Kathryn Morris UK

Cold Case Cast Catch-up – September 2016

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These short months are a pain! I have to get this written in less time. Let’s take a look at the continuing careers of the Cold Case cast for September.

Like the tense thrillers made there, Hollywood can take a long while to build up the tension before an explosive burst of energy with everything happening at once. It’s been over five years since the film Finding Steve McQueen (albeit with a different name then) made some significant steps towards becoming a reality, but in the last couple of months it all kicked off. As I type the film is being made in Atlanta, Georgia. Travis Fimmel (Vikings), Rachael Taylor (Jessica Jones), Forest Whitaker (The Last King Of Scotland), and William Fichtner (Prison Break) lead the cast in a based-on-true-events movie about the attempt to steal $30m from a secret fund held by President Richard Nixon. Cold Case star John Finn (John Stillman in CC) will play W. Mark Felt. Not a name I was familiar with but he is certainly a very famous man. He was the Deputy Director of the FBI in the early 1970s and saw all the compiled information on the Watergate scandal. In 2005 it was revealed that Felt was in fact the informant to the journalists Woodward and Bernstein, who referred to him as ‘Deep Throat’. No release date has been set so far, presumably it will be next year at the earliest. Kate Bosworth (Still Alice) was due to star but as I was compiling this piece it was announced that Rachael would be taking the ‘Molly Morphy’ (not a typo) role instead.

Slipping out a few months earlier than expected and with little fanfare the Eddie Murphy vehicle Mr Church was apparently released a couple of weeks ago. Thom Barry (Will Jeffries in CC) has a small role as ‘Frankie Twiggs’. Eddie is Mr Church, a cook taken on by a dying woman (Natascha McElhone, Californication) to look after her and her daughter (Britt Robertson, Under The Dome). It was only supposed to be for a few months but continued a lot longer than that. A schmaltz-fest no doubt.

This series of posts could be easily be renamed ‘What’s Tracie Been Up To This Month?’ due to the sheer volume of content she provides on a monthly basis. The woman’s a one person entertainment industry. Tracie Thoms (Kat Miller on CC) regularly makes guest star appearances on TV shows; takes roles in films, both long and short; and in amongst all that she finds time for singing engagements. For the past few weeks Tracie has been in New York rehearsing for a production of the musical Falsettos. It is a revival of a show that premièred on Broadway in 1992. The opening night for previews of the new production was just last night (28th September) with the show due to open for general audiences towards the end of October at the Walter Kerr Theatre. The run is planned to end in the new year. Break a leg Tracie.

Which just leaves me to crowbar in another mention of the CBS TV series BrainDead. The show came to an end, probably for good, a couple of weeks ago with a double helping. The ending gave a possible opening for a second season with the character Danny Pino (Scotty Valens in CC) played taking a job on Wall Street. No scope for skewering those in power there… The season 1 (aka the complete series) DVD is expected to be released in early December in the US.

Cold Case Is 13 (and 1/365th)

CC_Titles_16 To quote someone I gather is making headlines again: Ooops, I’ve done it again 😯

For the second year running I’m a day late with this. You really must point out these mistakes to me or I’ll never learn

Yes, it was 13 years ago yesterday (28th September 2016) that Cold Case first hit the television screens of our American cousins. The CBS ‘procedural’ started on that Sunday night with the episode “Look Again” and was followed by 155 more across seven seasons.

TV has moved on, the super heroes have made a come back for a start, and the stars of Cold Case have moved on. More on that tomorrow.

We miss you.

Hostage To History

A few days ago it was announced that the American arm of the German car giant BMW will be hiring South African Neill Blomkamp (District 9) to create a new short film for them.

So what I hear you ask? (actually I can’t, but that’s the web’s fault).

BMW of North America have initiated this project to mark the 15th anniversary of the release of a series of short films called The Hire used to promote the then-new Z4 sports car.

So what I hear you ask? Again (OK, pushy much?).

In amongst the big name writers, directors and actors in the original eight short films was a certain Kathryn Morris. She starred in one titled Hostage.

Although a set of screencaps from Hostage have been in the KM UK Gallery for many years I think I’ve managed to never really post about it. This seems like the perfect excuse to correct that.

The basic premise of each of the films is a man known only as ‘The Driver’, played by Clive Owen (Inside Man), being a sort of James Bond character required to perform a mission. As these are essentially adverts for a car the task entails some form of car chase or race against time.

In Hostage, which was part of the second season released in 2002, Clive starts off delivering a suitcase of money to ‘The Kidnapper’ (Maury Chaykin, Dances With Wolves) in return for the release of our titular hostage, that’d be Kathryn. The presence of an FBI SWAT team shows Clive is acting in league with the authorities, all though his exact role is not clear. Maury wants revenge on Linda Delacroix, a successful business woman, but things take a turn when he rejects the $5m ransom and gives a clue to where Linda is being held captive before attempting to kill himself.

Our hero races, in the BMW sports car remember, to rescue our damsel in distress. He arrives just in time, performs a feat of daring do, and as a reward gets handsy Linda’s chest, lays a few smackers on her, and then touches up her neck. You may, however, see it as attempting to revive an unconscious drowning victim with mouth-to-mouth and checking her pulse. Each to their own

After a towelling off and a change of clothes Linda visits her not-quite-dead incarcerator (geddit? ‘in car’, never mind) in hospital. One quick whisper in his ear from those over made-up lips and he’s a stiff, or he will be soon enough.

Linda wasn’t such an innocent victim after all…

There’s a few plot holes but the film is only 8 minutes long and it has to cram a lot in.

Clive is said to be getting back behind the wheel in the new short but it is highly unlikely Kathryn will be involved, though it would be interesting to see what became of Linda. She’s quite the femme fatale.

Does Linda remind you of anyone? A Rita Dunne from the film Paycheck perhaps? You’d have good reason to think that because only a year after Hostage was… err… released, the Ben Affleck starer Paycheck came out. In it Kathryn plays the very similar looking and equally ‘innocent’ Rita. Famous Hong Kong film director John Woo made both. It just shows why actors, even after reaching the heights of fame, make short films, often with little known directors, writers and producers. They get to experience working with new people and it can lead to big things later.

To mark the news of a new film short being made in the series I have added a brand new comprehensive set of full HD (1080p) screencaps of Kathryn in Hostage to the KM UK Gallery. It’s not summer any more but we’ll include this under the ‘Summer Of HD’ banner, as it is close enough and an HD upgrade.

In case you haven’t seen the film I’ve also included a small copy of the video in its entirety, so you can see the images in context. And there’s a DVD box cover art image too. Enjoy.

The Perfect Guy – Not Just Blue Sky Thinking

I fear I may have missed the boat by a couple of weeks again.

It has come to my attention that the relationship-gone-wrong thriller The Perfect Guy is being broadcast in the UK on the Sky Cinema Crime & Thriller channel. Normally I focus on Freeview, but thems the breaks.

For reasons unknown ‘Sky Cinema’ replaced ‘Sky Movies’ as the general name for the satellite network’s film channels. Personally I thought movies covers the world of films far better. ‘Cinema’ implies you are attempting to replicate the cinema experience. Which they won’t do. Hardly a forward thinking approach in this multi-screen, multi-platform digital age.

I digress.

Earlier today (15th September 2016) the Crime & Thriller channels showed The Perfect Guy. It will be on again next Tuesday (20th Sept) at the rather tame time of 1:30pm. Perhaps the scheduler doesn’t understand the irony embedded in the title

The film will never go down as a classic of the genre but you can’t say it wasn’t a success. The lead actress (Sanaa Lathan) won a couple of award for her work. In it’s opening weekend in America it made more than double the production budget. A little bit more is required for a film to be considered a real financial winner. However, by the end of November 2015 it had reached more than 4 times those initial costs, and that’s before the international markets and DVD sales are factored in. That is why there have been several other, very similar films made already. The studio behind The Perfect Guy, Screen Gems (a division of Sony Pictures), just last week released When The Bough Breaks. It also stars Morris Chestnut, this time with a very Sanaa Lathan-looking Regina Hall. The poster’s not a world away either.

I digress, again

Kathryn has a small role in The Perfect Guy as a close friend of Sanaa’s Leah. Her motherhood get Leah’s biological clock striking the hour gong loudly. Later they meet for drinks a couple of times. I’ve covered it several times on this site, notably in our review (including HD images) of the film HERE focusing on Kathryn. The red dress is worth the price of admission alone 😀

Catch Kathryn in The Perfect Guy on the Sky Cinema Crime & Thriller. Set your Sky+.

Sunday Fest For The Coin In The Northeast

You have had the original news article.

You have seen the update regarding the screening time.

Which means that this post must the final reminder a day or two before the event.

Yes, this coming Sunday (11th September) Fabien Martorell’s short film The Coin, a mainstay of this website since July of 2012, is getting another airing.

The Northeast Film Festival in New Jersey USA opens its doors just a couple of hours after this post was first published. It starts today (9th September) at 10am local time with a some documentaries and ends on Sunday night with an awards gala event.

The Coin is up for an award (Christopher Lloyd in the ‘Best Actor In A Short’ category) so the film could be taking away some more silver to add to it’s substantial collection.

If you’re in the area of New Jersey and have some free time this weekend the festival might well be worth a visit. Full details of screens and venues are on the event’s website HERE.