Charlie Hunnam might be crowned king if the reports that he’s been offered the starring role in the new King Arthur movie are correct. Deadline’s reporting director Guy Ritchie is pursuing the Sons of Anarchy star to take the lead in the long-gestating project set up at Warner Bros Pictures.
If Hunnam signs on, he would be reuniting with his Pacific Rim co-star Idris Elba who’s attached to play a Merlin-like character. And Variety’s reporting Elizabeth Olsen may also be joining the cast.
Joby Harold (Awake) wrote the script for Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur. Lionel Wigram, Tory Tunnell, and Harold are producing the film and Warner Bros is aiming for a July 22, 2016 theatrical release.
Hunnam’s finishing up his run as Jax Teller on Sons of Anarchy with this seventh and final season and will likely be concentrating on film roles rather than TV projects, at least for a while. He was originally cast as Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise, but (thankfully) he backed out of that project. He recently completed work on Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak which is heading to theaters on October 16, 2015.
Dominic West and Ruth Wilson star in ‘The Affair’ (Poster Courtesy of Showtime)
Showtime’s upcoming new dramatic series The Affair has just released a new poster featuring two of the show’s four main stars. The poster for The Affair, featuring Dominic West and Ruth Wilson, promotes the show’s premiere date of October 12, 2014 at 10pm ET/PT. Not pictured are Maura Tierney and Joshua Jackson who play spouses of the characters pictured on the poster. The network’s also unleashed a brand new teaser trailer for the dramatic series created by Hagai Levi and scripted by critically acclaimed playwright Sarah Treem (House of Cards, In Treatment). Treem, Levi, Eric Overmyer, and director Jeffrey Reiner are executive producing.
The Affair Plot:
The Affair will be told separately from the male and female perspectives – using the distinct memory biases to both misdirect and intrigue. Ruth Wilson plays Alison, a young woman waiting tables at a popular Hamptons diner, trying to piece her life back together in the wake of a tragedy. Her husband Cole (Joshua Jackson), struggles to keep it all together, both with his wife and the financially-strained ranch that has been in his family for generations. Their emotionally-charged marriage becomes even more complicated when Alison begins an affair with Noah (Dominic West), a New York City public school teacher and aspiring novelist who is spending the summer at his in-laws’ estate out on the island. Maura Tierney plays Helen, Noah’s college sweetheart, best friend, mother of his children, lover and wife of 17 years.
Leah Pipes wished she knew all the twists and turns coming up on season two of The CW’s The Originals, but she’s almost as much in the dark as fans when it comes to what’s in store for the new season. However, at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con, Pipes was able to offer a few interesting hints about her character, Camille O’Connell, during our interview – without giving away any possible spoilers.
“I can tell you that whenever I ask about season two, the writers get really giddy and excited. I’m pretty sure as twisted as season one got, season two is going to get even more dark and twisted. The few things I have heard, it’s like I think we need to get a therapist in the writers’ room. I really do ASAP! Something’s happened there; there’s a lot of issues being worked out in our scripts. They all have probably really bad family issues because the Mikaelsons are just about the most messed up family ever,” said Pipes, laughing.
Pipes is totally fine with The Originals season two taking a darker turn. “Absolutely. Oh my gosh, the more twisted, the more I’m like reading the script, ‘I can’t believe they just did that and went there!’ I think everyone who watches the show really likes the twisted element about it. No one is expecting to watch a rom-com when they’re watching The Originals. It’s not going to have a happy ending anytime soon.”
As for her reaction to getting the scripts, she couldn’t be specific about what’s to come but did say to watch out for episode 204. “I can tell you that the women in this episode are fierce – like Sasha Fierce. They have found their Sasha Fierce. It’s a lot of kick-ass females.”
Louis C.K., Zach Galifianakis, and Jonathan Krisel are the creative minds behind the half-hour comedy series Baskets which has just been given a 10 episode order at FX. The single-camera series will star Galifianakis, who is co-writing the series with Louis C.K. and Krisel, and will air in 2016. Krisel directed the pilot and serves as the showrunner.
“Zach Galifianakis, Louis C.K. and Jonathan Krisel have created an absolutely brilliant show,” said Eric Schrier, FX’s President of Original Programming. “To say Zach’s portrayal of the lead character Chip Baskets is hilarious/unique/riveting/fascinating would be an understatement. We can’t wait for the world to meet him.”
The Baskets Plot:
In a world constrained by corporate interests and the homogenization of society, one man in Bakersfield, California dares to follow his dream of becoming a professional clown. But after an unsuccessful enrollment at a prestigious clowning school in Paris, the only job he can find is with the local rodeo. Baskets follows Chip Baskets’ (Galifianakis) pursuit of his dream, against all odds, to be a respected clown.
Chelsea Handler finished up her late night E! talk show Chelsea Lately with a special live one-hour finale featuring tons of her famous friends. Well, not an actual ‘ton’ of friends but more like 30 showed up to help Handler put an end to the series.
Justin Theroux, Ben Falcone, Melissa McCarthy, Joe Manganiello, Leah Remini, Selena Gomez, Gerard Butler (who had the best line to sing), Minnie Driver, Kristen Chenoweth, Trace Adkins, Avril Lavigne, James Van Der Beek, Rachel Bilson, Mary McCormack, Kelly Osbourne, Helen Hunt, Sheila E, Richard Marx, Kathryn Hahn, Johnny Knoxville, Tim Gunn, Anna Faris, Gabriel Iglesias, Chloe Grace Moretz, Buzz Aldrin, Sammy Hagar, Vanessa Hudgens, Sophia Bush, Jenny & Jason Biggs, Allison Janney, Alessandra Ambrosio, Kathy Griffin, Kevin Nealon, Marlee Matlin, and David Hasselhoff even took part in special musical number saluting Chelsea’s popular series.
Chelsea’s ex, 50 Cent, was on hand for a night that included bits with Jennifer Aniston, Sandra Bullock, and Mary McCormack, as well as Miley Cyrus who performed Roy Orbison’s “It’s Over.”
One of the series finale’s highlights was a special visit from Ellen DeGeneres. DeGeneres showed up in the shower (fully clothed) with Chelsea (naked) in order to find out why she’d never been invited to be on Chelsea Lately. Ellen believes it’s because she’s a lesbian, and Chelsea tried to pass herself off as a lesbian too.
ET pulled together six of the best moments from the series finale in a two-minute video:
Prepare yourselves, Survivor fans…The Amazing Race Twinnies are part of the cast of season 29 of Survivor. The reality competition series kicks off its new season on CBS with a 90 minute episode airing on September 24, 2014 at 8pm ET/PT.
Jeff Probst returns as host, guiding season 29’s all new castaways through challenges as they attempt to outwit, outplay, and outlast their fellow Survivor cast members. At stake is a $1 million prize and the title of Sole Survivor.
Season 29 pits family members and partners against each other. It also marks the return of Exile Island, with this season finding loved ones squaring off against each other to see who is sent to the island and who will receive a special reward for their tribe.
Fifty Shades of Grey‘s sexy star Jamie Dornan has landed a starring role in Miramax’s The 9th Life of Louis Drax. Alexandre Aja (Horns, The Hills Have Eyes) is set to direct and actor Max Minghella is making his feature film screenwriting debut with the psychological thriller based on the book by Liz Jensen. Minghella’s father, the late Oscar-winning filmmaker Anthony Minghella, had originally been attached to write and direct an adaptation of Jensen’s novel way back in 2004.
Filming’s expected to begin October.
“Tim and I are thrilled this deeply personal project is being brought to fruition with passion and integrity,” said Minghella. “We look forward to collaborating with Alex and Miramax to create a truly original movie that will captivate and surprise audiences.”
“Max’s script takes us on a very emotional journey through the deep recesses of the mind and on a suspenseful Hitchcockian ride,” explained Aja. “I was drawn to the poignant family drama and the supernatural elements, and am excited to bring this rich and complex story to life.”
Dornan’s got Fifty Shades of Grey heading to theaters on February 13, 2015. His other credits include Once Upon a Time, The Fall, and New Worlds.
The Plot:
The story begins on Louis Drax’s 9th birthday, when he suffers a near-fatal fall. In order to reveal the strange circumstances surrounding the young boy’s accident – Dr. Allan Pascal (Jamie Dornan) is drawn into a thrilling mystery, testing the boundaries of fantasy and reality.
“He’s probably the best friend I’ve ever had,” says Devereaux (Pierce Brosnan). “All your friends try to kill you?” asks Alice (Olga Kurylenko). “Eventually,” replies Devereaux, who’s being hunted by a CIA assassin he trained before retiring from the spy game in the dramatic action film The November Man.
Ex-CIA operative Peter Devereaux has been enjoying a quiet, peaceful life in Switzerland when an old colleague, Hanley (Bill Smitrovich), reaches out for his help on one last mission. A mutual friend of theirs, Natalia (Mediha Musliovic), needs to come in from the field and has become so paranoid she’ll only trust Devereaux to bring her in. Still having a soft spot for Natalia who he had more than just a “working” relationship with, Peter agrees to help.
Unfortunately, things don’t go as planned, and Natalia’s cover is blown during her attempted extraction. She gives Devereaux the name of an important witness who needs protection: Alice Fournier (Olga Kurylenko). Not long after finding Alice, Devereaux discovers that they’ve both been marked for death by the CIA due to information Alice has involving the CIA and the Chechen War. If that wasn’t bad enough, to make matters worse, Devereaux’s old protégé, David Mason (Luke Bracey), is leading the hunt.
With both CIA and Chechen assassins hunting them and growing suspicions that there is a mole in the agency, Devereaux finds himself on the run with no one to trust and a slim chance of survival.
Gritty and suspenseful, The November Man brings ex-007 Pierce Brosnan back to the big screen in a darker, more serious spy thriller. Brosnan is perfect as Devereaux, the retired master spy who reluctantly gets pulled back into the world of espionage and soon realizes that even he is in way over his head.
Devereaux is a colder, older, and highly experienced spy who knows how to survive in the Cold War. Finally, Brosnan is given the opportunity in November Man that he didn’t have in the Bond series: to portray a seasoned, refined, and extremely lethal secret agent straight, without the tongue-in-cheek dialogue. And he does it wonderfully.
Also a Bond franchise veteran (although from a different era than Brosnan), Olga Kurylenko is extremely effective in the role of Alice. Kurylenko portrays her as both an overwhelmed, terrified, and mistrusting target and, at times, a sexy, willful, and determined woman. Kurylenko and Pierce have solid chemistry, which comes across strongly in the few quiet moments they have together on screen in between the fighting and chasing scenes.
The action scenes are thrilling, with car chases, multiple shoot-outs, and a few cat and mouse on foot chases. The scene where Bracey as Mason is hunting Devereaux through the streets of Belgrade while talking to him on a cell phone is sure to be a crowd-pleaser, with Devereaux taunting Mason with lines such as, “So kid, tell me about your target.”
The November Man‘s realistic dialogue and strong cloak-and-dagger tone are due to the terrific direction by Roger Donaldson, working from a script by Michael Finch and Karl Gajdusekvc. The cinematography and production of the film look stunning and benefit from being shot on location in Belgrade and Montenegro. Perhaps the only drawback to the film is the slowing of the pace at the midpoint in The November Man, but that picks back up as it heads toward a suspenseful finale.
Gripping and action-packed, The November Man is a first-rate spy thriller that’s sure to entertain Pierce Brosnan and espionage movie fans.
GRADE: B
The November Man is rated R for strong violence including a sexual assault, language, sexuality/nudity and brief drug use.
Writer/director Jill Soloway’s (Six Feet Under) dark comedy series Transparent will premiere on Amazon Prime Instant Video on September 26, 2014. All 10 episodes of the half-hour series starring Jeffrey Tambor, Judith Light, Gaby Hoffman, Amy Landecker, and Jay Duplass will be released at the same time.
“We couldn’t be more pleased to offer our customers all episodes of Transparent in late September,” said Roy Price, Director of Amazon Studios. “Jill has an amazing ability to create deep, engaging and rich stories and characters. We think customers will enjoy this fresh, humorous, and touching series.”
“I am beyond excited to share Transparent with the world through Amazon. They’ve been so supportive through this incredible process,” commented Soloway. “Artistically, it’s been a dream come true. I absolutely got to make the show I wanted to make.”
The Transparent Plot:
Transparent is a ten episode, half hour novelistic series that explores family, identity, sex, and love. The series stars Tambor as Maura, who has spent her life as Mort—the Pfefferman family patriarch. When she reintroduces herself to her family, everyone’s secrets finally start to come out. This includes her ex-wife Shelly (played by Light), and their children—meandering Ali (played by Hoffmann), record producer Josh (played by Duplass), and sexually conflicted Sarah (played by Landecker). Each family member spins in a different direction as they begin to figure out who they are going to become.
Recurring guest stars in Transparent include Melora Hardin (The Office) as Tammy, Bradley Whitford (The West Wing) as Marcy, Carrie Brownstein (Portlandia) as Syd, Kathryn Hahn (Parks and Recreation) as Raquel, Alexandra Billings (Grey’s Anatomy) as Maura’s friend Davina, and Rob Huebel (Childrens Hospital) as Len.
The Flash and Jane the Virgin will premiere in October and in support of their upcoming debuts, The CW has released official posters for both shows. The Flash‘s poster makes good use of the comic book character’s speed as it shows Grant Gustin in costume racing through the streets.
Jane the Virgin‘s poster features the show’s title character (played by Gina Rodriguez) clutching a positive pregnancy test and looking completely confused.
The Flash premieres on October 7, 2014 at 8pm ET/PT. Jane the Virgin debuts on October 13th at 9pm ET/PT.
