Backstrom
Season 1 Episode 2: “Bella”
Directed by Alex Chappa
Written by Joe Hortua and Leif G.W. Persson (author)
Created by Hart Hanson
Starring Rainn Wilson, Beatrice Rosen, Page Kennedy, Genevieve Angelson, Dennis Haysbert, and Kristoffer Polaha
FOX
Air Date: Thursday, January 29, 2015, 9:00pm

Last week on Backstrom 1.1 “Dragon Slayer” (possible spoilers – beware!): We met Everett Backstrom (Rainn Wilson): cranky, overweight, pessimistic, negative, unhealthy……did I mention cranky? We’re also introduced to his band of much merrier men and women. And we met their first case and Backstrom’s unorthodox methods for solving crimes, or even seeing crimes when everyone else doesn’t see one. A senator’s son was murdered and while the whodunnit was interesting, it got a little overshadowed by the exposition. In pilots, that is sometimes to be expected. However……

A trailer has been released for Dead Rising: Watchtower, a movie adaptation of the popular zombie video game series Dead Rising.

Instead of being released in theaters or direct-to-video, Watchtower will premiere on Sony’s free streaming movie service Crackle beginning on March 27th. The movie is directed by Zach Lipovsky (Leprechaun: Origins), and stars Jesse Metcalfe (Dallas, Desperate Housewives), Meghan Ory (Intelligence, Once Upon a Time), Virginia Madsen (Sideways, Candyman), Dennis Haysbert (24, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For), Keegan Connor Tracy (Final Destination 2, Once Upon A Time), and Rob Riggle (21 Jump Street, The Hangover) as Frank West.

You can watch the trailer and read a description below.

Backstrom
Season 1 Episode 1: “Dragon Slayer”
Directed by Mark Mylod
Written by Hart Hanson and Leif G.W. Persson (author)
Starring Rainn Wilson, Beatrice Rosen, Page Kennedy, Genevieve Angelson, Dennis Haysbert, Mamie Gummer, and Kristoffer Polaha
FOX
Air Date: Thursday, January 22, 2015, 9pm

Rainn Wilson stars in this procedural that follows no procedure as Backstrom, a cranky detective trying to get himself back into the homicide division, after being put on traffic duty. He just needs to pass his physical, but his Hindu doctor Deb thinks he will drop dead at any moment.

The case he needs to solve to prove himself is the homicide of a college student, the wealthy son of a prominent senator. He manages to offend everyone and everything, while also pretty much modeling what NOT to do during an investigation. His team consists of Detective John Almond (Dennis Haysbert from 24), a levelheaded guy that looks out for Backstrom); Sgt. Niedermayer (Kristoffer Polana), poetic forensics expert who idolizes Backstrom; Detective Nicole Gravely (Genevieve Angelson, House of Lies), Nadia Paquet (Beatrice Rosen), a sexy tech who fills a Backstrom prescription; and Moto (Page Kennedy, Weeds), a beat cop who is Backstrom’s designated runner.

Over the weekend Dimension Films brought their all-star comic book noir sequel Sin City: A Dame to Kill For to the San Diego Comic-Con for a panel with director Robert Rodriguez, Sin City creator/writer/artist Frank Miller, and several of the film’s stars in attendance. In addition to the celebrity presence some new footage was screened, including an extended red band trailer.

That trailer is now online for all to behold. You can watch it here below.

Director Robert Rodriguez has found his dame that someone is bound to kill for as production on the long-in-development Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is now fully underway. Despite early reports that had both Angelina Jolie and Rachel Weisz both in contention for the role of Ava Lord, described by co-director/Sin City creator Frank Miller as “every man’s most glorious dreams come true, she’s also every man’s darkest nightmares,” French actress Eva Green has won the coveted part.

The casting of Green does come as an unexpected surprise – as the best surprises usually tend to be – but she has always been a talented and alluring actress adept at portraying multi-dimensional characters both beautiful and haunted in films such as Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers, Ridley Scott’s underrated 2005 Crusades epic Kingdom of Heaven, and especially in Casino Royale, where she played Vesper Lynd to Daniel Craig in his first (and best until Skyfall was released) time playing James Bond. Recently Green appeared in Tim Burton’s film version of the 1960s Gothic horror soap opera Dark Shadows and is set to appear later this summer in 300: Rise of an Empire. She also played the devious Morgan on the short-lived Starz series Camelot.