AMC's Rubicon - Sneak Peak June 13

[Shifty]

AUGUST 1st 8/7c TWO HOUR PREMIERE

The show is a conspiracy thriller starring James Badge Dale (who earlier this year headlined HBO’s The Pacific) as an analyst at a New York City think-tank who is thrown into a story where nothing is as it appears to be. Henry Bromell (Homicide, Chicago Hope, Brotherhood) has signed on as showrunner. The one-hour, 13-episode weekly series is produced by Warner Horizon Television and premieres this summer.

"Rubicon is an incredible story about trust and power born out of the desire to find a way to capture the intensity and mystery of the best conspiracy thrillers in a series. It is a show that appeals to everyone who has some skepticism about the relationship between big business and our government, which we think is pretty much everybody,” said Joel Stillerman, SVP of original programming, production and digital content for AMC. “Our stellar cast and creative team allow us to continue to present premium television on basic cable."

The series cast includes James Badge Dale (The Pacific, The Departed, 24), Oscar®-nominated actress Miranda Richardson (Sleepy Hollow), Dallas Roberts (Walk the Line, Flicka, The L Word), Jessica Collins (The Nine, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation), Christopher Evan Welch (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), Lauren Hodges (Law & Order), and Arliss Howard (Full Metal Jacket, Natural Born Killers, The Sandlot).

Rubicon’s pilot was produced in New York City and was directed by acclaimed film and television helmer Allen Coulter (The Sopranos, Hollywoodland, Damages, Nurse Jackie) and Kerry Orent (Michael Clayton, Rescue Me) is the producer.

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"Crossing the Rubicon" is a metaphor for deliberately proceeding past a point of no return. The phrase originates with Julius Caesar's invasion of Ancient Rome when, on January 10, 49 BC, he led his army across the Rubicon River in violation of law, thus making conflict inevitable. Therefore the term "the Rubicon" is used as a synonym to the "point of no return".

 

[Shifty]

 

[Soapy]

I'm really looking forward to checking out this show. It seems like AMC can do no wrong recently.

 

[Prison Mike]

I'm sooo looking forward to this show. Mad Men and Rubicon! That's all I need this summer.

 

[Shifty]

Rolling Stone states "Rubicon seems to be in the same elite class" as Mad Men and Breaking Bad. According to the mag, the pilot suggests "a superbly brainy political thriller in the genus of Three Days of the Condor and The Parallax View." (no link)

Television Review | 'Rubicon'
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY Published: June 10, 2010 NYTimes.com

“Rubicon” seems irresistible: a suspenseful series laced with conspiracy and espionage in the style of classic 1970s thrillers like “Three Days of the Condor” and “The Parallax View.”

AMC offers a sneak preview of “Rubicon,” a new espionage series starring James Badge Dale, on Sunday.

The official two-hour premiere of “Rubicon” doesn’t arrive until August, but on Sunday, after the season finale of “Breaking Bad,” AMC will offer a sneak preview of the one-hour pilot. The next day the network will offer the pilot on Hulu, iTunes and video on demand, using newfangled forms of media to promote a show that is an artful throwback to an antiquated era before Google, Facebook and iPads.

And the pilot, filmed in faded shades of sepia and gray, is certainly moody and intriguingly enigmatic. James Badge Dale (“The Pacific”) plays Will Travers, a brilliant, solitary young intelligence analyst who stumbles on troubling clues (some are buried in crossword puzzles) at his day job at the American Policy Institute, a government intelligence agency masquerading as a New York City research center.

Will begins to suspect that there is more to his agency than he thought, and that a high-level conspiracy could be manipulating world events. It’s a somewhat retro anti-establishment theme, the kind that flourished back in the days when the C.I.A. was less fettered, more opaque and widely feared. It also reflects the sort of paranoia that may have fresh resonance in today’s culture of Bush-era torture charges, anti-government talk-radio rants and Tea Party activism.

There are unexplained deaths, weird coded signals and strange behavior, but perhaps the most puzzling thing in the pilot is the ahistorical ambience. The narrative takes place in the present — or at least after the Sept. 11 attacks — but the sets make it look like a period piece, especially in contrast to the absurdly high-tech gadgetry of “24.” Much in the way that “Mad Men” celebrates 1960s Madison Avenue fashion and mores, “Rubicon” looks like a homage to high-class, low-tech 1970s think tanks.

The institute is a slightly clubbier version of the covert intelligence office where Robert Redford’s character worked — and narrowly missed being killed — in “Three Days of the Condor.” Will’s office is lined with leather-bound books, atlases, encyclopedia sets and file cabinets. There is barely a glimpse of a computer screen; he sits at his desk, reads paper reports and writes longhand on a legal pad. When he and his colleagues are given new assignments in the conference room — decorated with framed maps and a blackboard — the boss tosses thick bound files on the polished wooden table.

Will is asked by another analyst for help, and the problem is set out on hand-printed index cards pinned to a cork board. The colleague can’t see a connection among four cities — Ajaccio, Seville, Dubrovnik, Larnaca. Will can think of several right off the bat. (They are all part of the Roman Empire, they are all in countries that spend less than 5 percent of their G.D.P. on the military.) But nothing seems quite right. All of the analysts are deep thinkers, but none of them seem reliant on the Internet to prop up their thoughts.

The office tolerates a form of workplace sexism that these days seems vintage. Nobody flinches when one of Will’s more annoying colleagues, Grant Test (Christopher Evan Welch), scolds a new, low-level female analyst for not bringing breakfast.

“Getting the doughnuts is the most important part of your job,” he hisses. She looks chagrined.

The pilot posits high-level conspiracy but it doesn’t illuminate the connections, if any, among some of the lead characters. Miranda Richardson plays Katherine Rhumor, a woman who lives in a grand estate with an important, if imperiled, husband. Mostly, the narrative follows Will’s journey into confusion and intrigue.

It’s easy to fall under the spell of the murky, paranoid world of “Rubicon.” It’s harder to tell from this preview whether the atmospherics add up to a solid and complex mystery. The pilot isn’t groundbreaking, but it is promising enough to justify waiting for the full two-hour premiere on Aug. 1.

PHOTO GALLERY

 

[Hunter Rider]

This looks great, it's funny the review mentions it's 70's stylings as that struck me from the trailer. So let me get this straight, on Sunday there will be a 1 hour pilot? then in August there will be a 2 hour premiere? so that will be 3 hours of the 13 gone.

 

[Wolfwood]

AMC is really shaping up their network, hopefully their Hororfest will improve as well. The quality of it has kind of gone downhill in recent years, I'd like to see them reshape it.

 

[Shifty]

This looks great, it's funny the review mentions it's 70's stylings as that struck me from the trailer. So let me get this straight, on Sunday there will be a 1 hour pilot? then in August there will be a 2 hour premiere? so that will be 3 hours of the 13 gone.

The pilot will reair as part of the 2 hour premiere. This is just using Breaking Bad's finale as a way to get Breaking Bad fans interested in the show. Anyone who DVRs it will have the pilot and it also airs by itself a few times during the week.

Mad Men will premiere July 25 then the next week Rubicon will have their 2 hour premiere followed by the 2nd episode of Mad Men. It will be 13 episodes over 12 weeks.

 

[Christopher Nolan]

cant wait for this show. i leiked the trailer very much.

 

[Prison Mike]

I've seen about half of The Pacific (episodes 1-5) but based on those episodes alone, I think James Badge Dale will do really well.

 

[alexdunn]

I liked him a lot in 24 also. This show looks like it has potential, I'll definitely be watching it tomorrow after what I predict to be an AMAZING season finale of Breaking Bad. AMC has become a great channel for tv series. I can't wait for The Walking Dead in the fall.

 

[Hunter Rider]

The pilot will reair as part of the 2 hour premiere. This is just using Breaking Bad's finale as a way to get Breaking Bad fans interested in the show. Anyone who DVRs it will have the pilot and it also airs by itself a few times during the week.

Thanks for the info, I think I might just wait for the full 2 hour Premiere.

 

[Prison Mike]

Great first episode. I'm really intrigued with the series now.

 

[alexdunn]

Yeah pretty cool show. Don't really know what's going on, but I think that's the point. I'll keep watching when it premieres.

 

[Shifty]

http://www.amctv.com/videos/rubicon/

Has the pilot episode, the trailer previewing the season, inside the episode and 2 other inside videos introducing the characters and where the show will go with the cast and showrunner.

Looks great, fantastic cast, the four leaf clover conspiracy has me interested. More questions will be asked in the second hour. They took a long time to start production on the show as they figured out the conspiracy and what would happen, the creator was removed from the series and a new showrunner was installed for episode two on. Slow at parts but its setting things up, Mad Men it is not. Very good potential here. Then once Mad Men/Rubicon finish then The Walking Dead premieres.

 

[Prison Mike]

The creator of the show was removed? That really sucks for him/her.

 

[Shifty]

Apparently he is difficult to work with and had bad ideas of where the show would go. So he'll get credit and some sort of cheque in the mail for creating the show. Henry Bromell (Homicide, Chicago Hope, Brotherhood) seems like a good choice so I'm interested in what the next 12 episodes are like.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

The first episode was pretty awesome. Just watched it on Hulu. Very cool cloak-and-dagger sort of mystery. I'm looking forward to the rest of the season in August.

 

[Shifty]

Inside Rubicon: Real Life Inspirations

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[Shifty]

Something to read while you wait. Also great to see that four episodes in the show is still good.

'Rubicon' and The Washington Post: Telling the same very scary story
by Ken Tucker Jul 21 2010 11:45 AM ET
Categories: Controversy, Dramas, In the News, News, Politics, Television

This week, The Washington Post has been publishing a long, enthralling, frightening piece on the vast number of intelligence-gathering systems that have sprung up since 9/11, much of the gathering done by independent businesses. A big part of the newspaper’s story is that what’s really needed is one clearing-house organization that would sift through all the data to discern the proper patterns and clues, and thus help prevent future terrorist attacks with greater speed and accuracy.

Does this sound familiar to anyone who watched Rubicon when AMC premiered its pilot episode last month? It stars James Badge Dale, the soulful soldier from The Pacific, as a brilliant data analyst for an organization called A.P.I., American Policy Institute — precisely the kind of real-life data-analysis group Washington Post writers Dana Priest and William M. Arkin say exists in near-total secrecy around the country.

While the Post‘s investigative series is extremely important as current news, I can’t help but wonder whether AMC is gnashing its corporate teeth this week, thinking, “Damn! If only this story had broken the week we premiere!”

Rubicon starts up on Aug. 1; I’ve seen the first four episodes, and it is terrific television. I can imagine the show’s producers have spent a lot of time this week reading The Washington Post, comparing their extensive research into government and private-business intelligence-gathering, and possibly picking up future plot-points.

Rubicon, to judge from what the Post says, has a lot of it right already, even down to the fact that the brainy data-sifters tend to be in the 20s and 30s, over-worked and under-paid. Read the Post‘s series; then get ready for a really good TV show.

 

[Crockett]

I like the first episode, this series, if developed right could evolved into something great.
AMC is awesome, they're like the new HBO.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Only cheaper.

 

[Shifty]

Three Days of the Condor is on AMC at various times this week, TiVoed it last night. Going to try to watch it before Rubicon airs. The Parallax View airs on August 10th on TCM if you want to DVR it.

 

[NorsePrincess]

Might give this a chance now as I wait for new Breaking Bad, not sure if it'll succeed though.

 

[Shifty]

What's Your Favorite Movie (That Influenced Rubicon)?

Critics have hailed Rubicon as "a seductive conspiracy thriller" (Associated Press) and praised the "subtlety and dexterity of the storytelling" (Salon.com). The show's lineage can be traced back to a long line of popular suspense films dating all the way back to 1935 (The 39 Steps). We asked the series' Executive Producer Henry Bromell and his writers which movies were the most influential while creating the AMC's newest show, and they provided us with the list below.

Rubicon's Movie Inspirations
Which movie that influenced Rubicon is your favorite?

The 39 Steps (1935)
North by Northwest (1959)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
The Ipcress File (1965)
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)
Klute (1971)
The Conversation (1974)
The Parallax View (1974)
Three Days of the Condor (1975)
All The President's Men (1976)

Watched Three Days of the Condor last night, amazed what they were doing back then and had me thinking what the conspiracy of Rubicon will be.