Vince Gilligan Page 4

Traditionally, spin-off series either fall into the disastrous ‘Joey’ category, or the 'perhaps better than its predecessor' group which is headed by 'Frasier'. So it’s no surprise that ‘Breaking Bad’ fans where anxious ahead of ‘Better Call Saul’s’ premiere. But if the series’ debut episodes are anything to go by fans can finally breathe a sigh of relief, as ‘Better Call Saul’ seems to hit all the right ‘Breaking Bad’ spots.

Bob Odenkirk in 'Better Call Saul'

The series follows Bob Odenkirk as small time lawyer Jimmy 'Saul Goodman' McGill, seven years before his ‘Breaking Bad’ appearances. He’s joined by another familiar face, Jonathan Banks who reprises his ‘Breaking Bad’ role as private investigator Mike Ehrmantrau.

Continue reading: 'Better Call Saul' Has Strong Debut, Breaking Ratings Records And Impressing The Critics

With just under a month to go before the launch of ‘Breaking Bad’ prequel ‘Better Call Saul’, creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould and lead actor Bob Odenkirk have spoken to Variety about their hopes for the new show and how they came up with the idea.

Set in 2002, the series focusses on Saul Goodman before he came ‘Saul Goodman’, when he was still named Jimmy McGill. Bob Odenkirk reprises his role as the shady lawyer, and it is also set to feature his private investigator Mike Ehrmantraut (played again by Jonathan Banks).

Bob Odenkirk will return as Saul Goodman in 'Better Call Saul' next month on AMC

Continue reading: Vince Gilligan And Bob Odenkirk Talk 'Better Call Saul'

Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan isn't a robot, and he, like us, is just as likely to fret and wonder about the lives of the characters he created for the smash-hit AMC series after the final credits rolled. Can Skyler ever move on? Does Walter Jr. ever come to terms with what his dad has done? Does Saul make a clean break? He's played with all the ideas, but none more so than what might happen to the loveable rogue Jesse Pinkman.

Jesse (Aaron Paul) and Walt (Bryan Cranston) met different ends when the series finished

Pinkman's (Aaron Paul) exit from the show was much more triumphant than Walter White's (Bryan Cranston), but did life get any easier for him after racing away from his meth-lab prison? We've all thought about it and so has Gilligan. In the latest issue of GQ magazine, the show's creator hoped that Jesse would make a clean break, but admitted that in all actuality, he was more likely to meet a tragic end than a happy one.

Continue reading: 'Breaking Bad' Creator Vince Gilligan Gives His Version Of What Life Might Be Like For Jesse Pinkman After The Finale

Breaking Bad is over. This is a sad fact that many of us have finally been able to get over since the near-perfect finale was aired earlier this month. But as we already know, show creator Vince Gilligan is already working on a spin-off series centred on everyone's favourite crooked lawyer Saul Goodman. In a recent interview, Gilligan had even more good news to share; that the show may feature Breaking Bad's main stars Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Gilligan revealed that the show is still in it's infancy, with the plot for the show still being determined. But the crew behind the spin-off series are making leaps towards bringing the show into fruition and Gilligan admitted that the writers are beginning to put together a show that will be much lighter than Breaking Bad, but will still contain a number of dramatic elements, as the team behind the spin-off attempt to find the safe medium between comedy and drama for the show.

"We're both one-hour drama guys," Gilligan said of himself and series co-creator Peter Gould, who created Bob Odenkirk's character during the second season of BB. "So we figured, 'Why not shoot Saul in the same way?' Let's shoot it in Albuquerque, let's get as much of the crew back together as possible, and let's do it the way we did it before so that it will be of a piece with that pre-existing fictional universe that we had so much fun creating."

Continue reading: Bryan Cranston & Aaron Paul Could Both Appear In 'Breaking Bad' Spin-Off

Ah the power of the internet, it never seizes to amaze. The latest little marvel the information super highway has doled out this time is the newfound success of Brit psych-rockers Badfinger, whose 1972 single 'Baby Blue' is now arguably the hottest song on the web still, after it was used as the closing song on the series finale of Breaking Bad on Sunday, 29 September.

The single, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter, was thrust into the iTunes top 20 for the first time ever, and saw it's streaming numbers - on Spotify and YouTube - go up dramatically, by 9000% in the space of a few hours after the East Coast airing of the show on AMC. This success has failed to peter away, and the song is still being downloaded and streamed at a rate never-before seen. Industry experts claim that the song enjoyed a 3,000% increase in sales in just one day, between 29 and 30 September, an amount that would reintroduce it into the chart on it's own. With it's continued success, the track is likely to be in the top 20 of the Billboard singles chart by the end of the week, if not higher.

Continue reading: Breaking Badfinger: 'Breaking Bad' Series Finale Song Discovers Immense Popularity Boost

Breaking Bad comes to an end after five gloriously gripping seasons this Sunday (29 Sept.), when fans of the show will finally say goodbye to Walter White, Jesse Pinkman and the crystal blue colouring of Albuquerque's criminal underworld. But although the series will soon come to an end, it's legacy will be sticking around for much, much longer, especially in the city of Albuquerque itself, where an influx of tourism prompted by the show has turned some banal locations into the unlikeliest of tourist hotspots.

Stars Aaron Paul (L) and Bryan Cranston (R) have helped turn Albuquerque into an unlikely tourist hotspot

The Albuquerque Biological Park, Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, the Museum of Natural History and Science and the city's Old Town were once the notable tourist destinations for the New Mexico city, but now people are flocking to the Octopus car wash and Twisters, a burrito joint within the city. As initially reported by the BBC, these are locations that would otherwise slip into a banal backdrop of everyday life in Albuquerque, but today they are now celebrating their newfound heritage as the locations where Walter White (Bryan Cranston) slowly but surely went from sympathetic high school chemistry teacher, to murderous crystal meth kingpin.

Continue reading: 'Breaking Bad' Turns Albuquerque's Most Unlikely Destinations Into Tourist Hot Spots

With the end in sight, and Sunday nights looking even more empty and as pointless as they did in June 2007 when The Sopranos came to an end, it looks as though there may be a light shining at the end of this TV-shaped tunnel, because Breaking Bad-creator Vince Gilligan has already been handed the reins for an all-new series.

Gilligan (L) and House creator David Shore (R) are working closely for Battle Creek

A project that Gilligan and CBS have had in the pipeline since 2002, Battle Creek is a crime drama centring on two very different detectives who work together in the two-bit Battle Creek, Michigan, struggling to work with the limited supplies handed to them. As they attempt to clean up the (relatively) mean streets of Battle Creek, they are posed with the conundrum; can you effectively fight crime with deception and trickery, or does it take trust and an endless supply of resources to keep the streets clean. The Hollywood Reporter first confirmed the new series.

Continue reading: 'Breaking Bad' Creator Vince Gilligan Teams Up With CBS For New Drama Series

He's the bright shirted, metaphor-filled, smarmy lawyer who has won an army of fans through his shady dealings with Walter White, Jesse Pinkman and other notorious heads of the Albuquerque criminal underworld, but now, Saul Goodman is about to embark on his biggest challenge to date: providing the basis for a decent spin-off series.

Odenkirk's character is a fan favourite

It's been a long time coming, with various rumours emerging from numerous sources, but Bob Odenkirk's character is definitely being given his own show. AMC and Sony Pictures TV bosses confirmed the news through a joint statement on Wednesday (11 Sept.) following various suggestions from the web and elsewhere to keep the spirit of Breaking Bad running.

Continue reading: AMC Green-Light 'Breaking Bad' Spin-Off 'Better Call Saul'

So you’ve come this far, either by the relentless pressure applied by your friend who wouldn’t stop telling you to watch it, or by finding yourself understandably hooked, somewhere towards the end of the first season. Breaking Bad season five has three episodes left, and after To’hajiilee, Walter White looks set for some tough decisions.

Anna Gunn, Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul

“In these final four episodes, a great many chickens will come home to roost for Walt,” said the show’s creator, Vince Gilligan. To recap: Jesse and Hank dreamed up a ruse to lure Walter to his precious cash: a vital piece of evidence if Hank were to ‘bring him down’. Of course, the lingering threat of Tod and his uncle’s gang turning up was always in the back of our minds during the episode's tense finale.

Continue reading: Breaking Bad - Season's Crescendo Is A 'Battle' For Walter White, Says Cranston

With only four more episodes to go, things were going to have to be rushed a little in the run up to the series finale of AMC's Breaking Bad, and on Sunday (1 September) night's episode, 'Rabid Dog,' that is pretty much what we got. Although a little haphazard at times, the episode by no means was a disappointment - Vince Gilligan doesn't know the meaning of the word - as it was still every bit the edge-of-your-seat drama that we have come to love. In case you missed it, here's what happened during 'Rabid Dog.' (The rest of this article obviously contains spoilers)

Stars Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul attend the premiere of the new season

Beginning where we left off; Jesse's off-the-rails response to discovering that Walt was behind Brock's poisoning, we find Walt arrive home with Saul's call still pulled up in the drive. Knowing from experience that the back door is probably the best mode of entry at a time like this, Walt carefully enters his home to find the front room completely empty. Calling out Jesse he investigates further, gun in hand, only to find that the house is completely empty, bar the few litres of gasoline strewn across his carpet. Going outside to check Saul's still-running car, he finds a CD with some white substance on it (probably not sugar), seemingly indicating that Jesse has fallen off the wagon once again, although with fairly good reason to be fair. As we find out in a later flashback, this is exactly what's happened, but we'll get to this flashback shortly.

Continue reading: Breaking Bad 'Rabid Dog' Episode Recap: What Does Jessie Know?

A pair of thighty whities, a burnt teddy bear, a bag of blue crystals and a high school chemistry set – fans of Breaking Bad will recognize all these as benchmarks along the way of Walter White’s descent into crime, but they have one more thing in common – all these items will be featured in a Breaking Bad themed exhibition at New York’s Museum of the Moving Image.

No word on whether Jesse and Walt's white RV will be featured.

The L.A. Times reports that the exhibition, entitled "From Mr. Chips to Scarface: Walter White's Transformation in 'Breaking Bad,'" will be on show until October 27th, approximately one month after the show’s final episode airs on AMC. So, a select few avid Breaking Bad fans will be able to get their fix (no pun intended) even after the show ends.

Continue reading: Addicted To "Breaking Bad"? This Exhibition Might Help

Before the kickoff of Breaking Bad’s final season, creator Vince Gilligan paid a visit Sunday night to the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens to celebrate the opening of a new exhibition, “From Mr. Chips to Scarface: Walter White’s Transformation in 'Breaking Bad.' He also sat down for a chat with Charlie Rose, during which the newsman accidentally spilled the beans on a BB season finale detail, which, while it isn’t all that revealing, still counts as a spoiler – especially on a show that guards its secrets this closely. Though, to be fair, the rest of the chat was much more interesting, as Gillian discussed the challenges of writing a protagonist, going through such a dramatic change, or Breaking Bad’s ultimately numbered days.

Gilligan recently celebrated the finale along with the BB cast.

“ ‘Breaking Bad’ was always much more of a finite construct,” he said. “Most TV shows are designed by their nature to be open-ended, to be indefinite, to go on forever. It’s hard to get a TV show going, and once you get it going, you don’t want it to end and I didn’t want ‘Breaking Bad’ to end. But I knew creatively when your self-imposed franchise, as was the case in ‘Breaking Bad,’ is to take your protagonist and turn him into your antagonist, that is a continuum you’ve just ascribed for yourself, and there’s only so bad that bad could be. By its very nature this is something that has a limited shelf life.”

Continue reading: Vince Gilligan Talks Transformations, Heroes, Villains And 'Breaking Bad' Spoilers

There’s a dichotomy of emotion surrounding Breaking Bad, with the final eight episodes coming very soon. On the one hand, there’s absolutely no way we can wait much longer to see what happens, but in another, we’re totally devastated by the idea that there’ll never be another new episode to watch.

Mr. White weighs up his actions

And that’s what’s got the show’s creator all sad. So sad, he said it thrice. “First, I want to say that I’m sad, sad, sad about the series ending,” admitted Gilligan at Comic-Con 2013. “I’m going to miss these guys … and coming to Comic-Con. And, yes, I’m very happy with the finale. I hope our fans will be, too.” (Via THR)

Continue reading: Breaking Bad: Vince Gilligan Is "Sad, Sad, Sad About The Series Ending"

Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny were two of the billboard names on the second day of Comic-Con San Diego, reuniting to discuss the 20th anniversary of their seminal sci-fi show The X-Files. Hundreds of fans squeezed into Ballroom 20 to hear Mulder and Scully talk, though the question on everyone's lips was clear: will there be an X-Files feature film?

Anderson recently found herself back in the spotlight with the success of BBC drama The Fall, and Duchovny hasn't been out of work since the show therefore a new series would be difficult, though a movie would certainly be viable. In fact, Anderson admitted she wouldn't be interested in a return to the small screen, though added, "a film would be great," to woops and cheers in the audience, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

It would be the third movie spin-off, after The X-Files and The X-Files: I Want to Believe.

Continue reading: Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny Tease 'X-Files' Movie At Comic-Con

The funeral of Soprano's star James Gandolfini was held today (27th June 2013) at St John the Divine Catholic Church in New York. A private wake was held yesterday (Wednesday 26th June) in New Jersey for family members and close friends. 

Representing the cast and crew of The Sopranos was actress Aida Turturra and creator David Chase, who gave a eulogy. Gandolfini's widow Deborah Lin Gandolfini and two close family friends also spoke. 

The late James Gandolfini, pictured here attending the 8th Starlit Benefit Gala, New York, 10th June 2013

Continue reading: James Gandolfini's Funeral - Who Was In Attendance?

The 64th Annual Primetime Emmys kicks off this Sunday (September 23rd) and what better way to spend a Friday night than trying to predict who’ll walk home with the big prizes? None. There’s none, apart from maybe watching some of the shows nominated.

The headline this year will be Breaking Bad v Mad Men, and all things considered, it looks like Walter White v Gus will snatch it for Vince Gilligan’s meth-lord drama. Breaking Bad has been somewhat of a revelation since Mr White first approached Pinkman to propose a small time meth empire, but it’ll be fondly remembered in TV lover’s hearts as one of the greatest shows to ever grace a box-set. Contact Music predicts Breaking Bad to break Mad Men’s spell, halting the 50’s advertising magnate’s quest for a 5th Primetime Emmy.

Elsewhere in the drama category are; Boardwalk Empire, Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones and Homeland, and you can guarantee that HBO’s prohibition crime drama will clean up on any set design, make up and costume categories. Claire Danes should pick up Outstanding actress in a drama for her startling role in terrorist thriller Homeland, whilst we tip Bryan Cranston to make it a special evening for AMC by picking up his fourth Emmy award for the male award.

Continue reading: Getting Ready For The Primetime Emmys: Our Predictions!