Kathryn Morris UK

Cold Case Cast Catch-up – May 2016

Boom! And there goes May! But just before it ends let us take in some news about Kathryn’s old cast mates in KM UK’s monthly Cold Case Cast Catch-up.

As you can see from the image above we’re leading off with our leading man Danny Pino (Scotty Valens on CC). His new CBS comedy-drama BrainDead starts in just two weeks time. Danny plays US Senator Luke Healy. Mary Elizabeth Winstead (10 Cloverfield Lane) is his sister Laurel. She has returned to Washington after time away as a documentary maker to help her brother run his office. They are the children of a political dynasty. As well as the usual problems of government, which normally revolve around their unwillingness to stop fulfilling their own wishes and actually working for the good of the people that put them there, there is a mysterious bug eating the brains of people on Capitol Hill, turning them into zombies. Tony Shaloub (Monk), Aaron Tveit (Graceland), Johnny Ray Gill (Rectify), and Nikki M James (The Good Wife) co-star. The show was created by the married couple behind The Good Wife, Michelle and Robert King.

Back in August 2015 we covered John Finn (John Stillman in CC) and the on-going saga of the CBS drama series Doubt. Without doubt the doubt continued. A year ago the show was not picked up to series but the project was re-worked and a new pilot shot. In the past few weeks it was announced the show had had a series order placed. They are making it. However, and this is where the doubt creeps back in, it is not in the normal autumn/fall line-up and will be kept for release later in the 2016-17 season. If one of the new shows gets cancelled early then it could be called up to fill in. What is also in doubt is John’s presence. He was involved in the original pilot but we don’t know if his character survived the re-write or whether John was re-cast in the new version.

Jeremy Ratchford (Nick Vera on CC) has found himself cast alongside Oscar winner Octavia Spencer (The Help) and Oscar nominee John Hawkes (who had some memorable scenes with Helen Hunt in The Sessions) in a new thriller called Small Town Crime. Jeremy is listed with the character name ‘Orthopedic’, which is a little odd. There is quite an acting ensemble with Robert Forster (Jackie Brown), Michael Vartan (Hawthorne), Anthony Anderson (Black-ish), amongst others. The story is said to involve Hawkes as an alcholic cop who sets out to find the killer of a young woman whose body he finds. Small Time Crime is by writing/directing partnership Eshom & Ian Nelms (Lost On Purpose) and is currently filming with a likely release in 2017.

It is easy to get a little lost (on purpose or otherwise) when it comes to Tracie Thoms (Kat Miller on CC) and her on-going projects as there are so many of them, and that is not including her one-off singing engagements and the like. An item in the list that stood out as one I had not posted about before, but had already got as far as post-production, is a film called The Drowning. Further investigation shows that it is a re-naming of a film I last mentioned one year ago. Starring Julia Stiles (Blue) and Josh Charles (The Good Wife, not for the first time in this article) it is a thriller that was previously called Border Crossing after the Pat Barker novel it is based on. Tracie’s been upgraded from ‘I dunno’ to Angela. To expand on the previous post it involves the issues surrounding a child killer (a killer who is a child) and what happens when they are released from prison.

As mentioned back in February The Real MVP: The Wanda Durant Story, a Lifetime network TV movie about basketball star Kevin Durant’s mother Wanda, aired for the first time in early May. Appropriately it was the Mother’s Day weekend, in the US anyway. It’s in held in March in the UK. Tracie starred as Demetria, which sounds more like a skin cream to me. Another film to undergo a name change is Raven’s Watch, which will now be called The Watcher for its October festival release. March’s CCCC-up covers the details of Tracie’s role as we know it.

Later dudes.

Cold Case Cast Catch-up – March 2016

It’s the last day of the month so it must be time for the traditional latest edition of KM UK’s Cold Case Cast Catch-up. Let us see what the key members of the long running CBS police procedural have been getting up to.

What feels like an increasing part of that tradition seems to be the breaking of news that would fit right in not long after publication. A few days after the CCCC-up for February it was announced that Danny Pino (Scotty Valens on CC) would be starting a recurring role on the ABC drama series Scandal. Normally at this time of year talk about additions to show casts would be more likely to be in reference to changes for the new seasons starting in the autumn. Not this time. Danny made his Scandal début last Thursday night (March 24th) on episode 15 of the 20+ run as Alejandro ‘Alex’ Vargas. He’s a campaign manager and brother of an existing recurring character played by Ricardo Chavira (Desperate Housewives). Alex offered the lead character Olivia (Kerry Washington, Boston Legal) a tit-for-tat-for-tattle deal. It is not known at this stage how many more episodes Danny/Alex will be in.

Presumably Danny can’t spend too long on Scandal as his new show, this time for the CBS network (Cold Case‘s old home), is in production. BrainDead, first talked about on KM UK at the end of last year, has had a première date announced. Those with access to an American television should be in front of it on Monday the 13th of June at 10pm. BrainDead is a comedy drama set in the world of Washington, D.C. politics where many of the staff and congress members have become zombies thanks to alien visitors. The 13 episode-long series stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead (10 Cloverfield Lane) and Tony Shalhoub (Monk) amongst others.

Tracie is the one we’d normally describe as the workaholic of the group but we can add Jeremy Ratchford (Nick Vera on CC) to the list this month. Jeremy did a guest starring role on the Comedy Central sitcom Workaholics earlier in March. The show is about a group of friends that live together and also work together in telemarketing. This particular episode (number 9 in the 6th season) involved the boys setting up a casino in their house. Jeremy is listed as ‘Frank’.

Unbelievably it has been the best part of a year since I last made mention of Thom Barry (Will Jeffries on CC). And this is a return to the topic at hand back then. The Eddie Murphy-starring movie that was originally known as Cook and then changed to Henry Joseph Church has now become Mr Church. It is set to be shown at the Tribeca Film Festival in April and heading for a more general release in November. Eddie is the titular character who becomes the cook for a family. The planned short term arrangement lasts much, much longer. Britt Robertson (Under The Dome) and Natascha McElhone (The Truman Show) co-star.

A couple of previously unmentioned projects have cropped up for Tracie Thoms (Kat Miller in CC) since the last CCCC-up. First is Raven’s Watch, a thriller due for a festival showing in October. There’s not much more to add at the moment other than Erin Cahill (Saving Grace), Denise Crosby (Star Trek: TNG) and Kevin Daniels (Modern Family) star. Second is a short comedy drama film called Divorce: The Greatest Hits. It stars Kaili Vernoff (The High Life), Jay Harrington (Better Off Ted), Kevin Daniels (him again? sensing a theme here?), and the voice of Holland Taylor (Two And A Half Men). I could tell you about the story but why don’t I just show you as the whole film is watchable on Vimeo HERE (a bit NSFW). Tracie appears about 12 minutes in. Awkward!

That will do us for this month. Be sure to check out the showbiz news sites in the next few hours and days because, based on recent form, something major will be announced for one of our favourites 😐

Cold Case Cast Catch-up – November 2015

It feels like a worryingly short time since the last Cold Case Cast Catch-up at the end October. We’ll keep it brief this time with just a couple of pieces of news about the on-going careers of key members of the cast of the long running drama series.

In the middle of November Tracie Thoms (Kat Miller on CC) took part in another 24 Hour Plays event. Multiple small groups of actors, writers, producers, and musicians get together to each create a new stage production in just, you guessed it, 24 hours. These happen several times a year in various places. This one was on Broadway in New York and was the 15th time they’ve held it there. Tracie worked with Vanessa Williams (Desperate Housewives), Rosie Perez (White Men Can’t Jump), and Kevin Daniels (Sirens TV series). A lot of other actors took part. Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie), Diane Neal (recurs within the NCIS family of shows), Jason Biggs (Orange Is The New Black), Rachel Dratch (30 Rock), Kathy Najimy (Veronica’s Closet), Julia Stiles (Blue), John Krasinski (the US version of The Office), Molly Ringwald (Pretty In Pink), Phylicia Rashad (Psych), and Geoffrey Arend (Body Of Proof) were amongst the stars present. The shows were performed in aid of the Urban Arts Partnership which helps students in under privileged areas by funding arts projects.

November saw Jeremy Ratchford (Nick Vera in CC) continue his run of guest starring roles in prime time US TV shows. Since Cold Case ended Jeremy has appeared Shameless, Hawaii Five-O, Perception, and It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Just this year he’s also turned up in The Mentalist, Bones, and Longmire. The latest work is as another police officer in an episode of NCIS. Jeremy was an old colleague of Michael Weatherly’s character Anthony DiNozzo who used to be a detective in Baltimore.

Cold Case Cast Catch-up – October 2015

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I know we are on the eve of Halloween but don’t be afraid this is just our CCCC-up (Cold Case Cast Catch-up) round up for October 2015. If there is significant news about the on-going career of the major players in the TV that was lead by Kathryn we bring it to you each month.

Let’s go by police rank in descending order this month.

John Finn (John Stillman on CC) is down to appear in a movie due for release next year. It is called Gifted and is about a man bringing up his young niece after her mother (his sister) dies. The substitute father is in a custody battle over the girl with his mother. It is not clear at this stage how John’s character fits in. Aubrey Highsmith does not share a surname with any of the main characters so perhaps we are looking at a neighbour or someone in the legal team dealing with the custody. Chris Evans (the star of Captain America, not the soon-to-be Top Gear host), Lindsay Duncan (The Honourable Woman), Octavia Spencer (The Help) and Jenny Slate (Married) are among the stars.

The long running process of production and release of the film Death Valley is something we’ve covered several times here on a CCCC-up. It looks like it was finally became available to the public last week. Jeremy Ratchford (Nick Vera in CC) has a small role (I think) as a police office as I showed all the way back in September 2013! Katrina Law (Arrow), Lochlyn Munro (True Justice), Victoria Pratt (Mutant X), Kelly Hu (Arrow) all star in the tale of a group of people, strangers apparently, travelling across the eponymous desert in California when they hit someone with their car. Hilarity ensues, or maybe not.

As usual Ms Tracie Thoms (Kat Miller on CC) has decided to out-do everyone else. She’s filmed something called The California No. Not sure what it is at this time, it could be a TV show or web series, but the name is a reference to a method that Californians have of avoiding awkward questions. Rather than just saying ‘no’ they do nothing. As well that Tracie’s set to star in a movie presumably due out in a year’s time. I presume that because it is called A New York Christmas, is said to be currently in post-production, and has a date of 2016. It’s hardly likely to be a big draw in the summer so we’ll assume next autum/fall at the earliest. The film is a multi-stranded story set in a hotel just because Xmas. Jaime Ray Newman (Eureka), Ross McCall (White Collar), Jamie Bamber (NCIS), and Linda Park (Star Trek: Enterprise) star. Also, Tracie returned to singing for the first time in a while at a charity event for the National Breast Cancer Coalition.

Cold Case Cast Catch-up – September 2015

Nearly the end of the month so it’s time to roll out another CCCC-up, KM UK’s look at the on-going careers of the significant cast of Cold Case that aren’t Kathryn.

Ha, ha. Fooled you. I’ve put a picture of Jeremy above but I’m going to start with Tracie Thoms (Kat Miller on CC) We’ll come to Jeremy next. A whole year ago, in the September 2014 CCCC-up, I mentioned that Tracie was involved in filming a webseries called Sidetracked. The status of the project is still not clear all this time later but earlier this month Writer/director E.D. Brown released a set of promo videos. There are four short clips, each covering a different episode in the series about the lives of various people whose lives haven’t quite gone to plan. Who can say theirs has? Tracie stars in the video for episode two titled “We Live On Land”. You can watch it here on YouTube. From there you easily find the others. The series stars Adrienne Wilkinson (Xena: Warrior Princess), Ahmed Best (Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars: Episode I-III) and Wes Ramsey (CSI: Miami), and E.D. Brown herself, amongst others. A more recent work is No Touching which sees Tracie re-teaming with her Raze co-star Zoë Bell. It’s a short story described as being about “a shady haunted house attraction where the performers are assaulting female patrons”. As Zoë stars with fellow stunt performer Heidi Moneymaker (Scarlett Johansson’s stunt double in Avengers: Age Of Ultron), and her role in Raze, I think you can guess what’s going to happen when these two ladies visit the spooky amusement. Filming apparently started on the 20th. Tracie posted on social media that she’d finished filming on the 21st. Well, it is a short film. How Tracie fits in is not clear. She’s presumably not one of the guys doing the groping. More details on the project can be found on their Kickstarter page here.

Now on to Jeremy Ratchford (Nick Vera in CC). Since Cold Case ended Jeremy has mainly been seen in guest starring roles in shows such as Hawaii Five-O, The Mentalist and Bones. Three weeks ago he made appearance in the drama series Longmire. It may be set in modern day Wyoming but Longmire, based on the novels of Craig Johnson, clearly has a sensibility harking back to the classic westerns. Robert Taylor (Ballykissangel) stars as a sheriff still dealing with the loss of his wife. Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) is his deputy. Together they keep the peace and solve crimes. Jeremy guested in the second episode, “War Eagle”, of the fourth season. Originally the show was broadcast by the A&E network in the US but they dropped it after three years. Netflix, as it does, picked it up and released all 10 episodes of the fourth run at once on September 10th.