TV Gentlemen: Jon Hamm & Kyle Chandler

"Mad Men" Season 7's theme: Expanding some on a comment he made when the show's key art was released, Weiner says, "[W]e're acknowledging what happened to Don at the end of last season. That really did happen... The consequences of that activity were kind of what we're writing about on some level. What part is irrevocable?

People searching for clues in the cast photos (promo images) and their airport setting will come away frustrated: "We pick a milieu for the publicity photography every year where we can lean on the good looks of the cast and place them in an environment that puts people in the mood for the show. We love the contrast because there is zero glamor in air travel right now. It was just an environment to take pictures." Season 7 of "Mad Men" premieres Sunday, April 13 on AMC. Source: blog.zap2it.com

The various images feature Don (Jon Hamm), Peggy (Elisabeth Moss), Roger (John Slattery), and Megan (Jessica Paré) at the airport and aboard a plane. Does this mean change is in the air for the seventh season? Is a trip in their future, or is this more of a metaphor about the characters going places? Source: www.buzzsugar.com

Hamm's favorite episode of season 3 was "The Gypsy and The Hobo," in which his character's secret double life exposed to wife Betty. "It was beautifully written and shot." He's equally thrilled for pal Kyle Chandler's first nomination for Friday Night Lights. "I can't believe it finally happened. I was so happy to see him and Connie [Britton] recognized because they've been doing it so long and so great. I wish them the moon! Kyle and I had small parts in The Day the Earth Stood Still so we had a lot of time to get to know each other. But I may have lost his phone number, so if he reads this—please call me!" Source: www.tvguide.com

Jon Hamm — The only reason Jon Hamm doesn’t have a string of Emmy Awards himself is because Cranston keeps blocking him, but in the movie world, Hamm is outgunning Cranston with strong performances in dramas (The Town) and comedies (Bridesmaids) and killing it on other TV shows like 30 Rock, Saturday Night Live, and his British series, A Young Doctor’s Notebook. Source: www.pajiba.com

Gary Ross has signed on to write 'East of Eden,' the new adaptation of the John Steinbeck novel that has Jennifer Lawrence attached to star. Set in California's Salinas Valley before World War I, the 1952 novel tells of two families over the course of two generations, loosely alluding to the biblical tale of Cain and Abel, focusing on a father, his two sons, and the children's mother, whom they thought was dead. The book was famously adapted as a 1955 James Dean movie directed by Elia Kazan. That movie focused on the second half of Steinbeck's book and on the second generation. Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

Kyle Chandler is ready to be back in the long-form narrative television business. He will now be starring in a Netflix series described as a “family thriller” about grown-up siblings. It sounds like it’s on some 'East of Eden' ish, centering on a responsible family man and his “black sheep” brother who comes back into the fold. Guess which one Chandler is playing? If you guessed “not the black sheep,” you guessed right.

Chandler has become the go-to good guy. It’s a side effect of his performance on Friday Night Lights: Who wants to see Coach Taylor turn bad? But it might feel limiting to Chandler in a cable TV climate in which antiheroes with last names like Draper, Soprano, and White tend to reign supreme. Or maybe Chandler likes playing straight arrows and finds that it’s just as difficult (if not more so) to portray a man who is capable of refusing temptation. He’s a hardworking actor who’s been on a million TV shows and turned in solid performances every time.

He logged modest hits with Homefront and Early Edition before gaining critical respect with Friday Night Lights. He’s also been on bombs like the Joan Cusack sitcom What About Joan and Rob Lowe vehicle The Lyon’s Den. He’s made a lot of TV movies. Although he’s been in movies periodically, like the George Strait and Lesley Ann Warren romance Pure Country and the excretory Peter Jackson remake of King Kong, it’s only recently that Chandler has become a secret weapon for movies in need of a white hat.

In Wolf of Wall Street, Chandler’s Agent Denham is the movie’s conscience, giving its antihero a fairly matched rival that the audience can relate to. Denham is moral in a cinematic world where nobody else is, and he suffers the consequences for not selling out to the devil, embodied by Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort (with Leo running at peak Jack Nicholson capacity). Chandler plays characters whose lot in life is humble, and who take satisfaction in doing their jobs well.

Interestingly enough, Chandler was actually in the running for the role of Sergeant Nick Brody on Homeland. As brilliant as Damian Lewis turned out to be, it’s tantalizing to imagine an alternate world where Chandler played Brody. The goodness that Chandler projects onscreen could easily be flipped on viewers who should know better than to trust appearances. Somebody should put Chandler in a Western already. Let’s get the Coen brothers to remake Sam Peckinpah’s Ride the High Country with Chandler and Jon Hamm. Source: grantland.com