Inspiration for CLEAN BREAK
SPOILERS AHEAD!
1. Beauty and the Beast
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Without question my favorite fairy tale of all time. I love everything about it. Every. Single. Thing. The 1991 Disney animated version was life-changing and I also loved the Disney Broadway musical ...BUT WHY STOP THERE? The 1987 TV adaptation starring Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman stuck with me – everything took place in a modern-day New York City... it was sort of a gritty, noir re-telling of the story in which Catherine (Hamilton) changes to a far greater degree than the Beast. Catnip!
2. Eastern Promises
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OMG this movie. Directed by David Cronenberg, it tells the story of a young woman in modern-day London who gets inadvertently mixed up with a Russian organized crime gang. Viggo Mortensen stars, and he is mesmerizing. Fellow BBC period-drama junkies: Sinéad Cusack, who played stern matriarch Hannah Thornton in North and South, makes an appearance. Just don’t get me started on Vincent Cassel’s brilliant and heartbreaking performance as Kirill. The feels are still far too strong.
3. Donnie Brasco
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Johnny Depp plays an FBI agent on a deep-cover, long-term assignment in Brooklyn. Al Pacino plays the mafia hit-man he's investigating and ultimately (sort of) befriends. This is a sensational movie.
Image source: deppimpact.com
4. Dexter - Detective Joey Quinn
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I loved this show! What a fantastic supporting cast - including Desmond Harrington as Detective Joey Quinn. I drew on this character for Detective Jarrett - he was charming, manipulative, unstable... just perfect.
5. Spooks / MI-5
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Raise your hand if you firmly believe that the Spooks series 9 writers were smoking crack. Thank you. I loved Lucas North SO MUCH and he deserved better. And that got me thinking: How could a similar character have had a happier and more satisfying story? With an American love interest, perhaps…?
Above: A Spooks writer has a rare moment of lucidity.
Image source: mezzmerizedbyrichard.tumblr.com
Dream cast for Viktor: Richard Armitage as scruffy, damaged Lucas North in Spooks series 7 episode 1. Caption is mine, because of reasons.
