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Kathy Bates shocked fans and TV viewers by signing on to the CBS reboot of the folksy mystery thriller Matlock. Bates has focused the majority of her previous ten years of her acting career on TV projects. But the more eager fans are to see Bates on screen, the more likely it is that this will be her last role.
Kathy Bates announced that she is prepared to retire following the conclusion of Matlock’s run. In an interview with The New York Times, she said, “This is my last dance.” Bates actually stated that she was prepared to retire early since she had lost interest in a late-year film shoot.
But in January 2024, her representatives handed her the procedural’s script, whose premise—a modern take on the traditional courtroom TV drama, starring a septuagenarian making amends—captivated the actress.
As a matter of fact, Bates revealed that she was prepared to retire early, having lost interest in a late-year film shoot (she did not disclose the title of the project). Bates talked about the amount of mental and physical attention she puts into any job she joins on for.
She reportedly called her agency the day after finishing the production and stated that she wanted to retire; that statement seemed to hold true for a few weeks, at least, until the Matlock pilot screenplay was handed to her by those same agents. She told the outlet, “It becomes my life. Sometimes I get jealous of having this talent. Because I can’t hold it back, and I just want my life.”
Bates said she instantly connected to the way the protagonist was written, even though she never developed a strong affinity for the original series, which ran for two networks from 1986 to 1995 and starred Andy Griffith as the title attorney.
The role that made Bates famous was her Academy Award-winning performance as Annie Wilkes in the 1990 film Misery, which tells the story of a violent recluse who kidnaps an acclaimed novelist. She later had storylines on TV series like The Office, Six Feet Under, Two and a Half Men, and American Horror Story: Coven.
Matlock, which has an 18-episode order, will also star Beau Bridges, Skye P. Marshall, and Jason Ritter.
Anubhav Sinha’s recently released series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack is stirring fresh controversy with every passing day. While it all started with people taking offense at the renaming of hijackers, it is now being called out for its inaccuracy. The former R&AW Chief AS Dulat and former special secretary R&AW Anand Arni recently pointed out several inaccuracies shown in this Netflix series.
For the unversed, IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack is a retelling of the December 24, 1999 hijack of Indian Airlines IC-814 aircraft by five terrorists just 40 minutes after the plane took off from Kathmandu for Delhi. At least 154 passengers and crew were held hostage for eight days before eventually forcing the Indian government to agree to their demands.
Just to be clear, the show is not a documentary but is based on Flight Into Fear The Captain’s Story by Devi Sharan and Srinjoy Chowdhury. Because IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack makers have taken account from a book, Dulat feels that several facts have flipped including the claims that Indian intelligence received information about this potential hijack.
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“We had no warning at all,” told Dulat to The Print refuting what was depicted on the show. “There was no reason for the station head to sit on information like this. This is all just imagination,” he added when Anand detailed how there are 100 prompts spiking out from the intelligence network but no active and direct warnings of a possible hijack were given.
The Netflix show also showed how the agency got the information from the media while Anand claimed that news arrived at everyone simultaneously. The former special secretary also asserted that a control room was set up almost immediately. Dulat added, “An officer rushed in and asked me to come to the Crisis Management Group (CMG) meeting. I left immediately, and a few joined later. They were all there within 20 minutes, that’s when the CMG started functioning.”
The duo then also denied knowing about the RDX smuggling via that aircraft as shown in the series while acknowledging, “Yes, the hijacked aircraft with the relief crew wasn’t getting permission to leave, and it was said that the Taliban brought their trucks, and they were looking for a red suitcase. Even the Joint Managing Director of Air India said that they were looking for something. But we don’t know what they were actually looking for,” signed off Anand.
ALSO READ: IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack Row: Patralekhaa says Anubhav Sinha directorial is not a ‘documentary’ amid allegations of whitewashing terrorism