Production has begun on Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and now we have the set photos to prove it.  Dawn is set 15 years after Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which means a new cast of humans led by Keri Russell, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, and Kodi Smit-McPhee.  The one constant is Andy Serkis, reprising his lead role as Caesar the ape.  Judy Greer is the major addition to the motion-capture crew, playing a potential love interest for Caesar.

The story jumps back and forth between Caesar’s new kingdom and a small human colony in San Francisco.  Caesar fights to maintain dominance over his subjects; the colony fights to survive.  Directed by Matt Reeves (Let Me In), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes opens May 23, 2014.  Check out the set photos featuring Serkis, Russell, Clarke, and a band of motion-capture apes after the jump.

The Americans took a break last week — something FX never does with its dramas — because of filming delays, but “Safe House” was well worth the wait.  Things got messy thanks to one personal mistake that lead to a Cold War crisis, and it was handled with controlled chaos.  What was great about the confusion and fallout that happened throughout “Safe House” was that it wasn’t arbitrary.  On some series, miscommunication and mistakes happen because people don’t speak or are unwilling to ask basic questions or confirm anything (Lost comes to mind, a show where almost no one asked anyone anything obvious).  The Americans pulled off an amazing feat of plotting this week by allowing things to happen realistically in turn, and following a situation until its natural, though most extreme, end.  Hit the jump for more on why “we should have fried chicken every day!”

The title for The Americans really said it all this week, didn’t it?  There is a secret war going on that no one wants to become full-fledged combat, regarding both the U.S. and the Jennings’ marriage.  Parallels!  That being said, the Jennings’ marriage (one of the strangest yet most honestly portrayed ones on TV) went to some dark, sad places this week whereas the rest of us got a history lesson.  I said early on in The Americans that the show presumed probably a little too much from the audience in terms of a deep knowledge / understanding of that time period and the political motivations within it.  This week, the show did a good job of having the characters ask some pretty straight-forward questions about why the U.S., if it knows but doesn’t “know” that the Russians are targeting the country, retaliate?  “We do not want to start a war,” was the straight-forward reply.  Hit the jump for why we just have to “act like nothing happened.”

The subject and nuances of marriage were again at the forefront of this week’s The Americans, and this time it seemed to focus mostly on loyalty (and also, you know, “Duty and Honor”).  The Jennings’ uneasy marriage can sometimes be a reflection of their own complicated feelings about their lifelong mission for their country, of which their marriage is an integral part.  After several weeks of seeing Elizabeth’s side of things, from her affair with Gregory to hints from her childhood and her initial hesitations at being with Philip in the first place, we finally got to see some of Philip’s background, including a former love, Irina, with whom he is now reuniting.  The two were coming together to enact a scheme that would help to discredit a Polish resistance leader who was being sheltered in the United States during his Polish exile.  And that was just the beginning — hit the jump for more on why “I’m sorry I didn’t kill you.”

Dobry den, my comrades – The Americans got real tonight, da?  Philip and Elizabeth’s story took a surprising turn (quite a few turns, though not quite how I expected), but even they were overshadowed by the tricks Stan pulled to keep Nina from harm, not to mention that haunting interlude where Paige and Henry decided to hitchhike.  This was a pretty flawless episode from top to bottom, building off of what we have experienced in the last five weeks (Elizabeth and Philip’s relationship, Stan’s protectiveness towards Nina) and rewarded us for staying true to the cause.  Things are coming together as much as they were split asunder this week, and per usual I’m not sure what to expect going forward (one of the series’ greatest traits).  But for now, hit the jump for why “I believe in God, not coincidence.”

The cast for director Matt Reeves’ (Let Me In) upcoming sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes continues to fill out.  Jason Clarke was the first to join the project as the male lead earlier last month, and he was joined shortly thereafter by Gary Oldman and Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road) in the ensemble.  Now Variety reports that Keri Russell is joining the cast, presumably as the female lead.  The film takes place 15 years after the events of the first movie, and the story is said to be split between a small human colony struggling to survive alone in San Francisco and Caesar’s (Andy Serkis) attempt to maintain dominance over his kingdom.

No details are given regarding Russell’s role, but we know that Oldman is poised to play the leader of the human colony.  Russell has some history with Reeves, as she previously toplined the popular television series Felicity which was created and run by Reeves and J.J. Abrams. The actress is coming off a strong return to television with FX’s excellent 1980s Russian spy series The Americans and was most recently seen on the big screen in Dark Skies.

Another nuanced episode of The Americans this week, focusing on the tit-for-tat back and forth of intelligence and counterintelligence.  Just as the FBI found a way to not only encrypt but make portable its communication, the Russians (via Elizabeth and Philip) found a way to hear them anyway.  Within a day the FBI had adjusted the code to block out the Russians, and so forth.  The bigger revelation was not this cat and mouse game, though, but that the Russians discovered that there was a mole.  And, despite their Herculean efforts to keep their agent in the Department of Defense, Adam Dorma (who we meet briefly at the start of the episode), in the end he became as much of a liability to them as an asset because his loyalty was briefly questioned in his moment of distress.  In the spy world, the slightest hesitation could mean everything.  Hit the jump for why you shouldn’t ask questions, even for all of our 35 years and 8 months together!

Blumhouse Productions, the company behind the Paranormal Activity series, Insidious and Sinister takes a turn away from demonic possession and ghost stories, but keeps the haunted family dynamic in writer/director Scott Stewart’s Dark Skies.  The psychological thriller focuses on the Barrett family, whose peaceful suburban home begins to play host to strange and terrifying events that seem to only be happening to them.  While Dark Skies would have benefited from more secretive marketing that would keep the force behind these events an actual mystery, there are still some tense moments and disturbing scares to be found.  The most interesting facet of the film is not the external menace, but the unexpected subtext of the growing pains of adolescence.  Hit the jump for my review.

Just four episodes into its inaugural season, FX has already granted its spy drama series The Americans a 13-episode order for a second season.  The show has garnered a lot of critical acclaim and is backed by strong performances from its leads, Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys and Noah Emmerich.  According to the network, the series premiere was the most-watched debut in FX’s history, with 5.11 million viewers tuning in.  The network is also reporting ratings gains every week, making The Americans a bona fide hit.

The show, created by Joe Weisberg (a former CIA agent), takes place in 1981 just after Ronald Reagan’s election, and follows two embedded KGB spies, Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, (Russell and Rhys) who spent years preparing to become “typical” Americans so they could help out their government from U.S. soil.  Though Elizabeth struggles with the emotional aspects of assimilation, Philip seems to be developing some positive feelings for the land they were bred to hate.  In addition to the spy elements, the show also focuses on the newly budding relationship between the two leads, who were forced into a marriage for appearances sake, but have only now begun to see each other as more than business partners.  Hit the jump for more on the series, and click here to catch up on my recaps.

I solicited a lot of feedback about The Americans this week because I was confused about how I could still be left so cold by a show that seems so beloved and full of things I should like (spies! Russians! Keri Russell‘s hair!).  It seemed I wasn’t really alone though, and there were plenty of people who felt like I did, that while the show was objectively good, it lacked a spark.  However, last week’s episode, “Gregory,” went a long way in repairing my feelings about the show, which is tough and can be difficult to follow.  It’s not a casual experience, but a deeply involved one that asks us to be completely engaged in it, with a fair amount of background knowledge.  It’s a show that, I know, will grow richer with repeated viewings.  Finally though, this week, I saw the light.  “In Control” was a very solidly entertaining hour of TV.  Hit the jump for more on why “one mistake is all it takes.”

We have some new TV spots to share with you from the following films:

• Dead Man Down – Director Niels Arden Oplev’s crime thriller starring Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace as an unlikely pair out for revenge against a mob boss.  Dead Man Down, also starring Dominic Cooper and Terrence Howard, opens March 8th.
• Dark Skies – Writer/director Scott Charles Stewart’s sci-fi thriller starring Keri Russell and Josh Hamilton as struggling parents whose limits are tested when strange events start happening to their family.  Also starring Dakota Goyo and J.K. Simmons, Dark Skies opens February 22nd.

Hit the jump to watch the TV spots.

There’s something missing in The Americans that I can’t quite put my finger on.  The concept is certainly compelling, and the pilot set up so much on both the KGB and FBI sides of the story.  The series is written by a former CIA officer, and the show is nuanced to a fault and is backed up by great casting.  But there is still something lacking in the execution of the material.  I wasn’t blown away by the pilot, though it did deliver a lot for the series to cover, and this second episode, “The Clock,” felt like it was a mid-season coaster rather than an early season episode that would really revved up viewers (particularly as a new show).  The Americans is not an easy series, but it may have great pay off.  Is it grabbing us enough, though?  Hit the jump for more.

The Americans capitalizes on two great American loves: spy thrillers, and stickin’ it to our old Cold War foe, the former Soviet Union.  It’s not all as simple as that, though, since the protagonists are, indeed, Russian, and they are here to fight against all things Americans.  But The Americans combines elements from two of the best shows currently on TV, Breaking Bad (with the hidden darkness of seemingly vanilla suburbanites with close encounters with federal agents) and Homeland (embedded terrorist sleeper agents) yet comes up with a few twists of its own.  The show came out with a strong pilot that sets up much to come — hit the jump for more on the premiere and why “the moon is nothing, getting into space is the real accomplishment!”

The Americans is FX’s new period drama about the complex and complicated marriage of two KGB spies posing as Americans in suburban Washington, D.C., shortly after Ronald Reagan was elected President.  Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth (Keri Russell) have a network of spies and informants under their control, while their two children – 13-year-old Paige (Holly Taylor) and 10-year-old Henry (Keidrich Sellati) – know nothing about their parents’ true identity.  Even though Philip’s growing affinity for America’s values and way of life leads to tension with Elizabeth, the two must work together to keep their new FBI agent neighbor (Noah Emmerich) from discovering who they really are.

During this recent interview with Keri Russell, the actress talked about why she thinks her character will be relatable for viewers, what she knew about her character’s backstory, how her dance background really helps her with the stunts and fight scenes, what it’s like to have the show set in the ‘80s, working with co-star Matthew Rhys, and that the relationship between their characters will be a huge element of the story.  She also talked about what attracted her to the feature film Austenland, about a woman so obsessed with the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice that she travels to a Jane Austen theme park, in search of her perfect gentleman.  Check out what she had to say after the jump.

A trailer for the sci-fi thriller Dark Skies has just been released.  The movie centers on a family who become the victims of disturbing supernatural events that wreak havoc on their bodies and minds.  The trailer bills itself as being from the producers of Paranormal Activity and Insidious, and these producers force us to ask: “Is any suburban, middle-class home truly safe?”  Even though I hadn’t been paying much attention to this movie, it looks like there’s some genuinely creepy stuff in this flick, and it would almost keep me guessing if the malevolent force was ghosts or aliens if the title hadn’t given it away.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film stars Keri Russell, Josh Hamilton, Dakota Goyo, Kadan Rockett, and J.K. Simmons.  Dark Skies opens February 22, 2013.