According to this article in TV Guide Magazine, Ben is one of the voice talents in the newest reboot of “Scooby Doo”. The series will begin airing on the Cartoon Network in July.
Scooby-Doo! Mystery Inc – 7/6c Cartoon Network
Scooby-Doo, where are you? A hip reboot of the 40-year-old cartoon franchise puts the meddling kids and their—talking!—canine pal Scoob in Crystal Cove, the most-haunted town in the world, where they solve mysteries much to the chagrin of everyone else who lives there. Among the celebs who lend their voices to the series (either as guest stars or recurring characters) are: Patrick Warburton, Gary Cole, Linda Cardellini, George Segal, Ben McKenzie, Tricia Helfer, Tia Carrere, Julie Bowen, science fiction writer Harlan Ellison and—for those who know their Scooby history—Vincent Van Ghoul.
TV Guide
From: deadline.com
Two years after being unveiled at NBC’s upfront presentation, cop drama Southland will once again be introduced at an upfront presentation, this time at TNT’s event tomorrow after the show was recently renewed by the cable network.
“We’re delighted that we’re still alive,” executive producer John Wells said. “So far, we’ve used up the fourth of our nine lives.”
But along with the excitement of staying on at TNT came the reality of having to adjust the series, originally developed and produced for a broadcast network, to the economics of cable. The budget of Southland is being cut by more than a third going into Season 3.
As a result, not all cast members will continue as regulars and those who remain had been asked to reduce their fees and/or the number of episodes they appear in.
Staying on as regulars are Regina King and Michael Cudlitz, who have completed their deals, and Ben McKenzie and Shawn Hatosy who are in negotiations. McKenzie, King and Cudlitz are scheduled to appear at TNT’s upfront presentation tomorrow, while Hatosy had to pull out because of personal commitment.
I wish we had more money,” Well said. ”We are hoping to find a way to have a couple of more regulars if they prefer it that way or recurring if they want to have the opportunity to also appear on other series.”
For instance, after Southland’s cancelation by NBC, series regular Kevin Alejandro landed a recurring gig on HBO’s True Blood where he was upped to a regular with the blessing of the Southland producers. He is still expected to do several episodes of the TNT drama next season. Wells also is looking to bring back in some capacity former regulars Arija Bareikis and Michael McGrady.
Tom Everett Scott started off as a regular on the show on NBC but was switched to a guest star status after the network didn’t like his character and wanted him killed. But the producers loved him and kept him alive and now they have had preliminary conversations with Scott to return for next season, possibly as a regular.
And the producers on the show themselves will take deeper cuts than the actors, said to be larger than 30%. But Wells is not complaining.
“I don’t’ want to sound upset about it,” he said. “We got to keep doing the show, and we are delighted that TNT stepped up and that have been very generous. The reality is in the big difference between how you set up to do a show off the bat on cable and how you transition a broadcast show to cable. It’s new ground.”
DONATE OR REQUEST A DVD
Each year, thousands high school students read Dalton Trumbo’s National Book Award-winning novel, Johnny Got His Gun, as part of their English Literature, Social Studies, and Political Science classes.
Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun, starring Ben McKenzie (Southland, The O.C., Junebug), was originally conceived to enhance those studies, as well as courses in Film, Theater Arts, Nursing, and Acting.
While we were honored to have our small independent film picked up for distribution in art house cinemas, our goal has always been to have a copy of this movie distributed to every high school library in the country.
THE NEED
At a time when most schools no longer offer basic Civics courses, Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun offers a perspective beyond the video games and multimedia images which bombard students and all too often depersonalize the human aspect of war.
Included with the film are a pre-screening and a post-screening discussion guide, which offer educators an opportunity to explore and discuss with their students many of Trumbo’s themes.
Sadly, many school districts today no longer have the financial resources to purchase educational DVDs, which come with the necessary ‘Public Performance Rights’ licenses that enable teachers to screen them in the classroom. And even though Johnny is priced well below the average cost of such educational videos, it remains out of reach for many schools.
THE SOLUTION
Greenwood Hill Productions is working to match each high school library in the country with a donor willing to purchase a copy of the film for them.
These DVDs are a teaching tool which can be utilized by educators across multiple curriculums, as noted above.
Furthermore, each video comes with the legally required Public Performance Rights license, which allows teachers to show the film year after year, for the lifetime of the DVD.
Finally, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of each DVD go to the Fallen Patriot Fund to help veterans and their families.
Go to the film’s website and request a copy for your school
From THR
TNT has renewed “Southland” for a third season.
The network has picked up 10 episodes of the critically acclaimed John Wells cop drama, which will air starting next January.
“Southland” has been a modest performer for the cable network, which picked up the series after NBC canceled the series right before the start of its second season.
“’Southland’ is a challenging, visceral show that engages viewers with its immersive style, provocative storylines and complex characters,” said Michael Wright, head of programming for TNT. “These qualities have made ‘Southland’ a favorite among critics and appointment viewing for an extremely loyal audience.”
TNT points out that “Southland” gains about 50% more viewers via DVR time shifting, which is above average. In live-plus-same-day ratings, the final episodes of the show averaged about 2.2 million viewers. The show averaged 2.7 million viewers for the season once seven-day DVR gains are added.
From: LAist.com
Before Ben McKenzie took the role of rookie Patrol Officer Ben Sherman on formerly NBC’s and now TNT’s “Southland”, we all became familiar with him for his portrayal of the conflicted Ryan Atwood in Foxs “The O.C.” Tonight the season finale of “Southland” airs at 10pm on TNT – we hope that this series, one of the best that premiered in 2009, makes it back for many more seasons. There is nothing formulaic about this contemporary portrayal of what patrol officers in Los Angeles do every day – the writing is superb and every episode brings a multitude of real LA locations to the screen with an incredible cast that makes every episode that much more real and gripping.
We spoke with Ben via phone last week. [Today @TNTWeKnowDrama will be holding a live twitterview with Ben and co-star Michael Cudlitz from 2-3pm Pacific-
LAist: So [tonight] is the season finale, is it also the series finale?
Ben McKenzie: We don’t know whether we will be renewed or not. TNT has been fantastic and have put a lot of muscle behind the show – the ratings have been solid, not spectacular, but a lot of people have been DVRing the show and watching it that way, so I truly don’t know if we are coming back yet. I’d certainly happily share the information if I had it but I think TNT is going to take its time to see how we do and how they want to go forward.
LAist: The LA setting of “Southland” reminds me a bit of “The Shield” but that show was more of a fantasy.
Ben McKenzie: That show did have a dramatic focus on corruption and power plays among certain members of the LAPD. Our show is more of a slice of life of the LAPD, from patrol cops to detectives. If we get to go again, we may have an episode or two that focused on corruption, but that’s not really the angle that we’re pursuing. “The Shield” was a terrific show and I’m flattered at the comparison.
LAist: You’ve been involved in the series for a year and a half but have only shot 13 episodes, when you talk about the series now, does it feel a bit like a movie that you did way back when?
Ben McKenzie: We shot the last episode last October so it has been six months of waiting to see these episodes come on, so it is kind of like a movie that we did a long time ago.
LAist: What kind of preparation did you do for the part of Officer Ben Sherman?
Ben McKenzie: There was a lot of training for the entire cast in terms of acclimating us to the world of the LAPD. We went through a week-long bootcamp before we shot the pilot and then another week-long bootcamp before we shot the series. We worked with our technical advisors who were both ex-LAPD. We did ride-alongs with cops, we went to the firing range to fire weapons appropriate to our characters, we worked on handcuffing procedures, we worked on tactical stuff like how to search a room and how to maintain appropriate spacing between partners so that they aren’t in each others line of fire. A lot of that kind of stuff, so that we could feel capable of semi-realistically portraying these scenarios.
Since our technical advisors were on set we could go to them right there with any questions we would have about a particular scene. I think that was crucially important to creating the show. Our technical advisors were involved in every aspect of the creation of the show, from the stories that we tell, many of which were taken from real cops, who were interviewed for the show. Every cop has at least one or two incredible stories that are so crazy that you wouldn’t have believed them if they weren’t true.
These stories were turned into scripts but when you are on location the stories had to be adapted because of the geography of where people are located at a scene. The actors are, I think in a really wonderful way, treated as fellow collaborators on the show. We were allowed and encouraged to change around things, nothing drastic, perhaps adjusting some improvised lines of dialogue and how we would move in a scene.
Particularly for patrol cops, whenever they are coming up on a call, they have no idea about what they are getting into. There are a lot of shows about detectives solving crimes, the “Law & Order”s and “CSI”s are well oiled machines, there’s a crime at the beginning of the episode and you spend the rest of the episode trying to solve it.
“Southland”‘s focus on patrol cops, where hopefully you feel like you are riding along in a car with a pair of patrol cops as they get calls on the radio to go off to wherever they are going off to – very often they don’t know what they are getting into. In the pilot, which was titled “Unknown Trouble”, is the perfect name for what they are going through. That lack of knowledge on the cops’ part is something we hope the audience can buy into. That world of uncertainty is what the cops live in. Any situation can go sideways and they can find themselves in a treacherous situation.
LAist: You mentioned the training you received and these procedures do become a part of the plot. In “Unknown Trouble” your character was told to just move a suspect along without completing the pat-down and the gangbanger had a backup gun that he used to shoot a cop with.
Ben McKenzie: Yes, that’s right!
LAist: How has it been working withMichael Cudlitz, who plays your partner Officer John Cooper?
Ben McKenzie: It’s been great, he’s very easy to get along with and a total pro. You’ve probably seen him on “Band of Brothers” and many episodes of other shows. He’s terrific actor and very giving, and kind of blue-collar about his attitude when approaching the show which is an attitude I try to have. We’re members of a team that are trying to do 4 or 5 locations in a day, we’re moving very fast, you need to be on your toes as an actor and nimble, able to adjust on the fly to what’s happening. If you are overly precious you will find yourself overwhelmed by what’s happening.
We have a great Director of Photography, Jimmy Muro, who is shooting the show in a really cool way, using almost all handheld Red cameras, naturalistic, very fluid and movement oriented. As an actor you need to come in knowing your lines and ready to go – Michael’s great at that and I think we have a good partnership.
LAist: We hope to see that partnership again in another season of this great show.
Ben McKenzie: Thank you, right now I’m just waiting on the future of “Southland” as this process hopefully culminates in another season, I hope to speak with you in the future about seasons 3, 4 and beyond.
—–
The “Southland” season finale airs tonight at 10pm on TNT. TNT will be hosting a twitterview with Ben McKenzie and Michael Cudlitz from 2-3pm at @TNTWeKnowDrama
Well this is it. The final episode of Season 2 (or Season 1.5, depending on how one keeps score.) Not so much a season finale, more the sixth episode of what was supposed to be at least 13 on NBC (before we were so unceremoniously cancelled before premiering). I wish I could say that this episode wraps up the plot lines in nice little bows, providing all of us — cast and crew as well as fans —some closure if in fact this episode does serve as a series finale. The truth is it doesn’t.
No surprise there: it was never intended to do so. Instead, it is simply another strong episode of a show of which I am immensely proud to be a part. That will have to suffice for the time being. Nothing worth having comes easy, and Southland is a testament to that fact. No body who worked on this show doesn’t miss making it. We all hope we can make more of it. But at this point, the decision is out of our hands. The ratings have been solid (particularly the DVR numbers), but not spectacular. It is up to TNT to decide whether there will be more Southland. I would like to thank them for the enormous efforts they have undertaken on our behalf. They have believed in the show from Day 1, and have done a fantastic job promoting it and nurturing it along in the difficult transition from network to cable. Thank you, TNT.
I would also like to thank the fans, who have been so passionate in support of Southland. Many of you guys have taken ownership of the show, promoting it virally through Facebook, Twitter and fan sites. These efforts are invaluable to us — thank you for spreading the word.
Thanks to the cast and crew. I miss working with you guys. I hope we work together again on this soon. If not, I look forward to seeing you on other projects, or just around town. It has been my pleasure to work alongside you.
Thanks to the producers, John, Anne, and Chris, who have steered us through treacherous waters and have kept the ship intact. To many more voyages together.
To Michael Cudlitz: it’s been a joy working with you buddy. I have learned a lot about a lot from you, and it’s with pride that I call you my friend.
Finally, to members of the LAPD and law enforcement personnel everywhere: I hope we have done right by you. We have tried to honor your work and present it as best we can. We all thank you for the work you do everyday to keep us safe. We are mere actors upon a stage you have set for us. We hope to have done you justice.
Fans of TNT’s critically acclaimed police drama series Southland have one last chance to ask their burning questions before the season finale. On Tuesday, April 6 stars Ben McKenzie and Michael Cudlitz will do a live twitterview @tntweknowdrama. Fans can tweet questions to @tntweknowdrama 4-6 p.m. ET. Ben and Michael will tweet answers from 5-6 p.m. ET. To follow the twitterview uninterrupted, go to http://twitter.com/tntweknowdrama.
TV-Guide
« Previous Entries |
Next Entries »
Southland (2009-2010)
Sin Bin (2010)
The Eight Percent (2009)
Johnny Got His Gun (2008)
