Dollhouse, Firefly, Angel, Buffy : news, photos & videos

Alan Tudyk - "Tucker & Dale vs. Evil" Movie - Horror At The Ranch

Webmaster — 2009-07-08T09:43:35Z

Sally Field drops in to watch son direct a bloody offbeat satire near Calgary

It's nearing dusk in the mosquito-infested Alberta woods and Eli Craig is fussing over how to choreograph some intense violence.

The climactic scenes scheduled for tonight's shoot of the comedy-horror film Tucker&Dale vs. Evil involve, in no particular order, an exploding cabin, a hatchet attack by a baby-faced psychopath, 30 Rock's scantily clad Katrina Bowden being violently knocked to the ground and someone catching on fire. Judging by the splashes of movie blood drying on co-stars Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine's overalls and faces, the violence isn't reserved for just the climax, either. In fact, one crew member for the low-budget Alberta-shot film has calculated that someone dies every eight minutes in Craig's gory directorial debut.

All in all, these aren't the sort of scenes you want to be shooting in front of your visiting mother —even if she is two-time Academy Award-winning actress Sally Field.

"Does this remind you of Brothers and Sisters a little bit ?" Craig quips to his mom, referring to Field's TV show about the WASPish trials and tribulations of the upper-class Walker family on ABC.

"The dining room scenes," Field answers, without missing a beat.

Field does not appear in her son's debut film, although she did offer. And, obviously, Tucker& Dale vs. Evil has nothing to do with Brothers&Sisters or anything else Field has done in the past. Like many offspring of famous Hollywood types, the 37-year-old Craig has been intent on forging his own path.

"It's a little weird," Craig admits. "I've never had her on a set before. . . . To me it's really important to define my career on my own and always have."

"I can honestly say, so far in my life, she's only been an excellent mentor and excellent guide, but not someone who has been able to get me work. But it's a fantastic resource to say, 'Hey mom, I got a question about working with actors.' "

The film—which producers hope to release theatrically sometime in 2010—is in the middle of a 25-day Alberta shoot. Areas of Bragg Creek, Bowness and Cochrane have been used as settings. But on this day, the spooky woods behind the Bow River Ranch west of Calgary are subbing in for the backwoods of the Appalachian Mountains, offering an appropriately gothic backdrop for the film's gory finale.

At first glance, Tucker&Dale vs. Evil certainly seems to have the potential to launch Craig into a directing career. It's nothing if not unique. Craig spent 10 years toiling in the industry, initially as an actor before directing shorts and music videos.

It took him three years to put the pieces together for his debut, which he co-wrote with Morgan Jurgenson. It's genre-bending premise is a satire of the old "college-kids-lost-in-the-woods-versus-hillbillies" cliche. Bowden plays a lovely college student who is saved by two good oil' boys, including the thick-skulled Dale (Labine) and the slightly more intelligent Tucker (Tudyk). A series of misunderstandings and gory accidents pit the gormless heroes against some college kids who think the backwoods pair is up to no good. Much mayhem ensues. In fact, the unofficial tag line for the film is : "A perfect love story, except for the minor woodchipper incident."

"People get killed in some pretty gruesome ways, but there's a lot of comedy in it too," says Bowden, on a break from shooting. "It's hard to explain because getting killed by a woodchipper is never funny. But somehow we've kind of made it funny."

Bowden is perhaps best known for her role as Tina Fey's alluringly attired assistant Cerie Xerox in 30 Rock. Craig seems to have caught her as her star is on the rise, not unlike Tudyk and Labine's. The Juilliard-trained Tudyk played Steve the Pirate in Dodgeball : a True Underdog Story, recently had a dark recurring role in Joss Whedon's Dollhouse and will next appear in the TV remake of the 1980s sci-fi show V. Labine spent two seasons playing the wisecracking sidekick Bert in the sci-fishow Reaper and has been cast in the lead of the new Fox sitcom Sons of Tuscon, which will premiere in January after The Simpsons.

Tucker&Dale vs. Evil gave the Vancouver actor the chance to star in a horror film—and potentially a cult film. Both of which are on his to-do list as an actor.

"It was a really fun departure for me," says Labine, about playing the dull-witted Dale. "It is comedy, which is kind of my roots. But the hillbilly aspect of it really appealed to me because I've never really played a really base, stupid hillbilly. Which is tricky for me, because my instinct as a comedy actor is to improv all the time. With this one, you can't really do it. The character doesn't allow it. He's just too f---ing stupid. He has nothing witty to say."

Tudyk says the comedy in the film comes directly from Craig and Jurgenson's inventive script, which spared the stars from engaging in a transparent shtick to get laughs.

"It's an outrageous situation, people are dying all over the place and they are accidentally dying," Tudyk says. "It's a misunderstanding between two camps. It's so funny how long Eli can maintain both worlds, both viewpoints. The things we do are constantly reaffirming in their eyes their viewpoints of us. And the things they're doing are showing us that they are completely insane."

As for Field, she says she has not offered any tips to her son about directing, nor did she encourage or discourage him from entering the business. But she will go out on a limb to say she thinks his script is a winner.

"It's hilariously funny," she says. "It's very, very funny. And the world needs to laugh right now. . . . I kept saying, 'Isn't there a role for me ?' "

Alan Tudyk on stage in LA and New York on September & October, 2009

Webmaster — 2009-05-29T22:20:02Z

An Evening Without Monty Python, with Azaria, Leeves, Tudyk, to Play Hollywood and Manhattan

An evening of Monty Python musical numbers and sketches will be presented in Hollywood and Manhattan this fall.

The Los Angeles Times reports that An Evening Without Monty Python will play Hollywood's Ricardo Montalban Theatre Sept. 23-Oct. 4 and Manhattan's Town Hall Oct. 6-10.

Eric Idle and B.T. McNichol will direct a cast that includes Hank Azaria, Jane Leeves, Alan Tudyk, Rick Holmes and Jim Piddock.

The skits and musical numbers were originally created by Idle, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Michael Palin.

The production, according to the L.A. Times, will help promote the new book "Monty Python Live !"

Alan tudyk - "V" Tv Series - He joins the cast !

Webmaster — 2009-03-23T09:58:58Z

VisitorSite Exclusive : Laura Vandervoort & Alan Tudyk Join V

Aaaand we have our first real scoop : Laura Vandervoort, who played Kara/Supergirl for the seventh season of Smallville, has been cast in V as "Lisa," a flirty, younger-looking Visitor who is a guide aboard the Los Angeles mothership. Lisa charms Tyler Evans and his friend Brandon "with ease."

But that's not all ! V will also be staging a mini-Firefly reunion as Alan Tudyk, who played "Wash" on Firefly and its follow-up movie Serenity, will be joining Morena Baccarin on V. He will be playing Erica Evans' FBI partner Dale Maddox.

In other news, we have confirmed that Morris Chestnut will be playing the role of Ryan, and Elizabeth Mitchell is indeed playing the role of Erica Evans.

Happy Birthday To Alan Tudyk, 38 Today !

Webmaster — 2009-03-16T20:55:42Z

Date of Birth : 16 March 1971

Location : El Paso, Texas, USA

Birth Name : Alan Wray Tudyk

Height : 6' (1.83 m)

Mini Biography

Alan Tudyk was born in El Paso, Texas and grew up in Plano, where he attended Plano Sr. High. In 1990, he went on to study drama at Lon Morris Jr. College. While there he was awarded the Academic Excellence Award for Drama. He was also named "Most Likely to Succeed" and "Sophomore Beau." During this time Alan was an active member of the Delta Psi Omega fraternity.

After leaving LMJC, Alan went on to study at the prestigious Juilliard conservatory, but left in 1996 before earning a degree.

After a number of smaller stage productions, and a small role in the movie Patch Adams, Alan landed his first Broadway role in 1999 with Epic Proportions. He quickly became a sought-after comedic actor, with roles in such films as 28 Days and A Knight's Tale.

In 2002, Alan got the role of Wash, the wise-cracking pilot of Serenity on the short-lived series Firefly. Though the series lasted only eleven episodes, this may be Alan's most well-known and loved role. No other networks would buy the failed series, but Universal Pictures began courting the creator Joss Whedon to produce a big screen version of the series.

While awaiting the final news of Firefly's fate, Alan played the beloved "Steve the Pirate" in the movie Dodgeball and the voice of the robot "Sonny" in I, Robot.

In 2005 Alan finally reprised the role of Wash in Serenity, the feature film version of the series Firefly. The same year he went back to Broadway from June to November, taking over the role of Lancelot for Hank Azaria in the successful musical Spamalot.

He currently lives in New York City but also has a place in Los Angeles, California IMDb Mini Biography By : Melissa Hamari

Trivia

Alan's most prized possession was a 1964 Mustang, which he named "Old Sock."

Threw a "We Don't Work for FOX Anymore" party for the cast and crew of the short lived TV series "Firefly" upon hearing of its being cancelled.

Didn't go to his senior prom because the girl he was planning to take two-timed him with another guy and got pregnant.

According to the rest of the Firefly cast, was consistently the worst speaker of Chinese on the show ! He puts this down to having to learn long and complicated sentences like "Mother of God and all her wacky nephews" in Mandarin.

In preparing for the role of Sonny in the film, I, Robot, studied dance, movement and mime to accurately portray movement that has been programmed in. His work was captured with green screen technology.

To prepare for the role of Steve The Pirate in Dodgeball, joined a group of pirate role players called The Rumrunners and spent a week at Pirate Camp.

According to the "War Stories" (1x09) episode commentary, when he couldn't remember the Chinese dialogue for Firefly, he would just make it up and hope no one noticed.

In the Firefly episode "Out of Gas" (1x05) Wash wires up a large, red button for the captain to press if he needs the crew to return to the ship. When he shows it to Mal he says, "When your miracle gets here, just hit this button." When Alan left the Firefly set after the series was canceled, he took that button as a keepsake. When Joss Whedon announced that he would be searching for a way to bring the show back, as either a series or a feature film, Alan sent him the button with a note that said, again, "When your miracle gets here, just hit this button.".

While in college, Alan was active in the Delta Psi Omega fraternity.

Alan filled in for Hank Azaria in the Broadway show Spamalot while Azaria was filming the second season of Huff and working on the seventeenth season of The Simpsons. Actress Sara Ramirez, another performer in the production at this time, was in Alan's class (Group 26) at Juilliard.

Smokey and the Bandit is his favorite movie.

As a nod to his character in Firefly and Serenity, Alan can be heard in Halo 3 swearing in Chinese, quickly followed by, "I wish I was someone else right now !".

Alan Tudyk is in today's IMDb poll

Webmaster — 2008-12-30T19:22:11Z

Click on the link :

http://www.imdb.com/poll/

Alan Tudyk - "Good Vibes" Animated Series - He will voice this show

Webmaster — 2008-10-21T18:44:59Z

Alan to voice in new animated project

ATDN can reveal that Alan will be starring in a new animated comedy from the writer of Pineapple Express. 'Good Vibes' is about two surfer bums and their high school life.Alan will play 'Lonnie', an old surf dude who also narrates the show. The pilot was recently picked up by Fox and is going to a table read in early November, with the final show pegged for Spring 2009.

The show will also star Josh Gad (The Rocker, Back To You), Adam Brody (The OC, Gilmore Girls) and Debi Mazar (Entourage, The Women).

Happy Birthday To Alan Tudyk, 37 Today !

Webmaster — 2008-03-16T21:30:04Z

Date of Birth : 16 March 1971

Location : El Paso, Texas, USA

Birth Name : Alan Wray Tudyk

Height : 6' (1.83 m)

Mini Biography

Alan Tudyk grew up in Plano, Texas. After high school, Alan attended Lon Morris Junior College from 1990-1991, where he studied drama. While there, he was an active member of Delta Psi Omega. In 1991, he was awarded the Academic Excellence award for Drama, as well as Most Likely to Succeed and Sophomore Beaus. In 1993, he continued his studies at Juilliard until 1996, when he left before earning a degree. He currently lives in New York City.

Trivia

Alan's most prized possession was a 1964 Mustang, which he named "Old Sock."

Threw a "We Don't Work for FOX Anymore" party for the cast and crew of the short lived TV series "Firefly" upon hearing of its being cancelled.

For Your Consideration : Alan Tudyk of ‘Death at a Funeral' for Best Supporting Actor

Webmaster — 2008-01-13T11:33:14Z

It's quite possible that you never made it to Death at a Funeral this summer. You caught the preview, made a mental note to check it out, and then instead saw Superbad, which opened the same weekend, and forgot all about it. Our fear : What if Academy members did the same ? Well, it'd be a shame, because it would mean they missed the worthy performance of Alan Tudyk.

You probably remember Tudyk as Wash from Firefly, or the E ! network exec in Knocked Up who tells Katherine Heigl to "tighten," but the El Paso, Texas, native is even funnier as Death's anxious lawyer Simon Smith. Desperate to calm down before seeing his future father-in-law at the titular funeral, his character takes what he thinks is Valium but turns out to be a hallucinogenic cocktail created by his fiancée's brother. Similar scenarios have played out in countless uninspired stoner comedies (and typical Vulture workdays), but Tudyk pushes himself to be more than just a dude acting high. Sure, he marvels at the size of his hands and unspools a roll of toilet paper ("Join the others…" he encourages the squares until he sadly reaches the cardboard tube), but Tudyk skillfully translates his character's state of mind to his physical movements and facial expressions, shifting from anxiety to confusion to utter despair.

"[Director Frank Oz] made me do take after take," Tudyk explained to the Orlando Sentinel. "'Oh no, you're higher than that.'" (This probably explains how he ends up naked on the roof.) But even at his most absurd, Tudyk never seems to be overacting ; instead, he's just giving the outlandish performance called for in the script, serving as an excellent foil for Matthew Macfayden's grieving straight man, while at the same time conveying concern and affection for the freaked-out fiancée. Yes, Tudyk's had practice with British farce — he took Hank Azaria's place as Lancelot in Broadway's Spamalot — but here, he steals his every scene. Academy, you've nominated a Texan playing a bewildered Brit before, and this side-splitting portrayal also deserves a nod. Alan Tudyk for Best Supporting Actor ! (We just hope he doesn't show up in costume.) —Lori Fradkin

Alan Tudyk - "Luke Reiter Drama" Pilot - NBC takes pair to court

Webmaster — 2007-10-09T10:50:32Z

NBC takes pair to court

lan Tudyk and Brit Andrew Lincoln have been tapped to star in NBC's untitled Luke Reiter drama pilot, which is being directed by Barry Sonnenfeld.

The legal thriller from Universal Media Studios revolves around unapologetic lawyers at a prestigious New York civil firm, who will do whatever it takes to win their high-profile cases and outmaneuver one another.

Tudyk will play Charlie, a slick, gregarious lawyer who wants to make it to the top and will work all the angles to get there. Lincoln will play Joe, a soulful lawyer who has a true sense of justice and a hidden past. To complicate things, both are in love with the same woman.

The pilot, executive produced by Reiter and Sonnenfeld, is slated to begin production Oct. 22 in New York.

Sonnenfeld, who also executive produces ABC's freshman drama series "Pushing Daisies," segues to the Reiter pilot from directing Fox's comedy pilot "Hackett," which he wrapped last week. He also is attached to direct CBS' fantasy drama "The Kingdom."

Tudyk recently appeared in "Knocked Up" and "3:10 to Yuma." He is repped by Endeavor and manager Geordie Frey.

Lincoln is the latest British actor to land a lead role in an U.S. network drama pilot. NBC has been leading the trend with three of its four new fall drama series, "Bionic Woman," "Life" and "Journeyman," fronted by Brits.

Lincoln, probably best known for his role in "Love Actually," has starred in such British series as "Teachers" and "Afterlife."

Alan Tudyk - "3:10 to Yuma" Movie is #1 at the Box Office

Webmaster — 2007-09-10T16:48:28Z

Click on the link :

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/ ?yr=2007&wknd=36&p=.htm