• Colorful characters
• Whiskey
• Gunfights
• Hats
• Interesting hair

Over its two-season run, Justified has struck a balance, serving its audience as a satisfying (and surprisingly funny) procedural, and at the same time creating both season-long and series-long arcs that utilize characters as compelling and realized as any show on the air today. The FX backwoods crime drama has consisted of long-plays, short-plays, and, for lack of better term, “medium-plays,” all working in concert to serve its audience on three fronts. This tale of a disenfranchised lawman’s homecoming ultimately pits seething marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) against himself and his “people.” The short-plays are the episodic procedural aspects of the show (transporting a witness, tracking a fugitive), and the medium-plays shake out as the season-long criminal arcs that force Raylan the lawman to reconcile Raylan, a dutiful son of Harlan, Kentucky.

While the long play is played with sublime conflict and anguish by Timothy Olyphant, the first two seasons have each offered an array of antagonists who are clearly and simply “bad guys,” but with enough nuance, charisma, and familiarity to cause the viewer to invest wholly in them. These complexities urge the audience to empathize with Raylan in a fashion that allows Justified to add layers of depth to the stock “g vs. b” procedural.

As the season three premiere approaches, viewers will undoubtedly be introduced to yet another cast of villains, so far teased with the appearance of noted character actor Neal McDonough as Detroit transplant Robert Quarles. In getting to this point, Raylan and Co. have laid waste to a number of villains that serve to make the show what it is: the story of an angry man whose professional duty is complicated, and sometimes precluded, by a host of homespun entanglements from which he has proven incapable or unwilling to divorce himself.

The Bennetts

The theme of “growing up Harlan” was tackled almost immediately in the premiere season, then started anew in season two, when viewers were introduced to the Bennett clan, a family harboring a long-standing grudge against the Givens. Son Dickey serves as a limping reminder of the feud’s fallout, and with his brother Doyle on the side of the law as sheriff, the Bennetts find themselves more than a little miffed having to answer to Raylan or anyone else for their criminal goings-on.

Mags (in an Emmy-winning turn by Margo Martindale) almost perfectly embodies the values held by the residents of this small, anachronistic town. Her control of the family showed a willingness to bend or break the law to the end of survival, but her exploits always stopped short of greed. She remained obsessively secretive, sharing little beyond her family, and killing those who try to insert themselves in her business. Crime aside, Mags Bennett sets out to preserve her family, her neighbors, and her town, most notably during a show-defining monologue defending her town from an outside mining company. The speech resonates as sincere in both her desire to protect her criminal interests and the town‘s heritage.

Mags shows that the duty of family in Harlan serves as a double-edged sword, with its creation of a caring support system, or form the structure of a ruthless criminal enterprise that refuses to answer to anyone but each other and their god. Not that the two are mutually exclusive or anything. Case in point: The ruthless matriarch kills a girl’s father only to take the girl in and raise her as one of her own.

While the clan was effectively wiped out over the course of the last season, Dickey will be returning to the show in season three, presumably with a whole mess of scores to settle, and, consequently, new allegiances to forge.

Bo Crowder

Angry at Raylan’s father Arlo for (best case) mismanaging his criminal enterprise or (worst case) flat-out ripping him off, Bo Crowder, father of Boyd (below) emerges from prison an angry man hell bent on revenge against Arlo and Raylan’s love interest, Ava, for the murder of Bo’s son.

It’s impossible to ignore the parallels between Bo and Raylan, as both are reintroduced to a new Harlan – Bo after his release from prison, and Raylan via an office transfer – and quick to toss out diplomacy in serving their purposes.

Though Bo’s undoing comes at the hands of Harlan outsiders, both Boyd and Raylan were waiting in the wings to finish the job, but were relieved that the job didn’t fall to them.

Hitman producers Adrian Askarieh and Chuck Gordon recently spoke about Hitman 2: The Hittening. They’re looking to make a sequel that feels more like Hitman: Absolution, IO Interactive’s new installment of the game, coming in 2012. How about making it more like a good movie instead? Here’s a quote from Askarieh:

“Everyone would very much like to have both the game and the movie released in the same window. Whether the film is a sequel or a reboot, we think the past five years has seen a pent-up demand by gamers for Agent 47 and 2012 is shaping up to be a big year for Hitman.”

My demand has been so pent up, you guys. The producers are currently working with Fox International on the project, off a screenplay by Daniel Casey. No word yet if Olyphant wants to shave his head again for round two. (Hollywood Reporter via Yahoo! Movies)

So it’s really a no-brainer that “Justified” is getting a third season, since it’s been both a ratings and critical success. Rejoice, cowboy-hat-makers of America, you have work for a little bit longer at least. (Deadline)

Director: Sebastian Gutierrez

Cast: Carla Gugino, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Malin Akerman, Timothy Olyphant, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Adrianne Pilacki

Synopsis: Life for porn actres Elektra Luxx gets turned upside down when she finds out she’s pregnant.

Release Date: March 14, 2010

Q: Are you back as a featured character this year or the same number of appearances as last year?

WG: No, no, I’m back. It’s my show now with Tim. Yeah, it’s both of us. I’m signed on for good. It’s good.

Q: So how does that change the role and the commitment for you?

WG: Well, the commitment will be I can’t do another movie simultaneously. They kind of bought me, I’m there. I think it’s going to allow for the relationship between Raylan and Boyd to really take off and become more nuanced and complicated.

Q: Movies aside though, is that what you wanted all along?

WG: It is what I wanted, yeah. I think it’s what these two characters deserve.

Q: Are they sort of reflections of each other in a way?

WG: I think so, yeah. I don’t think Raylan can really exist without Boyd and Boyd can’t really exist without Raylan. They wear a similar hat, even though they look different on the surface.

Q: How soon might we get that confrontation we’re waiting to see?

WG: You know what? Sooner than you might expect and not quite the way you might expect.

Q: Well, we might expect it in the first episode and we might be wrong.

WG: You would be wrong but I would say by episode 2.

Q: What is the energy like in those face-off scenes with Olyphant?

WG: They’re a dream. He’s a dream actor. We just kind of show up and he’s so easy and fluid and it’s so nice to work with an actor who’s so fuckin’ confident and carries that ease about him. He continually challenges me. All I have to do is sit and listen to Tim talk and I’m a better actor.

Q: Do you get to carry a gun this year?

WG: Yeah, Boyd might find his way to a six shooter, yeah. I think he may use it too.

Q: Do you prefer the western style standoffs or full out action sequences?

WG: I like the western style quiet standoffs personally. I think there’s power in stillness and I like watching behaviors, but after being on “The Shield” for eight years, there’s something to that too. I like those volatile kind of angry all over the map emotional scenes as well. It’s nice to step back away from that with Boyd though. He’s a contemplative dude. He’s a very smart guy.

Q: What is it about the southern region that makes the western setup work in modern day?

WG: I think there’s still a certain amount of history and mystique that revolves around being from the South, or being from the hills. This occupation has been around for a very long time and it’s a very insulated culture. People don’t get an opportunity to see inside of that culture very often because it’s not really reflected in our art or entertainment, except one dimensionally. So I think that what we’re trying to do is really paint it three dimensionally. People are enjoying that, I hope. That’s what we’re trying to do.

Q: Have you gotten as attached to Boyd as you were to Shane?

WG I am. Yeah, already. I think that has something to do with age. I quite like the characters that I get to play and I get attached to them much quicker. Boyd is someone unlike any other person that I’ve played before. It’s nice to play that kind of intelligence.

Q: I never got a chance to ask you before, how did you feel about Shane’s fate in “The Shield?”

WG: You know what, initially it broke my heart but ultimately it couldn’t have gone any other way. I thought it was a genius move by Shawn Ryan. My biggest concern was to have people feel some empathy for Shane after that seven year journey. And they did. I think that’s more than I could ever ask for.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

For those not hip to the concept here, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was originally a novel with a revisionist take on Lincoln‘s presidency, and by “revisionist” I mean the author asked, “Hey! Wouldn’t it be cool if Lincoln killed vampires?” Author and screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith has a pedigree in this type of mash-up, also having penned the sleeper best-seller Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. The man has a style, that’s for sure.

It goes without saying that AL:VH will be brought shot and shown in magnificent 3-D, which we can hope will be a more immersive experience than Burton’s last outing, Alice in Wonderland.

The casting decision is, of course, a big one, but let’s not give too much weight to the actor playing Lincoln. When you’ve got Abe Lincoln throwing axes at Dracula, you’ve clearly waved goodbye to realism a long time ago.

I recently posted a faaaaar out teaser for Rango which turned out to be a teaser for the website. Now Paramount has released the official trailer. The film stars Johnny Depp as a Hunter S. Thompson look-a-like chameleon with an identity crisis. The trailer has me just as baffled as the Inception trailer. Screenwriter John Logan might have been tripping off computer duster whippets while pounding away at this adventure. Ideas don’t just come out on their own, right John? **Whoosh of air**

Rango is directed by Gore Verbinski, who did the awesome Mousehunt, as well as those Caribbean Pirates movies. Befriending and/or beguiling Depp in the film are Isla Fisher, Alfred Molina, Timothy Olyphant, and Bill Nighy.

Rango scampers into theaters March 18, 2011.

Check out the trailer after the jump…

Rango — New Trailer – Watch more Movie Trailers

Like Tim Burton and Jon Favreau before him, it looks like Breck Eisner may have found his muse. The Escape From New York remaker is eager to re-team with his Crazies lead, Timothy Olyphant, and have him slip into Snake Plissken’s iconic eye patch. Which was originally worn and sweated on by Kurt Russell in John Carpenter‘s film.

Olyphant excels at kicking people’s asses (usually while wearing a cowboy hat) on-screen, but I don’t know if he’s quite right for Snake Plissken. Plus, that eye patch probably smells really gamey by now. Keep in mind, this is merely Eisner’s dream casting. Certainly not a done deal, as he himself pointed out to MovieHole:

Creatively, he would be great for it. We have not yet discussed internally within the studio who will play Snake Plissken. There are many factors that go into those discussions. First and foremost, obviously, is the creative one. We can’t make the movie unless we get the perfect Snake Plissken, and that’s a tall order. There are very few guys that could do it. He would definitely be one of the guys who could. There is no question about that.

Really? There have been no talks as to who will take the lead in the studio’s blockbuster action movie? Yeah, right. Let’s just poke out Gerard Butler‘s eye and get it over with.

Showcasing Olga Kurlylenko‘s maybe-penis on its poster helped Hitman earn a $70 million profit, so it’s no surprise that Sony wants to make another one. The studio is eyeballing Spanish director Daniel Benmayor to helm but there’s no word if Timothy Olyphant will be returning. Though they do have an option on him should they decide to hold him down and shave his head again.

Benmayor’s claim to fame so far is the feature Paintball, a movie about weekend warriors who discover someone is using live ammo in their paintball game. Sounds like the second act of Child’s Play 3 before they randomly end up at that carnival. Chucky should really try to avoid places where there’s the possibility of falling into a giant fan. Yeah. But anyway, Hitman 2. (Deadline)

Timothy Olyphant ("Justified," The Crazies, "Deadwood") has hopped on I Am Number Four after Sharlto Copley had to drop out to promote The A-Team. Which makes sense. You don’t want to leave "Rampage" Jackson alone in a room full of reporters.

Olyphant will be stepping into the role of "guardian and mentor" to Alex Pettyfer‘s alien refugee Number Four. I see no mention of this guardian being kick-ass Southern lawman, but the casting of Timothy Olyphant would suggest that’s the case. Must be a typo. (Variety)

Timothy Olyphant loves himself some westerns. First he squared off with Ian McShane on the HBO drama Deadwood, and now he’s back as gun-slinging U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens in the FX show Justified. Let it be known, his character only draws his weapon when he has to, and when he does, he shoots to kill, because, as he sees it, that’s the purpose of a gun. That, and looking totally badass in front of your elementary school friends.

I honestly can’t see this show being unworthy of my time. It stars Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins from The Shield a.k.a. the best show ever, is adapted by Graham Yost, the creator of the stellar cancelled NBC show Boomtown, from an Elmore Leonard short story, and is on FX, quite possibly the most badass network on television. The only thing that would make FX more badass is if it were holding a gun. Get on that, Rupert Murdoch. 

Check out the behind the scenes featurettes after the jump. Justified premieres on FX next Tuesday, March 16 at 10PM ET/PT.

Behind the Scenes Featurette

Justified Behind The Scenes – Watch more Funny Videos

Raylan: A soft spoken man who comes back home to take care of business.

Justified Behind The Scenes: Raylan – Watch more Funny Videos

Good and Evil: Sometimes bad things ar justified.

Justified BTS: Good and Evil – Watch more Funny Videos

Right before Christmas, I shared with you the final poster for Breck Eisner‘s The Crazies. It was so popular that we now have three more FINAL posters. They’re really FINAL this time, we promise.* This new batch features Ogden Marsh community members Farmer Bill, Horst the Plumber, and Amy Fisher, respectively.

The Crazies goes batsh*t in theaters on February 26th, 2010. (Dread Central)

Check out the larger versions after the jump.

_{* promise void in all States.}

FX rocks so hard. Almost every show on the network kicks serious ass. Of course there are a few duds, but compared to most networks (which cancel more shows than they keep) FX has a seriously impressive homerun average. Their new series Justified starring Timothy Olyphant looks like another edgy, dirty, whiskey-scented project to add to the roster. Here’s the official synopsis:

U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens is a modern day 19th century-style lawman, enforcing his brand of justice in a way that puts a target on his back with criminals and places him at odds with his bosses in the Marshal service. That conflict results in a reassignment for Givens to the U.S. District coverin the town where he grew up. He is an anachronism – a tough, soft spoken gentleman who finds his quarry fascinating, but never gives an inch. Dig under his placid skin and you’ll find an angry man who grew up hard in rural Kentucky, with an outlaw father, who knows a lot more about who he doesn’t want to be than who he really is. 

Look at all that conflict! Not to mention, Walton Goggins, who played Shane on The Shield, stars as a church-bombing, redneck hick. It’s the part he was born to play!

Justified premieres in March on FX. Check out the preview after the jump.

(via WarmingGlow)

Creator: Graham Yost

Cast: Timothy Olyphant, Walton Goggins, Jeffrey Jones

Synopsis: U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens is a modern day 19th century-style lawman, enforcing his brand of justice in a way that puts a target on his back with criminals and places him at odds with his bosses in the Marshal service.

_{I don’t know about you, but I think that off-screen guy looks crazy.}

The new trailer for The Crazies, starring Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell, has mixed into the web like tainted drinking water, and I’m digging the funny taste. We showed you the first trailer a couple months back of the Breck Eisner remake of the cult George Romero film. The new one has plenty shots of Olyphant offering stupified looks and zombie people jumping at the camera while the music goes DUM!

As you may or may not choose to remember, Breck Eisner directed the film Sahara starring Matthew "Shirts Iritate My Skin" McConaughey, so while The Crazies may not live up to those terrifying results, it looks scary nonetheless. The film is about the inhabitants of a small Iowa town suddenly plagued by insanity and then death after a mysterious toxin contaminates their water supply. Overall, it sounds like an amalgamation of Erin Brockovich and Christmas dinner at my mom’s house.

The Crazies infests theaters February 26th. Check out the trailer after the jump.

The Crazies Trailer – Watch more Funny Videos

Director: David Twohy

Cast: Steve Zahn, Milla Jovovich, Timothy Olyphant

Synopsis: A couple on a Hawaiian vacation discover that there are maniacs stalking and murdering the tourists who visit the island.

Genre: Thriller

Release Date: August 14, 2009

Above is the trailer for A Perfect Getaway, an event Steve Zahn’s agent must have felt like he was partaking in the minute he scored his client a starring role in a serious action thriller.  (For the record, Steve Zahn is a fine actor.)

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