Category Television

Television

Jun 12 2012

‘Dallas’ Stars Excited for New Series

‘Dallas’ Stars Excited for New Series

By Jason Harris

 

Dallas stars Jordana Brewster and Julie Gonzalo. Photo by Jason Harris.

Dallas stars Jordana Brewster and Julie Gonzalo. Photo by Jason Harris.

Dallas is set to return to television Wednesday night for a new generation to learn about the Ewing clan.

Jordana Brewster (The Fast and the Furious) and Julie Gonzalo (television series Veronica Mars), two of the stars of the new series, recently came to Boston to promote the show.

Gonzalo said they were excited about the new series and shooting at Southfork.

“I don’t think it has set in that it’s such a big deal until now when the shows about to roll out,” Gonzalo said.

The original Dallas debuted in 1978 as a five-part mini-series and ran for fourteen seasons until 1991 on CBS.

Brewster and Gonzalo didn’t watch the original series until they got the job in the new one, they said. They have watched three seasons so far.

“We weren’t born when it came out,” Gonzalo said about the original Dallas.

They weren’t born until the third and fourth seasons came out. Brewster was born in 1980 and Gonzalo in 1981. Another obstacle to watching the show was the fact that they weren’t living in the United States.

“I grew up in a different country until 1990,” Gonzalo said.

Gonzalo and Brewster were living in Argentina and Brazil respectively.

The “beauty of the show” is the fact that you can see where these characters are 30 years later, which “no other show has ever done,” Gonzalo said.

The new show gives people a chance to see how the Ewings’ children turned out, Brewster said.

“Cynthia [Cidre] wrote an amazing script with great, well-crafted characters and many, many twists and turns so it was heavily plotted … ,” Brewster said.

Audiences will see for themselves tomorrow night at 9 p.m. on TNT. The first season has ten episodes. The pilot was shot in April 2011 while the rest of the season was shot between last October and this past February, Brewster said.

The shows’ stars are contracted for six seasons, which is standard for a television contract, Brewster said.

Gonzalo said it’s up to the audience and how it is received if the show continues past the first season. She said that after the season wrapped Patrick Duffy kept saying ‘only 13 more to go.’

Brewster said Duffy has “the Midas touch” when it comes to working on television.

Gonzalo thinks in Duffy’s entire television career he has only been unemployed for two months, one month between The Man from Atlantis and Dallas and another month between Dallas and Step by Step.

When asked about Duffy, Larry Hagman, and Linda Gray, the original stars of Dallas, Gonzalo said Duffy is like their dad, Gray like their mom, and Hagman is like a “funny uncle.”

Hagman, who “has had such a colorful life,” had the best and greatest stories, she said.

“We had a sense of family the minute we all met,” Gonzalo said.

Dallas starts Wednesday night with a two-hour episode airing on TNT at 9 p.m.

Editor’s note:

To read Stacey Longo’s review of the new series, click here.

Feb 10 2012

‘Breaking Dawn’ Actress Talks Twilight

‘Breaking Dawn’ Actress Talks Twilight

by Jason Harris

Julia Jones at the Liberty Hotel (Photo by Jason Harris)

Actress Julia Jones has dabbled in television, movies, and plays, and this week she was in her home state of Massachusetts promoting the DVD release of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 (2011).

Jones, 31, spent Thursday at the Liberty Hotel in Boston talking about the series. The latest chapter debuts on DVD this Saturday, Feb. 10. Jones portrays Leah Clearwater, who first appears in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010), the third movie in the popular series.

When Jones got the initial phone call to audition for the movie, she never thought about not doing the movie. She considers the series a “cultural phenomenon.”

Her friend, who is a huge Twilight fan, thought she would be perfect for the character of Leah Clearwater and this helped her with the “daunting” task of bringing the character to the big screen, Jones said.

“When you are playing a character based on a book, let alone a widely popular book, you are playing a character that belongs to the world.”

Jones was aware of the “Twihards,” who are die hard fans of Twilight, when filming the movies.

“One of the most unique parts of the experience is just being part of something that so many people feel so passionate about, and that’s an energy you take with you. It’s pretty powerful.”

The Twilight fans’ excitement “is palpable,” Jones said. “There is no way to know what you’re getting into because it’s such a unique thing.”

Jones recounted some fan stories. Recently, she started tweeting and a fan sent a picture of her daughter dressed up as Jones’ character.

“She was so cute,” Jones said about the fan’s daughter.

The craziest costume she has seen was a fan who dressed up in a nightgown and had bruises and feathers all over her. The fan was dressed as the ‘Morning After’ Bella from Breaking Dawn, Part 1.

Jones has been on the television series ER, and has an upcoming appearance on the series In Plain Sight.

“I got to do stunts and work with guns,” Jones said about her In Plain Sight experience. “It was really fun.”

ER was executive produced by John Wells and Jones would love to be on his new show, Southland.

“It would be so exciting to do anything that he’s involved with,” Jones said about Wells.

Jones said there are a lot of good shows on cable like The Killing and An American Horror Story, which are two series she would like to act on, she said.

Along with being on the silver and small screens, she has also performed on the stage. Jones likes “dabbling” in film, television, and the theatre, and it is one of her favorite parts, she said. She considers these separate venues like “having different jobs.”

“I think part of the reason I’m an actor because I couldn’t see myself going to a desk every day and doing the same sort of thing.”

Jones would love to work with actresses Jessica Lange (The Vow) and Marion Cotillard (Inception, Contagion) and directors Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction), Terrance Malick (The Thin Red Line), and Nick Cassavetes (John Q).

She met with Malick a few times when she was auditioning for a role in The New World and thinks “he’s magical” and considers Cassavetes an “actor’s director.”

Jones was “impressed to death” with Tarantino when she was working on Larry Bishop’s Hell Ride, for which Tarantino was the executive producer.

“I would do anything to work with him as a director,” Jones said about Tarantino. “Hell Ride was a trip.”

She considers her time in the three Twilight movies a “rewarding” experience.

“It’s kind of lucky in a way to be a supporting character in the franchise.”

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 comes out in theaters in November.

May 5 2011

An Author Who Writes and Acts

Writer/actor David L. Tamarin does it all from writing columns, articles, and screenplays to acting in movies and television shows.

Tamarin writes the column “Ugly World” for the Severed Cinema website (www.severed-cinema.com/uglyworld). The new column should be up by the end of April or the beginning of May.

He has an article, “Interesting Paraphilias” in the new issue of Girls and Corpses. The magazine now sells a card for your wallet that says, “if I die, cannibals and necrophiliacs can have my body.” He developed the idea and sold it to the magazine. The cards can be purchased at www.girlsandcorpses.com.

He writes film reviews for www.horrornews.net. His current reviews are of The Manson Family and Seven Days.

He co-wrote the screenplay for Countess Bathoria’s Graveyard Picture Show, which debuted at the Festival of Fear in Quebec. Since it was decided to add more to the film, there is a new scene that he wrote and acted in. In the scene, he is tortured and killed by a doll, which was filmed in Canada a few months ago. The film is in advanced post-production status and will be available on DVD in the future.

He can be seen in the film, Beg, portraying a drunken frat guy dressed like a scarecrow. There is no release date yet. It stars Tony Todd and other genre legends.

Along with movies, he can be seen eating cake in the premiere episode of ABC’s Body of Proof, which aired in March. He has acted in another film, Legless, which premiered last month. He also acted in the video, Legless, which is the movie’s theme song by Sorrowseed.

Oct 17 2010

NEHW member on Paranormal State

NEHW member Stefan Petrucha on A&E’s Paranormal State!

Sunday October 17 at 9:30 PM on A&E author Stefan Petrucha made his first appearance on the hit series Paranormal State. The episode, They Come Out at Night was second in the back to back premiere of season 5. In addition to witnessing some amazing evidence, Stefan uncovered a possible explanation for the invisible forces tormenting a suburban family by delving into the folklore of the local Wampanoag tribe.
Over his 25 years as a professional writer, Stefan’s work has often reflected his lifelong fascination with the paranormal. His first original comic series, Meta-4 tackled such topics as UFO history and trance channeling, while his award-winning writing on the popular X-Files comic from Topps was one of the few comics to boast a bibliography. His latest novel, Blood Prophecy, combines vampires, the historical discovery of the Rosetta stone and ancient Gnostic myths. He’s been a researcher, educational and technical writer and has many fiction and non-books and articles to his credit.
Given Stefan’s background, when Paranormal State star Ryan Buell wanted a writing partner for his first book, HarperCollins was quick to suggest him. Intrigued by his resume, Ryan, an avid X-Files fan, gave him a call, and after that conversation decided to work with him. The result, Paranormal State: My Journey Into the Unknown, is now on sale, already in its second printing and enjoying rave reviews.
While working with Ryan on the book, Stefan was invited to watch last season’s “Ghosts of Gettysburg” investigation. He was immediately impressed with the PRS team’s integrity and good humor. Ryan since invited Stefan on this case, thinking his research skills could be put to good use. He’s now been along with the team on two additional investigations that will be appearing later this year, with plans afoot for more.
Be sure to catch They Come out at Night!