The sexy and charming Tom Ellis is featured prominently in the new teaser trailers for Fox’s Lucifer, coming to primetime next year. The new trailers effectively establish the tone for the series which is based on the characters created by Neil Gaiman, Mike Dringenberg, and Sam Kieth. In addition to Ellis, the cast of the new series includes Lauren German, Rachael Harris, DB Woodside, Lesley-Ann Brandt, Kevin Alejandro, and Scarlett Estevez.
The Lucifer Plot:
Bored and unhappy as the Lord of Hell, LUCIFER MORNINGSTAR (Ellis) has abandoned his throne and retired to L.A., where he owns Lux, an upscale nightclub. Charming, charismatic and devilishly handsome, Lucifer is enjoying his retirement, indulging in a few of his favorite things – wine, women and song – when a beautiful pop star is brutally murdered outside of Lux. For the first time in roughly 10 billion years, he feels something awaken deep within him as a result of this murder. Compassion? Sympathy? The very thought disturbs him – as well as his best friend and confidante, MAZIKEEN aka MAZE (Brandt), a fierce demon in the form of a beautiful young woman.
The murder attracts the attention of LAPD homicide detective CHLOE DANCER (German), who initially is dismissive of Lucifer. But she becomes intrigued by his talent for drawing out people’s secrets and his desire to dispense justice, doling out punishment to those who deserve it. As they work together to solve the pop star’s murder, Lucifer is struck by Chloe’s inherent goodness.
Accustomed to dealing with the absolute worst of humanity, Lucifer is intrigued by Chloe’s apparent purity and begins to wonder if there’s hope for his own soul yet. At the same time, God’s emissary, the angel AMENADIEL (Woodside), has been sent to Los Angeles to convince Lucifer to return to the underworld…can the Devil incarnate be tempted toward the side of Good, or will his original calling pull him back toward Evil?
There’s a lot of talk about how the glut of films targeting the same adult audience has contributed to films including Our Brand is Crisis starring Sandra Bullock and Burnt with Bradley Cooper bombing at the box office, but not as much talk as there should be about how audiences are simply saying no to bad films right now. Our Brand is Crisis set a new low in the opening weekend numbers for a film led by Bullock, and it’s actually a movie that deserved the low numbers. Burnt had a bumpy road on its way into theaters and I think the trailers led to confusion about the film’s tone, which could have put people off. With those two films ignored by ticket buyers, the door was wide open for The Martian with Matt Damon to continue its reign over the box office. Of course given the fact the October 30-November 1 weekend was the worst yet of 2015, it didn’t take much for The Martian to remain on top. The Martian, now in its fifth weekend in release, rang up $11.4 million over the Halloween weekend and has now brought in $182 million domestically.
On a happier note for studios and movie fans, next weekend should see the box office perk up again as the latest James Bond film, Spectre, will head into 3,600 theaters. Family audiences will also have another film to choose from besides Hotel Transylvania 2 as The Peanuts movie is set to arrive on November 6, 2015.
Claire Coffee as Adalind Schade and Bree Turner as Rosalee Calvert in ‘Grimm’ (Photo by Scott Green / NBC)
Season five of NBC’s hit series Grimm kicked off on October 30, 2015 at 9pm ET/PT with an episode that finds Nick (David Guintoli) reeling from the deaths of his mother and Juliette. The season five premiere also finds the ready-to-deliver Adalind coming to terms with the fact she’s now actually having to depend on her once mortal enemy for help.
With season five just getting underway, Claire Coffee took part in a conference call to discuss the changes Adalind’s gone through and what’s in store for the new mother this season.
Claire Coffee Grimm Season 5 Interview
Adalind seems to be changing for the better. Is that going to last or is it just what she’s feeling right because she still has baby hormones?
Claire Coffee: “That’s a good question. Those baby hormones, as I now know firsthand, are very persuasive at times. But yes, I think she finally feels like her life is far better without being a Hexenbiest than it is being a Hexenbiest. We’re shooting episode 11 now, but her fear kind of in the beginning is that this is a suppressant that they used to suppress her powers. But, you know, they could trickle back in at any moment. She is really scared of that happening because the relationship that is building with Nick, […]she really wants to do it right this time.”
Can you talk about how her relationship with Nick is going to be as time goes on?
Claire Coffee: “Yes, you know at the beginning of the season they find themselves – they’re both at a bit of a crossroads: Nick having lost his mother and Juliette, the love of his life. And, Adalind has no one. I think that they can kind of really do bond over this child where the only feeling that matters to them at this point is keeping this child happy and healthy, so they form a bond over that. I think it’s easy to let bygones be bygones when you have a baby that really does need you 24 hours a day. So it gets them pretty sidetracked, at least for a while.”
How has motherhood been for you?
Claire Coffee: “It’s so many things but it’s been awesome. Cal is awesome and luckily I’m able to bring him on set with me, so he hangs out in the trailer with my incredible nanny. I get to pop in and out to feed him or hang out with him on breaks from set. So, that’s been really good. He’s sort of like the set mascot. But it’s been good you know, and I think I feel so much better informed this season, playing the role of a mother now that I am one myself.
I feel very bad about my birthing scene of Diana. I would have done it very differently had I known what it actually feels like.”
Have you had a chance to kind of step back and look at Adalind’s arc over the seasons?
Claire Coffee: “Oh yes. I think roller coaster defines it most accurately. I really do try to take it day-by-day and we don’t get the scripts except for probably a week in advance, so it’s great. I never knew where she was going, which helps, because you can kind of take each insane thing at face value and not really worry about too far in the future or how it’s going to affect things in the future.
But, you know, as an actress that’s really all you want is to be able to play extraordinary circumstances. I feel like I got to play three different characters in the same show so far, so it’s been great fun for me.”
Fans are really talking about the possibility of a Nick and Adalind romantic relationship. What do you think of that kind of talk? Do you think it’s crazy?
Claire Coffee: “Well, there’s no crazy talk, I don’t think, on the show. There’s nothing too crazy. You know, Nick and Adalind have had that very aggressive and contentious chemistry from the beginning, since she was the first Wesen that he saw and she’s been a thorn in his side. I do think they are an expression of that saying that there’s a thin line between love and hate. You know, they are inextricably linked, I would say. So, it’s not so far-fetched but there’s so many things complicating the situation at this point. And especially this season we have a brand new villainess entity. There’s this Wesen uprising afoot so there’s a lot going on.”
How is her relationship with Sean Renard and Hank going to be affected as the new relationship between Nick and Adalind progresses?
Claire Coffee: “So with Renard, the captain has sort of a different storyline in season five. Adalind with the baby, she’s definitely popping up more with Nick and the gang and with Hank and Monroe and Rosalee. With Hank I think there’s…nobody forgets how badly she screwed over Hank and tried to kill him and all of that. But it seems to be a little bit on the back burner as people are giving Adalind the benefit of the doubt. Thankfully, for myself and her.
And her relationship with Rosalee, she’s really trying to get Rosalee to trust her. They’re forming a friendship that will grow throughout the season.”
Does Adalind fear that the new baby will also be taken away?
Claire Coffee: “There’s a fear that this one will get taken away. And with the new stress that arrived on the scene in Portland, her fears are not assuaged in any way. So, she’s relying on Nick for protection.”
Is there an impression that you are suddenly Juliette’s replacement? Not just with Nick but also with the show in general?
Claire Coffee: “Oh, I don’t think so. Well, the best thing I can say is you just have to wait and see. It’s a pretty twisty, turning season. She’s not replacing anything. I think this Adalind/Nick relationship is kind of providing just one more layer for the gang. I think for the rest of the team, they definitely aren’t so excited to have her in the fold at first, and nobody is trusting her completely. It’s a very slow process.”
What can we expect over the course of the season for Adaline?
Claire Coffee: “Her main concern is keeping Kelly safe and she’s really trying to figure out a way that she can be a ‘normal’ person. She wants to be a good person and, you know, try to figure out ways to do that and be a good mom. Her relationship with Nick is also something that is ever-changing for the first half of this season. It gets complicated is I think is the only thing I can say.”
We’ve all seen the evolution of your character throughout the four seasons, but it also seems that the definition of what a Hexenbiest is has also evolved. Can you speak to how that has changed over the years?
Claire Coffee: “I think it’s gotten more specific I would say. So at the start I was the only Hexenbiest and we had the B episode where you learned a little bit more about Hexenbiest, the sort of lethal, witch creatures that no one in the Wesen community really liked. I think now it’s gotten more specific with the rules of Hexenbiest age and how you can become a Hexenbiest. And, you know, Juliette became a Hexenbiest. She was not born a Hexenbiest so therefore her powers are more deadly. And then we have the Zauberbiest which is the captain. We learned about the male version of the Hexenbiest.
But it is evolving for my character and she’s suppressing her powers. How and what does it take for those powers to kind of come back and come through? How can you suppress them forever? Those are things that we will continue to learn about in season five.”
Will Adalind get involved with any of Nick’s cases or get involved with any of the action?
Claire Coffee: “Yes, a little bit. I think he probes her for some knowledge more about the darker side of the Wesen world. And from the kind of folklore perspective, she proves to be helpful in a few ways.”
The show’s going to be celebrating its hundredth episode. What does being part of a show like this mean for you, personally?
Claire Coffee: “It’s unbelievable, truly. I keep saying it’s that we’re all just so grateful and in disbelief and so proud of the show and so happy to be up in Portland. You know, 100 episodes these days is such an enormous accomplishment. We are hugely indebted to the fans of the show. It’s outstanding.”
What was the most challenging thing to shoot thus far this season?
Claire Coffee: “There was a scene coming up where I had to hold the baby, answer the phone, and deal with a pot of boiling water with rice. So just from a choreography standpoint, I would say that was pretty challenging.”
Will Adalind get a chance to meet her daughter, Diana, again? What kind of relationship do you think they could have?
Claire Coffee: “That’s a good question. You know, we’re up to episode 11 and I still haven’t gotten her back yet. She is aging rapidly, so we’re all sort of speculating as to how she will be when I finally see her again. At this point whomever she’s with has spent a lot more time with her than Adalind has. So those mother ties are very, very strong, but the relationship would obviously be, I think, difficult at first.”
You’ve been playing Adalind as primarily evil for the last four years. Are you enjoying playing a kinder, gentler Adalind, or are you eager to get back to villainy?
Claire Coffee: “I’m enjoying it. It’s always fun to get to play something different. But I think yes, as I said before, it’s really just the day-to-day enjoyment of getting to work with the rest of the cast, I’m loving right now.”
What were your feelings when you first found out you would be having a baby and it would be Nick’s?
Claire Coffee: “I was shocked. They wrote another baby in because I had a baby in real life. But when I told them I was pregnant I said, ‘You know, obviously we’re not going to do another baby storyline. Don’t worry, we can use a body double, whatever. It will be all fine.’ And then halfway through the season they said, ‘Actually, we are going to have you be pregnant and it’s going to be Nick’s.’ And I think my jaw hit the floor.
But it ended up being an outrageously kind of fun adventure. It still is, so I’m happy that they went that direction.”
Netflix officially announced they’ve renewed the dramatic series Longmire for a fifth season. The streaming service made the announcement via Facebook, posting a photo promoting season five along with the wording: “We’ve never been one to back down from a fight. Longmire will return to Netflix for Season 5.”
Robert Taylor, Katee Sackhoff, Lou Diamond Phillips, Bailey Chase, Cassidy Freeman, and Adam Bartley star in the Western crime drama which moved to Netflix for its fourth season. Season four’s 10 new episodes premiered on September 10, 2015.
The Longmire Plot:
Based on the series of mystery novels by author Craig Johnson, Longmire focuses on Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor), a Wyoming county sheriff determined to solve the mystery behind his wife’s murder. At his side are close friend Henry Standing Bear (Lou Diamond Phillips), Deputy Vic Moretti (Katee Sackhoff), daughter Cady (Cassidy Freeman) and several other members of the Absaroka County community.
Adele’s special one-night only November concert at Radio City Music Hall in New York will be taped for broadcast on NBC. Adele Live in New York City will air on Monday, December 14, 2015 as a one-hour special at 10pm ET/PT. According to NBC, the Radio City Music Hall show will be the multiple Grammy-winning singer’s largest New York show to date.
Adele Live in New York City will be executive produced by Adele, Lorne Michaels, and Jonathan Dickins. Beth McCarthy-Miller will direct the one-hour show.
Adele will be releasing her new album, 25, on November 20th. The first single has already dropped and already made it to the top of the charts. She’ll be supporting the album’s release with performances on Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and Today. For those into trivia, Adele’s first US television performance was on Today back in 2008.
Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon in ‘The Walking Dead’ Season 6 (Photo Credit: Gene Page / AMC)
The Walking Dead will be sticking around for at least one more season. AMC just announced they’ve renewed the zombie apocalypse series for a seventh season, with the most recent episode – season six’s third – bringing in 18.2 million viewers, the majority of whom are still wondering if Glenn managed to survive the horde of walkers who had him cornered. The series has been ranked as the #1 show on TV among 18-49 year-olds for the past three years, so granting The Walking Dead a seventh season was an obvious choice.
The Walking Dead season seven while premiere in October 2016.
“Thank goodness someone had a Magic 8-Ball with them in our many long internal meetings about these renewals. When, on the third shake, ‘without a doubt’ filled the murky blue screen, we knew we had to proceed with new seasons of The Walking Dead and Talking Dead,” stated Charlie Collier, president of AMC, SundanceTV and AMC Studios. “All joking aside, we are so proud to share these shows with fans who have been so passionate, communicative and engaged. We are grateful for and continually impressed by the talent, effort and excellence on continuous display by Robert Kirkman, Scott Gimple, Chris Hardwick and the many people with whom we partner to make these unique shows possible. The result: More Walking and Talking. Hooray.”
Scott M. Gimple is confirmed to return as executive producer and showrunner for season seven. Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd, David Alpert, Greg Nicotero and Tom Luse will also be back as executive producers.
Angelina Jolie Pitt and Brad Pitt in a scene from ‘By the Sea’
Here’s a quick rundown on the new trailer for By the Sea: The sea, contemplation, gazing, smoking, peeping, emotions, walking, more emotions, the sea again, more emotions, bathing, fighting, showering, and crying. No words, just the score and plenty of emotional moments. What’s By the Sea about? The trailer doesn’t shed any light on that, other than the fact it stars real-life couple Angelina Jolie Pitt and Brad Pitt.
Angelina Jolie Pitt also wrote and directed the dramatic film which is being released in theaters on November 14, 2015.
The By the Sea Plot:
By the Sea follows an American writer named Roland (Pitt) and his wife, Vanessa (Jolie Pitt), who arrive in a tranquil and picturesque seaside resort in 1970s France, their marriage in apparent crisis. As they spend time with fellow travelers, including young newlyweds Lea (Mélanie Laurent) and François (Melvil Poupaud), and village locals Michel (Niels Arestrup) and Patrice (Richard Bohringer), the couple begins to come to terms with unresolved issues in their own lives.
In its style, and its treatment of themes of the human experience, By the Sea is inspired by European cinema and theater of the ’60s and ’70s.
Sony Pictures just released the first trailer for The Brothers Grimsby starring Mark Strong, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Rebel Wilson. The trailer shows Mark Strong’s an incredible spy while Sacha Baron Cohen is more of a slacker.
Directed by Louis Leterrier (Now You See Me), the action comedy will open in theaters on March 4, 2016.
The Brothers Grimsby Plot:
Nobby (Sacha Baron Cohen), a sweet but dimwitted English football hooligan, reunites with his long-lost brother Sebastian (Mark Strong), a deadly MI6 agent, to prevent a massive global terror attack and prove that behind every great spy is an embarrassing sibling.
Nobby has everything a man from Grimsby could want, including 11 children and the most gorgeous girlfriend in the northeast of England (Rebel Wilson). There’s only one thing missing: his little brother, Sebastian, who Nobby has spent 28 years searching for after they were separated as kids. Nobby sets off to reunite with Sebastian, unaware that not only is his brother MI6’s deadliest assassin, but he’s just uncovered plans for an imminent global terrorist attack. On the run and wrongfully accused, Sebastian realizes that if he is going to save the world, he will need the help of its biggest idiot.
“They do not get to do this! They do not get to smack us just for asking the question,” yells Mary Mapes (Cate Blanchett) to her superiors after her big story about President George W. Bush’s military service during Vietnam starts to fall apart in the dramatic film, Truth.
Back in 2004 in the days leading up to the presidential election 60 Minutes producer Mary Mapes and veteran news anchor Dan Rather (Robert Redford) worked with a small investigative team on a news story focusing on the President of the United States’ military service. After being in touch with supposed whistleblower Lt. Colonel Bill Burkett (Stacy Keach) who hands over documents questioning Bush’s fitness and duty reports, Mapes and Rather run the story on 60 Minutes II.
Soon after the story airs, however, the authenticity of the documents come into question along with the real motives of Maples’ source and her own personnel politics. This inevitably leads to a firestorm of criticism and an investigation by CBS corporate which ultimately results in Mapes and Rather losing their jobs and their reputations in the news industry.
Based on true events, Truth is a stretched-out, melodramatic, historical docudrama that has a strong cast but suffers from a simplistic script and outrageous overacting. Cate Blanchett delivers an over-the-top, unsympathetic performance as the crusading 60 Minutes producer who is determined to get HER story on the air in the hopes of it affecting the upcoming election. Blanchett keeps resorting to grabbing her forehead and pushing her hair back time and time again every time her character is stressed or gets another piece of information on how she and her team broadcasted propaganda instead of actual facts.
Topher Grace is unimpressive and how he plays his character, investigative reporter Mike Smith, is borderline annoying. Smith whines about corporate America and how journalism is dying, coming across more like a liberal rookie wanting to “stick it to the powers in charge” while trying to impress his idol, Dan Rather, than a professional reporter. Grace just doesn’t sell the character to the audience. The scene late in the film where his character is told to leave the CBS News building and that he no longer is allowed on the premises is painfully horrible, with Grace’s character’s outlandish outbursts of conspiracies and corporate misconduct that the film would have benefited had the scene ended up on the editing room floor where it really belongs.
Dennis Quaid’s talents are wasted in Truth as Lt. Colonel Roger Charles, the military inside man and connection of Mapes’ investigative team who basically does nothing more than map out the people the team talks to in order to obtain the fake documents and lets young Smith know when the investigation into their story becomes serious.
The only two performances that almost save the film and make it worth sitting through are delivered by Redford and Bruce Greenwood. Robert Redford is marvelous as Dan Rather, capturing the larger than life persona of the legendary broadcaster as well as his connection and trust with Mapes. One scene in particular focusing on Redford as Rather on the phone talking to Blanchett as Mapes and letting her know he’s stepping down as the evening anchor of CBS News is cinematic gold.
Bruce Greenwood is perfect in his performance as President of CBS News Andrew Heyward. He portrays flawlessly the chief of the corporate news for CBS who’s forced to make hard choices and to begin an investigation into his own employees and eventually fire and force out those responsible for bringing the integrity of CBS News into question. Greenwood is one of the best character actors in the business today.
With outlandish overacting, a dumbed down script, and poorly paced and edited scenes, Truth is a terrible misfire of a film that fails to really reveal the motives and actions behind the bad journalistic practices it spotlights.
GRADE: C-
MPAA Rating: R for language and a brief nude photo
Hailee Steinfeld, Muna Otaru, and Brit Marling in ‘The Keeping Room’
The Keeping Room will continue rolling out into new cities over the Halloween weekend, which is perfect timing as it’s one of the scariest films of 2015. Directed by Daniel Barber from a script by Julia Hart, this isn’t a horror film in the conventional sense of the word yet it delivers the chills and thrills missing from this year’s horror releases.
Defining The Keeping Room isn’t easily accomplished, even though on the surface the premise sounds simple. The feminist twist puts this R-rated drama in a different league than previous films set in the same Civil War time period. The Keeping Room also features terrific acting from its small ensemble who convincingly bring 1865 to life on the screen.
Brit Marling (The East) plays older sister Augusta, a self-sufficient young woman who is managing her family’s farm with the assistance of her younger sister, Louise (Hailee Steinfeld), and Mad (Muna Otaru), a slave who Augusta considers a member of the family. The times are incredibly difficult, with the farm barely providing enough vegetables for meals. Augusta does occasionally manage to shoot a small animal, but keeping their strength up from the meager amount they eat is a daily challenge.
The men have been off fighting for the South, so the women must not only work the farm but also defend it from Union soldiers. And with the South on the losing side, Union soldiers are now beginning to sweep back through this part of the country on the way back to their homes in the North.
Augusta encounters two such Union soldiers, Moses (Sam Worthington) and Henry (Kyle Soller), when she’s forced to make a trip to town for medicine. For the most part, the three women have been keeping to themselves on the farm so as not to draw any attention to the fact they’re isolated and on their own. Unfortunately, the two soldiers are not only the type of men who prey on women but also cold-blooded killers. Wisely, Augusta races home, hoping that the men will not be able to follow her tracks. However luck is not on her side and the women must do whatever it takes to keep themselves from being sexually assaulted and killed.
The Keeping Room – The Bottom Line:
The Keeping Room is intense and the threat of violence against the three women feels almost unbearably real. The world in which the film is set is desolate, cold, and brutal, with the focus on how the horrors of war affect those left at home as well as how it changes those actively involved in shedding the blood of their enemies on the battlefield. Were Moses and Henry decent men before they left to join in the fighting? Were they changed into monsters who hunt women only after becoming soldiers? There’s a lot to think about at the end of The Keeping Room and it’s likely this will be one of those rare films that sticks with you for quite a while following a screening.
GRADE: B
MPAA Rating: R for strong violence including a sexual assault
