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Post by fenris on Sept 29, 2010 19:12:39 GMT
Human Target is receiving it's UK debut this week, when it begins (with a double bill of episodes) on Wednesday (14/04/10) at 22:00 on SyFy. makes it's Freeview debut next week, when it begins on Fiver on Thursday (07/10/10) at 22:00. |
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Post by orokiah on Nov 23, 2010 17:08:29 GMT
'Among the Few', the episode of Foyle's War which guest stars Christina as Violet, is being shown on ITV3 this Thursday (25/11/10) at 9pm.
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Post by fenris on Dec 11, 2010 15:52:38 GMT
'Victoria', the episode of Human Target in which Christina guest-stars as the titular character, has it's first screening on Freeview this Thursday (16/12/10) on Fiver at 22:00. |
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Post by fenris on Dec 17, 2010 21:20:45 GMT
Watched the Human Target episode 'Victoria' last night on Fiver. Clearly inspired by the various conspiracy theories that sprang up following the death of Princess Diana, the storyline has Christopher Chance having to protect Victoria, Princess of Wales and the heir to the British throne (in the Human Target universe, the Queen of England has no sons, just two daughters, with Victoria the eldest) from an assassination attempt being carried out by her own security detail.
Despite being married to a fellow blueblood (she says their union was "negotiated"), Victoria has fallen in love with a commoner and is planning a divorce. A senior Royal adviser, together with Victoria's husband and the Princess's own bodyguards, have decided to kill her to avoid the resulting scandal.
As you can guess from that synopsis, creditability isn't really an issue here, though of course Human Target is ultimately just a mainstream adventure series in which such implausible storylines are standard, and merely act as the trigger for assorted chase scenes and action set-pieces.
However, it is slightly annoying that the script displays the same naive & outdated view of modern Royal life that has been evident in American films and TV shows for as long as I can remember. Yes, it is true that until fairly recently, Royal marriages were arranged *, but it hasn't been that way for some time now. And the episode would also have us believe that if she marries a commoner, Royal protocol states that Victoria will be removed from the line of succession and have no claim to the throne - despite the fact that when 'Victoria' originally aired in America, Prince William (second in line to the throne and a future King) had publicly been having a relationship with a commoner for several years (they have of course since become engaged) with no question of any interference to his eventual succession.
Christina gives an engaging, convincing and fun performance as Victoria. There's a humourous - if obvious - scene where Chance and the Princess are on the run, and he throws together a disguise for her that consists of a black bob wig, too much eye-shadow, a low-cut top and short skirt, whereupon the two of them are mistaken for a streetwalker and her john. Victoria even gets to weld a sword against her attackers in the episode's museum climax, as it's earlier been explained that she's an expert fencer. Of course, this doesn't explain how she's suddenly adept with a broadsword, which is an entirely different weapon (the Uwe Boll movie House of the Dead makes an identical mistake). It's just sloppy scriptwriting, I'm afraid.
Unfortunately, there's also a distasteful plot development halfway thorough the episode, when Chance and Victoria receive invaluable help from a former IRA terrorist who was responsible for an earlier assassination attempt upon the Princess, when she was only eight years old. Clearly, although it's been nearly a decade since the events of 9/11 awoke Americans to the ugly and pitiless reality of terrorism, some of our transatlantic cousins still cling to the notion of the IRA as noble freedom fighters. However, this subplot does give Christina her best moment in the episode: with the IRA man pointing a gun at her head, Victoria stridently tells him that she'd like to "empty that gun into your Irish face." Respect.
* In the case of Charles and Diana, less than thirty years ago, it is now public knowledge that Charles was bluntly told by his parents and their advisers that it was time for him to marry and produce a heir, whereupon he was given a list of girls who were all from well-respected, aristocratic families and known to be virgins - and told to simply pick one of them. He chose Lady Diana Spencer, despite the fact that the two of them had only briefly met on two occasions... and we all know how well that turned out.
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Post by orokiah on Dec 22, 2010 14:16:23 GMT
Christina Cole and former Primeval star James Murray are among the cast of forthcoming spy series Chaos, just announced by CBS as part of their mid-season schedule: CHAOS, a comedic drama about a group of rogue CIA spies in the Clandestine Administration and Oversight Services, premieres Friday, April 1 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT). CHAOS will succeed THE DEFENDERS, which will have completed its on-air order for the season.
CHAOS stars Freddy Rodriguez, Eric Close, Tim Blake Nelson, James Murray, Kurtwood Smith, Carmen Ejogo and Christina Cole. Tom Spezialy, Brett Ratner and Martha Haight are executive producers for Twentieth Century Fox Television in association with CBS Television Studios.SourceAccording to the official website, Christina is playing Deputy Director Adele Ferrer. |
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Post by orokiah on Jan 13, 2011 14:34:33 GMT
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Post by orokiah on Feb 12, 2011 15:04:16 GMT
What A Girl Wants, Christina's film debut - in which she stars alongside man of the moment Colin Firth - is being repeated on Channel 5 tomorrow (13/02/11) at 3.15pm.
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Post by orokiah on Apr 2, 2011 11:11:43 GMT
Christina's assault on US TV continues - alongside Chaos, which premiered yesterday, she's making a guest appearance on Breakout Kings in episode 1.5, 'Queen of Hearts'. It airs on A&E on 3rd April at 10/9c. She's playing Lilah Tompkins, a 'ruthless woman convicted of murdering her husband by stabbing him 48 times' (!). The trailer for the episode is here. |
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Post by orokiah on Apr 7, 2011 12:07:03 GMT
Christina Cole is guest starring in episode three of the new series of Lewis, 'The Mind Has Mountains', playing the role of Claire Gansa.
It airs on ITV1 on Sunday 17th April at 8pm.
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Post by orokiah on Apr 19, 2011 13:02:08 GMT
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Post by orokiah on Jul 1, 2011 17:19:35 GMT
David Hewlett, best known for Stargate Atlantis, talks a little bit about Christina, who he's co-starring with in the still-unbroadcast Morlocks, in an interview with SciFiAndTvTalk: Hewlett ventured overseas to Bulgaria last year to shoot Morlocks, an upcoming Syfy Original Saturday Night Movie in which his character of Radnor along with others fight for their lives against an horrific Sci-Fi nasty. “Ah, yes, the madness, or should I say Mad Matt [director Matt Codd]; I just knew him as Mad Matt in Bulgaria,” jokes the actor. “I love that guy to bits. He’s so wonderfully crazy. Matt was out there making a 100 million dollar movie for something like 100 dollars, and Bulgarian dollars, literally, for that matter. Everything that could go wrong pretty much did, but despite that, he was just amazing. Matt was very good at rallying the troops and I genuinely enjoyed working with him.
“I saw some footage when I went to do ADR [automated dialogue replacement], and the film looks terrific. I can’t believe what they’ve managed to pull off. Yes, it’s a Syfy Saturday movie, so it is what it is, but at the same time I think Matt has outdone himself in the genre. It looks great and it has a terrific cast. They were such characters. I love working with the Brits, They are so down to Earth and funny and they do what I like to do on-set, which is goof around right up to the last second and then, bang, they snap into character and nail it [the scene]. They don’t take it too seriously and they don’t take themselves too seriously, either. As a result they’re the best people to work with. And Robert Picardo [Richard Woolsey on Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis] was there, too. He was fantastic and such a great person. If you’re going to spend some time in Bulgaria he’s the guy to do it with.
“I’m curious to see how this one turns out. Again, it’s a Syfy Saturday movie, so everyone knows what they’re getting, but that said, I think you’ll be seeing some fantastic blood explosion effects. I was introduced to what is called a ‘blood cannon’ on Morlocks, where they basically shove a bunch of stuff into an air cannon and then fire it at your face. My first experience was one day when I walked onto the set and they said to me, ‘OK, we’re going to do this blood cannon effect.’ I said to them, “Why would you call it a blood cannon and then tell me you’re going to fire it at my face. It seems like a bad idea.’
“These big Bulgarian [special] effects guys are sitting there on the set with this cannon, so I look at it and it’s these two giant containers of compressed air that feed into a funnel. They just put stuff into the funnel and fire at you. I said to them, ‘That looks like it’s a little bit too close,’ They said, ‘Oh, OK,’ and picked it up and started moving it back. I, of course, had a little hissy fit, and said, ‘Wait a sec. How can you not know for sure whether or not it’s too close?’ I mean, they were pointing this thing at my face, the one thing that, for some odd reason, pays the bills.
“So I said, ‘I’m not doing it until we’ve done a test first with eye protection.’ Obviously they couldn’t do the test on me, so Matt recruits his poor friend who’s helping him out and sticks him in front of the cannon. They fire it off and he gets hit with one little piece of sponge. It was a complete disaster, and I was all happy because I was like, ‘See, I saved you guys. If we shot that you would have had to fix my wardrobe as well as make-up and shoot it again.’ In other words I justified my hissy fit,” says Hewlett laughing.
“When they shot the next test, they upped the ante a bit and nailed him from head to toe with blood and gore. The effects guys were like, ‘That was great!’ I said, ‘OK, fine,’ so we shoot the scene and it was me and poor Christina Cole [Kelly], who’s the female lead in the film, and again, a terrific British actress. She’s extremely talented and can do anything. Christina is standing beside me as we get hit by this blood cannon. It’s absolutely freezing outside and even colder in the studio, and once they fired all this [fake] blood and guts at us, Matt said, ‘Great, that’s a wrap for the day.’ Suddenly, all the power in the building goes out.
“We’re staggering around in the dark with flashlights, covered in freezing gore. There’s no light, there’s no hot water in the showers, so we drive back to the hotel and arrive looking like we’d just been spat out of a blender. Believe it or not, it was actually quite amusing.”The rest is here. |
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Post by orokiah on Aug 5, 2011 16:15:11 GMT
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Post by orokiah on Sept 21, 2011 16:43:13 GMT
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Post by orokiah on Mar 8, 2012 13:23:29 GMT
5USA's repeat run of Human Target reaches 'Victoria'--featuring Christina as the eponymous princess--next Wednesday (14/03) at 9pm. It's repeated again on the Friday (16/03) at 11pm.
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Post by orokiah on Mar 14, 2012 14:29:17 GMT
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