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Vanessa (Kelly Overton) in "A Home." Photo copyright of Nomadic Pictures Corp/SYFY
This week on Van Helsing, Vanessa (Kelly Overton) encounters a group of vampires whose methods bring savagery to a new level. Meanwhile, the Juvenile Delinquents continue to play a game of cat and mouse with Sam (Christopher Heyerdahl) that has deadly consequences. A Home airs Thursday, October 26th @ 9:00 p.m. EST/8:00 p.m. CT on SYFY (US).
New Doctor Who cast (L-R): Mandip Gill, Bradley Walsh, Jodie Whittaker and Tosin Cole. Photo copyright of BBC America.
When Jodie Whittaker takes over as the Thirteenth Doctor on BBC America’s global hit show Doctor Who next year, she will be joined by an all new regular cast. Announced today, Bradley Walsh (as Graham), Tosin Cole (as Ryan) and Mandip Gill (as Yasmin) will join the line-up as the new regular cast. Also joining the series in a returning role is Sharon D Clarke.
New head writer and executive producer Chris Chibnall (Broadchurch), who made the decision to cast the first ever woman in the iconic role, is also shaking up who will travel with the Doctor in the TARDIS, with a team of new characters.
In more exclusive news, it is confirmed that the new season will be a ten-week run of fifty-minute episodes in Fall 2018, kicking off with a feature-length hour for the opening launch.
Chris Chibnall says: “The new Doctor is going to need new friends. We’re thrilled to welcome Mandip, Tosin and Bradley to the Doctor Who family. They’re three of Britain’s brightest talents and we can’t wait to see them dive into brand new adventures with Jodie’s Doctor. Alongside them, we’re delighted that Sharon D Clarke is also joining the show."
Jodie Whittaker says: "I am so excited to share this huge adventure with Mandip, Tosin and Bradley. It's a dream team!"
Bradley Walsh says: “I remember watching William Hartnell as the first Doctor. Black and white made it very scary for a youngster like myself. I was petrified but even though I’d watch most of it from behind the sofa through my fingers, I became a fan. I then queued up for ages to get into the Carlton picture house in Watford to watch the great Peter Cushing appear as the Doctor in a full-length feature film made in glorious color. Am I thrilled to be part of this whole ground breaking new dawn for the Doctor?? Oh yes!”
Mandip Gill says: “I am over the moon to be joining the Doctor Who family. This is an iconic show with an amazing fanbase and I look forward to everything that brings. Certain roles seem unattainable and this is one of those, so much so I didn't believe it to be true for the first few weeks. To be working alongside the likes of Jodie, Bradley and my old friend Tosin is thrilling. This show is worlds away from the work I've done previously and that's the part that excites me the most.”
Tosin Cole says: "I'm grateful and excited to be a part of this journey with the team. I'm looking forward to jumping in this Doctor Who universe."
Matt Strevens, Executive Producer, BBC Studios says: “I am thrilled to welcome Bradley, Mandip and Tosin to the new Who family. Working with three such talented actors is going to be a lot of fun. The Doctor is in fine company.”
Piers Wenger , Controller of BBC Drama says: "The casting of Mandip, Tosin and Bradley is a mark of the new creative ambition Chris is bringing to Doctor Who. He's already made history with the casting of Jodie. These three new characters complete a new and utterly unmissable team aboard the TARDIS."
Sarah Barnett , President of BBC AMERICA, says: "Doctor Who fans in America are in for an exhilarating ride as the Thirteenth Doctor and her new friends begin a quite amazing new chapter.”
As noted above, photo copyright of BBC America, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
Emma Wright (Hayley Law) faces a formidable adversary in Stickman. Photo copyright of SYFY.
Jason, Freddy, Leatherface – over the years, feature films and TV have introduced audiences to these and plenty of other evildoers who love nothing more than spilling other peoples’ blood just to satisfy their own twisted desires. In the upcoming SYFY made-for-TV movie Stickman, another one of these fiends is set loose to terrorize as well as entertain the unsuspecting viewer. Among those he has in his sights is Emma Wright, whom the Stickman has enjoyed toying with for a very long time. Unfortunately for him, his day of reckoning might be closer than he ever imagined. Our heroine is played by Hayley Law, who can be seen in the upcoming 2018 Netflix series Altered Carbon, and currently plays Valerie Brown in The CW’s Riverdale. This was the actress’ first foray into the horror genre, and she admits to frightening herself even before the cameras began to role.
“My agent sent me the script for Stickman, and I had never really read anything like it before,” says Law. “I’m actually quite terrified of horror movies, and when I sat down to read the script, it was nighttime and the more pages I turned, the more scared I got. It’s not the type of thing you read alone and in the dark,” she jokes. “Initially I wasn’t sure how I was going to prepare for the Emma role, but the [filming] environment we worked in kind of made things a little easier for me. I definitely felt like I ‘became’ the character while we were shooting the film. We worked a lot of nights, so I was pretty tired and, honestly, looked kind of unattractive in front of the camera. So filming in the middle of the night gave me kind of that extra little push to get where I needed to be as Emma.”
Believe it or not, the malevolent title character in Stickman was indirectly “brought to life” by a seven-year-old, Taidgh Daly. One day he was sitting in his mom Christine O’Shea-Daly’s office drawing a picture of, yes, you guessed it, a Stickman figure. She just happens to be a producer on Stickman, and the rest as they say is history. In the movie, Law’s character of Emma Wright was the same age when she was accused of killing her sister. Sadly, no one believed her when she tried to tell them who the real murderer was. Despite Emma’s pleas to the contrary, she was removed from society in order to be looked after and rehabilitated. Years later, Emma attempts to finally put the past behind her, but the Stickman is not ready to let her go.
“I think Emma is misunderstood and, of course, was traumatized,” notes Law. “There’s a scene in the first 10 minutes of the film where she’s talking with one of the doctors about what’s been going on with her. Emma is trying so hard to get him to understand why she’s the way she is, but he doesn’t really believe her. That was probably the hardest scene for me to do, and it took a great deal out of me emotionally. By the time we shot the last take, I was crying the entire time and couldn’t really get the lines out. I mean, yes, I knew the lines weren’t going to change and neither was the tone of the scene no matter how many takes we did, but it’s an incredibly sad scene, and I just felt so frustrated for Emma that this doctor wasn’t getting it.
“Initially, you’ll see that Emma is very scared and feels defeated. Again, no one really listens to her and she’s frustrated about that. She also accepts the fact that she’s going to go through life being considered by most people to be a liar. About a quarter of the way through the story, Emma thinks she’s going to have a normal life, but this is, after all, a horror movie, so that’s not going to happen. However, she learns to deal with what you’ll see she has to deal with, and she does so with more power and confidence than she maybe though she had. Emma isn’t happy about it, but she takes control of the situation and deals with it, while at the same time not being afraid of people thinking she’s crazy.
“Acting-wise, it wasn’t hard for me to get into this role, but more so to get out of it. I felt like in order to play this character truthfully, I needed to put myself in her shoes and understand what it would be like to experience what Emma is going through. Yes, I realize it’s a movie, but in real life, a lot of people go through very traumatic events, and in Emma’s case, she’s not lying about what she saw, namely the Stickman. So I had to go to a place where I felt frightened as well as vulnerable, and getting out of that headspace at the end of the workday was not easy.”
The actress has high praise for her fellow Stickman castmates and the film’s director Sheldon Wilson, who also wrote the screenplay. “I worked mainly with five other actresses, all of whom were incredibly supportive,” she says. “We still keep in touch and have group chats every so often. The six of us understood what we needed to do to help each other get into character. At one point, we all go through something traumatic onscreen, and each of us gave one another the energy to deliver our best possible work.
“As for being directed by Sheldon Wilson, it was great because this is his specialty. He knows horror movies like the back of his hand, so he understands better than anyone else what it takes to make a great scene, and that made the work all the more enjoyable.”
Steve Eramo
Stickman premieres Saturday, October 21st @ 9:00 p.m. EST on SYFY (US). As noted above, photo copyright of SYFY, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
Victor Webster and Jill Wagner in A Harvest Wedding. Photo copyright of The Hallmark Channel.
In The Hallmark Channel's A Harvest Wedding, Sarah Bloom (Jill Wagner), an up and coming wedding planner in New York, is hired to plan the most anticipated wedding of the season. However, she learns the bride is from Sarah’s home town of Williamstown, Massachusetts, and wants her wedding on the family farm, which is now being run by the bride’s older brother David Nichols (Victor Webster) – who is also Sarah’s first love. Check out the clip below and then make sure to tune in Saturday, October 21st @ 9:00 p.m. EST/8:00 p.m. CT.
About Marvel's The Punisher: After exacting revenge on those responsible for the death of his wife and children, Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) uncovers a conspiracy that runs far deeper than New York’s criminal underworld. Now known throughout the city as The Punisher, he must discover the truth about injustices that affect more than his family alone. The series is executive produced by showrunner Steve Lightfoot (Hannibal), Jim Chory (Marvel’s Daredevil, Marvel's Jessica Jones, Marvel's Luke Cage) and Jeph Loeb (Marvel’s Daredevil, Marvel's Jessica Jones, Marvel's Luke Cage) who also serves as Marvel’s Head of Television. Marvel’s The Punisher is produced by Marvel Television in association with ABC Studios for Netflix. The cast also features Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Girls, The Lake House), Deborah Ann Woll (Marvel’s Daredevil, True Blood), Ben Barnes (Westworld, The Chronicles of Narnia), Amber Rose Revah (Emerald City, Indian Summers), Michael Nathanson (The Knick, Wolf of Wall Street), Jaime Ray Newman (Bates Motel), Jason R Moore (A Lonely Place for Dying), Daniel Webber (11.22.63) and Paul Schulze (Nurse Jackie). For more information, follow the show's social pages: https://www.facebook.com/MarvelsPunisherNetflix/, #ThePunisher https://twitter.com/thepunisherhttps://www.instagram.com/thepunisher/ https://marvelsthepunisher.tumblr.com/ https://www.netflix.com/punisher
WGN America announced today that its recently acquired, thrilling crime drama, Bellevue, is slated to premiere on Tuesday January 23, 2018 at 10:00 p.m. ET / 9:00 p.m. CT. The network also released the series’ key art (see above) as well as a new first look trailer (see below). The eight-episode, one-hour series stars Academy and Golden Globe winner Anna Paquin (True Blood, Roots) as Detective Annie Ryder, Shawn Doyle (House of Cards, Fargo) as Police Chief Peter Welland and Allen Leech (Downton Abbey, The Imitation Game) as Eddie Roe. Paquin also serves as an executive producer alongside co-creators and showrunners Jane Maggs (The Offering) and Adrienne Mitchell (Bomb Girls, Durham County), and executive producers Janis Lundman, Michael Prupas, Morwyn Brebner and Jesse Prupas. Bellevue is produced by Muse Entertainment and Back Alley Film Productions.
The gripping and eerie original series is set against the backdrop of a small town with big secrets. Twenty years ago, the murder of a young woman traumatized the community of “Bellevue.” Now, the killer is back. Or is he/she? When a high school hockey star, who is wrestling with his gender identity, goes missing and all signs point to foul play, Detective Annie Ryder (Anna Paquin) must unravel all the pieces to this gripping mystery before her own life falls apart. As the case pulls her further away from her family, she is also confronted by a mysterious person from her past with disturbing answers to lingering questions and a terrifying need to play mind games. Along the way, Annie must navigate a complicated relationship with her on again, off again ex, Eddie (Allen Leech) and her boss on the force, Chief Peter Welland (Shawn Doyle).
In addition to Paquin, Doyle and Leech, rounding out the “Bellevue” cast are Madison Ferguson (The Stanley Dynamic) as Daisy Ryder, Sharon Taylor (Ghost Wars, Supernatural) as Virginia Panamick, Billy MacLellan (Defiance, 12 Monkeys) as Brady Holt, Vincent Leclerc (Being Human, The Revenant) as Tom Edmonds, Janine Thériault (Degrassi: The Next Generation, Being Human) as Mother Mansfield, the Mayor of Bellevue, Joe Cobden (The Art or More, Blindspot) as Father Jameson, Victoria Sanchez (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan) as Maggie Sweetland, and newcomer Sadie O’Neil as Jesse Sweetland.
Earlier this year, WGN America announced that three more acquisitions would be joining its ‘Prime Crime’ lineup in 2018, including: 100 Code, starring Dominic Monaghan (Lost) and the late Michael Nyqvist (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo); Shoot the Messenger starring Elyse Levesque (Orphan Black), Lyriq Bent (She’s Gotta Have It, The Book of Negroes), Lucas Bryant (Haven), and Alex Kingston (Doctor Who, ER); and season one of Pure, starring Ryan Robbins (Warcraft, Apollo 18), Alex Paxton-Beesley (The Strain), A.J. Buckley (CSI: NY) and Academy and Golden Globe Nominee Rosie Perez (Search Party, White Men Can’t Jump). The U.S. premiere of Bellevue follows the series’ lauded debut on Canada’s CBC.
Brad James as Calvin Hastings in Superstition. Photo copyright of Xlrator Media/SYFY.
Sarge (Grace Phipps) in "A New Mission: Keep Moving." Photo copyright of Go2 Z4/SYFY.
Landis Barker (Kandyse McClure, right) in "The Curse of Copperhead Road." Photo copyright of Nomadic Pictures Corp./SYFY
This week on Ghost Wars, pragmatic research scientist Landis Barker (Kandyse McClure) self-experiments to quantify the haunting of a Lambda Technologies branch in Port Moore after a particle accelerator test goes horribly wrong and the entire building goes into lockdown. The Curse of Copperhead Road airs Thursday, October 19th @ 10:00 p.m. EST/9:00 p.m. CT on SYFY (US).
From the team that brought you That Spidey Life and Belle and Bougee, Nerdist Presents now enters The Mystic Museum - a supernatural comedy short where an ordinary paralegal comes face to face with the paranormal. Starring The Magicians' Olivia Taylor Dudley, Kristian Bruun from Orphan Black, and Kelsey Gunn as the proprietor of the titular metaphysical emporium, The Mystic Museum brings together a haunted, skeptical paralegal and the owner of a local curiosities shop to communicate with the dead. Check out the short below!
