(L to R) David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in ‘The X-Files’. Photo: 20th Century Fox Television.
‘The X-Files’, originally created by Chris Carter, aired on Fox from 1993-2001 before being revived at the network for two more seasons in 2016 and 2018. It starred David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, who investigate cases that lean towards the paranormal and otherwise unusual.
Two movies were made based on the original show, but there’s no word yet on whether either Duchovny or Anderson will appear in any capacity. As for the new potential series’ logline? “Two highly decorated but vastly different FBI agents form an unlikely bond when they are assigned to a long-shuttered division devoted to cases involving unexplained phenomena.”
Deadwyler and Patel will be playing a new original characters –– we’re assuming at this point they’ll be the main agents.
Coogler is aboard to write and direct the pilot, but should the show go to series, ‘The Copenhagen Test’s Jennifer Yale will be overseeing it.
Coogler, an avowed fan of the supernatural, has spoken previously to Variety about his feelings for the show:
“Like my relationship with ‘Rocky’ with my dad, ‘The X-Files’ is one of those things with my mom. My mom means the world to me…so this is a big one for me. I want to do right by her and the fans. My mom has read some of the stuff I wrote for it. She’s fired up.”
(Left) Director Ryan Cooler at the New York Premiere of ‘Sinners’. Photo: Warner Bros. (Center) David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in ‘The X-Files’. Photo: 20th Century Fox Television. (Right) Danielle Deadwyler in ‘Parallel.’ Photo: Vertical Entertainment.
Preview:
Danielle Deadwyler will star in the new ‘X-Files’ series.
Ryan Coogler is writing the pilot and will direct it.
Jennifer Yale will be showrunner.
We’ve known for a while that ‘Black Panther’ and ‘Sinners’ director Ryan Coogler has been developing a rebooted take on cult supernatural show ‘The X-Files’ for Hulu. The show has now taken a step forward with a pilot order.
(L to R) David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in 1998’s ‘The X-Files’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
‘The X-Files’, originally created by Chris Carter, aired on Fox from 1993-2001 before being revived at the network for two more seasons in 2016 and 2018. It starred David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, who investigate cases that lean towards the paranormal and otherwise unusual.
Two movies were made based on the original show, but there’s no word yet on whether either Duchovny or Anderson will appear in any capacity. As for the new potential series’ logline? “Two highly decorated but vastly different FBI agents form an unlikely bond when they are assigned to a long-shuttered division devoted to cases involving unexplained phenomena.”
We don’t yet know exactly how Deadwyler’s character will fit in, but we can assume she’s one of the agents.
“Like my relationship with ‘Rocky’ with my dad, ‘The X-Files’ is one of those things with my mom. My mom means the world to me…so this is a big one for me. I want to do right by her and the fans. My mom has read some of the stuff I wrote for it. She’s fired up.”
Coogler is aboard to write and direct the pilot, but should the show go to series, ‘The Copenhagen Test’s Jennifer Yale will be overseeing it.
Where else can we see Danielle Deadwyler?
Danielle Deadwyler in ’40 Acres’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Upcoming on the small screen, she’ll appear in the new season of ‘Euphoria’ and Steve Carell series ‘Rooster’. Movie-wise, she’s attached to drama ‘The Street’ and has worked on crime comedy ‘The Chaperones’.
‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ director Ryan Coogler.
Inspired by the actual files of Father Gabriele Amorth, Chief Exorcist of the Vatican, ‘The Pope’s Exorcist’ follows Father Gabriele Amorth (Oscar-winner Russell Crowe) as he investigates a young boy’s terrifying possession and ends up uncovering a centuries-old conspiracy the Vatican has desperately tried to keep hidden.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Russell Crowe about his work on ‘The Pope’s Exorcist,’ what audiences can expect from the film, the unexplainable things that happen on a set, and his surprise to discover that the Pope really does employ an exorcist.
(L to R) Daniel Zovatto and Russell Crowe in Sony Pictures ‘The Pope’s Exorcist.’
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview with Russell Crowe about ‘The Pope’s Exorcist.’
Moviefone: To begin with, what would you say to audiences about to see this movie to prepare them for the experience they are about to have?
Russell Crowe: Popcorn. Popcorn would prepare them. Popcorn is a known benefit when dealing with spiritual matters and the occult. I don’t know if people in the audience are particularly religious. Some may prefer Coke, some may prefer Pepsi. I can’t know from this perspective, but at certain points of the movie, you may get a little dry in the throat, so you should have something standing by. Even water, water’s good. Doesn’t have to be blessed, doesn’t have to be holy water, but some level of purity that you should be able to ascertain by reading the label. But, I don’t want to say anything else. You’re about to see it. I don’t want to give anything away.
(L to R) Daniel Zovatto and Russell Crowe in Sony Pictures ‘The Pope’s Exorcist.’
MF: The movie deals with supernatural events, have you ever witnessed an unexplainable phenomenon on a film set?
RC: Well, lots of inexplicable things happen in a film production every time you work, but the studios don’t like you to discuss that sort of stuff. But I’ll tell you a story from a movie I did called ‘Unhinged.’ We were shooting in New Orleans and I was playing a character in a story that involves a road rage incident that goes out of control. I decided to get a house close out to where the production was based. So out in an area called Kenna. So I rented this house, and it must have been built on some reclaimed land or whatever because the structure itself was a little odd. Some hallways kind of went downwards, and then a hallway right parallel to it would actually be rising upwards. It was an odd house. I had this experience of every time I walked through the house, lights would turn on and off. You’d be in one part of the house and then lights from the other side of the house that you’d just left would turn on. That was going on quite a lot. So one night I was sitting with the people I was working with and I just brought it up. I said, has anybody noticed the light? Everybody had the same experience. One of the people I was working with didn’t actually want to be in that house by themselves. We had some strange incidents that happened in the house, like dead creatures being left at doorways. A couple of people who had come over for dinner both fell over in a very peculiar way. It was just odd. So daily I’m going to work and I’m playing this character. He’s in his truck, he’s driving down the freeway and he’s pursuing this woman that he thinks in his head has done him wrong. Then I come back to that house at night and have these weird experiences with the lights and what have you. I’d been told when I’d rented the house that Will Smith had rented the house. My assumption was that it was Will Smith, the actor. But over time I learned that it was a fellow called Will Smith, who was a former NFL football player who played for the New Orleans Saints who died in a road rage incident.
Russell Crowe (Right) as Father Gabriele Amorth in Sony Pictures ‘The Pope’s Exorcist.’
MF: Finally, ‘The Pope’s Exorcist’ isn’t just the name of the film, it’s an actual job that exists within the Vatican. Were you aware of that before making this movie?
RC: Well I was a bit surprised actually, when I read the script. I thought that the job title of Chief Exorcist for the Vatican was something that a Hollywood script writer had come up with. But then I looked into it and that’s a real gig. Father Gabriele Amorth was in that job for 36 years, but it was his personal story and his history, being born in Modena in Italy just before the outbreak of the Second World War and what he’d experienced in his lifetime, which brought him to the job of being the Pope’s Exorcist, being the Chief Exorcist for the Vatican. He served in that position for 36 years until his death in 2016, with tens of thousands of exorcisms he performed.
The Pope’s Exorcist’ is produced by Screen Gems, 2.0 Entertainment, Jesus & Mary, Worldwide Katz, and Loyola Productions. It is set to release in theaters on April 14th, 2023.
Sandra Oh stars in Stage 6 Films ‘Umma.’ Photo by Saeed Adyani.
Opening in theaters on March 18th is the supernatural horror movie ‘Umma,’ from first time feature film director Iris K. Shim. The movie stars Sandra Oh (‘Sideways’) as Amanda, a Korean immigrant haunted by the ghost of her estranged mother, while raising her daughter (Fivel Stewart) on a rural farm.
The result is a well-made supernatural thriller masquerading as horror film with strong performances from its lead actresses but gets lost in its own exposition towards the movie’s climax.
Amanda (Oh) lives off-the-grid on a rural farm with her daughter Chris (Stewart), where they work as bee keepers. Amanda is “allergic” to electricity, and must stay away from modern technology, leaving her daughter cutoff from the outside world. Amanda is also estranged from her abusive Korean mother, who she left behind years ago. Never wanting to become her own mother, Amanda has lived her life protecting her daughter, but their relationship has become very co-dependent.
Trouble begins when Amanda’s uncle from Korea finally tracks her down to deliver her mother’s remains after her recent passing. Curious about her grandmother and the family she’s never known, Chris begins to resent the life Amanda has created for them and even questions her mother’s “sickness.” Soon, Amanda begins to be haunted by the ghost of her mother, and slowly realizes her greatest fear … she is, literally, becoming her own mother!
(L to R) Sandra Oh and Fivel Stewart star in Stage 6 Films ‘Umma.’ Photo by Saeed Adyani.
What I really like about this movie is that it is so clearly personal and from writer/director Iris K. Shim’s unique point of view. By focusing on Korean tradition and how that effects a person actively running away from their past and heritage is really interesting and is a great launching off point for this psychological thriller. Unfortunately, the movie falls into the trap of its own genre and is derailed in the third act when it retreats to becoming a full-fledged “ghost movie.” But before that, Shim crafts a small, intimate portrait of a mother raising her daughter in fear of her own past.
Another interesting aspect of Shim’s script is Amanda’s “illness” to electricity. Is it real? Is she truly allergic to electricity, or is it just a manifestation of her own traumatic experience? That’s an important question that the film explores, but again, ultimately drops its urgency when the ghost appears. Shim also explores a very relatable fear that most adults have – the fear of becoming their own parents. That is really at the core of the movie and an element of the screenplay that Shim and Oh explore well. I think if the film had focused on this aspect more, and not reverted to popular horror tropes in the third act, it would have been a more overall satisfying storytelling experience.
The movie is really a two-hander between Oh and Stewart, but also features supporting performances from Dermot Mulroney and Odeya Rush. Both actors are serviceable in their roles, but otherwise not given a lot to do. Rush’s character seems only to be added to demonstrate the contrast between Chris and other kids her age, which is necessary to drive the story, but some more character development would have been nice. Mulroney plays a local fond of Amanda, who has acted like a surrogate father to Chris over the years. His character is more defined, and while limited, his affection for the mother and daughter comes shining through.
Sandra Oh stars in Stage 6 Films ‘Umma.’ Photo by Saeed Adyani.
Fivel Stewart gives a strong performance as Chris and is a great on-screen partner for Oh. The actress plays the innocent and sheltered teen well, and is excellent when she rebels against her upbringing, not unlike her mother had done years before. But the movie truly belongs to Sandra Oh, who gives a very commanding and grounding performance as Amanda.
Oh is completely in control of her performance and is at her best when battling the demons of her past in her own head. The actress delivers moments when you’re not quite sure if she’s Amanda, or Amanda possessed by her Umma (the Korean word for Mom), and her performance keeps the audience guessing. Oh has great chemistry with Stewart and is completely believable as a devoted mother becoming unhinged.
While the film has a great concept and some really interesting characters and situations, it does fall into the trap of the modern horror movie, forgoing its strong set up for standard scares at the end. The true joy of the film is its anticipation of the ghost, but when she actually appears, it’s not as scary as the build-up and a bit anti-climactic. In the end, writer/director Iris K. Shim delivers an original, intriguing, and personal thriller with great performances from its leads, that just doesn’t quite stick the landing.
The movie stars Sandra Oh (‘Sideways’) as Amanda, a beekeeper who live off-the-grid, alone on a farm with her daughter Chris (Fivel Stewart). Amanda also suffers from a rare disease that makes her sick when she is exposed to electricity. Amanda is estranged from her own mother, and unbeknownst to her, she has recently passed away.
Eventually, her remains arrive from Korea, and Amanda begins to be haunted by visions of her own mother. In order to stop the visions, she must finally put her mother’s soul to rest, before she pushes Chris away and her greatest fear comes true … she turns into her own mother!
Moviefone recently had the chance to speak with writer and director Iris K. Shim about her work on ‘Umma.’
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You can read the full transcript of the interview below or watch the video by clicking on the player above.
Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about the process of developing the screenplay and the themes that you wanted to explore with this movie?
Iris K. Shim: I set out to write a contained horror film. It’s something that I thought that I would be able to make as my first narrative feature. Really, I was pulling on my own experiences of grappling with my identity and my place in this world, both as a Korean and as an American. So, that was really the first steps into the story.
But then once I started really developing the relationship between mother and daughter, so much of that really came into play in terms of this idea and fear of turning into your mother, which is so universal. I think each culture has its own baggage in terms of what that means. So, the themes of motherhood I know are very present in the horror genre, and we were able to really explore that theme through a more specific lens.
MF: Can you talk more about Amanda and Chris’ relationship, and how Amanda’s relationship with her own mother is now affecting Amanda’s relationship with her daughter?
IKS: I always thought of Chris and Amanda’s relationship as the prequel to ‘Grey Gardens’, and the fact that they actually do really enjoy each other’s company. They are actually friends. They’re very close. So, the veneer of this relationship seems loving and healthy at first, but you start to realize that it’s so codependent that they are unable to have their own identity outside of each other. You start to realize that this is not a healthy relationship.
Really, the big irony for Amanda’s character is that she has gone to the extremes to not become her mother, even so much that she subconsciously has developed this fear around electricity because she is so desperate to create a life for her daughter that is different from her own upbringing.
But the irony in that is she has created a world that is very much similar to her own upbringing, in terms of that codependence, extreme relationship. So, when Umma’s remains appear at the farm, it really is the thing that they need in order to really learn to resolve their own issues and to be able to form their own identity apart from each other.
(L to R) Fivel Stewart and Sandra Oh star in Stage 6 Films ‘Umma.’ Photo by Saeed Adyani.
MF: Can you talk about casting Sandra Oh and Fivel Stewart in these roles?
IKS: We had text Sandra Oh first, and she was really just my dream actress. She was the person that I wrote the script for, hoping that we might be able to get her. When she signed on, it was really about trying to find the right actress, and so we did some chemistry reads with some young actresses. There really was this spark and connection between Fivel and Sandra.
Also, Sandra is such a generous actor that she really wanted to spend the time with Fivel to create their own relationship, where they could feel that closeness and that fondness for each other that would just naturally and organically show on screen. So, they did a lot of work together and spending time together, and by the time that the cameras were rolling, it really did feel like they were their own little unit together.
MF: Finally, why did you choose the horror genre as the vehicle to tell this particular story? Are you a fan of horror movies?
IKS: No. Actually, I didn’t really grow up as a horror fan. I get scared very easily and I’m not really a big fan of the slasher genre. The kind of horror that I really gravitate towards is the psychological. I have a psychology undergraduate degree, and so I think just naturally, I have this curiosity of what goes on in people’s minds.
Definitely in terms of the horror genre, to me, what’s always scary is when it’s happening in your head and when you have this loss of self, or identity or even just madness. “Am I going crazy? Am I the only one seeing this?” There is this supernatural element to this story, because so much of it is what is going on in Amanda’s head and who is she becoming, and how much of her identity is being fractured? That’s definitely the kind of horror films that I gravitate towards.
Sandra Oh stars in Stage 6 Films ‘Umma.’ Photo by Saeed Adyani.
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The new movie takes place in post-Civil War Arkansas, as a young doctor, James McCune (Hobson) is mysteriously summoned to a remote town in the Ozarks only to discover that the utopian paradise is filled with secrets and surrounded by a menacing, supernatural presence. The town’s leader is James’ uncle, Matthew McCune (Morris), who may know more than it seems about the town’s strange ghost problem.
The son of ‘Mission: Impossible’ TV series star Greg Morris, Phil Morris actually portrayed his father’s character’s son on the 80’s reboot series, which also featured original series star Peter Graves. The actor would go on to appear in numerous film and TV projects including ‘Star Trek III: The Search for Spock,’ ‘Jingle All the Way,’ ‘Wag the Dog,’ ‘Seinfeld,’ and ‘Melrose Place.’ But he’s probably best known to DC Comics fans for playing Martian Manhunter on ‘Smallville’ and Cyborg’s father, Silas Stone on HBO Max’s ‘Doom Patrol.’
(L to R) David Arquette, Thomas Hobson, Phil Morris and Tim Blake Nelson in ‘Ghosts of the Ozarks’
Moviefone recently had the chance to speak with Phil Morris about his work on ‘Ghosts of the Ozarks.’
Moviefone: To begin with, as an actor, can you talk about the challenge of working within a period piece? Is it more challenging than playing a character from your own time period?
Phil Morris: It’s an interesting question because here’s what I think. When you’re so adorned with wardrobe, makeup, the sets and the background and everything is so period perfect, it’s almost as though you have to try to get it wrong. You know what I mean? It gives you a great cover for you as an actor, and it informs you more and more. I’ve done a lot of ‘Star Trek,’ and every time I put on the wardrobe or the makeup of a Klingon, you know who you are. In this movie, it was no different.
I was very fortunate to have some of the best makeup people, wardrobe people and hair people. So, each layer of the character, interestingly enough, gets layered on as you hit the makeup trailer, as you sit in the chair. It’s a process that I, as an actor, really appreciate. It informs me more and more every day that I go in and it sets up the character more and more.
Yes, you do have to do your research on that period, on people of the period, what they looked like, how they sounded, how they stood, and how they walked. That informs you going forward as to how this character behaves and what their wants and dislikes are.
MF: What can you tell us about your character Matthew, and the utopia that he has created in this small town?
PM: Well, at the time, there were a few communities of color and diversity in the United States that were trying this grand experiment of inclusion. One of the most famous is Tulsa in Oklahoma and Black Wall Street, and we all know what happened there. Or if you don’t, check out your history. So, there were several attempts to try and bring this country together in these communities, so our community is no different.
Matthew’s different in that there’s the phrase that “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” and that’s what happens to Matthew. I believe Matthew had all the good intentions, and all the right intentions. My prep for Matthew was that he was an ex-slave, but he was a very educated ex-slave. He learned control and he learned manipulation from his masters, from his overseers. How else would he get it? How else would he know it?
So, when he comes to town and he has all the best intentions, as everybody does, and he realizes what is really in the town, that sense of control that he learned from his white masters starts to overwhelm him. I believe that the difficulty of being a Black man at that time never left him, so there was always an underlying sense of difficulty, upset, and revenge.
So, when he had the chance to exert his power, in the movie, we see what happens. It was a very difficult character for me to play, very complex, and very nuanced. I had a very difficult time approaching him, because I knew that his controls were not mine, not Phil Morris’ controls. But I had to commit to this character of Matthew so that he lived and breathed beyond Phil Morris.
Like I said, he’s using the same controls that are used on him in a way. Not physically, not beating people and whipping them, but mentally subjecting them to a servile role almost in a way. They were doing his bidding. So, that was hard for me. It isn’t who I am as a human, and I had to make him believable and real. So, I had to own those controls, and that was a challenge quite honestly.
MF: On one level the movie tells an entertaining supernatural story, but on another level, it also deals with serious real-world themes. Was it nice to be in a project that really does both, educate and entertain?
PM: That was terrific. It was incredibly unique, and I believe a very authentic vision from Matt Glass, Tara Perry, and Jordan Wayne Long, the creators of the film. So, it was a joy. We come with our own preparation and then all these layers are hitting you. As a film, it just makes it so textured and dimensional. So, you think you’re getting a period piece, then you think you’re getting a bit of a horror show, then you’re getting a bit of a social commentary. It’s like, what else can this movie throw at you?
(L to R) Thomas Hobson and Phil Morris in ‘Ghosts of the Ozarks’
MF: What was it like for you to work with your co-star, Thomas Hobson?
PM: I had never met Tommy before the film, but I knew he was very good friends with Tara, Jordan and Matthew. I had worked with Tara on another little short film, so meeting Tommy, we met working on one of our most difficult days. What I realized about him was that he was just a game actor. He was ready to go. He was fearless, and that is beautiful to get into a scene, especially with somebody that you really don’t know. You’re trying to create this relationship that you’ve had for his whole life.
To be with an actor who’s willing to throw down, who’s willing to kind of “go there with you” is a joy. That’s who Tommy Hobson is. He’s incredibly talented. He’s a triple threat. He’s a dancer, he is a singer, he’s an actor, and he brought something really special to this role. I think that the audience will see it and our relationship is palpable. I don’t know where this comes from. I really don’t know where actors get this from, this instant ability to connect and make real these relationships that are really kind of “add water and mix.”
I don’t want to know everything. I like to be surprised. I like to be excited. I like to be thrilled and titillated. So, to work with another actor like Tommy Hobson, as the actor, I am entertained as well. I’m taken on a ride as well, and that’s the best way to work.
MF: Finally, I know you only have one scene with him, but what was your experience like working with Tim Blake Nelson?
PM: He was fantastic. I mean, this man has depth of creativity that a lot of us wish to have. So again, where Tommy’s a younger actor and not as experienced, working with Tim, or Angela Bettis, or David Arquette, those are more versatile, vintage, veteran actors that bring so much. It’s like your wardrobe, right, what we just talked about. When they bring that much, it’s best to just let it play.
You have to get in there and play, and respond to this amazing energy. They bring this spirit, an actor like Tim Blake Nelson, that is so engaging for you as a performer, there’s no acting involved. You’re just being, and you’re just involved in this reality that they make much more palpable because of how much they bring to it. It was just a joy. It’s not working at all, it’s playing. It’s collaboration on the highest level.
Directed by Mauro Borrelli (‘The Recall’), the movie follows a squad of US military soldiers who go behind enemy lines during WWII to retrieve top secret material from an airplane crash. They soon find themselves viciously attacked by a coven of witches, who they must defeat before the Nazis can capture them and use their power to take over the world.
Actor Jackson Rathbone has appeared in several films and television shows including ‘Dread,’ ‘The Last Airbender,’ ‘Mixtape,’ and TNT’s ‘The Last Ship.’ But he is probably best known for playing Jasper Hale in ‘Twilight’ and its four sequels. But Rathbone is not just an accomplished actor, he is also a successful musician and a member of the Los Angeles funk rock band, 100 Monkeys.
You can read the full interview below, or watch the video by clicking the player above.
MOVIEFONE: To begin with, I understand that the pandemic began just as you were in the middle of shooting this movie. Can you talk about how Covid affected the production?
Jackson Rathbone: We were filming during the onslaught of the pandemic. So, at the very beginning stages, it kept creeping up, and creeping up, and creeping up, and literally we were seeing it explode in Italy and explode all over.
We were up in Latvia, so we were in Europe. Then suddenly, we had actors dropping out of the film to go be with their families. It was literally like we were dropping actors every day for a couple weeks before finally they shut down production. So, it really had this sense of a group of soldiers going into the woods, and then dropping like flies. It definitely added to the terror. There was a real sense of dread on set a lot of days.
We had to stop filming halfway through the film, almost exactly. Then there was about two months where we were off, and they figured out the rules and regulations of testing. Luckily, Latvia, where we were filming, had very little to no cases. So, we went back after two months.
It was still the height of the pandemic, but oddly enough, it felt very safe. We were being tested every other day, (we had) masks, and the whole nine yards. We were one of the first productions to, I think, resume. But it was definitely nerve-wracking. It was a strange time, and it still is.
MF: Since you are playing a group of soldiers with a close bond to each other, did the pandemic help bring the cast closer together?
JR: Oh, for sure. One of other actors and I, Ben McKeown, we have a lot of work to do in the third act together. We started meeting every day for the gym. We were hitting the gym, and then every third day going for cheeseburgers to offset the gym work we had done. It was just that sense of comradery and familiarity with one another, even though we have a tense relationship on screen.
I really find that if you have a good relationship off screen, the tenseness on screen actually gets way better and much more intense because you trust each other more. So, there’s a scene where he throws me across the room. I trusted him, and I went with it. I actually did a lot of the moves myself, and so did he. We worked hard on it.
Robert Knepper as Sergeant Brewer in the horror/supernatural thriller, WARHUNT, a Saban Films release. Photo courtesy of Saban Films.
MF: Can you talk about working with veteran actor Robert Knepper and what did you learn from the experience of acting on screen with him?
JR: Getting to work with Robert Knepper, I learned so much just seeing him perform and getting to watch a man like that, an actor like that, really dig in. It was fantastic. He was so kind to me, and took me out to dinner a few times, and we talked about our characters. It’s funny because he and I loved each other. You call cut, we’re hugging, but on action, we’re just headbutting each other right and left. It was a lot of fun.
Working with Robert, it was a dream come true because whenever I look at projects, there’s so many different things that I consider. I know I’m only getting older, but I like to always consider myself a young actor at heart, by which I mean, I’m going to learn. I want to always learn from people, and see what they do that I love, and I hopefully can take it and bring it into my own repertoire.
So, I remember doing a scene with Robert where we’re burying some of our dead. He’s doing this speech about the Americans and the Nazis fighting during Christmas and how they put down their weapons for a day or two and sang Christmas carols together. Then they went back to blowing each other’s brains out.
The way he did it, and the way it was written, couldn’t have been more polar opposite. He brought such humanity and a sense of awe to the speech that watching him perform it, I was literally just like, “Okay, wow.” Because his face, he just registered so much and there were no lies whenever he was in character. That’s the hardest thing, you stand where they tell you to stand, wear what they tell you to wear, but you never lie.
MF: What was your experience like acting with Oscar nominee Mickey Rourke?
JR: I’m going to tell you, a great sadness for me is I never actually got to work with Mickey Rourke because our schedules missed each other due to the pandemic. They had to film his part and my part separately because of the laws of the country when they were letting us back in. So, I wasn’t allowed to be in the country whenever he was. It’s this crazy bureaucracy stuff that we got stuck with, but I got to work with his stand-in who was a wonderful Latvian theater performer.
I watched the film with my wife. She couldn’t believe that we had never been in the same room together. She was just like, “Are you kidding?” I was like, no, they just spliced it together. They did the movie magic. It was fun though, getting to see him chomp on those cigars, and wear his crazy eye patch. He’s an intense guy, and the stories I heard, well, they ran the gamut. Let me tell you, that guy’s a legend!
(L-R) Actor Mickey Rourke and Co-Writer/Director Mauro Borrelli behind the scenes of the horror/supernatural thriller, WARHUNT, a Saban Films release. Photo courtesy of Saban Films.
MF: Finally, can you talk about working with director Mauro Borrelli on this project?
JR: He’s a passionate Italian man, and he had so much energy on set. He wanted to try just thousands of different things. He wanted to move the camera so many times. There were so many grand ideas he was trying to execute that it would’ve had to have been a three-hour movie.
When one of the men die in the opening, he imagined that they were an opera singer, and that he wanted to have them dying while singing an operatic ballad, and have that tie in. That didn’t make the final cut of the movie, but it’s one of those things where he’s just a very passionate man, and to have someone so passionate at the helm, it can be a great thing.
Summer’s great and all, but it’s time to make some plans for autumn. The CW has unveiled its fall 2019 TV season premiere schedule, and October is going to be a big month. It will mark the return of old favorites such as “Supernatural” and “The Flash” as well as newcomers like “Batgirl” and “Nancy Drew.”
It will all start on Sunday, Oct. 6 with the debut of “Batwoman” at 8 p.m. ET/PT and “Supergirl” Season 5 at 9 p.m. Then, Monday, Oct. 7 will bring the start of “All American” Season 2 at 8 p.m., and Tuesday, Oct. 8, will kick off “The Flash” Season 6 at 8 p.m. Next, “Riverdale” Season 4 will arrive on Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 8 p.m., leading up to the premiere of “Nancy Drew” at 9 p.m.
It’ll be time to start saying goodbye to “Supernatural” when Season 15 begins on Thursday, Oct. 10 at 8 p.m. Then, at 9 p.m. “Legacies” will return. Finally, the week of premieres will bring back “Charmed” for Season 2 on Friday, Oct. 11 at 8 p.m. and “Dynasty” for Season 3 at 9 p.m.
That’s not all coming to The CW in October. Later in the month, “Black Lightning” will debut on Monday, Oct. 21 at 9 p.m. Autumn is going to be an exciting time.
Sam and Dean Winchester have died and come to back so life so often over the years, we’ve lost track. But now it’s really the end of the road for their long-running CW hit “Supernatural.”
“Well, it’s official. One more round for the Winchester brothers. Though nothing ever really ends in ‘Supernatural’ …does it?” Ackles wrote in an an Instagram post.
The show debuted on September 13, 2005 on what was then The WB and then became a flagship series for the new CW network. It currently ranks as the longest-running sci-fi/genre series in the history of American broadcast television. It’s the only show from the WB-era still on the air.
“We just told the crew that though we’re very very excited about moving into our 15th season, it will be our last. Fifteen years of a show that has certainly changed my life, I know it’s changed these two guys’ life,” Ackles said, referring to TV brother Padalecki and Collins, who joined the series in 2008 as Castiel.
“We just wanted you to hear from us that though we’re excited about next year, it will be the finale. The big, grand finale of an institution,” Ackles said. “I will say this, a little word from Eric Kripke, the creator about this world and these characters, that in a show about family, it is amazing and it is the pride of his life that it became a family. So thank you guys for that.”
Several attempts to develop a spinoff of the show have crashed and burned, unfortunately. CW president Mark Pedowitz has said that he’s probably done trying to create a spinoff and chalked up the show’s success to Padalecki and Ackles.
The final season, which will run from 2019-2020, will be 20 episodes.
We’ll always think of Sam and Dean whenever a light flickers, a radio crackles, we stay at a ridiculously retro motel, or an Impala passes us on the road blasting AC/DC. Thanks for saving the world so many times, guys.
With “Arrow” also ending next year, it’s definitely the end of an era.
