King to write for ’Dead’?
Stephen King is in talks to write a season-two episode of AMC’s “Walking Dead,” actress Laurie Holden said at a panel event at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo last weekend, notes the Hollywood Reporter.
Miss Holden, who plays Andrea on the show, didn’t provide further details.
“Walking Dead” creator and executive producer Frank Darabont has an existing relationship with Mr. King — he previously adapted the horror master’s “The Shawshank Redemption,” “The Green Mile” and “The Mist” for the big screen.
“Walking Dead” actor Jon Bernthal, a native of the District, told the panel that Mr. Darabont will not direct the show’s season-two premiere, but most likely will direct an episode later in the season, according to THR.
Sheen empathizes with son
Martin Sheen says he empathizes with his troubled son Charlie Sheen, notes the Hollywood Reporter.
“I know what hell he’s living in. I’ve had psychotic episodes in public,” Martin tells the U.K. Telegraph. “One of them was on camera — the opening scene of ’Apocalypse Now.’ So I know what Charlie is going through.
“When you do something like that, that is out of control, that’s the most difficult thing,” he goes on. “You have to have courage.”
He blames his son’s behavior on his long history of drug abuse.
“You know, Charlie’s 45 years old. He’s not a kid. Emotionally he still is,” the elder Mr. Sheen says. “Because when you’re addicted, you don’t grow emotionally. So when you get clean and sober, you’re starting at the moment you started using drugs or alcohol. You’re emotionally crippled.”
He says he thinks his son, who was fired from the CBS sitcom “Two and a Half Men” last month, can recover.
“Faith can help all of us,” he says. “Addiction is the dark side. It’s a reflection of despair. And it’s fed by all the other negativity.”
Housewife’s new man
Viewers got a very good look at Tamra Barney’s new man, Eddie Judge, on Sunday’s episode of “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” reports People.com.
The newly single housewife brought Mr. Judge along to dine al fresco with her friend and business partner Marcos.
“Eddie and I started dating about two months after Simon and I split up,” she said. “I met Eddie through Marcos. There was a rumor out there that I was dating Simon’s best friend. That wasn’t true. They’ve never been friends.”
So, what does she see in Mr. Judge?
“He has that Latin oomph,” she said.
But Miss Barney insists their relationship is not just about sex.
“At first I was kind of worried that it was just a physical kind of thing between Eddie and [me], but I honestly feel like he’s my soul mate,” she said. “The amount of love is just insane. I don’t know how to explain it. I’ve never experienced it in my life.”
Although she says, “I wasn’t looking for love,” she believes she has found it and that Mr. Judge “kissed me back to life.”
Arnold heads back to TV
Arnold Schwarzenegger will announce the first details of his new TV series at this year’s MIPTV Media Market in Cannes, France, the Hollywood Reporter notes. Details of the project, which is being kept under wraps, will be revealed April 4 at a news conference at the Riviera-side Majestic Hotel.
Reps for the former California governor — who recently announced he planned a return to movies — said only that Mr. Schwarzenegger was involved in an “international TV series.”
Other stars in Cannes for the TV sales market that runs April 4 through 8, will include Eva Green, Joseph Fiennes and Jamie Campbell Bower, who are promoting “Camelot”; John Barrowman promoting “Torchwood”; and Oliver Hershbiegel, John Doman and Assumpta Serna, fronting “The Borgias.”
ESPN 3D coming to Verizon
Verizon’s FiOS TV is set launch ESPN 3D on April 5, ahead of the Masters golf tournament and the National Basketball Association playoffs, although still relatively few sports fans have the requisite 3-D gear to watch it, Multichannel.com reports.
With the addition of Verizon, ESPN 3D is available to some 62.5 million U.S. households through agreements with Comcast, DirecTV, Time Warner Cable and AT&T U-verse TV. However, the number of households with 3D-enabled TV sets is somewhere around 1 million.
ESPN 3D will be included at no extra charge for FiOS TV customers who subscribe to the top-tier Ultimate HD package, and will be available separately for an additional $9.99 per month.
ESPN 3D, which launched in June 2010, is on track to feature nearly 100 events in its first year. The network converted to a 24-hour channel Feb. 14, airing replays of 3-D programming in addition to live events.
’Titanic’ miniseries set
Oscar-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes has scripted a new drama about the last hours aboard the Titanic, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Billed as a lavish new four-hour TV miniseries, “Titanic” will start filming on location in Hungary this spring.
Focusing on the lives of different characters ranging from steerage passengers to upper-class guests as the ship begins to founder, the drama takes viewers on a journey through the last hours of Titanic’s maiden voyage in 1912. Casting has yet to be announced.
The three-way United Kingdom-Hungary-Canada co-production is between ITV Studios, Deep Indigo Productions and Lookout Point in the U.K.; Sienna Films Inc. in Canada; and Hungary-based Mid Atlantic Films.
It will sail on ABC and Canada’s Global TV, followed closely by premieres in five other territories, including the U.K., Australia, Ireland and New Zealand.
Quinn Taylor, a senior vice president for ABC Network, says the doomed voyage has “retained a powerful hold on people around the world for almost 100 years, and this new miniseries will offer a compelling take on this epic, tragic story. We look forward to bringing this remarkable series to our viewers.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Fellowes plans to pen a film script based on British crime writer Agatha Christie’s “Crooked House.” He is writing an adaptation of the book, set just after World War II for Neil LaBute to direct.
The scribe told the Independent newspaper he was excited to be adapting a Christie novel and to be working with Mr. LaBute, THR notes.
Mr. Fellowes also is currently putting the finishing touches to the second season of “Downtown Abbey” for ITV. He won an Oscar for “Gosford Park.”
Christie’s “Crooked House” details the story of Charles Hayward, who is told by his fiancee, Sophie, that she cannot marry him until her grandfather’s killer is brought to justice.
• Compiled from web and wire reports
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