Latest news with #Firebug
South China Morning Post
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Smoke's Taron Egerton, Jurnee Smollett and Dennis Lehane on the new Apple TV+ series
American author and screenwriter Dennis Lehane has a healthy respect for the power of fire. He learned that from surviving a house fire in Boston, Massachusetts, in his thirties. Advertisement Lehane was living on the top floor of a block of flats when a propane tank on the roof exploded and started a blaze. The landlord was replacing the building's smoke detectors at the time, so they were not working. Lehane is lucky to be alive and he credits, in part, the flames. 'If you're trapped in fire – if you wake up and the building you're in is on fire – it's up to the fire at that point. It's really up to the whims of the fire, whatever's going to happen to you. And I find that lack of control fascinating.' Lehane, whose literary canon includes the novels-turned-film-hits Gone, Baby, Gone and Mystic River, has turned to fire for his latest project – Apple TV+'s new nine-episode crime drama Smoke. It is based on the true story of a former arson investigator who was convicted in 1998 of serial arson. He was captured in part after he wrote a novel about a firefighter who was a serial arsonist. The case – chronicled in the 2021 podcast Firebug – sparked something in Lehane.
Japan Today
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Japan Today
Arson ignites the Dennis Lehane-created Apple TV+ firebug series 'Smoke'
By MARK KENNEDY Author and screenwriter Dennis Lehane has a healthy respect for the power of fire. He learned that the hard way — surviving a house fire in Boston in his 30s. Lehane was living on the top floor of an apartment building when a propane tank on the roof exploded and started a blaze. The landlord was replacing the building's smoke detectors at the time so none were working. Lehane is lucky to be alive and he credits, in part, the flames. 'If you're trapped in fire — if you wake up and the building you're in is on fire — it's up to the fire at that point. It's really up to whims of the fire, whatever's going to happen to you. And I find that lack of control fascinating.' Lehane, whose literary canon includes the novels-turned-movie hits 'Gone, Baby, Gone' and 'Mystic River,' has turned to fire for his latest project — Apple TV+'s new nine-episode crime drama 'Smoke.' It debuts Friday. It's based on the true story of a former arson investigator who was convicted in 1998 of serial arson, captured in part after he wrote a novel about a firefighter who was a serial arsonist. The case — chronicled in the 2021 podcast Firebug — sparked something in Lehane. 'I just thought, that's just the height of craziness. Like, you're not only in denial about who you are, you're so far in denial you're going to write a book about what a great guy you are and then use the fires that you set as the models for the fires in your book?' he says. 'I can get in the zip code of that mindset; I cannot land on the street, though." The show marks a reunion between Lehane, Greg Kinnear and Taron Egerton, who previously worked together on the 2022 Apple TV+ series "Black Bird." It also stars Jurnee Smollett, Anna Chlumsky and John Leguizamo, and boasts an original, eerie song by Radiohead's Thom Yorke called 'Dialing In.' Egerton plays Dave Gudsen, an arson investigator in Umberland, a fictional town in the Pacific Northwest, who is chasing two separate firebugs. He's teamed up with a smart but troubled detective played by Smollett, who begin a game of cat and mouse. If the setup sounds like it leads to a typical TV procedural, viewers who stick around get rewarded by a show that gets weirder and more complex, infused by Lehane's attraction to moral ambiguity. 'We walk with contradictions and I think that's the dramatic irony that Dennis is exploring.' says Smollett. 'These people are saying they're fighting to do the right thing and yet they're morally questionable. I think that's very relevant today.' Edgerton's Dave, it's soon clear, is not who he appears to be and has an almost superhuman ability to compartmentalize aspects of his personal and private lives. He is both bombastic and insecure, goofy and frightening. 'Taron has endless reservoirs of talent to draw on. He's an extremely inspired actor,' says Lehane. 'He comes at it from the same place I come at it, which is Taron won't take a role unless some part of it scares him. I won't tell a story unless some of it scares me." Egerton said he relished a chance to show a different side of himself, rebelling a little at his safe, good-guy public persona after the success of his heroic turn in 2024's 'Carry-On.' 'You know what? I'm not that affable. I am sometimes, but I'm not some of the time,' he says, laughing. 'I think the thing I love about Dave is there is a tension between what the perception of him is and who he really is. And how can you ever really know who a person is?' Adding to the series' allure is some of Lehane's street poetry, like the line: 'Whatever you do, whatever you know, however much lifetime wisdom you've accrued, fire puts a lie to it all.' Smollett was onboard after an initial conversation with Lehane in which he said: 'So many of us say we want to be happy and yet we are drawn to the very thing that will destroy us.' That was Smollett's entry point to her gloriously messy character. Smollett's detective, a former Marine, refuses to be vulnerable, is excellent at her job, traumatized by a past experience with arson and not afraid to mess with anyone. Early on, she is shown using a sledgehammer to her own home. 'She plays with fire,' says Smollett. 'She's living on the edge and has this mask and this guard up and walks around as if she's invincible because she's really just afraid." Lehane says with 'Smoke' he's drawn to people who invest in a narrative of who they choose to be rather than be true to who they really are. 'You don't know who they are because they don't know who they are,' he says. 'They're running from themselves, they're running from their true selves. And I felt like that's the interesting story here I'm trying to tell.' © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
The true story behind ‘Smoke,' plus ‘Odd Mom Out' and ‘Pavements' for your weekend streaming
Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who can't stand the heat outside, but can tolerate it onscreen. The eerie and bizarre story of John Orr, a Southern California arson investigator who authorities say moonlighted as a serial arsonist suspected of setting some 2,000 fires in the 1980s and 1990s, has been chronicled in the 2021 podcast 'Firebug' and, earlier this year, received the deep-dive treatment from L.A. Times writer Christopher Goffard. Now, there's a new Apple TV+ series, 'Smoke,' loosely inspired by the true crime case. Author and screenwriter Dennis Lehane, who created the new drama, stopped by Guest Spot to discuss it. Also in this week's Screen Gab, TV critic Robert Lloyd reminds us that Bravo used to dabble in scripted programming, recommending 'Odd Mom Out,' the short-lived comedy about a stay-at-home mother and her experiences navigating the bizarre and outrageous world of Manhattan's elite; and film reporter Josh Rottenberg suggests finding time to watch a hybrid documentary-biopic film about the '90s indie band Pavement. Must-read stories you might have missed The movie business isn't going to collapse. Jerry Bruckheimer explains why: Thirty-five years after 'Days of Thunder,' the hard-charging 'F1' producer is not slowing down: Bruckheimer talks fast cars, big-budget spectacle and the state of Hollywood. 'My Mom Jayne' led Mariska Hargitay to see her mother 'like a superhero': The 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' actor created an emotional and revealing documentary about her mother, Jayne Mansfield, who died when Hargitay was just 3 years old. 'The Bear': Apologies and reconciliations lift the mood in Season 4: The latest season of 'The Bear' shows Carmy and the crew reacting to various obstacles, including a negative restaurant review, but everyone's on the road to happiness. 'Countdown' makes Los Angeles a prominent character — and it's in danger: The Prime Video action series follows a task force consisting of members from various law enforcement agencies that are brought together after the murder of a Department of Homeland Security agent. But it's Los Angeles that is in serious danger. Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times 'Odd Mom Out' (Peacock) In my review of the new season of 'The Bear' this week, I neglected to mention Abby Elliott, who plays Sugar, the level-headed sister of Jeremy Allen White's Carmy (or to mention Sugar's new baby, the most adorable infant I have ever seen on screen); ironically, it was because, laboring to express how great she is in it, I had set that bit aside — as it turned out, permanently. Happily, I was already planning to use this space to recommend her earlier series, Jill Kargman's very funny 'Odd Mom Out,' Bravo's brief experiment (2015-17) in scripted comedy, giving me this chance to self-correct. In 'Mom,' whose three seasons stream on Peacock, Kargman, a very talented amateur, stars as a version of herself in a series based on her 2007 book 'Momzillas,' about competitive parenting among Upper East Side New Yorkers, a war her boho-punk mother of three character declines to enter. (She is what most of us would call rich, but not obscenely so, and has good values.) Elliott, in a whimsical comic turn, plays Brooke, the pregnant and thin wife (later ex-wife) of her brother-in-law, whose charities include providing 'prophylactic gastric bypasses for at-risk kids with morbidly obese parents' and sending bouncy castles to Africa. — Robert Lloyd 'Pavements' (available on various VOD platforms) If you were young and vaguely disaffected in the '90s, Pavement was either your favorite band or the band your favorite band wanted to be — a group whose slanted (and enchanted) songs defined slacker cool, mixing lo-fi chaos, shaggy pop hooks and a shrugging disinterest in 'career, career, career,' as they put it in their semi-hit 'Cut Your Hair.' So it's only fitting that Alex Ross Perry's drolly funny anti-rock-doc ditches the usual mythology-building formula in favor of something far weirder. Blending real tour footage, a faux biopic, a tongue-in-cheek jukebox musical and a museum filled with half-fake relics, the film is part tribute, part Gen X time capsule, part absurdist prank. 'Stranger Things' star Joe Keery is the film's unexpected MVP, playing himself with deadpan commitment as he fixates on nailing lead singer Stephen Malkmus' Stockton accent — right down to requesting a photo of his tongue for research. By the end, 'Pavements' becomes both a joke about the band's legacy and a surprisingly sincere celebration of it. — Josh Rottenberg A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they're working on — and what they're watching He spent his days as a fire captain and arson investigator in Southern California, but authorities say John Orr lived a secret life as a prolific arsonist responsible for a string of fires that terrorized the region in the '80s and '90s. An unpublished novel he wrote, 'Points of Origin,' detailed an arson spree that mirrored real-life incidents and helped authorities secure enough evidence to arrest him. The firefighting veteran was eventually convicted on 20 counts of arson and 4 counts of murder and is serving life in prison. Orr continues to maintain his innocence. This true story, chronicled in the 2021 podcast 'Firebug,' is the basis for Apple TV+'s new nine-episode crime drama 'Smoke.' Created by Dennis Lehane ('Black Bird'), the series follows arson investigator Dave Gudsen (Taron Egerton) and Detective Michelle Calderone (Jurnee Smollett) as they pursue two serial arsonists. The first two episodes are available to stream, with the remaining seven releasing weekly every Friday until Aug. 15. Lehane stopped by Guest Spot to discuss the show's gnarly fire sequences and getting Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke to provide the show's theme song. — Yvonne Villarreal You've authored several well-known novels, including 'Gone, Baby, Gone,' 'Mystic River' and 'Shutter Island,' and you're familiar with exploring moral ambiguity. What stood out to you when you first listened to 'Firebug'? And what about it made it a story you wanted to tell for the screen? What really stood out for me with 'Firebug' was John Orr's myopic duality. He clung to the identity of a hero arson investigator even as he was running around lighting up Glendale and surrounding areas, resulting in several deaths. On top of that, he was writing a book about an arson investigator chasing a serial arsonist. And the book was quite bad. I found that kinda delicious. I was also intrigued by his methods for setting the fires and was taken by the fact that he'd once nearly died in a fire when he mistook his reflection for another firefighter and ran deeper into a burning house. Everything else in the show is pure fiction. I didn't want to tell a story about John Orr in 1980s California; I wanted to tell a story about our culture now, about people who feel so unmoored they'd rather cling to the fiction of themselves over the fact. Tell me about the planning and work that went into crafting the fire sequences in the series — how you decided when to use special effects or real fire, and the precautions that needed to be in place for the latter. And is there a fire sequence in the series that stands out for you? The moments that stand out most are the first fire — Dave's dream — and the last — the sawmill fire. The first of these was 100% real. It was shot on a burn stage with pipes blasting flame all around the room as Taron — not a stunt man — walked through it. It looks so impressive because a) we planned really hard; and b) Sam McCurdy, our director of photography, is a painter with light and reflection. Our sawmill fire and the subsequent car ride thru the burning forest was the opposite — it was predominantly CGI, but we'd realized by then that the key was to shoot as much real fire as we could (which, in this case, wasn't terribly much), so the CGI wizards had real flame to compare their work to. How did you get Thom Yorke to write a song ('Dialing In') for the show's theme? Our music supervisor, Mary Ramos, had heard that Thom was a fan of 'Black Bird' [Lehane's previous Apple TV+ series that also starred Egerton and featured much of the same creative team]. We reached out to see if he had any interest in writing a song for our credit sequence. And he actually called us back. He and I spoke about the underlying themes of the show and he read a bunch of the scripts. Then he went off and wrote the song. He sent it back to us and someone, I think it was Mary, said, 'Now you have to give him notes.' And I was like, Um … no, no, I don't. He's Thom Yorke. Giving him notes on music would be like telling Scorsese where to put the camera. I passed along this note:'Thank you.' What have you watched recently that you're recommending to everyone you know? (Please explain) 'Dept. Q' [Netflix]. Scott Frank, as always, crushes it as both a writer and a director. It's got one of the best pilots I've ever seen, and the cast, led by Matthew Goode and Kate Dickie, is impeccable. It's so rich in character and atmosphere that I wanted to fly to Edinburgh to simply hang out with every character after I finished watching. What's your go-to comfort watch, the film or TV show you return to again and again? (Please explain) 'Midnight Run' [Netflix] is my cinematic chicken soup for the soul. It's smart, hilarious, infinitely quotable, sports one of the greatest casts ever assembled, and it's non-stop, breakneck fun from the first shot to the last. I've probably seen it 30 times.
Time Magazine
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Time Magazine
Arson Thriller 'Smoke' Isn't Nearly as Subversive as It Thinks
Smoke gets off to an insufferable start. Freighted with procedural clichés, the Apple TV+ thriller follows a mismatched law-enforcement duo tracking two prolific arsonists. Dave Gudsen (Taron Egerton) is an arson investigator with a standoffish stepson and literary ambitions. His new partner: police detective Michelle Calderone (Jurnee Smollett), an ex-Marine who's sleeping with a superior. Initial tension gives way to drunken bonding. Pretentious stylistic choices exacerbate the lazy setup. Episodes open with dictionary definitions of thematically appropriate words like transmogrification and, for some reason, fury on title cards. There are arty shots of billowing infernos. A mournful Thom Yorke song soundtracks the credits. In voiceover, Dave expounds, hackily, on the annihilating power of fire. After two interminable episodes, a bombshell resets the show, eliminating some of its worst excesses and contextualizing others. Smoke becomes watchable. Yet in its swerve away from one egregious set of tropes, it embraces others that are, if less irritating, almost as tired. An emerging critique of aggrieved white machismo comes off, mostly, as a shallow topical hook. Like so many disappointing Apple TV+ projects, from Nicole Kidman's Roar to Billy Crystal's Before, the series substitutes marquee names for quality control. Loosely based on the true crime podcast Firebug, it was developed by one of Hollywood's favorite authors, Dennis Lehane (Shutter Island, Mystic River), who was also on the writing staff of The Wire and helmed Apple's well-received 2022 miniseries Black Bird. The cast includes John Leguizamo, Greg Kinnear, and Anna Chlumsky. Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, a standout in The Chi and Treme, brings a fragile authenticity to the tricky but pivotal role of a maladjusted fast-food worker. But the actors are poorly served by the material. Kinnear is miscast as the detectives' folksy, complacent boss. Leguizamo's character is too broadly sleazy, Chlumsky's too bland. At the story's forefront, Michelle is a dated Strong Female Character with a maudlin history of trauma. Egerton, an executive producer, has taken on a role so elastic, and so clearly shaped by the need for nine episodes' worth of cliffhangers, it barely holds together. Populated by unhinged men and masochistic women, and punctuated by fiery, increasingly histrionic set pieces, Smoke fails to reconcile its mood of noirish nihilism with its efforts at social commentary. Despite feinting towards subversion, Lehane has produced a typical—overlong, caricature-laden, easy to watch but also to forget—streaming crime show.
Tom's Guide
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
'Smoke' showrunner reveals why he dropped that major twist in Apple TV Plus' new true crime thriller
Apple TV Plus just dropped the first two episodes of "Smoke," its new true crime thriller starring Taron Egerton and Jurnee Smollett, this morning. So there's a good chance you haven't seen it yet. If you haven't, then be warned — there are spoilers ahead. But if you have seen the two-episode premiere or listened to "Firebug," the true crime podcast this show is loosely adapted from, then you know the shocking reveal from the end of episode 2: Taron Egerton's character, David Gudsen, is an arson investigator who is also a serial arsonist. To be fair, the show's official trailer doesn't entirely hide this. It avoids showing the reveal directly, but it's clear that Detective Calderone (Jurnee Smollett) thinks her new partner could be a prolific arsonist. So when I had a chance to sit down with showrunner Dennis Lehane ("The Wire," "Black Bird") to discuss the true crime limited series, I asked him about the choice to drop what would normally be a major reveal so early on in the show. For his part, Lehane simply doesn't want to deceive audiences just for the sake of shock value. Especially when, if you've already listened to "Firebug" anyway, you know who the arsonist in "Smoke" is likely to be. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. We tried the third episode. We tried the second. We tried the first. And second just worked. Because it's not about the twist at all. It's about how deep does this rabbit hole of this guy's mind go, and what are we going to find at the end of it? "Audiences are so smart now, man," Lehane rightly pointed out. "I hate shows when I'm sitting there, and I figured it out — I figure [it] out in episode 2, and you're telling me in episode 6? It's annoying." However, that doesn't mean that the plan was always to go with a reveal at the end of the two-episode premiere. In fact, Lehane and the show's creative team tried multiple options. "We tried the third episode. We tried the second. We tried the first. And second just worked. Because it's not about the twist at all. It's about how deep does this rabbit hole of this guy's mind go, and what are we going to find at the end of it?" As someone who has seen "Smoke" and certainly thinks there are more than a few missteps in the miniseries' nine-episode run, I have to agree with the decision to go with a reveal at the end of episode 2. For starters, any further really would feel like the show is just dragging it out. But given the premiere's two-episode structure, it also leaves you on a high note. You walk away from the episode desperate to see what's next now that you know the cat-and-mouse game between Calderone and Gudsen is afoot. As I've already mentioned on more than one occasion, "Smoke" is a true crime thriller miniseries based on the true crime podcast "Firebug." That podcast examined the life and crimes of John Leonard Orr, one of the most prolific arsonists in history. In this show, showrunner Dennis Lehane has opted for a fictional stand-in, Pacific Northwest arson investigator Dave Gudsen (Taron Egerton). Along with Detective Michell Calderone (Jurnee Smollett), he's part of a team chasing down a pair of serial arsonists. But as you now know, one of the people they're chasing is really Gudsen, and the show is, to quote Lehane, "not about the twist at all." Instead, this show is a deep dive into the mind of more than a few twisted individuals as they investigate a spate of arson cases that lead to more than a few deaths. Stream the first two episodes of "Smoke" on Apple TV Plus now Malcolm has been with Tom's Guide since 2022, and has been covering the latest in streaming shows and movies since 2023. He's not one to shy away from a hot take, including that "John Wick" is one of the four greatest films ever made. Here's what he's been watching lately:
