(KGET) — There were two things that attracted executive producer Thomas Benski to the new AMC+ series, “Gangs of London.” The first one was the name and the second was the potential to redefine the gangster genre in London through a series loosely based on a video game released in 2006.
“It felt like there was an opportunity to create a bit of a new language, one that was much more diverse, much more multiethnic. And a video game gave us that jump-off point,” Benski says.
The 10-episode season that launches Oct. 1 on the premium channel revolves around the aftermath of a veteran crime boss who has been killed. It’s up to the impulsive Sean Wallace (Joe Cole), with the help of the Dumani family to take his father’s place. Wallace’s assumption of power causes ripples in the world of international crime.
“Gangs of London”dives deep into the dark world of crime and corruption that is full of violence. It was created by award-winning filmmaker Gareth Evans and his creative partner Matt Flannery. Evans was the writer on the action-heavy “Raid” movies while Flannery was the cinematographer.
Both will bring their background in dealing with complicated action sequences to “Gangs of London.” They will be trying to accomplish this without the benefit of the highly trained martial artists who started in the “Raid” films.
Evans says, “I mean it’s obviously going to be a different experience. I mean, you know, Iko and the boys that I worked with on ‘The Raid’ were martial artists from birth.
“We were very, very pleasantly surprised and we reached moments during the rehearsal times and during the shoot of the action where, I think, myself and Jude Poyer, stunt coordinator on the show, both kept looking at each other and being like, ‘We have no right to be giving some of these actions beats to fundamentally an actor.’ And there were moments definitely during the shoot where what we were getting in the camera was so good that I stopped treating Sopé (Dìrísù) as an actor, in a way, and I kept treating him as a fighter.”
The first three episodes of “Gangs of London” will be available on Oct. 1 with new episodes debuting weekly on Thursdays.
“The Comedy Store”
Comedian Mike Binder has put together the five-part series, “The Comedy Store,” that takes a look at the iconic club on Sunset Strip that was run by career-maker Mitzi Shore. Her club became the launching pad for the likes of Richard Pryor, Sam Kinison, Freddie Prinze, Jim Carrey and Jimmy Walker. It debuts on the premium channel Showtime at 10 p.m. Oct. 4.
Binder was deeply familiar with the club’s history before he started filming, having started working there when he was 18. What he saw was a place where the only thing that mattered was a person’s ability to create laughs.
“One of the great things for me is that I learned so much about life there. Mitzi Shore was a really special woman from my point of view. First of all, she was so ahead of her time. She was a woman in charge long before other women were in charge,” Binder says. “And she was into diversity 25, 30 years before anyone was talking about diversity, because The Comedy Store, it was really about who was funny.
“It just wasn’t about diversity. We were our own minority. We were just comedians. And my friends were Damon Wayans and the Wayans brothers and Chris Rock, and my heroes were Richard Pryor.”
The series looks at The Comedy Store’s nearly five decade history through footage of trailblazers like Pryor, Kinison and Prinze combined with interviews with David Letterman, Jay Leno, Chris Rock, Andrew Dice Clay, Joe Rogen, Whitney Cummings, Jimmy Walker, Michael Keaton, Jim Carrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Marc Maron, Damon Wayans, Bill Burr and Byron Allen.
Burr remembers in great detail his first experience at The Comedy Store. He was in the middle of his first time on stage when he heard Shore’s voice over the crowd say that he wasn’t ready. He moved back to New York a few days later.
“About four, five years later, I came back out there and I did a set in the main room. And it was funny. At that point, I was like I’m living in New York. I don’t care if I’m in this club. Of course I did, but I was telling myself I didn’t,” Burr says.
After he was done, Shore told Burr he was very funny. That meant a lot to him considering all of the talent she had seen over the years.
The Link LonkSeptember 29, 2020 at 01:18AM
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‘Gangs’ action packed; ‘Comedy Store’ historically funny - KGET 17
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