Hope everyone has a great time tonight and a fantastic year ahead.

See you in 2010!

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The year started with Terminator promo and press tours. The show returned with the last nine episodes in the Friday slot in mid-February.

Later that month, Garret was spotted filming Winter’s Bone in Missouri. The film will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in late January. If anyone plans on going, the Sundance screening schedule is here.

The Last House on the Left opened on March 13. The reviews ranged from excellent to free branding campaign and the film made it to several lists of best horrors of the year. In October, it won a Reaper Award for Best Theatrical Release in 2009.

Toward the end of the month, Garret played his fifth character on T:SCC, the Skynet virus from the future. Previous four were George Laszlo, Cromartie, the Beastwizard and John Henry.

In late March, the first pictures from Burning Bright appeared online. Burning Bright was later renamed to Ravenous and it still awaits theatrical release. In November, it was screened at the AFM. The first reviews were pretty positive.

In early April, Water Pills had its U.S. premiere at the Florida Film Festival. Jasmine Jessica Anthony walked away with a grand jury award for best performance.

Also in April, two series finales aired two days apart. Garret snuffed the TV crew and gave Damian Lewis his final headache in Life on April 8. Life season two was released on DVD on August 25.

The Terminator finale aired on April 10. Despite cancellation, the show made it to #8 on the list of  the Top 10 Most Pirated Shows in 2009. Last year, it was the only new show among the top 10, at #4.

In the meantime, Garret joined Delroy Lindo and Roslyn Ruff in Things of Dry Hours, a play by Naomi Wallace about communists in 1930s Alabama. Rehearsals started on April 21.

The first trailer for The Road hit the web on May 15.

On May 18, Fox announced that they would not be picking up Terminator for a third season. Even though there has been talk of a possible TV/DVD movie, Terminator rights are currently up for grabs and in limbo until February 2010.

On May 20, Garret appeared in the season finale of Criminal Minds.

Two days later, Things of Dry Hours went into previews at the New York Theatre Workshop. The show premiered on June 8 and ran through June 28. Critics liked the cast, but were divided on the writing.

At some point over the spring/summer, Garret was cast in Madeleine Stowe’s Unbound Captives, an independent western epic with Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz and Robert Pattinson. If they get financing in time, the film will go into production in March (at the earliest).

In late July and early August, Garret filmed two TV guest appearances,  on CSI and Lie to Me, and a short film, One Night Only.

The Last House on the Left was released on DVD in mid-August.

Later that month, Garret was spotted filming the season three finale of Burn Notice. The episode will air in March 2010.

The trailer for One Night Only was released on September 2.

On September 3, The Road had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. Ten days later, it was screened in Toronto.

Terminator: The Complete Season Two was released on DVD on September 22.

On September 24, the CSI season 10 premiere aired. “Family Affair” is one of the five hours of television nominated for an ASC (American Society of Cinematographers) Award this year.

Speaking of CSI, in a fine display of Terminator fanboyism, the last episode before the break, Better off Dead, had a bunch of people stealing Cromartie’s music and killing each other. Also, a killer described as a Terminator.

On October 13, Oliver Sherman, an independent drama with Molly Parker and Donal Logue, went into production in North Bay. The film will most likely premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2010, but Canadians might get an early screening in the spring.

On October 21st, Garret appeared on Lie to Me.

And two days later, on Law & Order: SVU.

The Road finally saw its U.S. premiere at AFI fest in early November. On Thanksgiving, it got a limited release. Even though the film has been vastly overlooked in the early awards season, the reviews were mostly positive and it scored a few acting nods (Viggo Mortensen, Robert Duvall, Kodi Smit-McPhee) from several critics’ societies (Broadcast Film Critics, Utah Film Critics, St. Louis Film Critics).

On November 13, Garret appeared on White Collar.

And the next day, One Night Only had its premiere in New York.

In November, Garret was cast in two new projects. The comedy pilot Keep Hope Alive, with Martha Plimpton, Cloris Leachman and Lucas Neff, was filmed earlier this month. If it gets picked up, it will be aired in the 2010/11 season.

The other project, John Sayles’ film Baryo, starts shooting in February in the Philippines. The crew is already there, building the set and preparing for the shoot. You can follow the updates on the new production blog, at johnsaylesbaryo.blogspot.com.

And that about wraps it up. If 2010 is even half as eventful, it will be another excellent year.

Screencaps & clips from yesterday’s CSI episode are up. Click on the picture below to see them.

Lie to Me episodes 2×02 and 2×03 got switched. (Maureen Ryan has a new interview with Shawn Ryan and Tim Roth and mentions that Garret will appear in episode 3. More at Chicago Tribune.) Unless something changes again, the new air date for the episode is October 12.

And if you don’t have the new Terminator DVD yet, you can check out some of the behind-the-scenes featurettes on YouTube.

The synopsis:

The CSI team, with the unexpected but welcome return of Sara, comes together to investigate the death of a famous young actress killed in a dubious traffic collision

Garret plays the head of a celebrity security service whose client’s pregnant girlfriend is killed in a car crash.

Here is a behind-the-scenes look, from SpoilerTV:

A minor update on Lie to Me. It seems that Garret’s episode has been pushed back a bit. IMDb and TV Guide still list “Honey” as episode 2×02, but LieToMeScoop.com has posted a press release for episode two and it’s the one originally listed as 2×03, “Truth or Consequences,” with Jennifer Beals, John Carroll Lynch and James Marsters guest starring. Shawn Ryan also confirms that “Truth and Consequences” will air first (Oct. 5).

Digital Spy did an interview with Brendan Hines, who had this to say about “Honey:”

Apparently there’s a hostage situation in episode two?
“Yeah, there is. I’m not going to tell you the exact circumstance but that does happen. By the way, if you were watching season one and thinking, ‘I like this show but Tim Roth doesn’t get the shit kicked out of him enough’ you’ll be really happy come season two. I think it’s every episode these days he’s getting bruised and bloodied.”

What’s been your favourite episode to shoot up to now?
“The hostage episode was really fun – Tim Busfield directed it and it’s incredibly kinetic – it never really stops so it was a lot of fun to do and it was a big change for us.”

Jennifer Beals has been back on set – do you know how Lightman’s relationship with her develops?
“I really like it when the show goes in that direction – Tim and Jennifer, and Tim and Hayley [McFarland] who plays his daughter – it shows us the difficulty that he has maintaining any sort of close relationship and how hard it is. I really like it because it’s not a side of him we get to see very often. We’ve got Garret Dillahunt, too. He’s fantastic and he shows up and causes all kinds of trouble.”

Finally, TV Guide Magazine has an article about the new season of Law & Order: SVU. This is how it describes episode 11×05:

A story about pedophilia features Rosie Perez as a mother who fears her second husband (Garret Dillahunt) is sexually abusing her son. (Prodigal regulars Stephanie March and B.D. Wong return in that episode, the season’s fifth.)

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First, Adam at TV Guide spoils the ending of Lie to Me, “Honey”:

What can you tell me about the new season of Lie to Me? — Christina
ADAM: It’s a good thing the show bumped Mekhi Phifer up to series regular, because come Episode 2, his character will save the day when guest star Garret Dillahunt takes Lightman & Co. hostage.

Then, a poster at TWoP attempts to reconstruct the plot of the Burn Notice season finale from the casting sides six months before the air date:

I’ve read more of the casting sides for the season 3 finale, “Devil You Know” (#316), and in the episode Michael rappels down a rope into his loft via the skylight in order to avoid being captured. While at his loft, Michael calls Management to warn him that Simon has escaped and has asked Michael to help him take out Management in order to clear Michael’s name. Michael proposes that Management show up at the arranged meeting point with a team of his own to take out Simon. Michael voices over the scene that sometimes keeping your enemies’ phone numbers comes in handy if you ever need their help in the future. At the end of the scene, Michael sees an FBI team closing in on the loft, so he creates a diversion with C-4, blowing out the windows in the loft while he escapes through the skylight.

Later, Management takes a helicopter to meet Michael, but Simon knows where the helicopter is landing, and the helicopter blows up after Management has gotten out. Michael and Management are hurled to the ground.

There’s also an explosives expert named Keith in the episode, whom Sam and Fiona surprise by driving their Hyundai through a window into his house’s Miami room.

Finally, a couple of clips from the CSI season premiere, which airs next Thursday (Sept. 24). One is a teaser, the other is a scene with Laurence Fishburne and a guest star.

From the looks of it (bullet time, Morpheus), they filmed the episode in the Matrix so make sure you tune in.

The Last House on the Left was released on DVD and Blu-ray a couple of weeks ago. The region 2 DVD will be out on October 19.

The Road will premiere in Venice on September 3. That’s tomorrow. It will then be shown 10 days later (Sept. 13 & 14) in the Special Presentations program at the Toronto Film Festival. The listing is here. There are also rumours that it will be screened at Telluride (Sept. 4-7) so if you are in the Colorado area, keep an eye on the festival’s official site. The film opens wide on October 16.

Oliver Sherman starts filming in about a month. A couple of weeks ago, they were still casting a whole bunch of characters.  The casting call is here.

On the TV front…

Life: Season Two was released on DVD on August 25. You can find a review and the DVD details here.

The Burn Notice season three finale will air some time in March. Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly describes Garret’s character  as a “scary-smart new client of Michael’s (Jeffrey Donovan) — and perhaps the first person to outsmart him.”

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles might still return as a movie. Here is what Thomas Dekker told the TV Addict the other day: “They’ve spoken about doing a TV movie. Well, not a TV movie, but kind of like a direct-to-DVD movie. Obviously it’s difficult because the show is based on a movie and they just had one come out, so it’s kind of hard to make a movie with our show because everyone has kind of forgotten about us. But they’re hoping, at least when I spoke to [Producer] James Middleton that’s where they are with it.”

The teaser for the CSI season premiere is online, as well as the press release and some pics from the episode (of Jorja Fox mostly). The show returns on September 24.

More updates as they come.

Garret will guest star on CSI again in the season 10 opener, Family Affair. He will play Tom O’Neill, the head of a celebrity security service who gets a visit from the CSI team after a client’s girlfriend is killed in a car accident. (For clips from his previous appearances on CSI and CSI: NY, click on CSI 3×18 and CSI: NY 1×23.)

SpoilerTV has the casting call for the episode here. Be warned, character descriptions contain plot spoilers.

EW’s Ausiello also has some general spoilers for the new season in his last column. Highlight the text below to read:

Question: Will Grissom be joining Sara back on CSI early in the season? –Lois
Ausiello: No, but some old friends of his will be. Exec producer Carol Mendelsohn reveals to me exclusively that CSI will be bringing back a few members of the infamous Millander clan in this season’s second episode. “The last time we saw [serial killer] Paul Millander was in season 2 when Grissom had dinner at [his alter ego] Judge Mason’s house, because, if you remember Paul lived a double life as a judge. And we met Mrs. Mason and their young son, Craig. Well, Paul’s dead, but Mrs. Mason and Craig live on. And we will see them in episode 2.” Why? Keep reading for a possible clue…

Question: The season premiere of CSI is only two months away. I’m sure that you’ve gotten some kind of spoiler or tidbit to throw to us! –Andy and Rebecca
Ausiello: You can drop the “or.” I’ve got a spoiler and a tidbit, courtesy of exec producer Naren Shankar. First the tidbit: “You’re going to get an explanation for that ring Langston (Laurence Fishburne) still has on his finger in [episode 2].” Now for the spoiler: “We’re going to launch a new season-long serial killer arc this season. Starting at the end of our premiere, a brand new nemesis [will emerge] who has a very unique way of killing.” More unique than that whole miniature thing? “This time, the crime scene is always the body,” Shankar teases. “We’re calling him Dr. Jekyll.” [AusielloFiles]

The CSI season 10 premiere will air on September 24 at 9 on CBS.

Check back soon for some film news.