Martha De Laurentiis, Bryan Fuller, Hugh Dancy and Richard Armitage (Photo by Richard Chavez / Showbiz Junkies)
Unfortunately for fans of NBC’s riveting dramatic series Hannibal, the show has not found a new home after its cancellation was announced last month. Season three will be the series’ last if it doesn’t get picked up elsewhere, and executive producer Bryan Fuller is doing everything possible to try and find an outlet for Hannibal. There’s even talk of a feature film if season four turns out not to be an option.
Ruled out thus far are Netflix and Amazon, but Fuller, producer Martha De Laurentiis, and the cast – including Hugh Dancy (“Will Graham”) and Mads Mikkelsen (“Dr. Hannibal Lecter”) – are holding out hope that the show isn’t dead yet.
Also holding out hope are Fannibals who showered Dancy, De Laurentiis, Fuller, and Richard Armitage (“Francis Dolarhyde”) with love at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con. The Hannibal group was obviously moved by the tremendous show of support for the cancelled critically acclaimed series. Following the emotional Q&A with their fans, the Hannibal talent participated in a press conference to discuss the show’s status as well as what Fannibals can expect from the remainder of season three. They also talked about Clarice and weighed in on who is actually the smartest character on the show.
The latest trailer for the epic adventure film Pan sets up the story and shows off new action scenes with Hugh Jackman, Garrett Hedlund, Levi Miller, and Rooney Mara. The studio makes a point of reminding audiences that it was behind the Harry Potter films in the new trailer, a visually stunning two-minute video titled “Adventure.”
Directed by Joe Wright, the Pan cast also includes Taejoo Na, Nonso Anozie, Kathy Burke, Kurt Egyiawan, Lewis MacDougall, Leni Zieglmeier, Jack Charles, and Amanda Seyfried.
The Plot: Peter (Levi Miller) is a mischievous 12-year-old boy with an irrepressible rebellious streak, but in the bleak London orphanage where he has lived his whole life those qualities do not exactly fly. Then one incredible night, Peter is whisked away from the orphanage and spirited off to a fantastical world of pirates, warriors and fairies called Neverland. There, he finds amazing adventures and fights life-or-death battles while trying to uncover the secret of his mother, who left him at the orphanage so long ago, and his rightful place in this magical land.
Teamed with the warrior Tiger Lily (Rooney Mara) and a new friend named James Hook (Garrett Hedlund), Peter must defeat the ruthless pirate Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman) to save Neverland and discover his true destiny—to become the hero who will forever be known as Peter Pan.
Denis Leary says he’s known musicians like the ones featured in his new FX comedy Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll his entire life, and some of those artists have now been in rock bands for the last 30 years. “I was backstage a lot and got to witness a lot of the crazy egomaniacal behavior, and I wanted to do a half-hour [show],” said Leary during the press roundtables at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con. “I thought this would be a new way to go and I’d probably have a blast doing it.”
Leary returns to series television with Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll debuting on July 16, 2015 at 10pm ET/PT. Leary not only stars in the series as an aging rocker who’s desperate to be famous but also created the show, wrote the episodes, and even penned the music sung by the fictional band, The Heathens. In addition to Leary, the series stars Elizabeth Gillies as his talented daughter.
Asked who influenced his character, Leary replied, “For me, there’s a couple of guys I know who never made it. They were pretty bitter about it for a long time. So I based it a little bit on those guys. They still look like rock stars. They walk around the Lower East Side of Brooklyn…you know, when you’re not a rock star but you look like Keith Richards and you’re walking around with that outfit, you look kind of crazy. I love the idea of a guy walking around with this outdated look. That’s the most fun part of the show for me is like my relationship with her because I look so ridiculous half the time. And, to me it’ll be interesting to watch him have to learn from her how to behave as a dad, how to dress.”
“That’ll be a funny episode – me dressing you like a dad,” added Gillies. “In dad clothes? Oh no!”
Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll begins with Leary discovering he has a grown daughter (played by Gillies) who’s actually more musically talented than he is. “It starts off pretty one-note and then it takes on about a thousand other notes. We get invested and the relationship becomes really complicated. But it’s funny too. We tear each other apart,” explained Gillies. “We mentor each other in a weird way. I parent you [to Leary] even though you’re my father. You do teach me about rock and roll, but I don’t have all the issues that you have. I’m clean and sober. I never did anything. He’s obviously the opposite of that. But I definitely feel like Ava and I run the show. We run that sh*t.”
“I’m a huge Rolling Stones fan, obviously a huge fan of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. I’ve always found it interesting Keith Richards raised such normal kids. He’s been married for 30 years now. He’s a grandfather at this point. It’s really interesting to look at that guy and to see him from that side of it. So, I think that if the show gets to go on and continue it’s going to be really interesting what I’m going to learn from her and vice versa. But there’s clearly the biggest lesson he’s got to learn – which he kind of learns by the end of season one – it starts to become clear to himself that he’s never going to become famous.
If anybody in the family is, or the band, it’s going to be her. So the idea of her getting more fame and him being in a room with her while somebody else famous is in it is always going to be funny. Like, if she’s hanging out with David Bowie in a recording studio, what Johnny’s going to do to blow that up and piss off David Bowie…even though he’s like the biggest David Bowie fan in the world…is always going to be funny to me,” said Leary.
Elaine Hendrix plays Ava in the series, Johnny’s longtime companion and The Heathens backup singer. Leary hasn’t told her who her character is modeled after, but she believes Ava was probably inspired by women who hung out with Leary’s musician friends. “The way he’s described it to me is that she’s sort of a compilation of a few people. But the real genius with Leary, at least as a fellow actor, is that he comes to the table with all these ideas and then he’s willing to let them go,” said Hendrix. “It became a very collaborative process. Certainly as we go along it becomes even more and more collaborative, which is an actor’s dream.”
John Corbett co-stars as Flash, lead guitarist of The Heathens. Corbett was sporting a Johnny Rock T-shirt with cutoff sleeves and a vest while at Comic-Con and seemed to be having a blast channeling his inner rock star. “I’m an old guy – I’m 54 – so to be walking around in cutoff T-shirts is a little stupid,” said Corbett, laughing. “But at the same time, it’s like, ‘Why not, man?! The show is called Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll!'”
Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll is incredibly smart and funny, and Corbett loves getting the scripts from Leary who he labels a “mad genius.” “He’s got a lot of past to draw on. He’s hung out with every strange comic and musician that we know for the last 30 years, and he’s musical himself,” said Corbett. “Denis writes all the music for the show. He plays piano, he plays guitar, and he sings, so he’s got that little sack over here. I’m impressed. Totally impressed.”
The Plot:
Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll centers on “Johnny Rock” (Denis Leary), lead singer of a legendary early 90’s New York band called The Heathens. Known for living up to their name, the band partied so long and so hard that even Keith Richards thought they needed to slow things down. The Heathens were on the brink of becoming famous for their kickass live shows and the release of their highly anticipated first album. Until they broke up. The same day the album dropped. Because lead guitarist Flash (John Corbett) found Johnny in bed with his wife. So the band became legendary for all the wrong reasons – like self-destructing sooner than any group in rock-n-roll history.
25 years later, the only thing bigger than Johnny’s ego is his prostate. The drugs he really needs now aren’t cocaine and marijuana – they’re Crestor, Cymbalta and Cialis. He’s out of work, out of money and out of show business options. That’s when a massively talented young singer named Gigi (Elizabeth Gillies) shows up – with a burning desire to be famous, a throwback appreciation for The Heathens’ only album, and a stack of cash big enough to bring the whole band back into the studio. Only this time, SHE’S the lead singer and Johnny’s just a behind-the-scenes songwriter. John Ales, Bobby Kelly and Elaine Hendrix round out the rest of this dysfunctional rock-n-roll family. The race is on to see who gets famous first – and for what reason.
The cast of FX’s ‘Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll’ at Comic Con (Photo by Richard Chavez / Showbiz Junkies)
A new red band (aka ‘restricted’) clip has arrived for the horror comedy Cooties starring Elijah Wood, Rainn Wilson, and Alison Pill. The new clip finds a group of teachers attempting to keep from being bit by a student, and unfortunately, a woman gets trapped in a locker with the infected student and no one has the key.
The cast also includes Jack McBrayer, Leigh Whannell, Nasim Pedrad, Ian Brennan and Jorgé Garcia. Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion directed from a screenplay by Saw‘s Leigh Whannell and Glee‘s Ian Brennan. Lionsgate Premiere will be releasing Cooties in theaters and on demand on September 18, 2015.
The Plot:
When a cafeteria food virus turns elementary school children into killer zombies, a group of misfit teachers must band together to escape the playground carnage. The film stars Elijah Wood, Rainn Wilson, and Alison Pill as teachers who fight to survive the mayhem while hilariously bickering in an uncomfortable love triangle on the worst Monday of their lives.
Lily James and Sam Riley at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con (Photo by Eric Charbonneau / Invision for Screen Gems / AP Images)
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a reimagining of Jane Austen’s classic tale with, obviously, zombies, and on February 5, 2016 the Screen Gems/Sony Pictures Entertainment horror film will be hitting theaters. The book, credited to Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, was adapted for the screen by Burr Steers who also directed the zombie period piece.
Lily James (Cinderella) and Sam Riley (Maleficent) lead the cast as Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, respectively, and together at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con they provided details on their characters and on how they attempted not to actually kill any ‘zombies’ while making the film.
This is such an unconventional movie. What attracted you to it?
Lily James: “Zombies.”
Sam Riley: “There it is. We had the same agent and when he rang to tell me, first of all he said Pride and Prejudice and then I was like, ‘Ugh.’ Then he said And Zombies and I had never heard of the book or anything. I thought he’d lost his mind. Then I read it from start to finish in one sitting which is very rare. Then I rang up and said I really desperately want to be in this.”
What kind of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett are you?
Sam Riley: “The best.”
Lily James: “The best kind. I have to say, when I knew that Sam was going to go, I was like, ‘Yeah.’ I think the cool thing is that the central characters are really truthful to the book, but heightened because everything’s life and death. My Liz Bennett’s pretty angry.”
Sam Riley: “I don’t really know. I watched the BBC one because my mother’s a huge fan and I asked her who is Mr. Darcy and she says Colin. She was very quick. Colin, Colin, Colin. So I watched that, having never seen it, just so that I could have an understanding of what the perception of this great character is in most people’s minds so that I could then take that and add samurai swords.”
Lily, had you ever wanted to play the straight version of Elizabeth Bennett?
Sam Riley: “We kind of did, though at the same time, which sounds bizarre.”
Lily James: “I definitely feel like I’ve done that now, yeah. And our proposal scene, which is one of my favorite scenes in it, worked just as well without the fighting. And then suddenly you add in me cracking books at his head. All the inner rage inside Liz Bennett in that she’s sort of rebelling against society, about the way things are, about what women’s fate is within that world, all that inner conflict that exists in her growing up is channeled into killing zombies which is what I mean by that sort of rage is let out through the means of killing the undead.”
Did you enjoy wearing the wardrobe? An imperial A-frame as opposed to corsets?
Lily James: “We did wear corsets, but there’s different kinds of corsets. Corsets that pull you in the waist or push you up at the top. We had those. The upper deck is up and out.”
How does the period piece put a twist on the popular zombie trope?
Sam Riley: “Well, I think the key to it was what Burr described as we’re playing Pride and Prejudice. I’m playing Mr. Darcy as Mr. Darcy, but at the same time instead of it being the black plague, there’s this plague of the undead and everybody’s trying to keep up appearances. This class system still exists. The snobbery is still rife, but then there’s this sub class of the undead. It always sounds ridiculous talking about it.”
What was the hardest challenge you faced?
Lily James: “I guess just for me it was trying to balance what I know and loved about the original Pride and Prejudice and keeping that still really alive in this new version. And so that sometimes felt really simple and sometimes it was quite a big conflict. Also the fighting was hard and you never have much time to learn it. The Bennett sisters trained together for months before and we got to become this sort of lethal version of the Spice Girls. Or the Powerpuff girls. I don’t really even know why. I just love them. So I’d be kicking one zombie as Bella was slicing its leg off. We worked in tandem and that was cool but that was hard.”
Sam Riley: “She’s lethal. I was black and blue after one of our scenes together.”
Lily James: “I sort of forget that you’re not supposed to actually hit people. He was like a samurai though. One time I threw this book at his head and he literally went, whoom. Like The Matrix.”
Why do love and war, even if it’s zombie war, go so nicely hand in hand.
Sam Riley: “Well, because we’re still animals, aren’t we really? And they’re basic desires, anger and love I suppose. It’s a very deep question.”
Lily James: “I always think with this, because so much is life and death, that sort of enhances love, makes you just go for it because why not?”
Have you discovered your inner fighter?
Sam Riley: “I woke him up again, but he’s asleep again now. Fighting, especially a real fight is always so messy and horrible if you ever see one outside of a bar or someplace. It’s not for me. Not the face!”
What was the craziest zombie herd scene?
Lily James: “I mean, I had a scene where I was riding on a horse up a hill in the middle of the night in some place in the country, and over the top of the hill, hundreds of zombies were running at me. Earlier on in the day, I had an incident where I’d stood on an extra’s head so I was really cautious. It was really bad so I was really cautious. As the horse is going, I was like, ‘Can you make sure that the zombies move out of the way?’ because they get really into character. I’m not joking, I was like, ‘Please, they have to give way to us.’ And they just didn’t. I was riding and I was screaming, ‘Jesus Christ, get out of the way!’ These extras were in a second of their life, were about to get trampled on by this horse.”
Sam Riley: “It’s so funny, if you tell them to walk in a straight direction, they will do it. And if cars are coming, they just keep walking in a straight line.”
Lily James: “It was one of the most frightening moments I’ve ever had on a set. I was horrible.”
What is it like being part of a film that’s this unique? What does it mean for the future of genre films?
Sam Riley: “Well, we’re really thrilled that we’ve been able to do this and I think zombie films already, like Shaun of the Dead, I think as long as people are interested in zombies they’ll find ways of sticking them in anything.”
Lily James: “And it’s also wonderful to have the women being so powerful and so strong. Girl power is very much present in this movie.”
The Outlander of season two will be dramatically different from the world introduced in season one. Adapted from Diana Gabaldon’s Dragonfly in Amber, the second season of the Starz series finds Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitriona Balfe) far from their Scottish family and friends. They’ve landed in France on a mission to infiltrate the Jacobite rebellion and stop the Battle of Culloden from ever taking place.
During roundtable interviews at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con, writer/executive producer Ronald D. Moore discussed the changes in store for this second season and the challenges of creating a second season that will satisfy both readers of Gabaldon’s bestselling book series as well as viewers who were introduced to the time-traveling romantic drama via the television series. Moore also talked about the new characters who will be introduced to the story in this upcoming season.
Ronald D. Moore Outlander Interview
With the timeline changes in book two, how difficult was it for you to adapt that and make sure that it played well to both fans of the books and those who only know Outlander via the TV series?
Ronald D. Moore: “It was a challenge. The second book is much more complex. It’s a more difficult book to adapt. It changes the point of view; it plays with time. It’s more political. It deals with the Jacobite rebellion that most people in this country never even heard of, so it’s a challenge. We’re always trying to play this to two audiences. There’s the book fans and then there’s the general audience that has no idea, and you have to play fair with both. The book fans are looking forward to certain things and you want to satisfy that. We also want to surprise them. You want to catch them off guard and sometimes you want to scare them. Like, ‘Oh my god, Frank’s going up that hill?! If he goes through time I’m out of this show!’ That’s great. I’m sitting at home with my wife going, ‘Across America people are losing their minds.’ That’s fantastic and I enjoy that.”
The fans of the books should also have discovery. They should also be surprised. You want to engage their emotions as well. But then there’s the other half of the audience that has no idea what the books are about and you want to tell them the story clearly. They have to be able to follow along. I always make the comparison with Game of Thrones in that I’ve never read those books and that show has to stand on its own. It has to work for me. I doesn’t matter whether that scene’s in the book or not. If I don’t get it, I’m not engaged in it. I have the job of trying to keep both elements of the audience involved.”
Who are some of the new characters we’ll be meeting this season and what are some of the new locations?
Ronald D. Moore: “There’s several actual historical figures that are in the books. For the first time we meet Louis XV. The Comte St. Germain is a real historical character who is one of the villains in the show. There is gentleman named Master Raymond who runs an apothecary shop in Paris and helps Claire. He’s got some interesting things going on in his world. There’s Mother Hildegarde, a nun who runs a hospital in Paris. She’s a key player in the show. She has a dog, Bouton, that the fans are happy is in the show. There’s a boy named Fergus who becomes very important, especially as the book series goes forward, and he’s introduced this year. Bonny Prince Charlie is in it this year – a real historical figure. Those are the key players, I think, in terms of new characters.”
We’re plunging them into a new world. There were no costumes, sets or props that we could use. We had to create a new series for the second season. For the audience, it’s just like, ‘Wow, this is Outlander?’ We don’t have any of those elements in it, other than the three characters who came over. Everyone else is left behind. It’s a whole new world and a whole new story, but then eventually it does get back to Scotland so we’ll regain a lot of that stuff from the first season.
That’s a big deal. The rhythm of the scenes is different; the way it’s shot is different. The fabrics are different and the color palettes are different. Even the most basic things like candles are different. There’s a lot of gilt and a lot of fine china and silver. It’s just a completely different world.”
Can you talk about Jamie and Claire’s mission in season two?
Ronald D. Moore: “They’re trying to change history and that’s a very big deal. The future is helping to inform them on how to find a way to stop the Jacobite rebellions and stop the disaster at Culloden. There’s not a lot of time traveler in the show like in season one, but it’s still such a key idea that it propels a lot of the action in terms of what they’re doing.”
Was it a conscious decision to downplay Jamie’s faith versus Claire’s Catholicism?
Ronald D. Moore: “No, it wasn’t a conscious decision. I think it was just a question of emphasis. We didn’t try to play it down. I guess it just didn’t quite play into the story as much as we could have. It wasn’t a strategic choice; it just evolved that way.”
It’s such a large book. Was it a challenge to make the key events fit into one season in three fewer episodes?
Ronald D. Moore: “Definitely. Another three [episodes] would have helped but it’s still more episodes than Starz typically shows so I’m fine with it. I knew going in there was going to be 13. Fortunately, it’s the thinnest of the books. [Laughing] It’s not like the next one. That book is a whole different animal.”
Was there talk of breaking the third book into two seasons?
Ronald D. Moore: “We talked about it but no decision’s been made. I haven’t focused on it yet. We haven’t gotten a third season pickup so I don’t have that problem yet. Eventually we’ll have to have that discussion. I don’t know what the answer is. Maybe, maybe not. We’ve always talked about generally doing a book a season, but there are books that are just big and complicated. But once you do that, ‘ Okay, are we ever going to get to book eight or nine?’ When you start thinking about how many years we’re talking about…I don’t know. I really don’t know the answer to that.”
Will the look of Scotland change when we finally return to it in season two?
Ronald D. Moore: “Well, it will be a war-torn Scotland so it will be a heavier, darker, more threatening vibe when the story gets back to Scotland. The Parisian part is much richer and much more romantic. It’s a different world and we play that so visually it’s shot differently. It has a different kind of move and feel to it.”
If Outlander receives any Emmy nominations, what will that mean to you and the show?
Ronald D. Moore: “What it means to me is I like being able to go back to Scotland and say, ‘You know what? Your work matters. Those people back at the TV academy recognized you.’ Those people in all the different departments and the cast, those people work really, really hard. They all work harder than I do – trust me. They’re out lugging cameras around in the dead of night in the goddamn snow. That’s tough, and so to be able to go back and say, ‘Here’s this recognition,’ I think it matters for the morale of the show. It matters for people to be acknowledged. If they don’t get it, okay, it’s fine. Battlestar was ignored year after year. We were still very proud of it and we’re still like, ‘Screw the world! We know we’re doing a great show.’ We felt that way and it was always really annoying to me that Edward James Olmos never got a nomination. He’s one of the greatest actors and I think he did fantastic work. I could not believe it year after year that he was ignored. So, those things are kind of frustrating.
I don’t think Terry [Dresbach] cares a lot one way or another, but I want them to recognize her work. She’s done a fabulous job. Same goes for the cast, the cinematographers, and on and on and on. I think all of these people do really good stuff and I think it would be nice to have it recognized.”
Melissa Benoist stars as Kara Zor-El/Supergirl in CBS’s upcoming superhero TV show Supergirl debuting this fall, and she’s well aware of the popularity of the character and didn’t take the task of embodying the character in the new series lightly. At the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con, Benoist even admitted it was a bit daunting to step into these particular shoes. During roundtable interviews at the Con, Benoist said she wanted to stay true to the source material while shouldering the responsibility of playing Supergirl.
“What I want to bring is I love her humanity, even though she is an alien. I love that she really has a lot of discovering to do – and growth – and she makes mistakes. I just wanted to stay true to that,” explained Benoist. She also immediately stepped up her workouts after landing the role in order to bring the right physicality to the part. “I definitely had to learn technique, like how to actually punch someone and not hurt yourself more than you’re hurting the person you’re punching. So, boxing was part of it and core work.”
In training for the role, Benoist found her mindset shifting into that of a superhero. “I can’t sit down and be like, ‘I’m done. I want some popcorn.’ I have to stay on top of the game.’”
Part of staying on top of the game was preparing to handle extensive wirework. “The wirework is really difficult but so fun when you get it right. Like, watching the results is exhilarating. It’s a really, really cool feeling to know what it felt like, the energy I had to exert to create those flying scenes, and then the way they look is really cool.”
And speaking of looking cool, Benoist was asked what it felt like to see herself in the actual costume. “There’s this internal feeling, something changes. It’s this transformation almost to the point where I don’t really recognize myself in it, you know? I feel like a different person,” explained Benoist. “I grew up as a dancer and it feels like the skirt and tights that I wore when I was a ballerina.”
Watch the full interview for more on Melissa Benoist and Supergirl:
Jennifer Morrison and Colin O’Donoghue at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con (Photos by Richard Chavez / Showbiz Junkies)
Once Upon a Time‘s favorite onscreen couple Colin O’Donoghue (“Hook”) and Jennifer Morrison (“Emma Swan”) made the press room rounds at the San Diego Comic Con as a team, however O’Donoghue was a little late sitting down at our table because he was going to flip things up by interviewing Emilie de Ravin instead of being the interviewee. Fortunately, that gig didn’t last long as we had many questions to ask both Morrison and O’Donoghue about Once Upon a Time‘s fifth season.
As you’ll remember, the final episode of season four found Emma turning dark. Although fans (myself included) might have wanted a little happiness for Emma, season five doesn’t appeat to be set up that way. However, we can still hold out a little hope. “Who knows? Maybe the darkness will bring out some happiness,” joked Morrison.
When asked for some hints as to how their relationship will play out in season five, O’Donoghue said he found some info out during Comic Con which he was willing to whisper in his co-star’s ear.
“I mean, Hook was a villain for a long time. I think he might like her dark side,” said Morrison, not sharing whatever was whispered. “I think he wants to keep her heart good, but it’s not like it’s going to turn him off. She’s still her. I mean, Emma’s still in her; she’s just tethered to the darkness. So what’s talked about at the beginning of the season, just in terms of me structuring the character, is that there’s this constant tugging. [Tugging at her hands] That’s what it feels like. She feels violent because of being tethered to the darkness, and yet she’s trying constantly to overcome it. There’s this underlying push of this dark, angry, angsty energy that doesn’t go with what she’s saying and doing, so the energy doesn’t always match her actions.”
“Much the same way with Rumple when he was the Dark One,” added O’Donoghue.
Morrison agreed, adding, “You know, she loves Hook so truly and so intensely…”
“Yeah,” confirmed O’Donoghue, with a sexy smile.
“So passionately,” added Morrison with an equally irresistible smile.
“Yeah!,” interjected O’Donoghue.
“That when she is herself and her good version of herself, she can make good decisions amidst that passion and that intensity,” continued Morrison. “But now that she’s tethered to darkness, we’ll see her making different choices because she’s not necessarily going to be as selfless once she’s tethered to darkness.”
How will this new darkness affect Emma’s relationship with Henry? “I don’t know,” replied Morrison. “I don’t have a lot of details about what it means for her and Henry. I know that everything in her being is going to fight against anything that can hurt Henry. Even if she is tethered to the darkness, she’s still going to be determined to protect him and to make sure that he’s safe, even if that means keeping her away from him. But I don’t have details on how that plays out.”
As the seasons progress, the story has gotten even less black and white, with more shades of grey coloring each of the characters. “I think what Eddie [Kitnis] and Adam [Horowitz] are exploring is that no one is entirely good and no one is entirely bad. And that there are all sorts of things that happen in life that push us in a direction. There are tragedies, there are losses, and there’s pain in life that can push people to do terrible things,” said Morrison. “And then there are places in life where you can find hope and strength that you can overcome some of that stuff, so nothing is ever clear cut. There’s a lot of messiness in life and I think that that makes these characters and storytelling relatable, because that’s how life is. You know, no one wakes up in the morning and says, ‘I’m going to be a terrible person today,’ but something might happen that causes them to do something they regret or maybe isn’t the nicest thing, and then they try to redeem it. We all make mistakes and we all have things to overcome, and there’s reasons for that. There’s baggage in all of our lives. I think that they’re trying to show that through these characters who’ve been in Storybrooke for a very long time and trying to use them as a way to say we’re all the same. We all have things that we fail at and we all have things that we succeed at.”
Turning to O’Donoghue, Morrison asked if he had anything to add to that. Laughing, O’Donoghue replied, “That was pretty comprehensive. Yeah, bad people are bad and good people are good. And sometimes good people are bad and sometimes bad people are good on the show, and that’s kind of the way it is. No, it’s interesting because as a character who came in as a villain, then you realize that he was a good guy at one point and then he became a villain and became a bad guy, and then another good guy and then a bad guy again… It’s what Eddie and Adam do really, really well because it’s so complicated – and all the writers do it well – because it’s so complicated and so crazy to try to get your head around. But they manage to always make it work. It’s a very difficult thing, especially in the relationship that they have because Hook has been bad so he’s desperately trying to keep her heart from going into that darkness because he knows what is like. Now that she’s in that darkness, he’s going to try and bring it out of her but he still has a little bit of it. I mean, we saw it last season – he still has a little bit of darkness in him. So, does he give into it? Does he try and take her away from it?”
Once Upon a Time fans will have to wait until this fall to find out the answer.
Watch the Colin O’Donoghue and Jennifer Morrison interview:
Lea Michele (Glee) and Emma Roberts (American Horror Story) say their Scream Queens co-star Jamie Lee Curtis is like the group’s den mother. Curtis brought them books and juices, and couldn’t have been more giving with her co-stars. “But more than that, just feeling like there’s such a supportive…she’s the main structure that keeps everything together,” said Michele. “She’s like our protector, and I really love that. I feel like being a part of a show that has someone who does that for us is unbelievable.”
Michele and Roberts were teamed up for the Fox Scream Queens press room at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con where they discussed being a part of Ryan Murphy’s new horror series.
“I think we all just went into and I don’t think that we knew that people were going to solidly die each episode,” explained Roberts when asked about the death toll in horror movies and TV shows. “Like we were kind of like, ‘Oh, every couple of episodes someone will die and it’s not going to be us.’ And Ryan’s like, ‘No. Someone is going to die every week and none of you are safe. We were kind of shocked. We were laughing about it. We’re like, ‘What do you mean?’ We thought we weren’t going to die. So, all of us are as in the dark as you guys too, because Ryan will not tell us.”
“Yeah, he won’t tell us,” added Michele. “But it’s so great too because Ryan’s always so smart with adding all of the important elements to a show. It’s funny, it’s scary, but it also has that girl-power thing about the show. When he pitched the show to me I had zero information. But then the more we talked about certain things that he was saying about what was important about the show – and it goes back to what you were saying – maybe at the end it will be us girls who survive, who take the killer down. I love that and I love that Ryan always keeps that in mind. So I think it will be a positive show.”
Asked what it is they love about the show, Michele says she loves the writing and being a part of something fresh and new. “I had the same experience with Glee. I’m so excited right now to be playing a character [that] they’re challenging me so much,” said Michele. “I’m also so grateful to be working with such a strong group of actors who have such established careers and talents.”
“For me, I’ve known Ryan Murphy for a long time because he’s friends with my aunt. I’ve known him through the business, but then I’ve always wanted to be on a Ryan Murphy show. I wanted to be on American Horror Story more than anything and I didn’t even ask him about it. One day he called me and I was like, ‘I didn’t want to ask you because I didn’t think there would be a role for me. He’s like, ‘No, I have a role for you.’ So the fact that he’s yet again called me with an amazing role…and also to work with someone like him who’s a guy who can write for women so well and makes us smart and articulate and funny. The show is mostly young women, and Jamie Lee Curtis’ role is amazing, it’s just really cool to be able to trust someone like him to make all of us girls look good.”
So, how do Michele and Roberts feel about horror movies in general? Michele loves them while Roberts admits she watches them with her hands over her eyes. Michele actively seeks out films that will scare here, but she admits it’s hard to find anything that will do the trick, while just about anything will scare Roberts. “My friends won’t even watch horror movies with me anymore,” confessed Roberts. “They won’t invite me to see them because they’re like, ‘One of us will have to sleep over at Emma’s house if we take her to watch the movie.’ I’m like, ‘You guys!’ They’re like, ‘We are not seeing The Conjuring because you’ll make us move in.'”
Ryan Condal, Carlton Cuse, Josh Holloway, Sarah Wayne Callies and Peter Jacobson (Photo by: Mark Davis / USA Network)
Peter Jacobson was immediately drawn in by the script for Colony, and it didn’t hurt that the creative mind behind the show was Carlton Cuse (Lost). While some secrets about the hows and whys of the sci-fi drama won’t be revealed early on, Jacobson promises that quickly into the pilot, viewers will get the basic overall idea of what’s happened to the Los Angeles pictured in this series debuting this fall.
Jacobson says most people believe his character’s evil after watching the trailer, but he doesn’t think that’s necessarily true.
“I’m hoping to project – and I think the writers are trying to project – a character who we know is on the bad side but has a lot of different factors pushing him. He’s, like everybody who’s just a citizen, maybe just a vice principal in the suburbs, found his way into a very unique position,” explained Jacobson. “I’m not saying that could happen to anybody, but the question is what would you do if all of a sudden you were presented with circumstances way beyond you could ever imagine? What kind of choices would you make? So, I think he’s a good guy, a good man, but he’s in a really tricky spot and he’s doing the wrong thing a lot. Again, we’ll see as the show goes on that he’s got to be tough out of the gate, but I think we’ll see that he evolves.”
Jacobson also believes that part of the appeal and beauty of the pilot is that we don’t learn much about the actual invasion.
“I think what serves notice that it will be a great series is that the tension is really deep really quick, and there’s not a lot of knowledge. You get a family that we recognize as having breakfast in their house but there are little hints. There’s barbed wire, there’s a panned shot outside the house and you see there’s barbed wire on top of the fence. A normal family with three kids living in Los Angeles doesn’t have barbed wire on their fence. They hold for a while on the shot of the middle child and you realize he’s not there. There’s panic over a dropped egg,” said Jacobson. “These are things that indicate and hint that something is really, really wrong.”
Watch the entire interview for more on what to expect from Colony:
The Plot:
Set in the very near future, Colony centers on one family’s struggle to survive and bring liberty back to the people of an occupied Los Angeles. SAG winner Josh Holloway stars as former FBI agent Will Bowman and Satellite Award winner Sarah Wayne Callies (The Walking Dead) stars as his wife, Katie, in the series which takes place in a dangerous world of divided ideologies. While some choose to collaborate with the occupation and benefit from the new order, others rebel and suffer the consequences.
After being separated from their middle son during the invasion, Will and Katie are willing to do whatever is necessary to be reunited with him. So when the powerful Proxy Synder (Jacobson) offers Will a chance to get his son back if he will collaborate with the occupational government, Will and Katie find themselves faced with the toughest decision of their lives. They will have to go beyond whatever they thought possible, risking their lives and their relationship to protect their family.
