'Arrow' (as in Green) CW-TV (Amell interview)

[Dr Mordrid]

Oliver Queen/Green Arrow: Stephen Amell (Heartland, Private Practice, Hung)

Dinah Laurel Lance/[Black Canary?]: Katie Cassidy (Supernatural, Taken, Nightmare on Elm Street) [Sean Cassidy's daughter]

John Diggle (OQ's x-military bodyguard): David Ramsey (Blue Bloods)

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/02/15/katie-cassidy-cw-pilot-green-arrow/

Katie Cassidy scores lead in CW’s ‘Arrow’ pilot

Katie Cassidy has scored the role of Dinah Laurel Lance on Arrow, The CW’s DC Comics-inspired pilot. By day, Lance is a lawyer with the City Necessary Resources Initiative. She is also the second-in-line to the Black Canary superhero mantel and former lady love of Oliver Queen, a.k.a. Green Arrow (Hung‘s Stephen Amell). Cassidy, the daughter of TV star and singer David Cassidy, previously appeared on Supernatural, Gossip Girl, and the short-lived Harper’s Island.

Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg penned the pilot, which Smallville vet David Nutter directed. Arrow is one of eight dramas The CW is considering for fall 2012.

Stephen Amell


Katie Cassidy


David Ramsey

[Dr Mordrid]

A recurve bow and not a wicked powerful compound?

[KRSESQ]

May have a bearing on the perception that it takes more skill to use a recurve than a compound.

(True or not, I can't say. It's been DECADES since I've handled a Bow! :P )

[Dr Mordrid]

Recurves are simpler, lighter and more useful for instinctive (no sights) shooters. Compounds are much higher powered, well over 300 fps, but more complex, heavier and therefore less conducive to instinctive shooting.

When I was a kid of 8 I started by hunting rabbits with a Bear recurce, and by 14/15 could wing-shoot pheasants using blunt tip arrows with flu-flu fletching (designed for short flights). Dad trained me on clays. Endlessly

Now I have 6 compounds of different lengths & purposes; short for brush, a different short set up for tree stands etc.

[Dr Mordrid]

Teaser trailer (YouTube)....

[Dr Mordrid]

http://collider.com/stephen-amell-arrow-interview/201026/

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Collider: Â*How intimidating was it to take on a role like this, or was that challenge part of the attraction for you?

STEPHEN AMELL: Â*The challenge was part of the attraction for me, as an actor. Â*As far as the role being intimidating, that’s stuff that people who can look at the big picture of the series can think about, and that the people who can look at how people are going to consume it can think about. Â*I can’t think past the day because I’m in almost every scene. Â*They are kicking my ass, right now. Â*I don’t have the luxury of any long-term thinking, at all. Â*I felt pressure to get the pilot picked up, and then I felt pressure to make Episode 2 awesome because I thought the pilot was awesome.Â*
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Collider: With this being a different version of the character, especially after what people have just seen of him on Smallville, what can you say about who Oliver Queen is, when this show starts?

AMELL: Â*What we’re going to start to see, in the first season, is that Oliver’s biggest threat is himself. Â*He’s coming back from the island with post-traumatic stress disorder. Â*He has to have that, based on what he saw on the island. Â*We’re presenting a damaged individual. Â*He’s somebody who is, for lack of a better word, a ticking time bomb. Â*We get to see him do super things, but we’re also going to get to see him fall, every once in awhile, and see him fail. Â*I hope that really human element will connect people to him.

How difficult is it for him to return as such a changed man?

AMELL: Â*It weighs on him to have to present himself differently. Â*It would be easy, if he could come back and say, at the first family dinner, “Hey guys, FYI, I have a list of people in the criminal underworld that I’m going to obliterate, and I’m not a skilled archer and this huge list of other things.” Â*That would be easier than presenting himself as the person that he was before, especially because the person that he was before was a jerk. Â*He was an entitled jerk.

How will the relationship between Oliver and his mother (Susanna Thompson) and sister (Willa Holland) evolve?

AMELL: Â*I think his mother is happy that he’s back, but the Queen’s didn’t become billionaires without having a few skeletons in the closet. Â*Whatever their kingdom has become, Oliver coming back is a threat to it. Â*I think that it would be wrong to assume that his mother is evil, but it would be correct to assume that she has motivations that she’s not explaining, as of yet. Â*As for Thea, she idolized Oliver before he left, but he was a 22-year-old jerk. Â*She has morphed into that person at 17, and he can’t just come back and say, “Don’t be like that,” because it’s the only thing that she’s ever known. Â*In the pilot, she says that she basically had to fend for herself, and she thinks that she’s done a pretty good job. Â*So, who am I, at this point, to come back and say, “You can’t live like that.”

Just how long is this list of people Oliver Queen will be going after?

AMELL: Â*That’s a good question. Â*I don’t know.Â*

Will he be adding names, along the way, so that you don’t finish the list before the series is over?

AMELL: Â*Of course! Â*We see that almost immediately. Â*We see that in Episode 3. Â*If you just had a finite list, you’d be like, “Oh, I’ve got one more guy on the list. Â*Can’t find him!” Â*We’re not married to any type of storytelling technique. Â*He doesn’t have to cross out a name on the list in Act 5 of every episode, but I would assume that it’s a pretty long list.Â*

Will viewers start to see some of the other comic book characters pretty quickly?

AMELL: Â*Yeah. Â*There’s a clear lineage with Katie’s character, Willa’s character and Colin’s character. Â*We showed the Deathstroke mask. Â*I would assume we will see Deathstroke, either on the island or otherwise. Â*In Episode 2, we have China White. Â*In Episode 3, we have Deadshot. Â*The guys that are writing the show are huge comic book fans and they’ve just been waiting to pull from the DC universe, so we’re going to do that, all the time.

Just how crazy is the physical training you have to do?Â*

AMELL: Â*The biggest thing is going to be up-keep. Â*It’s good, though. Â*I get to steal time at the gym. Â*I only need 40 minutes, though, and then I do stuff on set. Â*I’m doing so much active stuff on set.

Is it fun to get to add the skill of shooting a bow and arrow to your resume?

AMELL: Â* Yeah, 100%. Â*I want to shoot the show for awhile, and then go into archery competitions and see how good I can get. Â*The bow that I’m using is theoretically the bow that I made on the island. Â*I’ve used some of the newer bows and they’re awesome. Â*You have to relax when you’re shooting an arrow. Â*You can’t be tense. Â*And that just helps, in your day-to-day life.

[Elie]

Green Arrow or Hawkeye?

Hmmmmm?