Hell on Wheels preview, new interview with Christopher Heyerdahl & new project for David Eick

Christopher Heyerdahl makes his first appearance as the Swede in Hell on Wheels 1x02, "Immoral Mathematics," which airs tonight at 10 pm on AMC. He's been getting great reviews for the show (see here), so see the episode if you get a chance. Here is another one, from The Boston Globe:

Indeed, once a character known as the Swede (Christopher Heyerdahl) shows up in episode 2, with his silent-picture expressiveness and the kind of threatening presence usually found in Coen Brothers movies, I was fully invested in the show and looking forward to seeing the rest of the 10-episode season. The Swede is just the kind of twisted psycho creep you want to watch closely, the showiest bad guy in the “Hell on Wheels’’ stampede of antiheroes led by financier, swindler, and railroad builder Thomas Durant (Colm Meaney).

And here is what the A.V. Club says:

Tonight’s episode introduces our new favorite character ever, The Swede, played by Christopher Heyerdahl. Trust us, kids. You’re going to want to start working on your Scandanavian accent for your Swede Halloween costume next year. Phil Nugent’s got a head start.

Synopsis from TV Line:

Bohannon (Anson Mount) thinks fast and talks faster when Durant’s No. 1, “the Swede” (Sanctuary‘s awesome Christopher Heyerdahl), aims to hang him for murder.

And a region-free sneak peek from tonight's episode, with Christopher and Anson Mount, finally showed up on YouTube today:



Calgary Herald has a new article about the show that includes an interview with Christopher. Here are a few snippets:

But for many, particularly when prodded by the Hollywood media, the topic of the evening was enduring the weeks of ill-tempered climes in that peculiar outpost of Calgary.

“It brings you back to the time when you are completely vulnerable to that intense weather that all of you guys know about living in Calgary or in that area,” said lanky Canadian actor Christopher Heyerdahl, who plays a character known as the Swede.

“When the weather comes through, it comes through and there’s nothing you can do about it. You can see it coming and you just hope the wind will start pushing it north.

“It’s this ominous reminder of how small and insignificant we are. We can just be washed away and that happened to us a number of times. The grips had a hell of a time moving stuff around, knee-deep in mud and snow and the wind would come up and be knocking things over.” (...)

Heyerdahl decided that the Swede, for instance, is a character who would never purposely have mud on his shoes.

“But it was impossible,” Heyerdahl says with a laugh.

“He’s so OCD, he is in constant terror of getting his boots wet and they were constantly dirty. So it was just a dirty, muddy mess for the first couple of months. You can’t get away from that, it brings the reality. You don’t have to sit there and do some sort of creative imagining, it’s all there. Especially in that valley. It looks like it hasn’t been touched. You get on the hill and you can see the suburban sprawl all around you. But there, you are away from it all. It’s like going back in time.”

Elsewhere in AMC land, David Eick is working on a new science fiction project. Deadline reports that he and his two producing partners have sold a UFO drama to the network:

The cable network has bought Thunderstruck, an hourlong UFO project from feature writing/directing duo Paul Boardman and Scott Derrickson and former Battlestar Galactica executive producer David Eick. Boardman and Derrickson will write the drama, about powerful and enigmatic entities that begin appearing all over the world. After one shows up in the town of Great Falls, Montana, the local citizens must grapple with the dramatic effects and growing mystery of repeated visitations. Boardman and Derrickson will executive produce Thunderstruck with Eick. Derrickson is set to direct.

The article also mentions that, along with the Hulk remake for ABC, Eick and Guillermo del Toro are also working on a pilot for a show called Inhuman for HBO. Not finding any details yet.

A new episode of Once Upon a Time, "The Price of Gold," airs at 8 pm on ABC. Spoiler TV has the first ten minutes. Cinderella makes her first appearance tonight and, next week, we'll finally see an episode Jane Espenson wrote, called "That Still Small Voice." Luke Camilleri will make an appearance in it.

Also on TV tonight: a new episode of Dexter with Edward James Olmos (preview) on Showtime at 9 pm, The Walking Dead at 9 pm on AMC, followed by Hell on Wheels. Teaser: