Ryan Murphy, one of television’s busiest and most successful writers/directors/producers, will be named Television Showman of the Year at the 54th Annual International Cinematographers Guild (ICG, IATSE Local 600) Publicists Awards honoring excellence in publicity and promotion for motion pictures and television programs, to be held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Friday, February 24.
Murphy has created a wide array of shows and has won four Primetime Emmys, 11 additional award wins and 45 nominations and is the originator of the popular American television programs American Horror Story, Scream Queens, Glee, Nip/Tuck and The New Normal.
“Ryan Murphy is a visionary in the creation of entertainment projects who personifies the very concept of showmanship,” said Awards Committee chairman Henri Bollinger.
Steven Poster ASC., national president of the ICG, added, “Ryan is up there with a select few who have been able to bring such high consistency to everything they touch.”
Murphy began his career as a journalist, eventually turning his penmanship towards a career in film and television. His first program, Popular, a teenager comedy-drama for the WB Network ran for three seasons in 1999. More success came in 2003 with the debut of FX’s Nip/Tuck, which tells the tale of two plastic surgeons living and working in Miami, Florida. In 2009, Murphy debuted Glee about a high school glee club, which was inspired by his days in high school choir. In 2011, Murphy served as executive producer on American Horror Story with Jessica Lange and Dylan McDermott and guest stars Lady Gaga and Kathy Bates. In 2012, NBC announced plans to air Murphy’s newest series, The New Normal. In 2014 HBO film The Normal Heart debuted, chronicling the story of the onset of the AIDS crisis in New York, which won an Emmy for Outstanding Television Movie. Additional credits include American Crime Story, Feud, Scream Queens, Eat Pray Love and The Glee Project.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More