James Badge Dale
Cheers to James Badge Dale for pulling a double shift on a pair of top-rank cable dramas.
Having recently wrapped his run as PFC Robert Leckie in HBO's stirring World War II miniseries The Pacific, Badge Dale has reported for duty as intelligence analyst Will Travers on AMC's intriguing new headscratcher Rubicon. As a widower still grieving over the loss of his wife and child in 9/11, he brings warmth to a series that could be a chilly homage to paranoid '70s thrillers like The Conversation and The Parallax View.
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The Conversation courtesy Paramount
The Conversation didn’t win any Academy Awards, but it now has a chance at an Emmy — sort of.Looking to follow up its Mad Men success, AMC will develop a small-screen adaptation of the 1974 Francis Ford Coppola mystery feature about audio surveillance, Variety reports. "It gives us an opportunity to look back at the 1970s through the filter of 2009," Producer Tony Krantz said. "The issues of privacy and individuality, and issues of spying and listening, are as relevant now as they've ever been. This is the perfect vehicle to tell those stories."Locked in development hell for a decade, Krantz, along with writers Christopher McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen, pitched the show to ABC two seasons ago to no avail. But a new script in hand and a cable home seem to be just what the doctor ordered.It is unclear if Coppola will be attached to the series in any way.The Conversation was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture. — Joyce Eng
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Producer Tony Krantz (24) and writers Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) and Erik Jendresen (Band of Brothers) have a pilot commitment to adapt Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation, a 1974 thriller starring Gene Hackman, into a weekly series for ABC.... Also per Variety: David O. Russell (Three Kings) is teaming with Josh Lieb (The Simpsons) on an hourlong FX dramedy envisioned as a sort of Upstairs, Downstairs set in a Los Angeles country club.... John Corbett, Charlotte Ross, Ashley Williams and Diane Ladd will star in Montana Sky, a Lifetime movie based on the best seller by the amazing Nora Roberts.
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