TV Interview!
Interview with Dennie Gordon, director of “Last Light” on Peacock by Suzanne 8/30/22
I don’t often speak to directors (or writers, for that matter), so it was great to speak to this amazing woman. Her bio (below) is very impressive. I really enjoyed speaking with her. You can watch “Last Light” here!
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Dennie Gordon has been a trailblazing female director her entire career; spanning the worlds of feature films, television series, mini-series and branded content. Her range of genre busting entertainment spans an unusual spectrum of comedy and drama. After being one of the first women to graduate from Yale’s School of Drama with an MFA in Directing, Gordon first gained recognition when “A Hard Rain” was chosen by Showtime’s Discovery Program. Thanks to Steven Spielberg, a rough cut of her film attracted the attention of George Lucas who donated the film’s mix at Skywalker Ranch. “A Hard Rain” , which Gordon also wrote, went on to win dramatic awards at the British Short Film Festival and the Hampton’s Film Festival. This film also caught the eye of David E. Kelley who enlisted Gordon to helm multiple episodes of his television series including “Goliath”, (where she was Co EP) “Picket Fences”, “Chicago Hope”, “Ally McBeal”, and “The Practice”. Gordon has directed over 100 hours of network television including such critically acclaimed series as “Legion”, which was on many critic’s lists as a top 10 show of 2017, with the “astounding direction of Dennie Gordon and her twisted visionary imagery taking the X-Men universe to a whole new level”. Her other work includes “Bloodline”, “Rectify Empire”, “Kingdom”, “Power”, “Hell on Wheels”, “Grace & Frankie”, “The Office”, “30 Rock”, Aaron Sorkin’s “Sports Night”, and HBO’s “Tracey Takes On”, for which Gordon won the DGA Comedy Award. Gordon recently completed the mini-series “Waco”, “Jack Ryan” Season 2 and “The Hunt” starring Al Pacino. Gordon directed the comedy cult hit “Joe Dirt” starring David Spade, and Christopher Walken, and “What A Girl Wants” starring Oscar Winner Colin Firth, Dame Eileen Atkins, and Jonathan Pryce. Gordon was the first American woman to direct a film for the domestic Chinese market, called “My Lucky Star”. The 2013 film starred Oscar nominee Zhang Ziyi and Wang Leehom and was filmed in China and Singapore in the summer of 2012. “My Lucky Star” was the number one film in China for 4 weeks on 5000 screens.
Gordon is a sought after commercial director having completed campaigns for Honda, Toyota, Tsingtao beer and Xcel Energy as well as campaigns with Jimmy Fallon, Betty White, Adam Devine and Don Cheadle. She recently completed a short dramatic film for Huawei, which was shot in Prague. She is represented by CAA.
Based on Alex Scarrow’s bestselling apocalyptic thriller, LAST LIGHT will thrust audiences into a world of chaos, as the world’s oil ceases to function correctly, and all means of power & communication begin to fail. The series stars Matthew Fox (Lost), making his series acting return after 12 years alongside, Joanne Froggatt (Liar, Downton Abbey), Alyth Ross (Traces, Emerald), Taylor Fay (Judge Rinder, The Making of Alex), Amber Rose Revah (The Punisher), Victor Alli (Belfast, Grantchester), Tom Wlaschiha (Game of Thrones, Stranger Things) and Hakeem Jomah (Rashash, Kidnap). Dennie Gordon serves as Executive Producer and Director of all five episodes.
ABOUT LAST LIGHT Trailer
Premiere Date: Thursday, September 8 on Peacock
Logline: The series is based on the novel Last Light written by Alex Scarrow, which tells the story of a family fighting to survive during the fallout of an oil crisis.
Cast:
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Matthew Fox (Lost) will play Andy Yeats, an ex-pat living in London, and one of the world’s leading petro-chemical engineers.
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Joanne Froggatt (Liar, Downton Abbey) will play Elena Yeats, Andy’s smart, caring, and beautiful wife. When her son, Sam, was diagnosed with a progressive, degenerative eye disease, she gave up her thriving professional career and put considerable energy and ability toward finding a cure.
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Alyth Ross (Traces, Emerald) will play Laura Yeats, a passionate and informed university student committed to confronting the mounting crisis of climate change and finding a solution to helping the planet.
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Taylor Fay (Judge Rinder, The Making of Alex) will play Sam Yeats. Eight-year-old Sam is fighting a degenerative eye disease that is slowing taking away his sight.
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Amber Rose Revah (The Punisher) will play Mika Bakhash, a representative for the British government.
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Victor Alli (Belfast, Grantchester) will play Owen Jones, a brilliant college student who has been working his way through school.
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Tom Wlaschiha (Game of Thrones, Stranger Things) will play Karl Bergmann. Karl Bergmann works for the British Government and is the man Parliament and MI6 turn to when the world is thrown into chaos.
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Hakeem Jomah (Rashash, Kidnap) will play Khalil Al-Qatani, the head of a big oil company.
Director: Dennie Gordon (All 5 episodes)
Executive Producers: Dennie Gordon, Matthew Fox, William Choi, Sydney Gallonde, Rikke Ennis, Patrick Renault, Diego Piasek, Patrick Massett, John Zinman
Co-Executive Producers: Rola Bauer and Steven Johnson
Producer: Veronika Lencova
Produced by: MGM International Television Productions in association with Peacock, Viaplay Group, MBC, Peacock and STAN.
Format: 5 x 45 min episodes, limited drama series.
Filming Location: Prague, Paris and Abu Dhabi
Interviews with Amber Rose Revah and Joanne Froggatt
Proofread and Edited by Brenda
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Joanne Froggatt is a British actress. From 2010 to 2015, she portrayed Anna Bates in the ITV period drama series Downton Abbey. For this role, she received three Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television in 2014.