Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Where Are They Now?

We have been seeing some familiar faces lately on a variety of TV shows and movies. It has inspired me to track down our former "Alias" actors and get a peak at some of their new and upcoming projects.

Victor Garber (Jack Bristow)
Victor is currently working on a pilot titled “Eli Stone,” based on a lawyer (Jonny Lee Miller, ex of Angelina Jolie) who believes he is a prophet. Sounds Rambaldi-esque.

Michael Vartan (Michal Vaughn)
Where has he been? Not with me unfortunately, but he has been working a TV pilot titled “Perfect Gentlemen” and that he is! The show will also star Dylan McDermott and Nia Long. It will be an inside look at the life of a CEO.

Michael’s movie, Rogue, which he filmed in Australia during the “Alias” hiatus is due out soon as well.

Greg Grunberg (Weiss on Ice)
We can see Greg each week as Matt, the thought-hearing cop on “Heroes.” Aside from that Greg is working on the family film Magic about a special dog.

Kevin Weisman (Marshall Flinkman)
Kevin just wrapped filming Clerks 2 and will be taking part in three other films; Medium Raw, Business Class (also starring SNL’s Horatio Sanz) and High Midnight.

David Anders (Julian Sark)As you might have noticed, David appeared in a bit part on the Grey’s spin-off, “Private Practice” last week.

He will take the lead in movie titled “Eli” in which he wakes on an operating table with only one memory. Oooh, sounds good!

Ron Rifkin (Arvin Sloane)
We can see Ron each Sunday night as Uncle Sal on “Brothers & Sisters” (along side his former “Alias” flame, Dr. Judy Barnett aka Patti Wettig). We can see him next in a thriller titled Pulse, starring Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) and Boone from “Lost” (Ian Somerhalder).

Merrin Dungey (Francie)
I am crossing my fingers that we will see her each week in the new Grey’s spin-off “Private Practice,” along side Taye Diggs and Tim Daly.

Bradley Cooper (Will Tippin)
Well, he's a free man now, so perhaps we will be seeing more of him. Or hopefully I will be seeing more of him. Hehehe!

Bradley has been a busy boy. He has 4 movies in post-production right now! He will star in The Comebacks, Midnight Meat Train (with Brooke Sheilds), Older Than America and Case 39, starring Renee Zellwger. That is a lot of Bradley. Yipee!

Last, but certainly not least- Jennifer Garner (Butt-kicking Sydney Bristow)Aside from catching pics of Jennifer in the park with Baby Vi, her CIA action film, The Kingdom, starring Jamie Foxx and Jason Bateman will be in theaters very soon. YAHOO!! Catch and Release is out on DVD this week too. I need to see that!

Also, Jennifer has just wrapped filming Juno, about a young pregnant woman and an adoptive mother and she will be starring in and producing Be With You, based on a Japanese film.

I know it’s not the same as seeing their faces together around a table at APO, but it will have to do. Just seeing them on TV or in movies keeps “Alias” alive.

26 comments:

SRM said...

nice research GS, good to know our old Alias friends are still out and about. :)

Girlscout said...

I know, I was like, where the hell is MV and VG? Come on! Get those dudes back on TV! I am so glad they are coming back. And MV and Dylan McDermott on the same show- yum!

bristow_24 said...

‘Pulse’ was pretty good. I saw it on DVD a few months ago. Not half as bad as the critics made it sound… but Ron only has two scenes. MV also has the film ‘Jolene’ coming out in October. ‘Clerks 2’ is on DVD as well – strange movie. Not my type of humor, but it was cool to see KW in a movie (again, only limited scenes).

I’m most excited for Jen’s stuff: ‘The Kingdom’ got such great buzz from preview viewings that the studio pushed it back to September so that it would have betters odds come award season. ‘Juno’ is also getting quite a bit of hype… and it’s good to see Jen choosing ensemble pieces as well. She is also signed on to do ‘Christmas In Connecticut’ where she plays a Martha Stewart-like character. I’m pretty excited for ‘The Kingdom’ (FBI agent… CIA Agent… same thing! It’ll be like Sydney Bristow with less family and more swear words).

Page48 said...

I wonder if the cast of "Alias" is equally curious about what we're up to these days. Yeah, right!

bristow_24, I am also keen to see "The Kingdom". Your explanation of the later release date sounds like good news for us Action Jen fans. I wish they would get to work on the website. Two pics and a trailer is pretty darn stingy content IMO. As far as "Christmas in Conn." is concerned, I'm okay with Jen doing the feelgood stuff (if she's really a keener to do that), as long as she mixes it up with the action/adventure stuff that "Alias" fans require for survival. I DO NOT , however, want Jen turning into a full time Connie Selleca.

God bless me, I took another peek at "Brothers & Sisters" on Sunday. I almost cry when I see Rifkin looking like Sloane, sounding like Sloane, but playing the part of such a pussy. Not a single murder to his credit this season. No backstabbing, no double-dealing, no matching wits with Sloane-Clone (who guested one night).

And what about Dr. Barnett engaged in an "Animal House"-like food fight with Forrest Gump's mom? A couple of old slappers going at it in the kitchen. I've said it before, this kind of junk represents a loss of dignity for beloved "Alias" actors. Ditto for KW in "Clerks 2" as per bristow_24's comments.

The American TV viewer seems to want nothing more than a steady diet of reality shows, and they are in luck because there are plenty more on the way.

Mark Burnett, if you are reading this, you are the absolute scourge of 21st century television...so far.

Anonymous said...

Actually, Ron has been rather Sloan-esque. He told his own sister that her husband's mistress had a daughter. During dinner. He told her during dinner, at a restaurant. Then he tried to date the mistress, once his brother-in-law kicked the bucket.

He shouldn't be applying for sainthood just yet.

Girlscout said...

That was me above.

Page48 said...

True enough, GS, but those are things any man would have done. We're all greasy opportunistic pond scum.

Thing is, Sloane would have had his bro-in-law electrocuted in his swimming pool, thereby freeing up the mistress and improving his own odds of "snagging" (insert your own verb here) her. Sloane is proactive, Saul is a mop-up guy.

uncle111 said...

I can't believe I am actually missing Sloane myself.

uncle111 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
uncle111 said...

I know this is OT and will gouge a sore spot, but I'm watching S1 again and Syd is telling Vaughn how her mother died in a car accident and that her father was driving. S5- Syd's flashback where Jack gets the news that Irina just died in a car accident, while Jack was at home with Syd.

So, what was the purpose of changing Alias history? Obviously, either they weren't paying attention, or they thought we weren't.

Page48 said...

Uncle, the risk of selling series DVD's and box sets is that fans may actually watch them. I've noticed that when a series like "Alias" is rerun on TV, rarely do they show the final death throes of the show, usually not even the final season.

I had to work the night of the finale of M*A*S*H and it took me over a decade to see it on TV. Those who throw series finales together know that they can use all the revisionist history their little hearts desire and few people will be the wiser because these final episodes will seldom, if ever, see the mainstream light of day after their original airing.

What they don't count on is people like us watching, listening, and heaven forbid, CARING!

"Sydney and I were never in Cartagena." I think that's the 4th time I've used that reference. I have no shame.

SRM said...

page, I feel kinda stupid asking this but did they go to Cartegena? I don't remember that happening...

Uncle, yeah I know it's annoying they screwed w/ Alias history in the last two episodes, who knows what they were thinking (or not thinking obviously).

Girlscout said...

I KNOW UNCLE!! The minute they showed the flashback I said- "WAIT A DAMN MINUTE!" Jack was in the car and if he had just told Syd he was in the car in order to cover up the truth, wouldn't she remember her father not being in the car, but at the house when the police came?

I still wonder how Jack found out that Irina was a fake. I wondered how that happened. They talk about how he was upset and Syd remembers him and taking care of the "Christmas" presents, but wasn't Jack sent to jail after Irina's death, suspected of selling secrets and didn't Syd live with Arvin? That takes us back to the whole, how could Syd forget she lived with Sloane and how could Emily forget the girl they raised for a few years if she wasn't suppose to know about SD-6.

Page48 said...

srg-alias,

Episode 2.20 "The Countdown", about 30 minutes in, just after Sloane's meeting with David Carradine.

SRM said...

damn, you're right page, that was an oversight I never noticed.

Seriously, the last two episodes, did they hire newbie writers that day or something?!?

Girlscout said...

Hence why I always want to shake my fist that them!! JJ and ABC, please please please let us rewrite season 5, we promise it will get ratings. PAH-lease!!???

uncle111 said...

I have a suggestion...Get them to make my movie!! It will straighten things out without having to change what they did (actually, there isn't enough time in a 2 hour movie to straighten out everything- that will take 2 movies. But, it does put things back on track:)

Page48 said...

NBC announces "Bionic Woman" will be on their fall schedule. Promo pics at link below.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/
live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.
html?in_article_id=454123&in_page_
id=1773

This is Michelle Ryan's chance to make a name for herself on this side of the pond. I'm cheering for her for 2 reasons: 1) I need a Sydney-figure to look up to and 2) I've been watching Michelle on her British soap for years and can't wait to see her make the leap to bigger than life, ass-kicking heroine status.

Visit the link, scroll down to the pic of Michelle standing in the pouring rain, staring into the camera. Doesn't she have that lonesome Sydney Bristow 'weight of the world on her shoulders' look about her?

These guys have had good luck with their revamped "Battlestar Gallactica", so hopefully they can turn out a decent hottie-hero show.

Maybe the pilot will end with Michelle standing in a cemetery, holding a ringing cellphone she received from her estranged Dad moments earlier, and saying the magic word, "Hello"...and that gorgeous song in the background. I'm ready for more of that.

Page48 said...

Follow up to previous off-topic post, first glimpse video (filmed in Vancouver) of "Bionic Woman"

http://video.accesshollywood.com/
player/?id=102461

Anonymous said...

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Page48 said...

I don't get it. "Stargate SG1", not renewed for an 11th season, will continue on with current cast in the form of direct to DVD movies, at least 2 of which will be shot between now and summer's end (Wikipedia). The producers of the show refuse to let their project die. They are thumbing their noses at the network (Sci-Fi) and basically saying we don't need you to keep this show alive.

There is speculation that the future of "Battlestar Galactica" may also include direct to DVD movies, possibly in between seasons, if not following the series finale. Apparently the DVD sales for these shows are strong enough that the slumping TV ratings don't get in the way of keeping the show alive. It simply calls for a different way to deliver the show to its fans.

Here's the part I don't get. I can't sit through an episode of either of these shows, let alone follow every minute of every season (more than once) like I did (do) with "Alias". Where was the Herculean effort to keep the "Alias" franchise alive and well after ABC washed their tasteless hands? How can there be such dedicated people behind other shows with great franchise potential but nobody gives a toss about keeping "Alias" alive? If "Alias" was available only on direct to DVD, is there a fan anywhere in the free world that wouldn't continue to follow this story? I know I would.

Even JJ himself is on board for the next "Star Trek", perhaps the biggest of all the franchise shows. He must know that a show can have a life beyond the small screen. Is he so busy cranking out bad ideas for doomed-to-fail TV shows ("Six Degrees of Brian" or whatever) that he can't see the beauty of returning to the one that gave him his "genius" credentials in the first place?

How can there be people so determined to keep a stinker like "Stargate SG1" going well beyond its cancellation date, yet we don't see a similar effort for "Alias", clearly the best show ever?

Anonymous said...

Well this goes back to the writing again, I think. I would have been all for going direct to dvd after the end of season three. The writers blew it big time with SAB47, quite possibly the most intriguing cliffhanger, but only to be wasted. The writing was no longer there, that's why I don't want to see a similar effort for Alias.

I'm no longer watching SG1, LOL, if that helps.

Anonymous said...

SG and BG are low budget compared to Alias. Much easier to keep going with that. ABC wasn't excited about the ratings. Plus- JJ had a lot of offers to do other things and wanted to move on to other things. Etc., etc., etc.

What's maddening is that they could still have made good money on it.

uncle111

Anonymous said...

GS: You forgot Carl Lumbly. According to imdb he has a movie coming out this year with Timothy Hutton and Eliza Dushku, titled The Alphabet Killer.

Page48 said...

More OT:

May as well finish what I started here a few days ago:

http://www.nbc.com/Fall_Preview/
Bionic_Woman/

I will keep an open mind and give the BW a chance. This BTW, is not your Daddy's Bionic Woman.

Anonymous said...

You forgot to update us on Dixon & Irena...