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Post by orokiah on Jul 27, 2008 16:52:01 GMT
'Towards Zero', the episode of Agatha Christie's Marple that stars Zoe Tapper, is finally getting a UK showing next week - Sunday 3rd August at 8pm on ITV1.
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Post by orokiah on Aug 6, 2008 16:28:42 GMT
Scan of an interview with Zoe Tapper from 'Reveal' magazine, discussing her role in Marple. Nice to see her role in Hex getting a mention, even if it's only as a past credit: (click on image for full size)
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Post by orokiah on Aug 21, 2008 15:07:49 GMT
The latest issue of Death Ray (#15) has an article on the next generation of UK genre TV, featuring a Q & A with Joe Ahearne, Tim Haines, Johnny Capps and Andrew Mark Sewell.
It's an excellent, in-depth piece and there's a small article on what they call the 'Van Helsing project' within it, confirming the reason why it hasn't got a name yet. According to Johnny Capps:
"Van Helsing was trademarked by Universal when Stephen Sommers did the movie. You would have thought that something in the public domain couldn't be trademarked! We're working on it."
Oops...
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Post by fenris on Aug 21, 2008 15:21:13 GMT
EDIT: orokiah posted the above while I was in the midst of writing this entry. Great minds think alike, etc.
The current issue of Death Ray magazine has a lengthy article in which Johnny Capps, Ultraviolet and Apparitions creator/writer/director Joe Ahearne, and the producers of Primeval and Sky's proposed Blake's 7 remake are all asked a series of questions about the current boom in British sci-fi/fantasy programming. Capps briefly mentions Hex, saying that the genre was so unfashionable (before the successful revival of Doctor Who in 2005) that getting Hex commissioned in 2003 was a major achievement at the time.
The article has a brief sidebar dedicated to Shine's Van Helsing series. Apparently the reason why a title for the show still hasn't been finalised is because of copyright reasons.
(Brief bit of background, not included in the article but which I was already aware of: after the success of their movie Bram Stoker's Dracula in the early Nineties, Universal planned a sequel in which Anthony Hopkins would reprise his role as vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing. It never happened, but after a decade of development and script rewrites what eventually emerged was Steve Sommers' hugely disappointing CGI-fest Van Helsing, starring Hugh Jackman. Somewhere along the way, it had occurred to the suits at Universal that since Stoker's original novel and all it's characters are in the public domain, anyone can make movies about Abraham Van Helsing, so to protect their multi-million dollar investment they insisted that the hero of Sommers' film be an entirely new character - Gabriel Van Helsing - and therefore under their copyright.)
According to Capps in the Death Ray article, Universal are making noises that the name 'Van Helsing' is copyrighted to them (He doesn't elaborate, but I'm presuming that Universal's objections are solely to the name being used in the title of a TV show or movie. I don't see how even a huge Hollywood studio can claim copyright on a surname in common use. Plus, the makers of the CBBC series Young Dracula don't appear to have had any problems naming two of their regular characters Eric and Jonathan Van Helsing). As a result, a title for the series won't be decided upon until the legal position has been clarified. Regarding air-dates, the article merely says that 'the untitled Van Helsing project' will be screened in either late 2008 or early 2009.
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Post by orokiah on Sept 8, 2008 18:17:29 GMT
There's a feature on Autumn drama in the new issue of TV & Satellite Week (13-19 September), which includes a picture of Zoe Tapper as Anya in Survivors: Autumn drama preview: Survivors and ApparitionsThere've been pictures floating around of Freema Agyeman filming but this is the first I've seen of Zoe Tapper. If I remember correctly TV Zone even got her mixed up with Zoe Lucker of Footballers' Wives fame in their report on the casting of Survivors.
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Post by fenris on Sept 14, 2008 12:31:14 GMT
The You magazine supplement in today's Mail on Sunday (14/09/08) has a feature and photoshoot dedicated to six young actresses who are starring in high-profile TV series this coming Autumn. Zoe Tapper is one of them, the others being Claire Foy, who will be playing the title role in a BBC1 adaptation of Little Dorrit; Andrea Riseborough (the ghost in Being Human) who will be appearing alongside Michael Fassbender in The Devil's Whore; Ashley Madekwe, currently playing Bambi in the second series of Secret Diary of a Call Girl; Katie Leung (Cho Chang in the Harry Potter movies), who will be in the Poirot episode 'Cat Amongst the Pigeons'; and Charlotte Reily (ironically, a Zoe Tapper lookalike), soon to play Cathy in a new ITV1 version of Wuthering Heights. Here's a link to the on-line duplicate of the feature; www.dailymail.co.uk/you/article-1053532/Small-screen-gems-The-young-British-actresses-watch.html
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Post by milkybars on Sept 14, 2008 18:52:05 GMT
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Post by orokiah on Oct 2, 2008 16:32:22 GMT
ITV have put up a new sponsorship section on the Untitled Van Helsing Project, which contains a short preview clip: tinyurl.com/4hq82wThe date of broadcast has been pushed back to early 2009 - and it also notes that the title has still (!) to be decided.
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Post by fenris on Oct 2, 2008 20:10:29 GMT
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Post by orokiah on Oct 3, 2008 16:52:49 GMT
Incidentally, have just found ITV's official press release for The Untitled Van Helsing Project, which was only made available surprisingly recently, on 17/09/08. It's identical to the press release that was issued in February. Not sure why they put it out again now - maybe because the series is right around the corner. Assuming they can decide on a title for it that is. The content of that link is mirrored at another of ITV's media sites, ITV Sales, if it's of any use in getting the clip to play..?
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Post by fenris on Oct 4, 2008 16:13:08 GMT
The content of that link is mirrored at another of ITV's media sites, ITV Sales, if it's of any use in getting the clip to play..? Thanks orokiah, the clip plays for me on that site. Hmm... they're certainly not skimping on the monsters, are they? Though some of the latex make-up on the actors (Mackenzie Crook in particular) looks slightly dodgy, in a deliberately-exaggerated-so-not-to-frighten-the-kiddies-type way.
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Post by orokiah on Oct 13, 2008 16:59:18 GMT
Check out the ITV sponsorship link( s) again - the title's been changed. The Last Van Helsing is apparently now known as... Demons. So I take it Shine lost whatever legal battle was going on behind the scenes over the Van Helsing name. Demons is going to take some getting used to, but it's growing on me.
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Post by orokiah on Oct 15, 2008 10:21:12 GMT
Anyone going to London Expo? There's going to be a Demons panel and preview there on the 25th, with Johnny Capps, Julian Murphy, Tom Harper and Christian Cooke attending. Details here. That link also contains what looks like an amended press release, which has the new title in it and some information on Richard Wilson and Kevin McNally's characters: Philip Glenister (Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes) plays Rupert Galvin, a larger-than-life American with a tragic past and a zero tolerance policy to the rabble of mythical “half-life” entities that exist all around us. When he bursts into the life of his teenage godson, Luke (Christian Cooke – Echo Beach, Robin Hood), whose father died in mysterious circumstances 15-years before, little does Luke know what will be thrust upon him. There are supernatural forces of evil at work and it is Luke’s destiny, as the last descendent of the Van Helsing line, to smite the half-lives that stalk our streets.
While trying to juggle an ordinary life of school exams, parties and learning to drive – not to mention keeping it all from his mum - Luke is catapulted into a world of vampires, demons and zombies, along with his best friend Ruby (Holliday Grainger – The Bad Mother’s Handbook, Waterloo Road). But he remains cool – it’s in his blood after all…
Helping Galvin to train Luke in his quest is the beautiful but icy cold Mina Harker (Zoe Tapper - Affinity, A Harlot's Progress) a blind concert pianist with a history, who is also the foremost authority on the undesirable entities preying on humanity. The sinister and mouldering Father Simeon (Richard Wilson – One Foot In The Grave, Merlin) is Luke’s other source of information on the lore and myth behind the creatures he faces.
But before they have time to properly prepare Luke, he is faced with a daunting opponent in the form of the villainous Gladiolus Thrip (Mackenzie Crook -The Office, Pirates of the Caribbean) a sinister vampire with a burning hatred for the Van Helsing line and all they stand for. Throughout the series Luke faces an array of terrifying adversaries – including the half-man half-rat Mr Tibbs (Kevin McNally – Pirates of the Carribean), who bears a deep and personal grudge against a member of the team…
Demons is a Shine production for ITV and is due to transmit in early 2009.
The six-part series is a Shine production for ITV1. Founded by Elisabeth Murdoch, Shine has produced shows such as Hex, Sugar Rush and Sinchronicity. The new show is produced by International Emmy Award winning Producers Julian Murphy (As If, Hex, Sugar Rush) and Johnny Capps (As If, Hex, Sugar Rush) and directed by Tom Harper (Cherries, Spoil) and Matthew Evans (Robin Hood, Rebus). Dean Hargrove is the executive producer for Sony Pictures. The series is written by Peter Tabern (Johnny and the Bomb, Hex), Howard Overman (Hotel Babylon, New Tricks) and Lucy Watkins (Sinchronicity, Hex).
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Post by fenris on Oct 15, 2008 19:40:00 GMT
Wow. Thanks for all the info, orokiah. My initial reaction to the new title is that it's too generic... but it might grow on me.
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Post by fenris on Oct 27, 2008 19:39:45 GMT
Anyone going to London Expo? There's going to be a Demons panel and preview there on the 25th, with Johnny Capps, Julian Murphy, Tom Harper and Christian Cooke attending. Here's a link to a news item on the SFX website about the Demons preview at the London Expo last Saturday, including a lengthy interview with Johnny Capps; www.sfx.co.uk/page/sfx?entry=demons_previewed_at_london_expo
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