One Direction went big with their official music video for “Drag Me Down,” the group’s latest single that dropped in late July 2015 and immediately found its way to the top of the charts. Directed by Ben and Gabe Turner, the new music video finds One Direction – Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson – visiting NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. The boys got to try on astronaut suits, check out the International Space Station replica, interact with Robonaut, and participate in actual astronaut training exercises.
“Drag Me Down” will be featured on One Direction’s fifth album coming out this November.
“You know why you’re still alive? Because I chose not to kill you…but they will,” says 47 (Rupert Friend), a genetically altered and programmed assassin who just saved Katia Van Dees (Hannah Ware) from being used to find her father and then murdered in the action crime film Hitman: Agent 47.
Agent 47, identified by only the barcode on the back of his neck, is on a very different mission this time around to protect Van Dees, who’s being hunted by a mega-corporation that believes she is the key to finding her father, Litvenko (Ciaran Hinds). Litvenko is being sought because he started the program of creating and programming the perfect killing human machines back in the ’60s. Anxious to create a whole army of powerful killers, even surpassing Agent 47’s abilities, the CEO of the corporation sends his most lethal assassin, John Smith (Zachary Quinto), after Dees and 47.
Wanting to stop the creation of any more agents like himself, Agent 47 teams up with Van Dees to help her find her father and search for a way to bring down the mega-corporation and its CEO once and for all.
Completely lacking in originality, seemingly uninspired, and horribly written, Hitman: Agent 47 is one of the worst action films to hit the big screen in years. It has ridiculous dialogue, laughable performances, dull and unimpressive action scenes, and when bullets are being fired in every direction or cars are being driven through break-away walls, the film crawls along at a snail’s pace.
In an obvious and obnoxious attempt to steal/copy from the Terminator movie franchise, Quinto’s John Smith character has been given titanium skin so bullets won’t stop or kill him. I know you’re laughing right now but, yes, it’s in the film. Ware’s character Van Dees always seems to find time for a nice, long, hot shower or a late-night skinny dipping swim and finishes just before Smith and his team of assassins show up to capture her…Oh please!!!
Kim Dickens, Cliff Curtis, Alycia Debnam-Carey and Frank Dillane in ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ (Photo Credit: Frank Ockenfels 3 / AMC)
AMC is kicking off The Walking Dead prequel appropriately called Fear the Walking Dead on August 23, 2015 with plenty of anticipation from fans of all things scary. It has blood, gore, and answers to the inevitable zombie apocalypse. But Fear the Walking Dead metaphorically takes on some real issues including homelessness, schizophrenia, and drug addiction. The heart of the story centers on a drug addicted teenager who stumbles upon a gory cannibalistic attack from a fellow addict not capable, physically or morally, of committing such an act. Did he witness a zombie attack? Because he’s a drug addict, his family and all other authority figures chalk up his story as a drug-infused nightmare. But we know better!
In a classic Alfred Hitchcock meets George Romero suspense-style narrative, everyone watching the show knows what is happening before the characters, which just adds to the fun. The world ends not with a bang but a whimper in a city where people go unnoticed every day, homelessness is accepted, and strange is normal. What not a better place to show civilization break down.
So how do you make something interesting when the audience already knows the apocalyptic outcome? To begin, you put in some real problems that exist today. Actor Frank Dillane, who plays troubled teen Nick Clark, says, “I am trying to portray a drug addicted schizophrenic that is seeking help but true to life is ignored. Nick is seeking truth and discovers it.”
The only person sympathetic enough to believe Nick is his mom, Madison Clark, played by Kim Dickens. Madison is a guidance counselor at a high school where she begins to see strange occurrences. She begins to notice dead figures in the park and on the streets, but are they just homeless people? This ambiguity is the charm to Fear the Walking Dead.
The pilot episode of Fear the Walking Dead takes full advantage of societal issues in Los Angeles. Zombies don’t need to hide in a city with 3.8 million people if they are being ignored. If we put a zombie on the subway, will people continue to use their iPhone while the person next to them is lunch? Probably not, but the show tries to explain questions like why the contagion couldn’t be controlled in the original Walking Dead and why there’s a clear disconnect between what the media is telling people about the truth; confusion is a common theme where only a segment of the population is beginning to realize there’s a serious problem.
Other noteworthy cast members include Cliff Curtis who plays Madison’s fiancé and the only person who attempts to add validity to Nick Clark’s crazed drug story. I also really liked Lincoln A. Castellanos who plays a high school senior who brings a knife to school in case he has to fight zombies during lunch break! And as usual, character actor Ruben Blades brings intense presence to his role as Daniel Salazar.
For those of you that are craving the blood and gore of The Walking Dead look no further. The new show will not disappoint. Fear the Walking Dead has layers of social issues we see every day built into the story with plenty of scares. If you like The Walking Dead I highly recommend grabbing some popcorn and a friend for Fear the Walking Dead. It will put a horrific smile on your face – watch out!
Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart in ‘American Ultra’ (Photo Credit: Alan Markfield)
Cross Jason Bourne with a Kevin Smith film, add in the quirkiest of romantic comedy elements and you’ve got American Ultra, an R-rated action comedy starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart. American Ultra comes from two found footage horror movie filmmakers – director Nima Nourizadeh (Project X) and writer Max Landis (Chronicle) – but fortunately both have put that overused format aside for this tightly choreographed actionfest that finds a stoner suddenly discovering he’s an undercover agent…or something of the sort. He’s got mad skills and no idea where they came from. The actual how, whats and whys as to the development of those skills is touched on but inconsequential as what works best about American Ultra is the solid love story at the film’s heart.
Eisenberg stars as Mike Howell, an habitually stoned convenience store worker who’s a frequent visitor to the local jail. And by visitor I mean he’s locked up so often he might as well have his mail forwarded there. Fortunately, his girlfriend Phoebe (Stewart) is a bail bondswoman who never tires of fetching him from behind bars. She’s too good for him and he knows it. He also knows there’s an engagement ring in his pocket just waiting for the right moment to make an appearance. Could that right appearance be accompanied by a box full of illegal fireworks? Yes, if Mike can actually pull off the proposal.
Unfortunately, his grand romantic gesture is put on hold when a bizarre woman enters the Cash-N-Carry and repeats a weird, nonsensical phrase to the very high Mike. The woman uttering a seemingly random string of words is actually CIA Agent Victoria Lasseter (Connie Britton) who’s attempting to save Mike’s life by activating assassin skills that have been suppressed by the agency. Mike thinks he might have stumbled across some bad weed, but it turns out Agent Lasseter’s mantra worked and when two men show up to kill him, he takes them out without breaking a sweat – dispatching one of them with the spoon he’d been calmly using to feast on some ramen.
Completely freaked out, he makes Phoebe come to the Cash-N-Carry to see for herself that he really did kill two people. After verifying that it wasn’t a drug-induced hallucination, Mike and Phoebe are still on the scene when the police arrive and take the pair into custody. And that’s when the proverbial sh*t hits the fan. Assassins appear all over the small town which has, at this point, been thrust into quarantine by the authorities due to an outbreak of typhoid. Mike and Phoebe are now front and center in a battle against killers who are better armed and who are acting under the orders of a power-crazed CIA boss (played by Topher Grace) who’s Agent Lasseter’s superior.
Eisenberg isn’t your typical action hero (although he’s surprisingly agile and athletic) and Stewart’s not the first actress you’d picture when casting a romantic lead in an action comedy/thriller, but strangely enough these two work as a stoner/sleeper agent and a woman who’s more on the ball than it initially seems. As small town working class potheads, Eisenberg and Stewart are not only believable but actually a pair that you really root for not just to come out of this red hot mess alive but still in love. Eisenberg’s Mike would rip doors off their hinges with his bare hands to save Phoebe, and Phoebe exudes patience as she tries to clear Mike’s foggy brain so he can focus on the task at hand of living through the night.
You may ask where are all of the good people of this particular town when it’s suddenly overrun by military types. You may also stumble out of the theater after the film’s brisk 95 minute running time wondering what’s up with the way the CIA angle wraps up. But those questions and others that pop up throughout the film don’t really need to be answered as American Ultra only takes itself semi-seriously and then only during the heavy duty action scenes. Keep your questions for films that actually ask you to analyze and engage in the setups. American Ultra isn’t one of those. It’s two kids in love, struggling to get by, and then finding themselves thrust into overwhelming circumstances that test their relationship. Can love survive in a world turned completely upside down? Even that question is a little too deep for American Ultra. But if you’ve got the munchies for a quirky, goofball comedy that’s also sweet, romantic, and has an awful lot of bloodshed, American Ultra will satisfy your cravings. Just don’t expect to understand or even care about the setup.
GRADE: B-
MPAA Rating: R for strong bloody violence, language throughout, drug use and some sexual content
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon from ‘Project Greenlight’ (Photo: John P. Johnson)
It’s been 12 years since season two of Project Greenlight aired on HBO and now the show is finally back for the long-delayed third season beginning on September 13, 2015 at 10pm ET/PT. As they did with seasons one and two, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are involved as executive producers on season three which will consist of eight half-hour episodes. Marc Joubert, TJ Barrack, Perrin Chiles, Marshall Lewy, Zanne Devine, Jane Lipsitz, Dan Cutforth, and Alexander Lipsitz are also on board as executive producers.
Commenting on the return of the HBO series, Affleck said, “Project Greenlight was ahead of its time. Now that technology has caught up to the concept, we thought it was a perfect time to bring it back. A whole new generation of filmmakers has grown up sharing everything, and the next big director could be just an upload away. It is really great having Project Greenlight back at HBO.”
“Project Greenlight works — careers have been launched and sustained as a direct result of this contest,” said Damon. “Pete Jones, John Gulager, Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan are just a few of the PGL alums who’ve gone on to do great things in Hollywood, and Ben and I are really proud of that.”
The Plot:
Spanning the entire filmmaking process, Project Greenlight takes a revealing, uncensored look at the challenges facing a first-time director. The show begins with a digital competition, as thousands of aspiring filmmakers submit three-minute short films via a Facebook page. The pool of contestants is eventually narrowed to 13 finalists, who are each given a scene to direct for their final project, based on a script provided to them.
Project Greenlight follows the winner from pre-production and casting through principal photography and post-production. Equipped with a Hollywood-vetted script and surrounded by a team of industry professionals, including filmmaking duo Peter and Bobby Farrelly (There’s Something About Mary), the fledgling director must learn to cope with pressure from the studio and producers, survive on-set politics and lead a veteran cast and crew, all while trying to deliver a viable movie – on schedule and on budget.
Project Greenlight September 2015 Episodes:
Episode #26 (season 4, episode 1)
Debut date: SUNDAY, SEPT. 13 (10:00-10:30 p.m. ET/PT)
Other HBO playdates: Sept. 13 (11:30 p.m., 2:30 a.m.), 14 (2:35 a.m.), 15 (4:45 p.m.), 17 (8:30 p.m.) and 19 (12:10 a.m.)
HBO2 playdates: Sept. 15 (2:20 a.m.) and 19 (8:30 p.m.)
Narrowed down from thousands of submissions, 13 finalists arrive in Los Angeles to meet with Project Greenlight judges: Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, executive Jennifer Todd, producer Marc Joubert, producer Effie Brown, HBO’s Len Amato and the Farrelly brothers. As the judges discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each contestant’s final project, they also debate the importance of artistic vision versus the collaborative skills required to be a successful director, all leading up to a red-carpet event, where Jason Mann is announced as the winner.
Episode #27 (season 4, episode 2)
Debut date: SUNDAY, SEPT. 20 (10:00-10:30 p.m.)
Other HBO playdates: Sept. 20 (11:30 p.m., 1:30 a.m.), 21 (3:00 a.m.), 22 (5:30 p.m.), 24 (8:30 p.m.) and 26 (1:45 a.m.)
HBO2 playdates: Sept. 22 (3:15 a.m.) and 26 (8:30 p.m.)
With two months until production begins, Effie, Marc and Len try to convince Jason that digital is the only way to keep the project on schedule and within budget. Meanwhile, instead of moving forward with the original Project Greenlight script, Jason pitches his own script: a dark comedy titled “The Leisure Class.”
Episode #28 (season 4, episode 3)
Debut date: SUNDAY, SEPT. 27 (10:00-10:30 p.m.)
Other HBO playdates: Sept. 27 (11:30 p.m., 2:30 a.m.), 28 (1:20 a.m.) and 29 (5:45 p.m.), and Oct. 1 (8:00 p.m.) and 3 (2:35 a.m.)
HBO2 playdate: Sept. 29 (3:10 a.m.)
After filling key production-staff roles, Effie brings in the location manager to choose LA-area mansions, but Jason thinks none of them match his creative vision. Meanwhile, the production team begins casting the lead roles, and Pete Farrelly and Effie butt heads about Jason’s continued resistance to shooting digitally.
Netflix just announced the young actors who’ll be starring with Winona Ryder and David Harbour in Stranger Things. Joining the cast after an extensive search are Finn Wolfhard, Millie Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Natalia Dyer and Charlie Heaton. The one hour dramatic series comes from writer/directors Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer (Wayward Pines) and will premiere sometime in 2016. Season one will consist of eight episodes.
Described as an ode to ’80s classics, the dramatic series will be set in Indiana. Stranger Things follows the story of a young boy who seemingly vanishes without a trace. “As friends, family, and local police search for answers, they are drawn into an extraordinary mystery involving top-secret experiments, terrifying supernatural forces, and one very strange little girl,” according to Netflix.
Here’s the details on the Stranger Things characters, courtesy of Netflix:
Winona Ryder will portray Joyce, a working class single mother reeling from the disappearance of her 12-year-old son, and David Harbour will play the town’s chief of police.
Finn Wolfhard co-stars in the series as Mike, a bullied 12-year-old who becomes an unlikely hero in the quest to save his best friend.
In the series, Millie Brown portrays a mysterious character who Mike meets in the woods, who possesses strange abilities.
Gaten Matarazzo joins the cast as Dustin, a 12-year-old who marches to the beat of his own drum and whose sense of humor helps defuse tense situations in the series.
Caleb McLaughlin stars as Lucas, an opinionated friend of Mike’s, who possesses a fierceness and courage the other boys lack.
Noah Schnapp portrays Will in the series, a small and sensitive boy who doesn’t fit into the 1980’s definition of normal, who vanishes into thin air.
Natalia Dyer portrays Nancy in the series, Mike’s teenage, older sister.
Charlie Heaton portrays Jonathan, Will’s older teenage brother.
Billie Lourd as Chanel #3 in ‘Scream Queens’ (Photo by Matthias Clamer / Fox)
Billie Lourd isn’t a horror fan and, in fact, the scare factor of Fox’s new series Scream Queens is not what appealed to her when she read a script. At the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con, Lourd admits she wanted to be a part of Scream Queens because of her love of a different genre. “I appreciate the horror genre but I’m in it for the comedy because this show’s hilarious. This show is absolutely hilarious.”
Lourd, who describes life on the set as like going to camp, said she tapped into a side of herself she didn’t know she’d ever get to play in order to tackle her Scream Queens character. “She is a Chanel. She is a sorority sister. She’s one of Emma Roberts’ minions. She’s part of the head honcho crew, but she’s not a head honcho,” explained Lourd. “She is very sassy and dark, and I definitely have that side of me, so it allows me to tap into my weird, cynical, creepy side that I thought should stay home – but now it’s out!”
Lourd says she’s a big fan of Heathers starring Winona Ryder, and she’s thrilled to be able to play a sorority girl in a horror series. She’s also happy to be a part of a project that’s female-driven. “There’s no men helping us out. If we’re killing someone, we’re killing someone with our own hands. It’s really a little bit feminist. It’s really, really cool, in a very subtle, hip way,” said Lourd.
And speaking of killing someone on screen, Lourd has now experienced lots of stage blood. “It’s really, really hard to get off. Oh my lord it’s insane,” said Lourd. “We did that photo shoot with the bloody hands, and I literally had red-stained palms for weeks.”
Lourd comes from a show business family – her mother is actress/writer Carrie Fisher (Star Wars) and her father is the powerful Hollywood agent Bryan Lourd – and she admits that getting into acting probably wouldn’t have been their first choice of a profession for their only daughter. “This was their worst-case scenario. Not worst case, but it wasn’t their dream,” joked Lourd. “My dad probably would have preferred if I was a neurosurgeon or something. It was definitely [that] I put a lot of thought into it.”
Lourd’s mom may not have nudged her into acting, but she supports her daughter’s choice. Carrie Fisher even attended the Scream Queens premiere screening at Comic Con just to be there for her daughter. “It’s a trip. It’s so funny, my mom went to the Scream Queens premiere and there was some rumor going around that she waited in line all day. And she shows up in jeans and like sweaty hair, purple mascara… People are obviously like, ‘Oh my god, I want to take a picture with you!’ because she’s at Comic-Con. She’s like, ‘I don’t get it, babe. I went to this premiere and I’m not there to take pictures. I’m there to watch a premiere and people are wanting to take pictures with me.’ I’m like, ‘Mom, you’re Princess Leia. You’ve got to remember that. And, you’re at Comic-Con. So, like, maybe you should have brushed your hair,'” recalled Lourd, laughing.
Lexi Johnson as Gloria in ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ (Photo by Justin Lubin / AMC)
For those zombie fans who can’t wait until Fear the Walking Dead actually premieres, AMC has released a three minute video featuring the first scene from episode one. Fear the Walking Dead is set to debut on Sunday, August 23, 2015 at 9pm ET/PT and will focus on the time frame just prior to the events in season one of The Walking Dead.
The season one plot: “Living in the same universe as The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead is a gritty drama that explores the onset of the undead apocalypse through the lens of a fractured family. Set in a city where people come to escape, shield secrets, and bury their pasts, a mysterious outbreak threatens to disrupt what little stability high school guidance counselor Madison Clark (Kim Dickens) and English teacher Travis Manawa (Cliff Curtis) have managed to assemble. The everyday pressure of blending two families while dealing with resentful, escapist, and strung out children takes a back seat when society begins to break down. A forced evolution, a necessary survival of the fittest takes hold, and our dysfunctional family must either reinvent themselves or embrace their darker histories.”
Lucifer, loosely based on the DC Entertainment’s Vertigo imprint, won’t be debuting on Fox until 2016. However, cast members and executive producers from the series took part in the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con to chat up the show. The series stars Tom Ellis (Merlin) as the fallen angel who decides to take a break from Hell to live among humans in Los Angeles. D.B. Woodside co-stars as Amenadiel, an angel who’s charged with retrieving Lucifer and convincing him to return to Hell.
Sitting down for roundtable interviews at Comic-Con, Woodside talked about what sets his angel apart from ones we’ve previously seen in films or on TV.
“We’re not doing the stereotypical, quiet, and reserved type. I like the fact that he’s a warrior angel. In the pilot, you just get kind of a taste of that, but as the series unfolds, you really get a chance to see this guy being extremely physical. All he knows is fighting; that’s what he does,” said Woodside, adding, “It’s going to be interesting for us as viewers to see him have to deal in this realm of Los Angeles when he’s lived for thousands of years and he’s not really used to communicating with humans. He’s used to walking among them invisible but not really communicating with them.”
Amenadiel’s main goal is to get Lucifer to return to where he belongs, but that task will not be easy. “I think he’s going to start employing different tactics. Lucifer seems to be resistant. So, I think that he’s going to have to start resorting to things that probably make him feel uncomfortable – manipulation maybe, disturbing life on earth. Disrupting that balance more so Lucifer sees what’s really happening. Things that I don’t think Amenadiel ever thought he would have to deal with,” said Woodside. “I think he just thought, ‘I’ll come here, I’ll tell him he has to go back. He’s my little brother and he’ll have a few sarcastic comments, and in the end he’ll come back.'”
However, despite the fact that Lucifer and Amenadiel will be butting heads, Woodside is hopeful that, eventually, they’ll work together.
“I think right now it’s entirely antagonistic simply because they’re on opposite sides. I have a funny feeling that some otherworldly things are going to start to enter into this world of Los Angeles that Lucifer’s not going to be able to close his eyes to. They’re going to have to, I think, work together to solve some pretty big problems. Now how long that lasts, I really have no idea. But I can see them at some point working together. That might be season two, you know? But I can’t see them on opposite sides for that long,” revealed Woodside.
And while it’s based on a comic, it won’t necessarily conform to any one genre. “Lucifer, Amenadiel, Mazikeen, they’re all otherworldly, so I think it kind of lends itself where it can go so many different ways. They tell us we’re very loosely based on the comics, and there’s something about that for me that’s exciting because there’s so many different areas they can go with the story,” explained Woodside. “You’ll be finding out more and more about each character as the show goes on.”
Asked if he read the comics to prepare for the role, Woodside replied, “When I got cast in it I didn’t know it that well, but before we started shooting, I read it only to find everything that you read and studied is not in the show. So, it’s kind of like, ‘Oh, I did all this homework… All right.’ It’s kind of like not there. But, there something just as an actor there’s always that kind of geeky nerdish side of us that loves to do that type of research because it just allows you to think and be creative in so many ways that we’re able to infuse our characters with things that maybe the average viewer might not get, but I think for fans of the comic book they’ll hear certain lines and know there’s a double meaning there. So I think there’s stuff like that that’s really cool.”
Woodside also told us during our interview at Comic-Con that it was Amenadiel’s intensity and focus that he latched onto in approaching the character. “He doesn’t stop to question anything,” explained Woodside. “He’s not a very inquisitive person, it’s just that he follows orders. So I think there’s a passion, there’s a righteousness there that I think is a lot of fun to play because we all know at some point that’s got to come crashing down and then how does he with something that he believed in so strongly, how does he deal with that not being exactly what he thought it was going to be?”
There’s not a ‘Preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse’ badge, is there? No? Maybe there should be as this new restricted/not safe for work trailer for Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse finds three scouts smack-dab in the middle of a zombie plague. Directed by Christopher Landon (Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones), the film stars Tye Sheridan, David Koechner, Cloris Leachman¸ Halston Sage, Logan Miller, Joey Morgan, and Sarah Dumont.
Paramount Pictures will release Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse in theaters on October 30, 2015.
The Plot:
Three scouts and lifelong friends join forces with one badass cocktail waitress to become the world’s most unlikely team of heroes. When their peaceful town is ravaged by a zombie invasion, they’ll fight for the badge of a lifetime and put their scouting skills to the test to save mankind from the undead.
