GOING CLEAR: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE PRISON OF BELIEF. (Photo: courtesy of HBO)
HBO will be premiering Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief on March 29, 2015 at 8pm ET/PT. Directed by Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side), Going Clear focuses on former members of the Church of Scientology and is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Lawrence Wright.
Gibney adapted the book, produced, and directed Going Clear, with author Wright also serving as a producer.
The Plot:
Going Clear profiles eight former members of the Church of Scientology, whose most prominent adherents include A-list Hollywood celebrities, shining a light on how the church cultivates true believers, detailing their experiences and what they are willing to do in the name of religion.
One of the most talked about films at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, this powerful documentary highlights the Church’s origins, from its roots in the mind of founder L. Ron Hubbard to its rise in popularity in Hollywood and beyond. The heart of Going Clear is a series of shocking revelations by former insiders, including high-ranking and recognizable members such as acclaimed screenwriter Paul Haggis (Crash), who describe the systematic history of abuse and betrayal by Church officials, including the current leadership of the Church.
January Jones as Betty Francis, Jon Hamm as Don Draper, Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson, Vincent Kartheiser as Pete Campbell, Christina Hendricks as Joan Harris and John Slattery as Roger Sterling in ‘Mad Men’ (Photo Credit: Frank Ockenfels 3 / AMC)
The final seven episodes of AMC’s award-winning drama series Mad Men will kick off on April 5, 2015 at 10pm ET/PT and the network’s released a new teaser video titled “The Party’s Over” in support of the show’s upcoming return. The Emmy-winning series will finish up its run by wrapping up the stories of Mad Men favorites Don, Peggy, Roger, Joan, Betty and Pete.
“What an incredible journey this has been. I take great pride in what the entire Mad Men team was able to create episode after episode, season after season,” said series creator Matthew Weiner. “We sincerely thank the fans for joining us on this ride and hope it has meant as much to them as it has to us.”
The series stars Jon Hamm, January Jones, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, Christina Hendricks, John Slattery, Jessica Paré, Rich Sommer, Aaron Staton, Kiernan Shipka, Jay Ferguson, and Christopher Stanley.
Queen Aslaug (Alyssa Sutherland) in ‘Vikings’ (Photo by Jonathan Hession / HISTORY)
Alyssa Sutherland returns as Princess Aslaug and Ben Robson joins the cast of the critically acclaimed action drama Vikings as Kalf in season three of the series premiering on February 19, 2015 at 10pm ET/PT. Teamed up together at the Television Critics Association winter press event, Sutherland and Robson chatted about the new season and what role Robson’s new character plays in Vikings.
Alyssa Sutherland and Ben Robson Exclusive Interview:
What does it mean to you to be on a show where women are pivotal players?
Alyssa Sutherland: “It’s amazing. I think it’s such an interesting time for TV right now because there are amazing roles for women out there now and available. I kind of have a problem with people saying “strong” female roles because to me they’re just female roles. This is what females are like; we’re just as complex as males. I think it’s so nice that we’re finally having a chance to show what real females are like.”
What was it like joining this grand production that’s now on its third season?
Ben Robson: “It was amazing. I was already a fan of the show so to come in and get to sit there and be around everyone that you sort of love watching on TV was great. The sets are incredible, and it’s really quite an amazing project. The cast are amazing. It was a good time.”
Who did you geek out over the most?
Alyssa Sutherland: “Me!”
Ben Robson: [Laughing] “Obviously Alyssa. I mean, everyone really. I was sitting around at the read-through on the first day and just watching everyone get into their characters and play, and I just quickly reminded myself that I actually had to do a job rather than just sit there and watching everyone do their thing.”
Ben Robson in ‘Vikings’ (Photo by Jonathan Hession/HISTORY)
How would you describe your character?
Ben Robson: “I play Kalf and he’s Lagertha’s second in command and very ambitious. He’s loyal to Lagertha but he’s ambitious and has his own ideas of what he wants to achieve.”
How much of your characters come to you as soon as you put the costumes on?
Alyssa Sutherland: “It’s immediate. From the costuming to the sets and the art design, everyone is so real feeling. To me it doesn’t feel like a set at all and they’re not costumes; it’s just me getting transported to the late 8th century and we’re there there and it’s real.”
Ben Robson: “Yeah, I would agree. It just makes it so easy to walk on and be there on the set. It’s like you just walk into another world. Everything’s incredible from the costumes to the actors to the food, you are in the world when you walk in. They make it very easy for you to go and do your job.”
Have you had action training before or did you have a crash course for this?
Ben Robson: “I’ve done bits and pieces, but I would definitely say it was much more of a crash course coming in and learning how to swing an axe and the rest of it. It was good fun; you want to be around swinging your axe and smashing things. It’s good fun.”
How heavy are the actual props you work with?
Ben Robson: “So heavy. I had to work out really hard to lift them.”
Alyssa Sutherland: “I think I have the heaviest because I’ve got to lug kids around all the time.”
Ben Robson: “You do have the heaviest. And you’ve got really the more important things, and you’re multi-tasking.”
Will you be back if there is a season four?
Ben Robson: “Hopefully, it depends if they don’t kill me off. With luck I’ll be back.”
Fox’s suspense thriller Wayward Pines debuts its 10 episode season one on May 14, 2015 at 9pm ET/PT, and even though we’re still months away from its premiere, the network has released a new trailer for the star-studded series. Based on Blake Crouch’s book series, the cast of Wayward Pines includes Matt Dillon, Carla Gugino, Melissa Leo, Terrence Howard, Toby Jones, Shannyn Sossamon, Charlie Tahan, Reed Diamon, Tim Griffin, and Juliette Lewis.
M Night Shyamalan directed the first episode and executive produces the event series, along with Chad Hodge, Donald De Line, and Ashwin Rajan.
The Plot:
Wayward Pines is an intense, mind-bending 10-episode thriller starring Academy Award nominee Matt Dillon as a Secret Service agent on a mission to find two missing federal agents in the bucolic town of Wayward Pines, ID. Every step closer to the truth makes him question if he will ever get out of Wayward Pines alive.
Disney’s latest inspirational sports movie McFarland, USA opens in theaters on February 20, 2015 and the studio’s just unveiled a new clip from the dramatic film based on a true story. In the new clip, Kevin Costner gives a pep talk to his team as they prepare for a big race.
Directed by Niki Caro, the cast also includes Maria Bello, Morgan Saylor, Martha Higareda, Michael Aguero, Sergio Avelar, Hector Duran, Rafael Martinez, Johnny Ortiz, Carlos Pratts, Ramiro Rodriguez, Danny Mora, Valente Rodriguez, Vanessa Martinez, Chris Ellis, and Diana Maria Riva.
The Plot:
Based on the 1987 true story, McFarland, USA follows novice runners from McFarland, an economically challenged town in California’s farm-rich Central Valley, as they give their all to build a cross-country team under the direction of Coach Jim White (Kevin Costner), a newcomer to their predominantly Latino high school. Coach White and the McFarland students have a lot to learn about each other but when White starts to realize the boys’ exceptional running ability, things begin to change.
Soon, something beyond their physical gifts becomes apparent—the power of family relationships, their unwavering commitment to one another and their incredible work ethic. With grit and determination, the unlikely band of runners eventually overcomes the odds to forge not only a championship cross-country team but an enduring legacy as well. Along the way, Coach White realizes that his family finally found a place to call home and both he and his team achieve their own kind of American dream.
Sleepy Hollow‘s Jill Marie Jones has joined the cast of Starz’s Ash vs Evil Dead starring Bruce Campbell. According to the casting announcement, Jones will be playing a disgraced Michigan State Trooper named Amanda Fisher who “sets out to find our anti-hero Ash and prove his responsibility for the crime. But as she soon learns, Ash and his cohorts may be mankind’s only hope against the plague of Evil Dead.”
The masterminds behind the Evil Dead franchise – Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, and Bruce Campbell – are executive producing the series. Raimi’s directing the first episode which he co-wrote with Ivan Raimi, Craig DiGregorio, and Tom Spezialy. DiGregorio is also executive producing and will be the series’ showrunner. The cast also includes Ray Santiago and Dana DeLorenzo.
Filming will take place in New Zealand. Season one will consist of 10 half-hour episodes.
The Plot:
Bruce Campbell will be reprising his role as Ash, the stock boy, aging lothario and chainsaw-handed monster hunter who has spent the last 30 years avoiding responsibility, maturity and the terrors of the Evil Dead. When a Deadite plague threatens to destroy all of mankind, Ash is finally forced to face his demons –personal and literal. Destiny, it turns out, has no plans to release the unlikely hero from its “Evil” grip.
Carey Mulligan and Tom Sturridge in ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’ (Photo Courtesy of Fox Searchlight)
Fox Searchlight has released the second trailer for Far from the Madding Crowd starring Carey Mulligan and directed by Thomas Vinterberg (The Hunt). Fox Searchlight’s aiming for a May 2015 theatrical release of the romantic drama based on Thomas Hardy’s classic novel and co-starring Tom Sturridge, Michael Sheen, and Matthias Schoenaerts.
The Plot:
Far from the Madding Crowd is the story of independent, beautiful and headstrong Bathsheba Everdene (Mulligan), who attracts three very different suitors: Gabriel Oak (Schoenaerts), a sheep farmer, captivated by her fetching willfulness; Frank Troy (Sturridge), a handsome and reckless Sergeant; and William Boldwood (Sheen), a prosperous and mature bachelor. This timeless story of Bathsheba’s choices and passions explores the nature of relationships and love – as well as the human ability to overcome hardships through resilience and perseverance.
Ian Ziering as Fin Shepard in ‘Sharknado 2’ (Photo by Syfy)
Man-eating flying sharks will be attacking Washington, D.C., the Eastern Seaboard, and Orlando, Florida in Syfy’s Sharknado 3. Filming will be taking place on the latest entry in the Sharknado franchise at Universal Orlando Resort, with Ian Ziering back as Fin and Tara Reid returning as April. Cassie Scerbo from the first Sharknado will also be reprising her role as Nova.
Thunder Levin wrote the script and Sharknado 1 and 2 director Anthony C. Ferrante is back at the helm.
Syfy will debut Sharknado 3 this July. Sharknado 2: The Second One was watched by 3.9 million viewers when it premiered on July 30, 2014, making it the highest rated original movie ever on Syfy.
George Blagden as Athelstan, a former monk befriended by Ragnar, in ‘Vikings’ (Photo by Jonathan Hession / HISTORY />Copyright 2015)
Season three of History’s Vikings promises to be even more epic in scale as the action expands to include raids on Paris. Even Athelstan will be getting in on the action this season, according to George Blagden. Sitting down for a one-on-one interview at the Television Critics Association winter press event, Blagden said Vikings season three will find Athelstan once again evolving in ways viewers may not expect.
Will this season put you more into the action?
Geoerge Blagden: “You can say that, yeah. This season sees Athelstan becoming a bit more confident and comfortable with where he is in his kind of inner turmoil. We open season three, and you see Athelstan making some brave choices. And yeah, I guess you put it quite well. [Laughing] He’ll be part of the action.”
Has he come to terms with his relationship with Ragnar?
Geoerge Blagden: “Yeah. It depends on what you mean by that. I suppose at the end of season two we see him going back to Kattegat and finding a bit more comfort in this middle area between these two cultures and religions. Season three we start with Ragnar telling Athelstan that he’s the only man who he can trust. So I’d say their relationship is fairly strong.”
How has the change in location and the scale of the action impacted Athelstan?
Geoerge Blagden: “Season three brings bigger landscapes, different landscapes. We go to Wessex – in a different part of Wessex – and that really is how Athelstan has changed at the start of this season is Ragnar’s wanting to set up this farming community in Wessex and Athelstan is a part of that. He explores a whole new area of Wessex and a different kind of way of life. So, yeah, it changes him. And Athelstan is one of the only characters on this show who is constantly changing, constantly always in flux. He’s just carrying on doing that this season.”
How much do you get into character as soon as you put the costume on?
Geoerge Blagden: “So much. I mean, it’s useful in this show for getting into character. All of the production team – costume, hair, makeup – it’s so, so useful. And also the sets…the sets are so detailed. When you walk onto a set they’ve thought of every minute little detail and prop and item that are a part of the furniture and furnishings of that world. You walk onto the sets that Jil Turner’s done in Ireland and you really feel like you’re living a thousand years ago.”
How far does the third season of Vikings take you?
Geoerge Blagden: “Extremely. We’re seeing Athelstan in places that we’ve never seen him before and doing things that you would never imagine him doing. I think there are going to be a lot of raised eyebrows at Athelstan this season – I can say that.”
How big of a break has this been for you as an actor?
Geoerge Blagden: “It’s been an amazing opportunity for me. It was my first-ever TV show and in a way, it’s been very formative for me. I’ve learned a lot of my craft for screen acting throughout the three years so far on this show. It’s been fantastic. I wouldn’t be doing the new job that I’m doing now without having been a part of Vikings. That’s the way in this industry. It’s stepping stones and Vikings has just been the most amazing, fun, and rewarding job.”
What are you doing after Vikings?
Geoerge Blagden: “I’m on a TV show called Versailles that’s being done by Canal+. It’s about Louis XIV and how he built Versailles, the famous palace. I play Louis XIV.”
And you’re able to do both shows?
Geoerge Blagden: “Yes. I don’t know what the news is on the fourth season of Vikings, but I know that they’re all very, very confident about this new season. Season three is going to bring levels of drama and scale, and epicness that people haven’t seen before. It’s amazing.”
Had you been to Versailles before you got that role?
Geoerge Blagden: “I had, yeah. In April me and my girlfriend were visiting like tourists for a week in Paris and we went to Versailles, completely unrelated. It was a bit weird that a couple of months later I found out that I got the role.”
Is Versailles much more contained than the action of Vikings?
Geoerge Blagden: “They’re extremely similar in that they’re both a Canadian/Irish production with similar amounts of backing, money behind them. They’re both historical dramas. It’s very exciting to be a part of both.”
Do you watch a lot of television?
Geoerge Blagden: “Yeah, I do. I’m watching The Walking Dead at the moment. I just got to the end of season two. It’s amazing. So much fun. I loved Breaking Bad – I watched all of the seasons. I like good storytelling.”
What would you do if you were the last person on Earth? How quickly would you lose your mind when there’s no one to talk to? The new Fox comedy The Last Man on Earth finds Will Forte playing Phil Miller, a man who could possibly be the last human being on the planet.
Forte created, executive produces, and stars in the comedy set to debut on March 1, 2015 and during the 2015 Television Critics Association press conference in Los Angeles, he discussed the logistics of pulling off a post-apocalyptic comedy and what viewers can expect from the first season of The Last Man on Earth.
The Plot: From writer/producer Will Forte (Nebraska, Saturday Night Live) and directors/producers Chris Miller and Phil Lord (The Lego Movie, 21 Jump Street), The Last Man on Earth is a new single-camera comedy that chronicles the life and adventures of an average guy – and humanity’s last hope – who discovers what life is like when no one is telling you what you can and cannot do.
The year is 2020, and after a deadly virus has swept the planet, only one man is left on earth: Phil Miller (Forte). He used to be just an average guy who loved his family and hated his job. Now, in his RV, Phil searches the country for other survivors. He has traveled to every city, every town, and every outpost in the United States, Mexico and Canada and has found no one. As he returns to his hometown of Tucson, Phil comes to the painful realization that he is almost certainly the last living being on the face of the earth. All he wants is for someone – anyone – to find him in Tucson – preferably a woman.
Will Forte Q&A
How much research did you do? Did you actually look into whether or not plumbing would still be going for years, how garbage would be collected, or did you just wing it and make stuff up?
Will Forte: “Well, it’s embarrassing the little amount of research we did. I basically watched that show Life After People several years ago and then kind of tried to remember what I had learned from that show. I always kind of thought that maybe I would do some research to make sure that all the information was accurate and kind of skipped that step. So, there are a bunch of wonderful writers in the room and they’re all very smart, but I have a feeling that they know as little about what would happen in this situation. It’s going to kind of be like, you know, if you know a lot about what would happen after it would be like if people from NASA watched Spaceballs. […]But there’s nothing that’s crazy inaccurate, to my knowledge. And, again, it’s not a high level of knowledge.”
Was the unintentional comedy of Life After People part of the inspiration for this series?
Will Forte: “Well, I’ll tell you what. That show, you know, I brought it up in kind of a joking manner, but it really is fascinating. […]And it’s just a fascinating situation. It’s such a great area for comedy because I love comedy where there’s a lot of tension and this idea seems to be, even though it’s very far-fetched, it seems very relatable because I think everybody has thought about ‘What would you do if you were the last person on Earth?’ So even though it’s a situation, it’s oddly relatable in that way. It’s such a wonderful, tense situation just inherent to the idea.
[…]It has been a very, very fun show to shoot because I get to do a lot of wish fulfillment stuff because I would imagine that men and women would have different ideas about what they would do if they were the last person on Earth. I think I would just go around and break stuff. It just has been really fun to break a lot of stuff.”
How does this world smell?
Will Forte: “Well, the world smells very nice. I think that the dead bodies have been sedentary for long enough that as long as you don’t poke them you’re probably safe.
We don’t really ever see dead bodies. We kind of avoid that subject.”
Do we find out what happened to the other people? Does the audience know? Does your character know?
Will Forte: “We don’t spend that much time talking about it. There has been a virus, just we never even talk about what the virus is but we don’t go too far into it. We’re just shooting our 10th episode and I don’t know that we ever do more than just casually mention it in conversation with myself because, as you know, I am the only person on the show.”
Phil, the character, is fantastically unkempt, quite unhygienic. Were there any discussions about how brown and murky his toilet pool can be and how much texture there can be to it?
Will Forte: “There was great discussion about that, yes. […]It felt like dealing with the toilet pool was not a potty humor-type situation. It’s, I think, one of the basic things, one of the first things that comes up is what happens when the plumbing all stops? What do you do? So we felt like that was a fun way to deal with that.”
A lot of your characters on SNL were very pop culturally-based. Are you going to be poking fun at any of the more famous “last man on Earth” type of movies like Charlton Heston in Omega Man??
Will Forte: “Oh, jeez. Well, you know, I have actually never seen Omega Man but wasn’t I Am Legend based on Omega Man? I did see I Am Legend.
It’s such a crazy situation that we try to handle it in a somewhat grounded way. But if you buy into the premise, then pretty much whatever happens after that is basically stuff that could actually happen.”
When are we going to see the zombies?
Will Forte: “There are no zombies.”
As the beard got longer, how did that seem to affect your life when you weren’t working, when you were just walking around? Did people react to you in different ways? then and so on?
Will Forte: “Oh, man, yes. There would be a lot of street crossings when I would walk up a block at night. Yeah, people would cross the street. […]Definitely, there’s a huge difference because it went a little bit past the hipster beard length.”
If you were in this situation, what would drive you crazier: being alone or being with someone who drives you nuts?
Will Forte: “I think being alone. Being alone, for sure. You know, obviously, I’ve never been in this situation but I can’t imagine the despair you would be in if you were alone and thought that there was nobody else out there and there would be nobody else, because then what does anything matter anymore, you know?”
You have a great way of both calling out and paying loving homage to Cast Away with the volleyball and other athletic balls. Did you begin by feeling that that movie kind of cheated, giving him something to talk to, and then realize how important that was to have those characters?
Will Forte: “In the very beginning, there was almost no dialogue until that scene. So that was the only dialogue. And then I think there was also the dialogue with the mannequin. Yeah, so it was a silent movie until that moment. Then we found ways to pepper in dialogue, which we tried to make seem somewhat believable.”
Will he uncover some conspiracies that mankind has always wondered about but couldn’t discover the answers to?
Will Forte: “That is something that has always fascinated me. Like, one of the questions that will come up from time to time is what would you do aside from smashing stuff? I would go and try to find out all the old secrets, go to the CIA headquarters and dig up the classified information. We don’t have anything involving that yet, but that’s something that’s always fascinated me.”
Is it a hydrogen disaster in that the buildings are all still standing and there’s just no life? Or there are collapsed buildings all over the place? And how much CGI do you have in removing birds, people, airplanes, et cetera?
Will Forte: “It pretty much just looks like what you see today with no people. We will find locations that have been…I think like a rec center that has a tennis court that had fallen into disrepair and had weeds growing up. So we’ll find locations like that, empty old swimming pools to make it look like that people haven’t been around for a while. But other than that, it’s basically just a dustier world. In lot of ways, what [executive producers/directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller] thought from the beginning was it’s in some ways more beautiful because there’s not the pollution anymore. You can see the stars better at night. It’s beautiful – more beautiful in some ways.”
How easy was it to work with the network on a comedy this unusual?
Will Forte: “Working with FOX has been so wonderful because it was a crazy idea, and they were so supportive of this. All along the way I thought, ‘Oh, they’re going to make us change it from this thing.’ And they were so supportive and really let us make this show that must terrify them because it’s a little different. It was really fun to get to do stuff that wasn’t chockfull of dialogue. I’m so appreciative to Dana and Gary and everybody at FOX for letting us actually do this crazy thing.”
