Douglas & Lorre talk aging in H’wood for new comedy

‘Fitting end’ to ‘House of Cards’?

LOS ANGELES, July 30, (RTRS): Chuck Lorre’s comedies (“Mom,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “Young Sheldon”) have tackled a wide range of subjects — and now he’s turning his focus to aging.

In his new comedy for Netflix, “The Kominsky Method,” Michael Douglas (Sandy Kominsky) and Alan Arkin (Norman Newlander) star as two friends — a once-famous star and his longtime agent — tackling life’s curveballs as they navigate their later years in Los Angeles.

“The show began because of my desire to write about what I’m living, which is getting older and entropy and the decay of the flesh,” said Lorre in a panel at the Television Critics Assn press tour in Beverly Hills on Sunday.

“It has to be funny, otherwise it’s heartbreaking. There’s loss of loved ones and how it affects your relationships and friendships. How do you respond to a culture that feels like it’s moving away from you? That was the impetus for the show — to do all that, and hopefully have some comedy involved.”

“I love the fact that Chuck finds aging a humorous process,” said Douglas. Quipped Lorre, “We talk a lot about prostates.”

The eight-episode series, which was announced last summer and will launch Nov 16, not only marks Lorre’s foray into single cam, as well as Douglas’ first role for television since he starred in “The Streets of San Francisco” in the 1970s. He has also been nominated for five Emmy Awards, winning outstanding lead actor for the Liberace biopic “Behind the Candelabra.”

Douglas, who had never worked with Arkin before, said he learned a lot about comedic timing from the Second City alum. “Mr Lorre here is not a bad writer to say the least,” said Douglas. “I think we both enjoyed having the best dialogue we’ve had in a long time.”

Douglas says he was drawn to the script because of Lorre’s writing, as well as the opportunity to play comedy. I’m attracted to the foibles. The mix of comedy and tragedy is what attracted Douglas to the part. “I do try to pick projects that resonate with me,” he said. “I certainly understand Sandy Kominsky and some of the stuff that he’s going through.”

He also said he’s grown frustrated with the feature business. “The movies that I used to do, the character-driven indie movies, I was frustrated with the lack of distribution. You’d end up watching the moves play in a theater for 7 days and go right to streaming,” said Douglas. “So I love this medium of streaming.”

Lorre admitted he faced a learning curve in adapting to the single cam format after years of producing some of TV’s most successful multicams. “The process of making a small movie every week is a lot slower,” he said. “I had a lot to adjust to.”

There’s not a lot of silence in a four-camera show, he said; there’s also no music or scoring. “I needed to learn a lot in a hurry to make this adjustment,” said Lorre.

Lorre said he never considered taking the show to broadcast, given the freedom from commercial breaks and time constraints conveyed by Netflix. (The pilot of Kominsky clocks in at 32 minutes.) “What a luxury to not have the time and the story be determined by an arbitrary number,” he said.

But ultimately, Lorre said, it all comes down to comedy. “Getting an audience to laugh is a wonderful thing,” said Lorre.

The series is written by Al Higgins, David Javerbaum and Lorre, who also directed the first episode. Lorre, Higgins and Douglas also executive produce the series, which hails from Warner Bros Television.

A Netflix Inc executive promised on Sunday a “fitting end” to the streaming service’s acclaimed political drama “House of Cards” but did not divulge how the series wrote out scandal-tainted star Kevin Spacey.

“House of Cards” put Netflix on the map as a home for original entertainment when the series debuted in 2013 starring Spacey as conniving politician Frank Underwood. The show’s coming sendoff centers on Robin Wright, who plays Frank’s devious wife, Claire.

“We’re really proud of the show, and it’s a fitting end,” Cindy Holland, vice-president of original series at Netflix, said in response to questions at a Television Critics Association event where networks promoted upcoming shows.

“We always planned for season six to be the final season, and we are proud of the work of Robin” and the rest of the cast and crew, she added. The company has not yet set a release date.

“House of Cards” upended television when Netflix released the first season’s episodes all at once to encourage online “binge viewing.” The show earned widespread critical praise.

In November 2017, Netflix quickly cut ties with Spacey after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced. Spacey has been accused by more than 20 men and has said nothing publicly about the allegations since an apology to the first accuser in October 2017.

Five years after Netflix’s gamble with “House of Cards,” the company plans to release about 700 original TV series, movies and other types of programming around the world this year. The sheer volume has led to questions about whether Netflix can keep churning out programming with a high level of quality.

“Quality and quantity are not mutually exclusive,” Holland said. “We are maintaining quality as we grow by hiring brilliant talent who are passionate about the stories they want to tell and giving them creative space.”

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LOS ANGELES: “Ozark” star and executive producer Jason Bateman spoke about the writers’ desire to ramp up the storylines in the show’s upcoming second season after the positive response to the first season.

“Any time you do something and you find out people are enjoying it, it is a huge relief and it provides great encouragement,” Bateman said at the TCA summer press tour on Sunday. “The writers, they understand the audience deserves an escalation … If there’s going to be more episodes, you don’t want redundancies.”

Bateman also talked about what motivated him to sign a multi-year first-look deal at Netflix, saying that he always admired the work done by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer have done with Imagine Entertainment and their ability to work in comedy and drama in both television and film.

“Currently Netflix covers all of that and then some,” he said. “And they also happen to be run by a group of people I’m personally really fond of. They couldn’t be more supportive and the culture there is very much the same.”

“Ozark” Season 2 continues to follow Marty Bryde (Bateman) and his family as they navigate the murky waters of life within a dangerous drug cartel. In addition to Bateman, the show also stars Laura Linney, Sofia Hublitz, Skylar Gaertner, and Julia Garner. The series is produced by Bateman’s Aggregate in association with Media Rights Capital for Netflix. children of Indian workers employed in the Emigration Check Required (ECR) countries. The Scheme is now applicable to four categories of applicants: (i) Persons of Indian Origin (ii) Non-Resident Indians (iii) Children of Indian workers working in ECR countries (including Kuwait).

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The institutions that are covered under this Scheme are:

(i) NITs, IIITs, Schools of Planning and Architecture

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Registration is now open for Experience Science for Adults. Why should kids have all the fun?! The five week programme will be held on Saturday from 10:00 am-11:30 am at the Yarmouk Cultural Centre.

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Bridge tournament is being held every Sunday and Wednesday at 20:00 hours, played at the Graduates Club, next to Kuwait Engineering Society. Interested Bridge pairs or individual players please contact Mohammed Merchant, Tel: 24815622, 24841158, 99612287.