User blog:Paul.rea/Teen Wolf News 010918

Teen Wolf News 010918

“Disease that Killed Stiles’ Mom Is Taking My Dad”
''The following story is true. Teen Wolf News has changed or removed names, locations, and almost all other identifying details. This obfuscation is necessary to protect the minor child in the story and the private medical information of the patient discussed.''

A Teen Wolf fan named “Tony” sent us an email over at teenwolfnews.com. This isn’t unusual. We get lots of mail from folks who believe the publisher’s address on the website somehow reaches the Teen Wolf production office. It doesn’t. Usually, I just respond with a quick, “Hey, we’re not connected to the production” message and call it a day. I got Tony’s email at the end of December, and it broke my heart.

Hey Teen Wolf, 

'''Christmas at my house sucked this year. How was your holidays? Mine sucked. Two days before Christmas I found out from my mom that my dad is dying. He’s got that same disease that killed Stiles’ mom and he’s going to die. But first he’s totally losing his mind. I want to know if the stuff they showed with Stiles’ mom is how it really is or did they just made that part up for TV. It’s probably the scariest part of the show for me now and I need to know. Thanks.'''

Claudia Stilinski suffered and eventually died from Frontotemporal Dementia. The term actually applies to a group of conditions, but they all result in death because there is no cure.

It is fiction, but all this backstory informed how the writers shaped the character and how Dylan O’Brien played the part. A lot of Stiles’ strength came from tragedy. I hope Tony can look to Stiles and take comfort from the fact that he and his family can survive the worst and come out stronger too.

I decided to share their story - something Janet reluctantly agreed to - because I think more people might suffer from this and not know it. As she explained, it’s difficult to diagnose and requires a series of MRIs over several months or years for the physical changes in the brain to show up. A lot of times people write off the early symptoms as a “mid-life crisis” because, while they may act strangely or loud or unusual in other ways, victims don’t actually present as “sick” to most people.

Frontotemporal Dementia is also often misdiagnosed as early-onset Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia or mental illness. As with Tony’s dad, some patients start experiencing symptoms in their mid-30. The progression can be rapid with the time between diagnosis and death between five and seven years. You can find more information and firsthand accounts from FTD families at the links below.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/01/a-lesser-known-dementia-that-steals-personality/282661/

https://www.theaftd.org/understandingftd/disorders/bv-ftd

https://www.alzheimers.net/2014-05-15/signs-of-frontotemporal-dementia/

https://goodgollyblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/22/the-journey-has-only-begun-our-ftd-diagnosis-april-2017/

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/frontotemporal-dementia/symptoms-causes/syc-20354737

Hey Banshee Girl!

Maya Eshet landed a great part in a new show from Game of Thrones creator George R. R. Martin. Teen Wolf’s bizarrely loveable banshee Meredith will be part of the new series Nightflyers from Syfy and Netflix.

Syfy had this to say about the show in a press release-

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in">'“Nightflyers'' follows eight maverick scientists and a powerful telepath who embark on an expedition to the edge of our solar system aboard The Nightflyer - a ship with a small tightknit crew and a reclusive captain -- in the hope of making contact with alien life. But when terrifying and violent events begin to take place they start to question each other -- and surviving the journey proves harder than anyone thought.”''' <p class="MsoNormal">Eshet is apparently playing someone called Lommie who has a very interesting story arc in the book. Adaptations are always cruel in what they do to certain characters so there’s no guarantee how her role will turn out. We did find this character sketch they were using for the auditions and it does sound promising.

<p class="MsoNormal">Character Description for Eshet’s character Lommie –

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in">'''“This "gender fluid" young crew member is a brooding and mysterious cyber technician who prefers to interface with computers more than humans. Lommie uses the surgically implanted Neuro-Port in her arm to meld with the Nightflyer’s computer systems, an experience called “porting” that she finds exhilarating. Lommie is having an affair with Mel, unaware they are the object of Roy Eris's voyeuristic scrutiny.”'''

<p class="MsoNormal">If IMDB Is to be believed, Nightflyers will reunite Eshet with Teen Wolf Executive Producer/Writer Lindsay Sturman. She’s listed as a co-executive producer which suggests she’s in the writers’ room on the show. Nightflyers is filming soon at Troy Studios in Limerick, Ireland.

<p class="MsoNormal">http://www.syfy.com/syfywire/syfy-picks-up-george-rr-martins-nightflyers

<h2 class="MsoNormal">T-Pose Vs. L-Paul

<p class="MsoNormal">If Shakespeare were discussing Logan Paul, he might say something like “Thou clay-brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson obscene greasy tallow-catch!” Teen Wolf stars have been quite a bit less poetic after the YouTube star made light of a suicide by seeming to make jokes while filming a dead body hanging from a tree in Japan’s famous “suicide forest”.

<p class="MsoNormal">Dylan O'Brien on Logan Paul –

<p class="MsoNormal">'''“Wow. Fucking despicable. I’ve literally never seen such a gigantic piece of shit.”'''

<p class="MsoNormal">Keahu Kahuanui (Danny) also spoke up –

<p class="MsoNormal">“If you don’t know why this is garbage human behavior and you think this is ok, you are just as what’s wrong with humanity.”

<p class="MsoNormal">In the end though, it was Tyler Posey who did the best job addressing the controversy. He actually had the least to say about Logan Paul directly. Instead, he focused on those people who follow and support celebrities in general.

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">'“It’s me, Tyler Posey, I was on a show called Teen Wolf'' on MTV and I have followers on social media and I’m in the limelight. If me, or one of my fellow celebrity friends, or whoever is out there in the limelight, if we do something wrong, morally, and humanly, don’t respect us for it.'''

<p class="MsoNormal">'''It’s nice to stand by somebody’s side that you admire and look up to, but … you can’t stand by our side through everything. If we fuck up, we fuck up, and we should be treated that way. '''

<p class="MsoNormal">'''That’s all I have to say. We’re no better than you. We’re humans, normal humans, and, if we mess up, don’t praise us for it. Okay?”'''

<p class="MsoNormal">The suicide forest foray has created a crisis of conscience across the media industry. A lot of folks want to blame YouTube or write Logan Paul off as just another “rude guy on the internet.”  I think that’s a shortsighted and simplistic view considering more people choose to subscribe to his channel than watch network news on a regular basis.

<p class="MsoNormal">In the short time the suicide forest video was up, it garnered 6.3 million views. The CBS Evening News that night attracted around 7 million views. An average Logan Paul YouTube video gets about the same number of views as episodes of many primetime network television shows (his best numbers beat almost everything on the CW by a wide margin). He is not just some guy on the internet. He’s huge, and the future belongs to him and other content creators who don’t always use the best judgment when making their shows.

<p class="MsoNormal">You can’t pin all the blame on this one guy, and YouTube can’t censor itself based on the most delicate of sensibilities. This is the world we live in now. I should say, this is the world in which many of us choose to live. Logan Paul actually saw a sizable bump in his new subscriber rate after all this controversy. That suggests to me that a goodly portion of the populace wants to see the world through the eyes of a greasy tallow-catch.

<p class="MsoNormal">In all the cacophony of condemnation, Logan Paul’s video apology (36.5 million views and counting as I write this), and all the back and forth between his supporters and detractors, perhaps Tyler Posey had the best advice for all of us moving forward, “If we fuck up, we fuck up, and we should be treated that way.” I would add to that, if you don’t like something, don’t click on it.

<h2 class="MsoNormal">Can Daniel Sharman Save Italy’s Production Biz?

<p class="MsoNormal">No pressure or anything, but entertainment industry bible Variety says it’s maybe up to Daniel Sharman and his new show to revive Italian cinema.

<p class="MsoNormal">Daniel is just now wrapping up production on the second season of the Netflix show Medici: Masters of Florence The Magnificent (longest TV title in EVER). He’s starring as Lorenzo Medici, an ugly little man who is credited with helping to finance Italy’s renaissance with his support of the arts. <p class="MsoNormal">Just like his character, some folks are hoping Daniel’s show heralds a shift in the fortunes of Italy’s entertainment industry, which has apparently been in deep decline since the 1980’s.

<p class="MsoNormal">Speaking to Medici production designer Francesco Frigeri and others associated with the show, Variety suggests the joint production with the streaming powerhouse and several European producers might do the trick.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in">Frigeri, who worked with Mel Gibson on “The Passion of the Christ,” points out that “Italy used to be known as the best place in the world to re-create any kind of ambience.” But he laments that the decline in Italian cinema that started during the 1980s “was killing my profession.” He calls “Medici” “an effort on Italy’s part to rise to the challenge of the international market …  which can save us.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in">Lux Vide CEO Luca Bernabei hopes “Medici” will be the trailblazer for a new TV genre hailing from Italy that he calls “Mediterranean drama.” He notes, “The Mediterranean is the cradle of Western civilization,” while Italy “throughout history has often been positioned at the crossroads of economic and sociopolitical changes.” Mining this rich material with bigger budgets, the right skill sets and a global outlook can become “the starting point for something completely new in high-end TV.”

<p class="MsoNormal">As of this writing, we don’t have a release date for season two. If it follows the pattern set in season one, the episodes will air on Italian TV before hitting Netflix in North America.

<p class="MsoNormal">http://variety.com/2018/artisans/production/netflix-medici-tv-series-1202651265/

<h2 class="MsoNormal">Death Cure Set For Big Opening January 26

<p class="MsoNormal">Far be it from us to become part of the huge Hollywood Hype Machine currently running full steam to promote Maze Runner: The Death Cure, but it does open in the proverbial theater near you in just 16 days.

<p class="MsoNormal">I saw the trailer over Christmas in the theater and it literally took my breath away – not in a good way either. Much of the trailer is focused on the stunt that almost killed Dylan O’Brien.

<p class="MsoNormal">I don’t think they actually used the footage from the accident. I don’t think they got a full take of that before it all went wrong and I also don’t think the powers that be within the franchise would be that macabre. Still, the fact that they’re selling the movie with that scene is unnerving me. I want to see it, but, because I followed the whole thing so closely, it’s still all a bit traumatic and I’m not sure I could watch.

<p class="MsoNormal">Beyond my personal discomfort with the current marketing, it seems to be working like gangbusters. Variety reports that Death Cure is the top topic of conversation on social media right now.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in">Fox’s Maze Runner: The Death Cure dominated social media buzz last week with 53,000 new conversations, thanks to the release of a new poster on Dec. 26, according to media-measurement firm comScore and its PreAct service.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in">'''“The Death Cure” has produced a total of nearly 600,000 new conversations, a month before the Jan. 26 opening of the film — the finale of the “Maze Runner” sci-fi trilogy. The movie’s original release date has been delayed for nearly a year in order to allow star Dylan O’Brien to recover from injuries sustained during shooting.'''

<p class="MsoNormal">Here’s something else to get the social conversation buzzing, nearly 8 minutes of behind the scenes footage from filming in South Africa.

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">Maze Runner: The Death Cure opens on January 26.

<p class="MsoNormal">http://variety.com/2018/film/news/maze-runner-the-death-cure-social-media-buzz-1202650869/

<h2 class="MsoNormal">Shelley Saves The USA

<p class="MsoNormal">There is nothing funny about terrorism, but that fact is not stopping Hollywood from trying to milk laughs out of the historically inept American bureaucracy’s attempts to deal with terrorism. Teen Wolf werecoyote Shelley Hennig and former Nazi/Werewolf/Lionman Pete Ploszek star in a new online series called Liberty Crossing. The Beacon Hills alums play sizable parts in the counterterrorism comedy show.

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">In addition to Shelley and Pete, 'Teen Wolf' family were behind the camera as well. A handful of crew from Beacon Hills moved over including Teen Wolf News favorite Bill Gibson (@OneArmedNinja).

<p class="MsoNormal">Liberty Crossing is available now on the Go90 platform, which is free but only available in the United States via Verizon.

<p class="MsoNormal">https://www.go90.com/shows/libertycrossing

<h2 class="MsoNormal">Andrew Matarazzo Heads Home

<p class="MsoNormal">Actor Andrew Matarazzo returned home to Brazil for Christmas. It was the first time he’s been back since fans got to see him as Teen Wolf baddie Gabe in Season 6. The show is huge in Brazil, one episode of the final season was set in the country and fans there showed Matarazzo their appreciation the minute he got off the plane.

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">Matarazzo tells me that arriving to this welcoming committee was an “out of body experience. I was impressed with how cool and genuine the fans were.”

<p class="MsoNormal">He says he also got to spend time with extended family for the first time in a long time. “It was a complete revisit to my childhood and a reconnection to a huge part of myself and culture.”

<p class="MsoNormal">This week, Matarazzo returned to LA and the daily grind of auditions and working on his career.

<h2 class="MsoNormal">Beacon Hills Trailer Park

<p class="MsoNormal">Seriously y’all, we’ve got enough new trailers featuring Beacon Hills folks to fill a mobile home park!

<h3 class="MsoNormal">Holland Roden in ‘Channel Zero’

<p class="MsoNormal">Holland Roden’s wet and creepy turn in the next season of Channel Zero is getting rave reviews from cannibals everywhere.

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">Don’t ask me what this is actually about because I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t know. I’ve found with the first two seasons that Channel Zero is one of those shows you just let wash over you. If you try to “watch” it or “understand” it, you’re lost from the start. Holland Roden appears in Butcher’s Block on SyFy starting February 7.

<h3 class="MsoNormal">Ryan Kelley in ‘Realms’

<p class="MsoNormal">There’s something really weird going on with Ryan Kelley’s new movie Realms. He was hyping it on Insta, there was a US trailer released on YouTube and then … nothing happened. The YouTube trailer was taken down and there has been ZERO press about the movie. We did find this Thai version of the trailer. It sets up the robbers and hostages vs. haunted house premise and promises a premiere date in that country back in December. Since I don’t speak the language, I don’t know if it was released or not.

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">I don’t know what’s going on here but we’ll be on the lookout for a North American release date for Realms. In the meantime, watch for Ryan on one of the biggest shows on network television. He’s guest starring in NCIS: Los Angeles Season 9 Episode 14, which is apparently airing sometime this winter. The Winter Olympics will screw up a lot of programming next month, but be on the lookout.

<h3 class="MsoNormal">Tyler Posey in ‘Truth or Dare’

<p class="MsoNormal">This one looks a little like they crossed It Follows with Final Destination, but I’m totally in because Tyler Posey is all up on it and he looks more than a little evil towards the end of the trailer.

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">Truth of Dare or as they seem to be calling it for SEO purposes “Blumhouse's Truth or Dare” is out in most theaters on April 27.

<h3 class="MsoNormal">Ian Bohen, ‘Heathers’, and the Paramount Network

<p class="MsoNormal">Our very first Alpha, Ian Bohen, spent some time in Utah and Montana filming the new Paramount Network series Yellowstone. If IMDB can be believed, Ian is in the first couple of episodes of the new series.

<p class="MsoNormal">Because Paramount is owned by VIACOM - and VIACOM seems to have forgotten how to promote its shows properly a few years back - there’s not a trailer I can show you for Yellowstone. Instead, we have a few scenes (none with Ian) in the sizzle reel for the entire network. It also includes clips of Heathers, which, as you may remember, filmed quite a bit in the Beacon Hills sets last year.

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">The Paramount Network debuts officially on your TV on January 18. If you have Spike TV – it’ll be on that channel since Spike is now defunct. There’s more still to come from our Beacon Hills Alumni -  Crystal Reed has a new movie, but no trailer. We’re also looking for Arden Cho to show up on Chicago Med sometime after the Olympics on NBC. Dylan Sprayberry says he did some bit parts in a couple of projects but nothing is officially listed for him yet. Tyler Hoechlin is going to be EVERYWHERE this year, he’s got The Domestics, Bigger (w/ Colton Haynes), and Departures coming up in theaters. Unfortunately, there are no trailers on any of those projects at this point.