22nd December 2015 - News Updates, Xena stars on TV
The latest on the Xena reboot movie is that apparently a writer has been hired. Javier Grillo-Marxuach has written for Charmed, Medium and Lost and co-presents that rather fab 'Children of Tendu' podcast about how to be a TV writer. For me, this is good news - someone with a good track record and an experienced writer. Of course, I would rather it was RJ Stewart, Steve Sears or Liz Friedman but we will see.

A little article today on what some of the Xena staff and stars have been upto lately as several of them are flourishing! The aforementioned Liz Friedman, Rose McIver, Shiri Appleby, Marton Csokas, Manu Bennett and of course Bruce and Lucy!

Bruce Campbell and Lucy Lawless are having fun back in New Zealand with Ash vs the Evil Dead for RenPics that is airing on Starz right now. This half hour comedy/horror began really strongly with a Sam Raimi directed episode and has a lot of the old Xena team on board. Joe LoDuca is scoring the music. Michael Hurst is part of the directing roster and Chloe Smith and Rick Jacobson are also part of the production team. Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert are producing. The show has already been picked up for a second season.

My favourite new show of this year has been Marvel's Jessica Jones on Netflix, and there is a Xena connection there too as Liz Friedman, longtime Xena writer/producer is a producer on Jessica Jones too. A dark, gritty and gripping 13 part series, Krysten Ritter and David Tennant star and it is definitely worth your Netflix subs. Well done Liz.

The 5th season of Xena is generally considered to be the worst by fans, and while Lucy was off being pregnant, they were forced to find alternate storylines. We can never forgive Married with Fishsticks but Little Problems did have one thing going for it - young Rose McIver, so its been great to see her hit the big time in Hollywood. She was great on 'Masters of Sex' last year and now she is starring on 'iZombie' from 'Veronica Mars' writer Rob Thomas. Rose plays Liv, a young doctor who becomes a zombie and now works with the coroner's office. When she eats the brain of a murder victim, she can see through their eyes. The show is a lot of fun and Rose is great!

She was truly horrible on Xena as Tara in Unforgiven and A Tale of Two Muses but Shiri Appleby is just FANTASTIC on Lifetime's 'unREAL' a dark comedy drama about the behind the scenes shenanigans on a reality show called Everlasting - something very like 'The Bachelor.' Shiri plays down on her luck but talented producer Rachel, forced to 'handle' the contestants and it is just wonderful!

Back in S5's Antony and Cleopatra he was Jon Bennett, but as Manu Bennett he got himself noticed on Spartacus with Lucy Lawless and was especially great as the big bad Slade Wilson on Arrow last year. He has also appeared in 'The Hobbit' movies.'

Marton Csokas has a very successful career post-Xena and his latest show is Quinn on Amazon Prime, the matial arts epic 'Into the Badlands.' I must admit, I only watched the first few minutes as it wasn't my sort of thing though. Still, the show is pretty popular.

One of the whackiest but most fun shows of last year was 'Galavant' and former Eli, Tim Omundson is absolutely hilarious as the evil king Richard! He sings, he dences, he has Vinnie Jones as a sidekick! Totally daft but I really loved it. 'Galavant' is returning for a second season in January 2016.

Danielle Cormack was always a good actress on Xena, but as Bea Smith in the updated Prisoner: Cell Block H - Wentworth, she just kills it (excuse the pun!) Bea is an iconic character for many of us, but Wentworth has gone much much darker than PCBH's campy drama - great though it was. Dani barely cracks a smile as Bea has terrible tragedy after terrible tragedy thrown at her. The show is grim but great and Dani's brilliant performance is at the core.

Charles Mesure has had plenty of work in Hollywood too. He was the pirate Blackbeard on 'Once Upon a Time' and also cropped up on 'Castle' and 'Girlfriend's Guide to Divorce' this year.

Other quickies: Karl Urban (Caesar) continues to be Bones in the Star Trek films. He also appeared on TV last year in 'Almost Human' a show I managed about 5 minutes of before being bored!

Craig Parker (Bellerophon) has popped up on a few shows recently (but not ones I watch!) He's been on 'Reign', 'NCIS' and 'Sleepy Hollow'

Zoe Bell continues to be a Quentin Tarentino favourite and is in his new movie 'The Hateful Eight' out soon.