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Hollywood News Movies/Television

AFI names 10 best movies, TV shows of 2013

'The Good Wife' is one of ten television shows picked for the AFI Award.
‘The Good Wife’ is one of ten television shows picked this year for an AFI Award.

With December quickly coming to an end, The American Film Institute has announced its pick of top 10 films and 10 television shows of 2013. AFI reveals its nominees each year of movies and shows that “best advance the art of the moving image, enhance the rich cultural heritage of America’s art form, inspire audiences and artists alike and/or make a mark on American society.” The American Film Institute presents the AFI Awards each year, which are carefully selected by a jury of AFI members, scholars, film and television artists, critics and AFI Trustees.

Below are this year’s top picks (in alphabetical order):

Film
1. American Hustle
2. Captain Phillips
3. Fruitvale Station
4. Gravity
5. Her
6. Inside Llewyn Davis
7. Nebraska
8. Saving Mr. Banks
9. 12 Years a Slave
10. The Wolf of Wall Street

Television
1. The Americans
2. Breaking Bad
3. Game of Thrones
4. The Good Wife
5. House of Cards
6. Mad Men
7. Masters of Sex
8. Orange is the New Black
9. Scandal
10. Veep

AFI aims to appreciate the community of talented storytellers by awarding them this honor. Last year, eight of the overall nine best picture Oscar nominees made AFI’s list.

View full story at The Hollywood Reporter.

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Glendale News Movies/Television HPC News

‘The Killing’ to Return for a 4th Season on Netflix

'The Killing' will be returning for a 4th season, but this time exclusively on Netflix.
‘The Killing’ will be returning for a 4th season, but this time exclusively on Netflix.

HPC News – The Killing cannot be killed. Hollywood Production Center’s longtime tenant will be continuing their work on their popular television series The Killing from our offices. The hit television show first aired in 2011 on AMC, and continued to air three seasons until the cable network announced the show’s cancellation earlier in 2013. However, Netflix recently announced that they would be picking up the series and continuing the 4th season. This 4th season will air 6 episodes and will be considered the “final season.” The series’ stars Joel Kinnaman (who plays Stephen Holder) and Mireille Enos (who plays Sarah Linden) will be returning to the show to explore a new police case.

The Killing has gained a lot of popularity on Netflix’s streaming service, which helped it grow its audience for three seasons. The show had originally been cancelled after two seasons, but Fox TV Studios later announced that it would be returning after all due to a unique deal with AMC and Netflix. In this deal the streaming service, which had already built up an audience from the first 2 seasons being on its service, would stream the 3rd season 90 days after the finale aired on AMC to offset costs. When AMC announced that they would be pulling the plug for good in 2013, Netflix stepped in to pick up a 4th season to be aired exclusively to Netflix users. The wildly popular streaming service believe this show is perfect for on-demand viewing, so they have given Sarah Linden and Stephen Holder the chance at a proper goodbye.

Production for the 4th season of The Killing  is set to begin in February.

View the full story at The Hollywood Reporter.

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HPC News Hollywood News Movies/Television

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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Food/Drink Hollywood News

Mixologists Go Head to Head

The Covenant House California hosted the All-Star Mixology Competition last week in Los Angeles.
The Covenant House California hosted the All-Star Mixology Competition last week in Los Angeles. Edwin Cruz of The Spare Room in Hollywood was crowned the winner.

Los Angeles – With the popularity of cooking contests and specialty chefs going head to head in cook-offs on television, it is no surprise that the men behind the bars wanted to compete as well. Last week Covenant House California hosted an All-Star Mixology Contest in Culver City where mixologists competed to make the best drinks. Some contestants were cocktail makes at L.A. bars such as ShoreBar, Eveleigh and The Spare Room, while others were liquor brand ambassadors. Contestants competed in three rounds that increased in difficulty until only the final three contestants were left for the final round. In this round, the three mixologists were given a secret ingredient, pears, and asked to make a drink. Edwin Cruz of The Spare Room in Hollywood blew the judges away and was named the winner.

The judge panel for the event included Georgia Hardstark and Alie Ward, co-hosts of the Cooking Channel’s Tripping Out with Georgia and Alie and co-contributors to the channel’s Unique Sweets. Other judges included A-list stylist and interior designer Estee Stanley, Paramount Pictures vice president Liza Pano, and publisher and executive editor of The Tasting Panel magazineMeridithMay. The event was held in Unici Casa in Culver City.

Covenant House California operates centers in Los Angeles and Oakland, which provide housing, health benefits, education and employment help to homeless youth. Last year, Covenant House California helped over 5,000 children that are homeless due to various circumstances. The benefit event was co-sponsored by The Hollywood Reporter and ABC-7.

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Hollywood News Movies/Television Celebrity News HPC News

The Emmy’s are Here at Last

The Emmy's will air on Sunday, September 22 at 8pm. Neil Patrick Harris is set to host.
The Emmy’s will air on Sunday, September 22 at 8pm. Neil Patrick Harris is set to host. Tina Fey and Allison Williams (pictures above) both received nominations.

Hollywood – The much awaited event of the season, the Emmy’s, will take place on Sunday, September 22 at 8pm. This year will mark the 65th year for the Emmy’s, and with host Neil Patrick Harris they have not missed a beat. The multi-Grammy Award winner Elton John who earlier this week performed at the University of Southern California (USC) will be performing on the Primetime Emmy Awards stage.

The Hollywood Reporter has kicked off Emmy festivities with its Nominees Night on Thursday, September 19 at the Garden Terrace of Soho House in West Hollywood. Showrunners, actors and executives alike joined to celebrate the imminent event with both excitement and anxiousness. Tina Fey, Aaron Sorkin, Vince Gilligan and Matthew Weiner were among the talent there.

The categories span across various genres, comedy, drama, miniseries/movie, variety/music and reality, and within each genre there are three to nine categories. There has been a lot of talk surrounding these nominations and who deserves to win, but it will not be decided until Sunday. Front runners with various nominations in multiple categories is Homeland, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey and House of Cards to name just a few.