Anna Friel by Jason Merritt/FilmMagic.com
Anna Friel, the perky star of ABC's Pushing Daisies, has landed the female lead in Will Ferrell's Land of the Lost remake.... Sarah Connor herself, Lena Headey, will switch from fighting murderous cyborgs to dark wizards and the bubonic plague in the supernatural thriller Black Death.... Michael Ealy (Sleeper Cell) is IRS agent Will Smith's brother in Seven Pounds. Rosario Dawson and Woody Harrelson costar.... Garret Dillahunt has joined the cast of Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left remake, playing the thug named Krug.
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Oded Fehr, Sleeper Cell: American Terror
If you think that Islamic extremist Faris Al-Farik, whose terror network's scheme to wreak explosive havoc on Los Angeles was foiled during the first season of Showtime's acclaimed Sleeper Cell, is down for the count, think again. Premiering Sunday at 9 pm/ET, and airing for eight consecutive nights, Sleeper Cell: American Terror finds Farik in U.S. captivity, but no less a force to be reckoned with. All the while, FBI agent Darwyn Al-Sayeed gets sucked into going undercover with another deadly cell. TVGuide.com asked Farik's portrayer, the compelling Oded Fehr, for a preview.
TVGuide.com: Were you concerned at all about the fate of Farik at the end of last season?Oded Fehr: Really, I didn't know where we were going. I didn't even know whether we'd have a second season.
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How provocative is Showtime these days? From the absorbing crime-family saga Brotherhood to the subversive Weeds and the twisted Dexter, the network is on a bold, exhilarating roll. It’s not the next HBO. It’s the new FX.
For more evidence, strap yourselves in for eight straight nights of unnervingly topical suspense in Sleeper Cell: American Terror, a sequel to last year’s miniseries thriller. Reminiscent of 24 but about a dozen times more realistic (though dramatically more uneven), this takes you inside a terrorist network while showing Muslims from multiple angles: progressive, extremist, with even a gay subplot.
Our returning hero is Darwyn (the charismatic Michael Ealy), a Muslim FBI agent drawn back into an undercover assignment to lead a fractio
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Showtime will debut Season 2 of Sleeper Cell: American Terror, starring Oded Fehr and Michael Ealy, on Dec. 10. That same day, all eight episodes will be made available on Showtime On Demand.... Oxygen has ordered a second season of The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, which will be expanded to an hourlong series, premiering in January and preceded by the holiday special Christmas with the Dickinsons. (Sample dialogue: "Aunt Ruby, can you pass the Botox?")
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Sleeper CellMuch like this summer's Showtime drama Weeds, Sleeper Cell explores what can lurk just below the radar in an average community. With daily news reports of terrorist threats and terrorist acts flooding the airwaves nowadays, it is hard not to think about terrorism as a constant danger here in the States. But it's a wee bit unsettling to watch a group of terrorists frolic in the park with kids at a birthday party. While this series, which is airing more like a miniseries, with four episodes this week and four next, got off to a bit of a slow start, it ended with a brutal scene that will keep me tuning in for the next installment. The disturbing image of that doting father, whose biggest concern early on was keeping his young daughter away from boys, being bu
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With Prison Break on hiatus and 24 still a month away, those who like to watch TV on the edge of their seats can fill the void with Showtime's 10-hour Sleeper Cell (premiering Sunday, Dec. 4 at 10 pm/ET). This engrossing and unnerving nail-biter is a rare treat: a thriller with a brain and a soul.
Airing in a concentrated pattern over two weeks (through Dec. 18) for maximum impact, Sleeper Cell plunges us into a dark underworld of corruption and religious zealotry.
"This isn't just a war on terror. It's a war within Islam," says undercover FBI agent Darwyn (the charismatic Michael Ealy), who has infiltrated a small band of sociopathic Muslim extremists living behind a facade of normalcy in Los Angeles. Darwyn is a devout Muslim whose own faith is tested by the actions he must perform in order not to blow his cover as an ex-con.
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Blue-eyed hottie Michael Ealy has made a living playing characters on the wrong side of the law. In addition to the convicted felon he channeled in both Barbershop flicks, the 30-year-old actor portrays a young man driven into a seedy world of drugs and murder in the disturbing new film Never Die Alone. "It is repugnant and repulsive and it is relentless," Ealy says of the latter flick. "It is hard to look at."
So much so that he advised his mother not to see it — advice she failed to heed. "I spoke to my mom and she said she saw it at a sneak preview," he sighs. "She just said three words, 'Foul, foul, foul.' Then she had to go back to her prayer meeting. I'm probably in trouble.
"My mom listens to gospel," he continues. "This is not gospel. This is a world that my mom worked hard to keep me from. I can't imagine her watching me exist in this world. It has got to be difficult for her to separate me as acto
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