinstein: “You could never tell this type of story on Fox or any regular network. You just couldn’t. It’s also wonderful, too, that because you don’t have commercials, you’re just following the story. You’re not interrupted by a razor blade or Chevy commercial.”
Matt Groening: “And, we don’t have to…when you come back from a commercial you have to remind the audience and repeat yourself, and we don’t have that.”
Josh Weinstein: “That’s true with storytelling, too. It’s such a sitcom format. You have to reset at the end of every episode, and we don’t do that because we’re telling one long story. There are lots of individual stories. As a writer, it’s really annoying that you have to reset at the end and reset in the beginning. And instead, we keep going and our characters keep going and growing. That’s a lot more fun for us to write.”
Matt Groening: “And also we have this amazing staff of writers and animators who are younger than us. They like some of the stuff that we like, but our references are generally a little older.”
Josh Weinstein: “This is very intentional because we’re old farts. There’s like half the writing staff is people like me who are 50 are older. The other half is 30 or younger. I have this theory that the young comedy writers because I worked on this show called Gravity Falls and I was the old guy on it – everyone else was in their 20s – and they’re so much funnier than I am and also so much better with storytelling and embracing emotions. I think that there’s a younger set of writers and animators too, I think who grew up on The Simpsons and shows like South Park so they’re already more evolved than us. They had a base. I grew up on Scooby-Doo which sucks.”
Matt Groening: “How dare you!”
Josh Weinstein: “It sucks in a good way. I feel like the younger writers and animators have evolved beyond us, so it really helps to have this combination of old guys who go like, ‘Well, you see, Johnny Carson was this old guy who told jokes on TV…’”
Do you have more freedom with your jokes on Netflix?
Matt Groening: “There’s certainly no censorship at all. There isn’t any. In fact, when we originally talked about this, we thought maybe we’ll go a little more risqué, a little dirtier. We wrote a few jokes that way and we said, ‘No, this doesn’t feel right.’”
Josh Weinstein: “There was actually an early, early draft of a script where a character said ‘shit’ and it didn’t feel right. I think there’s a thing where us being allowed to talk about more adult topics and things like that, but there’s a smart way to do it as opposed to a crass way.”
How long was the concept in your mind before putting it down on paper?
Matt Groening: “I started a sketchbook, I don’t know, a long time ago. Five or eight years ago. I just wrote down every fantasy cliché and trope and reference. There are 25 different kinds of short-statured mythical creatures from dwarfs, elves, ogres, trolls, imps, leprechauns, munchkins…on and on and on and on.”
Do you draw every day?
Matt Groening: “Yes, I do.”
Luci, Princess Bean, and Elfo in ‘Disenchantment’ (Photo Credit: Netflix)
Can you describe your characters?
Matt Groening: (Showing off a drawing of Princess Bean) “You would say, ‘Is she a princess?’ Yes, you can tell by the crown. But this is not Cinderella. This is not Sleeping Beauty. This is not even Waking Beauty. She’s an unusual type. We did that on purpose. We were going to do the opposite of what you expect. Although I think she’s beautiful and I have a crush on her, she’s not what you expect.
Elfo is based on the very first character I ever drew in this style in the fifth grade. He looked almost exactly like that without the elf hat. When we drew him first, we wanted him to have romantic feelings towards Bean and towards other characters in the show, and he looked like a little kid. That’s why we gave him sideburns.”
Josh Weinstein: “And that’s why Nat Faxon’s voice is so great. In a typical cartoon he’d be (in a high voice), ‘Hi, I’m an elf.’ Nat’s voice is a really adult, almost deep voice that he makes a little higher for Elfo. It’s really real.”
Matt Groening: “Lucy is a character I designed completely independent of the show. Obviously, it’s in a completely different style. Lucy is Bean’s personal demon. I think this is going to be a breakout tattoo.
Lucy is played by Eric André from The Eric André Show, a total wild man. He’s fantastic. He’s just great.
And then we come to King Zod, played by John DiMaggio. King Zod – in John’s King I hear a little bit of Wallace Beery. I hear a little bit of Archie Bunker from All in the Family.”
Josh Weinstein: “And that’s what I love, too. In a typical fantasy cartoon, they would all have these grand English voices. But it’s like the King’s clearly from New Jersey.”
Can you talk about creating Bean as a character and how Abbi Jacobson played with that creation?
Matt Groening: “Josh and I sat down and we laid out the world. We worked on this for a very long time and it became quite clear that Bean was the center of the show and that Elfo and Lucy, her personal demon, basically completed her. She’s the most interesting character that we came up with for a long time because she had so many flaws and she’s still lovable.”
Josh Weinstein: “It’s also the idea, and based on a lot of history – not England, obviously – where women princesses would grow up in a patriarchal kingdom and never be allowed to rule. She’s clearly much more together and smarter than her younger half-brother, Derek, and she will never be able to rule. And, so, it’s a much more interesting conundrum for us.
But what it also did is that also transposed into being her age, about 19 or 20, because a lot of this is about going into the world for the first time. There’s a lot of friends I had when I was 19 or 20, female and male, where we drank too much. We didn’t know what we’re going to do in life, but adults were telling us what we’re going to do. So, a lot of it is finding your way in the world. Especially as a woman in this world, we think there’s so much more interesting stories to tell.”
Matt Groening: “And Abbi took what we considered very feminist lines and made us realize how mild we were. She kicked it to another level. But I would say that’s true of all of our actors in this case because we have more time to play with telling a story than a regular network animated show. Everybody ad-libbed and then we used some great ad-libs, including from John DiMaggio. Really good, good, good stuff.”
Josh Weinstein: “We really count on these guys and Abbi to really kick it up and make it real.”
Terry Crews as Terry Jeffords in ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ (Photo by: Jordin Althaus / Fox / Universal Television)
If Brooklyn Nine-Nine had been canceled, Terry Crews probably would not have been hurting for work. The man shows up in more movies and appearances than anyone else in Hollywood. But when Fox canceled Brooklyn Nine-Nine, NBC decided to air another season. The show was already an NBCUniversal production.
The cast of Brooklyn Nine-Nine had a panel on the last day of TCA to talk about their new home, and Crews stayed after to speak more about his advocacy work, testifying before Congress about sexual harassment. Brooklyn Nine-Nine will return on NBC in 2019.
Terry Crews Brooklyn Nine-Nine Interview:
Brooklyn Nine-Nine has gone on any longer than any show you’ve worked on. What are the key elements that make this last as long as it has?
Terry Crews: “You know, first of all we love each other and it’s a safe place to work. Let me tell you, when you have a safe place to work you can do anything. The comedy gets better, the connections get better. Let me tell you, this is my family. I spend more time with the people on this show than I do with my own family during the season and you feel safe. And man, when that happens, magic happens.
I think what was so amazing and wonderful was to see the internet go flipping once we were canceled and they were demanding, ‘What is going on?’ I think there’s no greater example of the difference between Nielsen ratings and what people are actually watching than Brooklyn Nine-Nine. You saw it for what it was. We always were owned by NBC/Universal and now it just feels like hand and glove. We’re right where we need to be. It’s perfect.”
Where were you when you heard the news?
Terry Crews: “What was wild, when I heard we had the pickup, I was in New York. And it was funny, because Andre [Braugher] and I were doing Pyramid together. It was so weird. But that’s when we heard we got canceled. And then, when we got picked up, I was asleep. And we were going through the whole, like, are we going to get what network, if any, and the whole thing. And, I was all depressed. And so I wasn’t on California time. So, it was really, really late at night. I had to pee and I got up. I go back to the bed and my phone is glowing. You know, it’s like this eerie glow, and you’re like, ‘Oh, man. Not more bad news.’ And I pick up the phone and I’m like, ‘Holy sh*t. My God.’
And we have a WhatsApp group and the pickup was just all over it. It had been going for, like, two hours. And I was just, like, ‘Oh, my God.’ And I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to really describe. It felt like you’re alive again. Like, it’s almost like you were on life support and you wake up and you’re actually totally fine. In fact, you’re better than you were. It was truly amazing.”
Why is it so important to you to use your platform to inspire others and how have you seen it personally help and affect others?
Terry Crews: “You know, when I was a kid, I had a lot of questions and everyone told me stop asking them. What I would discover, one thing I realized is when I became an adult, I wanted to tell people what I was going through. There was always the society stigma of not sharing what you’ve been through, not telling the actual things that happen to you. What happens is if you don’t tell, bad things continue to keep happening.
Like I said, when Ronan Farrow wrote that first story about Harvey Weinstein, all those women came forward. Let me tell you, I just was invigorated, I knew it was safe to come out. It was safe now. And then I had to support them. I had to show that, wait a minute, because what was happening is the women were being debased. They were being called liars and I was like, ‘Wait, it happened to me,’ and the reason I was quiet is the same reasons why they were quiet in the beginning, you know?
My thing is, this is what’s so wild, is that we’re not even doubting whether these events happened. They’re doubting why did people come forward? That makes no sense to me. And it’s like I don’t care if it happened 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 40 years ago. It happened and that’s the issue. There’s a lot of people that are hoping that because time passed, things are over now. It’s like well, guess what, America is still dealing with slavery. It happened. We can’t say it didn’t happen.
I think as a man, and I’ve been a card-carrying member of the toxic masculinity group, men have to learn how to concede. We have to say that we messed up. It’s important. The first thing that helped me change in every way was I realized that I made the mistakes. The first thing that I had to say, when I acknowledged my own things and then went to make amends to the people I had even wronged, then things can correct itself. Then all of a sudden we can go to the next level but if you always deny, always push away, always run away, always hide, now things get worse and I refuse to live my life that way. I decided that hey, man, I’ve been very, very vocal about my own issues.
I had an addiction to pornography I came out about and I wrote a book called Manhood that really dealt with a lot of things that I had already been through with my wife and family and a lot of this toxic masculinity that I had ingrained into my life, and it came out in 2014. It came out in 2014 and believe me, when it came out, the publishers were a little bit like, ‘What are we going to do with this book?’ Now it’s been validated in a lot of ways and I’m thankful that I was able to do that and I will continue to. I will always, always know that this whole thing is bigger than me.”
Terry Crews, Stephanie Beatriz and Andy Samberg (Photo by: John P. Fleenor / Fox / Universal Television)
You came from a background that didn’t set you up for success. So how did you break through the barriers and become who you are today?
Terry Crews: “Wow, well I give so much credit to my wife. We’ve been married 29 years and the whole thing is that we’ve been through everything. It takes two. By myself I would have done okay, I would’ve done all right. But with her and I together, we could go all the way. We could go forever. When I talk about my success, that woman is really the reason why I’m here today. I can tell you right now she saved my life several times.”
Are you annoyed that Camacho is no longer the dumbest president?
Terry Crews: (Laughing) “First of all, I love President Camacho. He was a nice guy. He even acknowledged he wasn’t that smart. But when I look at what Idiocracy means to a lot of people, it’s funny because that movie was a bomb. All of a sudden it turns around and people are talking about the effect it’s had.
All I say, I’m not into calling people dumb, or whatever, but I do wish that people in Hollywood, politically, sports wise, would just be nice to each other. There’s just no reason to be hostile. There’s no reason to be mean. I think that because of troll culture that’s happened now, that people feel like they can wrest the attention of everyone from a few mean tweets. It all backfires, whether you’re the President of the United States, or the director of a big major movie, or you’re a kid in high school who gets his mind out and says some things, but now you just have to acknowledge it. You have to really, really acknowledge there are no idle words. There are none.”
Can you still be in X-Force since Deadpool reset the timeline?
Terry Crews: “You know what? Actually, if you look at the movie, I was on life support. They were trying to revive me so you didn’t see me get cut up or head cut off. There’s always something. I would love to come back for Deadpool 3.”
Was it always the plan for you to be in the posters and trailers but really you would always have a cameo?
Terry Crews: “It was a troll from the beginning and it was horrible. I felt so bad but it was for a good cause, you know what I mean? It really was the payoff that the movie needed.”
Do you get to be in Expendables 4?
Terry Crews: I’m not going to do Expendables 4 simply because of the thing that happened with the producer. He basically threatened me because of my whole William Morris/Endeavor lawsuit and I decided that I was going to pull out of Expendables 4 for that reason.”
CBS All Access officially confirmed Ethan Peck has jonied the cast of Star Trek: Discovery season two. Peck will attempt to fill the massive shoes of Leonard Nimoy as he takes on the role of Spock. Peck will play the half human, half Vulcan Science Officer and foster brother of Michael Burnham (played by Sonequa Martin-Green) when the series returns for its second season.
“Through 52 years of television and film, a parallel universe and a mirror universe, Mr. Spock remains the only member of the original bridge crew to span every era of Star Trek,” stated Executive Producer Alex Kurtzman. “The great Leonard Nimoy, then the brilliant Zachary Quinto, brought incomparable humanity to a character forever torn between logic and emotion. We searched for months for an actor who would, like them, bring his own interpretation to the role. An actor who would, like them, effortlessly embody Spock’s greatest qualities, beyond obvious logic: empathy, intuition, compassion, confusion, and yearning.
Ethan Peck walked into the room inhabiting all of these qualities, aware of his daunting responsibility to Leonard, Zack, and the fans, and ready to confront the challenge in the service of protecting and expanding on Spock’s legacy. In that spirit, we’re thrilled to welcome him to the family.”
Peck joins a cast that includes Sonequa Martin-Green (Commander Michael Burnham), Doug Jones (Commander Saru), Shazad Latif (Lt. Ash Tyler), Mary Wiseman (Ensign Sylvia Tilly), Anthony Rapp (Lt. Commander Paul Stamets), Wilson Cruz (Dr. Hugh Culber), Mary Chieffo (L’Rell), Tig Notaro (Chief Engineer Reno) and Anson Mount (Captain Christopher Pike).
Season two will premiere in early 2019.
The Star Trek: Discovery Plot:Star Trek: Discovery follows the voyages of Starfleet on their missions to discover new worlds and new life forms, and one Starfleet officer who must learn that to truly understand all things alien, you must first understand yourself. The series features a new ship and new characters while embracing the same ideology and hope for the future that inspired a generation of dreamers and doers.
Amazon Prime’s new anthology series The Romanoffs will premiere on October 12, 2018. The streaming service will release the first two episodes on October 12 with new episodes arriving on the subsequent Fridays.
The Romanoffs was created by nine-time Emmy winner Matthew Weiner (Mad Men). Weiner wrote, directed, and executive produced the new original series which will spotlight the stories of eight people who claim to the among the descendants of the Romanoff family. Each story is set in a different location and will feature different casts.
The dramatic series was shot on location in three continents.
“The Romanoffs is an ambitious event series that will be the first-ever anthology released weekly on Prime Video,” stated Jennifer Salke, Head of Amazon Studios, “Filmed around the globe and featuring an incredible, star studded cast, each episode will be a surprise gift to the audience. We are grateful to Matthew Weiner for bringing this groundbreaking series to life for our Prime audience.”
The cast of episode one titled “The Violet Hour” includes Marthe Keller, Aaron Eckhart, Ines Melab, and Louise Bourgoin. Episode two, “The Royal We,” features Corey Stoll, Kerry Bishe, Janet Montgomery, and Noah Wyle.
Upcoming season one episodes will star Isabelle Huppert (Elle), Diane Lane (Unfaithful), Christina Hendricks (Mad Men), John Slattery (Mad Men), Amanda Peet (Togetherness), Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire), Andrew Rannells (Girls), Mike Doyle (Odd Mom Out), JJ Feild (TURN: Washington’s Spies), Paul Reiser (Red Oaks), Kathryn Hahn (Transparent), Jay R. Ferguson (Mad Men), Ben Miles (Collateral), Mary Kay Place (Big Love), Griffin Dunne (Imposters), Cara Buono (Mad Men), Ron Livingston (The Conjuring), Jon Tenney (Hand of God), Clea DuVall (Veep), Radha Mitchell (Silent Hill), Hugh Skinner (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again), Juan Pablo Castañeda (The Debt of Maximillian), Emily Rudd (Electric Dreams), Adèle Anderson (Company Business), Annet Mahendru (The Americans), Louise Bourgoin (I Am a Soldier), Hera Hilmar (Two Birds), Michael O’Neill (Dallas Buyers Club), and David Sutcliffe (Gilmore Girls).
Semi Chellas (Mad Men) is on board as a writer and executive producer. Mad Men‘s Andre Jacquemetton and Maria Jacquemetton serve as consulting producers and writers.
Matt Weiner’s behind the scenes team includes Director of Photography Chris Manley, Costume Designers Janie Bryant and Wendy Chuck, Production Designers Chris Brown and Emmy winner Henry Dunn. Hair and make-up heads are Theraesa Rivers and Lana Horochowski. Emmy winners Carrie Audino and Laura Schiff, along with Kendra Shay Clark, make up the casting team.
Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michael Rapaport, Keir Gilchrist, and Brigette Lundy-Paine in ‘Atypical’ (Photo by Beth Dubber/Netflix)
Netflix announced they’re releasing the second season of the original comedy/drama series, Atypical, on September 7, 2018. Season one, which debuted on August 11, 2017, consisted of eight episodes. Netflix increased the episode order to 10 for the show’s second season.
The series was created by Robia Rashid (The Goldbergs, How I Met Your Mother, Will & Grace) who serves as a writer and executive producer. Atypical‘s also executive produced by Seth Gordon and Mary Rohlich. Gordon, director of Horrible Bosses, The King of Kong, and Baywatch, directed multiple episodes of the critically acclaimed series. Series star Jennifer Jason Leigh is a producer.
Season one of the series earned a Satellite Award nomination in the Best Television Series, Comedy or Musical category. The first season currently sits at 77% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Plot:Atypical is a coming of age story that follows Sam (played by Keir Gilchrist), an 18-year-old on the autistic spectrum as he searches for love and independence. While Sam is on his funny yet emotional journey of self-discovery, the rest of his family must grapple with change in their own lives as they all struggle with the central theme: what does it really mean to be normal?
Oscar nominee Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight) stars as his mother, Elsa, who is on her own journey of self-discovery. Michael Rapaport (White Famous) plays his father, Doug. Brigette Lundy-Paine (Margot vs Lily, The Glass Castle) plays Sam’s sister Casey and Amy Okuda (How to Get Away with Murder) plays his therapist Julia.
The cast of season two also includes Nik Dodani (Alex Strangelove) who plays Sam’s best friend, Zahid, and Jenna Boyd (Nowhere, Michigan) plays Paige, Sam’s on again, off again girlfriend.
Keir Gilchrist and Jenna Boyd in season 2 of ‘Atypical’ (Photo by Beth Dubber/Netflix)Jennifer Jason Leigh, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Michael Rapaport, and Keir Gilchrist in ‘Atypical’ (Photo by Beth Dubber/Netflix)
Universal Pictures unveiled the official trailer for Green Book starring Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali (Moonlight) and two-time Oscar nominee Viggo Mortensen (Captain Fantastic, Eastern Promises). Based on the two-minute trailer, it’s a sure bet we’ll be hearing Green Book talked about on the awards circuit later this year.
The cast of Green Book also includes Linda Cardellini (Mad Men), Sebastian Maniscalco (The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature), Dimiter D. Marinov (A Picture with Yuki), and P.J. Byrne (I’m Dying Up Here). Peter Farrelly, best known for directing Dumb and Dumber and There’s Something About Mary with his brother, Bobby, directed the dramatic film based on a true story.
Peter Farrelly, Brian Currie and Nick Vallelonga wrote the script and produced with Jim Burke and Charles B. Wessler. Jeff Skoll, Jonathan King, Octavia Spencer, Kwame L. Parker, John Sloss, and Steven Farneth served as executive producers. The behind the scenes team includes director of photography Sean Porter, editor Patrick J Don Vito, production designer Tim Galvin, and costume designer Betsy Heimann, with music by Kris Bowers.
Participant Media and DreamWorks Pictures have set a November 21, 2018 theatrical release date. The film’s earned a PG-13 MPAA rating for thematic content, language including racial epithets, smoking, some violence and suggestive material.
The Plot: When Tony Lip (Mortensen), a bouncer from an Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx, is hired to drive Dr. Don Shirley (Ali), a world-class Black pianist, on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South, they must rely on “The Green Book” to guide them to the few establishments that were then safe for African-Americans. Confronted with racism, danger-as well as unexpected humanity and humor-they are forced to set aside differences to survive and thrive on the journey of a lifetime.
Poster for the dramatic film ‘Green Book’ (Photo Credit: Participant Media and DreamWorks Pictures)
Jason Ralph used his appearance at the 2018 San Diego Comic Con to not just promote The Magicians and its upcoming fourth season, but also to help promote an important cause. Ralph was wearing a T-shirt that read: “If you see this shirt, donate $5 (link in the bio).”
The first question I asked Jason Ralph during our roundtable interview at Comic Con was about the shirt and the charity he’s supporting. We also discussed what’s happening with Quentin and where we’ll pick up with the group in The Magicians‘ much-anticipated fourth season.
Jason Ralph The Magicians Interview:
Can you talk about the message on your shirt?
Jason Ralph: “I’m raising money for Covenant House, which is a homeless youth shelter. I’m trying to raise $10,000 today. It’s an extraordinary organization that not only gives homeless youth the necessities of food, shelter, clothing, they also provide them with the resources to not only get off the streets but stay off the streets – education and all sorts of things, life experiences, job training.
The thing that I found the most profound about it and something that I hadn’t thought of before…I’ve been working with this organization for the past four years and visiting numerous locations, teaching acting classes and stuff like that. The thing that I was struck with the most was a lot of these kids have never been told – sorry, it’s emotional for me – have never been told I love you or you’re good enough, or you can do this – you can succeed. That is something that I have so taken for granted. Everything that I have in my life is because of that, is because I was set up with that very base level of humanity. And, that is something that needs to be given.
It is shocking to me, but I think it’s something that this organization does very well. So, I’m trying to raise some money for them. It’s important to me. If you want to visit my Twitter or Instagram, click the link in the bio and every little bit helps.”
Have you witnessed a lot of success stories in the four years you’ve been involved?
Jason Ralph: “Very much so. A lot of the kids who graduate from the program come back and give back and get back involved with the system in trying to get other kids off the streets. And a lot of kids just go off to live very full lives. It’s very high success rate. It’s an international organization; it’s all over the world.”
In season four of The Magicians, what’s happening with Quentin’s alter ego?
Jason Ralph: “Quentin doesn’t exist. His name is Brian. I like to call him Bri Guy. He has a sunny disposition. It’s fun. From an acting perspective, we’re doing sort of like a hard reboot. We get to see these people experiencing magic all over again, but from a brand-new perspective.
I think Quentin came at it with a lot of skepticism and was sort of perpetually disappointed with what he found magic to be. He was someone who suffered – felt like he suffered in his life and wanted a quick fix, and magic could do that. It was something that he always fantasized about it and then when it actually came true, it wasn’t like (he thought). There are no quick fixes in life, even with magic, and he learned that it wasn’t going to fulfill him in ways that he needed it to. I think he has a complicated relationship with it.
Brian’s relationship, on the other hand, I don’t think he’s someone who ever even thought about magic. He never read the Fillory books. I think maybe he read like half of the Lord of the Rings books and he was like, ‘It just talks about leaves and grass. I just can’t take it anymore! Elves? What?!’
And then he’s like thrust into the clutches of this evil monster with sort of like an insatiable appetite for blood and carnage and is learning magic from that perspective. I think it’s a little bit more wide-eyed and shocking.”
‘The Magicians’ star Jason Ralph at the 2018 San Diego Comic Con (Photo by Tibrina Hobson / SYFY)
Do you miss Quentin and Alice together? Do you have a relationship in mind for Quentin?
Jason Ralph: (Smiling broadly) “It’s just so complicated. I think he’s on a solo journey for the moment. I think he’s been spending a lot of time learning about himself. This is a person who we learn now has the emotional wisdom of someone who is 120 years old. After the episode where he lives a full life, that’s something they remember to an extent. Maybe not vividly, but I think it lives (inside them). Because of that he’s a very different person than when he started. Alice has gone through an equally complicated journey. I think they’re intrinsically tied to each other in the same way that Quentin and Eliot are.”
So, Quentin is learning to love himself?
Jason Ralph: “Yeah. That’s where I’m at with him. We’ll see what the writers throw at me.”
One of the things the series does so well is tackling mental health issues. How do you prepare for those scenes?
Jason Ralph: “It’s something that I take very seriously. It’s something that I always fear being flippant about. It’s a conversation that I don’t think we have enough, and because we don’t have it enough it’s delicate. I just try to do my best to try to make it important.”
(At this point in the interview, Jason Ralph’s friend and co-star Hale Appleman pulls up a chair. They share some water and Hale places his arm around Jason’s shoulders before leaving to do another interview.)
So, you take mental health issues very seriously?
Jason Ralph: “I do take it very seriously. It’s something that I put a lot of focus onto. It’s something that we as a cast were drawn to the story for. It’s something that I think the books talk about in a way that I’ve really never experienced fantasy broaching. I think it’s a nuanced perspective.
It’s rewarding to come to Comic Con and interact with the fans because so often we’re up in Vancouver making a show about magic and it can feel flippant and silly. And it’s nice to know that when we come back here…last year we were in a hall of 2,000 people, 2,000 strangers, and 90% of the people who wanted to come up and ask questions wanted to talk about their own experiences with depression and anxiety and sexual assault. And to be a part of something that in a room full of strangers your innermost demons or struggles are on the tip of your tongue is pretty profound. It’s nice to know as an artist that the things that we are fighting for are coming across and that it’s worthwhile.”
That said, are there any light moments in the next season?
Jason Ralph: “I’m less drawn to the light moments. There is a fair amount of physical comedy coming your way from me in one of the first episodes. Like a lot of like falling and choking… It’s a series of unfortunate events for whoever this character is.”
Tone-wise, what do you think about this season compared to the others?
Jason Ralph: “We’re right at the beginning. The tone of the show is kind of all over the place in an exciting way. Sometimes it’s a drama and sometimes it’s a comedy. Sometimes it’s both, and sometimes it’s a musical. Sometimes it’s a mystery and sometimes it’s an adventure. Sometimes it’s a thriller. That kind of stuff. The writers have provided themselves a lot of freedom to explore genres.
This season so far has been a little bit of horror. I’ve spent 90% of what we shot so far covered in blood. It’s sticky.”
Is it your own blood or someone else’s?
Jason Ralph: (Smiling) “I can’t say.”
What is it like playing scenes with Hale given the history between Quentin and Eliot now that Eliot is a monster?
Jason Ralph: “Supposing we’re in a world where Quentin comes back and someone would remember those sorts of things, I would imagine that it would be difficult and that someone might devote their lives to trying to get their friend back. Supposing…”
