Dove Cameron as Mal, BooBoo Stewart as Jay, Sofia Carson as Evie and Cameron Boyce as Carlos in ‘Descendants’ (Disney Channel/Bob D’Amico)
Disney Channel confirmed they’re moving forward on Descendants 2, the sequel to the network’s #1 cable made-for-television film of 2015. Kenny Ortega is returning to direct, choreograph, and executive produce the sequel, with the original Descendants stars Dove Cameron, Cameron Boyce, Booboo Stewart, Sofia Carson, and Mitchell Hope reprising their lead roles. Joining the cast for Descendants 2 is China Anne McClain (A.N.T. Farm) who’ll be playing Uma, Ursula from The Little Mermaid‘s daughter. According to the network’s official announcement, actors are still being cast to play the children of Captain Hook and Gaston.
“Just when you thought ‘Happily Ever After’ had come to the land of Auradon, Descendants 2 turns the page to reveal a whole new level of mystery and surprise,” said Gary Marsh, president and chief creative officer, Disney Channels Worldwide. Filming’s expected to begin soon and Disney Channel’s targeting a 2017 premiere.
Descendants writers Sara Parriott and Josann McGibbon (The Starter Wife, Runaway Bride) wrote the script for Descendants 2. Parriott and McGibbon are also executive producing along with Wendy Japhet (The Italian Job). Also returning for the sequel are costume designer Kara Saun and production designer Mark Hofeling. Tony Testa (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) has come on board to team up with Ortega to choreograph the sequel.
The original Descendants was “a modern-day coming-of-age adventure about the teenage sons and daughters of Disney’s most infamous villains.” Disney Channel hasn’t released details on the plot of the sequel.
“Does the voice feel like it’s coming from inside of you?” asks Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga). “More like it’s coming from behind me like I’m being used,” answers 11-year-old Janet Hodgson (Madison Wolfe). “What does it say?” asks Lorraine. “It said it wants to hurt you,” replies Janet. “When did it say that?” asks a disturbed Lorraine. “Right now,” answers Janet, who has, along with her family, been haunted by a malicious spirit in the horror sequel, The Conjuring 2.
It’s 1977 and the Hodgson family of Enfield, England, begins experiencing some paranormal activity in their home. The youngest daughter, Janet, seems to be the main target of the angry spirit, but her older sister, Margaret (newcomer Lauren Esposito), also witnesses strange events. At first, the mother, Peggy (Frances O’Connor), doesn’t believe her daughters when they talk about weird sounds and furniture moving by itself. Then one night, Janet and Margaret try again to explain what they saw, and Peggy orders them back to bed only to witness the girls’ big dresser slide quickly to the other side of the room, slamming into the bedroom door and forcing it closed.
The family is approached by the press and a ghost chaser to document their story, and Peggy – hoping it will lead to finding someone who can help her family – agrees. The story of the haunted Hodgson home reaches the Catholic Church. The priest who’s worked with paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren on their earlier cases asks them to investigate the Enfield haunting to see if it’s real or a hoax. Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine travel to England in the hopes of discovering the truth of what is really going on with the Hodgson family, determine if they’re genuinely being terrorized by something supernatural and if so find a way to save them.
Based on a true story, The Conjuring 2 is an exceptionally creepy, hair-raising horror film that’s in the same style and feel as the first film. The Conjuring director James Wan returns to helm the sequel and solidifies his standing as the new master of first-rate horror films. Wan uses the classic old-school style of movie-making to earn legitimate scares, employing the use of shadows, light, rain, eerie sounds, and ghostly white faces in the dark to create suspense and a terrifying feeling of real evil. Truly disturbing is the demonic-looking nun who Lorraine keeps seeing.
Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise their roles and have great chemistry as married paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. There seems to be an even closer and deeper connection between the couple in this film, and it’s not a leap to believe Ed and Lorraine can complete each other’s thoughts. Farmiga perfectly conveys her concern for the Hodgson family, especially young Janet, as well as her overwhelming fear that she might lose her husband to the evil that is targeting her family and seems to be determined to kill Ed.
Wilson delivers a strong performance once again as Ed who quickly becomes determined to try to help the family from the malevolent entity attacking them despite Lorraine’s concerns for his safety. The relationship and love between the Warrens give the film its few bright and uplifting scenes. Young Madison Wolfe gives an amazing performance as Janet Hodgson, the 11-year-old girl who gets the brunt of the abuse from the spirit and begins to become possessed by it. She delivers hands-down the best performance in the film.
The production design is first-rate, bringing back to life 1977 England with the clothes, cars, buildings, and equipment the Warrens use in their ghost hunting. The ominous musical score is very effective at adding tension to the scenes and helping to build suspense. Guaranteed to raise goosebumps up and down your spine, The Conjuring 2 is an extremely scary, nerve-racking, and terrifying film that’s sure to go down in film history as one of the best sequels of all time. Make sure to see it up on the big screen but DO NOT SEE IT ALONE! You have been warned.
Let’s kick off this review of Warcraft with the disclaimer that it’s written by someone who has never played the game. Before you fire off that hate email, please keep in mind that it should not be necessary to have familiarity with the source material to enjoy a feature film. Moviegoers didn’t need to have read a page of Lord of the Rings to enjoy the film franchise and it wasn’t just existing Tolkien fans who catapulted the movies into mega-blockbuster territory. Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Divergent, every DC and Marvel movie…all of those films are judged on their own merit, separate from the books that inspired them. To say you must have played hours of Warcraft to review a Warcraft movie would be akin to saying you have to be a police officer to review a cop film or a singer/dancer to review a musical. If you want to know how similar the movie is to the video game world, look elsewhere. This is not the review you should be reading for that analysis. Full disclosure complete; moving on to the actual review.
Warcraft (the film) is loaded with orcs, dwarves, elves, and humans, some of whom switch allegiances and most of whom you won’t care much about by the end of the film. Set up as the first in a series of Warcraft movies, the world known as Azeroth is established as an Earth-ish environment with different lands, all overseen by someone referred to as the Guardian. Into this peaceful planet plop a bunch of warrior orcs who have left their own dying planet behind to establish a new orc world on Azeroth. This ‘traveling through space, arriving on a new planet’ trick is done via a green portal powered by head orc Gul’dan (Daniel Wu) who’s unusually creepy looking even for an orc and who’s strangely reminiscent of Uncle Deadly from The Muppets (only with green highlights and less flesh). Gul’dan is the master of the gooey green stuff that is produced by dark Fel magic, something I didn’t figure out for quite a while into the film as I kept hearing “Fel” as “Veil.” My misunderstanding of the name is easily explainable as the orcs aren’t exactly into enunciating their words, something which makes following the story at times a tad bit difficult.
The orcs immediately begin attacking and destroying anything and everything they encounter once they’ve landed on what they’ll soon declare to be their new homeland. But then one orc decides perhaps this Gul’dan dude is completely crazy and the Fel magic has made him lose touch with what all good orcs should really care about. (Note: the orcs would kill and destroy without Gul’dan, but they would do so by brutal strength, not personality-altering magic.) So, good orc Durotan (Toby Kebbell) – who is also a new father and very protective of his wife and child – believes he can gather a band of like-minded orcs to join with the Azerothians (or Azerothonians) to strip Gul’dan of his leadership now that he’s lost his mind to the dark magic.
Meanwhile, the Guardian aka Medivh (Ben Foster) does his best to protect Azeroth using magic, aided by an upstart mage named Khadgar (scene-stealer Ben Schnetzer) who the Guardian thinks is trying to usurp his place as the guy in charge of protecting the world. Also fighting the good fight is Vikings star Travis Fimmel as the heroic Anduin Lothar who doesn’t need magic to kick ass. Anduin is fighting to protect his people and to serve his king and queen, played by real-life couple/Preachers co-stars Dominic Cooper and Ruth Negga.
Because every action film has to insert a love story to widen its potential audience base, Paula Patton’s on hand as a half-orc who falls for Anduin’s impressive fighting skills. Speaking of fighting, there’s lots of it although who exactly is fighting who is often hard to tell. It’s also difficult to tell one orc from the other, making it easy to lose track of the one who’s supposed to be siding with the humans.
The CG action is occasionally impressive, with griffins arriving in the nick of time to save the day and massive wolves (transported from the orc world) providing transportation/battle support. There’s even a Gollum to contend with in this weird Clash of the Titans/Lord of the Rings hybrid. And, just to make things as truly surreal as possible, a six-time Oscar nominated actress shows up for one of the most bizarre (and jarring) cameos ever in a feature film.
Look, I don’t play video games but I do enjoy good action films. Writer/director Duncan Jones, tackling his largest budgeted film to date, does actually deliver a few action scenes that are genuinely entertaining and visually striking. The main problem is the characters are simply not all that interesting. Only Schnetzer’s Khadgar and Patton’s Garona express more than one emotion, while Foster’s Medivh is easily the most annoying character to follow. If you don’t catch onto his entire arc by the end of his first scene, then you’re simply not paying any attention.
With all the orcs and magic and whatnot to show off, there’s very little time actually devoted to humanizing the main characters. The Warcraft video games apparently have a complex story, but the feature film keeps it all at a surface level and never provides any reason to ever want to catch up with these characters, or this world, again.
GRADE: C
MPAA Rating: PG – 13 for extended sequences of intense fantasy violence
The second wave of Teen Choice 2016 nominees have just been revealed and Captain America: Civil War leads the pack with six nominations including nominations in the Movie Villain, Scene-Stealer, and Movie Chemistry categories. Following close behind are Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato with five nominations, going head-to-head in the Breakup Song, Summer Tour, and Summer Music Star: Female categories. Pretty Little Liars and Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens also picked up five nominations each.
The Teen Choice 2016 awards will air on Sunday, July 31 at 8pm ET/PT on Fox. Voting is now open at TeenChoice.com and continues through June 23rd at 12pm PT. For more info on the rules, visit teenchoice.com/rules.
Teen Choice 2016 Nominees, Round Two:
Choice Movie Villain (#ChoiceMovieVillain)
Daniel Brühl, “Captain America: Civil War”
Adam Driver, “Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens”
Jesse Eisenberg, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”
Aidan Gillen, “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials”
Charlize Theron, “The Huntsman: Winter’s War”
Ed Skrein, “Deadpool”
Choice Movie Scene Stealer (#ChoiceMovieSceneStealer)
Chadwick Boseman, “Captain America: Civil War”
Gal Gadot, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”
Tom Holland, “Captain America: Civil War”
Jena Malone, “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2”
Evan Peters, “X-Men: Apocalypse”
Miles Teller, “The Divergent Series: Allegiant”
Choice Movie Breakout Star (#ChoiceMovieBreakoutStar)
John Boyega, “Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens”
Gal Gadot, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”
Brianna Hildebrand, “Deadpool”
Daisy Ridley, “Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens”
Neel Sethi, “The Jungle Book”
Alexandra Shipp, “X-Men: Apocalypse”
Choice Movie Chemistry (#ChoiceMovieChemistry)
Thomas Brodie-Sangster & Dylan O’Brien, “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials”
Robert Downey, Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Paul Bettany & Chadwick Boseman, “Captain America: Civil War”
Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Elizabeth Olsen & Jeremy Renner, “Captain America: Civil War”
Jennifer Lawrence & Josh Hutcherson, “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2”
Daisy Ridley & John Boyega, “Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens”
Shailene Woodley & Theo James, “The Divergent Series: Allegiant”
Choice Movie Liplock (#ChoiceMovieLiplock)
Henry Cavill & Amy Adams, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”
Emilia Clarke & Sam Claflin, “Me Before You”
Chris Evans & Emily VanCamp, “Captain America: Civil War”
Chris Hemsworth & Jessica Chastain, “The Huntsman: Winter’s War”
Jennifer Lawrence & Josh Hutcherson, “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2”
Shailene Woodley & Theo James, “The Divergent Series: Allegiant”
Choice Movie Hissy Fit (#ChoiceMovieHissyFit)
Adam Driver, “Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens”
Zac Efron, “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising”
Kevin Hart, “Ride Along 2”
Hugh Jackman, “X-Men: Apocalypse”
Ryan Reynolds, “Deadpool”
Jason Sudeikis, “The Angry Birds Movie”
Choice TV Villain (#ChoiceTVVillain)
Brett Dalton, “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”
Greg Germann, “Once Upon A Time”
Lea Michele, “Scream Queens”
Cameron Monaghan, “Gotham”
Janel Parrish, “Pretty Little Liars”
Teddy Sears, “The Flash”
Choice TV: Scene Stealer (#ChoiceTVSceneStealer)
Misha Collins, “Supernatural”
Becky G, “Empire”
Tahj Mowry, “Baby Daddy”
Sasha Pieterse, “Pretty Little Liars”
Serayah McNeill, “Empire”
Hudson Yang, “Fresh Off The Boat”
Choice TV: Breakout Star (#ChoiceTVBreakoutStar)
Priyanka Chopra, “Quantico”
Matthew Daddario, “Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments”
Tom Ellis, “Lucifer”
Emma Ishta, “Stitchers”
Katherine McNamara, “Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments”
Cam Newton, “All In With Cam Newton”
Choice TV: Breakout Show (#ChoiceTVBreakoutShow)
“DC’s Legends of Tomorrow”
“Lucifer”
“Quantico”
“Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments”
“Stitchers”
“Supergirl”
Choice TV: Chemistry (#ChoiceTVChemistry)
Ashley Benson & Tyler Blackburn, “Pretty Little Liars”
Candace Cameron Bure, Jodie Sweetin and Andrea Barber, “Fuller House”
Kat Graham & Ian Somerhalder, “The Vampire Diaries”
Jared Padalecki & Misha Collins, “Supernatural”
Candice Patton & Grant Gustin, “The Flash”
Eliza Taylor & Bob Morley, “The 100”
Choice TV: Liplock (#ChoiceTVLiplock)
Emily Bett Rickards & Stephen Amell, “Arrow”
Chelsea Kane & Derek Theler, “Baby Daddy”
Candice King & Paul Wesley, “The Vampire Diaries”
Jennifer Morrison & Colin O’Donoghue, “Once Upon A Time”
Candice Patton & Grant Gustin, “The Flash”
Leah Pipes & Joseph Morgan, “The Originals”
Choice Summer TV Show (#ChoiceSummerTVShow)
“Baby Daddy”
“Girl Meets World”
“So You Think You Can Dance”
“Teen Wolf”
“The Fosters”
“Young & Hungry”
Choice Summer TV Actor (#ChoiceSummerTVActor)
Jean-Luc Bilodeau, “Baby Daddy”
David Lambert, “The Fosters”
Peyton Meyer, “Girl Meets World”
Dylan O’Brien, “Teen Wolf”
Tyler Posey, “Teen Wolf”
Gregg Sulkin, “Faking It”
Choice Summer TV Actress (#ChoiceSummerTVActress)
Rowan Blanchard, “Girl Meets World”
Lucy Hale, “Pretty Little Liars”
Shelley Hennig, “Teen Wolf”
Shay Mitchell, “Pretty Little Liars”
Emily Osment, “Young & Hungry”
Cierra Ramirez, “The Fosters”
Choice Country Song (#ChoiceCountrySong)
Kelsea Ballerini – “Peter Pan”
Florida Georgia Line, “H.O.L.Y”
Sam Hunt – “Make You Miss Me”
Brad Paisley feat. Demi Lovato, “Without a Fight”
Blake Shelton feat. Gwen Stefani, “Go Ahead and Break My Heart”
Carrie Underwood, “Church Bells”
Choice R&B/Hip-Hop Song (#ChoiceRBHipHopSong)
Iggy Azalea, “Team”
Desiigner, “Panda”
Drake, “One Dance” (feat. Wizkid & Kyla)
“Empire” Cast, “Chasing The Sky” (feat. Terrence Howard, Jussie Smollett and Yazz)
Rihanna, “Work” (feat. Drake)
Zendaya, “Something New” (feat. Chris Brown)
Choice Rock Song (#ChoiceRockSong)
Empire Of The Sun, “Walking On a Dream”
Fitz and the Tantrums, “HandClap”
5 Seconds of Summer, “Jet Black Heart”
Elle King, “America’s Sweetheart”
OneRepublic, “Wherever I Go”
twenty one pilots, “Stressed Out”
Choice Love Song (#ChoiceLoveSong)
5 Seconds of Summer, “Vapor”
Selena Gomez, “Hands To Myself”
Ariana Grande, “Into You”
Nick Jonas, “Close” (feat. Tove Lo)
Little Mix, “Secret Love Song” (feat. Jason Derulo)
One Direction, “Perfect”
Choice Break-Up Song (#ChoiceBreakupSong)
Justin Bieber, “Love Yourself”
Selena Gomez, “Same Old Love”
Zara Larsson & MNEK, “Never Forget You”
Demi Lovato, “Stone Cold”
Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello, “I Know What You Did Last Summer”
Charlie Puth, “We Don’t Talk Anymore” (feat. Selena Gomez)
Choice Party Song (#ChoicePartySong)
DNCE, “Cake by the Ocean”
Flo Rida, “My House”
Becky G, “Break A Sweat”
Calvin Harris, “This is What You Came For” (feat. Rihanna)
Sia, “Cheap Thrills” (feat. Sean Paul)
Justin Timberlake, “Can’t Stop The Feeling!”
Choice Song from a Movie or TV Show (#ChoiceMovieTVSong)
Fifth Harmony, “I’m In Love with A Monster” (“Hotel Transylvania 2”)
Halsey, “Castle” (“The Huntsman: Winter’s War”)
Demi Lovato, “I Will Survive” (“The Angry Birds Movie”)
P!nk, “Just Like Fire” (“Alice Through The Looking Glass”)
Shakira, “Try Everything” (“Zootopia”)
Justin Timberlake, “Can’t Stop The Feeling!” (“Trolls”)
Choice Music Breakout Artist (#ChoiceMusicBreakoutArtist)
Alessia Cara
DNCE
Bea Miller
Charlie Puth
Troye Sivan
Zayn
Choice Music: Next Big Thing (#ChoiceNextBigThing)
Ruth B.
Sofia Carson
Grace
Hey Violet
New District
Leroy Sanchez
Choice Summer Song (#ChoiceSummerSong)
DNCE, “Cake by the Ocean”
Fifth Harmony, “Work from Home” (feat. Ty Dolla $ign)
Lukas Graham, “7 Years”
Calvin Harris, “This is What You Came For” (feat. Rihanna)
Justin Timberlake, “Can’t Stop The Feeling!”
Zayn, “Like I Would”
Choice Summer Music Star: Female (#ChoiceSummerMusicFemale)
Selena Gomez
Ariana Grande
Demi Lovato
P!nk
Rihanna
Gwen Stefani
Choice Summer Music Star: Male (#ChoiceSummerMusicMale)
Justin Bieber
Drake
Nick Jonas
Shawn Mendes
Pitbull
Zayn
Choice Summer Music Star: Group (#ChoiceSummerMusicGroup)
The Chainsmokers
DNCE
Fifth Harmony
5 Seconds of Summer
The 1975
OneRepublic
Choice Summer Tour (#ChoiceSummerTour)
Justin Bieber, “Purpose World Tour”
5 Seconds of Summer, “Sounds Live Feels Live Tour”
Selena Gomez, “Revival Tour”
Fifth Harmony, “7/27 Tour”
Demi Lovato & Nick Jonas, “Future Now Tour”
Shawn Mendes, “World Tour”
Choice Male Athlete (#ChoiceMaleAthlete)
Kobe Bryant
John Cena
Stephen Curry
Peyton Manning
Roman Reigns
Cristiano Ronaldo
Choice Female Athlete (#ChoiceFemaleAthlete)
The Bella Twins
Simone Biles
Alex Morgan
Danica Patrick
Ronda Rousey
Serena Williams
Choice Sports Team (#ChoiceSportsTeam)
Cleveland Cavaliers
Denver Broncos
FC Barcelona
Golden State Warriors
San Jose Sharks
U.S.A. 2016 Olympic Team
Craig Bierko, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, Constance Zimmer, Shiri Appleby and Amy Hill in ‘UnREAL’ (Photo by Michelle Faye / Lifetime)
UnREAL is back. Lifetime’s drama about the behind-the-scenes scandals of a dating show is picking up right where it left off. Rachel (Shiri Appleby) and Quinn (Constance Zimmer) are an inseparable team after weathering contestant suicides and affairs with the bachelor last season. Chet (Craig Bierko) returns slimmer and fitter after a paleo fitness retreat.
Back in January, the cast of UnREAL were on a panel for the Television Critics Association, when all they knew at that point was about Chet’s paleo, and that Zimmer was already exhausted from playing the aggressive producer daily. We got to speak with Zimmer and Bierko at the end of their day, where they still spoke enthusiastically about UnREAL, although Bierko’s dog Boo, a hit on the panel, was curled up at his feet.
UnREAL airs Mondays at 10PM on Lifetime.
Interview with Constance Zimmer and Craig Bierko:
Thank you for keeping the energy up all day.
Craig Bierko: “Oh, I’m that rare type of actor who actually this is my favorite part of show business. Going on talk shows and stuff, for talk shows specifically, the people who prepare for them and they come on with bits and stuff, that’s what they used to do on Johnny Carson, or they’d just come on and talk. They weren’t even promoting anything. I love that.”
It looks like Boo has had it though.
Craig Bierko: “Boo’s always kind of mellow.”
Constance Zimmer: “This is always Boo. Boo is always the most mellow dog you will ever meet.”
Craig Bierko: “She’s a calming presence for everybody.”
Chet seems bulletproof. He survives a sex scandal. At least drugs were a health risk for him, but with paleo is he getting healthier too?
Craig Bierko: “Well, I know people who lost a lot of weight. They committed to paleo but there were other things going on too that helped things along. I don’t think he went paleo, my own theory, I don’t know anything about the season. We’ve all been told very little. I was told the paleo thing and I was told to look into it and I’m training that way now. I’m training really hard that way because I want to be able to embody it but I have a feeling, because these characters are complicated, that there’s going to be another factor in there which might be chemical. I don’t think people change that much.”
Do you think Quinn and Rachel are closer than ever?
Constance Zimmer: “We have heard that they start out as a team because I have now taken my ownership part of Everlasting away from him. I kind of become Chet and Rachel kind of becomes Quinn and we have a new Rachel that has to also play in to now this trifecta, because he’s constantly coming back in, trying to reclaim his leadership of the show. I heard that works for a little bit but it does not last.”
Even the last scene of the season finale where they seem really bonded, but knowing where their bond comes from, how uneasy is that actually?
Constance Zimmer: “Also because Quinn doesn’t know that Rachel knows that I pulled Adam away from her. I don’t know that she knows that which is what I thought was such a great way to end the show, was the audience knew more than one of the characters on the show. I always love that.”
Or does Rachel maybe, rightly or wrongly, think that ends up better for her so she appreciates Quinn?
Constance Zimmer: “You know, I think that’s what makes the relationship between Quinn and Rachel so great is that it’s constantly changing between need and want and hate and love. Rachel is so conflicted because I think ultimately she would love to be a Quinn. She’d love to be a producer and run a show. But her conflict lies in that she has a little bit more that she wants out of her life which Quinn didn’t have. So she has a little bit more of a conscious of, ‘If I do this, I lose this.’ Whereas Quinn doesn’t have that. Quinn is like, ‘This is my job, this is my life, this is what I do. Everything else will come later.’ I’m excited when they seem like they’re at each other’s throats but then all of a sudden they make each other’s worlds better, with almost no credit too by the way. That’s what makes it such a complicated relationship. They’re not looking for a pat on the back, like oh thanks for doing that. That’s what I think, that Quinn really becomes the mother to Rachel and believing that the stuff I’m doing is for her benefit, whether she wants to believe that or not.”
Did you ever overlap on Boston Legal together?
Craig Bierko: “Very briefly.”
Constance Zimmer: “Oh yeah. Our first day was together.”
Craig Bierko: “And I wanted her to say goodbye to me because my character left first. So I wanted to at least leave with her there. I wanted it to be a circular experience.”
Constance Zimmer: “We were together a lot in the beginning and then all of a sudden, they took his character and his character went over there, and then they took my character and I went over here.”
Craig Bierko: “You know, I knew at the very beginning that’s that. I knew, ‘Oh, they want a chemistry,’ and I sensed instant chemistry. I loved doing scenes with Constance from the beginning, but it’s all great because it’s set a few years later, this show happens and I am enjoying this much more than playing a lawyer. I didn’t know what I was talking about half the time. I just wasn’t enjoying it. It wasn’t the atmosphere that I enjoyed. This show, it’s a family and it’s creative. This character is the best character I’ve ever played.”
If you’re exhausted after playing Quinn for a day, how do you imagine a woman like Quinn doesn’t just collapse?
Constance Zimmer: “How do we now? You collapse after a day of that energy just running after a kid all day. Your time to relax is when everybody else is asleep.”
Craig Bierko: “Like Holly Hunter’s character who would take five seconds to cry every day at the beginning of Broadcast News. She would sit there on the edge of the bed and she had 15 seconds to cry and then she was done crying. That’s what I picture she does.”
Did you ever talk to Jeremy Piven about that? He says that about playing Ari, that the body doesn’t know it’s just acting.
Constance Zimmer: “It’s true. I haven’t but it’s funny I feel like I should because I did say that I felt Quinn was a combination of Anna Wintour and Ari Gold. It is true. You can’t tell your body, ‘I’m just acting.’ You do. It’s exhausting, but we get through it. As actors we get through it. We work 18-hour days and we have to act like we just woke up, right? So somehow we all do it and we all just find our ways. Then on weekends we just pass out.”
Craig Bierko: “So much of what happens between the audience and the actors in the middle, you suggest an idea. You’re not picturing the union guys leaning. The actress, unless they’re crazy, doesn’t believe it. The audience is in a state of disbelief so the performance exists somewhere in between. I sometimes still can’t believe. I know these people. They’re very nice and yet I hear all kinds of things about, ‘Oh, she’s so troubled, she’s so mean.’ You want to go, ‘They’re not at all. They’re just talented.’ A lot of this, give yourself some credit, you’re watching a performance and you’re adding what you’ve experienced in your life with mean people, or strong people.”
Frank Langella as Gabriel, Keri Russell as Elizabeth Jennings, and Matthew Rhys as Philip Jennings in ‘The Americans’ (Photo by Ali Goldstein / FX Networks)
The finale of the outstanding fourth and best season of FX’s The Americans was engrossing from start to finish. In the suspenseful opening segment of episode 13, the FBI surveillance of William (Dylan Baker) could have easily caught Philip (Matthew Rhys) during the planned exchange of the Lassa virus. Instead, William senses danger and runs through the park leaving Philip sitting alone and undetected at the rendezvous point. Before he is apprehended William deliberately breaks the vile containing the deadly virus and rubs it into his broken skin.
As William lies dying in a hospital bed at USAMRIID, FBI agents Stan (Noah Emmerich) and Aderholt (Brandon J. Dirden) talk with him from the other side of a glass partition. Aderholt asks if he’s in pain and if he liked what he did. At first it was exciting and he felt special, but ultimately he was isolated and lonely, William explains. Then as his condition worsens he says that he wishes he could have been married like them (referring to Elizabeth and Philip) with a couple of kids. Not knowing how close it is to the truth, William tells the agents that they’d never suspect them, and that she is pretty and he is lucky.
A new character, Mikhail Semenov, is introduced in a Russian prison. He has been jailed for anti-Soviet activities after his return from Afghanistan, but with the intervention of powerful friends, he is released. Our presumption that he is Philip’s son is confirmed later when he visits his grandfather. There he receives money and passports that his mother sent before she was arrested. Armed with the knowledge that his father is a travel agent and whatever instructions his mother left, he leaves to go to the United States. This sets up a very interesting plot thread for next season.
Meanwhile at the rezidentura there are many touching scenes. Arkady (Lev Gorn) warmly calls Oleg (Costa Ronin) a good son when Oleg informs him that he wants to return to the Soviet Union. Arkady later learns from new head of the counterintelligence unit of the FBI that he is “persona non grata” of the title and has 48 hours to leave the country. Tatiana (Vera Cherny), who will be the acting director of the unit at the rezidentura, tearfully calls Oleg a good son also when he tells her that he will be going back home.
Philip’s monologue at an EST seminar summarizes the disenchantment with espionage that he has felt for a long time. While at first you’ve chosen work that you like or need, later life changes things or you change, he tells the group. Now, he says, he doesn’t want to do it and he wakes up every day with this sick feeling in his stomach.
The writers have written such complex characters that Philip is not the only character experiencing a crisis of conscience this season. Oleg and William have also had deep reservations about the work that they do.
Since Gabe (Frank Langella) deduces that the FBI has William in custody, he meets with Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip about the risks that they now face. He wants them to go back to Russia with their children. When they look shocked, Gabe tells Philip that “his heart hasn’t been in this in a long time,” and Elizabeth that she has been doing this for twenty years and that this “job wasn’t meant to be forever.” The final decision will be theirs he tells them, but they need to be aware that they may have become inured to danger.
Leonard Cohen’s “Who by Fire” plays in background as we see a stunned Elizabeth and Philip sitting silently in their car, a thoughtful Arkady drinking in his office and glancing at a bust of Lenin, and Paige (Holly Taylor) holding Pastor Tim and Alice’s baby. This is a wonderful choice of music because the lyrics detail all the ways in which people die, and there have been so many deaths in this series. This season alone key characters (Nina, Agent Gaad, and William) have died.
In the final scenes, Elizabeth and Philip ponder their choices. They can’t imagine Paige or Henry in the Soviet Union and Philip suggests that they just run away. One thing is clear, Philip does not want to continue spying nor does he want Paige to spy. He picks up Paige from the Beeman’s house where Stan happily tells him that Paige and Matthew are romantically involved. Philip suspects that Paige is leading Matthew on in order to get intel. As they walk home Philip adamantly tells his daughter that he doesn’t want her to see him again and “I don’t want you to do this.”
This series should have a much larger audience. In a tribute to the writing and acting, we care about all the characters. We were sad when Nina was brutally killed and when Martha and Philip had to part. There has been suspense when characters have been in danger: Philip, Elizabeth and Gabe with Glanders scare; Martha trying to avoid detection at the FBI; Paige and Elizabeth’s confrontation with muggers. We have much to look forward to in the final two seasons.
20th Century Fox’s long-awaited Independence Day sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence, will arrive in theaters on June 24, 2016 with Jeff Goldblum back in a starring role. And in one of the new videos just released by the studio, Goldblum shares the screen with his character from the film, Earth Space Defense Director David Levinson, as they try to dispel rumors that they’re the same person. Other new clips from the upcoming action-adventure film show off more of the sequel’s action scenes. Directed by Roland Emmerich, the cast includes Liam Hemsworth, Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsch, Vivica A. Fox, Brent Spiner, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jessie Usher, Maika Monroe, and Sela Ward.
The Plot: We always knew they were coming back. After Independence Day redefined the event movie genre, the next epic chapter delivers global spectacle on an unimaginable scale. Using recovered alien technology, the nations of Earth have collaborated on an immense defense program to protect the planet. But nothing can prepare us for the aliens’ advanced and unprecedented force. Only the ingenuity of a few brave men and women can bring our world back from the brink of extinction.
Open Road Films just picked up the U.S. distribution rights to Marshall which is now shooting in Buffalo, New York. The dramatic film stars Chadwick Boseman (Captain America: Civil War, Get On Up) in the title role as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. The cast also includes Josh Gad (Frozen, The Wedding Ringer) as lawyer Sam Friedman along with Dan Stevens (soon to be seen opposite Emma Watson in Beauty and the Beast), Kate Hudson (Almost Famous), Sterling K. Brown (The People v. O.J. Simpson), James Cromwell (Murder in the First), and Keesha Sharp (The Player). Reginald Hudlin is directing from a script by trial lawyer Michael Koskoff and screenwriter Jacob Koskoff (Macbeth).
Both the Thurgood Marshall and Samuel Friedman estates are fully supporting the feature film, as are Thurgood Marshall’s son, John W. Marshall, and Samuel Friedman’s daughter, Lauren Friedman. Hudlin, Paula Wagner, and Jonathan Sanger are producing Marshall, with Peter Luo and Belton Lee executive producing.
The Plot:Marshall is based on a true incident in the life of Thurgood Marshall, when he was a young lawyer, long before his appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. As the nation teeters on the brink of WWII, a nearly bankrupt NAACP sends Marshall to conservative Connecticut to defend a black chauffeur against his wealthy socialite employer in a sexual assault and attempted murder trial that quickly became tabloid fodder. In need of a high profile victory but muzzled by a segregationist court, Marshall is partnered with Samuel Friedman, a young Jewish lawyer who has never tried a case. Marshall and Friedman struggle against a hostile storm of fear and prejudice, driven to discover the truth in the sensationalized trial which helped set the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement to come.
Winona Ryder stars in ‘Stranger Things’ (Photo Credit: Netflix)
The first trailer for Netflix’s new supernatural series Stranger Things has been released and whoever cut this promotional video together deserves a raise. The trailer is creepy and freaky, and has a distinct ’80s vibe that immediately grabs your attention. Set to debut on July 15, 2016, Stranger Things stars Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), Matthew Modine (Dr. Brenner), David Harbour (Chief Hopper), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), Millie Brown (Eleven), Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), and Cara Buono (Karen Wheeler).
The Plot: Set in Hawkins, Indiana in the 1980’s, Stranger Things chronicles the search for a young boy who vanishes into thin air under highly suspicious circumstances. His mother (Ryder) opens an investigation into the boy’s disappearance with local authorities that unravels a series of mysteries involving top-secret government experiments, terrifying supernatural forces and one very strange little girl. A love letter to the ubiquitous cult classics of the 80’s, Stranger Things is a coming of age story for three boys that draws this quaint community into a world where mysteries lurk beneath the surface.
Watch the Stranger Things trailer:
Charlie Heaton and Natalia Dyer star in ‘Stranger Things’ (Photo Credit: Netflix)Caleb McLaughlin, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, and Gaten Matarazzo in ‘Stranger Things’ (Photo Credit: Netflix)
Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Ernie Hudson, Bill Murray, Annie Potts, Ray Parker Jr, Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Dan Aykroyd, and Jimmy Kimmel (Photo by Randy Holmes / ABC)
The cast of the original Ghostbusters – Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Annie Potts – joined the cast of the new Ghostbusters movie – Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig, and Leslie Jones – on the June 8, 2016 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, with the original actors throwing their support behind the new film.
The entire Ghostbusters gang danced as Ray Parker Jr. sang the classic Ghostbusters theme, and Murray and Aykroyd talked about the funny women who suited up to take down ghosts in the revamped version of their characters.
Ghostbusters was directed by Paul Feig (Spy, The Heat, Bridesmaids) and opens in theaters on July 15, 2016. In addition to the four new Ghostbusters, the cast list includes Chris Hemsworth, Charles Dance, and Michael Kenneth Williams.
