Moviefone Editorial

Tag: david-lynch

  • 9 Star Wars Movies That You Will Never See

    We now live in a world where there’s going to be a new “Star Wars” movie every year for possibly decades to come. But even with that embarrassment of nerd riches, we can’t help but dwell on the Star Wars movies that never were.

    From Steven Spielberg‘s “Return of the Jedi” to George Lucas‘s original vision for the sequels to his original trilogy, these are the “Star Wars” movies that never were.

    “Star Wars” (1977)

    1. “Journal of the Whills”George Lucas had already begun writing “Star Wars” in earnest as early as 1973, but the early drafts bore little resemblance to what fans would actually see on the big screen.

    The earliest incarnation of “Star Wars” came in the form of a two-page treatment called “Journal of the Whills,” which revolved around a character named CJ Thorpe, a pupil of “Jedi-Bendu” master Mace Windy. Basically, the treatment featured a bunch of weird names and concepts that Lucas had yet to forge into a real story.

    2. “The Star Wars”Eventually, Lucas managed to expand that early treatment into a full script he dubbed “The Star Wars.” The original screenplay features characters like General Luke Skywalker and brothers Deak and Annikin Starkiller. Han Solo and Chewbacca were also present, though at that point Han was envisioned as a reptilian alien (see above). Elements like the Sith Empire and the Death Star were also present in this early draft.

    “The Star Wars” evolved over the course of several drafts, with each new iteration bringing the story closer to what fans know today. But for those curious about what might have been, Dark Horse Comics published a 2013 mini-series — cover art above — that adapts the original screenplay.

    “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980)

    3. Leigh Brackett’s Draft
    Not her fourth draft, which many fans have read and debated over at conventions. No, this is the plot from her first draft — and it has very, very little in common with the film we all know and love.

    Here, Han Solo goes in search of his father-in-law, Ovan Marekal, who has political ties with Darth Vader. Luke still goes to Dagobah, but here, it’s just “the Bog Planet.” And instead of meeting Yoda, he meets a frog-like Jedi named Minch, who teaches our favorite intergalactic farm boy the ways of the Force.

    In 1978, Lucas gave the screenwriter a shot to write the then-untitled sequel. He hired her based on her promising and prolific work as a science fiction author. (That explains the very prose-y way the script reads.) Brackett would never get to see how the final film turned out; she died one year after she turned in her script.

    “Return of the Jedi” (1983)

    4. The Early Lucas/Kasdan DraftsWhile it’s not clear exactly how many revisions the “Return of the Jedi” screenplay went through during pre-production, over the years both Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan have revealed many major and minor edits that were made.

    Early on, the duo had to account for the very real possibility that Harrison Ford might not return. At one point, the film featured an early death for Han and didn’t include Yoda at all. Early drafts also featured Wookiees in place of Ewoks, the resurrection of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and a spaghetti Western-worthy denouement as Luke walks sadly into the sunset instead of partying it up on Endor.

    5. Steven Spielberg or David Lynch’s “Return of the Jedi”Even after Lucas and Kasdan completed their screenplay, there was a great deal of uncertainty as to who would actually direct the film. At varying points, Lucas approached David Lynch (who opted for for rival space fantasy film “Dune” instead), David Cronenberg (who did the same for “Videodrome“) and even Steven Spielberg.

    We can’t help but wonder how a Spielberg-directed “Episode VI” might have turned out. Would it still be considered the weak point of the Original Trilogy?

    “The Force Awakens” (2015)

    6. Lucas’ Sequel Trilogy
    Lucas has given conflicting reports over the decades as to whether he ever planned to continue his “Star Wars” saga beyond the events of “Return of the Jedi.” But when he sold the franchise to Disney in 2012, Lucas reportedly handed over story treatments for “Episodes VII,” “VIII” and “IX.” Little is known about the content of those treatments, other than the fact that Disney elected not to make use of them.

    Novelist Timothy Zahn offered probably the closest glimpse into Lucas’ plans for the sequel trilogy, saying “The original idea as I understood it — and Lucas changes his mind off and on, so it may not be what he’s thinking right now — but it was going to be three generations. You’d have the original trilogy, then go back to Luke’s father and find out what happened to him, and if there was another seventh, eighth, or ninth film, it would be Luke’s children.”

    7. The Michael Arndt Draft“The Force Awakens” went through many rewrites before Disney and J.J. Abrams settled on a final shooting script, as the studio understandably wanted to make a good impression with jaded “Star Wars” fans.

    We don’t know a great deal about the plot of Michael Arndt‘s original draft, other than the fact that it brought Luke Skywalker into the plot midway through rather than at the very end of the film. But even Arndt admitted that Luke’s presence distracted from the new cast of characters.

    We also know that earlier drafts of the screenplay featured Rey having a flashback to Luke and Vader’s fateful duel on Cloud City, and Poe dying when his stolen TIE Fighter crashed on Jakku. Thankfully for all the Poe/Finn shippers out there, he was later spared that fate.

    “Rogue One” (2016)

    8. The Original Cut

    “Rogue One” worried a great many “Star Wars” fans once word got out that Disney was moving forward with weeks of extensive rewrites and reshoots in summer 2016, a process that was overseen by Tony Gilroy rather than director Gareth Edwards. The goal was apparently to craft a lighter, more adventurous take, with many Disney and Lucasfilm higher-ups fearing the project was veering in too dark a direction. (Also, they had concern that Edwards’ sense of story was less-than-strong for what they needed their first “Star Wars” film post-“TFA” to be.)

    The early trailers for “Rogue One” offer a taste of the film as it existed in its original form, as they feature many shots that were entirely absent in the final cut. That includes a glimpse of Director Krennic and his Stormtroopers wading through the beach on Scarif, alternate scenes with Vader, and a sequence where Jyn and Cassian charge directly into fire from a fleet of AT-ACT Walkers.

    9. The “Happy Ending” Version“Rogue One” is notable for its relatively dark ending, as the film’s entire cast of heroes is killed during the Battle of Scarif. But that wasn’t always the case.

    Writer Gary Whitta revealed that early drafts of the screenplay provided a happier ending for Jyn and Cassian (while other characters like Baze, Bodhi and Chirrut were completely absent). The film would have ended with Jyn and Cassian escaping the planet’s surface and surviving the destruction of their ship by fleeing into an escape pod.

    But Whitta ultimately decided it just wasn’t worth the effort, saying “The fact that we had to jump through so many hoops to keep them alive was the writing gods telling us that if they were meant to live it wouldn’t be this difficult.” That alternate ending exists only in storyboard form.

  • 40 Things You Never Knew About the ‘Star Wars’ Franchise

    There’s never been a better time to be a “Star Wars” fan.

    The franchise is currently dominating the pop culture landscape, with “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” hitting theaters December 2017 and the Young Han Solo movie following in 2019.

    To help fill the wait until those movies finally hit, here are 11 interesting facts you might not know about the “Star Wars” movies.1. While Sir Alec Guinness was never shy about voicing his disdain for “Star Wars,” the original movies made him a very rich man. Guinness’ contract granted him 2% of the box office receipts, or close to $100 million when all was said and done.

    2. By contrast, James Earl Jones received a paltry $7500 for his work voicing Darth Vader in the original film. Still, it wasn’t a bad gig considering that Jones wound up recording all of his lines in a few hours.3. Ewan McGregor isn’t the first member of his family to appear in the Star Wars movies. His uncle, Denis Lawson, played Rebel pilot Wedge Antilles in the Original Trilogy.

    4. Everyone knows that the fuzzy teddy bears on Endor are called Ewoks, but that word is never actually uttered in any of the “Star Wars” movies.5. The Skywalker family was originally named “Starkiller” in early drafts of the “Star Wars” screenplay. The “Starkiller” name has been used in various other pieces of Star Wars lore, finally making its movie debut in “The Force Awakens” thanks to Starkiller Base.

    6. The working title for “Return of the Jedi” during filming was “Blue Harvest.” This is a reference to “Red Harvest,” the 1929 novel that inspired the classic samurai film “Yojimbo,” which itself was a major influence on “Star Wars.7. Most fans probably know that Mark Hamill‘s face was scarred in a car accident prior to filming “The Empire Strikes Back,” which is why the Wampa attack was added to the script. But that wasn’t the only time Lucas had to account for one of Hamill’s injuries.

    8. The actor held his breath for so long while filming the trash compactor scene in “Star Wars” that he burst a blood vessel in his face. Lucas had to rearrange the scene in order to hide that injury.9. Paramount Pictures changed the subtitle of “Star Trek II” from “The Vengeance of Khan” to “The Wrath of Khan” after learning that Episode VI would be titled “Revenge of the Jedi.” Unfortunately for them, George Lucas wound up switching to “Return of the Jedi” during post-production.

    10. Both Jar-Jar Binks actor Ahmed Best and C-3PO actor Anthony Daniels appear out of costume as background extras in the cantina scene in “Attack of the Clones.”11. Yoda went through several name changes during the course of writing “The Empire Strikes Back.” At one point, it was established that his full name is “Minch Yoda,” and before that he was known simply as “Buffy.”

    12. A number of big-name directors were considered to helm “Return of the Jedi,” including David Lynch, David Cronenberg, and even Steven Spielberg. In the end, Lucas settled with a less conventional choice in the form of Welsh director Richard Marquand, who caught Lucas’ eye with his 1981 film “Eye of the Needle.”13. Kenner had to cancel its original Boba Fett action figure because the rocket-firing feature was deemed a choking hazard. Very few prototypes exist, making it one of the holy grails in the toy collecting community.

    14. Before Frank Oz was brought onboard to bring Yoda to life via puppetry, Lucas considered (*rolls eyes) relying on a trained monkey to play the elderly Jedi Master.15. If you’ve ever wondered why Darth Vader actor David Prowse never shows up at Star Wars Celebration or similar events, it’s because he’s been banned after a series of disagreements with George Lucas. Apparently, the two never got along while filming the original movies.

    16. Lucas squabbled with the Directors Guild of America over his decision not to include opening credits in the original “Star Wars.” Lucas ultimately opted to leave the Guild, and he more or less cut ties with the traditional Hollywood machine after that point.
    17. One of the early drafts of the “Return of the Jedi” screenplay ended with Luke donning his father’s mask and declaring himself to be the new Darth Vader.

    18. That abandoned twist did sort of make its way into the Expanded Universe comics. The mini-series “Dark Empire” saw Luke fall to the Dark Side after a cloned Emperor Palpatine returned to threaten the galaxy.19. Many of the sets in “The Phantom Menace” had to be rebuilt after the designers realized Liam Neeson was too tall to fit through the doorways.

    20. For some reason, Yoda’s feet change shape over the course of the “Star Wars” saga. In “Phantom Menace,” Yoda has three toes on each foot. In every other film, however, he has four.21. The Prequels were so CG-heavy that Lucasfilm never actually constructed any physical suits of armor for the Clonetroopers. They were created entirely via digital effects.

    22. The tiny Pacific nation of Niue actually accepts collectible Star Wars coins as legal tender.23. If you aren’t watching the animated series “Star Wars: Rebels,” you might not know that Darth Maul actually survived his apparent death at the end of “The Phantom Menace.” Maul returned to continue his feud with Obi-Wan Kenobi during the height of the Clone Wars.

    24. Many of the alien dialects in the movies actually have roots in real-world languages. For example, the Jawas speak a variation of Zulu, while the Ewoks speak a mixture of Nepalese and Tibetan.25. Grand Moff Tarkin actor Peter Cushing found his costume’s military boots very uncomfortable, so he wound up filming most of his scenes while wearing a pair of fuzzy slippers instead.

    26. The Tantive IV (below), the ship carrying Princess Leia and the droids in the opening moments of “Star Wars,” is based on the original concept design for the Millennium Falcon.
    27. Among Jabba’s many henchman in “Return of the Jedi,” there’s a trio known as Klaatu, Barada and Nikto. Those names are a reference to the shutdown code in “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (above).

    28. Qui-Gon Jinn’s communicator in “The Phantom Menace” was actually just a re-purposed Gillette shaving razor. Don’t believe us? See for yourself below:
    29. Acclaimed thespian Orson Welles (above) was among those originally considered to voice Darth Vader. Ultimately, Lucas decided Welles’ voice was too recognizable.

    30. There’s a background extra during the escape from Cloud City in “The Empire Strikes Back” who appears to be carrying an ice cream maker. Fans have since developed an elaborate back-story for this character, casting him as a Rebel spy carrying vital information to the Alliance.31. An early draft of the “Return of the Jedi” script featured both Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi returning to life to assist Luke in overthrowing the Emperor.

    32. At one point, Lucas considered relying on an all-Japanese cast for the original Star Wars, reflecting the the heavy influence Akira Kurosawa’s samurai films had on the movies. Lucas even considered Kurosawa mainstay Toshiro Mifune to play Obi-Wan Kenobi.33. Artist Ralph McQuarrie created concept art for a medieval-style castle for Darth Vader that would have appeared in “The Empire Strikes Back.” Obviously those designs were scrapped, but they did inspire Vader’s Mustafar fortress (above) seen in “Rogue One.”

    34. Believe it or not, the opening crawl in the original “Star Wars” was created entirely through practical effects. Lucas and his team had to film while moving die-cut letters across a black paper background, and the whole process took hours to pull off.

    35. Darth Maul actor Ray Park had his own idea about who should play Anakin Skywalker in “Attack of the Clones.” Park sparred with an Indiana stockbroker named Jeff Garner and, despite Garner’s complete lack of acting experience, forwarded his name to Lucasfilm.

    36. Hayden Christiansen actually wore the Darth Vader suit in the villain’s final appearance in “Revenge of the Sith.” He was forced to walk on stilts in order to properly convey the character’s imposing height.37. “Empire Strikes Back” had plenty of problems with production running behind schedule and going over-budget. Some of those problems were exacerbated by “The Shining” director Stanley Kubrick, who took over some of Lucas’ studio space after a fire at Elstree Studios.

    38. Mark Hamill campaigned for Lucas to introduce a love interest for Luke in “Return of the Jedi.” Lucas declined, but Luke did eventually gain a wife and family in the Expanded Universe novels.39. R2-D2 actor Kenny Baker was originally slated to play lead Ewok Wicket W. Warrick. But after Baker fell ill from food poisoning, the part shifted to Warwick Davis instead. Davis has gone on to play a number of characters throughout the series.

    40. Lucas is at least somewhat aware of the disdain many Star Wars fans have for Jar Jar Binks. He even jokingly subtitled “Episode II” as “Jar Jar’s Big Adventure” for a while.

  • Robert Forster Looks Back on His 25-Year Trip to ‘Twin Peaks’

    Premiere Of Fox Searchlight's "The Descendants" - ArrivalsIf there’s any actor who could be comfortable resting on his laurels, it would be Robert Forster. But here he is, at 74, still part of Hollywood’s most successful and intriguing properties.

    After making his mark early in his career in artistic ’60s fare like “Heroes” and “Breaking Bad,” franchise films like “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” to critically acclaimed dramas like Alexander Payne‘s “The Descendants.”

    Most recently, the actor reprised his role as Army Chief of Staff Edward Clegg in “Twin Peaks,” with all signs pointing to the rich likelihood that Forster will take on the role of Sheriff Harry S. Truman, which as he reveals is a part he was originally offered but couldn’t accept when the show was first conceived over 25 years ago.

    Moviefone: With “London Has Fallen,” it must be fun to be a part of something that’s turning into a pretty cool action franchise — and you don’t have to run and shoot and everything else that Gerard Butler does.

    Robert Forster: I never work on the action part. I am safely away in the war room in the White House, which variously we’ve shot in Shreveport — we shot one of the pictures there, and the other one we shot in the lovely London. So these are good for me. I’m not involved in the action part. Though the action guys kill themselves to make action movies.

    It’s been a long time since I have been involved in the action part, where you don’t have much chance of getting killed, but you’ve got a lot of chances of getting bruised up and banged up and nicked up and spending 12 hours a day on a set. Movies are great in general, action movies are especially tough on the guys who do the action, but I have luckily these days become a high-ranking general. They started out my career as a private in “Reflections in a Golden Eye,” and now I’m a general.

    You’ve got another man in uniform coming up, this time a cop in uniform, playing for David Lynch in “Twin Peaks.” What was exciting about that collaboration, and also maybe a little daunting about stepping into a role that another actor had previously played?

    Well now, first of all, I am under compulsion to not speak about that role. I can now say they’ve announced the fact that I’m in the picture — and 216 other cast members. What a big cast! David Lynch, what a good guy he is. He wanted to hire me for the original, 25 years ago, for a part, and I was committed to another guy for a pilot that never went. So I didn’t do the original “Twin Peaks,” which would have been a life-changer. It’s a gigantic hit if you remember those years, a phenomenon. But I didn’t do that.

    But later, he hired me in “Mulholland Drive,” which was going to be a television series, but did not [become a series]. Didn’t get on the schedule. So he bought the picture apparently and shot some more things and made it into a great movie, “Mulholland Drive.” And this time, I got a call from my agents and they said, David Lynch is going to call you. When he called me five minutes later, he said, “I’d like you to come and work with me again.” And I said, “Whatever it is David, here I come!”

    So whereas I cannot talk about the role, I can tell you that he is one of the great artists in this business, and he does things that … when he needs something, everybody pulls hard and makes it happen. What else? He’s one of those guys who, after a shot, you hear “action,” you hear “cut,” you hear a few minutes of him rolling around in his mind, and everybody’s quiet and waiting to hear what he’s going to say. And sometimes he says, “Shoot it again,” but sometimes he says, “Okay, we got it. Move on.” This is a guy who knows a great shot when he does it, and can move on. It’s an art form to know how strong your shot is, and whether or not that’s going to fit with your needs.

    He’s an artist, and there aren’t many. Alexander Payne, also. These are good guys and good directors. And Quentin [Tarantino]. Gee, I’ve worked with some fine directors, going back to John Huston and Robert Mulligan and some good ones. What can I say about that? Working with David was a real joy, and I’m hopeful that I get a chance to live long enough to get a chance to do it again.

    At this stage in your incredibly prolific career, what do you look for? Are you happy to just find a job that lets you get out and do your craft? Or are there still some special boxes in your goals that you’re hoping to check off?

    I wish I had that list and that set of boxes. I have never, ever known what is going to come around the corner. And the first thing I have to do when my agent sends me a script and says, read this and we’ll talk about it later, I read it and I have to decide whether I can actually deliver, whatever it is their character requires. If I feel that I can do that, then we continue to talking.

    But that’s my first job: to find something in the role, or find something in myself and say, I can deliver this. Because the thing you want to do, the thing the actor wants to do is get on the set and deliver. So there are some things that I wouldn’t want to take a shot at. And I didn’t want to do negative characters. There was a long time when I only did positive characters. Then somewhere in the middle of my career I was broke and I had to take a bad guy and did a bad guy in “The Delta Force,” which was a 1984/5 I guess. And I got stuck in bad guys for 13 years. I didn’t do a good guy again until “Jackie Brown.”

    Sometimes you don’t know what you’re going to get offered. Sometimes you don’t get offered what you want. Sometimes the things are out of left field. Sometimes they’re fun, and sometimes they’re comedy. I love doing comedy. I love getting a laugh. I remember the first time I did a play in Rochester, New York. After my college graduation I said, “God, I don’t want to be a lawyer. I want to be an actor. I wonder how you do it.”

    And I got a part in a local play, “Come Blow Your Horn.” And somewhere in the play I invented a laugh, and it was so rewarding and so, what’s the word when you’re drunk? … intoxicating … that I decided that is what I want to do. I want to be an actor. I love getting that laugh. So if you give me a box to check off that says “Gets Laughs,” that’s the one I want.

    And I hope we get to see you working with Quentin again before he…

    Before he quits! Before he gets to his tenth picture.

    Yeah, before he fulfills this horrible promise he’s made. We need more movies from him!

    Those are the kinds of promises I hope guys don’t actually fulfill.

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  • Top Rated Movies That Should’ve Won Oscars

    Robert De Niro in RAGING BULLThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — that group of secret film wizards most known for handing out naked golden statues to very pretty people once a year — is made up of plain old human beings. Just like you have opinions, and just like your Aunt Bertha who tries to communicate with her cats using telepathic crystals has opinions, these movie-making humans have opinions too. And when you’ve been around as an organization for 90-ish years like the Academy has, you’re bound to throw out some, uh, questionable opinions now and again. And again. And again. Time to grit those teeth and embrace the snubs.

    Facts to Tick Off Your Film Professor

    Let’s start with the big one: “Citizen Kane” did not win Best Picture in 1942. Ever heard of “How Green Was My Valley“? Well, now you have, because that’s what won. It’s not that John Ford‘s “Valley” is a bad movie by any stretch — it’s just a question of horrendously bad foresight. Ask yourself which film left a bigger mark on film classes, cinema, and pop culture over the next 70 years, and you’ll understand why this is the “should’ve won” to beat all “should’ve wons.”

    And while you’re giving your film professor a stroke, feel free to rattle off this list of filmmakers who, like Orson Welles for “Kane,” never took home Best Director awards: Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, Quentin Tarantino, Federico Fellini, Sergio Leone, Robert Altman, Ingmar Bergman, and Charlie Chaplin. And that’s the tip of the Oscar-fail iceberg.

    And the Oscar Goes to … the Safest Choice Possible

    The Academy might not be a hive-mind, but it has most definitely displayed some strong preferences over the last nine decades. It likes drama. It loves history. It has a thing for biographies. Tears are unequivocally good. And, as “Tropic Thunder” taught us, a mentally challenged protagonist translates to trophies. When the ’95 ceremony rolled around, a little flick called “Forrest Gump” conveniently ticked just about all of those boxes. Another critical contender, “Pulp Fiction,” ticked just about none. Take a guess at what won.

    Now, “Gump” is a beloved film. But few will argue that “Pulp” not only inspired a slew of post-Tarantino imitators, it left a mark on cinema bigger than any box-of-chocolate-inspired anecdotes possibly could. But at least Oscar’s predilection for safe choices wasn’t without precedent — back in ’81, the Wonder Bread family drama of “Ordinary People” managed to rob the Best Picture prize from more brutal movies like “Raging Bull” and “The Elephant Man.” That year, Robert Redford‘s directorial prowess — which can best be described as “sort of like a made-for-TV movie” — defeated the combined forces of Martin Scorsese and David Lynch.

    Fun fact: Both the Three 6 Mafia and Roberto Benigni ended up with statues before Scorsese. Poor Marty.

    Snub Like It’s 1999

    Snubs are subjective, and to some extent or other, they happen every year. But 1999 will go down in Oscar history as the Ultimate Snubstorm. In any other year, “Shakespeare in Love” would’ve been remembered as a sharply written romantic comedy with neat Shakespearean trappings and smoking hot leads. But something in the Academy’s drinks said otherwise; not only did “Shakespeare” steal the spotlight from “that other” Elizabethan movie — “Elizabeth,” which gave the world the too-talented-to-exist Cate Blanchett in the title role — Academy voters somehow forgot that “Saving Private Ryan” was also a Best Picture nominee. To this day, World War II buffs, Steven Spielberg loyalists, and Tom Hanks enthusiasts can’t even glance at a Joseph Fiennes movie without breaking into irrational tears. It’s like a movie-nerd “Fight Club” — you just don’t talk about the “Saving Private Ryan” snub.

    Sources

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  • The ‘Twins Peaks’ Revival Cast List Is Insane (and Insanely Long)

    twin peaks, revival, cast, showtimeShowtime revealed Twin Peaks” revival, and it’s nothing short of insane — and insanely long.

    The ensemble includes a whopping 217 actors — yes, you read that right — and amid all the returning faces, there are also a bunch of surprising, big-name newbies along for the ride this time around. (We’ve embedded the entire list at the end of this post.)

    Original cast members that will be back include many previously-announced people, and the ensemble will feature the likes of Kyle MacLachlan, Sherilyn Fenn, Madchen Amick, Sheryl Lee, Dana Ashbrook, David Duchovny, Miguel Ferrer, Grace Zabriskie, Peggy Lipton, Ray Wise, Wendy Robie, Russ Tamblyn, and Catherine E. Coulson, among many others.

    As for the newcomers, some of the bold names that stand out include Monica Bellucci, Jim Belushi, Michael Cera, Laura Dern, Jay R. Ferguson (a.k.a. Stan from “Mad Men”), Ernie Hudson (“Ghostbusters”), Ashley Judd, Dave Koechner (“Anchorman”), Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jane Levy (“Evil Dead,” “Suburgatory”), Matthew Lillard, Josh McDermitt (“The Walking Dead”), Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, Tim Roth, Amanda Seyfried, Ethan Suplee (“My Name Is Earl,” “Boy Meets World”), Jessica Szohr (“Gossip Girl”), Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, and Naomi Watts. And that’s just a fraction.

    Creator David Lynch is also set to appear, as he did in the original.

    Check out the exhaustive, exhausting list below. The “Twin Peaks” revival is set to air on Showtime sometime in 2017.

    (A * denotes a returning cast member)

    Jay Aaseng
    Alon Aboutboul
    Jane Adams
    Joe Adler
    Kate Alden
    Stephanie Allynne
    Mädchen Amick*
    Eric Ray Anderson
    Finn Andrews
    Elizabeth Anwies
    Dana Ashbrook*
    Joe Auger
    Phoebe Augustine*
    Melissa Bailey
    Tammie Baird
    Matt Battaglia
    Chrysta Bell
    Monica Bellucci
    Jim Belushi
    Leslie Berger
    Richard Beymer*
    John Billingsley
    Michael Bisping
    Ronnie Gene Blevins
    Kelsey Bohlen
    Sean Bolger
    Rachael Bower
    Brent Briscoe
    Robert Broski
    Wes Brown
    Richard Bucher
    Page Burkum
    Scott Cameron
    Juan Carlos Cantu
    Gia Carides
    Vincent Castellanos
    Michael Cera
    Richard Chamberlain
    Bailey Chase
    Johnny Chavez
    Candy Clark
    Larry Clarke
    Scott Coffey*
    Frank Collison
    Lisa Coronado
    Catherine E. Coulson*
    Grace Victoria Cox
    Jonny Coyne
    James Croak
    Julee Cruise*
    Heather D’Angelo
    Jan D’Arcy*
    David Dastmalchian
    Jeremy Davies
    Owain Rhys Davies
    Ana de la Reguera
    Rebekah Del Rio
    Laura Dern
    Neil Dickson
    Hugh Dillon
    Cullen Douglas
    Edward “Ted” Dowlin
    Judith Drake
    David Duchovny*
    Christopher Durbin
    Francesca Eastwood
    Eric Edelstein
    John Ennis
    Josh Fadem
    Tikaeni Faircrest
    Eamon Farren
    Sherilyn Fenn*
    Jay R. Ferguson
    Sky Ferreira
    Miguel Ferrer*
    Rebecca Field
    Robin Finck
    Brian Finney
    Patrick Fischler
    Erika Forster
    Robert Forster
    Meg Foster
    Travis Frost
    Warren Frost*
    Pierce Gagnon
    Allen Galli
    Hailey Gates
    Brett Gelman
    Ivy George
    Balthazar Getty
    James Giordano
    Harry Goaz*
    Grant Goodeve
    George Griffith
    Tad Griffith
    James Grixoni
    Cornelia Guest
    Travis Hammer
    Hank Harris
    Annie Hart
    Andrea Hays*
    Stephen Heath
    Heath Hensley
    Gary Hershberger*
    Michael Horse*
    Ernie Hudson
    Jay Jee
    Jesse Johnson
    Caleb Landry Jones
    Ashley Judd
    Luke Judy
    Stephen Kearin
    David Patrick Kelly*
    Laura Kenny
    Dep Kirkland
    Robert Knepper
    David Koechner
    Virginia Kull
    Nicole LaLiberte
    Jay Larson
    Sheryl Lee*
    Jennifer Jason Leigh
    Jane Levy
    Matthew Lillard
    Jeremy Lindholm
    Peggy Lipton*
    Bellina Martin Logan*
    Sarah Jean Long
    David Lynch*
    Riley Lynch
    Shane Lynch
    Kyle MacLachlan*
    Mark Mahoney
    Karl Makinen
    Malone
    Xolo Maridueña
    Berenice Marlohe
    Rob Mars
    James Marshall*
    Elisabeth Maurus
    Josh McDermitt
    Everett McGill*
    Zoe McLane
    Derek Mears
    Clark Middleton
    Greg Mills
    James Morrison
    Christopher Murray
    Don Murray
    Joy Nash
    Priya Diane Niehaus
    Bill O’Dell
    Casey O’Neill
    Johnny Ochsner
    Walter Olkewicz*
    Charity Parenzini
    Elias Nelson Parenzini
    John Paulsen
    Sara Paxton
    Max Perlich
    Linas Phillips
    Tracy Phillips
    John Pirruccello
    Linda Porter
    Jelani Quinn
    Ruth Radelet
    Mary Reber
    Adele René
    Mariqueen Reznor
    Trent Reznor
    Carolyn P. Riggs
    Kimmy Robertson*
    Wendy Robie*
    Erik L. Rondell
    Marv Rosand*
    Ben Rosenfield
    Tim Roth
    Rod Rowland
    Carlton Lee Russell*
    Elena Satine
    John Savage
    Amanda Seyfried
    Amy Shiels
    Sawyer Shipman
    Tom Sizemore
    Sara Sohn
    Malachy Sreenan
    Harry Dean Stanton*
    J.R. Starr
    Bob Stephenson
    Charlotte Stewart*
    Emily Stofle
    Al Strobel*
    Carel Struycken*
    Ethan Suplee
    Sabrina S. Sutherland
    Jessica Szohr
    Russ Tamblyn*
    Bill Tangradi
    Cynthia Lauren Tewes
    Jodee Thelen
    Jack Torrey
    Sharon Van Etten
    Eddie Vedder
    Greg Vrotsos
    Jake Wardle
    Naomi Watts
    Nafessa Williams
    Ray Wise*
    Alicia Witt*
    Karolina Wydra
    Charlyne Yi
    Nae Yuuki
    Grace Zabriskie*
    Christophe Zajac-Denek
    Madeline Zima
    Blake Zingale

    [via: Showtime]

    Photo credit: Showtime

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  • ‘American Crime’: Can a Single-Murder-Case Series Succeed on Network TV?


    “American Crime,” premiering March 5 on ABC, is being touted as an innovative series for spending an entire season focusing on a single murder case, taking a wide-ranging look at the victims, the accused, and their extended families as a way of taking a broader look at the dynamics of a whole community. Of course, this isn’t the first time it’s been tried, but it could mark the first time that the approach actually works on network TV.

    “American Crime” has secured a high-powered cast, including Timothy Hutton and Felicity Huffman. Nonetheless, after this season is over, the show will move on to a new case next year, with a new cast — should the show prove a success and earn a renewal.

    If that sounds a lot like HBO’s “True Detective,” that’s not an accident. As the old joke goes, imitation is the sincerest form of television. In fact, series that devote an entire season to a single murder case have become increasingly common on cable, from “Broadchurch” to “The Killing.” But they haven’t been that successful on the networks; witness Fox’s recent attempt to Americanize “Broadchurch” as “Gracepoint.”

    In fact, ABC tried this experiment a couple times, more than two decades ago. Most famously, there was David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks,” whose investigation of a teen’s murder exposed the dirty, sometimes supernatural secrets of an entire town. The show was an enormous sensation — until it resolved its central murder mystery. What to do then? The writers had to invent new crimes and new villains to come up with an excuse to keep visiting FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) from leaving town. The show petered out in its second season, ending on an unresolved cliffhanger. Yes, Lynch is bringing the show back after a quarter-century, but on Showtime.

    ABC’s other effort was Steven Bochco’s “Murder One,” centering on the legal defense team of a wealthy murder suspect who had plenty to hide. This was a much more conventional drama, lacking the metaphysical murk of “Twin Peaks.” Plus, in real life, the nation had just spent months riveted to the O.J. Simpson case, so the premise didn’t seem that much of a stretch. Nonetheless, the show abandoned the conceit partway through the first season, shifting focus to a second defendant. In the second and final season, the focus was on three unrelated cases.

    More recently, in 2006, Fox and NBC both launched series, each dealing with a single high-profile abduction case. Fox’s was called “Vanished,” NBC’s “Kidnapped.” (The former featured Penelope Ann Miller, the latter Timothy Hutton, both of whom are to be regulars on the initial season of “American Crime.”) Neither show lasted a full season.

    What’s changed since then that makes “American Crime” seem like a wiser gamble? Most if it has to do with the changes in the way we watch television now. Between DVRs, DVD sets, and streaming, we can binge-watch now in ways that were much more difficult even nine years ago when “Vanished” and “Kidnapped” failed. We can go back and look at details we may have missed, and we can discuss the episodes the morning after they’re broadcast or even while they’re airing with the hive mind of our preferred social media platforms. So we’re much more comfortable with the level of nuance and detail common in single-case series than we were a decade or two ago.

    We’ve already seen how the process works, having been trained in how to watch such shows by all the single-case series that have proliferated on cable. And networks too, sort of. We did get “Gracepoint” on Fox this fall, and we got “How to Get Away With Murder” on ABC, which, along with standard case-of-the-week plotting, offered a single murder mystery as its main plot throughout the fall, dropping clues and surprise revelations all the way.

    In a way, real life and tabloid journalism have trained us as well. Ever since O.J. and the rise of what was then called Court TV (which has since mutated into TruTv), we’ve been accustomed to following high-profile murder and kidnapping cases for months at a time. It’s why Nancy Grace has had a nightly show for a decade on HLN, which used to be a general news channel. It’s why the “Serial” podcast became an addictive pop culture phenomenon.

    Even so, “American Crime” has its work cut out for it. For one thing, as a network show, it’s likely to avoid the extremes of sexuality and violence that have characterized similar shows on cable, so it may have a harder time grabbing viewers by the throat. It’s also likely to avoid the dense thicket of symbolism, obscure literary references, and philosophical musings that characterized the first season of “True Detective.” That sort of thing doesn’t play as well when you have to pause every eight minutes or so to sell deodorant. Finally, “American Crime” promises to take a hard look at class and racial differences. Many Americans are squeamish about even acknowledging that these differences exist, much less watching TV shows that address them unflinchingly. Where’s the escapist fun in that?

    By the way, USA launched “Dig” on the same night. That series, examining a single murder case in Jerusalem that turns out to have tremendous repercussions of a Biblical nature, has a lot of “Da Vinci Code”/Indiana Jones-style histrionics and conspiracy-mongering to dazzle and distract viewers. It’s ambitious in scale but still essentially escapist. In other words, it’s a series that would seem to be suited to network TV as well as basic cable.

    If “American Crime” is to succeed in this otherwise uncharted territory, and if it manages to do so without borrowing the kind of sensationalism likely to characterize “Dig,” it’ll mark a new level of sophistication, not just for network TV, but also for the supposedly lowest common denominator viewers who watch network TV.
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