Kevin Smith always gives an annual Hall H Q&A every Comic-Con, and while you can always get tickets to a Kevin Smith show year-round, there’s something special about seeing him in his home turf. This year was a little special though, because Smith combined his typical Q&A with a panel for his latest movie, Tusk. Tusk is special for a few reasons. One, it’s a movie that came out of nowhere years after Smith announced his retirement from filmmaking at the Sundance premiere of Red State. It’s also a movie that exists because of a podcast, Smodcast episode 259 to be exact. A U.K. man put out an ad for a roommate, but requested the roommate wear a walrus costume. Over the course of the podcast, Smith came up with an idea for a horror movie where a crazy man turns a guy into a walrus. He asked Twitter if he should actually make the movie, and the hashtag #Walrusyes came back a resounding positive.
At the 2014 Comic-Con, Smith showed the trailer and brought out stars Genesis Rodriguez and Haley Joel Osment. Earler in the Q&A he’d told the story about visiting the set of Star Wars: Episode VII, but wondering if J.J. Abrams invited the wrong Kevin by mistake. We discussed all of that, and the status of Clerks 3, and bookended the interview with a set of hugs because Smith and I go back almost 15 years of interviews.
Peter Tolan and Jim Gaffigan’s The Gaffigan Show is joining the TV Land line-up. The network likes what it sees in the single-camera sitcom and has ordered 10 episodes to air in 2015.
The Gaffigan Show is based on Gaffigan’s personal life and follows one man’s “struggle in New York City to find a balance between fatherhood, stand-up comedy and an insatiable appetite.” The cast is led by Gaffigan and includes Ashley Williams, Adam Goldberg, and Michael Ian Black.
Seth Gordon (The Goldbergs, Horrible Bosses) directed the pilot with Tolan, Gaffigan, Jeannie Gaffigan, Alex Murray, Sandy Wernick, and Michael Wimer executive producing.
“I am thrilled that TV Land is giving us this opportunity to do this show that Peter, Jeannie and I have been fine-tuning for three years,” said Gaffigan. “I’m probably most excited about the craft service. I gained 20 pounds for this role. Ok, fine. It was 40 pounds.”
“We love Jim Gaffigan’s brand of humor. The second we saw this show we knew we wanted it on TV Land,” said Larry W. Jones, President, TV Land. “The audience that TV Land is targeting is Gen Xers who are raising families so we love that this show reflects their world. Only funnier.”
Little Big Town performs at LP Field on Saturday, June 7, during the 2014 CMA Music Festival in Downtown Nashville (Photo Credit: John Russell / CMA)
When you see Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Phillip Sweet, and Jimi Westbrook, a.k.a. Little Big Town, looking like they’re having a ball as hosts of CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock, that’s because they are.
“It’s not like 60 Minutes,” insisted executive producer Robert Deaton. “It’s Country Music’s Night to Rock. We’re having a good time. And we want the television viewing audience to have fun as well.”
The ABC Television Network will air three-hour CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock special on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 8 PM ET/7 PM CT.
For Little Big Town, the fun began a little more than a month before CMA Music Festival’s opening day, June 5. “Robert and George (Flanigen, co-producer) did a lot of work ahead of our first meeting,” said Fairchild. “Then we got together for the first time, read through the script, and brainstormed about some of the bits. Robert has an outline for the way he sees the show, the acts that are booked and what night they’re on. We talk through it and practice in that meeting. Then, a couple of days before, we start reading through the scripts again because they’ve been tweaked and finalized. We dive in that week, doing some of the first voiceover and introduction work on Tuesday.”
At that initial meeting, Deaton ran through his concept for how the show would differ from the focus in 2013 when Little Big Town debuted as hosts of the show. “From the creative standpoint, in this day and age, from your mobile phones to iPads to social media, the world is fast-paced,” he said. “So I wanted to quicken the pace of the show. I also wanted to do some interviews backstage, see what goes on and give a glimpse of the world behind the stage.”
“The only challenging thing about this year’s show is that we had to interview some of the artists, and we realized that we’re better singers than we are interviewers,” Fairchild said. “We only had little, tiny interviews to do, but we did laugh about how we would get nervous and freeze up in front of our friends when interviewing them, or we’d forget to put the microphone in front of their mouth — you know, easy, Journalism 101 stuff. But because we were interviewing our friends and we wanted it to be relaxed and lighthearted, we weren’t doing anything really in depth. And we were talking about music or silly things, so it wasn’t that difficult.”
Spontaneity is a critical ingredient in this year’s special. And the hosts weren’t the only ones to play it by ear when the time was right. For all the planning and blocking that Deaton undertakes before shooting the songs they select for the show, sometimes the best results come as a result of pure impulse. It happened this year during Miranda Lambert’s set.
“Once we get the TV song, my guys will look at me and go, ‘Should we stop?’” Deaton said. “Usually we do, but after Miranda did ‘Automatic,’ for some reason I said, ‘Keep rolling. Let’s see what happens.’ Then she did a song called ‘Little Red Wagon.’ We weren’t scheduled to shoot it, but it turned out to be some of the best television we’ve ever done. Miranda has turned herself into a master performer. It was inspiring to see someone so in control of her performance and the audience. It’s actually breathtaking. So we ended up putting it in the television show because it was too good to leave out.”
For all key players, CMA Music Festival 2014 was a home run. “We love, love, love doing this,” Fairchild said, smiling. “I hope it shows, because we’ve really had a great time. What’s not to love about standing in the middle of 50,000 screaming Country Music fans and introducing your friends? It’s not a bad gig!”
Genesis Rodriguez has been making a name for herself in big movies like Casa de mi Padre, Man on a Ledge, What to Expect When You’re Expecting and Identity Thief. Her latest movie is a little more obscure. Tusk is the second horror movie from Kevin Smith, after Red State, but it’s a movie that followed an unlikely path.
A roommate listing with a bizarre request got Smith thinking aloud about a movie where a kidnapper tries to turn a man into a walrus. Smith discussed the plot on a podcast and then actually made the movie.
Justin Long plays the hapless podcaster who falls victim to Howard Howe (Michael Parks). Rodriguez plays his loving girlfriend, looking for her missing boyfriend along with his podcasting partner (Haley Joel Osment).
During the Hall H panel where Smith debuted the Tusk trailer, Rodriguez told the audience that the ‘Genesis Shot’ made it into the trailer. That was one of the things I asked Rodriguez about during our Comic-Con interview.
When Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn was looking to cast the role of ‘Yondu’, the blue-skinned leader of the Ravagers who basically raised Peter Quill/Star Lord (played by Chris Pratt), Gunn turned to an actor he’d worked with before. Gunn and Michael Rooker have teamed up on a variety of projects, most notably the 2006 horror comedy Slither, and they have a good working relationship.
While Yondu isn’t a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy group in this film, he’s still an important character in the Guardians of the Galaxy comic book universe.
As the film heads to theaters on August 1, 2014, I had the opportunity to chat one-on-one with Rooker about not only Guardians of the Galaxy but his overall résumé including his time on The Walking Dead.
Michael Rooker Guardians of the Galaxy Interview
You did a number of huge action movies in the ’90s. Did this take you back to those days?
Michael Rooker: “Oh yeah. This is a big movie, and this was like I’d work one or two days and have three days off. It’s like a real movie, you know, not like The Walking Dead. The Walking Dead is like you work every day 12 hours at least, every day. TV is hard.”
The Walking Dead wasn’t your first show, was it?
Michael Rooker: “No, but it was the first show that I had an ongoing role in. And it wasn’t just, ‘Bam!’ They work their butts off. And doing a film, not to say you don’t work your butt off on film, but it’s done in such a span you have time to literally concentrate on one little sequence. And when you’re doing that, the other actors get to chill. You get to go to Spain or go visit someplace if you’re overseas. But, yeah, this was like a big movie – Days of Thunder. It was really a big production.”
Is there a Michael Rooker persona, whether it’s Merle or Mallrats or Slither, and did you adapt Yondu to that persona?
Michael Rooker: “No. Yondu is completely different than anybody else but what happened is because Gunn wrote this role for me, a lot of what goes on with Yondu – this whole tough love thing – is really stuff that is what I do. I’m like, ‘You know what? If you mess up, you’re going to have to pick yourself up. I’m not going to come over and baby you and pick you up. Pick yourself up. There you go. Now, let’s see you jump over that again. No? You don’t want to? Okay, good, you learned something.’ Stuff like that. I’m a tough-love kind of person and this is Yondu’s about. Yondu gets this kid early on, decides to keep him, mainly I think because he reminds him of himself a little bit. Tough, willing to fight bigger creatures willing to eat you. And so it’s all cool. It worked out good.”
When you worked with Kevin Smith on Mallrats would you talk about comics?
Michael Rooker: [Laughing] “Kevin was too busy to talk about comics! He was a really cool guy to work with. No, we didn’t really talk about comics. He was very centered. He was very concentrated on doing a good job on his film.”
Was James Gunn your introduction to comics, even though he told you not to read them?
Michael Rooker: “Oh no, I read comics before. I re-established my connection with comics doing this film.”
Can you talk about the teeth and the body paint?
Michael Rooker: “You like those teeth, don’t you? I’ve got bling on my teeth, baby! The body paint…the whole process was about four and a half, five hours, also including wardrobe. All that includes wardrobe and also taking a break for a bit of a bite, a little meal.”
Did you have to take the teeth out for lunch?
Michael Rooker: “I would not put them in until after. I could put those in any time. Take them out, put them in. They were not like Slither where they were built into the makeup. I couldn’t take them out; they were built into that whole prosthetic thing. This, I could take them out and put them in any time.”
How will you feel if kids like you in this and they discover Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer?
Michael Rooker: “Good for them! Yay! You learn from Henry, just like you learn from almost anything, really. You can learn from silly, goofy movies and serious movies, and Henry you learn not to hitch rides with strangers. It’s not a good idea. If people come away from that movie thinking, ‘I will never hitch again,’ I’ve done my job. You won’t, will you, especially if you’re carrying a guitar case. Not a good idea.”
Now that you’re in the Marvel universe, have they talked to you about Yondu coming back for maybe the TV projects or The Avengers 3?
Michael Rooker: “I wish they would! What the hell? What are they waiting for? Come on, let’s do it! Of course I’d love it. It was a great role; it was really fun to do. You become part of this thing and it becomes part of you. There’s this connective stuff that goes on and, yeah, I could do it anytime.”
Benecio Del Toro was introduced in the tag of one of the previous movies, so did they talk to you about multiple appearances?
Michael Rooker: “Oh, nobody has talked to me about that. At this point, no I haven’t been involved in that kind of conversation.”
Did you have to rein yourself in with any lines in Guardians?
Michael Rooker: “No. My lines are what my lines are. Sometimes I do some adlibbing and stuff like that, but that’s all good. Whatever Yondu would say in this human tongue…actually a lot of what he says is not what he’s saying, what he’s meaning. Stuff like ‘Killing,’ it can mean a lot of different levels of killing. Killing could mean punishment. There was a line with me and Star Lord where I said – and I think they had to cut it out – but it’s a line that says, ‘I’m going to kill you so hard you’re going to wish you were dead.’ It’s sort of indicated to me that this guy doesn’t know exactly what these words really mean in this human tongue. It was really cool, really interesting to do that. I also have some other language thing that I do in there too.”
Were you a Yondu fan and what are some of your favorite Yondu issues of Guardians?
Michael Rooker: “How about the one where he’s fighting all the green Yondus. There’s one where his people have been interbreeding or the alien race has been coming on and capturing his people and they’re breeding with them, and producing a really, really super aggressive alien race of people that end up taking over his planet.”
How did you know you’d hit it off so well with James Gunn? Was that immediate on Slither?
Michael Rooker: “It was on Slither, like the first moment. I opened the door and he stood up and gave me an ovation. I said, ‘Maybe you should wait until after I do the audition before you do that.'”
I recently went back and watched your first episode on The Walking Dead as Merle and one of the things I thought was that if Merle not been so antagonistic that he had to be handcuffed to the pipe, and if he had not been so antagonistic to T-Dogg who dropped the key, then he might not have found himself in that situation.
MMichael Rooker: “Actually, you should watch it again because it wasn’t Merle’s doing. Merle was minding his own business shooting heads off of zombies when someone came onto the rooftop and said, ‘Stop!’ And guess what? You don’t say stop to a man like Merle Dixon, you know? Whoever came onto that rooftop – it could have been anyone – was about to get two barrels of Merle Dixon. And also watch it again because Merle Dixon did not punch first, T-Dogg punched first. And, I think it was a pretty damned fair fight, five against one. You see it and you go, ‘I don’t like this guy,’ but when you look real close you realize, ‘Oh, wait a minute. Merle was just like mind your own business, blah blah blah…’ Well, of course he used other words that offended someone, but that’s where the punch came from. I punched him emotionally and he tried to punch me physically.”
20th Century Fox has just released a new trailer for the sci-fi action thriller The Maze Runner starring Teen Wolf‘s Dylan O’Brien. Directed by Wes Ball and based on the bestselling book by James Dashner, The Maze Runner also stars Kaya Scodelario, Aml Ameen, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, and Will Poulter.
The Maze Runner will open in theaters on September 19, 2014.
The Maze Runner Plot:
When Thomas wakes up trapped in a massive maze with a group of other boys, he has no memory of the outside world other than strange dreams about a mysterious organization known as W.C.K.D. Only by piecing together fragments of his past with clues he discovers in the maze can Thomas hope to uncover his true purpose and a way to escape.
A scene from ‘The Maze Runner’ (Photo credit: Ben Rothstein)
Unfortunately, Sons of Anarchy star Charlie Hunnam was unable to make it to this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, breaking more than a few hearts by missing the show. However, while he wasn’t there to discuss the upcoming final season of Sons in person, he did send along a very entertaining video.
With the help of a few SoA cast members, Hunnam delivered a message to fans.
Sons of Anarchy returns for its final season on FX on September 9, 2014 at 10pm ET/PT.
Stephanie Leonidas as Irisa (Photo by: Joe Pugliese/Syfy)
The cast of Syfy’s Defiance made the trek to San Diego for the 2014 Comic Con, taking part in a fun Q&A with passionate fans of the series. Season two is currently airing on Thursday nights at 8pm ET/PT and things are rough for the residents – and visitors – to the town of Defiance.
Among the cast members who attended this year’s Comic-Con was the lovely Stephanie Leonidas who, after the Q&A with fans, sat down to answer a few questions from journalists as to what we can expect from Irisa over the course of this season.
Stephanie Leonidas Defiance Interview
Are we going to find out more about your character and those tendrils?
Stephanie Leonidas: “You will. You’ll find out a lot more as the season progresses. I don’t think it may be how people expect. I think it’s going to go in a slightly different direction. I don’t think people are going to…already not many people are liking her, let’s just say that. She’s quite hardcore. [Laughing] She’s not an easy girl to live with.”
strong>What is it like to play torn between two worlds?
Stephanie Leonidas: “I feel very schizophrenic on set, if I’m honest. She never failed to shock me how she could always take something to another level. Yeah, she was pretty hardcore. I didn’t get to interact with many of the other characters this season. I’m used to at least being with Nolan, and even their relationship was kind of broken apart and she seemed quite isolated. Even the people that she does meet, she’s kind of throwing tendrils down their throat and we’ve got to figure out what’s going on. So yeah, she’s on a tricky path at the moment. Trickier than ever and I don’t think even she really knows what’s going on.”
What about the physicality of the role, throwing knives and diving and fighting?
Stephanie Leonidas: “It’s a dream! It’s like what you dreamed to do since you were a kid and since I watched Goonies. I’m like, ‘Yes, I get to do it!’ Yeah, I love it and I love that she can be badass – and she really can. She might be this kind of small, swacky creature but she knows how to throw a knife and she will tear someone’s eyes out if she has to. And I love that. I can’t deny I’m absolutely loving it.”
What did you think of her entrance in the season premiere?
Stephanie Leonidas: “Oh yeah, with the flag on her back. She doesn’t make half an entrance, that girl.”
Do you play the Defiance game at all?
Stephanie Leonidas: “I do. You know, less at the moment because I was so bad at it, but Grant [Bowler] used to get us in his trailer and play it. Some exciting stuff actually happens this season with other characters going into the game and also a competition was won that one of the characters comes into this series. She’s a badass Irathient. I think I’m allowed to say that, but she’s great. We don’t work well together, you can tell. Yeah, the game, there’s a lot of exciting stuff coming up.”
What’s the most challenging scene this season?
Stephanie Leonidas: “Without giving too much away, in episode 11 – I think we spoke about it at the panel – there’s a scene between Grant and I. When I think of it, I well up. That’s how hard it was. Yeah, it was a pretty epic scene. I remember everything came to a head with those two characters. Playing it exhausted us for days and it was hard because we hadn’t seen each other for a long time either and so there was all this stuff building up with these characters.
And then they threw us together and we were in this tent and stuff happens. Sparks fly. It was hard. It was hard because it was also kind of heartbreaking for us to play that. As father/daughter, and he treats me like his daughter, and he’s my father figure on set so it was kind of really hard. It was like, ‘Please, Irisa, don’t,’ but Irisa does.”
That relationship is the favorite of a lot of viewers.
Stephanie Leonidas: “I feel they’re definitely a vital piece of Defiance. It’s a very interesting relationship, a father/daughter one, not often used like that. And yeah, it’s been great. We’ve really got to play around with that and through the seasons we’ve got to play the loving relationship but also the difficult side. It’s always been nice, especially at these conventions, people coming up and talking about their relationships with their fathers. It’s been interesting for me because I didn’t think about that side, people relating to it. It’s been really nice to play. It’s been a gem, actually.”
What’s been your favorite scene to shoot thus far?
Stephanie Leonidas: “You know, if I go back to season one, I do talk about the Johnny Cash scene a lot. It was a fun scene and I just love the fact that you’ve got this alien, I didn’t even think about it until I watched it and it kind of made me smile because there’s this alien girl singing Johnny Cash in a jeep with this human father. Neither of them know what they’re doing but they will relate to each other through this song, and it was just a really nice moment. We had so much fun with it and we’d barely known each other five minutes when we did it, so it really holds true to who they are deep down I think.”
Grant Bowler as Joshua Nolan and Stephanie Leonidas as Irisa Nolan (Photo by: Ben Mark Holzberg/Syfy).
Will that relationship continue?
Stephanie Leonidas: “Their relationship I’d say gets pretty rocky as we’ve already seen. I don’t expect them to be singing any time soon. However, I think deep down beyond all of that stuff that they’re going through, I think there’s a love there that takes a lot to be broken, but it really does get tried and tested several times this season. And, again, things don’t turn out so great for them several times. So yeah, it’s not how I’d love it to be right now.”
Have you ever had a fan yell at you for something Irisa did?
Stephanie Leonidas: “Actually a few people have, yeah, come over and been really unhappy about the way I’m treating people. I think people find it shocking how I’m treating Tommy right now, and I agree. I absolutely agree. Irisa, get your stuff together! It’s always interesting and I love the fact that people really care about these characters. I also love the fact that there are these people rooting for Irisa no matter what she does and that means a lot to me because she’s going to really try people’s patience this season.”
Have you had any weird fan experiences?
Stephanie Leonidas: “I’ve been really lucky. Most people have come up and just been really, really lovely. So no one’s thrown any underwear at me. I’ve got no cool stories to tell. Grant, I’m sure, has but I think Irisa holds a pretty cool fan base.”
How long does the makeup take?
Stephanie Leonidas: “It still takes two and a half hours roughly, which isn’t too bad. To be honest, Irisa wouldn’t be Irisa without that kind of prosthetic. I love the fact that it takes out these big, bushy eyebrows and she morphs into something else. They laugh and joke on set because I might try a stunt when I’m in my own clothes and then it all goes terribly wrong and I’m doing it like a real girl. And then the stunt coordinator, Shelly, literally calms everyone down and says, ‘It’s okay. As soon as she’s got that prosthetic on, as soon as she’s in the costume, she’ll do it,’ and I do. I feel invincible as Irisa so that’s who I’ll be cosplaying if the world ends. I’m going to just be Irisa because I’ll know what to do, clearly.”
When the makeup goes on does Stephanie go away?
Stephanie Leonidas: “Definitely. And I feel like because it’s not something I can take off at lunchtime, I kind of stay as Irisa for the whole day. I think we all do very much. The lunch queues are amazing. We’ve got every species of alien you can ever imagine queuing for hamburgers and chips. It’s interesting.”
What about a romantic relationship?
Stephanie Leonidas: “You know, I think without even Irisa knowing it, Tommy has always got a place for her in her heart, no matter how much she treats him badly. He seems to always come and rescue her, and I think we’ve already seen a bit of that. So sparks will fly. Sparks will definitely fly.”
Do you have a favorite part of Comic Con?
Stephanie Leonidas: “You know what, I love walking around. There was a Grant Morrison panel this morning and I was so tempted to go but it kind of clashed with ours. I love walking around seeing new stuff and also just meeting people, actually. We’ll be meeting people tomorrow and getting to talk about the show again because it always seems so long in between seasons that we get to do that. I’m excited by this season, I really am.”
Would you ever consider dressing up as Irisa and walking the floor?
Stephanie Leonidas: “You know what, in this heat, no. But it would be cool, but no. I’m already sweating so I think I’d be a sweaty mess. Yeah, it would be cool. Maybe one year.”
Is feeling invincible the best part of playing Irisa?
Stephanie Leonidas: “I think so, just in terms of being able to transform completely, physically, mentally, emotionally. The accent, the languages, there’s nothing really that stands to be very similar to me. Obviously, she’s a girl that’s going through stuff and I can relate to some stuff but other than that, she’s got these things coming out her mouth and she’s destructive. She’s like a girl I’ve never played and I love that. I love her strengths though and I admire that. No matter what she goes through, she has this incredible strength that keeps her going and holds people up, and I think holds Nolan up as much as her at times, because it’s not an easy world to live in.
I think as an actress anyway, you always strive for the roles that really are challenging and gritty and stuff to really get stuck into. Yeah, she’s a dream to play.”
Can you relate to her in any way?
Stephanie Leonidas: “I think I’ve got a bit of a fiery temper underneath that. You know, I’m sitting here smiling, like she’s so different but you ask my family, they’re like, ‘She’s not so different.’ Yeah, I guess so. You know, I’ve got some Greek blood in me. I know how to be a bit fiery and I love that side that I get to bring out on set so it saves everyone at home having to see it.”
How do you learn the alien dialogue?
Stephanie Leonidas: “Sometimes I make it up until ADR. No, David who created the languages, he’s been absolutely incredible. He’s always there, no matter what time, he seems to always be there at the end of the phone for us to ask him questions, suddenly go, ‘How do you say this again?’ And they send it to us in soundbites so you get to hear it almost like a song. It’s much easier to learn, but I walk around my apartment in Toronto with my French bulldog looking at me going, ‘What the hell are you saying?’ Just kind of singsonging the lines until they get in my head. And some lines never go away and I still don’t know what they mean but they’re in there. It’s fun but it’s again another challenge which has been good fun.”
Demi Lovato, Cher Lloyd, and Rita Ora will all be taking the stage at the Teen Choice 2014 awards to be held on August 10th in Los Angeles. The awards show is set to air live on Fox at 8pm ET/PT (taped delayed on the West Coast).
Lovato and Lloyd will perform “Really Don’t Care” and Ora will perform “I Will Never Let You Down,” joining previously announced musical acts including Jason Derulo, MAGIC! and Rixton. And Hilary Duff, Megan Fox, Fifth Harmony, Kevin Hart, Colton Haynes, Josh Hutcherson, Sarah Hyland, Kendall Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Lea Michele, The Band Perry, Nat Wolff, Keegan Allen, Jake T. Austin, Tyler Blackburn, Lucy Hale, Big Show, Jamie Blackley, Ian Harding, Kellan Lutz, MKTO, Chloë Grace Moretz, Cody Simpson, Hailee Steinfeld, Gregg Sulkin, Bella Thorne and Zendaya are confirmed to appear on the awards show.
The Carlton Cuse and Ryan Condal dramatic series Colony has earned a pilot pick-up at USA Network. The series was created and written by Cuse (Lost) and Condal.
Commenting on the pick-up, President of USA Network Chris McCumber said, “Colony is a gripping story that brilliantly weaves together an intense family drama in an authentic, yet unknown, world. We are pleased to be in business with Ryan Condal and Carlton Cuse, who is clearly one of the best in the industry when it comes to genre fiction.”
The Plot:
Colony is a naturalistic drama about a family torn by opposing forces and making difficult choices as they balance staying together with surviving the struggle of the human race. Set in the near future, the story takes place in Los Angeles, which exists in a state of occupation by a force of outside intruders. Some collaborate with the authorities and benefit from the new order, while others rebel and suffer the consequences.
