On eve of Comic-Con, Russell T Davies talks 'Torchwood,' 'Doctor Who'
Our official preview of next week’s Comic-Con International, the ginormous pop-culture convention, begins tomorrow, but today we have a look at one of this year’s most long-awaited guests, Welsh writer and producer Russell T Davies. In 2005, he relaunched the Doctor Who series, a time-traveling sci-fi staple for more than 40 years in Europe, and made it the No. 1 show in Great Britain. Davies then created the spinoff Torchwood a year later, featuring a secret British organization that polices space aliens and other weird goings-on, and both series have turned into cult hits in the U.S. The latest five-episode Torchwood miniseries, Children of Earth, premieres on BBC America Monday night, and Planet of the Dead — the second of five final specials written by Davies and starring the current Doctor Who, David Tennant (who replaced Christopher Eccleston after a season) — airs July 26. Our Brian Truitt, a recent Doctor Who convert, chatted with the jovial Davies recently about the two franchises, why he’s leaving Doctor Who behind and what he thinks of his debut appearance at Comic-Con. Click read more for the Q&A, and check out the first seven minutes of Torchwood: Children of Earth below.
Photos courtesy of BBC
December 31, 2008
What we're looking forward to in 2009
I’ve been covering people and entertainment for more than 20 years now, so I’ve learned that predicting what happens next week, let alone next year, is foolish. There is, however, much to look forward to in the new year. Here are a few notes from my list.
* Inaugural parties!
* A glamorous awards season, unmarred by writers' or actors' strikes. It’s opulent, decadent and an antidote to recession blues.
* Children in the White House. And dogs, too. I bet the new puppy will be a Labradoodle.
* The return — finally! — of Damages on FX. Glenn Close takes my breath away.
* Watching Oprah lose those 40 pounds. You know she can do it.
* Emerging new stars in the Obama cabinet. And I don’t mean Rahm Emmanuel or Hillary Clinton.
* The new dramedy Trust Me on TNT. Eric McCormack and Tom Cavanagh were born to be together.
* The spring return of Rescue Me. I’m mad about Denis Leary. And Michael J. Fox guest stars.
* Rachel Maddow getting more press than Keith Olbermann. (Remember, he once named me a worst person in the world.)
* Michelle Obama rockin’ the East Wing.
* Celeb weddings: Jen and John? Angie and Brad? Nicole Richie and Joel Madden? Halle Berry and Gabriel Aubry?
* Celeb divorces: J.Lo and Marc? David Duchovny and Tea Leoni? Spencer and Heidi?
* More celeb babies: Tony and Eva? Beyonce and Jay-Z?
* West Side Story returns to Broadway.
I also asked my colleagues stuck at work during the holiday weeks to share what they’re looking forward to in 2009 and why, so click read more below for their thoughts. And if there's something you're psyched about in the new year, let us know in the comments section.
December 19, 2008
Samuel L. Jackson on 'The Spirit' and 'Samurai'
Samuel L. Jackson has played the villain before, in the recent drama Lakeview Terrace and opposite Bruce Willis in Unbreakable. But none of his characters have been quite as psychotically eccentric as The Octopus, his role in Frank Miller’s upcoming The Spirit. In theaters on Christmas Day and starring Gabriel Macht as the title superhero, the film is an adaptation of Will Eisner’s classic Spirit comics from the 1940s and ‘50s. On our Who's News page this weekend, Jackson talks about how he created a full character out of the spare image you see in the comics, a pair of gloves. But when he and our Brian Truitt sat down at Comic-Con during the summer for an exclusive chat, they talked more about The Octopus, how he compares to The Joker in Batman, plus Jackson’s new video-game venture. Click read more below for the full report and a Spirit trailer featuring a taste of Jackson as the nefarious Octopus and Scarlett Johansson as his right-hand henchwoman.
Photo courtesy of Lionsgate
November 19, 2008
A trick of the 'Twilight' trade
Our look at the Twilight movie continues today with an inside peek at one of the film's special-effects tricks. Our Brian Truitt caught an early screening of Twilight last night (look for his full report tomorrow), and of the many superhuman things about vampires in the film — the way their skin sparkles like diamonds, the way they climb trees and fly across the forest with exceptional ease — one of the niftier aspects he saw was how the evil coven of vamps (played by Cam Gigandet, Rachelle Lefevre and Edi Gathegi) speedily cover a lot of ground by seemingly walking normally. How'd they do that? Click read more below for the secret.
November 18, 2008
Cam Gigandet is the big bad in 'Twilight'
Say what you will about Bella, Edward, forbidden romance and all that mushy stuff in Twilight. Cam Gigandet instead relishes the role of bad guy in the movie adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's popular book, in theaters Friday. In it, he plays James, the evil leader of a coven of vampires who tracks the good-guy Cullens to Washington state and, once he gets a whiff of Bella (Kristen Stewart), he has to kill her. Scary! But actually, for all the ne'er-do-wells he's played — he also was the broody surfing malcontent Volchok on the last two seasons of The O.C. — Gigandet's actually a really pleasant guy, as our Brian Truitt found out when he interviewed the Twilight star at Comic-Con. Click read more for Gigandet's thoughts on vampires, fight scenes and channeling his inner supervillain. And if you haven't gotten your exclusive USA WEEKEND poster yet — featuring Gigandet, Stewart and other cast members — go here to order one online!
November 05, 2008
World gears up for 'Gears of War 2'
Video games have come a long way since the days of Pong, with several boasting of multimillion-dollar budgets, instant brand recognition and options for movie adaptations. Then again, Pac-Man never had a futuristic rifle with a chainsaw bayonet. One of the most hotly anticipated video games of the year, Gears of War 2, gets its release on Friday for the Xbox 360 console with lots of midnight releases all over the country and an insane amount of buzz. The original Gears has sold more than 5 million copies since its 2006 debut, a new Gears comic book debuted last month and a movie is in the works to be directed by Len Wiseman (Live Free or Die Hard), not to mention the novels, action figures, shirts, backpacks, messenger bags, etc. So what’s all the fuss about? Our Brian Truitt chatted with Gears’ lead designer, Cliff Bleszinski, at Comic-Con about what’s new with his gaming franchise. Click read more below for Gears 2 screenshots and a trailer.
Photo and art courtesy of Microsoft
October 24, 2008
'Lost' secrets: Tell us what you want revealed
The Fox Tuesday drama Fringe is one of the new fall TV season’s only true hits, and it comes from none other than the hitmaker himself, J.J. Abrams (pictured at right directing Mark Valley in Fringe.) Of course, he also is the brain behind Felicity, Alias and the uber-popular Lost. We have a profile on Abrams in this weekend’s issue, but when our Brian Truitt had a long chat with him at Comic-Con, they talked secrets. Click read more for Abrams’ thoughts on his new show and obsessive fans, and then tell us: Which secret from Lost would you most like to see revealed?
October 09, 2008
Guy Ritchie revisits London underworld with 'RocknRolla'
It’s hard to say what British director Guy Ritchie (at left) is more famous for: making cult crime classics such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, or being married to Madonna. The one collaboration with his wife, Swept Away, was a disaster on all fronts, so Ritchie went back to his roots with Revolver and now RocknRolla, out now in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto, and opening wide on Halloween. Our Brian Truitt tracked down Ritchie and some of his cast at Comic-Con when they were talking about the filmmaker’s latest complex journey into the underworld. Click read more for the full report and a trailer for the crime flick.
October 01, 2008
'Pushing Daisies' premieres tonight
ABC’s Pushing Daisies, which premieres tonight, was one of last season’s oddest new shows but also one of its sweetest — in more ways than one. Created by Bryan Fuller (Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls), the fantasy features Ned (Lee Pace, right, with Anna Friel), a lonely piemaker who has the strange power to bring dead things back to life with one touch (a second touch makes them dead again) and his childhood sweetheart Chuck (Friel), recently deceased but who is resurrected thanks to Ned. (Of course, he can’t touch her again, lest she be funeral-ready once more.) Our Brian Truitt caught up with Pace, Friel and their co-star, recent Emmy nominee Kristin Chenoweth, while at Comic-Con last summer. Click read more to see what he uncovered and for a little teaser for the new season.
Photos by Adam Taylor/ABC
September 29, 2008
Joe Hill: Following in Stephen King's footsteps
Of the new horror writers out there, not many have the pedigree of Joe Hill. His dad? None other than the King of Horror himself, Stephen King. Two novels in, Hill’s prose has already proven impressive: His short-story collection 20th Century Ghosts recently made its debut in paperback and Heart-Shaped Box has been optioned as a feature film by Warner Bros. But unlike his father, Hill also moonlights as a comic book writer — the trade paperback of the first six issues of his popular IDW comic Locke & Key gets its release this week. Scary stuff indeed. Our Brian Truitt tracked him down at Comic-Con in July and sequestered him in a super-secret screened-off area (right next to a pretzel stand!) for an exclusive sitdown on all things pop culture. Click read more below to find out where his comic collection is and what he really thinks about Superman.
