Behind The Screen!
So I haven’t caught a flight from Brazil to France and disappeared ‘Lost’ style; nor have I come second on ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ and had a complete meltdown resulting in a ‘holiday’ at the Priory. The column has just had a week off – did you miss me?
Like many of those aircraft passengers from France I’m looking forward to the Pacific this week. Luckily for me though it’s not whilst screaming looking out of an airplane window, it’s because of a new series ‘The Pacific’ from the creators of ‘Band of Brothers’!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT971xLSIv4
The Second World War drama on the battle for the Pacific will air on HBO in the US and Sky Movies in the UK next year. ‘The Pacific’, was produced by Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman. The 10-part series, which will screen first on cable channel HBO in the spring of 2010, was filmed entirely in high definition and cost about $200m (£128m) to produce. Sky Movies will also broadcast The Pacific in the spring of next year, without commercial breaks. Billed as a “companion piece” to Band of Brothers, The Pacific tracks the intertwined odysseys of three US marines – Robert Leckie, Eugene Sledge and John Basilone – during the Second World War Pacific campaigns against Japanese forces, from Guadalcanal to Iwo Jima and home after VJ Day in August 1945.
Ian Lewis, the director of Sky Movies, said: ‘We were blown away when we saw the previews of the series – the cinematography and effects are pure Hollywood. It seemed only natural that a premium production such as this should live on Sky Movies, where it can be viewed as the director intended – in HD and with no ad breaks.” Filming began in Australia in 2007 and the production has also visited other locations around East Asia. The Pacific is now in post-production. HBO had hired strong actors but not big name stars, choosing to spend the bulk of the $200m budget on screen.
Lewis said the deal with HBO meant the programme would likely screen in the US and UK at the same time – something which will be a big plus for me – I hate the knowledge that somebody somewhere has seen an episode before me. Looking forward to that one!
As ‘24′ comes to an end for its most recent season, news is already abound for the next. Freddie Prinze Jr. has signed up for the new season as head of CTU field ops, former Marine Davis Cole, a new CTU agent wanting to become next Jack Bauer. Yeah, seriously. So Prinze isn’t happy enough with ruining Scooby Doo and marrying Buffy, he has to try and ruin ‘24′ for me as well. I feel a phone call to Tony Almeida coming on…
As I’m sure most of you are aware, as writer/producer Steven Moffat takes the reins of the “Doctor Who” series, the 11th incarnation of the Time Lord, Matt Smith, is getting a new traveling companion in the form of unknown 21-year-old Scottish actress Karen Gillan. “Funny, and clever, and gorgeous, and sexy. Or Scottish, which is the quick way of saying it,” is how Moffat describes her. “A generation of little girls will want to be her. And a generation of little boys will want them to be her too.” Hmmm she is ginger mind; don’t get too carried away eh Steve?
The new season will begin filming this summer and premiere on BBC one next Spring. No word as to when it will make its way to the US as yet.
Whilst trying to avoid any spoilers, I can also confirm that John Lithgow of ‘Third Rock from the Sun’ fame, will star in the next season of Showtime’s ‘Dexter’. I have lots more info on his actual character and plot line, but that would be spoiling Season 4 wouldn’t it?? Season 4 of Dexter premieres September 27th in the US, and hopefully not long after in the UK.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDITTtd1LJk
Here’s some breaking news for you – coming off his role as bad guy Theodore ‘T-Bag’ Bagwell on Fox’s ‘Prison Break’, Robert Knepper has apparently been cast as the new lead villain on BBC/NBC’s ‘Heroes’ next season!
In at least six episodes of the series’ fourth season, Knepper will play Samuel, a charismatic but evil character with a twisted sense of humour (no surprises there) who will veer into the lives of all heroes. ‘T-Bag’ was going to be the one thing I missed from ‘Prison Break’ so good to see Knepper back as a bad guy so soon. He’s also good enough as a’ bad guy’ actor to maybe salvage something from the rapidly declining series.
Ricky Gervais has also revealed that his upcoming movie ‘Cemetery Junction’ will become a TV series.
In Empire magazine, Gervais said that he will oversee a small screen spinoff of the show, a ’70s-set comedy-drama about employees working at insurance firm The Prudential.”It was once going to be a TV show and maybe still is, but we’re trying to do it the M*A*S*H* way round,” he said. “We thought that when you do a TV show and then do a film, generally it’s awful…So we want to give the film its best shot and treat it with the reverence a film deserves.”
Gervais conceded that he may not be able to use all the movie’s cast for the TV show, saying: “We want to use the main characters from the film. Except they’ll have become bigshots and they won’t return my calls. I’m like Simon Cowell. I get 50% of their wages forever now.”
BBC Film’s ‘Cemetery Junction’ stars Christian Cooke, Tom Hughes, Jack Doolan, Felicity Jones, Matthew Goode, Gervais and Ralph Fiennes.
Something I luckily caught on Wednesday is that ITV3 in the UK is showing the second, and now we know final, season of ‘Life’. It wasn’t advertised by ITV at all as per usual, they’d rather plug crap like ‘Primevil’, but I saw it whilst browsing through Sky so if like me you’re a fan of the show, you can catch the first episode of the second season on Friday 5th June at 9pm and then on Wednesdays at 10pm.
Also beginning its second season in the UK this coming week is the excellent ‘Chuck’ which will be on Virgin 1 at 9pm on Tuesday 9th.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffb_5e7enNA
For those in the US, Thursday night (4th) saw the return of ‘Burn Notice’ on USA, as well as ‘The Listener’ on NBC. I’ve just finished the first season of ‘The Listener’ on FX here and found it pretty good, and although I initially walked away from ‘Burn Notice’ half way through first time around, I went back and enjoyed it enough later; so looking forward to those coming back.
Lastly, some sad news in that legendary actor David Carradine has passed away. The 72 year old actor, most famous for his TV series ‘Kung Fu’ and more recently as ‘Bill’ in the ‘Kill Bill’ movies, apparently committed suicide in a hotel room in Bangkok this Thursday.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCyJRXvPNRo
So ‘Big Brother’ starts once again this week here in the UK, giving the unemployed something to do with their days; instead of staying in bed all morning then waking up to mindless conversation, they can actually watch it on TV. I was actually approached to be on this year’s ‘Big Brother’ but they only offered me a few Grand. It was pretty harsh reality cheque.
Have a good weekend
Related posts:
- Behind The Screen
- Behind The Screen
- Behind The Screen – 3rd April 2009
- Behind The Screen
- Behind The Screen
