Veteran filmmakers Michael Relph and Basil Dearden try a hip ‘n’ flip costume comedy about an 1899 consortium that’s the equivalent of Murder Inc.: Killings for hire done with veddy proper civility and good taste. The charming Oliver Reed and Diana Rigg lead a notable cast — Telly Savalas, Curd Jürgens, Philippe Noiret, Beryl Reid, Clive Revill — through mayhem-filled chases in several European capitals. Tossed off in tongue-in-cheek style, it’s shallow but cute, and if you like the stars it can be a lark. Its saving grace is the spirited Ms. Rigg.

The Assassination Bureau

Region-Free Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 86

1969 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 110 min. / The Assassination Bureau Limited / Street Date October 29, 2021 / Available from [Imprint] or Amazon /

Starring: Oliver Reed, Diana Rigg, Telly Savalas, Curd Jürgens, Philippe Noiret, Warren Mitchell, Beryl Reid, Clive Revill, Kenneth Griffith, Vernon Dobtcheff, Annabella Incontrera, Jess Conrad, George Coulouris.

Cinematography: Geoffrey Unsworth

Art Director: Michael Relph

Film...

Stars: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Erni Mangold, Vernon Dobtcheff, Xenia Kalogeropoulou | Written by Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Kim Krizan | Directed by Richard Linklater

Plaudits to Richard Linklater for his epic Boyhood, famously filmed over many years – a feat one day to be replicated with his Stephen Sondheim adaptation, Merrily We Roll Along. But he kind of already did it with his “Before” Trilogy: Sunrise (1995), Sunset (2004) and Midnight (2013), in each of which we catch a glimpse of a passionate relationship between two lovers at different times in their lives.

Before Sunrise opens with the initial meet-cute between Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy), two twenty-something dreamers lounging on a long-distance train. They have a connection. Not some magical sense of entitlement, but a simple chemistry and a shared worldview. They jump off in Vienna, and then walk the city streets through the night, directionless, talking, kissing, and occasionally arguing.

Fred Zinnemann’s counter-assassination thriller remains topflight filmmaking, torn from reality and shot through with an unsentimental dose of political realism. Edward Fox’s implacable killer outwits the combined resources of an entire nation as he stalks his prey, and when bad luck forces him to improvise, he racks up more victims on his kill list. Step aside Bond, Bourne and Marvel — the original Jackal is the man to beat.

The Day of the Jackal

Blu-ray

Arrow Video USA

1973 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 143 min. / Street Date September 25, 2018 / Available from Arrow Video / 39.95

Starring: Edward Fox, Michel Lonsdale, Delphine Seyrig, Cyril Cusack, Eric Porter, Tony Britton, Alan Badel, Michel Auclair, Tony Britton, Maurice Denham, Vernon Dobtcheff, Olga Georges-Picot, Timothy West, Derek Jacobi, Jean Martin, Ronald Pickup, Jean Sorel, Philippe Léotard, Jean Champion, Michel Subor, Howard Vernon.

Cinematography: Jean Tournier

Film Editor: Ralph Kemplen

Second Unit Director: Andrew Marton

Original Music: Georges Delerue

Written...

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Sunday’s fall finale of The Walking Dead.

If we hadn’t already known it was bad news for The Walking Dead’s Team Ahk when Rick discovered last week that the Saviors had dispatched the walkers that had turned the Sanctuary into a prison, we sure as hell knew it when, in Sunday’s fall finale, Negan rolled up to the gates of Alexandria with a big announcement: Everyone was to line up outside their homes, and whoever’s apology for the uprising was the lamest would be biting the dust along with Rick.

Ron Hogan Sep 12, 2017

Dominic Cooper and Joseph Gilgun give great performances in Preacher's season two finale. Spoilers ahead...

This review contains spoilers.

See related Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works review Sensible Software 1986-1999 book review

2.13 The End Of The Road

Jesse Custer, even before he was given the gift/curse of Genesis, lived in a world full of magic. Witness, for example, how The End Of The Road opens. Jesse is part errand boy, part living road sign, and part grifter, bringing in folks, making sure to take their money so they can park, and weeding out undercover cops when he's not posing for pictures and lifting wallets from tourists. Jesse's grifting started early, and his fighting started early, too.

In a way, Starr is right when he says that Jesse is the perfect centrepiece for his Messiah con. He has experience as a con artist, he's charismatic,...

Warning: The following contains spoilers for the Season 2 finale of Preacher.

Leave it to Preacher, one of the topsy-turviest shows on TV, to deliver a finale for Season 2 that, at turns, left us going, “Huh?” “Wait, what?” “Holy s—!” “Is this really happening?” “Whew!” “No, no, no, no, no!” and, finally, “Oooh.” Is your head still spinning? While the dizziness dissipates, let’s review the big twists served up by “The End of the Road,” then, once if you’ve regained your equilibrium, you can grade the episode and hit the comments with your review.

RelatedCable/Streaming Scorecard: What’s Renewed?...

Ron Hogan Aug 29, 2017

Despite being well-written, something about recent Preacher episodes has made them drag for our reviewer. Spoilers...

This review contains spoilers.

See related The Flash season 4 needs to make Barry a hero again Arrow season 6: Fringe's Kirk Acevedo will play new villain Supergirl season 3: Kevin Smith returning to direct Legends Of Tomorrow season 3: brand new trailer Black Lightning won't have 'freak of the week' villains

2.11 Backdoors

There seems to be a point in every season of a television show where I find my interest beginning to wander. It may not necessarily be the fault of the show, just a symptom of a wandering attention span. If a show is ten episodes, I'm usually fine; if a show stretches out to twelve or thirteen, somewhere near the middle or later in the order, I drift away. I've found myself drifting over the last couple of episodes of Preacher,...

By Tim Greaves

The year is 1962. Aggrieved when Algeria is granted independence by President Charles de Gaulle, the militant underground alliance known as the Organisation Armée Secrète botches an attempt to assassinate him. Within months many of the conspirators, including their top man, have been captured and executed. The remaining Oas leaders, bereft of funds, take refuge in Austria and warily decide to contract an outside professional to do the job for them. They settle on a British assassin (Edward Fox), who chooses to be identified as Jackal. The Oas orchestrate several bank robberies to cover his exorbitant fee of half a million dollars whilst the mechanics of the plotting are left entirely to Jackal's discretion. After capturing and interrogating another alliance member, the French authorities learn of Jackal's existence and, suspecting another attempt on de Gaulle's life may be imminent, they set their best man – Deputy Commissioner Claude Lebel (Michel Lonsdale) – on his tail.

“What the hell just happened there?” asks a stunned Cassidy in a new Preacher trailer teasing the rest of Season 2. And after you see what Tulip does to him in the clip, used to kick off the series’ San Diego Comic-Con panel, you’ll likely be asking the same question.

RelatedCable/Streaming Scorecard: What’s Renewed? What’s Cancelled?

The promo, as wacky and action-packed as the AMC drama itself, also reveals that Eugene is about to try to escape from hell with the help of new pal Hitler, hints at a possible new alliance between the Saint of Killers and Satan,...

Ron Hogan Jul 18, 2017

Dominic Cooper and Ruth Nega really carry the emotional story of the latest Preacher episode. Spoilers ahead...

This review contains spoilers.

See related Dunkirk review Dunkirk gets a 12A certificate from the BBFC Examining the Christopher Nolan backlash

2.5 Dallas

It seems that no good deed goes unpunished in the world of Preacher. Throughout the series, we've seen multiple characters try to do something good, only to have it backfire on them in spectacular fashion. Most prominent have been the various uses of The Voice by Jesse. Every time he asks someone to do something nice, like when he told Fiore to find peace, it ends up tragic. When he spares the life of someone who he might have otherwise killed, that positive gesture will only last so long before, for example, the Saint of Killers shows up and starts gunning down an entire house full of thugs,...

Season 2 of “Preacher” has been built around the idea of the nightmare past: Eugene and his infamous cellmate across the hall have each been given a bit of backstory to help fill in the gaps between the broken people we see on screen and the life they enjoyed somewhere in their respective histories.

This week, it was Jesse and Tulip’s turn. After rekindling their affection for each other in the show’s casino detour, the doomed supercouple of “Preacher” has spent the past few episodes cruising right past each other. The opening shot of “Dallas” shows Jesse literally disoriented by Tulip’s revelation that Viktor, the owner of the house where she was being held against her wishes, is still technically her husband.

Read More: ‘Preacher’ Review: ‘Viktor’ Takes Us Into Each Character’s Personal Hell — And The Worst Is Still On Its Way

Consumed with a blinding rage,...

Eugene might be the one trapped in an eternal prison, reliving the worst day of his life in a cell within shouting distance from history’s most infamous dictator, but this week’s “Preacher” suggested that he might not the only one in his own personal Hell.

The pursuit that seemed so noble in the early going of Season 2 has soured somewhat, both on Jesse’s part and in the overall placement of the show. No longer seeking out God in one of the 138 New Orleans area jazz clubs, Jesse and Cassidy stumble on a familiar face when watching late-night TV.

Meanwhile, Tulip faces the horde of henchmen sent to capture her at the close of last week’s episode. Wandering around a mansion filled with minions and spitting children, everyone seems all too eager to ignore her, as if she were someone sentenced to share a bunk next-door to Eugene.

Well, at least no one died this week. In the present, anyway.

After the Saint of Killers-inspired bloodbaths of the opening of Season 2, “Preacher” set its gaze on New Orleans, the ultimate destination teased at the outset. The camaraderie that made those first few installments so freeing and energizing fell by the wayside in “Damsels,” but what took its place was a mystery that dug deeper into the philosophical and delivered another prime action set-piece as a chaser.

Before we resumed with Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy in the Big Easy, it was high time the show finally addressed the Hellephant in the room and gave us some Eugene-related answers. Seeing the unfortunate teenager lively and spry and free of any physical or emotional scars was even more jarring than the Jesse and Tulip flashback at the close of Season 1.

“Preacher” is no stranger to irony, but the triumphant...

One of the best international thrillers ever has almost become an obscurity, for reasons unknown – this Blu-ray comes from Australia. Edward Fox’s wily assassin for hire goes up against the combined police and security establishments of three nations as he sets up the killing of a head of state – France’s president Charles de Gaulle. The terrific cast features Michel Lonsdale, Delphine Seyrig and Cyril Cusack; director Fred Zinnemann’s excellent direction reaches a high pitch of tension – even though the outcome is known from the start.

The Day of the Jackal

Region B+A Blu-ray

Shock Entertainment / Universal

1973 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 143 min. / Street Date ? / Available from Amazon UK / Pounds 19.99

Starring: Edward Fox, Michel Lonsdale, Delphine Seyrig, Cyril Cusack, Eric Porter, Tony Britton, Alan Badel, Michel Auclair, Tony Britton, Maurice Denham, Vernon Dobtcheff, Olga Georges-Picot, Timothy West, Derek Jacobi, Jean Martin, Ronald Pickup, Jean Sorel, Philippe Léotard, Jean Champion,...

The line-up of the 70th Cannes Film Festival has been announced.Scroll down for the full line-up

The films chosen for the Cannes Official Selection were announced on April 13.

Festival President Pierre Lescure and General Delegate Thierry Frémaux revealed the line-up at a press conference, which was live-streamed on YouTube. More films will be added closer to the festival.

The 70th Cannes Film Festival is scheduled to run from May 17-28. The line-up is below:

CompetitionWonderstruck, Todd HaynesLe Redoutable, Michel HazanaviciusThe Day After, Hong SangsooRadiance, Naomi KawaseThe Killing Of A Sacred Deer, Yorgos LanthimosA Gentle Creature, Sergei LoznitsaJupiter’s Moon, Kornél MundruczóL’Amant Double, François OzonYou Were Never Really Here, Lynne RamsayGood Time, Benny Safdie & Josh SafdieLoveless, Andrey ZvyagintsevThe Meyerowitz Stories, Noah BaumbachIn The Fade, Fatih AkinOkja, Bong Joon-Ho120 Heartbeats Per Minute, Robin CampilloThe Beguiled, Sofia CoppolaRodin, Jacques DoillonHappy End, Michael HanekeOut Of CompetitionBlade of the Immortal, Takashi MiikeHow to Talk to Girls at Parties, John Cameron MitchellVisages...

Got a scoop request? An anonymous tip you’re dying to share? Send any/all of the above to askausiello@tvline.com

Question: I’m already having Walking Dead withdrawal. Got anything on Season 8 yet? — Bud

Ausiello: As a matter of fact, yes. Remember in the finale, when Sasha said she wasn’t giving up on Eugene, even though he’d reverted to his most spineless self? That was “a hint to what the story is,” showrunner Scott Gimple recently told TVLine. “It certainly looked like he was still a Savior. But is that going to haunt him… change him?...

For nearly thirty years, Daniel Clowes has been at the forefront of San Francisco’s second wave of underground cartoonists, first making waves with his anthology comic, Eightball, which ran for fifteen years. One of the many serialized comic stories in that comic was Ghost World, which was turned into a popular indie movie in 2001, directed by Terry Zwigoff and starring a very, very young Scarlett Johansson.

Five years later, Zwigoff and Clowes reteamed for the comedy Art School Confidential, also based on an Eightball story, and around the same time, Clowes shifted away from Eightball to writing and drawing stand-alone graphic novels.

One of those graphic novels was 2010’s Wilson, which Clowes has now adapted into a movie starring Woody Harrelson as its cantankerous title character, who goes on a quest to reconnect with his ex-wife Pippy (Laura Dern), and find their now-teen daughter Claire (Isabella Amara). It’s...

Last Week’S Review: ‘Bury Me Here’ Pushes Morgan to the Breaking Point

[Spoilers follow for “The Walking Dead” Season 7, Episode 14, “The Other Side.”]

Whose Episode Is It?

We’re back at the Hilltop, which means it’s time to see if Sasha and Rosita can pull off their attempt to assassinate Negan. Meanwhile, the Saviors drop by unexpectedly, giving Maggie and Daryl a chance for a heart-to-heart, and giving Gregory a chance to grovel to Simon, The Only Savior That Matters. The episode seems mostly to be an excuse to give Rosita some semblance of character development,

something she’s been sorely lacking over her four seasons on the show. It’s also mostly set-up for a cliffhanger to lead us into the final two episodes. It’s serviceable on both counts.

A Shred of Humanity

The Hilltop rebellion seems to be in full swing, as Sasha and Maggie train the townspeople in self-defense (in the woods, away from Gregory...

“A Long Day’S Journey Into A Little Night Silence”

By Raymond Benson

Woody’s Allen’s first dramatic feature film, Interiors, released in 1978 on the heels of his hugely successful and Oscar-winning masterpiece, Annie Hall, was met with praise by some and head-scratching by others. Most critics, however, acknowledged that the picture was a step the artist needed to take in his evolution as a filmmaker.

Prior to Annie Hall, Allen’s films were zany comedies—the “early funny ones,” as facetiously described in a later work, Stardust Memories. Beginning with Annie, Allen made a quantum leap forward in originality, confidence, and stylistic maturity. He reinvented the romantic comedy. In many ways, Annie Hall is a movie with a European sensibility. It could be argued that Allen’s body of work post-Annie resembles the kind of material made by a director like, say, Francois Truffaut—small, well-written, intimate gems about people,...

We’ve got questions, and you’ve (maybe) got answers! With another week of TV gone by, we’re lobbing queries left and right about shows including The Walking Dead, The Bachelor, Suits and Riverdale!

1 | Emerald City fans, did you suspect something was “off “with Lady Ev when the gunshot to her head failed to produce even a droplet of blood? And do now you have all kinds of questions about her and Jack’s recent sexual encounter?

2 | We’re thrilled to have Katherine back on The Vampire Diaries, but was she really the next in line to run Hell?...

On Tuesday, it was announced that Fences is up for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress for Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, and Best Adapted Screenplay, which, if it wins, will be posthumously awarded to playwright August Wilson. The American playwright behind Fences and “The Pittsburgh Cycle” -- 10 plays, including Fences, about the black experience set in different decades -- died in 2005 before seeing the play adapted for the screen.

In fact, it took nearly 30 years for the play, which had been optioned by Paramount in the late-‘80s and was originally set to star Eddie Murphy, to finally get released in theaters this past year.

2017 Oscars: Black Actors Nominated in Every Acting Category for First Time in Oscar History

For producer Todd Black, who helped fight to get Wilson’s play adapted to screen, it’s that fourth nomination that’s truly special. “There were challenges...

Ron Hogan Dec 5, 2016

Is Negan suffering from over-exposure in this season of The Walking Dead? Here's our spoiler-filled review of Sing Me A Song...

This review contains spoilers.

See related Doctor Who series 10: Utopia and Class director comes aboard Doctor Who Christmas special: brief snippets appear in BBC Christmas advert Doctor Who: looking back at Chris Chibnall's episodes

7.7 Sing Me A Song

The Walking Dead has never had this much screen time at its disposal. Typically, an hour-long TV show will only have about forty-three minutes of actual content, with the rest reserved for commercials. However, this season, The Walking Dead has only had two episodes (the third and fifth) check in at forty-three minutes. The first and second went a little over; the fourth, sixth, seventh, and the upcoming mid-season finale will all clock in as super-sized episodes, and by and large, the show has done very,...

Ron Hogan Nov 15, 2016

For all his charisma, is Negan enough to revitalise The Walking Dead's tried-and-tested format at this stage?

This review contains spoilers.

See related Doctor Who series 10: classic era writer Rona Munro is returning Doctor Who rumour: series 11 to be a 'clean slate' with no Capaldi or Mackie? Doctor Who Christmas special: trailer for Us cinema event Class: trailer for episode 6, synopsis for the finale

7.4 Service

Rick has never had a great grasp on the people of Alexandria. Despite Deanna's support, he's faced a lot of resistance from within the community, particularly where Spencer is concerned. The latter has been a vocal critic of Rick despite his mother's support for the gun-slinging lawman, and the actions of this week's episode won't give Spencer, or anyone else who doubts Rick's abilities, a reason to second-guess their scepticism of the Ricktatorship. Or rather, the puppet state Rick runs for Negan.

Spoilers ahead for Preacher season 1.

AMC's Preacher wrapped up its first season this past Sunday night. I wrote a little about the show as it was airing, notably about how Jesse sending Eugene/Arseface to hell was its first true "holy sh*t" moment. Since then, the show picked up a little bit of steam by having Emily feed the mayor to Cassidy and finally having the Saint of Killers appear in the modern world, but the show certainly hasn't been the massive hit I'm sure AMC hoped it would be. Yes, it's been renewed for a second season, and season one had a handful of standout moments, but my biggest takeaway from so far is simply that it's taken its sweet time getting to this point (I'm just now realizing that's something of a common thread for many AMC shows — Mad Men, The Walking Dead, and even Breaking Bad...

Ron Hogan Jul 26, 2016

Preacher continues to have a way with violent surprises as it delves deeper into the Saint of Killers storyline...

This review contains spoilers.

1.9 Finish The Song

The Saint of Killers hasn't been featured very much in the first season of Preacher. He's been hinted at, he's been briefly featured in little segments, and we've seen the incident that pushes him down the path towards becoming a supernatural monster. Now, he's finally being moved from his particular slice of the cruel world to the main storyline, courtesy of two of the least-likely characters in the Preacher rogue's gallery.

This is a show that thrives on surprise, and this week's episode had two of the biggest shock moments of the entire first season. One of these involves the very same Saint, or the Cowboy, or whatever they end up calling him. We open with his vengeance; he killed 77 men at the Battle of Gettysburg,...

The San Diego Comic-Con Preacher panel has just finished up, and those in attendance were treated to a raucous live-reading of this Sunday’s new episode, as well as an exciting trailer for the season finale that’s sure to make fans of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s comic series very happy indeed.

The show has been criticized by many for only loosely adapting the source material, and actually serving more as a prelude to the story that kicks off in the first issue – but from the looks of things, that’s going to be remedied by season’s end. The trailer finally shows Jesse, Cassidy and Tulip but aside their numerous differences and team-up to find God and offer him their help. Oh, and if their help isn’t wanted or appreciated, that deity has an ass-whooping coming.

In addition, we get to see the increasingly unstable Odin...

[1:00Pm Pdt] - Welcome to The Walking Dead San Diego Comic-Con panel at Hall H. As it goes with these things we are running behind but I will keep you posted as we go!! [1:05Pm Pdt] - Still waiting. The Walking Dead fan art is playing on the big screen while 'Thriller' fills the speakers. I'm at 34% battery and I've had nothing but coffee today. Let's Do This. [1:09Pm Pdt] - Here we go. The creators and directors are headed to the stage now. [1:11Pm Pdt] - Chris Hardwick pulls no punches. Asks about Negan's victim. Robert Kirkman promises the wait will be worth it. I am skeptical. Scott M. Gimple says we'll see Carol and Morgan in the trailer. Trips over his words and calls Carol, Karen. It devolves into a bit where Karen is Carol's evil twin and Melissa McBride plays both. Karen wears an eyepatch obviously. [1:16Pm Pdt] - Seeing images of the zombies from the new season.

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Sam Moffitt, and Tom Stockman

Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, whose dazzling and innovative visual effects work on fantasy adventure films such as Jason And The Argonauts and The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad passed away in 2013 at age 92. In 1933, the then-13-year-old Ray Harryhausen saw King Kong at a Hollywood theater and was inspired – not only by Kong, who was clearly not just a man in a gorilla suit, but also by the dinosaurs. He came out of the theatre “stunned and haunted. They looked absolutely lifelike … I wanted to know how it was done.” It was done by using stop-motion animation: jointed models filmed one frame at a time to simulate movement. Harryhausen was to become the prime exponent of the technique and its combination with live action. The influence of Harryhausen on film luminaries like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and...

Bryan Fuller is very busy with his American Gods series for Starz and talking about bringing Hannibal back to its hungry fans, but he's also hard at work on CBS's new Star Trek series. The showrunner recently revealed how many episodes the first season would include as well as looking towards progressive casting. Will still don't know much of anything about this new series though the teaser may have offered more than we first thought. Speaking to Collider.com, Fuller revealed the first season would consist of 13 episodes to be aired weekly on CBS All Access. "We’ve got the arc of the first season entirely written, or arced out, and we’ve got the first six episodes entirely broken," he told them, adding the entire season would tell one story. "And there are 762 episodes of Star Trek television, so over six episodes we have to tell stories differently than...

A bunker could be a sanctuary or a prison in 10 Cloverfield Lane. With Paramount Home Media Distribution releasing the film on a Blu-ray / DVD / Digital HD combo pack today, Daily Dead had the opportunity to speak with actor John Gallagher Jr., who plays Emmett in the film, about improvising with Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Goodman, unknowingly becoming a part of the Cloverfield franchise, and his respective roles in Hush and The Belko Experiment, the latter of which he refers to as “Office Space meets The Purge.”

Can you tell me how you got involved with this project? My understanding was that it wasn’t initially a Cloverfield movie, so what attracted you to this story and character?

John Gallagher Jr.: I checked my email one day, and saw that my agent had sent me a script to take a look at. The working title was Valencia, but then there was a parenthetical that said, “aka The Cellar.” I was intrigued by both of the titles, and I started to see some of the names that were involved, and of course, you can’t help but have a name like J.J. Abrams leap out at you when you’re looking at that.

I finished the script and I thought it was amazing, and then I met the director, Dan Trachtenberg. We hit it off, and I could tell that he had a great vision for the movie, and I believed that he could do it, and then I saw a short film that he made that proved to me that he absolutely had a lot of vision and some serious chops. For someone who had never made a feature film before, I totally believed that he had it in him to do it.

Then I found out that John Goodman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead had signed on, and my first thought was, “I don’t think you could find two better people for those roles.” They’re pitch-perfect. I’ve been a big fan of both of theirs for years, and absolutely believed that they would do some fantastic things for the roles. Then I sent in an audition tape and crossed my fingers that I would get the gig, and I did, and it was as much of a joy as it was reading it. Making the movie itself was absolutely a joy. It was so much fun.

At the time, I had no idea that I was signing up to be part of the legacy of Cloverfield, and that I would be in the spiritual successor to the film. I had no clue that any of that was coming. Even after we wrapped the movie, I didn’t find out for about another year that we had entered into the “Cloververse”, as it’s been referred to in the past. I just thought I was lucky enough to be in one thing, and then it turned out that I was lucky enough to be in this whole other thing. It was such a roller coaster ride, and a total organic series of surprises, being involved in it.

Some of my favorite scenes had to be when the three of you were having dinner. It really is a testament to how great all three of you are as actors and how well you jelled. Can you talk about how the three of you worked together on those scenes? Was it pretty much all in the script or was there a lot of improv?

John Gallagher Jr.: We would get drafts as we were getting closer and closer to shooting it, and things would get rewritten here and there, but in every draft there was one version of this dinner scene gone wrong, of these three people trying to sit down and have what, in the frame, initially looks like an ideal family dinner. Of course it isn’t, and it devolves rather quickly.

We didn’t have any rehearsal going into the movie. We’d just get there on the day of and talk through the scene. Dan totally encouraged us to improvise with each other, and in fact, some of the stuff that I say to John, and some of the conversations I have with Mary, is stuff that got improvised.

We started referencing board games in that [dinner] scene, which was in the script, but then Dan was like, “just keep going, and just throw in different board games and start to improvise about the board games we played,” and so Mary started talking about Trouble and the Pop-o-Matic bubble, and then I started talking about Operation, and we just kept going off of that with each other. There are things in that scene that actually ended up being improvised moments that they ended up keeping when they were editing it together. Those were some of my favorite moments, shooting those scenes where we really just got to sit and talk to each other.

Genre audiences got to see some different sides of you this year, as you starred in two very different types of roles for 10 Cloverfield Lane and Hush. As an actor, what types of roles do you look for to challenge yourself? How important is it to take on roles that are less comfortable for you?

John Gallagher Jr.: It really just begins with the script. If there’s something about it that jumps out at me and feels original and exciting, that’s something that I would like to see. The truth is that I don’t necessarily want to be recognized as a personality, as somebody watching a movie and going, “Oh, here’s that guy again, cool, I like this guy.” I’d rather have people go, “Wait, is that the guy from that other thing?” I like to change and evolve and challenge myself, and hopefully surprise myself in the end, and I like to do things that are a little scary. It’s really terrifying to have that feeling where you go, “Oh my god, can I do this? I don’t know if I can do this, but I’m going to try, because I want to try.”

I finished Cloverfield in November or December, and then in February or March, I got a call saying that this script had come in, and Mike Flanagan had offered me the role of a masked, nameless, psychotic serial killer with no background or motive, and I thought, “Why did they want me to do this?” I’ve never done anything like this. I’ve wanted to. I had to try to convince people to let me play bad guys for years, and nobody ever took the bait. Mike Flanagan, who wrote and directed Hush, asked me if I would, and I totally leapt at the chance. He was like, “I think we should give you a tattoo, shave your head, and I said, “Sounds great, sign me up. Let’s go to the barber right now.” Let’s find out a way to make this character seem scary, but also real in a sense.

I felt really, really lucky that I got to do such different things back-to-back that people have been digging this year.

After Hush and 10 Cloverfield Lane, a lot of people are wondering what’s next for you. Do you have any genre projects coming up?

John Gallagher Jr.: I’m doing a play on Broadway right now with Jessica Lange and Michael Shannon and Gabriel Byrne. We’re doing Long Day’s Journey into Night, the Eugene O’Neill play, and we’ve only got two and a half more weeks left of doing it, but we’ve been doing it since April.

Then, I filmed a movie last year called The Belko Experiment that’s an MGM film written by James Gunn, who wrote and directed Guardians of the Galaxy, among other great things that he’s done, and directed by Greg McLean, who directed the Wolf Creek movies, which are these really freaky Australian horror movies.

We shot that last year in Colombia, and that’s got a great cast: Tony Goldwyn, John C. McGinley, Michael Rooker, David Dastmalchian, Rusty Schwimmer, Brent Sexton, lots of really fantastic actors. It’s a huge ensemble. I would describe it as Office Space meets The Purge.

It’s funny, I did a lot of dramas and small, character-based indie films in the last year, and then somehow, last year I ended up doing three genre pictures back-to-back, which was a total surprise to me, but it’s been an absolute joy working in that field, because it’s the kind of movies that I’ve been watching since I was a teenager, so it’s been really fun to start working a little bit more in that medium.

The post Exclusive Interview: John Gallagher Jr. Talks 10 Cloverfield Lane and Hush appeared first on Daily Dead.

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The Preacher pilot, directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, arrives on AMC brimming with confidence and violence...

This review contains spoilers.

1.1 Pilot

Like a lot of teenagers, I drifted away from comic books. The expense got to be too much, and since I never got a subscription to any comic and only bought them at the store, I was always missing issues, which made it difficult to follow along with the plots. However, when I was in high school, one of our classes had a reading hour on Friday, and a friend of mine brought comic books. From the moment I opened up Preacher, I was hooked, and I made sure that every Friday, he'd bring other issues of it for me to read.

In a lot of ways, it's the perfect comic for a teenage boy; funny, perverse, violent, sacrilegious, and obsessed with the removal of male genitalia.

After an entire half-season of build up last night, The Walking Dead finally introduced Negan. The reveal landed with a resounding “thud,” and not the kind fans were hoping for. But long before those final moments left us all wanting, a lot of nonsensical puzzle pieces had to fall into place. So I have to ask: Are the Saviors magic? Warning: Spoilers Beyond This Point. Scarier than Terminus. More organized than the Governor. Better staying power than the Wolves. The Saviors were supposed to be the game-changing Big Bad™ that would upend the zombie world order as we know it. They’re supposed to be terrifying. Instead, they’re cartoonishly evil and it's hard to be scared of cartoon villains. Case in point: last night, The Walking Dead season finale gave up the pretense of being a dramatic tale of survival in a post-apocalyptic world and became an elaborate Wile E.

For a show focused so prominently death (it's right there in the title, after all), "The Walking Dead" does have a knack for sowing seeds of happiness. Whether or not all those seeds actually blossom is another matter, but for a few brief moments every season, all seems well. That was no doubt the point of the sunny opening montage of this week's installment, "Not Tomorrow Yet," which featured a glimpse into Carol's daily life in Alexandria, soundtracked by a jaunty folk tune (another cleverly-employed musical moment in a season swimming with them).

Followed by banjos and xylophones, Carol scours the pantry for cookie supplies (and those trusty water chestnuts), hunts for acorns in the woods, kills a walker, washes the blood off in the shower, raids her closet full of sensible floral button-downs and pastel cardigans, and crafts the best cookies she can, which she cheerfully passes out to the townsfolk.

Greg Hardy's days with the Cowboys might be numbered, but a former Dallas star -- who recently got out of prison himself -- thinks he can put the controversial player back on the path to success. Eugene Lockhart -- a star linebacker for the 'Boys from 1984 to 1990 -- served 3 years in the federal pen for taking out fraudulent loans in the early 2000s. Lockhart got out last summer, and says he sees a lot of himself in Hardy.

Since last week’s episode of The Walking Dead left us with questions, lots of questions — Would Ron shoot Carl? Would Carol learn Morgan’s secret? Would the collapsed tower turn Alexandria into an all-you-can-eat buffet for the walkers? — we expected answers, lots of answers, from the fall finale. But how many did we actually get? Read on and find out!

RelatedScoop: Jeffrey Dean Morgan Joins Walking Dead Cast as… Infamous Villain Negan!

It’S Go Time | As “Start to Finish” began, Sam was holed up in his room, listening to “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” and coloring a...

Constance Cummings: Stage and film actress ca. early 1940s. Constance Cummings on stage: From Sacha Guitry to Clifford Odets (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Flawless 'Blithe Spirit,' Supporter of Political Refugees.”) In the post-World War II years, Constance Cummings' stage reputation continued to grow on the English stage, in plays as diverse as: Stephen Powys (pseudonym for P.G. Wodehouse) and Guy Bolton's English-language adaptation of Sacha Guitry's Don't Listen, Ladies! (1948), with Cummings as one of shop clerk Denholm Elliott's mistresses (the other one was Betty Marsden). “Miss Cummings and Miss Marsden act as fetchingly as they look,” commented The Spectator. Rodney Ackland's Before the Party (1949), delivering “a superb performance of controlled hysteria” according to theater director and Michael Redgrave biographer Alan Strachan, writing for The Independent at the time of Cummings' death. Clifford Odets' Winter Journey / The Country Girl (1952), as...

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Jokers, circus masters and demonic dolls. Which TV characters terrify you? Den Of Geek asked its writers that very question…

The subconscious is a terrible place; dark, mysterious and peopled by spectres from the past. As a bit of a laugh then, we sent our writers journeying into theirs and asked them to drag out any TV terrors they found lurking in the shadows.

Some television fears had been ensconced there since childhood, others were more recent tenants. Some were morally terrifying; human beings with icy hearts capable of atrocities, others were simply… atrocities.

Join us as we count down in order of terror from the sort-of-creepy to the downright terrifying, the 50 TV characters that, for whatever reason, give our writers chills. It’s by no means an exhaustive list, so feel free to fill in gaps by adding your own peculiar television nightmares below…

50. Charn -...

Yesterday, Entertainment One announced that Bitten will return for a third season on Syfy. Also in this round-up: a Kill Bill: Volume 1 episode of Real Fake History and details on the release of Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim: Tales from the Drift #1.

Bitten: Press Release: "Leading independent studio, Entertainment One (eOne) is thrilled to announce 10 episodes of the supernatural thriller Bitten will return to Syfy for a third season. Based on the best-selling series of novels by Kelley Armstrong and produced by No Equal Entertainment, eOne, and Hoodwink Entertainment, Season three sees the return of genre icon Laura Vandervoort (Smallville, Ted) as Elena Michaels; Greyston Holt (Alcatraz, Durham County) as Clayton Danvers; Greg Byrk (A History Of Violence, Rookie Blue) as Jeremy Danvers; Steve Lund (Being Erica, Haven) as Nick Sorrentino, and Genelle Williams (Warehouse 13) as Rachel Sutton. Production will begin this summer in Toronto.

Chicago – Brian Wilson has been called one of the greatest songwriters in popular music history. His tonality and approach towards his best compositions have been studied like Mozart. In “Love & Mercy,” we see that the thing that made Wilson great also had the power to destroy him.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

From the beginnings in 1961 of The Beach Boys, the group that Brian Wilson composed for, to about the mid 1960s, Wilson’s output was incredible, with an ear towards creating songs that layered voices and instruments in a way that still defies logic. But his talent and subsequent popularity came with a price – the instability of Wilson’s sensitive nature made drug use, depression and isolation a by-product of his success. In “Love & Mercy” – the title taken from a 1988 Brian Wilson song – screenwriters Oren Moverman and Michael Alan Lerner and director Bill Pohlad pay homage to the artist that is Brian Wilson,...

Courtesy of the San Francisco Film Society.

Love & Mercy

Written by Oren Moverman & Michael A. Lerner

Directed by Bill Pohlad

USA, 2015

Based on the life of The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, Love & Mercy depicts the singer’s descent into mental illness at the peak of the band’s popularity in the 1960s, while in the 1980s a chance meeting with a car saleswoman promises to save him from the brink of destruction. Paul Dano, as the young Wilson, is endearingly awkward yet creatively brilliant, capable of creating harmonies that most wouldn’t dream of. While years later his forward-thinking vision would earn the 1966 album “Pet Sounds” a place in the pop music canon, at the time it caused major tension within the band. Twenty years later, Wilson, now played by John Cusack, is a neurotic, washed-up and over-medicated version of his former self thanks to a dangerous codependency on his...

April 9th will mark the four year anniversary of director Sidney Lumet's passing, at age 86. Lumet was the first director I interviewed whose one-sheet posters hung on my wall as a kid. He was an idol, an icon, and an inspiration. I wasn't yet 30 in April 1997, when I met him at The Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills for our interview at the press junket for "Night Falls On Manhattan," one of his solid, authentic urban dramas that blended crime, politics and personal revelations that became his signature.

Lumet immediately put any butterflies I had at ease. Diminutive, but with the infectious energy of a teenager, his was a disarming presence. He paid me a compliment on my sportcoat, saying that I looked a bit like the young Mickey Rourke (which I still don't see, but what the hell), then went on to regale me for an hour with...

While we still don’t have a confirmed Jesse Custer to lead AMC’s Preacher, the show has secured another supporting character to back up the troubled man of the cloth. Ian Colletti, who recently took to the small screen in Fox’s drama Rake, has now stepped up to play the unfortunately-named Arseface.

Presumably, Colletti will commit to lengthy stints in the makeup chair to fulfil his duties. As another struggling soul plucked from the pages of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s comic, Arseface is saddled with the nickname after a botched suicide attempt. The son of Sheriff Hugo Root, he self-administers a shotgun to the face upon hearing of his idol Kurt Cobain’s death. Unfortunately, he fails and is left with a face that resembles what once character refers to as an arse.

In the comics, Arseface (real name Eugene Root) pledges vengeance for his father’s death,...

Another cast member has been added to AMC's small screen take on Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's insanely brilliant comic series, Preacher. Taking on the role of "Arseface" (aka Eugene Root) will be young Ian Colletti, who played the title role in the 2013 film Jimmy, and was a regular on Fox's Rake last year. This is a unique character to say the least, and his depiction on screen will almost certainly be met with some controversy. He's nicknamed Arseface because after a failed suicide attempt... well, his face resembles an arse! Here's how Deadline describe his Tv incarnation: "Even with his horribly disfigured face and severe speech impediment, Eugene's still the nicest kid you'll ever meet who really looks up to Jesse. Stomach-churningly difficult to look at, Eugene's the town’s reviled Frankenstein’s monster but that won't change his earnest, sweet and pure outlook on life.

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Ruth Negga and Rake actor Ian Colletti will play supporting roles in the Preacher comic book adaptation…

Update: As we assumed yesterday, the casting announcements are now coming thick and fast for Sony and AMC's Preacher adaptation. While there's still no word on Jesse Custer, we do now know who will be playing Eugene Root, Aka Arseface - young actor Ian Colletti. Here's the character bio we've seen on Deadline.com:

"Even with his horribly disfigured face and severe speech impediment, Eugene’s still the nicest kid you’ll ever meet and really looks up to Jesse. Stomach-churningly difficult to look at, Eugene’s the town’s reviled Frankenstein’s monster, but that won’t change his earnest, sweet and pure outlook on life. However, he is troubled by something terrible he’s done in the past — something he fears might have turned God himself against him.

If it's help navigating The X-Files' many, many episodes you're after, then you've come to the right place...

Maps To TV Shows: Is there a popular show you’d really like to watch but you just don’t have time to wade through years of it all at once? Do you just want to know why that one character keeps turning up on Tumblr? Do the fans all tell you ‘season one is a bit iffy but stick with it, it gets great!’, leaving you with absolutely zero desire ever to watch the boring/silly/just plain weird season one? Then Maps To TV Shows is for you!

In these articles, we’ll outline routes through popular TV shows focusing on particular characters, story arcs or episode types. Are you really into the Klingon episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation? Do you want to get the overall gist...

The Walking Dead season 5 returned to the UK last night. What might be in store for Rick and co. over the next episodes? Spoilers...

Warning: contains spoilers for The Walking Dead seasons one to five and very mild comics spoilers.

Last night saw the UK return of The Walking Dead season five, meaning that the next seven Monday nights are going to be fraught with bleakness, grief, tension, truly disgusting body horror and… remind me why we love The Walking Dead again?

Oh yeah, that’s right. We love The Walking Dead for its characters, stunning special effects, visceral violence and the reassuring sense that whatever is going wrong with our own lives, it’ll never be as bad as whatever it is that Rick, Carol, Michonne and the gang are having to deal with.

The first episode back, What Happened And What’s Going On, played a characteristic game with audience expectations.

Sony Pictures has confirmed that starting at 10am Pacific time today, you will be able to rent James Franco and Seth Rogen's comedy The Interview on YouTube, Google Play, and Xbox for only $5.99. You will also have the option to buy it for $14.99 which is pretty much the cost of admission for seeing a movie here in Los Angeles. There's also an official website that has been set up for anyone who may not have access to those services. There have been talks of the film being made available on Netflix in the next few days as well, but there's no confirmation of that yet. It's good to see that Sony didn't let the hackers win. Enjoy the movie! Hopefully it was worth all the insanity.

If you would rather watch the movie in theaters, below you'll find a full list of where the movie will be playing on...

Update: According to CNN's Brian Stelter and confirmed by Sony (via Huffington Post), audiences choosing to stay home over the holiday will be able to rent ($6) or buy ($15) the film from various online streaming outlets starting at 1:00 Pm Et today, as in December 24, via SeeTheInterview.com.

Sony Confirms: "The Interview" will be available for rental through YouTube, Google Play, Microsoft's Xbox Video, etc. Today. At 1pm Et.

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 24, 2014 The original post follows... In the wake of controversy and fallout, which culminated in scrapping the Christmas Day release of its high profile Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy The Interview, Sony announced its revised release plans for the film yesterday. As a Christmas gift of sorts to fans clamoring to see the controversial film, Sony is releasing The Interview into some 300 theaters starting tomorrow morning. In addition, CNN Money reports Google will stream the film as an...

Refresh for latest… Here’s a list of theaters confirmed to be showing Sony’s The Interview on Christmas Day after the studio worked with indie chains on a release plan finalized this morning. The venues have a deadline of 6 Pm Pt today to decide whether to run the movie on December 25, as Sony must send theaters the movie hard drives in time to make Christmas Day screenings. Some theaters are booking the film for later in the month or into January, so that deadline isn’t looming as large. As of 4 Pm, more than 200 theaters had signed on.

This is all happening fast so this list will continue to grow. We’re hearing that there are still internal discussions among art houses about whether to add the pic to their schedules, with security and previous commitments among the concerns. Some of the theaters had planned to be dark on Christmas Day,...

After Sony announced Tuesday that it would reverse its decision to cancel the Christmas Day release of "The Interview," dozens of independent theaters across the country made plans to show the flick.

Various media outlets have been reporting the locations that are said to be screening the film, and we're compiling them here. Below is the list so far, which we'll update as more information rolls in.

All locations are showing the movie beginning December 25, unless otherwise noted.

Where To See "The Interview" (via the movie's Facebook page):

Al Andalusia - Clark Theatre 3

Al Birmingham - Edge 12

Al Boaz - Boaz Cinema 9

Al Enterprise - Clark Cinema 1 & 2

Al Fort Payne - Fort Payne Cinemas 6

Al Greenville - Edge Cinema 8

Al Huntsville - Madison Square Stadium 8

Al Troy - Continental Cinema 6

Ar Cabot - Silver Screen Cinemas 8

Ar El Dorado - Stars Cinema 6

Ar Hot Springs - Behind The Mall...