The Point Radio: TAXI BROOKLYN Rolls To NBC

Luc Besson’s popular TAXI movie franchise is now an NBC TV series called TAXI BROOKLYN. Actress Chyler Leigh talks about the challenges on taking a big hit to both a new medium and a new country, plus Nickelodeon star, Elizabeth Gillies (VICTORIOUS) reveals why she is stepping out of her comfort zone and into a new horror film.

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Transcript

The Point Radio. Hey, it's Mike Raub. The successful film franchise Taxi from France is now an NBC series. And we talk to actress Kyler Lee about exactly what kind of challenge that was to get the whole thing put together. Plus, a Nickelodeon superstar Elizabeth Gillies steps out of her comfort zone into the jaws of a free, nasty creature in a new film called Animal.

And she explains how that happened. Plus, a couple of hot variants are on their way from Marvel Comics later this summer. Better get in line right now if you want to get them. Let's get to The Point. This is The Point. The Point Radio. Get The Point Radio.

The new NBC series Taxi Brooklyn is based on the successful Taxi films from France. Created by acclaimed director Luke Benson. And it tells the story of a New York City cab driver and a New York City cop who team up to solve mysteries. So how do we go from foreign film series to American TV? I talked to showrunner Gary Scott Thompson.

The show is based on a series of four films. They're called Taxi, which are extremely popular in Europe and around the world. And it was one of Luca Thorne's projects that he wanted to turn it to a TV show. And so after many sort of incarnations, I guess, that they had tried to make it work, someone kind of had the idea to set it in New York and set it in Brooklyn.

And that's kind of what it started with. So it sort of departs from the series in that in a series that's two males, a cop and a taxi driver. And this is a female cop and a male taxi driver. And then we've got a lot of twists and turns along the way that are not in the movie. So it's just sort of a jumping off point.

The new female lead is played by Kyler Lee, who said her character's pretty layered. When we meet her, Kat is in a very hard place in her life. And we come to understand that, you know, she's a very kind of tough talking, but a conflicted person who's at this point very reckless due to what she's been through with her family. And so she's very determined. She's very hardworking.

She takes what she does very seriously, but has become a bit impassioned to find what's going on or what happened in her past and at this point has pretty much pushed everybody away in her life and is a bit disgruntled. But you can see throughout the season that she's, you know, she does have that vulnerable side to her that she kind of keeps those walls up.

But you see that she definitely knows how to kick some serious ass. So how'd she land the role in the first place? I got a phone call from my manager who knows Gary very well and had been approached by Gary about coming on board and just getting my thoughts about the project. And I read it and it stirred the life out of me and I loved it.

And so, you know, after that, it was a conversation with Gary, kind of just going over everything and talking about this kind of series and what it would involve. And that was kind of, that was sort of it. And her biggest challenge was? The biggest challenge was to stop laughing all the time.

I think we had such a good time that it was a little challenging for the directors to ring us back in and just take everything we were doing seriously. The biggest challenge of all, taking what worked in the film property and moving it to the TV world. I talked to Gary again about that. I think the biggest challenge is actually not alienating the original audience because they're expecting one thing.

But when you go from one medium to the next, it takes time always translate. The movies themselves are extremely broad and to do an hour drama that's broad will not work on TV. You just can't do that broad every week. And it has to be really at least touch upon a reality base. And so I think that's the biggest problem.

Anytime you transfer anything with a novel or anything that you go back and forth between mediums, it does not alienate your original audience. And you still have to try and get a new audience as well. New episodes of Taxi Brooklyn every Wednesday on NBC and see more at NBC.com. And it's said it is the very latest in pop culture starting right here.

Chelsea Handler found a new home and that home is Netflix. After leaving East Chelsea lately later this year, she'll be signing a deal with the streaming service that will include a contract for a stand-up special. A documentary comedy special there too and a talk show that's set to debut early in 2016. Amazon has grabbed up the exclusive rights to the classic acclamation series Wallace and Gromit. And along with that, Shawn the sheep as well as a few of the other shorts done by the creators.

The shows are now available on Amazon Prime Instant, which is part of the new $99 Prime membership that also includes that new music streaming service and of course, two-day shipping as well. The deal does not include the Wallace and Gromit movies. Dynamite is making a radical change in the amount of copies they print of new series and it could cause some interesting bumps in the comic book industry over the next few months. They're going to be printing to order, which means there won't be extra copies available of those early issues. Of course, it will also mean sellouts and first printings on the way as well.

The idea actually began back in 2001 when Marvel tried this and saw success in bumping up the initial orders of retailers placed for certain series. The whole process will begin at Dynamite with their new creator online. It starts with the title The Devilers that's said to be in stores sometime later this summer. Well, it is the last season of True Blood rolling right now in HBO, but it might not be the last time you see those characters. Right now there's talk of a True Blood musical.

Series composer Nathan Barr has been working with the show creator Alan Ball and star Stephen Boyer to put together a proposal for a True Blood musical. No idea exactly where that would end up, but of course HBO would more than likely have the right of first refusal. Bob Kane, the creator of Batman, is now going to get a star on a Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was initiated by his widow Elizabeth and of course done in cooperation with the DC Comics as well. DC, by the way, made the announcement online and also mentioned Bill Finger as a frequent collaborator with Kane on the Batman feature,

calling the Dark Knight the single most popular superhero ever created. Marvel's announced two variant covers that will get folks into shops later this summer, beginning with one for the Death of Wolverine done by Ed McGinnis. It's called the Mortal Variant. It is for the Death of Wolverine first issue, and that'll be set to be in stores along with the rest of the series in early September.

In the meantime, there's also a Deadpool lenticular cover that people are talking about. Not unlike the villain covers from DC last year, this 3D lenticular cover has a dancing Deadpool as well. It is a variant for Deadpool number 34, and it'll also hit comic stores in September. See where you work the numbers, it was not a spectacular month for graphic novel sales in comic stores in May. They were down a little less than 10% when compared to last year.

A lot of analysts feel that it was due to the product that was released last year compared to what's available this year. But nonetheless, still a decline, but some big jumps for DC on the list as well. And being said, here's your top 10 best selling graphic novels and comics stores in May, starting at number 10 with Godzilla, the awakening hardcover from legendary at number nine, Manhattan projects, volume four for disciplines.

Number eight, third volume of saga number seven, hellboy and hell volume one descent from dark horse. Number six, manifest destiny volume one from image, the original black Canary and satana blood spell hardcover came in at number five. You see at number four X-Men no more humans hardcover at number three black science volume one and the two top selling books of the month. Batman volume three death of the family at number two and at number one, Batman volume four zero year secret city hardcover for DC. The point, the point.

You know, actors and recording artists Elizabeth Gillies from the Nickelodeon hit series victorious. Now she's moving into the horror genre with a new film called and about a group of very close knit friends with very different complicated relationships. We find out later in the movie that it starts out very, you know, cliche. They go into the woods. They're going hiking because a listen Jeff or stepbrother and sister, they they had this route that they love to hike on if they were kids.

They want to show the rest of the group. And while we're there, things take a massive term when we realize we're being hunted by this this unknown bloodthirsty creature. Pretty much she wants to devour us also tensions mount and we all end up revealing a lot about each other. It's funny that the animal in the movie is used almost like a catalyst to kind of push us to our brink and reveal all these different secrets about each other. And it almost turns into like a drama and parts and it's funny.

It's cool. It's got a whole mix of everything. But the animals very scary as well. So is Elizabeth the scary movie fan? Not a scary movie fan at all.

I totally walked my hands in my eyes. But this movie, I was talking to the producers, what they love about this movie. They want to make it kind of throwback. And if you see the movie in the beginning, it opens kind of throwback with the credits. And they want to make it like an old fashioned movie where you go to the theater and it's a fun thrilling ride where you don't really have to cover your eyes too much.

And then you leave and you're over it. I watched The Ring when I was a kid and I was traumatized for the rest of my life. So it's not one of those. It's fun and it's enjoyable and it's a great movie to watch with your friends. But no, I mean, by trade, I don't.

I'm a wimp. I can't watch scary movies. I watch with my hands on my eyes and my knees over my eyes. I get all contorted while I watch it. It's funny.

I get into crazy positions because I'm scared to see the screen. Elizabeth got into show business pretty early. So I was curious, was she one of those kids that used to, as a toddler, perform for the whole family? I found so cliche and obnoxious, but I really was. I put on like the little outfits and I danced for them.

And I did not in a creepy way. That sounds so creepy. No, but I, for sure. I always, I guess I like attention and I like to sing and I wanted to act very, very early in life. And I guess professionally it started when I was about 11, 12.

I was an agent and went from there. And from there? I started with musicals. I started with singing as a kid and then transitioned into musical theater. I took a lot of musical theater classes, a lot of improv classes, worked on my singing and stuff.

And then I did commercials. I would go to these commercial auditions where they would be like hundreds and hundreds of kids. And you're in there for one second. And I think I booked about seven commercials maybe. I did that for a bit.

And then I got a little role on this NBC show that ended up getting canceled called The Black Donnelies, which people liked. And then from there I was in a couple little theater shows when I was on Broadway. That was kind of the turning point. Having done films and television and then worked alongside Ariana Grande on Victorious,

she's seen both the plus and minuses of both ends of the business. And I asked Elizabeth where she'd like to see her career go. You know, it's hard to say. I would like a marriage of the both, but obviously that's very rare and it's kind of uncommon. But I mean, I started singing and I love acting.

So it's like the two are really 50-50 with me. I hope to get to do something that incorporates both. But as far as music that I've written, I have older influences. I do see what's happened. To be that famous, it's a life changer for sure.

And that's what comes with the job. But I would hopefully like to retain some sense of privacy in my life because I'm a private person. And I don't know. I think my music would always be a little left. So maybe I wouldn't have as much attention on me, but maybe I'm wrong.

So I don't know. I don't know. But I'd hopefully like to get you to go. You mentioned inspirations in writing. Who are some of your inspirations?

I like older music. I definitely have a retro-fensibility to me. I love Stephanie's music. I listen to a lot of, you know, like Joni Mitchell and James Taylor and Carly Simon in the band and Led Zeppelin. But I also love, I love like, I love Eddie James and Ella Fitzgerald and I love Julie London.

So I'm incorporating kind of, I'm trying to incorporate the two right now, but I'm heavier into actually like the Julie London. I toured around with a lot of different things, but I definitely like a throwback kind of old-fashioned sense of music. Nothing, nothing too processed, too out of tune. That's not my style. So what's coming up next?

I actually, I have another, I have a little Lifetime movie coming out in two weeks. That is so crazy called Killing Daddy. It's airing on July 5th on Lifetime and that was really fun to film. And I've been writing music. I shot a great pilot recently, so I'm waiting to hear on that.

So it's been good. I've been busy and I hope to keep being busy. I asked Elizabeth if she could have any role in any type movie or television series. What would it be? You know what I actually love to play?

I'd love to play like a Mrs. Robinson role right now, but I'm too young. I'd love something like that or something where I could sing like a well-done movie musical, not a crappy one. Or, I mean, my favorite movie is Ground Corrupted. I'd love to do a, you know, a very challenging role like that, like Angelina's role in that. Playing that challenges me is something interesting, but I really think that I'm going to have to wait to get the roles I want.

I feel like my prime is maybe in my forward either way to God. That's such an old soul. See Elizabeth in Animal in theaters right now and available on Video On Demand. Later this fall, you'll see Animal exclusively on the Chiller Network. Check your local cable listings for that.

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