Rob Kazinsky stars in ‘The Frankenstein Code’ (Photo Credit: Fox)
Fox has given a season one order to the dramatic series The Frankenstein Code starring Rob Kazinsky (True Blood, Pacific Rim). Formerly known as just Frankenstein, the upcoming series is a modern-day twist on the classic Mary Shelley horror story. Kazinsky’s co-stars include Dilshad Vadsaria, Adhir Kalyan, Tim DeKay and Ciara Bravo.
Rand Ravich (Crisis) is writing the series and will executive produce. Homeland‘s Howard Gordon is also on board as an executive producer along with Michael Cuesta who directed the pilot.
The Plot: Jimmy Pritchard, a morally corrupt retired cop, is given a second chance at life when he is brought back from the dead. Now younger and stronger, Pritchard will have to choose between his old temptations and his new sense of purpose.
Running Wild With Bear Grylls returns for season two on NBC on July 13, 2015 at 10pm ET/PT and the network’s just announced the cast of guest stars for the upcoming season. Oscar-winner Kate Winslet, Furious 7 star Michelle Rodriguez, Ed Helms, James Marsden, Michael B. Jordan, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Kate Hudson, and QB Drew Brees will be testing their survival skills with the help of series creator/survivalist Bear Grylls.
“It has been such a privilege to adventure alongside these iconic men and women – and this season has made for some unforgettable journeys,” said Grylls. “The excitement of being dropped into uncharted territory and tackling the wilderness head-on, in the way we do, can be both daunting and very draining, but it is also very empowering when we finally make it out in one piece. Along the way we get to see the stars we love in a totally authentic way as they face a few demons and come through it stronger. And that’s the beating heart of Running Wild.”
The Plot:
In this hourlong alternative series, the famed adventurer, writer and television host will take eight entertainment and sports stars into the most remote and pristine locations in the U.S. and around the world for a 48-hour journey of a lifetime. Each of these eight accomplished actors and athletes will partner with Grylls for two days for a one-on-one adventure they will never forget.
This season, the series will take viewers from the jungles of Panama to the far reaches of the Italian Alps and then to the Colorado Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Red Rocks of Utah. The intrepid cast members will face their deepest fears and tackle everything from skydiving to repelling as they journey through some of the world’s most unforgiving wildernesses.
Each of these stars will push their minds and bodies to the limit to complete their journey.
Focus Features just unveiled this new international teaser poster for London Has Fallen, the sequel to 2013’s Olympus Has Fallen. The sequel stars Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, and Radha Mitchell. Directed by Babak Najafi, the cast also includes Robert Forster, Jackie Earle Haley, Charlotte Riley, Sean O’Bryan, Alon Aboutboul, and Waleed Zuaiter.
London Has Fallen opens in theaters on October 2, 2015.
The Plot: The visceral intensity springs from a timely premise: after the British Prime Minister passes away, his funeral becomes a target of a terrorist organization to destroy some of the world’s most powerful leaders, devastate the British capital, and unleash a terrifying vision of the future. The only hope of stopping it rests on the shoulders of the President of the United States (Aaron Eckhart) and his formidable Secret Service head (Gerard Butler), and an English MI-6 agent (Charlotte Riley) who rightly trusts no one. Morgan Freeman also stars as the Vice President of the United States.
Elizabeth Henstridge and Luke Mitchell in ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ (Photo: ABC / Kelsey McNeal)
“Scars” is an exciting episode for Marvel fans because it ties Avengers: Age of Ultron very neatly into the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. plotline. At the same time, the episode ratcheted up the conflict between the Inhumans and SHIELD, which included a big shocker and is obviously working toward a suspenseful season finale.
At SHIELD headquarters, the board members and Coulson (Clark Gregg) are trying to hammer out an organization plan. Coulson magnanimously suggests that he remain the director, but that the board is responsible for advising him. They all agree to it, although May (Ming-Na Wen) is reluctant. Later, she and Coulson get into a heated discussion about Theta Protocol (which turned out to be fixing up the helicarrier). She tells Coulson what he’s never known, that the girl in Bahrain didn’t get killed in the crossfire; May put her down.
The med lab is busy. Lincoln (Luke Mitchell) is still recovering from whatever Hydra did to him, while Kara (Maya Stojan) gets the stamp of approval from Simmons that her mind is back to normal. Later, Fitz tells Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) she shouldn’t feel bad for wanting to kill Ward (Brett Dalton), that he’s felt that way, too. But she tells him she feels bad because she failed to kill him and that whatever Ward does from now on is on her head.
Meanwhile, Skye (Chloe Bennet) is worried about how SHIELD will treat her friends and family at the Afterlife compound. Gonzalez (Edward James Olmos) and the board are worried about these people with powers. Skye tries to assure them that they mean no harm to anyone. Eventually, everyone agrees that Skye and Lincoln will go back with Gordon and convince Jiaying to talk to SHIELD. When Gordon makes the leap, however, Agent Weaver is able to track him. SHIELD plans their visit, which is more like an invasion.
At Afterlife, Raina (Ruth Negga) tells Gordon what she has seen in her latest visions. She warns him that the sit down between Jiaying (Dichen Lachman) and SHIELD is a terrible idea. She also suggests that Jiaying is the reason it goes bad and that she, Raina, should be the one to talk to SHIELD.
Skye convinces Jiaying that Coulson is a good man and will do right by her people, even though Jiaying is still skeptical. Cal suggests to Jiaying, in private, that she hand him over to SHIELD as a gesture of goodwill. But he also warns her that SHIELD is coming to index them and destroy them. He urges Jiaying to use the power available to her to strike first.
Back at SHIELD, everyone is suiting up for the mission. However, Coulson is directed to stay behind because he can’t be objective. He agrees. Mack (Henry Simmons) comes in and quits because he doesn’t like Coulson being in charge while he’s got alien blood. May approaches Bobbi and tells her they’ve been tasked with scouting the location ahead of everyone else. They head out in a jet. Everyone else loads up to go in a separate jet.
Everything gets turned on its head at the end of the episode. Bobbi realizes the plane is landing in a strange location. Then we see it’s not May, but Kara in disguise. Bobbi winds up knocking out Kara. But when the plane lands, Ward is waiting and he stuns Bobbi. He and Kara had planned this deception all along.
Our other group lands at Afterlife. Gordon comes to fetch Raina, but he’s got friends with him. We realize he wasn’t taken in by Raina’s manipulation. Jiaying orders Raina to be locked up, but Raina continues to plead with her not to meet SHIELD.
Jiaying meets with Gonzalez. He offers her a token they found in Hydra’s rubble, and she’s touched. She also retrieves a gift for Gonzalez: a blue crystal that contains metal from the Diviner.
On the plane, the team is securing Cal but they find vials full of liquid. He obviously knows what’s going on, but plays innocent.
Back in Jiaying’s office, she uses the crystal to kill Gonzalez, turning him to ash. Then she shoots herself with his gun. She stumbles out of the office, claiming Gonzalez tried to kill her. She’s starting a war!
SOFIA VERGARA as Daniella Riva and REESE WITHERSPOON as Cooper in the comedy “HOT PURSUIT”
Hot Pursuit is only 87 minutes long. 87 painful, mind-numbing, grating on your nerves minutes long. By the time you’ve endured every one of those 87 minutes watching two of the shrillest characters to grace the big screen bicker back and forth, you’ll feel like you’ve aged 87 years.
Reese Witherspoon, Sofia Vergara, and director Anne Fletcher are to blame for this headache-inducing “comedy” that attempts to find humor in repeating the same joke over and over and over again. By the third reference to Witherspoon’s height and Vergara’s age, you may want to bury your head in your popcorn and hope that some clogs up your ears.
A road-trip comedy with Witherspoon and Vergara might have sounded like a great idea on paper, but the complete lack of chemistry kills any shot this film had at generating laughs. When they ultimately become friends after 80 minutes of yelling at each other, it feels completely false, although not in the least bit unanticipated. You know where this mindless mess is heading within the first 15 minutes.
Hot Pursuit finds Witherspoon playing Cooper, an inept, strictly by the book, code-quoting cop who is restricted from hitting the streets after tasering a kid who yelled “Shotgun!” She took the claim literally and tased him believing her life was in danger since she’d never heard shotgun used to call the car’s front seat. Why? Because she’s spent her entire life in the back seat of a squad car traveling the streets with her now-deceased hero cop dad. She’s given a reprieve from desk duty to help transport a drug lord and his voluptuous shoe-obsessed wife to trial. When the drug boss is gunned down, it’s up to Cooper to keep the wife safe from rival drug lords and dirty cops.
Have you watched any of the trailers? Yes? Then you’ve seen the best parts of Hot Pursuit. Save yourself from suffering through Vergara’s exaggerated accent and Witherspoon’s attempt at playing a Southern bumpkin/robot cop who has no social skills and no concept of who people actually speak to each other by watching the trailers again if you really feel the need to see the film.
Normally, Vergara and Witherspoon are fun to watch in comedies, but that’s definitely not the case with Hot Pursuit. Neither does anything to elevate the humorless script and Witherspoon in particular, fails to find a way to make her character anything but an annoying little automaton spouting rapid-fire cop-speak.
Hot Pursuit is a hot mess that, hopefully, will receive the cold shoulder in theaters.
GRADE: D
MPAA rating: PG-13 for sexual content, violence, language and some drug material.
Alexandra Daddario (San Andreas, True Detective) has signed on to star in The Layover with Kate Upton, Kal Penn, Rob Corddry, Matt Jones, and Matt Barr. William H. Macy is directing the sex comedy from a script by It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia‘s David Hornsby and Lance Krall.
“It was a lucky day for us when Alexandra said yes to The Layover. She’s a wonderful actor, a great comedian, the consummate professional. And it doesn’t hurt that she’s stunningly beautiful,” said Macy.
“Adding a talent such as Alexandra to this terrific cast was a brilliant move and frankly the perfect one in that I can’t think of any other young actor with her combination of talent, beauty, and comedic chops,” said producers Keith Kjarval of Unified Pictures and Aaron L. Gilbert of Bron Studios.
The Plot: Daddario and Upton will play a pair of lifelong best friends who decide to avoid their problems by taking a vacation only to find that their plane has been rerouted due to a hurricane warning. To make matters worse, the two friends find themselves in a hilarious battle for the same guy during an extended layover in St. Louis.
Fox’s event series Wayward Pines is set to premiere its 10 episode run on May 14, 2015 at 9pm ET/PT. Based on the books by Blake Crouch, the large, award-winning cast includes Carla Gugino, Matt Dillon, Melissa Leo, Terrence Howard, Toby Jones, Shannyn Sossamon, Charlie Tahan, Tim Griffin, and Juliette Lewis. Reed Diamond (Bones, Agents of SHIELD) also stars in the mystery thriller executive produced by M. Night Shyamalan, and at the 2015 WonderCon I had the chance to find out more about his character, life on the set, working with Shyamalan, and the appeal of the new Fox series.
The Plot:
Imagine the perfect American town, beautiful homes, manicured lawns, children playing safely in the streets…Now imagine never being able to leave. You have no communication with the outside world. You think you’re going insane. You must be in Wayward Pines.
Secret Service Agent ETHAN BURKE (Dillon) drives to the bucolic town of Wayward Pines, ID, searching for two missing federal agents. One of the best Secret Service agents in the Seattle office, he’s the man who knew missing agent KATE HEWSON (Gugino) better than anyone. They were more than partners; their relationship nearly destroyed Ethan’s marriage.
Everything changes when a truck slams into his car…and he wakes up in the Wayward Pines Hospital, with the intense and unpredictable NURSE PAM (Leo) at his bedside. It soon appears that Pam is more interested in harming than healing. She and Ethan grow into deadly rivals, and her role in the town proves much deeper than anyone realizes.
Among the other residents Ethan meets are the mysterious DR. JENKINS (Jones), the psychiatrist who treats him at Wayward Pines Hospital; toymaker HAROLD BALLINGER (Diamond); BEVERLY (Lewis), a bartender who is as wary of Wayward Pines as he is; and SHERIFF ARNOLD POPE (Howard), who takes offense at a Secret Service agent showing up on his turf.
Meanwhile, Ethan’s boss, ADAM HASSLER (Griffin), attempts to update Ethan’s wife, THERESA BURKE (Sossamon) with the latest news. After arriving in Wayward Pines, Theresa and Ethan enroll their teenage son, BEN (Tahan), in the town’s only school, where his teacher, MEGAN FISHER (Hope Davis), provides key information about the town’s origins. But Ethan’s continuing investigation only turns up more and more questions, and each one leads him to the most important question of all: What’s wrong with Wayward Pines?
Unfortunately, Cristela, Forever, Resurrection, and The Taste won’t be back, however the list of renewed shows is much longer and includes a few series most people assumed wouldn’t be back. Galavant wasn’t a big ratings grabber, but critics loved it and apparently so did the ABC brass as it made the cut and will return for a second season. American Crime and Secrets & Lies both earned second season orders, although the new seasons will feature different actors and different crimes. And Agent Carter wasn’t a shoe-in for a renewal, but ABC’s going to give the comic book-inspired series another season to grow its audience.
Here’s the list of shows renewed by ABC as announced via Twitter:
Castle
Greys Anatomy
How to Get Away with Murder
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Nashville
Once Upon a Time
Scandal
American Crime
America’s Funniest Videos
The Bachelor
Dancing with the Stars
Shark Tank
Beyond The Tank
20/20
Secrets and Lies
Agent Carter
black-ish
Fresh Off The Boat
The Goldbergs
The Middle
Modern Family
Galavant
ABC has given series orders to three comedies: The Muppets, Dr. Ken, and The Real O’Neals. The Muppets has The Big Bang Theory‘s Bill Prady and Anger Management‘s Bob Kushell as writers and executive producers. Dr. Ken is the brainchild of Ken Jeong (The Hangover movies), Jared Stern, and Mike O’Connell. And The Real O’Neals is executive produced by David Windsor, Casey Johnson, Brian Pines, Dan McDermott and Dan Savage, with Windsor and Johnson also writing the series.
The Muppets Plot: The Muppets return to prime time with a contemporary, documentary-style show that, for the first time ever, will explore the Muppets’ personal lives and relationships, both at home and at work, as well as romances, break-ups, achievements, disappointments, wants and desires; a more adult Muppet show, for kids of all ages.
Martha Plimpton as Eileen, Jay R. Ferguson as Pat, Noah Galvin as Kenny, Mathew Shively as Jimmy, Bebe Wood as Shannon and Mary Hollis Inboden as Jodi in ‘The Real O’Neals’ (Photo: ABC / Kevin Foley)
The Real O’Neals Plot:
A contemporary take on a seemingly perfect Catholic family, whose lives take an unexpected turn when surprising truths are revealed. Instead of ruining their family, the honesty triggers a new, messier chapter where everyone stops pretending to be perfect and actually starts being real.
The Real O’Neals stars Martha Plimpton as Eileen, Jay R. Ferguson as Pat, Noah Galvin as Kenny, Mathew Shively as Jimmy, Bebe Wood as Shannon and Mary Hollis Inboden as Jodi.
Ken Jeong as Dr. Ken, Suzy Nakamura as Allison, Tisha Campbell-Martin as Damona, Dave Foley as Pat, Jonathan Slavin as Clark, Albert Tsai as Dave and Krista Marie Yu as Molly in ‘Dr. Ken’ (Photo: ABC / Michael Desmond)
Dr. Ken Plot:
Doctor turned actor/comedian Ken Jeong plays Dr. Ken, a brilliant physician with no bedside manner. He is always trying to be a good doctor, as well as a good husband and dad to his two kids. However, these good intentions have a way of driving everyone crazy at both work and at home. Luckily, his therapist wife Allison is just the right partner to keep things sane.
Dr. Ken stars Ken Jeong as Dr. Ken, Suzy Nakamura as Allison, Tisha Campbell-Martin as Damona, Dave Foley as Pat, Jonathan Slavin as Clark, Albert Tsai as Dave and Krista Marie Yu as Molly.
The Arrow and The Flash spin-off has not only received order for a first season from The CW, the network’s also revealed the official title. The spinoff is called DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and will likely be a part of The CW’s fall primetime lineup.
The official synopsis: “When heroes alone are not enough… the world needs legends. Having seen the future, one he will desperately try to prevent from happening, time-traveling rogue Rip Hunter is tasked with assembling a disparate group of both heroes and villains to confront an unstoppable threat – one in which not only is the planet at stake, but all of time itself. Can this ragtag team defeat an immortal threat unlike anything they have ever known?”
Among Arrow and The Flash guest stars who’ll be featured in the Legends of Tomorrow cast are Victor Garber, Brandon Routh, Dominic Purcell, Wentworth Miller and Caity Lotz. The cast also includes Arthur Darvill, Ciarra Renee, and Franz Drameh. The new comic book inspired series will be executive produced by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg, and Sarah Schechter.
