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Tenant Spotlight with Rob Thomas

If you have ever seen Dawson’s Creek, 90210 (2008) or Veronica Mars. You have Rob Thomas to thank in part for your television viewing pleasure. We caught up with Rob on a busy Monday here in Hollywood- who is finishing up CW’s soon to be hit- iZombie. If you’re a Veronica Mars fan we have some exclusive information for you.

You are known for many literary works including bestselling novels and hit television shows. When did you begin writing fiction and who influenced your style and genre? What do you like most about young adult fiction?

I started writing my first novel when I was 27, finished it when I was 28. I’m sure I was influenced by John Hughes, Chris Crutcher, Paul Zindel. I think there is inherent high-drama in teenagers’ lives. There are so many firsts, everything seems so important, every failure is absolute tragedy, every romance feels like it’s the one.

There is such a big Veronica Mars following. What can fans expect in the future? Will there be another Veronica Mars feature or the possibility of continuing the TV show?

There will be at least one more novel that will come out in early 2015. We also have episodes of Play It Again, Dick, the Veronica Mars spinoff webseries, coming out for the next six weeks. We all hope there will be another Veronica Mars movie but there’s nothing in the works yet on that front.

We dug up a fun fact about you… You played in a few bands back in Texas. What instrument did you play and who were your biggest influences in your music?

I played bass guitar because it had the fewest number of strings. And I had never played an instrument before joining the band. It seemed like the quickest path. I wanted to play like Tommy Stinson of The Replacements because it wasn’t very complicated. It felt like you could have a six pack before the show and you could still deliver.

How has your love for the Texas music scene play out in your writing and have you gone to SXSW yet?

My band played the first few years of SXSW back when you could be a mediocre local band and make it into the festival. Most of my friends back in Austin played in bands in the 80s and 90s and I still use a lot of music from that time and from those musicians in the shows I write.

What are some songs that are currently in heavy rotation in your car or mp3 player?

The new Spoon album. The new Tom Petty album. The last Okkervil River album. And the last Mark Lanegan album.

iZombie is gaining a lot of momentum on the social media front. What are you most excited about with this project? And when will iZombie air?

Because we’re midseason, we’re unsure when we’re going to air. But I’m starting to see cuts of the first episodes and I’m really proud of how they’re turning out. This one has a good feel to it.

What advice do you have for some of our readers in regard to focusing and honing in on a writing style.

Blood on the page. Don’t be too easily satisfied. It’s easy to write a scene that sounds like it could be on television. It’s usually an arduous journey to actually get something down that will be special or memorable.

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Hollywood News Movies/Television

‘Heroes’ Coming Back to NBC

NBC will be bringing back an old favorite, 'Heroes', with a 'Heroes Reborn' in 2015.
NBC will be bringing back an old favorite, ‘Heroes’, with ‘Heroes Reborn’ in 2015.

Have you missed NBC’s Heroes since it ended in 2010? The superhero drama starring Hayden Panettiere kick started the superhero genre in television back in 2006, and it will now be making a reappearance. Original Heroes fans will be happy to hear that NBC has decided to bring back the show for a 13-episode event series to air in 2015. The new show will be titled Heroes Reborn and will be a stand-alone story. The characters have still not been announced, but fans should look forward to this because the original series creator Tim Kring will be leading this project as well.

Heroes was cancelled four years ago, but it was a huge hit at the time with its first season premiering to an average of 14.5 million viewers. With declining ratings, broadcast networks are turning to past series and brands to grab the attention of the old fan base. While Heroes was one of the first in the television superhero genre, there has since been, and continue to be, many others. Depending on which shows get renewed or greenlit by the 2015 season, Heroes Reborn could be looking at competition with The CW’s Arrow and its new spin-off Flash, Fox’s Batman prequel Gotham and ABC’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

See full story at Entertainment Weekly.

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Movies/Television HPC News Hollywood News

Kevin Williamson of ‘The Following’ and ‘The Vampire Diaries’

Kevin Williamson, the creator of 'The Following' and 'The Vampire Diaries' discusses the uprising trend of horror with The Hollywood Reporter.
Kevin Williamson, the creator of ‘The Following’ and ‘The Vampire Diaries’ discusses the uprising trend of horror with The Hollywood Reporter.

HPC News – The Hollywood Production Center is home to FOX’s The Following and The CW’s The Vampire Diaries, and Kevin Williamson, the creator of both shows was recently featured in The Hollywood Reporter. Williamson spoke to them about movies that have scared him the most, which he said was The Exorcist when he was a kid, and now as an adult Hostile. In discussing the uprising trend of the horror genre, Williamson talked about the recent popularity of ‘found footage’ as seen in the Paranormal Activity franchise, while the young adult demographic has seen a rise in the theme of a post-apocalyptic world. Kevin Williamson’s horror background also includes working on the Scream franchise, as well I Know What You Did Last Summer.

The Hollywood Reporter crew came to the Hollywood Production Center and filmed the entire piece in our spacious conference room. The day also included a photo shoot focusing on Williamson’s recent success with The Following. The hit serial killer drama revolves around an ex-FBI agent (played by Kevin Bacon) who tries to track down a serial killer who escaped prison and is growing a huge cult following. The Following was reordered for a second season and has put out a teaser for their new season that is expected to premiere on January 20, 2014.

Watch Kevin Williamson’s interview with The Hollywood Reporter here.
Watch The Following season 2 teaser here.

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Hollywood News Movies/Television

NBC Orders ‘Growing Ivy’ Pilot

NBC has ordered the pilot 'Growing Ivy,' which will star the mother-daughter duo Susan Sarandon and Eva.
NBC has ordered the pilot ‘Growing Ivy,’ which will star the mother-daughter duo Susan Sarandon and Eva Amurri Martino.

NBC has just ordered a pilot production of a comedy series starring the mother and daughter duo Susan Sarandon and Eva Amurri Martino. Growing Ivy is a comedy based on an original idea from Eva. The show will revolve around Ivy, a Type A personality who craves the stability she lacked in her childhood, and as a way to fix her life she invites her mother to move in with her to fix their relationship. Growing Ivy will be the third time Sarandon and Amurri play mother and daughter onscreen; they first appeared together in the 2002 The Banger Sisters and will also be seen in the upcoming indie film Mother’s Day.

Eva Amurri Martino will be writing the script alongside Will McCormack and his writing-producing partner Rashida Jones. McCormack and Jones will executive produce the comedy via Warner Brothers Television and Martino and Sarandon will be on board as co-executive producers as well. The WBTV duo came together after their work on Celeste and Jesse Forever and are preparing The Revengers for The CW, Stuck for FOX and A to Z for NBC.

The single-camera comedy project Growing Ivy has not started production yet and has not received a premiere date as of yet.

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Movies/Television HPC News Hollywood News

The Vampire Diaires and The Originals Oct. 2 Premiere

The CW's The Vampire Diaries and The Originals will be premiering Thursday, October 3.
The CW’s The Vampire Diaries and The Originals will premiere Thursday, October 3.

The CW will be joining the big networks in releasing their new and returning fall shows this October. Two big front runners for the network are The Vampire Diaries and The Originals, which are both set to premiere on Thursday, October 3.

The Vampire Diaries is a supernatural drama that delves into the world of vampires as we see what happens when the human world and the supernatural world mix. The show first premiered in 2009 and will be premiering its fifth season this October. Elena (Nina Dobrev) falls in love with the 163-year-old vampire Stefan (Paul Wesley) who refuses to drink human blood, a vegetarian by vampire standards. Stefan’s brother Damon (Ian Somerhalder) also falls for Elena, which isn’t the worst of their problems when they find out one of Elena’s best friends is a witch and the other has been turned into a vampire.

The Originals is The CW’s newest vampire drama, and it is a spin-off of their hit series The Vampire Diaries. The Originals picks up with The Vampire Diaries’ Mikaelson siblings who are known in the supernatural world as the original vampires. The Original Family will be moving to New Orleans to continue to wreak havoc in the human world, while the egotistical brother Klaus works to take his place as king of the supernatural one. The Originals will premiere after The Vampire Diaries on Thursday, October 3 before moving to its regular Tuesday night time slot on October 8.  

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Hollywood News Movies/Television

Superheros aren’t Just for Movies

James Gordon will have his own show on FOX called 'Gotham,' which was ordered by the network.
‘Batman’ character Commissioner James Gordon will have his own show on FOX called ‘Gotham,’ which was ordered by the network earlier this week.

FOX just announced that they have ordered a series based on the comic book story of Batman. The straight-to-series comic book drama set to be called Gotham will serve as a prequel and will focus on the life of comic book character Commissioner James Gordon. Gotham City’s most notable police officer will get his time in the spot light, in addition to the villains who made this city famous. Because this story will take place before Gordon has met Batman, the superhero will not be involved in the series.

The series was written by Bruno Heller who is also set to be executive producer. Gotham marks the latest comic book adaptation at FOX, but they are also currently working on adapting Vertigo’s comic League of Extraordinary Gentleman. We will also soon be seeing Boom Studios’ comic Unthinkable on the table.

If you thought that TV would be safe from all of the superhero bonanza, you will find that you are terribly wrong. The CW is already premiering its second season of Arrow next month, with an imminent spin-off called Flash. If all goes well, we will also be seeing Amazon, which is a potential Wonder Woman prequel series.

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Hollywood News Movies/Television HPC News

With the Fall Season Comes Fall TV

CBS, NBC and ABC will start their fall TV premieres this week, joining FOX that started last week and the CW that will start next week.
CBS, NBC and ABC will start their fall TV premieres this week, joining FOX that started last week and the CW that will start next week.

This week is kicking off with the majority of networks premiering their new television shows alongside their beloved returners. While Fox had its premiere week last week, the rest of the networks are just catching up. This week CBS, NBC and ABC joined in to round off the big 4 networks for fall television in 2013. The CW network will soon be joining in as well with their premieres starting on October 3rd and continuing into the next week.

What shows should you be looking forward to? If you’ve been up with TV thus far, you’ll understand just how exciting it is for CBS’ How I Met Your Mother to be back for its final season after the Mother was revealed to viewers during last season’s finale. Zooey Deschanel has made her way into everyone’s hearts as the “adorkable” girl in New Girl, and with the new budding romance with Nick, everyone will be tuning in to see if these lovebirds can make it. Other returners garnering buzz are The Big Bang Theory, Nashville and Parks and Recreation.

We know we’re ready to try a new show, and with that we can’t wait for the CW’s The Originals to air. The show is a spin-off of the hit show Vampire Diaries, and is a continuation of the lives of the original vampire family. The Originals is set to premiere Thursday, October 3.

Check out the rest of the television calendar here: http://www.tvguide.com/special/fall-preview/calendar.aspx?wcid=15.

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Movies/Television Celebrity News

‘Rich Kids of Beverly Hills’ on E!

The "Rich Kids of Instagram" Tumblr will be making its debut on E! on Rich Kids of Beverly Hills.
The “Rich Kids of Instagram” Tumblr will be making its debut on E! on Rich Kids of Beverly Hills.

If you haven’t already seen it, “The Rich Kids of Instagram” is a Tumblr page that compiles the Instagram photos of ridiculously rich kids and the things they do with that money. As the Tumblr page descriptions says, “They have more money than you and this is what they do.” These rich kids are not associated with this blog, but those with their pictures regularly posted will now be making a TV debut. E! has announced that they are developing a new unscripted series called Rich Kids of Beverly Hills. The show will revolve around a group of 20-something year old friends living a life of extreme wealth that got noticed in Instagram. The children of some of Los Angeles’ most elite families and billionaire moguls play together against the backdrop of extreme wealth.

The show will be aired on E! and produced by ITV Studios America in association with Leepson Bounds Entertainment. The show is expected to be highly popular, like the other shows that have revolved around Beverly Hills’ wealth, such as Beverly Hills, 90210 and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Bravo’s Shah’s of Sunset have also set precedent as the well-to-do young residents of the posh neighborhood shared their lavish lives with America.

Haven’t seen the “Rich Kids of Instagram” Tumblr yet? Check it out here: http://richkidsofinstagram.tumblr.com.

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Hollywood News Movies/Television

Fall TV will Seem Familiar this Year

Fall television is just around the corner and with is comes more spin-offs of our favorite shows.
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland will be one of ABC’s new freshman series that is a spin-off of their current hit,Once Upon a Time.

Fall television is nearing and it is full of great original series. A common trend for networks, however, has been to create spin-offs from previous and current hit series. This trend has been a result of various freshman series that never get a large following, costing the networks thousands of dollars. A spin-off guarantees an already established fan base that will hopefully love the new show as much as they do the original. Here are a few to expect this fall:

ABC premiered Once Upon a Time in 2011 and it is ready to go for its third season later this year, and now to accompany it is Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. The new show takes place in the same magical world as its predecessor, but it will instead be based on the story of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

NBC will be premiering Chicago PD, which is a spin-off of Chicago Fire that premiered last year and was a modest hit. This new show is rumored to include the Chicago Police Department as it airs mid-season.

The CW is joining in this new trend as well, with their current wildly popular vampire drama The Vampire Diaries being the parent of a new show this fall, The Originals. The CW’s Arrow is also bringing in a new spin-off that will be based on DC Comic’s Flash. Supernatural will be joining this group as well as writers plant a spin-off in its ninth and final season.

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Movies/Television HPC News Hollywood News

“The Originals” are the New Vampires in Town

"The Originals" is a new television series that is based on The CW's "Vampire Diaries."
“The Originals” is a new television series that is based on The CW’s “Vampire Diaries.”

The Hollywood Production Center is once again proud to house a new television series. “The Originals” will be airing on The CW Television Network for its fall 2013 season. The supernatural show is a spin-off of The CW’s popular television series, “The Vampire Diaries.” “The Originals” will take place in New Orleans and is centered around the Mikaelson siblings, the Original vampires in the vampire world. This dangerous and seemingly unstoppable family of vampires has their own agenda when it comes to surviving in a supernatural world, and they take to Louisiana to sort it out.

Julie Plec is the executive producer on “The Vampuire Diaries” and will take on the same position on “The Originals.” Julie presented her backdoor pilot on the April 25th episode of “The Vampire Diaries” and it will serve as the jumping point for the real pilot that will air in the fall. While “The Originals” is a spin-off, it is also meant to feel like a new series that people who haven’t already been following the gang of vampires can jump right in and start watching.  

“The Vampire Diaries” first premiered in 2009 and just completed its fourth season in 2013. The fifth season is set to air in fall 2013. Other new television series to air alongside the vampire gang is “The Tomorrow People,” “Reign” and “Famous in 12.” Other new CW television series that will be working out of the Hollywood Production Center are “The 100” and “Star-Crossed.”