The latest episode of Game of Thrones shocked audiences when it seemingly ended one of the show’s greatest conflicts and dashed hopes about a prophecy that’s been in place since the beginning. But we still have three episodes left, and the return of Azor Ahai and Lightbringer could still be fulfilled. But it would…
CoreyLOVE this movie.
While we’ve still got a little time to go before Amazon Prime Video‘s adaptation of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson‘s comic book series The Boys premieres on July 26, cast members Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Karen Fukuhara, and Elisabeth Shue as well as executive producer-showrunner Eric Kripke are set to invade the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival this Monday, April 29, for the series’ world premiere and panel discussion.
But before that happens, “The Powers That Be” behind the project are making it clear that this ain’t no Avengers: Endgame, people. They take a slightly different perspective…
View this post on InstagramTL;DR: F**k superheroes. #TheBoysTV
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Now here’s a look at two recent teasers for The Boys, with the second one being a particularly eye-opening, NSFW one:
In a world where superheroes embrace the darker side of their massive celebrity and fame, THE BOYS centers on a group of vigilantes known informally as “The Boys,” who set out to take down corrupt superheroes with no more than their blue-collar grit and a willingness to fight dirty. THE BOYS is a fun and irreverent take on what happens when superheroes – who are as popular as celebrities, as influential as politicians and as revered as Gods – abuse their superpowers rather than use them for good. It’s the powerless against the super powerful as The Boys embark on a heroic quest to expose the truth about “The Seven,” and Vought – the multi-billion dollar conglomerate that manages these superheroes.
On the side of The Boys, Karl Urban’s Billy Butcher is mysterious and brutal, hiding a personal agenda as he approaches potential new recruit Hughie (Jack Quaid), claiming to be a shadowy government operative. Butcher capitalizes on Hughie’s rage over his girlfriend Robin’s accidental death at the hands of Superhero A-Train and enlists Hughie as part of his plan to bring down the super-hero franchise.
Rounding out Butcher’s team are Laz Alonso (The Mysteries of Laura) as second-in-command Mother’s Milk; Karen Fukuhara (Suicide Squad) as The Female, a young Asian assassin with blistering fighting skills who happens to have superpowers; and Tomer Capon as unpredictable wild card Frenchie, a brutal warrior when who lives a life of no attachments or responsibilities.
On the flip side, The Seven are Antony Starr (American Gothic) as Homelander, leader of the main superhero team, The Seven; Dominique McElligott (The Last Tycoon) as Queen Maeve, a member of The Seven; Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl) as The Seven member The Deep, an aquatic hero; Jesse T. Usher (Survivor’s Remorse) as speedster with a major PR problem, A-Train; and Nathan Mitchell (iZombie) as Black Noir, a masked superhero with fighting and Set martial arts skills.
Erin Moriarty (Jessica Jones) joins the cast as Starlight/Annie, a young woman who can make lightning bolts flash from her eyes and dreams of being a “real superhero” like the famous Seven; Elisabeth Shue‘s (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Karate Kid) super-hero handler Madelyn Stillwell is the Vice President of Hero Management for Vought and the person responsible for cleaning up after the “heroes.” Jennifer Esposito (NCIS, Blindspot) has also been cast in the recurring role of CIA Agent Susan Raynor, with Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) set as Hughie’s father and Billy Zane (Titanic) also set to make a guest appearance this season.
The post ‘The Boys’ Clarifies It’s Position on the Whole “Superheroes” Thing [VIDEO] appeared first on Bleeding Cool News And Rumors.
CoreyLooks excellent. I gotta get the fucking DC App now.
While DC Universe‘s live-action Swamp Thing may still be a little more than a month away from its May 31st debut, it’s never too early for an extended teaser that offer us a look at just how deadly dangerous the Louisiana swamps have become – and why it’s going to take something to save us all.
Here’s your extended look at DC Universe’s Swamp Thing:
DC Universe’s Swamp Thing follows Abby Arcane as she investigates what seems to be a deadly swamp-born virus in a small town in Louisiana but soon discovers that the swamp holds mystical and terrifying secrets. When unexplainable and chilling horrors emerge from the murky marsh, no one is safe.
A little more than a week ago, it was reported that production on the series was ending early: that the show’s crew were notified earlier that week as writers retooled the season finale (though some reshoots for earlier episodes may still take place). After the news broke that the 13-episode season would now consist of 10 episodes, the streaming service put to rest concerns about both the series’ and DC Universe’ future by releasing a teaser for the series and clarifying that the episode reduction was due to “creative differences” between the show’s creators and streaming service but would still premiere on the streaming service on May 31st, and that plans are still on for the remainder of the DC Universe slate (Titans, Doom Patrol, Harley Quinn, Young Justice: Outsiders, and Stargirl).
!['Swamp Thing' Debuts First Look Teaser; Confirms May 31 Premiere [VIDEO]](https://mlpnk72yciwc.i.optimole.com/w:auto/h:auto/q:auto/https://www.bleedingcool.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/st-102.jpg)
Here’s an overview of DC Universe’s Swamp Thing as well as a look at Bean’s Alec Holland, Mears’ Swamp Thing, Sten’s Liz Tremayne, Reed’s Dr. Abby Arcane, Beals’ Sheriff Lucilia Cable, Prescott’s Madame Xanadu, Madsen’s Maria Sunderland, Patton’s Avery Sunderland, Durand’s Woodrue/Floronic Man, Ziering’s Daniel Cassidy/Blue Devil, and Nam’s Harlan Edwards – offering some clues as to what viewers could expect from the series:
● Emerging from the swamp with a monstrous physique and strange new powers over plant life, the man who was once Alec Holland (Bean) struggles to hold onto his humanity. Prior to his life as the elemental hero, Holland was a biologist who got caught in the crosshairs of a small town nightmare, when he discovered a bizarre local illness connected to his work in the swamp.
● When dark forces converge on the town of Marais, Swamp Thing (Mears) must embrace what he has become in order to defend the town as well as the natural world at large.
● Smart and caring, CDC Dr. Abby Arcane’s (Reed) strong sense of empathy puts her at the center of a horrific life-threatening epidemic in her hometown, where she faces emotional demons from her past. A chance meeting with scientist Alec Holland takes her into a world of horror and the supernatural, and of the elemental creature known as Swamp Thing.
● Liz Tremayne (Sten) is a close childhood friend of Abby Arcane’s, who splits her time between reporting for the local paper and bartending at her aging father’s roadhouse bar. Her no-nonsense attitude belies a deep compassion for her friends and family as she sets out in her uncompromising quest to expose the secrets that threaten her beloved hometown.
● Sheriff Lucilia Cable (Beals) is tough as nails, pragmatic, and fiercely devoted to her son, Matt, her sworn duty to serve and protect the town of Marais. As the community she has dedicated her life to defending finds itself beset by strange forces, Lucilia must double down in her efforts to safeguard everyone she holds dear.
● Madame Xanadu (Prescott) is a centuries-old immortal who advises and aligns with crusaders against evil but is reluctant to join the fray directly.
● Maria Sunderland (Madsen) traded in her privileged upbringing for the swamps of Marais when she married local business magnate Avery Sunderland, but Avery’s life-time obsession with the swamp has driven a wedge between him and Maria. Her poised existence is shaken further when the return of Abby Arcane reawakens a deep grief over the loss of Maria’s daughter, Shawna, drawing her into the dark supernatural mysteries emerging from the swamp.
● Prominant businessman Avery Sunderland (Patton) serves as the de facto patriarch of his Louisiana hometown, always giving back to the community. His benevolent veneer, however, masks a ruthless determination to harness the power of the swamp for profit.
● Jason Woodrue/Floronic Man (Durand) is a biogeneticist without equal – and he knows it. Brought in to study the unique properties of a small-town Louisiana swamp, Woodrue becomes fixated on unlocking the potential contained within — leading to tragic and monstrous consequences.
● Stuntman turned movie star Daniel Cassidy/Blue Devil (Ziering) became semi-famous after playing the demonic Blue Devil. But now, eight years later, Cassidy finds himself living out his days in frustration, pining for his former fame while on a collision course with destiny.
● Harlan Edwards (Nam) is a gay CDC specialist and Dr. Abby Arcane’s second-in-command.
The post ‘Swamp Thing’: DC Universe Extended Teaser Offers First-Looks at Some Familiar Faces appeared first on Bleeding Cool News And Rumors.
CoreyThis looks excellent.
Hulu and executive producer/director George Clooney are bringing one aspect of our 11th Grade Honors English class to life with its limited series adaptation of Joseph Heller’s classic satirical novel Catch-22, and now we’re getting our first official trailer for the six-episode project. Written by Luke Davies (Lion) and David Michôd (The Rover), the adaptation boasts Clooney directing two episodes, while Smokehouse Pictures partner Grant Heslov (The Men Who Stare At Goats) directs two and Ellen Kuras (Ozark) directs another two.
Here’s your look at the first official trailer for Hulu’s six-episode limited series adaptation Catch-22:
Based on Joseph Heller’s seminal novel of the same name, Catch-22 is the story of the incomparable, artful dodger, Yossarian (Christopher Abbott), a US Air Force bombardier in World War II who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy, but rather his own army which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service.
Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to avoid his military assignments, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule which specifies that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers which are real and immediate is the process of a rational mind; a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but a request to be removed from duty is evidence of sanity and therefore makes him ineligible to be relieved from duty.
Hulu’s Catch-22 also stars Hugh Laurie (Major de Coverley), Giancarlo Giannini (Marcello), Daniel David Stewart (Milo), Rafi Gavron (Aarfy), Austin Stowell (Nately), Graham Patrick Martin (Orr), Gerran Howell (Kid Sampson), Jon Rudnitsky (McWatt), Kevin J. O’Connor (Korn), Pico Alexander (Clevinger), Tessa Ferrer (Nurse Duckett), Lewis Pullman (Major Major), Josh Bold (Dunbar), Jay Paulson (Chaplain), and Julie Ann Emery (Marion).
Hulu debuts all six episodes of Catch-22 on May 17th.
The post ‘Catch-22’: Hulu Releases Official Trailer for George Clooney’s Joseph Heller Adaptation appeared first on Bleeding Cool News And Rumors.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has taken us all on quite a ride. From assembling the Avengers to going cosmic with the Guardians, or visiting Wakanda with Black Panther, these past 11 years and 21 movies have produced a lot of incredible moments. But what are your favorites? The moments that have stuck with you years…
Avengers: Endgame is everything you’ve ever dreamed a Marvel movie could be. It’s a three-hour adrenaline shot to the heart featuring mysteries solved, consequences suffered, shock, awe, and delight. Some scenes have a scope so huge, the mind reels to comprehend what you’re watching. Others are so poignant and small,…
Out of all of DC Universe’s live-action comic book adaptations, Swamp Thing’s been the most shrouded in mystery, which is appropriate given its otherworldly subject matter. Aside from casting news, there’s been little detail about what the series might look like, but today, DC Universe suddenly dropped the first…
Game of Thrones returns for its eighth and final season this weekend, so you know what that means: it’s time to rank things. And a show as epic as this offers a great deal to rank. Yesterday, we ranked the 10 best episodes. Today, we’re ranking the 15 best moments of the entire series.
/Film’s resident Westeros experts, Jacob Hall and Ben Pearson, hunkered down, re-watched all 67 episodes of the series so far, and whittled down a list of dozens of moments to a final 15. In a show known for its shocking and grandiose scenes, this was like climbing The Wall during winter. Here’s what they came up with.
Note: Before you wonder “Why isn’t this moment part of the list?”, Ben and Jacob have you covered. They recorded an entire podcast episode where they hashed out their personal lists and debated what should make the final cut. You can listen to it here.
Game of Thrones begins in a world where magic is superstition, something that perhaps once existed but now lives in the fringes of history. But what felt like a pointed rejection of fantasy tropes was just a set-up for the blind-siding final scene of the first season. Daenerys Targaryen walks into the funeral pyre of her dead husband and emerges unburnt and alive. Not only that, she emerges with three baby dragons, hatched from eggs so old they had turned to stone. Suddenly, Dany wasn’t just a kid on the sidelines. She became a player in the game. One with three children who are the medieval equivalent of nuclear bombs. (Jacob Hall)
With one motion, the Night King shows Jon Snow his biggest glimpse yet at his true power. Jon already believed the White Walkers existed, but watching the Night King’s flex after barely making it out of Hardhome alive was a “point of no return” moment and the show’s chance to turn the Night King and the White Walkers from the mindless, drearily-marching horde they’d been before into the legitimately scary Army of the Dead that would drive much of the action in the show’s final seasons. (Ben Pearson)
One of the grandest joys of George R.R. Martin’s world is how sprawling it is, how the characters exist thousands of miles from one another and how their stories send out ripple effects that change one another despite not everyone knowing what is going on in the North or South. In season 7, with the endgame in sight, the show narrowed its focus in a way it never had before: it put all of its major players in a single location for an extended parlay to deal with the whole “army of the dead” situation. The result: old feuds reignite, major characters meet for the first time, and the future of the continent rests on a few carefully chosen words. Few Game of Thrones scenes are this tense without bloodshed and even fewer pay off seven years of storytelling so remarkably. (Jacob Hall)
After years of watching Joffrey Baratheon be a torturous little punk, Game of Thrones finally killed him off in season 4. But they couldn’t just let audiences us enjoy his death. Watching Joffrey clutch at his neck with his eyes bulging, face turning purple, and blood streaming out of his nose as he breathes his last breath, the show reminded us that when you strip away all of his unearned arrogance and evil, he was just a kid. Are we really cheering for the death of a child? What does that say about us? Joffrey was a maniac who “deserved” to die, but should we relish his gruesome death? The whole scene is dirty and complex, just like the show as a whole at its best. And of course this death immediately led to Tyrion’s arrest, so we didn’t even have much time to enjoy it even if we wanted to. Little did we know that Ramsay Bolton would end up being a worse villain in every way. (Ben Pearson)
Season 4 is the strongest season of the series, and one of its strongest storylines is the unlikely partnership between Sandor Clegane and Arya Stark. Their buddy cop shenanigans get off to a bloody start when The Hound and The Wolf stop by a tavern that is infested with Lannisters. Insults are traded, the Hound makes it clear he could eat a whole bunch of chicken, and swords are drawn. The Hound once again proves why he’s one of the most feared men in the seven kingdoms and Arya reclaims Needle, using it to avenge a long-dead friend. And to cap it off, the scene ends with them riding into a war-torn horizon, with Arya finally having a horse of her own and the Hound chowing down on some chicken. Compared to some of the major events on this list, this sequence may seem like small potatoes. But sometimes, it’s the smaller sequences that enrich the whole. And this hilarious, brutal sequence enriches more than most. (Jacob Hall)
Through the first two and a half seasons, Jaime Lannister is a real son of a bitch. He pushes Bran out of a window. He’s in an incestuous affair with his sister. He strangles his own cousin. He’s an irredeemable piece of shit. But then he loses his hand, steps into a hot tub with Brienne, and tells the truth: the “kingslayer” only betrayed his oaths because the Mad King planned to burn down his entire city, and every person in it, rather than admit defeat. This loathsome guy committed his most infamous murder to save millions of innocent people from death. And thus, Jamie Lannister 2.0 forms before our eyes. The series never forgives his sins, but if recolors him a terrifying shade of gray. What if we connected with our enemies? What if we saw goodness at the heart of someone evil? What if the worst person in the world decided to seek redemption? There are no easy answers on Game of Thrones and Jaime is one of its most complex questions. (Jacob Hall)
You’ve gotta feel for Tommen. He was a good kid trapped in a rotten family, thrust into a position he was never meant to have. Things were looking up for him when he married Margaery Tyrell, but once his mother blew his lover to bits, the young Protector of the Realm decided there was only one way out: down. There were a million ways to film this moment, but director Miguel Sapochnik’s decision to hold the framing steady as Tommen sees the carnage of the burning Sept, hears the news about Margaery, takes off his crown, exits the frame to put it down, and then climbs up into and out of the window resulted in one of the most arresting shots of the entire series. And it all happens in silence, stripping away the score to highlight the horror of the moment. (Ben Pearson)
Tyrion’s big speech to the troops during the Battle of the Blackwater is indeed rousing. It gets the blood pumping. You want to follow him into battle. You want to save the city from Stannis Baratheon’s forces. This guy, this unlikely rich kid, is the hero and leader King’s Landing needs. The speech is brilliantly written. Peter Dinklage’s performance is brilliant, as always. But what makes this so special, what makes it stand out in the mind all these years later, is the look on Tyrion’s face as he leads his men to battle. He’s terrified and he’s definitely not sure if he believes a word he just said. (Jacob Hall)
There are so many specific shots that leap to mind from this dazzling scene that it’s impossible to narrow it to just one or two, but Dany’s attack on the Lannister army is the show at the height of its powers. It’s late enough in the series that the visual effects team has the budget to make everything look believable, the mixture of practical and CG effects is top notch, and it gives us several moments focused on characters we love within the larger action. Bronn gets his Jon Snow-style POV oner as he fights his way toward the Scorpion (Qyburn’s dragon crossbow), there are some phenomenal overhead shots of Drogon spewing fire, and the whole thing ends with a showdown between Jaime Lannister and Dany, with Bronn coming in for the last second save. It’s all so damn good that it easily makes up for its ill-advised cliffhanger ending. (Ben Pearson)
Most deaths on Game of Thrones are shocking, sometimes humiliating affairs. Violence on this series is no joke – people scream and shit and beg when faced with the end. So when the series decides to send off one of its finest characters like a total boss, it’s a reason for celebration. Diana Rigg’s Olenna Tyrell was one of the show’s greatest characters, an acid-tongued tactical genius who navigates social circles like a general navigates a battlefield, using her age as her greatest weapon and her strongest shield. But when Highgarden falls to the Lannister forces, words can’t protect her castle. Still, Jaime (knowing what his sister has in store for Olenna if she’s taken prisoner) offers her an easy way out: fast-acting, pain-free poison. The Queen of Thorns does not even hesitate. But as she sits dying, she tells Jaime her best-kept secret: she orchestrated the death of Joffrey at his wedding. “Tell Cersei. I want her to know it was me.” Two sentences that splash like acid. What a way to go out. (Jacob Hall)
Of all the tragedies in Game of Thrones – and there are plenty – the season 5 reveal of Hodor’s origin is the most emotionally impactful. The crosscutting between the invasion of the Three-Eyed Raven’s cave and Bran making the heartbreaking realization that he inadvertently “created” Hodor and forever altered young Wylis’s life is a total punch to the gut, and capping it off with this gentle giant dying to protect the boy he’s been watching over for years was one of the few moments in this show that brought tears to my eyes. Rest in peace, Hodor, and thanks to Kristian Nairn for acting the hell out of that one last stand. (Ben Pearson)
How much dissent can a queen endure before she displays a show of strength? That’s been a big question for Daenerys through much of the show, and she finally hit her threshold near the mid-point of season 3. This is a huge moment for Dany: she reveals that she speaks Valyrian (and has all along), burns the vicious slavers of Astapor, and secures the loyalty of the now-liberated Unsullied army all in one fell swoop, officially adding the “Breaker of Chains” to her long list of titles. It’s a fist-pumping, righteous, and heroic moment that turned Dany into a true force to be reckoned (Rickoned?) with. (Ben Pearson)
Here’s where Oberyn Martell learns why pride is one of the seven deadly sins. Speed and skill won out over brute force during the fight – he had the Mountain down on his back and seconds away from death, but Oberyn wasn’t content with simply killing the man who raped and murdered his sister. He had to keep him alive long enough to force a confession, but that arrogance gave Gregor Clegane the opening he needed to turn the tide and squeeze Oberyn’s head into a pulp. In the wake of some of this show’s earlier shocking moments, we all really should have seen Oberyn’s horrific loss coming – the heroes of Westeros don’t always win, even when they have righteousness on their side. (Ben Pearson)
Compared to history, fiction is forgiving. In history, the good guys lose. Often. The victors, the bad guys, write the books and sing the songs and spread the tales. The Lannister’s unofficial theme song, “The Rains of Castamere,” tells such a tale. Once upon a time, someone dared to defy House Lannister. And now they’re gone. The warning of those lyrics rings louder than ever during a wedding reception held at The Twins, where Walder Frey, Roose Bolton, and Tywin Lannister conspire to murder Robb Stark and cut the head off the Northern army. In another show, a show that took its cues from fiction rather than harsh medieval history, someone would have saved the day. But not here. Robb’s wife is stabbed to death. Robb is shot full of arrows and lives long enough to see his failure. Catelyn Stark begs and pleads for any kind of mercy before her throat is cut as well, silencing one of the most devastating screams in television history. The Red Wedding shook the foundations of Game of Thrones, but it also shook everyone who watched it, who endured it. It lingers in your brain like a bad day. Where were you when you first watched it? (Jacob Hall)
There’s only one murder more shocking than the events of The Red Wedding and it may be the single most important pop culture moment of the past decade. Seriously. The execution of Ned Stark, when Game of Thrones killed off its “lead” character in a manner so humiliating and belittling that it made some people temporarily swear off watching the show (they all came back), became an instant cultural touchstone. And it goes beyond the shock factor. It works because we love Ned and hate Joffrey. It works because it’s a stupid decision from an idiot king. It works because it sees the most noble guy in Westeros lie in public to sully his name, all so he can save his family. It works because it hurts. Cue countless imitators. Cue other shows chasing this diseased magic. Cue Game of Thrones becoming HBO’s flagship series overnight. Cue the next ten years of popular culture. (Jacob Hall)
***
Game of Thrones season 8 premieres on HBO this Sunday, April 14, 2019.
The post The 15 Greatest ‘Game of Thrones’ Moments: Shocking Suicides, Brutal Betrayals, and Dangerous Dragons appeared first on /Film.
With Avengers: Endgame arriving in a few short weeks, and Denis Villeneuve’s much-anticipated Dune now in production, Dave Bautista is a busy guy, even if you don’t take into account his professional wrestling extracurriculars. But he’s got a new task ahead of him: battling zombies for director Zack Snyder.
AMC has announced that there's a third series based on Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead in the works.
According to the press release from the channel, the series will focus on "two young female protagonists and focus on the first generation to come-of-age in the apocalypse as we know it. Some will become heroes. Some will become villains. In the end, all of them will be changed forever. Grown-up and cemented in their identities, both good and bad."
RELATED: Walking Dead: Chandler Riggs Would Play Carl Grimes Again
The series will be co-created by Scott M. Gimple and Matt Negrete -- who is a writer and producer on The Walking Dead -- will serve as showrunner. The first season will consist of ten episodes and film in Virginia this summer. The series will premiere on AMC sometime in 2020.
“We’re thrilled that the Dead will keep walking into a new corner of the post-apocalyptic world, a corner that will present stories and characters unlike any that The Walking Dead has dramatized thus far, and that is bound to excite one of the most passionate fanbases in television,” said President of Programming for AMC Networks and AMC Studios David Madden. “Scott has been an invaluable leader for the Universe since taking on the role of chief content officer, with a distinct and innovative vision for the franchise. Likewise, we’re excited to have Matt, who has been a crucial part of The Walking Dead family for over five years and penned many memorable episodes of TWD, at the helm of this original series.”
It's unclear at this time how directly the series will connect to The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead. It's also noteworthy that, although this will be the third series on broadcast television, there have been several web-only series.
RELATED: REPORT: Here's When The Walking Dead Season 10 Starts Production
Premiering June 2 at 9 PM ET/8 PM CT on AMC, Fear the Walking Dead stars Lennie James, Colman Domingo, Alexa Nisenson, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Garret Dillahunt, Jenna Elfman, Austin Amelio and Karen David.
The Walking Dead stars Norman Reedus, Danai Gurira, Melissa McBride, Alanna Masterson, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Nadia Hilker, Dan Fogler, Angel Theory, Lauren Ridloff and Eleanor Matsuura. The series returns for its 10th season on AMC in October.
CoreyFantastic!
If you had the ability to travel through time and unite some of the most famous minds in history to solve the world’s problems, what do you think might happen when they met?
Kumail Nanjiani is about to find out. He’s scored the lead role in a new movie called Any Person, Living or Dead with that premise. He’ll play a reclusive scientist who invents his own time machine – but his big “meeting of the minds” doesn’t go according to plan.
Kumail Nanjiani is on a roll. The actor/comedian earned an Oscar nomination for writing The Big Sick a couple of years ago, and since then, he’s appeared in four movies, three TV series, and two video games – and that’s not even counting his ongoing starring role in HBO’s Silicon Valley, his appearance in Jordan Peele’s new reboot of The Twilight Zone, his soon-to-be-released buddy action comedy film Stuber opposite Dave Bautista, or his upcoming Apple TV series Little America. But Any Person, Living or Dead puts Nanjiani back in the spotlight as the lead role, and it sounds like it could be his funniest project yet.
Here’s the synopsis (via Deadline):
The story follows a brilliant reclusive scientist who, using his homemade time machine, gathers a roundtable of the greatest minds in history (Shakespeare, George Washington, Aristotle, etc.) to solve all of humanity’s problems. Unfortunately, his plan fails to take into account language barriers, ancient racism and the tendency of medieval men to commit murder. Instead of learning from these Great Men of History, our hero has no choice but to hunt them down and blast them to the past before they can ruin our future.
This is such a fantastic concept for a movie (almost like a darker version of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure), and Nanjiani seems like the perfect candidate to play a modern man caught in this ludicrous whirlwind.
The script will be written by Simon Rich, based on his short story which was recently published in a book called Hits and Misses. Rich, who was previously a writer at Pixar and Saturday Night Live, also created the brilliant and laugh-out-loud funny FXX series Man Seeking Woman and the new TBS comedy Miracle Workers. Jonathan Krisel, an executive producer of shows like Baskets and Portlandia (where he worked with Nanjiani), is set to make his feature directorial debut with this movie.
In an old interview, Rich described the way he approaches storytelling. “I think of myself as the literary equivalent of a songwriter,” he said. “When I’m writing, I ask myself, ‘Will it have a good hook?'” Well, he certainly nailed the hook for this one, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
The post ‘Any Person, Living or Dead’: Kumail Nanjiani Will Gather Historic Heroes in New Movie (With Unexpected Results) appeared first on /Film.
Hot off the heels of the release of the first official poster and the screening of the teaser trailer at Tuesday evening’s Warner Bros. Pictures presentation at CinemaCon 2019, we’re are getting our first look at the new teaser trailer for Todd Phillips‘ upcoming Joker origin film – set to be unleashed upon an unsuspecting Bat-universe.
Set to open wide on October 4th and starring three-time Oscar nominee Joaquin Phoenix in the DC Comics’ iconic villain role, the following look at Joker might make it a little hard for all of us to “put on a happy face.”
Then again, after watching what you’re about to see below? I’d be afraid to find out what happened if I didn’t…
Joker centers around the iconic arch-nemesis and is an original, standalone story not seen before on the big screen. The exploration of Arthur Fleck, a man disregarded by society, is not only a gritty character study, but also a broader cautionary tale.
Directed by Phillips and starring Phoenix as the title character, Joker also stars Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Bill Camp, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Glenn Fleshler, Douglas Hodge, Marc Maron, Josh Pais, and Shea Whigham.
Here’s a look at some additional images from the teaser, and you can catch Joker going nationwide starting October 4th:
The post ‘Joker’: First Teaser Trailer for Todd Phillips‘ Upcoming Origin Film! appeared first on Bleeding Cool News And Rumors.
Ready to return to the Umbrella Academy? Netflix has given the anti-superhero series a second season, which will no doubt please fans of the series. Ellen Page, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher, and Justin Min are all set to return, with new cast members being announced at a later date. More on The Umbrella Academy season 2 below.
The Umbrella Academy just got confirmed for Season 2, and if anything happens to Five we riot. pic.twitter.com/zoMkmsNwK2
— NX (@NXOnNetflix) April 2, 2019
Reaction to the first season of The Umbrella Academy was fairly positive, and the show apparently drew enough viewers for Netflix to pull the trigger on a new season. Season 2 will begin production this summer in Toronto, with Steve Blackman (Fargo, Altered Carbon) returning as showrunner and executive producer. The cast set to reprise their roles include Ellen Page, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher, and Justin Min. You can also expect additional casting news for season two at a later date.
The Umbrella Academy is based on the comic series from writer Gerard Way (My Chemical Romance) and illustrator Gabriel Bá, published by Dark Horse Comics. The show follows a dysfunctional family of superheroes who reunite after years apart. The first season dealt with the mystery of their father’s death, and also an impending apocalypse. I have yet to watch season 1, but I’m going to go ahead and assume the apocalypse didn’t happen if we’re getting a second season.
On the same day in 1989, forty-three infants are inexplicably born to random, unconnected women who showed no signs of pregnancy the day before. Seven are adopted by Sir Reginald Hargreeves, a billionaire industrialist, who creates The Umbrella Academy and prepares his “children” to save the world. But not everything went according to plan. In their teenage years, the family fractured and the team disbanded. Now, the six surviving thirty-something members reunite upon the news of Hargreeve’s passing. Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Vanya and Number Five work together to solve a mystery surrounding their father’s death. But the estranged family once again begins to come apart due to their divergent personalities and abilities, not to mention the imminent threat of a global apocalypse.
The post ‘Umbrella Academy’ Season 2 Confirmed By Netflix appeared first on /Film.
Years after Fox cancelled Arrested Development, creator Mitch Hurwitz and the cast kept talking about the possibility of resurrecting the show. Reporters would ask them in every interview and they would happily keep hope alive for the Bluth family to return. Finally, in 2014, Netflix streamed season four of Arrested Development and it was a big enough hit to order a fifth season, although it would take another five years to produce it. The second half of that season premiered weeks ago to little fanfare. Has everyone just moved on now?
We may never know how many people actually watched season five because Netflix rarely releases numbers. We can sort of monitor the lack of social media on it, but as far as the cast is concerned, they want to keep playing the Bluths. Jessica Walter was in a WonderCon press room for Archer, entering its tenth season on FXX, and /Film asked her if there’s still any interest in another season. She doesn’t know where Netflix stands, but speaks for the cast.
“Honestly, that show has such a soft spot in my heart,” Walter said. “I love that show. It means a lot to me and it means a lot to everybody in it. Over 16 years ago is when we started that show… It’s a long period. If they ever wanted to do it, I’d certainly entertain the idea. I have no idea what’s happening though.”
The release of season 5A was dominated by Walter’s co-star Jeffrey Tambor. Having been fired from Transparent over allegations of harassing his trans costars, several male Arrested Development co-stars defended him. In a New York Times cast interview, Walter herself spoke out about Tambor’s abusive behavior towards her. That press tour ended with Walter forgiving Tambor, and Jason Bateman apologizing for not immediately supporting her. It seems that has not soured Walter on continuing to play Lucille Bluth. Whether she’ll get the chance to do so is another story.
“I don’t know, but I love that show,” Walter said.
Arrested Development may be the single show that encompasses the modern television landscape. Too niche for broadcast, it was saved by fan enthusiasm. It was also the first show in the recent trend of revivals featuring the original cast. The success of season four probably helped the creators of Fuller House, The X-Files, 24, Roseanne and Will & Grace show there was merit to new seasons in the original format.
But now we all have too much to watch. There are so many networks, so many streaming services, and so many complete seasons of shows to binge. It used to be a show had to be outstanding to command viewership. Now we don’t even have time to watch all the shows we truly love. Netflix has started bringing the hammer down on many of their popular shows like One Day at a Time and their entire Marvel slate, though they haven’t announced a decision on Arrested Development yet.
The post The Cast of ‘Arrested Development’ Wants Season 6, But Does Netflix? [WonderCon 2019] appeared first on /Film.
CoreyThis looks great.
At WonderCon in Anaheim, California this weekend, AMC announced that June 2 will see the premiere of their adaption of Joe Hill’s book, NOS4A2, which stars Zachary Quinto as the vampiric, Christmas-loving Charlie Manx, and Ashleigh Cummings as the young Vic McQueen, who tries to rescue his victims.
In addition to the release of a new trailer (which features children with pointy teeth and puts Manx and Vic clearly at odds with each other), WonderCon attendees also got a chance to see the full first episode of the series. The pilot is creepily good, with showrunner Jami O’Brien capturing the horror that fans of the book will instantly recognize.
While the essence and tone of the story remains the same on-page and on-screen, readers of Hill’s more-than-700-page book will notice there are differences as well. “My task was to stick as closely to the book as I possibly could while still making a television show,” O’Brien explained during the panel. “In the first third of the book, Vic is a kid, and the story is also really compelling and super dramatic, and I wanted to show every moment of it. That said, I knew that we were going to cast an adult actor, so I thought let’s just say that maybe Vic gets her powers later.”
And the change works; the major things that impact Vic—her parents, her drawing, her bike (well, dirt bike in the TV show), the covered bridge—remain the same. And her journey to discovering her powers—the pain behind her left eye, how she first “found” the covered bridge when her parents were fighting—remains intact. Fans of the book will see Hill’s story here, even if Vic’s age is different.
There are other differences between the show and the book, of course, and most of the changes make sense and work well. In the first episode, for example, we get to see more of Vic’s life in Haverhill, Massachusetts than we do in the novel. We see her at school (where a certain Bing Partridge, played by Olafur Darri Olafsson, works as the janitor), and we see her hanging out with her peers. The show also uses her relationship with Willa, her rich friend, to really hammer home the classicism in her town (something that’s not touched on much in the book). When Vic mingles with Willa’s other friends at a house party, she is the black sheep of the group (literally – she’s dressed in black while everyone else looks like they’re in a J. Crew catalog) because doesn’t have rich, college-educated parents. And while sometimes the messaging here is a bit heavy-handed (there’s a flirty/teen-angsty moment with one of Willa’s rich snotty guy friends that made me cringe), the focus on the class divide adds another dimension to Vic’s world that fits into who she is as a character and how that will shape her actions in the future.
Other differences include seeing scrabble-loving librarian Maggie Leigh in the first episode (she doesn’t show up in the book until much later), and spending time with Charlie Manx’s pre-Bing wingman before he gets thrown to the curb. More changes are sure to pop up as the season progresses, but fans of the Hill’s work won’t be disappointed—the parts you love, the parts that matter, are all there.
O’Brien also said that the first season, which is ten episodes long, will only cover a third of the book. It’s clear, however, that she has a plan in place if the show gets picked up for future seasons. “My goal is that it will take us a couple more seasons to get through the book,” she said. “One thing that’s really wonderful that Joe Hill set up a world full of strong creatives. So aside from Maggie and Vic and Charlie, there are other people in this universe with other kinds of gifts and powers. And those people, some are nice people, and some are more damaged people, and some people don’t have the best of intentions. And so, I think that, again hopefully, there’s a world where we could have 30 seasons of this.”
If the rest of the season remains as strong as the pilot, NOS4A2 book fans will gobble up those seasons faster than Charlie Manx sucks the life force out of a small child.
The post ‘NOS4A2’ is a Smart and Creepy Take on Joe Hill’s Terrifying Novel [WonderCon 2019] appeared first on /Film.
It’s been awhile since we heard anything about Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio‘s long gestating passion project; a live-action adaptation of groundbreaking anime film Akira, and Taika Waititi may be on board to direct.
No, this is not a leftover April Fool’s joke.
It sounds like production is ramping up as soon as this summer, with the California Film Commission granting a not so small tax incentive fo DiCaprio’s Appian Way production company to film the production in California. The allocation was around #18.5 million.
Warner Bros. Pictures Executive Vice President of Physical Production and Finance Ravi Mehta said:
“We are thrilled with the opportunity to shoot Akira in California. The availability of top-notch crew members, plus the wide variety of location choices and predictable weather are second to none.”
There was also a mention in Deadline‘s write up of the money news about a possible rumored name to direct- Thor: Ragnarok‘s Taikia Waititi. This is not the first time Waititi’s name has been mentioned with the title, so maybe there is some truth to this.
Last year, the What We Do In The Shadows co-creator had even gone so far as to say he was looking at adapting the “Akira” book rather than the film, as well as confirming he was interested in casting primarily Asian teenagers.
“What I wanted to do was an adaptation of the books, ’cos a lot of people are like, ‘Don’t touch that film!’ and I’m like, ‘I’m not remaking the film, I want to go back to the book.’ A lot of the people freaking out haven’t even read the books, and there are six gigantic books to go through. It’s so rich. But (the anime) Akira is one of my favourite films; my mum took me to see it when I was 13 and it changed my life.
Asian teenagers would be the way to do it for me and probably no, not, like no name, I mean sort of unfound, untapped talent. Yeah, I’d probably want to take it a bit back more towards the books.”
Andrew Lazar is set to produce as well, and we’ll let you know what else we hear as far as casting and production confirmations.
The post Taika Waititi Possibly Directing DiCaprio’s ‘Akira’, Huge Tax Incentive to Film in California appeared first on Bleeding Cool News And Rumors.
CoreyFirst kids ate Tide pods no they have Tide Francis?! Tide slap the bag!
HBO's Game of Thrones took television by storm in 2011 with its first season. The series reshaped mainstream views of fantasy by introducing audiences to a medieval world that was so much more than just knights, castles and magic. Westeros was populated by characters with which audiences could connect, so much so that they watched every scene fearfully, in case their favorites met a sudden and violent demise.
The story may be nearing its end, but fans of George R.R. Martin's fantasy world can look forward to a new series, set long before the War of the Five Kings, with new characters to adore and possibly mourn, new conflicts and struggles, and likely a lot more magic. Game of Thrones creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff aren't involved, but writer Jane Goldman is attached to the prequel series as showrunner.
RELATED: Game of Thrones: George RR Martin On How Finale Is Different From Books
If you haven't been able to find much about the upcoming prequel, and you're hungry for more details, you've come to the right place.
Martin wrote about casting for the prequel series on his blog in October 2018, calling it The Long Night, a nod to a historic period in A Song of Ice and Fire.
Not long afterward, HBO clarified the series doesn't yet have an official title. So while Martin has made his preference known, and several outlets continue to refer to the project as The Long Night, that's not official, and there's a good chance HBO will decide to go with something else.
We know very little about the precise setting of the prequel, as only vague details have been released. The series will be set thousands of years before the events of Game of Thrones. That much is certain from the description HBO released following the announcement:
Taking place thousands of years before the events of Game of Thrones, the series chronicles the world’s descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour. And only one thing is for sure: From the horrifying secrets of Westeros’ history to the true origin of the white walkers, the mysteries of the East, to the Starks of legend… it’s not the story we think we know.
Martin briefly described the era of the Game of Thrones prequel, noting the series will feature an almost entirely different world, "There’s no King’s Landing. There’s no Iron Throne," he wrote. "There are no Targaryens — Valyria has hardly begun to rise yet with its dragons and the great empire that it built."
RELATED: Game of Thrones Writers Address Season 7's Biggest Complaint
In the novels, the Age of Heroes is a moniker that describes a period of time in Westerosi history spanning 4,000 years. Its beginning is marked by the sealing of the Pact between the First Men and the Children of the Forest, and its end by the invasion of Westeros by the Andals. During this time, Westeros saw the rise of heroes such as Bran the Builder, who founded House Stark and constructed the Wall in the aftermath of the Long Night.
The winter known as the Long Night lasted an entire generation. As Old Nan described it to Bran, "Kings froze to death in their castles, same as the shepherds in their huts; and women smothered their babies rather than see them starve." It was during that winter that the White Walkers descended on Westeros for the first time.
The first cast member revealed was Naomi Watts, although her role remains a closely guarded secret, in true Game of Thrones fashion. Watts is known for roles in King Kong, The Impossible and Birdman. Josh Whitehouse from the BBC series Poldark was added to the cast soon after.
In January, eight more cast members were announced: Georgie Henley from the Chronicles of Narnia film series; Toby Regbo and Jamie Campbell Bower from Harry Potter; Naomie Ackie from Lady Macbeth; Alex Sharp from The Heist; Ivanno Jeremiah from the Cold Feet series; actress and singer Sheila Atim; and Denise Gough from The Fall and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
They were followed in March by Miranda Richardson, from the Harry Potter film series, Marquis Rodriguez from Netflix's Luke Cage and Iron Fist, John Simm from Life on Mars, Richard McCabe from The Walking Dead, John Heffernan from The Crown and Dixie Violet Egerickx from Genius.
One of the reasons fans enjoy watching Game of Thrones is its depiction of dragons. Over the past seven seasons, audiences have watched Drogon, Viserion and Rhaegal grow from tiny little lizards into fire-breathing creatures. Unfortunately, because the prequel takes place long before the Targaryen dynasty and their dragons reached Westeros, it will likely be without any winged reptiles.
RELATED: Game of Thrones' 'Dragonmaster' Traces the Evolution of the Show's Dragons
It may serve the series well to exclude dragons. Much of Game of Thrones' sizeable budget has been allotted to the creation of the three dragons, which require a lot of work, and not only from the talented visual effects studios. Keeping these costly beasts out of the prequel series may result in better-quality visual effects elsewhere, making ancient Westeros appear to be an even more magical place.
HBO programming president Casey Bloys has not given an exact date, but has said principal photography for the pilot will commence some time in early summer. There are no solid details regarding where filming will take place, although it is rumored the pilot -- like much of Game of Thrones -- will be shot in Northern Ireland.
No release date has been announced. Game of Thrones will end soon, and HBO has stated the spinoff series is unlikely to premiere earlier than a year after the current series ends. In other words, don't expect the prequel to air before April 2020.
When HBO first announced its plans for the future of the Game of Thrones franchise in May 2017, the network revealed it had ordered four scripts for prequel pilots from writers Jane Goldman, Max Borenstein, Brian Helgeland and Carly Wray. Martin later revealed a fifth project had been in the works, written by potential showrunner Bryan Cogman. That was confirmed by HBO several months later.
However, Cogman left HBO for Amazon in June 2018, presumably ending any plans for his pilot script. With Goldman's pitch ordered to pilot, the fate of the other three scripts has come into question. The network has stated in the past that, due to the logistics involved, only one show will be developed at a time. Casey Bloys told USA Today, "I don’t know that we’ll do another one; I’m just not sure" so, assuming Goldman's pilot is picked up, we may not see any of the others developed any further, at least not for the foreseeable future.
Martin has more than just those shows to offer. In December, the author told The New York Times about another idea for a series. Not a prequel, but one whose events would run concurrent with the events of Game of Thrones.
A whole bunch of new ReAction figures from Super7 are available for preorder right now. New figures from She-Ra and a bunch of iconic rock icons and mascots will be available, along with two figures from the 80’s classic Teen Wolf.
On the rock side of things, a werewolf Ozzy Osbourne from the album Bark at the Moon will be available, along with Motorhead’s Warpig and Megadeath’s Vic Rattlehead. A sweet looking Misfits, Jerry Only will also be coming. These are shipping in June.
Two figures from the Michael J. Fox 80’s classic Teen Wolf ship in may. One figure will be in his basketball uniform, while the other will feature him in his letterman jacket and sporting sunglasses.
Finally shipping in June is a new wave of She-Ra ReAction figures. These will focus on the Evil H.O.R.D.E. from the classic animated series. She-Ra, Hordak, Grizzlor, Shadow Weaver, two versions of Modulok, and Mantenna will all be available. These all look incredible, and will fit in nicely next to their MOTU brethren. I picked up the She-Ra/Hordak two-pack that was available at SDCC last year, and these look like repacks of those. So if you missed that, here you go.
All of these are available to preorder here.
The post Tons of New Super7 ReAction Figures Up For Order: She-Ra, Ozzy, Motorhead, and More! appeared first on Bleeding Cool News And Rumors.
CoreyLooks phenomenal.
More so than any genre except for horror, science fiction is defined by its special effects. In Japanese, the relationship is explicit, as science fiction is one of a loose collection of fantastic genres referred to as tokusatsu—literally, “special filming” or special effects. For many people, it’s just not a science…
Perhaps you saw the viral report about the New Jersey High School Drama Club who put on a spring production based on the seminal science fiction film Alien. They did it all with recycled materials, and the result was an incredible tribute and production.
We cannot get over the quality of sets and costumes, all of which were apparently made from recycled materials.
JUST LOOK AT THE SPACE JOCKEY.
And, what’s Alien without the iconic dinner scene? Wonder if they chose not to tell the actress playing Lambert about the chest burster.
Turns out someone else thought it was pretty awesome too, someone by the name of Ridley Scott, director of the original film.
Scott sent a letter to the North Bergen High School Drama Club, complimenting the tenacity of the team and urging them to never lose their creativity, imagination, and determination.
He also vowed that his production company Scott Free would make a financial donation to ensure the Club could mount a fitting finale performance of the production.
But how about instead of Gladiator (which we know Scott is mounting a sequel for) they do the PERFECT production for 2019, Blade Runner?!
The post Ridley Scott’s Letter to the ‘Alien’ High School Drama Club appeared first on Bleeding Cool News And Rumors.
CoreyOOOOOF.
CoreyLove this show!
When your film credits include the Crank movies, Gamer, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, and Mom and Dad, it’s hard to imagine getting any crazier than director Brian Taylor already has. But the first season of Taylor’s Syfy series Happy! featured kidnapped children, a three-headed dog, a killer Santa Claus, and the alcoholic corrupt cop as the good guy.
Based on the comic by Grant Morrison, Happy! is back for a second season and Taylor promises it’s 10 times crazier. Nick Sax (Christopher Meloni) has retired from the force and is trying to get sober. He’s getting to know his daughter Hailey (Bryce Lorenzo), and her former imaginary friend Happy (Patton Oswalt) is now Nick’s. There’s also exploding nuns and desecration of chocolate Easter bunnies.
Taylor spoke with /Film by phone about the new season of Happy!, his upcoming Brave New World series for USA, and why he won’t do a safe, studio friendly Crank 3.
Is the guy in the chocolate bunny officially the most fucked up thing you’ve ever done?
Oh, wow. No, I don’t think it’s close.
Really? It’s the most fucked up thing I’ve ever seen.
I don’t think it makes top three for this season. There are some bad things that happen this year.
Between the state he’s in and being exposed to kids did it for me.
It’s up there.
And I’m a guy who’s seen a lot, including all of your movies.
That was an interesting scene to shoot. After season one of Happy!, it’s a very ambitious show. There’s a lot of things that we try to do. Just on a production level, it’s a really ambitious show. It’s kind of like shooting a feature film with action and a CG animated character, wild set pieces every two, three weeks and then doing another and then doing another and then doing another. The level of the production is pretty crazy so when we got done with season one and started the writers room for season two, one of the first things I said was, “Guys, we’ve really got to contain it this time. We really bit off more than we could chew last time. We’ll have our moments but it just can’t be as crazy as last season.” Cut to two weeks later, it’s 10 times crazier than last season. Everything is more, everything is more difficult, everything is more ambitious. It just got out of control really quickly.
Did you get one bottle episode?
We didn’t. We didn’t end up doing a bottle episode. There ended up being so much story that it’s just really difficult to let an episode go without advancing all of the stories. Just from blowing up Sunshine’s scheme of world domination and blowing up the situation happening with Blue who seems to be possessed by some kind of demigod, struggling to get control of his body. There’s just so much stuff going on, I couldn’t do it. We wanted to do an animated bottle episode just with Happy, but he’s got a lot of story too. So a lot of stuff we thought was going to happen with that, he has a little love story in that…you were saying the most fucked up things that we’ve done on the show. Anyway, that ended up being spread out over two or three episodes, too. What started as a bottle episode shattered and now the shards of the broken bottle are scattered throughout all the other episodes for people to step on.
So Happy’s love story is fucked up too?
It’s not something I’m proud of. I’m kidding, it’s something I’m really proud of. It’s something you can never unsee.
I haven’t seen his episode yet, but is [Torque and Bodied director] Joseph Kahn a good fit for your style?
Oh, he’s great. I wanted him to work on season one and we couldn’t do it because of schedule. He’s a busy dude and pretty much works year round, but I’ve been hitting him for a long time and when he finally watched the show he was like, “Oh my God, this is like my show. This is so up my alley, I loved it.” I was like, “I told you.” So we finally got him in this season. His episode is rad.
I love that you have a yarn chart in one episode. My thing with those is whenever a movie shows someone making a chart connected by pieces of yarn, I have no idea what it means. Do you have a system or is it just string strung together to look as cluttered as possible?
We figured if we were going to [give] Meredith McCarthy a crazy person wall, we just had to go all out and make it the most ridiculous crazy person wall ever. I don’t even think she knows what it all means. We certainly don’t know what it all means.
Even in movies that play it straight, what does it mean? Why are pins tied together with yarn?
I guess, not to speak for every vigilante psycho ever in movies, but I guess the idea is you’re putting the pieces together. There’s a connection to this guy, to this guy, to this guy, to this guy. If you follow all of the strings then you finally get to the one person that connects it all and then you find the leader of the bad guys or the central force in the plot. I guess that’s the idea, but we just wanted it to feel like this is the inside of her brain made three dimensional.
I guess it speaks to the way I think, but if I was making a chart of connections, I would use columns and put people in the same column if they’re connected.
Yeah, maybe just do it all on a big Excel spreadsheet. This definitely doesn’t seem like the best way to do it, which I think is why we like it so much. The plot, the Grant Morrison comic book, takes place over about three days, or two days even, and it’s really pretty simple and contained. But immediately when we started working on it as a series, it just started to get out of control. We just found that we kept adding story and adding layers and adding complication. The next thing you know, it was almost impenetrable even to us, which we figured was a sign we were doing something right. Maybe that red yarn wall kind of represents our writers room in a way. We try to sort through our own craziness and come up with fun things.
In season one, Meloni in the trench coat had a very iconic look. What did changing it up to the Hawaiian shirt give you for season two in the spring?
It’s a different season so we wanted to give him a different look. I know Chris Meloni definitely thinks of the trench coat and the scarf as being Nick Sax’s superhero outfit. That’s his Superman suit. So there’s a very good chance that the trench coat and scarf make a comeback appearance.
Have the Happy visual effects gotten any easier, and can you use him in more scenes?
I’m not the one to say if they’ve gotten easier or not. You’d have to talk to Axis about that. Those are the guys that actually create those shots. They’ve gotten better. I think the level of animation last year was kind of unprecedented on television and this year it’s better. So I think they have a better grasp on the character now in terms of performance. They’ve had a year to develop. They’ve upgraded their engine. They’ve upgraded all the texturing so he just looks better. He’s better integrated to the environment and just performance-wise, it’s like an actor playing a character for a second season. You understand better the way that he moves, his range of expression, the way he reacts to things so you’re able to get a lot more nuance and expression into every one of those moments.
I know you expanded the comics for season one, but was there anything from the comic you couldn’t fit in that you can now do in season two?
I don’t think so. I think we pretty much exhausted the comic book in about an episode and a half, season one. It’s just wide open now. The main thing is the idea of let’s make it a holiday for every season. So which holiday are we going to go for? There’s a couple of pretty big holidays that would’ve been sort of layups for this show, visually and conceptually. Let’s challenge ourselves to do a holiday that nobody cares about, that’s kind of aesthetically pretty lame and see if we can elevate it to something spectacular. Hence Sunshine’s plan to make Easter great again.
In success, by season seven would you do Arbor Day?
Yeah, at a certain point it’s going to get interesting. I guess you can do President’s Day. I don’t know.
Did you ask Syfy to slot you in the spring for the appropriate holiday?
It gets a little complicated. Obviously, we think it’s the strongest, and so do they, to put it out during the season or during the holiday that it’s about. It just seems to be the most zeitgeist-y way to do it. That said, schedules are difficult. When you try to do that, sometimes you end up shoehorning it or you have to really rush to make certain dates. It does complicate things and one of the ideas that we talked about that, if we were to do a season three of Happy!, maybe we just do season three and four to shoot them both. So that way we can just easily pop them in during their appropriate holiday without having to run into schedule conflicts. I don’t know if that’s going to happen.
Was Rebecca Black’s Friday a perfect song for Happy!?
Man, I think so. We went through a lot of songs trying to figure out what to use and now that that one’s in there, it’s pretty hard to imagine anything else. I don’t think any other show, there’s a lot of ways to do that moment ironically, like use a cheesy ‘80s song or use some pop culture song that everybody knows and is embarrassed to say they love it or they have some kind of nostalgia with it. That sort of seemed kind of tired and easy, but the Rebecca Black song is a level of stupid that most people are afraid to venture into. It’s almost risky to go that stupid. From Happy’s point of view, Happy thinks it’s the coolest song.
If you exhausted the comic book, what are the brainstorm sessions that lead to things like the musical number, the oil slick fight, exploding nuns, etc.?
Exploding nuns was actually pretty early on. Once we figured out we were going to do Easter, the early days of the writers room was really just like a free for all, just like people just throwing stuff out there. A lot of times we’ll come up with an idea or an image and then end up reverse engineering story in order to get there. That was something that I came up with pretty early on and just threw it out to the room. “I just feel like the season should start with a bunch of nuns with bomb vests running around New York blowing themselves up.” Then there’s a long moment of silence and everybody goes, “Well, okay, I guess we’ll have to figure out what that means.” By the way, that’s the way I do things a lot of the times, reverse engineering story. Even in the movie Crank, the idea that the hero was going to fall out of a helicopter at the end, make a phone call while he went down and then land into camera, that’s the end of the movie. I don’t know what the first hour and 22 minutes of the movie is but that’s the last scene. So how do we get there?
I never knew that about the original Crank. That’s amazing.
Yeah, that was like a bunch of ideas for movies.
Does season two focus more on Happy’s relationship with Nick since he disappeared from Hailey?
Yeah, now he’s Nick’s imaginary friend. His whole outlook is different. He still cares about Hailey. He still keeps tabs on her and Happy thinks he’s the best expert on Hailey ever because it’s like, “I was her imaginary friend her whole childhood so I know everything about her.” But kids change so now Happy finds himself in a situation kind of like Nick, of being on the outside looking in, trying to understand this kid.
Is there a backstory to the kid whose imaginary friend was the poop emoji?
No, no backstory. Maybe we’ll explore that in season three. It is kind of funny when you see all these imaginary friends on these kids’ shoulders. They’re so bizarre, you start thinking, “What is wrong with this kid? Who has that friend?”
You got a musical number in Gamer. Are you always trying to work one into your shows or movies, and you did in episode three?
Yeah, musical numbers are fun. As soon as we got Ann-Margret on board, it was just a done deal that we were gonna do a musical number. For me, that number that she does in Viva Las Vegas with Elvis is one of the greatest song and dance numbers ever on film. It’s just one of those iconic things. So I knew I wanted to have her wearing orange and I knew I wanted her to do a dance with Happy and emulate some of that Ann-Margret/Elvis Viva Las Vegas moves. So once we were going to do that, maybe this weird musical theater virus that infects Sunshine’s compound, maybe that somehow infects Nick too and draws him into it. They’re all unwittingly drawn into this musical number.
Had Meloni ever done song and dance before?
I’m not sure if he has. He’s really good at it which makes me believe he’s probably done it. I don’t know anything in his body of work where he’s done it, but he’s good at it. He loved it. He wanted to do more. We actually, on a TV schedule, we were limited. We had to do that whole sequence in a day and a half, including all the fighting, Ann-Margret and everything. We were just limited by schedule but he wanted that sequence to be twice as long. He was like, “Let’s basically do the whole episode like that,” so he’s a big fan.
And now you’re doing Brave New World with Grant?
Yeah, that show is off and running. Grant and I helped develop it and it’s been ordered to series.
What was your involvement?
Grant and I were involved early in the process. We basically came up with the take, pitched it, sold it, got everything going and then we signed off on a showrunner, David Wiener, to help run the show because I knew I was going to be so buried in Happy! and Grant is obviously buried in 1000 things. We just weren’t going to be there day to day, so we built a team to see that one through and it’s going great.
Did it stay with the take you came up with?
It’s changed a bit. You want people to make it their own, but there’s new elements, there’s old elements.
It’s been a while since I heard anything about a Crank 3. Is that something you still hope to do one day?
You never know. So far there hasn’t really been – the planets haven’t aligned for that, but never say never.
Did you have a trilogy idea for Crank?
We’ve had a couple of ideas. I guess one problem with Crank 3 is that my feeling is there’s a reason why people like those movies. They may not be as much of a household name as like The Fast and the Furious franchise, but they’re not trying to be that. So there’s a reason people like them and if there were ever to be a Crank 3, I feel like it has to be as batshit relative to Crank 2 as Crank 2 was to Crank 1. It owes it to the spirit of the franchise and to people who love those movies to be just completely bonkers. A movie like that is not necessarily perceived as being as commercial as the studios might like. There have been proposals for what I would considered to be watered down or a little more tame versions of a Crank 3, but to me it’s like, why would you do that? What’s the point? I don’t get that.
Instead of pricing yourself out of business, you sort of out “crazied” yourself out of business.
Yeah, I guess you could look at it that way. The way I look at is if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right. If it’s not going to be done right, it’s not like we’re all going to get rich off of Crank 3. It’s not that series. It’s not Avengers. It’s not some kind of super franchise that we owe it to ourselves to get the band back together. That’s just not the case. It would have to be a labor of love. It would have to be something for completely insane people who like those movies. If it seems like a process that’s going to be really creatively compromised, then I just don’t know why we would spend the time or effort to do it. It’s just not worth it. I don’t think anybody would be happy with it.
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Happy! returns to Syfy at 10pm on Wednesday, March 27, 2019.
The post ‘Happy!’ Showrunner Brian Taylor Says Season 2 is Ten Times Crazier Than the First Season [Interview] appeared first on /Film.
