Category Articles & Interviews

First up, a warning: Just because Keri Russell is in “The Americans,” don’t expect another “Felicity.” Unless you always wanted Felicity to be a girl who could kick a man through a wall while working to bring down governments.

Those are the kinds of things we get in “The Americans.” It’s gritty, sometimes dark and unquestionably great to watch.

The show focuses on Elizabeth and Philip Jennings (Russell and Matthew Rhys), a “normal” couple living with their two kids in 1981 suburbia. Of course, they’re not normal at all — they are instead undercover KGB agents on a long-term spy mission to undermine America.

Elizabeth and Philip are the heroes. As the show’s creator, Joe Weisberg, put it, “We want you to root for the KGB.” Continue reading ‘The Americans’: The fighting, music and espionage of the Cold War

Debuting on January 30th, the new FX new series, The Americans, stars Matthew Rhys (Brothers and Sisters) and Keri Russell (Felicity) as Phillip and Elizabeth, KGB spies living deep undercover in the United States in 1981 – in the midst of the Cold War.

At the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour today, The Americans’ creator Joe Weisberg was asked if viewers are being asked to root for the enemy, as it were, and he replied, “I think that is one of the big questions of the series, and I think we would all very much like both for Philip and Elizabeth to have a happy, healthy marriage that goes on for a long time. From the start, it’s going to have a lot of ups and downs like most of the marriages that we’re all familiar with. And then in the Cold War, although it might be a little bit difficult to believe and get used to, we want you to root for the KGB.” He acknowledged, “They’re going to try and undermine the U.S. government. They’re going to try to have the Soviet Union win in the Cold War. We know that’s not going to work out too well for them.” Quipped Russell, “We will rewrite history!”

However, executive producer Joel Fields noted that there’s also a big part of the show set at the FBI, with US agents attempting to find exactly the kind of spies that Elizabeth and Phillip are and, “The hope is you’ll root for them too. What’s great about what Joe created is it’s a show about marriage, and the marriage is an allegory for international relations. So you kind of root for where you are, we hope, emotionally in the scenes.” Continue reading The Americans: FX Introduces the KGB Spies Next Door

Felicity, she ain’t.

For her TV return, Keri Russell stars as Elizabeth Jennings, a dedicated Soviet spy pretending to be a happily married American suburban housewife in The Americans, an ’80s-set FX series debuting Jan. 30. With her faux-husband Phillip, played by Brothers & Sisters star Matthew Rhys, she will kidnap, kill and offer her sexual favors, all to further the interests of the Soviet Union.

And she’s not just a commie spy, which would be change enough from the good girl she played in Felicity. She’s also an action hero. In the pilot, she kicks some guy so hard, his head goes through the wall.

“It was terrible to do. …There’s no pad, I’m kicking his head into the wall. He grabbed me and said ‘Do it and do it right, because if you mess it up, we’re going to have to do it again, and then I’m going to be (angry).’ ”

Posing as an American, of course, is nothing new for Rhys, a Welsh actor who has often played American characters. What he has learned about Americans, he says, is that we’re both welcoming and “incredibly honest” in the way we share how we feel.

“In day-to-day activity, there’s an incredible emotional articulateness that you don’t find in Britain … that’s lacking in the British system. That and a lack of therapy.”

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/

The 2013 Sundance Film Festival on Friday announced the films coming to Peery’s Egyptian Theater.

Ogden can look forward to 13 films. Here’s the lineup, with film descriptions by Sundance.

• “Austenland,” 6:30 p.m. Jan. 21. Keri Russell stars as an obsessed fan of Jane Austen’s Mr. Darcy. She heads to Austenland for an immersive vacation to eschew all things modern, to search for classical love.

For more information, visit www.sundance.org/festival.

Source: http://www.standard.net/

Eastern Effects, a Brooklyn-based studio that is home to the upcoming FX spy show “The Americans,” was damaged by flooding from Hurricane Sandy, TheWrap has learned.

Shooting on the show, which stars Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as KGB agents in 1980s Washington, D.C., was scheduled to begin next Tuesday, but because of the damage to sets it has been delayed until Nov. 26, according to two individuals familiar with the production said.

Despite the proximity of a notoriously polluted canal, initial testing determined the studio was not exposed to raw sewage or other contaminants.

One set was damaged after a soundstage was flooded with six inches of water, one individual close to the production said. The network declined to comment.

Crew members became concerned about safety because Eastern Effects is located near the Gowanus Canal, which is considered one of the country’s most contaminated bodies of water. Continue reading FX’s ‘The Americans’ Studio Flooded by Hurricane Sandy; Shooting Delayed

The new spy drama, starring Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys, left attendees enthralled by the fast-paced, well-acted and beautifully scored episode of 75 minutes.

The Americans — as in a new drama series for cabler FX Stateside — turned the once staid, “suit”-saturated Mipcom TV trade show into a mini Cannes Film Festival moment Monday night.

The pilot episode had enough sex, action, intrigue and sophisticated production values to make attendees think they were watching some European art film – except that this one was, despite the twists, mostly understandable.

The Grand Auditorium in the Cannes Palais was an SRO affair as TV buyers and other attendees sat seemingly enthralled by the fast-paced, well-acted and beautifully scored episode, which came in at 75 minutes or so. The stars too – Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys — were ushered out afterwards, just as at festival screenings.

“We’re not handing out a Palme d’Or tonight, but we are here to celebrate the very best in world television,” Reed Midem TV topper Laurine Garaude told the assembled before the screening. Continue reading MIPCOM 2012: FX Drama ‘The Americans’ Wows Audiences

The MIPCOM 2012 World Premiere TV Screening is The Americans, a new 13-part drama series for FX from Fox Television Studios (FTVS). The star-studded event takes place on Monday October 8, at 18.30 — after which stars of the show will walk the red carpet to the MIPCOM Opening Party at the Martinez.

The Americans centres around arranged marriage between two KGB spies posing as Americans in suburban Washington DC shortly after Ronald Reagan is elected President. Phillip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth Jennings (Kerri Russell) have two children who know nothing about their parents’ true identity, and while the marriage is merely a cover, the relationship grows more real by the day. Continue reading Interview with The Americans’ Keri Russell & Matthew Rhys: Living a Lie

The Americans is an upcoming spy drama for US cable network FX. The show, which stars Brothers and Sisters’ Matthew Rhys and Felicity’s Keri Russell, is Fox’s hot cable drama for MIPCOM, where the first episode will premiere.

Spy dramas are very on trend right now so what’s the main difference between The Americans and rival espionage series? The Americans is the only one written by a former spy. It was created by former CIA agent turned television writer Joe Weisberg and follows two Russian spies placed in deep cover in Washington, DC during Ronald Reagan’s 1980s. The show is executive produced by Justified’s Graham Yost. Continue reading TBI Interview: The Americans