Author: Kate Stanhope

September 22, 2016 8:30am PT by Kate Stanhope

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“We discovered it didn’t work so well for our show to spend a lot of time out of the hospital on personal stories,” co-showrunner Diane Frolov tells THR. “It didn’t seem to fit our rhythm.”

Chicago Med scrubs in for season two on a new night – Thursdays at 9 p.m. – with several new faces set to check in (Elementary‘s Ato Essandoh and 90210‘s Mekia Cox) as well as new positions for several of Chicago Medical’s finest docs. However, for everything that’s changed on the NBC drama, much is the same when the Dick Wolf-produced series returns for its sophomore season.

Ahead of Thursday’s return, The Hollywood Reporter spoke with showrunners Andrew Schneider and Diane Frolov about what they learned from season one, what’s coming up for the core characters and their thoughts on tackling the Zika virus.

Going into the second season, what kind of changes can viewers expect?

Diane Frolov: We’re, of course, delving into the characters even more so we’re going to find out about Dr. Charles and meet his daughter.

Andrew Schneider: We’re going to meet some of Ethan’s family

Frolov: There’s a triangle, obviously with Natalie, Will and Jeff.

Schneider: But also, some of the doctors will have new roles which will affect how we see them working. Ethan will now be the chief resident, so he will have certain administrative duties he didn’t have before. Connor is starting his fellowship as a cardiothoracic surgeon, and there will be a big surprise for Sarah Reese. She was still footloose at the end of last season.

Frolov: Also, in terms of Connor, we have a new mentor for him because Dr. Downey died. He’s going to be coping with a new teacher…

Schneider: …who’s very different from his last mentor.

When you started writing for season two, were there things you saw that worked well in season one, or conversely, things that maybe you thought didn’t work the way you expected? How was that part of the process?

Frolov: We discovered it didn’t work so well for our show to spend a lot of time out of the hospital on personal stories. It didn’t seem to fit our rhythm. … Other shows do that, but it didn’t feel like it worked for what we were doing.

Schneider: What always seems best for us if we can discover our characters’ personal lives and pasts through the cases that they’re working on.

Colin Donnell mentioned that the show expands outside of the ER more this season. Do you agree with that assessment? What motivated that shift?

Frolov: That allows us to follow a story through because usually in the ER, you come in and you go out. You’re either bumped to a floor or you’re released. So our doctors follow their patients through their stories, and that automatically takes us to other floors. We also have Connor now, who is doing heart surgery so he’s in a different department.

Schneider: His cases often come through the ER so let’s say Natalie might do the intake on a patient but she sends the patient up to cardiothorapy so then he and Natalie work together on the patient.

Frolov: She’s following through with the patient so she’s up there.

Schneider: We’re going to see some of Charles’ psych ward. We’re going to expand that a little bit.

Frolov: There’s a psychiatric residency that opens up and he asks Sarah to be the resident so she’s a psych resident.

Schneider: So she’s going to have a big learning curve from someone who was, at one point, wanted to be a pathologist and now is going to wind up training to be a psychiatrist. … It brings up her own psychological issues, which she’s been very good at keeping down so it’s going to be both a learning curve and a growing experience for her both emotionally and professionally.

Frolov: Charles too is going to have to reveal some of his skeletons. Because those things inform his decisions at times, and maybe they shouldn’t, and so her presence brings that to the forefront.

What can you say about the introduction of Dr. Charles’ family members?

Schneider: His oldest daughter, who’s in her mid-twenties, is an epidemiologist who will start working at the hospital. He has a complex relationship with her because when she was a little girl, he was divorcing her mom…

Frolov: …And he was also going through his first depression.

Schneider: So he has issues not related to her, but about feeling his own inadequacy as a father at that time in his life. The way he has to rediscover his relationship with his daughter, we also meet his youngest daughter, who’s eight years old and who is part of a generation that he is trying to understand.

The Dr. Downey storyline and the debate about the right to die at the end of the first season was very interesting. What made you want to explore that and what can you say are the repercussions of that for Connor looking ahead?

Frolov: He’s asked that question in the first episode by his mentor.

Schneider: It’s always going to be a question and it may come back in some ways but his relationship with Downey is always sort of present in him. Downey was the father he never had.

How will that loss impact him in season two?

Frolov: In a way, he’s more on his own now because he doesn’t have that father figure anymore. He’s truly thrown into the fire.

Schneider: And you have to deal with a very different personality type in his new boss and it’s just very challenging. He doesn’t have the kind of emotional support that he had from Downey, he’s challenged in ways that he hadn’t expected, but he’s determined to be a great surgeon.

Frolov: He has to face, at times, his inadequacies and what he needs to learn.

What can you say is coming up for Will?

Frolov: He has a big financial obstacle. We find out that when you become an attending physician in a hospital, you have to pay your own malpractice so because he was sued, he has a huge malpractice bill to pay. On top of that, as soon as you become an attending, you have to start paying off your medical school loans. So he’s hit, in the first episode, with these two financial realities. So he’s going to have to moonlight and do other things. It’s a pressure on him.

Schneider: Since he’s now an attending physician, he has to assume the role of the responsible, teaching doctor which is very much against his nature. He has to sort of make the residents and medical students toe the line in terms of protocol and that’s who he’s been.

Frolov: So it’s a big role-reversal for him.

What can you say about him and Natalie going forward?

Schneider: He’s going to start a new romance, but his feelings for Natalie will always be there. So that relationship continues to be very important although in this season. Natalie… there is a triangle with Jeff Clarke. We’ll still be looking at the Will-Natalie relationship, but at the same time, they are going to have separate relationships.

What do you think the Jeff Clarke character offers for Natalie that will doesn’t? What brings them together?

Schneider: He reminds her of better times.

Frolov: She’s at ease with him. He comes from the same kind of background as her deceased husband, the military, so he’s very familiar to her and kind of safe.

What do you think the Jeff character adds that wasn’t there before?

Schneider: It’s always great to have a med student there because they’re really learning and they can be sort of the eyes and the ears of the audience.

Frolov: What’s fun is that, again, we’re reversing a role here, because Sarah really knew very little. She was really a newbie, but Jeff is quite experienced because of his past as a firefighter and his past in the army, so he’s very eager and knowledgeable. So it’s quite different than Sarah. But that in itself can cause friction and causes friction with Will, who wants people to stay to their roles.

Schneider: He always wants to jump in and take over and that’s not his position as a medical student.

Moving on to Goodwin, there was a big change for her personally at the end of season one. What is her emotional state going into season two?

Frolov: She is going to, initially, grieve a bit for her marriage, but she will have to go on. And we’re going to arc her personal life in a different direction, where she gets to express another side of herself in a new relationship.

Is it safe to say this new person is someone at the hospital?

Schneider: He does do something in the hospital. She meets him through the hospital and through Connor.

Ethan struggled with PTSD and now he’s the chief resident, dealing with more pressure and responsibility. What will that PTSD struggle look like going forward?

Frolov: He’s resolved a lot of those issues as we come into it. What’s kind of fun with him is he wants to bring his military expertise and organizational skills to the hospital. So in the first episode, we see him attempting to do that. We’re also going to see the Navy sends Corpsmen to the emergency wards in Chicago to learn about treating gunshot wounds.

Schneider: Ethan will be part of that program, he will be mentoring Navy Corpsmen, and he also continues his relationship with Vicky and so we like to reflect his military training in stories.

Another big event at the end of season one was April’s tuberculosis diagnosis. What is the next step of that?

Frolov: She’s got a long road with that. As we come back, you know her TB is latent.

Schneider: So she can work, but there will always be the question of, will it remain latent or will it become active? In which case, she’ll have to move to the hospital in isolation.

Frolov: It’s affecting her relationship – in fact we will find out she doesn’t stay over at Tate’s house anymore. Her fear is that she will give it to him and to his son so its affecting their relationship.

How does that affect her as a nurse?

Frolov: We’ll see that it’s really deeply affecting her. She’s constantly being checked and she is not contagious but it’s still eats at her. And the story develops further and it becomes active at some point.

What made you want to tackle TB on the show?

Frolov: it’s fairly common.

Schneider: It’s a growing issue….

Frolov: …with health care professionals that they get these things.

Schneider: And TB is a very hard disease to manage. If you don’t stay on your meds for the proper length of time, it can develop into a resistant strain.

Frolov: So it’s something we were attracted to, because we wanted to show that these people sacrifice a lot doing what they do, and they’re vulnerable to a lot of things that we don’t even think about.

One issue that was in the headlines this summer with the Olympics was Zika. Is that something you’re planning or hoping to address on the show?

Frolov: We might. In some ways, our TB story with April touches on some of the issues that Zika does because the treatment for… TB can be damaging to a fetus. So I’ll just throw that out there. (Laughs.) What I’m saying is some of those things we’re playing with April – we don’t want to play the same beat and the same issues with the Zika virus.

Chicago Med‘s second season premieres Thursday at 9 p.m. on NBC.

Chicago Med

September 21, 2016 7:00pm PT by Kate Stanhope

Chuck Hodes/FOX

‘Empire’ showrunner Ilene Chaiken breaks down the many big moments from the hip-hop drama’s season 3 premiere including a major character death.

[Warning: This story contains spoilers from Wednesday’s season three premiere of Empire, “Light in Darkness.”]

After leaving fans wondering about the fate of Rhonda (Kaitlin Doubleday) and Anika (Grace Byers) all summer, Empire wasted no time answering that very question in true series fashion.

After the season two finale ended with the two women fighting on a balcony, it was revealed that it was Rhonda who fell off the balcony of the high-rise building and died. Moments into the season three premiere, Lucious (Terrence Howard) and Jamal (Jussie Smollett) left the hotel just as Rhonda’s body fell with a thud on top of their car, her lifeless eyes staring at them as blood trickled out of her mouth. Her husband, Andre (Trai Beyers) was left standing on the balcony screaming “No,” at the top of his lungs right before turning angrily to Anika. The stress caused her go to into early labor, and she delivered a beautiful baby girl – yes, not a boy as she originally had told the Lyons – with new husband Lucious by her side.

Suffice it to say, Empire kicked off its third season with quite a few bangs. The Hollywood Reporter spoke with showrunner Ilene Chaiken about Andre’s “dramatic journey” ahead, the decision to reference the Orlando shooting in the premiere and why viewers haven’t seen the last of Rhonda.

Can you talk me through how you and the writers came to the decision to kill off Rhonda and not Anika? What was the thinking behind that?

All I can say about that, because we love both of those actors, and we love both of those characters and in terms of losing one or the other from the show, it was an inconceivable to us that either one of them wouldn’t be in the show. But we knew that somebody died on that balcony in that moment and so we just had to look and say, “Who? Who died?” And this was the story. I want to give you a disingenuous answer and say, it told itself, but I think as you know having seen the episode, Rhonda dies but she’s not out of the show. I’m not going to say how long that convention persists, but it’s an important part of Andre’s story and his psyche and it really tells the story of his state of mind. And we were excited by it, not just because we didn’t want to let go of Kaitlin, but because it felt very, very real and right to us.

Certainly, everything that we set up for Anika, was designed to promise this season. In other words, Lucious marrying Anika in that kind of shotgun way at the end of season two, it would have been a shame had she died. (Laughs.) Because then we never would have gotten to really pay that off so I guess that, more than anything, was how that decision got made.

So Andre will definitely deal with these hallucinations beyond the first episode?

Rhonda does not go away immediately, that’s true.

Watch Empire‘s tribute to the late Rhonda below:

How does this loss impact Andre going forward? From the beginning of the show, it feels like so much of their identities were wrapped up in each other.

As you said, their identities were wrapped up in each other so this is an enormous change for him. This is a complete resetting of his life, his function, his state of mind, his goals and there will be things that happen to him going forward and beginning with the next episode that push him even further. He has a very, very dramatic journey this season, Andre does, and the loss of Rhonda is just the beginning of it.

The other big moment in the premiere was Anika giving birth, at which point we learn she lied about the sex of the baby. However, Lucious still really takes to the child. He puts his own name on the birth certificate and acts more like a father than a grandfather. Why is that?

We’ve already established that Lucious actually has a soft spot for babies, and that legacy means a great deal to him. One of the reasons that Anika is even still alive, and apart of the family at all, is because she was carrying that grandchild that Lucious wanted so desperately, so we knew the importance of that baby to him early on in season two. And now, here she is and she’s going to continue to be central to Lucious’ thoughts about his own legacy, but she also is Hakeem’s child and she represents, for Hakeem, his struggling to regain his dignity, his respect, his adulthood and it’s a carrot that Lucious dangles for him because, as always, Lucious is in control far more than he should be.

What can you say about Lucious and Anika going forward?

They’re in a difficult situation. They’re two people who are forced to live a charade under one roof, I should say there are three people because Leah is living under that roof too. (Laughs.) And there’s no love lost between any of them and the dynamics among them are twisted and corrupt in every way.

Lucious’ mom played a big role in the premiere. What do you think that character adds to the show that wasn’t there before?

Apart from her just being a fabulous presence, and a fabulous character and a thrilling actress, Leslie Uggams, to be working with, there’s nobody else that affects Lucious the way she does. She’s his kryptonite. Cookie has a powerful effect on Lucious but nobody discombobulates him in the way his mother does.

Someone asked Lucious early in the episode, “What is a king without his queen?” What can you say about that exploration and his fractured relationship with Cookie this season?

It’s one of Lucious’ season-long drives to win Cookie back. He loves her so deeply and profoundly, and it’s about more than just love, it’s also just simply represents his kingdom and the consolidation of power to him. But Lucious will spend virtually the entire season in one way or another, fighting for Cookie. He’s fighting against her at the same time, but he’s always fighting to somehow get her back.

What can you say about Cookie’s journey?

Cookie’s story this year [is] a very big story for Cookie, and it’s a very different story from any we’ve told for her. In this premiere, we’re just setting the stage for her. She came out of prison in the pilot and said, “Cookie’s back, I’m here to get what’s mine,” thinking that what that meant was: “I’m going to get my family back and Lucious back and everything that I lost, I’m just going to it all back together and regained what I lost for 17 years.” And she’s finally come to a harsh realization that maybe that’s never going to happen and she has to start over in some ways. They’re all fighting for her empire; the music is her’s, she believes in it, and she’s going to fight Lucious for it – to control the music of Empire. But as far as her own life is concerned, she’s going to try to start over, to take a different path. What I would say to you about Cookie’s story is that it’s a Pygmalion story, which is exciting to us. We’ve never told a story like that for Cookie, in which, again, she’s a fish out of water, trying to find her way in a world that’s unfamiliar to her.

It’s been hinted this is the political world and will involve Taye Diggs’ character. What can you say about Empire’s dive into the political realm and telling that story?

We already know that Lucious dabbles, he’s friends with Obama. It’s not outside of our world, the world of entertainment certainly intersects with the world of politics so that enables us to tell stories that cross in all kinds of organic ways. But this is a love story, this is a story about Cookie torn between two men and the fight for her heart and her own battle within herself to try and choose a path that maybe she could have chosen a long time ago and maybe would have spared her a lot of heartache. Can she possibly make that choice after all that she’s been through with Lucious?

The premiere had a big flashback to when Cookie and Lucious first met. Why did you think it was important to show that?

It’s thematic for the entire season. Those flashbacks will continue through the entire season and they, thematically, reflect the story that we’re telling in the present that I was just talking about –the story between Lucious and Cookie and Angelo, the Taye Diggs character. We’re calling the flashback story ‘When Cookie Met Lucious,’ and it’s a story we’ll tell all season long and it gets picked up in a lot of different threads in our season. I think that it’s a defining story for Empire in season three, when Cookie met Lucious.

Jamal has a mini breakdown when he’s about perform and is forced to leave the stage. How does his PTSD and the aftermath of being shot weigh on him this season? How will he deal with that going forward?

That’s very much Jamal’s story for the season. The whole season is his story of recovery and it’s a musical recovery, it’s a health recovery and it’s a recovery of values. Thematically, this season is really built around this notion of dark versus light, the battle for the soul of the Lyon family, Lucious is dark, Jamal is light, and Jamal is determined to change the narrative of the family and to get the rest of the family to follow him towards leading a better and less tormented life. He’s urging his father to leave the family, but if Lucius won’t leave then he’ll take Lucious on and he’ll fight for the souls of his brothers and Cookie and Jamal will be very much on the side of light more or less versus Lucious, who is determined to prove that nobody is better than he is.

What drives Jamal towards that particular goal?

Well I think that it’s very inherent in Jamal’s character. Jamal has always been one of the most beloved characters on the show and somebody who really has a heart. It really is crystallized in the events that occurred in the last two episodes of season two. After Jamal was shot and Frieda went to jail, I think Jamal has become fixated on this idea that the family is going down a very dark path and that these kinds of dark choices have determined too much who they are and how they compose themselves and that’s what he’s determined to change. I think getting shot is a fairly understandable catalyzing moment for a life choice like that.

I have to ask about the song that he and Nessa (Sierra McClain) sing in the premiere, “Need Freedom,” because it touches on a lot of timely events that happened this summer like the Orlando shooting. How did you and the writers decide to address gun violence in the premiere and to specifically address it in this kind of way?

It’s really what Jamal does and it’s what his music… in this episode, actually in the finale of last season, but again in this episode, he capitulates his intention to only make music that’s going to make the world better, that’s going to bring light to the world. He wants to end the cycle of violence in his family and in the world at large and that’s what his music is about and he feels connected to all of these events that he sings about. And that’s the impetus for that song for him, for the creation of the song.

But what was the conversation like in the writer’s room to tackle these topics on the show?

The conversations were just that – that this is what drives Jamal in this season and he’s not without flaws., he’s not without missteps and he’s got some drama in his life certainly. He’s compelled to continue to drive towards the light. And it really will be reflected both in his music and in his actions.

The show famously took on “Black Lives Matter” in the season two premiere. Are there other ways you plan to address these topical issues in future episodes? What can you say?

These are the stories of the lives of our characters. We don’t view it as taking on an issue so much as we view it as telling a story that’s going to affect the lives of the characters in this show. We definitely will be telling stories that evoke all of those themes and issues. I think some much more explicitly than others and it will be clear when we tell those stories what we’re talking about, yeah.

Bre-Z, who recurred as Freda last season, is listed as a series regular for season three. However, she doesn’t appear in the premiere and she ended last season behind bars after shooting Jamal. What was behind the decision to bring back that character and what kind of role will she play going forward?

She went to jail and that’s where she starts and that’s part of the story. She’s still very much in Jamal’s mind, she’s in our world, and we’re taking our time. I think that we don’t see Freda until episode four and in keeping with this kind of ethos of this show, we’re really telling our stories and finding these characters where they are, when they come into our stories and we don’t feel compelled to service everyone at every moment. Freda has an important story in season three. It’s thematic. It really goes to what Jamal is dealing with in his story of recovery and all the things he is grappling with, and when that story gets activated, Freda returns to the narrative.

Empire airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on Fox.

Empire

September 21, 2016 9:02am PT by Kate Stanhope

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The series will be based on Dave Marsh’s book on the “Jailhouse Rock” singer, ‘Elvis.’

Elvis Presley is the latest famous figure to get the small screen treatment.

The late singer is the focus of a limited series in the works at Weinstein Television, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

TWC has struck a deal with Presley’s estate that grants them rights to Presley’s extensive musical catalogue and will also allow the production to be the first to shoot in Presley’s Graceland home. Production will also have access to his cars, clothes and other items.

The eight-to-10 part series will be based on Dave Marsh’s book about the “Jailhouse Rock” singer, titled Elvis. As part of the deal with the singer’s estate, production will have access to Presley’s archives, which include his personal journals. A writer and network are not yet attached to the project.

Presley’s ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, will exec produce with Jerry Schilling, Harvey Weinstein and David Glasser.

“I’m a big fan of Harvey Weinstein’s independent films,” said Priscilla Presley. “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to work with him on this show and tell the story of how Elvis changed the culture of music and initiated a revolution that changed the world.”

Added Weinstein: “To this day, Elvis is one of the few that lives up to the word ‘icon’. He is one of the most celebrated entertainers of all time whose influence surpasses the music he created. People’s fascination with his story goes beyond the stage and this biopic will pay homage to his brilliant legacy and give viewers an in-depth look at how he became ‘The King.'”

The deal was negotiated by David Glasser and Sarah Sobel on behalf of TWC and Corey Salter, Marc Rosen and Pamela Bebry on behalf of Authentic Brands Group, the owner of Elvis Presley Enterprises, LLC. Megan Spanjian, who oversees scripted television for TWC, will oversee the project.

“We are excited to work with Harvey Weinstein and the team on this special project,” Authentic Brands Group Chairman and CEO Jamie Salter, said. “Partnering with producers of this caliber enables us to provide viewers with a new and original experience that is as captivating as the King himself.”

This will not be the first TV project to center on the legendary musician. In 2005, Jonathan Rhys Meyers played Presley in a two-part miniseries for CBS — a role for which he won a Golden Globe. Presley still stands as the best-selling solo artist of all time, with estimated sales north of 600 million. The singer, who also starred in several films at the height of his popularity, died in 1977 at the age of 42.

The Weinstein Company’s other TV projects include Netflix’s historical drama Marco Polo, which TWC co-produces with the streaming giant and unscripted entry Project Runway, as well as upcoming projects such as Sylvester Stallone and Antoine Fuqua’s Omerta and a TV adaptation of Les Miserable, which its co-producing with the BBC.

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