Weekend wrap, part two

Let's start with the GDD folks.

Brian Markinson has joined Twitter. Go follow him. He will be back on The Killing tomorrow (9 pm, AMC), and he says he is done filming Continuum for the season. Spoiler TV has tons of info about the show here. The two-hour pilot airs on Showcase on May 27.

Two new episodes of 10,000 Days with Peter Wingfield have been released. You can watch them on Facebook or at 10kdays.tv.

Duke with Kendall Cross premieres on the Hallmark channel tonight at 8 pm and airs again at 10 pm. Here is the synopsis:

Marine Sergeant Terry Pulaski, a once proud man, is now a broken shell of himself having returned from Iraq with both PTSD and a disabling injury. Terry struggles to be a good father and husband, but his challenges leave him feeling like a burden to his wife and daughter. With his dog, Duke, in tow, he decides to leave his family behind. Years later, a homeless Terry needs help for an aging and ill Duke, so he reaches out for help at a nearby veterinary clinic. Will Duke be able to help Terry reach out again to try and reconcile with his estranged daughter?

Stars Steven Weber, Sarah Smyth and Allison Hossack.

Teaser posted below.

Elsewhere, Magda Apanowicz is filming Dead Souls in Connecticut. She posted a couple of pics from the set on Twitter. Here are a few more details about the film, from Chiller's press release:

Production has commenced in Canterbury, CT on Dead Souls, Chiller's all-new original movie slated to premiere in October 2012. Adapted from the novel by Bram Stoker Award Finalist Michael Laimo, the film is written by John Doolan and directed by Colin Theys; Andrew Gernhard and Zach O'Brien will produce for Synthetic Cinema International.

On his 18th birthday, Johnny Petrie learns he was adopted when he inherits a farm in Maine, abandoned for the 18 years since his natural family died at the hands of his father, the local preacher. Eager for a new life, he leaves home to start over in his new dwelling. However, as he digs into his past, he soon uncovers the horrifying details of his father's questionable teachings. In a frightening revelation, he also learns that his return has revived decades-old forces trapped in the home and sets in motion a heart-stopping finale to a ritual that already claimed the lives of his family. Dead Souls stars Jesse James (The Amityville Horror, The Flyboys) as Johnny, Bill Moseley (Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, The Devil's Rejects, House of 1,000 Corpses), Magda Apanowicz (The Butterfly Effect), Noah Fleiss (Brick), Jaiden Kaine (Hellbenders) and Geraldine Hughes (Rocky Balboa, Gran Torino).

Also in production this week: the pilot for Defiance. Four new Blood and Chrome orphans - David Weddle, Bradley Thompson, Bear McCreary and Gary Hutzel - are mentioned in the press release:

The pilot is directed by Scott Stewart (Legion, Priest) and written/executive produced by Rockne O'Bannon (Farscape), Kevin Murphy (Desperate Housewives, Caprica; Hellcats) & Michael Taylor (Battlestar Galactica). Kevin Murphy serves as showrunner. Defiance is produced by Universal Cable Productions.

Other mavens rounding out the first-rate production team and lending their creative prowess to the ambitious project are visual effects supervisor Gary Hutzel (Battlestar Galactica, Caprica), alien language and culture consultant David J. Peterson (Game of Thrones), music supervisor Bear McCreary (The Walking Dead, Battlestar Galactica), writers David Weddle and Bradley Thompson (Falling Skies, Battlestar Galactica) and three-time Oscar-winning costume supervisor Colleen Atwood (Alice in Wonderland, Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha, Edward Scissorhands).

Defiance is a visionary enterprise in collaboration with Trion Worlds, with the Syfy series and Trion's multi-platform shooter MMO poised to debut simultaneously. Set in the near future, Defiance introduces a completely transformed planet Earth, inhabited by the human and alien survivors of a universal war. Forced to co-habitate, the disparate group struggles to build a new society among the devastation. The dramatic tapestry of the series and the intense action of the game will exist in a single universe where their respective narratives will inform one another and evolve together into one overall story.

Defiance was one of the projects Syfy presented at the upfronts in New York this week. Two other projects with BSG and Caprica folks involved that are currently in development at Syfy are the Stephen King adaptation Eyes of the Dragon, co-written by Michael Taylor and The Family, a pilot executive produced by Mark Verheiden.

Eyes Of The Dragon – Based on Stephen King’s best-selling novel. A kingdom is in turmoil as the old king dies and his successor must battle for the throne. Pitted against an evil wizard and a would-be rival, Prince Peter makes a daring escape and rallies the forces of good to fight for what is rightfully his. Writers: Michael Taylor (Defiance, Battlestar Galactica) and Jeff Vintar (I, Robot). Executive producers: Michael Taylor and Bill Haber. A production of Universal Cable Productions and Ostar Productions.

The Family – For generations, an alien family has hid amongst humans in plain sight using their advanced intellect to carve out a life for themselves as their family grew. But when the family patriarch that kept peace amongst the factions dies, a war begins to brew with some members believing the time has come to reveal themselves, and their superior power, to the inferior human race. Writer/exec producer: Dan Harris (Superman Returns, X2). Executive producers: Neal Moritz (21 Jump Street, Total Recall), Mark Verheiden (Falling Skies, Battlestar Galactica). A production of Sony Pictures TV.

If the Arrow pilot makes it to TV, we'll be seeing Hiro Kanagawa in it, too. Green Arrow TV writes that he plays a "Dr. Lamb" in the pilot. Brian Markinson, Ben Cotton and Roger Cross (who played Vergis in a version of the Caprica pilot we'll never get to see) are also in it. Cross will also be a regular in Continuum.

Hiro Kanagawa has two other TV appearances coming up. The first one is in Continuum 1x03, "Wasting Time," possibly crossing paths with Brian Markinson and Richard Harmon, and the second one is in Fairly Legal 2x08, "Ripple of Hope." No air dates yet.

Eric Stoltz is directing more Glee this week. This time it's episode 3x21 (nationals, no title yet), with Rex Lee guest starring, and it airs on May 15. The prom episode, which Eric also directed, airs a week before that, on May 8.

Ross Carey has a really great new interview with Jane Espenson. You can listen to it here.

Seat42f has the DVD and Blu-ray release details for John Carter with Polly Walker, out on June 5.

Reason.com has a report from the set of Atlas Shrugged: Part 2 with Esai Morales. Here is a snippet:

During my time on set I watched the shooting of another scene that is, in a way, the lynchpin of the entire novel: the subtle attempt by Francisco D’Anconia (played by Esai Morales, most recently seen as Caprica’s Joseph Adama) to convince Rearden to abandon this world of statist control, by reminding him that Rearden never wanted to devote his life’s energies and creativity to “looters who think it’s your duty to produce, and theirs to consume. Moochers who think they owe you nothing.” (Yes, Rand fans, “looters” and “moochers,” both delivered seriously in mainstream movie dialogue.) Morales delivers the iconic line about what he would tell Atlas if he saw him bleeding and suffering, trying to bear single-handedly the burden of the world: “To shrug.”

Morales does the scene, delivers the line, more than five times while I watch, running a range from intense near-menace to ironic lightness; the camera angle I’m watching doesn’t show Rearden’s reaction, which will be key to how the emotion of the scene plays.

James Marsters recorded Frost/Nixon for L.A. Theatre Works last week. You can find some pics from the event here and here (via James-Marsters.eu.)

The first season of Hell on Wheels, with Christopher Heyerdahl, will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on May 15. Movieweb has the details.

Born to Race with John Pyper-Ferguson is now available on Netflix.

Meg Tilly is doing a new play in Toronto, which went into previews this week:

Featuring a powerhouse cast that includes Golden Globe winner Meg Tilly, among a group of Dora nominees and leading Canadian stage performers such as Cliff Saunders and Sophie Goulet, The Real World? is Michel Tremblay’s 1987 masterpiece of self-reflexive theatre. Riffing on Roland Barthes’s notions of authorial intent and the fraught nature of ascribing meaning and truth to a person’s creative output, Le Vrai monde? shows the Québécois playwright at the height of his powers, telling the story of a young man battling his family in an attempt to maintain his artistic integrity.
• Previews: April 24 to May 1. May 2 to June 3. Tarragon Theatre, 30 Bridgman Ave. $24-$51; tarragontheatre.com.

The Globe and Mail has an interview with Meg. Snippet:

The Real World? is not one of Tremblay’s better known plays. What’s it about?
It’s about authorship, who has a right to say what. You have him in his world with his mom, dad and sisters but then – you know how you are writing in your head – so he is doing that too. His mom says, “Your version is the one that will survive because it is written on paper.”

I am the [fictional] mom who says what he wants her to say; I am the mom who takes the dirty laundry and spreads it all over living room and then you have Jane [Spidell] who is the real mom, who says, “This my life; I would never say that.”

A few new interviews with Scott Porter showed up this week. The first one, mostly about Hart of Dixie, is at Zap2it. The second one is on THR:

“George is a tough nut to crack,” Scott Porter told The Hollywood Reporter in previewing Monday’s hour, which takes place the day after. “He’s a level head in most situations. You rarely see him get too excitable and in this episode, you see him cracked wide open. You see him dancing, you see him singing and you see him dealing with his emotions in a raw way but not in the way you would expect.”

And there is another one on The Huffington Post:

We know that George loves his costumes, as we saw in the Thanksgiving Day episode. Personally, I'd love to see him don a Captain America suit to celebrate the release of "Marvel's The Avengers."
Oh yeah. George would definitely be Captain America, and Wade would be Hawkeye, the smart ass ladies man. George's briefcase would be his shield. I think the same thing can be said in real life. I'm more like Captain America than anyone else in "The Avengers." If this were the "Justice League," I'd say that I was The Flash. It's funny because Wilson and I both tested for the role [of Captain America], and we were both in the final four for "Captain America" once upon a time. That's actually how Wilson and I met. He's definitely Hawkeye in real life.

Last, a couple of teasers. First, the one for tomorrow's episode of The Killing, "Openings," with Brian Markinson and Richard Harmon:



Second, the teaser for Duke. And no, that's not our dog. Acting seems to be a popular profession among border collies in Vancouver. 10 pm, Hallmark.