thewrap: Take a sneak peek at our Miniseries/Movies Emmy issue, coming out tomorrow! This issue is #AllTheRage, as it features Judith Light, Édgar Ramírez and Darren Criss of ‘American Crime Story: Versace,’ as well as many other sensational men and women of television and film. Stay tuned for plenty more to come!! #Emmys #ACSVersace
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“The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” (FX)
Both a character study of killer Andrew Cunanan and a time capsule of 1990s queer culture, the second season of Ryan Murphy’s “American Crime Story” also trumpets the true arrival of Darren Criss. While it’s never been a secret that the “Glee” and “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” star is a certified song-and-dance man, here he plumbed the depths of a sociopath’s psyche, turning his naturally cheery demeanor dark, desperate, and introspective. The power of Criss’ about-face is enough to put him on any awards shortlist, but it helps that he’s surrounded by an ensemble that meets him mark for mark: Ricky Martin, Judith Light, and Édgar Ramírez and Penélope Cruz as the Versaces. —Benjamin Lindsay
SOME OF THE BEST TV IS LIMITED: I mean limited series, a category filled with some of the year’s best goodies. Do not, I repeat, do not ignore “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” one of the year’s most riveting TV stories, and take special notice of its performances. And do not, I repeat, do not go gaga for “Twin Peaks,” which — and I know this is controversial — was significant simply for being so stubbornly self-referential and inscrutable. Be sure to check out the other Margaret Atwood adaptation, “Alias Grace,” which took on memory, storytelling, and the history of sexism. And don’t forget about “Howards End.” Yeah, yeah, I know those British costume dramas seem like they’re a dime a dozen, but the good ones, like “Howards End,” definitely are not.
As any TV critic who moonlights as an Emmy observer will tell you, the Television Academy’s choices can be… frustrating. The tendency to nominate the same series and performances year in, year out; the reluctance to acknowledge certain challenging titles; the labyrinthine rules: The Emmys are often easy to predict, yet difficult to understand.
With that in mind, my annual mock Emmy nominations ballot is a plea for voters’ consideration, a paean to the medium’s finest and an attempt to highlight those still flying under the radar as voting gets underway. It’s full of tough decisions and merciless cuts—including a few that may have you scratching your head. It’s not predictive, but aspirational. And it’s written in the hope that it might get even a single voter to give a deserving series or performer another look.
Outstanding Limited Series
Alias Grace (Netflix)
The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (FX)
Howards End (Starz)
The Looming Tower (Hulu)
Twin Peaks: The Return (Showtime)It’s been a strong year for limited series. As I’ve written for the site more than once, The Assassination of Gianni Versace is a remarkably radical treatment of queer themes, unspooling in reverse chronological order across multiple genres and painted in Miami pastels. Alias Grace is equally ambitious, in terms of both structure (toggling between two timelines) and perspective (that of an accused murderer); Twin Peaks, meanwhile, is so wildly imagistic, and yet so primal, that the eminences at Sight & Sound and Cahiers du Cinéma decided its excellence made it a film. (It’s a TV series. Always has been.) Even the category’s less groundbreaking entries, Howards End and The Looming Tower, are formidable iterations of familiar stories—an embarrassment of riches, indeed.
Outstanding Lead Actor (Limited Series/TV Movie)
Darren Criss, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (FX)
Jared Harris, The Terror (AMC)
Michael B. Jordan, Fahrenheit 451 (HBO)
Matthew Macfadyen, Howards End (Starz)
Kyle MacLachlan, Twin Peaks: The Return (Showtime)
Jimmy Tatro, American Vandal (Netflix)So, here is where I come across a familiar Emmy dilemma. Criss does career-making work in The Assassination of Gianni Versace, transforming spree killer Andrew Cunanan into a gruesomely magnetic villain/protagonist, and in any other year I’d say you were out of your gourd not to give him the trophy. But MacLachlan does career-defining work as Twin Peaks’ Dale Cooper, earning Emmy nominations for the series’ first two seasons in 1990-1991, to which he adds both Coop’s doppelganger and Dougie Jones in last year’s revival. Criss will have more bites at the apple. I say give MacLachlan the award he’s deserved for almost three decades.
Outstanding Supporting Actor (Limited Series/TV Movie)
Miguel Ferrer, Twin Peaks: The Return (Showtime)
Ciarán Hinds, The Terror (AMC)
Alex Lawther, Howards End (Starz)
Tahar Rahim, The Looming Tower (Hulu)
Edgar Ramirez, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (FX)
Hugo Weaving, Patrick Melrose (Showtime)In the interest of spreading the love, I left out two performances of note: Cody Fern and Finn Witrock, as murder victims—and, crucially, men in full—David Madson and Jeff Trail, in The Assassination of Gianni Versace. If you’ll forgive me that, then please consider Alex Lawther, an exquisitely funny, never ridiculous revelation as Tibby Schlegel, breathing life into a character that not even E.M. Forster could.
Outstanding Supporting Actress (Limited Series/TV Movie)
Penelope Cruz, The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (FX)
Laura Dern, Twin Peaks: The Return (Showtime)
Angela Lansbury, Little Women (PBS)
Judith Light, The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (FX)
Anna Paquin, Alias Grace (Netflix)
Tracey Ullmann, Howards End (Starz)If you expected me to pick anyone but 92-year-old Angela Lansbury as Little Women’s Aunt March, you had another thing coming.
LOS ANGELES – Daniel Minahan has known Ryan Murphy since the mid-1990s. Both were journalists in L.A. at the time and were starting to pen prospective narratives for TV and film. Murphy went on to be a prolific and lauded TV series creator (Nip/Tuck, Glee, American Horror Story, Feud), winning four Emmys and nominated for assorted others while Minahan established himself as a producer and director, becoming an Emmy nominee in the former capacity for Outstanding Drama Series on the strength of House of Cards (season 5). Minahan’s other credits include serving as EP and showrunner of Marco Polo and directing episodes of such series as True Blood, Six Feet Under, Homeland and Game Of Thrones.
Yet as their careers progressed, Murphy and Minahan’s professional paths hadn’t formally crossed–until the true crime anthology TV series The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (FX) brought them together, as EPs/directors. Minahan directed three episodes, including the finale and “House by the Lake,” an installment submitted for Emmy consideration in directorial achievement.
When first presented with The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Minahan said he felt “very connected” to the material. “I thought it was brilliant and it was in a time period I know something about. I grew up during that time. It was a story I felt that I could really bring something to. and there was the additional attraction of working with (EP) Brad Simpson again. He worked on one of my first features.”
Minahan had the advantage of getting to work on The Assassination of Gianni Versace from the very outset. “I was there while Ryan was shooting the first hour. I picked up the atmospheric stuff in Miami, got to know the crew and saw the style of what Ryan was establishing. What I found as I began directing was that the work took on a life of its own. Each episode is almost a standalone piece, with the show spanning different genres.”
“House by the Lake”
Minahan described “House by the Lake” (episode 4) as “a psychological thriller” in which Minneapolis architect David Madson (portrayed by Cody Fern) is forced to go on the run with Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss), the man who murdered at least five people, including fashion designer Versace, Madson, and Chicago tycoon Lee Miglin. “This episode had a really intense emotional through line,” assessed Minahan. “To me, it’s sort of where the show begins to explore deeper themes of hate and homophobia. We get into the core of the series through the eyes of David and Andrew.”The inherent challenge throughout the show, continued Minahan, was “depicting real people’s lives, particularly the victims.” This necessitated Minahan having to maintain a delicate balancing act between his role as a dramatist while still honoring these real-life characters. “It was important to me that the show be compelling and that people would want to follow our story, but at the same time we had to be respectful of the victims as individuals as well as their families. I feel we told the story in a way true to the lives of these people.”
There was also painstaking research to accurately depict the events. For example, Cunanan’s first murder victim was Jeffrey Trail (Finn Wittrock) with Minahan and his compatriots turning to forensic photography and police reports “to imagine the blocking of the crime and where it took place.”
Perhaps the biggest creative and logistical challenge of the show, though, was its casting which extended far beyond the principal performers. There were more than 200 speaking roles. Minahan related, “It took a lot of energy to find the right actors. Our casting people were spectacular and tireless. A lot had to be done on tape, with my trying to meet in person those considered for the more important roles. One of the hardest to cast was Andrew’s mother, Mary Ann.” Ultimately Minahan gravitated towards Joanna Adler, a well-respected New York theater actor, for that challenging role.
As for the biggest takeaway or lesson learned from his experience on The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Minahan observed, “I’ve been working closely, shoulder to shoulder with the crew, executives, creatives and showrunners on the last five shows I’ve done. The major takeaway for me moving forward is I want to create a family like the family that Ryan has created at Ryan Murphy Productions. When you reach a certain level, there’s the expectation that everyone brings their most excellent work to the show. But beyond this, Ryan’s company has a respect and familial quality for its people. You feel safe, protected. There’s loyalty. You have the feeling you are doing something important. It’s still a series. It’s still entertainment but there’s a greater sense of purpose and significance to the stories you tell.”
Daniel Minahan Reflects On “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story”
@Impact24PR: The incredible music supervisor and composers behind The Music of @LegionFX , @EmpireFOX , @ACSFX, @AHSFX, @911onFOX, @TheAmericansFX and @NBCThisisUs discussed their work at Monday’s @The_SCL Event, moderated by actress Katie Aselton! #Composer #MusicSupervisor #TV #Music
BMI Composers Talk Scoring Hit Series at SCL Panel Discussion
The music of award-winning BMI composers Mac Quayle, Siddhartha Khosla, Nathan Barr and Fil Eisler was front and center during a recent panel discussion hosted by the Society of Composers & Lyricists in LA. Moderated by Katie Aselton, the presentation also included clips from their respective shows: American Horror Story, This Is Us, The Americans, and Empire, and offered the eager audience an inside perspective on scoring and what’s needed to help propel an ongoing series.
In addition to this discussion’s featured series, each of the composers are renowned for their work in several other projects. Quayle’s credits also include Mr. Robot, for which he won an Emmy, FX’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, and the Emmy-winning The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. Khosla’s credits include Marvel’s Runaways, and E!’s first scripted drama series, The Royals. Among Barr’s many credits are the Emmy-nominated main title theme of Netflix’s Hemlock Grove, as wells as Flatliners, while Eisler’s resume is also impressive with music for Shameless, Revenge, To The Bone and CHIPS. | 14 June 2018
[…] Compared to the low-key score that accompanied “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” the “Versace” sound was deliberately grander and baroque, befitting the tone of the show and the subjects involved. “’O.J.’ was a lot more subtle. We tried to do it more grand at first and it didn’t work. We went back and said it needed to be more subtle,” Quayle revealed. “There was a lot of discussions about the sound for ‘Versace.’ The murder took place in ’97. A lot of the backstory is in the decade before that. There were scenes in nightclubs, there was this creepy serial killer, there was Versace’s love for opera. When we latched onto the sound, I then started calling it if Giorgio Moroder was scoring ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ in an Italian villa.”
When it came to the theme for Versace’s (Edgar Ramirez) murderer, Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss), Quayle concocted a piano melody before folding in a screeching, haunting horn sound — an aural symbol of his twisted mindset.
“For such a creepy sound, it ended up with a very friendly nickname around post-production. It was ‘The Seagull’ sound. I was hunting around and going through some weird sample libraries and I just came across this — I can’t even tell you what it is now, where it came from,” Quayle said. “All of the sudden, it’s like, ‘OK, there’s Andrew’s creepy mind.’ It had different levels of intensity. It could be really just screaming, very creepy and then a little more subtle, sort of in the background, just adding into the melody, so it was a fun little texture to add.” | 14 June 2018
The subtitle of the second installment of “American Crime Story,” “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” emphasized Andrew Cunanan’s (played by Darren Criss) most infamous murder, but writer Tom Rob Smith was determined to not overlook the killer’s other victims in his adaptation of Maureen Orth’s nonfiction book “Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace, and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U.S. History.”
With a Friend Like This…
Cunanan’s first murders were close to home. As depicted in the fourth episode Andrew snaps and ambushes his friend, Jeffrey (Finn Wittrock), much to the horror of former boyfriend, David (Cody Fern), who becomes his second victim.
“There is a difference in tone and in the way Andrew saw [those] murders compared to [those] of Versace and the others,” Smith says. “It’s someone who has had a nervous breakdown, in effect, who crumbled to nothing — who is full of loathing in his life, and is lashing out at the two people who he feels have drifted from him. Once he crosses the line, he thinks, ‘Now that I’m a killer, what should I do?’”
With these two killings Andrew’s potential future life collapses, Smith says.
Orth’s reporting was vital for Smith’s research and gave vital insight into the real-life mindset of everyone as it was happening. Smith credits Orth’s book with helping to establish how “American Crime Story” would handle David’s death, which occurred after Andrew coerced his ex to go on the run with him post-Jeffrey’s murder.
“What Maureen’s book did was go to the family, and their grief, after describing his death,” Smith says.
Drawing Out the Death(s)
Smith took great pains to make David’s final moments on-screen appear as close to reality as possible (replicating the lake, tall grass, and the home nearby that was evident in crime scene photos), but because the murder itself “would have taken a couple of seconds.” Smith lingered on the moment.
“Clearly, we don’t know what went through his mind in those few seconds, but I really wanted to contrast Andrew, and it became about the love of his family,” Smith says.
Though the show would quickly reveal these are David’s final thoughts, “it was about trying to take that part of the book, which deals with the grief of the family, and put it into that moment, so it didn’t become a series of mechanical facts about the murder,” Smith says.
To give the proper respect to the other deaths, Smith’s limited anthology series jumped around in time, starting with Versace’s (Edgar Ramírez) homicide, and then backing up to show what led to it.
“The other murders aren’t just a prelude to the thing that everyone knows,” he says. “The format was a way of increasing their weight in the structure of the story, and not make them just look like they were a stepping stone on the way to a thing that everyone knew. These victims, who had been given no attention, were incredible people. To be able to pull their story into the light was sad, rewarding and emotional.”
‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Writer on Adapting David Madson’s Murder
ACS news 