Eoin Macken as T.C. Callahan in ‘The Night Shift’ (Photo by Cathy Kanavy / NBC)
NBC has given the medical drama The Night Shift a fourth season order. Season three averaged 6.8 million viewers, earning it the number one spot among summer dramas airing on the NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox. The series is written and executive produced by Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah (Freaks and Geeks, Diary of a Wimpy Kid), and stars Eoin Macken, Jill Flint, Brendan Fehr, Robert Bailey Jr., JR Lemon, Tanaya Beatty and Scott Wolf.
Announcing the renewal, NBC Entertainment President Jennifer Salke stated, “Week after week The Night Shift tells incredibly engaging and emotional stories that draw us into a unique world. We are delighted to renew the show for an exciting fourth season and look forward to continue working with such a great cast and executive producing team.”
The Season 3 Plot: The night shift team of doctors and nurses at San Antonio Memorial’s emergency room are anything but ordinary. The risks they take to save lives straddle the line between heroic and impulsive, but are always worth it. Season three picks up four months after season two and the crew is navigating wildly different paths. Relationships are changing, new doctors are arriving and everyone is looking at their lives from a fresh perspective. As TC and Jordan still struggle with the line between their personal and professional relationship, our heroes throw themselves into their life-saving work.
Newlywed Drew Alister (Fehr) is now stationed in Afghanistan, where he meets the accomplished Dr. Syd Jennings (Jennifer Beals). A fearless major in the Army, Syd has worked with the Cultural Support Team in conjunction with Ranger and Special Forces units. Surgeon Scott Clemmens (Wolf) continues to feel the emotional and financial effects of his tragic car accident that left a young man paralyzed. Under Scott’s tutelage, Paul Cummings (Robert Bailey Jr.) starts his surgical residency this season, but has to watch out for the spunky and outspoken new intern, Shannon Rivera (Beatty). Shannon was recruited by Jordan after impressing her at a reservation clinic.
Topher, who is fully recovered from his season-one injuries and bored with the administrative aspects of his job, looks for more adventure in his work while still balancing his duties as a husband and father. Charge nurse Kenny Fournette (Lemon) continues his relationship with Gwen (Merle Dandridge) while making sure the ER is running in top form.
Felicity Jones and Diego Luna star in ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.’
A new behind-the-scenes featurette has arrived for the stand-alone Star Wars movie, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The new video features the cast and director briefly talking about being a part of the Star Wars world and working on Rogue One. Directed by Gareth Edwards (Godzilla), Rogue One stars Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Riz Ahmed, Jiang Wen, and Forest Whitaker. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story arrives in theaters on December 16, 2016 in 3D, RealD 3D and IMAX 3D.
The Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Plot: From Lucasfilm comes the first of the Star Wars standalone films, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, an all-new epic adventure. In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire’s ultimate weapon of destruction. This key event in the Star Wars timeline brings together ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, and in doing so, become part of something greater than themselves.
John Oliver on ‘Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’ (Photo by Eric Liebowitz/HBO)
HBO has confirmed the 2017 premiere dates for new seasons of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and Girls. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver will return for its fourth season on Sunday, February 12th at 11pm ET/PT. Oliver, of course, returns as host and executive produces the award-winning series along with Tim Carvell, Liz Stanton, Jon Thoday, and James Taylor. HBO’s Last Week Tonight is the only news show airing on Sunday nights and features John Oliver skewering the previous week’s political and current events while tackling important topics ignored by other news shows.
Girls will kick off its sixth and final season on February 12th at 10pm ET/PT. The critically acclaimed Emmy-winning series was created by Lena Dunham and stars Dunham, Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke, Zosia Mamet, Adam Driver, Alex Karpovsky, Andrew Rannells, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. Dunham also executive produces with Judd Apatow, Jenni Konner, Ilene S. Landress, Murray Miller, and Bruce Eric Kaplan.
HBO also revealed the new half-hour comedy Crashing will premiere on Sunday, February 19th at 10:30pm ET/PT. The cast is led by series creator Peter Holmes and includes Artie Lange, Lauren Lapkus, and T.J. Miller. Holmes and Judd Apatow executive produce the comedy which finds Holmes playing a standup comic “who discovers that his wife is unfaithful, leading him to reevaluate his life amidst the New York City comedy scene.”
Kiefer Sutherland stars in ‘Designated Survivor’ (ABC/Ben Mark Holzberg)
“You ever get that weird feeling when you think someone is lying to you?” asks Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) to his wife, Alex (Natascha McElhone), about the deputy director of the FBI after a meeting where he failed to inform the President of any real new leads in the death of terrorist Nassar in ABC’s political thriller series, Designated Survivor.
As episode seven of season one begins, Agent Wells (Maggie Q) and her boss, Atwood (Malik Yoba), are at the crime scene still dealing with the shock of Nassar’s death. Both know it was murder and have agents collecting evidence, but doubt they will find anything.
At the White House, President Kirkman is delivering a speech about the Yankees playing baseball after 9/11 and how it helped the country take a break from despair and grieving, and how important it was in helping the nation start to heal. With that in mind, he’s decided to send the USA Track & Field team to Moscow for an international competition. After the speech, Kirkman pulls aside Coach Weston for a private conversation on leadership and how Kirkman is a big fan of Weston’s. The coach reminds the President that real leaders aren’t born but made.
Just as Kirkman is really starting to enjoy himself, he’s pulled away to have dinner with MacLeish (Ashley Zukerman) and his wife. The dinner is going well when once again Kirkman is pulled away by Aaron (Adan Canto) to deal with a situation. Aaron informs the President about Nassar’s death and about the FBI investigation. Then comes word that Coach Weston has been arrested by the Russian police for a possible doping scandal involving the whole team. Not believing the charges, Kirkman orders the State Department to investigate.
At FBI headquarters, Agent Wells is telling Atwood that MacLeish is getting very close to being the Vice President, and the president has asked them to vet him. She points out that MacLeish is closely linked to the bombing and he needs to tell the president what they suspect. Atwood makes an appointment to see Kirkman.
The next day when Atwood walks into the Oval Office to meet with the Commander in Chief, he’s unpleasantly surprised to see MacLeish there as well. The president asked him to sit in on the meeting and Atwood, realizing he can’t discuss the details now, basically goes into bureaucrat mode and stays vague with his answers, saying to Kirkman, “We’re still looking into things, sir.” This annoys and confuses Kirkman who was under the assumption the FBI had some real leads as to who killed Nassar. He tells Atwood to reschedule with him as soon as he has some progress – and it better be soon.
MacLeish shows up at Atwood’s office later, offering him the last seven years in tax returns and other papers to hopefully help speed up the vetting process. Atwood thanks him but tells him the FBI will do its job of checking everything about him. The two men give each other looks as though they both know the other is on to them. This is when Agent Wells reaches out to a CIA contact friend of hers and drops the name “Catalan,” which causes him to get very concerned. He tells her, for her own sake, to drop it and leaves.
Back at the White House, Kirkman meets with the Russian ambassador to try to find a solution. The meeting goes nowhere after the ambassador asks for an impossible trade of nuclear base weapons for Weston. The CIA reaches out to the president and informs him that they need to get Weston back because he’s actually a spy. (And the hits just keep on coming!) Kirkman finally comes up with a solution that should work for everyone. He offers the Russian ambassador and a Saudi Arabia representative a “transnational three-way-trade” which everyone agrees to. Crisis solved? No, not just yet. It seems Weston elects to stay in Russia and surprise, surprise, it turns out he’s really a double agent.
Meanwhile, Seth (Kal Penn) keeps asking for five minutes with the president to go over something personal. After getting blown off by Aaron twice, he stresses that it’s not personal for him – it’s about the first family. He gets his five minutes with Aaron, Emily (Italia Ricci), and President Kirkman and brings them up to speed about the young reporter who wants a statement about the first son NOT being Kirkman’s son but rather Alex’s boyfriend from just before Tom and Alex started dating. Kirkman finds out from Aaron that the first lady already knows about this issue and told Aaron she would speak to Tom about it. This causes a small fight between Tom and Alex about her not telling him and Alex saying there was never the right time. Soon, however, Tom admits Leo has the right to know who his father really is. Alex hugs him and says over and over again that Tom is his father. (Tom never took a test when Alex got pregnant because he didn’t want to know and just accepted that Leo was his own son.) Alex even goes to the prison to see her old boyfriend to get him to stop and he says he will if the president gets him early parole.
Thankfully, Seth is able to make a deal with the reporter appealing to her decent side by saying that the first family are good, decent people and that Leo doesn’t deserve to have his world turned upside down. He also offers her an exclusive story about a recent spy incident the president handled, and she’s ready to forget her sleazy story.
Kirkman meets once again with the Russian ambassador and congratulates him on his win by tricking him about Weston. As the cocky Russian is leaving, Kirkman says to him, “There’s nothing more dangerous than a pawn that thinks it’s a queen.”
Atwood gets a call from his wife, upset that she can’t find their son, and he tells her to call the police and to go home in case their son shows up. Atwood leaves work and searches the town for his son, calling Wells to tell her he suspects whoever is backing MacLeish just kidnapped his son. This prompts Wells to reach out to her CIA contact again, telling him she needs whatever he can get her on Catalan. The contact tells her he’s a very dangerous traitor and to drop it, but she’s adamant. He tells Wells he’ll see what he can do. Later in the parking garage of the FBI, Wells finds a package in her car that contains the identity of Catalan. His real name is Nestor Lozano and she remembers seeing him back at the fort where Nassar was being held. She calls Atwood but the call goes to voicemail.
The last scene of the episode is with Atwood checking the park for his son. He’s approached by a mysterious woman who tells him his son is being held captive, and she shows him a photo of him on her phone as proof. She tells Atwood that she’ll let him go unharmed but only under a few conditions. First, he tells no one about it and, second, he will make an appointment with the president and do whatever it is she instructs him to do. If he doesn’t agree, his son dies.
Designated Survivor Episode 7 Review:
Dramatic, engaging, and with two interesting twists, episode seven titled “The Traitor” heightens the tension in the political thriller series while broadening the domestic storyline of the Kirkman family. The surprise that Coach Weston turned out to be a double agent and that Kirkman had been played by the Russians was a creative and smart twist to what seemed to be a simple international misunderstanding.
The stand-out performance in this episode goes to Malik Yoba as FBI Deputy Director Atwood, the victim of two blindsides. The first occurs when he enters the Oval Office prepared to bring the president up to speed on their suspicions of MacLeish only to discover he’s sitting in the room and has to play dumb. The second blindside comes when he discovers his son is missing. The panic and fear he shows when he finds out his son has gone missing feel geniune. Yoba really does shine in this episode, and the panic and fear he displays when he learns about his son is genuinely heart-wrenching to watch.
With Atwood’s son in the hands of whoever is behind the attack on the Capitol, MacLeish getting closer to becoming VP, and Agent Wells finally with a solid lead, things should get very intense and deadly in the next few episodes.
Neil Patrick Harris, Malina Weissman, and Louis Hynes in ‘Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events’ (Photo Credit: Joe Lederer / Netflix)
Netflix has unveiled the first full official trailer for the upcoming series Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. The series, based on the bestselling books, is set to premiere on Netflix on January 13, 2017. The cast is led by Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf and includes Patrick Warburton (Lemony Snicket), Malina Weissman (Violet), Louis Hynes (Klaus), Presley Smith (Sunny), Joan Cusack (Justice Strauss), Alfre Woodard (Aunt Josephine), Catherine O’Hara (Dr. Orwell), K. Todd Freeman (Mr. Poe), Aasif Maandvi (Uncle Monty), and Don Johnson (Sir). The author of the Lemony Snicket books, Daniel Handler, created the series and executive produces along with Barry Sonnenfeld (Pushing Daisies).
“If you are interested in stories with happy endings, then you would be better off somewhere else.” — Lemony Snicket
The Lemony Snicket’s Plot:Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events chronicles the turbulent lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire after their parents’ untimely death in a fire. A careless oversight initially places the children in the custody of a distant relative named Count Olaf, a mysterious and devious figure who is seeking fortune by way of stealing their inheritance. After his elaborate plans are foiled and his evil intentions are revealed, Count Olaf (Harris) employs a variety of outlandish disguises to situate himself in the children’s path, causing mayhem for the Baudelaire’s and their subsequent guardians. As the children manage to evade Count Olaf’s scheming attempts to steal their fortune, they pick up clues along the way about their parents’ past.
Paramount Pictures just released a new trailer and poster for Monster Trucks starring MacGyver‘s Lucas Till. The new trailer is similar to other teasers, but it does show off a little more of the ‘monster’ part of the film’s title. Directed by Chris Wedge (Epic, Robots), the cast of the kid-friendly film also includes Jane Levy, Holt McCallany, Barry Pepper, Tucker Albrizzi, Danny Glover, Amy Ryan, Rob Lowe, Frank Whaley, and Thomas Lennon. Paramount is targeting a January 13, 2017 theatrical release.
The Monster Trucks Plot: Looking for any way to get away from the life and town he was born into, Tripp (Lucas Till), a high school senior, builds a Monster Truck from bits and pieces of scrapped cars. After an accident at a nearby oil-drilling site displaces a strange and subterranean creature with a taste and a talent for speed, Tripp may have just found the key to getting out of town and a most unlikely friend.
Sarah Paulson in FX’s ‘American Horror Story’ season six finale.
FX’s American Horror Story season six came to an end on November 16, 2016 with a super twisted season finale that buried The Butcher’s hatchet in a few more unsuspecting victims. Episode 10 provided shocks, surprises, blood, death, and the burning of the Roanoke house to help out long-dead Priscilla. The best season since the first began its finale with an audience cheering the cast and producer of My Roanoke Nightmare as they take the stage at Paleyfest 2016. They discuss the characters and hint about a second season, Agnes (Kathy Bates) says she’d love to come back for another season, and Rory (Evan Peters) is an audience favorite. Fans have traveled hundreds of miles to attend the Q&A and every answer is greeted with a roar of applause. Fans wear pig masks, carry fake butcher knives, and are really into being with the My Roanoke Nightmare stars.
Fast forward a year and one of the fans from the Q&A posts a YouTube video trashing the show’s second season. She calls it exploitative and crass, and she doesn’t care it got even higher ratings than My Roanoke Nightmare. Viewers debated whether it was real or fake, and it turned out everyone actually did die with the exception of Lee. Lee (Adina Porter) was put on trial for murder, so she didn’t get away from the experience without her own emotional scars.
A Dateline-type series called crack’d airs an episode focusing on Lee, her husband, and their daughter, Flora. Footage is shown from My Roanoke Nightmare, and the crack’d special confirms police suspected her of Mason’s murder from the very beginning but the evidence was just circumstantial. District Attorney Mark Phillips knew Lee killed Mason in cold blood, but he had to hold off arresting her until there was enough evidence. Meanwhile, she became famous and made money from My Roanoke Nightmare. Fortunately, the evidence came in the form of footage from season two that shows Lee committing multiple murders.
The trial would appear to be a slam dunk, however evidence was introduced that the pot at the Polk farm was highly hallucinogenic and Lee was probably seeing things. Plus, the jury watched all of the footage of Lee being grotesquely tortured by the Polks while tied up. The jury was sympathetic and thought she didn’t know what she was doing, and so she was acquitted. The DA didn’t want to see Lee get off scot free and opted to go after her for the murder of Mason. The videotaped confession, security footage from the house, and phone records indicating Lee and Mason spoke that night made for a strong case. But the cherry on the top was the reveal of an eye witness to Mason’s murder. The DA called to the stand Flora Harris who saw her mom and dad fighting. They were arguing about Flora and Mason wanted to go to the police, but her mom hit him with a rock, repeatedly.
On cross examination, Lee’s attorney gets Flora to admit she wanted to be out in the woods with the ghost girl, Priscilla. She felt safer with Priscilla than with her mom or dad, and the defense attorney argues the girl has a vivid imagination and was affected by her parents’ divorce. Lee’s videotaped confession was just a way to stop the kidnapper from torturing her, and maybe Flora saw the tape and created false memories. The defense attorney believes Lee might not be a good mother, but she’s not a murderer.
The jury returns after 16 days of deliberations and finds Lee not guilty. The DA says this verdict was the hardest to swallow of his career.
Following her second acquittal, Lee became a polarizing figure and also a highly paid speaker. After two trials, questions remain about Lee’s involvement in the murders. Journalist Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson) comes out of retirement to interview Lee in a live TV broadcast that Lana promises will be unfiltered. (There isn’t any explanation as to why Lana looks like an older version of Audrey Tindall.)
Lana’s first question is about Lee’s mental state, and Lee says it’s Flora who is keeping her alive. Lee attributes the joy of seeing Flora to what keeps her going. She’ll be heading back to court to fight Mason’s family for Flora, even though she was acquitted. Lana reminds her the public will always associate her with the deaths of three innocent people, as well as her husband’s murder, since the tapes exist showing her involvement. Lana then asks why she agreed to this interview after turning everyone else down, and Lee says she did it because of who Lana is. Lana killed her own son, a psychopathic murderer. Lee’s hoping Flora is watching the special and Lana asks her to talk directly into the camera to Flora.
Lee tells Flora she loves her and won’t give up. She wants them to be back together again, and she feels better after addressing her daughter. Then another shocker arrives: Lana asks where Flora is because she went missing an hour before the interview began. Lee gets upset and claims to have no idea what Lana’s talking about. Lana tells Lee to settle down as she gets up to go find her daughter, and just then the sound of gunfire can be heard outside the building. The remaining Polk brother, Lot, comes in the room and kills at least one person. Lana tries to talk him down, but he wants to kill Lee. Lana explains they’re on live TV right now and he can tell his story to the whole world. Lana asks him to put the gun down and tell the world his side of the story but instead he knocks her out with the gun and tells Lee time’s up. He’s shot multiple times before he can shoot Lee, and the live broadcast is abruptly taken off the air.
The next shot is an onscreen warning: “After much consideration and the approval of surviving members, this network has decided to air the controversial November 18th episode of Spirit Chasers.”
Spirit Chasers is a ghost-hunting show and an episode is being filmed at the Roanoke house. There’s graffiti inside the house when the Chasers visit the place accompanied by Ashley Gilbert (Leslie Jordan) who played Cricket in My Roanoke Nightmare. He knows the house and is there to help the team with their investigation during the blood moon. The Chasers – Bob Kinnaman and Dave Elder – explain the house is either a fraud or the most haunted house in America. Every show wanted in on investigating the house, but the owners denied all requests. The Spirit Chasers decided to cut through the fence and investigate anyway without permission.
Tech manager Tracy Logan explains they’ve set up full spectrum cameras throughout the house.
Bob asks why Ashley wasn’t part of season two, and he says Sidney didn’t ask him which turned out to be a good thing after all. As night falls, the Spirit Chasers team begin to record high readings on their equipment. They check out the places where cast members died and suddenly a sheet floats through the air on its own. Loud noises are heard and the team freaks out a bit, talking about the energy change from day to night. Ashley finds a bonnet but it’s a real one and not a costume from the show. A movement outside catches their attention and then without notice Lee’s in the house with them.
Lee wants to know what they’re doing there and claims she’s there for her daughter. She tells them they’re stupid and deserve to die for being there during the blood moon, then she notices Ashley’s holding Priscilla’s bonnet. She starts frantically searching the rooms and the Spirit Chasers team want to help, but she doesn’t want their assistance. Lee tells them to leave now because the house will rip them apart. After she’s done shouting, they hear a crash and a cabinet has been pushed to the floor. They check the video and see the ghost of one of the Chins on the wall and they hear a creepy voice in the master bedroom.
The Spirit Chasers refuse to leave and instead follow Lee around the house. Doors close, spirits appear in the thermal camera, and then the Pig Man arrives and kills Ashley. Tracy and Dave run and lock themselves in a room, but a Chin hauls Dave up the wall.
Bob and a camera man spot the twin nurses and freak out. Now they believe Lee and know it’s time to leave. Tracy joins Bob and the camera man and they run outside as cop cars pull up. Tracy spots a line of torches in the woods and when Bob turns to look for her, she’s not there. Tracy’s killed by The Butcher, and the cops and Bob die when they are shot with arrows.
Back inside the house, the thermal camera shows Lee still searching for Flora. The camera catches Flora entering the room, saying, “Mama.”
The next day the police surround the Roanoke house and Lee is inside holding her daughter hostage. The news reports it’s a stand-off, and William Van Henderson (Denis O’Hare) who played Dr. Elias Cunningham in season one, tells a reporter what he knows about Lee. He wants to make it clear it was his decision to not return for season two.
Another reporter interviews Lana Winters about Lee. Lana’s home from the hospital and she informs the reporter that she understands Lee, and that they both have the capacity to be of singular thought. She believes Lee will do anything to get Flora back. “It’s always been about Flora,” says Lana.
Inside the house, Lee and Flora are talking while Flora’s drawing on the floor. Lee tries to describe to her young daughter what it’s like to be a parent. Flora knows Lee killed Mason and Lee admits it, saying Mason didn’t understand Flora needed her mother. She apologizes for what she’s done and tries to convince her child that her whole purpose in life is to take care of her. She wants Flora to walk out of the house with her, but Priscilla wants her to stay. Flora wants to burn the house to the ground to save Priscilla from The Butcher, but Lee forbids her from doing it. Then Lee volunteers to stay and look after Priscilla since she’s fought The Butcher off twice. She wants Flora to leave and let Priscilla kill her so she can stay and take care of her like a mom. The catch: Flora can’t visit them during the blood moon. Flora asks Priscilla if that’s okay.
Night falls and smoke rises from the house. The SWAT team and officers advance as Flora walks out on her own. Inside, Lee hands Priscilla her gun, aiming it at her own chest. The house explodes after Lee tells Priscilla it’s going to be okay.
It turns out the sole survivor of My Roanoke Nightmare is Flora. She takes a seat in the back of the police car and sees Lee and Priscilla together outside the house. They hold hands and walk away while in the forest, The Butcher and her people advance on the house as the cops and fire fighters are still outside.
Colin O’Donoghue and Jennifer Morrison in ‘Once Upon a Time’ season 6 episode 9 (Photo by Jack Rowand/ABC)
Unfortunately for fans of ABC’s Once Upon a Time, the show’s taking a brief break between season six episodes eight and nine. Fortunately, the break is only for one week. Episode nine titled ‘Changelings’ will premiere on November 27 at 8pm ET/PT and will finally reveal why Rumple hates fairies. The Evil Queen will also have to face off against Zelena, and episode nine continues the story of Princess Jasmine and Aladdin. Brian Ridings and David H. Goodman wrote the script and Mairzee Almas directed the episode.
The season six cast includes Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White/Mary Margaret, Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan, Lana Parrilla as the Evil Queen/Regina, Josh Dallas as Prince Charming/David, Emilie de Ravin as Belle, Colin O’Donoghue as Hook, Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills, Rebecca Mader as the Wicked Witch/Zelena, and Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold. Guest starring on episode nine are Karen David as Princess Jasmine, Deniz Akdeniz as Aladdin, Keegan Connor Tracy as Mother Superior/Blue Fairy, Beverly Elliott as Granny, Giles Matthey as Son, Nick Hunnings as Jack, Tammy Gillis as Jill, Jaime Murray as Black Fairy, Edwina Shuster as Aged Nun, and Jacky Lai as Novice Fairy.
The ‘Changelings’ Plot: In a Fairy Tale Land flashback, Rumple collects Jack and Jill’s son as bait to lure a powerful being to him. Back in Storybrooke, Gold tells the Evil Queen that she must kill Zelena, and the EQ makes a decision that will change her relationship with her sister forever. When Belle discovers Gold’s plans for their son, she convinces Hook and Emma to help her steal squid ink that can immobilize him, and, as a result, Belle is left to make a sacrifice that will affect the lives of everyone in Storybrooke. Meanwhile, Jasmine finds a genie-less lamp that she hopes to use to save Agrabah, and Aladdin finds a way to be her hero.
Rebecca Mader in ‘Once Upon a Time (Photo by Jack Rowand/ABC)Emilie de Ravin, Colin O’Donoghue and Jennifer Morrison in ‘Once Upon a Time (Photo by Jack Rowand/ABC)Lana Parrilla in ‘Once Upon a Time’ (Photo by Jack Rowand/ABC)
Warner Bros Pictures and Legendary Pictures debuted a new trailer for the action film Kong: Skull Island, described as a reimagining of the classic King Kong story. The Kings of Summer‘s Jordan Vogt-Roberts directs from a script by Max Borenstein, John Gatins, Dan Gilroy, and Derek Connolly. Tom Hiddleston leads the cast that includes Brie Larson, Samuel L Jackson, John Goodman, and John C Reilly. Tian Jing, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Thomas Mann, Shea Whigham, Toby Kebbell, and Eugene Cordero are also part of the ensemble cast.
Warner Bros Pictures is targeting a March 10, 2017 theatrical release in 2D, 3D, and IMAX.
Filming took place on three continents over six months, with some locations never before used in a feature film. The production kicked off in October 2015 in Oahu and then moved to Australia before finishing up in Vietnam.
The Plot: In Kong: Skull Island, a diverse team of explorers is brought together to venture deep into an uncharted island in the Pacific – as beautiful as it is treacherous – unaware that they’re crossing into the domain of the mythic Kong.
History’s critically acclaimed Vikings will return for the second half of season four on November 30, 2016, and in support of the upcoming premiere Katheryn Winnick participated in a conference call to discuss what’s in store for her character, Lagertha. 99% of the conference call focused on Vikings, however Winnick was also asked a question about a project she managed to star in during her limited downtime from Vikings. Winnick has the much-anticipated The Dark Tower heading to theaters in 2017, and Sony just confirmed it’s now moved off of a February release date to July 28, 2017.
The cast is led by Idris Elba as Roland Deschain and includes Matthew McConaughey as Randall Flagg (aka The Man in Black), Tom Taylor as Jake Chambers, Abbey Lee as Tirana, and Fran Kranz as Pimli. Winnick’s character hasn’t been revealed, however during the conference call she came close to accidentally letting it slip.
“I play a character that’s in the novels as well,” offered Winnick. “I assume I’m not allowed to talk about who I play. (Laughing) I was this/close about giving it away! That was almost a massive slip-up. But I will say this, I have some great scenes with Matthew McConaughey who I love working with. I worked with him years and years ago on Failure to Launch – one of my very first movies. So, it was nice to reunite with him. He plays a very interesting character.”
There was just barely time to fit in the role after Vikings wrapped up, but Winnick managed to pull it off. The film was shot in Cape Town during her hiatus. “It was an amazing experience,” said Winnick. “I only had less than two months of a break in between so it just luckily worked out, in terms of scheduling. I went straight from the end of season four straight to Toronto to visit my family and two days later I was on a plane to Cape Town. So, it was really quick. I know that they’ve been trying to get this movie made for over eight years. Ron Howard’s producing it. Idris Elba is starring in it, and Matthew McConaughey also. We’ve got an incredible young cast as well.”
Winnick added, “We’ve got an incredible director (Nikolaj Arcel) who’s really hands on with the actors and really has his own vision, his voice behind the camera and how he wants the film to be really authentic and real even though it has more mystical elements. But I think fans are going to absolutely love it.”
Winnick is aware of discussions taking place about the future of The Dark Tower franchise, but she hasn’t heard anything definite. “I know that there are talks of doing a TV show now and possibly more movies. I know that I had an incredible experience working on it, and it’s just going to be amazing when it comes out. I believe the date now is in July. I’m excited to see it in theaters and I’m sure you guys will too.”
Before returning to all things Vikings, Winnick added one final The Dark Tower statement: “I play a character that’s extremely different than Lagertha – I will say that!”
