Paramount Pictures just unveiled a new trailer and poster for the action film Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. Directed by Edward Zwick who previously directed Jack Reacher star Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is based on Lee Child’s 18th book in the series and features Cobie Smulders, Aldis Hodge, Danika Yarosh, Patrick Heusinger, Holt McCallany, and Robert Knepper. Paramount Pictures will release the new Jack Reacher film in theaters on October 21, 2016.
The Plot: Major Susan Turner (Smulders) is the Army Major who heads Reacher’s old investigative unit. She is arrested for Treason and knowing that she is innocent, Jack Reacher (Cruise) must break her out of prison and uncover the truth behind a major government conspiracy in order to clear their names and save their lives. On the run as fugitives from the law, Reacher uncovers a potential secret from his past that could change his life forever.
The CW’s Supernatural starring Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles returns for its 12th season on October 13, 2016. The upcoming season promises major changes are in store for Sam and Dean Winchester with the resurrection of their mother, Mary (Samantha Smith). In our interview with Jared Padalecki at the 2016 San Diego Comic Con, Padalecki said fans of the series can expect big changes for Sam as he adjusts to being around a mother he doesn’t know but that Dean remembers. Padalecki also discussed the Men of Letters, whether Mary will be a hunter, and if he’d like to see Jeffrey Dean Morgan also put in a return appearance.
Jared Padalecki Interview:
Is it going to be interesting to play more of the brotherly dynamic along with their mother this season?
Jared Padalecki: “Yeah. I think one of the things that got me into Supernatural originally was the family dynamic in kind of fantastical circumstances, extraordinary circumstances. It was always kind of a mixture of fantasy but how relationships exist within a bizarre universe. One of the things we’ve never really saw Sam get to be…we’ve seen him be a human, we’ve seen him be a hunter, we’ve seen him be a lover, we’ve seen him be a friend and a brother, and you could argue we’ve kind of seen him be a son but I don’t think so. When we saw Sam with John, it was contentious. It wasn’t like, ‘Hey dad,’ you know, like, ‘I love you.’ It was like, ‘Dad, how dare you?’ you know? ‘How could you do this to me and Dean?’ They never got on. He didn’t have that with Mary. He doesn’t know his mom but he loves his mom anyway. He hasn’t gotten to know her, but he’s going to want to protect his mother and vice versa. I feel like it’s going to be a neat side of Sam that I haven’t been able to explore yet.”
Can you tease what’s going on with the Men of Letters and Sam and Dean?
Jared Padalecki: “Yeah, they don’t know… It was kind of an unfortunate miscommunication. Sam thought his brother was dead so he was upset and pissed and sad, and the British Men of Letters didn’t exactly put their best foot forward. I think Sam probably figures, ‘Aren’t we all on the same team? This isn’t the way we should have started.’ But the Brits think they know some things about us that they might be mistaken about, some things they might be right about. But I think the Brits are trying to figure out why we’re not run the way they are. But we’re not legit Men of Letters. I mean, we’re legacies so I guess you could argue we’re kind of Men of Letters, but we weren’t initiated. We didn’t study the things they studied. They are much more regimented and structured and are trying to figure out if Sam and Dean are just lying and they actually do have ulterior motives. Sam and Dean don’t really answer to anybody. They have a car and a bunker, and they kind of travel around staying in motel rooms. They’re not used to having higher powers to answer to. So, we’re going to see worlds collide.”
How do you think Sam’s story arc will change this season?
Jared Padalecki: “I think for me most of it’s going to be about experiencing Sam as a son. We’ve seen him as a brother but seeing Sam, he’s been through so much and he wants to make the world a better place, but now getting to see him be a son and love and protect his mother… You know, Sam lost his father and he already lost his mother once. Mary’s a hunter and she was a hunter and so I’m sure Mary’s going to want to hunt. She’s back and she’s not just going to want to sit around, ‘Hey guys, I’ll see you when you get back.’ I’m sure she’s going to want to be part of it, but Sam’s going to want to protect her because it’s his mom. Meanwhile, Dean has a relationship with her as well so it’s going to change the Sam and Dean dynamic. Usually it’s been like we only have each other. We’ve had Cas and we’ve had others like Bobby who want to help, but now we have mom, too. We get to fight with each other, we get to fight with her, and we get to figure out how we can trust each other. There’s kind of a feeling or sensation that if you want to protect somebody, you have to hide them away. But sometimes the best way to protect somebody is to let them do what they do.”
Will there be scenes of Sam and Dean trying to explain this new world to Mary since she’s been dead for so many years?
Jared Padalecki: “Yeah. The writers have done a good job of playing the reality of it because if you died in 1982, cell phones and Skype and internet was…not even Back to the Future had come out yet. ‘I guess maybe they’ll have cool shoes in the future’ – they had no idea of what we’re going to know now. And so we play that without getting too cheesy about it. […]We’re not making her stupid; we’re just making her like she’s in a new world.
What’s funny is I thought about that before I read the scripts, going I hope they don’t make it (jokey) and they didn’t. She’s a strong woman, you know? She’s a mother and she’s a daughter and she’s a hunter so she’s not completely oblivious. But, there is some funny moments. That being said, there is some comedic fish-out-of-water moments we’ll have for sure.”
If they can bring back your mom, should they be bringing back Jeffrey Dean Morgan too?
Jared Padalecki: “Well, he’s Walking Dead right now. Yeah, you know what? I love JDM and I think the feeling’s mutual. As far as I’m concerned he can be in every scene I do for the rest of my life. That having been said, I think it disrupts the Sam and Dean dynamic because so much of what made Sam and Dean Sam and Dean is that that’s all they had was each other. They had to make it work with each other come good, come bad. That’s why even though we’ve got all of these characters we love – the Charlies and the Bobbies and the Joes and Ashes and Rufuses and Castiel, obviously – it’s tough to get a character that the boys have to rely on. It’s nice to have help, but if Jeffrey Dean was back and he wasn’t in every scene it wouldn’t make sense because he’s our dad, right? He’s the one who taught us how to hunt even though Mary was the original hunter. So, I love him. If they can find a way for him to come back and it doesn’t change the story too much…but that would be really hard and difficult. I’d love to see him back.”
CBS has confirmed they’ve renewed Zoo for a third season and Big Brother for seasons 19 and 20. Season three of the dramatic series Zoo will air next summer while seasons 19 and 20 of Big Brother will air in the summers of 2017 and 2018. Making the announcements, CBS said Zoo‘s the 2016 summer’s second most watched original scripted broadcast series. Zoo is based on the book by James Patterson and stars James Wolk, Kristen Connolly, Billy Burke, Nonso Anozie, Alyssa Diaz, and Josh Salatin. Author Patterson executive produces along with Jeff Pinkner, Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, Scott Rosenberg, Michael Katleman, James Mangold, Cathy Konrad, Bill Robinson, and Leopoldo Gout.
Season two of Zoo will wrap up on September 6th with a two-hour finale.
Once again hosted by Julie Chen, this season of Big Brother has been in the top 10 among adult viewers and is the “most social series on TV,” per CBS. Big Brother is currently airing on Sundays at 8pm ET/PT, Wednesdays at 8pm ET/PT, and Thursdays at 9pm ET/PT. 87 high definition cameras record the goings-on of the housemates, with 100 microphones in the house picking up conversations 24 hours a day. The winner of the reality competition will receive a $500,000 grand prize for outlasting their fellow housemates and being the last to actually leave the Big Brother house.
Teen Wolf star Dylan Sprayberry joked that the facial hair he was sporting at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con was all his and had nothing to do with his Teen Wolf character, Liam. “This is Dylan’s look. Liam couldn’t pull this off. Liam’s not that cool!” said Sprayberry, laughing. “He came from prep school – he’s pretty clean cut.”
Sprayberry was one of the Teen Wolf cast members who showed up at Comic-Con to talk about the show’s sixth and final season, answering questions during roundtable interviews about Liam’s relationship with Hayden (played by Victoria Moroles), Scott (Tyler Posey), and Mason (Khylin Rhambo), as well as what we can expect from a more mature Liam.
Dylan Sprayberry Interview:
What is coming up in season six?
Dylan Sprayberry: “There’s a lot coming up in season six. We have the Ghost Riders. We have a Nazi werewolf, which is pretty cool…no, they’re not pretty cool. Dangerous – you shouldn’t talk to them. (Laughing) I’m digging myself in a hole. What we have coming up in season six is a lot of surprises, some new people, some new villains, and a lot of romance and a lot of sweat.”
Everyone wants to know about Liam and Hayden. What’s going on there?
Dylan Sprayberry: “Layden is great. Liam and Hayden are doing very well. We pick up the next season a little bit further ahead from where we left last season. It just seems like they’ve grown up, like they’ve gotten better control of their emotions toward each other and they know how to be in a relationship. It just seems like they’ve grown up and they’ve become more mature as individuals and as partners which was really fun to play because that’s just what I’m learning as a person is how to be more mature as I’m growing up and how to be in a relationship with someone else and be able to share problems and know how to not be selfish. That seems like the tone of this season.”
Hayden has style. Is Liam going to pick up anything from her? Is she going to take him shopping?
Dylan Sprayberry: “Hayden does have style. Oh no, she’s dressing him every day. She’s telling him what to wear. Don’t worry about that. He is looking cooler, but not because of that. He’s getting help – lots of help.”
If you could give Liam any of your characteristics, what would you give him?
Dylan Sprayberry: “I think the ability to take a joke. I don’t think Liam can take a joke. He gets really defensive.”
Will he still have anger management issues?
Dylan Sprayberry: “A lot of people ask that and that’s a fair question. I think for him with the fact that he’s now a werewolf and he has all of these abilities and much bigger problems to worry about, he’s learning how to take care of the anger management. But that’s always going to be a part of his life and who he was before. That’s kind of how everyone is.
You know who you came from and you know where you’re going, and he knows he has a darker side. That’s something he has to deal with and really know how to control. I think for the most part he’s able to handle it, but there will be like certain scenes or scenarios this season where some of that does come out, some of that rage does come out. What’s Liam without a little bit of anger? A little bit of yelling?”
What’s going on with the relationship between Liam and Scott?
Dylan Sprayberry: “I think as Liam’s growing, it seems like he’s becoming more of a young adult as well. He’s getting smarter, he’s not as naive and easily tricked. I think that Scott sees that Liam’s really trying to put in the effort to show him that he can be a leader one day. It seems like they’re almost working together a little bit more. It’s like when the young protégé kind of figures his stuff out and then the teacher acknowledges it. Now they’re kind of like working together instead of one’s up here and one’s down here.”
After everything they went through last season, how is the friendship between Liam and Mason?
Dylan Sprayberry: “We do pick up a little bit later on. It’s already been a while since all that happened. I think the idea is that if you’re going to be a werewolf, you’re going to have to learn how to deal with this kind of stuff. So, he’s accepted that all that happened. They worked it out and it just made them closer as friends. They figured it all out. Everything’s out in the open. Everyone knows what happened and they’ve really become close because of it.”
Season five of The CW’s Arrow, the comic book-inspired series that launched The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow, will premiere on October 5, 2016. Cast members from Arrow once again took part in a panel at the San Diego Comic Con followed by roundtable interviews in which they chatted about what viewers can expect from the upcoming season. Sitting down to talk about season five, Emily Bett Rickards (‘Felicity Smoak’) provided the scoop on what’s happening with Felicity and Oliver (played by Stephen Amell) without giving away any spoilers.
Emily Bett Rickards Interview:
Where do we pick up the relationship between Oliver and Felicity?
Emily Bett Rickards: “I do believe that their communication is getting better and I think that that has a lot to do with them being in a new type of relationship past the break-up and having to work together and having a common goal and trying to decide things and trying to improve the city, and not only that themselves and their relationship. So, it’s interesting how we left off with the bunker being destroyed and both just standing strong in a place that they have inevitably destroyed themselves and how their relationship had also been kind of destroyed and broken. How they had done that to themselves and they’re still standing strong I think was a really good example about where they’re going to go because they end up staying in it and they clean it up, and they start moving around each other obviously in a different way. Their dance will be a little different but I think it’s growing.”
Is there still that ongoing element of not being able to fully trust one another?
Emily Bett Rickards: “I feel like they have trust. I feel like they want to think the best of one another and that can sometimes be a problem because you end up finding out how much your boundaries move. I think they’re both very strong-willed and they both have very strong boundaries. It’s trying to figure out where they can let each other back in, so I don’t know if it’s about trust. They both trust they would save each other’s lives, but do they trust each other with their emotions and their heart? That’s different.”
Felicity lost her job at the end of last season. What’s she going to be doing now?
Emily Bett Rickards: “She owns the company, right, because Ray signed it over to her and then she tried to give it back to Ray and he didn’t want it. So, she was CEO of the company and got fired for being CEO. Correct me if I’m wrong – I’ve never been a CEO – I believe that that is possible that she probably still owns the company. So in terms of a day job, we haven’t really seen much of that.”
How will Felicity be helping to ease Curtis into being Mr. Terrific?
Emily Bett Rickards: “Well, I think when Curtis came to Felicity and Oliver being like, ‘Hey, maybe I can be a part of this,’ because that’s easily what he did when he came into the lair last season. And he’s like, ‘I don’t want to be any part of this. I don’t want to do this,’ but this idea of him becoming Mr. Terrific is awesome. He’s going to get in the suit. But it’s sort of him balancing out and finding out what he can do because you don’t go from zero to 100 in being a superhero. You need training. He might have the drive and the goal to go towards it, but you have to have the technical training.”
Watch the full Emily Bett Rickards interview:
(Interview by Fred Topel. Article by Rebecca Murray.)
The CW’s new series Riverdale is based on characters from the popular Archie comics and stars K.J. Apa as Archie Andrews. When the cast hit the 2016 San Diego Comic Con they’d only shot the pilot episode, with filming expected to begin on the rest of the first season this September. Series star Apa wasn’t familiar with the Archie comics prior to auditioning for Riverdale, but he’s quickly become a fan. And during interviews at Comic Con, he talked about getting the role and tackling the lead character.
The Plot: As a new school year begins, the town of Riverdale is reeling from the recent, tragic death of high school golden boy Jason Blossom — and nothing feels the same… Archie Andrews (Apa) is still the all-American teen, but the summer’s events made him realize that he wants to pursue a career in music — not follow in his dad’s footsteps—despite the sudden end of his forbidden relationship with Riverdale’s young music teacher, Ms. Grundy (Sarah Habel). Which means Archie doesn’t have anyone who will mentor him — certainly not singer Josie McCoy (Ashleigh Murray), who is only focused on her band, the soon-to-be-world-famous Pussycats. It’s all weighing heavily on Archie’s mind — as is his fractured friendship with budding writer and fellow classmate Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse).
Meanwhile, girl-next-door Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) is anxious to see her crush Archie after being away all summer, but she’s not quite ready to reveal her true feelings to him. And Betty’s nerves – which are hardly soothed by her overbearing mother Alice (Mädchen Amick) aren’t the only thing holding her back. When a new student, Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes), arrives in town from New York with her mother Hermione (Marisol Nichols), there’s an undeniable spark between her and Archie, even though Veronica doesn’t want to risk her new friendship with Betty by making a play for Archie. And then there’s Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch)… Riverdale’s Queen Bee is happy to stir up trouble amongst Archie, Betty, and Veronica, but Cheryl is keeping secrets of her own. What, exactly, is she hiding about the mysterious death of her twin brother, Jason? Riverdale may look like a quiet, sleepy town, but there are dangers in the shadows…
K.J. Apa Interview:
Did you know much about Archie before being cast?
K.J. Apa: “I didn’t. I wasn’t too familiar with the Archie comics or the whole Archie world before I started on this project, but my dad was. I gave him a call before I went into my audition and he told me. And, I did some research and got updated.”
Have you read any Archie comics since getting the role?
K.J. Apa: “Yeah. I have to read a lot of comics. (Laughing) It’s a tough job. I love the adaptation by Fiona Staples and Mark Waid, the most recent one. I think they did a great job with that.”
What’s your favorite relationship within the series?
K.J. Apa: “I love the dynamic between me and Cole’s character, Cole Sprouse who is playing Jughead. That’s a really unique friendship that we have there. In the first episode we don’t really see them talking too much because something’s happened between them, but I do like that dynamic that we have.”
Do you think it’s possible to portray the relationships between Archie and Veronica and Archie and Betty without coming across as a player?
K.J. Apa: “I think for sure, definitely. That whole love triangle is timeless. It’s something that’s never going to end. He’s always going to choose one probably, and at the end of the season Archie is going to make up his mind. (Laughing) But, it probably won’t last.”
So you have the whole season mapped out from the start?
K.J. Apa: “We actually don’t. We don’t even know…because you know the whole murder mystery that we have going about who killed Jason Blossom and we don’t even know who it is. Our writer, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, hasn’t disclosed any of that information.”
Is Archie’s red hair a wig?
K.J. Apa: “No, I dyed my hair for the role. I wish I had a wig. I’ve been dyeing my hair so much since I’ve been filming.”
Tell us about the other woman in Archie’s life, Miss Grundy, played by Sarah Habel. How is that going to play out?
K.J. Apa: “That’s a tough one. I mean, Miss Grundy is so useful for Archie in terms of his music because after the summer Archie discovered his passion for music and the only way that he could progress in that way was by getting lessons and stuff from Miss Grundy. That turned into something that I don’t think anyone was expecting – a little romance there. But, yeah, that’s something that’s going to go on throughout the season.”
If you had to play detective at this point, who do you think is the murderer?
K.J. Apa: “A shot in the dark? If I was to know who the murderer was, if I was to guess, I’d probably go with Cheryl (played by Madelaine Petsch).”
Can you talk about the relationship that Archie has with his father, played by Luke Perry? In the pilot there’s a little tension between the two. Will that carry on throughout the season?
K.J. Apa: “I don’t think so. I just think that was a great platform to start on. And by the way, I love working with Luke Perry. It was amazing. Obviously I knew who he was before so meeting him was great. He’s really great. He’s like the father figure on set for us. But, yeah, I don’t think that same dynamic will carry on throughout the series.”
(Interview by Sandy Kraisirideja. Article by Rebecca Murray.)
The CW’s revisiting the popular film Frequency, released in 2000 and starring Jim Caviezel and Dennis Quaid, with a new series featuring Peyton List and Riley Smith. In a gender-swap, List takes on the role Caviezel played while Smith is on board in the series’ version of Quaid’s role from the feature film. Frequency will premiere on October 5, 2016 at 9pm ET/PT and in support of the show’s upcoming debut, List and her co-stars presented info on Frequency during the 2016 San Diego Comic Con. List also discussed the series during roundtable interviews, saying she’s excited for audiences to get to know the characters. “I hope they take to them. I think that they’re relatable people,” explained List. “I think they’re pretty ordinary people that just doing their best to live life. They’re trying to succeed at life. Sometimes it’s not always pretty but that’s life.”
The Plot: “Detective Raimy Sullivan (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?”
Peyton List Interview:
Did the fact that they switched up the gender appeal to you, not just because you could play the part?
Peyton List: “Yeah, it did. It did really appeal. It’s funny. When you stop and think about it there aren’t a ton of those father and daughter relationships being portrayed on TV right now. I think it’s kind of special that we get to explore it. I think it really appealed to me because you really see who they truly are. You see them at their worst, you see them at their best. I think the fact that they’re trying to relate as people that are the same age but they’re related – one person has to be the parent and one person has to be the child. Is that always Frank being the parent and Raimy being the child or does it switch? Who are you at your core? There’s a lot of things that appeal to me about it.”
So when her second set of memories come up is that kind of like what you deal with as an actor because you get all of their backstory memories plus your own?
Peyton List: “Yeah. I mean sort of the same thing, especially when you do shows that give you backstory as you go along. You can be four episodes into a show and they’re like, ‘Oh, by the way this is what happened when you were 10.’ And you’re like, ‘Oh…didn’t see that coming but I was playing it all along, I think.’ You do have that sort of with this show the memories hit you as you have in real time changed, in 1996 as it changes. I think the memories come when they come. You recall it when you recall it. I feel a little bit bad for Raimy because I don’t know how overwhelming that is but it’s a really interesting concept.”
You and Riley Smith are playing a different dynamic than you’d expect, playing father and child rather than brother and sister. Can you talk about that?
Peyton List: “Well it’s interesting. Having known Riley for 10 years – I’ve also known him through so many different phases of his life as we grow as people. When he initially read this show he was in love with it. Like, ‘It’s the one!’ I was excited for him because it’s a new chapter for him to play a father and to take on that role. You know, for us it was a huge benefit of knowing each other and working on all these auditions that we work on together, breaking scripts down together and all this stuff, we are so comfortable being vulnerable and being like you are with a family member because that’s what Raimy and Frank have. They kind of are who they are and they say what they think. I think that’s not like a wall that we have to break down, Riley and I. It’s already down. So, I think that helps. I think that helps the chemistry. I feel so safe with him. I feel like I totally trust him as an actor and I hope he feels the same way.”
If you had the opportunity to travel to another time or communicate with someone, who would you talk to or where would you go?
Peyton List: “I don’t know where I’d start. I don’t even know where I’d start. I would do it, and I’ve seen enough of the things where you’re going, ‘Don’t mess with time! You can’t be seen. You can’t breath.’ But I’d totally want to do it. I would just want to see all over the world at different time periods, different forces in history. You know, like dynasties rise and fall. The Roman Empire. I would just do everything.”
Would you go back to 1996?
Peyton List: “’96 was an okay year for me. School was kind of getting hard at that point. I don’t know. I remember liking music. I should never wear those clothes again. It was a bad time for clothes for me. A lot of like velour and white stripes and platform Sketcher shoes or something. […]1996 I think for all of us is a bit more accessible. In the original movie it’s 1969 and I know what the ’60s are but I don’t have access to it like I do with 1996. I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, I remember what was the number one hit on the radio back then.’ Don’t ask me – I don’t actually know.”
Watch the full Peyton List interview:
(Interview by Fred Topel. Article by Rebecca Murray.)
Apparently Hollywood’s not quite finished with the idea of bringing more Chronicles of Narnia books to the screen. TriStar Pictures, the C.S. Lewis Company, Entertainment One, and the Mark Gordon Company are teaming up on a new Narnia film based on C.S. Lewis’The Silver Chair. David Magee (Life of Pi, Finding Neverland) has been tapped to adapt the novel for the screen, with Mark Gordon, C.S. Lewis’ stepson Douglas Gresham, Vincent Sieber, and Melvin Adams producing.
The official announcement did not provide any details on the cast or confirm whether any of the actors involved in the first three Narnia films – The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – will be involved in The Silver Chair. The press release did say those involved in the production are taking a “fresh approach to capture a broad global audience.”
“Developing this project with The C.S. Lewis Company has been immensely exciting and a real joy. We are so pleased to team up with our good friends at TriStar and our partners at eOne to introduce this new, magical chapter of the Narnia franchise to fans around the world, both old and new,” said Gordon.
“It’s been both fun and exciting to work with Mark Gordon and David Magee to develop the next Narnian movie, and now it’s a thrill to welcome Tristar to our Narnia family. I greatly look forward to plunging again into the joys and challenges of once more bringing Narnia to the screen, this time with the wonderful story of The Silver Chair,” said Gresham.
The Book’s Plot: Through dangers untold and caverns deep and dark, a noble band of friends is sent to rescue a prince held captive. But their mission to Underland brings them face-to-face with an evil more beautiful and more deadly than they ever expected.
What can we expect when NBC’s Grimm when it returns for the sixth season this fall? According to Bitsie Tulloch, Grimmsters should be ready for the possibility Eve has lost her powers right when the fight’s heating up with newly elected Mayor Sean Renard (Sasha Roiz). Tulloch and her Grimm co-stars including fiance David Giuntoli once again participated in the San Diego Comic Con where they discussed season six while keeping things as spoiler free as possible. Chatting about the upcoming season, Tulloch told us Eve is still around as we pick up season six.
Bitsie Tulloch Interview:
Was that a fun arc to play last season?
Bitsie Tulloch: “It was really fun. I loved it. It was more difficult for me than at least… You know, I’ve really been able to play three characters on Grimm, so I consider myself really lucky. Warm Juliette, evil Juliette, and then Eve, and Eve has been the hardest because I’m loud, I’m expressive, I’m warm and Eve is cold and calculating and robotic. You know, really there’s a tremendous amount of conservation of energy. But I watched some great movies for inspiration – Ex Machina, the Luc Besson Nikita. I went into it and Norberto Barba was really great about coaching me, and it ended up being super fun. It was funny because I started training to put muscle mass on, so I was thinking, ‘Oh, I’m going to be doing fight scenes right and left,’ but Eve is so powerful all she has to do is look at someone and make their head explode so there was very little actual fighting.”
This next season will we still be seeing Eve or are you back to Juliette?
Bitsie Tulloch: “It’s Eve. It’s a continuation of where five left off so we don’t know that it’s Juliette yet. We know that it’s Eve and she might be feeling some feelings and some guilt. That’s probably one of the main storylines that’s going to get resolved throughout season six.”
That will be an interesting arc for you to play, putting those two together and kind of almost fighting for her soul.
Bitsie Tulloch: “I love that. Like, there being a push/pull almost like a Jack the Ripper thing going on. Like, ‘Who is it going to be?'”
And you obviously want her to end up with Nick, right?
Bitsie Tulloch: “You know, I’ve said this before. Eve doesn’t need a man, just so we are all clear. I know there’s a lot of ‘shipping’ and some people like #Nadalind, people like #Nickette. From my point of view Eve doesn’t need a man so if she ends up single or with someone else, then more power to her.”
In season six they’ll all be going against Renard. How pivotal a role will Eve play in that?
Bitsie Tulloch: “Well, at this point Burkhardt and probably Eve…we don’t know yet if she’s lost all of her powers. So, from the knowledge that the fans have, Eve is still as powerful as Renard going forward. But she also might lose her powers – that’s why you guys all have to watch.”
Even if she does lose her powers, she’ll still be able to be part of the fight, right?
Bitsie Tulloch: “She’s very much included in the gang going forward.”
How do you feel about having a shorter season?
Bitsie Tulloch: “Honestly, we are so grateful to even be going into a sixth season. That doesn’t happen that often anymore. And by the end of season six, we will have shot 123 episodes of television and I’ve nothing but gratitude. I know David, my love, is exhausted so he’s kind of like, ‘All right, I’ll take it,’ you know? And he’s also really excited about directing so it’s all good.”
Are you looking forward to having him direct?
Bitsie Tulloch: “I really am. He’s very prepared. He’s been shadowing on set for almost two years. Any day off he’s been reading books; he’s taken meetings. He really is ready for this. He was in pre-production all last week and he’s doing pre-production all next week, and then he starts shooting on Monday.” (Note: the interview took place on July 23rd.)
And that adds a new element to the series.
Bitsie Tulloch: “Well they had to logistically because in a typical Grimm episode, he’s primarily in most of the scenes. So it’s a really cool way they wrote him out that I can’t wait for people to see and I also can’t talk about it!”
CBS will launch the 2016 reboot of the action series MacGyver on September 23rd at 8pm ET/PT. The original MacGyver starred Richard Dean Anderson as a guy who could get out of any situation by using whatever miscellaneous items – paper clips, toothpicks, etc – he found. The new series starring Lucas Till in the title role will also be filled with MacGyverisms, according to executive producers James Wan and Peter Lenkov. During our interview at the 2016 San Diego Comic Con, Wan and Lenkov talked about how the two shows compare and what made Lucas Till the right guy to lead the cast.
The MacGyver Plot: “MacGyver, a reimagining of the classic series, is an action-adventure drama about 20-something Angus “Mac” MacGyver, who creates a clandestine organization within the U.S. government where he uses his extraordinary talent for unconventional problem solving and vast scientific knowledge to save lives. Joining his team on high-risk missions around the globe is maverick former CIA agent Jack Dalton and Patricia Thornton, ex-field agent turned director of operations and Riley Davis, an unpredictable computer hacker with a chip on her shoulder. At home, MacGyver is entertained by his ambitious roommate, Wilt Bozer. Under the aegis of the Department of External Services, MacGyver takes on the responsibility of saving the world, armed to the teeth with resourcefulness and little more than bubble gum and a paper clip.”
James Wan and Peter Lenkov Interview:
Why do you think now is the right time for a new MacGyver TV series?
James Wan: “I actually think more than ever this is the perfect landscape to bring a show like this. He’s such a different hero in a lot of ways. In a lot of ways he’s like an anti-hero. I don’t mean in a Clint Eastwood kind of way. He’s a guy that doesn’t use guns to solve problems and in the climate that we live in today, it’s kind of refreshing to see an action hero who uses violence only as a last resort to deal with things. He likes to solve his problems with his brains, and find ways to kind of engineer his way out of these predicaments that he gets himself into. So, I think that’s kind of cool.
As Peter has pointed out in the past that with a lot of the cop shows out there, a lot of the action shows out there, it is just so violence-heavy. Again, whereas we do have violence in our show but it’s more action-driven and action in a fun-hearted way.”
Will people recognize the tone from the original or is this something completely different?
James Wan: “I think that tone is very important, that we never lose that tone in this new version. That tone’s very important to us, but of course you know we’re now living in a different time. That show played today would be very different, you know what I mean? You take that show directly out of the ’80s and put it in 2016, I don’t know if it would resonate as well given how much diet of action stories that we’ve seen today. But keeping the tone and that spirit and that philosophy like the original is very important to us.”
Is the tongue still very much in the cheek?
James Wan: “I think so.”
Peter Lenkov: “Yes, I think so. But I think we approach everything with the same… Look, there’s a lot of ingredients in the show – a lot of humor, a lot of heart, a lot of action, adventure, MacGyverisms – but yes, tongue in cheek.”
Is there an element of nostalgia to the new show as well?
Peter Lenkov: “I think so. A lot of reboots don’t work. They don’t work for a number of reasons, but I think this one belongs on TV today because of the character. I think James explained why. […]The fact that we rely on technology and all those things, it’s almost like retro. It almost goes back to a certain way of thinking that allows people to be creative again, not rely on technology, not rely on apps, smart phones, or PDAs.”
He’s not going to be Googling his way out of this?
Peter Lenkov: “No. He is a little bit like a Luddite in that way. There’s a little bit of that retro quality and I think it actually works today.”
James Wan: “I actually think the show’s more relevant today in a lot of ways because we’re such a technologically-driven society today. We so rely on technology it’s kind of cool to see an action hero who doesn’t use any of that stuff. Peter has a great line in the pilot script where MacGyver is talking to a hacker and he tells this hacker, ‘Well, you know how you hack computers? Well, I hack everything else.’ I think that’s such a great line and I think that sums up who MacGyver is in this show, that basically retains the spirit of the original but gets to put it out there through the filter of a very sort of modern sensibility.”
Who comes up with the inventions, the MacGyverisms?
Peter Lenkov: “Well, you know what we do is that always story comes first because you’re not going to write to a MacGyverism. You write to a situation and then you try and figure out how to solve it. Sometimes you’re reverse engineering a situation using whatever you would find in that situation. So, we create a solve and then we send it to our tech advisor. We get notes and we get it back. The tech advisor exists because we want to make it as real as possible. But it’s really using our imaginations. It’s very much MacGyver. It’s like we try and get into a situation and try and solve it in a very unique way. A lot of it is research, a lot of it is relying on a tech advisor. A lot of it is just being creative. And that’s where they come from. It’s the fun of writing the show.”
James Wan: “I guess for Peter too it’s important not to be driven by the set piece. It should be driven by the characters and the amazing chemistry between Lucas Till and George Eads. Those guys are so much fun. When I’m directing them on the set, I’m cracking up half the time just because the sh*t that they talk to each other and throw each other, it’s so amazing. I like that and I think that’s kind of unique.
But I will say this, I’ve met and I’ve had many meetings with the original creator of MacGyver, Lee Zlotoff, and he did say in later episodes what they would do is they would go to Cal Tech and they would talk to the students, the kids at Cal Tech, and he would go, ‘Okay, what would you guys do for us that would be a cool MacGyverism that we could do on our show?’ These kids would come up with all these crazy scientific things, and then they would write the episode to those things. I don’t think we’re doing that.”
Peter Lenkov: “We may. Who knows?”
James Wan: (Laughing) “We may down the line!”
James, how hands on are you with the show given all of your film projects?
James Wan: “I mean, I don’t have to be as hands on because Peter is so incredible at what he does. This is a guy who rebooted Hawaii Five-O, who took another classic old property and made it really successful in our time. I feel very fortunate and I feel very lucky that Peter is running this. But Peter knows that I’m such a big fan of MacGyver. I’ve been wanting to do this back when it was a feature project. I’ve been chasing it for a long time and so the opportunity…I feel lucky that my schedule’s finally cleared up, that I can actually come back. When I read Peter’s pilot for this, I was blown away. I was like, ‘You know what? I’ve got to come back. I’ve got to find a way to make this somehow.'”
How important was it to make the lead character younger in this version?
Peter Lenkov: “It wasn’t, really. Somebody else asked that question and it’s interesting because we never looked at it as going for age; we looked at best actor for the role. I think when James was casting this he just found the right actor. It’s all that. It’s all chemistry. It’s all driven by the right face out there on screen because you’ve got to believe he’s MacGyver. I think despite the fact that he looks a little young, he is MacGyver. When you see him on screen you are going to say, ‘Oh yeah, I get it. I know why they cast him.’ You have to watch the first episode to see and once you see him in action, once you see him as MacGyver, you’re going to be hooked. So, it was not age-driven. It was best actor won the role.”
James Wan: “So the good thing is hopefully, if we are fortunate enough to have many seasons, he’ll eventually grow into it.”
How difficult was it to find the right MacGyver?
James Wan: “We looked at so many people. I mean, I felt for me trying to reboot this early on the hardest part was how do you get over people’s perception of who MacGyver is? Everyone sees MacGyver as Richard Dean Anderson. He’s so synonymous to this character, right? And so we looked at a lot of people. I was just watching this going, ‘Oh man, this is never going to work. We’re never going to find (him). All the original fans are going to hate us.’ Then finally Lucas just showed up beaming with charisma. His hair was kind of long as well so he had a bit of that mullet thing going on, too. And so I just fell in love with this guy. When we saw him, we all – the studio, producers, we all just go, ‘I think we’ve got our MacGyver.’ He and George are the most important thing with moving this show ahead.”
And you were both fans of the original series?
James Wan: “Oh, hell yes. I was such a big fan that when I was in my teens I went and bought a red Swiss Army pocket knife. I’ve had that since I was a teenager.”
Is Richard Dean Anderson going to be involved at all?
Peter Lenkov: “We’re hoping. That’s the plan. He knows we want him, so that’s the plan.”
James Wan: “We’ve got to get him out of retirement!”
Watch the full James Wan and Peter Lenkov interview:
