Noticias

In the months since exiting “General Hospital,” actress Kelly Monaco (ex-Sam McCall) has been relatively quiet on social media. That changed recently when she announced she would host a brand-new podcast series with long-time friend Shanna Moakler, titled “Bad Bunnies,” a reference to their time as Playboy playmates.

“Buckle up, Bunnies… Kelly Monaco & @shannamoakler are teaming up for a brand-new podcast, Bad Bunnies!” said Monaco in a post on Instagram announcing the new project. “Unfiltered. Untamed. Unapologetic. We’re bringing you Hollywood secrets, wild stories, pop culture tea, and real talk—nothing is off-limits!

“But before we drop our first episode, we want to hear from You! What topics do you want us to spill on? Reality TV chaos? Dating disasters? Hollywood drama? Let us know in the comments! Tag your besties & get ready—Bad Bunnies is coming Soon!”

Responding to Monaco’s “big announcement,” former co-star Kate Mansi (Kristina Davis) commented,...

Remember the days when buddy cop shows were the bread and butter of American television?

From Starsky & Hutch to Miami Vice, the genre gave us mismatched partners who bickered, bantered, and ultimately brought down the bad guys.

It was escapism at its finest — a world of fast cars, sharp one-liners, and explosive finales.

Starsky & Hutch (ABC/Screenshot)

But over the years, the buddy cop genre has faded from the U.S. small screen.

Don’t worry, though; it’s alive and well — it just packed its bags and went global.

A Brief History of Buddy Cop Glory

The buddy cop formula hit its stride in the 1980s and 1990s, an era when the appeal of Lethal Weapon and Beverly Hills Cop carried over from the big screen to TV.

Shows like Starsky & Hutch and Cagney & Lacey offered variations on the theme, combining humor, action, and, occasionally, a dash of drama.

Exclusive: After 12 years at Sony Pictures Television, The Good Doctor creator David Shore is moving shop to 20th Television, a part of Disney Television Studios, with a premium overall deal. Under the three-year pact, which starts in November when his most recent Sony TV overall deal is up, Shore will develop, write and executive produce original series for 20th Television targeting linear networks and streamers, with a focus on Disney Entertainment Television platforms.

Shore has had only two studio homes for the past two decades. He spent eight years at Universal Television, where he created, executive produced and showran hit medical drama House before moving to Sony TV shortly after that series ended its eight-season run on Fox in 2012. With his followup hit medical drama series, ABC/Sony TV’s The Good Doctor, similarly coming to an end this year after seven seasons, Shore is making a change.

He will...

Battlestar Galactica crossed over with Star Trek multiple times, with connections becoming more pronounced in the 2004 reboot. Various actors from Star Trek have appeared in Battlestar Galactica, including James Callis, Michelle Forbes, and Callum Keith Rennie. The interchange of actors like Rekha Sharma and connections between the two franchises add depth to both sci-fi universes.

Given that its creator, Ronald D. Moore was a key creative force behind the Star Trek franchise in the 1990s, it's hardly surprising that multiple Trek actors have appeared in Battlestar Galactica. However, even before its 2004 reboot, Battlestar Galactica crossed over with Star Trek multiple times. Star Trek: The Original Series' Og Klingon actor, John Colicos played Battlestar Galactica's original Baltar, while Star Trek: The Next Generation's Q actor John de Lancie had a minor role in the original BSG during his early career.

However, Ronald D. Moore's Battlestar Galactica reboot made the...

Nerene Virgin, the actress, news presenter, anti-racism advocate and educator known for her work on the beloved Canadian kids TV show Today’s Special, has died. She was 77.

Virgin died Jan. 15 at Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington, Ontario, her family said. No cause of death was provided.

“Nerene achieved remarkable success, captivating audiences with her versatile performances that showcased both depth and authenticity,” Tvo, Ontario’s public broadcaster, said in a statement. “She has left an indelible mark on many who grew up watching the show and on everyone she encountered and who had the privilege of working with her.”

“She just wanted to be remembered for the fact she was so genuine and wore different hats. She could do anything she wanted,” her husband, Alan Smith, said in an interview with CBC News: The National on Saturday.

During the early 1980s, Virgin became a breakout star playing the character of Jodie,...

Canadian actor Gordon Pinsent, who starred in TV series such as Hogan’s Heroes and Due South, has died. He was 92. According to Deadline, Pinsent passed away in his sleep on Saturday, February 25. His family later confirmed the news in a statement written by the Pinsent’s son-in-law, actor Peter Keleghan, which read, “Gordon Pinsent’s daughters Leah and Beverly, and his son Barry, would like to announce the passing of their father peacefully in sleep today with his family at his side.” “Gordon passionately loved this country and its people, purpose, and culture to his last breath,” the statement continued. Born on July 12, 1930, in Grand Falls, Newfoundland, Pinsent began acting at the age of 17, first on stage in the 1940s before moving on to radio dramas on the CBC and later film and television. His career spanned eight decades, though he took a break from acting in the early 1950s to join the Canadian Army,...

Gordon Pinsent, the prolific Canadian actor and writer-director who starred opposite Julie Christie in Sarah Polley’s “Away From Her,” died Saturday. He was 92.

According to multiple media reports, his family released a statement to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation announcing that he passed away in his sleep. No other details were provided.

“Gordon Pinsent’s daughters Leah, and Beverly, and his son Barry, would like to announce the passing of their father peacefully in sleep today with his family at his side,” his son-in-law Peter Keleghan confirmed wrote. “Gordon passionately loved this country and its people, purpose, and culture to his last breath.”

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With more than 150 credits to his name, Pinsent was known for starring in projects like “Away From Her” (2006), for which he earned several nominations and a Genie Award, among others. Some of his...

Gordon Pinsent, a prolific Canadian actor who gained international recognition in 2006 for his performance alongside Julie Christie in Sarah Polley’s drama “Away From Her,” died Saturday. He was 92 years old.

Pinsent’s death was confirmed to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation through a statement released by his family. No further details about his death are available at this time.

“Gordon Pinsent’s daughters, Leah and Beverly, and his son, Barry, would like to announce the passing of their father peacefully in sleep today with his family at his side,” reads a note written on behalf of Pinsent’s family by his son-in-law, Peter Keleghan. “Gordon passionately loved this country and its people, purpose and culture to his last breath.”

With more than 150 film and television acting credits, Pinsent’s career spanned seven decades and made him a household name in his native country. His role as a husband losing his...

Gordon Pinsent, one of Canada’s most iconic actors, has died. He was 92 and died in his sleep Saturday, his family confirmed.

“Gordon Pinsent’s daughters Leah and Beverly, and his son Barry, would like to announce the passing of their father peacefully in sleep today with his family at his side,” said a note written on behalf of Pinsent’s family by his son-in-law, actor Peter Keleghan.

“Gordon passionately loved this country and its people, purpose, and culture to his last breath.”

Pinsent’s career spanned dozens of films and TV projects over six decades, including Away From Her, Due South, The Red Green Show, Babar and the Adventures of Badou, The Grand Seduction and The Shipping News, The Forest Rangers, Quentin Durgens, M.P., the original Street Legal and Republic of Doyle, among others.

In the U.S., where he lived in Los Angeles for six years, he...

Gordon Pinsent, the admired Canadian actor who starred opposite Julie Christie as a husband losing his wife to Alzheimer’s disease in Sarah Polley’s Away From Her, died Saturday, his family announced. He was 92.

A household name in his country, Pinsent also appeared on the big screen in Norman Jewison’s The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Lasse Hallström’s The Shipping News (2001), Michael McGowan’s Saint Ralph (2004) and Don McKellar’s The Grand Seduction (2013).

On television, he played Possum Lake resident Hap Shaughnessy, a teller of tall tales, on the Canadian comedy The Red Green Show from 1991-2004 and was Chicago-based Royal Canadian Mounted Police sergeant Bob Fraser on the CTV/CBS series Due South from 1994-99.

And he served as the distinctive voice of Babar the Elephant in film and TV from 1989 through 2015.

In Away From Her (2006), which marked Polley’s directorial debut — she also received an Oscar nomination...

Gordon Pinsent, the adored Canadian actor whose career hit its peak well into his 70s with an award-winning performance as the heartbroken husband in “Away From Her”, has died.

Pinset died on Saturday evening at age 92, his friend actor Mark Critch confirmed.

The Newfoundland native, a household name in Canada for decades after his many appearances on stage and screen, became known internationally after his Genie Award-winning turn as Grant in Sarah Polley’s acclaimed directorial debut.

His dignified portrayal so impressed Daniel Day-Lewis, who went on to win the best actor Oscar in 2008 for “There Will Be Blood,” that he sent an email to Polley praising Pinsent’s performance as one of the most “astonishing” he’d ever seen.

Read more: Gordon Pinsent relives his remarkable life in ‘The River of My Dreams’

Those types of kudos tickled the modest Pinsent. Well into the final years of his life,...

Updated with more testimony, 5:09 Pm: Back on the witness stand Thursday, Paul Haggis denied sexually assaulting any of the four Jane Does who have testified in support of Haleigh Breest, the New York woman who is suing the Oscar-winning filmmaker and former Church of Scientology member for allegedly raping her in 2013.

On the stand for a second day, Haggis finished his direct testimony in the sexual assault civil trial by saying these “terrible false allegations” had left him both “scared” and “humiliated.”

“I’m scared because I don’t know why women or anyone would lie about things like this, make up or twist the truth,” Haggis said more than seven hours into questioning by his lawyer, Priya Chaudhry. “I don’t know.”

In a halting voice, he said, “To see my daughters sitting in the courtroom right now, my son and my family, I’m humiliated by these false allegations.

Kenneth Welsh, a prolific Canadian character actor with more than 200 screen credits, died Thursday evening. He was 80 years old.

Actra, the Canadian film and television union, confirmed the news on Friday. “Ken was one of Canada’s all-time great performers, with hundreds of memorable roles spanning decades,” Actra wrote in a statement. “He will be greatly missed. Our condolences to his loved ones.”

Actra Toronto is extremely saddened today by the passing of Kenneth Welsh. Ken was one of Canada’s all-time great performers, with hundreds of memorable roles spanning decades. He will be greatly missed. Our condolences to his loved ones. pic.twitter.com/SqcV3Wmhqk

— Actra Toronto (@ACTRAToronto) May 6, 2022

Welsh is best known to American audiences for his role as Windom Earle, the crazed FBI agent in Season 2 of the groundbreaking television series “Twin Peaks.”

In his native Canada, he was a consistent figure on television, frequently starring in TV films.

Robert Lantos’ Serendipity Point Films (“Crimes Of The Future”) and Beta Film are joining forces on “Rise of the Raven” (working title), a big-budget epic drama series about Janos Hunyadi, a fearless warrior who defeated the vast Ottoman army and defended Europe in 1456 at the Battle of Belgrade.

Based on Bán Mór’s bestselling novels, the 10-hour series will be showrun by award-winning director George Mihalka who will also direct the final three episodes. Mihalka’s drama credits include NBC’s “The Firm,” TNT’s “Transporter: The Series” and Showtime’s “Bullet to Beijing.” He’s also the recipient of the Directors’ Guild of Canada’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Robert Dornhelm, whose most recent TV series include “Vienna Blood” with Matthew Beard and “Maria Theresa,” will direct the first two episodes of “Rise of the Raven.” Dornhelm previously directed Emmy and Oscar-nominated productions such as “Anne Frank: The Whole Story” with Sir Ben Kingsley,...

Exclusive: The Good Doctor creator David Shore has re-upped his overall deal with Sony Pictures Television, extending his long-running relationship with the studio behind the hit ABC medical drama, which was just renewed for a fifth season.

Under the rich new four-year pact, believed to be in the eight-figure range, Shore will continue to executive produce and run The Good Doctor, as well as develop projects for the studio under his Shore Z Production banner.

With the new deal, Shore and Sony TV’s partnership will cross over the decade mark next year, one of the longest current showrunner tenures at Sony — and any TV studio. Other creative talent who have been at Sony TV for a long time include fellow showrunners Vince Gilligan, Shawn Ryan, Josh Berman and Robia Rashid as well as producers Doug Robinson, Neil H. Moritz and Seth Gordon.

Four seasons in, The Good Doctor ranks...

Lyndon Chubbuck, a director and photographer known for such film as 2001’s “War Bride” and 2000’s “The Right Temptation,” has died. He was 67.

Chubbuck died at his home in Los Angeles on April 13. He was married to prominent acting coach Ivana Chubbuck and was a co-founder of Ivana Chubbuck Studio, which has worked with such notables as Charlize Theron, Brad Pitt and Halle Berry.

Lyndon Chubbuck also served as a partner in advertising agency Andrew Janson & Partners, where he worked on campaigns for Swatch, Paramount Pictures, E!, Sallie Mae and Miller Brewing Company. He was known for his strong social conscience and also worked on creative material for the ACLU, Amnesty International and Salvation Army.

Born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area, Chubbuck worked steadily as a director in TV from the late 1980s through the late 1990s. His credits include episodes of such series as “Baywatch,” “Wiseguy,...

Brent Carver, a stage and screen actor who won the 1993 Tony Award for his performance in Broadway’s The Kiss of the Spider Woman, died Tuesday at his home in Cranbrook, British Columbia, his family has reported. He was 68.

A cause of death was not specified.

“Our family is sharing news of Brent Carver’s passing on Aug 4 at home in Cranbrook, BC, his birthplace and favourite place on Earth,” read a family statement. “Blessed with many talents and a natural love of theatre, Brent was always known as a first-class performer, unique in the presentation of his craft, delighting audiences through film, TV, stage and concert performances.”

Chita Rivera, Carver’s Kiss of the Spider Woman co-star who also won a Tony that year, said today, “My heart is broken at the loss of my great friend and amazing artist, Brent Carver. I shall miss him more than I can say.

Kaye Ballard, a comic actress and singer who was a regular presence on TV for decades and starred in the late-’60s NBC comedy The Mothers-in-Law, has died. Palm Springs-area paper The Desert Sun reported that the star also known for The Girl Most Likely and a half-dozen Broadway musicals died Monday at her home in Rancho Mirage.

Ballard had appeared on a couple of TV programs when she was cast as Marge opposite Jane Powell and Cliff Robertson in the 1958 big-screen musical comedy remake of The Girl Most Likely. She would appear in a handful of movies in the ensuing decades, but TV was her go-to medium.

In 1967 she starred with Eve Arden in The Mothers-in-Law, playing half of an unconventional couple, the Buells, who was best friends with their very-straight suburban neighbors the Hubbards (Arden and Herbert Rudley). The series struggled to lure viewers in its 8:30 Sunday...

Netflix's revival of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City has filled out its cast, and it includes a familiar face from the first installment of the series and a number of Lgbtq actors.

The show is also making a big effort to feature members of the Lgbtq behind the camera.

Paul Gross will return to Tales of the City to reprise his role as Brian Hawkins, the ex-husband of Mary Ann Singleton (Laura Linney, also returning) and the father of Shawna Hawkins (Ellen Page). Gross starred on the first Tales of the City in 1994 but was committed to Due South when ...

Louisa Mellor Feb 22, 2018

Real-world products and locations don’t always welcome association with TV shows. Here are 15 times shows struggled with permissions...

Forget the saying – not all advertising is good advertising. Companies will do almost as much to avoid the wrong use of their brand as they will to get plaster said brand all over our screens.

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Take Tupperware. Instead of thanking Antonio Bandaras for featuring its product in his 1999 directorial debut Crazy In Alabama, they forbade him use of the name. All because they didn’t want it thought that Tupperware was as useful for preserving decapitated human heads as lunchtime leftovers. “We had to call them plastic food containers,” remembers Bandaras.

Here are 15 times TV shows struggled...

With both The Hatton Garden Job in UK cinemas now, and We Still Steal the Old Way available on DVD from today, I thought i’d take a look at my favourite Top Five Heist/Crime Caper Movies… In order (for a change) they are:

5) In Security

In Security tells the story of best friends Kevin and Bruce, who are co-owners of a failing home security company in a town with no crime. As a last ditch effort to drum up some business, they start robbing the neighbors to instill fear and create a need for their services but bullets fly when they unwittingly rob the wrong guy – a suburban drug lord with a penchant for kitchen gadgets.

It’s fair to say I love a good goofball crime caper, but In Security however has much more than being just a “crime caper” going for it. For one it stars one of my favourite actors,...

Alastair Stewart Mar 2, 2017

Arguably, British tech ensemble Bugs paved the way for the likes of Spooks, Sherlock, Torchwood and more...

It feels a long time ago that watching Saturday night TV with the family was the norm, but back in the 1990s, millions crowded around the box for the likes of Noel's House Party, Due South, The Generation Game, and of course, Bugs. The latter ran for four series between 1995 and 1999 and arguably holds the distinction of being embryonic of later, more intensive, tech-heavy UK shows including Spooks and Sherlock.

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The general Bugs premise involved a team of crime-fighting gadget experts facing a range of modern (now charmingly redundant), technology-centred threats. The main triptych of regulars included Nick Beckett (Jesse Birdsall), Ros Henderson (Jaye Griffiths) and Ed (Neighbours alumnus Craig McLachlan in series...

Looking at Paul Gross’s two most recent films as writer-director, 2008’s World War I drama Passchendaele and this month’s Afghanistan pic Hyena Road, you might think he has a master plan; some reason he’s made two military movies in a row. That’s not the case.

“After doing Passchendaele I had no interest in ever doing another war film because they’re just so phenomenally difficult to execute,” he says over the phone from his Toronto home.

Gross, whose big break as an actor came playing Constable Benton Fraser on TV’s "Due South" in the 1990s, was asked to go to Afghanistan to visit the Canadian troops in 2010. Once there, he realized there was a story he wanted to tell.

“It was just mesmerizing to me, I’ve been in a lot of weird places, but never in an active war zone. It was so complicated and so strange,...

Going UNDERGROUNDEverybody and their dog, it seems, feels this off imperative to try to identify common themes in the handful of festival films they (we) (I) see in a given year. It's the Ghost of Hegel, I suppose, demanding that we make sense of our times by referring to some Zeitgeist. (Zeitgeist? Isn't this just as likely to Strand the FilmsWeLike in some oh-so-precious Music Box, to be unearthed years later by members of some as-yet-unassembled Cinema Guild? But I digress.) There may or may not be tendencies running through this year's feature selections, and if there are, that could have as much to do with the people who selected them than with any global mood. But there does seem to be a generalized turning-inward, with filmmakers making works about themselves and their immediate lives, the cinematic process, and the very complexities of communicating with other human beings. There are...

The very first pilot I watched on this job was for a CBS drama called "Ez Streets." Created by Paul Haggis — then best known for creating "Due South," but most commercially successful for having helped develop the "Walker, Texas Ranger" pilot — it was essentially an HBO drama before such a thing existed: dark, dense, ambitious, heartbreaking, and addictive. It even featured Joe Pantoliano playing a sociopath gangster years before he won an Emmy for it on "The Sopranos" (and was, to my mind, better as Jimmy Murtha than as Ralphie Ciffaretto). It was also the first time I got my heart broken in this job. Despite rave reviews from me and my more established colleagues across the country, "Ez Streets" was Doa: CBS pulled it off the air after only two episodes had aired, and though most of the remaining episodes would air the following winter, it was just running out the string.

Friends was a solid ratings performer right out of the gate and went on to be an essential part of NBC's powerhouse Thursday lineups. But other stuff aired on Thursdays, too. Here, a list of all the network shows that were up against Friends on a regular basis:1994–1995 TV season Thursdays, 8:30–9 p.m. (fall); 9:30–10 p.m. (spring)When Friends debuted, it was opposite another beloved classic, My So-Called Life. CBS was airing Due South, a quirky hourlong dramedy about a Canadian mountie who winds up in Chicago, and Fox was airing Living Single. In the second half of the season, Friends was up against ABC's The Commish, CBS's newsmagazine Eye to Eye With Connie Chung, and Fox's solid New York Under Cover. Though they didn't air in the same time slot, this is the year that both Matlock and Friends were on on Thursday nights. Those shows do...

Canada is awesome, eh! Seriously, as an expat living in Canada, I can attest to Canada being one of the greatest countries in the world. While Canada has produced countless wonderful television shows (Kids In the Hall, Road to Avonlea, Due South, Forever Knight, Big Wolf on Campus, etc, etc), sometimes the Canadian entertainment CV […]

Read 7 Awesome Movies Aboot Canadians That’ll Have You Grabbing Your Two-Fours on Filmonic.

As amply evidenced by his latest film, Third Person, Paul Haggis is a purveyor of pain, which isn't something I would ever expect from someone who wrote for the 1980s TV sitcom The Facts of Life and created small-screen shows such as Walker, Texas Ranger and Due South. It's possible that Haggis' career since then has been a reaction to those experiences, although the more likely explanation is that he is more willing than most to tap a deep personal reservoir of despair, whether from personality or knowledge, and express dark emotions through his characters, especially in films he has directed, such as Crash and The Next Three Days. The latter, at least, had a strong narrative hook that gave the film a modest impetus....

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Chicago – Not many Oscar winning screeenwriters change the course of their professional lives because of a dream (story below), but Paul Haggis is an exceptionally brilliant writer whose credits include “Crash” (2005) and “Million Dollar Baby” (2004) – which both won Best Picture – and his new film, “Third Person.”

“Third Person” is about the life a writer, portrayed by Liam Neeson, and it is about the circumstances surrounding his life. The ensemble cast includes Mila Kunis, Adrien Brody, Maria Bello, Olivia Wilde, James Franco and Kim Basinger, all surrounding and inspiring Neeson’s character. This is the fourth film Paul Haggis has directed, among his many creations as a TV and film writer.

Paul Haggis directs Liam Neeson and Olivia Wilde in ‘Third Person’

Photo credit: Sony Pictures Classics

Paul Haggis was born in London, Ontario, and bounced around in his early years as a artist and photographer, and studied cinematography at Fanshawe College in Canada.

I’ve ended up watching a weirdly large number of cop shows in my lifetime. I don’t know what it is that sucks me in or why I persist in watching so many of them. Most of them have one thing in common, there are a couple of main characters who snap dialog off each other and usually get on each other’s nerves.

I’ve been a fan of shows like “Castle” and “Due South” for a long time. I’ve enjoyed “Psych” probably much more than I should. The shows that interject some humor into the situations the characters are in are the ones that, unfailingly, keep me as a viewer. Without something to break up all that darkness, a cop show just devolves into ever more depressing episodes and eventually, I’m going to go somewhere else and find something that I at least enjoy watching.

Simon Baker (above), who is 44, Delta Burke is 57, Hilary Swank is 39, Lisa Kudrow is 50, and Kate Bush is 55. And a Birthday shoutout to Tbl reader OmViRa.

Thank you for all of your Birthday wishes!

Bradley Manning found not guilty of aiding the enemy, guilty of most other counts

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Josh Hartnett and Eva Green will star in the Showtime “literary horror” series Penny Dreadful, which will “feature Dr. Frankenstein and his creature, Dorian Gray and iconic figures from the Dracula novel.”

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On Thursday, Minnesota will become the 12th state to recognize same-sex marriages, but 42 years ago in the same state, Jack Baker and Michael McConnell became what is believed to be the first gay couple to legally wed in the U.

There’s been a lot of doom and gloom in the Geek Girl columns of late. I blame some of that on winter TV. Networks seem to run shows that are darker and more depressing during the winter. This isn’t to say that I couldn’t find some happier fare if I just set my mind to looking for it, but so much of it seems so inane that I end up losing interest pretty easily.

One of the things that I do seem to end up watching frequently are cop shows and procedural dramas. That’s no surprise, given the columns about “Castle” and “Elementary” earlier. It’s not a preference that I trouble myself over too much. I’ve also established that I am a fan of the genre blender. Mash-ups, especially those that seem unlikely but still manage to work have a way of drawing me in like nothing else.

No doubt here — House creator David Shore is on his way back to primetime. ABC has handed a pilot order to Doubt, a legal drama written and executive produced by Shore. The project, from Sony TV where Shore is under a deal, centers on a former cop who’s now a cunning, but charming low-rent lawyer who uses his street smarts to work the system for his clients while battling his own demons and wooing his ex-wife. Related: Dramas From Kyle Killen, Sofia Vergara & Ben Silverman Get ABC Pilot Pickups Doubt originally landed at ABC with a pilot production commitment after heated bidding between ABC and CBS. It marks Shore’s return to his legal roots. He is a lawyer by trade and former partner at a boutique law firm in Toronto. A legal drama script, an L.A. Law spec, landed him his first writing job on Paul Haggis’ Due South.

Exclusive: In his follow-up to House, David Shore is returning to his legal roots. After heated bidding between ABC and CBS, a legal drama from the House creator/executive producer has landed at ABC with a pilot production commitment. Shore will write and executive produce the untitled drama, described as a high-end, character-driven procedural about a former cop who’s now a cunning but charming low-rent lawyer who uses his street smarts to work the system for his clients while battling his own demons and wooing his ex-wife. This marks the first project Shore has set up since the end of House‘s eight-season run, which he shepherded. It was the first pitch he took out with Sony Pictures TV, where he signed a three-year overall deal in July after eight years at NBCUniversal. For ABC, the aggressive pursuit of a character procedural indicates a desire to balance the network’s drama portfolio,...

Exclusive: After eight years at NBCUniversal, House creator/executive producer David Shore is moving to Sony Pictures TV with a three-year overall deal to develop new projects. Under the eight-figure deal, Shore will build up his banner Shore Z Prods. into a full-fledged production company. He is expected to hire a development executive, and along with his own projects, will also develop shows with other writers. Shore, a former partner at a boutique law firm in Toronto, originally planned to pursue a career as a comedy writer but his legal background helped him break into the drama field with an L.A. Law spec script, which landed him his first writing job on Paul Haggis’ Due South. In 1996, David E. Kelley picked Shore as one of the three original writers on The Practice. After stints on several drama series, including Law & Order and Family Law, Shore wrote the pilot script for...

Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

The leading ‘Best British TV’ streaming service Acorn TV is now streaming full seasons of several popular British mystery and drama series, along with two critically acclaimed Canadian series. This week Acorn TV also has a special Memorial Day Weekend Midsomer Marathon with the first 22 episodes of its best-selling series,Midsomer Murders, and the U.S. debut of John Nettles final episodes.

Acorn TV is currently streaming a full season of Helen Mirren in Prime Suspect; the final seasons of the universally acclaimed Canadian dramedy Slings & ARROWSand Derek Jacobi’s mystery series Cadfael; the U.S. debut of the newest season of Murdoch Mysteries; Lynda La Plante’s Trial & Retribution; John Mortimer’s Under The Hammer; the final episodes of WWII drama Wish Me Luck; Richard Griffiths (Harry Potter) in Pie In The Sky; and John Nettles final episodes with Midsomer Murders,...

I recently stumbled upon the Canadian sitcom Men With Brooms, which aired last year on the CBC channel in Canada. Men With Brooms wasn't picked up for a second season, making the 12 episodes of the first season the entire run of the series. That's a real shame in my mind, because as the show progressed it began to really develop into something special.

Men With Brooms was a sweet little sitcom about a group of friends who hang out in a bar and form a curling team. You know curling, that sport we try to care about during the Winter Olympics but can't because it's too boring? The one on ice with the stones and the brooms? It's all the excitement of hockey only without the fights, at one millionth of the speed and with no actual excitement.

The show is based off the 2002 movie of the same name starring...

Round 1 of our Ultimate Law-Enforcement Crushes Bracket Tournament comes to a close with today’s quartet of match-ups, and that means we’ll soon be left with only 32 hotties from our initial field of 64.

The latest combatants in our single-elimination showdown include characters from Twin Peaks, Mi-5, CSI, Third Watch, The X-Files, Dollhouse, Without a Trace, and Cold Case.

Law-Enforcement Hotties Day 6: 24, Alias, Jag,

Due South, CHiPs, Santa Barbara and L&O Guys Do Battle!

What does this mean to you and your family? It means that it’s time to sit down and vote in the polls below,...

And on the seventh day, they arrested.

Yes, folks, we’ve reached Day 7 of our Ultimate Law-Enforcement Crushes Bracket Tournament, and we’ve got hotties from Dexter, Luther, Criminal Minds, Haven, Hawaii Five-0, Burn Notice, and Chuck entering the fray of our 64-player, single-elimination showdown.

Law-Enforcement Hotties Day 6: 24, Alias, Jag,

Due South, CHiPs, Santa Barbara and L&O Guys Do Battle!

What does this mean to you and your family? It means that it’s time to sit down and vote in the polls below, then alert your friends and fellow TV junkies to do the same!

Tomorrow, the...

My DVD collection contains some oddities, to say the least. I have stuff ranging from all of the seasons of Due South to the most complete collection of Snoopy cartoons I can amalgamate given current releases (which is pretty darn shockingly complete, if I may say so myself). So it’s honestly not a surprise to find some strange or obscure movies in there.

I recently ordered a copy of the movie Groupie and watched it over the weekend. I’m going to have to admit that the main reason that I bought the movie is because it’s got Hal Ozsan in it. Since he is one of the actors I currently really dig, it was kind of a no brainer when I realized that it would be released on June 14th and it was relatively inexpensive.

I’m also going to admit that I’m pretty easily entertained.

Kim Cattrall will make a return to Broadway in the upcoming production of Private Lives. The Sex and the City actress previously starred in last year's London staging of Private Lives, which was written by Noël Coward in 1930. Canadian actor Paul Gross, best known for his work in Due South and The Red Green Show, will star opposite Cattrall. Private Lives is the comedic tale of a formerly married couple who accidentally meet up at a resort while honeymooning with new partners. Five-time Olivier Award winner Richard Eyre will direct, while (more)...

To his credit, Paul Haggis has not used the fact that his coming-out party as director, "Crash" won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, to churn out a series of Oscar-bait films. Instead, the "Due South" creator has mostly stuck to the kind of middlebrow thrillers to which he's suited, ranging from the superior ("In The Valley Of Elah", "Casino Royale") to the ridiculous ("Quantum of Solace," "The Next Three Days"). The writer-director hasn't yet chosen his next project, but has been circling a few, mostly within his comfort zone: a possible remake of "The Equalizer," with Russell Crowe, an…...

The producer of Barney's Version, Robert Lantos, chats to us about the film, about getting small budget movies made, and the mighty Due South...

This interview starts with me being absolutely gushing about Barney's Version, with as close to fawning adoration as you can get over a very quiet phone line to North America. Don't think this is me overcompensating, though, or fulfilling my end of a deal. I had to return a screener disc last week, leaving me empty and bereft of a repeat viewing.

No, I am true to my word. Barney's Version is every bit as good as my opening salvo suggests. Better, even. But I'm trying to temper expectations. Play it down a little bit, all of which means that talking to the film's producer, the prolific Robert Lantos, is a very nice thing, indeed.

Lantos has been making films for over thirty years, a pioneer...

Enrico Colantoni is glad to be back in his native Toronto filming "Flashpoint," for reasons beyond the show itself.

After the hasty demise of "Chaos," the hostage-negotiation-team drama has quickly rejoined the CBS lineup on Fridays for its fourth season, actually made up of episodes that constituted the end of its third season on CTV in Canada (where the series is made). Getting to work in his hometown again as police-team leader Greg Parker pleases the friendly Colantoni, formerly of "Veronica Mars" and "Just Shoot Me!"

"We appreciate it when CBS can utilize us," he tells Zap2it from Toronto. "The show is very popular here. Every time I used to come home, I'd say, 'I'm an actor' ... and people would say, 'Oh, really? What have you been in?' I'd tell people what I did, and they'd go, 'Oh. Never heard of it.' What's that saying, 'You're never...

Don't let Hollywood's sugary adaptation put you off reading Mordecai Richler's acid novel, Barney's Version

From behind his Coke-bottle glasses, the bookseller on the Charing Cross Road focused his magnified eyeballs as narrowly as he was able. "Mordecai Richler?" he said, releasing a frisson of fine dust. "Now there's a name from the past."

For those of us to whom the ghost of Canada's greatest satirical writer remains a biting presence, this was not the most reassuring of statements – especially issuing from a bookseller who himself gave the appearance of having been not so much born as unearthed in some archaeological dig. But such was Mordecai Richler's currency when I checked recently in London – where he lived for two decades and about which he often wrote, largely from the expat's point of view. To wit: none of the used bookshops on the Charing Cross Road carried any of Richler's 10 novels.

Chicago – Working with high level actors such as Paul Giamatti and Dustin Hoffman didn’t faze director Richard J. Lewis. He had pursued the film version of the Mordecai Richler’s novel “Barney’s Version” for several years, and it was his direction that recently got Giamatti (as Barney) the Golden Globe Award.

Lewis is a veteran of television, serving as a producer on the seminal police drama “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” from 2002 to 2009. Before that, he directed several shows, including “Due South,” Showtime’s “Beggars and Choosers” and most recently “The Defenders.” He scored a notable feature debut with “Whale Music” [1994] and even directed “K-9:Pi” [2002] starring Jim Belushi.

Director Richard J. Lewis on the set of ‘Barney’s Version’

Photo credit: Sony Pictures Classic

Richard J. Lewis sat down for a lively Q&A with HollywoodChicago.com when he was in Chicago this week promoting Barney’s Version.

Fan campaigns aimed at saving canceled TV shows are a common feature of the television landscape these days. They take their inspiration from the fandom groups that strived to keep the original series of Star Trek on the air and draw hope from rare and limited successes such as those associated with Jericho and Farscape.

Few shows that have been canceled by a supporting network have returned to television. Rare exceptions include Canada's own Due South, which was dropped twice by its Us broadcaster CBS and resurrected with the help of, among others, the BBC. Another example is the fine British sci-fi series Primeval. That was axed after three seasons by ITV and then saved with input from new backers. It returns to our own splendid Space Channel (something of which Canadian sci-fan fans are justifiably proud) on January 18.

Given that reanimation of axed shows is so rare, fans of...

Director Paul Haggis teams up with Russell Crowe to deliver the jailbreak thriller The Next Three Days. Here’s Luke’s review…

They're back. Those TV adverts for films which have normal people raving about how much they enjoyed the film playing behind them. For a moment, I thought they'd gone, a bygone marketing tool consigned to the scrap heap. What do we need real people for nowadays? We've got computers and stuff.

Turn on the TV, though, wait a while, and you might just catch one advertising The Next Three Days. It's filled with the usual people. Smiley, happy people. Shouldn't you be worried about Vat and jobs and potholes, like the rest of us? I guess not. You've got films to watch, cameras to talk to.

They're kind of frustrating, like reading an old Paul Ross review when every new week would herald the arrival of "My new...

As The Next Three Days arrives in the UK, we chat to its writer and director, Mr Paul Haggis about the film, and working with Russell Crowe and Brian Dennehy...

There's never enough time. Too true, Jean Claude van Damme in Timecop. Too true. And nowhere is it more true than when we caught up with writer-producer-director Paul Haggis to talk about his latest film, The Next Three Days. 

Seven minutes is barely enough time to scratch the surface with a filmmaker who's given us great TV (Due South), the screenplay for one of Clint Eastwood's best films (Million Dollar Baby), and a meaner, edgier James Bond. But it's better than six, I guess, so let's be thankful for that.

We caught up with him at The London Film Museum (an incredible venue. Check it out at once!) to talk Russell Crowe, mainstream Hollywood and the legendary Brian Dennehy.

The passing away yesterday of the late great Leslie Nielsen has led to an outpouring of love and fond memories in print and online. The actor was battling pneumonia in a Fort Lauderdale hospital when he passed away in his sleep on Sunday.

It seemed many in the Twitter and Facebook universes spent most of late Sunday quoting lines from the brilliant scripts for "The Naked Gun" and its progenitor "Police Squad", or Nielsen's work in 1980 comedy spoof "Airplane" (aka. "Flying High").

With over a hundred film and TV credits to his name since his earliest work in 1950, Nielsen's trademark was his delivery of lines with a voice of authority. This commanding presence suited him well in dramatic roles in the likes of "Forbidden Planet," "Prom Night," "CIty on Fire" and "The Poseidon Adventure", but it was applying that same deadpan skill to comedy which lead to a career renaissance...