Posted on September 21, 2016 at 3:19 pm
Three stars of “The Good Wife” will appear in a new spin-off, a midseason replacement that picks up a year after the slap that ended the popular and critically acclaimed series. According to Vulture, Christine Baranski (Diane), Sarah Steele (Marissa) and Cush Jumbo (Luca) will star in the new series.
Posted on August 30, 2016 at 3:23 pm
Keegan DeWitt is a versatile and sought-after composer who has worked on a remarkably wide range of television and film projects. Keegan DeWitt is a versatile and accomplished composer, who has strengthened many stories across film and television. This October, his music will heighten the drama of HBO’s highly anticipated series, “Divorce,” starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church, and Molly Shannon. He wrote the scores for eight Sundance Film Festival selections including the current release “Morris From America,” starring Craig Robinson. I was very glad to get a chance to talk to him.
Music is a very important part of the storyline of “Morris in America,” with key scenes including rap and electronic music. How do you approach that?
It’s easy because Chad Hartigan and I have been friends since we were teenagers. I work with some really interesting people but it is great to be able to work with a close friend, especially because Chad and I grew up talking about movies and getting excited about movies. So the process of making a movie with somebody you went through that with is that much more rewarding. And this was one especially cool. One day Chad has this idea of, “Let’s figure out a way to make an international co-production in Germany with Americans and Germans,” so I was like “Okay,” and next thing I know, me and him are riding bikes across the park in Berlin to go to the production office and score the movie which was so great.
And then musically, it’s a tough double-edged sword in that when we sat down, we had to make so that when people watch it they will have no idea this is a score. We really wanted it to feel like the hip-hop stuff was totally authentic, real hip-hop. And the EDM with exactly the same. And so on and so forth.
And then when the score stuff happened, it just was like breathing in the film and it all felt really organic and at no point did you notice it. That’s an especially tough gamble when it is such a music-centered film and there is a ton of music in there.
It was a fun project in that I had to roll up my sleeves and go, “Okay, how do I do each of these types of music?” It was also hard because there are racial implications in it as well, just like Chad as the writer and director creating this narrative. I felt this huge spotlight on myself to not be just a white person imitating hip-hop.o for me I was really encouraged when I sat down to write like that when he’s 14. But I clued into what first got me really excited about hip-hop when I was a teenager which was the melodic stuff like De La Soul and Del the Funky Homosapien and people like that. The hip-hop that the character Morris creates is sort of goofy, like a goofier hip-hop that somebody who is coming from a slightly more naïve innocent place like Morris could get into. And so for me that was my little slot in the door. I was like, “Ah, I got it.” I could sneak in with this because this is authentic in my experience and I also think it could be authentic to Morris’ experience.
And we also thought that it was an important thing to choose hip-hop that was somewhat fun so that we weren’t trying to comment on or make things seem gritty. The thing that I thought was so rare about the script is actually like it’s just so thick with love and curiosity and all those things. And it’s like Chad said, “If you want that really gritty dark person, go see every other movie about what it’s like to be a bad teenager.” I think that’s really true. And I am always drawn to what somebody wants to do something that’s like very pop. And so I was excited to be able to do that on this as well. And then on that note also to make the electronic music feel scary too. We tried to make it really loud and aggressive so that when he’s walking up to that club on that night you feel that rock in his stomach that you would feel if you were stepping up and could just hear the pounding music from inside.
So, now that you’re working on the new “Divorce” television series, how is it different to approach a TV series versus a movie?
I was lucky on “Divorce” because it’s HBO so it super creative and artistic to begin with. And also with this show, because everyone loves Sarah Jessica Parker and Sharon Horgan the creator, there is just a reverence for them in the work they do that there is a lot of space and a lot of grace for the creative process. When I got there they pretty much shot two-thirds of everything and we really got to spend like three months just being creative.
I don’t think it’s often on a TV series that we are a month into postproduction and it feels like hanging out on a Saturday evening. We are all just talking about music and I would play them little things and they would get excited and be like, Oh, what’s the name of that type of drum?” Yeah, the Bodhrán, okay. Bodhrán, let’s go crazy on that and experiment with that. So we did like a whole week of crazy Bodhrán music and then did crazy flute music because that show is really like in the 70’s and Jethro Tull and stuff like that.
I’ve been really lucky in that way. I’ve done other stuff where you jump in and you are just creating music and you are like, “I hope that makes sense.” But with this, we really did get to begin almost as if it was a movie and go through each episode and really choose to be adventurous. I was just really lucky, especially for a relatively younger composer, to be able to be in a room that’s got that many talented people. It was an opinionated room for sure and it was a competitive kind of “Can I meet these expectations?” But that’s always exciting as long as the people are really intelligent and excited as they were.
The thing that I know that SJ fought for and resonated with me was that it’s really important that as an adult so often things can be super dark or super sad and then in the same moment totally farcical. We had to figure out ways to mix extreme happiness with awkwardness or extreme sadness with moments of real tenderness or even silliness. And so I tried to make sure that I represented all ends of the spectrum and even if I would stay on the silly side of the spectrum, there was a real humility and a real intelligence to it and then it if was sad, it still felt a little bit like off kilter, a little bit ridiculous.
Thomas Haden Church is so good in the show. He’s so funny and has such heart. One minute he’s sabotaging Jessica Parker’s life but in the other minute he’s like this dad whose family is falling apart and he’s desperately trying to keep it together. So as soon as I walked into it I knew this is an intelligent project and I really had to make sure that I continued to meet that in terms of not giving them a cue that included all of the moods and emotions.
Do you compose on the piano? Or a computer keyboard?
My main instrument is piano to compose on but this was a crazy experience in that one day we were talking about me maybe going into the project and then the next week I was flying of the New York and literally composing in the post-production office. I was just trying to be a ninja with the computer as much as I could. So there are lots of saxophones and organic things that I try to really add some humanity. And every night I would walk to the subway and be calling a bunch of people that I know all over the United States to be like, “Hey, can you send me a voice memo of you playing this theme on the saxophone but sort of make a long?” And every morning I would be getting email dispatches from players around the United States that I would then bring in and chop up and have to work on the slide to get things together.
I always say I could divide it and these two camps; the people who are great with computer and the people who are purest with real instruments. And I’m always fascinated by what if you send me a really crappy recording of your saxophone where so it feels really gritty and interesting and breathy and then I’m going to take it to the computer, re-pitch notes of it, cut it in half, slow it down, put it in double time and then once I do that with five different instruments at once it’s this really cool mix of both of those things.
I always try and remember a limitation is not a limitation. It’s like a gift, it’s a creative gift. So this thing was like how do I compose music that I have to audition in high-pressure circumstances with like 15 minute turnaround times in a production office in Greenpoint on a laptop? It’s time to treat this like it’s a scrapbook and I’ve got a bunch of scissors and paste.
Then we sit down with Sharon and SJ and everyone. It was this challenge of one group wanted a lot of the Bodhrán because it was chaotic and interesting and crazy and the other one was flute music and I was sort of jokingly at one point, “Do you realize that when you mix Irish drums with flutes you’ve got ‘Braveheart.’ I turned the flute into a saxophone because it’s got a little bit more comedy but also when used right that sound can be very emotional. So I tried to kind of leverage all of those things together and take it one notch off of what makes sense.
Posted on August 3, 2016 at 3:55 pm
At Comic-Con I had a chance to chat with the stars and producers of CBS television series, both fan favorites and new shows.
James Wolk of “Zoo” Is one of my favorite actors, so it was a special treat to get a chance to talk to him about “Zoo.” Wolk plays Jackson Oz, an American zoologist investigating a mysterious pandemic that has created devastating animal attacks. He says that following the death of Chloe, Jackson’s love interest on the show, last season, “it takes a dark turn. Jackson is under a terrible amount of stress. He has a lot of animosity with Dariela, played Alyssa Diaz, because she is indirectly responsible for Chloe’s death. Meanwhile, Jackson’s brother is falling in love with Dariela, so there’s a lot of turmoil starting to develop with the characters. In a more broad sense, the animal apocalypse is still happening, the mutations are starting to affect people, and we’re going to start to explore what that means.” He said that having been a guest star and recurring character on series (“Happen Endings,” “Mad Men”) before, “I know what it feels like to be welcomed. I know what it feels like to have people go, ‘Oh, that’s the new person so we’ll put him over there. They’re just busy. But I know that when people were so welcoming to me, it freed me up as an actor because I felt comfortable. I opened up as an actor and the colors came out, the different levels. So it’s a selfish thing to embrace them because they’ll do their best work and that’s good for the show. It’s going to gel. So we all go out of the way to make them feel comfortable and welcome.”
Kirsten Vangsness of “Criminal Minds” and Tyler James Williams of “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders” talked about how being on a crime procedural. Vangsness plays a character who has to rattle off a lot of technical terms. “I have to make that exposition a discovery, to make it different in a neat little labyrinth. Also I talk pretty fast in real life.” Williams said that “the show does not vilify people; it explains people. Hurt people hurt people.” “Fear makes you cruel,” Vangsness said. Williams says the show has made him more empathetic. “If anything it makes me more aware of how we interact with each other. I immediately ask ‘what happened to them?’ Our job as actors is to justify the behavior of the character, so that seems natural.”
Eddie Kaye Thomas and Jaydn Wong talked about playing super-smart good guys on “Scorpion.” Thomas said he was on the subway and a little boy said to him, “You’re the one who catches the bad guys.” He knows that “we’re in people’s living rooms. We’ve shared time with you.” And he “likes saving the day. Wong added. “I like being right.” Thomas would not want to have the ability to read people’s moods and emotions. “I like the mystery. I would not want to carry the weight.” Fortunately, he says he is “really bad at analyzing people.” Wong likes the complication of the characters. “We’re geniuses, but we have emotional challenges. We’re good at some things but bad at something else.” Thomas agreed. “The show doesn’t work because we’re smart. It works because we have characters the audience can relate to.”
“MacGuyver,” the classic 1980’s television series about the endlessly ingenious adventurer, has been rebooted and will be premiering September 23 2016 with Lucas Till taking over the lead role. Producers Peter Lenkov and James Wan talked about honoring the original series and its fans and updating it for a new generation. “He’s a unique character,” Lenkov said. “He does everything the opposite of most action heroes on TV today. He resorts to violence last. He doesn’t use a gun.” If you look at the original show, there’s no internet or cell phones. So the new MacGuyver will still be a technology guy, but with a new set of tools and options. There will be a shift to more of an ensemble, and it is very much designed to be something the whole family will watch together and “We hope to get people interested in engineering and creating, in looking at what is around them differently.” That means a lot of research. “We’re on a lot of watch lists,” he laughed, because of the Google searches they do on how to blow things up or break into secure locations. Wan, who also directs, says he is bringing a cinematic eye to the framing and editing of the series. And he identifies with his hero who has to use what is around him to solve problems. “Being a filmmaker is like being MacGuyver.”
“This isn’t a bad guy of the week show,” Lenkov said. “It’s more like an adventure story, pure entertainment.”
Producer Corinne Brinkerhoff and actor Megan Ketch (Tessa) spoke about “American Gothic.”
Brinkerhoff talked about communicating Tessa’s character through her wardrobe. “We decided early on that there was some whimsy to Tessa. She is a primary school teacher and her clothes should be warm and inviting and that they should have a sort of intricate pattern. Tessa often wears shirts that have little frogs on them or little ice cream cones. We wanted Tessa to have a brightness and a lightness and those whimsical prints felt like a really specific way to understand her personality in one look, in one shirt, in one garment.” Ketch praised the show’s costume designer, Barbara Sommerville. “Clothing is behavior.”
Brinkerhoff also spoke of the possibilities for taking the story forward, suggesting that she might prefer to use the same cast in an entirely different story, like a repertory company. “Or, we could do it another way and stay within our same family but jump time. I have a pitch on how to do that. The other way is the more traditional, you come back and you pick right back up where you were and you continue their story. So there’s lots of possibilities and it’s all in the air….when you artificially extend a story it’s very frustrating and it’s not really playing fair with the viewers. So we always set out to tell this in 13 episodes and then see what the future holds.” No matter which direction it goes, it will keep the same tone. “We would always have a very complicated family grappling with some sort of mystery or crime that needs to be solved with a big twist in the middle. And what I love to write is the intersection of dark comedy with real high stakes drama and so that is the thing that I would always want to keep consistent.”
And Wilmer Valderrama spoke about joining the cast of “NCIS” in its 14th season. “I parachuted onto a moving train,” he said about joining the long-running series that is said to be the most globally watched of all current television shows. “But I feel very much at home already. Mark Harmon and I are truly good friends. He pushes me and I push him.” His character has been undercover for years. “Most of the agency doesn’t know he exists. His cover is blown and he is forced to return, to warn them about a possible threat. He’s a lone wolf, allergic to working with a team. He has been living the double life. He is unpredictable, a little unstable, maybe with PTSD. He’s a good guy trapped in the cage of an animal.” Valderrama has seen PTSD in his work with the troops. “I truly respect the type of individual who has what it takes to endure.”
NOTE: all photos copyright 2016 Nell Minow
Posted on July 26, 2016 at 3:50 pm
The sequel to the sequel to the sequel has arrived. On July 31, 2016, Syfy will unleash “Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens.” And you know what that means: more cheesy cameos from 80’s stars, more sharks (did I hear them say cow-nado?), and more silly, over-the-top thrills to tweet about. This time, it’s Las Vegas that gets hit. And this time, the audience got to decide whether the character played by Tara Reid will survive.
At Comic-Con, I spoke to Caroline Williams, who appears in the film in a character based on her iconic performance in “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2,” where she was a “final girl,” the one who was still standing at the end of the movie. She got the part in “Sharknado 4” via Facebook and she had a blast working with director Anthony C. Ferrante. “The guy utilizes everything at his disposal. When we were shooting in Las Vegas, we drove by Chippendale’s with the male dancers, and he said, ‘I’ve got an idea.'” And the clip of a Chippendale’s dancer dispatching a shark with a well-timed pelvic thrust has gone viral. “He’s willing to be extemporaneous. The guy is continually topping himself, and that is part of what has led to the audience devotion and social media phenomenon.”
“The difference between making movies in the 80’s, when I first came along, and now is exponential, not just the technology but the social media. You are accountable to that audience. They will tell you when they see a false moment, when something’s too cheesy to be believed not just by Twitter but at events like Comic-Con. When I did my first horror film convention, which is filled with devotees, they show up dressed in my outfit from ‘Chainsaw 2,’ saying my dialog, even with their children dressed up.” She is proud to be a “final girl,” along with Ripley from “Alien” and Laurie from “Halloween.”
And she understands the appeal of horror movies. “I find the best, most classic construction in movies is the conflict between good and evil. Tobe Hooper famously said that horror is the new western. Of course westerns are coming back, like ‘Hateful Eight,’ with horror elements. That’s the classic story construction and that’s what people want to embrace. You have to wrestle with the good and evil within you as a human being. We’re very primitive. The audience loves the redemptive moments.” And it is cathartic. You get to forget everything about real life which is worse than any horror film. We live in a dangerous world. When you’re dealing with the stress of your own life, there’s nothing better than to sit back, cook some fish sticks and pop some corn, sit with your family and sing the theme from ‘Sharknado.’ I discovered it with my sons. But the second one, they had their friends over to watch with them. The third one, they had more friends over.”
In the “Sharknado” movies, “Ian and Tara play it straight. They are not sending up their performances. The beauty of my role is I get to be the comic relief. He sends it up and he satirizes it. I get to wink at the camera, but Ian doesn’t.”
She loved working on “Chainsaw 2” and says that the elaborate set was her “playground.” She was disturbed at first by the real skeletons decorating the set until production designer Cary White said, “But look, they get to be in a movie.”
The chainsaw she wielded in “Chainsaw 2” was hollowed out so it would be lighter to lift. Not this time. She had to swing a real and very heavy weapon. “I could have used some pushups.” “I don’t know if I get consumed by the ‘nado. It was CGI. But we and my family members have our saws.” She was thrilled to get to play Stretch again. “Anthony wanted to send out that little valentine to the fans of ‘Chainsaw 2.’ He really put me to good use.”
Posted on July 20, 2016 at 8:08 am
We mourn the loss of writer/director/actor Garry Marshall, who died this week at age 81. Marshall gave “Happy Days,” “Mork and Mindy,” “Laverne and Shirley,” “Pretty Woman,” “The Princess Diaries,” and, as an actor, unforgettable performances in films like “Soapdish,” “A League of Our Own” (directed by his sister, Penny Marshall), and “Lost in America.” He began as a writer for my all-time favorite television series, “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” No one was better at discovering and supporting new talent. He gave the first important roles to actors from Henry Winkler and Robin Williams to Julia Roberts and Anne Hathaway.
If one were to count up the number of times any American — or maybe anyone anywhere — laughed in the last half-century, the person responsible for more of those laughs than anyone else might well be Garry Marshall.
Two of my favorite Garry Marshall films are smaller, more personal stories: “The Flamingo Kid,” with Matt Dillon and Richard Crenna, and “Nothing in Common,” with Tom Hanks.
And I always loved his performances in films, especially in “Soapdish” as a television executive who liked things to be “peppy.” Here he is in “Lost in America,” with Albert Brooks.
May his memory be a blessing.
