Paul Plackthorne by Markus Klinko/Indrani/Sci Fi Channel Photo
Paul Blackthorne (The Dresden Files) has replaced Chris Wiehl (Love Monkey) as Brooke Shields' husband on the NBC midseason drama Lipstick Jungle.... Also per the Reporter, Patrick Swayze has been tapped to topline The Beast, A&E Network's drama pilot about a veteran FBI agent who trains a new partner (Travis Fimmel) in his psychologically clever style while being pursued by an Internal Affairs team and being subjected to Dr. Houseman's rhetoric.
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Question: : I know that you love The Dresden Files, as do so many of us out in TV land. We fans are very disappointed that the Sci Fi Channel would cancel this fine show that garnered good ratings. Instead, we are stuck with wrestling, superhero reality shows and other programming well outside of the sci-fi genre. We are hoping Lionsgate, which makes the show, will shop it around to other networks. USA Network would be a great place for it, given their "Characters Welcome" slogan. Anything you can do to help get the word out would be greatly appreciated!
Answer: "Love" may be putting it a big strongly, but I certainly enjoyed what I saw of The Dresden Files (I was especially keen on its star, Paul Blackthorne), and I admit I was surprised when the channel didn't rally more strongly behind it. Beyond the fact that reviving a show that has been canceled is incredibly rare, in this case further complicated by the fact that Blackthorne already has a new job (on the ABC series Hot Shots), it
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Paul Blackthorne by Steve Wilkie/Sci Fi Channel
Paul Blackthorne may not be a household name... yet. But the British actor, who recently starred as Harry Dresden on the now-defunct Sci Fi Channel fantasy series The Dresden Files, has guest-starred on Medium, Deadwood and Monk. He’s also racked up recurring roles on 24 and ER. Next up? The chameleon actor will play a Wall Street CEO and costar with Michael Vartan, Christopher Titus, Joshua Malina and Dylan McDermott on the new ABC drama Big Shots. “He’s what’s described as a corporate raider,” Blackthorne tells TVGuide.com. “He’s somebody that buys up companies, sells companies, just an all-around outrageous moneymaker.”Blackthorne’s story arc kicks off on Oct. 4 for nine episodes. “He’s someone that these other guys are slightly wary of in a business sense,” reveals the actor. “It also seems our man is circling around Dylan’s ex-wife, the one he still has the hots for.”Just don’t pin your hopes on Bla...
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Paul Blackthorne in The Dresden Files by Steve Wilkie/Sci Fi Channel Photo
After months of fielding questions from fans desperate to know if Sci Fi was ever going to make a decision on the fate of its clever private-eye/fantasy hybrid The Dresden Files, it's official: The show isn't returning for a second season.A shame, but hardly a surprise, given the reticence to discuss the matter every time I brought it up to Sci Fi or NBC Universal Cable execs during the recent TCA press tour. In their world, it's all about "running the numbers" (in other words: looking at the ratings and budgets, etc.) and to them, Dresden just didn't seem to measure up.This confirmation came my way the same morning that there are reports in the trades that Paul Blackthorne, Dresden's very appealing star, has joined the cast of ABC's Big Shots in a recurring role as what's being described as the show's "fifth CEO... a sophisticated, iconic tycoon that the [other] four (Dylan McDermott, Michael Vartan, Christopher Titus, Joshua Malina) aspire to be."At least he's landed on his feet. ...
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Question: When will we know if there will be a new season of The Dresden Files? I've stopped watching Battlestar Galactica, but I never miss Dresden Files. Paul Blackthorne is so endearing as Harry Dresden.
Answer: Generally, a show tends to wrap its first season before you get official confirmation of a second. Dresden wraps April 15, and in a release accompanying the season-finale screener, Sci Fi Channel notes that Dresden delivers more female viewers than any other current scripted Sci Fi original series. Which I take as a plus, because it seems to me the appeal of Dresden Files is in its charmingly disheveled hero.
The appeal isn't universal, as witnessed by this response from Jill: "It's hard for me to understand your positive review of The Dresden Files and your negative comment regarding Blood Ties. Blood Ties has more of what I want in a series: a strong female lead, strong male leads who are also good-looking, and a great romance in its buildup phase. Dresden has... damsels in
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Paul Blackthorne, The Dresden Files
Can Sci Fi Channel cast yet another spell on savorers of the supernatural? On Sunday at 9 pm/ET, the cabler premieres The Dresden Files, a series based on Jim Butcher's best-selling novels about a private eye who cracks typically otherworldly cases using a bit of magic — literally, being that he's a certified wizard and all.
Finding an actor who could pull off Jim Rockford-as-sorcerer was no easy task. "We saw people you've heard of, people you haven't heard of... a lot of different people, because we knew that this show would really live or die on finding a great Harry Dresden," executive producer Robert Hewitt Wolfe tells TVGuide.com. Ultimately, the plum gig went to Paul Blackthorne, whom many will recognize as sinister Stephen Saunders of
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Once upon a time, there was another young wizard named Harry (Dresden, not Potter) who kept his gifts a secret except when needed to fight evil. This boy, a magician's son, grew up to be Chicago's answer to Jim Rockford — although how many private eyes can boast a medieval ghost (played by Broadway vet Terrence Mann) as a sidekick?
Sci Fi's diverting new series The Dresden Files (premieres Sunday, Jan. 21, at 9 pm/ET), based on Jim Butcher's novels, isn't quite a Harry Potter-like obsession. A mildly entertaining concoction of humor and horror, though rarely extreme enough to elicit actual laughs or gasps, this supernatural procedural is an agreeably escapist hour to help launch Sci Fi's Sunday schedule.
With its self-contained episodes and fanciful premise, Dresden is intended as a more mainstream lead-in to cult transplant Battlestar Galactica. (Just what we need: more
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Ever notice what a baby crazy show CBS's Presidio Med is? All these miscarriages, fertility woes and preemie-in-crisis plots! These folks practically make Lifetime's programming look butch. One intriguing storyline was the science-nerdy flirtation of Dr. Jules Keating ( Julianne Nicholson) and Dr. Matt Slingerland ( Paul Blackthorne). She asked him to sire her a child — via in vitro fertilization — and he agreed to share his seed, since he had a big crush on Jules. Then, although pregnant with possibility, this story was dropped. What's up with the baby-making plan?
"I think that's still in the pipeline, so to speak," Blackthorne quips to TV Guide Online. "I think we'll just have to see what happens. I'm not too sure just yet. But I'
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