We may have seen the last of Agent Phil Coulson in the Marvel feature films, but actor Clark Gregg has been confirmed to reprise his role in Joss Whedon’s pilot for the Marvel TV series, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Marvel’s Head of TV Jeph Loeb made the announcement at the New York Comic Con.
Gregg made the crowd of comic book and movie fans even happier by putting in a surprise appearance at Marvel’s panel at the New York Comic Con. He talked about playing Principal Coulson on Ultimate Spider-Man and then played a video featuring The Avengers director Joss Whedon and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige talking about Gregg reprising his Agent Coulson role in the series pilot.
Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, and Maurissa Tancharoen are co-writing the Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot and are executive producing the series.
The Long Island Spy Museum surveyed real former spies, asking them to share their expert opinions on spy films. According to the survey, the former U.S. intelligence agents chose Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy as their favorite spy movie of all time.
Per the Long Island Museum: “The informal survey consisted of in-person interviews with ten former intelligence officers from Military Special Operations, former case officers from the State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and former senior agents from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Clandestine Service (NCS), the National Security Agency (NSA) and Geospatial Intelligence Agency. They are all founders and Board Members of the Long Island Spy Museum, a non-profit, apolitical Museum dedicated to educating the public about spies and espionage and how they shaped American history.”
“These movies are considered great recruiting vehicles,” said the interviewer, a former spy from the U.S. State Dept’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research who needed to remain anonymous (for security purposes). “The Bourne Identity and James Bond franchises resemble the ‘tip of the spear’ Special Forces Operators rather then the espionage case officers in the top-ten list.”
“We’re always asked, ‘What are spies really like?’” said Burke Liburt, Chief Executive Officer, Long Island Spy Museum. “Real spies are highly intelligent, quick-witted people who have chosen to put their country’s needs ahead of their own. It’s fascinating to see what real spies think about Hollywood’s depiction of their craft.”
Real Former Spies Favorite Spy Movies [Courtesy of the Long Island Spy Museum]:
1. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979) — Based on a novel by former British intelligence officer John le Carré, this movie depicts a mole hunt in the “Circus,” the highest echelon of the British Secret Intelligence Service.
“Real-life spies love the plot focus on recruitment of assets, betrayal and subterfuge; this is the ‘bread and butter’ of spycraft,” said one former CIA officer.
2. Munich (2006) – A historically based movie depicting the Israeli government’s response to The Black September Organization, the Palestinian terrorist group responsible for the kidnapping and murder of eleven Israeli athletes and officials and the fatal shooting of a West German policeman during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.
3. Ronin (1998) – This intelligence thriller reflects the most accurate depiction of a Non-Official Cover (NOC) officer, according to the former spies.
“NOC officers do not have the protection of diplomatic immunity so when they are caught working in foreign lands, it usually results in incarceration, death or severe bodily harm,” said one NSA agent.
4. 39 Steps (1935) – This movie, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, tells the story of a man in London who tries to help a counterespionage agent.
5. Eye of the Needle (1981) – A ruthless German spy during World War II tries to get out of Britain with vital information about D-Day.
6. Three Days of the Condor (1975) – CIA researcher finds all his co-workers dead, and must outwit those responsible until he figures out who he can and cannot really trust in the Agency.
7. The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1965) – Based on a best selling Cold War spy novel by John le Carré.
8. Body of Lies (2008) – “This movie superbly illustrates contemporary tension between Western and Arab societies and the comparative effectiveness of hi-tech technology versus human counter-intelligence methods,” said the Special Operations officer.
9. The Good Shepherd (2006) – A fictional movie based on real events, recounting the untold story of the birth of counter-intelligence in the CIA.
10. Tailor of Panama (2001) – “Spies love Pierce Brosnan’s betrayal of the ‘loose cannon’ spy who creates all kinds of mayhem by tweaking the intelligence that he is sending back to headquarters,” said another real-life former operative.
Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere lead the cast of ABC’s new Country music-driven drama Nashville. The new series is set to join the network’s primetime lineup on October 10, 2012.
Connie Britton plays Rayna Jaymes, Hayden Panettiere stars as Juliette Barnes, and Charles Esten is Deacon Claybourne, Eric Close is Teddy Conrad. Clare Bowen plays Scarlett O’Connor, Jonathan Jackson is Avery Barkley, Sam Palladio is Gunnar Scott, Robert Ray Wisdom is Coleman Carlisle, and Powers Boothe is Lamar Wyatt.
The Synopsis: Music legend and entertainment icon Rayna Jaymes has been one of the industry’s top female vocalists for two decades. After working tirelessly to elevate her game, Rayna suddenly discovers her passion for the business is not enough to compete with the new generation of talent lighting up the charts. She is reluctant to accept the emerging trend in the business and refuses to be steamrolled by her longtime label, which she helped build.
When they give her an offer she can’t refuse, Rayna is forced to accept the harsh reality that she’ll have to start over and reinvent herself if she plans on being relevant.
Offstage things aren’t much easier for Rayna, whose father, Lamar Wyatt, is Nashville’s most powerful businessman. Their distant relationship is strained by years of resentment and powerful secrets that begin to boil over when Lamar and her sister, Tandy, encourage Rayna’s husband, Teddy, to run for office. For Teddy Conrad, this might be his time to share the spotlight instead of being the man behind the woman. For years he’s competed against Rayna’s greatest love… her music. He’s been haunted by her romantic entanglements, which he thought were buried in the past, but now his choice to align himself with her father could send Rayna running back into the arms of her soul mate.
Juliette Barnes is sexy, sassy, and she’s got trouble written all over her. She’s the hottest act in the business and she’s not about to let anyone stand in the way of her success, much less Rayna Jaymes. On her way to the top, an even bigger set of circumstances will cast a shadow on her girl-next-door image. But Juliette is calculating, has an insatiable appetite for fame, and will do whatever it takes to leave her hard knocks past behind.
Everyone in Nashville has a dream: Deacon Claybourne is the band leader whose unrequited love is constantly played out in the lyrics of familiar songs; Scarlett O’Connor is the beautiful undiscovered songwriter; Avery Barkley is a young misguided musician; and Gunnar Scott is an up and comer on a collision course with Scarlett.
Just hours before her 2012 World Tour arrived in Sin City, Madonna was immortalized in wax at Madame Tussauds in Las Vegas. The wax figure of the pop superstar is wearing an outfit inspired by her 2012 Super Bowl performance, with the headdress fashioned by London designer Philip Treacy.
Madame Tussauds Las Vegas unveiled a wax figure of pop superstar Madonna just 48 hours before two sold-out shows on the Strip. (Photo credit: Darrin Bush/Las Vegas News Bureau)
It’s almost here … The season three premiere of The Walking Dead is set for October 14, 2012 at 9pm and AMC’s revealed a new clip from episode #1. In this video, Rick and his ragtag group of survivors are trying to figure which direction to go and where to lay low for a while.
Tom Riley in Da Vinci's DemonsStarz has unveiled the first photos from Da Vinci’s Demons, showing off the adventure drama’s star, Tom Riley, as a 25 year old Leonardo Da Vinci. David S Goyer (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Man of Steel) wrote the series, and Starz will be premiering the show next spring.
In addition to releasing the first photos from the upcoming series, Starz announced Goyer will be updating a production blog with details from the set. The blog will be providing behind-the-scenes info and an “in-depth, step by step insider’s take on what it’s like to experience daily production” on Da Vinci’s Demons.
Starring Tom Riley as the title character, Da Vinci’s Demons is a historical fantasy, following the ‘untold’ story of the world’s greatest genius during his turbulent youth in Renaissance Florence. Brilliant and passionate, the twenty-five year old Leonardo Da Vinci is an artist, inventor, swordsman, lover, dreamer and idealist. As a free thinker, with intellect and talents that are almost superhuman, he struggles to live within the confines of his own reality and time. He begins to not only see the future, but invent it.
The series also stars Laura Haddock and Lara Pulver.
Tom Riley in Da Vinci's Demons
Filming began this summer on Da Vinci’s Demons. The eight episode series will debut in 2013.
Jerry O'Connell as Herman, Mason Cook as Eddie, Portia de Rossi as Lily -- (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/NBC)NBC’s finally letting us all in on what’s in store for audiences with Mockingbird Lane, their revamped, revised take on the classic The Munsters TV series. The 30 second preview doesn’t really show much – other than a couple of cool effects – but it does sort of introduce the main characters.
Debuting on October 26, 2012, Mockingbird Lane stars Jerry O’Connell as Herman Munster, Portia de Rossi as his wife Lily, Eddie Izzard as Grandpa, Mason Cook as Eddie and Charity Wakefield as Marilyn.
“I almost got killed today because you guys kidnapped the wrong dog,” says Marty (Colin Farrell), a struggling screenwriter, to his best friend Billy (Sam Rockwell) and his partner Hans (Christopher Walken), a religious man with a complicated and violent past. Billy and Hans make their living kidnapping people’s dogs and then returning them to collect the rewards in the dark comedy, Seven Psychopaths.
Marty has a great title for his next screenplay, but no actual script. He’s missing any original stories for the characters – all psychopaths – in his screenplay. Billy would do anything to help his best friend and desperately wants to co-write the screenplay with him, but his side business of kidnapping dogs with Hans for the reward money has been keeping him busy. Things get complicated fast when Billy and Hans end up kidnapping a deadly gangster’s (Woody Harrelson) beloved Shih Tzu. Now with killers hot on their trail, Marty, Billy and Hans flee to the desert as they to figure out a way out of this mess, a mess which might provide Marty with some great source material for his script – providing he survives.
Clever and original, Seven Psychopaths is a sharply written, extremely well-acted entertaining dark crime comedy. Writer/director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges) has brought together a great ensemble of actors to bring these quirky, strange and unique characters to life. Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken are perfectly cast as Billy, the outlandish and hilarious loyal friend of Marty’s, and Hans, the stylish, religious man with an extremely violent past who gets poor Marty mixed up in their illegal dognapping business. Their performances are the best in the film, with Walken stealing every scene he’s in.
Colin Farrell has one of his best roles in years playing Marty, the boozing, half-talented writer who wouldn’t have any stories to tell in his script if it wasn’t for his buddies Billy and Hans. Farrell’s reactions to the surprises and revelations that come up during the three friends forced road-trip are laugh-out-loud hilarious. Woody Harrelson has some of the funniest and most violent scenes in the movie as the gangster Charlie who is ruthless and bloodthirsty but truly deeply loves his cute little Shih Tzu.
The only drawbacks to the film are the uneven and at times awkward pacing and the outrageous, over-the-top violence. It’s strong enough to turn off any audience members who are a bit squeamish or are just turned off by extreme violence.
Funny and smart, Seven Psychopaths is a dark, violent, crime film that’s loaded with twists and surprises. It will have the audience laughing and jolting out of their seats.
GRADE: B-
Seven Psychopaths is rated R for strong violence, bloody images, pervasive language, sexuality/nudity and some drug use.
With ‘found footage’ kicking off the “Beauty and the Beat” video, Justin Bieber goofs around poolside with back-up dancers and a brief appearance by Nicki Minaj. Leading up to the video’s release, Bieber had reported that his computer had been stolen. @gexwy was responsible for the theft and had vowed to release embarrassing footage on Friday, October 12th at noon. But it was all part of the video release campaign, and the footage was actually included in the “Beauty and the Beat” video which was co-directed by Bieber and Jon Chu.
Paramount’s released a new clip from Robert Zemeckis’ return to live-action films (after a foray into performance capture) with Flight starring Denzel Washington. Releasing in theaters on November 2, 2012, Flight also features Don Cheadle, John Goodman, and Bruce Greenwood.
The Plot:
In this action-packed mystery thriller, Academy Award winner Denzel Washington stars as Whip Whitaker, a seasoned airline pilot, who miraculously crash lands his plane after a mid-air catastrophe, saving nearly every soul on board. After the crash, Whip is hailed as a hero, but as more is learned, more questions than answers arise as to who or what was really at fault and what really happened on that plane?
The Long Island Spy Museum surveyed real former spies, asking them to share their expert opinions on spy films. According to the survey, the former U.S. intelligence agents chose Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy as their favorite spy movie of all time.
Paramount’s released a new clip from Robert Zemeckis’ return to live-action films (after a foray into performance capture) with 
