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Bruce Campbell as Ash in "The Dark One." Photo copyright of STARZ.
This week on the season finale of Ash Vs Evi Dead, in a monumental last-ditch attempt to rid the world of the Evil, Ash (Bruce Campbell) will be offered a deal that could change him... and mankind forever. Check out the clip below and start your New Year off right by tuning into The Dark One on Saturday, January 2nd @ 9:00 p.m. EST/PST on STARZ.
Syfy announced today that it has renewed its critically-acclaimed series The Expanse for a second season. The 13-episode second season from Alcon Television Group is expected to air in early 2017.
"The Expanse is firing on all cylinders creatively, building a passionate fan base among viewers and critics alike, and delivering on Syfy’s promise of smart, provocative science fiction entertainment. We can’t wait to see where the story takes us in season two,” said Dave Howe, President, Syfy and Chiller.
Set 200 years in the future, The Expanse follows the case of a missing young woman that brings a hardened detective (Thomas Jane) and a rogue ship’s captain (Steven Strait) together in a race across the solar system that will expose the greatest conspiracy in human history.
In the episode premiering next Tuesday, January 5 at 10PM ET/PT -- the fifth in the 10-part first season – Holden (Strait) and his crew make a deal with an unlikely ally (Chad Coleman). Meanwhile Detective Miller’s (Jane) obsession over the missing Julie Mao (Florence Faivre) continues to grow. Shohreh Aghdashloo also stars as Chrisjen Avasarala, along with Dominique Tipper, Cas Anvar and Wes Chatham. [Trailer for Episode 5: http://www.syfy.com/theexpanse/videos/the-expanse-next-episode-back-to-the-butcher]
Academy Award-nominated screenwriting duo Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (Children of Men, Iron Man) serve as writers, as well as executive producers and showrunners. Executive producer Naren Shankar (CSI, Farscape) is also showrunner.
The Expanse is financed and produced by Alcon Television Group (ATG), a division of Alcon Entertainment. Alcon co-founders and co-CEOs Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson serve as executive producers along with former president of Alcon Television Sharon Hall. Alcon Television executive Ben Roberts serves as co-producer. Sean Daniel and Jason Brown of the Sean Daniel Company are executive producers. Ben Cook serves as a producer. The series is based on the New York Times bestselling book series collectively known as The Expanse, written by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck (under the pen name James S. A. Corey).
Will Bowman (Josh Holloway) in Colony. Photo copyright of Bravo/NBC Universal.
This January, Bravo heads into the centre of an occupied Los Angeles in the Canadian premiere of Colony, Thursday, Jan. 14 at 10 p.m. ET. Set in the near future, the 10-episode, hour-long thriller centres on one L.A. family’s struggle to survive in the unstable city now divided by differing ideologies. While some residents are compliant with the occupation and reap the benefits, others rebel against the new order and suffer for it. Click here for a sneak peek.
Featuring a team of genre heavyweights, Colony comes from the creative team of Carlton Cuse (Lost, The Strain) and Ryan Condal (Hercules), and stars Josh Holloway (Lost) and Sarah Wayne Callies (The Walking Dead) as husband and wife, Will and Katie Bowman, who find themselves separated from their son after the invasion of L.A. and are willing to do anything necessary to reunite their family. Colony also stars Peter Jacobson (House) as the cunning and opportunistic Proxy Snyder, leader of the green zone, and Amanda Righetti (The Menalist) as Maddie Bowman, Katie’s younger sister.
In Colony, former Army Intelligence officer Will Bowman is a man willing to risk everything and anything if it means protecting his family. The opportunity arises when the powerful Proxy Snyder presents Will with an offer – collaborate with the occupational government, and in return, get his son back. Will and Kate find themselves confronted with a difficult decision in a position where they must be willing to cross lines they never thought possible, risking lives and relationships to protect their family. Check out the trailer below.
Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo) and Pablo (Ray Santiago) in "Bound in the Flesh." Photo copyright of STARZ.
This week on an all-new episode of Ash Vs Evil Dead, Ash (Bruce Campbell) finds himself in a battle with his greatest nemesis.Meanwhile, Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo) and Pablo (Ray Santiago) have to decide who to trust. Check out the clip below and then tune in for Bound in the Flesh on Saturday, December 26th @ 9:00 p.m. EST/PST on STARZ.
HISTORY’s hit drama series Vikings returns for a gripping fourth season led by Travis Fimmel, star of the upcoming film Warcraft, on Thursday, February 18th @ 10:00 p.m. EST. The network has added four episodes to its initial 16 episode order. Beginning February 18th, a new episode will air every Thursday for ten weeks with the remaining episodes to air later in the year.
Season three culminated with the extraordinary battle in Paris, where Ragnar (Fimmel) seized victory from the jaws of defeat – but still returns to Kattegat dangerously ill. Thoughts of his death galvanize the forces who seek to succeed him as king, including his wife Queen Aslaug (Alyssa Sutherland) and his oldest son, Bjorn (Alexander Ludwig). Meanwhile, Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) continues power struggles with her calculating, former second in command, Kalf (Ben Robson); Rollo (Clive Standen) betrays his Vikings heritage by remaining in Frankia and Floki (Gustaf Skarsgård)is seized for his brutal actions to the Christian priest Athelstan.
Joining the stellar cast this season is Peter Franzén (The Gunman) as King Harold Finehair, a complex character who seeks to be King of Norway and a potential threat to Ragnar; Jasper Pääkkönen (Jet Trash) as Halfdan The Black, King Harold’s violent younger brother; and Dianne Doan (Descendants) as Yidu, a completely different character within the world of the Vikings who fascinates Ragnar.
Vikings is the critically acclaimed series from creator and sole writer Michael Hirst (Academy Award-winning film Elizabeth and the Emmy and Golden Globe nominated series The Tudors) and is a family saga that tells the remarkable tales of the lives and epic adventures of the raiders and explorers of the Dark Ages.
Hirst serves as executive producer along with Morgan O’Sullivan of World 2000 (The Count of Monte Cristo, The Tudors), Sheila Hockin (The Tudors, The Borgias), John Weber of Take 5 Productions (The Tudors, The Borgias), Sherry Marsh, Alan Gasmer and James Flynn (The Tudors, The Borgias). Jana Bennett and Arturo Interian are the executives in charge of production for HISTORY.
Vikings is an international Irish/Canadian co-production by World 2000 and Take 5 Productions. HISTORY broadcasts domestically in the U.S. MGM Television brought the series to the network and brings VIKINGS to the global audience, serving as the worldwide distributor outside of Ireland and Canada. VIKINGS is produced in association with Shaw Media, and the series also airs on HISTORY in Canada.
Above photo is copyright of HISTORY, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
Rob Archer
Stockings hung by the chimney with care, visions of sugar-plums dancing around in the dreams of sleeping children, the gentle sound of reindeer hooves on a snow-covered roof – these are just some of the traditional and comforting images that come to mind for most people when they think of Christmas. Not so much, though, in the holiday-themed anthology feature film A Christmas Horror Story. It introduces moviegoers to several un-festive and nightmare-inducing folks, including Krampus, a horned, anthropomorphic figure from Alpine folklore that punishes children during the Christmas season. Stuntman-turned-actor and all-around nice guy Rob Archer brings this cantankerous creature to life on the big screen. It was an old friend/colleague of Archer’s who initially gave him the heads up that the movie’s production company, Copperheart Entertainment, was looking for someone to play Krampus.
“Over many, many years I had worked with a gentleman named Paul Rapovski, who was the stunt and fight coordinator for A Christmas Horror Story,” says Archer. “When they [the film’s producers] first began discussing the project – which, I think, was before the full script had even been written – and how they wanted to create a completely different type of Krampus, it was Paul who told them, ‘I have the perfect guy for the role.’
“He then called and told me about the whole thing. It sounded really exciting, but like most North Americans, I had no clue as to who Krampus was at that point. Paul explained to me that it was this monstrous creature and that the producers wanted to showcase my physique in the role. I said to Paul, ‘OK, that sounds great. Let me just do some research on Krampus.’ That’s when I learned about all the folklore associated with the creature and how well-known he is in European culture. I also started looking into the various actors who had played Krampus over the years, which is when I got even more excited about having a chance to do something totally fresh and new using my own body as opposed to padded suits, prosthetics or CGI [computer-generated image].
“When I eventually received a copy of the script, I discovered it was an anthology film. I’m a huge fan of movies like Pulp Fiction, which I think are a lot of fun and tend to keep you on the edge of your seat. So there was that, along with the opportunity to play an iconic character such as Krampus, as well as the fact that A Christmas Horror Story was a Canadian film and the chance to show the world that Canada can produce some great entertainment. I was totally onboard with the whole thing.”
In A Christmas Horror Story, William Shatner (Star Trek’s Captain James T. Kirk) portrays DJ Jan, who ends up working at the Bailey Downs radio station on Christmas. During his broadcast, a quartet of stories unfolds, all of which turn the festive season upside-down and on its proverbial head. In the penultimate tale, a young boy’s rudeness brings down the wrath of Krampus (Archer) on him and his family, while the final story pits your typically jovial Santa Claus (George Buza) against zombie elves as well as a zombie Mrs. Claus (Debra McCabe), and, yes, you guessed it, Krampus. A great deal of thought as well as time and effort was put into how the character would not only look but also behave before filming even began, so Archer was more than prepared when stepping in front of the camera.
“Prior to the start of filming, I had dieted down to between four and five percent body fat,” explains the actor. “Everything below Krampus’ neck is my actual body, which the make-department painted using rollers. The creature’s face was applied layer by layer, and every piece of it was strategically glued on. Three special effects make-up artists worked on me and it would take between eight and nine hours to get Krampus fully made up.
Rob Archer as Krampus. Photo copyright of Copperheart Entertainment.
“So that made my working days quite long. As much as I enjoyed filming the movie, it wasn’t an easy job. It was very demanding, and one that I took quite seriously. Anyone in the industry who’s worked with me knows that I have a saying just for myself that goes, ‘What I put out there today on film is going to be out there for the rest of my life. I can’t take it back.’ So when I was getting ready to play Krampus, you have no idea how hard I pushed my body. I want to look back on this movie 20 years from now and be able to say, ‘I gave it everything I had.’ So my diet and training took a lot out of me, and when you’re down to four or five percent body fat, you might look fantastic, but you have no energy and feel horrible. On top of that, I was shooting outdoors in minus 20 to 25 degrees [Fahrenheit]. None of my scenes were done inside a studio, it was all outside, and it was rather chilly,” he says with a chuckle.
“On the research side of things, as I already mentioned, I looked into the folklore surrounding Krampus along with how he’s been portrayed before, and one of things I wanted to do with my interpretation was add an animalistic nature to it. As soon as I come onscreen, the look of Krampus being a demonic beast already sells visually to the audience, but I wanted to add different types of body language and movement to the character. For example, in the scene where Santa and Krampus fight, I come into it and tilt my head and lurch. So I basically combined a cougar, a cobra and a Marvel Comics superhero in order to create Krampus. I just felt so enthusiastic about this project that I really wanted to show the directors something different, to the point where they wondered, ‘Wow, where did that come from? We never saw any other Krampus do that.’
“I have to say, too, that my favorite scene in the film is the fight with Krampus and Santa, not just because of how it turned out, which I was really happy with, but also being able to work with an onscreen legend like George Buza. I used to love coming home from school and watching him as Doubar in the TV series The New Adventures of Sinbad, so it was amazing for me to share the screen with him in A Christmas Horror Story.
Krampus (Archer) versus Santa Claus (George Buza). Photo copyright of Copperheart Entertainment.
Given the anthology element of A Christmas Horror Story, a trio of talented individuals – Grant Harvey, Steven Hoban and Brett Sullivan – took turns with the directing duties. “I actually worked with Brett a couple of years ago on the TV show Flashpoint, so the two of us were already buddies,” says Archer. “In fact, I found out later on that when my name came up in pre-production for A Christmas Horror Story, Brett said, ‘Rob Archer is great. Can we get him?’ So he was a fan of my work. I love Brett to death; I’ve got to find out where they store his Energizer batteries, because that little guy just goes and goes and goes.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t have an opportunity to work with Brett on the film, but I did work with Grant and Steve. I would talk to Grant about the scenes, and took my directions from Steve, with whom I had the most communication. Steve is absolutely wonderful. He’s very laid back, open to suggestions and a tremendous amount of fun. The only thing that still has Steve on my naughty list is this one scene that we shot at three or four in the morning. Like I said earlier, it was minus 20 to 25 degrees, and at one point Steve said, ‘Let’s throw water on Krampus.’ In the scene, this girl is supposed to douse me with gasoline, which was really water. Luckily my face was covered with all those prosthetics, so Steve couldn’t actually see my expression when he came up with that idea,” jokes the actor.
“Seriously, I can’t say enough about the entire team at Copperheart Entertainment. I’ve never worked with a group of people that values its talent the way they do, and Copperheart’s producer, Mark Smith, is incredible. The film industry can sometimes be quite cutthroat, backstabbing and a hard industry to work in. The public gets to see all the glamour at the wrap parties and other post-production events, but what they’ve not privy to is the beginning and middle process, when you’re frustrated and whatnot. So it was a great privilege to hook up with a production company like Copperheart, and I cannot wait to work with them again.”
Krampus (Archer) being not-so-nice. Photo copyright of Copperheart Entertainment.
If you have had a chance to see Archer in A Christmas Horror Story, it will come as no surprise that growing up, he aspired to become either a WWF (World Wide Federation) wrestler or a professional body builder. Fortunately for his many fans, he took someone’s advice to pursue an entirely different line of work. “When I was 20, all my friends went off to college, while I went to work as well as trained,” he recalls. “My training partner at the time was 35 years old, and his wife owned a talent agency. She kept pushing me to go out on auditions, but I kept saying, ‘No, I want to be a body builder.’
“Finally, she convinced me to go to an audition, and it was a train-wreck. It was the most horrible thing I’d ever done. I remember afterwards getting into my car and I had tears streaming down my face, I was so embarrassed. It took about a month or so for my trainer’s wife to convince me to try it one more time. Once I became more comfortable with the process, I began to get work doing commercials and just little background parts. It wasn’t until I got a job on the [2001] movie Exit Wounds that I got to see how a massive production operates. It left me wanting to be in the spotlight, and then later on, getting a taste of that and thinking, ‘OK, I got here, but now I want to be there.’ Now it’s at the point where I’m chasing those big dialogue roles and I feel like I’m ready to do a film with people like The Rock, Jason Statham and Vin Diesel.
“I love the pressure, the anxiety and the stress that gets bundled up inside me as I take on each new job. I also love growing as an actor and walking onto a set and being able to create an entirely new character onscreen and getting to do that with people I grew up watching on TV and in films Not too long ago, I spent a day working on upcoming movie called Operation Insanity. I had a ton of dialogue as well as a great big fight scene and I spent 15 hours working with James Caan. I’ve been watching James Caan since I was a teenager – I think Misery is one of the best films ever – and after an hour and half on the set, he said to me, ‘Call me Jimmy.’ So I spent the day being buddy-buddy with James Cann. It’s experiences like that that make me ‘hungry’ to do more and more as an actor.”
Rob Archer.
Bulletproof Monk, Kick-Ass 2, Pixels and the upcoming 22 Chaser are among the actor's other film credits. On TV, he has guest-starred in such series as Mutant X, Alphas, XIII: The Series, Beauty and the Beast and Warehouse 13 along with having recurring/multiple roles in Lost Girl and Defiance.
“I was in the very first episode of Lost Girl [It’s a Fae, Fae, Fae, Fae World] and played the big guy with the hammers and long tongue that Bo [Anna Silk] had to fight,” says Archer. “Then in season three, once again thanks to Paul Rapovski, who was the fight coordinator on Lost Girl, and [executive producer] Jay Firestone, they brought me back for a new role, a member of the Fae called Bruce. It was only supposed to be for one episode, but the fan base responded to Bruce so much that he ended up becoming the fan favorite recurring character for the entire run of the series.
“The fans loved the scenes with Bruce and Kenzi [Ksenia Solo], and the dynamics between the two characters was just wonderful. Ksenia is one of the most beautiful souls I’ve ever worked with, and she was just amazing to me. I became good friends with her as well as Paul Amos, who played Vex, and Kris Holden-Ried, who plays Dyson. The cast and crew of Lost Girl were like family, and I learned a great deal working on that show.
Bruce (Archer) and Kenzi (Kenia Solo) in Lost Girl. Photo copyright of Shaw Media/Showcase.
“As for Defiance, I remember getting the original audition sides for that series and my mouth just hitting the ground. It was two pages of dialogue and a one-page monologue. I thought, ‘There’s no way I can do that,’ and to be honest with you, I purposely tanked my audition. I made up an excuse and just didn’t show up for my appointment because I didn’t think I’d be good enough. It was actually a stunt coordinator named Matt Birman who called me and talked sense into me. He arranged for the people at Defiance to see me again. Oddly enough, I recently wrote Matt just to thank him for all he’s done for me. If it wasn’t for him calling and convincing me to go to that first Defiance audition, everything with the show would have never happened to me, and all the work I’ve had since then probably wouldn’t have happened either.
“I had terrible self-confidence back in the day, and there were a number of people who, thankfully, saw the potential in me and just kept pushing me for my own good. I was incredibly fortunate to have people like that in the industry who believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself and ‘forced’ me to do things for myself. Oh, and by the way, I ended up remembering every single word of all three pages of my Defiance audition when I walked into that audition room,” notes Archer, laughing.
As much as he relishes taking on new roles, helping create different and unique characters, and constantly challenging himself as an actor, the icing on the cake for Archer are his fans. “I love my fans,” he enthuses. “I was in Germany earlier this year with Grant Bowler [Joshua Nolan] from Defiance and I spoke in front of an audience of 3,000 people, which is something I’d never done before. I said to them, ‘I get a lot of e-mails from all of you, but I have to tell you, I’m not special, I’m not different, and I’m not super. I’m just like every single one of you. What I will say is that growing up, I wouldn’t let anyone tell me what I could and couldn’t be, and whenever someone did, I was sure as heck going to go out there and prove them wrong.’
“So that’s one of the big things I love that comes from my job, that I’m able to reach out to others, and motive and inspire them. You never know where somebody is at in their life or what happened five minutes before you met them. If you can put a smile on the face of a random stranger just because you want to, or help shed light on their darkness, it can be one of the most rewarding things you ever do in your lifetime. You can’t put a price or value on something like that, and that’s one of the reasons why I’m chasing so hard to get to the next level in my career. In doing so, I’m hoping in some small way to be able to help and inspire that many more people.”
Steve Eramo
As noted above, all A Christmas Horror Story photos copyright of Copperheart Entertainment, and Lost Girl photo copyright of Shaw Media/Showcase, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
Today, STARZ announced the casting of Scottish actor Richard Rankin in the fan favorite role of Roger Wakefield in Season Two of Outlander. The critically-acclaimed series is adapted from Diana Gabaldon’s international best-selling books is executive produced by Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: The Next Generation). Season Two is currently filming on location in Scotland and will return Spring, 2016.
Intelligent, kindhearted, and charming, Roger is the grown up version of Reverend Wakefield’s adorable adopted son we met in Season One. After his parents died in World War II, Roger was raised by the Reverend (with help from his housekeeper, Mrs. Graham) and is a proud Scot through and through. Now a professor at Oxford, Roger has a keen interest in history, and all the secrets and insight it presents.
Scottish born actor Richard Rankin is fast becoming a familiar face to global audiences after landing big ticket roles in Hollywood backed films, high profile British television and a good deal of stage work. Born in Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire on the outskirts of Glasgow, Rankin epitomizes the tall, dark, handsome leading man and stands 6 feet tall in stocking soles. He recently starred opposite Bradley Cooper, Uma Thurman and Sienna Miller in John Wells' Burnt. He has also garnered praise for his convincing work in high profile television shows including the BBC drama The Syndicate, brought to the screen by BAFTA winning writer Kay Mellor, The Crimson Field, the BBC backed big budget World War 1 set mini-series, and NBC’s American Odyssey. He first landed on everyone's radar playing various roles in three seasons of runaway cult comedy sketch show hit Burnistoun, set in a fictional Scottish town outside Glasgow. He has also taken to the stage with roles in the Laurence Olivier award winning play Black Watch and George Perrin's well received Good With People. Most recently Rankin appeared in the BBC One hit drama From Darkness with Anne-Marie Duff, and he will next be seen playing a detective in Thirteen, a new original drama TV miniseries written by young rising star Marnie Dickens for the BBC.
Season Two of Outlander begins as Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie (Sam Heughan) arrive in France, hell-bent on infiltrating the Jacobite rebellion led by Prince Charles Stuart (Andrew Gower), and stopping the battle of Culloden. With the help of his cousin Jared (Robert Cavanah), a local wine merchant, Jamie and Claire are thrown into the lavish world of French society, where intrigue and parties are abundant, but political gain proves far less fruitful. Altering the course of history presents challenges that begin to weigh on the very fabric of their relationship. However, armed with the knowledge of what lies ahead, Claire and Jamie must race to prevent a doomed Highland uprising, and the extinction of Scottish life as they know it.
Outlander Online: For more information, go to the official Outlander Facebook Page and follow @Outlander_Starz on Twitter and Instagram. Join the conversation with #Outlander and #STARZ.
(L-R): Behind-the-scenes with Joel McHale, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. Photo copyright of FOX.
Check out the behind-the-scenes clip below from The X-Files, which has its two-night premiere Sunday, January 24th @ 10:00 p.m. EST/7:00 p.m. PST (following the NFC Championship game), and Monday, January 25th, 2016 @ 8:00 p.m. EST/PST on FOX.
Robin Dunne and Brooke Nevin in On The Twelfth Day of Christmas. Photo copyright of Hallmark.
Maggie Dunlop (Brooke Nevin, The 4400, Call Me Fitz) is thrilled when her long time crush, Mitch O'Grady (Robin Dunne, Sanctuary, Defiance moves to her little town of Harrison. Once Maggie discovers Mitch and his love for Christmas has drastically changed, she vows to bring the holiday spirit back in his life. Determined to show him the magic of Christmas, she decides to create 12 Christmas gifts that ask him to do fun Christmas tasks in order to renew his love for the season and explore his feelings towards Maggie. On The Twelfth Day of Christmas airs Saturday, December 12th @ 8:00 p.m. EST/7:00 CT on The Hallmark Channel. Check out the trailer below!
FOX has renewed hit psychological thriller Wayward Pines for a second season, it was announced today by David Madden, President, Entertainment, Fox Broadcasting Company.
From M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, The Visit) and based on Blake Crouch's international best-selling series of books, 10 all-new episodes of the suspenseful drama are set to air in Summer 2016. The second season will pick up in the wake of Season One, when a new arrival in Wayward Pines finds himself in the middle of a serious rebellion, as the residents battle over how to preserve the endangered human race.
“Wayward Pines was a huge hit for us this past summer. We were absolutely blown away by the mysterious and surprising world that Night and his team created, and the twisting-and-turning storytelling that drew viewers in from day one,” said Madden. “Season Two is going to take the suspense, the vision of the future and the haunting character drama to whole new levels, and we can’t wait for our fans to continue that ride next year.”
Wayward Pines is a production of 20th Century Fox Television. The series is executive-produced by Donald De Line (Green Lantern, The Italian Job), Ashwin Rajan (Devil, The Visit), Mark Friedman (Believe, The Forgotten), Blake Crouch and M. Night Shyamalan. “Like” Wayward Pines on Facebook at facebook.com/WaywardPines. Follow the series on Twitter at @WaywardPinesFOX and join the discussion using #WaywardPines. See photos and videos on Instagram by following @Wayward Pines.
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