Ray Stevenson: 'Dexter' Adds Swedish Actress for Sexy, Recurring Role (THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER)

Showtime's Dexter is apparently going to be spending a lot of time at a strip club in its upcoming seventh season.

The Michael C. Hall-Jennifer Carpenter starrer has enlisted Swedish actress Katia Winter to play a Russian stripper who works at a Miami club, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.


As first reported by TVLine, Winter will join the serial killer drama in a major recurring role, joining Season 7 newbies Jason Gedrick -- who will play the manger of the same Miami strip club -- and Ray Stevenson, who has been cast as the leader of a Russian organized crime syndicate.

Premiering Sept. 30 at 9 p.m., production on Season 7 of Dexter began this month in Los Angeles and will feature the Miami club linked to a high profile murder case as the season's central case.

READ MORE:  http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/dexter-season-7-spoilers-331872

RAY STEVENSON AS FIREFLY FROM G I JOE (HIT FIX)

Ray Stevenson as "Firefly"

from GI Joe - Retaliation

I like a man with a strong jaw but this is ridiculous.  Is that really even him in there?  

 Yo - Pullo!  Where art thou? 

http://www.hitfix.com/galleries/g-i-joe-cast-prepares-for-retaliation-in-8-new-character-posters/9

Ray Stevenson: G I Joe 2 trailer will premiere during Superbow (We are movie geeks)l

In this sequel, the G.I. Joes are not only fighting their mortal enemy Cobra; they are forced to contend with threats from within the government that jeopardize their very existence. The film stars D.J. Cotrona, Byung-hun Lee, Ray Park, Adrianne Palicki, Jonathan Pryce, RZA, Ray Stevenson, Channing Tatum with Bruce Willis and Dwayne Johnson. Directed by Jon M. Chu, and produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Brian Goldner, from a screenplay by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick based on Hasbro’s G.I. Joe(R) characters, G.I. JOE: RETALIATION is scheduled to be released on June 29,2012.

Visit the official site: www.GIJoeMovie.com
“Like” G.I. JOE on Facebook: www.facebook.com/GIJoe
Follow the film on Twitter: @GIJoeMovie #GIJoeRetaliation



Read more:  http://wearemoviegeeks.com/2012/02/g-i-joe-retaliation-watch-the-big-game-spot/

Gary Collision delivers a status report on the upcoming G. I. Joe squel, Retaliation

Sunday, 27 November 2011

Gary Collinson delivers a status report on the upcoming G.I. Joe sequel, Retaliation...

CODENAME: G.I. Joe: Retaliation
CURRENT WHEREABOUTS: Post-production
KEY PERSONNEL: John Chu (Director); Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick (Screenwriters); Channing Tatum, Ray Park, Dwayne Johnson, Bruce Willis, D.J. Cotrona, Adrianne Palicki, Arnold Vosloo, RZA and Ray Stevenson (Cast).
ETA: June 22nd, 2012 (UK), June 29th, 2012 (USA)

Like many kids growing up in the 80s, I was a big fan of the G.I. Joe franchise (or Action Force as it was called here in the UK) and spent countless hours immersing myself in their fight against Cobra through the classic Sunbow-produced G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero cartoon, the accompanying Marvel comic book and of course, Hasbro's classic 3¾-inch action figure toy line. Sadly, I never got to see my heroes make it to the big screen during my childhood and it wasn’t until 2003 that the Joes’ jump to live-action finally started to become a reality as producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura began development on a movie adaptation.

By this time I’d grown out of my G.I. Joe obsession (well, mostly) and early talk about the movie employing the ‘buddy’ route of teaming ‘G.I. Joe’ up with ‘Alex Mann’ (a.k.a. Action Man, geddit?) pretty much killed off any interest I had in the project. Although my hopes were renewed somewhat by the release of Transformers in 2007, the subsequent appointment of director Stephen Sommers – whose previous two movies, The Mummy Returns and Van Helsing, should have been enough to bring the curtain down on any filmmaking career – all but confirmed to me that the G.I. Joe movie was going to be a turkey.

Despite receiving a mixed (and by mixed, I mean poor) reception from the majority of moviegoers and critics, I must admit I was taken by surprise by the final film – it wasn’t great by a long shot, but it was better than I’d expected. The biggest problem I had with G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra was just that – it depicted the rise of Cobra, and that meant origin stories for everyone and everything. Instead of Joes vs. Cobra we got Joes vs. M.A.R.S., and that in my opinion was a big mistake. We didn’t want to see Rex / The Doctor and Christopher Eccleston, we wanted to see Cobra Commander and Destro, and barring the briefest of glimpses at the end, we were left wanting. However, in fairmess The Rise of Cobra did succeed in setting the field for a sequel, and a second installment was all but assured when the film went on to collect $302m at the global box office.

Things started off well enough on G.I. Joe 2 when it was revealed in January 2010 that Zombieland scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick had been hired to tackle the screenplay, then said to be titled G.I. Joe: Cobra Strikes. A year later came even better news – Sommers was out as director, and while his replacement, Jon Chu (Step Up 2: The Streets, Step Up 3D, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never), may not have been the first name to spring to mind as the ideal replacement, at least he doesn’t have The Mummy Returns on his CV. Still, the news of a reduced budget for the officially titled G.I. Joe: Retaliation was followed by confirmation that big names such as Rachel Nichols, Marlon Wayans, Dennis Quaid, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Christopher Eccleston and Sienna Miller were all out, with only three actors returning to the cast – Channing Tatum (Duke), Ray Park (Snake Eyes) and Lee Byung-hun (Storm Shadow).

Apart from the subsequent announcement that Arnold Vosloo would be back as Zartan, Chu went on to assemble an entirely new cast for G.I. Joe: Retaliation, which includes Dwayne Johnson (a.k.a The Rock) as Roadblock, D.J. Cotrona (Dear John) as Flint, RZA (American Gangster) as Blind Master, Elodie Yung (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) as Jinx, Adrianne Palicki (Friday Night Lights) as Lady Jaye, Ray Stevenson (Thor) as Firefly, Stephen Martines (General Hospital) as Cross-Country, Eddie Hargitay (The Superagent) as Tunnel Rat and Joseph Mazzello (Jurassic Park) as Mouse. To inject some star power into the relatively unknown supporting cast, Chu also pulled off a surprise acquisition with veteran action star and Hollywood A-lister Bruce Willis, who was confirmed as portraying the original G.I. Joe, General Joseph B. Colton, just as filming was about to commence this past August.

Looking at the new cast, I have to say I’m pleased to see some of my old favourites making the roster, including Flint, Lady Jaye and of course, Firefly, who was without a doubt the coolest action figure of the entire G.I. Joe line. The Rock and Bruce Willis are also solid additions to the cast and should really help to sell the movie to the general public (well, more o than Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Dennis Quaid, anyway), whereas the only real concern seems to be the lack of bad guys… Zartan, Storm Shadow and Firefly? Can that really be it? Well, not exactly, as no sooner had filming begun than a leaked call sheet indicated that Cobra Commander will also return for the sequel, with a new and as-yet-unknown actor presumably taking on the role of the masked menace. I guess the possibly of a new actor stepping into Destro’s silver battle mask wouldn’t be too much of a stretch either, but as yet neither of the characters have been confirmed.

Since the G.I. Joe: Retaliation shoot got underway in Louisiana in August, we haven’t heard too much about the film, apart from a few images of Roadblock posted by The Rock on his twitter account and a behind-the-scenes ‘first look’ from Entertainment Tonight (sadly, the sequel did make headlines last week when crew member Mike Huber was tragically killed in an accident during the dismantling of the sets just days after filming had wrapped). In terms of what we know about the story, Zartan’s new position as President of the United States will play a crucial role in the plot, which apparently involves the world being held to ransom by the threat of nuclear annihilation. As for what else, there's actually very little - Snake Eyes’ pet wolf Timber will make an appearance (yay!) and there’ll also be a jailbreak sequence (Cobra Commander, surely?), while Firefly gets to square off against Roadblock on a couple of occasions. That's really about it.

With the June 2012 release date fast approaching, we’re yet to receive a poster or trailer from the sequel and you’d have to expect both to make an appearance before the year is out. Given that The Rise of Cobra left a bad taste in a substantial number of mouths, the first trailer is likely to make or break G.I. Joe: Retaliation and really needs to deliver something if the film is to have any chance of success in a summer packed with action blockbusters such as The Amazing Spider-Man, The Avengers, The Bourne Legacy, The Dark Knight Rises and The Expendables 2...

Gary Collinson

Flickering Myth

THE THREE MUSKETEERS INTERVIEW - COLLIDER

LUKE EVANS, MATTHEW MACFADYEN AND RAY STEVENSON TALK THREE MUSKETEERS, THE HOBBIT, G.I. JOE 2 AND ANNA KARENINA.

WATCH THE VIDEO INTERVIEW AT COLLIDER

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub Posted:October 15th, 2011 at 8:35 am


With director Paul W.S. Anderson’s The Three Musketeers opening October 21, Summit Entertainment held a big press junket in London and I got the chance to head across the pond to interview the cast. Based on Alexandre Dumas’ classic story, The Three Musketeers stars Logan Lerman, Luke Evans, Ray Stevenson, Milla Jovovich, Orlando Bloom, Christoph Waltz, Matthew Macfayden and Mads Mikkelsen. In the reboot, “the hot-headed young D’Artagnan (Lerman) joins forces with three rogue Musketeers (MacFadyen, Evans and Stevenson). They must stop the evil Richlieu (Waltz) and face off with Buckingham (Bloom) and the treacherous Milady (Jovovich).” And unlike many films that have been post converted for a 3D release, the Musketeers was shot in 3D and it looks great. For more on the film, here’s eight clips.

During my interview with the Musketeers, we talked about the amazing real world locations they used in Musketeers, how did they get involved in the project, karaoke, and I asked them about future projects like The Hobbit, G.I. Joe 2 and Anna Karenina. Hit the jump to watch.


THANK YOU TO LUKE EVANS

Big, beautiful Ray Stevenson of 3 Musketeers worked in Interior Architecture before becoming big beautiful Titus Pullo

Irish Times

Norn Iron man

 

It seems like destiny that Lisburn giant Ray Stevenson ended up a mainstay of comic-book films. The king of large parts (the latest as Porthos in The Three Musketeers ) tells TARA BRADY how it started with a fat suit

STANDING at 6ft 4in, it’s not surprising that Lisburn-born Ray Stevenson has become a player in the Marvel universe. It’s just a wonder they ever managed without him. At 47, the star of Punisher: War Zone and Thor has finally been moulded into enough action figures to mount a war on himself.
“Action roles are the only thing that keeps me fit,” says Stevenson. “I hate the gym. I can’t do the matching socks and tops at all. As long as I keep working on a film I’m pacing myself and training. In between times I am a lazy, lazy bugger.”

Happily, there aren’t many “in between times”. On rare days off he can be found globetrotting with his two young sons – four-year-old Leonardo and five month-old Sebastiano – and his intrepid domestic partner, the Italian anthropologist Elisabetta Cariacca.

“It’s a life choice for us and the two wee boys,” explains dad. “We’re gypsy souls. Before Leonardo was one he had been on 21 planes to Hawaii and Maui and LA. People in the States are always amazed. They say, ‘Oh my God, you live in Ibiza. How far away is that?’ But it’s only 2½ movies and a meal.”

Jason Statham has gung-ho geezer-fu chic, but Stevenson may be the Last Great Action Hero . The actor’s imposing physique has made him ideal casting for such hard men of yore as Rome’s Titus Pullo and as Dagonet, a Knight of the Round Table in Antoine Fuqua’s King Arthur .
Who else was Paul WS Anderson, director of Resident Evil , going to call on for Porthos in his new adaptation of The Three Musketeers? “I really just chase the directors and actors I admire and I look for ensemble pieces where you’re more likely to find a good character role. And I loved the intense energy of this and the strong visual. It’s the first film to be conceived and designed as a 3D movie from the drawing board since Avatar.”

Anderson was fortunate that the actor could fit him in. Earlier this year, Stevenson headed up a cast that included Christopher Walken and Val Kilmer on the Irish- American mob epic Kill the Irishman . He’s currently shooting GI Joe 2: Retaliation with Bruce Willis and Dwayne Johnson.
“I’ve just finished on a movie called Jayne Mansfield’s Car with John Hurt,” he says proudly. “Other people have to remind me. When you’re shooting a movie with Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman, it’s amazing, but you’re in a professional setting. Your job is to bring it. Their job is to bring it. And you tend to forget who they are. Then someone says their names and you think ‘Oh my God’.”
His gilded Hollywood career is no fluke. Stevenson, a classically trained actor and a graduate of Bristol’s Old Vic Theatre School, came to the profession late but determined.
“I was 25 before I decided to try. But if I’d done it any earlier I wouldn’t have been ready emotionally. If I’d left it until my 30s it would have been too late. So at 25, I knew I had to give it a shot. I didn’t know why. I was jacking in my career for a profession with no guarantees.”
It took John Malkovich to convince him.

“I saw him in Lanford Wilson’s Burn This . There was just something in that play made me realise that there’s a validity to acting, to the profession. It’s not just a culture of celebrities and celebritising. It is worthwhile.” But he still had to tell his dear old mum from the west of Ireland the good news.
“I had to sit her down and explain, ‘Oh, I’m going to live in abject poverty again so that I can follow a dream.’ And she just said the opposite of what I expected anyone to say. She said ‘follow your heart’. I was waiting for ‘Don’t be so stupid’.”

He was “fresh out of the coop” when he landed his first film role in Paul Greengrass’s The Theory of Flight . His co-star Kenneth Branagh, in a neat piece of symmetry, was his director on early summer sensation Thor.

“Ken called me up out of the blue. And I was so pleased, because he said ‘I’ve been admiring your work from afar all these years and I’m so thrilled how your career is going. So I’d like to put you in an enormous fat suit. You’re a big strapping lad’.”

It’s been an interesting career between Branagh collaborations. Long before Stevenson was attempting to outfox Will Ferrell in The Other Guys , he was earning positive notices for the 2003 Royal National Theatre production of The Duchess of Malfi . Before that, he was an ITV regular on Peak Practice and Band of Gold . Before that, he was an interior designer.

Hang on. The Punisher worked as an interior designer? “It was interior architecture, really. It wasn’t throws and cushions. It was spatial design and projections. After I got into acting I realised that what I was doing was a kind of theatre. It’s a theatre of space. And it was really useful training. There’s not a lot of magic on a film set. You’ve got to design a fourth wall in your head so can believe you’re not just staring at puffy jackets.”

Stevenson, whose Irish mother and RAF father relocated the family to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne when he was eight, is proud of his Celtic heritage and still does what his Irish mammy says. “She told me I should do Kill the Irishman , and I said, ‘Hang on, I haven’t even read it yet.’ But according to her ‘these true life stories are always brilliant’. So she took the script to read it herself. I’ve created a monster. Every time she sees a film she likes, she’s on the phone asking: ‘And why weren’t you in that?’”
The Three Musketeers 3D opens October 12

Ray Stevenson talks Thor 2, G.I. Joe 2 and The Three Musketeers

 

By David Bentley on Sep 28, 11 11:31 AM

RAY STEVENSON was born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, raised in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and Northumberland, and now lives in Ibiza.
The 47-year-old attracted Hollywood's attention when he appeared in TV series Rome. His big-screen credits include two Marvel Comics adaptations - he played the vigilante title role in Punisher: Warzone and was the rotund Asgardian warrior Volstagg in Kenneth Branagh's Thor.
He's in the upcoming G.I. Joe sequel and will next be seen on screen in The Three Musketeers.
Ray's new film Kill The Irishman was released on DVD and Blu-ray on Monday (September 26) by Anchor Bay Entertainment. Thor was released on the same day in the same formats, and The Three Musketeers gets a UK cinema release on October 12.
Here, the actor talks about his projects, including whether he will be in Thor 2 following the recent news that Patty Jenkins is stepping into Kenneth Branagh's shoes to direct the thunder god's next adventure.

HOW HARD WAS IT MAKING NEW GANGSTER EPIC KILL THE IRISHMAN?
Ray Stevenson: It was a very tough shoot actually. We shot it in seven weeks. It really does come across like a 40 million dollar movie; a huge testament to (director) Jonathan Hensleigh and those involved. I was basically filming every single day; there wasn't a scene that I wasn't in.
WORKING WITH CO-STAR CHRISTOPHER WALKEN MUST HAVE BEEN FANTASTIC
Oh my God, he's incredible. And they're thoroughly prepared as well. Him and Val Kilmer and Vincent D'Onofrio... all the guys from New York. They were just great.
YOU PLAY REAL-LIFE CHARACTER DANNY GREENE. HOW FAMILIAR WERE YOU WITH HIM BEFORE YOU STARTED WORK?
I thought I wasn't at all when I was first approached, but Jonathan (Hensleigh) sent me the script. as I was reading it I thought, 'Hang on, I know this'. When I finished it I realised three or fours years ago I'd seen a programme on The History Channel about American mobsters and it was the story of Danny Greene.
THOR WAS ONE OF THE YEAR'S BIGGEST BLOCKBUSTERS. HOW DID YOU LAND THE PART OF HIS ALLY, VOLSTAGG, ONE OF THE WARRIORS THREE?
Kenneth Branagh just called me up and he says, 'Ray, I've got this job...', I said, 'I'll do it!' He said, 'No, let me explain. I've been watching your work love, I know you're a big strapping guy and everything, but there's this part and I think you could do it'. Then the role nearly killed me. We were filming in New Mexico and LA. I had to have a vest on with ice water pumped through pipes on this vest to cool your core temperature down. I mean there's this huge latex fat suit, then a big pashmina woolly scarf as a beard, then a nice woolly hat as his headpiece. Then they put armour on you and give you a six-bladed axe to wield (see picture below of Ray in the role).
WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE IN THOR 2?
I think they're in talks with the director now. I know they want to mash these worlds together in The Avengers. I don't know. If the sequel happens it may be that Thor will go off on a wild adventure on his own and lead The Warriors Three to Asgard. We'll see.

YOU'RE ALSO PLAYING PORTHOS IN THE THREE MUSKETEERS
Yes, I'm going to be in London on October 2 for the premiere. I haven't seen it yet but it was such a good shoot. (Director) Paul Anderson and (Producer) Jeremy Bolt were just tremendous, and as was the whole cast.
HOW DIFFICULT WAS IT FILMING WITH 3D CAMERAS?
The only difference with the 3D camera is that the camera 'sees around you', so your fencing has to be absolutely on point; on target, so the whole discipline had to be stepped up for that, which was great because it made you keep great focus on set, but what a story to tell!
ROME WAS A GREAT SAGA WHICH SEEMED TO HAVE MORE LIFE IN IT. WERE YOU GUTTED IT ONLY LASTED TWO SERIES?
Yes, there was a whole lot more, and even HBO admitted publicly they made an error, an error of judgment pulling that series. But they took the decision, they pulled it and then it went huge. I can't complain. It's got me my access to get representation in the States, and it's been regarded very, very fondly. Everybody would have loved to have continued with it, but the decision was out of our hands.
HOW WAS IT WORKING WITH BILLY BOB THORNTON ON HIS UPCOMING MOVIE, JAYNE MANSFIELD'S CAR?
He's an amazingly bright, clever man. He's something very special, and his script is just amazing. Robert Duvall plays his father; Kevin Bacon and Robert Patrick are his brothers; we had Tippi Hedren as our respective mum, John Hurt, myself. It's just amazing. It's all set in 1969 around the time there was this travelling show where they would be taking Jayne Mansfield's car around the States as some freak show.
YOU DIDN'T HAVE MUCH OF A GAP BETWEEN SHOOTING THAT AND GI JOE 2: RETALIATION, IN WHICH YOU PLAY FIREFLY?
We did the last scene in the movie, which we finished at 2am one Saturday morning, and at 12.30 that afternoon I took a flight down to New Orleans to start on GI Joe 2. Literally out of the frying pan into the fire. I get to beat up The Rock twice, or I try to, and I get to play this cool, gnarly pyrotechnic guy.
FINALLY, AS AN IBIZA RESIDENT, HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE LIFE THERE?
I've got a very young family and Ibiza is... it's like having a harbour. There's a lot of people who don't make their living on the island who live on the island. We don't have seasons per se; we're not seasonal workers. Sometimes we're on the island, sometimes we're off, but it's never dull. It's good to have somewhere to 'refit the boat, scrape the barnacles off', then you're off again.