By Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith
Nov 18, 2008
Fans of Wilmer Valderrama who are used to his nice guy image have a shock in store when the big-screen "Days of Wrath" gets released. The indie ensemble drama, with Ricardo Chavira, Laurence Fishburne, Amber Valletta, Taye Diggs and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, shows the lives of a teacher, a TV news crew and rival gang members intertwining in L.A. Wilmer plays a gang banger.
Wilmer Valderrama's Turn To The Dark Side (Image: Wenn)
"It's a big one for me," he says, "a big change. I'm the main bad guy in the movie." "Days of Wrath," which is directed by Celia Fox, is one of several projects the "That '70s Show" alumnus has in the pipeline, including the "CHiPs" feature in which he is to play Erik Estrada's old role of Ponch, the recently-wrapped film "The Darwin Awards" with Winona Ryder and Joseph Fiennes, and the pilot for a prospective Fox series.
"I took a little break from being in front of the camera. I was a little burned after doing so many things," notes Wilmer, whose other activities include producing and hosting MTV's "Yo Momma," overseeing his own clothing line, and voicing the Disney Channel "Handy Manny" series. "Some of the ventures I've invested in are super fun, but it's also fun to be acting."
THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT: The hugely popular Irish singing group Anúna will be quite conspicuous this holiday season, with "Christmas Memories," a new PBS special with an accompanying DVD and album release on the way -- and a Borders bookstore performance tour beginning Nov. 29 that will take them all over the United States. "The USA is synonymous to us with Christmas," declares the group's John McGlynn, chatting from his Dublin home via the longhorn.
"Many Europeans haven't been in the U.S. from Halloween on, and they don't know how everyone gets into the holidays. America, for me, is brilliant! Having spent Christmas in America last year, I was absolutely shocked that everyone knew every word of the Christmas songs. 'Chestnuts Roasting' -- that was the one. We were shocked to see these big hairy truckers singing it in a diner."
The group, which got its first major attention on these shores as part of the "Riverdance" phenomenon, filmed their "Christmas Memories" special "over a week in Baltimore" last summer, says John, brother of founder Michael McGlynn. "It's not cheesy. The music is really from our own experience, music that audiences have reacted to all over the world."
He's also working on his second solo album, due next year, "Sweet June." He says it consists of "two young ladies and myself and it's very guitar orientated, psychedelic folkie stuff."
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