*By Conor White*
"Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner's new anthology series for Amazon, "The Romanoffs," is about far more than Russia's last royal family, according to one of its stars.
"As I said to Matthew when I was doing this, I have to bone up on the Romanoffs," actor Aaron Eckhart said in an interview on Cheddar.
"And he said, 'Well, not really, because it really has nothing to do with the Romanoffs.'"
The family consisted of Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, and five children. After Russia's February Revolution of 1917, Nicholas II abdicated the throne and was later executed with the rest of his house. Within the last 30 years, all the bodies have been discovered and identified through DNA testing. Despite that evidence, whispers remain that one of his children, most likely Anastasia, escaped the killings. (The tsar's youngest daughter inspired the popular animated film, "Anastasia," which was recently turned into a musical.)
The Amazon ($AMZN) series features a different cast in each of its eight episodes, which are all linked by some sort of connection to the famous family ー be it real or fabricated.
Eckhart said it's the relationships between the show's characters ー whether directly linked to the royals or not ー that makes the show special.
"The magical part of the show is that it has thematics, and it has through lines with the Romanoffs," the Golden Globe nominee said. "But it's all these different scenarios with different people all over the world."
The series is creator Weiner's return to television after his seven-season run with "Mad Men" ー the highly-acclaimed show garnered two Golden Globes for "Best Drama Series" and eight Primetime Emmy awards.
It was Eckhart's first time working with Weiner, and he said the experience was "educational, interesting," and "fascinating,"
"It's very surprising and striking and bold. It takes a real genius to figure this all out," Eckhart added.
In the age of binge-watching, Amazon has made the choice to release one episode per week after releasing the first two episodes simultaneously on Oct. 12.
Eckhart is a fan of the move and called it "more traditional." But he admitted he has binged his way through at least one classic series.
"I did binge-watch 'Friends'," he said.
"'Friends' is a very good show."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/meet-the-romanoffs).
Actor and screenwriter Jay Baruchel didn't anticipate that "How to Train Your Dragon" would become a global phenomenon when he agreed to voice the lead role in the 2010 animated film. Now, about a decade later, the trilogy (and its accompanying franchise) is drawing to a close, and Baruchel is bracing himself for the end.
Valentine's Day is typically the single biggest holiday of the year for Baked by Melissa, a popular mini cupcake company ー and this year it's shaping up to be its biggest holiday for e-commerce, too. "We had our biggest day of e-commerce in company history on Monday. Tuesday was the second biggest day," said Melissa Ben-Ishay, co-founder of Baked by Melissa.
Tilt Holdings CEO Alex Coleman is bullish on U.S. cannabis ー and Tilt is positioning itself to have a presence nationwide take full advantage of the shift from medical to recreational legalization as it happens. "There's no question this will be the biggest market ー our internal numbers say probably $100 billion," Coleman told Cheddar on Thursday.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019.
Catching a ride in New York just got more expensive, and passengers aren't the only ones complaining. "It's a problem for the drivers," Aleksey Medvedovskiy, the president of NYC Taxi Group, told Cheddar Wednesday. "It's a problem for the general public."
Do you hate the consumerism of Valentine’s Day? You’re certainly not the first. The lovelorn have been trashing the pseudo-holiday since the 1800s.
It's a big week in cannabis earnings ー Aurora Cannabis reported Monday and Canopy Growth will report Thursday ー but Paul Rosen, CEO of cannabis private equity firm Tidal Royalty, said he's noticing a concerning trend."All the companies are facing gross margin compression because there are excise taxes, there's a massive marketing spend as we go to recreational cannabis, and there's also increased packaging costs. So I think you're going to see a trend line here, which is revenue and capacity going up, but gross margin is going down," Rosen told Cheddar Wednesday.
Opiant Pharmaceuticals, the developer of opioid antidote NARCAN, is in the process of developing a version of its lifesaving drug for cannabanoid overdoses, the company's CEO told Cheddar in an interview on Wednesday.
The internet is awash in restaurant reviews. Just ask anyone who's ever been paralyzed by the feeling of indecision when searching for a new place to eat. The Infatuation was created to apply some method to the madness. The restaurant review and recommendation service, founded by a pair of music executives a decade ago, uses "situational" recommendations with the belief that not all restaurant experiences are the same.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday Feb. 13, 2019.
