Latest news with #Kirsh
Gizmodo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
Timothy Olyphant's 8 Greatest Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Roles
After Deadwood and Justified, Timothy Olyphant will forever be linked first and foremost to Westerns. And while he's clearly aware of that—playing off that association in roles that veer into other genres—he's also a versatile star who's popped up in comedies and dramas, as well as the sci-fi, horror, and fantasy tales we cover at io9. Here are our eight favorite genre roles so far, starting with his current project… The newly launched FX sci-fi series is mapping out a fresh small-screen story for the Alien movie universe, with plenty of familiar callbacks for film fans. Nearly unrecognizable with pale hair and carefully blank eyes, Olyphant plays Kirsh, a synthetic who seems sympathetic enough after the first two episodes. But will he end up being more of a manipulative Ash or a heroic Bishop? It's been nearly 30 years since Olyphant's mainstream breakthrough in Scream 2. When the first film's Final Girl heads to college, the slashing briefly screeches to a halt for a scene set in a film studies class, with Olyphant playing an outspoken nerd with strong pop-culture opinions (Aliens comes up in the discussion, as does Terminator 2—long before Olyphant's involvement in either franchise). Multi-decade spoiler here, but he's also unmasked one of the film's Ghostfaces, a freelance maniac enlisted by the main killer to help with her revenge scheme. When Stephen King fans think of the best adaptations of his work, Dreamcatcher is traditionally not a top-tier ranker. But if you're rounding up the weirdest King adaptations, this 2003 film would certainly lead the pack. Olyphant co-stars with Jason Lee, Damian Lewis, and Thomas Jane as lifelong friends linked by psychic powers who must battle both terrifying aliens and, in a rare villainous role, Morgan Freeman as a military colonel obsessed with containing the extraterrestrial threat. Hollywood sometimes remembers that George A. Romero made films beyond his zombie series, which explains why 1973's The Crazies got a 2010 remake. Olyphant leads a decent sci-fi horror tale as a small-town sheriff scrambling to survive after his community is accidentally inundated by a biological weapon that makes nearly everyone act like a lunatic. The government tries to do damage control and predictably makes things worse. It's not unlike a zombie movie, in other words. This entry recognizes Olyphant's many guest roles across animated films and TV (Archer, The Simpsons, Rick and Morty, etc.), but we chose this 2011 release because he plays 'the Spirit of the West,' a mystical advice-giver, and the casting clearly leans into his fame as a Western star. HE PLAYS HIMSELF! Or, a version of himself, anyway. When the gang needs to convince Gen the Judge (an Olyphant superfan) to rethink that whole 'reset the entire universe' thing, Janet conjures a convivial version of the star, complete with cowboy hat, to help Eleanor and company make their case. (It works.) Two Star Wars shows, one Olyphant. He played Cobb Vanth, the marshal roaming Tatooine in Boba Fett's famous armor—who later calls upon the Mandalorian's help when his town gets caught in a crossfire of bad guys and even badder bounty hunters. Yes, it's another lawman role… but a very different sort of wild, wild west. Netflix's Terminator anime was cool in many, many ways—including the fact that its English-language cast featured Olyphant as its Terminator. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
What Is Alien: Earth's Species 64? Powers of Eye Creature Revealed
In just two episodes, Alien: Earth expands the franchise's terror beyond the Xenomorphs, introducing Species 64, aka the eye creature. With its horrifying hijacking ability and more, this alien proves that in the Alien universe, survival means watching out for more than one kind of predator. Alien: Earth's eye creature, Species 64 explained Alien: Earth has introduced fans to a terrifying new alien lifeform — Species 64 — a creature that takes body horror to an entirely new level. The mysterious, parasitic 'eye creature' known as T. Ocellus brings an equally lethal, if not creepier, threat to humanity and the show's characters as Xenomorphs. Viewers see the jellyfish-like alien using a dead cat as its host, patiently waiting for a better vessel. Its origin and homeworld remain a mystery, but its powers are already unsettling. According to the data reviewed by Kirsh, Species 64 has tentacles with extraordinary strength that can climb and physically dislodge the eyes of living beings. Once it replaces the eyes, the parasite can hijack the host's ocular pathways to the brain, taking control of its movements through direct influence over neurotransmissions. Even worse, the Maginot crew's research suggests that Species 64 has problem-solving skills close to a human's, making it more than just an animalistic predator. This intelligence, combined with its agility and parasitic nature, makes it an unpredictable and lethal opponent. Moreover, Alien: Earth's latest episode already shows that the Lost Boys, despite their synthetic bodies, aren't equipped to deal with this kind of cunning parasite. Set in 2120, two years before the events of the original Alien film, Alien: Earth follows Weyland-Yutani's first face-to-face with the Xenomorph on Earth. But when the corporation's Maginot ship crashes in a populated city, the Lost Boys — terminally ill children whose minds have been transferred into synthetic bodies — quickly learn the danger isn't limited to one species. Alien: Earth is now streaming on Hulu and FX. Solve the daily Crossword
UPI
11-08-2025
- Entertainment
- UPI
'Alien: Earth' star Timothy Olyphant: Scary AI tech is on our doorstep
1 of 5 | Left to right, Jonathan Ajayi, Adarsh Gourav, Sydney Chandler, Timothy Olyphant, Kit Young, Erana James and Lily Newmark star in "Alien: Earth," premiering Tuesday. Photo courtesy of FX NEW YORK, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- Justified and Deadwood icon Timothy Olyphant says playing the synthetic Kirsh on Alien: Earth made him realize just how fast artificial intelligence technology is advancing in the real world. "You can get [news] articles read by AI. It has gotten so good so quickly, those voices, where, in the beginning, you could tell there was an odd rhythm to them, and I remember thinking, 'Oh, so, this really is a thing where there could just be people around that aren't human and appear human in almost every way, that we probably don't have to dress it up much [for the show],'" Olyphant told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. "But it never occurred to me, the idea of putting people's brains and memories into synthetic bodies was on our doorstep and it appears as though it might be on our doorstep," he laughed. "And that's really quite shocking." Premiering Tuesday on Hulu and FX in North America, and Disney+ internationally, the eight-episode series was created by Noah Hawley and takes place two years before the events of the 1979 sci-fi classic Alien, in a universe where corporations are more powerful than countries. Olyphant stars as Kirsh, a synthetic at Prodigy's futuristic Neverland Research Island facility, where a group of humanoid robots with human consciousness are charged with finding and neutralizing the terrifying monsters who escape a spaceship crash on Earth. The ensemble includes Sydney Chandler, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, Alex Lawther, Essie Davis and David Rysdahl. "Well, it feels like he appears to be some kind of mentor. Chief scientist, I think, is his official title," Olyphant said about Kirsh. "I'm also just not sure you can trust him." At the end of the first episode, Kirsh delivers a chilling speech in which he warns about humans' precarious places in the food chain. "It was just a great piece of writing," Olyphant said. "I always tell Noah he could gift wrap those pages before he sends them to me," he added. "It's fun to get that material in your inbox and it makes memorizing the lines just really enjoyable. Just rehearsing it is fun. By the time you show up on set, it's kind of playtime and just working off of Sydney and that was easy." Into the Badlands alum Ceesay plays Morrow, a cyborg security officer who was onboard the Weyland-Yutani ship that crashes and isn't initially forthcoming about what the vessel was transporting. "He's got trauma. He's got a vision in his head for what his life is going to mean and be," Ceesay said. "In terms of trying to get into that, as Tim said, it's just the writing is so incredible," he said. "You just turn up and play the scene and work with the other actor." The Witcher and Peaky Blinders actor Blenkin described his character Boy Kavalier as a "horrible, horrible man who is the CEO of Prodigy Corporation, which is one of the newest of the five companies that rule the Earth." "Governments? Don't need those. It's companies now. He sees himself as a rule breaker. Not just a competitor, but the person who is going to absolutely change the world," Blenkin said. "He is one of those people who, no matter how stupid the idea is, no matter how insane the choice is, he's convinced it's the best for humanity because he's the most intelligent person on the planet," he added. "It was really fun to play somebody with that kind of blind ego." Blenkin said Hawley's writing blends the character's mixed motivations of power and discovery. "There's a little bit of both of those things at play and, as the season goes on, I think what happens is that the deeper, darker emotional motivations of what drives those people starts to get revealed," he added. "It's a great arc for a character." Asked by UPI at a separate virtual press conference if the stars felt like filming together in Thailand, away from their loved ones, made them closer as a cast, Olyphant replied: "It was a special one, special place. Good time on set. Good time off the set. Really. The people in front of the camera, the people behind the camera. This was a good one." Lawther, who plays human soldier and medic Hermit, agreed. "It did bond us as a cast. I think for most of us, it was our first time in Thailand. We were there for longer than six months in the end," he said. "Although we were far away from home, we were really welcomed. It was a quite extraordinary host country to be working in." The country's heat and humidity also influenced the show's story-lines and actors' performances, Lawther added. "There's a lot of sweat in this show and that's, in part, thanks to the makeup department. But I'm sure a good 50 percent of that has to do with the 90 percent humidity of Thailand's climate. Then we had the quite extraordinary outdoor locations in Krabi and the jungle on the water, which lends itself to visually something quite dramatic." Blenkin also noted that the show depicts a version of Earth where humans are "fighting humidity at every moment." "So, you've got these fantastic figures who are kind of cleaning mold off the surface of the facility," Blenkin said. "There's this feeling that there's a rot at the center of this that's not really going to go away, which I feel like is a really interesting parallel to the themes of the series," Blenkin added. "And, obviously, the humidity in Thailand made that feel very real. There wasn't much acting required." Ceesay called Thailand one of his favorite places on Earth. "I had the privilege of having my family there, as well. But we did develop incredible bonds because you're far away from home," he said. "You're all together in one place. It's not often that you enjoy yourself so much on set and working, but that you also have such a phenomenal group of people outside of it." Selena Gomez, Jeremy Allen White attend Disney Upfront Left to right, Martin Short, Selena Gomez and Steve Martin arrive on the red carpet at the 2025 Disney Upfront at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City on May 13, 2025. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
Yahoo
10-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Alien: Earth's Timothy Olyphant didn't want to copy some of the Alien franchise's most notable characters for a specific reason : 'No-one wants to hear me do that'
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Timothy Olyphant had a very simple hack to get into character for Alien: Earth The fan-favorite actor plays a synthetic called Kirsh in the sci-fi horror TV show He didn't want to imitate actors who've played android characters in other Alien projects, either Timothy Olyphant has lifted the lid on the surprisingly easy way he got into character for Alien: Earth – and the one thing he thought it would be "unfair" to do in the sci-fi horror show. In the forthcoming FX TV Original, Olyphant plays Kirsh, a synthetic created by Prodigy Corporation, aka one of the five multinationals that effectively rule planet Earth. For the uninitiated: synethics are biomechanical humanoids – or, in layman's terms, androids – that carry out various tasks for their human creators. The Alien franchise is as renowned for its synthetics as it is for its iconic monsters and its bleak, dystopian sci-fi aesthetic. From Ian Holm's Ash in the 1979 original, to Michael Fassbender's David in 2011's Prometheus and 2014's Alien: Covenant, the Xenomorph-fronted multimedia property is full of memorable – not to mention mostly duplicitous – android characters. So, how did Olyphant set about differentiating Kirsh from synthetics we've seen in Alien: Earth's movie siblings? And what's the mysterious thing he avoided doing so Kirsh wouldn't be compared to Ash, David, or other androids like Aliens' Bishop and Alien: Romulus' Andy? "Quite honestly, bleaching my hair was intended to do exactly what you're talking about," Olyphant said when I asked him what he did to make Kirsh as distinct as possible. "That was just to say 'Oh look, now he's separated himself a little bit from what we've seen before'. "In the first movie, they [Alien's creative team] just made him [Ash] British. I felt it was unfair to do that [play a sinister character with a British accent] again. Quite honestly, no-one wants to hear me do that anyway! "I do think that, in the simplest way, that little aesthetic adjustment does a lot of the work for me," Olyphant added. "After that, I can just play the scenes and try not to get lost too much with overthinking it and just let all of the puzzle pieces fall into place. "When a scene's really well written, it does so much the work for you. It gives you a lot of room to play, because I always find it such a fun exercise to see how far you can take it in either direction and still feel like the scene holds together. It's a fun place to work from." Alien: Earth launches with a two-episode premiere on Hulu (US) on August 12 and Disney+ (internationally) on August 13. Before it's released, read my Alien: Earth review to see what I thought of its first six episodes, and then check out the section below for more coverage of the Noah Hawley-created project. You might also like Alien: Earth: everything we know so far about the forthcoming Hulu and Disney+ show Is Alien: Earth's scheming tech bro inspired by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, or Mark Zuckerburg? One of the Disney+ show's stars has his say on the matter Alien: Earth introduces new creatures as terrifying as the Xenomorph, but the show's creator didn't want to squeeze in 'a vending machine of alien life' for the sake of it Solve the daily Crossword
San Francisco Chronicle
08-08-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘Alien: Earth' isn't just good — it's the best thing to happen to the franchise in decades
When FX announced it was developing a TV series from the 'Alien' franchise, fans might have expected its makers to have egg on their faces. But it turns out Emmy-winning screenwriter Noah Hawley was the right person to hatch something unexpected and layered that should have fans' chests bursting with joy. 'Alien: Earth' occurs between the latest two Ridley Scott films — 'Prometheus' (2012) and 'Alien: Covenant' (2017), which had somewhat philosophical bents — and Scott's original 1979 'Alien.' Set two years before the events of 'Alien,' it reveals the company-mandated detour that sent Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and her crew to investigate a 'distress call' wasn't the Weyland-Yutani corporation's first attempt to bring xenomorphs back for R&D. The series finds company science vessel Maginot returning in 2120 from its 65-year mission to gather specimens of alien life. But let's just say the delivery of its very special cargo doesn't go as planned, setting off a perilous collision course involving humans; invasive alien species; a ruthless cyborg, Morrow (Babou Ceesay); the preternaturally calm 'synth' Kirsh (a manga-haired Timothy Olyphant); and a fascinating group of newly constructed hybrid life forms nicknamed 'The Lost Boys.' The latter consist of synthetic bodies, manufactured by Weyland-Yutani rival Prodigy, that are infused with human consciousnesses of children whose bodies were doomed by illness. Their leader, once a 12-year-old girl named Marcy, is a synthetic-human hybrid named 'Wendy' (Sydney Chandler). Her adult, android body — with Marcy's mind — is one that will never age. It's also incredibly tough, powerful and armed with a supercomputer's processing power (and Wi-Fi!). Atmosphere and ideas are abundant in 'Alien: Earth,' but the storytelling is gratefully streamlined where it counts. Instead of yet another restaging of folks discovering the loving embrace of the face huggers, etc., the Maginot (as effective a line of defense as its World War I namesake) has already learned those lessons the hard way. Kirsh downloads its logs and knows all. Creator Hawley, who's also behind FX's 'Fargo,' connects us to the world executive producer Scott introduced us to in his 1979 classic with callbacks to its production design, technology and hints of Jerry Goldsmith's superb score. Then the show's storytelling emerges from that host and evolves into its own thing. The cinematography is of theatrical quality, as are the production design and visual effects. Once the story and filmmaking settle into their idiosyncratic groove, the series only becomes more and more engrossing. In 'Alien: Earth,' five corporations have officially replaced governments. Its questions about sentience and personhood are not obligatory or lightly touched upon; they're the show's fabric. We compare and contrast the Lost Boys, especially Wendy, with other synthetic and partially synthetic people, as well as organic people who behave with varying levels of humanity. Most of all, the characters are compelling. Chandler's Wendy grows up before our eyes. We witness her moving beyond the limitations she had perceived of herself. In the back half of the season, her performance really takes off, elevating the show even higher. The complexity and ambiguity of Olyphant's Kirsh and Ceesay's Morrow keep us guessing whether they're allies, antagonists, both, or neither. Among the other Lost Boys, theater veteran Jonathan Ayaji most embraces the child-in-adult-body given circumstance. Meanwhile, Ajayi's Smee is a lot of fun to watch, with physical and vocal choices and shifting moods that disarmingly remind us who's inside that grownup form. So there's all that, and then there's sheer awesomeness. The new alien species are trippy and full of surprises. There are some new dimensions to the xenomorphs (no spoilers here) that are cool without violating canon, further demonstrating the show's intelligence and creativity. Balancing its disgustingly enjoyable 'ick' factor with the undeniable 'it' factor of its characters, the show hurtles to a slam-bang finish for its debut season's finale. 'Alien: Earth' is the most satisfying entry in the franchise in a long, long time — and one of the best television shows this year.
