09.24.07

Nestor No Longer “Lost”

Posted in Film, Interviews, Nestor Carbonell, TV, Trailers at 11:14 pm by Amanda Rogers

Well, it looks like Nestor Carbonell, who has been playing the recurring guest role of Richard Alpert on Lost, might be taking a break from the series. He’s landed a series regular role on the new CBS drama Cane, which premieres tomorrow night, September 25, at 10:00 p.m. on CBS.

Cane Trailer

There’s been a lot of concern among Lost fans as to the fate of Nestor’s character and even Cane creator Cynthia Cidre gets asked if Nestor will be available to guest star in Lost in the following interview.

Exclusive Interview: ‘Cane’ Creator Cynthia Cidre

And she’s not the only one getting asked that question. Lost Executive Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse also touch on that question in the Official Lost Podcast.

However, the Star Ledger takes it right to the top. CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler was asked whether she’d let Carbonell do a guest spot on Lost. “‘Probably not,’ she said, arguing that they’re trying to establish a new show and a new character, and she felt it would confuse the audience to see Carbonell playing roles on two different series at once.”

I think Nina may be underestimating the TV audience a bit, don’t you?

So there you have it. When and if Richard Alpert ever appears on Lost again remains to be seen. In the meantime, Nestor is in the enviable position of being in demand on two TV shows…an actor’s dream.

Batman

And just when you think things couldn’t get any better for Nestor, Variety reports that Nestor has been cast as the mayor of Gotham City in the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight.

The Dark Knight Movie Teaser

Official Dark Knight Site

The Dark Knight is scheduled to be released July 18, 2008.

Anybody else find it ironic that Batmanuel will appear on Batman?

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09.02.07

Paul, Paul, and More Paul

Posted in Commercials, Film, Internet, Interviews, Paul Ben-Victor, TV, Trailers at 6:53 pm by Amanda Rogers

Okay, I’ve got a whole gaggle of Paul Ben-Victor news to share with you, so let’s get started.

First, let’s get the bad news out the way. I’m sorry to report that, after only nine episodes, John from Cincinnati has been cancelled. Even though Paul’s character, Palaka, has been praised, the show itself hasn’t been getting many good reviews and it just couldn’t seem to find its audience.

Now for some good news. The Foxhole site has a really great podcast interview with Paul. In it they cover a whole range of topics from John from Cincinnati to The Wire to how Paul got his start in show biz and more. The podcast is an hour long and I should warn you that there are a couple of swear words in this interview.

In addition, there are a couple of links given during the course of the interview. One is to Paul’s old Atari video game commercial (You might remember that one from when I posted the link on The Invisible Man Online back in September of last year.) and the other is to Paul’s father’s photography website. Note: If you click on those links during the podcast, you’ll have to restart the podcast from the very beginning each time. It doesn’t pick up where it left off. So for your convenience, I’ve included the links below. Now you can listen to the podcast without interruption and then come here to click on the links or vice versa.

Foxhole Podcast Interview with Paul Ben-Victor

Young Paul Ben-Victor

Here’s the link to the Atari video game commercial that Paul did many years ago (note the hair). His costar is a very young Elisabeth Shue.

Atari Video Game Commercial

Paul’s father, Victor Friedman, has been a photographer for over 40 years. You can view his work at the link below. Warning: There is some nudity.

Victor Friedman Photography

Paul’s Upcoming Projects

In the above podcast interview Paul mentions that he will be back in season five of The Wire in his role as Vondas. He will be in at least three episodes, possibly four. No word yet on when season five will start or which episodes Paul will appear in.

While one series ends for Paul, another series is getting underway. In Plain Sight is a USA original series being shot in New Mexico. It’s the story of a no-nonsense federal marshal who masquerades as a parking attendent, but really works in the witness protection branch of the FBI. It is purported to possibly start after the new year. Here are a couple of articles about the filming of the pilot:

Albuquerque Journal: TV Pilot to be Filmed Here

Valencia County News-Bulletin: Highland Meadows Gets Visit From Hollywood Crew

In the feature film arena, Paul appears in the movie Randy and the Mob, which is scheduled to be released in Atlanta, Georgia, on September 21, 2007. According to the official website, which is still under construction, there will be a national tour to promote the film. In the meantime, go check out the trailer that is up at the official site.

Official Randy & the Mob Website

Paul’s Website

Last, but certainly not least, if you haven’t been to Paul’s website in a while, go on over and pay it a visit. While still under construction, Paul’s website has been given a whole new look. Do some exploring and you’ll find some really great info about Paul’s character Bobby Hobbes. I’ve found that the site can be extremely slow sometimes in loading the links, but if you click one of the small pictures under Paul’s demo reel, you can get into the rest of the site.

Paul Ben-Victor’s Official Website

Okay, that’s it for now. When I hear more, I’ll pass it along.

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08.19.07

Unaired Episodes of “Drive” Now Online

Posted in Craig Silverstein, Greg Yaitanes, Internet, Interviews, MySpace, TV, Videos at 7:20 pm by Amanda Rogers

Six episodes of Drive were made, but only four episodes were shown before the show was unceremoniously yanked from the air. Now, those last two episodes are available to watch online on Drive’s MySpace page. Episode five, entitled “The Extra Mile,” and episode six, entitled “Rearview,” are there in addition to the first four episodes.

A post-Drive wrap-up interview with executive producers Tim Minear and Craig Silverstein can be found at the Drive Fans website. In it, Tim and Craig reveal future storylines had the series continued. It may not really matter at this point, but because of all the spoilers, I suggest you watch the last two episodes before reading the interview.

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07.28.07

1408

Posted in Film, Interviews, Matt Greenberg, Scripts/Screenwriting at 9:32 pm by Amanda Rogers

I said that I’d play catch up on the news when I got back from the con, so here’s an item that is about three weeks overdue. Yikes!

1408,a horror film written by Matt Greenberg, as well as Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, has been out at theatres for a few weeks now. I believe it’s still playing in some theatres. So if you want to see this film, there may still be time, but do check your local listings to be sure.

Official 1408 Website

A picture of Matt Greenberg attending the world premiere of 1408 can be found here.

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In related news, the following article, partially quoted from the Los Angeles Times, gives a interesting tale about the writing and rewriting process for this film as well as some insight about screenwriting protocol in Hollywood.

It was somewhere around the time that he was in his backyard grilling ribs for Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (”Man on the Moon”) and their families that Matt Greenberg (”Reign of Fire”) realized he had a unique screenwriting circumstance on his hands. Given that Alexander and Karaszewski had replaced him as the writers of the horror film “1408,” a friendly barbecue would have seemed unlikely.

As with most screenwriters, all three had been hired for development rewrites before and been rewritten themselves, but none could remember ever becoming so friendly with their ostensible collaborator — at least not during the active rewrite process. But here they were communing over Stephen King and some baby backs.

It’s actually supposed to be part of the screenwriters code — tacitly encouraged by the Writers Guild — that when a writer is hired to rewrite someone’s screenplay, he should throw a courtesy call to the previous writer (that is, when it’s not a pile-on with 22 writers, like “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” or “Stuart Little,” in which case most of the involved parties would be happy that you forgot to call them).

Then there are the true horror stories of when writers are set up to make the call that inadvertently informs the previous writer that he or she is in fact the previous writer.

Greenberg worked on the screenplay, an adaptation of a 20-page King short story about a man terrorized in a spooky hotel room, for a year at Dimension. But after the project lay quiet for a while, the producers told him they were bringing on Alexander and Karaszewski.

The writers dutifully called Greenberg to get his blessing, and although both parties admit to a natural tension, Greenberg, who counts Alexander and Karaszewski’s “Ed Wood” as one of his favorite movies, ultimately felt reassured by their ideas and subsequent drafts. (It also made a difference that this was not an original screenplay.)

“These guys really were doing the heavy lifting during production,” says Greenberg, who met with them fairly regularly. “I tried to keep my own ego in check and just recognize that, ‘Look, at this point I’m an informal consultant.’ ” They all eventually agreed over a handshake to a shared screenplay credit, which allowed them to bypass a dreaded guild arbitration hearing. In this rare case, their civility won out over a system designed to provoke competition.

“It was really nice that a good relationship came out of it,” Alexander says. “We were all on the same page.” “1408’s” due June 22.

Okay, more about the writing of 1408. What can I say? I find the whole screenwriting process absolutely fascinating. So here’s a podcast by Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith of Creative Screenwriting Magazine. In it he interviews co-writer Matt Greenberg and the co-writing team of Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. Warning: This podcast is almost an hour long and it contains spoilers for the movie.

Listen to Podcast

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04.21.07

Videos by Danielle

Posted in "The Invisible Man", Interviews, Videos, Vincent Ventresca at 1:24 pm by Amanda Rogers

A few years back there existed a really great website dedicated to Vincent Ventresca called vincentventresca.net. The site was attractive, well organized, and a fan could find virtually everything about Vince’s roles and career there. Danielle, a very talented fan, created and ran the site.

Well, life got busy for Danielle and the website is no more, but a whole slew of her videos she either saved or created are residing on YouTube for our enjoyment. Danielle was kind enough to let me post links to her videos so that you can easily find and enjoy them too. She’s got a great assortment of videos.

To start things off, here’s the actual trailer used to advertise the pilot of The Invisible Man.

Invisible Man Trailer

Here’s a great interview with Vince where he answers questions from the old Invisible Man bboard. The audio seems to be a bit out of sync and it abruptly stops after seven minutes, but it’s still worth watching.

The Invisible Man Bboard Interviews Vincent Ventresca

Danielle created a whole slew of I-Man music videos that are a lot of fun to watch.