Amazon Studios’ The Romanoffs just released a teaser trailer without a single frame from the series. Instead, the one minute-long video ticks off the names of the cast backed by foreboding music, and ends with the confirmation of the October 12, 2018 premiere date.
The teaser was released during the Television Critics Association (TCA) Summer 2018 Press Tour. According to the announcement, the first season’s guest stars include Noah Wyle (Falling Skies), Kathryn Hahn (Transparent), Kerry Bishé (Halt and Catch Fire), 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), and Inès Melab (Agathe Koltès).
The guest cast join previously announced series stars Isabelle Huppert (Elle), Marthe Keller (Marathon Man), Aaron Eckhart (Sully), Diane Lane (Unfaithful), Christina Hendricks (Mad Men), John Slattery (Mad Men), Amanda Peet (Togetherness), Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire), Corey Stoll (The Strain), and Andrew Rannells (Girls). Mike Doyle (Odd Mom Out), JJ Field (TURN: Washington’s Spies), Janet Montgomery (Salem, This Is Us), and Paul Reiser (Red Oaks).
The original anthology series was created by nine-time Emmy Award winner Matthew Weiner (Mad Men). Weiner also writes, directs, and executive produces the series. Semi Chellas (Mad Men) is also involved as a writer and executive producer. Mad Men‘s Andre Jacquemetton and Maria Jacquemetton are on board as consulting producers and writers.
Weiner’s behind the scenes team includes Director of Photography Chris Manley (Mad Men), Costume Designers Janie Bryant (Mad Men) and Wendy Chuck (Spotlight), Production Designers Chris Brown (Mad Men) and Emmy winner Henry Dunn (Mad Men). Hair and make-up heads are Theraesa Rivers (Mad Men) and Lana Horochowski (Mad Men). Emmy winners Carrie Audino (Mad Men) and Laura Schiff (Mad Men), along with Kendra Shay Clark (Mad Men), make up the casting team.
Per Amazon, The Romanoffs “was shot on location in three continents and seven countries collaborating with local productions and creative talent across Europe, the Americas, and the Far East.”
The Plot:The Romanoffs is a contemporary anthology series, set around the globe, featuring eight separate stories about people who believe themselves to be descendants of the Russian royal family. Each story takes place in a new location with a new cast.
Joseph Gilgun as Cassidy, Ruth Negga as Tulip O’Hare, and Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer in ‘Preacher’ season 3 (Photo Credit: Frank Ockenfels 3 / AMC / Sony Pictures Television)
The stars of AMC’s Preacher – Dominic Cooper, Ruth Negga, and Joseph Gilgun – joined series creators/executive producers/writers Sam Catlin, Seth Rogen, and Evan Goldberg at the 2018 San Diego Comic Con to promote the show’s very twisted third season. In addition to hosting a Q&A with fans, the Preacher team participated in a press conference to delve deeper into what’s up with Jesse, Tulip, and Cassidy this season.
Ruth Negga was asked whether there’s any hope left for a reconciliation between Jesse and Cassidy after Tulip sent Cassidy away. Negga explained Tulip’s motivation behind telling Cassidy she wasn’t interested in him romantically. “Well, I think it’s her way of saving him, really. I think it’s her sacrificing her relationship to get him out of the way because she thinks he’s in danger,” said Negga. “She needs him to be out of danger and that’s why she tells him that.”
Negga added, “Also, there’s a truth there. She genuinely wants to be honest with him and I think she suffers from that. She could have gotten rid of him in a different way that would have been easier for her. I think she loves him so much she wants to be honest.”
Joseph Gilgun agrees that Tulip did what she needed to do to keep Cassidy safe. “Cassidy, I think, needs telling that way. Otherwise he would have just kept pushing,” said Gilgun. “You’ve got to be cruel to be kind sometimes, and that’s what she did. She needed to protect him and their friendship as well.”
Will we see the trio brought back together to defeat Jesse’s family? “I hope so, but not for the moment. I think that relationship is imploding,” said Dominic Cooper. “For Jesse, you meet him at a very stressful time. He’s made a decision that he feels extremely guilty about. Cassidy’s made his views very clear on the friendship and how he feels he’s handled it. He’s now confronting a place which he would do anything not to go back to and confronting a person who he could possibly become in that situation. And he’s having to push them away from him in order to save them. But, on the surface that looks like he’s not very selfless; it looks like he’s doing it as a selfish act. And certainly, it looks like from Cassidy’s point of view from jealousy.”
Cooper added, “I think they have to come together. We hope they come together. They’re the closest things they’ve ever had to friendship. We were saying earlier that they’re sort of discovering certain things about their past and who they are that they’re trying to deal with. I think for the moment it means them going on their own journeys and separating. I have the family to deal with and this bond I’ve created in order to save Tulip’s life. I don’t know how they’ll eventually, but I do hope they’ll end up coming together again. Certainly, this season the relationship is very strained and problematic. It gets worse before it gets better.”
Joseph Gilgun joked that Jesse and Cassidy’s relationship is one of those where they can have long conversations and never agree on a single thing. That said, the two seem to fit together and Gilgun believes each will give the other a second chance at friendship.
Evan Goldberg, Sam Catlin, Seth Rogen, Ruth Negga, Joseph Gilgun, and Dominic Cooper at the ‘Preacher’ press conference. (Photo Credit: Rebecca Murray)
Among the third’s season batch of bizarre new additions is the character of John Wayne. While locked in a coffin underwater, Jesse retreats from reality to have a conversation with the legendary Western actor. Sam Catlin revealed they weren’t going to put in John Wayne from the comics at all, but ultimately decided to bring the character to life during season three.
Catlin describes John Wayne as a coping mechanism Jesse created as a child. “[John Wayne] was somebody he imagined would give him strength. He was this ideal hero, the guy who is always going to tell him to toughen up,” said Catlin. “It just felt like a good opportunity for us to see Jesse in a Western.”
Seth Rogen believes inserting John Wayne in the first season would have been too much on top of all the other weird characters and storylines.
Asked if she has favorite Tulip scenes, Ruth Negga confessed she believes Tulip has now come more into her own. “She’s sort of got her agency back and I feel like it’s, for me, it’s quite thrilling the idea that she feels more independent, actually, of the two boys while still being on their journey. For her, this is her family but I think she’s finding her own way and solidifying her sense of self and her sense of who she is,” explained Negga. “She’s owning her flaws.”
Negga also believes that the Purgatory scene was a watershed moment for Tulip. She feels Tulip has now become her own superhero.
Season three’s presented more of Jesse’s backstory, and Dominic Cooper is amazed with each script that comes along and delves more into Jesse’s upbringing. “I feel like I’ve only just scratched the surface with what has been revealed about him. There’s a much, much darker side the more we learn about the grandmother as well and the family and the things that he put up with and the things that he witnessed. It involves all decisions that you actually make.”
Cooper admitted it’s been challenging to play the version of Jesse who enjoys The Tombs. “That’s been a very interesting part of playing the season out is how much he has to restrain himself from indulging too much in the brutality of it. I keep re-watching them having made them and there are things that he’s done that are just utterly awful. You see him as a child and you think the decisions that he maybe was forced into making, they’re really quite terrible things and awful memories to live with. But it definitely colors certainly the audience’s perception of who he is.
That’s the heart of it for me in terms of how this entity is still so confusing to him, why this thing can exist within him. It’s clear to me that that’s because he is half the blood of his grandmother. That’s part of his heritage. I think it’s that constant battle, that struggle to – as we all do – we’re constantly trying to better ourselves. There’s part of us that we don’t like and he’s now being forced into really facing that side of himself head-on. But it makes it all the more enjoyable and exhilarating to play each time you get another script which reveals more about the past.”
As for how closely the season will hew to the source material, Catlin confirmed the comics are in the writers room and are a constant source of inspiration. “I feel like this season there’s probably more stuff that’s directly from Garth (Ennis) and Steve (Dillon’s) writing than in the previous two seasons. We’re hoping to get to all of it or as much as we possibly can. It just takes time.
I think there’s a version last year when we were breaking season two where we were going to get to Angelville in the middle of the year and bring in Gran’ma. And it just felt like we were sort of giving ourselves short-shrift and we weren’t spending enough time with Herr Starr. We wanted to get into this world of Angelville because it’s such an important part of the comics and we really wanted to spend time there.”
Although much of comics come to life on the small screen extremely faithful to Garth and Steve’s vision, one thing fans will never see is Cassidy walking around with dark sunglasses. Rogen says the decision was made to forego the sunglasses in large part not to limit Joseph Gilgun’s performance. “We were just like, ‘It would be great to see Joe’s eyes because he’s so wonderful,’” said Rogen, laughing. “In the comic Cassidy has these like it’s kind of vague – he has these red, gnarled eyes I guess is the implication.”
“Only (jerks) wear sunglasses indoors,” said Gilgun. “I’m saying there’s no reason to wear shades indoors.”
Catlin interjected, “And it would also make people early on just think he’s a devil or something which would throw them in a weird direction.”
“Or Bono,” offered Negga.
“Exactly,” laughed Rogen. “Bono would be… We went to Bono first.”
Disney and Lucasfilm have confirmed the cast for Star Wars: Episode IX will include Carrie Fisher as Leia Organa. According to the official announcement, Fisher will be seen in the film in previously unused footage shot for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
“We desperately loved Carrie Fisher,” stated director J.J. Abrams. “Finding a truly satisfying conclusion to the Skywalker saga without her eluded us. We were never going to recast, or use a CG character. With the support and blessing from her daughter, Billie, we have found a way to honor Carrie’s legacy and role as Leia in Episode IX by using unseen footage we shot together in Episode VII.”
Additional returning cast members include Daisy Ridley as Rey, Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, John Boyega as Finn, Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron, Lupita Nyong’o as Maz Kanata, Domhnall Gleeson as General Hux, Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico, Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca, and Billie Lourd as Lieutenant Connix. The studio also confirmed Mark Hamill returns as Luke Skywalker, Anthony Daniels will be back as C-3PO, and Billy Dee Williams reprises his role as Lando Calrissian.
New to the sci-fi franchise set in a galaxy far, far away are Naomi Ackie, Richard E. Grant, and Keri Russell.
Abrams directs what’s described as the “final installment of the Skywalker saga.” Abrams also co-wrote the screenplay with Chris Terrio and will produce Episode IX with Kathleen Kennedy and Michelle Rejwan. Callum Greene and Jason McGatlin are executive producing.
The film’s behind the scene team includes Dan Mindel (Director of Photography), Rick Carter and Kevin Jenkins (Co-Production Designers), Michael Kaplan (Costume Designer), Neal Scanlan (Creature and Droid FX), Maryann Brandon and Stefan Grube (Editors), Roger Guyett (VFX Supervisor), Tommy Gormley (1st AD), and Victoria Mahoney (2nd Unit Director). John Williams is back on board as the film’s composer.
Filming will take place at London’s Pinewood Studios beginning on August 1, 2018. Disney’s targeting a December 2019 theatrical release for Star Wars: Episode IX.
“What are you waiting for?” asks Benji (Simon Pegg) who’s tracking Ethan as he chases a terrorist. “I’m jumping out a window!” yells Ethan (Tom Cruise) to Benji through his intercom. “Oh sorry…good luck,” answers back Benji in one of the many harrowing scenes in Mission: Impossible – Fallout, the sixth film of the Mission: Impossible action franchise.
After a mission goes terribly wrong and the IMF team ends up losing plutonium to some terrorists, Ethan and his team receive the green light from their boss, Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin), to hunt the terrorists down and retrieve the plutonium. A hiccup in their plan comes with the CIA’s demand to be let in on the mission. Special Agent/assassin August Walker (Henry Cavill) gets assigned to work with the IMF to get the plutonium back at any cost.
Their one lead is a woman known as the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) who seems to be brokering deals for the terrorists who are attempting to sell the plutonium. After a few incidents, including a deadly fight in a restroom with an experienced killer, Hunt makes contact with the White Widow posing as ruthless arms dealer John Lark. He discovers the terrorist group known as The Apostles doesn’t want money for the plutonium. Instead they are seeking the release of their old leader, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris).
With thrilling action scenes, jaw-dropping stunts, breathtaking locations, some humor, and a cast that really jells, Mission: Impossible – Fallout is one of the best additions to the action film series. Fallout is a direct sequel to Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, which stands as the best in the franchise, and benefits from the return of the main cast. This includes Rebecca Ferguson as MI6 Agent Ilsa Faust who has great chemistry with Cruise. Michelle Monaghan from Mission: Impossible III also returns as Hunt’s true love and former wife, Julia Meade.
Once again the franchise is able to create original and completely amazing action scenes. Tom Cruise as usual did most of his own stunts in the film and even learned how to fly a helicopter. (Yes, that really is Tom Cruise in the chopper chase and crash showcased in the trailer.) This adds more intensity to the film which is already wall-to wall-action.
The rest of the IMF team cast is back including Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg who now own these characters they’ve created. Cavill is solid as the CIA assassin attached to the mission who doesn’t believe in the IMF’s methods and is willing to do whatever it takes to get the plutonium back.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout is hands-down the best action film of the summer as well as being one of the better action films, period. It has everything a fan of the genre could want from a summer blockbuster.
GRADE: A-
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence and intense sequences of action, and for brief strong language
Katherine Barrell once again joined her Wynonna Earp co-stars for a packed panel at the 2018 San Diego Comic Con. The series returned to Syfy’s primetime lineup for a third season on July 20, 2018, and at Comic Con the cast, series creator Emily Andras, and comic book creator Beau Smith did a fantastic job of teasing what’s in store without giving too much away.
Barrell and the Wynonna Earp gang also participated in roundtable interviews to discuss the show’s third season. During our interview, Barrell described the status of WayHaught, what’s up with Mama Earp, and how this season they’ll be going up against the biggest bad to date: Bulshar.
Katherine Barrell Wynonna Earp Interview:
We’d like the scoop on the remainder of the season. We want to know everything.
Katherine Barrell: “Okay, so in episode four… Well, what I can tell you about this season is I think we’re fighting our biggest bad of all the seasons. We’re fighting Bulshar who is the person who cursed the Earp family in the first place. So, the stakes are very high this season.
I think it’s also a season where we don’t have Black Badge. We have no sort of establishment; we have no one governing what we’re doing. We have no one to report to, so we’re really on our own. We also have no money and no funding, and no resources. It’s really just this team of people doing their best with an impossible situation. It’s a very exciting season.”
How do you think the group dynamics have changed this season?
Katherine Barrell: “I think the thing about this season is we don’t have any more structure. There is no more Black Badge and my department which is the Purgatory Sheriff’s Department that deals with normal everyday cases in Purgatory is now trying to fund the supernatural cases as well. So I think there’s no rules, there’s no structure. I think we’re really banding together as a family and friends this season because that’s kind of all we’ve got. It feels like a bit of us against the world. But, I think it brings the team closer together because of that.”
Which characters do you ship the most in the series? Which would you like to see get together?
Katherine Barrell: “Selfishly, I’d love to see WynHaught – Nicole and Wynonna together because I just think it’s such a fun (dynamic). They’re just such complete opposite people and it’s just fun to throw them together. But, I’d also like to see Doc and Jeremy together. That’s a really fun, beautiful dynamic. They’re so cute together. Jeremy’s like this forward-thinking science guy and Doc is stuck 100 years in the past. I just think it’s fun dynamic and I think Tim (Rozon) and Varun (Saranga), as actors, have such great chemistry together, love each, and are such good friends. They go for brunch on the weekends and are really good buddies. It’s just fun to see them working together.”
What will the dynamic be between Nicole and Mama Earp?
Katherine Barrell: “I think with Mama Earp it’s like, ‘Oh, great, another one.’ It’s like, ‘Oh, crap, another Earp I’m going to have to deal with and get through.’ But also, this sense of I’m so happy for Waverly because she’s been wanting her mother to be in her life for so long. So, Nicole’s like, ‘Oh, crap, I hope she likes me!’
Anything about meeting the parent of the person you’re with, the person you love, she wants to impress. But she knows she had a hard time with Wynonna and I think very quickly figures out and learns that Wynonna got a lot of her personality from Mama Earp. So, it’s fun to see Nicole struggle but I think she really rises to the challenge. I think she builds a nice bond with Mama Earp so it’s very special to see.”
Nicole has always been Waverly’s rock, but she’s gone through a lot. How will that change Nicole’s relationship with Waverly?
Katherine Barrell: “I think Nicole’s comfort zone is very much being the rock and she’s not as comfortable letting people help her. I think it’s a really lovely aspect of the season where we really see Waverly having to be the strong one and help Nicole who’s faltering and who’s really scared as she’s learning more and more about her own involvement with this Cult of Bulshar and what that may mean for her. I think we get to see her just really scared because it’s such a repressed memory. Like, she doesn’t know and can you imagine how scary it would be to have these horrible memories when it’s just coming in flashes for her? I think it’s really nice to see her have to let her guard down enough to let someone save her and help her. I really like that aspect of the story this year.”
How will WayHaught move forward? Will they be moving in together?
Katherine Barrell: “I can’t tell you that! But I do think we get to work together a lot more. I like to call season three ‘Domestic WayHaught.’ It’s just like a couple that is now in the next stage of their relationship. It’s not a new relationship anymore. We’ve gone through some stuff. We’ve gone through the revelations of Nicole was married and Waverly kissed another person. We’ve worked through that and now we’ve decided that everyone has a past. I honor your past decisions you’ve made and I forgive you for mistakes, and now we’re moving forward even stronger. It’s a level of comfort and familiarity, because the stakes are so high, we’re moving so quickly, and there’s not really time to sit around and chat. We don’t have that luxury. I think we see their bond is just so solidified and strong this year.”
Will we see more of Nicole’s ex-wife come into play this season?
Katherine Barrell: “I think we’ve really moved past that this season. I think we’re definitely in a place where it’s just like, ‘We’ve got to move. There’s no time.’ I think Shae when she came into town, she understood right away what was going on and I think she respected that Nicole had genuinely moved on. I think she’s a smart woman, she’s very mature and she knows that that phase of life is over between them.”
At this point is there anything that you’re learning about Nicole that surprises you?
Katherine Barrell: “Oh, I learn so much this season! I think in the end of episode three… As an actor you’re trying to always create your own backstory because you always want something to play with, even if the script’s not giving it. You need to kind of know where you’ve come from. I think for Nicole I had an idea of who I thought she was and I think it was like episode three I remember going back to my apartment in Calgary and just rewriting her whole backstory because so much of the information I was getting from the scripts was not what I thought and was not where I thought she came from.
I learned a lot about Nicole. I think Nicole has an amazing season. I’m so excited to see how it turns out and how it’s received. But, really, I think the writers were so generous with my character this season. I’m finally filling in all of those questions that we had been asking for seasons one and two.”
Patricia Clarkson, Eliza Scanlen, and Amy Adams in a scene from ‘Sharp Objects’ episode 5 (Photo: Anne Marie Fox/HBO)
Author Gillian Flynn was on the Television Critics Association panel for her HBO series Sharp Objects, based on her book and on which she is an executive producer. Flynn credited showrunner Marti Noxon with giving her the faith to trust HBO’s adaptation.
“It was getting involved with Marti,” Flynn said. “I wrote or co-wrote three of the episodes and was in the writer’s room every day. So it wasn’t just handing over my baby. It was making sure it was the absolute right group of circumstances to have it come to life.”
HBO was also willing to focus as much or more on the psychological traumas of characters like Camille (Amy Adams) and the murder victims she’s investigating, as they were in the gruesome crime story.
“Landing it at HBO who completely understood it, too, and having those decadent eight episodes,” Flynn continued. “Because what I was getting early on with Sharp Objects was a lot of people who were interested in just the scare element or just the exploitative element and not interested in Camille. I wrote Sharp Objects because I loved Camille and because I wanted to tell the story about generational violence among women and what that looked like and what that felt like. That story, I didn’t feel, had been out there enough. I put that inside the wrapping of this town and of these murders, but I didn’t want Camille and her family and her half-sister and her mom and what these three women meant to each other – for good and for bad – to get lost in there. HBO got that.”
Flynn’s blockbuster novel Gone Girl got the cinematic treatment, as did her novel Dark Places. She knew Sharp Objects would need more time.
“Just to make sure that Camille and her story and that character study didn’t get lost within the mystery itself,” Flynn said. “That there was the mystery, but there was also the unpacking of Camille. As you saw, we don’t even get to even really get to what Camille’s particular issue is, or one of them, until the end of the first episode. So we really let ourselves have the decadence to really take the time with that. In Episode 3, we have the time to give her her backstory, her proper backstory and her proper story at this length, that I think is really appropriate and that feels correct to me for this particular story.”
Even with eight hours of commercial-free television, no adaptation is 100% the book. Flynn is happy that Sharp Objects is close though.
“I was really lucky,” Flynn said. “I had a writer’s room that was full of writers who were really, really dedicated, and loyal to the book. We had eight episodes so there weren’t these moments of like, oh, we’re going to have to make this tough decision. Or, we’re going to have to throw out these darlings here.”
In come cases, the miniseries added new scenes to Sharp Objects.
“You’ll see an episode there’s a mention of where Camille talks about something, a small character called Calhoun who was a Confederate soldier, that gets blown up to a bigger proportion,” Flynn revealed. “I don’t want to give anything more than that away, that we got to have some fun with. So, certain smaller moments, where you get to see more of Curry, who I’ve always loved for his love of Camille. Or of Camille’s editor, who we get to see more of his home life. It’s actually been an embarrassment of riches in that way.”
Sitting on a TCA panel puts Flynn on the other side of her earlier career as a journalist. Asked what advice she would give other reporters hoping to transition into fiction writing, Flynn was modest.
“Well, you work very hard,” Flynn said. “I wrote Sharp Objects and my second book when I had my day job as an Entertainment Weekly reporter and writer. So it clearly is good luck, I’ll tell you that much. I always say I would never have been a novelist ever and I also don’t think a screenwriter had I not had that training. That training came and demystified for me, the training of writing, because you have to sit down every day whether or not you’re in the mood for it. You learn that there’s no sort of goddess of gorgeous writing is going to come from on high. You just have to sit down with your coffee and your egg salad and get the work down.”
The journalism experience also gave Flynn valuable critical skills.
“Having spent all those years on the other side, getting paid to look at something and like, ‘Why is this so good?’ and getting paid for that was an invaluable lesson for me. So for me, I felt like I got a lot of years of that great training, of really looking and getting paid to look at TV and movies and I loved every day of my job. I was really lucky that I really loved my job and, being a pragmatic mid-Westerner, I’d probably still be there. They laid me off, actually. But I was always grateful for my time there.”
Whether you’re ready to say goodbye or not, the ending of The Originals will arrive on August 1, 2018. The series wraps up its five season run with episode 13 titled “When the Saints Go Marching In.” The show’s final episode was directed by Lance Anderson from a script by Jeffrey Lieber (story by series creator Julie Plec).
The fifth and final season of The Originals stars Joseph Morgan as Klaus, Daniel Gillies as Elijah, Yusuf Gatewood as Vincent, Steven Krueger as Josh, Charles Michael Davis as Marcel, Riley Voelkel as Freya, Phoebe Tonkin as Hayley, Danielle Rose Russell as Hope, Nathaniel Buzolic as Kol, Candice King as Caroline, and Claire Holt as Rebekah.
The “When the Saints Go Marching In” Plot: ALWAYS AND FOREVER — Intent on saving Hope’s (Danielle Rose Russell) life, Klaus’ (Joseph Morgan) plan will change the lives of the Mikaelson family forever.
The Season 5 Plot: The final season of The Originals begins seven years after the core members of the Mikaelson family – Klaus, Elijah, Rebekah and Kol — each absorb a quarter of the Hollow’s dark energy and flee New Orleans in order to keep both their beloved city and young Hope safe. In the interim, Vincent and Josh preside over a Big Easy almost devoid of conflict, while Hayley and Freya watch Hope grow into a teenager, eventually opting to send her to the Salvatore School so that Caroline can keep an eye on her.
With Marcel following Rebekah out of town and Elijah stripped of his memory, the danger seems to be contained… until a sudden tragedy forces the siblings to return home. As the Mikaelsons return to New Orleans, bringing the pieces of a centuries old evil with them, it becomes clear that the closing chapter of this family saga will be as bloody and emotional as ever.
Showtime has given the drama series The Affair a fifth and final season to wrap up storylines. The network today announced the fifth season will be the show’s last, and according to Showtime, ending after five seasons was always series creator Sarah Treem’s plan.
“We love the intimacy, the nuance, and the emotional honesty of The Affair’s subjective examination of both infidelity and fidelity,” stated Gary Levine, President of Programming, Showtime Networks Inc. “Sarah Treem has always envisioned this as a five-season series, and we will be fascinated to see where she takes her talented cast and all of us next year in its climactic season.”
Season four is currently airing on Sundays at 9pm ET/PT. The fourth season will conclude on August 19th.
Writers Guild Award winner Sarah Treem (House of Cards, In Treatment) writes and produces the series, and co-created the critically acclaimed drama with Hagai Levi (In Treatment). Treem also serves as the showrunner and executive produces with Levi and Jessica Rhoades.
The Season 4 Plot:The Affair explores the emotional and psychological effects of an affair that destroyed two marriages, and the crime that brings these individuals back together. Season four finds Noah (Golden Globe nominee Dominic West), Helen (Golden Globe winner Maura Tierney), Alison (Golden Globe winner Ruth Wilson) and Cole (Screen Actors Guild® Award nominee Joshua Jackson) in their own orbits, alienated from each other, spinning further and further away from where they all began.
Every character is involved in a new relationship, forcing them each to decide if they’re ready and willing to leave the past behind for good – with a season about new beginnings, tragic ends and the ever-elusive possibility of forgiveness.
Sanaa Lathan (Shots Fired) guest stars as Janelle, the tough-as-nails principal of the charter school where Noah teaches. Their professional relationship soon turns intimate and is further complicated by the presence of her brilliant, misunderstood son Antoine, a student in his class played by guest star Christopher Meyer (The Fosters). Ramon Rodriguez (Iron Fist) guest stars as Ben, a Marine veteran now employed by the VHA and Alison’s new love interest. Additional season four guest stars include Russell Hornsby (Grimm), Amy Irving (Yentl) and Phoebe Tonkin (The Vampire Diaries).
Magnolia Pictures and CNN Films have released the full trailer for the documentary, Love, Gilda. The film focuses on the life and career of Gilda Radner, best known for creating a memorable collection of characters (including Roseanne Roseannadanna) on NBC’s Saturday Night Live. The documentary was directed by Lisa D’Apolito and produced by Bronwyn Berry, Meryl Goldsmith, and James Tumminia.
Love, Gilda includes new footage of Radner as well as audio of the beloved comedian who passed away on May 20, 1989 of ovarian cancer.
The 86 minute film also includes appearances by Andrew Alexander, Anne Beatts, Chevy Chase, Bill Hader, Janis Hirsch, Judy Levy, Melissa McCarthy, Lorne Michaels, Laraine Newman, Marcus O’Hara, Amy Poehler, Michael Radner, Maya Rudolph, Stephen Schwartz, Paul Shaffer, Martin Short, Rosie Shuster, Cecily Strong, Jordan Walker-Perlman, Pam Zakheim, and Alan Zweibel.
Love, Gilda will open in theaters on September 21, 2018.
The Plot:Love, Gilda pens a unique window into the honest and whimsical world of beloved performer Gilda Radner, whose greatest role was sharing her story. Working with the Radner estate, D’Apolito unearthed a collection of diaries and personal audio and videotapes documenting her childhood, her comedy career, her relationships and ultimately, her struggles with cancer. These never-before-seen-or-heard footage and journal entries form the narrative spine of the documentary, allowing Gilda to tell her own story – through laughter and sometimes tears.
Amy Adams stars in the limited series, ‘Sharp Objects’ (Photo by Anne Marie Fox / HBO)
Gillian Flynn has another Amazing Amy on her side. Amy Adams stars in Sharp Objects, the adaptation of Flynn’s novel. Adams plays Camille, a reporter investigating a murder in her home town that hits even closer to home with her own personal trauma.
Amy Adams was on a 2018 Television Critics Association panel to discuss Sharp Objects. Perhaps the most striking aspect of Camille is the scars we see when she is in scenes by herself. Adams revealed how the scar makeup is applied.
“The makeup department did a lot of trial and error with that,” Adams said. ”It ended up being sort of a combination of silicone and glue. I know they went back in post. They went back and kind of highlighted what we needed to. We would do it for three hours, but the minute you put clothes on, it would start to get crazy and so like it would end up full of lint and sticking to things. Like, there’s a scene where she comes home drunk and we’re talking after the rose garden thing. I remember, I was just peeling the sweats off of my glue. It was so gross. I was like flypaper that day.”
Adams has played a wealth of characters in different scenarios, from a linguistic professor learning to speak to aliens, the painter Margaret Keane, a con artist in the ‘70s, a cult leader’s wife, a Disney princess, and a doubtful nun to name a few.
“With Camille, I think the thing that attracted me was that I hadn’t seen this particular hero, from a woman,” Adams said. “So that was really attractive to me. Gillian does such a great job at drawing those characters. But there isn’t one particular type of woman. If the voice feels specific, if I understand it, and if it feels true and if it doesn’t feel true, I can’t do it. Like, I don’t know how to do it.”
Camille’s reporting was winkingly called into question by reporters. Adams concurred that she’s a flawed heroine.
“She does a really good job person to person,” Adams said. “I think her drinking might get in the way of her recall. But, I do feel watching it and the way that it’s portrayed, she’s really good at sitting down with people, and making them feel safe while at the same time challenging them. And I think we’re getting to see that a little bit in the way she questions people. I think she could be better. How about that? I think she has potential. She doesn’t always bring out her tape recorder. I think she misses some steps. I’m aware of this. So, she has room for improvement. Is that fair? Would you guys agree? She’s not as good as Lois [Lane], but you know.”
In the three episodes that have aired, viewers have related closely to Sharp Objects’ portrayal of post traumatic stress and living with trauma.
“One of the things that’s been really nice is the reactions to an accurate telling of female trauma,” Adams said. “That felt very validating to me, because it is something that isn’t explored as often. We often make women the victims of something but Camille is also very active in this. So Marti [Noxon] and Gillian and Jean-Marc [Vallee] handled that in a really beautiful way.”
Working on those scenes has been harrowing, but Adams and her costars like Patricia Clarkson and Eliza Scanlen, along with the filmmakers get through them together.
“There’s a closeness that either existed or became during the shooting,” Adams said. “So that helped us through sort of the darkness of the subject matter. For me, family is the most grounding thing. So going home to my daughter and my husband and making dinner or doing something very domestic always helps me reground myself and get me back into my own reality. I had talked about that I had really bad insomnia and I would wake up with anxiety, and I’d have to realize that I didn’t own it. It belonged to Camille. So, I’d have these very insane conversations with myself at four o’clock in the morning, by trying to decide what was my anxiety and what was Camille’s and what I needed to let go of and what could work the next day, so…”
