Congratulations to former 24 writers Howard Gordon, Alex Gansa, Chip Johannessen (and other 24 crew members including Sean Callery, Brad Turner, and Michael Klick) for their huge win at tonights Golden Globes. Their new Showtime series Homeland scored a major and much deserved win for best television drama series (Claire Danes also won for best actress in a drama).
Watch the acceptance speech below:
The former 24 crew sent out their congratulations via Twitter with director Jon Cassar tweeting “Congrats to former 24 producer Howard Gordon on the Globe for best drama Homeland. It’s one if the best shows on TV right now. Must see.”
James P Morrison (Bill Buchanan) tweeted “Congratulations to my friend Howard Gordon and all involved in bringing us Homeland.” and first assistant director Nicole Burke called it the “best show on TV.”
Variety has a nice writeup on Howard Gordon’s new show Homeland. I’ve seen the pilot and think the show is fantastic – worth checking out when it premieres on October 2nd after Dexter. Here’s their full interview with Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa, two ex-24 writers:
Howard Gordon can’t seem to shake visions of waterboarding and dirty bombs.
The “24″ showrunner and exec producer wasted little time between ending Jack Bauer’s eight-year run as a rogue counterterrorist agent and launching Showtime’s new terrorism-themed series “Homeland” with his longtime friend and cohort Alex Gansa — a mere 15 months, to be exact.
Gordon was knee-deep in the quest to keep fictional America safe from nuclear, biological, chemical and cyber threats when his agent, WME’s Rick Rosen, called and announced, “I have your next show.” Rosen, who reps the Tel Aviv company that owns the underlying rights to the Israeli version of “Homeland,” thought the controversial series was ripe for translation.
One day after wrapping the “24″ finale, Gordon and fellow “24″ exec producer Gansa met at an L.A. coffee shop and began writing the pilot on spec. The series, which bows Oct. 2 in Showtime’s coveted post-”Dexter” slot, covers the same ground as on “24″ but this time the war-on-terror depictions are more gritty and based less on imagination. [click to continue…]
Showtime’s upcoming series Homeland has been building up quite the crew from 24. First was Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa. Then came Emmy-winning composer Sean Callery and producer Michael Klick. Chip Johannessen joined the writing crew in April and now Deadline reports that longtime 24 director Brad Turner is filming episodes.
An extended trailer for the series was released by Showtime last week.
Homeland premieres on October 2nd after the sixth season premiere of Dexter.
Former 24 writer and executive producer David Fury (who I consider the best 24 writer in recent years – he gave us Logan’s “That’s Jack Bauer!” scene and Fayed’s death episode among others) has announced via Twitter that he has joined the production team of FOX’s Fringe.
This puts him back under the Bad Robot umbrella – he used to work as a writer on a little show called Lost before joining 24.
For those keeping score... I'm back under the Bad Robot umbrella... New writer-prod on a little show called FRINGE. Couldn't be happier.
The Society of Camera Operators 2011 Lifetime Achievement Awards has nominated 24‘s Guy Skinner for “Camera Operator of the Year: Television”.
Other nominees in that category include Tony Gaudioz of House, Greg Collier of Bones, David Frederick of Sons of Anarchy, and Doc Karman of Raising Hope.
The awards take place on February 5, 2011 – more details on the Society of Camera Operators website. Good luck to Guy Skinner!
I’ve gotten word that two long-time 24 crew members have joined Showtime’s Homeland, an upcoming television drama series written by 24 executive producers Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa.
Sean Callery, who has won multiple Emmy awards for his work as composer on the 24 series, will be scoring the Homeland pilot. Callery has been nominated for every season of 24 and most recently won the 2010 Emmy for Best Musical Score in a Drama Series.
24‘s Michael Klick (who has also been with the show from the very first season) will be serving as producer on Homeland. Klick was a producer on 24 and directed several episodes in the seventh and eighth seasons as well as the Chloe’s Arrest epilogue.
Homeland is scheduled to begin shooting early January in Charlotte, North Carolina. There’s a very strong cast lined up including Claire Danes, Mandy Patkin, and Damien Lewis all in starring roles.
Here’s the final remaining segment from the “Eight Days” special feature found on the 24 Complete Series box set, this one called Memories and Moments.
The producers of 24 share their favorite scenes of the series and tell stories about working on the show – collaborating with the military, the shows popularity in the White House, and more. This feature runs nine minutes and is a great watch.
Check out my 24 Complete Series review for my thoughts on the box set and videos of the other bonus features (Jack Bauer: Evolution of a Hero, Presidents, Friends and Villains, Goodbye, Chloe’s Arrest, and more). You can buy the 24 Season 8 on DVD on Amazon – it’s also available on on Blu-Ray.
Virtually New York special feature found on disk 6 of the 24 Season 8 DVD.
Director Brad Turner, showrunner Howard Gordon, Director of Photography Rodney Charters, producer Paul Gadd, and visual effects supervisors Sam Nicholson, Eddie Bonin, James Riley, digital compositing supervisor Chris Martin, and CGI supervisor Al Lopez describe how they faked New York with creative use of green screens and CG technology.
On Sunday (Dec. 12), a large group of friends, family and colleagues gathered at the Darryl Zanuck Theater on the 20th Century Fox studio lot in Los Angeles, Calif., to pay tribute to casting director Peggy Kennedy, who died on Friday, Dec. 3, at the age of 65 (a number which, during her life, appeared to have been a source of comic dispute) after a brief battle with cancer.
Shocking news in the TV talent community. Emmy-winning casting director Peggy Kennedy died today at Cedars-Sinai only a week after being diagnosed with cancer. She started off as a casting associate on Reservoir Dogs, L.A. Law and Chicago Hope before joining Debi Manwiller as a casting director on Level 9, Wolf Lake, 24 and, most recently, Human Target. In 2004, the two won an Emmy for their work on 24.
This is a message Manwiller posted on her Facebook page yesterday:
My dear Peggy is indeed ill. She was diagnosed with cancer last week and is currently in ICU at Cedars. They are taking another biopsy today to see if she has lymphoma which would be treatable with chemo. This has all been incredibly sudden. Please keep her in your prayers. Send light and love.
Very sad news – not only was she extremely friendly and well-loved but she was fantastic at her job (as her Emmy win proves), lining up a fantastic cast on 24 each year. You can view Peggy on the 24 Season 5 DVD “Supporting Players” special feature.
Here’s a video of Howard Gordon talking about his upcoming thriller novel Gideon’s War. I was sent an early copy of the book and it was excellent – 24 fans will most definitely enjoy this one. I’ll be able to share more details including my full review in the following weeks. Gideon’s War releases on January 11, 2011, you can pre-order it on Amazon today.
Howard Gordon did an interview with Sky UK and revealed that at one point early on, network executives were considering Jeff Goldblum for the role of Jack Bauer. “But once Kiefer [Sutherland] came up that was pretty much done”, he says.
He also speaks of the final scene in the series finale and briefly about the upcoming 24 movie.
Now that the new TV season has started I thought it would be interesting to take a look at where the 24 crew went after the series ended a few months ago. Fans that have watched the DVD bonus features probably know that the cast and crew were very close to each other, and that’s proven by this list – many of them chose to work together on future projects.
Dexter
Chip Johannessen became showrunner of Showtime’s hit series Dexter last December, and brought along some 24 crew with him including Manny Coto (writer and executive producer), director Milan Cheylov, costume designer Jim Lapidus, and the Emmy-winning David Latham (editor). One of his first orders of business was creating a new recurring character named FBI Agent Walker – nice! Also look out for Peter Weller (Christopher Henderson from Season 5) to show up soon as a recurring character.
In its first major development decision since taking the programming reins at Showtime as entertainment president, David Nevins is close to greenlighting his first pilot, a psychological thriller, from former 24 executive producer/showrunner Howard Gordon. Ben Affleck, hot off the No.1 opening of his crime caper The Town, is circling to direct. He has read the script and is very interested contingent on availability. If dates could be worked out, this would mark Affleck’s TV directorial debut.
Tentatively titled Homeland, the drama is based on the Israeli format Prisoners of War from Keshet Broadcasting, the Israeli company behind Fox’s midseason comedy series Mixed Signals. Gordon and fellow 24 executive producer Alex Gansa co-wrote the project on spec with Gideon Raff, the creator of the original series. [click to continue…]
