A teaser trailer for season five of Showtime’s critically acclaimed comedy series House of Lies has arrived along with a new poster for the upcoming season. Showtime’s set an April 10, 2016 premiere date for the fifth season starring Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell. The cast also features Ben Schwartz, Josh Lawson, Donis Leonard Jr and Glynn Turman. Guest stars for season five will include Wanda Skyes, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, John Cho, Donald Faison, Keegan-Michael Key, Ken Marino, and Nicky Whelan. The fifth season of House of Lies marks the first time an American scripted series has shot episodes in Cuba since diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States were restored.
House of Lies was created by Matthew Carnahan who also executive produces along with Cheadle, Jessika Borsiczky, and David Walpert.
The Plot: No longer content with fleecing big-money clients, Marty (Cheadle) is upping the stakes in a highly calculated winner-take-all power play that will land him and the Pod – Jeannie (Bell), Clyde (Schwartz) and Doug (Lawson) – in Cuba. To the victor go all the spoils. Business is booming but, on the home front, he’s juggling a new baby daughter, teenage son Roscoe (Leonard Jr.) and Jeremiah (Turman), who has a new girlfriend, Rita (Sykes).
Seth Meyers with wife Alexi Ashe and actress Carice van Houten as Melisandre on ‘Late Night with Seth Meyers’ (Photo by: Lloyd Bishop/NBC)Never ever invite Game of Thrones‘ Melisandre to your party unless you’re prepared to put out fires, literally. Seth Meyers’ new Late Night skit finds Melisandre (Carice van Houten) attending her very first baby shower which turns out to be a complete and total disaster. Melisandre’s a real Debbie Downer at the party, and even her gift to Seth and Alexi Ashe is inappropriate. Melisandre tries to engage in small talk but can’t quite get the hang of it, bringing the party down by revealing she’s attracted to someone who may be dead (Jon Snow) and by describing in detail how she gave birth to a shadow demon.
And speaking of giving birth to a shadow demon, van Houten described the experience on HBO’s Game of Thrones website, saying, “Like everyone else, I was very impressed by what they did with it. It’s something you’ve never seen. It was really cool that I was a part of that. The whole scene of giving birth was both painful and ecstatic… It was a mixture of almost orgasm and extreme pain, which made it a little different, a little weird, and a little spooky. I quite liked that direction.”
Watch the Melisandre Baby Shower video:
For those who are need a refresher on Melisandre, here’s the description of the character as provided by HBO: “A Red priestess from Asshai, Melisandre worships the Lord of Light. Her visions have told her that Stannis is the true king and as his advisor, she has encouraged him to pursue the throne at all costs.”
In addition to her role in Game of Thrones, Carice van Houten’s credits include Race, The Fifth Estate, Jackie, Repo Men, and Black Death.
MTV’s tapped Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart to host the 2016 MTV Movie Awards. Johnson and Hart recently teamed up for the action comedy Central Intelligence (hitting theaters on June 17th) and will take the stage to co-host the awards show on April 9th. MTV will air the MTV Movie Awards on April 10th at 8pm ET/PT.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the MTV Movie Awards and for the first time the show will be held outdoors at Warner Bros Studios in Burbank, CA, with the studio backlot as the background for the awards show.
“It’s an honor to be hosting the MTV Movie Awards with a guy who’s not only one of the funniest guys on the planet, but who’s often mistaken as my twin, Kevin Hart,” said Dwayne Johnson. “We live for our fans and promise to make this an epic, historic unforgettable night for them.”
“I love hosting – it’s my thing,” said Kevin Hart. “Dwayne and I are the perfect team for the epic 25th anniversary show. It’s going to go down.”
“Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart define what it means to be modern movie stars,” said Executive Producer Casey Patterson. “They have a direct and personal relationship with their fans, who love them for it and have made them two of the biggest entertainers in the world. They are bringing the action and comedy to the big 25th anniversary of the MTV Movie Awards, which makes me excited and frankly a little afraid. Double trouble!”
The 2016 MTV Movie Awards will be executive produced by Casey Patterson and Garrett English.
Disney’s unveiled the teaser poster for Pete’s Dragon, a live-action ‘reimagining’ of the classic animated film. David Lowery co-wrote the script and directed the actin adventure film with Bryce Dallas Howard, Oakes Fegley, Wes Bentley, Karl Urban, Oona Laurence and Robert Redford starring. Disney’s aiming for an August 12, 2016 theatrical release.
The Pete’s Dragon Plot:
For years, old wood carver Mr. Meacham (Robert Redford) has delighted local children with his tales of the fierce dragon that resides deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. To his daughter, Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), who works as a forest ranger, these stories are little more than tall tales…until she meets Pete (Oakes Fegley). Pete is a mysterious 10-year-old with no family and no home who claims to live in the woods with a giant, green dragon named Elliott. And from Pete’s descriptions, Elliott seems remarkably similar to the dragon from Mr. Meacham’s stories. With the help of Natalie (Oona Laurence), an 11-year-old girl whose father Jack (Wes Bentley) owns the local lumber mill, Grace sets out to determine where Pete came from, where he belongs, and the truth about this dragon.
Anya Taylor-Joy in ‘The Witch’ (Photo Courtesy of A24)
“This wilderness will not consume us,” says William (Ralph Ineson) to his family as they set out to make a home for themselves just outside a massive forest in the horror film The Witch.
Set in New England in the year 1630, 60+ plus years before the Salem Witch Trials, William and his family are banned from the safety and security of the community they live in by the elders of the town for William’s willful breaking of the communal laws and his personnel interpretation of religious law. The family travels far to an open wilderness and sets up home not far from an imposing dark forest.
When the oldest daughter, Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), is playing peek-a-boo with the infant son, Samuel, he suddenly vanishes and is never found. This marks the beginning of strange and mysterious events that happen to the family. Their crops fail, the black buck goat becomes hostile toward the father, a certain little rabbit seems to always be taunting the family from the woods, and the father’s rifle backfires while hunting.
One night when William and his wife, Katherine (Kate Dickie), are arguing over going back to the commune, William suggests they send Thomasin – who Katherine blames for the loss of her newborn son – away to serve a family as a live-in servant. Both Thomasin and her younger brother Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw) overhear this and become concerned. Early the next morning, Caleb gets ready to set off into the woods to try to catch enough game to feed the family so Thomasin won’t have to leave. Thomasin catches him before he can leave and threatens to wake their parents unless he lets her go with him. While hunting in the woods, the only horse they have gets spooked, throws Thomasin off and runs away while Caleb is far ahead chasing the cunning rabbit deeper into the forest. Night falls and Thomasin is finally found by her father who’s been looking for both of them since he discovered they were gone. Thomasin doesn’t want to reveal why she and Caleb went into the forest because she promised him she wouldn’t. Katherine becomes more and more angry with Thomasin, blaming her for both Caleb and her baby boy gone missing. Caleb shows up at the cabin the next night in the pouring rain, half naked. His family tries to tend to him but it soon becomes clear he’s not just suffering from being exposed to the elements but that he’s possessed by something evil. Soon, Katherine, William, and their twin children become more convinced that Thomasin cursed her family and is indeed a witch.
Dark, disturbing, and eerie, The Witch is a gothic thriller with solid cinematography and some good performances, but it falls short in delivering any real scares. For his first outing writer/director Robert Eggers captures wonderfully the look and feel of rural New England in 1630 and the Puritan way of life. The massive forest where Eggers shot the film effectively provides a foreboding and menacing atmosphere.
Newcomer Anya Taylor-Joy delivers an impressive performance as Thomasin, the oldest child who slowly begins to lose the trust and love of her family (except her brother Caleb) as they begin to believe she’s the cause of all their misfortune. The despair she conveys as she begins to fear her loved ones is powerful.
Harvey Scrimshaw also turns in an impressive performance as Caleb, Thomasin’s brother who doesn’t want his family to send his sister away and becomes determined to rise up and become the main provider for the family. The closeness the two siblings share is both sweet and awkward, with Caleb noticing his sister as a young woman. The two are protective of each other and the actors have chemistry on screen. Scrimshaw really shines in The Witch, and when Caleb comes back from the woods possessed by an evil entity he’s both creepy and sympathetic as the family hovers around him and prays.
The biggest problem with The Witch is that although it’s eerie there aren’t any really scary or suspenseful moments. Sorry, but scenes of a black goat staring at the father or the little fuzzy rabbit chewing and staring at Caleb aren’t that scary and don’t cause goosebumps. The film does have a truly disturbing scene right after the newborn son goes missing that conveys the infant’s fate, a scene so disturbing it is likely to cause some moviegoers to leave the theater. However, the movie drags in the middle, with the search for Caleb becoming tedious and the family turning on Thomasin predictable.
Menacing and creepy, The Witch is sure to disturb and possibly bother its audience but not truly frighten them.
GRADE: C+
MPAA Rating: R for disturbing violent content and graphic nudity
On February 25, 2016 History will expand its original programming with Night Class, a new late night comedy block. The comedy block is made up of three short-form series including one from Community creator Dan Harmon. Night Class will air at 11:30pm ET/PT.
“HISTORY is excited to forge new territory in the late-night landscape with compelling and bold content that will speak to a new audience,” said Executive Vice President and Head of Programming of HISTORY Paul Cabana. “Night Class is rooted in real fact, yet full of razor sharp humor and wit.”
Details on the Night Class Comedy Block, Courtesy of History:
Great Minds with Dan Harmon – Created by Dan Harmon (Community, Rick and Morty) and Richard Korson (The Daily Show, Those Who Can’t), the series follows Harmon who invests in a time machine and is subsequently visited by history’s greatest minds. Harmon discusses his visitors’ lives and brings them out into the modern world, embarking on an adventure that drops these famous historical figures right into today’s advanced society.
· Great Minds with Dan Harmon features a stellar group of comedic performers including Jack Black as Ludwig Van Beethoven, Jason Sudeikis, Dana Carvey, Aubrey Plaza, Kristen Schaal, Scott Adsit as Ernest Hemingway, Andy Dick, Ron Funches, Paul F. Tompkins, Thomas Middleditch, and Robert Smigel.
· Crossroads of History – Created and written by Elizabeth Shapiro, the scripted short form series examines the fascinating and largely unknown moments in history that have shaped the world. Crossroads of History will lift the veil on famous events and expose little known but historically accurate facts of the story, such as: how President Lincoln’s alcoholic bodyguard, John Parker, chose the wrong night to leave his post at the Ford Theatre and how rejection from art school set a young artist, Adolf Hitler, on a very different career path.
Crossroads of History will include talent such as Lou Diamond Phillips, Brian Baumgartner, Angela Kinsey, Keir O’Donnell, Jack McBrayer, Wayne Knight, Lloyd Ahlquist, and Paul Scheer.
· How to Lose the Presidency – Throughout the history of presidential elections there are always those inspirational moments that propel a candidate to victory. These are not those moments. How to Lose the Presidency showcases real clips of embarrassing moments and mistakes from Howard Dean’s scream heard round the world and Rick Perry’s time of forgetfulness to outrageous moments in the current presidential campaign.
Michelle Monaghan and Aaron Paul in ‘The Path’ (Photo Credit: Hulu/Greg Lewis)
The full trailer has arrived for Hulu’s original dramatic series The Path, created by Jessica Goldberg (Parenthood). The series is executive produced by Jason Katims (About a Boy, Parenthood) and Michelle Lee and stars Breaking Bad‘s Aaron Paul, Hannibal‘s Hugh Dancy, and Michelle Monaghan. The Path will premiere on March 30, 2016.
In our interview from January 2016, Dancy explained how he prepared for his role as a preacher in The Path. “I tried to think about what it would be, what qualities someone in that leadership position would have to have, and I considered one of them to be humor. I don’t think you follow anybody who isn’t fun and a little unpredictable, dangerous in that respect. I read about various movements, religions, whatever you want to call them that have undergone that moment when they have to transition from the beginnings into a second generation. That’s basically when most such movements vanish is they don’t survive it, when they lose their leader or whatever it is. And every so often circumstances conspire for the right person to be there at the right time and somebody kind of pragmatic, etc. etc. So I read about various versions of that.”
The Plot:The Path follows a family at the center of a controversial cult as they struggle with relationships, faith and power. Each episode takes an in-depth look at the gravitational pull of belief and what it means to choose between the life we live and the life we want.
Amazon’s picked up Woody Allen’s still untitled film and is planning to release the romantic comedy in theaters this summer. After its theatrical run, Amazon will have it available via Prime Video to Prime Members. The movie deal marks Allen’s second with Amazon. He’s currently writing and directing a limited television series for Amazon that’s set to begin shooting this month. The series will star Allen, Miley Cyrus, and Elaine May.
“Like all beginning relationships, there is much hope, mutual affection, and genuine goodwill — the lawsuits come later,” said Allen.
“Woody Allen is a brilliant filmmaker,” said Roy Price, Head of Amazon Studios. “We’re so proud to be in business with him for both his next film and his first ever TV series.”
Allen’s untitled romantic comedy stars Blake Lively, Steve Carell, Jeannie Berlin, Jesse Eisenberg, Parker Posey, Kristen Stewart, Corey Stoll, and Ken Stott. Letty Aronson, Steve Tenenbaum, and Edward Walson produced the film , and Ronald L. Chez, Adam B. Stern, and Marc I. Stern executive produced. The plot is being kept a secret, however Allen has revealed it’s set in the 1930s.
Director John Madden (Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) has started filming the political thriller Miss Sloane starring Jessica Chastain (Crimson Peak, The Martian). EuropaCorp announced the start of production on the drama which also stars Mark Strong, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Michael Stuhlbarg, Alison Pill, Jake Lacy, Sam Waterston, and John Lithgow.
Jonathan Perera wrote the screenplay and Ariel Zeitoun, Ben Browning, and Kris Thykier are producing. EuropaCorp and FilmNation are aiming for a 2017 theatrical release.
Madden’s crew includes director of photography Sebastian Blenkov, production designer Matthew Davies, editor Alexander Berner, and costume designer Georgina Yarhi.
The Miss Sloane Plot:
In Miss Sloane, a ruthless and highly successful political strategist, Elizabeth Sloane (Chastain), exposes the cutthroat world of D.C. lobbyists working on both sides of the gun debate. New legislation requiring more stringent background checks for gun purchases is gaining traction in the Senate, and Sloane is approached to spearhead the campaign, pitting her against formidable and powerful political opponents. Deploying her notorious skills and driven by a desire to win at all costs – she jeopardizes those closest to her, and puts her own career at risk.
Bobby Cannavale stars in ‘Vinyl’ (Photo Credit: HBO)
After airing just one episode, HBO has given the dramatic series Vinyl a second season renewal. The music-driven series comes from Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger, Rich Cohen, and Terence Winter, and is currently airing on Sunday nights at 9pm ET/PT. Jagger, Scorsese, Winter, Victoria Pearman, Rick Yorn, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, John Melfi, Allen Coulter and George Mastras are the executive producers. Mick Jagger also serves as the executive music producer and Terence Winter is the series’ showrunner.
Season one kicked off its 10 episode run on February 14, 2016 with a two-hour premiere directed by Oscar winner Martin Scorsese. The series stars Bobby Cannavale, Ray Romano, Olivia Wilde, Ato Essandoh, Max Casella, P.J. Byrne, J.C. MacKenzie, Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, Juno Temple, Jack Quaid, James Jagger and Paul Ben-Victor.
The Vinyl Plot:
Richie Finestra (Cannavale), the founder and president of American Century Records, is trying to save his company and soul without destroying everyone in his path. With his passion for music and discovering talent gone by the wayside, and American Century on the precipice of being sold, he has a life-altering event that reignites his love of music, but severely damages his personal life.
Richie Finestra’s wife, Devon (Wilde), a former actress and model who was part of Andy Warhol’s Factory scene in 1960s New York City, is now a suburban mother of two. Richie’s personal and professional crises put additional stress on their relationship, inspiring a desire to return to her Bohemian roots.
Meanwhile, as head of promotions and a partner at American Century, Zak Yankovich’s (Romano) experience in the industry and hundred-dollar handshakes make him an invaluable part of the company, though he works in Richie’s shadow. Their professional relationship is strained by disagreements over how to guide the company through the music landscape of 1973.
