In early 2014 The Weinstein Company picked up Argentina’s animated movie Metego about foosball players who come to life and the dubbed version is showing off an official trailer for the film now known as Underdogs. Directed by Juan José Campanella, the English language voice cast features Glee‘s Matthew Morrison, Ariana Grande, Nicholas Hoult, John Leguizamo, and Katie Holmes.
Underdogs will open in theaters on April 10, 2015.
The Plot:
From Academy Award® winning director Campanella comes Underdogs, an animated comedy with a little bit of magic and a whole lot of heart. Jake (Morrison) is a shy, but talented, foosball player. His passion for the game is rivaled only by his love for free-spirited Laura (Grande). With her encouragement, he beats the town bully, Ace (Hoult), in a foosball game. But everything changes when Ace becomes the world’s best soccer player and returns years later to turn their village into a new sports stadium.
He starts to destroy everything and kidnaps Laura in the process. Just when it looks like all hope is lost, the toy figures from Jake’s foosball table come to life. He and the players embark on a wild adventure to save Laura and reclaim their village. With the help of his team, his town, and a little bit of magic, Jake will try to save the day.
Benedict Cumberbatch (Photo by Richard Chavez / Showbiz Junkies)
Jimmy Kimmel believes Benedict Cumberbatch has the greatest name ever given to any human being and that his parents should get an award just for naming him that. But, what if he wasn’t going through life as ‘Benedict Cumberbatch’? What if his name was Ted or Fred, or even Chad?
Kimmel asked Benedict Cumberbatch to try out different names and while he struggled to hold back laughing, the Oscar nominated actor (he’s up for Best Actor for The Imitation Game this year) did make his way through over a dozen new names including our favorites Bane/Batman, Queen Latifah, Groot, Inigo Montoya, and $5 Footlong.
Fox’s American Idol is still going strong with judges Keith Urban, Harry Connick Jr, and Jennifer Lopez critiquing up-and-coming talent hoping to find the next Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, or Phillip Phillips. The Fox singing competition show remains the most successful series when it comes to launching talent, and at the TCA winter press event the judges participated in a press conference to talk about why the show remains relevant.
Keith, has your fanbase changed since you’ve joined American Idol? Have you gotten more younger fans?
Keith Urban: “Yeah. Yes, to all that. A much broader audience, and particularly at our concerts.”
Before the three of you were judges on Idol there was a rule that the contestants couldn’t play musical instruments. How important do you believe it is for the contestants to be able to play while they’re singing?
Keith Urban: “Well, I think it’s important for certain people that have a comfort level with it, like I do. I’m not accustomed to singing without the guitar. So if I was to walk in and have to audition without it, I’d be a little out of my comfort zone. So I like that we support that. At the same time, there’s some people that shouldn’t be playing.”
Is there a tonal difference in the auditions, depending on the city or even big markets compared to smaller markets?
Harry Connick, Jr.: “I think you see probably a higher percentage of talented people in the bigger markets, like Nashville and New York. We certainly did this year. But that’s not to say there haven’t been some real jewels in the smaller markets as well. It’s kind of a mix, though. When I went to New Orleans, there were some very talented people there. But probably out of all the cities, the people who showed up on that particular day were probably the fewest, in terms of percentage, of the whole crowd that came. But, you know, like we expected great talent to be in Nashville, and we saw it. We expected great talent in New York, and it was incredible.”
At this point, do you almost expect there will be someone during the course of the auditions that comes through the door that you have a connection to in some way? Is it almost anticipated now that that will happen during the season at some point?
Keith Urban: “A little bit. I’m never quite sure. I have mixed feelings on that when it happens because I want to, obviously, be objective. But it’s tricky if you have any sort of history with somebody. In the case of a couple of the people that have been in this audition process, I’ve played on stage with one of them, and another guy had won a sort of competition thing that I was judging at the time as well. So, it’s a strange feeling. But I mean, of course, there are only X amount of musicians. No matter how many there are, it’s more than likely we’re going to come upon people we have a connection with somehow.”
Jennifer Lopez: “For me, it’s because this is my fourth go-around with Idol and it’s always kind of like repeat contestants. I’m like, ‘I know you from the first season with Steve and Randy,’ and things like that. It’s always good to see them get a little further every single time.”
Have you noticed a change in the kids you’re seeing walking in the door now, whether they’re more comfortable or less comfortable in performing and whether you get a sense that this is the first time they have performed in a studio situation or in front of a crowd as opposed to being at home with a laptop and just sort of doing it for themselves?
Jennifer Lopez: “To me, there is a bit of a change and I think it’s more with the producers, to be honest, because when you’re talking about laptop, you’re talking about creating actual music and beats and being able to record yourself and things like that. There is something about going to a studio and getting out and being around other musicians and things like that or writers when you’re making music. I feel like some of the, and this is just my opinion, some of the EDM [electronic dance music] sound of what’s happening right now and the stuff that’s going on in music is because of the fact that it’s just kids at home kind of making beats and doing this thing. It’s just it’s a new time. As far as the contestant that’s come into the room, no. We get singers, so it’s a different thing. I think that’s more of a producer/writer thing that’s going to happen that really changes music in a way and has begun to already, if you ask me.”
Fast-forward to the end of the show, is it easier or more difficult for the two or three singers who come out at the very end of the process to forge a lasting career in music? Do you think it’s a little easier for them now or much harder because of all the different distractions out there?
Keith Urban: “I always think, first and foremost, it’s got to be put into perspective of what we’re talking about in our industry is right now. This is not the same industry that Carrie Underwood won and went into. It’s not the same one that Kelly Clarkson won and went into. Everything is relative and proportionate now. Even the definition of a superstar today…I don’t know what the definition of that is, other than someone who is able to create and connect with an audience, substantial audience, and able to do that on a consistent basis. That would be probably the definition of a superstar. But is it about selling records these days? Not so much as it used to be, you know.
Finding a live audience is, obviously, crucial. So what I love about this show and why I love that Scott [Borchetta] is involved is that there’s so much validity in all of these facets of someone’s talent. Maybe they’re not very good live, but they’re extraordinarily clever at creating sonic pictures and paintings that connect with a lot of people, you know, like a Gotye or somebody like that.”
Harry Connick, Jr.: “One thing that I noticed that I was really disappointed about, I think that it’s great there are many benefits to having the technology in your back pocket for young people. It’s opened up so many doors and provided creative opportunities for so many people. But one of the drawbacks, and I really noticed this in New Orleans, people were coming in that were from New Orleans and the surrounding areas that didn’t sound like they were from New Orleans when they spoke, when they sang. The music didn’t sound like it. There was nothing indigenous about the music. And I think that comes from being able to be influenced by anything, anywhere, anytime.
I hate to be one of the people that says, ‘When I was a kid,’ but when I was a kid, they didn’t have it. You had to go out and we went to Bourbon Street in my world. And I just think it was sad that nobody came in really representing. A few did, but most of them, they really could have been from anywhere. And I think there are blessings to accessibility, but one of the great drawbacks is that it seems like everything is becoming kind of melted down, and it’s kind of sad.”
What do you say to musicians you may meet who are still skeptical about the influence of American Idol and don’t necessarily buy into the fact that it’s helped the music industry?
Harry Connick, Jr.: “Boy, I tell you, somebody came up to me a while back and they said, ‘I don’t like American Idol. I think these young musicians should pay their dues.’ I said, ‘Okay. Let me explain something to you. When you audition for American Idol and if you get out of it in the very first round, I would call that experience. You’ve experienced something. If you make it all the way to the end and win American Idol, you have basically taken six, eight, ten months out of your year and dedicated it to the most rigorous, intensive, high-pressure experience.
You’re surrounded by people who are constantly telling you things that will help you improve your craft. So that is about the best experience you can get for any musicians.’ And listen, I’m a jazz musician, so I’ve heard a lot of jazz musicians kind of, ‘Well, we’re not so sure.’ Well, I give it up to anybody who will get on the American Idol stage and take that ride. It is one of the most grueling entertainment experiences I have ever seen. And I think there’s absolutely nothing negative to say about the American Idol experience.
And hobbling the music industry? I mean, I don’t think…no, I’m completely the opposite of that. I think it’s been an amazing opportunity for young people.”
Keith Urban: “I also think that certain people are ready much faster than others for this journey. And this show will filter that and it will sift it and find those people who are ready. Maybe they’ve never played live in their life, and they’re just extraordinarily good on stage. They just have that thing. Others need a tremendous amount of experience to become good on stage. But at the end of the day, I always feel like nobody gets out of paying their dues. You may do it in front of an arena full of people, or you may do it in a small club, but at some point you’re going to have to figure out how to do it. But if someone is ready for it and this show gives them that shot, that’s a beautiful thing.”
Will the judges be performing with the contestants more this season? Or will it still remain mostly separate?
Harry Connick, Jr.: “I mean, it will remain separate, and it should really. I mean, there wasn’t really an opportunity for us to perform with anybody on the stage that was competing last year. The best part about it for us is that we got to do something on the finale which was we were talking about in an interview earlier. The hardest part for us as three performers is to sit behind that panel and watch other people perform and not be able to do it. So many times we want to jump up there and do it. So I think if there’s any performing to be done, you know, hopefully it would be something like it was last year because that was one of my favorite parts of the show.”
Scott Cohen as Mark O’Connor, Alex Peters as Sarah O’Connor, Kenneth Choi as Sam Luttrell, Hope Davis as Katya O’Connor, Gavin Stenhouse as Alex O’Connor, Margarita Levieva as Natalie O’Connor, and Morgan Spector as Victor Dobrynin in ‘Allegiance’ (Photo by Joe Pugliese / NBC)
Filmmaker George Nolfi pulls triple duty on NBC’s new dramatic spy series Allegiance (based on an Israeli format) as director, executive producer, and showrunner. Nolfi’s no stranger to the spy genre having written and directed The Adjustment Bureau as well as penning the screenplays for The Bourne Ultimatum and The Sentinel, and with Allegiance he delves into the world of Russian spies living in contemporary America.
The Plot: “This high-octane thriller revolves around the O’Connor family and their son, Alex (Gavin Stenhouse), a young idealistic CIA analyst specializing in Russian affairs. Unbeknownst to him, both of his parents and his sister are part of a dormant Russian sleeper cell that has just been reactivated.
Years ago, Russian-born Katya (Hope Davis) was tasked by the KGB to recruit American businessman Mark O’Connor (Scott Cohen) as a spy, and the two fell in love. A deal was struck: As long as Katya remained an asset for Russia, she would be allowed to marry Mark and move to America. After years in America building a happy life and without word from Moscow, they thought they had escaped.
Now it seems that the new Mother Russia has one more mission — turning Alex into a spy. The SVR has re-enlisted the entire family into service as they plan a terrorist operation inside the U.S. border that will bring America to its knees. For these anguished parents, the choice is clear: betray their country… or risk their family.”
In support of the show’s upcoming premiere on February 5, 2015, Nolfi took part in a press conference during NBC’s TCA winter press day in Pasadena, CA. Here are some of the key questions Nolfi answered about the new series during the Q&A.
On how the project came about:
George Nolfi: “The project came to me. The CEO of Keshet, the company that owns the underlying property, asked to meet with me. We had a really interesting meeting. It’s a world that I thought was a very interesting way into the kind of national security spy role, which is something I’ve been interested in for 30+ years. Namely, this sort of central dilemma of a family that has to protect its son by spying on him. So it was just sort of a good fit with my interests and a really interesting premise.”
On changes from the original concept:
George Nolfi: “The central character of Alex is quite different. The sort of the issues that he has and the way that he’s the center of an investigation, his ability to see patterns that other people don’t see, but that coupled with he can sort of comprehend the most complex patterns out there and facts, but he can’t comprehend the most simple social situations. That changed, and then the binding together of the notion that he was investigating something that would uncover his parents as spies, that sort of central dilemma. The pilot takes off from that premise, changed in the way that I just talked about. Then from there, it’s a completely different ride.”
On relating to the central character of Alex played by Gavin Stenhouse:
George Nolfi: “I was looking for an interesting way into this particular story, this spy story, and I was also reaching back to some of my own childhood, and so it came really from that. I wouldn’t say there’s a direct relationship, but I had a pretty severe learning disability when I was kid. So the notion of feeling outside the system, outside the normal ways of social interaction but still having your mind work okay was something that I was very familiar with.
I would also just say the character has a lot of complexity to him, and it’s going to come out over the course of the season. We’ll know a lot more about him by the end of the season than we do in the pilot, obviously. So there’s no easy label to put on him.”
On the message sent out in the show’s opening scene:
George Nolfi: “Well, I think that, if you look at the world today versus the world 15 years ago, there’s probably a lot of things the average person in the public would never have imagined they were reading on the news – whether it’s a civilian jetliner getting shot down by a military missile or what happened in Paris or 9/11. I think there’s an increasing appreciation for how dangerous the world is and how serious the people, entities of all stripes are out there that want to do harm to, America, the West, whatever, civilization. So I wanted to send a message that the threat was serious and have it overhang the whole show.”
On comparisons to FX’s The Americans:
George Nolfi: “I mean, watch one or two episodes and I think it’s pretty clear that we’re going in a very different direction. This is fundamentally a family drama about people who really do not want to be spies, and they’re forced into this situation. They’re stuck in a vise. On the one hand, they face the possibility of death at the hands of SVR, and on the other hand, life imprisonment at the hands of the U.S. government. That’s just an extremely different setup, and then where we take it is very different as well.”
On finding a way for the audience to embrace these characters:
George Nolfi: “I don’t think there’s a sympathy problem at all with the characters, because they’re basically forced into this situation. I also think that what for me as a writer and filmmaker is kind of fascinating about kind of the five central characters is they are all in various ways – they’ve made some form of mistake, but they’re all in various ways caught in this vise and their moral code, whatever it is, gets challenged repeatedly. In order to get out of their situation, they have to do bad things, and as you’ll see during the season and hopefully in subsequent seasons, worse and worse and worse things but always with the desire to get out, with a desire to free themselves from this circumstances that they’re put in.”
On drawing on his films to help inform Allegiance:
George Nolfi: “I will say this is probably the most realistic, authentic depiction of the way the intelligence community actually operates, more so than a Bourne or something like that, which is a very sort of paranoid world. I have a luxury or an opportunity, I guess, in this show because the protagonists of the show are caught in this bind, which is a life and death bind. They can do the kind of extreme things that you need to do to keep a dramatic television show going.
Then the people who are around them, who work as FBI agents or CIA officers, CIA analysts can follow the rules, I can really describe how the intelligence community fits into the government and show it accurately. So, yeah, I guess I’d just make that point. I think you’ll see something that is more realistic in this realm than has really ever been on TV.”
On sustaining the tension throughout the season:
George Nolfi: “Well, I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve for later in the season, so I’m not worried about that. We change it up on you in a bunch of different ways.”
Rainn Wilson is back on series TV playing the title role in Fox’s Backstrom premiering on January 22, 2015 at 9pm ET/PT. Created and executive produced by Hart Hanson (Bones), Backstrom‘s based on Swedish author/criminologist Leif G.W. Persson’s book series, although changes were made to the book’s main character to make him more accessible to American audiences.
“In the books, Backstrom has absolutely no redeeming values. He’s not even a very good detective. So he just takes credit for what other people do […]and he’s just awful. He’s just awful,” explained Hanson. “The change we made for network TV was to make him very good at his job and to make him empathetic [by taking] all those bad qualities that he has from the book and turning them into a tool for solving crimes.”
During the TCA winter press conference, Wilson talked about the bad qualities in the character, why he committed to another series, and what it is that he finds so fascinating about playing Backstrom.
Rainn Wilson Q&A
What made the timing right for you to sign on to another TV series?
Rainn Wilson: “I literally got a call from my agents as I was finishing the last three or four days of shooting on The Office, our 200th episode over nine or ten seasons. They said, ‘We really want you to read this TV script,’ and I almost fired them on the spot. I’m like, ‘Are you crazy?’ But they implored me, ‘Just read the script. This character is really special.’ I did and it really hooked me in. You know, really interesting, varied parts with lots of different facets and colors and textures don’t come along very much for weird-looking, 48 year old, pasty white dudes. So it was really exciting to read, and I knew I needed to do it. My wife and I talked about it at great length and we jumped in. And really fortunately, for a number of different reasons, it didn’t end up at CBS, and it ended up here at FOX. We got to take a much longer time to develop it. I got that nice year off to work on some other projects. And we’re really on the right network for this show.”
What do you like about him? Would you want him as a friend?
Rainn Wilson: “Good question. What do I like about this guy? You know, I can relate to someone whose life is falling apart and they’re doing their best to get by using humor to survive. I think we all have experienced that in small doses or we know people that live that way. Backstrom really wears his heart on his sleeve, and his life is unraveling. And watching a brilliant detective at work while things are just not working for him anymore and just falling apart, I think, is really interesting. I would much rather hang out with that person than, like, a slick procedural detective who’s got all the answers and effortlessly speaks in these kind of quips as their CSI team looks at every microfiber and everything resolves perfectly every single week. It’s human. It’s frail. And, it’s interesting.
Like the ad campaign says, he is a total d*ck. But there’s a beautiful arc that Hart has written over these 13 episodes where everyone in this ensemble gets to see some other sides of Backstrom and see what makes him tick and how he got that way. So we’re kind of asking this of the audience, to kind of take a little ride with us. Yes, this guy’s an a**hole; but get to know him a little bit and you’re going to start learning some really interesting things about him and his coping mechanisms, about his family. We get to meet his father, played by the great Robert Forster. We meet his ex-fiancee, played by the great Sarah Chalke. And it’s a nice throughline through the first season.”
In the books Backstrom is racist, sexist, and homophobic. How far will you go with that in the series?
Rainn Wilson: I think there’s a process of you watch the show and you’re like, ‘Oh, wow, this guy’s a racist and a sexist.’ And then you kind of go, ‘Oh, wow, you know what? He kind of hates everybody.’ Then you kind of go, ‘Oh, wow, he hates himself worse than he hates anyone else. What’s going on with that?’ And, you know, it’s asking a good deal of an audience, but I think it’s a really interesting journey.”
The “I’m you” bit that your character does as he gets into the shoes of the person he’s investigating could get a bit tedious after a while. How do you make sure that device doesn’t wear thin with audiences and with you as an actor?
Rainn Wilson: “I love the device. I love the device that Hart has created, this because of his…’cynical’ is really the wrong word…it’s just a corrosively dark world view seeing the grotesque underbelly of the human condition. Because he lives in it, he’s able to just get in with the criminal element and just understand what’s driving them and motivating them. It’s not even like he’s getting into their heads. He’s getting into their hearts and into their souls and into their tissues of like this is what’s going on with them. And sometimes he’s just wrong and he’s just, ‘I’m you, and I bet that guy did it, and he did it because of that.’ Like, ‘That’s wrong. Okay.’ So he’s stabbing out in the darkness, and it’s really interesting. It’s not something we’ve really seen before because it’s a superhero quality – a superpower, excuse me – that is emotional and kind of spiritual. So it’s really interesting to play. It gives you a lot as an actor. There’s a lot of juicy, gooey, human fun stuff to play around with in that kind of empathetic connection to the dark criminal element.”
Is it fun to play someone who’s completely the opposite of you? He’s unhappy and you seem to be happy with your life.
Rainn Wilson: “Thank you for saying so. I think that we all have our demons, and I think part of the job as an actor is to find what your point of relation is for any character and to delve into that. Steve Carell, for instance, who I just saw in Foxcatcher, he’s as sweet and kind a person as you’d ever want to meet, but he has the ability as an actor to transform into some really interesting characters. It’s the actor’s job to create that transformation. So I definitely have my demons, and I definitely have my dark side, as we all do. To me, it was really interesting…’interesting’ is the wrong word…a fantastic opportunity and challenge to get to explore those colors after nine or 10 years of playing Dwight.”
The Top 10 dancers from season 11 of Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance are out on tour, entertaining fans of the series with live performances across the U.S. Ricky Ubeda, Valerie Rockey, Jessica Richens, Zack Everhart, Casey Askew, Jacque LeWarne, Rudy Abreu, Tanisha Belnap, Bridget Whitman, and Emilio Dosal, as well as alternates Carly Blaney, Marcquet Hill, Emily James, and Teddy Coffey, have been performing some of season 11’s most popular routines along with new choreographed numbers while visiting cities including Memphis, Miami, and New York.
And while the tour was taking a break for the holidays (it picks up again on January 22, 2015 in Bakersfield), I had the opportunity to interview Rudy Abreu and Carly Blaney about both the So You Think You Can Dance show and the Top 10 tour.
Rudy Abreu and Carly Blaney Interview:
When you’re out on tour and doing the same routines over and over again, how do you keep it fresh?
Rudy Abreu: “We try to remember where we started from and we always just try to find a deeper place every time we do the piece. We just try to make it better and better and I think that’s how we keep it fresh, just going out there trying to make the piece better every night.”
Do you have to have an emotional connection to a particular choreographed number to really get into it or can you not be really connected with the material and still dance well?
Carly Blaney: “I think you definitely need an emotional connection because that’s how you make the piece seem real to someone who’s watching it for the first time, or who doesn’t know dance at all. Sometimes you just look like you’re doing the steps and you don’t want that if a person is just watching a show for the first time especially, so we definitely try to make it really connect so the audience will like it as well.”
When you’re out on tour how do you keep yourself motivated on days when you don’t feel quite so energetic?
Rudy Abreu: “When it gets to that point, which is very rare because every night we love to go out on stage, but if we ever do have one of those nights, we’ve got to remind ourselves like, ‘Hey, this is a job and you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.'”
Is there a particular dance routine you do that you really enjoy?
Rudy Abreu: “I love doing Dirty Diana. That piece is one of my favorites. I also really enjoy doing Sing, Sing, Sing with Tanisha [Belnap] as well as the Broadway routine that I had in the top 18. Those never get old for me.”
Carly Blaney: “Mine is definitely the girls’ piece because that was just special for all of us I feel like when we were on the shows every night. We could kind of come together and it’s like a fun moment.”
Do you know right away when you’ve got a strong connection to a routine or does it usually hit you gradually?
Carly Blaney: “I think you feel it right away. You’re definitely in it with everyone, if it’s your partner, or if it’s with a group, you just kind of know. It’s a special feeling when you’re in the room and creating a piece together.”
How were you able to learn the routines so quickly for each week’s So You Think You Can Dance show?
Carly Blaney: “I think it’s mostly adrenaline when you’re in the rehearsal state because you only have such a short amount of time that you’re just like, ‘Oh my goodness, I’ve got to get this done,’ because you have a live show. So definitely adrenaline.”
The TV audience only sees a very small amount of the time and energy you put into learning numbers on So You Think You Can Dance. How many hours did you actually practice and did you get time off during the filming of the show?
Rudy Abreu: “Well, we always had a day off, but it was after every episode. We would have like 14 hour days when we had group rehearsals. We would have like 10 hour blocks. It would be crazy. It was real, real crazy.”
Is there someone who you connected with most on the show that you’re really happy to be on the tour with now?
Carly Blaney: “I feel like all the girls really connected really and I think that’s because I got cut when we did the girls piece. I feel like in that moment we were just like, ‘I can’t believe I got here and we all did this together.’ It was just like really special that we got to share it, and that we get to share it every night. I think all the girls.”
What’s the experience been like being out on the road, meeting fans, and seeing their reactions during your live performances?
Rudy Abreu: “It’s pretty crazy to wake up in a different city every morning and have fans in a different city every night. It’s just so surreal. It’s just so unbelievable. People know who you are and it’s like, ‘What?!’ Like last year, I was in the college. What the heck?”
Carly Blaney: “I think it’s definitely the same thing. I just can’t even think back to last year when I was just at football games cheering on ASU and I can’t believe that now I’m touring the country and I’m doing what I love. It’s just amazing to see how much support dance really has and there’s just so much appreciation for art.”
How has your experience being on So You Think You Can Dance affected you and changed you as a person, not necessarily as a dancer?
Carly Blaney: “I think for me it’s definitely taught me that I need be really confident in everything that I do. Because when I first got on the show, I felt like I was kind of second-guessing everything. Then when I worked with Sonya [Tayeh] on my second week on the show, she was like, ‘Snap out of it. You got here and you deserved it.’ So it’s kind of brought me back to be like, ‘Okay, you can do anything if you put your mind to it.”‘
Rudy Abreu: “I think it definitely gave me some discipline because I’m not really the most serious guy ever. I learned how to step away from my joking-ness and be serious when I had to be serious and be jokey when I’ve got to be jokey.”
How are you doing physically on the tour? It must be pretty demanding.
Rudy Abreu: “Oh, it’s hard. It’s really hard. My hips said bye-bye a few shows ago.”
How do you continue when your body is telling you to take a break?
Rudy Abreu: “You’ve just got to push. Keep pushing through.”
What are your goals for the future with your dance career? Do you have any desire to be a choreographer, or is there anything else you’ve got coming up?
Rudy Abreu: “Well, I am hoping to joining the cast of Newsies. That’s something that I always wanted to do, and I’m hoping that that’s something in my future. That’s definitely a big goal of mine. But after that, yeah, I’d love to be a choreographer.”
Carly Blaney: “I guess I want to be a dancer first, but then I’m not sure if being a choreographer is for me. I really love working with kids, so I would love to teach little kids or start a foundation to help kids who have disabilities learn dance because I think that’s something that everybody should be able to do.”
What advice do you give to young dancers?
Carly Blaney: “I always tell them to never give up because I tried out for the show last year and I didn’t make it. But I knew the second I got cut, I was like, ‘Well, this is something I want so I’ve got to come out again.’ So I think it’s just that you never know what you can achieve if you put your mind to it.”
Rudy Abreu: “I pretty much say the same thing. I’m like, ‘Don’t give up, kids!'”
Carly, you auditioned for SYTYCD twice. Did you have to get over an emotional hurdle to go back out there again?
Carly Blaney: “Well, when I got cut the first time, I was like, ‘Oh my goodness. My whole plan that I had in my head is coming to an end.’ Because originally I was like, ‘I just want to move back to LA,’ and I wanted to get out of college. I’m happy that I didn’t make it the first year because I had the best experiences the next year in college and it made me grow so much as a person. So, now I feel like I’m ready to go out to LA. It really was just like it all happened in the right timing.”
Can you remember what it felt like to make the top 20?
Carly Blaney: “Well, Rudy and I actually had that experience together, because we did our first piece on a show together. I just remember being like, ‘Oh my goodness, I can’t believe we’re actually here.’ It was really just like a whole blur. There was so much adrenaline. It was so surreal.”
Rudy Abreu: “Yeah, and I was so nervous. You have no idea. It was beautiful.”
What constructive criticism from the judges has most affected the way you dance now?
Rudy Abreu: “They always critiqued me on my technique so I have been pushing a lot harder to work on my technique so that nobody has anything to say about my technique anymore.”
Carly Blaney: “I usually got told that I had pretty good performances, which was amazing to hear, but I always am trying to strive to be more real with it, because that’s what the choreographers would tell me. They wanted me to connect more so I always tried to do that every time I got out there.”
Timothy Olyphant as Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens in ‘Justified’ (Photo by James Minchin / FX)
FX has already said goodbye to Sons of Anarchy this year and now critically series Justified is about to begin its final season on the network, which means fans of the drama series based on Elmore Leonard’s short story “Fire in the Hole” only have a little over a dozen new episodes left to watch before it’s all over.
Season six is set to premiere on January 20, 2015 with Timothy Olyphant back in the lead role of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, and at FX’s TCA winter press event, executive producer/writer Graham Yost and Olyphant talked about this final season of the show.
Asked what Olyphant should do next after finishing his run on Justified, Yost replied, “You know one of the things that made Tim, Raylan, and why Elmore loved him so much and felt that he was the best embodiment of any of his characters is that he can do the scary, he can do the romantic, and he can be incredibly funny. And I just hope someone writes something for him that lets him use all the stuff that he’s been able to do on Justified.”
It was announced months ago that season six will be the end of Justified, and according to executive producer/writer Graham Yost, there’s a solid reason why the show needed to wrap up this year. “Tim and I started talking about this, and we also discussed it with Michael [Dinner] and Fred [Golan] and Sarah Timberman and Carl Beverly in season four, and we just sort of felt like if this chapter of Raylan’s life was about Raylan and Boyd, that we can only take that story so far. And, yeah, that was basically it. We didn’t want to outstay our welcome.”
Timothy Olyphant and Graham Yost Q&A
When did you decide how you wanted the show to actually end and was it early enough that you were able to tell Elmore?
Graham Yost: “No, we weren’t able to tell Elmore. He passed away the summer before we started a fifth season, and I can’t remember the last time I spoke with him. […]You know, Fred and I have been talking about how to end the thing probably since about season three and it changes every year.”
You’ve got all these heartbreaking scenes of Raylan missing his daughter and it’s possible you’re setting us up for a big fall because it’s hard to picture Raylan moving and being a dad. Is there anything you can tell us about the upcoming season?
Timothy Olyphant: [Joking] “Yeah, it’s going to be depressing.”
Graham Yost: “It’s going to be totally depressing.”
Timothy Olyphant: “There’s going to be a big…we are setting you up. It’s going to be sad. We thought Elmore would like it that way.”
Graham Yost: “That’s what Elmore liked was really depressing.”
Timothy Olyphant: “We are like, ‘You know, he’s never ended one of his books really where you are crying,’ and we thought that’s what we’ll do.”
Graham Yost: “That’s what he was thinking of doing for his 46th book. No. Yeah, you’ll pay to find that out, or not pay because it’s free. It’s on FX.”
Assuming Raylan doesn’t kick it before or during the finale, where do you see Raylan 20 years from now, personally and professionally?
Timothy Olyphant: “On FX.”
Graham Yost: “Tim has been pitching for a long time…”
Timothy Olyphant: “…a movie of the week.”
Graham Yost: “That Raylan go out to Hollywood, work as a technical advisor on a martian show. So we’ve had a lot of fun over the years with Charlie Almanza, our advisor who was the chief deputy at the OA office and other offices. So maybe that’s what he’ll do if he survives.”
Are there any plans to bring back past adversaries or unusual characters just as sort of an homage to the series and a wink to the past?
Graham Yost: “No. I mean, if the story presents itself, there are characters that we are bringing back. That was one of the talks we had between me, Fred, the other writers, Tim and FX and Sony, too, which is we didn’t want this to be ‘The Greatest Hits.’ But, that said, there are characters who will come in because they are a part of that world. So it doesn’t feel to us like we are just, you know, checking that box even though Neal McDonough sent me a couple of emails saying, ‘You know, we don’t know if Quarles is dead or not, a one-armed man.’ And, yeah, so we are not doing that.”
For you as an actor, building into this final season, how emotionally different is it to prepare for the ending of a series rather than just being ‘Deadwooded’?
Graham Yost: “Wow, that’s now a term. That’s a mean term. You mean just being canceled?”
Timothy Olyphant: “I will say that it is nice[…]to have an opportunity to know the end is coming. Usually, when things end, I’m not the first person to find out. So, that’s been lovely. And I think it’s been wonderful to just be able to see the finish line and enjoy it.
All I’m prepared for is that I’m unemployed in a few weeks, and I’m going to have to say yes to some sh**ty-a**, f**king jobs. [Laughing] All the jobs I’ve said no to in the last five years, I’m going to say yes to them in about six weeks.”
We’ve been seeing a trailer that shows Raylan and Boyd shooting at each other and Ava apparently burning down the house with them in it. Now, is this a metaphor for the sort of things that are happening in the coming season or is that actual action?
Graham Yost: “No. When we saw that trailer ourselves, we said, ‘Well, now we can’t do the episode where she burns them to death,’ and that was very disappointing. It was just a notion of her frustration, I think, and her being caught in the middle. But that’s not the story.”
Endings are really tough, but did it come to you very naturally and organically or was this something that you really had to hash-out in the writers’ room and bounce off the walls and come up with something that you all felt worked well?
Graham Yost: “Yeah. We don’t have the ending yet. We’re shooting number 10 now and we got a script for 11. We’re going to be banging on that for the next week, and we’re also breaking in and outlining 12, and then we’re getting into 13. Now, that doesn’t mean we haven’t been thinking about the ending, and Michael and Fred and I and Tim, everyone, and Sarah, we’ve all been talking about the ending. But Elmore didn’t outline and he’d just start writing, and then he would, if he didn’t like where it was going, he would just throw out the pages and start again. Can’t do that when you’re doing a television show, except to the degree that when you’re going toward the ending, that we’ve got a certain amount of flexibility. We are going to have to do it pretty quickly in the next few weeks, but we absolutely don’t know exactly how this is going to end yet.
Not with Ava burning them down in a house. But other than that, everything’s pretty much open.”
You have a pretty large cast of secondary characters. How much emphasis are you going to be able to put on crafting endings for some of the secondary players, particularly Tim [Jacob Pitts], Rachel [Erica Tazel], and Art [Nick Searcy], who have been there from the beginning?
Graham Yost: “You know, that was one of the targets for this last season was to use more Rachel and more Tim and to do something a little different with Art. They’re a big part of the world, and so that’s been fun. There’s just a lot of fun in seeing Rachel and Tim giving Raylan sh*t. That’s one of our go-to things. We always enjoy writing those scenes and they really have a great time doing it, it seems.”
Sam Elliott is about as iconic a Western actor as is alive today. Is getting someone like Mr. Elliott something you would have done in the non-final season or is does this sort of up the stakes symbolically?
[Producer Michael Dinner responds: “We’re thrilled that Sam came to join us. We’ve been lucky to have great actors come in and join us every season, and we’re huge fans of his work. He just felt like this character, so to come in at the end, I don’t think it was a conscious thought of ‘Let’s get an iconic actor to play this role.’ We just love his work and when you see the work, as you see the episodes come out, it’s fantastic.”]
Timothy Olyphant: “Only I’m f**ked now because I’ve been stealing from him for years, and now I’m actually standing right next to him and it’s obvious. It really looks bad. Like, he does the authentic thing, and then they cut to my coverage where I’m stealing the authentic thing. It’s not good. Everyone says, ‘Oh, I get it. You’re doing Sam Elliott only not as cool.’ You’ll see.”
Will Arnett’s got some free time on his hands following the demise of The Millers and it appears he’s filling those free hours with a starring role in Flaked, a series he co-created, co-wrote, and executive produces along with Mark Chappell. Netflix just announced the new comedy will be premiering exclusively on the internet TV network in 2016.
Ben Silverman, Peter Principato, and Mitch Hurwitz are also on board as executive producers.
“We are thrilled to be the home of Will Arnett’s next series, and look forward to Chip joining his repertoire alongside such diverse and inspirational characters such as Gob, Bojack, and Batman ” stated Cindy Holland, Vice President of Original Content at Netflix.
“We’re very excited to partner with Netflix– the home of original, original content — and the network I knew would be the ideal home for this passion project,” said Will Arnett.
The Plot:
Set in the insular world of Venice, California, Flaked is the seriocomic story of a self-appointed “guru” who falls for the object of his best friend’s fascination. Soon the tangled web of half-truths and semi-bullshit that underpins his all-important image and sobriety begins to unravel. Arnett plays Chip, a man doing his honest best to stay one step ahead of his own lies.
Matthew Perry (Friends) returns to the world of half-hour sitcoms with a starring role in the new take on The Odd Couple. Perry not only plays one half of the ‘couple’ in the series’ title, but is also involved as both a writer and executive producer on the comedy set to debut on CBS on Thursday, February 19, 2015 at 8:30pm ET/PT.
In support of the show’s upcoming premiere, Perry joined his fellow The Odd Couple cast members (Thomas Lennon, Lindsay Sloane, and Yvette Nicole Brown) and executive producer Bob Daily as well as executive consultant Garry Marshall for the CBS press day at the 2015 TCA winter press event. During the event, Daily was asked why it’s the right time to attempt a new version of The Odd Couple and he explained that it’s an “elastic concept.”
Said Daily, “I mean, the DNA of those two characters has seeped into television for the last four decades. I spent five years writing on Frasier, and Frasier was basically The Odd Couple with one Oscar and two Felixes. Bert and Ernie are The Odd Couple. The Odd Couple has been repeated so many times. We’re going back to the brilliant original Neil Simon source material. But I think those two characters, Oscar and Felix, are so iconic, and they’re so timeless, and it’s been 45 years. So I think it’s time for a reinterpretation and for a new generation that’s not familiar with the The Odd Couple.
In addition to taking part in a press conference, Perry sat down with a handful of journalists to discuss the upcoming series, why he’s attracted to sitcoms, and why he believes audiences will embrace a new The Odd Couple.
Matthew Perry Interview
You worked with Thomas Lennon in 17 Again. Is it just a coincidence that he can in on The Odd Couple?
Matthew Perry: “No, we didn’t really think of him until he came in and just was the character.”
Did you go back and watched the original series?
Matthew Perry: “I was a big fan of the movie. I could recite every line from the movie, so that was really the original source material that I used when I wrote the pilot was the movie. And then once it got picked up, I went back and watched a lot of episodes of The Odd Couple.”
Do you think it still stands up?
Matthew Perry: “It does stand up. It’s all chemistry between those two characters, and I hope we have that here too.”
It’s rare to find a show that can come back and still resonate with audiences. Do you think there’s anything on today that might, in 20 years, come back?
Matthew Perry: “Oh, I don’t know.”
How would you feel about Friends coming back?
Matthew Perry: “Friends is still on all the time. There’s always talk about a reunion, but there’s no real talk about that. I figured out though that the characters Tom Lennon and I most resemble are Stewie and the dog from Family Guy.”
Since Friends has just come on Netflix have you gotten any new feedback from people who are just now discovering it?
Matthew Perry: “Yeah, that’s what is interesting is a whole new audience, younger people are watching it. It stands the test of time because we didn’t do too many topical jokes, which is good.”
Have you gone back to watch any seasons or episodes?
Matthew Perry: “No. Sometimes I watch the blooper reels because they’re fun to watch. But, no, I haven’t gone back to watch it.”
You seem loyal to trying to make this format work. You’ve had huge success with Friends, but there have also been shows that haven’t worked. Why do you keep coming back to the half-hour sitcom?
Matthew Perry: [Laughing] “Well, I have to work. I like working. There was a time when Friends was over when I was like, ‘I can retire now if I want,’ and I guess I did that for six months. There’s only so many video games a man can play, so I decided I needed to go back to work. And I’ve had fun writing, too.
It’s just fun. I need to do it. I need the creative outlet. That’s what’s nice about Bob [Daily, executive producer] running the show. He’s very open creatively so I come up with jokes…some of them are good, some of them are bad, some of them get in, some of them don’t.”
Is there something about the TV series you’ve done that you’ve learned and that you’re incorporating into The Odd Couple?
Matthew Perry: “The one thing that I’ve learned is that I thought it would be fun to do a show in front of an audience again and have the sitcom hours. For a one camera show you’re working 16 hours a day, just like an hour long show and it was crazy.”
How much does the live audience add to the whole process?
Matthew Perry: “A tremendous amount. The performances come way up. And if a joke doesn’t work, the whole writing crew and actors everybody get together in a circle and come up with a joke that makes the audience laugh. So, we know right away and that’s the another benefit from doing a four camera show. When you’re doing a one camera comedy, you don’t know.”
Remakes are so hit-and-miss. Are you worried at all?
Matthew Perry: “Am I worried at all? No, it’s out of my control now. We did the episodes, I’m proud of them. Whether it works or not… To tell you the truth, if this one doesn’t work I’m not sure what to throw out there to people because this is really good. It’s a really good premise. It’s time to do it again. Tom and I work really good together so if this one doesn’t work, maybe I’ll go to dinner theatre or something.”
Have recent years been frustrating for you in that regard?
Matthew Perry: “No, I was okay when Mr. Sunshine and Go On ended. I was all right. I was ready for them to be done. It was okay. Again, because they aspired to be something different. So the shows that I’ve done, Studio 60, Mr. Sunshine, and Go On, aren’t just your cookie-cutter shows and I guess that’s what being on Friends has allotted me to do is have my pick of a lot of TV projects. I try to generally choose things that are a little bit off the beaten path, but with this one it’s just straight down the line an attempt to just be funny and be a hit show.”
How did you approach the character of Oscar Madison?
Matthew Perry: “Well, hopefully, what I bring to the table is a little bit of likability in a character who’s a little bit like a scoundrel. But there’s a lot of heart to it, too. He really misses his ex-wife and you can tell he’s trying to distract himself with drinking and gambling and other women from the pain of his divorce. We touch on that a lot so it’s very real. We ended up having sort of a common theme throughout the show which was that Tom Lennon and I at the end of each show would have a scene together that wrapped up both stories. Those were always fun to do, too.”
American Sniper didn’t slip quietly unnoticed into theaters. The action film directed by Clint Eastwood and based on the true story of the most lethal sniper in American military history snagged the top spot at the box office by bringing in $90 million over its first three days in wide release. Including the Monday, Martin Luther King Jr holiday, American Sniper should post an incredible $105 million opening weekend.
The $90 million figure is the largest three-day opening for a January movie in history. The record had previously been held by the comedy movie Ride Along with $41.5 million. American Sniper‘s opening was the second biggest for an R-rated movie behind only The Matrix Reloaded, as well as the biggest four day IMAX opening for an R-rated film, pushing Prometheus into second place. Playing in 3,555 theaters, the story of sniper Chris Kyle is now the largest opening weekend for a Clint Eastwood film.
American Sniper also now holds the title of the largest grossing film nominated for a Best Picture Oscar this year, according to Box Office Mojo.
“It is a cultural phenomenon and a perfect storm,” stated Warner Brothers’ Domestic Distribution Chief Dan Fellman. “If you would have told me we’d do these numbers, I would have replied that you were smoking something. This is the first ‘real’ superhero movie. It performed well in every market, from the smallest town to the biggest cities.”
The Warner Bros Picture release earned six Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (Bradley Cooper), Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing.
