Final reminder: Alessandra Torresani makes her first appearance on American Horror Story tonight at 10 pm on FX. Here is the synopsis:
"Halloween: Part 1": The spirits of the Murder House become ever stronger, blurring the line between life and death. Meanwhile, the house's former residents offer some tips on decorating for Halloween to the Harmons.
The teaser is embedded below. No Alessandra in any of the AHS previews, but you can check out the first photo of her and George Finn in A Green Story at the The Bambola Factory. She posted it last week.
Richard Harmon, who will show up on The Secret Circle tomorrow (9 pm, CW), tweets that he is working on a new film, a Lifetime original called The Pregnancy Project. Here is how Deadline described it in the original announcement:
First off, The Caprica Times has a fantastic new interview with Kevin Murphy that covers tons of lingering questions about the show, about Murphy's work in the second half of the season, some of the challenges they faced in production, and the plan they had for Caprica season two.
In the interview, Murphy lays out the main storylines for most of the main characters and throws in a few interesting tidbits about the first season that I don't think we've heard yet on the podcasts or elsewhere (the last minute retcon of Teryl Rothery's character, for instance). The article is a must-read, check it out on The Caprica Times.
He also confirmed that John Pyper-Ferguson will show up on Hellcats this season. Magda Apanowicz will guest star in the next two episodes and Brian Markinson has pretty much taken over Aaron Douglas' role, so he might show up again next week, too. Previews of the next episode are embedded below.
Here is what the actors are up to this week:
Eric Stoltz will be back on TV this summer in an episode of Wilfred, a new FX sitcom with Elijah Wood that looks insane, according to a tweet from the show's casting director. No word yet on which episode, but the show premieres on June 23, so there's plenty of time for someone to squeal.
Magda Apanowicz is working on a new project. No info on what it is yet, but she tweeted this photo the other day:
The first preview of Los Americans, Esai Morales' new web series, has surfaced on Blip.tv. It includes some footage from the show and a brief interview with Esai. Los Americans premieres on May 26 on PIC.tv.
Gun Hill Road will get a screening at the Lincoln Center on May 5. Details on Facebook. And io9.com has a nice long article with some new info on 17th Precinct and Esai's character.
James Marsterswill soon be recording another book in The Dresden Files series, Ghost Story.
MovieWeb has a clip from Daydream Nation with Calum Worthy. The film opens on May 6. Genevieve Buechner and Luke Camilleri are also in it.
Final reminder: Brian Markinson guest stars on The Killing tomorrow. He is credited as "Man in Suit."
And two other really great interviews showed up online this week.
Aleks Paunovic talked to Shogun Gamer about some of his recent projects; Mortal Kombat: Legacy, The Hostage, This Means War, In the Name of the King 2 and his 2009 film, Personal Effects. Here's a snippet or two:
Ian: You’ve done a lot of sci-fi, action and dramatic work so is there something that you haven’t done yet that you really want to jump in to or would like your career to be known for or do you want to continue doing more genre based work?
Aleks: I love the sci-fi community. The sci-fi community and the fans are nothing but amazingly generous so I have no problem staying on the sci-fi end of it. But there are some roles that I would really like to do, I would love to do a dirty and down cop show. That to me is a huge thing and just trying to figure stuff out and everything; I love that type of stuff and I would love to get more into that kind of stuff.
Ian: Somewhat of a riff on the last question but is there anyone in the industry that you would really like to collaborate with in the future?
Aleks: Clint Eastwood, hands down man. A friend of mine just finished working with him and he said it was nothing but great and that he’s an actor’s director and it was great. Something like that you know, you’ve seen this persons work be acclaimed all over the world and you’re stepping into those shoes and getting direction from Clint Eastwood would be awesome.
Ian: Besides Mortal Kombat, what upcoming projects do you have in the pipeline that you’re really excited about or you want people to check out?
Aleks: Tahmoh and I have a few more things that we’re working on feature wise to do because we’re going to keep on doing the executive producing end of it and trying to get our own projects out there. Mortal Kombat is coming out, this film I did called Charlie is coming out, and This Means War. I’m also trying to create my own stuff also. I love getting into the room and love working networks and studios but I also love the indie aspect of doing your own dream type thing.
Who are some artists, in your opinion, who never lost their cool?
I think The Onion is a good example of something that has kept being good, never lost its level of quality. Cormac McCarthy has had a really good run of writing great stuff. [Yasujirō] Ozu with his films, that was a long career that never got bad. Again, it just depends on the individual. I don't think there's a universal "sell by" date that applies to all artists.
In addition to releasing your book [Zombie Spaceship Wasteland] and touring, what other projects do you have in the works?
I've got a new album that I'll record next month so, I'm doing as many shows as I can leading up to that.
And here is Kevin Murphy previewing this Tuesday's episode of Hellcats, "Warped Sister," in which we'll finally get some background on Nasty Kathy:
Syfy has posted a new exclusive clip (embedded below) from the Caprica Season 1.0 DVD. In it, executive producers Jane Espenson, Kevin Murphy and David Eick talk about where the show is headed in the second half of the season. It’s a short clip, but it might bring up some of the old controversies from the Battlestar Galactica series finale. There is also a brief glimpse of Sam and Tamara Adama in V world in one of the upcoming episodes.
Make sure you also check out the new behind the scenes clip at AirlockAlpha.com.
On other fronts, Alessandra Torresanitweeted that she will be on Attack of the Show on October 5, Sasha Roiz is doing a conference call with the press today, and Starry Mag is talking to Magda Apanowicz.
Other cast updates:
Hollywood Life has a bunch of pics of Eric Stoltz on the set of Glee and PDN Pulse has an article about Untitled, the short film he did last year that's part of MoMA's New Photography exhibition.
King of the Avenue, with Esai Morales, will be out on DVD on October 26, and Cherry is getting screened at a bunch of festivals this month. You can find the schedule on Facebook.
A Night for Dying Tigers, with Leah Gibson and John Pyper-Ferguson, will be screened at the Vancouver Film Festival. You can find the details here. Conviction, also with Pyper-Ferguson, will get a limited release on October 15.
Patton Oswalt will guest star on Bored to Death again one of these Sundays. He was also cast in Jason Reitman's Young Adult earlier this week.
SpoilerTV has the first pics of James Marsters in Smallville 10x04 here. Battlestar's Michael Hoganwill also guest star in at least two episodes of the show later this season.
The season premiere of Human Target (with Tahmoh Penikett and Jorge Montesi guest starring in episodes 2x01 and 2x04 resp.) has been pushed back to November 17.
The final season of Friday Night Lights, exec produced by Jeffrey Reiner, with Scott Porter returning in episode 7, will premiere on October 27 on DirecTV.
The Walking Dead, scored by Bear McCreary, will premiere on Sunday, October 31.
Jane Espenson posted this on her blog earlier today:
Return of the Cylons: The Caprica Season 1.5 Premiere Fan Event!
Join CAPRICA stars Esai Morales, Alessandra Torresani, Sasha Roiz, and executive producers Ronald D. Moore, David Eick, Jane Espenson and Kevin Murphy for the Caprica season 1.5 premiere!
500 dedicated fans will have an exclusive opportunity to be the very first to see CAPRICA's return at a free private screening with the cast and producers on Sunday, October 3 at the Globe Theatre at Universal Studios Hollywood! Gates open at 6:30 PM and the cast and producers will kick off and close the event.
To get your ticket for this exciting celebration of CAPRICA'S return, please send your name, e-mail address, & # of tickets (max of 6 per person) to frak@nbcuni.com.
A few TV reminders:
Teryl Rothery and Ryan Kennedy guest star on Hellcats tonight at 9 pm on the CW network
Sasha Roiz, who is still filming an episode of House, will appear on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation tomorrow at 10 pm (CBS)
You can also catch Hiro Kanagawa on Fringe tomorrow at 10 pm (Fox)
Keep an eye on Aleks Paunovic - he's been tweeting pictures from the set of Supernatural
Ausiello over at Entertainment Weekly has some interesting new tidbits from David Eick about Cylon activity in season 1.5. You can read the article at EW.com. Spoilers below.
“Daniel Graystone’s creation—the early-model Cylon known as the U-87—emerges as a critical story point,” reveals Eick. “Due to the bad PR Daniel has endured since his prized creation, the Holoban, [was blamed for] the emergence of terrorist cells on Caprica, Daniel shifts his company’s focus to the perfection of artificial intelligence and its proliferation throughout the culture as the ultimate “helper”: Never gets tired. Never asks for a raise. Never quits on the job.
“Meanwhile,” Eick continues, “Joseph Adama and his brother Sam—using their organized crime muscle to seize control of Daniel’s company—see an altogether different purpose for the U-87′s: to sell to the highest bidder, no matter how violent their agenda might be.”
And Syfy has posted a new clip from episode 1x10, "Unvanquished," with James Marsters, Magda Apanowicz and Liam Sproule. "Unvanquished" airs next Tuesday at 10.
Jane Espenson commented on the change of showrunner to io9.com:
I'm still at Caprica. Running the room was very intensive and took a lot of time away from actually writing this amazing ambitious show. I missed the writing more than I expected and this was my decision to concentrate on that as we put together the big end of season one. Kevin is extremely smart and talented and brings fresh eyes and fresh energy to the project — we're so lucky to have him!
Mo Ryan at Chicago Tribune has a lengthy new article about Caprica.
Biggest news, the episode order has been cut by an hour:
The series will premiere with a two-hour pilot that is already available as a standalone DVD. Eight additional hours of "Caprica" will air through March. Then the show will take a break and the remaining nine hours of "Caprica's" first season will air some time in the second half of 2010. (...)
[Mark] Stern said that the decision to reduce the episode order was made in consultation with the show's creative team and was driven purely by financial considerations. Quite simply, "Caprica" turned out to be more expensive than the network thought it would be, he said. The episode reduction was part of an effort to make those 19 hours as good as they could be without sacrificing the quality of the drama, a story of intrigue and family conflict that follows the Adama and Graystone clans in settings that resemble present-day Earth.
Also, it seems that SyFy has made the final choice on the official poster for the show and it is the one with Zoe holding an apple.
Here are a few snippets from the article:
The show's creators also ended up devoting more time to certain characters than they had originally planned to, and the show lined up recurring guest stars such as James Marsters and Patton Oswalt.
"This was the time to make the decision" about whether to cut an episode, Stern added. Production is underway on the thirteenth hour of the show and thus the producers have time to retool the last third of the season. "If it didn't work creatively, they weren't going to do it," Stern said.
The show recently took a two-week break to retool scripts and recalibrate where "Caprica" was heading, and Kevin Murphy, a veteran of "Desperate Housewives," has joined the show. He, along with Eick, Moore and Espenson, is an executive producer of "Caprica" and Murphy has been taking the lead on breaking stories.
"Ron, Jane and David are still very much in that mix," Stern said. "Every show has to find its voice and figure out what it wants to be. Every show has to find out which characters pop and which story lines play. There were some growing pains as they found the right balance of stories and characters."
"The thing that 'Caprica' has that the 'Battlestar' viewer will recognize -- aside from the obvious little winks and nods [to the saga of the rag-tag fleet] -- is that 'Caprica' is, at its core, a strong character drama about people going through situations in extremis," Stern said. "There are characters who are driven to do things that are morally ambiguous because of the situations that they're put in. And yet tonally, it's not as dark, it's not as grim. Because [the characters] are not on the run, having had their whole world destroyed, that allows more opportunities for poignancy and joy and celebration.
"There's definitely more of that than there was in 'Battlestar.' It's not about someone getting their jaw broken every other episode," Stern said with a laugh. "But there are elements of that kind of extremity in this that I think will attract 'Battlestar' viewers. And yet our hope is, because it is dealing with world that is more familiar to us and dealing with issues that are maybe a little more germane to our daily lives, that it will attract a broader audience."
Kevin Murphy, who previously worked as a writer/producer on Ed, Desperate Housewives, Reaper and Valentine, has joined Caprica as a new co-executive producer, according to Variety.
From the article:
As for "Caprica," Murphy has signed on as co-exec producer and is already working on his first script for the show.
"As a rabid 'Battlestar Galactica' fan, it's hard not to go in that writers room and not just grin ridiculously," Murphy said. "These are the people who made the best TV show ever. To be able to be a part of the legacy of that show, I'd be willing to pay them for that."
