Kristen Wiig and host Jimmy Fallon on April 29, 2015 (Photo by: Douglas Gorenstein / NBC)
Game of Thrones‘ Khaleesi stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to chat about dragons, rocks, her real name, and to sing her hit song. Okay, it was actually Kristen Wiig and Wiig didn’t seem to actually know much about either Daenerys Targaryen or Game of Thrones.
Wearing a flowing blonde wig and sporting some fake cleavage, Wiig answered questions about Khaleesi’s life while a dragon sat perched on her shoulder. Fallon couldn’t keep from laughing as Wiig revealed Khaleesi’s name is actually Karen and her dragon’s name is Karl.
There’s big news for the horror series follow-up to The Omen: Damien has shifted from Lifetime to A&E and has had its season one order upped from six to 10. The new series is written and executive produced by Glen Mazzara (The Walking Dead) with Shekhar Kapur directing the first episode. Pancho Mansfield and Ross Fineman are also on board as executive producers on the Fox 21 Television Studios and A&E Network project.
“A&E’s unwavering commitment to high quality original scripted drama programming, coupled with the sizable fan-base for our hit series Bates Motel, which so perfectly aligns with Damien, make the network the ideal fit for this exceptional show,” said Rob Sharenow, Executive Vice President & General Manager, A&E and Lifetime. “We are thrilled with what we’ve seen so far and know that Glen and the creative team have even more story to tell in season one.”
Damien Thorn is played by Bradley James (Homeland). The cast also includes Barbara Hershey, Omid Abtahi, and Meganlyn Echikunwoke.
The Plot:
Damien follows the adult life of Damien Thorn, the mysterious child from the 1976 motion picture who has grown up seemingly unaware of the satanic forces around him. Haunted by his past, Damien must now come to terms with his true destiny — that he is the Antichrist. Barbara Hershey stars as Ann Rutledge, the world’s most powerful woman who has been tasked with making sure Damien fulfills his destiny. Omid Abtahi portrays Amani Golkar, a close colleague of Damien’s whose fierce loyalty will be tested when he realizes who his brother-in-arms actually is. Meganlyn Echikunwoke plays Simone Baptiste, a woman whose life is thrown into turmoil when tragedy unexpectedly strikes.
Netflix not only just announced a new series based on Dr. Seuss’ beloved tale Green Eggs and Ham with Ellen DeGeneres executive producing, they made the announcement in classic Dr. Seuss style:
We’d love to share some happy news
based on the rhymes of Dr. Seuss.
Green Eggs and Ham will become a show
and you’re among the first to know.
In this richly animated production,
a 13-episode introduction,
standoffish inventor (Guy, by name)
and Sam-I-Am of worldwide fame,
embark on a cross-country trip
that tests the limits of their friendship.
As they learn to try new things,
they find out what adventure brings.
Of course they also get to eat
that famous green and tasty treat!
Cindy Holland, VP of Original Content for Netflix
threw her quote into the mix:
“We think this will be a hit
Green Eggs and Ham is a perfect fit
for our growing slate of amazing stories
available exclusively in all Netflix territories.
You can stream it on a phone.
You can stream it on your own.
You can stream it on TV.
You can stream it globally.”
Jared Stern (The LEGO Movie Sequel) is adapting Green Eggs and Ham and is involved as an executive producer. Ellen DeGeneres, Jeff Kleeman, Mike Karz and David Dobkin are also on board as executive producers for the animated family comedy.
Grey Damon as Brian Shafe and David Duchovny as Sam Hodiak in ‘Aquarius’ (Photo by: Vivian Zink / NBC)
NBC’s getting in on the binge-watching craze with the upcoming dramatic series Aquarius starring David Duchovny. The network’s announced Aquarius will release episode one on May 28, 2015 and immediately after the two-hour premiere, all 13 episodes will be available on NBC.com, the NBC app, and all video-on-demand platforms.
All of the episodes will be available for four weeks.
For those who aren’t into binge-watching, the series will also air a new episode each Thursday at 9pm ET/PT on NBC.
“With Aquarius, we have the opportunity to push some new boundaries to give our audience something no broadcast network has done before. We are fully aware how audiences want to consume multiple episodes of new television series faster and at their own discretion, and we’re excited to offer our viewers this same experience since all 13 episodes of this unique show have been produced and are ready to be seen. I appreciate the enthusiasm we’ve gotten from the producers of the show and our partner Marty Adelstein of Tomorrow Studios to launch this series in a new, forward-thinking way,” said NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt.
The Plot:
Los Angeles. 1967.
Sam Hodiak (Duchovny), a decorated World War II vet and homicide detective, barely recognizes the city he’s now policing. Long hair, cheap drugs, rising crime, protests, free love, police brutality, Black Power and the Vietnam War are radically remaking the world he and the Greatest Generation saved from fascism 20 years ago.
So when Emma Karn (Emma Dumont), the 16-year-old daughter of an old girlfriend, goes missing in a sea of hippies and Hodiak agrees to find her, he faces only hostility, distrust and silence. He enlists the help of Brian Shafe (Grey Damon) — a young, idealistic undercover vice cop who’s been allowed to grow his hair out — to infiltrate this new counterculture and find her.
The generational conflict between the two is immediate and heated, yet they’re both dedicated officers and soon realize the need to bring Emma home is more urgent than they foresaw. The immediacy arises because she has joined a small but growing, band of drifters under the sway of a career criminal who now dreams of being a rock star: Charles Manson (Gethin Anthony).
Ringing with the unparalleled music of the era, Aquarius is a sprawling work of historical fiction that begins two years before the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders. It’s a shocking thriller, a nuanced character drama and, in the end, the story of how we became who we are today.
Jeremy Renner during the “Hawkeye Sings” bit on April 28, 2015 (Photo by: Douglas Gorenstein / NBC)
Avengers: Age of Ultron heads to theaters on May 1st filled with superhero characters including Thor, Captain America, The Hulk, Iron Man, and Black Widow, as well as newcomers Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. There’s no shortage of characters who can kick-butt, so it’s not hard to overlook that guy who is the Avengers version of Katniss Everdeen.
Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) isn’t quite as flashy when he takes down the bad guys; his running speed’s average and he can only lift what a normal guy in his 30s can. But as Renner sings in a special version of Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud,” he’s got special powers too, and he can “do so much more than just archery.” Powers like playing the trombone, getting to second base on a Tinder date, and owning a cat who has his own Instagram.
Check out the full tune as soulfully song by Renner on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon:
Avengers: Age of Ultron Plot:
Marvel Studios presents Avengers: Age of Ultron, the epic follow-up to the biggest Super Hero movie of all time. When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye, are put to the ultimate test as the fate of the planet hangs in the balance. As the villainous Ultron emerges, it is up to The Avengers to stop him from enacting his terrible plans, and soon uneasy alliances and unexpected action pave the way for an epic and unique global adventure.
Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron stars Robert Downey Jr., who returns as Iron Man, along with Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Mark Ruffalo as Hulk and Chris Evans as Captain America. Together with Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, and with the additional support of Don Cheadle as James Rhodes/War Machine, Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill, Stellan Skarsgård as Erik Selvig and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, the team must reassemble to defeat James Spader as Ultron, a terrifying technological villain hell-bent on human extinction.
Along the way, they confront two mysterious and powerful newcomers, Pietro Maximoff, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Wanda Maximoff, played by Elizabeth Olsen and meet an old friend in a new form when Paul Bettany becomes Vision.
Emily VanCamp and Nick Wechsler in ‘Revenge’ (ABC / Richard Cartwright)
It appears Emily Thorne (played by Emily VanCamp) won’t be seeking revenge on anyone else who’s wronged her after the final episode of Revenge‘s fourth season. EW broke the news, interviewing series executive producer Sunil Nayar who confirmed ABC opted not to renew the show for a fifth season. The season four finale, airing on May 10, 2015, will be last new episode of the revenge drama.
“We can officially tell our fans that this will be the end of the story,” stated Nayar. However, it appears the fourth season’s final episode will tie up enough loose ends so that fans of the series who’ve been following Emily/Amanda won’t be left wondering whether Emily will ever have a happy ending.
“Now that everybody has seen the finale — which is fabulous — everybody understands that as much as we all adore the show, it has hit exactly the mark it needed to to end,” explained Nayar in the EW interview. Nayar said that while there’s a small cliffhanger in the final episode, the network and the show’s creative team felt season four (which included the death of Victoria Grayson) was a great way to end the show.
Revenge has seen its ratings dwindle from 10 million in season one to 4.5 million for its April 26th episode which was its best outing since March 15, 2015. And with the killing off of a key character who drove much of the show’s storyline, the writing was on the wall.
Season four’s finale is titled “Two Graves” and ABC has offered up this brief synopsis of the plot: “Backed into a corner, Emily is forced to admit her guilt, but she’ll have to decide how far she’ll go before admitting defeat.”
Spike’s showing off the first poster for their limited series Tut starring Avan Jogia as King Tut and Sir Ben Kingsley as Tut’s closest advisor, Vizer Ay. David Von Ancken directed the original series from a script by Michael Vickerman, Peter Paige, and Bradley Bredeweg, and the six-hour three-night series will air July 19, 20, and 21 at 9pm ET/PT.
Releasing the poster, Spike also offered background information on the thought process behind its creation. Key to Tut is the relationship between the boy king and Vizer Ay, and “using a cross-process technique, the key art captures their dynamic, as both characters are merged together, depicting their struggle for power. The effect of the key art creates layers of intrigue that mirror the layers of complexity in the characters. The art features the iconic Egyptian colors of blue and gold that evoke a sense of warmth and coldness, of life and death.”
The Plot:
Thrust into power after the murder of his father, Tut (Jogia) is forced to marry his strong-willed, ambitious half-sister (Sibylla Deen) in order to maintain the dynasty. In love with a commoner (Kylie Bunbury), he struggles to protect her from the jealous queen. And although Tut rules as Pharaoh, he is exploited by a shrewd Prime Minister (Kingsley), a ruthless military General (Nonso Anozie) and a scheming High Priest (Alexander Siddig) who look down on him as someone they can control.
But through unexpected twists and turns, Tut strives to overcome the odds, rising from a manipulated prince into an unlikely hero who triumphs over his enemies both from within and without leading his kingdom to glory.
Nina Simone in the Netflix original documentary ‘What Happened, Miss Simone?’ (Photo courtesy of Peter Rodis / Netflix)
Netflix has just released the first trailer for What Happened, Miss Simone?, a documentary about legendary singer Nina Simone. Directed by Oscar nominee Liz Garbus (The Farm: Angola, USA), the documentary will premiere on Netflix and in limited theaters on June 26, 2015.
The Plot:
The film uses never-before-heard audio tapes, recorded over the course of three decades, of Nina telling her life story to various interviewers and would-be biographers. From over 100 hours of these recordings, What Happened, Miss Simone? weaves together Nina’s narrative, told largely in her own words. Rare concert footage and archival interviews, along with diaries, letters, interviews with Nina’s daughter, Lisa Simone Kelly, friends and collaborators, along with other exclusive materials, make this the most authentic, personal, and unflinching telling of the extraordinary life of one of the 20th Century’s greatest recording artists.
The long wait for Marvel fans to see what Earth’s Most Profitable Heroes have up their sleeve has finally come to an end. After the firestorm of positive reactions and nerdgasms over what Joss Whedon was able to assemble with the first Avengers, it comes as no surprise that Avengers: Age of Ultron is already stockpiling money overseas and is poised to dip into the disposable income of many a fanboy and fangirl stateside.
The big question here is what can Whedon and the Marvel team do to keep this momentum rolling. While there are marked differences, this explosion of films liked by both the general public and typically cynical critics reminds me of the heyday of Pixar … you know, back before they started making NASCAR cartoons, resorting to sequels, and doing so much to help get Disney back on track that they let things slip for themselves.
But that’s a different discussion.
Here, we have Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) all coming back together to save the world once again. Some new faces have entered the fray, most notably the non-Fox Studio X-Men franchise Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), and a new enemy with his name in the title has come to wreck shop (doing so with the voice of James Spader, which was kinda fun).
And without going into spoiler territory (Whedon fans know a certain something is likely to happen), and hoping not to lose any nerd cred that I might carry, I’m sort of not all that excited about what I just saw.
Wait …
Where are you going???
Come back …
Fine. I guess I’m just writing this for me now.
Ian, what didn’t you like about this? Well, it basically rehashes the exact same plot of the first Avengers movie. In that one, Loki attempted to turn the team against one another and keep them distracted while he put an endgame scenario into place. Here, Ultron utilizes the talents of the Scarlet Witch to turn the team against one another and keep them distracted while he put an endgame scenario into place.
And what do they add in when you don’t really need to introduce characters anymore? Well, aside from actually introducing a few new characters, the answer is that in an attempt to develop the characters a bit more, what’s happened is that Whedon found a way to slow the movie down a bit too much and make sure audiences feel how uncomfortable their chairs are. We learn of a budding romance between Avengers that makes no sense from a comic book perspective and another of the team has been hiding a little something something that frankly, I couldn’t have cared less about.
Perhaps more troubling for me is that while the first Avengers film has Whedon’s trademark sense of humor stamped all over it, much of that has disappeared here. Instead, this is basically like mixing up a teeny dash of Doll House and a huge spoonful of the last season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, only with the Hulk playing Buffy in a weird kind of way. Maybe he’s more like Spike. Whatever. The point is that Age of Ultron is a more somber expression of these characters than we’ve seen previously …which should tell you something.
And that would have been fine I suppose, if it didn’t create significant sections of film that felt like the cost the audience was forced to pay to watch the next action scene. Speaking of which, let’s talk about that action. Sure, some of it is spectacular and more than a few shekels were spent on CGI. But the fast cutting seemed on overdrive here and more often than not, I felt myself getting restless because there were simply too many things happening at the same time. And while I’m no spring chicken, I like frenetic action, and still found a number of the action scenes a bit too hectic, haphazard, and with simply too much CGI. There were moments where it felt like the Battle of Helm’s Deep with fancy tech and super powers instead of axes and magic.
So with all that negativity, surely I hated the film, right? Well, no. While I struggled with large chunks of the middle section and think there was simply too much set up for future films trying to get packed into the 2 hour, 21 minute runtime, Whedon and team bring most of it back together by the end. I’m still intrigued to see how the upcoming Wars (Infinity and Civil) will play out; and the little tease given in the credits was anything but surprising but does get me a little excited for what’s to come as the Infinity War storyline is one I loved backed when I collected far too many comics.
Marvel fans will surely eat Age of Ultron up and it’s going to make ridiculous sums of money. But I’m now starting to focus my attention on whether or not this empire that’s been erected by Marvel and Disney can sustain itself over the next decade … and it had better if they want to tell the stories they want to tell. In the meantime, Marvel has a much bigger problem on their hands: How to not let Ant-Man suck all the momentum out of their cinematic juggernaut.
Somehow I think people are so ensconced in their fandom (which is basically at an Apple level of obsession) that they’ll probably enjoy it if there was just 90 minutes of foreshadowing for the next movie but you never know when Marvel will release their Cars or, shudder the thought, Cars 2. All I can say is good luck, Mr. Rudd.
GRADE: B
MPAA rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action, violence and destruction, and for some suggestive comments.
Chloe Bennet, Elizabeth Henstridge, Brett Dalton, and Simon Kassianides in ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ (Photo: ABC / Kelsey McNeal)
Strange times make strange bedfellows, and our friends at S.H.I.E.L.D. understand that better than anyone else. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s 19th episode of season two titled “The Dirty Half Dozen” had some very satisfying gratification (take that, Ward!), as well as tie-ins to Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Episode 19 Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Recap
Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) is sitting in a S.H.I.E.L.D. cell when Robert Gonzalez (Edward James Olmos) comes in. He asks Coulson why he turned himself in now. Coulson explains that there are prisoners, powered people, who are being experimented on and held prisoner by Hydra in the Arctic, and that he needs Gonzalez’s help to rescue them. In exchange for their cooperation, Coulson will open Nick Fury’s toolbox for them.
At the Hydra base, Mike Peterson (J. August Richards) and Lincoln (Luke Mitchell) are in neighboring cells. They introduce themselves and discuss how in the world they’re going to escape. Outside their cells, Bakshi (Simon Kassianides) and Dr. List (Henry Goodman) are discussing their two new prisoners. Dr. List is explaining how all of their test subjects die during their experimental procedures. But he mentions that “the twins” were the exception. (He’s referring to Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, who are in Avengers: Age of Ultron.)
At S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, they watch a feed from Mike Peterson’s (Deathlok) eye showing Hydra surgeons removing it. Gonzalez puts the mission up for a vote. Agents Weaver (Christine Adams) and Oliver (Mark Allen Stewart) vote against Coulson’s mission. Bobbi (Adrianne Palicki) and Gonzalez vote for it. Agent May (Ming-Na Wen) has the swing vote. She asks for a private word with Coulson before she votes. After the others are gone, she questions him about all the secrets he’s been keeping, including Theta Protocol. He won’t tell her about it, however. He realizes she’s mainly angry because he was getting counseling from her ex-husband, unbeknown to her. He apologizes, but then begs May to vote for the mission. She agrees.
At the Afterlife compound, Raina (Ruth Negga) is having more prophetic nightmares. She sees Gordon (Jamie Harris) with a cut forehead and Skye (Chloe Bennet) rescuing Lincoln. When she wakes up, Jiaying (Dichen Lachman) is watching over her because Raina had cried out.
Jiaying is asking Skye and Cal what happened in Milwaukee. Skye tells her that they were attacked by Hydra and that Lincoln was taken captive. Gordon leaves to retrieve Lincoln. Jiaying apologizes to Cal (Kyle MacLachlan) for planning to dump him in Milwaukee. She agrees to keep him at the compound. Gordon returns with a bleeding gash on his forehead, saying Hydra almost got him. He thinks they’re tracking him somehow. Raina sees his forehead and realizes her visions are coming true.
At S.H.I.E.L.D., Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) and Fitz (Iain de Caestecker) are catching up, talking about forming an alliance with Ward (Brett Dalton). Simmons shows Fitz a case of vaporizing weapons and suggests that they use one on Ward. He realizes she’s serious. Then she convinces Coulson to allow her to join the mission, saying that she can attend to Mike’s injuries.
Mack (Henry Simmons) is putting together a system so the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who are staying at HQ can watch the mission. An injured Hunter (Nick Blood) arrives and joins Mack at the work table. Mack apologizes for kidnapping him, and for everything that’s happened since. Hunter forgives him, but he hasn’t spoken to Bobbi at all.
Ward explains to Kara (Maya Stojan) that she’s going to stay at S.H.I.E.L.D. because Hydra robbed her of her career as an agent, and this is her chance to get it back. She’s reluctant to let him leave, but he convinces her. Later, Bobbi pops into the medical ward to see how Kara is doing. When Kara tells Bobbi that she’s the only one who has been nice to her, Bobbi tells her she understands that what happened to Kara was Dr. Whitehall’s fault. (I get the feeling Bobbi is playing good cop, getting Kara to trust her so that she can keep an eye on her.)
At the compound, Skye is arguing with Jiaying about rescuing Lincoln. Jiaying reminds Skye that she knows better than anyone what Hydra will do to him, but she cannot risk having Gordon captured or followed. Skye, however, convinces Gordon to take her somewhere so that she can rescue Lincoln, but it’s not where they were expecting.
May, Coulson, Fitz, Simmons and Ward are getting ready to depart for the mission when they hear a strange sound. Skye appears to join the mission. (The strange “whoosh” was Gordon.) Ward makes a crack about how the team is back together.
Ward is getting ready to explain the intel Bakshi has been feeding them from Hydra’s location, when he realizes that the others are glaring at him. He opens a dialog about his actions, only to find that everyone has just has much hatred for him as they ever had. Coulson finally brings them back to the mission at hand, and they form a plan.
Hydra picks up the S.H.I.E.L.D. plane as soon as it enters their territory. They fire on the “bus,” which explodes just before a commercial break. When we come back from commercial, we see that the S.H.I.E.L.D. team used the ol’ Han Solo trick of coming in camouflaged by the debris from the exploded plane. May lands the plane that had piggy-backed onto the bus after a harrowing drop.
Once inside the Hydra base, the team starts taking out Hydra guards. Ward says it’s just like old times, until Skye uses her power to blow away two guards. He says, “So that’s what happened in Puerto Rico.” Then the team splits up, with Fitz saying a silent prayer for Simmons.
In a breathtaking and amazing fight sequence, Skye takes out several agents in a long one-shot before getting to Lincoln. He’s flat-lining. She summons her power and jump-starts his heart. He’s alive! Meanwhile, Simmons finds Mike and they bust him out. When May checks on Coulson and Fitz, they realize Coulson isn’t where he’s supposed to be. May finds him in another room downloading intel from a computer. (Shades of Black Widow in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, no?) She’s not happy and nearly drags him from the room.
Elsewhere, Ward is looking for a stretcher or something to carry out Mike, who has lost most of one leg to Hydra. Simmons tries to sneak up on him, but Bakshi attacks her. She winds up vaporizing Bakshi instead of Ward. Ward realizes she tried to kill him and walks out, leaving a very confused Jemma. He doesn’t return with the rest of the team.
Back at HQ, Coulson gets a phone call from Ward. Ward explains that Kara needs S.H.I.E.L.D.’s help and that he’s not the man to help her. (I can already predict that Kara will fall apart when she finds out Ward is gone.) After Coulson hangs up, Bobbi and Gonzalez approach him. Gonzalez hands him the toolbox, saying that it’s time for Coulson to make good on his side of their agreement. Coulson opens it up, but says that Fury might be back for it. When Gonzalez’s eyes pop open at the shocking news that Fury is alive, Coulson mischievously says, “Oops! Spoiler alert!” Then he gets a phone call from Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) and leaves Bobbi and Gonzalez stunned in the hallway.
Agent Hill and Coulson are discussing the real reason Coulson wanted into the Hydra base: Loki’s scepter. While they’re talking about what Hydra is going to do with it, we cut to Raina at the compound. Jiaying is chewing her out a bit about how Raina’s information sent Skye off to rescue Lincoln. Jiaying tells Raina that from now on, she will make the decisions about what to do concerning Raina’s visions. Suddenly, Raina gets a vision of the scepter. She also gets a vision of the world falling into chaos and disaster, and of metal men taking over the world. We cut back to Coulson and Hill talking about the scepter. Coulson says it’s time to call in the Avengers. (Opening May 1!)
