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Dylan Dog: Dead of Night Trailer

5 Mar

‘Primeval’ boss drops hints on new character’s in season 4/5

19 Oct

Primeval producer Tim Bradley has revealed details of the two new characters joining the show’s regular cast.

He explained to SFX that field leader Matt Anderson (Ciaran McMenamin) would be “an animal expert”.

“He’s the sort of guy who’s wrestled tigers in the jungle, but also understands the biology of them too,” said Bradley. “He knows how to track a creature without killing it and like [former leader] Nick Cutter, he has the [knowledge of] science.”

Bradley also described new recruit Jess (Ruth Kearny) as “very fun, down-to-earth and likeable”.

“We very much wanted to make the ARC the centre of communications, so that when the team are out on the road, there would be someone watching everybody,” he confirmed. “Jess really is very much the one who conducts the orchestra. She can run the ARC solo.”

Primeval is expected to return for a new series in January on ITV1.

Sam Witwer teases ‘Being Human’ remake

16 Oct

Sam Witwer has revealed details of his forthcoming role in the US remake of Being Human.

The actor will play vampire Aidan in Syfy’s version of the supernatural BBC drama.

Witwer told Zap2it that his character will be portrayed as “a cross between a heroin addict and a sex addict”.

“He’s spent 200 years of his life being a completely amoral murderer, and now he realises that he cannot continue like that,” he explained. “Everything that he knows… is patterned around feeding [and] victimising people, so he’s reprogramming himself. He’s a tortured individual.”

However, he admitted that there are also some “fun” aspects to the part.

“His growth was stunted from age 25 when he got turned,” he said. “Now he’s rediscovering all this stuff about life, so there’s an odd youthfulness to the character.”

Being Human is expected to premiere early next year on Syfy.

Time Jumps Could Become A Part Of ‘Caprica’

6 Oct


Ronald D. Moore doesn’t rule the kind of ‘one year later’ scenarios we saw in ‘Battlestar Galactica’

by MICHAEL HINMAN
Source: Airlock Alpha

Time moves forward, but will Zoe get older?

Newly sworn-in president Gaius Baltar dropped his head to the desk after learning about a nuclear explosion in orbit of New Caprica that not only killed a number of Colonial citizens, but his Cylon girlfriend as well.

As he faced his first crisis, the camera pushed in on Baltar, a bit of Bear McCreary piano music in the air. And by the time the camera pulled back out, it was one year later, and fans had to try and figure out what was happening on “Battlestar Galactica.”

Although there will be a bit of a time jump when we return to the world of “Caprica” Tuesday on Syfy, there could still be some much larger ones to come.

“That is a possibility,” co-creator and executive producer Ronald D. Moore told Airlock Alpha during San Diego Comic-Con last summer. “We have a good 10 years in the storyline, more than 10 years before we get to the first Cylon war. Right now, I couldn’t tell you where this show is.”

The focus right now is on the aftermath of the events from “End of the Line,” the mid-season finale which aired on Syfy earlier this year. But there certainly could be attempts to see what happens from here at a much faster pace than many would expect.

“There is about a half-dozen places where ‘Caprica’ is and where the ‘Battlestar’ miniseries s that we could end this show,” Moore said, “and I’m not entirely certain which of those markers where I want the show to end. Right now, we’re just open. There could be a big time jump at some point, but we just haven’t decided.”

Moore is no stranger to controversy, especially after taking a legendary series like “Battlestar Galactica” and re-creating it through his own vision. And fans will have reason to argue more aspects of “Caprica” as it returns.

“I’m fascinated to see what the reactions are” from fans, he said. “I hope they are surprised. That was sort of the intention. If we had gone back and done what you have expected, it wouldn’t be that interesting to watch.”

Controversy, of course, can create much-needed buzz for a show that needs a ratings boost to see a second season. But controversy also means that the storylines are forcing viewers to think, achieving the objective of nearly any writer.

“I’m glad that [viewers] are sort of caught off guard,” Moore said. “I’m a fan of controversy, as long as they keep watching, that’s OK.”

“Caprica” returns Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET, immediately following “Stargate: Universe” on Syfy.

‘The Walking Dead’ Set Visit Preview: The Bloodiest Show Ever! (Bloody-disgusting.com Article)

6 Jul

Oh yes, there will be blood. AMC has made some pretty impressive headway in the television world in recent years, going from primarily broadcasting old movies to competing with the cutting edge of dramatic television on channels like HBO, Showtime and FX. And while “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad” broke ground in terms of language and sex, their next series The Walking Dead promises to bring the gore in a big, big way. And from what we saw during our recent visit to the Atlanta set, this may well be the bloodiest show ever seen on television.

When the first zombie image from set circulated last month, portraying the rotting corpse of a woman reaching out towards camera, the collective hearts of zombie fans across the nation went aflutter. Courtesy of FX maestro Greg Nicotero, the work looks as good as anything we’ve seen on a big budget feature production. But Robert Kirkman, who created the original comic, tells us the image only shows half of what we’ll ultimately see on the show. “Just wait until you see below the waste,” explains a giddy Kirkman. “Below the waste, she’s just a pelvis with a dragging femur. She’s just dragging herself around and it is just horrendous-looking.”

THE WALKING DEAD’s director, Frank Darabont, may be best known for dramatic work like SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, but he’s a horror geek from way back who has long-since dreamed of getting his hands on some zombies. A lifelong Romero fan, Darabont promises that the series will hold little back in comparison to a horror feature. “We can’t say fuck,” says Darabont with a laugh. “I don’t know that if I were doing a feature I’d be doing anything differently. You can’t say fuck but you can shoot a zombie in the head at point blank range. I love this business.”

Darabont has been trying to produce THE WALKING DEAD show for five-plus years. At one point the show was being developed for NBC. “They were very excited about the idea of doing a zombie show until I handed them a zombie script where zombies were actually doing zombie shit,” says Darabont. “It’s one of those things where the network says, ‘Oh yeah, we want to stretch the envelope’ until they realize that they’re actually looking at a stretched envelope and they go, ‘Woah, no, let’s do CSI some more.’”

“I’m certainly not trying to rip them down, but they’re a network and we could never have done this show the way it needed to be done there.”

Along with makeup legend and zombie aficionado Greg Nicotero, who is often seen on set hauling large buckets of fake blood, Darabont is setting out to test the bounds of television gore. “Yesterday Greg was up past his elbows. He was just absolutely covered with blood.”

The two worked previously on 2007’s THE MIST. “The real hardcore geek stuff that we grew up loving, we haven’t really gotten a chance to do that much,” says Darabont. “We’re having the time of our lives together.”
Nicotero says Darabont’s enthusiasm is contagious: “We did the first take and Frank was like, ‘It’s zombie day, it’s zombie day!’ Frank really loves the genre and is so passionate about it.”

The day before our visit, Nicotero prepped 150 zombies for the biggest shooting day so far. “It’s funny, because I thought when we did LAND OF THE DEAD, we had 60 zombies a night. It was just brutal. And then of course our 150 day in our summer heat [here].”

During our visit in early June, the Atlanta sets were hitting record temperatures well over 100 degrees with the humidity index. Darabont, who could often be spotted on set with a towel on his head, described it as a sauna. “You don’t get used to the heat,” says the director. “I’ve never had clothes stick to me like this in my life.” Luckily the fun of the production seems to overwhelm the brutal heat.

Just outside the Atlanta Zoo, the day’s shoot was at an unassuming house in downtown Atlanta. The scene takes place early in the story when Rick (Andrew Lincoln) first comes home from the hospital. He finds his house abandoned and heads outside for a moment of reflection. A little boy (Adrian Kali Turner) sneaks up behind Rick and, mistaking him for a zombie, knocks him unconscious with a shovel. “Dad!” the boy screams. “I got the sonba bitch!”

A tall, lanky zombie in a tattered, dirty black suit approaches and the father (Keith Allen Hayes) steps in and shoots him dead with a pistol. The scene is more of a set-up of things to come rather than the larger set pieces shot the day before.

For anyone still feeling skeptical about the level of gore AMC will permit on TV, Kirkman admits even he’s been shocked. “The stuff that AMC is going to put on air is crazy,” he says. “They keep showing me things and I’m like, you’re not doing that.”

During the previous day’s shoot, Rick wanders into an abandoned downtown Atlanta looking for signs of life. Instead, he comes across a mob of hungry zombies. He manages to escape, but his horse isn’t so fortunate. “They rip a horse open and there’s just spaghetti coming out,” says Kirkman. “They actually have things that you see.”

“It was fantastic,” Nicotero says of the horse scene. “You see the pale, discolored hands going in and then coming out red.”

As further evidence, we are shown pictures of the horse disembowelment. The shots are, in a word, brutal. In one overhead image, a crowd of zombies devour the horse as a pool of blood forms around them. In the appetizing close-up, the zombies tear innards out of the horse and prepare for the feast, blood covering their hands and mouths.

We were shown a few additional images, such as a shadowy staircase shot of Rick after he first wakes up in the hospital. The image showcases the gritty, dark look of the series, which is being shot on Super-16mm film stock. Aside from the horse shots, the other gory image is of a dead nurse that looks to have been one zombie’s late night snack. Her body is totally massacred, blood streaked and splattered all around her, a dark pool around her corpse. Some of her ribs are exposed and all that remains of one leg is a bloody stump. Did I mention they showed us these images right after lunch?

After a single day on set, we are sufficiently impressed with what we’ve seen, if even a little shocked. Sure, we’re a little skeptical as to whether all the gooey gory goodness we saw on set will actually make it to air, but Darabont, producer Gale Ann Hurd and the rest of the team we spoke to on set insisted that what you see is what you get. They intend to push the envelope to the limit. And hey, we’d love to see them get away with it.

We’ll have more from the set of THE WALKING DEAD coming soon. The series will premiere on AMC as part of their Fearfest this October.

Tim Kring unsure about ‘Heroes’ movie

23 Jun


Source:Digital spy
By Catriona Wightman

Tim Kring has suggested that it may be some time before a Heroes movie is made.

The showrunner first floated the idea after it emerged that NBC had cancelled the show.

Kring has now told Entertainment Weekly that no decision has been made on possible spinoffs.

“The Heroes brand is an extremely broad premise,” he continued. “It was a premise about ordinary people, an undisclosed number of people all over the world, who were waking up to these extraordinary abilities. Any number of stories could happen around that.”

He added: “We never posited a single ending or a single premise. It wasn’t about getting off of an island or stopping something from happening. We told stories in volumes that had a beginning, a middle and an end. Those volumes could go on and on and on with many different characters. As a result, that Heroes universe is something that can be tapped into again in many ways.”

However, Kring hinted that he would like to wait a while before working on a movie.

“Clearly, there is an entire world and a number of platforms that this property could live in,” he said. “Movies sometimes need a little distance from the television show.”

Kirkman: Walking Dead from Page to Screen

21 Jun


Source:AMC June 21, 2010

AMC’s publicity team caught up to writer Robert Kirkman on the set of The Walking Dead to gab about the adaptation of his comic book.

While they discuss what elements are begin expanded upon in the six-episode arc AMC will unfold beginning in April, Kirkman exuded excitement over seeing the dead brought back to life in one monstrous sequence.

“That was probably the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. A three by three block square of Atlanta was shut down so that they could move around corners and go down streets. It was more than I ever expected seeing, and you could get to a certain point in the area that they were shooting, and kind of turn around in a 360 degree view, and that’s like, “OK here’s what it’s like at the end of the world, and I’m standing in the middle of it.” They had trucks turned over and a burned out bus, they had all the stores closed and dressed to look like the windows had all been cracked. And then all of a sudden, here’s hundreds of zombie extras walking around.”

For the full interview click here. Frank Darabont is directing episode one and Kirkman penned two episodes himself. More updates as they come in!

More On Alien Prequels From Ridley Scott

14 Jun


Space Jockey angle confirmed
Source: Collider

The LA Times’ Hero Complex festival has been taking place over the weekend, at which Ridley Scott turned up to screen Blade Runner and Alien, and do some Q&A business. Oddly, Hero Complex haven’t blogged the results so far, so the news comes from the quick-off-the-mark Collider that Sir Ridley has confirmed the Space Jockey angle for the new Alien prequels, as well as teasing some further details.

This is no great surprise, as it’s been largely assumed since the project was announced that the elephantine, crashed, calcified creature glimpsed in the first Alien was a likely subject for attention. Scott says he was always “amazed that nobody explored the back story of the ‘Space Jockey’ in the sequels”, and that he always wondered about it.*

On the question of the project being a pair of films, Scott explains that the timeline takes place long before the first movie, so there’s plenty of space for new history. He also says that, “Once you learn how the Jockey encountered the aliens, you’ll also want to learn about how he got there…” Does that mean the films’ chronologies will be backwards? A prequel, followed by a prequel to the prequel? Our heads hurt.

Finally, Scott reveals a wealth of knowledge on the practicalities of terraforming (taking mankind to the stars!), and says the new films have involved “a lot of underwater research”. So what does that mean? An ocean planet origin for the jockeys? Extended sequences like the rather good one in the flooded kitchen in Alien: Resurrection?

More questions than answers then: clearly the slow-drip of Alien intel will continue for a long time to come. John Spaihts has written the screenplays, and the current due date for part one is late 2011.

*Mark Verheiden’s 1990s comics (the adventures of Newt and Hicks after Aliens, before Alien 3 arrived and killed them off) did just this, suggesting that the Jockeys are badass warriors who intend to enslave humanity once they’ve finished with the Xenomorphs.

Peter Jackson now says he MIGHT direct ‘The Hobbit’

2 Jun


With director Guillermo del Toro now having left The Hobbit, all eyes have turned naturally to The Lord of the Rings director (and Hobbit co-producer and co-screenwriter) Peter Jackson to get behind the camera again. But Jackson’s manager, Ken Kamins, dismissed that possibility, telling EW.com that it’s “not something he can consider at this time as he has other commitments to other projects,” among them his collaboration with Steven Spielberg on the two-part adaptation of The Adventures of Tintin.

Jackson, however, has not ruled out directing, saying to New Zealand’s Dominion Post, “If that’s what I have to do to protect Warner Bros’ investment, then obviously that’s one angle which I’ll explore.”

The financial woes of MGM Studios, which co-owns the rights to The Hobbit with Warner Brothers Pictures, are apparently what led del Toro to bow out of directing after two years of developing it as two films and co-writing the scripts with Jackson and co-producers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens.

MGM was put up for sale late last year. The legendary studio has several lucrative franchises in its portfolio—including the James Bond series and The Hobbit—but also a massive $3.7 billion debt. As a result, no one’s been rushing to snatch the studio up.

Although the company has made scheduled payments on The Hobbit and preproduction has been ongoing, the possibility of a sale or even bankruptcy makes going forward with shooting the movies a dicey proposition. A source told EW.com that MGM’s problems have no impact on the movie and that it has always been slated to start filming at the end of 2010, but if that’s the case, why would del Toro leave?

With two years of his life already devoted to the project and another two to three years needed, plus other commitments piling up (including adaptations of Frankenstein and H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness), it seems del Toro decided he could not wait around any longer. There’s also been speculation that he’s not keen on the rumored possibility of shooting The Hobbit in 3-D. He revealed in a conference call with reporters last week that “3-D has been discussed literally once … is there a chance it will become 3-D in the future? Maybe. Right now, it’s not being planned as such.”

9 sizzling True Blood spoilers from creator Alan Ball

28 May

Alan Ball has a promise for True Blood viewers. The characters in his randy, violent, supernatural series aren’t going to experience long-term happiness anytime soon.

“Here’s the thing about happiness: It’s great in our lives, but it’s not really that interesting to watch on television,” said creator Ball, whose series is about to premiere its third season on HBO on June 13.

Ball feels season three is “the best season yet.” Along with the “fantastic core cast,” several new regulars will be introduced this season, as well as a number of impressive guest stars, such as Alfre Woodard, who plays Lafayette’s mother. Beyond that, “We are dealing with some new supernatural creatures. … It has just been a really fun, exciting season to put together, and I just have really, really high hopes for it. … I can’t give anything away.”

Well, actually he did give some things away … like these nine spoilers … (And between the spoilers you’ll find most of HBO’s clever posters.)

1. The Shifters and the Weres: This season will take us into “the shape-shifter world and the were world. They are two different kinds of creatures with a lot of similarities,” said Ball. On the were side, “There are a handful of werewolves, the main ones being Alcide Herveaux (Joe Manganiello), his ex-girlfriend Debbie Pelt (Brit Morgan), [and] a couple of werewolves named Coot and Gus, who are Grant Bowler and Don Swayze.”

On the shifter side, “Sam Merlotte [Sam Trammell] is going to meet his biological family. He is going to go on a journey to find his birth family and is going to be successful in that regard.” Joining the cast is Marshall Allman, who plays Tommy Mickens, Sam’s brother, who may or may not be a shape-shifter.

2. The Town of Hotshot: You’re likely familiar with Sookie’s hometown of Bon Temps. Well, get ready for Hotshot. “We definitely do go to Hotshot. … We meet Hotshot, we meet the people in Hotshot, we meet Crystal and her father, Calvin,” Ball said. Crystal (Lindsay Pulsipher) becomes a major love interest for Sookie’s brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten). As for the leader of the Hotshot group, Calvin (Gregory Sporleder), “I think our take on Calvin is a little different than the one in the book.”

3. Vampire Rights and Wrongs: When it comes to vampire politics, “we’re going to definitely see more of that this year,” he said. “We’re focusing more on the Vampire Rights Amendment to the Constitution and the struggle to get that passed and the heated feeling both pro and con.”

4. The Vampire King of Mississippi: There will be more than one Big Bad this year, but one of the baddest will be new regular Denis O’Hare, who plays Russell Edgington, the Vampire King of Mississippi. The King and his boyfriend of 700 years, Talbot, will be major players this season. “Their relationship has moments of stability. I wouldn’t say it’s a model relationship, but then again I wouldn’t point to any relationship in the show and say that’s a model relationship,” said Ball with a laugh.

The show’s action will expand to Mississippi, as the characters head there to face Russell on his home turf. “He’s definitely got his reasons for doing things, and I don’t think he thinks what he’s doing is wrong.”

5. Tara’s Scary Vamp Boyfriend: Big Bad #2 is vampire Franklin Mott, and he’s going to dig into Tara’s [Rutina Wesley] psyche in the most personal, terrifying and hot ways. “I wouldn’t say it’s a happy relationship. I would say it’s definitely not a functional relationship, and I’ll leave it at that,” he said. “Franklin’s from the books. He’s played by the really good British actor James Frain. Really, really fantastic.”

6. Lafayette’s Heart: Get ready for some serious Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) action. Not only will we meet his mother, Ruby Jean Reynolds (Alfre Woodard), but he’ll acquire a new sizzling-hot boyfriend in Jesus (Kevin Alejandro), who is “the first person who has made a serious pitch for Lafayette’s heart, which is quite a struggle, as you might imagine, ’cause Lafayette’s got a lot of walls around himself.”

7. The Missing Bill: “We find out very quickly who took Bill and where they took him. He won’t get back to Bon Temps until around the middle of the season,” said Ball. As for what that means for Sookie [Anna Paquin] and Bill’s [Stephen Moyer] relationship, especially considering she was about to say yes to his marriage proposal before he got kidnapped at the end of season two … “I would say their love is very real. I can’t really say whether it is going to last forever, ’cause I don’t want to give anything away, but I do think their love is real. I think what they feel for each other is very, very profound.”

8. Alan Ball Is Having Fun: Ball believes there’s a “lot of life” left in True Blood beyond season three. “I think this show could continue for years,” he said, beyond the fact that there are several more novels from writer Charlaine Harris to mine for material. “She keeps publishing one every year.”

As for Ball himself, he can see himself working on True Blood for a long time to come. “It continues to be fun, which for me is the most important thing. I would rather have fun on a show that nobody cares about than be miserable on a show that is the biggest hit in the world.” Luckily for Ball, he can be happy on a show a LOT of people care about.

9. Comic-Con Rock Stars: “I never thought the series would be as huge. I didn’t really have much experience in the genre world, you know what I mean? I came to it fresh and I thought, ‘I think this show will have an audience.’ But I’ve thought that about other things and it didn’t really work out that way. I just knew it was a show I would watch, I would be deeply entertained by. I think the amazing growth during the second season in terms of not only the number of viewers, but the passion on the part of the viewers, was really a surprise to me … a very pleasant one. When we went to Comic-Con last year, when we walked out on stage it was like we were rock stars. … Well, it was like the cast was rock stars and I was also there,” said Ball with a laugh.

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