2012:DECEMBER, NOVEMBER, OCTOBER, SEPTEMBER, AUGUST,JULY, JUNE, MAY, APRIL, MARCH, FEBRUARY, JANUARY, 2011
'ALMOST HUMAN' PREVIEW
Fox released the first look at their new series, "Almost Human" which is expected to air Mondays on Fox in the US this fall:
Additionally, the network released the following promo photos:
'ALMOST HUMAN' PICKED UP BY FOX
"Almost Human", the new drama from JJ Abrams, is one of four pilots picked up by Fox for the US 2013-2014 TV season. The previously untitled series sees Mackenzie alongside Karl Urban and Lili Taylor. You can read the summary from ZAP2IT.COM below:
"'Almost Human' from the "Fringe" team of J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk and J.H. Wyman stars Karl Urban and Michael Ealy in an action-packed buddy cop drama, set in the near future, when all LAPD officers are partnered with highly evolved human-like androids...Michael Irby and Minka Kelly co-star."
THE VULTURE: Game of Thrones’ Mackenzie Crook on Playing an Eagle and Climbing Fake Ice Walls
Excerpt from The Vulture's interview below, full article HERE.
"When Mackenzie Crook first got the part of Orell on Game of Thrones, he started looking up just who this character was and how he fit into the story in the third season — only to be bewildered ("I'm playing an eagle?"). Orell, in the A Song of Ice and Fire books, was a wildling skinchanger who could share the consciousness and control the actions of an animal — in his case, an eagle. But when Jon Snow killed his human body, Orell's spirit was trapped in the eagle, which Game of Thrones recently referenced with Jon Snow's line "What happens to your eagle after I kill you?" "I love that line," Crook laughed. Crook's version of Orell, then, is something altogether new, and it's a role he relishes, after playing the geeky Gareth on the original, British version of The Office, and the wooden-eyeball-popping Ragetti in the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Crook chatted with Vulture about eye-acting, Wall-climbing, and hot-springs-dipping.
Orell is trapped in the eagle in the books at this point in the story. Your Orell is an amalgam of him plus Varamyr Sixskins, also a skinchanger.
There's a limited amount of research I can do about warging, what it's like to do that, because obviously people can't. [Chuckles.] But it's a really interesting character to have, a really deep and thoughtful character. I'm not usually asked to play those types of guys. He's got depth, definitely. And meeting Orell, that's the first time Jon's ever heard of a warg.
When your character connects with his eagle, your head is back, your eyes are white. Contacts?
That was put in post. I just had to hold my eyes open, unblinking, which was kind of difficult in Iceland, because I was staring right into a blizzard. Snowflakes were landing on my eyeballs, but I wasn't allowed to blink for the duration of that shot. But then I've had all sorts of eye-acting experience, like in Pirates of the Caribbean, they did all manner of horrible things to my eyes, and I had to wear huge contacts in that, so I'm used to keeping my eyes open and not blinking. In Pirates, the contact lens I had for the wooden eye, there was no hole in it, so I couldn't see through it — I was blind in one eye. And that made things difficult, just because you had no depth perception. You couldn't see how close or how far away things were. And with the sword fighting, that made things dangerous!"
Continued here...
APRIL ::
ACCESS HOLLYWOOD 'GAME OF THRONES' Q & A
Access Hollywood spoke to Mackenzie Crook ahead of his Game of Thrones debut this week. He spoke about working in Iceland and his character, Orell. An excerpt is below:
Access [Hollywood]: They announced you were part of the cast last July during Comic-Con. What did people say to you after they heard the news? It must have been a relief to have finally been able to confirm you were in the show.
Mackenzie: Yeah, there was that because I was having to bite my tongue for a couple of months beforehand, so I went over to Belfast and we had this read through, the table read, which is the biggest table read I’ve ever seen. It was huge — on a banqueting table with like 100 people sitting ‘round. So there was all of that excitement and getting to meet the other cast, and being officially a member of the cast, but not being able to tell anyone. So yeah, it was a relief to be able to speak about it, but then, of course, we’re sworn to secrecy about plots and what’s going to happen and even now I have to watch what I say.
Access: So, here’s what I’ve heard from Rose Leslie and Kit Harington. You – Mackenzie — are the sweetest man ever, but Orell is a nasty piece of work. So what do you to get into character? Apparently he is not a nice guy.
Mackenzie: Yeah, it’s great to be able to play a character like that because… I’m quite often the geeky, goofy character. That’s kind of what I’m often called on to play. So to be able to play a really — I mean, I don’t think he’s evil. He’s not an evil character, but he’s very suspicious of Jon Snow and doesn’t believe him and he doesn’t like him being in the wildling group. He’s not going to give him an easy time… I don’t know how I got into character. It’s so beautifully written that you just read the lines and you know exactly where you’re supposed to be, what you’re doing. It didn’t take an awful lot of going away and thinking about the character, because it’s all there and it’s so beautifully written.
Full Interview at Access Hollywood.
MARCH ::
I AM TOM MOODY AT THE FLORIDA FILM FESTIVAL
Having just won the audience choice for short animation at the New York International Children's Film Festival, Ainslie Henderson's "I Am Tom Moody" which stars Mackenzie and his son, Jude, will make it's southeast debut at the Florida Film Festival running April 5th through the 14th. More details, here.
UNTITLED PILOT FOR BAD ROBOT
Mackenzie has joined an untitled pilot being developed for Fox by JJ Abrams's studio, Bad Robot. The pilot, planned for a fall 2013 debut has been described by Deadline.com as follows:
The buddy cop show, from Warner Bros. TV, is set in the near future when all LAPD officers are partnered with highly evolved human-like androids. It centers on one such pairing, cop John Kennex and his android partner Dorian (Michael Ealy). Irby, repped by Greene & Assoc. and Leanne Coronel, plays top LAPD Detective Richard Paul who blames Kennex for the death of fellow officers in the tragic mission that casts a pall over the department. Crook will play Rudy Lom, the eccentric and underpaid designer of the LAPD’s robotics squad.
FEBRUARY ::
GAME OF THRONES SEASON 3 TRAILER
The third season of HBO's Game of Thrones has a new trailer below. The show premieres in the US on March 31st.
UPDATE: An extended trailer for the third season has been added HERE.
MACKENZIE CROOK HELPS KICK OFF MUSWELL HILL PRIMARY'S READ-A-FUN
Full article available at Broadway Ham & High
The Pirates of the Carribean actor said he was “thrilled” to be part of the school’s Read-a-Fun, which hopes to encourage as many children as possible to get reading in the run-up to World Book Day on March 7.
Last year, Mr Crook, who can currently be seen in popular television epic Game of Thrones, published his first book The Windvale Sprites, which tells the tale of a boy, a storm, and some magical winged folk.
“By speaking about the process of writing and illustrating The Windvale Sprites, I hope to fire up the children’s imaginations,” he explained. “Anything that gets children reading and enjoying books has my approval and I wish them well in their Read-a-Fun efforts.”
Additional coverage from Haringey Independent: "School gets visit from children’s author Mackenzie Crook for fundraising day"
JANUARY ::
GAME OF THRONES VLOG: THE INTENSITY OF ICELAND
Get a first look at Mackenzie as new character Orell in this production blog from the third season of Game of Thrones:
Game of Thrones starts on HBO on March 31st in the US and on April 1st in the UK on Sky Atlantic.
BFI SHORTS 2012
As part of the BFI Shorts 2012 production scheme, Mackenzie Crook is starring alongside Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Bronagh Gallagher and Bob Goody in Jamie Stone's Orbit Ever After. Orbit Ever After tells the story of two star-crossed lovers who sacrifice everything for one perfect moment together.
DECEMBER 2012 ::
NOVEMBER ::
HBO RELEASES FIRST TEASER FOR 'GAME OF THRONES' SEASON 3
HBO released this brief teaser for Game of Thrones season 3 featuring its premier date of March 31st 2013.
OCTOBER ::
ANT MUZAK +10
Filmmaker Tim Plester has posted this "celebratory look at the making-of cult comedy short 'Ant Muzak'" which featured Mackenzie as Adam and the Ants drummer, Gary Tibbs:
SEPTEMBER ::
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MACKENZIE JOINS PAUL POTTS BIOPIC, 'ONE CHANCE'
Mackenzie will be joining Julie Walters and James Corden in director David Frankel's (The Devil Wears Prada) 'One Chance,' a biopic about Paul Potts, the winner of the first series of Britain's Got Talent. The film is currently in pre-production. One Chance on IMDB.
AUGUST ::
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CHEERFUL WEATHER FOR THE WEDDING U.S. TRAILER & DISTRIBUTION
VARIETY: "IFC Films nabs 'Wedding'" IFC Films has acquired all U.S. rights to director Donald Rice's romantic comedy "Cheerful Weather for the Wedding," which had its world premiere in April at the Tribeca Film Festival.
The official US trailer can be viewed below
JULY ::
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GAME OF THRONES SEASON 3
Mackenzie will be joining the cast of HBO's Game of Thrones for its upcoming third season as Orell.
The new season is set to begin on March 13, 2013 and below you can view a video showcasing all the new cast members including Diana Rigg.
HBO Official Game of Thrones Website
JUNE
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I AM TOM MOODY
Mackenzie is voicing "a performer crippled with anxiety" in Ainslie Henderson's stop-motion animation, I Am Tom Moody, screening as part of a showcase of graduating students of the Edinburgh College of Art. Read more about the showcase here. A making-of the film can be viewed at VIMEO.
UPDATE- A trailer for the film has been added below:
MAY
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THE WINDVALE SPRITES AUDIO BOOK
APRIL
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THERESE RAQUIN
Mackenzie has joined the cast of Theresa Raquin as Grivet in Charlie Stratton's adaptation of Emile Zola's novel and play. The full cast list, which includes Elizabeth Olsen in the title role, is available here with Entertainment Weekly giving the following summary:
Set in 17th century France...Thérèse Raquin follows the title character (Elizabeth Olsen), who is stuck in a loveless marriage with her sickly first cousin (Harry Potter‘s Tom Felton). The union was arranged under the watchful eye of her oppressive aunt, Madame Raquin (Jessica Lange). When Therese enters an affair with her husband’s friend Laurent (Drive‘s Oscar Isaac), it plunges everyone’s lives into a tragic downward spiral, and the illicit couple conspire to kill Therese’s husband.
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: "Elizabeth McGovern Gets the Pre-Wedding Jitters in 'Cheerful Weather'"
The Hollywood Reporter posted the following preview clip of Cheerful Weather for the Wedding starring Elizabeth McGovern and Felicity Jones. The clip features Mackenzie's character David Dakin in the film's pre-wedding luncheon:
'Cheerful Weather' made it's premiere on April 20th at New York's Tribeca Film Festival with additional public screenings through April 28th. Full screening schedule and tickets are available through TFF's film guide.
PETER AND THE WOLF AT THE ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
GRAMOPHONE has posted a gallery from the rehearsals and performance of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf which Mackenzie Crook narrated over Easter weekend at London's Royal Festival Hall. He was joined by the Aurora Orchestra while Suzie Templeton's Oscar-winning adaptation of the piece was also played. Visit their gallery here.
MARCH
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THE GUARDIAN: 'I could go through life playing characters like Gareth but that's no challenge'
Excerpt, full interview at The Guardian:
"Having risen to fame in The Office, Crook played Ragetti in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy while making a name for himself in the theatre, most notably as Ginger, alongside Mark Rylance, in the West End and Broadway hit Jerusalem. He's currently starring in The Recruiting Officer at the Donmar Warehouse and will narrate Peter & the Wolf Live at the Southbank from 8 April.
What drew you to play Sergeant Kite in The Recruiting Officer?
I'd worked with the director, Josie Rourke, before, when I did a play at the Bush theatre. Something told her I might be right for this part so she offered it to me. It is a bit of a remove from other stuff I've done but that was the attraction. I could go through my life playing characters like Gareth out of The Office but that's no challenge and those parts would soon dry up once people got bored. Kite is a big, larger-than-life character, not the usual nerdy sidekicks that I often get. It was a role that I didn't immediately think I could do – that was why I chose to do it.
What's the atmosphere like backstage?
Compared to Jerusalem, which was incredible but quite full-on, exhausting emotionally and physically, this is just a lot more fun, a real blast. There's eight of us in one dressing room, and five girls in the other, so it's very communal. We're completely sold out and the audiences are loving it, so it's an absolute joy to do."
TFF 2012: CHEERFUL WEATHER FOR THE WEDDING
Cheerful Weather For the Wedding will make its world premiere this April at New York's Tribeca Film Festival as part of their Spotlight section. From Tribeca's website:
"The Spotlight section, co-sponsored by Cadillac and JetBlue, screens 34 films, 22 narratives and 12 documentaries that demonstrate the breadth of films at the Tribeca Film Festival. Nineteen films in the selection will have their world premieres at the Festival."
Mackenzie Crook co-stars alongside Elizabeth McGovern, Felicity Jones, and Luke Treadaway in the film whose summary can be read below:
"On the morning of her wedding, Dolly (Felicity Jones) is hiding out and dreaming of the idyllic summer before, helped along by a jug of rum. Her scatterbrained mother (Elizabeth McGovern) has perfected all the arrangements, but even she can’t prepare everyone for the arrival of Dolly’s unpredictable best friend, Joseph (Luke Treadaway). Lighthearted humor and a steamy romance add the perfect touch to a dysfunctional wedding whose key players seem anything but cheerful."
Images and more info about the film are available at CheerfulWeather.com
FEBRUARY
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PETER AND THE WOLF LIVE
Mackenzie will narrate a new version of Prokofiev's children's classic when it is performed with the Aurora Orchestra at London's Southbank Centre on April 8th & 9th.
He told The Telegraph, ''Peter And The Wolf was my favourite piece of music when I was a child and narrating this will bring back a lot of memories.
''I have always thought that Prokofiev's idea of matching instruments and characters is pure genius and I am thrilled to be part of this.''
The specially commissioned script will include poetry from Simon Armitage.
Ticketing for the event will be available here from 22 February.
THE RECRUITING OFFICER PRESS NIGHT
The Recruiting Officer opened on 14 February at the Donmar Warehouse and has received rave reviews following it's press night, here are some of the highlights:
The Telegraph: *****
Full review here
Josie Rourke’s campaign as the new artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse gets off to a tremendous start with George Farquhar’s wonderful English play about soldiers and townsfolk in early 18th century Shrewsbury...
This is one of those rare evenings when one wants to go through almost the entire cast merrily sprinkling praise and approval. The performances are almost all blessed with freshness and revealing comic detail, even in the smallest roles, and the whole show goes with a tremendous swing...
Mackenzie Crook, fresh from his success in Jerusalem, make an unforgettable Sergeant Kite, cunning, ruthless, gawkily disconcerting and never better than when he dons the disguise of a preposterous Germanic fortune teller in a scene in which the comedy lurches into wild and inventive farce...
The Financial Times: *****
Full review here
A fine ensemble bristles with enjoyable individual performances...
Crook, wily as a coyote, carries out the dirty work of tricking men and marrying wenches...
Variety
Full review here
Larky, spirited and delightful...
The comic highlight is Crook dressed, for reasons too daft to relate, as a German fortune-teller: all baleful, grandiose, hoodwinking manner and an explosion of eyeliner.
The Independent: ****
Full review here
[A] gloriously witty revival of Farquhar's great 1706 play...
[A]s ruthless recruiter Sergeant Kite, Mackenzie Crook is killingly funny as he glares through Groucho Marx eyelashes in improviser's panic in the scene where he poses as a fortune teller. Here's my prediction: this is going to be a great new regime at the Donmar.
The Guardian:****
Full review here
Unfazed, newest recruit Josie Rourke begins her reign as artistic director with a wink of candlelight, the slyest pre-show mobile phone warning ever conceived, a gurgling sense of fun, and a Restoration comedy, which is a first for the Donmar...
In a terrific comic scene played with relish by Crook, Kite indulges in a little crystal ball gazing to trick recruits in to signing up by promising glorious futures. The mendacity of the blithely amoral, greasy Kite is only matched by the extraordinary stupidity of his victims...
Rourke too proves herself a winner with this savvy, mischievous revival that is certain to drum up plenty of support for her new regime.
Express
Full review here
Rourke has assembled a host of comedic names, including Mark Gatiss (the League Of Gentlemen) and The Office's Mackenzie Crook, who all deliver excellent individual performances with sufficient theatricality for the frolicking piece this is...
Crook is wonderfully weasely, his dryness contrasting with Tobias Menzies flamboyance as the debonaire Captain Plume, while Silvia effectively draws out the essential decency in her would-be lover's character.
WhatsOnStage
Full review here
"[T]he stage, not the acting, is entirely wooden, and she somehow makes the pocket-sized arena larger, and more open, as Captain Plume (Tobias Menzies, robust and likeable) and his rat-like Sergeant Kite (Mackenzie Crook, hilariously furtive and filthy) descend on Shrewsbury to press gang soldiers for the Spanish wars..
[A] wonderful new start with a show that gives nothing but pleasure...
The Evening Standard
Full review here
[A] fresh, spirited account of a relentlessly busy play. The dominant notes are fizzy amusement and a festive sexiness...On this evidence, I'm recruited.
The Stage
Full review here
"[A] superb ensemble cast also radiates pleasure and confidence...
Mackenzie Crook also works comic wonders with Sergeant Kite...
The Arts Desk:
Full review here
This is a play that calls for an ensemble of virtuoso comics, and Rourke more than gets her quota in the cast assembled here. Crook’s rasping is a miracle of put-upon knavery, relishing the role’s obligatory “pimping, whoring, drinking and swearing”, but coming into his own in a beautifully handled set-piece as the German fortune-teller.
Additionally, Wooller.com has a gallery of the show's after party.
WHATSONSTAGE.COM: "Rourke Recruits Carroll, Crook & Gatiss for first outing"
WhatsOnStage has the first set of production photos from the Donmar Warehouse. Click the thumbnail below to view Mackenzie as Sergeant Kite:
Or click here to visit the full gallery from WhatsOnstage.
GRAHAM NORTON
Mark Gatiss and Mackenzie were on Graham Norton's Radio 2 show to discuss The Recruiting Officer and their writing as well. The show is available as a podcast here (for 30 days) or to stream via BBC iPlayer here (through 18 February).
TIME OUT LONDON
Mackenzie spoke to Time Out London about his new role in The Donmar Warehouse's The Recruiting Officer, previewing this week, among other things. Read excerpts below, visit Time Out Theatre for full article:
"There's only one moment in my conversation with Mackenzie Crook, between rehearsals for his new theatre role in 'The Recruiting Officer' when he relaxes and looks comfortable. It's when he's singing the praises of current co-star Mark Gatiss, and Gatiss bustles opportunely into the costume room, says 'I concur, I concur', and bustles out again, leaving jollity in his wake...
After the success of 'The Office' Crook could, he reckons, 'have spent the rest of my life doing those weirdo loser-type Garethy parts: I still get offered them.' Instead he decided to challenge himself, playing the depressive romantic Konstantin in Ian Rickson's farewell production at the Royal Court, Chekhov's 'The Seagull'.
He'll be swaggering even further off-type in Josie Rourke's inaugural drama at the Donmar, in which he plays to the crowd as Sergeant Kite. 'He reads like a big man,' says Crook, 'very confident, bullish, bullying and full of himself. I thought: Wow, that doesn't sound like me. It's taken a lot to strip the inhibitions away and really go for it...'
Compared to film and TV, theatre is modestly paid. But when I ask Crook if he made enough out of 'The Office' and 'Pirates of the Caribbean' to do what he likes, he laughs so much that he very nearly relaxes. 'I will still get a royalties cheque from repeats of “The Office” or DVD sales,' he says, 'but we weren't given a great deal on “Pirates of the Caribbean” so I don't see an awful lot of money from that. So no. I'm not in any position to retire and do things for the love of it. But I want to better myself as an actor, which you do by doing things like this. I'm not bothered particularly about making money. And I love my job. As long as I have enough money to feed my family then I couldn't be happier."
THE ODD COUPLE: MARK GATISS AND MACKENZIE CROOK ARE BACK TOGETHER AGAIN
Excerpts, full article at The Independent:
"[A]s I stroll to a rehearsal room in London's Southwark to meet Mark Gatiss and Mackenzie Crook, I'm hoping that they do at least know each other already...
'We made a film together called Sex Lives of the Potato Men,' says Crook, a tad sheepishly. 'It was very badly received at the time.' If anything, that's an understatement...
Both men's fortunes have improved somewhat since then. This, their second joint venture, comes directly after some of the best work that either has done. Gatiss doesn't just act in Sherlock, as the titular detective's political-fixer brother, Mycroft; he also writes some of its episodes. Crook, meanwhile, has spent the past two-and-a-half years appearing onstage in London and New York, as Ginger in Jerusalem, the most rapturously-received play of the decade. How do you follow that?
Answer: with The Recruiting Officer, which has its own auspicious history. Its writer, George Farquhar, quit acting after he injured a fellow performer in a stage fight. (He'd forgotten to exchange his real sword for a dummy one during a scene change.) He had better luck as a playwright; his Restoration comedy blockbusters included The Constant Couple (1700); The Twin Rivals (1702) and The Beaux' Stratagem (1707). The Recruiting Officer, a romping satire of love and war, replete with bed-hopping, fiancée-swapping and cross-dressing, was originally performed in London in 1706...
The Recruiting Officer will also be a departure for Crook, whose previous stage work includes Jerusalem, The Seagull, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest – all of which, he explains, "demanded a degree of realism. I like to think of myself as a method actor, but it's hard to apply the method to something that was written 200 years before Stanislavski even came up with the idea. This is more like cabaret, big and broad, so it's more helpful to think back to my days as a stand-up."
JANUARY
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THE RECRUITING OFFICER BAND REHEARSAL
2011 News