Revealed: Season 5 Guest Stars and More!

Illeana Douglas (Easy to Assemble, Entourage), Craig Bierko (Damages, Cinderella Man) and Milo Ventimiglia (The Divide, Heroes) will guest star on the upcoming fifth season of The Temp Life (http://www.thetemplife.tv), the original comedy web series sponsored by and produced for Spherion Staffing Services since 2006, premiering December 6th on My Damn Channel.

Temp Life creator/producer and star Wilson Cleveland enlisted The Legend of Neil’s Tony Janning and Gabe Uhr to write the new season which finds Nick “Trouble” Chiapetta (Cleveland) resuming control of hiring temps at Celltons, now the number-two cellphone button-maker in the country. When Celltons’ icy CEO, Eve Randall (Douglas reprising her role), believes one of Nick’s temps is sabotaging the company from within, everybody is a suspect including Nick’s estranged stepbrother Eddie (Bierko), a socially-ungraceful cafeteria temp (Ventimiglia) and other temp hires played by new and returning guest stars Tony Janning, Sandeep Parikh (The Guild, The Legend of Neil), Taryn Southern (Rules of Engagement) Mark Gantt (The Bannen Way), Jessica Rose (lonelygirl15, Greek), Ben Blair and Anyone But Me’s Rachel Hip-Flores.

The Bannen Way Webseries Review
Anthony Letizia

While the webseries medium provides the opportunity for talented television wannabes to tell their stories, hone their skills and get the finished product out to the masses without having to play the Hollywood game, it also provides Hollywood insiders to likewise bypass the system and prove what they are capable of on their own. Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is the most prominent example, but The Bannen Way likewise demonstrates what media professionals can accomplish with talent, a handful of credit cards and calling in favors from connected friends.

The Bannen Way stars Mark Gantt—an industry veteran who has worked behind the scenes on over a hundred productions as well as created a dozen or so short films—as Neal Bannen, a small-time criminal trying to escape from his life of crime. Bannen’s “one last job” turns into more, however, when he loses the $150,000 he owes underworld boss Sonny Carr (Ski Carr) in a poker game and agrees to steal a mysterious box for his ruthless mobster uncle (Robert Forster) in order to get the money back. The assignment takes a turn for the worse when an attractive picket-pocket (Vanessa Marcil) seemingly double-crosses Bannen, the target of the theft (Michael Lerner) hires three female assassins to protect the box and Bannen’s police chief father (Michael Ironside) threatens his son with jail time.

Mattel Planning Big Web Series Push For Barbie’s Beau Ken

by Marc Hustvedt on September 16th, 2010

Barbie gets all the attention—the outfits, the special editions, the SNL parody sketches—but what about her forlorn beau Ken?

Mattel has been looking to reinvent Ken with an ever so clever product placement as a central character in Toy Story 3D this summer. Now it looks like they are turning to the world of web series to revamp their plastic bachelor.

We came across this site for a new reality web series Genuine Ken: The Search for the Great American Boyfriend that seems to have just gone up this week. It looks like a casting call for now to find the real-life eligible bachelors who will star in the 8-episode series this fall. Is it just me or would Bannen Way star Mark Gantt be a shoo-in for this?

Saw a Tweet Today Wondering About Creating a Web Series… Or NOT?? Ask Mark Gantt About Being FEARLESS!

Okay, so I’m not going to get on a soapbox and preach but I think it’s pretty amazing that web series creators are making their “Passion Projects” as my friends from the WebTV Workshop say… and that in itself says a lot about where the entertainment industry is going, everyone now has access, PLUS you have unlimited opportunity to reach everyone who has a smart phone or Internet access, so what are you waiting for?

Okay – so you hear people say “Be Fearless” and maybe you think it’s a cliche’ but when you look at the example of how web series creator/actor Mark Gantt took what was in HIS HEAD and made it into a webseries that now has international distribution by Sony…. you want to know more about how it was done, right?? How it can help you be FEARLESS!

Well… let’s start with what happens when you don’t let the word “NO” or the phrase “you can’t do it” rule your world…and you follow your dreams…

Professor Gantt? Win Tickets to ‘Bannen Way’ Star’s Class
by Marc Hustvedt on August 24th, 2010

Mark Gantt is a mysterious man. Ok, actually if you’re been paying even passing attention to web series over the past year then you’re no doubt familiar with the story of him and partner Jesse Warren hustling together a spec trailer to a web series (The Bannen Way) they hadn’t even shot yet and landing full season order and distribution from Sony Pictures Television.

But there’s still a mystery to this guy. And this weekend Streamy-winner Gantt plans to share some of his secrets to carving out his own path in the entertainment industry and not waiting for success to just come to him.

Tired of hearing no? There are other ways… When your career hits a speed bump, and opportunities seem non-existant, there are two paths you can take: the easy way or “The Bannen Way.”  No longer are we limited by the opportunities people present to us. Current technology allows anyone to be an actor, producer, director or writer. The secret is to never settle for less that your dreams desire.

A quick check of Mark Gantt’s website or his IMDB page reveals he had a career, just not the one he had mapped out for himself.  “I had my foot in the door and people were at the party saying ‘Hey come on in,’ but I was like ‘no, I gotta be an actor.’” He seemed to be gaining ground on a career path many would cherish, but even after appearing in a Sundance Short, and knowing the industry pros, his own agent still had no faith Mark would actually be getting auditions. Luckily Mark doesn’t acknowledge the word no.

Status: Distributed worldwide: DVD, VOD EST and on Crackle.com
Genre: Action
Format: Web Series/Feature Film
Website: The Bannen Way

 Produced by
Sony Pictures Television & Crackle.com

Created & Written by
Jesse Warren & Mark Gantt

Executive Produced by
Mark Gantt & Jesse Warren

Produced by
Bailey Williams

Directed by
Jesse Warren
 
Starring
Mark Gantt, Vanessa Marcil, Gabriel Tigerman, Robert Forster, Michael Ironside and Michael Lerner
Autumn Reeser, Brianne Davis, Brittany Ishibashi, Ski Carr, Jim Dowd

Try this at home with The Bannen Way’s Mark Gantt
Produced by Mike Rotman