Denis Leary as Johnny Rock, John Corbett as Flash, Robert Kelly as Bam Bam, John Ales as Rehab. CR. Patrick Harbron/FX
Denis Leary returns to television with a starring role and as executive producer of Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll, a new music-driven comedy on FX. Leary also created the series which is set to premiere on July 16, 2015 at 10pm ET/PT, and the network’s just unveiled the title sequence video setting up the vibe of the show. In addition to Leary, the cast includes Elizabeth Gillies, John Ales, Bobby Kelly and Elaine Hendrix.
The Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll Plot:
Leary stars as “Johnny Rock,” lead singer of a legendary early 90s 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 (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.
RJ Cyler, Nick Offerman and Thomas Mann in ‘Me and Earl and the Dying Girl’
Fox Searchlight’s released the official trailer for Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, winner of both the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Based on the book by Jesse Andrews, and adapted for the screen by Andrews, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl stars Thomas Mann (the ‘Me’), RJ Cyler (‘Earl’), and Olivia Cooke (the ‘Dying Girl’). Nick Offerman, Molly Shannon, Jon Bernthal and Connie Britton co-star.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl opens in theaters on June 12, 2015.
The Plot:
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is the uniquely funny, moving story of Greg (Mann), a high school senior who is trying to blend in anonymously, avoiding deeper relationships as a survival strategy for navigating the social minefield that is teenage life. He even describes his constant companion Earl, with whom he makes short film parodies of classic movies, as more of a ‘co-worker’ than a best friend. But when Greg’s mom (Britton) insists he spend time with Rachel (Cooke) – a girl in his class who has just been diagnosed with cancer – he slowly discovers how worthwhile the true bonds of friendship can be.
Ivana Milicevic and Antony Starr in ‘Banshee’ season 3 (Photo: Gregory Shummon / Cinemax)
Cinemax just announced season four of Banshee has begun shooting in Pittsburgh with Antony Starr back in the lead and Eliza Dushku (Dollhouse) and Ana Ayora joining the cast for the upcoming season. Per Cinemax’s announcement, Dushku will be playing a “tough, sexy and shockingly reckless FBI profiler” and Ayora will be playing a new Banshee deputy with a secret.
Season four will consist of eight episodes set to air in 2016. Alan Ball, Greg Yaitanes, Jonathan Tropper, Peter Macdissi, Adam Targum, and Ole Christian Madsen are executive producing.
Returning cast members include:
– Ivana Milicevic as Carrie Hopewell, a notorious jewel thief who lives in Banshee under an assumed identity with her new family, which has recently learned of her criminal past;
– Ulrich Thomsen as Lucas’ arch-enemy, Kai Proctor, an intimidating, wealthy businessman who believes he is above the law;
– Hoon Lee as Job, a dangerous transvestite computer hacker who assists Lucas and Carrie in their criminal enterprises;
– Frankie Faison as Sugar Bates, a wise and powerful former boxer who owns the local watering hole and serves as confidante to Lucas and Job;
– Matt Servitto as Brock Lotus, Lucas’ long-suffering veteran deputy;
– Ryann Shane as Deva Hopewell, Carrie’s teenage daughter, who is rattled after learning Lucas fathered her;
– Lili Simmons as Rebecca Bowman, Proctor’s sexy niece, who has taken on a larger role in his criminal activities;
– Matt Rauch as Clay Burton, Proctor’s multifaceted, complicated bodyguard and right-hand man;
– Tom Pelphrey as Kurt Bunker, a former skinhead who joins the Banshee sheriff’s department as a deputy;
– Chris Coy as Calvin Bunker, Kurt’s unsavory brother, who has kept his Nazi ties.
The Missing, Marvellous, Happy Valley, and Line of Duty lead this year’s British Academy Television Awards nominee list with three nominations each. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts also recognized Benedict Cumberbatch with his third nomination for his starring role in Sherlock, and Olivia Colman earned her fourth consecutive nomination for Rev.
The winners will be announced on May 10, 2015 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.
LEADING ACTOR
BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH Sherlock – BBC One
TOBY JONES Marvellous – BBC Two JAMES NESBITT The Missing – BBC One
JASON WATKINS The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies – ITV
LEADING ACTRESS
GEORGINA CAMPBELL Murdered by My Boyfriend – BBC Three
KEELEY HAWES Line of Duty – BBC Two
SARAH LANCASHIRE Happy Valley – BBC One
SHERIDAN SMITH Cilla – ITV
SUPPORTING ACTOR
ADEEL AKHTAR Utopia – Channel 4
JAMES NORTON Happy Valley – BBC One
STEPHEN REA The Honourable Woman – BBC Two
KEN STOTT The Missing – BBC One
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
GEMMA JONES Marvellous – BBC Two
VICKY MCCLURE Line of Duty – BBC Two
AMANDA REDMAN Tommy Cooper: Not like That, Like This – ITV
CHARLOTTE SPENCER Glue – E4
ENTERTAINMENT PERFORMANCE
ANT AND DEC Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway – ITV
LEIGH FRANCIS Celebrity Juice – ITV2
GRAHAM NORTON The Graham Norton Show – BBC One
CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN Strictly Come Dancing – BBC One
FEMALE PERFORMANCE IN A COMEDY PROGRAMME
OLIVIA COLMAN Rev. – BBC Two
TAMSIN GREIG Episodes – BBC Two
JESSICA HYNES W1A – BBC Two
CATHERINE TATE Catherine Tate’s Nan – BBC One
MALE PERFORMANCE IN A COMEDY PROGRAMME
MATT BERRY Toast of London – Channel 4
HUGH BONNEVILLE W1A – BBC Two
TOM HOLLANDER Rev. – BBC Two
BRENDAN O’CARROLL Mrs Brown’s Boys – Christmas Special – BBC One
SINGLE DRAMA
A POET IN NEW YORK
COMMON
MARVELLOUS
MURDERED BY MY BOYFRIEND
MINI-SERIES
CILLA
THE LOST HONOUR OF CHRISTOPHER JEFFERIES
OUR WORLD WAR
PREY
DRAMA SERIES
HAPPY VALLEY
LINE OF DUTY
THE MISSING
PEAKY BLINDERS
SOAP & CONTINUING DRAMA
CASUALTY
CORONATION STREET
EASTENDERS
HOLLYOAKS
INTERNATIONAL
THE GOOD WIFE
HOUSE OF CARDS
ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK
TRUE DETECTIVE
FACTUAL SERIES
15,000 KIDS AND COUNTING
EDUCATING THE EAST END
LIFE AND DEATH ROW
PROTECTING OUR PARENTS
SPECIALIST FACTUAL *
DAVID ATTENBOROUGH’S CONQUEST OF THE SKIES 3D
GRAYSON PERRY: WHO ARE YOU?
THE GREAT WAR: THE PEOPLE’S STORY
OUR GAY WEDDING: THE MUSICAL
SINGLE DOCUMENTARY **
BABY P: THE UNTOLD STORY
CHILDREN OF SYRIA
THE MINERS STRIKE AND ME
THE PAEDOPHILE HUNTER
FEATURES
GEORGE CLARKE’S AMAZING SPACES
GRAND DESIGNS
THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF
LONG LOST FAMILY
REALITY & CONSTRUCTED FACTUAL
THE APPRENTICE
I’M A CELEBRITY… GET ME OUT OF HERE!
THE ISLAND WITH BEAR GRYLLS
THE UNDATEABLES
CURRENT AFFAIRS
CHILDREN ON THE FRONTLINE (DISPATCHES)
EBOLA FRONTLINE (PANORAMA)
INSIDE KENYA’S DEATH SQUADS (AL JAZEERA INVESTIGATES)
TERROR AT THE MALL (THIS WORLD)
NEWS COVERAGE
BBC NEWS AT TEN
CHANNEL 4 NEWS – INSIDE GAZA: CHILDREN UNDER FIRE
ITV NEWS AT TEN: IRAQ CRISIS
SKY NEWS LIVE AT FIVE: EBOLA
SPORT & LIVE EVENT
2014 FA CUP SEMI FINAL HULL CITY V SHEFFIELD UNITED
MONTY PYTHON (MOSTLY) LIVE: ONE DOWN, FIVE TO GO
TOUR DE FRANCE, 2014, STAGE 1
WW1 REMEMBERED – FROM THE BATTLEFIELD & WESTMINSTER ABBEY
ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMME
ANT AND DEC’S SATURDAY NIGHT TAKEAWAY
DYNAMO: MAGICIAN IMPOSSIBLE
STRICTLY COME DANCING
THE VOICE
COMEDY AND COMEDY ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMME
CHARLIE BROOKER’S WEEKLY WIPE
THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW
STEWART LEE’S COMEDY VEHICLE
WOULD I LIE TO YOU
SCRIPTED COMEDY
DETECTORISTS
HARRY & PAUL’S STORY OF THE TWOS
MOONE BOY
THE WRONG MANS
RADIO TIMES AUDIENCE AWARD (voted for by members of the public)
CILLA
EASTENDERS
GAME OF THRONES
THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF THE MISSING
SHERLOCK
STRICTLY COME DANCING
* Specialist Factual is given in honour of Huw Wheldon
** Single Documentary is given in honour of Robert Flaherty
*** Entertainment Programme is given in honour of Lew Grade
Fox’s Gotham is heading toward the finale for season one and as this incredible first season wraps up, Ben McKenzie (‘Jim Gordon’) joined his co-stars Robin Lord Taylor (‘Oswald Cobblepot’/’The Penguin’) and (‘Edward Nygma’/’The Riddler’) along with executive producer John Stephens for a Q&A with fans at WonderCon. McKenzie also sat down for a few short interviews to discuss what’s coming up with the final season one episodes and how he’s approached the character of Detective Jim Gordon in this first season.
Asked what the audience can expect from Jim as the finale approaches, McKenzie said, “We’ve already seen him evolve significantly. In the last episode, Loeb used Bullock against him to free Arnold Flass, the guy that he had put behind bars. Loeb orchestrated a betrayal of the partnership and Jim and Harvey end up tracking down Loeb’s cache of dirt only to find that what’s at its heart is his daughter. She killed Loeb’s wife. Jim didn’t use Loeb’s daughter against him, for the good of Malcolm in many respects, giving his own partner his dirt back on him so he’s free and clear. But this concept of these Machiavellian moves that Jim is now capable of is a real evolution for him. We saw at the beginning of the season, he’s almost naive he’s so alone. Now he’s learned to play ball. That’s only going to continue at the end.
At the end of the season we introduce a new face, The Ogre, a serial killer who targets women. He seduces them, tortures them, and kills them. And also he targets any loved one of a cop who comes after him. Anytime a cop has taken on the case, a loved one of that cop has been killed. So, he’s kept himself from being investigated through intimidation. Jim, of course, can not abide by this. He has to take on the case only, of course, knowing he has to pay the price.”
McKenzie says that at this point, Jim Gordon is getting dangerously close to believing the end justifies the means. “I wouldn’t say he’s there yet. I would say the end justifies the means is probably the final journey of Jim,” explained McKenzie. “But that’s the endpoint of the journey. The journey is each step down the spiral staircase into hell, the circle of which is how deep a compromise are you going to make. Right now he’s only threatening Loeb with the execution of his daughter. Loeb’s a terrible guy and he’s threatening to use it, he knows Loeb’s going to fold, he folds, he got what he wanted. It’s not too bad, but it will get worse.”
I asked McKenzie what his actual entry point into the character was and what he latched onto that helped him get into Jim Gordon this season. “He’s a soldier. In our conception he served, was decorated, and comes home really for the first time because he was raised outside of Gotham. He left Gotham when his father was killed. He comes back to the city that he really never knew to take on the crusade of his father who he always imagined was a lion, a hero.
He quickly realizes the city was a moral abyss and he might not have been the upstanding citizen that he thought he was. But the military sense of discipline, sense of mission is I think kind of what I gravitated towards when I first tried to get a hold of the character. He is the only one in Gotham who has that. Everyone else plays ball. Everybody else is, ‘Do I really need to do my job? Maybe I can get a little extra money on the side.’ Everybody is kind of sucked into that because how could you not? Jim just has to be distinct in order to be the guy that he is.”
But it’s not just all about fighting crime as the season finishes up. Romantically, Jim Gordon’s involved with Dr. Leslie Thompkins (Morena Baccarin) and McKenzie says the couple are doing pretty well now. “She’s an ME; she’s working alongside him which can feel a little bit claustrophobic to have your partner right next to you in the office. But, they have a shared sense of mission. They really are kindred spirits trying to clean up Gotham,” said McKenzie. “But Barbara’s (Erin Richards) come back only to find Jim in the arms of someone else… The Ogre and Jim taking over that case knowing that a loved one is going to be targeted brings the situation to a head. That will have some pretty dire consequences to the people involved.”
Without giving away any spoilers, McKenzie said that reading the script for the season finale left him shocked at how far the writers took the story. “It’s just jammed,” revealed McKenzie. “The finale is almost chaos. I mean, not everybody lives. Many people do not emerge, even if they do live, whole – let’s say – from the experience.”
Malcolm Goodwin from ‘iZombie’ at WonderCon (Photo by Richard Chavez)
Will police detective Clive Babineaux ever figure out a zombie is helping him solve murders by eating the brains of murder victims? iZombie‘s Malcolm Goodwin says he doesn’t think his character is going to put two and two together and come up with zombie as the answer anytime soon.
“I don’t think he’ll ever figure out she’s a zombie. I think he’s reserved the fact of she’s emo goth. When I first got the role I googled emo because I didn’t know what that was. I knew what goth was but I didn’t know what emo was. So I gave a google search on emo and I’m like, ‘That’s Liv,'” said Goodwin. “He thinks he pegged her. ‘That’s your fashion. Emo punk, to each his own. That’s fine.’ In terms of the zombie thing, unless he smells brains on her breath or something…but I don’t think he knows what brains smell like and she covers it up with hot sauce. I don’t think he’ll ever figure out the zombie aspect.”
At the 2015 WonderCon, Goodwin said part of the attraction of playing Clive is getting to play a detective who’s inexperienced and who gets to grow each episode. “There’s been a lot of procedural shows where you have a detective who has it all figured out. He’s been on the force for so long. But we get to watch this guy make mistakes, be naive, and insecure. He’s kind of the odd man out at the police station, so I think the most fun has been balancing him growing and maturing and getting comfortable as a detective.”
Like the audience, Goodwin says he’s learning more about his character each week as he wasn’t given that much backstory to work off of when he took on the role.
“All I knew is that they told me they wanted a vibe of like Cleavon Little and like Shaft, you know? So it was more of a vibe and less about his background. I knew he was a rookie and that’s what I really sunk my teeth into. I was on this show called Breakout Kings on A&E and so when I was on that I watched a lot of A&E shows. I watched a lot of First 48. On First 48 you can see so many rookie detectives, so I re-watched that show. Everyone, their first day on the job they make their mistakes and have a learning curve. I think just playing with that. But episode four you do find out a little bit about his backstory, what led to him being a detective, and you get to watch his and Liv’s relationship grow,” said Goodwin.
Watch the full interview with Malcolm Goodwin on his character’s relationship with Liv (played by Rose McIver), why his character believes in psychics, and working with Rob Thomas:
Nicole Kidman stars in ‘Grace of Monaco’ (Photo Courtesy of Lifetime)
The road to release hasn’t been a smooth one for Grace of Monaco, and apparently now the film will have its U.S. premiere not in theaters but on Lifetime this May. Lifetime will debut the dramatic film based on the life of Princess of Monaco on May 25, 2015 at 8pm ET/PT. Directed by Olivier Dahan (La Vie en Rose), Grace of Monaco was scripted by Arash Amel and executive produced by Claudia Bluemhuber, Uday Chopra, Uta Fredebeil, and Bill Johnson.
The cast is led by Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman, taking on the role of Grace Kelly. Tim Roth co-stars as Prince Rainier III; Frank Langella plays Grace’s confidante, Father Francis Tucker; Parker Posey is Grace’s aide, Madge; and Paz Vega has the difficult task of playing the legendary opera singer Maria Callas.
The Plot:
Set in 1962, six years after her celebrated “wedding of the century,” Grace of Monaco is an intimate snapshot of a year in the life of actress-turned-princess Grace Kelly as she reconciles her past as a Hollywood darling and her present as Prince Rainier III’s wife. Yearning for a return to her acting career, Grace finds herself plunged into a personal crisis to decide the fate of her marriage while her husband is at political odds with France’s President Charles de Gaulle. With a French invasion impending for Monaco, Grace must make the difficult decision whether to stand by the side of her husband and newfound country, or return to the bright lights of Hollywood.
Abigail Breslin seems to be in the ‘transitioning to a zombie’ stage on the new poster for Maggie from Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions. The horror/thriller was directed by Henry Hobson from a script by John Scott 3, and co-stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Joely Richardson.
The PG-13 rated drama opens in theaters on May 22, 2015.
The Plot: When a deadly zombie virus sweeps the nation, a father will stop at nothing to save his infected daughter in this post-apocalyptic thriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Abigail Breslin.
The Fifth Annual Critics’ Choice Television Awards will air live on A&E on May 31, 2015 at 8pm ET (tape delayed on the West Coast) as just announced by Joey Berlin, President of the Broadcast Television Journalists Association. The annual awards show honors the best in comedy, drama, reality, and talk shows, with the BTJA membership selecting winners based on shows that aired between June 1, 2014 and May 31, 2015. Nominees will be announced on May 6th.
“The Critics’ Choice Television Awards is the kickoff for the television award season and as we celebrate our fifth anniversary we’re astounded by the response we’ve had from the community,” said Joey Berlin, president of BTJA. “The television industry is at the top of its game right now and we are proud to help the public, the industry and Emmy voters identify the shows they don’t want to miss.”
The categories for this year’s awards are:
COMEDY SERIES
Best Comedy Series
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Guest Performer
DRAMA SERIES
Best Drama Series
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Guest Performer
MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES
Best Movie Made for Television
Best Limited Series
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
REALITY SERIES
Best Reality Series
Best Reality-Competition Series
Best Reality Host
BEST TALK SHOW
Daytime as well as late night shows are included in this category.
BEST ANIMATED SERIES
MOST EXCITING NEW SERIES
Honoring shows premiering after May 31, 2015.
CRITICS’ CHOICE LOUIS XIII GENIUS AWARD
Honoring an individual’s excellence in the television industry.
Adam Simon and Brannon Braga at WonderCon 2015 (Photo by Richard Chavez)
Season two of WGN America’s chilling supernatural series Salem kicked off on April 5, 2015 for what series creators/executive producers Brannon Braga and Adam Simon confirm will be a season that’s much bigger in scope. “We got the chance to make the world bigger and bolder and go further, to show parts of this world we didn’t get to show last year – whether it’s going to Boston or to Indian country. Or, to explore literally sections of Salem that we couldn’t build or explore last year, like Knocker’s Hole, the really dark scary part of town. For one thing geographically and narratively it’s expanded.” explained Simon during our interview at the 2015 WonderCon in Anaheim, CA.
“And perhaps even more importantly, character-level. We’re bringing several new characters to the show this year. One, played by Lucy Lawless, who is a particular nasty witch – an ancient nasty witch who has never been able to accomplish what Mary (played by Janet Montgomery) has been able to do and wants what she has. And Stuart Townsend plays a Doctors Without Borders type who comes to town to help the people dying of plague, and several others,” added Braga.
As for what state John Alden (played by Shane West) will be in after the devastating events of season one, Braga says he’ll be in a bad place. “When we meet him, he’s shattered. You can really see he’s a shattered man having killed his own father to save Mary Sibley’s life, not knowing how badly manipulated into that he was, and having had to say farewell to Gloriana, the prostitute with the heart of gold who was the love of his life. At the same time, he’s like that classic Hitchcockian paranoid figure who believes something nobody else will believe: that there’s a witch war on and they’ve got to get back to Salem and yet they don’t let him get back there,” explained Simon. “The surprising thing with him this year is there’s a different kind of love journey that he and Anne Hale (played by Tamzin Merchant) are going to be on that’s going to prove to be every bit as star-crossed and epic, and maybe tragic and maybe not, as John and Mary’s love story in various ways. It’s a very different twist on the love story that goes on, with also interestingly supernatural implications given that she is at minimum the daughter of a witch and possibly discovering interesting powers of her own.”
Fans of Salem know that it’s a boundary-pushing series, but neither Simon nor Braga think about pushing those boundaries when they’re creating episodes. “The network has been great. If anything they’ve pushed us to go further but we’re conscious of not being gratuitous,” said Braga. “If anything, we just want to show things that you wouldn’t imagine in a horror. And we know the show’s working if we’re not sure you’re allowed to show it. ‘Are you allowed to show that bird that’s in the first episode? Are you allowed to show a nipple that’s on a thigh?’ I don’t know. That’s when we know the show is working.”
Simon and Braga say they’re influenced by classic movies and great TV shows, but that’s not where they get their inspiration for some of the more bizarre scenes in Salem. “The really mind-blowing things that you see, like the thigh nipple and the birds, the strangest kinds of magic are all the things we’ve actually found from things people believed,” said Simon.
In fact, Mary’s toad is right from the transcripts. “So many of these things are,” said Simon. “So part of it was just going, ‘Wow, let’s just go back to the amazing things people believed in the late 17th century.'”
“Which are stranger than any horror movie could ever be,” added Braga.
“And they’re not encumbered by all the rules that have grown up. We’ve seen 50,000 vampire movies or werewolf movies and we know you get yourself a bullet or a cross or your this or your that, and yet the actual things people were afraid of they weren’t safe that way. Part of what makes the show feel dangerous and unsafe is that it doesn’t play by the rules that built up in genre fiction. Instead it goes back to the things that we really believed,” said Simon.
