Neve Campbell stars in Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group’s ‘Scream 7.’
Actress Neve Campbell has been working successfully in Hollywood for over 25 years!
Campbell first rose to fame on TV with the popular series ‘Party of Five‘, and transitioned to film with successful movies like ‘The Craft‘ and ‘Wild Things‘, as well as the groundbreaking ‘Scream‘ series where she stars as Sidney Prescott.
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Since then, Campbell has also appeared on such popular Netflix series as ‘House of Cards‘ with Robin Wright and ‘The Lincoln Lawyer‘. But now, after sitting out ‘Scream VI‘, the actress returns to the horror franchise with ‘Scream 7‘, which opens in theaters on February 27th.
In honor of the new installment, Moviefone is counting down the 20 best films of Neve Campbell’s career, including ‘Scream 7’.
(L to R) Neve Campbell and Dylan McDermott in ‘Three to Tango’. Photo: Warner Bros.
Oscar (Matthew Perry) and Peter (Oliver Platt) land a career-making opportunity when a Chicago tycoon chooses them to compete for the design of a cultural center. The tycoon mistakenly believes that Oscar is gay and has him spy on his mistress Amy (Campbell). Oscar goes along with it and ends up falling in love with Amy.
During the 1940s, a group of young men go off to war, leaving behind Ethel Ann (Mischa Barton), who is in love with one of them, Teddy (Stephen Amell). In modern-day Belfast, a man named Jimmy (Martin McCann) endeavors to return a ring found in the wreckage of a crashed plane. He travels to Michigan, where the grown Ethel Ann (Shirley MacLaine), who married another man after Teddy was killed in battle, now lives. Ethel Ann must decide whether to go with Jimmy to meet the soldier who last saw Teddy alive.
As bodies begin dropping around the Hollywood set of STAB 3, the third film based on the gruesome Woodsboro killings, Sidney (Neve Campbell) and other survivors are once again terrorized by another Ghostface killer.
Belfast, 1909. The Harland and Wolff shipyard has been handed the greatest project in its history. It will build a great, unsinkable ship. And it will be called the RMS Titanic.
The recently deceased Mona Dearly (Bette Midler) was many things: an abusive wife, a domineering mother, a loud-mouthed neighbor and a violent malcontent. So when her car and corpse are discovered in the Hudson River, police Chief Wyatt Rash (Danny DeVito) immediately suspects murder rather than an accident. But, since the whole community of Verplanck, N.Y., shares a deep hatred for this unceasingly spiteful woman, Rash finds his murder investigation overwhelmed with potential suspects.
When a new Ghostface killer emerges in the quiet town where Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) has built a new life, her darkest fears are realized as her daughter becomes the next target. Determined to protect her family, Sidney must face the horrors of her past to put an end to the bloodshed once and for all.
Ten years after the original Woodsboro murders, one of the survivors returns home to promote their new book about surviving trauma, only for a new Ghostface killer to emerge, targeting a new group of teens.
Young musician Zach Sobiech (Fin Argus) discovers his cancer has spread, leaving him just a few months to live. With limited time, he follows his dream and makes an album, unaware that it will soon be a viral music phenomenon.
The circle of life continues for Simba (Matthew Broderick), now fully grown and in his rightful place as the king of Pride Rock. Simba and Nala (Moira Kelly) have given birth to a daughter, Kiara (Campbell) who’s as rebellious as her father was. But Kiara drives her parents to distraction when she catches the eye of Kovu (James Marsden), the son of the evil lioness, Zira (Suzanne Pleshette). Will Kovu steal Kiara’s heart?
When the mastermind (Mike Myers) behind New York’s infamous Studio 54 disco plucks young Shane (Ryan Phillippe) from the sea of faces clamoring to get inside his club, he not only gets his foot in the door, but lands a coveted job behind the bar — and a front-row ticket to the most legendary party on the planet!
Twenty-five years after a streak of brutal murders shocked the quiet town of Woodsboro, a new killer has donned the Ghostface mask and begins targeting a group of teenagers to resurrect secrets from the town’s deadly past.
Set in present day Washington, D.C., House of Cards is the story of Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey), a ruthless and cunning politician, and his wife Claire (Robin Wright) who will stop at nothing to conquer everything. This wicked political drama penetrates the shadowy world of greed, sex and corruption in modern D.C.
Two years after the Woodsboro murders, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) acclimates to college life while someone donning the Ghostface costume begins a new string of killings.
(L to R) Neve Campbell and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in Netflix’s ‘The Lincoln Lawyer.’
Hotshot LA defense attorney Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) will do whatever it takes to win as he navigates the criminal justice system from his trademark Lincoln.
A Catholic school newcomer (Robin Tunney) falls in with a clique of teen witches (including Fairuza Balk and Campbell) who wield their powers against all who dare to cross them — be they teachers, rivals or meddlesome parents.
When teen-socialite Kelly Van Ryan (Denise Richards) and troubled bad girl Suzie Toller (Campbell) accuse guidance counselor Sam Lombardo (Matt Dillon) of rape, he’s suspended by the school, rejected by the town, and fighting to get his life back. One cop suspects conspiracy, but nothing is what it seems…
Neve Campbell in 1996’s ‘Scream’. Photo: Dimension Films.
A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl (Neve Campbell) is terrorized by a masked killer who targets her and her friends by using scary movies as part of a deadly game.
Proving to be a more successful and consistent adaptation of Michael Connelly’s ‘Lincoln Lawyer’ novel series, Netflix’s show is back for a fourth season, this time bringing Connelly’s sixth book, “The Law of Innocence” to screens.
And putting Mickey on trial for a murder he didn’t commit (not a spoiler; it was established at the end of the previous season that he’s being framed) makes for a hefty dollop of fresh tension that aims to keep the show from feeling stale.
Adapted by Ted Humphrey and David E. Kelley (with Dailyn Rodriguez running the show itself alongside Humphrey), the season proves to be an effective use of the cast, and while there isn’t too much tension as to whether Mickey will make it out of the trap he’s been placed in, the various plot twists are compelling and entertaining.
The series also continues to make good use of various Los Angeles locations, with a particularly stylish sheen that suits the storyline.
‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ may never quite challenge the best of the best from the prestige TV category, yet in nevertheless provides solid legal wrangling, a charismatic central performances and enough twists and turns to keep you guessing.
It’s good to be riding with Mickey Haller again (even if he doesn’t get to use the car as much this year).
‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ Season 4 receives 75 out of 100.
After the dead body of Mickey’s former client, a conman named Sam Scales (Christopher Thornton), was discovered in the trunk of the lawyer’s Lincoln at the end of Season 3, he’s fighting to prove his own innocence and preserve his reputation.
And with production on the fourth season already underway, a new name has been added to the cast list: Cobie Smulders.
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The actor, still best known for her TV role in sitcom ‘How I Met Your Mother’ and as Maria Hill in several of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies starting with 2012’s ‘The Avengers,’ has, according to Variety, joined the show in an undisclosed role.
Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ season 3. Photo: Netflix.
The show adapts various Connelly tomes, particularly “The Brass Verdict.” It focuses on Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), a charming and unconventional defense attorney in Los Angeles who operates out of the back seat of his Lincoln Town Car instead of a traditional office (though he does also have one of those).
After a long hiatus due to personal struggles, Mickey inherits a high-profile murder case from a deceased colleague, thrusting him back into the fast-paced world of criminal defense. As he navigates the complexities of the legal system, he also grapples with his personal demons, strained family relationships, and the lingering danger surrounding the case.
With each episode, the series explores gripping courtroom battles, intricate investigations, and Mickey’s moral balancing act between justice and the law.
(L to R) Neve Campbell and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in Netflix’s ‘The Lincoln Lawyer.’
The show also stars Neve Campbell as Maggie McPherson, Mickey’s ex-wife and a dedicated prosecutor who still shares a strong connection with him and Becki Newton as Lorna Crane, Mickey’s loyal and resourceful legal assistant (who, er, is also his second ex-wife), who keeps his practice running smoothly.
Then there’s Angus Sampson as Cisco, Mickey’s investigator and Lorna’s husband, a former biker with a complicated past and Jazz Raycole as Izzy Letts, Mickey’s former client turned driver (who these days has worked in the legal practice and opened her own dance studio), who plays a key role in helping him rebuild his life.
The character of Mickey, while fictional, was inspired by two real-life lawyers: the late David Ogden, who was known for working out of his Lincoln, and Florida-based attorney Dan Daly.
Where will the story go for Season 4?
(L to R) Jazz Raycole, Angus Sampson, Becki Newton and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ season 3. Photo: Netflix.
In the Season 3 finale, investigator Bishop (Holt McCallany) took the stand and revealed that DEA Agent DeMarco (Michael Irby) killed Gloria Dayton (Fiona Rene); she’d planted a gun in drug trafficker Hector Moya’s (Arturo Del Puerto) room on his orders and had been subpoenaed.
After his testimony, Bishop shocked everyone in the courtroom by revealing he had another gun (the judge had the bailiff take his primary weapon) and shooting himself, dying by suicide. Mickey’s client Julian La Cosse (Devon Graye) was free.
Then, as the season concluded, Mickey was looking forward to a vacation when he was pulled over for a missing license plate –– and during the stop, the police officer found the body of another client, Sam Scales (Christopher Thornton) in the trunk… Cue a cliffhanger and Mickey facing murder charges.
“We just thought, ‘What could top this?’ Well, what tops it is obviously Mickey is now the client, the jeopardy that his clients have been in up until now, now he’s in, and it’s truly the toughest case of all. And if you think back over the course of three seasons, what is the mantra that his father taught him and that Legal Siegel [Elliott Gould] has reminded him of? There’s no worse client than an innocent man. Well, what happens when you’re that innocent man and how do you handle that? And how do you deal with the fact that traditionally a lawyer who represents himself is a fool for a client? So we’ll see.”
That all sets up the fourth season, which will adapt 2020 tome “The Law of Innocence.” Sadly, while it features fellow Connelly character (and Mickey’s half-brother) Harry Bosch –– who has been played on screen for years by Titus Welliver –– the fact that Bosch is on Prime Video and Mickey is on Netflix mean they can’t share the screen. Objection, your honor!
Smulders joins some previously announced guest cast members. Constance Zimmer will play Dana Berg, also known as “Death Row Dana,” a ruthless prosecutor and a colleague of Maggie’s from her days in the L.A. district attorney’s office.
Zimmer will be on the show for a 10-episode arc, while Sasha Alexander plays the no-nonsense and intimidating FBI Agent Dawn Ruth.
Cobie Smulders in the Netflix series ‘Friends from College.’ Photo: Barbara Nitke/Netflix.
As mentioned, Smulders is still most recognizable for the roles of Robin Scherbatsky on ‘How I Met Your Mother’ (she was one of the main cast members for the series’ entire nine-season run) and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill on a variety of MCU movies following her debut in ‘The Avengers.’
When is ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ Season 4 due on screens?
Netflix has yet to confirm when the fourth season will land on our TV screens, but with filming set to be finished next month, there’s a chance it’ll be ready to fill a similar October spot as the most recent season.
Still, we may yet end up having to wait until 2026 –– which will be tough, given the cliffhanger that closed out the third season…
Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ season 3. Photo: Netflix.
Other Movies and TV Shows Featuring Cobie Smulders:
Manuel Garcia-Rulfo stars in ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ season 3.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, as well as executive producer, co-showrunner and director Ted Humphrey about season 3 of ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’, what fans can expect from the new season, the hunt for Glory Days’ killer, choosing the novels to adapt, finding authentic Los Angeles locations to shoot, what the series means to Garcia-Rulfo, and ideas for a possible season 4.
You can read the interviews below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews.
Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ season 3. Photo: Netflix.
Moviefone: To begin with, Manuel, can you talk about how season 2 ended and what fans can expect from season 3?
Manuel Garcia-Rulfo: We finished last year’s second season with discovering his friend Gloria Dayton (Fiona Rene) being murdered, so that’s very shocking. In this season, I think, because of that, the stakes are a lot higher because we follow that case and he’s trying to find the truth and who did it. Because it’s so personal, the stakes are higher. He knows that the people behind it are very dangerous, and he knows that he puts his family in danger and himself and friends. But there’s something about him that he must find the truth and justice for it, no matter what. I think that’s why this season is so alive, and the stakes are so high, because there’s so much at stake and so many obstacles that he has. So, it’s just more personal, and it just feels heavier.
MF: Do you think Mickey’s personal feelings will cloud his judgement and could get in the way of him finding Glory Days’ killer?
MGR: Yeah, definitely. I think that sometimes it blurs his judgment of things, and that’s why it is so important for him. So again, it’s so personal that the stakes are higher.
(Right) Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ season 3. Photo: Netflix.
MF: Ted, can you talk about how you choose which Michael Connelly books to adapt for each season, and how involved is he in that decision?
Ted Humphrey: Well, that’s a great question. Michael has a say in everything. Michael’s a great partner on this show, and it’s really been one of the great professional and personal experiences of my life to work with him. He’s incredibly collaborative. It can be a little daunting to tackle adapting a series of books and have the author of those books be involved because sometimes authors don’t always appreciate what Hollywood does with their work. Michael is incredibly appreciative, and incredibly collaborative. He’s the first person to always say, “We can do better than what was in the book” or “Let’s change this.” He’s appreciative of the ways in which we update the books. I know he was very vocal about that with season two because we took a book in season two that was, I don’t know, 10 or 15 years old, and that the plot of which dealt with the subprime mortgage crisis, which was very relevant when the book was written in 2008 but wasn’t very relevant today. We changed a lot of that to make it about gentrification and celebrity chef culture and things that are not in the book, but that are relevant today. We did that while keeping the basic structure of the story and, most importantly, the character relationships. I know he was really taken with how we did that. So, he does have some say, but ultimately, we’re choosing the books that will flow best from one to another. This book that we adapted this season, ‘The Gods of Guilt’, is my personal favorite of the books or one of them. I know it’s one of Michael’s personal favorites as well because it’s the most emotionally deep and resonant of the books, for the reasons we were just talking about, that it’s so very personal to Mickey and how personal it is played out in a variety of ways throughout the book and throughout the season. So, to some extent, ever since I started this show, I’ve been looking forward to adapting this book, but we couldn’t just do it right away because there are things that you must set in motion in previous seasons to build to the story of this book and Glory Days being chief among them. So, I’ve been looking forward to adapting this book for a long time, and it really has been a thrill to do so.
MF: Manuel, do you read the books that you are adapting before you begin shooting, or do you prefer to just read the scripts for the series?
MGR: I used to read them, and I love Michael Connelly, he’s a genius. He’s brilliant. But then to adapt it to the TV to make it work, sometimes they change some characters, and they bring in other characters from other books. So, I prefer to first, shoot the season, read the scripts, and then just for fun (read the books), because otherwise I start getting confused. So, I start getting ideas from the book that are not on the script. I think it’s better to focus on the scripts of the TV show, and then for fun, I’ll read the book. This is a lot of work. It’s like five months of not having a personal life. But again, it’s so fun. It’s one of those things that, yes, you want to finish, and it feels so good, but at the end, you’re going to miss your coworkers because we became like a family now.
Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ season 3. Photo: Netflix.
MF: Ted, the show takes place in Los Angeles and is also shot in Los Angeles locations that are not always seen in movies and on TV. Can you talk about how you choose the specific downtown Los Angeles locations where you shoot?
TH: I mean, it’s a great question. We have a wonderful location department, and they’re a huge part of what we do on the show. We’re fortunate, first, just to shoot the show in Los Angeles. As we all know, we built this whole city to shoot things and then everything has gone elsewhere and it’s been devastating, of course, to the production economy here and everything. These books are so LA-centric. They don’t just take place in LA. They’re really about LA. So, right from the get-go, it was always going to be the case that we had to shoot the show here. There are budget considerations to that. It simply costs more to shoot here than it costs to shoot other places. So, we must be smart about how we do that, and the locations department is a big part of that and combining locations and episodes in a certain way to maximize our bang for the buck or whatever in terms of our shooting schedule and all. But we make it a point to highlight different areas of Los Angeles and to try and highlight them as authentically as possible and show the reality and the verisimilitude of what Los Angeles is today, obviously a majority Latino city, but also an incredibly diverse city in terms of other ethnicities as well, all around the city. The food is a big part of that. Mickey is a foodie in the books, although in the books he eats at Dan Tana’s a lot, and he takes his daughter to Du-par’s in the valley, which is no longer there even. So, we’ve kind of expanded that. There’s something about a guy who works out of his car that enables you, because of the literal vehicle of the car, to explore every aspect of the city, both visually, but also from a culture and food standpoint. So, we try and take as much advantage of that as we can.
MF: Manuel, what has it meant to you personally to have the opportunity to bring this character to the screen and work with this cast and crew?
MGR: Amazing, man. You can imagine a guy from Mexico, from Jalisco, playing a lawyer in Los Angeles and being a very successful show is just, I don’t know. I’m very grateful and very thankful with the network, with the showrunners to take the chance on betting something that I am sure behind the scenes the executives were like, “Oh my God, we’re going to hire a Mexican to play a lawyer.” But it worked. Thank God, but I’m very thankful for that. They took the chance. It’s amazing for me. I feel blessed and grateful.
Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ season 3. Photo: Netflix.
MF: Ted, can you talk about working with Manuel and what he’s brought to this role and this series?
TH: He’s made the character his own. That was a process, although it was a process that really began on day one of shooting the first episode. Why did we cast Manuel? Because he made the character his own. Even in the audition, it was this kismet moment. The character in the books is Latino American, and we were very focused on honoring that. We looked at many different possibilities for this character. Right from the audition tape, he just became the character. In part, it’s his natural charm, which is funny because in real life he’s a humble and almost shy person. But on screen, he has this just natural effortless charisma and charm, and you believe that this is a guy that gets up in court and wins things as much with that as with whatever legal argument he’s making basically. So, he’s great to work with. This is a complicated show in terms of the dialogue. He’s playing a lawyer. He has these huge court scenes. There’s a lot of complicated legal jargon, so that’s a lot of work for him. He’s very meticulous, and he puts a lot of effort into bringing this character to the screen, and it’s literally physically and emotionally draining for him to do, especially when we have these long days in the courtroom. He gets just physically exhausted by the end of those days. We try and work around that and help him in whatever way we can, but he’s incredibly dedicated to bringing the character to the screen the best way every time.
MF: Finally, Ted, do you already have ideas for season 4 and which of Connelly’s books you might adapt?
TH: Well, we absolutely know what season four will be. We’ve set it in motion at the end of season three in the same way that we set season three in motion at the end of season two. Every TV series is all about the audience. We’ve been incredibly gratified by the response to the show, by how successful the show has been. If people want to (continue to) watch, we really love making this show. Obviously, we’ve got a wealth of material to work with from Michael’s books, as well as things that we invent. There’s a lot of roads still to go for these characters and this show. So yes, we have season four all planned out as to what it’s going to be and where it’s going to go. If people want it, we are very excited to deliver it to them. Beyond that, we have ideas for what at least one or two seasons after that would be. But again, it’s just all about the audience enthusiasm for the show.
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What is the plot of ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ season 3?
Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), an iconoclastic idealist, runs his law practice out of the back seat of his Lincoln, as he takes on cases big and small across the expansive city of Los Angeles. Based on the series of bestselling novels by renowned author Michael Connelly, the third season is based on the fifth book in ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ series, ‘The Gods of Guilt’.
Who is in the cast of ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ season 3?
Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Mickey Haller
Becki Newton as Lorna Crane
Neve Campbell as Maggie McPherson
Jazz Raycole as Izzy Letts
Angus Sampson as Dennis “Cisco” Wojciechowski
Yaya DaCosta as Andrea “Andy” Freemann
Elliott Gould as David “Legal” Siegel
Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ season 3. Photo: Netflix.
The new ‘Jurassic World’ movie is adding Manuel Garcia-Rulfo.
His role is unknown for now.
Gareth Edwards is in the director’s chair.
Anyone who watches Netflix’s series adaptation of ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ knows that Manuel Garcia-Rulfo has proved –– at least as main character Mickey Haller –– can figure his way around a legal scrap.
Universal is mostly keeping the details of the new movie trapped behind fences and concrete barriers for now. What can we predict? Big-toothed beasts causing trouble for the humans that foolishly interact with them.
A bigger question, though, is which humans… It’ll reportedly be set in the ‘Jurassic World’ era, but won’t directly connect to the previous three movies, so an appearance from characters such as those films’ Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) or Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) appears unlikely for now –– though we won’t rule anything out at this point.
From the sounds of it, this new movie would take the franchise in a fresh new direction, so we’re also not predicting (for now) the return of ‘Jurassic Park’ trio Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and Jeff Goldblum’s chaotician Malcolm.
While Garcia-Rulfo joins Johansson and Bailey on the “confirmed” list, there have been other potential pieces of casting, though they remain in the rumor-sphere.
Among them? Dev Patel, who recently made a strong directorial debut with ‘Monkey Man’ (which Universal picked up to distribute when Netflix left it in limbo) and Colman Domingo, who was up for awards for ‘Rustin’ (and just appeared in Universal’s ‘Drive-Away Dolls’).
It remains to be seen if either of them graduates from the world of rumors to reality.
David Koepp, who wrote both the 1993 classic ‘Jurassic Park’ (directed by Steven Spielberg) and its 1997 sequel, ‘The Lost World: Jurassic Park’ (also directed by Spielberg, to less critical praise, but still healthy box office), crafted the new movie’s screenplay.
Longtime producer Frank Marshall, who worked on all three of the ‘Jurassic World’ movies is on board this one also, and the studio seems bullish about the progress so far. And of course, Spielberg will weigh in since he helped birth the franchise.
When will the new ‘Jurassic World’ movie be in theaters?
The dinosaurs should be roaring onto screens on July 2nd, 2025.
Maggie Q as Tess in the action/thriller, ‘Fear the Night,’ a Quiver Distribution release. Photo courtesy of Quiver Distribution.
Preview:
Another ‘Bosch’ series is in development at Prime Video.
Maggie Q will star as the character of Renée Ballard.
Titus Welliver is likely to show up as Harry Bosch.
The “Bosch-iverse” based on author Michael Connelly’s grumpy LAPD (and now retired) detective character has proven to be quite the fertile franchise ground for Amazon’s Prime Video.
We had seven seasons of the main ‘Bosch’ show adapted from the books and starring Titus Welliver as Harry Bosch between 2014 and 2021. He’s a man unafraid of digging into Los Angeles’ darkest corners to figure out cryptic violent crimes, partially driven by the ghosts of his past, including the unsolved murder of his mother.
That was followed by the ongoing series ‘Bosch: Legacy’ on ad-supported sibling channel Freevee, which sees a retired Harry working as a private eye and allied with his one-time enemy Honey Chandler (Mimi Rogers).
(L to R) Mimi Rogers as Honey “Money” Chandler and Titus Welliver as Harry Bosch on ‘Bosch: Legacy’ season 2. Credit: Tyler Golden/Amazon Freevee. Copyright: Amazon Freevee.
Looking to keep the ‘Bosch’ party going (and this time back on the main Prime Video service), the company has now commissioned a second spin-off, this time one not featuring Harry Bosch.
Instead, Maggie Q will star in an untitled new show about Detective Renée Ballard, a character from another series of Connelly’s books, albeit one where Bosch pops up from time to time.
It’s personal for Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) as season 2 of ‘Bosch: Legacy’ kicks off with a two episode premiere this fall on Amazon Freevee. Photo Credit: Tyler Golden.
The new series follows Ballard, who is tasked with running the LAPD’s new cold case division — a poorly funded, all-volunteer unit with the largest case load in the city. Ballard approaches these frozen-in-time cases with empathy and determination. When she uncovers a larger conspiracy during her investigations, she’ll lean on the assistance of her retired ally, Harry Bosch (Welliver), to navigate the dangers that threaten both her unit and her life.
This new show will be based on the Ballard books, of which there are six. The character was introduced in 2017 tome ‘The Late Show’, named after the night shift, called “the late show,” that she works. It was followed by ‘Dark Sacred Night’ in 2018, ‘The Night Fire’ in 2019, ‘The Dark Hours’ in 2021 and ‘Desert Star’ in 2022. The sixth book, ‘The Waiting’, is scheduled for release on November 5th.
Who is making the new ‘Bosch’ spin-off?
Author and ‘Bosch: Legacy’ Season 2 executive producer Michael Connelly.
Michael Alaimo and Kendall Sherwood will run the new show, which is now in pre-production, while Connelly is as usual involved as a writer and producer.
Now, if only Amazon and Netflix could work out a deal, so we can have the TV version of Connelly’s other big character, ‘The Lincoln Lawyer‘ (with Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Mickey Haller) crossover with the Bosch-iverse…
When will the new ‘Bosch’ spin-off be on screens?
With the show at a relatively early stage, there is no official release date on the books just yet. ‘Bosch’ fans will for now have to content themselves with the third season of ‘Bosch: Legacy’, which is filming and could well be out later this year.
Maggie Q as Tess in the action/thriller, ‘Fear the Night,’ a Quiver Distribution release. Photo courtesy of Quiver Distribution.
(L to R) Titus Welliver as Harry Bosch and Mimi Rogers as Honey “Money” Chandler on ‘Bosch: Legacy’ season 2. Credit: Tyler Golden/Amazon Freevee. Copyright: Amazon Freevee.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Titus Welliver and Mimi Rogers about their work on ‘Bosch: Legacy’ Season 2, what playing Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch and Honey “Money” Chandler has been like for both of them, respectively, how Harry’s relationship with Maddie has grown over the years and how that was jeopardized by the season 2 cliffhanger, Honey’s relationship with Maddie, shooting her final scene with the late Lance Reddick, his importance to the franchise, and what fans can expect from season 3.
Titus Welliver as Harry Bosch on ‘Bosch: Legacy’ season 2. Credit: Tyler Golden/Amazon Freevee. Copyright: Amazon Freevee.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch the interview.
Moviefone: To begin with, Titus, Harry Bosch has really become your signature character and you will forever be recognized for this role. At this point in your career, what does it mean to you to be on a long-lasting series like this and have the chance to bring Michael Connelly’s popular literary character alive on screen?
Titus Welliver: Look, it’s an absolute dream come true. I mean, I always thought that if I was going to do a series, I would really hope that it offered the sustenance that would carry me through, and the writers have delivered that in spades. I get to work with incredible actors. I mean, I’ve got Mimi and Madison Lintz, Denise Sanchez and Stephen Chang, but over the years, it’s been a revolving door of great guest actors. I’ll do it for another 30 years if they’ll have me. I mean, Mimi joked earlier she was saying, “We’re going to do Bosch and Chandler at the retirement home, which will be called ‘Bosch: Sedentary.’” But it never gets old, and there’s always new stuff to find. Although he’s so clearly defined in the books, there’s those little movements of evolution for Harry. There’s never something where you go, “Oh, he’s a different guy.” He’s the same guy, but he’s always in a state of forward movement. They do a great job of throwing avenues for me to take Harry down, and it’s endlessly rewarding.
Mimi Rogers as Honey “Money” Chandler on ‘Bosch: Legacy’ season 2. Credit: Tyler Golden/Amazon Freevee. Copyright: Amazon Freevee.
MF: Mimi, what has it been like for you to have this opportunity to explore Honey Chandler over all these seasons and get to work with Titus and Michael Connelly on this franchise?
Mimi Rogers: Well, it really is a dream come true. It’s not often as an actor that you have the luxury of playing a character over such a long period of time. It’s really through that that you can continue to evolve and find new elements and new areas of creativity. Again, like I said, it’s very rare to have an opportunity to play a character for this long, and I’ve been doing this a long time. This is probably my favorite character and my favorite job, my favorite situation of all time. It’s Michael Connelly’s amazing books. It’s working with Titus. It’s working in LA. We don’t have to leave home. It’s a character, for a woman of a certain age, who’s not a grandmother or a mother or an aunt or a girlfriend, or an ex-wife. She’s Honey Chandler. She’s a fully-fledged character who’s professional and dynamic and intelligent and strong. Seriously, what could be better?
(L to R) Madison Lintz as Maddie Bosch and Titus Welliver as Harry Bosch on ‘Bosch: Legacy’ season 2. Credit: Tyler Golden/Amazon Freevee. Copyright: Amazon Freevee.
MF: Titus, from the original series all the way to ‘Legacy,’ we’ve really watched Maddie Bosch grow up in front of our eyes. She’s been through so much in this past season alone with her abduction at the beginning and Harry’s betrayal of her at the end. Can you talk about how that relationship has grown and changed, working with Maddison Lintz, and where that relationship might go in season 3?
TW: Well, originally that character was going to kind of come into play maybe for a couple of episodes, and then seeing the chemistry that Madison and I had together, but also the idea of, Harry’s always this kind of isolated lone wolf character. But now if you create a relationship or Harry can be gotten to because he has a vulnerability and an exposure that didn’t exist before because she’s been living away from him, and he didn’t raise her. So, then you bring her into his life and she’s right at that age moving into a teenager, and then there’s that rocky thing. Harry did not have the skillset. He doesn’t know anything about parenting, so it’s all sort of improvised. Then you move it to the place of her as a young adult. Working with Madison, for me, is that you, the audience, have watched her grow up on this show, I’ve had the experience of being able to watch her mature and spread her wings as an artist, going from a child to a young woman. From the beginning, I was always very protective, and I remain the same way. Even though now she’s a grown woman, there’s a cocoon that exists. There’s a sphere, a bubble that is only for Madison and me to exist in that when we’re doing those scenes. We don’t over-rehearse things. We know who these characters are now. We know the dynamics and the relationship, but what we do is we just create a place that’s sacrosanct and it works well. Look, sometimes art imitates life. I know that when Madison started dating, I kept saying, “Oh, when am I going to meet…” She said, “I’m never bringing him to the set. That’s not going to happen because I know that you’ll do something.” I said, “No, what am I going to do? Don’t be ridiculous.” But to be able to witness that as a fellow traveler, it’s incredibly rewarding. I think in this season, we had an ability to move that relationship to the highest stakes emotionally, both individually and together, and it carries through. I think when after you’re dealing with what’s going on in real time in the first two episodes, and then there’s the aftermath and/or the recovery, so even though time has passed, you really do clearly see the thread there as to what’s going on. It’s just the gift that keeps on giving, truly.
(L to R) Mimi Rogers as Honey “Money” Chandler and Madison Lintz as Maddie Bosch on ‘Bosch: Legacy’ season 2. Credit: Tyler Golden/Amazon Freevee. Copyright: Amazon Freevee.
MF: Mimi, Honey has really become a surrogate mother for Maddie in a way and was pivotal in Harry’s search for her at the beginning of the season. Can you talk about how her relationship to Maddie has really brought Harry and Honey closer together throughout the years?
MR: I mean, it’s interesting because in some odd way, we’re kind of a family unit, and particularly during the time Maddie was working for me in the law office. Between that and then both of us having been targeted by Carl Rogers and what we went through, she and I share a very strong bond, and I think it was a tremendous opportunity for us to see a different side of Chandler’s character. But she cares very much for this young woman in kind of a maternal way. She and Harry have been through all sorts of different phases of their relationship. But this is another way that they’re connected because as you see in the first two episodes, and particularly in the second episode, Honey will do anything. Maddie, she’s not my child, it’s different than what Bosch has but on the next level, she’ll do anything to protect Madison. She’ll do anything to help, and she cares very deeply. So, I love when they intersperse through the series moments where Chandler and Maddie just get to hang out together. Even when she was moving out, I was joking like, “Well, I live in this big house. Why don’t you just have her move in with me? We’ll be roommates.” But it’s been terrific.
(L to R) Mimi Rogers as Honey “Money” Chandler and Lance Reddick as Irvin Irving on ‘Bosch: Legacy’ season 2. Credit: Tyler Golden/Amazon Freevee. Copyright: Amazon Freevee.
MF: Season 2 of ‘Bosch: Legacy’ was dedicated to the late Lance Reddick, who makes his final ‘Bosch’ appearance in the finale. Mimi, you shared that scene with Lance, what was it like working with him on that day?
MR: Well, that’s one of the few times that Lance, and I had the opportunity to work together, certainly one-on-one, so I hadn’t had the opportunity to get to know him as well as everybody else. Just a gentle giant, just the sweetest guy ever. It came as a terrible shock to all of us, his passing. We had a lovely time shooting that scene. He’s such an imposing figure when you look at him on screen and then when you know him, when you see him in life, he was just a gentle, giant, kind of shy, and just very sweet.
Lance Reddick as Irvin Irving on ‘Bosch: Legacy’ season 2. Credit: Tyler Golden/Amazon Freevee. Copyright: Amazon Freevee.
MF: Titus, do you have any memories of working with Lance on the series that you could share, and can you talk about his importance to the ‘Bosch’ universe?
TW: Well, Lance and I have been friends over 20 something years, so we knew each other long before we ever did ‘Bosch’ together. I remember having to have a nudging conversation with him because he, at first, didn’t want to sign on to play another cop, to which I just said, “Look, you don’t understand. This is going to be something completely different and look at who is involved and who’s writing and who’s producing. Look at the source material.” Thank God he made the decision to come on and do the show. I mean, the character of Irving, I feel like Irving and the city of Los Angeles were these two bookends with Harry in the middle of it. We saw Irving, he was a very political animal. He’d been a righteous cop, but we also found out later that he had played around with evidence in the Preston Borders case, and Harry called him out on that. Irving, he was a very smart guy. He was a good cop. I think certainly the season where Bosch and Irving team up to find who killed his son, for Lance and me, that was great. We were both always giggling about the fact that, “Oh, all we ever do is he comes in, and he goes, ‘BOSCH.’” We were like, “Look, let’s put them together.” The scene in which he discovers his son in the supermarket, to me, is probably one of the most heartbreaking scenes and depictions of that kind of loss. It blew me away. I mean, I watched it repeatedly. It’s very, very hard to talk about him without it being emotional. He was not my friend; he was my brother. I loved and adored him. We were very close. His departure was a shock. It was a body blow, and it has left a wound in many people’s hearts that I don’t think will ever heal. It will heal in the abstract sense of that. But I miss him terribly. When that scene came up with, he and Mimi. In the end, I cried like a baby, as I’m sure many people did, certainly the people that knew him and loved him. I don’t know, it’s kind of inexplicable. I’m inarticulate in being able to express the magnitude of respect and love that I had for him. I mean, pound for pound, one of the greatest actors of our generation, without question. I miss him. I miss him, terribly.
Titus Welliver as Harry Bosch on ‘Bosch: Legacy’ season 2. Credit: Tyler Golden/Amazon Freevee. Copyright: Amazon Freevee.
MF: Finally, I understand that season 3 will begin shooting early next year. What can you tell the fans to tease them about the upcoming season?
TW: Well, honestly, we really don’t know because everything kind of collided at the beginning of the writers’ room opening back up again, then the next thing, boom, we were back after the strike. We have a sense of what the framework is, but we really don’t know anything. I mean, obviously we closed on a cliffhanger, so it wasn’t closed, and that’s up for interpretation and extrapolation, I think, in the audience’s mind between now and when it comes out. Mimi and I and everybody else are certainly curious about what’s going to happen there. But what I can assure you is the conversations that I have with the writers and the producers is on the level of excitement, which it always is. We’re like little kids hoping for a new bike, and Mimi and I and Madison and everyone involved, we get new bikes every year, so we’re excited. But I could make something up, but then you won’t be my friend anymore, so I’m not going to do that.
(L to R) Mimi Rogers as Honey “Money” Chandler and Titus Welliver as Harry Bosch on ‘Bosch: Legacy’ season 2. Credit: Tyler Golden/Amazon Freevee. Copyright: Amazon Freevee.
What is the plot of ‘Bosch: Legacy’ Season 2?
Continuing where ‘Bosch’ season 7 left off, ‘Bosch: Legacy’ season 1 saw Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch (Titus Welliver) retiring from the LAPD and working as a private investigator for defense attorney Honey “Money” Chandler (Mimi Rogers). Harry begins investigating businessman Carl Rogers (Michael Rose), who previously hired a hitman to kill Chandler in the final season of ‘Bosch.’ Meanwhile, Bosch’s daughter, Maddie (Madison Lintz), navigates her first days as a patrol officer with the LAPD, working from Hollywood Station, where her father used to be assigned.
The first season of ‘Bosch: Legacy’ ended with Maddie being kidnapped by a serial rapist that she was investigating, and season 2 begins with Bosch and his former partner Jerry Edgar (Jamie Hector) leading the manhunt to find Maddie. The rest of the season is based on Connelly’s book, ‘The Crossing,’ and ties up loose ends from both series.
Who is in the cast of ‘Bosch: Legacy’ Season 2?
Titus Welliver (‘The Town‘) as Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch
(L to R) Titus Welliver as Harry Bosch and Mimi Rogers as Honey “Money” Chandler on ‘Bosch: Legacy’ season 2. Credit: Tyler Golden/Amazon Freevee. Copyright: Amazon Freevee.
Continuing where ‘Bosch’ season 7 left off, ‘Bosch: Legacy’ season 1 saw Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch (Titus Welliver) retiring from the LAPD and working as a private investigator for defense attorney Honey “Money” Chandler (Mimi Rogers). Harry begins investigating businessman Carl Rogers (Michael Rose), who previously hired a hitman to kill Chandler in the final season of ‘Bosch.’ Meanwhile, Bosch’s daughter, Maddie (Madison Lintz), navigates her first days as a patrol officer with the LAPD, working from Hollywood Station, where her father used to be assigned.
The first season of ‘Bosch: Legacy’ ended with Maddie being kidnapped by a serial rapist that she was investigating, and season 2 begins with Bosch and his former partner Jerry Edgar (Jamie Hector) leading the manhunt to find Maddie. The rest of the season is based on Connelly’s book, ‘The Crossing,’ and ties up loose ends from both series.
Who is in the cast of ‘Bosch: Legacy’ Season 2?
It’s personal for Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) as season 2 of ‘Bosch: Legacy’ kicks off with a two episode premiere this fall on Amazon Freevee. Photo Credit: Tyler Golden.
Titus Welliver (‘The Town‘) as Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with author and executive producer Michael Connelly about season 2 of ‘Bosch: Legacy,’ paying off the season 1 cliffhanger, bringing back actors from the original ‘Bosch’ series, working with Titus Welliver, the late great Lance Reddick, and if a crossover between ‘Bosch: Legacy’ and ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ could ever happen.
Author and ‘Bosch: Legacy’ Season 2 executive producer Michael Connelly.
Moviefone: To begin with, season 2 of ‘Bosch: Legacy’ begins with the search for Maddie Bosch. Can you talk about where the characters are emotionally when the new season begins, and choosing to adapt your book ‘The Crossing’ for the second part of this season?
Michael Connelly: Well, we ended season one with a pretty big cliffhanger, probably the biggest in the history of the show, and we have to pay that off, but it’s also a very high stakes emotional thing. Also, we extended the hiatus of the show. We were coming out in the summer, and now we moved it to October, so we also knew people would really be waiting and wondering. So, we decided to go with the search for Maddie Bosch and close that story early in. The first two episodes are almost like a movie. In fact, they’re actually going to play it in some theaters, because it functions as a film, basically, when the first two episodes are cut together. They do plant the seeds of ‘The Crossing’ as well, so we went into this with two ideas. One is, let’s come to a conclusion on the Maddie cliffhanger, because we just didn’t think it would be fair. You got to be fair to the viewers and readers of books and so forth. So, we didn’t want to string that out for 10 episodes, so we take care of that, and then set up ‘The Crossing.’ Why did we do ‘The Crossing?’ Because the new show, ‘Legacy,’ is a three lead show, and we can’t have three storylines going off in different directions. They have to come together, they got to entwine around each other, so we’re looking for story that will bring them all together. ‘The Crossing’ seemed perfect, because it’s about Harry Bosch working for Money Chandler. She’s not in the book ‘The Crossing,’ Mickey Haller (from ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’) is, but we realized how we could replace him with her in our storytelling. So, right there, we have connections. It’s not an easy connection, Harry Bosch was a homicide cop, worked for the other side of the aisle for all those decades, and so he’s a reluctant guy to do it. But we would tap into his innate sense of fairness, and that would be if somebody is innocent, if someone is wrongly accused, then there’s somebody out there who’s gotten away with this. That’s what motivates him and connects him to the case and allows us to go from there. Then that’s intertwining of two characters, Money Chandler and Harry Bosch. But Harry’s daughter is a cop, and of course she’s going to run across aspects of this case and then it all churns together into a pretty big set piece. Maddie Bosch is intrinsic to this story as well by the time we reach the end.
First look at Jerry Edgar’s (Jamie Hector) epic return to ‘Bosch: Legacy’ for season 2. Photo Credit: Greg Gayne.
MF: Can you talk about “putting the band back together” by bringing back original ‘Bosch’ actors Jamie Hector, Gregory Scott Cummins, Troy Evans, and others for this new season of ‘Bosch: Legacy’?
MC: Yeah, it’s fun. You said “bring the band back together,” that’s right. We had a very lucky run, seven years, of the original show, and so we became a family. Anytime we can bring one of those characters back, we want to do it. We’re developing other shows, and so we want to keep everyone in this universe active and alive, we don’t want to forget about Jamie Hector as Jerry Edgar, because we might see him again in an expanded role. Then, the books are pretty serious and dark. Early on, I credit Eric Overmyer, the showrunner, he said, “We got to bring some humor to this.” So, he created the characters of Crate and Barrel and we got to keep those guys going. I love every minute they’re on-screen, I love being in the writing room when we talk about the stuff we can do with them and the arguments they can have. That’s all great stuff and we got to keep it going.
(L to R) Officer Reina Vasquez (Denise G. Sanchez) and Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) in season 2 of ‘Bosch: Legacy.’ Photo Credit: Warrick Page.
MF: The casting of Titus Welliver as Harry Bosch might be one of the most perfect marriages of actor and character in the history of television. Can you talk about his performance this season and what it’s been like to work with him over the years and watch him bring the character you created to life on screen?
MC: Yeah, he is an amazing. Just take his performance in the first episode of this new season. So, we’re nine seasons in and the guy keeps raising the bar. His performance through it all has been amazing, and he is Harry Bosch! I write the character in books and so forth, but he’s Harry Bosch. I love to give myself credit, because I was the one who suggested him about 12 years ago. He went through all the jumps, hurdles, auditions and all of that, and then he ends up getting the job. So I’m proud of that. But I think way back then, I saw something in him. His ability to project the darkness that’s inside, and that was a key thing, because the books are very internal in terms of his internal thinking, and that goes out the window when you write scripts and make a show. But he’s able to pick up that and present it. That’s the key, I think, to the success of the show, that people who know the books or don’t know the books view him as a very accurate portrayal of a guy who’s seen a lot, carries that PTSD trauma inside, and gives forward his best effort.
Lance Reddick as Irvin Irving on Prime Video’s ‘Bosch.’ Photo: Aaron Epstein. Copyright: Amazon Studios
MF: The first episode of ‘Bosch: Legacy’ season 2 is dedicated to the late great actor Lance Reddick, who played Chief Irving on all seven seasons of the original ‘Bosch’ series. Can you talk about your relationship with him and his legacy in the ‘Bosch’ universe?
MC: It’s actually difficult to talk about it, because as I said before, you become a family. You do 12-hour days and there’s so much downtime as you’re setting things up, and there’s a lot of circle around the campfire, sitting in chairs, and waiting. So, you get to know people way beyond the character they’re playing and what they’re trying to accomplish in life with family, with work and so forth. Lance was a big part of that over the last nine years. I can’t believe how long we’ve been able to do this. But I remember crystal clear being on a location scout, and him calling me and telling me where he was thinking about taking the role, wanting to know how different it would be, and how it had to be different from the character he played in ‘The Wire.’ Somehow I convinced him to give it a shot, and we ended up with seven seasons together. I think it was a different character, and I think he was very fulfilled by the character. The friendship we had … he was just one of the best people I’ve ever known. But also, I’ve really been punched in the heart by his loss.
MF: Finally, fans of your novels are aware that Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller are half-brothers in your books. Is there any chance that there could ever be a crossover between Netflix’s ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ and Freevee’s ‘Bosch: Legacy,’ or is that simply impossible because of the two different streaming services that are involved?
MC: I don’t know, I think it might take an act of Congress or something, so I just don’t think it could ever happen. I would love it to happen. I think the fan base for that would be huge, but it’s like you got to get Jeff Bezos and Ted Sarandos together in a room and maybe they can negotiate that. But we’ll see. But the replacement for that is Money Chandler, so I’m turning this back into ‘Bosch: Legacy,’ and her performance. What we do with her is just so good and so fulfilling to me, especially on a level because she’s not in the books. To go back to your question, I doubt that will ever happen, but I’m not worried about that, because I have Money Chandler in ‘Bosch: Legacy.’ But I’m in a good position to have a show that’s doing well on both of these services and very thankful for that.
‘Bosch: Legacy’ season 2 premieres October 20th on Freevee.
Premiering on Netflix beginning August 3rd is the second part of season 2 of ‘The Lincoln Lawyer,’ which is based on author Michael Connelly’s popular novels and was co-created by David E. Kelley (‘Boston Legal’) and showrunner Ted Humphrey (‘The Good Wife’).
What is the plot of ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ Season 2?
Season 2 of ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ is based on author Michael Connelly’s novel ‘The Fifth Witness,’ and sees lawyer Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) taking on the case of Lisa Trammell (Lana Parrilla), a chef accused of murdering a real estate developer.
Who is in the cast of ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ Season 2?
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with executive producer and showrunner Ted Humphrey about his work on ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ Season 2 – Part 2, developing the series, adapting ‘The Fifth Witness,’ what fans can expect from the second half of season 2, why the season was split in two halves, Mickey’s current case, why Manuel Garcia-Rulfo was the right actor to play Mickey Haller, collaborating with Michael Connelly, and if we’ll ever see the show crossover with Connelly’s other series, ‘Bosch.’
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview.
Moviefone: To begin with, why did you want to adapt Michael Connelly’s ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ novels into a series?
Ted Humphrey: I think first of all, it’s been one of the great pleasures of my career to work with Michael on this, and he’s super involved in it, just like he is with ‘Bosch’ and his other projects. He’s created a character that has a universal appeal. I’m a former lawyer myself. I love legal stories when they’re well done. I did a show called ‘The Good Wife’ for a long time. I love legal shows when they’re well-crafted. I think what Michael’s books have is an authenticity to the legal world. Everything that’s in the books, the nuts and bolts of what’s in the books is all accurate. That’s something that’s very important to me. We strove to do that on ‘The Good Wife,’ and I get very irked by legal shows and movies where things happen that aren’t realistic, often in terms of the timing of how they happen. Things happen very fast in a lot of legal TV shows. Somebody gets murdered and the next day somebody’s on trial. Of course, in real life, things take a lot longer than that. They take years sometimes. So I like to honor the real amount of time that things take, and I also like to honor the nuts and bolts of it. I think the nuts and bolts of it could be very interesting and the audience finds it very interesting when you make it dramatic, and Michael’s books do that. So, I thought this was a perfect vehicle to tell people interesting things about how the legal system works wrapped around this very compelling character. We’ve been able to do that now in both seasons with taking little tidbits of the legal process and building whole episodes around them. But ultimately, it all comes down to this very fundamentally hopeful character that Michael has created. I think the show tells a redemption story. When you meet this guy at the beginning of season one, he’s this broken man on a beach who’s lost everything. So, over the course of seasons, the show will tell this redemption story of this guy kind of growing into himself, becoming who he is, and figuring out who he is.
MF: Can you talk about what happened in the first half of Season 2, and what fans can expect from the second half?
TH: I’m going to actually take one step back and talk about season one for a second. Season one, again, had us meeting a man who has lost everything in his life to an addiction to pain pills. He’s lost his career, he has lost his family, he doesn’t really know where he is going, and he gets a lifeline thrown to him in the form of this very big media frenzy case that also will pay him a lot of money. It’s another thing our show does that I think smart legal shows do, which is they pay attention not just to the kind of big questions of right and wrong, but also to the nitty-gritty of what lawyers do with their day, which is make a living. Mickey’s a criminal defense attorney. He has to make a living. He needs clients who pay him money. He’s not a public defender. He used to be a public defender, but he’s not anymore. So, in seasons one, he wins this case and where we meet him in season two is he’s kind of in some ways the polar opposite of that guy. Now, he’s on top. Now, he’s this media celebrity and newspapers are interviewing him, and Jake Tapper is interviewing him and all of this stuff. Clients are pouring in and he’s flying a little too close to the sun. Hubris, a little bit of arrogance, and a little bit of stubbornness all play into him making some poor decisions about cases that he takes and so on. Then, in his personal life, he’s still struggling with the breakup of his marriage with his ex-wife, who he still pines for, who is played by Neve Campbell wonderfully. When that goes south, he meets this woman, Lisa Trammell, who’s a restaurateur. He has a one-night affair with her, and then she ends up becoming his client when she’s accused of the murder of this real estate developer who’s trying to buy her out and gentrify her neighborhood. Where we leave off at the end of the first half of season one is that he has been assaulted by persons unknown and left for dead in the garage of his building, kind of playing on the symbolism of cars and driving in our show that is so central to Los Angeles, but so central to this character as well. He’s literally beaten up and left for dead in front of his car in the garage of his building. So, when we pick up in the second half of season two, we find out what the aftermath of that was and how does he figure out who did this to him, and how does it play into the case? What are the twists and turns of figuring that out?
MF: What was the reason for splitting season 2 into two parts?
TH: It was not a decision we made. It’s something that Netflix does with some of their shows, particularly I think some of their bigger, more successful shows. They’ve done it with ‘Stranger Things.’ They’ve done that with ‘Ozark.’ They’ve done it with a lot of shows. It was something that they kind of toyed with and decided, “We’re going to try and do it here.” So, it was not really a creative choice of the producers of the show, but at the same time, it was something that we were fine with and we had a natural organic cliffhanger that came in the middle of the story to build to, so we didn’t have to kind of jam that in there. It was already going to be there. It worked out quite well. It gave us a natural place to split the season without us having to do anything artificial to make it happen.
MF: Can you talk about why you decided to adapt ‘The Fifth Witness’ for the second season?
TH: The way that worked, before we began the process of making the season, Michael Connelly and (executive producer) Dailyn Rodriguez, who I run the show with, and I got together for about a month and kicked around and decided that was the book that we wanted to do. We kind of figured out the tent poles of what that would look like for this season, so that we had a roadmap going into the season. We brought the writing staff in to write that, and ultimately the production staff in to make it, of course. It just felt like a natural progression from the first season to this season that we could make this transition from the broken man to the man who’s on top of the world. But of course, he’s not really on top of the world, and there will be a price to pay for that sort of hubris. In the series of books, there is a book in between them, which is called ‘The Reversal.’ We just felt, for story reasons that that book didn’t really fit as well here, but we love that book. So, it just kind of naturally organically fit. Now, having said that, Michael’s still writing these books, and he just published a new Mickey Haller book a couple of years ago and another one’s coming out this fall. But this particular book was written in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008. The story of the book actually deals with a woman whose house is being foreclosed on by a mortgage banker, and that wasn’t particularly relevant to 2023 Los Angeles. So, one of the things we did was we changed that to the gentrification debate that’s going on in Los Angeles today and the world of foodie culture and celebrity chefs. We made it a chef in a rapidly-gentrifying neighborhood, who this big real estate developer wants to buy her out of the restaurant and put up condos, or something like that. We also made her a love interest for Mickey, which she was not in the book, as a way of expanding upon his personal relationships.
MF: Can you talk about how Mickey’s judgment has been clouded with this case?
TH: Well, I mentioned this is a man who can be arrogant at times and who can make poor choices. One of the things I love about our show is we’re a show about lawyers and crime and all of those things, but we’re also a show that, I hope, features real human beings, and real human beings make dumb choices sometimes and do things maybe they shouldn’t. In this case, everybody is sort of saying, Mickey, “Are you sure you want to do this? This might not be the best idea.” Yet, he does it anyway because he kind of lets his pride and maybe his feelings for this woman, and certain other things cloud his judgment as to whether or not this is really a good idea. Complications ensue, let’s put it that way.
MF: Why was Manuel Garcia-Rulfo the right actor to play this specific version of Mickey Haller?
TH: So, we looked at a lot of actors. We’re going back now several years to when we were just starting to make season one. We’re talking about the fall of 2020 at this point, or the late summer of 2020, so we’re going back three years. We looked at a lot of actors. When we brought the show to Netflix, it was very important to Netflix, and to us, that we honor the Latino heritage of character. The movie that they made with Matthew McConaughey, they decided to go a different direction and they didn’t do that at that time. It was very important to us to do that. We looked at a lot of choices. The character in the books is Latino-American, but more American in the sense that he was born and raised in Los Angeles and doesn’t have an accent, and doesn’t really speak Spanish in the books. He’s a person of Latino heritage, but he is not a Latino-forward person. We looked at choices across the spectrum, and many fine actors who were terrific and just for one reason or another weren’t right. We were starting to wonder, “Gosh, who is this person?” Then Manuel auditioned and we watched his tape and I just said, “That’s it. There’s Mickey right there.” It wasn’t maybe at first exactly what we had in mind in the sense that that Manuel is 100% Latino, he is 100% Mexican, he has an accent, and English is not his first language. Spanish is his first language. He’s certainly not a lawyer. On the surface, he maybe isn’t exactly what’s on the page of the book, but when you see him play a scene from the show, you just go, “That’s it.” He’s got the effortless kind of charm and intelligence. He’s saying one thing, but there’s something very clever going on behind his eyes while he’s saying it, that is exactly who this character is on the page. It gave us the wonderful opportunity to explore even more fully than Michael does in the books, the Latino heritage of the character. I mean, do it in a very organic way where he speaks Spanish because he speaks Spanish, and it’s not something we had to jam in there. It just is what it is. A lot of that was driven by Manuel himself, who very much wanted to explore the heritage of this character, and will pitch different things that we do. Then we’ve built on it now, introducing his mother. We found a wonderful piece of chemistry between him and his daughter, and that they both speak Spanish and can communicate to each other that way. So, finding Manuel to play this part was lightning in a bottle.
MF: What’s your experience been like working with author Michael Connelly on this series?
TH: Michael’s incredible to collaborate with. In the past, in my career when I’ve adapted novels, you don’t usually work really closely with the novelists. Sometimes they don’t really want to be involved in that process, and often, for good reason. They can be very precious about the work. Michael is one of the most collaborative people I’ve ever worked with and one of the least precious about the characters and the world that he’s created, and he should be precious about those. The raison d’être of the show is to honor what he’s done in the books and to honor those characters in that world. But he’s the first person to pitch, “Hey, I think we can do better than what was in the book. Let’s do this.” Or if somebody pitches a change, if it’s a good change, he’s the first person to say, “Yes, let’s do that.” So, he’s so refreshingly not precious about it. What he’s precious about is he wants to make the best show possible and whatever that is, the best idea wins. He’s 100% on board with that. So, it’s been really one of the great experiences of my career to work with him on this.
Titus Welliver as Harry Bosch in ‘Bosch: Legacy.’ Photo: Tyler Golden. Copyright: Amazon Freevee.
MF: Finally, as fans of the novels know, Mickey Haller is actually the half-brother of Connelly’s other popular literary character, Harry Bosch. Is there any chance that there could ever be a ‘Lincoln Lawyer’ and ‘Bosch: Legacy’ crossover, or is that impossible because the two shows are produced by different studios?
TH: As I understand it, it’s an impossibility because of the different auspices involved. I mean, I guess one might never say never because stranger things have happened in the world. But we have approached it as these are two completely different worlds. We’ve had to approach it that way. They approached ‘Bosch’ that way as well because in the Bosch books, Mickey Haller occurs quite a bit, but Amazon didn’t have the rights to that character, so they’ve inserted different characters into those places, and we’ve kind of done the same thing. We’ve interestingly built two parallel worlds in two different shows on two different platforms, that both spring from a common source if you will. Interestingly, I’ve seen articles online about the crossover of actors between the shows, which is not something we’ve given any thought to, meaning we’re not purposely trying to cast actors that have been in ‘Bosch,’ nor are they purposely trying to cast actors that have been in our show, but yet, we appear to do that. There are a number of actors who’ve appeared in both shows in different roles, which is interesting. But it’s not something we’ve paid attention to. There have also been articles about common locations, and it’s like, we shoot in an authentic real world LA and they shoot in an authentic real world LA, so of course they’re going to be common locations. But I think, creatively, organically, they spring from the same source, and there’s a common ethos behind both series. of books, which then infuses both television series. So, I think people who enjoy one tend to enjoy the other, certainly because they both delve into certain things. I kid Michael, that my sister is a public defender and has been for a long time, and she said that Michael’s her favorite author and that Harry Bosch is her favorite character in fiction. I said to Michael that, “You’re doing something right If a public defender’s favorite character is a cop, because public defenders and cops don’t usually get along very well.”
The new series stars Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (‘The Magnificent Seven’) as Mickey Haller, a defense attorney in Los Angeles who works out of a chauffeur-driven Lincoln Town Car rather than an office.
Moviefone recently had a chance to speak with Manuel Garcia-Rulfo about his work on ‘The Lincoln Lawyer.’
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You can read our full interview with Manuel Garcia-Rulfo below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Garcia-Rulfo, Becki Newton, and Christopher Gorham.
Moviefone: To begin with, how would you describe Mickey Haller?
Manuel Garcia-Rulfo: You know what? I think he’s a man of a very few words. Honestly, he’s one of those guys that doesn’t express his feelings very much, he is all about the work.
MF: Can you talk about why his nickname is “The Lincoln Lawyer?”
MGR: Well, because he works in the back of his car. That’s where he has his office and he has everything there. He’s a very practical guy and he’s always had to be on the move, it makes him concentrate, I guess. You know, he’s a man of the people and he has to be driving around all the time while he’s working. So, they call him “The Lincoln Lawyer.”
I think that it’s a part of him. But I don’t think that if he doesn’t have a Lincoln, he cannot be Mickey Haller. It’s one of those things, like the suit for a superhero kind of thing. He is obsessed with them, but it’s more than that, it is like a lucky superstition, I think.
MF: What was your reaction when you got cast in the role?
MGR: I was so happy and really thrilled and excited to be a part of this. Especially as a Mexican actor, to be the lead on a show of this magnitude with these huge names like David E. Kelly. Also, to be part of the world of Michael Connelly and to play this loved and iconic character, Mickey Haller. So, for me, it was insane. I was so grateful and happy for it. I’m very proud.
(L to R) Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Christopher Gorham in Netflix’s ‘The Lincoln Lawyer.’
MF: Can you talk about the specific book from the series that the first season of this show is based on?
MGR: It’s based on the second book, “The Brass Verdict.” That’s how we started. I can’t say much, but we find Mickey Haller at the lowest point of his life. He’s coming from addiction and he’s been out of work for a couple of months now. They took his practice away. So, we find him in a very low point of his life. Then suddenly he gets a call and he inherits an amazing case, not just one but a bunch of them, but one specifically, which is a very huge case. So, all of a sudden, he has to deal with that. That’s where everything starts and you guys have to watch.
MF: Finally, can you talk about how you prepared to play a lawyer?
MGR: How did I prepare? Well, I’ve watched a lot of real footage of trials, especially long hours of the O.J. Simpson trials. I really wanted to see how they move and everything. I had a lot of meetings and talks with defense lawyers here in L.A., but basically that was that. All the other information Michael Connelly gives you in the books, which is so specific, are really the details. He gives you a lot to play with. Then I had to learn all the legal terms and all of that because the legal system in Mexico and here are very different. So, it was new to me. I had to really dig into that, so I looked like I knew what I was talking about.
‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ premieres on Netflix May 13th.
(L to R) Neve Campbell and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in Netflix’s ‘The Lincoln Lawyer.’
