NBC just tweeted out the news that Grimm will end after completing its sixth season. That’s bad news for Grimmsters (and the talented cast and crew), but it’s not totally unexpected. NBC had only given the series a shortened sixth season so the writing was definitely on the wall. The network also announced the sixth and final season will premiere on January 6, 2017 at 8pm ET/PT.
Season five averaged 6.4 million viewers and according to NBC was “one of the most time-shifted series on the broadcast networks, growing by an average of +90% in adult 18-49 rating (from a 0.91 to a 1.73) and more than 2.4 million viewers overall (3.9 million to 6.4 million) going from ‘live plus same day’ to ‘live plus seven day’ Nielsens.” Grimm was created by David Greenwalt, Jim Kouf and Stephen Carpenter and stars David Giuntoli, Claire Coffee, Sasha Roiz, Russell Hornsby, Bitsie Tulloch, Silas Weir Mitchell, Reggie Lee, and Bree Turner.
A Look Back at the Season Five Plot: As the nefarious forces of Black Claw take hold of Portland, Nick (David Giuntoli) must take a stand to protect his city and those closest to him, especially his child with Adalind (Claire Coffee). It will take the full force of Nick and his allies to find a way to bring the Wesen uprising to a halt. Now that Capt. Sean Renard (Sasha Roiz) is poised to make his move to power, his allegiance to Nick will be tested and he will consider drastic measures to ensure his place of authority.
A Look Ahead to Season Six: As for events leading into the final season, the nefarious forces of Black Claw have been silenced and Nick (David Giuntoli) faces an all too familiar foe in Capt. Sean Renard (Sasha Roiz). Now in the seat of power as the mayor elect of Portland, Renard is poised to bring rise to his own brand of law and order. Nick must take a stand to protect his city and those closest to him, especially his child with Adalind (Claire Coffee). It will take the full force of Nick and his allies to find a way to bring the peace.
Meanwhile, Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) and Rosalee (Bree Turner) grapple with bringing a child into a new and tumultuous world, and Eve (Bitsie Tulloch) faces unsettling identity issues as her former self lurks below the surface.
The voice cast of Fox’s critically acclaimed animated comedy series Bob’s Burgers took part in the 2016 San Diego Comic Con, taking questions from fans of the series and sitting down for roundtable interviews. H. Jon Benjamin (Bob Belcher), John Roberts (Linda Belcher), and Eugene Mirman (Gene Belcher) teamed up for the interviews in support of the show’s upcoming seventh season premiering on September 25, 2016. Mirman, Roberts, and Benjamin provided the scoop on favorite episodes, Bob’s Burgers songs, and how the comedy series maintains its sweet, family-friendly tone.
H Jon Benjamin, John Roberts and Eugene Mirman Interview:
What do you think about the evolution of incorporating more music into episodes?
H. Jon Benjamin: “I think people really like it and so I think they’re kind of doing it more because it’s working. Loren Bouchard, the creator of the show, has always been really musical. I feel like they love writing songs.”
Eugene Mirman: “As someone who can’t sing, I really enjoy that Loren writes these songs and then I get to do these songs with Loren, and that I get to sing even though I can’t in any other context.”
H. Jon Benjamin: “Yeah, it’s a good evolution. At some point I feel like it will just be a total musical.”
Eugene Mirman: “Yeah, Bob’s Burgers is just like a precursor to Hamilton.”
Do you have a favorite episode?
John Roberts: “Out of every episode? Probably ‘Eat, Spray, Linda’ which was a big Linda episode.”
H. Jon Benjamin: “Totally self-involved.”
John Roberts: (Laughing) “Totally self-involved. It’s a Linda-centric one. I’m not going to pick a stupid Bob one.”
H. Jon Benjamin: “They’re a little boring, but they’re more thoughtful.”
John Roberts: “Well, not really.”
Eugene Mirman: “I like the one where I befriend Jon Hamm the talking toilet.”
John Roberts: (Laughing) “See? Selfish.”
H. Jon Benjamin: “What did I like? The recent one with Bob and Louise singing a duet.”
Eugene Mirman: “Yes! The one where you’re trapped in a toilet. That was really great.”
H. Jon Benjamin: “You remember the songs – they were great.”
John Roberts: “‘Wonder Wharf’ was good. That was a fun song to sing. (Laughing) It was 007-esque.”
Have there been any scenes that have been particularly hard to get through without breaking down laughing?
Eugene Mirman: “There’s definitely scenes where we break down laughing, but the truth is it’s audio and we’re recording almost a year ahead of time so you can redo stuff. We often will if we break down laughing, and often we are trying to get each other to laugh. But, you can just redo something.”
H. Jon Benjamin: “John does a lot of potty talk and dirty words.”
John Roberts: “A lot of f-bombs…”
H. Jon Benjamin: “…which are never funny.”
John Roberts: “But they feel good.”
Eugene Mirman: “Those are mostly cut out of the show, as you’ll notice.”
What do you think about Bob’s Burgers cosplays?
John Roberts: “I love seeing all the Linda…it’s all about me. (Laughing) It’s all about Linda! No, I just saw an amazing Tina, actually. But, I like when people quote lines or sing our songs.”
What lines do they usually quote to you?
John Roberts: “Well, I’ll tell you. Zachary Quinto just did a dubsmash and he did Linda in his Spock outfit. That was really awesome. I loved that. That was really cool.”
If you could voice a different character on the show, who would you pick?
John Roberts: “Gene, because he’s musical.”
Eugene Mirman: “And me, maybe Bob?”
John Roberts: “You’d be a good Bob.”
How do you think it is Bob’s Burgers is able to maintain being such a family-friendly, sweet sort of animated comedy vibe?
John Roberts: “Well, I guess because we already have a Family Guy they didn’t want to set out to do another Family Guy.”
Eugene Mirman: “Also, first of all I think it’s Loren and Jim Dauterive making that as the direction. But really it’s that the family is very warm and loving. We tease each other like a family would, but you really get the sense of the real warmth and the real connection. And then from there everybody has their own idiosyncrasies but they all support each other. Linda supports all of her kids and it’s very sweet. So, I think that there’s a sweetness and it’s still funny and weird and idiosyncratic.”
John Roberts: “Yeah. The characters almost make fun of themselves in a way or the audience is in on the joke that is related to the quirkiness of these characters. Those characters are pretty grounded in some really fun real humor things that human beings have. I mean, it’s a different show. And Loren is a very classy guy and he likes to keep a certain tone, and it’s great.”
Has there been anything in the scripts that takes you by surprise, like one joke in particular that sticks with you?
Eugene Mirman: “There’s a joke that you did in an episode – I feel like it aired – where all the clocks have stopped. It still makes me laugh. Linda’s like, ‘Oh my god! All the clocks have stopped at 3:15,’ in a room full of clocks. And then all of a sudden it just moves to 3:16 and she’s like, ‘Oh. Oh no, it’s just that it’s 3:16. The clocks are fine.'”
John Roberts: “She thought something sinister was going on.”
Eugene Mirman: “Somebody had died at a certain time and then it turned out that it was just 3:15. But that joke makes me laugh a lot still.”
John Roberts: “It’s just Linda being so dramatic and then so stupid at the same time. (Laughing) Like me…”
Did you relate to Gene as a kid? Were you like Gene at all?
Eugene Mirman: “I feel like Gene is the idealized version of me as a kid. Gene is much more comfortable with who he is than I was probably as a kid. Gene isn’t as much what I was like as a kid as much as what I’d be like if I was a kid now.”
John Ajvide Lindqvist’s bestselling vampire novel Let the Right One In has spawned two feature films and now will provide the source material for a TV series coming to TNT. The network confirmed it greenlit a new series based on the novel, with Teen Wolf‘s Jeff Davis writing the pilot and executive producing along with Aquarius‘ Marty Adelstein, Last Man Standing‘s Becky Clements, Let Me In‘s Simon Oakes, Carl Molinder (who produced both the Let the Right One In and Let Me In films), and Dark Places‘ Alex Brunner. The series is being produced by Tomorrow Studios.
TNT hasn’t announced when we can expect to see the pilot or any casting details.
“Let the Right One In combines elements of horror, revenge thriller and adolescent romance into an unforgettable and truly unsettling tale,” stated Sarah Aubrey, executive vice president of original programming for TNT. “This novel is a watershed of rich storytelling, making it an abundant source from which Jeff, Marty, Becky and Simon will bring to life in this all-new adaptation.”
“TNT has amassed an incredible slate of programming and we are thrilled to extend our relationship with them,” said Adelstein, CEO of Tomorrow Studios. “Their collaboration and shared enthusiasm for bringing Let the Right One In to the U.S. TV audience is incredibly exciting to all of us.”
The Plot:Let the Right One In is an eerie drama about a young boy, long tormented by his classmates, who finds solace in a friendship with a charismatic female vampire who appears to be near his age. The vampire settles into the boy’s small Vermont town with her mysterious caretaker, just as a series of bizarre murders begins attracting the attention of law enforcement.
The CW has unveiled new 2016 posters for season two of Supergirl, No Tomorrow, and Frequency. Frequency, based on the 2000 movie starring Jim Caviezel and Dennis Quaid, will be joining The CW primetime lineup on October 5th at 9pm ET/PT. No Tomorrow with Joshua Sasse and Tori Anderson is set to debut on October 4th at 9pm ET/PT, and Supergirl season two starring Melissa Benoist will kick off on October 10th at 8pm ET/PT.
Frequency starring Peyton List, Riley Smith, Devin Kelley, and Mekhi Phifer is executive produced by Supernatural‘s Jeremy Carver, Toby Emmerich, John Rickard, Dan Lin, and Jennifer Gwartz. In addition to Sasse and Anderson, No Tomorrow stars Jesse Rath, Amy Pietz, Jonathan Langdon, and Sarayu Blue. And Supergirl season two will introduce Tyler Hoechlin as Superman, starring alongside returning cast members Benoist, Mehcad Brooks, Jeremy Jordan, Chyler Leigh, David Harewood, Calista Flockhart, and Peter Facinelli.
Frequency Plot: Detective Raimy Sullivan (Peyton List) has always wanted to prove that she is nothing like her father. In 1996, when Raimy was eight years old, NYPD Officer Frank Sullivan (Riley Smith) left Raimy and her mother, Julie (Devin Kelley), behind when he went deep undercover, got corrupted, and got himself killed. Or so the story has always gone. Few people knew about the secret undercover sting operation Frank was really charged with, led by Stan Moreno (Anthony Ruivivar), who has now risen to Deputy Chief of Police. Frank’s former partner, Lieutenant Satch Reyna (Mekhi Phifer), is now Raimy’s mentor and friend, and he has urged her to let go of the hurt and anger she still feels about Frank’s disappearance and death, but the old pain still lingers. Raimy can barely bring herself to discuss Frank, even with her devoted boyfriend, Daniel (Daniel Bonjour), or her childhood friend, Gordo (Lenny Jacobson).
Now, twenty years later, Raimy is stunned when a voice suddenly crackles through her father’s old, long-broken ham radio – it’s Frank, somehow transmitting over the airwaves and through the decades from 1996. They’re both shocked and confused, but Raimy shakes Frank to the core when she warns him that the secret sting he is undertaking will lead to his death. Armed with that knowledge, Frank survives the attempt on his life. But changing history has dramatically affected Raimy’s life in the present – and there have been tragic consequences. Separated by twenty years, father and daughter have reunited on a frequency only they can hear, but can they rewrite the story of their lives without risking everyone they love?
No Tomorrow Plot: Evie Callahan (Tori Anderson) appreciates order. Whenever she’s making a list, “make a list” is both the first thing on it and the first thing crossed off. Such a regimented life has its drawbacks. Her on-again/off-again romance with the sweet, but soft-spoken Timothy (Jesse Rath) has sputtered out, and her boss, Deirdre (Amy Pietz), a petty tyrant with breath that could kill a plant, laughs off her career ambitions. Then Evie meets charming, free-spirited Xavier Holliday (Joshua Sasse), and the attraction is immediate and electric. Xavier brings a jolt of joyful, rollicking romance into her life. Xavier encourages Evie to carpe that diem, because it’s more fun that way and also because, he says the apocalypse is, you know, nigh. He believes humankind has a mere eight months and twelve days until a runaway asteroid smacks us all into stardust. That’s why Xavier made an Apocalyst – a tally of every last thing he wants to do before the world goes kaput. So with the help of her friends – Hank (Jonathan Langdon), a diehard conspiracy theorist, and Kareema (Sarayu Blue), a droll nihilist – Evie must decide whether Xavier is certifiable and whether that even matters, if being with him means living her life more fully. Based on the International Emmy-nominated Brazilian format from Grupo Globo, No Tomorrow is a romantic comedy with the ultimate ticking clock.
Bates Motel star Nestor Carbonell (‘Sheriff Alex Romero’) says he doesn’t even want to think about the fact he’ll be saying goodbye to his co-stars at this end of this upcoming season. A&E’s critically acclaimed dramatic series, inspired by the classic horror film Psycho, will be coming to an end with the show’s fifth season airing in 2017. And at the 2016 San Diego Comic Con, Carbonell discussed being a part of the cast, directing episodes of the riveting drama, and how he initially approached the role.
Nestor Carbonell Interview:
For a while it actually looked like Sheriff Romero was going to have a nice, calm, romantic life with the woman that he loved, and then…
Nestor Carbonell: “This little jerk ruins it all! It’s awful. It’s interesting, even knowing it was coming we tried to stay in the moment as much as you can. I remember Vera and I talked about, ‘Okay, we can’t play the end. We’ve got to play it light. We’ve got to stay hopeful.’ You know what’s going to happen but you’ve got to stay hopeful through the process and find moments of hope. But the end was so devastating; I didn’t know it was going to hit me as hard as it did and neither did the crew. I could see a number of them emotional, crying. And I know Carlton (Cuse) spoke about it at the panel, he cried when he was writing a specific part of that scene on the plane.
We’ve grown so attached to these characters. Kerry (Ehrin) and Carlton and the writers have written such amazingly rich and messed up characters with incredible misbehavior, and yet somehow as messed up as they are we’ve grown really attached to them. So when someone like that dies, it’s weird. It almost feels real.”
Now that Norma’s dead and only living in Norman’s delusional mind, will you ever get to work with Vera Farmiga anymore?
Nestor Carbonell: “I can’t, unless I start hallucinating, I can’t imagine I do. I know Max (Thieriot) spoke about this at the panel that one of the sad things (was) last year he had a phenomenal bunch of scenes with Vera at the end where they didn’t see eye-to-eye and he left on bad terms with her. But he said outside of those scenes what was even more painful was knowing that he wouldn’t have scenes with her ever again. I certainly felt the same way. I knew going in to it after episode nine I was like, ‘Well, that’s it, except for trying to put a ring on her corpse.’ It’s just not quite the same as interacting with her in real life. So, unfortunately, Freddie hogs her all to himself next season.”
But you’ll be directing again?
Nestor Carbonell: “I will. (Laughing) I will, so I’ll get him back.”
What has that experience been like?
Nestor Carbonell: “It’s been a gift. I never in a million years thought I’d get that opportunity and it really is thanks to Vera. Vera is the one who encouraged me to pursue it. We talked about scenes when we rehearsed scenes in the first season. We talked about blocking. So, she offered that. She said, ‘You really should direct the show.’ I go, ‘I have no experience. It’s crazy.’ She goes, ‘No, you know you could do it.’ ‘I don’t know one thing about camera.’ She said, ‘You really should do it,’ so she encouraged me. I approached Carlton and he was amazing. He said, ‘You know, I could see that.’
I asked if I could trail our producing director, our amazing producing director Tucker Gates. And then he said, ‘If somebody drops out, do you think you could fill in in season three?’ I sort of naively said, ‘Yeah, sure,’ and sure enough somebody did drop out. And so I had to very quickly (learn) but I was thankfully surrounded by obviously an amazing cast and an equally impressive crew. I learned so much during both experiences and I will continue to hopefully learn as much as I can from this third experience.”
Do you know what episode you’re directing?
Nestor Carbonell: ” I do. It’s the fifth episode. I can’t say (anything). I know what’s going to happen, the sort of broad strokes. It’s a good one, for sure. Well, they’re all good but it’s a particularly good one.”
There’s only one more season left. How hard is it going to be to say goodbye to everybody?
Nestor Carbonell: “It’s a great question. I’m trying not to go there. It’s even sad knowing this is the last Comic Con we’ll do together. We enjoy this as time to reconnect, because we don’t get to see each other outside of the show. We just live apart from each other. I live in LA, Freddie (Highmore’s) in England, Vera’s in Vancouver, Max is in Sonoma. Olivia (Cooke) is in Manchester sometime, New York sometime. This is sort of a time we really enjoy to get together and obviously share the time with our fans and talk about the show with you guys, and also catch up personally. So, it’s been sad. It’s sad it’s the last time we get to do it. But we will stay in touch. These are friends that I know will be lifelong friends. So we have many years to look forward to together.”
How did you initially approach the character because he wasn’t in Psycho?
Nestor Carbonell: “Carlton had called me about playing the part. He sent me the first six episodes and I was up all night reading them. I was riveted by it. Even though the character was a man of few words, the way Kerry and Carlton described him was very rich. If you read any of the episodes of Bates… The scene directions typically on a script are really minimized. Most writers use an economy of words when they describe a scene. Well, it’s sort of the opposite on Bates and it was the opposite on Lost, too. The scene descriptions were really detailed and emotional, which is very cinematic. Usually in film you rely more on visual as opposed to words. TV, for many reasons – sometimes time constraints – it’s more exposition. But this was more filmmaking and my character certainly was a man of few words. I loved all the scene descriptions and said, ‘I can play that behavior. I can play the subtext here or not play the subtext. I can go against it.’
So, the one thing I did going into the role, I sort of loosely modeled it on a close friend of mine and my wife’s who we affectionately call Chuckles because he rarely smiles. I talked to Kerry about it. I said, ‘I don’t want to smile much. I want to be very guarded as long as I can be and if I do eventually end up with Norma, I want her to be the one to make him smile. I want to reserve that for her, and for her to open him up. So, I sort of approached the character loosely on that note.”
The answer to the question of why Thor wasn’t involved in Captain America: Civil War is revealed in a new video which San Diego Comic Con attendees were treated to in July and is now finally available online. Chris Hemsworth shows off his comedy chops as Thor explains what he was doing while Tony Stark and Steve Rogers were busy dividing up the superheroes for a ‘civil war.’ Hemsworth’s joined briefly by Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner who was asked to be part of Tony Stark’s team but declined, while apparently no one ever approached Thor to take sides. So instead of battling his superhero buddies, Thor was kicking it down in Australia, wearing shorts, and hanging with everyday people.
No worries though because Thor will be back in Thor: Ragnarok opening in theaters on November 3, 2017. The cast also includes Tom Hiddleston, Idris Elba, Mark Ruffalo, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, and Karl Urban. What We Do in the Shadows‘ Taika Waititi directs, Kevin Feige produces, and Louis D’Esposito, Brad Winderbaum, Victoria Alonso, Thomas M. Hammel and Stan Lee are on board as executive producers.
James Marsden and Evan Rachel Wood in ‘Westwood’ (Photo: John P. Johnson / HBO)
HBO’s new Westworld series just released a new trailer prior to the final episode of The Night Of‘s first season. Based on the classic sci-fi film released back in 1973 and written/directed by Michael Crichton (author of such books as The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park), Westworld is set in a futuristic world in which wealthy vacationers can live out their fantasies. The series stars Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Tessa Thompson, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Jimmi Simpson, Rodrigo Santoro, Shannon Woodward, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Ben Barnes, Simon Quarterman, Angela Sarafyan, Luke Hemsworth, and Clifton Collins, Jr, and was created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy.
Westworld season one will premiere on October 2, 2016.
The Plot: The dramatic series Westworld (ten episodes) is a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the evolution of sin. Set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, it explores a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged.
Screen Gems had a terrific weekend at the box office, scoring a first place finish with their horror film, Don’t Breathe. Don’t Breathe earned more than double its budget over its first three days in release and should continue to do well due to strong word of mouth and overwhelmingly positive reviews. Also benefiting from both word of mouth and talk of potential Oscar nominations is the indie film, Hell or High Water, starring Chris Pine, Ben Foster, and Jeff Bridges. Lionsgate’s slowly increasing the number of theaters playing the dramatic thriller and although it didn’t quite make the Top 10 this weekend, it did ring up $3.7 million in just 900 theaters.
Lionsgate Premiere launched the latest Jason Statham film, Mechanic: Resurrection, into theaters and pulled off a fifth place finish with $7.5 million. Statham starred in the 2011 remake of The Mechanic (the original film had Charles Bronson in the leading role) which rang up $62 million worldwide before exiting theaters. The 2016 sequel’s opening weekend is down about $4 million from that of the 2011 action film.
Elise Eberle as Mercy and Iddo Goldberg as Isaac in ‘Salem’ (Photos: WGN America)
Salem co-creator Adam Simon says it’s the scared people who make the scary things. The comment came after he took a look at my camera’s tabletop tripod which looks a little like a possessed octopus. “If we can get our scares into your heads, they’re not in my head anymore,” said writer/executive producer Simon. Elise Eberle, who plays Mercy Lewis on the WGN America horror series, added, “The things that do come out of your brain…should I be afraid?”
The Salem cast and executive producers were a popular draw at the 2016 San Diego Comic Con where they hosted a packed panel and sat down for roundtable interviews to provide a few hints as to what’s coming in season three. WGN America’s set a November 2nd premiere date for the third season which stars Eberle, Janet Montgomery, Shane West, Seth Gabel, and Iddo Goldberg, with Eberle, Goldberg, and Simon teaming up for interviews to discuss the series.
Elise Eberle, Iddo Goldberg, and Adam Simon Interview:
Speaking of things in Adam Simon’s brain, did he put you through torture last season?
Elise Eberle: “Season two? Oh yeah! He just knocked it out of the park with torturing me.”
Adam Simon: “Yes, but no pain, no gain.”
Elise Eberle: “Playing the burn victim, that was definitely crazy. And that was actually my real voice and I changed it. It was bizarre. And I got to eat (Iddo’s) flesh – real flesh. He’s method. It tasted exactly like turkey.”
Iddo Goldberg: (Laughing) “I ate a lot of fat! All month she kept on giving me fat at lunch. Like, ‘Hey, eat some of this.'”
Elise Eberle: “Oh, totally. I sort of go like, ‘How can they go further than this?’ and then they do succeed in going even further. It’s amazing. I’m always excited to read a new script just to see where it goes. Especially with a show like this, you’re just completely (awed).”
What can you say about season three?
Adam Simon: (Laughing) “Let me say this because I’m here with my two favorite characters on the show…it’s true, from the get-go. I’ll give you a good example. When I wrote the pilot with these two characters, this character (indicating Goldberg) died in the pilot. (Elise’s) we knew was going to stick around a little bit but not a lot. It had a very small function to play. But the extraordinary performances that they each brought to that literally just transformed the trajectory of those characters and they became at the very center and lifeblood of the show. That to me was one of the greatest experiences of the whole show, so it’s been fun.”
Iddo Golberg: “Thanks for not killing me on the first episode!”
Adam Simon: “You thank me now… And then to look at the journey. I’ve just watched the pilot again for the first time in two years, three years, and to see the journey that these two characters in particular have been on… To see (Elise) being walked around with that dog mask on and to see the powerful woman that she becomes in season three. To see this desperate for love, hungry for attention girl that she was in love, dare I say, in season three is a powerful thing. To see the guy who’s getting branded, this kid – the Fornicator – committed to shame and abuse…”
Iddo Goldberg: “I get called the Fornicator by all of my friends! It’s the most bizarre thing.”
Adam Simon: “And then they say, ‘Who did you fornicate with?’ ‘Myself!’ What can I say? But then this guy becomes the conscience of Salem. And then he has to struggle in season three, I would say, with power.”
Iddo Goldberg: “Well, it’s a very easy balance to shift in the wrong direction after having power, but he’s someone who has always not necessarily wanted power, he’s just always wanted to be brave enough to have an even keel. Now his voice has been heard by people he never expected would hear him. Suddenly he’s in a position where people are expecting answers from him. It was such a fun season for me. I was asked before, ‘What does your character get to do this season?’ and my response was, ‘He gets to answer back to people. He gets to raise his voice.’ I’ve always wanted to. In the first two seasons, I always wanted to shout at people.”
Adam Simon: “And that one scene with Dollie unleashed a whole new Isaac.”
Iddo Goldberg: (Laughing) “I’d always have to take it out on a runner, someone on the crew.”
Last year you said you hoped Isaac could lead a war against the witches, so is that possible?
Iddo Goldberg: “Well, it’s sort of possible. I mean he’s definitely championing a war against what’s fair and what isn’t fair. He’s standing for the right things. A complete different side of his mission is to get revenge for the loss of Dollie. At the end of last year we spoke…every year between seasons we come to visit Brannon (Braga) and Adam in the writers room, hang around. ‘Do I die?’ We spoke about where we really wanted to go and I think we had this great chat about Dorcas’ character who Isaac saved at the end of last season from the clutch of Mercy. The idea of having him kind of repair himself and kind of have a responsibility outside of himself, and help him take himself out of his head – we wanted to repair him. We wanted to have a psychological shift to allow him to kind of step up to the plate when he was needed.”
Adam Simon: “That’s another example, and I could cite just as many on (Elise’s) side too, of what’s so exciting in television for a writer who came out of features where you kind of do it and done it and it’s done is the creative dialogue that comes out of these other artists. That was an idea that was born out of Iddo, that this girl we had had him save at the end of last season – he came up to us afterwards and said, ‘What if she’s still around? What if she just keeps following him?’ And bang! We saw a whole new side to this character. You don’t get that chance in a movie that you do over the years of a television show. Not only to have characters evolve like this, but to have their own ideas and contributions change the direction of the show.”
Iddo Goldberg: “Emma (Claire Wynn) who plays her is fantastic. We had really great fun during the season. Who would have thought that Isaac would have a sidekick?”
Watch the full Elise Eberle, Iddo Goldberg, and Adam Simon interview:
‘Falling Water’ executive producer Gale Anne Hurd and writer/executive producer Blake Masters (Photos by: Evans Vestal Ward / USA Network)
USA Network will premiere the new sci-fi drama Falling Water on October 13, 2016 at 10pm ET/PT. The Walking Dead‘s Gale Anne Hurd, Brotherhood‘s Blake Masters, and Homeland‘s Henry Bromell executive produce, with David Ajala, Will Yun Lee, and Lizzie Brochere in starring roles. The series is described as a “mind-bending drama” that follows “three unrelated people who slowly realize that they are dreaming separate parts of a single common dream. The deeper they dig, the more they come to realize that the visions found in their common dream just might hold the key to the fate of the world.”
Executive producers Gale Anne Hurd and Blake Masters appeared at the San Diego Comic Con in support of Falling Water‘s upcoming launch, taking part in both a panel with Comic Con attendees as well as roundtable interviews to delve into the show’s mythology. “One of the central conceits is that we are all dreaming separate tiles in a universal dream. We only see our tile, but maybe there are people who can see other people’s tiles. So that’s really one of the interesting things,” explained Hurd. “If we’re dreaming separate tiles, maybe we can come together and be united because those walls come down. Or, maybe it can continue to instill the fear we see in the world and divide it. It really depends on who those people are who can potentially affect our dreams.”
Hurd’s The Walking Dead and Hunters are big ensemble series, but Falling Water narrows the focus down primarily to three characters. “Obviously we build out the world, […]but it really is about connections. This is a show about connections. It’s a show about three seemingly unconnected people who find out that they are actually connected. We have the character of Tess, played by Lizzie Brochere, who is convinced she’s had a child and is seeking to find that child and prove she had a baby when everyone tells her it’s impossible,” explained Hurd. “So, it’s about that sense of loss and connection.”
“The character of Taka, played by Will Yun Lee, his mother has been catatonic for years and years and years. He’s seeking a reconnection with her. He’ll try anything to bring her back because she’s the piece of the puzzle of his life that is missing,” said Hurd. “And then the character of Burton, played by David Ajala, is madly in love with a woman and yet does she exist or is she just someone that he’s connected with in his dreams? So, there’s that sense of longing and loss and need to connect with a woman that he doesn’t even know is real.”
Masters said that what he tries to do when writing a show is to make sure the audience has something to be engaged with, to become invested in, but that doesn’t mean he needs to string them along by asking questions that aren’t answered. “One of the tenets of the show, and I think it’s really important for the audience to know, is that we’re not a show that intends to string out secrets forever. I think by the end of season one you will understand the entire mythology that we need you to understand to be able to enjoy the show,” said Masters. “There will be future mysteries, but we’re not going to be one of those shows that strings you along with just question after question and not giving you an answer. I don’t watch those shows. I believe the characters we’ve created and the world we’ve created and this fundamental idea of what if somebody could wander into your dreams is compelling enough that we don’t need secrets.”
Masters also believes audiences have moved on to a new evolution in dramatic TV shows. “We’ve done gritty, grounded realism,” explained Masters. “Audiences want a taste of magic now. They want that slightly heightened reality, so the idea is to take all of those storytelling elements of the great shows like Breaking Bad and Mad Men and infuse them with a little David Lynch, a little Haruki Murakami, a little bit of that ‘other.’ You can still tell stories that are very character-based, and we do, and yet still have that ongoing stretch and having that character evolution, and having a compelling mythology that creates an audience not just who watches but they want to be a part of it.”
Asked if the dreams featured in the series will have a unified look to them visually, Masters replied, “I think every dream is individual but I think there’s a visual grammar to our dreams.” Masters also said that he and director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) were on the same page when it came to the show’s visual style. “It was a really, really blessed collaboration and the show would not be what it is without him. We spent a lot of time talking about the language of the dream world and we liked the idea that dreams are usually subjective, that you want to travel with the dreamer,” said Masters. “We want to feel that they move through space, just like our dreams do. Now, what happens in those dreams is very particular. Different things will happen in different ways and as our dreamers start running into each other in the dreams occasionally as the season goes on, weird things will happen. But we also wanted the dreams to have that unified cinematic grammar so that the audience was never really confused on is it a dream or is it not.”
Watch the full interviews with Blake Masters and Gale Anne Hurd for more on the casting process, the show’s mythology, the setting, and what viewers can expect when they tune into USA Network’s Falling Water this October:
(Interview by Fred Topel. Article by Rebecca Murray.)
