Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski in CHUCK - Season 5 | ©2011 NBC/Mitchell Haaseth

CHUCK, the romantic spy comedy that has lasted five seasons on NBC, draws to a close with a two-hour series finale this Friday night at 8 PM. Co-created by Chris Fedak and Josh Schwartz, CHUCK has chronicled the evolution of Zachary Levi’s Chuck Bartowski from nerdy Buy More employee to confused spy to genuine hero and husband of more experienced fellow spy Sarah Walker, played by Yvonne Strahovski.

Schwartz, who previously created THE O.C. for Fox and still has GOSSIP GIRL on the CW, is now in post-production on his feature film directing debut FUN SIZE and is in pre-production on THE CARRIE DIARIES, the SEX AND THE CITY prequel series, for Warners Television. We weren’t able to catch up to Schwartz before CHUCK’s cancellation was certain, but here are some previously unpublished reminiscences regarding the series.

ASSIGNMENT X: Obviously, the 2007-2008 Writers Guild strike was tragic for a lot of people in a lot of ways, but did that give you any breathing room in terms of extra time to think about Season Two, or was it just a completely horrible interruption?

JOSH SCHWARTZ: It was unfortunate in the sense that the show was really building momentum [before the strike happened] and building in terms of I think the episodes themselves, and the numbers were going up, so that was sort of a bummer, but short of that, it’s always nice to have time and spend the time on the creative, and to have a break and let the cast have a break. Zach works like eighteen-hour days, seventeen days a week, so I think for that reason alone, it was a nice chance to take a beat and refresh and come into [the second] season guns blazing, because we recognized the challenge of being off the air for so long.

AX: Was the second season when you decided to have multi-episode arcs within each season?

SCHWARTZ: We started off [second season] with a handful of kind of one-offs, and I felt people really locked into the show when Chuck went back to Stanford, and that really tapped into the mythology of the show a little bit. And then Bryce Larkin [played by Matthew Bomer] returned. And then you got into Fulcrum a little bit. And there was like a four-episode arc where it really felt like each episode was building on itself successfully, and you can just feel that out there, the temperature of people responding to the show and getting invested in the show in a different way, as opposed to, “Oh, this is enjoyable and funny.” All of a sudden, it was, “Oh, this is compelling! I need to watch it every week.” And so we were really starting from that in mind.

AX: Before Chuck and Sarah decided they were meant for each other, there were a lot of romantic triangles. Sarah and Bryce were interested in each other, Bryce had a history with Chuck’s former girlfriend Jill, played by Jordana Brewster, who turned out to be an enemy spy, Sarah got involved with Brandon Routh’s character Daniel Shaw, who turned out to be crazy and vindictive …

SCHWARTZ: I love me a love triangle. So yeah. We did this with Bryce – you got a sense of Chuck, and then we brought in Rachel Bilson for a couple of episodes, but she was sort of a character who could never really know the history with Chuck. From the very first minute of the pilot, Chuck’s talking about Jill and how she broke his heart, and so we had planned to bring her back at the end of [first] season, if it hadn’t been for the strike. So there were two characters that we really wanted to get to right away. One was Roan Montgomery [played by John Larroquette], seducer of women, we thought that would be a fun character, and we got to hint at a sexual history between him and General Beckman [Bonita Friedericy], with all the women he seduced, and it was a nice moment for her. And then Jill was the other character that we really wanted to get back into the show. She was the most important character in terms of Chuck’s [romantic] mythology. We wanted to get somebody who was going to be great and beautiful, but also smart and a doctor and she gets to do action, comedy and romance and Jordana’s be great. It was a huge arc for us and it set the show off in a new direction.

[Jill] is somebody who has real traction with the history, she’s a legitimate threat, she’s beautiful and cool and smart and dynamic, she gets some information about what Chuck may actually do for a living, which means she can have a real relationship with him, so it’s a real threat to romance. And I have to say, the Chuck/Sarah stuff, we owned it right out of the gate in terms of their relationship. So it’s incredibly romantic, Zack and Yvonne have scenes that are really heartbreaking and emotional and they’re both great in them.

AX: There were so many people involved, was it more of a quadrangle than a triangle?

SCHWARTZ: It was a rhombus.

AX: There have also been some other big emotional issues, like when Adam Baldwin’s character Casey was ordered to neutralize the Intersect.

SCHWARTZ: Exterminate Chuck? Pretty big deal. It’s hard for him, but he’s also a man that follows orders, and Baldwin is so good and he’s so funny, but he can also hit a lot of different notes.

AX: When you hired Linda Hamilton to play Chuck’s mother, how tempting was it to make references to her role as Sarah Connor in the TERMINATOR films?

SCHWARTZ: I think the iconic power of Linda and Sarah Connor doesn’t need extra commentary. We [had] a joke in there somewhere. We tend to do that from time to time. Chevy Chase was quoting lines from FLETCH [when he played guest villain Ted Roark].

AX: Has it been hard running both CHUCK and GOSSIP girl simultaneously?

SCHWARTZ: I’m very lucky. I work with [series co-creator] Stephanie Savage on GOSSIP GIRL and on CHUCK with [series co-creator] Chris Fedak. Stephanie and I have started a company now, and we have a really good infrastructure in place.

AX: To ask a GOSSIP GIRL question – some of the good guys on CHUCK have sharp edges, but they’re ultimately good people. On GOSSIP GIRL, this is a little more debatable. With the character of Ed Westwick’s Chuck Bass, do you have to modulate between never letting him do anything too great and never having him do anything too terrible?

SCHWARTZ: Look, he’s done some pretty bad things and I think we actually saw him at his lowest. And he’s done some great things and he’s shown that he’s a real romantic, too, and I think with an actor like Ed, you have somebody who can take you there and you see how charming he is, how you love that guy, and people find his character fun and enjoy taking that ride with him.

AX: When it started, did GOSSIP GIRL sort of fill any separation anxiety regarding THE O.C.?

SCHWARTZ: I definitely missed writing for that world, and I definitely missed those characters and that audience, so the opportunity to keep telling those kinds of stories is something I couldn’t resist.

AX: And did CHUCK fulfill the comic book side of your personality?

SCHWARTZ: Oh, definitely.

AX: So was running both of these shows satisfying both halves of your personality?

SCHWARTZ: Yes, it is. My feminine side and my masculine side are completely well taken care of.

AX: Anything else you’d like to say about CHUCK?

SCHWARTZ: I guess what I’d say is, I’ve been fortunate to do [a number of] shows. When I watch the show, when I go on the set, when I see people interact with Zach, I feel like I just know that the show is good, it’s the most sophisticated show that I’ve ever been part of and I’m really proud of the show.

UPDATE: TV Review of CHUCK – Season 5 – “Vs. Sarah” – Series Finale – Part 1

UPDATE: TV Review of CHUCK – Season 5 – “Vs. The Goodbye” – Series Finale – Part 2

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Click On Link: Exclusive Interview with CHUCK star Zachary Levi on the end and the potential of CHUCK movies

Click on Link: Exclusive Interview with CHUCK star Yvonne Strahovski on the CHUCK finale

Click on Link: Interview with CHUCK star Adam Baldwin and co-creator Chris Fedak on the CHUCK finale

Click on Link: TV Review – CHUCK – Season 5 – “Vs. The Bullet Train”

Click on Link: TV Review – CHUCK – Season 5 – “Vs. Bo”

Click on Link:Exclusive Interview with Vik Sahay on the end of CHUCK

Click on Link: Exclusive Interview with Scott Krinsky on the end of CHUCK

Click on Link: NBC says CHUCK is now officially over

Click on Link :TV Review – CHUCK – Season 5 – “Vs. The Kept Man”

Click on Link: TV Review: CHUCK – Season 5 – “Vs. The Baby”

Click on Link: Exclusive Interview with CHUCK star Mark Christopher Lawrence

Click on Link: Exclusive Interview with CHUCK star Ryan McPartlin on Season 5 of CHUCK

Click on Link:Exclusive Interview with CHUCK co-creator Chris Fedak and co-star Joshua Gomez – Part 1

Click on Link:Exclusive Interview with CHUCK co-creator Chris Fedak and co-star Joshua Gomez – Part 2

Click on Link: TV Review: CHUCK – Season 5  – “Vs. The Santa Suit”

Click on Link: TV Review: CHUCK – Season 5  – “Vs. The Curse”

Click on Link: TV Review: CHUCK – Season 5  – “Vs. The Hack Off”

Click on Link: TV Review: CHUCK – Season 5  – “Vs. The Business Trip”

Click on Link: TV Review: CHUCK – Season 5  – “Vs. The Bearded Bandit”

Click On Link: TV Review: CHUCK – Season 5 premiere – “Vs. The Zoom”

Click on Link: DVD Review: CHUCK – THE COMPLETE SEASON 4

Click On Link: Zachary Levi talks about what Chuck and Morgan would think about TRON: LEGACY

Click on Link: AX’s exclusive interview with Bonnie Friedericy on CHUCK

Click on Link: AX’s exclusive interview with Linda Hamilton on CHUCK

Click on Link: AX’s exclusive interview with actress Mekenna Melvin

Click on Link: AX’s Exclusive Interview with Ryan McPartlin

Click on Link: AX’s exclusive interview with YVONNE STRAHOVSKI

Click on Link: More exclusive CHUCK reviews and interviews from ASSIGNMENT X

Article Source: Assignment X 
Article: Interview with CHUCK co-creator Josh Schwartz

Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton, Paul Winfield
Writer: James Cameron with Gale Anne Hurd
Director: James Cameron
Distributor: MGM
Suggested Retail Price: $34.98

Like the many home video incarnations and special editions of John Carpenter’s original HALLOWEEN, the various re-releases of James Cameron’s 1984 classic THE TERMINATOR are too numerous to mention.

However, now that it’s been finally remastered for high-definition Blu-ray, it’s time to open up the pocketbook and splurge for the film once again, because it’s worth it.

TERMINATOR was director James Cameron’s big breakthrough as a filmmaker (even though he helmed PIRANHA II: THE SPAWNING and was reportedly fired off of it a couple years prior). All of Cameron’s Roger Corman training as an art director/special effects guy/second unit director really came into play with this ingenious story of a time travel, cyborgs and a future world taken over by machines.

Cameron co-wrote the film with producer Gale Anne Hurd, and her input definitely brings our heroine Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) to the fore. She starts off as a somewhat mousy, waitress who blossoms into the kind of gutsy warrior that will spawn John Connor – the future leader of the resistance against the machines.

However, with time travel in the future perfected, the machines have sent a cyborg Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back in time to eliminate Sarah Conner before she can give birth. The humans have an ace up their sleeve too – Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) who is sent back to protect her.

The story is full of twists and mind-bending time travel paradoxes, but Cameron does a credible job of making everything work and easy to follow.

There’s humor, some great characterizations and above all, some impressive action on what was a very limited budget. The use of miniatures in the future scenes, some great stop motion and the clever Stan Winston make-up effects on really add up to an impressive directorial coming out party for Cameron.

He displays a very sure hand here (and he certainly had a lot to prove after PIRANHA II) and he delivers with flying, futuristic colors.

Sure, there are some elements that heavily date the film (hair styles, some dialogue, and some of the source music), but this is the movie that spawned three other films and a TV series, so there’s not a lot of complaints here. The story still holds together, and that says a lot.

The Blu-ray transfer is phenomenal, and it really enhances the film, bringing it back to a place that hasn’t been seen probably since Cameron first committed these images to film. It’s gorgeous to look at and it blows many modern day science-fiction films out of the water with the simplicity and elegance in the way some of the special effects are shot.

The special features a pretty skimpy – primarily leftover from the previous DVD incarnation. Nothing new is added, and not even all the DVD features are available here. The deleted scenes also make a reprise, and one of the deleted moments toward the end actually sets up what TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY ultimately hinges its major plot points on.

Making up for lack of special features, is the special edition packaging that includes a hard-cover case and a mini-booklet with photos and text on the actors and the making of the movie.

THE TERMINATOR is one of the 1980s greatest sci-fi films, and Cameron delivered the even better TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY seven years later which lived up to the brilliance of the first film and then ratcheted things up to a whole other level with its much bigger budget and ground-breaking CGI effects for its time.

Click on link: AX’s Exclusive Interview with Linda Hamilton on the future of the TERMINATOR franchise

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Garret Dillahunt in TERMINATOR - THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES | ©Fox

In Part Two of our exclusive interview with Garret Dillahunt, the actor reminisces about TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES and where the series might have gone, as well as talking more about his new Fox series RAISING HOPE which was recently renewed for Season 2.

ASSIGNMENT X: Who do you think is better equipped to deal with an infant, your character Burt Chance on RAISING HOPE or John Henry, your second cyborg character on TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES?

DILLAHUNT: Well, that’s so different, right? John Henry, in his way, he was just a brilliant child, but I guess he would learn faster. His curve might be quicker, but this guy [Burt] has at least done it before – successfully or not, he’s done it.

AX: You survived character destruction on TERMINATOR. Were you concerned when Cromartie got destroyed, or did you know that you’d be back as cyborg John Henry?

DILLAHUNT: I was concerned at Comic-Con. We were told that someone was going to die – we didn’t know who. It was like the Last Supper all of a sudden. “Is it me, is it me?” But they assured me that I’d be coming back as John Henry, so I wouldn’t freak out. Thankfully. I [had] such a huge crush on Shirley Manson [who played shapeshifting Terminator Catherine Weaver]– in the healthiest way, but I think she’s so much fun. She’s so well-read and so funny. I worked almost exclusively with her and Richard T. Jones.

AX: How did you feel about all the Terminator-esque violence as Cromartie?

DILLAHUNT: It’s a lot of fun. It’s fun to shoot guns with no consequences. I’d feel guilty all of a sudden like I should have, but I think the fact that it’s all make-believe made me feel it’s just a lot of fun.

AX: Did you miss playing Cromartie when that part of the job was over?

DILLAHUNT: Well, I did like Cromartie a lot, he was a lot of fun to play. There was no hesitation, but I guess that couldn’t last forever. He was a pretty durable Terminator – he had his head cut off, he traveled through time, he did all kinds of stuff.

AX: Did you enjoy getting to play John Henry’s innocence?

DILLAHUNT: I think that’s the fun part of John Henry, is getting to come at a real childlike sort of perspective. He’s like a super-powered infant. I feel he was more like Chauncey Gardner [from BEING THERE] almost, he’s a little more that kind of childlike, I think.

AX: Did you and your fellow Terminator actors – Shirley Manson, Summer Glau, et al – ever confer about how you’re playing different things, or do you all just go at it on your own?

DILLAHUNT: I think we all grew up on those movies, so I think we all have some pretty individual ideas about how to play a Terminator. And they’re pretty individual. Even in the films, they all had their own characteristics.

AX: Did you know where Season Three might have gone if there had been a Season Three?

DILLAHUNT: You know, it changes always so much, but the last I’d been told was that we were going into that future world, because remember, we’d gone through time at the end, and John Henry was loose and I would be a player for the resistance in the future, which I was really looking forward to.

AX: So you were going to come down on the side of humans?

DILLAHUNT: I believe so, yes. In fact, Shirley’s character as well turned out to be for the good.

AX: It was left a little unclear where your two characters were in the future …

DILLAHUNT: Yes, that’s what would have been answered and that’s what they hoped for, because I think also Derek [Brian Austin Greene] could have been there. He’d been killed in one of the episodes.

AX: Did you ever get confused with the time paradoxes in the storyline?

DILLAHUNT: Ever since the first movie. I was, “Wait, so the guy he sends back is his father. Does he know it?” It’s confusing. And who’s to say what’s right?

Garret Dillahunt and Lucas Neff in RAISING HOPE - Season 1 - "Don't Vote on This Episode" | ©2011 Fox/Isabella Vosmikova

AX: You’re back on Fox now with RAISING HOPE. Did Fox come to you at any point when TERMINATOR was ending and say, “We like you and hope to keep you in the Fox family”?

DILLAHUNT: No [laughs], but I think they do. I work for Fox a lot. A MINUTE WITH STAN HOOPER was also for Fox, the last sitcom I did with Norm McDonald in ‘03. So I’ve actually worked for Fox a lot. I think I’ve just never burned that bridge and they seem to have confidence in me to do just about anything.

AX: DEADWOOD was pretty grim, THE ROAD was pretty grim, TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES was pretty grim, although your second character John Henry was kind of upbeat, WINTER’S BONE was pretty grim. RAISING HOPE can be dark, but it’s not grim. Are you finding you have a preference for one over the other?

DILLAHUNT: I don’t have a preference. My preference is for change. I always try as much as I can to make the latest thing as much of a departure from the last thing as I can. I mean, it’s nice to go to work and try to make each other laugh, I’ll say that.

AX: Do you feel like your comic timing is getting better as you go along?

DILLAHUNT: My roots are in comedy. When I first started in television, I was doing sitcoms and comedies and I couldn’t get an audition for a drama to save my life. People said, “Oh, he’s a sitcom guy, he’s a sitcom guy, he can’t do DEADWOOD.” And then I do the audition and I get the job, and then you’re the drama guy who can’t do comedy. So it just seems like memories are short, and you’re constantly proving yourself. It’s just interesting. It’s a common theme in me seeking work. It’s like different styles of theatre, like one day it’s a farce, one day it’s Shakespeare. I like that each one has different requirements and I think it keeps you awake and makes you a better actor if you can try different styles.

AX: Do you have anything else you did that’s coming out?

DILLAHUNT: OLIVER SHERMAN is a film I’m very, very proud of. It opened in Canada [in February]. It’s me and Donal Logue and Molly Parker and it’s a beautiful movie. I’m really, really proud of it. We still haven’t found U.S. distribution yet, but that effort is just starting to step up, so hopefully it’ll be here as well.

AX: Are you surprised and/or gratified by the way RAISING HOPE has taken off?

DILLAHUNT: I’m not really surprised, because I thought it was good. I wanted to do it, but that’s no guarantee of success, just something being good, so I am gratified, yes, that people have taken it to heart. I hope more do. I love the show genuinely and I hope people watch.

Click on link for PART 1 of AX’s exclusive GARRET DILAHUNT interview on RAISING HOPE

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Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

Linda Hamilton in CHUCK - Season 4 | ©2011 NBC/Mitchell Haaseth

Linda Hamilton considered the mother of the future by fans of her portrayal of Sarah Connor in THE TERMINATOR and TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY is one of the nicest and most intelligent women you would ever want to meet. The actress just wrapped up a successful season on NBC’s CHUCK, and is ready for more.

ASSIGNMENT X continued our chat with Ms. Hamilton fresh off the set of her new film, a thriller called RIGHT NEXT DOOR. We found out a lot of back-story on her involvement with THE TERMINATOR franchise, why there is such a resurgence in interest, and whether she would ever be willing to play Sarah Connor again.
ASSIGNMENT X: There has been some talk about a TERMINATOR 5. If there was a way for Sarah to come back would you return to the franchise?

LINDA HAMILTON: If it made sense and if it wasn’t just ‘a wanting to make a whole bunch of money so I’ll try this one more time’ kind of thing. If it made sense character wise, and if I was playing a Sarah Connor that’s close to my actual age and not trying to look thirty years younger. If it’s reasonable and it makes sense for the character, then yes. Yes I would. However, the greatest piece of that puzzle was James Cameron. He made it work. He’s the genius. I wouldn’t be interesting in doing something that didn’t have the same value on every level. It would be hard to create something that I would be interested in unless it’s James Cameron. I love the franchise, but I don’t want to beat it into the ground or be compared to myself thirty years before and fail miserably. I don’t want to do that to the franchise.

AX: Have you seen the other two TERMINATOR films that you were not in, and what was your reaction?

HAMILTON: Yes I have. They were what they were, but I was hoping for more.

AX: For me personally as a viewer it felt like the heart and soul was missing once Sarah Connor wasn’t part of it anymore.

HAMILTON: Thank you for saying that! I think McG made the fourth film about people. He had Bryce Dallas Howard in there, but she wasn’t in there enough. He was trying to get the movies back to that heart and soul. McG has the greatest heart, and he’s the nicest guy. He’s the kind of boss you want to please. He’s just the nicest guy! When you think about it, how many movie franchises end up without the person or people you care about and that you were watching to see the characters develop in the first place?

AX: Were you approached for TERMINATOR 3?

HAMILTON: I was. Mario Kassar and Andy Vajna came to see me and told me it was coming back and I felt pretty incorruptible at that time. I was doing my best to get away from Sarah Connor, and the iconoclastic kind of character. Truly an actress wants to play everybody – all kinds of characters. I was working hard to distance myself from Sarah Connor, so I could play funny women and incompetent women. [Laughs] However, if it had been there in the script I would have been interested, but my part just wasn’t there at all. They had written a rather small part where Sarah dies. There was no time to mourn and everybody is on the run and I just viewed it as a diminished return so I saw no reason to do it.

AX: Of course, the version we ended up with seemed off the cuff with Sarah just dying off camera of cancer at some point in the past.

HAMILTON: I had to go to the movie to find out that Sarah died of Leukemia.

AX: Then you have THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES where T3 is a pocket universe that never really happened.

HAMILTON: True. That’s the greatest thing about a franchise that deals with time travel. You interrupt anything and intervene at any point and it changes everything.

AX: Did you ever get to talk to Lena Heady when they were doing CHRONICLES?

HAMILTON: No. I wish I had. I love her to death, and I think it’s really hard to follow in someone’s footsteps like that. I had been on stage doing a play version of LAURA, a film noir movie that Gene Tierney won an Academy Award for that part, and all that the reviewers could say that I was no Gene Tierney. [Laughs] So I know what it’s like to walk in the shoes of someone who has so established a character. It’s an unfair kind of thing and I think she was just great!

Linda Hamilton on the set of TERMINATOR with director James Cameron | ©1984 MGM

AX: Have you seen much of a return on all of the various TERMINATOR merchandise that your likeness has been a part of?

HAMILTON: I’ve never profited from that franchise. You would be amazed at how little money it produced for me. There were no residuals, and both of the films I did had companies that went bankrupt, Orion and Carlco. It’s not about the fame – it’s about the very nature of Sarah Connor who is a savior. I know people don’t necessarily buy it was the truth, but I go out in the world for all of these years and people stop me and say, “Hey I Love you!” [Laughs] It’s kind of an insidious thing because they think of me as the person who saved the future. It’s subtle how it works on people, but I just go out and people treat me like I’m a hero. It’s a wonderful feeling and it’s really great to be Linda Hamilton. I really think it’s because on some level that character I played is working on them in their subconscious.

Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST | ©CBS Home Entertainment

AX: Though this might be a stretch, have you and Ron Perlman ever been approached to do some kind of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST sequel – even though your character would have to come back from the ‘dead’ for it?

HAMILTON: The fans will never give up on that idea. Even though at this point I would feel like a geriatric Catherine Chandler. [Laughs] But that’s what makes fans great, they’re blind to your flaws. They’re blind to the fact you are aging. The fans definitely, but no one else has thought of going on with that.

AX: Is there still a large fan base for the series?

HAMILTON: I actually went to a BEAUTY AND THE BEAST convention last summer in San Diego. The group is getting smaller and smaller. The message of love and compassion and art is what I think enflames the fans as much as the love story. Those fans are amazing loyal, but right now there’s several generations that never saw it. My own children at 18 and 21 are sophisticated in a way that I couldn’t even show them BEAUTY AND THE BEAST because they’ve seen so many shows like 24 – shows that are so sophisticated and smart that they would laugh me out of the house. It was so ’80’s. [Laughs] I haven’t seen it since I left it, but I have the box set, so some day.

AX: What can you tell me about your new movie you just shot RIGHT NEXT DOOR?

HAMILTON: It has a wonderfully crafted story. I loved the writing and the way the story was crafted. It’s a character study as much as it is a psychological thriller. I felt I really had to participate because of the writers’ and directors’ great effort. I was a really big fan of the script. Sometimes, it’s not even about the character one is playing, as it is really wanting to be a part of something. This story goes in directions that are so antithetical to the way films are done with huge body counts and bloody bits. This one is a finely tuned character study that went in a completely unexpected direction.

AX: You also did a movie recently called REFUGE?

HAMILTON: Yes, it’s making it’s way around the film festivals now. We’ve been accepted into two of them. It is written and directed by Mark Medoff who did CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD. He’s a Tony Award winning playwright. This was one of the best parts I’ve ever had in my career. We made it for about two dollars. It was heartbreaking everyday, the lack of money. My character is a fundamentalist Christian who by accident of design, we don’t know, kills her husband in the beginning. We don’t see it happen, but at that exact moment a fellow comes along with really bad timing. His motorcycle has run out of gas and I take him hostage. We’re in an RV, and we take the trailer on the road. It turns into a love story between myself, this young guy, and the cadaver of my husband. It’s a road trip movie, and a May/December romance. [Laughs] It was a brilliant script, so we’ll see what happens!

Click on the link for PART 1 of AX’s EXCLUSIVE LINDA HAMILTON INTERVIEW where she chats about her role on CHUCK

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Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

CHUCK was just picked up for a fifth and final season and ASSIGNMENT X had the opportunity to interview Linda Hamilton yesterday to ask her about the pick-up.

“It got picked up for thirteen apparently,” said Hamilton.  “It was one of those things where I wanted to call my people and ask if it’s true even though they sent it to me.”

As to whether or not she’s returning to CHUCK Season 5 next year, Hamilton teases, “I’m looking forward to going back next year. I want even more! It’s hard once you’ve started to sit back and not do them.”

So there you have it. Right from Chuck’s mom herself! Fans of CHUCK can now dance in the streets.

For more of our exclusive and extensive interview with Linda Hamilton, and all of the CHUCK inside scoop she shares with us, click on the link – LINDA HAMILTON on CHUCK

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Arnold Schwarzenegger in TERMINATOR

I know that everyone is wetting their knickers over the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, but I couldn’t be more indifferent. The only way I could care less is if you told me that Train is going to be the band at the reception.

Does this mean I have to hand over my chick card? My chick card is about to expire anyway. I was going to make an appointment at the Department of Chicks and Broads, but I’m afraid if I go down there they will take it away from me, or make me take the written test, which can be really difficult to pass if you don’t study for it. For example, I have no idea what happened last week on GREY’S ANATOMY.

What if I told you that I really like to go shopping? What if I admitted that sometimes my life is closer to a CATHY comic strip than I would like to admit? That reminds me … it’s almost bathing suit season. AAAACK!

So anyway, here is this week’s Dork Side, and other than the above paragraphs, it’s almost royal wedding free. You’re welcome!

• Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed on for another installment in the TERMINATOR franchise. OK, put aside the fact that the world needs another TERMINATOR movie like it needs another Right Said Fred album, at 63 isn’t Arnold getting a little too old for this crap? “Run John Connor! Go on without me! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”

• So, I’m pretty sure Donald Trump is going to be president now, because BLOSSOM star Joey Lawrence and professional weirdo Gary Busey have endorsed him. Hey, I know what you’re thinking, and yeah, I thought those guys were dead, too.

• Bradley Cooper, haaaaaa, is in talks to star, wahahahahaha, in a remake of THE CROW. HAAAAAAAAAA! Oh wait, they’re serious? Well, maybe they could get Nickelback to do the soundtrack while they’re at it.

• Lindsay Lohan got a standing ovation during her appearance on THE TONIGHT SHOW. To be fair to Jay Leno’s moronic fans, Lohan did manage to make it across the stage without stealing or snorting anything. Very impressive.

• Dear Food Network: Enough with the cake shows already. Sincerely, The World

• Not to get all religious on you, but the fact that there is another FAST AND FURIOUS movie (FAST FIVE) is proof that god doesn’t exist.

• Why does People Magazine keep reporting on the comings and goings of LeAnn Rimes? I think the last hit song she had was on the CON AIR soundtrack. LeAnn Rimes is about as relevant as Tori Spelling, another “star” that People Magazine seems to think we all care about. How do you even have time and space for Rimes and Spelling? Don’t you have a Royal Wedding to beat us over the head with.

Sonia Mansfield likes to talk smack, make nerdy STAR WARS references and feed her unhealthy obsession with pop culture. Make sure you follow her on Twitter for constant updates or check out her blog, The Sonia Show.

Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

Thomas Dekker and Diane Lane in CINEMA VERITE | ©2011 HBO

Though Thomas Dekker makes a big impression as Lance Loud in HBO’s CINEMA VERITE movie based on the 1970s PBS documentary series AN AMERICAN FAMILY,  this certainly won’t be the first, and last time this charismatic young actor will be in the spotlight. Starting from the age of six, Dekker’s grew from parts in SEINFELD and TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL to cartoon voices for LAND BEFORE TIME and AMERICAN TAIL spin-offs, then turned in notable teen performances in BOSTON PUBLIC, CSI and HOUSE M.D.

Dekker then gained a true cult following on the shows HEROES and TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES before entering film and TV adulthood with magnetism to burn in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, MY SISTER’S KEEPER and KABOOM. Usually playing young men desperate to find themselves in one way or another (even if it’s discovering they were fated to save the Earth), Dekker has made it a point to remain just as busy as a recording artist, and an aspiring writer-director, with one movie about a fame-seeking WHORE-dom of teen Hollywood already. Now the CW coven of the pilot series SECRET CIRCLE awaits Dekker’s brooding magic.

In Part 2 of our exclusive interview, Dekker talks about growing up in Hollywood, HEROES and what SECRET CIRCLE is all about.

ASSIGNMENT X: You’ve been [an actor] since Christopher Reeve tried to blow you up VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED.

THOMAS DEKKER: But I survived! I made it out of the schoolhouse alive. Yeah, I started when I was five. So this has been a long haul.

AX: What’s the trick to growing up on screen and not becoming Lindsey Lohan?

DEKKER: I think it’s incredibly hard.  I’ve had a very lucky past of when I was in the public eye, and when I haven’t been. I’ve never stopped working, but certainly there were periods where I had to discover myself, or maybe behaved badly in the process. They were fortunately during times in my life when no one was really watching. Lindsay Lohan is someone who seriously has a problem that’s beyond celebrity gossip. Now, it just hurts me when I find there’s another thing she’s in trouble for.

I think in general about the rest of the kid actors who’ve gone astray while growing up. It’s very, very hard to have that kind of pressure of the public eye on you when you’re probably trying to discover yourself. Also, you have so much more at your fingertips in this industry, literally and figuratively. I guess for me, my biggest addiction has been working.  It’s been applying myself as much as possible as an actor, a writer and a director. I’ve also done three albums as a musician. So in the end, it’s really about staying focused on what it is that you’re doing, and having awesome parenting.

AX: I first noticed you on HEROES. You were fortunate enough to get out before the entire series jumped the shark.

DEKKER: That’s what everybody says to me now. Everybody originally told me I was crazy to leave at the time. Now it’s a reversal.

AX: Where do you think the show went wrong?

DEKKER: To be honest, I’ve never seen an episode of HEROES. When I was on it, I was just a guest star in four episodes. So I didn’t realize my character was getting noticed at all, or realized how big the show was.  I just left because I got another show TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES. The chance to play a cult figure like John Connor was very exciting, so I just left to go do that. Then I heard that HEROES shifted gears after the first season.

AX: While I couldn’t wait for someone to put HEROES out of its misery by the end, I really enjoyed TERMINATOR all the way through. The series actually got better as it went along. I was sorry to see it end.

DEKKER: It’s a tricky thing.  It sometimes still upsets me that TERMINATOR ended after two seasons, because I really loved playing the role.  I loved the people I worked with. Yet I’ve gotten to work since with Gregg Araki on KABOOM and to do CINEMA VERITE and a bunch of other films I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do if TERMINATOR continued.  Everything happens for a reason I guess.

AX: Where do you think the show would have gone if it had continued to a third season?

DEKKER: Well, the writers were very secretive, so we weren’t ever really told much beyond a couple episodes.  I think TERMINATOR would have followed John’s story into the future, then go back and forth between the future and the present where Sarah still was. All of it would have been about how I rise to become the John Connor of the Terminator saga as opposed to being just a random guy.  It would have been really interesting, and I’m really proud of that series for being my first show where I got to play a lead, other than the Disney HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS show I did from age nine to 12.

AX: Gregg’s KABOOM was a real return to the kind of sexually sassy movies that started his career.  Is shooting a fun and sexy movie as fun and sexy as it looks?

DEKKER: It’s very fun. I don’t know about sexy.  It’s very pragmatic because Gregg is so specific with his shots.  He storyboards the entire script with little drawings next to every line. I’m sure it could be very sexy if he was shooting it very loose and handheld, with that sort of feeling like you were really in it, which makes it a little more comfortable I guess. But I just had a great time on that film.  That entire cast was really talented, and full of smart young people. I knew it would be because it’s Gregg’s, but the fact that we got a standing ovation at Cannes and Sundance was terrific. KABOOM is Gregg’s biggest financial success, even if were shot in what was basically an abandoned warehouse with a tiny little set, no craft service and no money. We were all just doing it for the love of it.  Gregg’s kind of a magician in making a film look much bigger than what it really was in person.  It’s just wild that it’s doing everything it’s done.

AX: Can you tell me about your new CW TV series SECRET CIRCLE?

DEKKER: It’s based on the same books by the author of THE VAMPIRE DIARIES and it’s Kevin Williamson’s new baby.  I’ve been a very big fan of Kevin’s for a long time. SCREAM was really my pre-teen obsession.  I met with Kevin and I guess he enjoyed what I’d been doing these last few years. He cast me in the role of Adam Conant. He’s a sort of an all American normal guy who becomes involved with a convent of witches.

AX: What’s also cool is you also keep doing these little genre pictures like LAID TO REST and ALL ABOUT EVIL on top of your bigger projects like NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and MY SISTER’S KEEPER.

DEKKER: I told my publicist that it’s got to be a nightmare to try and work with me, because my whole m.o. since I basically became an adult has been to try to do as big, and different a variety of work as possible- with one thing right after the other. I’ve been very fortunate to get that opportunity. I have another film that’s opening the Tribeca Film Festival that I’m really proud of called ANGELS CREST I made it a week after KABOOM, and it’s probably one of my absolute favorite things I’ve done, I went from playing this bisexual college student to a hunter in Montana with a two year old son and an alcoholic ex-wife. So I’m definitely following my path of specific desire as an actor to now go from that to Lance and a new CW show.

AX: Yet you’re one of the youngest-looking actors who’s this busy. That makes you just right for the CW.

DEKKER: I just turned 23.  It does feel a bit weird to be doing scenes in a high school this week, but there are far older actors playing younger roles than me so I’m not feeling too guilty yet.

AX: You’ll be making your second film as a writer and director soon as well.

DEKKER: Though I made WHORE with my own finances, it’s gotten me enough belief and support to do a fully budgeted movie with actual money that’s not my own. The movie’s called THE WALK OF FAME, which will have Shiloh Fernandez is in it. I’ve been friends with him for years and years, and I’m very excited about working with him. WALK will also have a pretty big ensemble of talented young people that I’m very excited about.

AX: Lance Loud certainly revealed how much talent he had beyond being on AN AMERICAN FAMILY. He did so much with his life that you could make a whole other film about him.

DEKKER: Yeah, I’d love to see a film all about Lance. His life after the series ended was a fascinating road. As I told you, I hadn’t known about Lance prior to the project. Now it’s pretty much that happens with everywhere I go and anyone I meet, because the generation above me seems to have know Lance personally.  I mean it’s just crazy.  People who are already friends of mine like John Waters and Mink Stole were close to him, as well as the owners of Serendipity in New York. Greg Gorman, the photographer I just did a shoot with for Venice, knew Lance very well too. So all these people that I knew or run into had a connection with Lance, which really speaks as to how much of a presence he was.

AX: If you got to meet Lance what would you say?

DEKKER: “Can I buy you a drink?”  I guess that’s what I would say.  I would like to get a good old bottle of whiskey and talk with Lance for a good long time. And I’d probably be very entertained. Lance definitely gave me one of the most fascinating dream roles I could ever play.  So I owe a lot to him.

Special thanks to Peter Hackman for his interview transcription

CLICK HERE for PART 2 of AX’s Exclusive Interview with THOMAS DEKKER

Though Thomas Dekker makes a big impression as Lance in HBO’s CINEMA VERITE (airing Saturday night) this certainly won’t be the first, and last time this charismatic young actor will be in the spotlight. Starting from the age of six, Dekker’s grew from parts in SEINFELD and TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL to cartoon voices for LAND BEFORE TIME and AMERICAN TAIL spin-offs, then turned in notable teen performances in BOSTON PUBLIC, CSI and HOUSE M.D.

Dekker then gained a true cult following on the shows HEROES and TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES before entering film and TV adulthood with magnetism to burn in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, MY SISTER’S KEEPER and KABOOM. Usually playing young men desperate to find themselves in one way or another (even if it’s discovering they were fated to save the Earth), Dekker has made it a point to remain just as busy as a recording artist, and an aspiring writer-director, with one movie about a fame-seeking WHORE-dom of teen Hollywood already. Now the CW coven of SECRET CIRCLE awaits Dekker’s brooding magic.

Thomas Dekker and Diane Lane in CINEMA VERITE | ©2011 HBO

Yet it’s the part of Lance Loud that’s turned into a real eye-opener for Dekker. It’s a role that’s allowed him to connect his own hard-worked aspirations to that of a young man who thought it would all come easy at first, only to find, along with his family, that television cameras and a seemingly understanding producer can just as easily destroy what they create. And in the process, Loud’s unabashed homosexuality, and heart would be outted in millions of American living rooms over twelve episodes in 1973, even if he never mentioned an orientation that’s now an easily dispensed household word.

Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

In an age where no one bats an eye at watching a man with mascara on network family hour, or showing off their flamboyantly great fashion style for reality television, it’s hard to remember when homosexuals were barely shown (and swishily condescended to when they were) on America’s sets. Don’t even ask what you mostly got on the big screen.

Leave it to Lance Loud to make his sexuality heard loud and clear for millions of Americans when PBS cameras became part of his clan’s lives for their groundbreaking series AN AMERICAN FAMILY. Beyond showing that “real” people were just as fascinating as any made up person, while turning them into characters in the process, AN AMERICAN FAMILY signaled that men were physically, if not vocally open, to declaring their sexual orientation like Lance Loud.  Though he’d go on to front The Mumps, write for friend Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine, and turn his own passing into a TV event, AN AMERICAN FAMILY would remain Loud’s true moment in the reality headlights – even if Loud himself never expected that glare would end up turning on him as he tried to play the show to his own instant fame-seeking ends.

Though Thomas Dekker makes a big impression as Lance in HBO’s CINEMA VERITE (airing Saturday night) this certainly won’t be the first, and last time this charismatic young actor will be in the spotlight. Starting from the age of six, Dekker’s grew from parts in SEINFELD and TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL to cartoon voices for LAND BEFORE TIME and AMERICAN TAIL spin-offs, then turned in notable teen performances in BOSTON PUBLIC, CSI and HOUSE M.D.

Dekker then gained a true cult following on the shows HEROES and TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES before entering film and TV adulthood with magnetism to burn in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, MY SISTER’S KEEPER and KABOOM. Usually playing young men desperate to find themselves in one way or another (even if it’s discovering they were fated to save the Earth), Dekker has made it a point to remain just as busy as a recording artist, and an aspiring writer-director, with one movie about a fame-seeking WHORE-dom of teen Hollywood already. Now the CW coven of SECRET CIRCLE awaits Dekker’s brooding magic.

Thomas Dekker and Diane Lane in CINEMA VERITE | ©2011 HBO

Yet it’s the part of Lance Loud that’s turned into a real eye-opener for Dekker. It’s a role that’s allowed him to connect his own hard-worked aspirations to that of a young man who thought it would all come easy at first, only to find, along with his family, that television cameras and a seemingly understanding producer can just as easily destroy what they create. And in the process, Loud’s unabashed homosexuality, and heart would be outted in millions of American living rooms over twelve episodes in 1973, even if he never mentioned an orientation that’s now an easily dispensed household word.

ASSIGNMENT X: PBS’ AN AMERICAN FAMILY was essentially the first reality television program to achieve mass popularity. Viewers certainly had never seen a gay “character” on TV revealed with this kind of honesty.

THOMAS DEKKER: One of the key things that fascinated me the most about Lance and the entire situation was that he never officially came out. There was never really an episode where he declared he was gay.  The first and only “open” mentioning of that was on THE DICK CAVETT SHOW, where you could see he’d been so obviously scarred in the public for his homosexuality. To me, that really spoke of this young man who was so completely self-aware, so open, and so fearless in just presenting what he was. And he did it in a showy way that he thought would garner attention and a lot of success. It brought a lot of the opposite to him at the time, which I’m sure was very painful and overwhelming.  Now we’re in a culture where you can garner so much fame and notoriety by declaring you are gay. So I think it’s interesting that there was a young man who was just himself, and a unique person. He became a hot topic of conversation.

AX: How important was it for you to not go into the swishy and effeminate stereotype with Lance? That’s basically how homosexuals were depicted in Hollywood at the time.

DEKKER: My chief concern was that I never played Lance as a flamboyant stereotype. I’ll be honest that I’d never heard of AN AMERICAN FAMILY or Lance Loud when I got the script. When I got off the pages was a flamboyant gay guy. Yet everything changed when I saw his footage on THE DICK CAVETT SHOW. I became obsessed with playing Lance. And I never entered into it mentally like “How can I be flamboyant. How can I be clearly gay?” It was to just be him, because I’d never met anybody like Lance, I studied every piece of footage I could get of him.  His voice alone reminded me a lot of Judy Garland, and the kind of classic, early actresses like her.

I don’t know if Lance idolized these women as he was growing up, or if they became his portal as to what he deemed would sound like a “celebrity.”  Not to be cliché, but to sound fabulous. I never tried to swish around and do a lisp thing or any of that. That wasn’t Lance at all.  My fear is that people who see the film won’t understand what I’m doing, because they’re not particularly familiar with Lance, but if they are, they’ll see how I put in every effort I could to study the way he moved his head and hands, the pitch of his voice and the way he spoke.  All those things took precedence over me playing the first publicly gay person in media history. That really wasn’t my key point of interest.  It was to capture this very specific man that I was watching.

AX: I don’t think many people would be familiar with AN AMERICAN FAMILY as the series hasn’t been released on video.

DEKKER: I assume that’s because of licensing from PBS.  I know it was a major battle just to get the clips from the show into the film. This is my first project with HBO and I have to give them so much credit for everything from the meticulous production design to getting the entire cast the entire 12 hour series, and the entire two hour Dick Cavett interview. I got to work so closely with the creative guys from everything to my wig and clothes to the styling. You very rarely get this kind of support.

AX: More than any other Loud, Lance really played up to the camera.

DEKKER: I’d say yes, and no. I think Lance was really attracted to the fact that there was a camera on him, especially because he had a huge interest in Andy Warhol and The Factory. That was the one area I really had in connection with Lance, because I’ve been fascinated by that period of time of New York, and all those Warhol figures when I was a kid. The Factory’s viewpoint was to be famous for doing nothing. AN AMERICAN FAMILY was Lance’s perfect opportunity to do just that. Of course he ended up applying himself to all these incredible things later in life. So I think that when the show started, Lance really took it as his opportunity to be as controversial as possible. He definitely played it up to the camera because it was his shot to propel himself to what he wanted to be.  There are all these kinds of things he says in the series.

One of my favorites is when says that he had no friends back in Santa Barbra, just enemies, but he much preferred his enemies to friends.  All these sort of surprising, very specific mindsets of thinking. However, as the show progressed, Lance wasn’t as aware, unlike his mother, of how negatively all of these things could be perceived- like taking his mother to see this show at La Mama, Lance probably thought, “Oh, this will get me noticed.” I don’t think he realized it would for all the wrong reasons. Yet, I don’t think he would have really cared in any case. That was the sort of great thing about Lance.  He really didn’t seem to be afraid of very much anything. But I still think he must have been hurt that so much poison shot all over his life when the show came out.

AX: Lance basically steals CINEMA VERITE whenever he’s in it.  Do you wish you had an even bigger part in the film because of that?

DEKKER: I’d love to have been able to do more of course, but I think this movie is about the whole family and their show. That’s a lot to cram into one film, especially with so many interesting characters. We shot a lot that we couldn’t fit. I’m just very happy to be part of the project and to have had the opportunity to play this guy.  Like I said, it was a very scary proposition when I got the part, because I basically had two options.  Do I do my own interpretation of Lance, or do I really try to become Lance?  And I went with the latter, which is rather risky.  I’m a bit nervous to see how people respond to it.

AX: Since Lance, do you think reality television has made gay people more acceptable to the masses? Or do you think it’s made them go backwards?

DEKKER: I think it’s sort of ended up somewhere right in the middle. Because of reality television, the influx of gay information has definitely entered society in a way that hasn’t made them a subculture any more.  Everyone from five year old kids to ninety year olds know what a drag queen is, and has probably seen an episode of QUEER EYE FOR THE STRAIGHT GUY. I do think there’s a flip side as well, because reality makes so many people into extroverts of the gay culture and the gay lifestyle. That’s put up quite a bit of segregation that maybe wasn’t as strong before. It’s made a wall that shouldn’t be there.

It’s great that we can have a show like RuPAUL’S DRAG RACE on television, but I do think that for non-gay cultures and young people, it’s drawn a divide that makes the gay lifestyle into a very different culture. My parents were both in the arts and both in theater. I grew up knowing of gay people and straight people and lesbian or otherwise as just being people.  Now, obviously I’ve learned the historical importance of it all.

Special thanks to Peter Hackman for his interview transcription

Cinema Verite premieres on HBO Saturday, April 23 at 9 PM

CLICK HERE for PART 2 of AX’s Exclusive Interview with THOMAS DEKKER

Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

Rating: PG-13
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, Jeffrey Wright
Writer: Ben Ripley
Director: Duncan Jones
Distributor: Summit Entertainment
Release Date: April 1, 2011

SOURCE CODE is one of those movies with a TERMINATOR-like time paradox that causes audiences to leave the theater with furrowed brows. However, the movie comes by its twists honestly, paying off the things it sets up and vice-versa, so that everything is neatly and briskly addressed. Better, director Duncan Jones and writer Ben Ripley let us understand early on what’s happening but keep us guessing throughout as to exactly where this is going and how it will all pan out.

Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is having a really bad time when we meet him. He doesn’t understand why he’s on a Chicago commuter train, he doesn’t recognize Christina (Michelle Monaghan), who’s seated across from him and talking to him like they know each other, and he sees another man’s face when he looks in the bathroom mirror. Then the train explodes, and Colter finds himself in a strange dark room, communicating with USAF Capt. Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) via a video screen.

Colter remembers he’s a military helicopter pilot who should be back in Afghanistan, but somehow he’s been drafted into the “source code,” as the project and technique is known. Goodwin and her team know about the train explosion. Colter’s job is to find the bomber by going through the same eight minutes, in the identity of one of the explosion’s victims, before the detonation, each time doing things differently, to prevent the bomber from causing a larger and even deadlier detonation. The more Colter learns about what’s actually going on, the more he wants to prevent the original bombing, but he’s told this can’t be done – he cannot affect the past, only the future.

We have a pretty good guess before Colter does as to why he’s been chosen to handle the “source code” mission, but because director Jones keeps the pace zipping along, Ripley’s script is so genuinely clever and Gyllenhaal, Monaghan and Farmiga are all so likable, we’re willing to watch the substantial change-ups as they happen and actually want to know where it’s all leading. It’s a testament to the skill of the filmmakers that even though we can anticipate how the ending is going to feel, we are still kept in a state of curiosity as to how we can possibly get there and what will happen to bring it about.

Screenwriter Ripley wisely doesn’t attempt to get into what kind of scientific technology is behind the source code. Everybody, especially actor Jeffrey Wright, has fun with the supercilious scientist who invented the source code but just can’t be bothered to explain how it works to poor Colter.

Gyllenhaal is very human and humane as the driven hero, whose nature compels him to try to prevent catastrophe, no matter how much pain it causes him. Monaghan is warm and charming. However, it’s Farmiga who anchors everything. If any of us were unlucky enough to wind up in Colter’s position, Farmiga’s Goodwin is the compassionate soul we’d want helping us out.

There are unanswered questions at the end of SOURCE CODE and, although it is opened up as much as possible, there’s a certain element of repetition as Colter keeps revisiting the scene of the crime to find evidence. Mostly, though, SOURCE CODE satisfies as both science-fiction and crime thriller.

CLICK HERE for EXCLUSIVE photos from the SOURCE CODE premiere

Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

Summer Glau and David Lyons in THE CAPE | ©2011 NBC

On NBC’s new series THE CAPE, hero Vince Faraday (David Lyons) can do amazing things with the title object, but he’d still be unlikely to survive without the guidance and assistance of Summer Glau’s Orwell, a mysterious young woman whose martial arts abilities are as impressive as her considerable computer skills.

Glau is no stranger to the world of genre television and film. After playing the trapped spirit of a Russian ballerina in an episode of ANGEL, she was cast as the troubled, but super-powered River Tam on Joss Whedon’s FIREFLY, a role she reprised in the feature SERENITY. Glau furthered her genre street cred by starring as helpful-to-humans Terminator Cameron in two seasons of TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES and as techno-whiz Bennett Halverson in an arc on DOLLHOUSE.

She’s one of the stars in the upcoming feature KNIGHTS OF BADASSDOM, but during this conversation, she makes it very clear that she’s delighted to be woven into the cast of THE CAPE.

ASSIGNMENT X: Were you looking to do another television series when TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES ended?

SUMMER GLAU: Absolutely. When everybody was asking me, “So what do you want to do next?”, the thing that I was asking for was to be part of an ensemble cast where I would really be surrounded by actors who pushed me to be better. And that’s what I got. Sometimes when you put it out there, it comes true. And it’s cool, because I didn’t even know about the show until the end of pilot season and it was the last show I auditioned for, and it just came together seamlessly and when I came to the first table read and I saw the actors that I was going to be working with, I was extremely intimidated [laughs], also thrilled and very excited.

Summer Glau in THE CAPE - "Scales" | ©2011 NBC/Jordan Althaus

AX: CAPE series creator Tom Wheeler has said since they cast you, Orwell has become a little more kick-ass than she was originally intended to be.

GLAU: [laughs] That’s nice to hear. In the pilot, she does start out true to herself as an investigative blogger. Tom said, “We’ve got to get her out of her lair,” and sure enough, in the next episode, she’s going out on the field, constantly [helping the Cape] and being in disguise and taking charge of the situation by any means she can.

AX: Orwell seems a little self-effacing as a character. You’re better-known characters seem to have that in common to some extent – River in FIREFLY and SERENITY felt very isolated and tentative with others, Cameron in SARAH CONNOR knew she didn’t have normal human feelings, Bennett in DOLLHOUSE was socially isolated. Are you at some point looking to play somebody who’s a little more, “Oh, I’m happy with who I am”?

GLAU: You know, I don’t know if I’d be the best person for that. I feel like you always kind of put yourself in every character that you play. With Orwell, I did have a challenge, because she’s very slick and she’s very sophisticated. It did take me a little bit [of time], because I don’t really see myself as slick or sophisticated, so she has that quality, but then there’s also a little bit of me in there.

AX: Would you say Orwell has a little bit of Bennett and a little bit of Cameron in her, just as far as being a techno-genius?

GLAU: I would say that Orwell is very different from anything that I’ve played so far. I have to work on my technical [manner], because I am terrible – I can’t type very well and I don’t know anything about the latest gadgets [laughs], so Orwell is definitely teaching me to be more savvy with my technology.

AX: Had DOLLHOUSE not been canceled, do you know if Bennett might have survived to be a continuing character?

GLAU: The show was already canceled by the time I went on it. [Working on DOLLHOUSE] was really fun – it was really strange coming in to play her with them knowing it was going to end. I had a blast with that role.

© 2010 NBC Universal | Summer Glau in CHUCK - Season 4 - "Vs. The Fear of Death"

AX: Earlier this season, you did a one-shot guest role on CHUCK. Did you do CHUCK because of your FIREFLY/SERENITY connection with Adam Baldwin, or because you were already involved in THE CAPE and that was another NBC series, or did CHUCK just come to you and go, “You’re a genre icon and can we have you?”

GLAU: I don’t know how that happened. I was tickled. I was very excited – I’m a fan of the show and I’m a fan of Zach [Levi, who stars as Chuck] and of course it was great seeing Adam and I did it right before I started on this, so it was kind of a whirlwind experience. I had a blast, because I had never done comedy before [with] me playing a character. When I did BIG BANG THEORY, it was comedy, but I was playing myself, so playing Greta was a blast.

AX: Do you have input into the development of Orwell as a character?

GLAU: I think that all of us, each actor, can’t help but infuse their own qualities and ideas into their characters. It happens with every series, and that’s one of the really rewarding things about being part of a series, is that you start out with something and as you go along, it evolves with you. I’m just incredibly glad [to be on THE CAPE]. I think that this show’s going to appeal to every member of the family. I’m exactly where I want to be right now.

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