Filmmaker Fincher building “House” for small screen
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Filmmaker David Fincher has teamed with Media Rights Capital for a television series, the political drama “House of Cards.”
Based on the book and British miniseries of the same name, “Cards” will be adapted for U.S. audiences as an hourlong drama, with Fincher (”Zodiac,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”) executive producing with “Button” writer Eric Roth.
The political-thriller novel by Michael Dobbs, former Conservative Party chief of staff, is set at the end of Margaret Thatcher’s tenure as prime minister and follows a British politician with his eye on the top job.
In 1990, it was adapted by the BBC as a miniseries written by Andrew Davies and starring Ian Richardson. It went on to win a BAFTA award for Richardson and an Emmy for Davies.
MRC and Fincher’s adaptation will be set in the U.S. but maintain focus on issues of political ambition and blackmail.
The project is expected to be shopped to networks soon.
MRC’s slate of TV series include “The Life and Times of Tim” on HBO, “Rita Rocks” on Lifetime, “Shaq Vs.” on ABC and HBO’s upcoming “The Ricky Gervais Show.”
House – Episode 6.04 – Instant Karma – New Promo Pics
House – Season 6 – UK Press Release
Arriving on Sky1 HD earlier this year, HOUSE has cemented itself as a firm favourite with the channel’s viewers. Packed full of sarcastic witticisms from the eponymous grouchy yet genius medic, season five saw Dr Gregory House (Laurie) continue to unravel the most unusual of medical complaints (ruling out lupus each time); but a turning point came when team member Lawrence Kutner (Kal Penn) took his own life. As House struggled with his feelings about the suicide, his addiction to pain medication began to spiral out of control. Soon he was hallucinating about conversations with the deceased Amber (Anne Dudek) and as the series built to its finale a drug induced episode led House to hallucinate he had a passionate sexual encounter with love interest and sparring partner Dr Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein). As the season concluded, Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) took House to a psychiatric institution.
Moving away from Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, season six begins with a two-hour episode based in Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital where the doctor is now the patient sptv050769. “The beginning of the season is primarily focussed on House trying to find some semblance of sanity” says executive producer David Shore, “and he isn’t necessarily succeeding.” Events in the premiere episode take place over a two or three month period and Emmy® winner Andre Braugher is confirmed to guest star as House’s doctor.
As the season progresses, House’s transition back to normal life is far from easy. As the diagnostician moves in with Wilson on his release from hospital and begins his efforts to reclaim his medical licence, the relationship between House and his best friend is explored. And although taking a back seat in the series, according to Shore, House and Cuddy’s relationship will continue to spark. After all, as Wilson pointed out, House’s hallucination of sex with Cuddy was the reality he wants to exist.
Elsewhere, Foreman (Omar Epps) takes control of the diagnostics department in House’s absence, leading to tensions between himself and Thirteen (Olivia Wilde), while the newly married Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) and Chase (Jesse Spencer) return to more prominent roles in the team.
The voice of Darth Vader, James Earl Jones, will guest star later in the series as an African dictator who becomes a patient at the hospital.
Accompanying the brand new series of HOUSE will be an exclusive behind the scenes special filmed on location for Sky1 HD. HOUSE: ACCESS ALL AREAS (Working Title) will journey to Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital to see just what happens on the set of the world’s most watched TV show. With exclusive interviews with all the key cast and crew including Hugh Laurie and David Shore, plus a behind the scenes set tour from Dr Cuddy (Edelstein) HOUSE: ACCESS ALL AREAS will allow fans to get as close to the show as humanly possible in never seen before detail.
Executive produced by David Shore, Katie Jacobs and The Usual Suspects director Bryan Singer, HOUSE was the most watched television show in the world in 2008. With three technical advisors working on the show – led by Lisa Sanders an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine – the show’s medical credentials certainly stack up. In 2005, Laurie appeared on the cover of US Magazine TV Guide as “TV’s Sexiest Man” and, in 2008; House was voted the second sexiest television doctor ever, behind ER’s Doug Ross (George Clooney). The series also bares strong links with criminal detective Sherlock Holmes, and not just in House’s indifference to patients and addiction to drugs; his apartment number is 221B.
On the New Set with House, Production Designers
It wasn’t easy to get Dr. Gregory House into a mental asylum.
We aren’t referring to the character’s admission that he needed help; that was actually relatively simple, once he realized he had hallucinated a sexual encounter with Cuddy.
No, we mean literally getting House into a mental asylum, as the production team had to construct an entirely new set for the September 21 season six premiere.
In the video below, viewers get a cool look at what goes into set design, as Hugh Laurie gives props to the designers that make it all work:
Laurie has also posed for a pair of new promotional pics. Check them out below:
House – Season 6 – New Promotional Pics
‘House’ promises shocking Season 6 storylines
What will happen to House (Hugh Laurie) this season? Will he ever run the team again? Will House and Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) do the horizontal bop for reals this time?
What does House’s absence mean for Chase, Cameron and Foreman (Jesse Spencer, Jennifer Morrison and Omar Epps)? And why the heck did House have to get his hair cut?
We quizzed House creator David Shore about Season 6, and he gave us some juicy tidbits to gnaw on – but not about the doc’s new coif, sadly.
TVGuide.ca: What will this two-hour episode represent, time-wise, for the show?
David Shore: This episode will represent his several months in the institution.
TVG: Are Cameron and Chase coming back to their old jobs?
David Shore: They will be back in their old jobs, in a sense. We didn’t really want that to get that information out, but it is out there. After the House two-hour episode, we needed to give other people responsibilities, and we shook the team up a bit, and are having a little bit of fun with it. We’re bringing them up front and centre for a little bit, for a few episodes certainly. And we’re enjoying [what we're doing with their characters] so far.
TVG: Is Foreman taking over the day-to-day running of the team?
DS: In a way, yes. As with anything, though, we try to make it more complicated than that, but yeah.
TVG: Will there be friction between Foreman and Thirteen [Olivia Wilde]? Will they break up?
DS: I think you’re safe to assume that. You can’t have friction without having ramifications.
TVG: How will this affect House’s relationship with Cuddy? I’m assuming there will have to be some sort of confrontation between the two. Will you be addressing that?
DS: Yes, we are. There is some stuff online that says that House and Cuddy’s relationship will go on the back burner, and I think that’s an oversimplification.
Primarily, what we’re trying to do at the beginning of this year is House’s search for change, and whether he can or wants to change. It’s fundamentally the same character, but he’s also just trying to make his life just a little bit better. And trying to take the high road.
Having him just coming out of an institution, we didn’t want to throw him into a relationship initially. We want to deal with his mental health a little bit. House is trying to be a more mature person. And failing more often than not.
TVG: Will House try not to take Wilson for granted so much?
DS: Again, he’s going to try to. [Laughs.]
TVG: Will Amber [Anne Dudek] be back?
DS: No.
House – Season 6 HQ Promotional Photos
House – Ausiello Radio Interview about Season 6
House is “Pretty Damaged,” Hugh Laurie Says
House viewers have been assured, by the show’s producer, that their favorite character will remain the “same human being.”
But it may take him awhile to get back there.
Star Hugh Laurie told Entertainment Tonight this week that House is “pretty damaged,” as the September premiere will reveal what life is like for him inside a mental asylum.
“He is pretty much where he was at the end of season five. In this case, the season picks up only a matter of days after season five ended and House is going through a pretty harrowing medical and sychiatric experience.”
Laurie added that his character is trying to “connect with people in a way he hadn’t done previously,” which we can imagine is quite a challenge for the grumpy, cynical doctor.
As for mental illness, the Emmy Award-winner is aware that this is a serious, real-life topic.
“It is a character going through a very traumatic experience, one that afflicts many people and House is among them,” he said.
‘House’ Season 6 Preview
Fox medical drama House
kicks off its sixth season with a two-hour premiere on September 21. That’s nearly a month and a half away before we figure out what will become of House (Hugh Laurie) after being admitted to a mental facility supposedly for detox. Of course, there are other notable storylines that hang in the balance, including the possibility of House and Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) finally doing something more than a hallucinatory hook-up, newlyweds Chase (Jesse Spencer) and Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), and the team minus Kutner (Kal Penn).
Read on to find out what else is in store for our favorite enigmatic doctor in this House season 6 preview, now that his insanity, lunacy, psychosis, whatever is finally revealed to be something beyond mere cynicism and misanthrope.
What we know for sure is that the House season 6 premiere was filmed “exclusively” at the Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital, meaning this is not some hallucination. House is truly locked up at the fictional Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital (established 1876). “What happens,” says the trailer, “when the doctor becomes the patient?” In one scene, we see House calling Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) to confirm that he indeed was in an asylum.
Things look pretty real, not to mention tough and hard to bear, as we also see House struggling as he was being carried by three hospital attendants (typical of crazy people?). As we all know, House is trying to recover from his injurious bout of hallucination that damaged pretty badly him toward the end of last season.
In the asylum, it is obvious that House is terrorizing it. Knowing that a guy was claustrophobic, for instance, while playing basketball, he goes to the guy face-to-face while taunting him, “Am I crowding you?” Judging from the trailers alone, also on the House season 6 preview agenda is a new love interest for House in the person of Franka Potente, best known for playing Matt Damon’s girlfriend in The Bourne Identity.