Neville Brand
The oldest child of an itinerant bridge builder, actor Neville Brand intended to make the military his career, and indeed spent ten years in uniform. During World War II, he became America's fourth mo...
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BirthDate BirthPlace |
08/12/1920
Griswold, IA |
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TV Tidbits: Margo Martindale As Will Arnett's Mother, 'Revolution' Goes Online
February 22, 2013 9:39pm ESTMother of Gob: Emmy winner Margo Martindale will play Will Arnett's mom in a new comedy pilot from Raising Hope creator Greg Garcia. Arnett plays the recently divorced Jack whose life gets even crazier when his parents split up after 43 years. Martindale's Carol is a meddlesome woman who's shocked when her husband files for divorce, forcing her to move in with her son. [THR] Have Mercy: John Stamos is in final talks to join the NBC drama pilot I Am Victor. The erstwhile Uncle Jesse would star as a powerful divorce attorney with "a unique view of relationships." Considering he raised his family in an attic (oh, wait, that was only on TV?), it makes sense that he'd have a unique perspective on life. [TVLine] The Revolution Goes Online: Want more Revolution? The show doesn't return to NBC until March 25, but starting Feb. 25, we'll be able to learn much more about the powerless future world when NBC.com debuts a webseries starring Giancarlo Esposito's Capt. Neville 11 years after the blackout, on the night Miles first tried to assassinate Monroe. Neville will embark on a quest to kill the people behind the attempt on the General's life, but he'll stumble upon "an even greater conspiracy that could change the course of the Republic forever." Mysterious! [EW] RELATED: TV Tidbits: Tricia Helfer is a 'Killer' Woman Come On Down: Jane Lynch is adding to her busy schedule (Glee, Broadway's Annie revival) with a brand new job: game show host. The actress will host the new NBC reality series Hollywood Game Night, which features celebs hanging out in a cocktail party-type situation and playing pop culture-centric games with non-famous folks. The eight-episode series is produced by Sean Hayes. [EW] Come Together: All of your indie favorites in one place! Melanie Lynskey has just joined the comedy pilot Togetherness, from Mark and Jay Duplass. She'll play a stay-at-home-mom in an unfulfilling marriage who wants more from life. The show is about two couples trying to make their relationships work will maintaining their own hopes and dreams. The Duplass brothers, who can currently be seen in a guest arc on Fox's The Mindy Project, will write, executive produce, and direct Togetherness, although they will not appear in the show. [THR] RELATED: TV Tidbits: Mandy More, Steve Zahn, 'Glee' Gal Land Pilots Lost and Found: Two Lost alums have landed dastardly parts in different CW drama pilots. Mark Pellegrino will play an evolutionary biologist in The Tomorrow People, about a group of young people who have evolved beyond normal humans and have the power of teleportation and telekinesis. Pellegrino's Dr. Jedikiah Price sees the Tomorrow People as a threat to humanity. Henry Ian Cusick, meanwhile, will star as an officer aboard the space station that houses all humans after an attack on Earth on The Hundred. With the ship on its last legs, the government sends 100 juvenile delinquents back down to the planet to see if it's hospitable or not. [TVLine] Going for the Gold: E! announced a premiere date for its reality show about Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte, appropriately titled What Would Ryan Lochte Do? The new docuseries will premiere Sunday, April 21 at 10 p.m. on the network, and will be followed by a new season of the Kevin Jonas reality show Married to Jonas. [THR] Follow Jean on Twitter @hijean [PHOTO CREDIT: Frank Micelotta/AP Images] From Our Partners:Most Scandalous Celeb Twitpics of the Year (Vh1)Miley & Liam’s Beach PDA: PICS (Celebuzz)
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'Revolution' Baddie Giancarlo Esposito On Life As A Post-Apocalyptic Villain
September 17, 2012 1:52pm ESTNBC's big night has finally arrived: Revolution — Eric Kripke and J.J. Abrams' epic, ambitious, post-apocalyptic tale — will premiere at 10 p.m. Thank God we all have TVs so we can watch it, because in the Revolution world, they don't. In fact, they also don't have phones, central air, cars, lighting, or anything that requires electricity and makes the world a more comfortable place. Only a few mysterious people seem to know why the lights of the world suddenly went out, but for many of the show's main characters, that doesn't really matter — their primary focus is establishing some sort of law and order within the chaos, in a land now ruled by a dictatorship called the Monroe Republic. Breaking Bad's Emmy-nominated Giancarlo Esposito is one of those characters — his Captain Tom Neville is a former insurance adjuster who joined the mysterious and all-powerful Monroe Republic militia after the blackout. The militia granted themselves the task of maintaining their version of "peace" in what's left of society, and their methods can be considered controversial at best. Hollywood.com recently sat down with Esposito to discuss his big bad villain, and the role of his militia within the world of Revolution. Hollywood.com: With Gus [Fring, on Breaking Bad] you always kept us guessing — you were so reserved. Now, you have the opportunity to play a villain with more of a blank canvas. How has that been? Esposito: Certainly Gus was an exciting character to play, but I’m really excited to be working with Captain Neville. He’s a loose cannon, and I think he enjoys what he does a little too much. There’s room with Neville to make some mistakes. With Gus, he was so planned, and so articulate and so graceful and so kind in some ways, that he did everything right — he hid in plain sight. Neville’s not trying to hide in plain sight. He can be an a******, he can be a d***, he can be cruel, and he switches on a dime. And I like that. In the same token, he can also have grace and compassion, which you’ll start to see early on, because he has to lead men. Those men have to follow him, and have a reason to follow him, so he needs to be fierce. You need to see that fierceness. You were saying that you want to find ways to make him good, but from what we see in the pilot, when we first meet him, it’s not exactly all kittens and rainbows. How have you been exploring that — finding little ways to make him likable? Any person who leads an army of men, they’re gonna lose some men. There’s going to be decisions that Neville has to make in regards to telling those men that they may not live. You’re going to see it there — you’re going to see him be someone who they look up to. I think he is brutal and ruthless with his enemies, because the enemy is right there and the enemy is armed — people who are armed, and should not be. So the goodness in him will come out from him protecting a mass group of people from bands of marauders. He’s staving off anarchy. So in his mind, he’s doing a lot of good for a lot of people, because there would be total anarchy if he wasn’t there. Why does the militia get to decide who can and cannot carry a gun? It’s as if someone is telling you, 'I know how you should live your life, and it would be better.' Look at our society now — I’m in North Carolina, and you can walk into a store and buy a gun. In Arizona, you can walk in a store and buy a gun and have it on your hip and walk around with it. There are people who are angry, and people who abuse that privilege. So it’s something that bears looking at, and I think we’re going to look at it on Revolution. [Kripke] was saying he doesn’t necessarily want to explore too much of what happened right after the blackout, because he wants to focus on what you’re rebuilding fifteen years after it. But we know Neville worked in insurance before the blackout. Did his experiences in that job have anything to do with what he's become? He never achieved his dream of owning a company, of being the top dog, I think he was slightly nebbish at that time — he never imagined or dreamed he could break out of that. He is that really understated pencil-pusher, and he wanted to be respected in a different way — to have a little more power. He was probably pushed around at school when he was young. I’d love to eventually go back and see him in that state, and how he got to be this powerful guy. Many of us in life have had occupations that we were good at, but maybe we were not so happy in. And if we had the opportunity again, would we do something that brought us more glory, more fame, more fortune? Neville had that opportunity during the blackout and he seized it, and it changed who he is. He seized it, but he's still not the top guy. Will we see more of his relationship with Monroe? (David Lyons) I mean, Monroe likes to brand people — isn't that a little 50 Shades of Grey? It really is Fifty Shades of Grey, absolutely. We’re all branded, because that’s how you show your allegiance. You go through that branding process so that he can know that you’re part of his family, and you can be identified. We’re going to get into what that’s about. Probably in a few episodes, we’re going to begin to know why that branding happens. We’re going to see [the militia's power] coming down from Monroe, who at this point in time...is a little tired of having to run the whole show. I joke with Eric that it’s the Monroe Republic, and we’re going to change [on the brand] the M to an N. It’ll be Neville Land. How does everyone even know that the Monroe Republic is in charge? In the pilot, we see these scattered, rural communities. It doesn't seem like they can really communicate with each other, and it's not like they had a televised election. It’s very fascinating. Think about the logistics of a country that has no electronics, and no mode of transport to get back and forth — that’s a great question that you have. How do they communicate, how do they know? People are living in fear, and fear is a big element in our show. Who do you fear? How do you deal with that kind of fear? How do you survive with that kind of oppression? Does Neville fear anybody? I don’t think so. No? No. Follow Shaunna on Twitter @HWShaunna [PHOTO CREDIT: Bob Mahoney/NBC] MORE: TCA 2012: 'Revolution' Stars on Creating Villains and a Brave New World 'Revolution': The Chase Is On — PICS
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What a Girl Wants Review
April 04, 2003 5:29am ESTAll Daphne Reynolds (Amanda Bynes) has ever really wanted is to meet the dad she's never known. Growing up in New York with her loving and free-spirited musician mother Libby (Kelly Preston) she makes her mom tell the story of her parents' whirlwind romance over and over. How much in love they were but how unbeknownst to him his aristocratic family drove Libby away. Now at 17 Daphne is determined to live the fantasy of the father-daughter relationship she craves. Arriving in London she finds out pop is Lord Henry Dashwood (Colin Firth) a high-profile politician who is about to marry the snooty Glynnis (Anna Chancellor). Needless to say Henry is dumbfounded to discover he has a daughter and together with his regretful mother Lady Jocelyn (Eileen Atkins) they open Dashwood manor to the spirited girl. As Daphne and Henry tentatively test their newfound relationship the teen has a hard time fitting in with stuffy British high society and soon begins to jeopardize her father's political career. She tries to suppress her bubbly personality and turn herself into a respectable debutante but Daphne soon realizes she's giving up too much of herself to be Henry's daughter. The question is will Henry realize it is he who is not made for the suffocating life he's been shoved into and reclaim his daughter and the only woman he has ever loved? Oh stop the suspense is killing us. The 17-year-old Bynes is already a brand name in comedy--at least to the 'tween set who from the time Bynes was 10 years old have enjoyed her slapstick antics on Nickelodeon's variety show All That her own variety show The Amanda Show and her current WB sitcom What I Like About You. Bynes is all grown up now and as the cute sexy--and klutzy--Daphne she excels at performing pratfalls and infuses as much charm as she can into the character. It is clear however the young comedian has some work to do before becoming a good actress. Thank goodness she is surrounded by talented actors such as Atkins (Gosford Park) and even Preston who does a nice job as the bohemian Libby. Yet it's Firth (Bridget Jones's Diary) who truly elevates the film when on-screen and helps Bynes reach those dramatic highpoints. He has the uncanny ability to turn even the most insipid of parts into something worth watching. His best moment as Henry is when he tries on some old leather pants and dances around in his opulent bedroom pretending to be a rock star. It's very un-British of him--and it's brilliant. To put it mildly What a Girl Wants really looks bad. TV director Dennie Gordon obviously hasn't mastered the art of filmmaking in any way because not only are many of the shots blurry and poorly lit often times it seems Bynes is shot through an entirely different softer lens than the other actors. Usually that kind of treatment is given to older actresses who want to hide all the little imperfections but for a 17-year-old cutie? Obviously it's a mistake. As well the sugar-pop theme gets out of hand trying way too hard to appeal to the hip and cool 'tweeners. To a rockin' soundtrack look how Daphne can turn a pretentious coming-out ball into a choreographed dance number! Or see how she can try on different '70s outfits and funky glasses while her father amusedly looks on! (Even Firth looks uncomfortable). Sure 11-14-year-old girls are going to love it especially the sweet love story between Daphne and a local London musician Ian (Oliver James). It's only the heart of the story--the father-daughter relationship--that keeps the film from falling into just another Teen Beat tableau.
