Tuesday round-up: Blood & Chrome, Sanctuary, cast news, interviews with Jane Espenson, William B. Davis and Patton Oswalt

Okay, some updates.

It's Tuesday, so keep an eye on Beginning of Line. A new episode of Caprica season 2 goes up today.

There are a couple of things to check out on TV tonight. Patton Oswalt is on Conan at 11 pm on TBS, and on Chelsea Lately, also at 11 on E!

Deck the Halls with Luciana Carro and Hiro Kanagawa premieres at 9 pm on TNT. From the press release:

Holiday cheer turns to holiday fear when a private investigator’s father is kidnapped in TNT’s all-new original movie Deck the Halls, starring Kathy Najimy, Scottie Thompson, Jane Alexander, Larry Miller and David Selby. Based on the book by Mary Higgins Clark and daughter Carol Higgins Clark and the first in their series of holiday mystery novels.

A crackling good mystery with a warm holiday heart, Deck the Halls brings together two of the Higgins Clarks’ most popular characters: cleaning-woman-turned-amateur sleuth Alvirah Meehan, played by Kathy Najimy (Sister Act, Franklin & Bash) and private eye Regan Reilly, played by Scottie Thompson (Star Trek, Skyline). The women investigate the kidnapping of Regan’s father, Luke Reilly (David Selby – The Social Network, Dark Shadows), and a young female driver just before the holidays. The race is on to rescue the pair and get them home in time for Christmas.

TNT has released a sneak peek with Luciana Carro. You can watch it here.

Luciana has posted a bunch of BTS photos from Falling Skies on Twitter, some of them with Ryan Robbins. You can see them here. They recently wrapped filming episode 2x05. Rémi Aubuchon tweets that John Dahl ("False Labor," "The Dirteaters") directed it.

Doug Drexler did an interview on Trek Radio on Saturday. The podcast is not up yet, but it was a really great interview that went on for about two and a half hours, so keep checking the "on demand" section. Hopefully it will show up one of these days. Updates on Blood & Chrome, the short version: No word yet on a possible series order, but they (VFX guys) expect to know something in February. They can't wait for us to see what they've done with the ship. Bear McCreary is definitely scoring the pilot. Also, they shot a B&C behind-the-scenes documentary that we will hopefully get to see eventually. Last, there was also some talk about the web series rumour having been exaggerated.

On other fronts:

Alessandra Torresani did another photo shoot with Tyler Shields. You can find a bunch of photos at The Bambola Factory.

Brian Markinson will definitely be back on The Killing when the show returns for a second season in the spring (no date yet, but Movieweb says April). Susan Gittins posted a photo of him on the set with Joel Kinnaman here.

Brian will also be back in the first part of the Sanctuary season finale, "Sanctuary for None," next Friday. Synopsis and teaser:

"Sanctuary For None: Part 1" 412 (Syfy, Fri Dec 23 10 pm). Part 1 of 2. Caleb asks Magnus to help broker a peace deal between his insurgents and the governments on the surface; Addison reactivates Will's federal commission; Tesla resurfaces. Guest Cast: Brian Markinson (Greg Addison); Pascale Hutton (Abby); Gil Bellows (Caleb).

And here is a recent video of the Sanctuary cast discussing their favourite things in season four.



You can find some new pics from Marilyn, one of Ryan Robbins' new films, on Facebook.

BestBritishTV.com has a new article about Polly Walker's new show, Prisoners' Wives. Snippet:

The drama centers around four women who are struggling to manage while their husbands are incarcerated. Along with Walker, the cast includes Emma Rigby, Pippa Haywood, Natalie Gavin and Iain Glen. The Sheffield based drama is being executive produced by Tiger Aspect film.

Walker plays the role of Francesca who is married to a notorious career criminal. She enjoys the high life that her husband funds with his ill-gotten gains but things change once his money dries up.

Collider has a couple of new TV spots from John Carter.

Syfy will air Three Inches, James Marsters' pilot that didn't get picked up, on Thursday, December 29 at 9 pm ET. Synopsis (TV Guide):

An underachiever is struck by lightning and develops an unusual power, which leads to a meeting with a team of atypical superheroes in the debut of the sitcom following a man who can use his mind to move any object three inches.

And there is another photo of James and Michelle Ryan in Metal Hurlant Chronicles at James-Marsters.eu.

Zak Santiago has been cast in a new comedy, called Random Acts of Romance. More info about the film at RandomActsofRomance.com.

There are a couple of new pics of Richard Harmon on the set of The Wishing Tree here and here. His other recent TV film, The Pregnancy Project, has been given an air date: it will premiere on Saturday, January 28 at 8 pm ET on Lifetime.

Dennys Ilic posted a new BTS photo of the cast of 17th Precinct here. Still no word if the pilot will ever be aired.

Meg Tilly writes that she has wrapped filming Bomb Girls. The show premieres on Wednesday, January 4 at 8 pm on Global in Canada. Spoiler TV has a few new promotional photos.

Zimbio has a few photos of Kacey Rohl and Leah Gibson from the set of This American Housewife. (Several sites reported earlier that the pilot was called American Housewife, but I guess they're going with the new title.)

Ariane C Design has an article and promotional photos for Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, the play with Aleks Paunovic that runs from January 20 to February 4 at the Pacific Theatre in Vancouver. Ticket info at the link. There is another article about the play at Broadway World.

Movieweb has an exclusive Blu-ray clip from In the Name of the King 2: Two Worlds, out on December 27:



Dmitry Chepovetsky and Mike Dopud both have supporting roles in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, which opens on December 21. That's tomorrow.

Movieweb has new photos from The Divide with Michael Eklund, which opens in January.

William B. Davis was on Urban Rush last week to talk about The X-Files and his memoir, Where There's Smoke... Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man.



There is another recent interview with him at The Eerie Digest:

TAEM- William, your latest endeavor involves the memoirs that you have written. Please tell us about the book, it’s publisher, and where our readership can find it.
WBD-The book is called ‘Where There’s Smoke …. The Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man’, and frankly, it’s the story of my life. It’s a pretty unusual life which I tell with candor and humor – from radio drama in the early fifties to The X-Files. I have been delighted with the response to the book. People will have different interests – whether it’s the history or the life on the set – but it is a compelling story and of special interest to people in the arts. There are a lot of sidebars about acting but of special interest may be the stories of early Canadian theatre and British theatre in its John Osborne, Harold Pinter heyday. (...)

TAEM- Soon you would play probably your most well known role, that of ‘The Cigarette Man’, in the extremely popular television series, ‘X-Files’. This was personally my favorite television show of all time. I understand that you also wrote one of the stories for that series. Please tell us about this and the character that you represented in this show.
WBD-This was a remarkable case of a character developing in response to the fans and to ideas that developed after the series was well underway. There was not very much dialogue between the creators and the actors – we brought what we could to our roles and often the creators then built on what we showed them. CSM was a character mostly of light and shadow at first but gradually emerged from the background. When they first decided they wanted the character to be more prominent there was some concern about how well I could act as they had not really seen me do anything. Fortunately they were pleased with the result.

Writing for the series was an adventure and the story idea involving CSM on a road trip with Scully turned out well though in truth Chris Carter wrote much of the dialogue – very well I have to add. (...)

TAEM- Can you also give us a sneak-peek behind some of the new productions that you are in and let our readers know when they will be able to see them?
WBD-The most recent is Tall Man where I play the Sheriff. I don’t know when it will be released – we shot it a year ago but we were still doing post production recently. They hope it will premiere at Sundance. There is a fun horror movie called Medium Raw that’s available on video where I play a wolf and eat people. Well it’s not quite that simple.

Here is a BTS clip from this Sunday's episode of Hell on Wheels, with Christopher Heyerdahl:



Jane Espenson gave a few interviews about Husbands and Once Upon a Time. She was on the Crazy Sexy Geeks podcast, which you can listen to here. She also wrote an article for Huffington Post: Is TV Writing the Best Job Ever?

And here are the interviews - Ohio Fusion (about Husbands):

Have you gotten word from any networks interested in producing the series on television?
Jane: We haven’t taken it out yet. We’re still in the process of sending copies of the pilot, and we’ll see who’s interested. (...)

I love the tagline of the show. Tell me how you came up with it and how it contributes to the show’s overall message.
Jane: We went through a bunch of different taglines and we even used some of them on a couple of our documents. But the one that really stuck was “They’re doing it wrong. That’s their right.” And it really just came to me because I was playing with the word “right.” Only after did we realize how powerful it was. The journalist Alyssa Rosenberg was the first one to really point out how deep it was and that the core of the series is about this couple that is absolutely fallible.

They are making every mistake along the way starting with getting drunkenly married after only knowing each other six weeks. Part of the right to get married comes with the right to do things wrong, to not have to be perfect, to be able to make mistakes like anybody else. Put them on equal footing with every other newlywed couple out there. They’re not better. They’re not different. They’re just another newlywed couple.

Backstage.com (with Cheeks and Jeff Greenstein):

Back Stage: What was the appeal of doing something on such a smaller scale than a weekly TV series?
Greenstein: Total creative control, being accountable to no one but ourselves, getting to make exactly the show we wanted to make. I believe that the shoestringiness of a small-scale production always tends to bring out one's creativity.
Espenson: In general, it's the speed and flexibility and control. It went very quickly from concept to release, and we were able to make adjustments on the fly without worrying about any bosses above us. It also really fosters a sense of teamwork when you're working in such a small group. Everyone is really motivated to be creative. I loved the feel of it.

Back Stage: Jane, do you find you write differently—perhaps more freely—for online content? Are there things you've always wanted to do that you now have the opportunity to because of the platform?
Espenson: In a way it's a little freer, because we could do things like swear and not worry about whether or not our content was too edgy. But it's also a little more constrained, because you can't afford to change locations or add other actors to a scene. Looking forward, now that I've experienced this, I imagine that I will do more writing for the web—some content is just perfect for this forum.

JohnHoff3:

How do you feel about movie and TV remakes?
Some are good and some aren’t. I worked on Battlestar Galactica, which was based on an earlier incarnation of the series, and I thought it was brilliant. It’s always about the quality of the product, not some aspect of the project, like where it started.

How does making a webseries differ from making a TV show?
It’s smaller — smaller crew, smaller salaries. But it’s also bigger because, as a producer, you’re responsible for more aspects of the shoot, so the job gets bigger. It was stressy, but wonderful.

And there is a five-page interview about Once Upon a Time on Blogcritics.org:

I'm really excited to see your next episode, which, I understand reveals more about Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle).
Episode 8 is called "Desperate Souls," and it does reveal more about Rumple. Lots more. You'll learn about where he comes from and what drives him. It's also got a fun Storybrooke story where we see more of how Emma is going to fit into this wonderful insular strange little town. (...)

Can you take me through the creative process on the series? How does it compare, say with Buffy or (more recently) working on Torchwood?
Torchwood was a very different process from everything else, since it functioned as a sort of hybrid version of the UK system – less room time, more one-on-one with the showrunner. Once is more similar to Buffy – we work in a writers' room figuring out the story, and then we take turns writing complete drafts that are then polished by Eddy and Adam. And, also like Buffy, we're being allowed to make the show that the guys envisioned. It's a very smooth and very productive process.

Does the fact that Once Upon a Time is on one of the "big three" networks (not to mention for Disney, ultimately) have an impact on any phase of the creative process for you?
Well, the budget's bigger, so the show looks amazing – I can't believe how gorgeous the dailies look. And we get eight days to shoot each episode, which also helps it look rich and full. But the biggest difference is just in public awareness. It's nice to be able to say the name of the show and have people recognize it. That didn't happen even at Buffy or Battlestar as much as you'd hope.

Here is the press release for "Desperate Souls" (BSG's Ty Olsson guest stars):

"Desperate Souls" - Regina and Mr. Gold play dirty politics and take opposite sides when Emma runs for a coveted Storybrooke public office against Sidney. Meanwhile, back in the fairytale world that was, Rumplestiltskin tries to track down the ultimate power source in order to help his son avert the horrors of a meaningless war, on "Once Upon a Time," SUNDAY, JANUARY 8 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

"Once Upon a Time" stars Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White/Mary Margaret, Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan, Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold, Lana Parrilla as Evil Queen/Regina, Jared Gilmore as Henry Mills, Josh Dallas as Prince Charming/John Doe and Raphael Sbarge as Jiminy Cricket/Archie Hopper.

Guest starring are Meghan Ory as Ruby/Red Riding Hood, Patti Allan as Miss Ginger/blind witch, Beverley Elliott as granny, Giancarlo Esposito as Sidney/mirror, Dylan Schmid as Baelfire, Conner Dwelly as Morraine, Kate Bateman as mother, Mark Gash as father, Ty Olsson as Hordor, Brad Dourif as old beggar, Michael Phenicie as The Duke, C. Ernst Harth as burly man/the ogre, David-Paul Grove as Doc and Gabe Khouth as Sneezy.

"Desperate Souls" was written by Jane Espenson and directed by Michael Waxman.

Last not least, some of the gazillion interviews Patton Oswalt did this week. Young Adult is in theatres now.

Patton Oswalt Chats with John Hodgman
Audio: Meet the Actor: Patton Oswalt

After a little speculation from John about the success of this film, the two discussed what may lie ahead in Patton’s film career future.

"All my acting jobs have been these insanely lucky accidents at this point. I don’t have any real autonomy. I might get a little autonomy after this film for a window of two weeks. I'll try to use it wisely. But I'm sure I'll, you know, I'll sign on to Gnip Gnop: The Movie or something like that. I'm sure I'll make some horrible mistake."

With Gnip Gnop scratched off the list, John and Patton pitched some great ideas for a Barney Miller movie, a Cocoon prequel (Hodgman as a young Wilford Brimley), and Ghostbusters 3 (Kristen Schaal as the black Ghostbuster). Will we ever see these brilliant gems on the big screen? Let's just say Patton didn't say no. Let the internet rumors begin!

"I'm in this business for two reasons," Oswalt explained. "The money and the anecdotes. So I either want to be in the best films possible, and if I can't be in those then I want to be in the absolute worst films, because I want the stories. To me doing Ratatouille was just as valuable as doing Blade Trinity.

Patton Oswalt talks 'Young Adult' and career moves

Question: How would you describe Matt?
Answer: I think that he's kind of let his own narrative write him, rather than the other way around. He's the classic example of he hasn't decided to let this thing affect him in a good way, and that makes him an expert in people making bad decisions and letting things affect him in a bad way, which is why he's so good at homing in on what's wrong with Charlize, even though he can't apply that wisdom to himself.

Patton Oswalt on NPR by Laughspin

Patton Oswalt On Comedy, Change, And What Happens If You Never Leave Home

On Sunday's Weekend Edition, Oswalt tells Audie Cornish that he appreciated the fact that while Matt may be a small-town guy, the script (by Juno writer Diablo Cody) doesn't present the people of Mercury as simpletons. "I loved that the people living in the small town are actually happy and have lives of their own," he says, adding that all too often in the movies, "the small town, they're just these harmless potato people who are there to make the hero better."

In developing the character with an acting coach — the first time he's done so for a film role — Oswalt says he had to consider the way his life might have gone had he never ventured out into the world as he did when he went into comedy as a young guy. "I really had to imagine the kind of person that I would have been if I had never left my hometown. I don't think I would have been a very pleasant person." Not that speculating about alternative futures is ever easy: "I had to go back and reverse-engineer a life that I decided not to live."

Diablo Cody, Patton Oswalt & Charlize Theron talk YOUNG ADULT

PATTON OSWALT on choosing roles: Well, first, thank you for implying that I have any control over my career, that I get to choose projects. “Tell Spielberg to get ready to be disappointed; I’m going with Reitman on this.” I was very lucky to be offered this script. I was there at the – I got to know Jason through just, we both love film; we both own French bulldogs. So that’s kind of how we got to know each other. And then I started doing these table reads early for the script, so you know. But as far as my intentions, I just – I’m so beyond like genre, drama, comedy – I just want to do really good, interesting projects. And that can mean something like this script, which was so good when I read it, so good; or something like that little adult swim show that I just did, which was the most bizarre, but also a great script and a – just stuff that constantly rolls the dice down the felt and just goes for it. And this – man, this script went for it. So I was, you know, I – hopefully, someday, if I’m ever at a point where I have the luxury of intention, I will make the right choices. But so far I’ve been lucky enough that the choices I have been given have been really, really good.

Young Adult | Patton Oswalt | Hollywood Dailies | Movie Trailer | Review

Comedian-Actor Patton Oswalt On The Hazards Of Too Much Nostalgia

FAST COMPANY: This is the second film you’ve done some pretty incredible dramatic work in it. Was it easier this time out with Big Fan under your belt?
PATTON OSWALT: It was a little easier this time. But still, in Big Fan it was like I was playing in a vacuum, just this guy who is in his own head all the time. In this one, I got to play against other people, and somebody as amazing an actress as Charlize, so I ended up having to really up my game.

Between this and Juno, Jason Reitman has a great grasp on the teenage experience. What does he get about it?
Yeah, the two of those movies, they really understand those years. I think the one thing he really understands is that nobody really graduates high school completely. And that the shockwave of it sometimes can reverberate a lot longer than we can even realize.

Patton Oswalt on Charlize Theron, “Big Fan” fans and the comedy of “Young Adult” – AWARDS ALLEY

HollywoodNews.com: It bothers me how much I related to Mavis while watching this film.
I think everyone knows a Mavis. It can be female or male. So many people have been coming up to us after screenings and saying, “Oh, I know a Mavis.” But also, there’s something admirable and heroic about the fact that despite all odds, she is going to make things the way they were when she was 16, even though it’s obvious to everyone but her that that’s not going to happen.

HollywoodNews.com: Is there any truth to the rumor that you did “Young Adult” so that guys will stop coming up and telling you how much they love “Big Fan?”
[Laughs] That was not my plan. I was just so flabbergasted and grateful to be offered the role. I certainly wasn’t thinking, “Man, I’ve got to put ‘Big Fan’ behind me!” If people want to keep telling me how great they thought “Big Fan” was, I’m happy with that. That’s a good life.

Interview With Patton Oswalt: The performer talks about writing, acting, and the Golden Age of Baltimore comedy

City Paper : Did you have a lot of input on your character?
PO: I didn’t really need to, it was so well written. I didn’t want to do too much input and then get my fingerprints all over the thing, when I thought the thing was so of a piece. There were a couple of minor suggestions, but it was never coming from me going, “This could be better.” I remember at one point he originally just collected action figures, in the script, and I said, “Well, you know, there’s this subculture of people who cannibalize figures, and modify them,” and I thought, how subliminally symbolic is that for what Matt wished could happen to his life, like, “Why can’t I have a better pair of legs, on a better torso?” that kind of thing, and to Diablo [Cody]’s credit, because she is such a confident writer, she said “Yes, I love that.” She loves natural stuff like that, she had no problem with that, but for the most part, I wanted to read the script as written because it was really good, and if I read it as written, I’m gonna be a lot better than if I’m like (pouty voice), “I wanna add my joke here,” which, if you have something great, fine, but why don’t you read the script? It might really be good.

AUDIO: Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt and Diablo Cody Share Their Movie Loves

Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt and Diablo Cody Talk Young Adult

When asked how they made their scenes together look so natural, Theron joked, “A lot of alcohol.” Oswalt added, “We call it ‘acting juice.’”

Amid the laughter, Oswalt took a serious tone, saying of Reitman, “I think because you know you’re in the hands of someone that knows how to edit a film and how to edit a scene …because we just knew, subconsciously, we were in such good hands, directing-wise, that we could relax enough. And that relaxation is what I think gets – the comedy was never needy. It was just like – we were never going for a laugh, it all came very naturally. And a lot of times, what was so great about the way that she [nodding to Theron] played Mavis, was the laugh comes from her not giving me any response, and then I get more nervous, which is a really real thing, that a lot of actors really don’t have the balls to do. They always want to be saying something or listening and reacting. And she was able to just go, ‘You know what? My character’s just not engaging in this scene at all.’ And that is where the humor came from.”

Is Patton Oswalt on his way from sidekick to star?

“The role was so well written, the movie was so well written, and all I could see were the ways it could go spinning off the tracks if the wrong tone was hit,” said Oswalt during an interview at the Whistler Film Festival. To prepare, he worked with an acting coach and a physical therapist. “I got kind of intimidated by the possibility of wrecking this thing.”

'Young Adult' Star Patton Oswalt Talks Transforming For The Film & How His French Bulldog Helped Get Him The Job

“When the script came in, he said he wanted to see how it sounded, and he had heard that I do a lot of table reads, so I did some readings,” Oswalt explained. “By the third reading that was when Charlize came in and the chemistry was right there. And he said ‘Okay, you got it.’ ”

But landing the role was the beginning of a long and arduous process of shaping the character, since Oswalt has to walk with a severe limp and internalize what that kind of pain will do to a person. “I worked with an acting coach and I worked with a physical therapist,” Oswalt explained. “The physical therapist went over exactly what the wounds were, what the damage was, how I would have recovered from it, how exactly my leg would work and not work.” Just portraying the character could have been damaging to his health. Oswalt said, “It was also nerve-wracking because she said, 'You've got to do these stretching exercises at the end of the day because if you don't, you could permanently mess up the way that you walk.' So that was like 'Oh shit.' "

And Craig Ferguson: