213 replies to this topic

[Steve Sensible]

Actually surprised to find he's Irish

You clearly haven't seen X-Men First Class...

[Ulf Imwiehe]

Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider and the mighty Gwar’s Oderus Urungus as guest stars? This sounds so silly I just have to check this out!

[Paul F]

For Community fans, it's been announced the show is returning March 15th: http://www.hitfix.co...-taking-a-break

[Martin Smith]

Yay! I've nearly caught up with it actually.

[Chris D]

Good to hear. Can't wait for the new episodes to start. It's been far too long.

[Paul F]

This could be good: trailer for Lena Dunham's HBO show, Girls.

[steveuk]

Actually surprised to find he's Irish

You clearly haven't seen X-Men First Class...

There's a bit of German in there too, but his voice is very different to anything he's used in movies.

The grin is quite scary.

[steveuk]

Dennis Quaid & Michael Chiklis Set To Star In CBS’ Ralph Lamb Period Drama Pilot

After lengthy negotiations, Dennis Quaid and Michael Chiklis have closed deals to star in CBS’ untitled Ralph Lamb drama pilot, written by Goodfellas writer Nicholas Pileggi and Greg Walker and directed by James Mangold. In his TV series debut, Quaid will play the title role in the project, set in the 1960s and centered around the true story of Ralph Lamb (Quaid) – rodeo cowboy turned longtime Sheriff of Las Vegas- and Johnny Savino (Chiklis), a Chicago mob fixer whose entrepreneurial vision for transforming Las Vegas collides with the law-and-order mandate of Sheriff Lamb. In addition to starring, Quaid and Chiklis, both repped by WME, will serve as co-executive producers on the Ralph Lamb project, which is executive produced by Pileggi, Mangold, Walker, Cathy Konrad and Arthur Sarkissian. CBS TV Studios is producing.

<SNIP>

Ralph Lamb was Clark County’s longest-serving and most famous sheriff who was in charge for two decades — from 1961 to 1979. Known as the cowboy sheriff as he was often seen riding his horse, Lamb modernized the department, brought in a modern crime lab, assembled the city’s first SWAT team and oversaw the merger of the Las Vegas and the county law enforcement agencies into the Metropolitan Police Department. But he was probably best known for his tough stance on the Mafia, which still controlled most of the casinos at the time. He famously roughed up Chicago mobster Johnny Rosselli in public and sent him to jail. After making bail, Rosselli’s was never head from again until his corpse was found floating in a 55-gallon oil drum off Miami 10 years later. The setting of the Ralph Lamb series is similar to Pileggi’s non-fiction book Casino, about the Mafia’s final glory days in Vegas in the 1970s. Pileggi co-wrote with Martin Scorsese the script for Scorsese’s feature adaptation of Casino, just like the two collaborated on Scorsese’s 1990 classic Goodfellas, based on Pileggi’s book Wiseguy.

http://www.deadline....ot/#more-235400

I like 'Casino'. It's too long but holds my interest. The book is even better.

This, I know nothing about beyond the article above, but I'm already interested.

[Paul F]

Sky Arts have announced a new series of programs:

Emma Thompson, David Tennant, Olivia Williams Lined Up For New U.K. Series

The UK’s Sky Arts, which earlier this year announced it would triple its budget, has commissioned a series of one-off original TV dramas and comedies that will fall under the Playhouse Presents label. Among the notable projects, Walking The Dogs sees Emma Thompson play Queen Elizabeth in a comedy-drama about an intruder who made his way into her bedroom in 1982. Walking The Dogs is based on the night Michael Fagan broke into Buckingham Palace, entered the Queen’s boudoir and chatted with her for a while until the police took him away. The title refers to Fagan’s window of access – a guard who was supposed to be positioned outside the Queen’s door was out walking her dogs. Eddie Marsan (Tyrannosaur, Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows) and Russell Tovey, who has a role in the Emma Thompson-penned Effie, are co-stars. Other shows just announced by Sky Arts, part of the BSkyB group of channels, will include such British talent as David Tennant, Olivia Williams, Stephen Fry and Hayley Atwell along with some non-Brits like Stellan Skarsgard and Harry Shearer. The latter is starring in Nixon’s The One, a verbatim account of Richard Nixon’s time in the Oval office based on more than 198 hours of recordings made between February 1971 and 1973. Sky Arts commissioned Hat Trick Productions, Sprout Pictures, Tiger Aspect and Warp Films to produce the series. Playhouse Presents kicks off in April. A full list of the new projects follows:

• KING OF THE TEDS Drama by Jim Cartwright. Tina works part time as a cleaner. Ron’s been made redundant by the bottle factory. The lives of this long-term married couple are turned upside-down with the surprise visit of their best friend from the fifties and deep feelings are rekindled. With Tom Jones, Alison Steadman and Brenda Blethyn.
• NIXON’S THE ONE Comedy-drama starring Harry Shearer (This is Spinal Tap, The Simpsons) as Nixon. This is a verbatim account of Nixon’s time in the Oval office, based on more than 198 hours of recordings made between February 1971 and 1973. This brilliant film is a fascinating account of his controversial and often farcical time in office. Also stars Henry Goodman as Henry Kissinger.
• THE MINOR CHARACTER Drama written by Will Self and starring David Tennant as Will, the artist, who observes life in minute detail, providing a witty and acerbic critique of his life. When a tragedy occurs, Will is forced to reconsider the trust he has in the urban-suburban, middle-class landscape of his middle-aged friends.
• CITY HALL Riding a wave of popular opinion after footage of her defiant stance against London rioters becomes an internet hit, an ordinary woman finds herself as the capital’s first female Mayor. With Olivia Williams, Rhashan Stone, Lucy Punch and Martin Shaw.
• CARE Stars Gina McKee as Natalie, a nurse whose relationship with an elderly patient and other residents on the notorious Byker Estate forces her to confront her own fears and isolation.
• NELLIE AND MELBA Melba teaches ballroom dancing and likes to play whist. Her 51 year-old son still lives at home working at the dreaded social security office. His dream is to go onto the stage which, despite a catalogue of disasters, he triumphantly does – with a little help from his mother. Co-written by Paul O’Grady and Sandi Toksvig. Starring Paul O’Grady, Sheila Hancock, Rosie Cavaliero and Jonathan D. Ellis
• THE SNIPIST Drama by Matthew Holness and starring Douglas Henshall and the voice of John Hurt. Set in a post-apocalyptic Britain, a lone sniper (Henshall) must fend off plague carriers and rescue stranded communities in order to survive. But is this landscape of a destroyed civilisation all that it seems?
• WALKING THE DOGS An intruder breaks into the Queen’s bedroom at dawn. They discuss love, family and personal freedom before the police arrive to take him away. With Emma Thompson, Eddie Marsan and Russell Tovey.
• THE MAN Hidden in an exclusive hotel, a cabal of powerful individuals debates international politics, economics and war. A chilling look at how an unelected few control the fate of the masses. Written by Sandi Toksvig. With Stephen Fry, Hayley Atwell, Zoe Wanamaker and Stellan Skarsgård.
• THE OTHER WOMAN Life imitates art as a successful TV writer and his actress wife’s failing marriage is mirrored in the show he writes and she stars in. But can they work out their problems on screen or is their relationship doomed to fail? With Geraldine James, Richard E Grant, Trevor Eve and Tom Ellis.
• PSYCHOBITCHES Psychobitches takes famous females from history and puts them in the psychiatrist’s chair. Our therapist is tasked with trying to help these celebrated women through various issues they may have from Lady Godiva with her obsessive compulsive stripping disorder to Beatrix Potter who believes the animals really do talk to her to Eva Braun who has trouble finding Mr Right. Psychobitches is about celebrating outstanding women from history and all their gloriously bonkers issues.

Will certainly check some of these out.

[Martin Smith]

Some of them sound on, but the Will Self one especially sounds dreadful. Still, nice to see that Zky are funding even more Original programming.

[Rory Abel]

Is Walking The Dogs based on Michael Fagan?

[David Meadows]

According to the stuff I read, yes it is.

I completely forget where I read that though

[Paul F]

It says it at the top of the article.

In the most surprising casting news since John Leguizamo was cast as Del Boy Trotter, Darius (yes, that one) is Beast in ABC's reboot of Beauty and the Beast: http://www.deadline....st-casts-beast/

[Russell H]

Blimey.

[John Mosby]

Worth pointing out, I think... if I'm right, the Beauty and the Beast series that Darius will be in ISN'T the one which is the re-imagining of the Ron Perlman/Linda Hamilton show, but the more traditional fairy-tale version which has ALSO been green-lighted.

[Paul F]

Worth pointing out, I think... if I'm right, the Beauty and the Beast series that Darius will be in ISN'T the one which is the re-imagining of the Ron Perlman/Linda Hamilton show, but the more traditional fairy-tale version which has ALSO been green-lighted.

Yeah, the reboot of the Perlman version is for The CW, with Kristin Kreuk as Beauty.

[David Meadows]

with Kristin Kreuk as Beauty.

Oh, that's a shame

[Martin Smith]

Oh, that's a shame

Yeah, she seems pretty miscast for that.

[Steve Sensible]

Yeah, she's so ugly.

[David Meadows]

The problem is that her acting range consists of "slightly puzzled smile" or "slightly worried frown".

Unless she's got a lot better since the early Smallville seasons.