Official Trailer for Da Vinci’s Demons
Cable television has really gotten into the Renaissance over the past few years. "Da Vinci's Demons" follows in the footsteps of "The Tudors" and "The Borgias" by depicting this period of history as laced by high adventure, heightened characters and lots and lots and lots of sex.
In this way, the story of Leonardo Da Vinci is a perfect match for Starz.
A panel of actors -- Tom Riley (Leonardo Da Vinci), Lara Pulver (Clarice Orsini), Laura Haddock (Lucrezia Donati) and Blake Ritson (Count Riario) -- joined creator/executive producer David S. Goyer to promote "Da Vinci's Demons" at the TCA winter press tour. What was learned from the panel?
Da Vinci's sexuality
As any student of popular history knows, there has been a lot of speculation over the years as to the specific orientation of Leonardo's sexuality. Does the TV version follow along that speculation?
Kind of. While the trailer Starz aired showed Da Vinci sharing intimacy with (several) women, the panelists assured reporters that other orientation options were a definite possibility.
History vs. fiction
This is a historical drama, but that doesn't mean we're dealing with non-fiction. While David Goyer insisted that at least 85-90 percent of their story comes from history, "Da Vinci's Demons" has more than a little embellishment. As Goyer pointed out, "One of the themes of this show is 'history is a lie.'"
What bits are fictionalized? Well, there does seem to be a whole lot of sorcery-related stuff, which -- even if based on fact -- probably got exaggerated for TV. Also, the show brings Da Vinci together with contemporaries that he probably didn't meet.
And the best possibly fictional meeting? That would be with the Romanian prince, Vlad Dracul. You might know the man better as Dracula. That's right -- Leonardo Da Vinci meets freakin' Count Dracula!
Leonardo Da Vinci, Superhero
Many reporters quickly noted that Leonardo, in the Starz version, is something of a Renaissance superhero. It's not an accident. While we shouldn't expect Superman or anything, comparisons to Batman are definitely there. Da Vinci's parentage was mysterious and possibly violent, both men had a transformative experience in a cave, and -- as Goyer pointed out -- Batman's original cape design was based on Da Vinci's sketch of a glider.
The big difference would be that Da Vinci builds war machines, attends parties and rides a horse. That's not Batman's type of thing.
Starz bares all for 'Da Vinci'
By Robert BiancoUSA TODAY
Starz is moving from Ancient Rome to Renaissance Florence.
The vehicle that is taking Starz beyond the soon-to-conclude Roman blood-fest Spartacus is Da Vinci's Demons, a wildly violent fantasy/history riff on the early life of Leonardo Da Vinci.
The show, which premieres April 12, comes from David S. Goyer, co-writer of The Dark Knight Trilogy -- though this being Starz, the first fifteen minutes boast more nudity than you got in all three Batman films.
"This is something new for me," says Goyer. "I've never done anything historical or period before ... But it wasn't really that difficult, because he's kind of superhero-ey anyway ... My approach to it was not that dissimilar to adapting Batman or Superman."
Goyer says he chose Da Vinci -- played by British actor Tom Riley -- as his next superhero because he was both well-known and wildly accomplished. Da Vinci, he says, was more than just an incredible artist: he was an engineer, an inventor, a writer, a lover and a fighter.
As for how much of Da Vinci's real life you'll see in Demons, Goyer says the story is about 85 percent accurate (a number experts should feel free, once they've seen the show, to dispute). "We've embellished it with a little bit of what I'm calling historical fantasy."
Not to mention blood, breasts and penises. Because this is, after all, Starz.
* Strange....was there a special full episode screening for the critics?
Anyway it appears (and this is potentially a bad fucking news) there going to be plenty of strategic nudes utilized. Hair and hand (palm-bras) covering tits including blurry of the nips with aid of CGI. But I'm optimistic STARZ had a balanced approach to the female nudity. It's more like 50/50 situation. They may have consented to Laura Haddock demand to cover her breasts in some scenes considering it was her first nudity but at the end of the day we'll get a full view of her tits and ass. STARZ strict casting policy isn't something to be negotiated once shooting begins.
Laura Haddock admits to not focusing too much on her sex scenes but instead on the complex relationships this woman had #DaVincisDemons
— Danielle Turchiano (@danielletbd) January 5, 2013
RT @lauinla: I predict fans of #Spartacus will dig Starz's #DaVinci'sDemons. it's a fun romp, lots of action, sex and a fair amount of blood.
— Diane Gordon (@thesurfreport) January 5, 2013
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Magic City [Season 2] : First Trailer
In addition to all of the familiar faces coming back to Miami for more action in this risque hotel business, James Caan (“The Godfather”) will also be entering the fray. There are not too many details about his character known just yet, at least outside of the fact that he will be playing the mobster boss to Huston’s character.As for why the legendary actor (whose most-notable TV credit is nearly 100 episodes of “Las Vegas”) decided to join this show specifically, he started things off seriously, and then ended with a pretty funny nod to all of the graphic content on the show:
“I’m at the point where I care very much about what I do and I try to maintain a little bit of integrity … I was promised that I would have 3 or 4 love scenes and of course they lied.”
There is no announced premiere date just yet for “Magic City” season 2, but we expect it to launch during the spring just as we saw the show do the first time around. There is plenty more that still needs to be revealed, but Starz is obviously hoping to take the show to the next level considering that “Spartacus” is ending and they have already canceled Kelsey Grammer’s “Boss.” The numbers for season 1 of this show were solid by network standards, but nothing that hit the ball out of the park.
* Hmm.....not a single frame with Dominik García-Lorido. Either her role been significantly reduced (browsed extensively the series stars tweets and FB....Domino is patently missing from their daily convo with each other. She seems to be a detached person due to shyness than anything else. Very close to Kelly Lynch though) or the producers keeping it under wraps to surprise us with Dominik revealing 'intro' (wink wink).
While Ben “The Butcher” Diamond will be preoccupied in Havana dealing with Ike Evans, wifey will be screwing around behind his back as usual and in some instance with his permission! More nudity by Elena Satine. Lots of naked Latina chicks (local Florida nude models and porn performers).
#MagicCity S2 reel: lotsa sex and guns. Yeah, I think that sums it up.
— Diane Gordon (@thesurfreport) January 5, 2013
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Black Sails : Starts Production
Luke Arnold and Zach McGowan to Star Alongside Toby Stephens and Hannah New in Pirate Adventure Series
Neil Marshall Set to Direct First Episode
Pasadena, Calif., January 5, 2013 - Starz Entertainment announced today that production has begun in Cape Town, South Africa on the new original series "Black Sails" from executive producer Michael Bay and Platinum Dunes with Neil Marshall (The Descent, "Game of Thrones") set to direct the first episode. The new STARZ Original series is set to air in 2014. The straight-to-series, eight-episode first season of the gritty pirate adventure centers on the tales of Captain Flint and his men, and takes place twenty years prior to Robert Louis Stevenson's classic "Treasure Island."
Flint, the most brilliant and feared pirate captain of his day, takes on a fast-talking young addition to his crew who goes by the name of John Silver, who has stolen a map to a Spanish Treasure galleon that Flint is after. Threatened with extinction on all sides, they fight against the British Royal Navy for the survival of New Providence Island, the most notorious criminal haven of its day - a debauched paradise teeming with pirates, prostitutes, thieves and fortune seekers, a place defined by both its enlightened ideals and its stunning brutality.
Luke Arnold ("McLeod's Daughters," "Rush," Broken Hill) will star as the classic character, "John Silver," in the years before his well-known feats. Toby Stephens will be featured as the rival pirate captain to "Captain Charles Vane," played by Zach McGowan ("Shameless"). Hannah New ("El Tiempo Entre Costuras," Fuga De Cerebros 2, Maleficent) will be stepping into the role of "Eleanor Guthrie," a beautiful and determined young woman who runs the smuggling operation on New Providence. Jessica Parker Kennedy ("Max," "The Secret Circle," 50/50, In Time) has been cast in the role of "Max," a tortured young prostitute who sees the dark side of New Providence.
"Black Sails" will be executive produced by Michael Bay (Transformers, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor) and his Platinum Dunes partners Brad Fuller and Andrew Form (producers on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) and Nightmare on Elm Street (2009)). The series is created by showrunner and executive producer Jon Steinberg (creator "Jericho," "Human Target") and co-executive producer Robert Levine ("Touch"). Neil Marshall (The Descent, "Game of Thrones") is on board to direct the first episode.
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Sundance Channel's 'Top of the Lake' Highlights Grittier Side to Elisabeth Moss
"It's the most comprehensive documentation of modern New Zealand that's ever been done at such a large scale," the "Mad Men" star said Saturday at winter press tour.
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| Elisabeth Moss and Holly Hunter at winter TCA |
The seven-part miniseries from Oscar winner Jane Campion (The Piano) follows the mysterious disappearance of a 12-year-old girl who is five months pregnant in a quiet New Zealand town. Moss plays investigative detective Robin Griffin; if the footage shown to reporters at the Television Critics Association's winter press tour Saturday is any indication, Top of the Lake goes to some very dark places.
One scene in particular showed Moss' Robin glassing a guy in the bar following an encounter before she is pulled away screaming and shouting. It's an act her Mad Men character would never do. "It was very hard technically," Moss recalled. "I was bleeding, bruises the next day, my voice was gone."
For Holly Hunter, who reunites with Campion after 20 years (they worked on The Piano together), Top of the Lake was a project that was high on her list. "The situations are fantastic because they're fantasy situations," she said.
New Zealand is primarily known for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films but it was important for the people behind Top of the Lake to show a different side to the region.
"It's the most comprehensive documentation of modern New Zealand that's ever been done at such a large scale," Moss said. "We show a very different, much more modern, much grittier, much more raw side of it. By the end of production, we couldn't pass a place we didn't shoot in."
Filming took roughly five to six months, primarily in Queenstown and a town about 40 minutes outside of it. Moss, who left for New Zealand days after finishing season five of Mad Men, reminisced about the off-the-cuff rehearsals in a shed with no heating ("it was cold") and production having one satellite phone so they call into town.
For Hunter, who -- at first -- was hesitant to take the job after reading the script, praised Campion's take on the haunting story, saying it had an "incredible maturity" to it.
Top of the Lake premieres Monday, March 18 at 9 p.m. on Sundance Channel.
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STILL WORKING: Nia Long and Larenz Tate REUNITE On "House of Lies" Set
Looks like Darius and Nina are together again! The former Love Jones co-stars are headed to the small screen, as previously reported, to appear on the new season of Showtime's hit show "House of Lies." The twosome will be joining the show's star Don Cheadle. Larenz will play Don's (Marty's) younger brother, while Nia will play Don's consultant frenemy and former classmate. And we can't freakin' wait.
Larenz posted a pic of them last night saying, "The 1 and only nialong and me chilling on the set of #HouseOfLies Season 2 Damn she's fine!!"
Well aren't they cute. We'll be watching....
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Revealed: Horror queen Katharine Isabelle says she's terrified of blood
AFTER starring in some of the most acclaimed and blood-drenched horror films of all time, scream queen Katharine Isabelle has finally come clean – she’s not very good with the red stuff.
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| Katharine Isabelle in American Mary |
But the 31-year-old admits she is not too good with real-life gore.
Katharine said: “Even having my blood taken is a big deal for me.”
In her new film, she plays a surgical student who carries out illegal operations for bizarre clients in a part especially written for her by horror producers the Soska sisters.
Katharine said: “When I was sent the script, I was just supposed to glance at it on my Blackberry but ended up reading the whole 180 pages straight away. I loved the character.
“It was not till I had dinner with the sisters some time later that they told me they had written American Mary with me in mind – which was extremely flattering.”
But she left research into the film’s bizarre subject matter – the world of body modification surgery – to her two directors.
“It was not till I had dinner with the sisters some time later that they told me they had written American Mary with me in mind – which was extremely flattering.”
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| Katharine Isabelle in American Mary |
She said: “I’m a bit of a chicken when it comes to seeing potentially horrifying things on the internet.
“But the Soska sisters had done so much research and they explained everything I needed to know. So I did not have to freak myself out.”
The movie tells how Katharine’s medical student character starts making money with illegal ops on bod-mod clients before embarking on a bloody trail of revenge in a film hailed by horror fans as a modern classic.
The Canadian actress, who also starred in psychological thriller Insomnia with Al Pacino, says she gave one of her most convincing performances when she overcame her nerves to out-bluff the movie legend and a bunch of Hollywood hotshots at the poker table.
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| Katharine Isabelle and Al Pacino in a scene from Insomnia |
“I went into that game with $50 and left with six times that.
“It is totally bizarre and it is my best story to tell over a few drinks.”
Although she managed to maintain a convincing poker face over the card table, Katharine admits that, inside, she was a bag of nerves. She said: “When I left the game, I was shaking like a leaf.”
Making Insomnia, which was directed by Christopher Nolan, was also a career highlight. She said: “Working with Al was amazing. I was shocked, honoured and terrified, all at once.”
Katharine – whose real name is Katharine Isobel Murray – is fiercely proud that she is of Scots descent.
She said: “My roots are Scottish. My dad’s parents are from Scotland and my mum’s dad is Scots.” That tartan connection is why Katharine is so thrilled to be making guest appearances, with the Soska sisters, at screenings of American Mary at the Edinburgh Filmhouse and Glasgow Film Theatre.
She said: “I’m so excited. We are going to travel through Britain by tour bus, stopping off for screenings of the film along the way. I have never been to Scotland before. I can’t wait.”
Katharine was born into a showbiz family. Her father, Graeme Murray, was a double Emmy-winning production designer on hit sci-fi TV series The X Files for 10 years and her brother, Joshua Murray, is a film and TV actor.
Katharine said: “I grew up on my dad’s sets but I was never star-struck or desperate to be famous. I grew up being a worker.
“It took me a long time to realise that my work ended up being seen by people. As far as I was concerned, I was just in the family business.”
Katharine and her dad worked on an episode of The X Files called Schizogeny, involving an orchard that appears to have murderous powers.
“It was the most stupid episode ever,” she says with a chuckle. “Trees would come flying through the window and grab people.”
The success of werewolf flick Ginger Snaps put Katharine in the limelight and earned her Hollywood offers. But she was determined not to be enticed from her Canadian home.
She said: “I was 18 and not ready to throw myself into the depths of Hollywood. I like my life and I like Vancouver.”
Now Katharine feels more comfortable about handling the Hollywood scene. She added: “I’m in a much better position than I would have been when I was 18. I know how to keep myself sane.
“My brother lives down there so I visit him but I come back to a normal life in Vancouver where nobody cares who you are.”
Another thing that sets Katharine apart from the usual notion of a Hollywood starlet is her refusal to do nude scenes. She said: “I don’t think it is a big deal – 99 per cent of the time, nudity is gratuitous and unnecessary.”
American Mary will be in cinemas on Friday and released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 21. Katharine will appear at Edinburgh Filmhouse on Saturday and Glasgow Film Theatre on Sunday.
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Chris Albrecht Touts Starz’s Independence, Original Programming Rampup at TCA
Starz CEO Chris Albrecht gave a brief state of the network at the opening of Starz‘s portion of TCA’s press tour. He addressed the company’s pending spinoff from Liberty Media. “This month Starz will become an independent company separate from Liberty Media with yours truly as CEO of a private company,” he said. “It is daunting and exciting. For this room what it means is we will now be in charge of our own balance sheet, and be able to accelerate our rampup into original programming.” The importance of original programming is even greater for Starz now as it faces the 2016 departure of its top supplier of theatrical movies, Disney, which recently inked a deal with Netflix. “The first thing I would say is, there was every opportunity for us to make the deal or not make it,” Albrecht said after the session about the negotiations with Disney. “And the reason we chose to not make it is, Disney movies are not the future of Starz, and to dramatically increase the amount of money we’re paying for movies right now didn’t really seem to be the prudent way to commit Starz’ financial resources. Originals are an essential part of our future.”This year, Starz is launching three new original drama series, Davis S. Goyer’s Da Vinci’s Demons, which was presented to critics today ahead of its April 12 premiere; limited series The White Queen, a 10-episode limited series based on the best-selling historical novels by Philippa Gregory; and the Michael Bay-produced Black Sails. Albrecht announced that production has begun in Cape Town, South Africa on Black Sails, which takes place 20 years prior to Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic Treasure Island, with Neil Marshall (The Descent) directing the first episode. The straight-to-series, eight-episode first season of the gritty pirate adventure centers about the tales of Captain Flint and his men will air in 2014. There is still no movement on two dramas that had been given series straight-to-series orders before most of those rolling out this year, Marco Polo, which has faced issues in its attempt to film in China, and Noir, an adaptation of the anime series. “We just can’t get that creatively to a place where everybody feels good about it,” Albrecht said about Noir after the session. “I would never say that there is no chance, but it’s a little more frustrating as time goes on.”
Albrecht also addressed some of the projects Starz has in development as part of its shift to more originals. He mentioned Crime from William Monahan Turf, about the birth of hip-hop; and Power, exec produced by 50 Cent. Albrecht said that Incursion, the sci-fi drama from Spartacus creator Steven S. DeKnight, continues to be in active development and “creature development.” He also made a prediction for 2013 that “there will be the rapid acceleration of our Starz and Encore play authenticated platforms in terms of their distribution.”
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Hey Everyone, You Need To Stop Smoking Weed Right Now, Because Miss Universe And O’Reilly Say So
by Andrew Kirell
Newly-crowned Miss Universe Olivia Culpo was brought into the “No Spin Zone” last night for the sole purpose of agreeing with Bill O’Reilly that pot is bad and no one should be able to use it legally because it ruins lives by forcing you to be a liberal and listen to rock music and such.In this particular segment, basically every “fact” said was downright wrong… and Culpo’s posturing as an anti-pot crusader was, shall we say, hilariously transparent.
O’Reilly began the segment by introducing the fact that the recently-crowned Culpo believes that pot use is “not a positive thing,” teeing up what is sure to be a 5-minute agreement-fest over the fact that marijuana kills your grandma’s dog and everything you’ve ever loved.
But gee, Bill, I wonder why the Miss Universe winner is going to be anti-pot, anti-drinking, and anti-everything. Is it because the “facts” are on your side and she’s just another one who sees the “get off my lawn, you ignorant hippies” light? Or is it because if a Miss Universe is caught so much as uttering a curse word, she becomes the subject of derision. This is, after all, Donald Trump‘s competition, and the contestants and winners have to play by his rules.
So would Culpo go to one of those newfangled pot clubs in legal states like Colorado? “No. No way. Not where it’s legalized.” So wait, she’d go where it’s not legal? I’m confused.
She then repeats a common line that the legalization of marijuana “sends the message that it’s harmless.” To which O’Reilly said: “Absolutely that’s what it does.”
Except that’s not what it does. Do we think liquor is “harmless”? No. But it’s legal because people — especially adults — can make the choice about what to put in their bodies. And they can face the consequences of their actions if they do something embarrassing or illegal while under the influence of the product, and — wait, why am I even bothering with this? Yes, that’s absolutely what it does; simply no other way to see it.
“How did you formulate an anti-recreational use platform?” O’Reilly asked, clearly ignoring the point from four paragraphs above. Since he must’ve missed it, I’ll repeat it: Because she’s Miss Universe and if she were to endorse any remotely controversial behavior (alcohol, pot, sex before marriage, cursing, being nude, witchcraft) she would be in deep trouble.
But moving along, here’s where things start to get real shifty: Culpo then concedes that medicinal marijuana has its benefits. She says that it can help the terminally ill and people with mental illness, but then when pressed on why pot is bad (because that’s all O’Reilly really wants to hear), she says: “Because everyone has a different reaction to it. Some people get paranoid. It’s been proven to increase schizophrenia even.”
So let’s break this down: Culpo believes marijuana can be helpful for the mentally ill, but it also causes schizophrenia? Huh?
And no… marijuana has NOT been proven to cause schizophrenia. See the plethora of studies in pretty much any major pharmacological medical journal. Or not. Because we know how little the facts actually matter when pot gets discussed on a primetime conservative opinion show.
The two then went on to agree with each other on how everyone knows someone who has had a bad reaction to marijuana, and thus it’s a bad thing that no one should ever be legally able to enjoy. But here’s a pesky little thing that neither of them seem to realize: the same thing goes for alcohol. But why isn’t alcohol illegal? It sure does ruin lives. And the government’s own studies have found it (and nicotine) to be leagues more addictive than marijuana. I am in no way advocating for the prohibition of either substance, but you see how this line of logic is, um… flawed?
Culpo seemed hesitant at the idea of becoming an actual anti-pot campaigner, as O’Reilly said she’d only be effective at telling the kiddies to lay off the bong if she actually believes it. And so, he had to put her convictions to the test:
“You ever smoke pot?” he asked.
“I can’t answer that,” she replied with a nervous laugh.
“Okay, so that’s a yes,” he said. “But obviously you don’t want to do it anymore.”
“No way!” Culpo replied. She also said she doesn’t drink because she’s 20 and has to respect drinking age laws.
But here’s where the entire “anti-pot crusader” image was revealed as a sham. O’Reilly asked: “Intoxication is not for you?”
She pauses. Clearly hesitates. “Definitely not for me… during this job. While I’m an international role model.”
In other words, “Once a new Miss Universe is crowned……”
Watch below, via Fox:
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12 sexy Twitter users pose nude for benefit calendar
Jordan Valinsk
The frigid temperatures in Macedonia aren’t ideal for shedding clothes, but a group of women are doing it anyway for a benefit calendar.Twelve barely dressed ladies, who are also active Twitter users, are participating in a humanitarian project for cancer research sponsored by IlinaBookbox.
Each month the ladies pose in is adorned by their Twitter handle and a weird quote. Take @Zveda, a.k.a June, who apparently raided the Black Swan wardrobe closet for her outfit. "I do a good impression of myself," she quips.
Then there is February, a.k.a @AlexsandraM7, who exhibits her How I Met Your Mother fandom by curiously using a joke from show's central womanizer, Barney: "When I get sad, I stop being sad, and be awesome instead."
At least Macedonians have an alternative way to counting down the days until summer.
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Everybody Loves Porn Reaches 2 Million YouTube Views
By Tattle Tale
“The Skin Business,” the documentary film formerly known as “Everybody Loves Porn,” is yet to be released, but has been steadily drawing interest from the public. Growing curiosity about the film has led to over two million views of the trailer on You Tube.“The Skin Business,” a film by Lucky Devil Entertainment, produced by Harley Fire and directed by Adriana Hemans, is about the world of adult entertainment and features the industry’s most recognizable stars, most notable directors and most profitable productions.
“It’s no surprise that people are interested in this film, when you have over 50 of the top adult stars, including Jesse Jane, Jessica Drake, Kayden Kross, Alektra Blue Nikki Benz, and Joanna Angel,” said Harley Fire. “And we were lucky enough for be able to be on set for some of the most memorable productions of last year, with directors Will Ryder and Axel Braun.”
Lucky Devil Entertainment, recently inked a distribution deal with Ytinifni Pictures, and the decision was made to change the title of the film from “Everybody Loves Porn” to “The Skin Business” in order to attract orders from some of the big box retailers. Ytinifni has reach in over 184 territories across the globe and relationships with more than 200,000 active buyers. The release date for the film has been set for June of 2013.
“We’re very excited about the release and our new partnership with Ytinifni,” said Director Adriana Hemans, “because we think with them we can reach the largest possible audience.
Lucky Devil Entertainment is now embarking on a new project, a sequel to the “Skin Business.” Where the first film focused on the business aspects of the adult industry and how the Internet era has changed the way we watch porn, the second film seeks to delve more deeply into the personal lives of porn super stars and what happens when the cameras stop rolling.
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Indian Models Posing NUDE For Maxim India [January]2013
Rochester's David Schickler co-writer of new Cinemax show 'Banshee'
Written by Jeff Spevak
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While living in his parents' basement in Gates, David Schickler penned the New York Times 2001 bestseller Kissing in Manhattan. / Marie De Jesus/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER |
The miserable actor looks at Schickler, the Rochester writer who’s the show’s co-creator, and asks: “Does it get worse than this?”
It may, if co-producer Alan Ball (True Blood and American Beauty) and Schickler have a hit on their hands. Banshee makes its debut at 10 p.m. Friday, and at least a half-dozen people will die in that first hour. The body count will continue to rise. Ten episodes have been filmed. Schickler and his co-writer, Jonathan Tropper, have been commissioned to write another two. And yes, lots of people are also having sex in the fictional town of Banshee, Pa.
“I don’t know what my mother will say when she sees this,” Schickler confesses.
SCENE ONE. Naked women, a lot of corpses, and a love story.
Schickler pulls out his phone and flashes a photo sent to him by Tropper. It’s a shot from New York City’s Times Square, where a huge poster for Banshee glowers from the side of a building. “Small town. Big secrets,” the advertisement reads, and Schickler points out the less-obvious details. “There’s a guy lying in a pool of blood, and in the background an Amish guy digging a grave.”
Schickler explains how the story of an ex-con who steals the identity of a murdered sheriff in Pennsylvania’s Amish country suddenly appears in Times Square. “When you come up with a TV show pitch, you’re selling a world,” he says. “What they call in Hollywood ‘renewability.’ They want to see this is a five-year-long idea. ‘Convince me, as the money guy, that you can keep doing this for five years.’ They want to know that there’s that much depth to the main character’s troubles.”
The money guys want The Sopranos and NYPD Blue, shows driven to hell and maybe back by tortured characters. “Will this man be damned or absolved?” as Schickler puts it. Banshee’s damned man is Lucas Hood, played by the relatively unknown New Zealander Antony Starr. “And we think he’s going to be a star,” Schickler adds. “Lucas Hood is our Tony Soprano; he’s our Andy Sipowicz.” Alan Ball agreed. He has Grammy, Oscar and Golden Globe statues on his mantle for writing films like American Beauty and as co-producer of the HBO hits Six Feet Under and True Blood. When he signed on as a co-producer, Banshee had a real heavyweight on the team.
Despite the violence and action, Schickler insists he and Tropper have also written a love story. “It’s not gratuitous,” he says. “There are naked women and a lot of corpses. But there are deep relationships. The main character is trying to get back the woman he loves. In the end, the relationships between the characters are what keep you with the story. We both love a good fistfight, in stories. But there’s a romantic arc at heart in our literary novels.”
SCENE TWO. A killer with a tender stomach.
It might be easier for Schickler to create these kinds of characters if he himself is driving to hell and back. We shall see, perhaps this fall, when his memoir is scheduled to be published. He reveals little for now, merely describing The Dark Path as “how I spent my youth, in the early ’70s, on a path to being a Catholic priest, and where my love for women, writing and the world challenged that path.”
Long story short, Schickler is not a priest. He didn’t even get close.
He was 30 years old when he moved into the basement of his parents’ home in Gates — the kind of hothouse environment in which fragile writers bloom like heirloom tomatoes — spending the next three years creating what would prove to be his breakthrough novel, the New York Times 2001 bestseller Kissing in Manhattan. The monk-like existence suits Schickler, who seems to like to simplify mundane decisions, like fashion and menus. His closet appears to be nothing more than unadorned shirts in varying shades of graduate-student drab. One place where he can frequently be found writing is a Bruegger’s where the employees know him by name, and where Schickler generally orders the same thing: chicken spaetzel soup. He has a tender stomach, this literary architect of death explains, and doesn’t like to challenge it.
SCENE THREE. The simultaneously wonderful and terrifying world of success.
This is a good lesson for a writer: Schickler learned how to deal with failure at an early age while growing up in Gates. “I failed miserably in Little League,” he says. “My mother would take me across the street after the games to Russell’s Ice Cream to make me feel better that I sucked at any sport involving a projectile.”
He ran cross-country and track at McQuaid Jesuit High School in Brighton, acted in plays and musicals, played guitar in church groups. But Schickler also wrote poetry and short stories. His 10th-grade English teacher has since passed away, but Schickler carefully writes down his tribute to Father Larry Wroblewski, to get it exactly right.
I blame him for making me feel that reading and writing stories would be the coolest, most swashbuckling career possible.
Schickler was still writing while studying international relations at Georgetown University, and afterward while waiting tables at Chili’s, enduring rejections from creative writing programs. His writer’s voice still eluded him: A main character in one of his stories was a refrigerator. “Let’s just say that I hadn’t yet learned much about making characters relatable,” Schickler says.
Columbia University’s writing program finally relented, then Schickler moved on to teaching at a boarding school in Vermont. Still writing. Three novels to this point, none published. “Broke, in a crisis of confidence,” Schickler says. “Wondering: How are you going to make a living doing that?” He returned to Rochester in 1997, took a job at The Harley School, and moved into the basement. And wrote.
Those words became Kissing in Manhattan, a collection of short stories connected by the fact that the characters are living in the same apartment building. The New Yorker took a chance on a chapter called The Smoker, a weird tale of an inexplicable yet palpable relationship between the teacher at an all-girls boarding school and one of his students.
The magazine arrived at stores on a Monday. “It was early June, final exam week,” Schickler says, “and I snuck out during morning break, drove to World Wide News and bought a copy of The New Yorker. Four hours later, I got a call from a Hollywood production company that was interested in the film rights to the story. I had a two-book deal by the end of the week. It was simultaneously the most wonderful and terrifying time in my life.”
SCENE FOUR. Overnight success sometimes takes a decade. Or two.
Peggy and Jack Schickler’s basement was fine for writing, but did little for their son’s personal life. “I was 30. I couldn’t find anyone to date,” Schickler says. “Then Kissing in Manhattan happened, I decided to move to New York City and start dating 1,000 New York City hotties all at once.”
He didn’t get out of town quick enough. Martha DeLaCroix, who taught fourth- and fifth-graders at Thornell Road School in Pittsford, had begun haunting cultural events around Rochester, in the hope of elevating her social circle and perhaps meeting some nice guy. She spotted an announcement in the newspaper about a reading being given by a local writer, David Schickler, at Geva’s Nextstage.
DeLaCroix is not prone to psychic episodes. But when she first spotted Schickler at the side of the stage, waiting to be introduced, she thought: “You’re going to spend the rest of your life with this person.”
They met after the reading, and the relationship began. But Schickler warned DeLaCroix that he was moving to New York City, where the hotties eagerly awaited the new guy on the literary scene. “Don’t try too hard,” DeLaCroix warned him.
He ran the literary circuit with writers like James Frey, whose A Million Little Pieces, a scary memoir of drug addiction, was one of the acclaimed books of 2003. And he met Tropper, a novelist with a taste for literary wisecracks and dysfunctional relationships. “We had a lot in common,” Schickler says of Tropper. “He was close to his family. Close to his religion, me Catholic, him Jewish. As writers we favored a darker, sexier, more-adventurous brand of books and screen stories.”
The reviews were good for Kissing in Manhattan — and its 2004 followup, a Bonnie and Clyde-style thriller of laughs and violence called Sweet and Vicious. But good writing does not guarantee a smooth transition to television and film. A screenplay was written for The Smoker. Natalie Portman was to star, but it didn’t happen. Schickler himself wrote a screenplay for Kissing in Manhattan for Robert Redford’s production company. It didn’t get produced. Schickler wrote the Sweet and Vicious screenplay for Universal. That didn’t go. He wrote Toxic, “a sexy thriller script. Nicole Kidman was attached.”
“Attached.” Schickler’s in so deep, he’s using the lingo. But Toxic didn’t happen either.
Then about three years ago, Schickler and Tropper started developing their idea for Banshee.
SCENE SIX. Wicked fun.
The basic job description for writers hasn’t changed for centuries, but the setting does. William Faulkner, Raymond Chandler and F. Scott Fitzgerald led a long line of established writers to Hollywood in the 1930s to create screenplays. A similar migration is occurring now, only toward this different medium: the dense, extended cable television series, as established by such shows as The Sopranos, Mad Men and The Wire. The bright literary lights Michael Chabon, Salman Rushdie and Gary Shteyngart have been toiling on their own shows. But supreme literary content does not guarantee success in the now-superheated terrain of cable drama. Jonathan Franzen, a novelist so celebrated that he warranted his own Newsweek cover, was adapting his bestseller The Corrections for HBO. It died on the storyboard table.
But Banshee lives. It got a B+ review this week from Entertainment Weekly. “Ultra-violent, over-the-top, and wickedly fun,” it writes.
SCENE SEVEN. The loneliness of the long-distance writer.
New York City proved to be an illusion. James Frey’s career flamed and disintegrated when A Million Little Pieces proved to be a mirage of a few hundred fabrications. The New York City hotties never appeared. “I kept calling Martha, saying ‘I miss you,’ ” Schickler says.
The reality for Schickler, now 43 years old, is he’s back home. “Thank God Rochester was here for us,” he says. He and Martha married and have two kids, Luke is 7, Cora is 4. And there is Martha Schickler Photography, specializing in newborns, children and high-school seniors taken on location. Schickler still runs every four or five days, more in the fall, when he returns to McQuaid to coach the seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade cross-country teams. When he needed advice on police procedures for Banshee, he called a friend with the Rochester Police Department. He’ll watch Banshee at a private premiere party at the Midtown Athletic Club, with no shortage of family; Shickler estimates he has about 70 first cousins in this city.
Working at the bagel shop, or an office at his father-in-law’s business, or his attic office in his Brighton home, Schickler creates his unsettling worlds. Stories that he was producing even as a teenager at McQuaid, when his sister Anne Marie would introduce him with the biographical addendum, “This is my brother David. He writes weird stories.”
Schickler took no offense. “That wasn’t an unacceptable thing,” he says. “That’s just what I did.”
From here, it is easy enough for him to step into the mirage world of television, where North Carolina is Pennsylvania. With the exception of two days in Manhattan, all of Banshee was shot in and around Charlotte. This TV deception also works for Homeland, set in Virginia, but shot in a studio across the street from Banshee’s studio.
“Making a television show is an incredible collaborative experience,” Schickler says of this gossamer universe he has finally broken into. “As a writer you need to be around to write scenes that are going to be filmed five minutes later. And every minute is costing the company money.
“Writing novels alone, in a room, can be a lonely profession. Even for somebody who likes the sound of his own voice.”
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Love, Family and Coffee: The Zen of Analeigh Tipton
When a beautiful woman has an unabashed enthusiasm for nerd obsessions—things like sci-fi cult movies, zombie survivalism, comic book conventions, and other pastimes of guys without girlfriends—it’s hard not to be a little suspicious. It usually feels calculated, an obvious attempt to make an otherwise otherworldly starlet seem more attainable and therefore desirable. It’s a means to make everyday Joes think, “She has strong opinions about the Star Wars trilogy and likes to dress up like Harry Potter characters? We have so much in common!” It’s a facade, but a profitable facade.
Analeigh Tipton isn’t one of those woman.
But there’s another Analeigh Tipton, the one who isn’t quite as sultry and urbane as her photographs might suggest. She’s the Tipton with a license plate on her car that reads “So Jedi.” The one who goes to Dungeons and Dragons parties in LA, and hosted a costume party for her 21st birthday where guests showed up dressed like knights and trolls. Yes, she was a figure skating champion, but she retired at 16 because she got too tall and gangly. Sure, she was a contestant on Next Top Model, but she lost because she was adorably clumsy and couldn’t say the sentence “easy, breezy, beautiful.” She eventually gave up on modeling entirely, because the lifestyle, in her words, “kind of sucks.” Even as a child, she was a fledgling nerd in the making. She grew up with three imaginary best friends (which convinced her parents to send her to “friendship classes” to help her become more social) and dreams of becoming a career astronaut or maybe the female Carl Sagan.
Tipton’s nerdy passions are hardly a contrivance or publicity stunt. Her public image may be a smoldering sexpot, but when nobody’s watching, she’s wearing elf ears.
I called Tipton to talk about her acting career, and our conversation organically evolved into a spirited discussion of zombie apocalypses, astronaut toilet habits, and her habit of befriending rodents in New York City ghetto apartments. I got the strange feeling that this is not an uncommon occurrence for her.
At least on paper, Warm Bodies sounds ridiculous. A zombie love story?
I know, I know.
It sounds like a bad Saturday Night Live sketch.
If you don’t know much about the story, I can see why anybody would be skeptical. It seems pretty laughable.
Did it take a lot of convincing before you agreed to do it?
Not really, no. I came around pretty quickly when I read the book, and I got the tone they were going for, which is fun and funky. And then when I saw who else was involved, well, I couldn’t say no. I mean, John Malkovich? Why wouldn’t I want to be in a movie with John Malkovich? I’m not made of stone.
You’re a big science fiction fan, right?
Huge.
Do you like your science fiction with a little romance thrown in?
Science fiction in general? Not necessarily. But there’s not too much romance in science fiction anyway. And I don’t think there are many zombie books or movies with a love story.
I can’t think of one.
Which is too bad. I think that makes it relatable. Love is universal. I can’t relate to being a zombie or killing zombies, but I can relate to being a girl and finding love in unexpected places.
What’s your favorite zombie movie?
One of my first experiences living in LA was at the New York Film Academy. They had a movie night where they got all the campers together and we sat in a pool and watched a horror movie. It was Night of the Living Dead, and it just blew me away.
Do you prefer fast or slow zombies? Do you want your zombies to be lurching or sprinting?
I like my zombies slow by nature. When they sprint, it becomes a little too real for me. I need to be able to run away and not have them catch me. If there’s ever a zombie apocalypse, that’s my weapon of choice. Running.
What happens if you get cornered? What’s your plan B?
I’ll throw a bunch of puns at them and see if they can figure it out.
Puns?
Yeah. Their brains aren’t really functioning at full capacity. Maybe I can confuse them with puns and wordplay. Doesn’t that sound like a good plan?
It sounds brilliant. You’ve clearly thought this through.
One time I memorized the Greek alphabet. So that could be pretty useful.
Against zombies? I guess so.
They won’t know what the hell I’m talking about. I’ll just start saying puns mixed in with letters from the Greek alphabet. No zombie will have the patience to endure something like that. I’m writing a zombie apocalypse tip book.
You are? Please let that be true.
Not really. But now I think maybe I should.
I’ve read things about you on the Internet, and it makes you sound like kind of a nerd.
What did you read?
Well let’s separate some fact from fiction. I’ll tell you a few rumored factoids about you, and you tell me whether it’s true.
Okay.
You went to a Harry Potter movie in full costume.
Well that’s not entirely true. I actually went to all the Harry Potter movies in costume.
Wow. The Internet downplayed the embarrassing truth. That’s a first.
I also dressed up for the midnight releases of the books.
Do you dress as a specific character, or do you like to mix it up?
I usually go as Hermione, because one of my favorite hair tools is my crimper. If I did it again, I’d probably go as Dobby.
Here’s rumor number two: You play Dungeons and Dragons.
That’s absolutely true. I love D-and-D. My character is a dark elf with a long crossbow. I’ve had her for about two years. She’s not that powerful, but she’s witty.
Do you have a group of friends that you play with?
There are meet-up groups around LA where they have tournaments. I go to one in Pasadena at an old comic book store, and some of the tournaments last for almost eight hours. Sometimes I just go to watch. It’s so incredible to see all these people using their imaginations.
Here’s the last rumor, and this should pretty much confirm whether you are or aren’t a nerd.
I’m kind of afraid to hear this.
You dream in Klingon?
Umm…
That’s true?
Not exactly. I think I said that to somebody to emphasize how much I really do love Star Trek and Star Wars and anything space related. But I’ve never actually had a dream where people were speaking in Klingon. I wouldn’t know how.
You’re not fluent?
I’m not. I wish I was. Maybe that’s telling. My big ambition is to learn Klingon so I can dream in the language.
I hate to break this to you, Analeigh, but you’re a huge nerd.
That’s not surprising news. [Laughs.]
Is it surprising to other people? They must have preconceived notions about you.
All the time. It makes dating difficult. I get way too excited about things that I probably shouldn’t be excited about. There’s a good and a bad to it. I can understand any girl who doesn’t wear her loves on her sleeves like I do.
You’ve seriously scared away guys because you’re too enthusiastic about nerdy things?
Yeah. I think so. But it’s not just the nerdy things like science fiction movies and D-and-D. I’m a hardcore science nerd, too. I love space and I love string theory and I love Carl Sagan books. When I was a girl, I was more obsessed with Stephen Hawking than Mickey Mouse. But for me, one side feeds the other. Stephen Hawking makes Star Wars more interesting. It’s the truth in a lot of the magic. But that’s a lot to explain on a first date. [Laughs.]
It really is.
“I know I’m getting super-excited about Star Wars, but here’s why.”
“It all dates back to the Stephen Hawking poster I had on my wall as a girl.”
[Laughs.] Exactly, yeah. No guy wants to hear that. So I just try reassuring them. “I love to dress up like an elf, sure. But I promise I’m not going to make you wear a Gandalf beard tonight.”
Didn’t you originally want to be an astronaut when you were younger?
Completely. I went to Space Camp when I was kid, and then after that I went to Aviation Camp. I tried in high school to join the Air Force Academy, which seemed like the best route to being an astronaut, but I couldn’t get the application to apply. Did you know that you have to apply for an application?
I had no idea.
There are so many hoops you have to jump through. And I have too many heart conditions, they’d never let me in. So instead I just read about it and fantasize. I have a NASA app on my phone.
I interviewed Buzz Aldrin a few years ago.
Oh wow.
And for some reason, I thought it was a good idea to ask him how he peed and pooped in space.
Well sure. It’s the most obvious question.
Do you know?
They have bags, right?
That’s right. “Blue bags,” they’re called. He told me about being on Gemini 12 and almost colliding with three bags of his own excrement on a return trajectory. These are things about astronauts that don’t usually get reported.
And they should. One of my favorite movies growing up was RocketMan. It was a Disney movie, and I don’t think anybody even remembers it. I have it on DVD. I forget who was in it. There’s a chimpanzee, that’s all you need to know.
You’ve sold me. I need to see this movie.
They go up in space, and the chimp has some gas. His space suit slowly blows up. It gets bigger and bigger, and he becomes this huge floating bubble of his own gas. And all the other astronauts are just absolutely disgusted. But he thinks it’s great, because now he gets to bounce around the spaceship.
These are legitimate concerns. What actually happens if you fart in zero gravity?
That’d be my first question. If I became an astronaut, I’d be like, “So you have a bag for this, you have a bag for that. What about gas?” Everybody talks about number one and number two. What about the thing in between?
What number is a fart?
I think it’s just a decimal. If pee is number one and poo is number two, a fart would be like .5, right?
If you had a chance to interview Buzz Aldrin or any other astronaut, what would you ask?
Besides the poop question?
Yeah, besides that.
[Long pause.] It would be so personal that I know it’s something they could never answer. I can’t even imagine what it’s like to be outside of the world looking down on everything, on your own existence. But that’s what I’d ask. I’d want to know about that private first thought, when they look at the earth and see everything all at once.
What about space tourism? Richard Branson is selling tickets to Virgin Galactic, which will apparently take passengers on a suborbital cruise.
I don’t think that’s something I could justify. Isn’t it ridiculously expensive?
Tickets are $200,000. But isn’t that a typical paycheck for a Hollywood movie?
Not for me. [Laughs.] Even if it was, spending it on something like that would be so self-indulgent. Let me take this huge amount of money and use it to go look at a blueberry in the sky.
Isn’t that something you want?
As an astronaut maybe, where you’re not just up there to gawk at the scenery. On a space tourism flight, I wouldn’t be contributing to anything. I’m just paying for the view. It would be such a waste.
Even though you love it that much?
I do. But $200,000 for that? There’s nothing else I could spend $200,000 on? For people who can throw that money around, go ahead. But I want to do something more meaningful with my money.
Your father’s a mathematician. Was he supportive of your acting ambitions?
He was, to a degree.
The unpredictability of acting is scary for any parent, but especially a parent who’s all about numbers and logic and A leads to B leads to C.
Acting is none of those things.
As an actress, you could be eating ramen noodles one night, and buying your third home in Miami the next.
And then back to eating ramen noodles.
Exactly, yeah. It’s the worst possible career for anybody who wants their life to follow a predictable trajectory.
My sister is a lawyer, and she went by the book doing everything that should be done, and she did it incredibly. I convinced my parents that I was going to take my shot in LA not as an actor or a model but as a writer and director.
And that seemed less terrifying to them?
It did. That was more logical to my father. Working behind the camera was something that was tangible. There was control over how much you created with writing. Or at least that’s what he thought.
There’s more control in a writing career? That’s hilarious.
It didn’t seem as precarious and unstable to him.
Has he met any writers?
I don’t think so.
I’m not even sure if I’ll be paid for this interview.
Right? A writer’s entire existence is about not having control. But they supported me becoming a writer. It seemed like a much more structured path. The day I told him I wasn’t going to school anymore to be a writer and I wanted to be an actor, that wasn’t an easy day.
You might as well have told them you wanted to be an astronaut.
It would have been easier. Even when it started to work, it was surreal trying to explain to my dad, “I got a role in the Green Hornet movie. I’m playing ‘Hot Chick’.” We all laughed about it, but I don’t think they really understood. For my dad, it was like, “Well, the next role you have should be bigger than this one. And then the role after that should be even bigger.”
Oh boy.
That’s not how it works.
Not even close.
When I went from a big Hollywood movie to a small cult movie, I had to explain to my parents that independent films are not what they used to be. It has nothing to do with quality. They see the big movies that have the big openings, and anything else they’re very skeptical of. But my dad is learning. He’s learning to support me and believe in me, even when the logical side of his brain doesn’t like what he’s hearing.
There’s plenty for your parents to worry about even when things are going well. While working on the movie Damsels In Distress, which got a wide release last year, you moved to New York City and lived in a crappy little apartment under the Queensboro Bridge between a strip club and a preschool.
That’s right. I’ll never forget that place.
Were there times when you thought, “What the hell am I doing here? This is insane!”
Oh sure. I was so incredibly lonely and kind of scared. New York is a big city. And I was living alone in an apartment where it was just me and a mouse.
A mouse? Are you sure it wasn’t a rat?
No, it was just a mouse. He was my roommate. I named him Pedro. But hearing his little feet click across the floor every night, it was comforting. Just to know there was something else living in this little place with me, it brightened everything. Everything felt a little warmer. Which is maybe kind of odd.
It’s definitely odd.
I don’t think I would say the same thing about a cockroach. But because Pedro was a cute little mouse, it felt different. And I discovered later he had friends.
The place was infested?
No, there were just two of them. But they filled my luggage with little gifts.
They crapped on your clothes?
Yeah, pretty much. I smelled like mouse shit for a year. But then I discovered Febreze.
As an actress, you’re always in a new city, flying to a new location. Have you found a secret to living in strange places, and never feeling like anywhere is home?
In the last few years I’ve learned to travel light. One bag with two t-shirts and a toothbrush. And I never actually move in anywhere, even if I’ll be living there for two months. Because the mentality of trying to leave, of trying to re-situate yourself to a new environment is exhausting.
You’d rather just live like a gypsy?
That works better for me. I’ve simplified my life so much. I’ve boiled it down to the essentials. It’s the only way to keep your head on straight. I’ve lived in New York, Montreal, Seattle, Michigan, and then New York again. When it gets to be too much, I just remind myself of the basics. There are three things I need to survive. Three things I need to remember to keep balanced. I just tell myself, “You’re happy, you have a loving family, you have your coffee.”
That’s it?
That’s it.
That’s pretty good, actually. You could build a religion on those three things.
I think so too. I really do. Just give me happiness, my family, and a cup of coffee. Everything else will work itself out.
(This story originally appeared, in a slightly different form, in the December/January 2013 issue of Malibu Magazine.)
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Fifty Shades of Grey won't be another Twilight
By Liz Hoggard
The British screenwriter of 'Fifty Shades of Grey', Kelly Marcel has given an interview to the Sunday Times newspaper where she says of the movie version of E L James's S-and-M trilogy: "This isn't going to be Twilight. It's going to be raunchy… We are 100% going there." Although she admits some of the sex scenes have been edited out in order to get some plot in.
The books, about a torrid love affair between a college student, Anastasia Steele, and mysterious billionaire, 27-year-old Christian Grey, have been translated into 45 languages worldwide, selling more than 32 million copies in e-book and print in the US.
Universal and Focus snapped up the film rights for $5 million in March 2011 after a heated Hollywood bidding war. The movie, which will be rated NC-17 (18 in the UK) is being co-produced by Dana Brunetti, who brought us 'The Social Network' and James herself.
Marcel, 38, the co-creator of Steven Spielberg's US sci-fi TV series Terra Nova, believes the book is a "modern love story involving two complex characters" and that she feels "very deeply" for Christian.
The script is being very closely guarded. "There are shredders arriving at my house at this moment because in LA my trash was gone through."
Although casting rumours are rife, Marcel insists no actors will sign up until there is a finished script.
Marcel recently wrote the script for Saving Mr Banks, about Disney's 20-year pursuit of the film rights to Mary Poppins, starring Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks. She also did the rewrite on 'Bronson' with British actor Tom Hardy, who wears a tattoo on his upper arm "Skribe" dedicated to Marcel (the "K" is for Kelly).
* There is no freakin' way the movie going to be rated NC-17. Everyone involved in productions front line is in to make cash even E L James. Loads of em'. We all know no theater chain will carry any flicks with dreaded NC-17 except for very limited run in major cities. FSOG will be rated hard R with plenty of cam maneuver, angled shot and low lighting. Dialogues (voice-over) inserted to describe the action substituting some of the more unfilmable scenes. Big studios ass-kissers MPAA will help as well by passing it quickly without required major cuts. James was in Los Angeles recently to work out the kinks and finalize the script with Marcel and Brunetti (also the unofficial House Of Cards show-runner). But feelers are being sent out to some actors (and their rep) to gauge their interest. James wants a British actress (Emma Watson or Felicity Jones) but others prefer a relatively unknown like Alexandra Daddario who boosted her eligibility and profile with a good turn in recently released 'Texas Chainsaw 3D'.
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You have read this article Banshee /
Da Vinci's Demons /
Elizabeth Moss /
Fifty Shades of Grey /
Katharine Isabelle /
Magic City /
Olivia Culpo /
Starz' Black Sails
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