http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/article_dd26901c-d1d2-11e0-b12b-001cc4c002e0.htmlWhat's up with that?
Posted: Monday, August 29, 2011 12:15 am | Updated: 6:08 pm, Sun Aug 28, 2011.
RACHEL HERGETT, Chronicle Staff | 0 comments
Winchester's striking back
Belgrade High graduate Philip Winchester hasn't had much of a break. He was back on the small screen in August for his second television series this year.
This time it's "Strike Back," a continuation of the British series "Chris Ryan's Strike Back," which centered on John Porter, an officer in Section 20 of the British Secret Intelligence (MI6), based on the novel of the same name written by Chris Ryan, a former soldier in the Special Air Service.
Porter was killed in the first episode. Winchester's character, Sgt. Michael Stonebridge, and actor Sullivan Stapleton's character, Damien Scott, a former U.S. Special Forces operative, join to track down Porter's killer, a Pakistani terrorist known as Latif.
Winchester, who has dual citizenship in the United States and United Kingdom, graduated from Belgrade High School in 1999. His parents still live in Belgrade. Winchester has appeared recently in "Crusoe," "Fringe" and "Camelot."
For "Strike Back," known in the U.K. as "Strike Back: Project Dawn," Winchester had to go through a month of intense military training, he said in a phone interview earlier this year from Cape Town, South Africa, where the first half of the 10-episode series was filmed.
The training included work on close-quarter battles -- "how to blow up a door and how to enter a room" -- so that the actors' actions will appear legitimate on screen, Winchester said.
They learned how to "spin cookies, how to do a hand-brake turn and get out of it; not just do it when it's snowy," like he did as a teenager in Montana.
The show is very much a classic British spy series, though with a little more gore and sex than earlier offerings of the genre.
"It's kind of James Bond meets Jason Bourne," Winchester said. "We run around with guns and drive fast cars."
Plus, he added, actors get to play with "really great toys."
Winchester was really happy with his character and the trajectory of the show when he spoke with the Chronicle earlier this year.
He is optioned with "Strike Back" for three years and hopes the series, Cinemax's first original television programming, has a long run."It would be great to fight bad guys all over the world," he said.
"Strike Back" airs at 10 p.m. Fridays on Cinemax. Reruns of the first three episodes will run this week. The fourth episode will air Sept. 9.