Jane Espenson joins Once Upon a Time

A bunch of stuff has happened since yesterday.

First, an update on Alessandra Torresani's new movie, Playback, from Dread Central (hit the link for more info):

Bennett Robbins Productions has completed post-production of Playback, an independent horror thriller starring Toby Hemingway, Johnny Pacar, Ambyr Childers, Jonathan Keltz, Alessandra Torresani, Jennifer Missoni, and featuring Christian Slater. The producers are currently seeking distribution of the film.

The film features music from The Sounds, Shiny Toy Guns, AWOLNation, innerpartysystem, My Passion, Kill Hannah, High Tension Wires, K.Flay, Guadalupe Plata, Carol Bui, Youth Mass, and Playback star Johnny Pacar's own band Forever the Day.

Synopsis - While digging into their town’s infamous past, a group of high school students unwittingly unlock an even darker secret. Now an evil spirit has been awakened to possess and destroy its victims through video playback, stopping at nothing to find his true heir.

Check out the film's website at PlaybacktheMovie.com.

Gun Hill Road with Esai Morales opens in New York and Los Angeles on August 5.

An episode of Los Americans was screened at the Reel Rasquache Film Festival on Saturday. There are photos from the event on the show's FB page.

Frak Earth has an interesting snippet about 17th Precinct:

As of the time this article was written, NBC has yet to say yes or no to the Ron D. Moore futuristic drama. Most online journalist are claiming that Precinct won't be picked up because NBC picked up Grimm, which is a cop drama, which is produced by Buffy and Angel alums! I talked to Tricia Helfer at WizardWorld a few weeks ago, and asked her what would happen if Precinct didn't get picked up. She said there was a possibility that Syfy might be able to broadcast it, just because NBC owns SyFy.

There is a new screening date for Judas Kiss, with Richard Harmon and Genevieve Buechner: June 6 at the 13th Annual Fort Worth, Texas, Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival.

Zap2it has an interview with Sean Hayes, one of the executive producers on Grimm. Hit the link to see the entire clip. A snippet from the article:

Despite the fairy-tale hook, though, "Once Upon a Time" and "Grimm" are pretty different shows. Hayes explains that "Grimm" is basically a cop show: "We're saying the Brothers Grimm are profilers, and they wrote these stories down to warn us about things that are going to happen in a cryptic form. So our lead [David Giuntoli] is a descendent of the Grimm family and is going to solve all these crimes of the week based on these fairy tales."

Oregon Live reports that there is a chance that the show won't be filmed in Portland after all.

Zap2it also has a report from the press junket Kevin Murphy and the Hellcats cast did a few weeks ago that sheds some light on what season two would have looked like.

Movie Mikes has a new interview with Aleks Paunovic. Here is a snippet about Mortal Kombat: Legacy:

MG: Where you familiar with character of Shao Kahn before this project?
AP: I was and I was apprehensive about doing that role. I didn’t quite understand how I would fit in the mold. It was so great the route that Kevin took “Rebirth” and with “Legacy” opened where this project can go with his fresh vision. I was scared at first if the fans of “Mortal Kombat” would jump on board with me being Shao Kahn. Once I understood the vision Kevin had I was very comfortable and confident playing him.

MG: What do you like most about the character?
AP: Kevin was one a shoe string budget and we were just trying to understand it. For me, just knowing the immense popularity of that role and basically the baddest bad guy. In this we find in Kevin’s vision how bad Shao Kahn can be and how involved the character can do. That to me was excited knowing that from the ground floor you can get some really good character development.

Pizquita has the first teaser for Torchwood: Miracle Day.

Jane Espenson tweeted earlier that she has a new job, on ABC's Once Upon a Time, which premieres this fall. Here is ABC's description:

And they all lived happily ever after – or so everyone was led to believe. Emma Swan knows how to take care of herself. She's a 28-year-old bail bonds collector who's been on her own ever since she was abandoned as a baby. But when the son she gave up years ago finds her, everything starts to change. Henry is now 10 years old and in desperate need of Emma's help. He believes that Emma actually comes from an alternate world and is Snow White and Prince Charming's missing daughter. According to his book of fairytales, they sent her away to protect her from the Evil Queen's curse, which trapped the fairytale world forever, frozen in time, and brought them into our modern world. Of course Emma doesn't believe a word, but when she brings Henry back to Storybrooke, she finds herself drawn to this unusual boy and his strange New England town. Concerned for Henry, she decides to stay for a while, but she soon suspects that Storybrooke is more than it seems. It's a place where magic has been forgotten, but is still powerfully close… where fairytale characters are alive, even though they don't remember who they once were. The epic battle for the future of all worlds is beginning, but for good to win, Emma will have to accept her destiny and fight like hell.

Jennifer Morrison stars as Emma, Ginnifer Goodwin plays Snow White, Josh Dallas is Prince Charming, Lana Parrilla appears as the Evil Queen and Robert Carlyle as Rumpelstiltskin. The show was created by Lost's Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis.

Trailer:



And more good news today:

Mary McDonnell is getting her own show next year. Entertainment Weekly has an interview with her and TNT released this earlier today:

This year marks the beginning of production of the final season of the blockbuster hit The Closer, starring Emmy® winner Kyra Sedgwick. TNT confirmed today that it has ordered a 10-episode season of Major Crimes, a series set in the Los Angeles Police Department that promises to become television’s next great crime drama. The seventh and final season of The Closer will include 15 episodes in 2011 and six in summer 2012, leading into the launch of Major Crimes, starring Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica). McDonnell has been featured on The Closer as Capt. Raydor, who was often on a collision course with Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson, played by Sedgwick. Major Crimes will be executive-produced by James Duff, creator of The Closer, along with Greer Shephard and Michael M. Robin. Major Crimes and The Closer come to TNT from Warner Bros. Television.

Patton Oswalt has been cast in a new romantic comedy, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. Here are a few snippets from the press release:

Production begins this week on Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, written and directed by Lorene Scafaria. The pre-apocalyptic comedy stars Golden Globe Award winner Steve Carell and Academy Award nominee Keira Knightley.

Confirmed as joining the two lead actors in the cast are – in alphabetical order – Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights), Adam Brody (Damsels in Distress), Roger Aaron Brown (The District), Tonita Castro (The Sarah Silverman Program), Rob Corddry (Mandate’s Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay), two-time Academy Award nominee Melinda Dillon (Close Encounters of the Third Kind), Rob Huebel (Human Giant), Gillian Jacobs (Community), Derek Luke (Focus’ Catch a Fire), Melanie Lynskey (Focus’ Away We Go), T.J. Miller (Cloverfield), Mark Moses (Desperate Housewives), Patton Oswalt (United States of Tara), William Petersen (CSI), Lindsay Sloane (Horrible Bosses), and Bob Stephenson (Jericho). (...)

Set in a too-near future, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World explores what people will do when humanity’s last days are at hand. Can one man find his greatest love at the worst possible time? As the respective journeys of Dodge (Mr. Carell) and Penny (Ms. Knightley) converge, the two spark to each other and their outlooks – if not the world’s – brighten.

Patton made an appearance on Craig Ferguson yesterday. Clips: