Ant-Man was expected to ring up $60+ million domestically, but it fell slightly short over its first three days in theatrical release. It also charted as the lowest per screen average in Marvel history, according to Box Office Mojo.
The other wide release for the July 17, 2015 weekend was Trainwreck written and starring Amy Schumer and directed by Judd Apatow. Schumer, who wrote the script without knowing she’d star in it, has been popping up on the talk show circuit to promote the film. Her popularity among women helped drive the film to a $30 million opening weekend, exceeding expectations and earning an A- Cinemascore from audiences.
Writer Matthew Graham, Yael Stone, Director Nick Hurran, Daisy Betts and Julian McMahon (Photo by Evans Vestal Ward / Syfy)
Syfy’s set to bring the classic Arthur C. Clarke novel Childhood’s End to the screen for the first time with a six-hour miniseries based on the 1953 science fiction tale. Clarke’s novel was about an alien invasion, however it differed from most of its genre in that the invaders – called Overlords – were peaceful and shared their advanced knowledge to bring about the end of wars and to establish a new utopia on Earth. In the miniseries, Game of Thrones‘ Charles Dance plays the ambassador of the Overlords, Karellen, and Mike Vogel (Bates Motel, Under the Dome) is Karellen’s first contact on Earthy, Ricky Stormgren.
At the 2015 San Diego Comic Con, screenwriter Matthew Graham (Doctor Who) participated in roundtable interviews to discuss the process of adapting Arthur C. Clarke’s novel for the screen. Graham believes the miniseries format was the right fit for this particular story because it would have been much more difficult to squeeze the entire book into a two-hour movie. “The book is not long but it is epic,” explained Graham. “It covers a huge period of time and it would have been difficult to create that sense of so much time on the Earth passing and our characters evolving. So the miniseries was actually a blessing as a format.”
“Originally it was conceived as a two-parter but then Syfy wanted it to be three nights. The challenge was to find what to put in the second night, really. The first night really presented itself as the opening and the world getting to grips with these benevolent alien overlords. And then the third part was very, very clearly the end game of the story. But the second part was sort of space. When I went through the book again, I found a sort of innocuous paragraph that said, ‘And then the Overlords persuaded mankind to dispense with religion.’ And that’s kind of it. That was it. That was Arthur C. Clarke, ‘and then they dispense with religion.’ And I thought that’s a movie in itself – getting a planet to give up its religious beliefs. So, that became the crux of the second part. From that, we created a new character that’s not in the book, played by Yael Stone, who represented religious belief. It’s through her eyes we sort of tell that story.”
Audiences are accustomed to seeing bleak dystopian futures in both films and TV, but with Childhood’s End the future must look like our hopes and dreams for the world coming true. “It was very hard to get right,” says Graham about creating this attractive new world. “It was a big aesthetic conversation with myself, with Nick [Hurran, the director], and with the designer Phil Ivey, and with the whole team and the studio and the network about how we did it. In the end, we felt it was very important to make a visual impression. That’s why we have the Utopians all wearing roughly the same kind of clothes, the same kind of color palette, which is all beige and white. It kind of seems obvious in some ways, but actually you need to do it. When you see it on screen, it hits you as a statement.”
“What we also came up with was a sort of philosophy for why they’re wearing what they’re wearing. So it’s not as though you have to drink the Kool-aid, you have to get up in the morning and suddenly the Overlords have laid out a new wardrobe for you. It’s just that over time under their watchful gaze, we’ve done away with sweatshops. There are no more sweatshops in India. We talk about this in the show. So our clothing, whatever you’re wearing now you continue wearing until it runs out. And then the stuff that’s left is stuff that’s there to be fairly utilitarian and fairly basic. People no longer have social media so there’s no need to dress to impress. You should dress for comfort. It just felt organic to us. It felt organic that people would start to wear simpler clothes, because they were no longer insecure about where who they were.
Full interview with writer Matthew Graham on Childhood’s End:
Ruta Gedmintas and Kevin Durand at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con (Photos by Richard Chavez / Showbiz Junkies)
FX’s The Strain is back for an action-packed season two in which it’s not just a small group of citizens who are in on the truth. Season two finds New York under attack and Eph, Nora, Setrakian, Fet, and Dutch attempting to find a way to kill the infected before they completely take over. The second season premiered on July 12, 2015 and is airing on Sunday night at 10pm ET/PT, and in support of The Strain‘s new season the cast and executive producers hosted a panel at the San Diego Comic-Con.
Durand and Gedmintas also took part in roundtable interviews to discuss what viewers can look forward to this season.
Describing season two, Kevin Durand (“Vasiliy Fet) said, “This season starts to peel the onion a little bit. We start to see a lot of different levels to him, but there is a lot of killing. He enjoys where he’s at in this apocalyptic setting. He’s flourishing. He’s getting stronger. His knowledge is going through the roof. He’s learning a lot from Setrakian. He’s a quick learner. He’s becoming a revolutionary vampire killer. He believes he’s the best at it, and I think he is.”
Durand says Fet will have a lot of new allies helping him kill as many vampires as possible. “People connect that you might not have expected,” teased Durand. “The true group of allies within Fet’s abode, they’re all in his space and he’s a lone wolf and a little uncomfortable about it. He’s pretty meticulous by nature, a little obsessive about where things should go and about how people should behave in his place. But he puts up with it because he actually likes these people – some of them a lot more than others. He’s pragmatic. He knows that they’re all better off and will last longer if they’re together. Everyone has a precious skill or knowledge that when they’re all together, they’re stronger.”
One of Fet’s closest allies is Dutch, played by Ruta Gedmintas. Although fans might be pulling for a Fet/Dutch romantic relationship, Gedmintas wasn’t willing to give away any spoilers in our interview. Instead, she said the relationship is “explored” and that it’s a “fun ride.”
When we catch up with Dutch at the beginning of season two she’ll be feeling a bit sassy, according to Gedmintas. “She’s ready to take on the fight. I think she’s found a group of people who she’s getting quite comfortable with, so maybe a little bit cheeky,” explained Gedmintas.
Watch the full interviews for more on what fans can expect of season two of FX’s The Strain:
Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe in ‘Blindspot’ (Photo by Virginia Sherwood / NBC)
The show hasn’t even aired yet and there were already people cosplaying Jaimie Alexander’s character, Jane Doe, from Blindspot at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con. The new NBC series will make its debut on September 21st, and executive producers Greg Berlanti and writer/executive producer Martin Gero along with star Jaime Alexander made the trek to San Diego to discuss the fascinating series about a woman found naked, covered with tattoos, in a bag in Times Square. She has no idea who she is or how she got there, or why a specific FBI agent’s name is among the tattoos on her body.
Sitting down to talk about the show during roundtable interviews at Comic-Con, Berlanti described the show as a thrill ride. “As compelling as the opening scene is in the pilot, it just gets more and more dynamic as the episodes go on. The way that the writers have begun to unfurl her mystery, who she is or who she might be, is compelling. The actors are just so incredibly dynamic, particularly when you see them in a movie thriller or a movie action adventure, but the fact that they’re there every week on the screen is, I think, going to be really exciting for the audience,” said Berlanti.
“This first season is going to be intense,” said Alexander. “The great thing about this season is that there are very few things that are repeated in it. You know how procedurals get so boring, but you get obsessed with them? Like Law & Order SVU, it can be the same thing every episode and I don’t care. It’s so good. This show moves fast so you can pick up on certain things. If you miss an episode you can, obviously, understand what’s going to be happening. It’s just the nature of that type of show. But, there’s going to be new things every single episode that catapult the storyline.
It’s so intense. It’s written very much like a film, which I love. That was one of the most appealing aspects for me, and the fact that Mark Pellington directed our pilot and is doing episode two and I think episode four. He’s an executive producer now, I believe, and his tone and how dark it is is just so cinematic. I think TV is really paving the way for strong female characters that are relatable. [Laughing] Screw movies.”
Jaime Alexander in NBC’s ‘Blindspot’
The opening scene with Alexander’s character discovered in a bag was actually shot in Times Square in New York City. “Times Square, that was the first image I had; it’s the first image in the show. It is the genesis for everything and we really needed to do it right. I was so afraid we were going to have to do it with an enormous amount of visual effects because Times Square is pretty busy at night. I don’t know if you’ve been to Times Square but it’s pretty busy – even at two in the morning. So, we hired an amazing amount of PAs. We had 45 amazing PAs – PAs are the lifeblood of the film industry – and some very cooperative cops. We started shooting at 10, kind of the crowd and stuff, thinned it out,” revealed Gero.
He continued: “Usually in film you start with your wide shots and get closer and closer. We started with the zipper and then it was like we could control this much [indicating a small circle], we can control this much [opening the circle up a bit], and then as it got to three or four in the morning, with the help of the cops and our amazing PA team, we shut that place down. There’s not a single visual effect in that entire opening sequence. We emptied Times Square for real. It grounds the show in a real way and creates a sense of scope that is pretty exciting.”
Gero, who agrees it’s fair to describe Jane Doe as a female Jason Bourne, provided a little insight into the plot without giving away any spoilers. “There’s a very complicated backstory. There’s a very complicated reason this is all happening. The tattoos are kind of a treasure map and so with all treasure maps, there needs to be an endpoint. There needs to be somebody that made it. Right now, and in the pilot and as we go on with the first season, trying to figure out who did this and why is the central drive of the season.”
While following the clues tattooed on Jane’s body drives season one, Gero says that there’s plenty of story to cover additional seasons after all of the tattoos have been explored. “If we’re lucky enough to go many, many seasons, the tattoos will take us to a certain point and then there is a planned hand-off to something else that the tattoos are still incorporated in. Every tattoo has sometimes double, triple meanings…even in the second episode you realize, ‘Oh, we have to look a little closer at some of these things,‘“ explained Gero. “I don’t want to say what the end point of the tattoos is because it’s kind of a specific plot thing that will feel like a twist, but there’s a large plan going on that the tattoos are the first two seasons of.”
For her part, Alexander wanted to make sure the tattoos are actually visible in scenes. She didn’t want to cover them all up with clothing. “Tattoos are awesome. One of the reasons I wear them so much in the show and I’m not covered is because I said to them, ‘Don’t skimp out. If we’re going to do this tattoo thing, I want to wear them all the time. I know it’s going to be hard. It’s totally fine.’ The worst thing that happens in television or in film is that they’ll just cover you up because they’re cheap. They’re like, ‘We don’t want to put her through that. Let’s just put a jacket on her.’ I’m like, ‘No, no, no. I’m doing a tank top. Let’s do it,’ because it’s such an important part of the show.”
The tattoo process takes seven hours, according to Alexander. “I can’t sit down so it gets a little rough towards the end. But we have a great crew, it’s the guys from Tinsley Studio and they do everything that’s badass. It’s so great, and they’re such nice guys. They come and we blast The Beatles on Pandora and watch Daniel Boone reruns because that’s the only thing on at 3:30 in the morning. We just get through it. And then once I’m in them and I start moving my arms around, it kind of cracks them a little bit, and then I’m able to move around really easily. It doesn’t bother me. Some people get claustrophobic in them. The poor stunt girl who’s been with me for way too long, she’s like, ‘I can’t believe you’re making me do this.’ I’m like, ‘You had to wear a double corset on Thor. Relax, it’s not that bad.’”
In addition to Alexander, the cast includes Sullivan Stapleton as FBI Agent Kurt Weller who’s tasked with working with Jane to find out who placed her in the bag and why her memory is gone. Johnny Whitworth (The 100) plays a mysterious man who is somehow involved with Jane’s situation. Although Gero didn’t want to give too much away about the story or about Whitworth’s character, he did say Whitworth’s part of a larger organization. “There is not just one person behind the tattoos, and Johnny is part of that.”
Berlanti says Kurt Weller and Jane Doe’s relationship is going to be unique due in large part to the fact there’s so much they don’t know about Jane’s background. “They’re drawn to each other by circumstance and also by emotions, in terms of what they’re both going through. We’ll learn what that is as we go along. It’s a unique dynamic that you haven’t been portrayed in quite this way. I think the fact that she is this really vulnerable amnesiac but also this really strong dynamic character who is determined to figure it out and he really is the counterpoint to that is also really exciting.”
Jane seems to rely on Kurt almost instinctively from the beginning, and Alexander says that’s because the one thing Jane does have is her gut intuition. “For some reason with this guy, his name is tattooed on her back so consciously she’s saying, ‘I need to stay close to this guy because he’ll have some answers for me. Also, there’s these moments where they have this connection and it’s like, ‘I get you and you get me. I can help you and you can help me so we need to know each other.’ We’re going to explore all kinds of things with them. It’s not going to be what you think – it’s not a love interest right away, if ever. I do know we have great chemistry; I’ve been told that. He’s my buddy. He’s cool. What’s really going to be happening is he’s going to aid her in finding out who she is. She’s going to aid him in opening up a little bit because he’s got a lot of dark secrets. He’s got a lot of things going on. Each character is so multi-dimensional, but it’s not overloaded,” said Alexander.
Asked to sum up Blindspot, Berlanti replied, “I would say it’s in that vein of grounded thrillers that still have action and adventure – and heightened – but that the people and what they’re going through make it believable.”
Tyler Posey and Bella Thorne at the 2015 MTV Fandom Awards (Photo by Richard Chavez / Showbiz Junkies)
Teen Wolf star Tyler Posey is the latest celebrity to join the list of Knock Knock Live co-hosts. Posey will be part of the new Fox reality series hosted by Ryan Seacrest, with Kellie Pickler, Adrienne Bailon, Ross Mathews, Chuey Martinez, and Jordan “Shorty” Johnson already on board as co-hosts.
In addition to the co-hosts, the star-studded list of celebrities who will be putting in appearances on the summer show will include David Beckham, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Florida Georgia Line, Common, Rob Gronkowski, Robin Thicke, Meghan Trainor, Rita Ora, Martha Stewart, Luke Bryan, Lea Michele, Mike Holmes, and Bubba Watson.
The Knock Knock Live Synopsis:
Knock Knock Live features Seacrest in a Los Angeles-based studio, while the Knock Knock Live team travels across the country, to any city at any time, surprising unsuspecting people at their front doors with a chance to win big cash prizes, meet their favorite celebrities and turn their wildest dreams into reality. What if someone knocked on your door and offered you thousands of dollars for naming nine kids who live on your block? Could you do it?
A knock at someone else’s door and it could be their favorite professional basketball player who challenges them to a game of H-O-R-S-E, with a chance to win courtside seats. KNOCK KNOCK! Who’s there? It could be the biggest pop star in the world performing a concert on your front lawn! This series will take an ordinary day and make it unforgettable.
Claire Coffee from ‘Grimm’ at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con (Photo by: Mark Davis / NBC)
Claire Coffee (“Adalind Schade”) was one of the many key cast members of NBC’s Grimm to participate in this year’s Comic Con held July 8-12th in downtown San Diego. The Grimm cast are always big draws at the Con, and after the events of season four there’s a lot to talk about for season five. Coffee and her Grimm co-stars couldn’t give too much away, but they all believe this upcoming season will be a real game-changer.
“She’s now having this other child with Nick and sticking around Portland, she’s really finally is like, ‘Wait, this is all I’ve got in the world and now I really have to make it work. I have no dungeons to distract me, no Royal family to be aligning myself with.’ She is committing to making it work,” explained Coffee during our roundtable interview.
With the impending birth of Nick and Adalind’s child and the death of Juliette, there’s a possibility Adalind could become a card-carrying member of the Scooby Gang. But, Coffee isn’t sure the storyline will head that direction. “I don’t know. I think the Scooby Gang is a little thick at this point. Adalind was a lawyer; she has to get a job at this point. So I think maybe she will consult on legal issues with them. But I think the baby is going to be her main tie to them.”
Asked if she sees a new romance in Adalind’s future, Coffee replied, “That’s a good question. No romantic exploits have ended anything other than horribly for her so far. So if there were any, hopefully they would be slow going.”
Coffee’s fellow cast members have described season five as a reinvention of the series, and she thinks that’s definitely the case. “We’re getting back to where Grimm began. Even with Adalind and Nick, there is a conversation between the two of them. She was the first woge that he saw back in the pilot, so it is getting back to what does it mean to be a Wesen and a Grimm. And I think it’s just re-infusing all the characters with different energies,” revealed Coffee. “The scripts I’ve read so far have been pretty awesome.”
Ian McKellen stars in ‘Mr. Holmes’ (Photo credit: Giles Keyte, Courtesy of Miramax and Roadside Attractions)
“If I ever write a story myself, it will be to correct the milliard misconceptions created by his imaginary license,” says Sherlock Holmes (Sir Ian McKellen), referring to all the stories written by his old friend Dr. Watson. Holmes is lamenting Dr. Watson’s imagination to Roger (Milo Parker) as they attend to Holmes’ beekeeping duties in the dramatic film Mr. Holmes.
Set in London in 1947, the movie focuses on a retired Sherlock Holmes who lives quietly in his remote seaside farmhouse tending to his bees with only the company of his housekeeper (Laura Linney) and her son, Roger. Struggling with memory loss and still haunted by the one unsolved case that caused him to retire, Holmes must rely on young Roger for help in researching that case.
Fortunately, Roger’s only too happy to be of assistance, helping Holmes piece together clues to the unsolved mystery that include an angry and concerned husband, a white ladies glove, and a mysterious, beautiful but sad woman. Together, Holmes and Roger strive to connect the dots as they search for more clues in order to bring the truth of Sherlock’s old case to light.
Marvelously acted by Ian McKellen, Mr. Holmes provides a different twist on London’s famous sleuth but fails to weave any new magic. The mystery Sherlock Holmes and Roger are tasked to solve simply isn’t all that intriguing. Missing any thrills or genuine suspense, the film’s only real charm is the relationship between Holmes and Roger, which plays out very much like a surrogate grandfather and grandson. The scenes focusing on these two characters are the best in Mr. Holmes.
The film’s pacing is slow and ponderous, and the fact the actual case at the heart of the film never grabs your interest makes the movie feel even more sluggish. The result of the investigation is predictable, and the flashback scenes with Holmes working his last case come off stilted and forced, serving only to detract from the relationship between Holmes and Roger.
With almost half the film caught up in a completely forgettable case and the other half being saved by the wonderful talents of Ian McKellen, Mr. Holmes is likely to make audiences yearn for a classic Sherlock Holmes mystery starring Basil Rathbone. Even the action-packed Holmes, portrayed by Robert Downey Jr., is more engaging than this take on the classic detective story.
GRADE: C
MPAA Rating: PG for thematic elements, some disturbing images, and incidental smoking
Amanda Schull and Barbara Sukowa at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con (Photos by Evans Vestal Ward / Syfy)
Both Amanda Schull and Barbara Sukowa say they’re always pleasantly surprised every week when a new script for Syfy’s 12 Monkeys arrives. Schull and Sukowa were part of the 12 Monkeys cast who made the trek to San Diego for the 2015 Comic Con and in addition to participating in a panel with fans of the science-fiction drama, they also sat down for roundtable interviews to further explore the upcoming second season of the series.
“It’s a real gift to be on a show when you don’t even know as an actor when you’ll be, where you’ll be, and who you’ll get to play off of from one week to the next. I mean, I hit the serious jackpot with this job, and I am very well aware of it,” said Schull.
Neither Schull nor Sukowa weren’t allowed to get too descriptive about the new season, and keeping the show’s secrets was made a little easier by the fact that season two hadn’t started shooting at the time of our interview. “I don’t know that much myself that I could reveal,” explained Sukowa. “I’ve read a few of the episodes. What I can reveal is that it will delve more into the characters. The first season was a lot of plot, a lot of establishing that world. And this time it’s just a lot about the relations of people. And, time travel is going to get really wild.”
“It’s good…it’s really good. We’ve gotten the first three – I got the fourth last night but I wasn’t able to read it. I conked out. But, Cassie has a very different journey ahead of her and it’s going to be really exciting from my perspective,” said Schull about the season two scripts. “I mean, everyone has a great and interesting journey ahead of them, but from my character’s perspective I get to be the same bones of the person that I developed over the course of the episodes that I developed last season. But, I get to take her down a completely different road and that is going to be really exciting to travel her down and encounter situations that she didn’t have to deal with last season.”
Fans are interested in what’s going to happen to the romance between Cassie and James, but Schull points out they never actually had a love scene in season one. “You know what’s so funny is that people really think that they had this big love affair. We never had a love scene. We never had a romance of any sort,” said Schull. “Aaron [Stanford] and I went to France and did some press and one of the interviewers was like, ‘Oh, you know Cassie, she has all these men in her life…’ I was like, ‘She had two, dude. What are you talking about?’ And he was like, ‘No. Cole!’ They never had a love scene. They never had a real romance. It was all implied. I think part of it that comes across is that it was a relationship that’s so unique to anything else that probably is on television from my perspective. But also they need each other in a way that is really desperate and resentful at the same time. It’s really special.”
Sukowa’s Jones has become one of the most intriguing characters on the show, and thankfully the initial plans for the character were changed. “At the beginning my role was only planned to be three episodes,” revealed Sukowa. “To have a complex role for a woman my age it’s not so widespread. It’s a good thing that she’s a female leader, has power. We’re going to see probably a little more vulnerability next season. I have really fun playing that part.”
Watch the full interviews for more details on what to expect from season 2 of 12 Monkeys:
Elyes Gabel, Robert Patrick, Katharine McPhee, Eddie Kaye Thomas, and Jadyn Wong (Photo by Richard Chavez / Showbiz Junkies)
Executive producer Nicholas Wootton promises action, adventure, and a greater exploration of the characters in season two of CBS’s Scorpion starring Elyes Gabel, Katharine McPhee, and Robert Patrick. The hit series returns on Monday, September 21, 2015 and Wootton says season two’s 24 1/2 episodes will delve further into the personalities and backstories of each character. That’s something everyone involved has been really looking forward to doing.
“One thing that we do love about this show is we do get these amazing adventures and we have all this great fun, but these guys are incredible character actors and we can give them such deep, moving material to do that really goes into who they are as people and how they interact with one another. That is what I think you’re going to see a lot of this season. A lot of that kind of development as we move along,” explained Wootton during our interview at the San Diego Comic-Con.
“We really are a tight unit,” added Robert Patrick who plays Cabe Gallo in the action drama. “You can see it and you can feel it. These relationships are getting deeper and deeper. It’s a lot of fun. These kids are great.”
Patrick said all of last season was terrific but he particularly enjoyed playing the final episodes. “It was such a great resolution at the end, just to really, really put it out on the line. ‘I’ll jump in front of a train, I’ll do whatever I can to save you,’ you know what I mean? It meant a lot to me. It was a great journey.”
After such a successful first season, it will be hard to top what they accomplished with the second season, but Patrick says he thinks they can do it. “From an actor’s point of view, we’re already aware of that. We’ve already showed up and I can tell you we hit the ground running,” said Patrick. “I got there and I know myself I like to keep working and I feel like I might be kind of rusty, but everybody I saw showed up, had their game going, and we hit it right away. We are all aware that we’ve got to go even further; we’ve got to kick it up even better. We’ve got to do much more work than we did in the first season – and we really did work our asses off. So we’re all game. I think everybody’s incredibly grateful for our success and knows what it means. We don’t want to do everything to keep working hard.”
Katherine McPhee (“Paige”) and Elyse Gabel (“Walter”), who were paired up for our interview, agreed with Patrick and believe the writing is even stronger in season two. McPhee says the writers took a look at the best episodes of season one and are expanding on those elements in season two. “It’s still finding its own voice,” said McPhee, adding, “I love that the show is having more comedic moments. I think they feel like the world is always going to end and we’re always going to save it, but you’ll find that the audience will get to see how the individual characters handle those things. You’ll get to see the little quirks about them while they’re doing those crazy things on a daily basis. That’s what makes it interesting.”
The relationship between Paige and Walter will be explored more in season two, and Gabel’s excited about getting into that as well as further examining other parts of Walter’s personality. “I think one of the hopeful benefits of doing something like this for a longer amount of episodes that it’ll really give us…it won’t give us too much in a short period of time. You can believe he has a problem getting at the emotions,” explained Gabel.
Watch the full interviews for more on favorite episodes and expectations for Scorpion season two:
‘Sharknado 3’ star Tara Reid (Photo by Richard Chavez / Showbiz Junkies)
Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! debuts on Syfy on July 22, 2015 and the film’s stars Ian Ziering, Tara Reid, and Cassie Scerbo joined director Anthony C. Ferrante and writer Thunder Levin at the San Diego Comic-Con to talk flying sharks and the campy horror film franchise.
Director Ferrante said he looked at Sharknado 3 as the end of a trilogy, but there’s material for a fourth Sharknado film if Syfy wants one. “At the end of the day, take away all the sharknado stuff and what is the story going on and it’s about Finn and his family. So, yes, there is some sort of story going on in these movies. The first one is about this divorced guy trying to repair the damage with this family. The second one is about him kind of repairing the damage with his wife, and re-proposing to his wife. That’s why you have that love story at the end,” explained Ferrante.
“We had all of these ideas of what’s going on with Finn and April, and the next logical progression is fatherhood and how can we reflect that. That gave us a chance to have Finn with his dad – which is David Hasselhoff – and Tara with her mom. It is a full meal of coming full circle of learning how from his past mistakes of being a crappy husband, a crappy dad to how do you become a real man. That’s really the arc…and then you have sharknadoes that destroy all of these cities.”
Asked how he makes Sharknado bigger each time, Ferrante said he crammed four movies into one movie. “Sharknado 3, literally we’ve crammed four different types of movies in there. We’ve blown the wad on three movies we probably could have done. We DC, we have Universal Orlando so we have theme park destruction. We have a roadtrip and we have another kind of cool thing toward the end of the movie that comes out of left field,” explained Ferrante.
Ferrante’s Sharknado female lead, Tara Reid, could not believe they’re actually on their third Sharknado film. “It’s universal. It’s successful all over the place,” said Reid. “Who knew? The chances of that to happen are like one in a billion. It’s incredible to be a part of this whole franchise and really that’s a credit to the fans. Without the fans this movie wouldn’t be what it was. Social media has made the film.”
