Stephen Moyer (Photo by Richard Chavez/Showbiz Junkies)
True Blood star Stephen Moyer will play Pontius Pilate and Kelsey Grammer has been cast as King Herod in the National Geographic Channel’s Killing Jesus, based on the book by Bill O’Reilly. Killing Jesus will air in 2015 and will be helmed by Chris Menaul from a script by Walon Green.
“The film Killing Jesus will break new ground in chronicling the life of the most famous human being who ever lived,” said author and executive producer O’Reilly. “The superb cast and script reflect much thought and research. Viewers are in for something very different and very special.”
The cast also includes Haaz Sleiman as Jesus; Rufus Sewell as high priest of Jerusalem, Caiaphas; Emmanuelle Chriqui as Herodia, ex-wife of Herod II and wife of his brother Antipas, who manipulated her husband and daughter into killing John the Baptist; Eoin Macken as Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee and Perea and co-conspirator in Jesus’ death; John Rhys Davies as Annas, a high priest in Jerusalem who first questioned Jesus and his teachings; Abhin Galeya as John the Baptist, who was considered a prophet and arrested and killed by Antipas; and Stephanie Leonidas as Salome, daughter of Herod II and Herodias, who led to the demise of John the Baptist.
Additional cast members include Aneurin Barnard as James, Vernon Dobtcheff as Isaiah, Tamsin Egerton as Claudia, John Lynch as Nicodemus, Joe Doyle as Judas, and Alexis Rodney as Simon.
The Plot:
The film will chronicle the life of Jesus of Nazareth through the retelling of the intense political, social and historical conflicts during the Roman Empire that ultimately led to his death. Jesus lived at a time when the Roman Empire dominated the Western world, and he made powerful enemies while preaching a philosophy of peace and love. Today, more than 2.2 billion people follow his teachings, but the intimate historical details of the time usually remain secondary to his story.
Twin Peaks is not only returning as a limited series, it’s also returning with David Lynch co-writing, producing, and directing the new episodes. Showtime made the announcement today (complete with a one-minute video) and confirmed Lynch’s return to the world he created with Mark Frost. Frost is also back and will be co-writing the nine episodes of the series.
Fans of Twin Peaks can expect to see the new episodes in 2016, timed to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the show’s last episode. And for those who need a refresher course, Showtime’s planning on airing the first two seasons prior to premiering the nine episode limited series.
“What more can I say – TWIN PEAKS with David Lynch and Mark Frost on SHOWTIME in 2016!” said David Nevins, President, Showtime Networks Inc.. “To quote Agent Cooper, ‘I have no idea where this will lead us, but I have a definite feeling it will be a place both wonderful and strange.'”
“The mysterious and special world of Twin Peaks is pulling us back. We’re very excited. May the forest be with you,” added Lynch and Frost.
The Plot:
Widely considered one of the most groundbreaking and influential broadcast series of all time, Twin Peaks followed the inhabitants of a quaint northwestern town who were stunned after their homecoming queen Laura Palmer is shockingly murdered. The town’s sheriff welcomed the help of FBI agent Dale Cooper, who came to town to investigate the case. As Cooper conducted his search for Laura’s killer, the town’s secrets were gradually exposed. The mystery that ensued set off an eerie chain of events that plunged the inhabitants of Twin Peaks into a darker examination of their very existence. Twenty-five years later, the story continues…
DreamWorks Pictures announced filming is now underway on an untitled Cold War spy thriller directed by Steven Spielberg and starring his frequent collaborator, Tom Hanks. The Coen Brothers and Matt Charman wrote the script, and Spielberg and Kristie Macosko Krieger are producing. In addition to Hanks, the untitled film will also star Amy Ryan and Alan Alda.
The Cold War spy thriller will arrive in U.S. theaters on October 16, 2015. 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks are co-financing the movie, and Fox will handle the international distribution. Disney’s handling the domestic distribution.
The Plot:
The film is the true story of James Donovan, an attorney who finds himself thrust into the center of the Cold War when the CIA sends him on the near-impossible mission to negotiate the release of a captured American U-2 pilot.
In addition to showing off over half an hour of footage from the Biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings during a special press event in Los Angeles [read our recap here], 20th Century Fox hosted a Q&A with one of the stars of the film, Oscar winner Christian Bale. Bale stars as Moses in the dramatic thriller directed by Ridley Scott, co-starring Joel Edgerton as Ramses, and coming to theaters on December 12, 2014.
During the Q&A, Bale talked about his research process and what it was like working with director Ridley Scott.
Were you a voracious reader and researcher when it came to this role?
Christian Bale: “Yeah. Well, there’s just so much interesting material. The Torah, the Pentateuch which takes a bit of getting through. That took a bit of time, and then sources that people recommended to me. One of them that I enjoyed a great deal was called Moses: A Life by Jonathan Kirsch. There’s Legends of the Jews and it just keeps going. The Koran as well.”
What did you find elucidating in all that reading?
Christian Bale: “The big one for me, other than realizing that I really had no idea about Moses at all and just how complex of a character he was – he really was a very troubled and tumultuous man, very mercurial – but the biggest surprise for me was the nature of God, that he equally was very mercurial. Although Moses was able to talk directly with God, there’s an episode where God actually tries to kill Moses, where he threatens to wipe up everybody but Moses and start again, somewhat like Noah, and Moses has to convince him otherwise.
The really fascinating thing to me is that there’s absolutely no mention of the afterlife at all. Since Moses was from Egypt where there’s an obsession with death, I was very surprised by that as well. And also really, other than Azazel, this kind of literal scapegoat, there’s really no mention of the Devil. God is described as the god of good and evil. All of this was absolutely fascinating to me.”
This was your first time working with Ridley Scott. What was your relationship before this movie?
Christian Bale: “I mean, admiration on my end for him as a filmmaker. I’d worked with a number of actors who had worked with Ridley and who had said to me, ‘You guys would get along. You should work together.’ So Ridley and I met and just talked a little bit and said, ‘Let’s find something.’ I think that was four years or five years ago. Then he turned up and said, ‘I’ve got something. It’s Moses.’ I went… I said, ‘All right. Like swords and sandals?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, straight up Moses.'”
What were your early conversations like? What did he talk about?
Christian Bale: “The biggest issue was about how much he could include, because it’s so dense. You really could make an eight-hour long film, so there had to be a choice about how far we went with the story. It’s called Exodus for a reason. It’s not called Moses. Steve Zaillian who wrote the screenplay really felt that it was a story of revolution. So deciding just to focus up to and through the exodus, I’m not sure you could see there but we went through the crossing of the Red Sea.
But then it was very tricky to decide how much further can we go here? Because every little bit that you thought, ‘Well, you can’t not include that,’ would’ve added another half an hour to the film. So there was always regret. You can’t help that, of what you unfortunately just cannot include in, not sure how long the film is, but two hours or whatever.”
There was a TV movie called Moses played by Ben Kingsley. Did you discuss it with him?
Christian Bale: “Yes, I said, ‘Oh, you’ve played Moses. I’m sorry I haven’t seen it.’ He just laughed, because I avoided… Ben Kingsley’s one of my favorite actors [and] part of the reason I didn’t watch it is because there’s time when it’s a wonderful thing to steal from other people. People say, ‘I was inspired by.’ I say, ‘You’re stealing from them.’ But then there’s other ones where you go, ‘Wow, I’ll probably end up taking so much that that’s not a good idea. I have my own ideas. I’ll stick to that.’
The very first film that I rented immediately after meeting with Ridley and whilst I was still trying to get my head wrapped around it and thinking is this something that could be possible, I went and rented The Life of Brian. Which is a real favorite film of mine and a beautifully made film, wonderful film.
The point being, not only did I enjoy that film a great deal, but anything where you are approaching it from a very earnest point of view can unintentionally become The Life of Brian very quickly. So it was sort of a guiding light throughout for me. I must confess, ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ was kind of always humming through my head. Immediately after that, I rented Mel Brooks’ History of the World. He comes down, he says, ‘We’ve got 15 commandments.’ He drops one, says, ‘Oh, the 10 commandments.’
You still have to get that out of your system and you have to understand what is it that we could unintentionally make funny. And you have to have humor. With something that is as earnest as this and as heavyweight as this, you have to have an element of comedy in your everyday life during filming because otherwise it just becomes too exhausting.”
Did you rewatch The Ten Commandments?
Christian Bale: “Yes, I did. I did rewatch Ten Commandments. The main difference, you know, you can’t out-Heston Charlton Heston, right? There’s no point in trying to do that, but in my reading from looking at the five books was that this was an incredible weight that he was lifting on his shoulders. This should be something where you see a man who really is straining. That is of his nature. He fought very much against being chosen by God. He kept on saying, ‘It’s not me, it’s not me.’ He kept trying to get out of the gig when he was on the mountain.
It was something, you can imagine, this is not an easy job. I felt with the Ten Commandments, it was a very uplifting, doves and [angel chant]. The Moses that was sort of flying almost, like he was going to levitate through the scenes and everything. I felt like our should be someone that is just desperately trying to keep moving forward, because of the just enormous pressure that this is on him.”
Was it nice to look at yourself and feel attractive after American Hustle?
Christian Bale: “I was making American Hustle when Ridley was sending me Steve’s script. And then when I first got back from Boston I went in to see Ridley. My head was absolutely shaved right down to the scalp and I still had all of that girth. He really tried to not show a look of absolute horror at who he had cast. But the nicest thing he could say was, ‘Oh, your hair’s very short.’ I was thankful that I was in these loose-fitting tent-like clothes throughout because I was desperately trying to lose weight throughout. I just didn’t feel that would be fitting.”
Christian Bale: “In the Egyptian part. These are people who lived as gods and therefore there is a reputation to uphold and a beauty that they must convey. Look, I’ve done a glam rock film before so I was quite good at putting my own eyeliner on.”
Who were you excited to work with in the cast?
Christian Bale: “I think it’s a fantastic cast throughout. I very much enjoyed working with Joel [Edgerton] who we were sort of the constant throughout. Obviously with Ben. There’s so many good actors, but I really enjoy also when you’re working with actors whose names you wouldn’t know. I always enjoy that as much as possible. As another actor, when you know very little about somebody then that’s a very nice thing because there’s nothing predictable at all.”
Is the scale daunting?
Christian Bale: “Yeah, because I’m a real pratt and so you just sort of go, “Wow, look at that set. That’s a kilometer long. That’s amazing. Look at all the people. What are they waiting for? Me. Oh no. How am I ever going to get through this?’ So you act it. You arrive and that’s the whole point. You act it as though you can handle all of this when in truth, absolutely you’re going really, really, you should’ve picked somebody else. I cannot possibly do this. But to me, that’s not an unhealthy thing. I think the day that I looked at something of that size and thought, ‘Yeah, that’s me. I should be in the middle of that,’ I’d probably just hate myself.”
Was there a day with 400 frogs?
Christian Bale: “I imagine with the frogs it was a lot of stepping on them, I would think. I wasn’t actually there for the frogs at all. I was around a lot of horses who were kicking each other and trying to bite me, and camels who, as we were crossing the Red Sea, they liked to relieve themselves a lot. You just get used to the less than glamorous situations and things bobbing up against you that you don’t say what I think it is.”
What did you enjoy about the locations?
Christian Bale: “We shot down in southern Spain in Almeria, desert location for some of it which was used for most of the spaghetti Western films, which was news to me. I assumed the spaghetti Westerns were shot in Italy. That was beautiful in its absolute severity but then we went to one of the Canary Islands, one of the less inhabited ones called Fuerteventura and there’s a beach there which is just phenomenal, which is the beach that Ridley uses for the crossing of the Red Sea. The scene was pretty historic with hundreds and hundreds of extras, all the animals and everything. That was a truly stunning place.”
Is the armor made of rubber?
Christian Bale: “Oh, well, it’s much more comfortable to wear a car tire than metal.”
Was it tough to go away for press for Out of the Furnace and American Hustle during the shoot?
Christian Bale: “It’s kind of a really nice relief, and Ridley produced one of those films anyway so he was all good with it.”
You played Jesus in a TV film and said it gave you nightmares. Did this?
Christian Bale: “No, not at all because usually I just enjoy how silly what I do is. It’s silly but you want to see how far you can push it in a creative way. But with this one, I found that the character was so consuming and exhausting that I was actually far more just myself than anything I’ve ever done before because I couldn’t sustain the intensity of that sort of a character and still last 74 days, which is very quick for a film like this. But it just was too much so I said I have to do a different thing on this one.”
What’s your favorite Ridley Scott movie?
Christian Bale: “The one that keeps coming into my head is Alien, but that was also a lot of fun watching it with my friends and it was a lot to do with the evening as well. He’s done so many wonderful films but that’s the one that I just keep going in my head right now.”
Mickey Madden, Adam Levine and James Valentine of musical guest Maroon 5 perform on October 4, 2014 (Photo by Dana Edelson/NBC)
Maroon 5 with The Voice coach Adam Levine was the musical guest on the October 5, 2014 episode of SNL hosted by Sarah Silverman, singing two numbers – “Maps” and “Animals” – on the show. The episode was the second of season 40 and marked the fifth time the group appeared on the late-night series.
In case you missed the episode, the musical performances are now online for your viewing pleasure:
The CW’s The Flash arrives on October 7, 2014 and the network’s showing off a new trailer for the show’s premiere. Starring Grant Gustin, The Flash is the much-anticipated spin-off of Arrow and centers around CSI Investigator Barry Allen.
The Plot:
After a particle accelerator causes a freak storm, CSI Investigator Barry Allen is struck by lightning and falls into a coma. Months later he awakens with the power of super speed, granting him the ability to move through Central City like an unseen guardian angel. Though initially excited by his newfound powers, Barry is shocked to discover he is not the only “meta-human” who was created in the wake of the accelerator explosion – and not everyone is using their new powers for good. Barry partners with S.T.A.R. Labs and dedicates his life to protecting the innocent. For now, only a few close friends and associates know that Barry is literally the fastest man alive, but it won’t be long before the world learns what Barry Allen has become…The Flash.
Keanu Reeves (Photo by Richard Chavez / Showbiz Junkies)
Barry Eisler’s bestselling book series is about to become a TV show with Keanu Reeves attached in a starring role. Set up at Slingshot Global Media, Rain has just snagged Chris Collins and Marc Abrams as writers and showrunners. Eisler will be involved as an executive producer along with Reeves, Chad Stahelski, and David Leitch.
Reeves will play John Rain, a “half-Japanese, half-American contract assassin who specializes in taking out his targets by making it look like death by natural causes.”
“We’re thrilled to start working with Marc and Chris, whose vision for the show perfectly aligned with what we and the producers imagined,” stated Quan Phung, President of Scripted Television at Slingshot Global Media. “Their extensive and varied work will lend itself to creating a UNIQUE tone for the series and bringing this world to life.”
“When we were approached about working on this show, we immediately wanted to take part in the project with Keanu and get a chance to be part of such a unique undertaking,” added Collins and Abrams. “We can’t wait to start collaborating with the entire team and introduce this character to an even wider audience.”
Collins’ TV credits include writing and executive producing Sons of Anarchy. Abrams has previously worked on The Bernie Mac Show and Entourage.
Reeves will next be seen on the big screen starring in John Wick, a thriller co-starring Adrianne Palicki, Bridget Moynahan, and Alfie Allen.
Jane Lynch hosts ‘Hollywood Game Night’ (Photo Credit: Trae Patton/NBC)
Hollywood Game Night has received a third season order, with NBC giving the series an order for 10 new episodes. The network also confirmed Jane Lynch will return as host of the celebrity-filled show. Season two averaged 5 million viewers, which was up from season one’s 4.1 million average.
Making the renewal announcement Paul Telegdy, President of Alternative and Late Night Programming, NBC Entertainment, said, “We’re thrilled to be making more Hollywood Game Night. Jane is an amazing host and ringmaster. Let the games begin!”
And Lynch said, “I am so excited to get back to the gaming and to more crazy antics from America’s favorite celebrated persons!”
Hollywood Game Night Plot:
In Hollywood Game Night, two contestants are transported from their everyday lives into a once-in-a-lifetime night of fun and celebration as they step beyond the velvet rope and rub shoulders with some of their favorite celebrities and compete for the chance to win up to $25,000.
Guests who appeared in season two include Oscar nominee Don Cheadle, Julie Bowen, Allison Janney, Martin Short, Rosie O’Donnell, Olivia Wilde, Christina Applegate, John Legend, Lauren Graham, Henry Winkler, Adam Scott, Jason Sudeikis, Martha Stewart, Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting, Joe Manganiello, Rita Wilson, Cobie Smulders, and Ray Romano.
Sarah Silverman during the opening monologue on October 4, 2014 (Photo by: Dana Edelson/NBC)
The October 4, 2014 episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Sarah Silverman featured an Obama cold open, performances by Maroon 5, Silverman playing Joan Rivers in Heaven, and a sequel of sorts to The Fault in Our Stars. Instead of cancer, the teen leading lady suffers from Ebola which means that the guy who’s falling in love with her has some tough decisions to make when it comes to their relationship.
“As you all know, my wife Amy Elliott-Dunne disappeared three days ago. I had nothing to do with the disappearance of my wife. I have nothing to hide,” says Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) to a crowd of volunteers, press, and police who’ve gathered for a candlelight vigil in support of Nick’s missing wife in Gone Girl.
On his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick returns home from the bar he manages and owns to discover his glass living room table shattered and no sign of his wife. He reports it to the authorities and volunteers to work with them to help find Amy. As the search for Amy goes on, Nick starts following clues to try and locate Amy – not always filling the police in on what’s going on. The search for Amy becomes a media circus with Nick’s wife turning into America’s Missing Sweetheart and Nick, with his aloof manner and strange behavior, quickly falling under suspicion by the police, media, and neighbors who are all questioning whether this man could murder his wife.
Dark, stylish, and clever, Gone Girl is an effective mystery/crime thriller with some strong performances. Ben Affleck gives his best performance since the film Hollywoodland as Nick Dunne, the husband whose behavior doesn’t seem to match the norm for these particular circumstances and who quickly comes under suspicion of foul play. Carrie Coon delivers the best performance in the film as Nick’s smart-aleck, loving and supportive sister who never liked Amy but even starts to fear the worst when she discovers one of Nick’s secrets. She has great chemistry with Affleck and every scene they share feels real. Here’s hoping she’s remembered during Oscar nominating time for Best Supporting Actress consideration.
Tyler Perry is perfectly cast as Nick’s high profile attorney Tanner Bolt who has made a career of defending unwinnable cases and coming up victorious. He adds some much needed humor and levity to an extremely ominous film. Unfortunately, Rosamund Pike is only effective in the role of Amy during certain sections of the film (relax, I won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t read the book by revealing too much). She has zero chemistry with Affleck in scenes that show Nick and Amy’s playful and steamy early romance. Neil Patrick Harris delivers what just might be the worst performance of his career as Desi Collings, a man from Amy’s past who may or may not be a person of interest in her disappearance. It’s a rigid and awkward portrayal of a character who seems more like a plot device than a real person.
The sleek direction and pacing of the film is steadfast creating a mystery and revealing it’s twists and surprises at just the proper moments. The soundtrack is wonderful with the music heightening the suspense of every scene rather than overpowering it.
Foreboding and crafty, Gone Girl is an intriguing mystery that will keep the audience guessing the outcome almost up to the very end.
GRADE: B-
Gone Girl is rated R for a scene of bloody violence, some strong sexual content/nudity, and language.
