Category Archives: Trailers

Nestor No Longer “Lost”

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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?

Paul, Paul, and More Paul

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Paul Ben-VictorOkay, 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.

 

Mike on “American Body Shop” Tonight

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I meant to get this blog out a few days ago to give everyone enough of a heads up, but life has been insanely busy lately and, yeah, I’m behind on my blogging.  I apologize to those of you on digest who won’t see this until tomorrow.

Anyhoo, Mike McCafferty has a guest role tonight on Comedy Central’s new show American Body Shop, which is scheduled to air at 10:30 p.m. Pacific/9:30 p.m. Central.  Be sure to check your local listings for the time and channel in your area. 

Originally, Mike had tried out for a series regular role on the show, but it turned into a guest role instead.  You can read all about the highs and lows of the audition process for this show from the man himself in this post from his MySpace blog. 

He may not have landed a series regular role, but he did get his own action figure.  This doll (oops…I mean action figure) cracks me up.  Check out the following picture. 

American Body Shop Action Figure

You can get a sneak peak of Mike in his role as Mansfield in the trailer entitled Peak Under the Hood on the American Body Shop home page. 

In related news, the story of how Sam Greene, the show’s creator, sold his show idea to Comedy Central is a fascinating one.  It’s a story of how sheer tenacity is often needed to make it in Hollywood. 

According to the Hollywood Reporter, “Greene, who had spent 20 years writing spec material for film and TV but never sold a project…decided to shoot his own pilot, stick it in an envelope and mail it directly to the network powers-that-be.”  He was ready to give up when one day he got a call telling him “that Comedy Central wanted to develop his project.”  You can read the rest of his story at the Hollywood Reporter website.

In another somewhat related story, it would be easy to assume that all working network writers in Hollywood would automatically be members of the WGA (Writers Guild of America) with all the rights and protection such a membership afforded them, right?  Wrong.  Writers on several Comedy Central shows, which includes American Body Shop, have only recently reached an agreement with the network for WGA contracts.  You can read more about this at Variety.com. 

Oh Where, Oh Where Have Our DVDs Gone? Oh Where, Oh Where Can They Be?

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Credit for this topic goes to Laura, who made the suggestion that I talk about I-Man DVDs.  Thanks, Laura! 

The subject of I-Man DVDs has been a source of frustration to I-Man fans for a long time, especially if you live in the U.S. or Canada, because, as you most likely already know, as of this date, no DVDs have been made for Region 1 (U.S. and Canada).  And since it isn’t currently airing in the U.S. or Canada that makes it tough for people who have never seen the show to get familiar with it.  Just the other day I had a meeting with a local director at a coffee shop.  He knows what project I’m working on, was curious about The Invisible Man, and wanted to check the show out.  I had to explain to him, just as I explain to everyone else who asks, that not only is the show not currently airing, but, also, no DVDs exist for it in this country.  You can bet that I would have loved to tell him that he could run down to the local Suncoast or Wal-Mart and pick up season one and two of this cool little show, but, alas, I couldn’t.  Frustrating indeed. 

Will we ever get I-Man DVDs here in the U.S. and Canada?  Well, that’s anybody’s guess.  As of this date, I haven’t heard any news that suggests that we will see them any time in the near future. 

Back when Ian Atkins was working on the U.K. DVDs, the foreign video distribution rights were owned by a South American company called America Video Films.  While I haven’t looked into it, it’s possible that the company still owns those rights.  The fact that they advertise I-Man on their site leads me to think that is a strong possibility.  If you go to their website (http://americavideofilms.com/) and do a search for “invisible man” by title, you’ll find a blurb written about the show as well as a trailer that you can watch.  The trailer emphasizes the drama and angst, but leaves out the humor, giving viewers a rather lopsided impression of the tone of the show, but it’s still fun to watch.

I gotta tell you that if I wasn’t tied up with this movie project right now, I’d love to take on trying to get I-Man DVDs produced in this country.  But maybe some other enterprising fan will take on the project the way Ian Atkins did in the U.K.

There is so much more to cover on this subject, but I’m going to save that for future posts.  Stay tuned because I’ll be talking about which countries have DVDs and where they can be ordered, after all, this site is visited by readers from around the world.  I’ll, also, explain regions for those of you not familiar with them, and identify some region-free DVD players. 

If anybody has any info on I-Man DVDs that they want to share with everyone else, please drop me a line so that I can include it in future posts.