Good Morning, World

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A post shared by Enver Gjokaj (@therealenver) on Jan 14, 2018 at 9:33pm PST

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A happy 38th birthday to Enver Gjokaj, who's been criminally under-used in the years since he wowed on Dollhouse... or maybe it's my fault? Maybe I have just missed him - he has plenty of credits on IMDb but the only thing he was in that I watched was Agent Carter. Which he was also wonderful on! He should have his own show, is my point. And I should watch it. We should all watch it. And we should all follow him on Instagram. 

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A post shared by Enver Gjokaj (@therealenver) on Jan 11, 2018 at 1:49pm PST

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Which is Hotter?

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Enver Gjokaj as Victor on Dollhouse

or as Daniel Sousa on Agent Carter?

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poll by twiigs.com

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A happy 35 to Enver today!

(pic via) We're so happy Enver's been steadily working ever since Dollhouse - he was easily the stand-out on that show - and we hope his roles, like his shower-buddy, just keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger, beyond all comprehension.

I See An Ant-Man & An Enver

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Our first good look at Paul Rudd in his Ant-Man costume is here, via the cover of the new issue of Entertainment Weekly; the full trailer (as opposed to that teaser we saw last week) apparently debuts tonight during the first episode of Agent Carter, so I imagine we'll get a look at it in motion then (if the trailer doesn't leak early like the Avengers one did). What do we think of the costume? But speaking of Agent Carter...

... hey look it's out beloved Dollhouse alum Enver Gjokaj rocking some 40s flair on the set of the show! I'd totally forgotten he'd been cast on it, so this is exciting. (via, thanks Mac) Now if only we can find out he's been cast as Dominic Cooper's love interest all our world domination schemes will have come to fruition...

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Gratuitous Teddy Sears

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Lizzy Caplan, Beau Bridges and Allison Janney might get all the Emmy love, and Michael Sheen might get all the articles written about how he deserved some of the Emmy love too, but it need not be forgotten that these folks are surrounded wall to wall with terrific performances... and the most surprisingly great work might just be coming from Teddy Sears. I was thinking about this while watching this week's episode last night, which gave him a little bit of a showcase and didn't even require him to take his clothes off for it this time.

Okay he ran around in a well-fit pair of pajamas for a bit, that I appreciated, but besides that he got to show us all sorts of shades to his caddish Dr. Austin Langham that he hadn't quite gotten to show us yet, and frankly Teddy is nailing the heck out of it. His scene with Sheen smoking that cigar was funny, sly, and terribly sad all at once. I love spending time with all of the characters on Masters of Sex, so it says a lot that I always look forward to Teddy's scenes, and it says even more that I'm talking about one right now that didn't even involve him having an orgasm for a change. Good work, Teddy!

As you'll see below, Teddy's six-feet-three-inches has been exploited to its fullest for years on shows like Ugly Betty and Dollhouse and American Horror Story, so it's nice (albeit kinda galling) to know he's actually talented while also looking like he looks. Gives us reasons to keep staring, ya know. Okay hit the jump for lots more, y'all.

10 Off My Head - Joss' Birthday Beefcake

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It should probably have been a national holiday - writer/director/puny-god Joss Whedon is turning 50 today! Don't feel bad for him that it wasn't a national holiday though, since he's off filming the second Avengers movie and Chris Hemsworth is probably popping out of a cake for him (speaking of beef cake - ha ha get it?) while Chris Evans and Aaron Johnson hold him down and tickle him... (yes my image of the Avengers set is akin to a teenage boy's fantasy of a girl's slumber party; what of it?). But seriously speaking of beefcake Joss has given us so much to appreciate over the years. It seems to have gone hand in hand with his feminist notions of turning a little blond girl nobody was taking seriously into an indestructible powerhouse - he's never had any trouble with turning the male gaze back upon itself, with sexy results. Here are ten of my favorite instances of it off the top of my head from just his television work! See all ten after the jump!

Brett Dalton experimenting on Agents of SHIELD

Fran Kranz Has A Perfect Chest

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A couple of weeks ago we took a look at the trailer for Lust For Love, the rom-com starring a bunch of people from Dollhouse up to and including Fran Kranz and his decepti-chest (he really always surprises me, having all of that under his clothes). Well now the movie's out on iTunes and I am really very tempted to just cap the ever-living hell out of this scene - it goes on forever, Fran standing there in that towel, and it never, not for a second, gets old.

But I figure seeing this brief taste will maybe get y'all to rent the movie and experience it for yourselves, and since this was a do-it-themselves labor-of-love for these folks I'm gonna go for that angle. I will direct you to this Buzzfeed interview my pal Jarett conducted with Fran and his co-stars Dichen Lachman, Miracle Laurie, and Enver Gjokaj (swoon Enver) though, where they talk about Dollhouse and Joss and all that jazz.

Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... in a Fran sandwich. 

(A Franwich?)

Especially now that we know all the boy's rocking under that tee. Anyway dunno how I missed this but it's ye olden times news and I did - this movie Lust For Love got Kickstartered way back in 2011, and that image is from its Kickstarter video selling the thing. I would've tossed in a couple of bucks had I seen it! The movie's still in post now, but you can keep up with it on its Facebook. It's a rom-com starring Fran and his-Dollhouse co-star Dichen Lachman, and also as you can see here in these behind-the-scenes shots Enver Gjokaj as well!

Why can't it be a rom-com between Fran and Enver?

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Good Morning, World

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I'm very unhappy with you, World, that it's been three years since Dollhouse ended and I still have to go back to Dollhouse to find pictures of Enver Gjokaj - shirtless or not shirtless, whatever. An episode of Community here, an episode of SVU there - not good enough. 

Well at least I think there's one sure thing in his future - if the writers of Game Change are indeed making a movie about the Mitt Romney campaign, we have our Paul Ryan.

I mean, Enver's the cute non-psychotic version, anyway. 

But give him some contacts and I think it's spot on.

Happy 33, Enver!

I Am Link

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--- Martian Weirdness - This is pretty cool, I say in my best "The Miley Cyrus Show on SNL" voice (no I don't know why that's how I chose to introduce this) - io9 shows off some never before seen concept art for what would have been if David Cronenberg had made Total Recall instead of Paul Verhoeven. Picture camels wearing respirators and mutant alien vaginas and you'll get Cronenberg's gist. God I love that man. I can't knock Verhoeven's movie, I love it, but this is something.

--- A New Luke Duke - Did everybody watch the third and final season of Eastbound and Down? I never much posted about the show but I found it genius from start to finish, one of the funniest batshit insane rides in recent memory. I was sad to see it end, but it's such a perfect little package I can't argue. Long live Kenny Powers. So now creator Jody Hill is moving on, and according to THR his next project might be a sort-of The Dukes of Hazzard? By way of Sam Peckinpah? This is what "WTF" stand for. But it totally makes sense at the same time. 

--- Fast Fella - Noted whateverasexual Luke Evans might play the bad guy in the sixth Fast and Furious movie. Will he be opposite noted whateverasexual Vin Diesel? That's a lot of "we only date in Europe" going on on one set. Hopefully they'll film in Europe so the poor fellows won't have to go without all the noted poontang they adore.

--- Unchained Malady - Gary Ross doesn't work very much - he's only directed three movies in fifteen years - but I guess he's using his heat off of The Hunger Games to get some shit done. THR reports he's going to try and make a bio-pic about the famed magician Houdini next. Haven't there already been several Houdini bio-pics made? I mean yeah they all seem kind of sucky so there's no definitive version I guess, but all the dude did was lock himself in a box in chains, why is this so inspiring again?

--- Oh Lola - I think I already posted that my favorite horror film of 2010 the Aussie prom-nightmare The Loved Ones was getting a sort-of proper US release this Summer but now we have details, which you can see over at BD. It'll be out on June 1st but only if enough people RSVP to each screening, they have the links and a list of theaters and a trailer at that link. If you can see it, do! It's sooooo freaking good, you guys. I'll have to take the chance to see it on a big screen myself if possible, so if you're in NYC go RSVP so I can, please.

--- Ranking Whedon - Rolling Stone ranked Joss Whedon's projects from top to bottom, from comics to movies to each individual season of his TV shows, and there's enough to make a person nuts for a lifetime. Why's everybody gotta be so hard on Buffy Season 6? And they are not fans of Dollhouse either. I mostly agree with them on Firefly/Serenity, but that shit isn't gonna make any Browncoats very happy. And the super-high placement of Cabin in the Woods is pretty cool, I say in my best "The Miley Cyrus Show on SNL" voice again. Sigh.

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Good Morning, World

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A happy 30th birthday to Enver Gjokaj, who was so wonderful on Joss Whedon's short-lived series Dollhouse that we will never stop clanging the bell for big career things for him. Thankfully he appears to have Joss Whedon still in his corner, as he's supposedly got a role in The Avengers movie, although it's not listed on IMDb as so. But we heard he did! So that makes it true. Right? Right? (gif via)

There's A Cabin, See, And It's In Some Woods, See

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This would show up on a day when I've got real world responsibilities to tend to. Man! You can watch the trailer for The Cabin in the Woods now! It is right on over here. You should recall that this was written by Joss Whedon and directed by Drew Goddard and stars Chris Hemsworth, Fran Kranz (Topher on Dollhouse), et cetera. I watched it quick-like without any sound and took some screencaps below but I really should hold off on saying anything opinion-wise until I can watch it properly. A lot of it is dark and seems to be relying on sound effects which I'm missing entirely right now. But it seems intriguing! Still, you can tell me what you think. Really, you can! It's supposed to come out in April, fingers crossed. See all the caps (including the world's quickest shot of Chris Hemsworth shirtless) after the jump...

Over the Hemsworth and Through To Woods

Finally, our first look at Cabin in the Woods, that long- squirreled-away horror movie written by Joss Whedon and directed by Buffy alum Drew Goddard starring a pre-Thor Chris Hemsworth amongst others.

(Topher!!!) Anyway I could link to this picture's original source but they slopped that awful annoying water-mark across it so fuck them, I'll link to Slash which is where I saw it anyway. 

It's nothing tremendously exciting - young people standing in a cabin, surprise surprise! - but at least it proves that at the very least a single frame of film was indeed shot. That's more than we've had so far. Still no word exactly on when it'll come out but it's really supposed to be before the end of the year, so Halloween-time would be my guesstimate.

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There The Hell Enver Is

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The biggest and brightest discovery to come from Joss Whedon's Dollhouse - other than Tahmoh's pecs - was Enver Gjokaj, who played Victor, the brain-wiped plaything of Adelle DeWitt and twu love of poor abused Sienna. The show couldn't even contain his awesomeness, so far did he take the concept when given free rein. So it's been sad news seeing him next to nowhere since the show ended. Come on, casting directors! What's wrong with y'all? Well at least whoever is running Community has half a brain because Enver's on this week's episode. You can see a couple more pics over here. (thanks Mac!) Fingers crossed he and Joel McHale play pool together!

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Happy 42, Olivia Williams

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I hope you've got an Enver or equivalent to celebrate with today,
because you deserve it, you awesome awesome lady.
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I Am Link

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--- Joss Lied - He said he'd never do a comic for Dollhouse, that when the show was done it was done, but now apparently there's a lil' comic called "Epitaphs" crammed into the Season 2 DVDs (that're out October 12th) starring his new girlfriend Felica Day, dealing with what happened after the finale. There will be copies available at ComiCon though. Damn you, ComiCon, being so damn far away.

--- A Pretty Pict, Sure - Hey, Neil Marshall's Centurion, starring the studly Michael Fassbender, is available on demand starting tomorrow! It's not out in theaters until August 27th. I still don't really understand this model of releasing things, but I guess I'll just roll with the future like a dutiful geek. Anyway AICN has a chat with Marshall up today about the film. Here's my review. It's a good, manly man time. Rah!

--- Good Golly Miss - Hey look, Glenn gave a good look-see at Molly Shannon's second filmed performance ever, as an adoption rep in an episode of "Twin Peaks," and yup... that's Molly Shannon, bless her.

--- The Kids Are Not Alright - I'd never even heard of kiddie-rape torture-porn flick A Serbian Film until Rich at FourFour just reviewed it, and I must admit it sounds hideous and unwatchable. Yet all is not for naught because it gave Rich the need to write this, which is I think something to live by:

"I think the first rule of metaphors must be: DON'T LET YOUR METAPHOR RAPE A BABY."

--- Get Yer Rot On - Lovin' that poster by poster-making-legend Drew Struzan for Frank Darabont's Walking Dead series shooting for AMC right now. (via) When does this damn show start anyway? I keep seeing images from it. Want it now, please.

--- Brad's Delicious Brains - Speaking of zombies, Brad Pitt's production company has had the rights to Max Brook's World War Z for awhile - now comes word that Brad wants to star in it, which isn't too shocking. That link has info on exactly how they're turning the book - which is an "oral history" of a zombie apocalypse, meaning a series of interviews with survivors - into a narrative.

I just want to know who's gonna play my friend Sean, who has a character named after him in the book. Just name Brad Pitt's character T. Sean Collins, screenwriter! Do it! I want to know someone Brad Pitt played in a movie, sort of, dammit. And it wasn't until I just looked up that character's name that I discovered that Henry fuckin' Rollins did the voice for the character in the audio-book. Holy shit! That's awesome. How did I not know this already? I probably just wasn't paying attention. That's usually the case.

--- Ryan In A Box - Here's a second trailer for Buried, the movie that in my dreams spends ninety minutes shooting nothing but Ryan Reynolds crotch. I haven't watched either trailer yet but I'm guessing my dream's already been proven faulty by the footage shown in them alone, right? What a shame, what a shame...

--- Bully Boy - BD has got an attractively disturbing shot from Let Me In up. Bloody, brutal, check and check... whatever is this movie gonna be... besides the death of me... sigh...

--- Orlando's Dawn - Sally Potter's 1993 film Orlando, which pretty much introduced Tilda Swinton to the film world beyond Jarman acolytes - is getting a re-release this week and Slate's got a pleasant little piece looking back on it, asking this interesting question:

"In many ways, it helped to bring art back to the art house, so that today's quality-film landscape doesn't just include gritty, low-budget dramas of social import but movies that mix high art and high camp in challenging and pleasurable ways. You can see the impeccably-designed vignettes of Orlando in Wes Anderson's filmed dioramas, or in Sofia Coppola's new-wave Marie Antoinette. Without Orlando, would Todd Haynes have been able to make his arch, stylized masterpieces Far From Heaven and Velvet Goldmine?"

It's not really a through-line I'd considered before but I'd say it's certainly got some merit. They point out that Orlando was far more successful than I'd realized - it made 5 million dollars! Can you imagine a movie like Orlando making that kind of money today?
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The Fran Kranz Can

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The other week we heard from Amy Acker that the Whedon-scipted Goddard-directed and mother-approved movie The Cabin in the Woods - out in just a measly 276 days! - was "a creature feature" stuffed to the gills with monsters and what-nots, whee!

Well another Dollhouse vixen who's in Cabin has just opened up their yammer and lets secrets come tumbling forth... Fran Kranz, aka Topher, had some shit to share at SciFiWire:

"It's got a lot of different scary things... How many different monsters are out there in the woods?

... All I know is that at one point I read somewhere that Joss said it was the horror film to end all horror films. I like that. I think that puts it best. Those are high expectations, but it's pretty out there. It goes for it. It really goes for it, so if it's successful, then I think people will have trouble following in his footsteps.

... Kranz added that The Cabin in the Woods has two different components: There are the kids in the cabin, but also a group of adults (Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford and Acker) in a separate subplot.

"It was like two totally different movies," Kranz said. "The way it was shot or just the scheduling of the filming, I was sort of around. There was about a couple months with all the kids, and then there was about a month or so with the adults. I had a little extra to do, so I was in Vancouver while they were doing that. If you went on set, it was like a totally different movie. It had a whole different feel to it."

The film is complete, and MGM is converting the movie into 3-D. "I know people that have seen it, and it's always a very good response," Kranz said. "I know that they've finished it. I know that they locked picture. I got an e-mail from Drew recently. Everyone's very excited about it. I hear really good things. The script was so cool that it'd be hard to mess up."

And because Topher grew on us all like an appealing fungus as Dollhouse ambled along and by the end we all loved him, here he is in his boxers and a bathtub.

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I Am Link

There comes a time when you've fine-tuned yourself into insanity and I am reaching that point in combing through my decisions for the awards (coming very soon!). I'm gonna start posting them in a bit, presumably, as long as I can pull my head outta my ass long enough to hit the publish button and get the ball rolling... til then, here are a couple things slash junk slash stuff to scope out for now...

--- Rhapsody In Spock - Rumors are swirling that Zachary Quinto's gonna play George Gershwin in a biopic for Steven Spielberg. Most of us Spielberg-loving geeks have been clamoring for a musical from Stevie ever since the opening scene of Temple of Doom - Anything goes!!! - so this sounds fine to me. Quinto's fine by me too. This rumor doesn't suck (although I don't see a whole lot of resemblance).

--- House To Inn - The House of the Devil director Ti West has signed up for his next flick - it's called The Innkeepers and it is "about the last two staffers of a haunted hotel that's going out of business." Mkay. I will watch anything he does post-HotD.

--- So Long Echo - I dunno when I'll get around to writing my thoughts on the Dollhouse finale really, but you can read a recap of it over at io9 that gets the point across.

--- His Picks - Over at Low Resolution Joe's made his way to his Best Movie ballot. We agree on some stuff. Mostly. Sorta. From there he'll link you up to his other awards too.
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Dollhouse Ends Tonight

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For real. Really real. Joss is on the record saying he's not stretching it out a single bit, not an iota, that once tonight's finale airs the world is kaput, and kabluey. The story will be finished once the final frame falls. So let's see what comes, eh? Fingers crossed that there's a happy(ish) ending for Victor and Sierra! (yeah right) And Adelle... may she walk off into the sunset a tumbler of vodka in her hand and a snappy comeback on her vodka-drenched tongue.
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Last Night I Finally Got Around...

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... to seeing the last aired episode of Dollhouse,
in case anybody gots anything to say about it.

How much did it feel like a final episode though? A friend of mine who I talked to about the episode before I watched it expressed surprise that there was another episode coming and now, after having watched it myself, I understand what she meant. But I see the need to address the Epitaph future, which is where we're headed, obviously. I gotta go watch Epitaph One this week to refresh my brain.


As for this past episode, I spent 50% of the episode screaming that Amy Acker should be a star and how incredible she is, and the other 50% screaming that Enver is God (the triumphant return of his Topher impression!). So the usual. Oh and another 50% drooling over Olivia's every withering glance, naturally.

Y'all?
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2 Things I Did Not Do This Weekend

This weekend ran away from me so I didn't get a whole lot done. Two of the thing I didn't get done I ought to mention. First off, I haven't seen Friday's episode of Dollhouse yet. So nobody say nothing about it to me yet! You will make me cry if you do, and my tears are made of concentrated Ebola and causing me to cry will bring about mass global extinction.

Secondly, I did not watch the Golden Globes last night. Well I had the TV on for the last half an hour or so but I wasn't listening to anything anyone was saying. I saw enough though. Sandy Bullock and Robert fucking Downey Jr. babbling on with awards in their hands was plenty enough to tell me I made the correct choice. And y'all know I enjoyed the heck outta Avatar but even I can't possibly defend awarding it Best Drama of the year. What a ruse.

Anyway, those are the things I missed this weekend. If there was anything earlier in the Globes you feel I oughta know about - like, how was Michael Haneke's speech? - there's the comments. Right there! At the bottom!

And things I did not miss out on this weekend, in case you're curious, are playing about 10 hours of New Super Mario Brothers, and I'm halfway through Sigourney's episode of SNL and laughing my damn fool ass off at her silly antics. Like, I didn't think the following could be extended into a whole new skit, but I'll be gosh-darned if it isn't hilarious with Siggy playing along:

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"The Brandy Snifter" is amazing.
Love you, Siggy!

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