CSI

2009 in review

Okay, it’s the last day of the year and this blog will be a year old tomorrow, so I am posting a recap of everything that’s happened in 2009.

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.

garret dillahunt,john henry,terminator,the sarah connor chronicles

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.

garret dillahunt,krug,last house on the left

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.

garret dillahunt,burning bright,ravenous

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.

garret dillahunt,water pills

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.

garret dillahunt,roman nevikov,life

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.

garret dillahunt,terminator

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.

garret dillahunt,theatre,things of dry hours,delroy lindo

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

garret dillahunt,gang member,the road

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.

garret dillahunt,criminal minds,mason turner

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.

garret dillahunt,things of dry hours,delroy lindo,roslyn ruff

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.

Garret Dillahunt, Tim Roth, Lie to Me

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

garret dillahunt,last house on the left,krug

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

garret dillahunt,burn notice,john mahoney

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

garret dillahunt,one night only

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.

garret dillahunt,csi,family affair

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.

garret dillahunt,oliver sherman

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

garret dillahunt,lie to me,honey

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

garret dillahunt,mariska hargitay,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).

Garret Dillahunt,Gang Member,The Road

On November 13, Garret appeared on White Collar.

garret dillahunt,white collar

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

garret dillahunt,one night only

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.

Updates: CSI, Lie to Me, Terminator

Some quick updates.

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.

Paul Guilfoyle and Garret Dillahunt in CSI 10x01, "Family Affair"

CSI season premiere airs tomorrow + updates on Lie to Me and SVU

Another reminder: CSI 10×01, “Family Affair,” airs tomorrow (Thursday) at 9 on CBS. (Scroll down for some new info on Garret’s appearances on Lie to Me and SVU.)

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.)

Previews and spoilers: CSI, Lie to Me, Burn Notice

Some minor TV updates. (If you are a spoilerphobe, you wanna skip this post entirely or just scroll down to the clips.)

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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.

News roundup – August

Okay, since I haven’t posted that many updates last month (vacation) and news just keeps piling up, here is a quick roundup:

The Last House on the Left was released on DVDThe Last House on the Left (2009) and Blu-rayThe Last House on the Left 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 Twolife 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.