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Blu-Ray Review: Ben Affleck Stars in Timely ‘The Company Men’

BrianTT — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 14:02:45 -0400

CHICAGO – John Wells has been one of the most important voices in television for the last two decades, shepherding “Third Watch,” “The West Wing,” “ER,” “Southland,” “Shameless,” and many more. It’s always hit-and-miss when a talent from one medium jumps to another and such is the case with “The Company Men,” starring Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Tommy Lee Jones, Maria Bello, and Kevin Costner. The great cast keeps it together and Wells has a keen ear for dialogue but the film never develops beyond a timely character study.

Blu-ray Rating: 3.0/5.0

Synopsis: “From multi-Emmy winning writer/director John Wells (ER, The West Wing), The Company Men is a remarkably relevant and uplifting motion picture experience inspired by today’s headlines. Featuring a powerhouse cast including Academy Award winners Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Tommy Lee Jones and Kevin Costner, the film has been hailed as “grade A. juicy, timely and terrifically engrossing” (Entertainment Weekly).

Bobby Walker (Affleck) is living the American Dream, until he is stunned to find himself the latest casualty of corporate downsizing. Suddenly, Bobby is forced to re-evaluate his self-worth as a husband, a father and a man. For as long as he can remember, he’s given his life to his job. Now, with only the love of his wife and family, it’s time to take his life back…”

The Company Men was released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 7th, 2011.
Photo credit: Anchor Bay

Very few films have been as timely as Wells’ directorial cinematic debut but just being on top of the headlines does not make it an interesting drama. My main issue with “The Company Men” is a simple one — I never cared about Bobby Walker or most of the other characters in his universe.

The Company Men was released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 7th, 2011.
Photo credit: Anchor Bay

Affleck isn’t bad (he’s really developed into a strong actor as he’s aged) but it feels almost as if Wells underestimated the running time of a feature film. What I mean is that “The Company Men” would make a great pilot. I would love to see the Walkers struggle with life without their accustomed riches but don’t care as much that Bobby can’t get into the golf club in a feature film. And much of the supporting cast feels similarly underdeveloped, especially Maria Bello, a great actress completely wasted here, and Rosemarie DeWitt, a wife who feels like a plot device.

The men make out a little better. Chris Cooper and Tommy Lee Jones give emotionally effective performances, especially the former, who has the most arc of the film and is actually a character I wanted to spend more time with. Cooper plays one of those men most damagingly hit by the economic crisis — the over-qualified and aging. There are thousands of men out there not being hired because they simply have TOO much experience. That’s actually a more interesting story than Bobby’s as he clearly will find work again but the scenario isn’t as certain for people like Cooper a few decades older.

“The Company Men” is far from a bad film. Wells has a keen ear for dialogue and the ensemble is stellar. There’s just an urgency and an identifiable story that’s missing here, something that works for TV but not for film. Judged as a debut (which it technically is), then it holds a TON of promise for whatever Wells does next. It just doesn’t compare to what he’s done before.

Special Features:
o Alternate Ending
o Audio Commentary with Writer and Director John Wells
o Making The Company Men
o Deleted Scenes

“The Company Men” stars Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, Maria Bello, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Craig T. Nelson. It was written and directed by John Wells and released on Blu-ray and DVD on June 7th, 2011.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

TV Review: Noah Wyle Fights to Survive in ‘Falling Skies’

PatrickMcD — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 19:44:53 -0400

CHICAGO – It’s the end of the world as we know it, and the ragtag resistance fighters of “Falling Skies,” starring Noah Wyle from “ER,” are defending themselves against a surprise extraterrestrial colonization of earth. Live free or die hard.

TV Rating: 4.0/5.0

Falling Skies combines 2009’s “District 9” (space alien lizards), 1984’s “Red Dawn” (kids practicing guerilla warfare) and, of course, 1996’s “Independence Day” fairly effectively, while not going too far into the philosophical and psychological damage that a nuclear war-style destruction could have on a delicate American society. Noah Wyle is excellent as a conflicted ex-Military history professor turned warrior who represents a reasonable voice among the chaos.

The series opens with a series of children’s drawings, with a youthful voice over describing the invasion of a space alien force that knocks out most of the important cities in the United States, and puts the rest of the surviving population in a scrounging mode for food and essentials. The outer space force are multi-legged creatures (nicknamed “skitters”) and also employ robot soldiers. The aliens are also capturing human children to assimilate them, attaching corset-like devices to their spinal columns.

The Leader: Noah Wyle in ‘Falling Skies’
Photo credit: TNT

Tom Mason (Noah Wyle) is coping with the loss of his wife and son Ben in the initial barrage, but because the aliens capture children he hopes that his son is still alive. He is now second in command of a group of resistance fighters and civilians, which includes his oldest son Hal (Drew Roy) and younger son Matt (Maxim Knight). Mason is under the command of Weaver (Will Patton), an army veteran who is by the book. His best friend is pediatrician turned battle surgeon Anne Glass (Moon Bloodgood). Together, they struggle to forage for food, find their lost children, fight battles and win the war against the aliens.

The post-apocalyptic world is portrayed as mainly civilized, as delineations of duty are split between the ranks of fighters (which includes children as young as 13 years old) and civilians. Falling Skies is not afraid of bringing up such necessary questions of “why we fight” and the value of religion in such a situation, but couches it in such a way as not to offend the sensitivities of those subjects (”…I don’t ask God for anything, I ask what I can do for God”). It does make an argument for American exceptionalism, but that’s pretty easy when fighting slimy, multi-legged lizard aliens.

Noah Wyle leads an excellent cast, who for the most part projects the philosophy of optimism in the face of the end of the world. Even a rogue operative named John Pope (Colin Cunningham) is brought around to the resistance, even as he offers a theory that the aliens are like the European colonists that wiped out the Native Americans. There are many conversations like this sprinkled into the pilot, which sets it apart from a simpler us-against-them format.

The Cast of ‘Falling Skies’: (L-R) Will Patton, Drew Roy, Conor Jessup, Noah Wyle, Maxim Knight and Moon Bloodgood
Photo credit: TNT

Where the show is less successful involves the seamier and more realistic elements of such a situation. Everybody has firearms (and a mysterious endless supply of ammo), who would be the first the crack if food becomes scare? The anarchy of this type of world is bleached as the common enemy becomes the focus, but in modern America that may or may not be the case. We’re so used to demanding our comforts and technology, would we become “fighters” if that’s what was necessary? Maybe around World War II the answer would have been “yes,” but Falling Skies maybe presumes too much about present day America.

When earth’s destruction comes, I’ve always pictured the survivors around the campfire talking about all the savory meals they once enjoyed. Noah Wyle has a great scene where he describes the pleasure of a fork split English Muffin. That is where the heart of Falling Skies needs to be.

”Falling Skies” premieres on Sunday, June 19th at 9pm EST/8pm CST on TNT. Check local listings for channel location. Featuring Noah Wyle, Moon Bloodgood, Dale Dye, Drew Roy, Matt Mason, Conor Jessup, Colin Cunningham and Will Patton.

By PATRICK McDONALD
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

Interview: Emmy-Nominated Noah Wyle Looks to the ‘Falling Skies’

BrianTT — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:57:46 -0400

CHICAGO – Noah Wyle stars in the upcoming TNT series “Falling Skies,” a family drama dressed up like an alien-invasion series and premiering Sunday, June 19th, 2011. The ambitious program, which you’re surely aware of if you watched even one of the Chicago Bulls games in which it was heavily advertised, features the former “ER” star as a reluctant leader and family man trying survive after the alien apocalypse. The five-time Emmy nominee sat down with us in Chicago to discuss the program, what drew it to him, the marketing of it, and even the future of the “Librarian” series.

HollywoodChicago.com: The first thing I noticed about the show was the filth. You see a lot of polished performers, especially in the era of HD. How do you maintain the physical sense of desperation — the grime, dirt, etc. — when you’re going back to your trailer after every scene? How do you keep the realism intact?

Noah Wyle: That’s kind of a peeve of mine. Back when “ER” first started — “Don’t cover up the circles under our eyes. Let us go a couple of days without shaving. Don’t over-makeup the girls. The last thing these people want to do is look attractive when they go to work.” I feel like that establishes a baseline of credibility that the audience picks up on in a very subtle way. It was particularly true here. There can’t be any vanity in the post-apocalypse AT ALL. As soon as you see one person who looks clean, everything is going to fall apart. There were even notes from the studio — “Noah’s looking a little TOO dirty. TOO sweaty.”

HollywoodChicago.com: Is it difficult to maintain the realism? Do you do exercises at all or is it all internal?

Wyle: It’s both. It’s internal for me but it’s a young ensemble. There were three things that interested me in this character — One was his sense of leadership. Another was his loss/grief. And then his notion of fatherhood. The leadership was the tricky one for me since I’ve been very comfortable working in ensembles for a long time. Even though I became the big head on the poster at the end of “ER,” it was sort of inherited. This was right from the jump. For the first time in my career, I was one of the oldest cast members. I never wanted to be a hall monitor. I didn’t have to do any of that. But there are certain technical aspects in which you have to get everyone on the same page in terms of the stakes that you are playing so there’s a continuity line in the performances. I felt for the first time that I could impart some advice and wisdom. And that carried through to the aesthetic of the show.

Noah Wyle
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

HollywoodChicago.com: It’s interesting that leadership on-set made you nervous because your character is certainly a reluctant leader as well.

Wyle: Yeah. That was the fit. That was the catharsis. He doesn’t want to accept power and responsibility. How do you do that when your tendency is just to protect you and yours?

Falling Skies
Photo credit: TNT

HollywoodChicago.com: We all ask ourselves how we would respond in that kind of situation. I like that element of the show.

Wyle: It’s a great arc.

HollywoodChicago.com: And fathers and sons. How do you develop that part of the show? The believability of the family?

Wyle: The fatherhood angle was significant because he’s got three sons. The eldest wants to establish himself as a man, a warrior, much sooner than he should. The middle son is missing. The youngest son — it’s this really interesting ethical dilemma: Which is the kinder choice — shield and protect to maintain what innocence you can or arm them and train them to survive?

HollywoodChicago.com: I think those questions are relatable to raising children now as well.

Wyle: Oh yeah. And there are many areas of society where kids are growing up at a much faster rate.

HollywoodChicago.com: The show, clearly, to me, is more about people than aliens.

Wyle: It’s a family drama at its nucleus. A character drama in the context of science fiction.

HollywoodChicago.com: Is that what attracted you to it?

Wyle: Pretty much. I like the genre but I like it best when it’s used for metaphorical storytelling, when it is really a drama with that as the canvas. When it becomes the sole point, then it interests me less. I knew with the pedigree of Mr. Spielberg’s involvement that the aliens and spaceships would look great and that my responsibility would be that beat-by-beat, line-by-line, character-by-character, we were playing it as realistically as possible. “Where would I fit in? What would I do?”

HollywoodChicago.com: It doesn’t feel like a lot on TV right now. There’s almost always an easy pitch for shows nowadays — “An ER Knockoff,” “A Friends Knockoff” — but this has a unique quality that I liked. Was that intentional? To do something not like anything else on TV?

Wyle: It’s certainly a huge departure for TNT. They’re taking a big bold step to attract that demographic not on the network. It’s unlikely people will be like “What a great episode of “The Closer,” now I can’t wait to watch “Falling Skies””

HollywoodChicago.com: If it’s quality drama…

Wyle: It’s walking a very fine line — knowing who their audience is and what they like to watch which is character drama and, at the same time, trying to attract eyeballs that aren’t there already through a new genre. It kind of pre-dates a lot of the newer ones. We shot the pilot two years ago. It was before “The Event” and “The Walking Dead.” It was that — trying to walk the line between keeping an audience and attracting an audience.

Noah Wyle
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

HollywoodChicago.com: Do you worry about the number of shows that have been hurt by being as serial as this one, like “The Event”? Sometimes if people don’t feel like they can just jump in, they don’t bother…

Wyle: It’s tricky. But TNT reruns a lot. The way that they quantify ratings is different too.

Falling Skies
Photo credit: TNT

HollywoodChicago.com: TNT has a lot of confidence in the project.

Wyle: There’s a tipping point a bit to over-confidence. At first it may seem cool and then you’re like, “OK, can I watch a basketball game without seeing Noah Wyle?!?! I almost don’t want to watch it now.”

HollywoodChicago.com: It was pretty constant. But in today’s market can you be over-saturated when there are so many choices?

Wyle: The Playoffs were a great launching platform. And I think the idea was to go in and not dominate a national conversation. I’m traveling the world to promote it and the idea of being a big fish in a local pond even if just on the news for a day is a much better strategy than trying to compete with…people say that the ’50s or ’90s were the golden era of television, but if you look at the amount of quality shows — “Breaking Bad,” “Treme,” “The Killing,” “Mad Men”…

HollywoodChicago.com: It’s right now. It’s certainly not right now in film or music. It’s right now in TV.

Wyle: I agree. There’s so many choices for content on TV and there’s been a real brain drain from movie studios. I was at FOX this morning looking at the posters for shows and 80% of them have reputable film actors.

HollywoodChicago.com: Oh yeah. The FALL schedule — Maria Bello, Patrick Wilson, Christina Ricci, all these people who started in film.

Wyle: All these people who gave me shit when I started on “ER.” “What are you doing a TV show for? I thought you were an actor. You’re selling your soul.”

HollywoodChicago.com: How has TV changed since you started? Is it a new respectability?

Wyle: They pay less. They pay a lot less. The ’90s…I hit the last gasp of huge, big-event network television paydays. It’s tricky. When I saw that Netflix is getting into production and cutting out the middle man entirely…HBO has 22 million subscribers…the game is changing.

Falling Skies
Photo credit: TNT

HollywoodChicago.com: They haven’t adjusted their metrics. I can watch TV on my iPhone and networks are still having people fill out blue books for ratings.

Wyle: It’s crazy. And that’s crap. I think they know. I remember after Janet Jackson had her wardrobe malfunction that there was a New York Times article in which they could quantify how many people rewound that film. If you know that, you should be able to…

HollywoodChicago.com: But no one’s figured out how to make money on it…on rewinding.

Wyle: As an advertiser, I wouldn’t know what to do. But, as an actor, being able to track residual payments for how many people are watching. It’s got to be a lot easier.

HollywoodChicago.com: There are a lot of fans of the “Librarian” movies. Are you making more?

Wyle: I love making ‘em. That’s the most fun I’ve had on a job. And we talk about it. I want to make more. Dean Devlin wants to make more. But TNT got out of the movie business. I’m hoping that “Falling Skies” does well and “Leverage” holds its numbers and maybe we can get back to it. It’s cool. They fill a void. There’s really nothing like those movies — something for the whole family.

HollywoodChicago.com: What’s your airport question when people recognize you?

Wyle: Hmmm…”What’s George Clooney like?” Occasionally, I’ll get asked for medical advice. Oddly enough, more and more people talk about “The Librarian” than “ER.” If they’re under 30 then I get a lot of “Donnie Darko” questions.

Research your “Falling Skies” questions by catching the premiere on Sunday, June 19th, 2011 on TNT and stay tuned to HollywoodChicago.com for our full review of the series.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

Interview: Angela Bassett Takes a Leap in ‘Jumping the Broom’

PatrickMcD — Wed, 04 May 2011 09:01:47 -0400

CHICAGO – Angela Bassett has a quiet sophistication, when combined with her movie star presence only enhances her unique beauty. She is also a superior actor, taking on an intriguing role as a matriarch in the upcoming film “Jumping the Broom.”

The film regards an African-American tradition, the old custom of “jumping the broom” to secure their vows. Bassett plays Claudine Watson, the upper class mother of soon-to-be-wed daughter Sabrina (Paula Patton). The film features a clash between Bassett’s character and that of the groom’s family, who are decidedly working class. The levels of interacting, the exposition of class issues and the traditions in current African American culture sets this story apart from previous films in the same genre.

Wedding Bell Blues: Paula Patton (Sabrina) and Angela Bassett (Claudine) in ‘Jumping the Broom’
Photo credit: © TriStar Pictures

After earning her Masters Degree at the Yale School of Drama in the 1980s, Bassett took to the New York stage, most notably in two of August Wilson’s “Pittsburgh Cycle” plays. She expanded with parts in film and TV, including “Boyz in the Hood” (1991). Breakthrough recognition would come in the next couple of years, as Bassett co-starred with Denzel Washington in “Malcolm X” (as Malcolm’s wife Betty Shabazz) and her Oscar nominated role as Tina Turner in “What’s Love Got to Do with It” (1993).

Later in the 1990s, Bassett would collaborate twice with author Terry McMillan in “Waiting to Exhale” (1995) and “How Stella Got Her Groove Back” (1998). The last ten years has had her playing civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks in a TV movie, and portraying a physician during the last two seasons of NBC’s “ER.”

Angela Bassett was recently in Chicago to promote Jumping the Broom, and sat down to talk with HollywoodChicago.com about her varied career.

HollywoodChicago: There are many themes in Jumping the Broom having to do with the history of African Americans in this country over the last 50 years; opportunity, pride, equality and the diversity of the wealth class systems emerging. What part of the script attracted you to those themes and where did you find the character of the matriarch Claudine?

Angela Bassett: My goodness. [laughs] Can I have that question? Can I take that with me?

HollywoodChicago: You absolutely can, you can take anything you’d like.

Bassett: [Laughs] Well, I visited Martha’s Vineyard [where her character lives] two times. That wasn’t part of my growing up experience, it was quite an eye opener for me. My kid’s godparents had been going every summer for 18 years, and it’s different. But it’s so civilized and wonderful.

We’ve had other movies try to be like this but they feel a little more stereotypical and broad. Since I was asked to play Ms. Watson rather than the working class Ms. Taylor, I thought it would be a lot of fun. I hadn’t played that type of role before, well-bred and from money. I just wanted her to be grounded, a real woman getting it done. Trying to make the best with the situation.

HollywoodChicago: What do your personally think of the tradition of ‘jumping the broom’? Given that it is a powerful symbol of the African American past in this country, do you understand, as was portrayed in the film, the younger couple’s difficulty with the tradition, or do you feel that this symbol is a necessary and powerful presence in an African American union?

Bassett: By the end of the film, you think ‘what is all the fuss?’ It’s sweet and delightful and it’s a nod to history. The history of African Americans in this country is amazing, it’s painful but it’s about solidarity and the overcoming, the aspect of inspiration, that which inspires other parts of the world.

They look to the civil rights movement today as a means of inspiration for their own struggle. When you go outside the United States, and go to these places and realize, ‘we’re an inspiration to you? With the hell we’ve been going through?’ Well good, make it good for something.

When I got married, I was a ‘mature’ bride. I was reading every book, and wanted a little bit here, a little bit there, just different things you’re trying to do. I’ve been to weddings where they jump the broom, I respect it, but I didn’t do it at my wedding.

The Mothers: Loretta Devine (Ms. Taylor) and Angela Bassett in ‘Jumping the Broom’
Photo credit: © TriStar Pictures

HollywoodChicago: This story is focused on the family’s women, the strong bearing and tradition of the matriarchal influence in all families. What do you love about the strength of the women in this screenplay?

Bassett: That they fight for their families, they love their people. Somethings they’re misunderstood, and they misunderstand. They are in it, and they are advocates for their babies and their children.

HollywoodChicago: At one point your character actually notes that in her family lineage they had owned slaves. What makes that proclamation either brave and shocking to you?

Bassett: I don’t think I was trying to shock Ms. Taylor. I’m neither proud of it or ashamed of it, it’s just an immutable fact. I didn’t play it as I sit high and they sit low, because we were slave owners in my family. She just spoke it, and we come from all kind of colors and all kinds of backgrounds.

HollywoodChicago: Gaining wealth in America is about gaining power, creating class rather than race. In your opinion, what are the advantages and backlash of wealth within the delicate balance of interaction in the African American culture?

Bassett: It’s a forward step for the family, but the backlash is that as humans we tend to get too content and comfortable, when ‘we’ve’ made it. When you’re in the struggle together, and you have the common enemy of hunger, you then recognize the humanity in others, we’re going to fight this together. In African American culture, we still have some walls that need to be torn down. We can’t afford to get too comfortable, wealthy, rich and fat…and not stay in the fight.

HollywoodChicago: You portrayed civil rights legend Rosa Parks in a TV biopic. What essence of her human side did you most want to capture in your portrayal and did you meet with Ms. Parks in the research for the role?

Bassett: I met her years before I portrayed her. I met her at a dinner for broadcasters, and had the honor of sitting between her, the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement, and James Brown, the Godfather of Soul. [laughs] I thought I’d died and gone to some sort of heaven. I just remember her being very sweet, talking about the food and acting very politely, like ‘will you watch my spot?’ I thought, how did I even wind up here? She loved young people, believed in them and invested in them. She was decent to the core.

Angela Bassett (Betty Shabazz) and Denzel Washington (Malcolm X)
Photo credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

HollywoodChicago: Both Betty Shabazz and Tina Turner were born within five years of each other and took completely different paths for their journey in American culture. Was there anything similar about those two great women that surprised you in your character research?

Bassett: It was the strength of character, the resilience in both of them, after such incredible crushing pressure, that would have crushed someone else’s spirit, and has crushed many a spirit and life. It didn’t for them.

Betty Shabazz, who saw before her very eyes her husband being murdered, with her children present, and pregnant with another child, if she wants to go insane I can understand how it could happen. But she goes on with her life and without even the luxury of Coretta Scott King, whose husband was revered. But she kept going, one foot in front of the other, until her tragic end.

HollywoodChicago: You had the circumstance of portraying Shabazz twice, correct?

Bassett: Yes.

HollywoodChicago: Did you have an opportunity to meet her? Did she give you any insights to Malcolm X the man?

Bassett: I didn’t meet her until after the first film. And that was a situation where we were just making a movie and it was her actual life. Her own life was special and heart-breaking, and I just wanted to be respectful. Sometimes history as we remember it is different than history as it really was. I was just trying to get a picture of her without trying to invade the events that I thought were still sore, for the sake of making a movie.

HollywoodChicago: What was your feeling about Ike Turner’s strong negative reaction to ‘What’s Love Got to Do with It’?

Bassett: I think his strong reaction was understandable. When I ran into him he was delightful.

Angela Bassett in Chicago, April 12, 2011
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

HollywoodChicago: You met Ike Turner?

Bassett: I ran into one day in Lamerck Park in Los Angeles, and he said ‘hey!’ Of course I paused. And then he said, ‘I’m doing my own film, and I want you to be in it.’ [laughs] I didn’t know how to react, but he had the eye of the tiger, you didn’t sit him back or lay him down. He kept going.

HollywoodChicago: You are entering the comic book realm with a role in the upcoming ‘Green Lantern.’ Which super hero would you most like to emulate and why?

Bassett: [Laughs] I don’t know, I don’t know enough of them….Wonder Woman! That’s it. [laughs] I wonder, but I don’t know.

HollywoodChicago: Finally, as a student of African American studies at Yale, what transitions within the culture did you observe back then that you felt would become most challenging in the future, and did that prediction in your eyes come to pass?

Bassett: As a student, we were protesting to persuade Yale’s divestment of South Africa during apartheid. I was using my talents as an actor to speak at the rallies. I would take poetry and perform it. We kept fighting and rallying and sitting in, and they finally did divest.

Years later I went to Soweto, South Africa, and other townships to demonstrate how to vote. It was just so moving to see men and women, 90 years old and on canes, taking seriously this right to have a voice. To see long and winding lines, it was just amazing.

“Jumping the Broom” opens everywhere on May 6th. Featuring Angela Bassett, Paula Patton, Laz Alonso, Loretta Devine, Mike Epps, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Romeo. Screenplay by Elizabeth Hunter and Arlene Gibbs, directed by Salim Akil. Rated “PG-13”

By PATRICK McDONALD
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

Interview: Director John Wells is Hired For ‘The Company Men’

PatrickMcD — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 13:04:32 -0500

CHICAGO – John Wells is a familiar name to televisions fans. As executive producer of “ER” and “The West Wing,” his combination of drama and humanity has left a mark in TV’s evolution for nearly a generation. His first feature film, “The Company Men,” covers the same human territory, with a story “ripped from the headlines.”

Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper star as executives in a shipping company who are “downsized” post the 2007-08 economic collapse. When equivalent jobs prove hard to find, each has to find a way to cope with the indignities of perceived overqualification, ageism and guilt associated with not producing the American Dream.

Cinematographer Roger Deakins (right) and Director John Wells on the set of ‘The Company Men’
Photo credit: Folger/The Weinstein Company

John Wells was in Chicago recently to promote the film, and his large, compassionate personality came through as he spoke to HollywoodChicago.com about the ills of modern American commerce and the toll it takes on the nation’s personality.

HollywoodChicago.com: What type of serendipitous timing led to this script, which you also wrote, being your feature directorial debut? What is the origin of the story, and why were you so passionate to tell it?

John Wells: The origin of the piece comes from something that happened to a member of my family. That was the impetus for what happens to Ben Affleck’s character, but it was changed from the actual experience. My family member was laid off, as were 5000 people in his company, and he has an MBA and an electrical engineering degree. He started telling me what he was going through, the little indignities out in the job market, with a lot of things I didn’t know about, like outplacement.

That led me to going online and posting notices on chat rooms that had to do with downsizing and employment chat rooms for executives. I told them I was interested in writing about this, and if they were willing to talk about it, they could contact me. I got a couple thousand responses. We culled through the anecdotes and stories, and had a researcher get in touch with a lot of people directly.

It was an accidental experience, because I did a first draft and put it away. Two years later, around the economic problems of 2007, the researcher called me and said the idea was heating up again. I did a substantial amount of new research and rewrote the script, and was showing it to actors just as the credit crisis hit. The cast responded to the idea of doing something that was really going on in the world. Interestingly enough, all of them also had someone in their personal lives, by the time we were making the movie, that was going through the experience. That allowed it to come together.

HollywoodChicago.com: There is a certain morality and point-of-view regarding American business in your screenplay. What kind of collapse or adjustment would it take for the leaders of American commerce to change their beholden nature to the shareholder towards a better relationship with their workers?

Wells: These things are out of balance. I think we have a situation, when formerly the way that people bought stock in companies was for a long-term alliance and investment, that now that we have everything from day traders to nano-second electronic traders. This creates a pressure that has become about the stock price and the individual executive’s own compensation because of that price, and the sense we used to have that there was an agreement between the employer and the employee has been undercut.

I think the market itself will have to correct it. We have now what is called an ‘anorexic’ nature of companies – the focus away from the worker means that a lot of talented people just leave companies or are being forced out. The disadvantage of that is when the workers loses a sense that there any kind of security in their job or that the company they’re working for is not in any way looking out for their interests, then they jump at any other opportunity. So what will happen is that companies will end up with younger workers replacing the older workers, but will have no loyalty to the company. That means that there will be a constant trading of employees and the good ones will always leave. Like anorexia it will eventually kill the host.

HollywoodChicago.com: Kevin Costner was playing against type in this film. What did he understand about the working class character that made his desire to pursue the role?

Wells: Kevin came up doing manual labor, as did I. We had a lot of conversations about it. I was a carpenter and he was a carpenter, we both had our old tool belts. [laughs] He called me after having read the script. He responded to the character, and told me that he wanted to play the smaller role. I was surprised and delighted that he wanted to do it, and that is actually closer to who Kevin is, than a lot of the other roles that he’s played. Both of us, for example, like the ‘new wood smell’ of a house under construction. [laughs]

HollywoodChicago.com: The women in ‘The Company Men’ are archetypes – the dutiful wife-on-the-edge-of-a-nervous-breakdown, the society wife, the ballsy mistress and the saintly supporter – what was the message that these women communicated about modern life in the realm of the universe you created?

Wells: I found that the women I interviewed, as is often the case, fit into those categories routinely. [laughs] Archetypes and clichés are there because they absolutely exist. We kind of live out the things that we think we’re expected to do. That’s what I found in the research.

The one role that I was uncomfortable about in the film was the wealthy wife. I had to cut her back in later drafts. One of the scenes that I had wished that I shot was her divorce proceedings. She and her husband are doing a deposition and there is a break in it. They end up in the hallway talking to each other, and he asks her how did she become the person that she is. Her reply was ‘I became the person you wanted me to be.’ I think that is the reality.

Kevin Costner (Jack) and Ben Affleck (Bobby) in ‘The Company Men’
Photo credit: Folger/The Weinstein Company

HollywoodChicago.com: The ending of the film has a fantasy element to it. What were you trying to communicate through this optimism and what were you trying to tell America?

Wells: The ending was part of a re-occurring theme. I’d originally written the script about the steel industry, and found out there was no place left to shoot it, there were no mills left. One of the guys I spoke to was an executive in the steel industry whose company was bought out by a foreign interest. The mill closed down and he made a lot of money, but he ended up feeling like he’d let everybody down. So he started a specialty business, and was able to re-employ about ten percent of his former workforce.

I think the way out of this ultimately will be through job creation, and that job creation will come from people finding various niches, innovations and doing what we’ve always done best in this country…be entrepreneurial and bring some people on. Job creation will not be how many people GM or Ford takes on, it will be through hundreds of thousands of smaller business.

HollywoodChicago.com: Your first major television assignment was on the show ‘China Beach.’ Since you were fairly young when the Vietnam War came to a head and an endgame, what did you personally learn about the war in researching and actualizing the series?

Wells: I was in elementary school and junior high school during the war. I was actually one of the last group of guys to get a draft number in high school, around 1973. But it made a tremendous impact on me because so many of my friends older brothers were going off to war.

John Young created China Beach with Vietnam veteran Bill Broyles, and they started introducing us to a lot of people who’d been there, so I spent a lot of time talking to vets. That’s when I started to realize as a writer how important it was to research and listen to people’s stories.

It was a central event for people my age, who lived through the Kennedy assassination, watched events unfold on television during the Martin Luther King assassination, and the riots that followed. We gained a social consciousness, but also a sense that we missed out on being old enough to have participated in the actual change. That effected a lot of my writing, what I’m interested in writing about, that we need to be engaged civically.

HollywoodChicago.com: Since you’ve done high level cop and doctor shows, how do you think those types of shows have skewed the American cultural perspective toward the authoritarian figures of the doctor and the cop? Has it perverted those relationships or perhaps enhanced them?

Wells: I think there was a period where those relationships were perverted toward hero worship and sanctity. During the early television days, through the 1960s and ’70s, those characters were portrayed almost god-like. They never made mistakes and always did the right thing.

It was a long evolution away from that, but it came to fruition with Steven Bochco [“Hill Street Blues”] in the 1980s and what they were doing on St. Elsewhere. That here are people who make a lot of mistakes, but are trying to do the right thing most of the time. They have complicated lives and all the same type of problems that everybody else does. And that I think has been ultimately helpful to this notion that they are just people. We do a much better job of portraying it now.

HollywoodChicago.com: Finally, what areas of the human psyche has yet to be served by your perspective? What do you want to express about humanity that you haven’t explored yet?

Wells: I don’t think I’ve touched on that much, to tell you the truth. The depth of emotion that is able to be delved into by novelists and short story writers is a form of rendition that is very specific to place, time and consciousness. And in those smaller formats, they don’t have to appeal to a larger audience. The reality in television and film is that you are trying to bring in a larger group of people, and one of things I miss from theater is that you could do something more specific and localized. Even though ‘The Company Men’ is a smaller film, I do end up emotionally throwing a larger net.

”The Company Men” opens everywhere on January 21st. Featuring Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper, Mario Bello and Kevin Costner. Written and directed by John Wells. Rated “R”

By PATRICK McDONALD
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

New Chicago Extras Being Cast For FOX TV Cop Drama ‘Ride-Along’

HollywoodChicago.com — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 15:25:10 -0400

CHICAGO – Chicago casting for new “Ride-Along” extras will begin in “a few weeks,” HollywoodChicago.com has confirmed with Chicago casting director Darlene Hunt of ExtraOrdinary Casting. The new FOX TV show, which is a Chicago-filmed cop drama premiering in mid-season 2010 to 2011, stars Jennifer Beals and Jason Clarke.

“Ride-Along” on FOX with Jennifer Beals and Jason Clarke.
Image credit: Peter Sorel/FOX

Hunt tells us she will be casting those who worked in the pilot with her for continuity as well as new faces of all ages. She casts a lot of “real” characters and says more “real” police would be ideal for “Ride-Along”. Children under the age of 16 need to be work permitted. This time around, Hunt is not conducting an in-person casting call. You must mail in your submission. To be considered for “Ride-Along” casting, mail a hard-copy photo to:

ExtraOrdinary Casting
P.O. Box 552
Westmont, IL 60559

You must also download and submit this registration form. Once you are registered with her, you will also be considered for other extra, stand-in and photo-double possibilities on other TV shows, feature films, commercials and print work made available to her company.

ExtraOrdinary Casting has worked on nearly all of the TV shows that have come into Chicago for almost two decades including “Prison Break” (all episodes except for the pilot), “The Beast” (all episodes except for the pilot), “ER” (all episodes filmed in Chicago in the past several years), “Early Edition” and “Turks”. The firm has also cast extras for several feature films (“Public Enemies,” “The Express,” “The Time Traveler’s Wife” and more) and commercials.

Update on Nov. 11, 2010 at 5:10 p.m.: The FOX TV show name “Ride-Along” has been changed to “The Chicago Code”.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief/Publisher
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: 25 Admit-Two Passes to VIP Screening Party For TNT’s ‘Raising the Bar’

HollywoodChicago.com — Wed, 27 May 2009 19:30:31 -0400

CHICAGO – In our latest edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: TV, we have 25 admit-two VIP screening passes up for grabs to the exclusive Chicago screening party for season two of the new TNT drama “Raising the Bar”. The series comes from 10-time Emmy-winning producer Steven Bochco of “L.A. Law” and “NYPD Blue”.

Winners will enjoy complimentary appetizers and an advance screening of the first episode of season two before it airs! Winners will also have the chance to win a season-one DVD of the series!

To win your free pass to the VIP “Raising the Bar” screening party in Chicago courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, all you need to do is be one of the first 25 people to submit a comment in this HollywoodChicago.com Hookup. That’s it!

The party will be held on June 4, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. in downtown Chicago. Directions to enter this HollywoodChicago.com Hookup and immediately win can be found beneath the graphic below.

“Raising the Bar” from 10-time Emmy-winning producer Steven Bochco of “L.A. Law” and “NYPD Blue”.
Image credit: TNT

Here is the “Raising the Bar” plot description:

“Raising the Bar” is the new drama from Steven Bochco: the 10-time Emmy-winning producer of “L.A. Law” and “NYPD Blue”. The series stars Mark Paul Gosselaar (“NYPD Blue”), Gloria Reuben (“ER”) and Jane Kaczmarek (“Malcolm in the Middle”).

It follows the lives of young lawyers who work on opposite sides – the public defender’s office and the district attorney’s office – as well as those who sit in judgment on their cases. “Raising the Bar” will return with all-new episodes beginning on Monday, June 8, 2009 at 9 p.m. CST.

To secure your free pass now, make sure you’re logged into your HollywoodChicago.com account. If you don’t yet have one, you can quickly register here. Having an account with a valid e-mail address is required. Then, simply add a new comment in the form below. In your comment, include an answer to this simple question:

How do you raise the bar in life?

Like all Hookups here, this HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: TV is simple: The first 25 people to comment below win! We will be in touch with the winners to distribute your passes.

Season two of “Raising the Bar” from Emmy-winning producer Steven Bochco of “L.A. Law” and “NYPD Blue” stars Mark Paul Gosselaar, Gloria Reuben, Jane Kaczmarek, Stacy Hall, Currie Graham, Melissa Sagemiller, J. August Richards, Jonathan Scarfe, Teddy Sears, Paul Joyner, Natalia Cigliuti, Wayne Lopez, Jon Polito and Angel Oquendo.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

Exclusive Set Slideshow: NBC’s ‘ER’ Filming in Chicago With Noah Wyle on Jan. 30, 2009

HollywoodChicago.com — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 13:58:17 -0500

CHICAGO – HollywoodChicago.com has obtained from a reader named “Kevin” exclusive set imagery of NBC’s “ER” filming in Chicago with Noah Wyle and David Lyons on Jan. 30, 2009.

Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley declared the day “ER Day”. The day saw filming of the very last episode of “ER” ever since its beginning in 1994. These shots were obtained in Chicago at Broadway Avenue and Lawrence Avenue under the CTA red line.

“ER” in 2009 features Noah Wyle, William H. Macy, Angela Bassett, John Stamos, Shiri Appleby, Laura Cerón, Deezer D, Alex Kingston, Lynn A. Henderson, Abraham Benrubi, Parminder Nagra, Troy Evans, Linda Cardellini, Scott Grimes, Brian Lester, Dinah Lenney and Leland Orser.

“ER” in 2009 also features Louie Liberti, Angel Laketa Moore, Amy Aquino, Perry Anzilotti, David Lyons, Gil McKinney, Michael B. Silver, Christopher Amitrano, Brendan Patrick Connor, Emily Rose, Nasim Pedrad, Courtney B. Vance, Imani Hakim, Justina Machado, Monique Daniels, Angel Parker, Keiko Agena, Elliot Durant III, Joey Marino, Tim Corley and Shannon Marie Woodward.

You can click “Next” and “Previous” to scan through this slideshow or jump directly to individual photos with the captioned links below. All image credits go to HollywoodChicago.com.

erfilmingchicago1: Noah Wyle (center) filming NBC’s ER in Chicago on Jan. 30, 2009.
erfilmingchicago2: David Lyons filming NBC’s ER in Chicago on Jan. 30, 2009.
erfilmingchicago3: David Lyons filming NBC’s ER in Chicago on Jan. 30, 2009.
erfilmingchicago4: David Lyons filming NBC’s ER in Chicago on Jan. 30, 2009.
erfilmingchicago5: David Lyons filming NBC’s ER in Chicago on Jan. 30, 2009.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

Chicago Native, Legendary Comedian Harvey Korman Passes Away at 81

HollywoodChicago.com — Fri, 30 May 2008 17:06:33 -0400

CHICAGO – Legendary comedian and Chicago native Harvey Korman passed away on Thursday. He is best remembered from films such as “Blazing Saddles” and “High Anxiety” as well as a performer on the “The Carol Burnett Show”. Korman was 81.

Legendary comedian and Chicago native Harvey Korman passed away on May 29, 2008.
Photo credit: BroadwayWorld.com

A statement released by his family through the University of California at the Los Angeles Medical Center gives the cause of death as complications from the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm four months ago.

“Everything he did on ‘The Carol Burnett Show’ – especially the Mother Marcus character – was a special favorite,” his daughter, Katherine Korman, said in a published interview on Thursday.

Mother Marcus was a Yiddish grandmother played by Korman in drag. He based the character on his own real-life grandmother.

Harvey Herschel Korman was born in Chicago in 1927. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he studied drama at the Goodman School of Drama.

He then moved to New York where “for the next 13 years I tried to get on Broadway, on off-Broadway [and] under or beside Broadway,” Korman said in a 1971 interview. He gave up and moved back to Chicago only to leave for California to try and make it in show business again.

After some small voice work and minor movie parts, in 1964 he had his breakthrough joining “The Danny Kaye Show”. After the show went off the air, he found his way onto “The Carol Burnett Show”.

A Harvey Korman dentist sketch on “The Carol Burnett Show”.
Video credit: YouTube

There, he routinely played roles in hilarious sketches to a national audience and high ratings. While Korman left Burnett’s show to host his own “The Harvey Korman Show,” it only lasted one season.

Mel Brooks (one of Korman’s biggest fans) cast Korman in “Blazing Saddles” for the part of Hedley Lamarr. Korman always considered that one of his favorite roles.

Brooks would use him later in the films “History of the World: Part 1,” “High Anxiety” and “Dracula: Dead and Loving It”.

Korman continued his work with the motion pictures “The Flintstones” and “The Flintsones in Viva Rock Vegas” as well as television appearances on “ER” and “Mama’s Family”.

He was nominated for seven Emmys for his television work and won four. He also was nominated for four Golden Globe awards and won one.

Our Harvey Korman remembrance thread can be found here.
More HollywoodChicago.com writing from Dustin Levell can be found here.

By DUSTIN LEVELL
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
dustin@hollywoodchicago.com