101 entries from August 2007.




Anchorwoman Canceled

It didn't take long for Fox to cancel Anchorwoman, did it? One and done. Here's the description I included in my look at the upfronts earlier this year: "a supermodel settles down in a southern Texas town and becomes an anchorwoman for the local news." Here's what I said at the time: "This one makes no sense from top to bottom, but it's shiny, so Fox likes it. Neither Lavin nor Damiani have any credible history on imdb (Lavin has none at all) and the show is described as a hybrid, half comedy, half reality.Six episodes ordered, which means with Fox's temperament, about half that will ever make it to air."Did I call that one right down the middle, or...


Tim Minear Kicks FOX to the Curb

I was wondering when Tim Minear was going to realize that Fox is probably the worst place you could try to setup a new show. They are the most arrogant of all the networks, one would think and justifiably so, because of the strength American Idol gives them every year. House is fantastic and even beat Idol in the demo right before it wrapped up the most recent season, but Idol just destroys everything around it.Fox also has a notoriously short fuse when it comes to ratings, which in my mind makes it a place to avoid at all costs. Less money to work with, and even a smaller audience are small prices to pay when it means getting more...
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Keanu Reeves Signs Up for "The Day The Earth Stood Still"

Some old science fiction "classics" are great, while some aren't. By now, most of them have been written and rewritten and revisited and rewritten yet again. While The Day The Earth Stood Still hasn't been seen for quite some time, the parable of the film has been explored to death in what seems like every single year since it debuted on the silver screen. Alien comes to Earth, warns humans to stop doing crazy things like firing off nuclear weapons at each other. Not so much for our benefit, that theme was well explored even when Stood Still had its day in the sun.The twist in this feature is a threat: don't bring your nukes and your aggression into space,...
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Stargate Effects House Finds a Boss

Probably not of great interest to most people, but Rainmaker has promoted Marianne O'Reilly to president of the company. Rainmaker has done visual effects and CGI for both Stargate television shows as well as quite a few feature films, including 28 Weeks Later, 1408, The Da Vinci Code, and I, Robot, among others. Unfortunately their site is nothing but a single flash app, so I can't link you to their credit list.Just to be clear and not intending to take anything away from O'Reilly, she isn't a vfx person per say, but a producer. According to the Variety report, she helped to launch Rainmaker's effects house in London. O'Reilly will be presiding over the effects division, not Rainmaker Entertainment.There were...
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Ben Affleck, The Rock Find New Casting Digs

A bit of casting news for a laugher, and a sequel to a film I just barely remember from my younger years. Anybody remember Escape to Witch Mountain? I've got the name, and a vague feeling of having liked it, but not much more. I certainly don't remember it being remade in 1995, nor did I know it was based on a novel by Alexander Key written nearly 12 years before I was even born.The film stayed true to the book by eventually revealing the two kids with special mental powers to be aliens of sorts, but what I'm not really getting from available information is whether or not this is another remake, or a follow-up. Wiki says the former,...
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Trackback Spam? The Hell You Say!

To whomever has been spamming this site with spam trackbacks, you might as well just stop. I've gotten nearly 300 of them in the past two weeks, 33 today alone. Do you know how many made it onto the site? 0. My publishing software which I love beyond words (Moveable Type 4.0) automatically marked 32/33 (from today) as spam, and I never even knew they were there. Seriously. The only reason I know now is that 1 out of the 33, MT4 simply wasn't sure about. So it emailed me, and asked me what to do with it.Out of 290+, that has only happened once. I enjoy the attention, but you're wasting your time. Even though MT4 has caught every...
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Box Office Booty: 2007-08-28

There weren't any big flicks opening in theaters this past weekend, and the weekend chart reflects that with only 3/15 films landing somewhere in the top 10. Mr. Bean's Holiday, WAR, and The Nanny Diaries landed 4th, 5th, and 6th respectively. Superbad kept the top spot with $18 million, with The Bourne Ultimatum and Rush Hour 3 hauling in $12.4m and $11.7m each.Rush Hour 3 is still 50% in debt and won't be making a profit in its theatrical run. This is a solid lesson in over-paying stars and just telling the exact same story over and over again. Do neither, and at least you won't be shooting yourself in the foot.Here's the top 10, and you can see the...


Heroes Season 1 on DVD Today!

Got my 'net access back today, and just in time too. Season 1 of Heroes was released on standard definition DVD for $36.99 and HD-DVD for $69.95 today. There's other cool Heroes stuff you can get at Amazon, though, besides the DVD box sets.Here's a 11"x17" poster, another that's 11x17 (tall), and episode downloads from Amazon Unboxed. They've got every episode from season 1 for $1.99 at exceptionally good bitrates. It's wrapped in Microsoft DRM, so don't bother if you don't run Windows.Just a quick bit of math shows that the DVD set is cheaper than buying every single episode to get the season, and it's (for the most part) DRM free. Not a hard choice, that one....
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No Posts 'Till Monday

With "always-on" Internet connections, you take for granted the power of instant global communication. That is, until you've lost yours. Want to know the 4-day forecast? Wait for the local news to come on. Last nights sports scores? Buy a newspaper. The latest in world news? Find a TV with CNN. Talk to family or friends hundreds or thousands of miles away? Hope you've got an unlimited long-distance plan.My 'net is dead with the possibility of a replacement satellite modem on Monday, and if not, then Wednesday. I'm off the grid until then. TRY TO FIND ME NOW, FBI!!Can you hear me now?...


Prison Break Season 3 Details

A pair of interviews with the stars of Prison Break on upcoming season 3. IGN has Dominic Purcell (Lincoln Burrows) while MovieWeb picked up Amaury Nolasco (Fernando Sucre). MovieWeb for whatever reason scored a sad but victorious two whole questions while IGN recounted precisely none. Uhh, how are these even interviews, guys? Come on.Question: Are you constantly surprised by the things they have your character doing on the show?Amaury Nolasco: All the time. (Laughs) You guys are going to be surprised. Let me just give you a little of a hint... remember in the First Season, Episode 2... Michael gets one of his toes cut off? That was banned, there was a ban on the show right away. We're not...


Hereos Season 2 Promo Video

I heard there was a recently released promo video for Heroes season 2 floating around the 'nets the past few days, and I was hoping NBC would promptly release it on their YouTube page. Alas, they have failed me once again and must be sacrificed to the web gods. MovieWeb is all over it though, and they have a process similar to YouTube's setup where you can embed their videos in your pages. That's awesome because these things eat traffic like crazy.It's a pure commercial, no footage from the new season at all, but still pretty slick. Click on through to see the clip and then hit MovieWeb and browse some of their great content as a thanks for hosting...
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Paramount Shuns Blu-Ray, Pisses Off Michael Bay - A Format War Primer

I've read the news and I'm wondering what the downside is here. In case you haven't been following this story, Paramount has sided against Blu-Ray and consequentially virtually every other major studio by exclusively releasing their library on HD-DVD discs. Michael Bay, who recently made Paramount a lot of money with the bad toy-to-film Transformers, has declared his intentions not to direct any future films in that series. As opposed to boycotting Paramount, which would make much more sense.Like I said, and the downside is where..?...
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New Releases - Dexter, House, South Park, Ugly Betty on DVD

Four shows had DVD season box sets released yesterday, and I apologize for not doing this yesterday as I had intended to do, but alas I forgot because I was dropped in my head as a child. More like thrown, though. You know how you try to get out of the car after a long trip with your seatbelt still on? Just like that, but with a train.Dexter season 1, House season 3, South Park season 10, and Ugly Betty season 1, for great justice....
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New Releases - Redline, The Ultimate Gift, The Ex, 300 on DVD

Even though it has already been released, I'm tossing 300 in with this group because this group is distinctly lacking some awesome. For shame.300The second of Frank Miller's graphic novels to make it to the big screen, the first being the exceptionally cool Sin City. I still haven't seen this yet, but I intend to once I get around to getting that elusive Netflix subscription. Comes your way from Amazon.com just a boat load of booty for your consumption. DVD's you say? How about the widescreen DVD? They've got fullscreen too, if that's your thing. Maybe you want a little 2-disc special edition? Try the rest of these until you find what you need.High definition via Blu-Ray. Standard DVD and...


Kristen Bell gets a Heroes Interview

Mr. Ausiello of TV Guide has interviewed Kristen Bell on various subject matters, including her upcoming appearances later this year in its sophomore season. How many episodes? Lots. What the hell was the deal with Lost? Who cares, it feels good to be wanted baby!How do you make the decision between [Lost and Heroes]? Basically, being able to stay in [Los Angeles] was a little bit of a factor for me [in terms of turning down Lost]. But I was honored to even be considered by Lost. I really, really was, because I love that show. But I have social relationships with a lot of the people that work on Heroes, through so many random connections. So it was sort...
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Janeane Garofalo Joining 24

Hat tip to Matt Ausiello who got the scoop by reporting a few hours ago that Ganeane Garofalo will be joining 24 for its upcoming seventh season as a regular player. Ausiello has next to nothing else when it comes to details, but that's no surprise given that the producers of Fox's still strong but ailing drama recently started over from scratch with their plans for 2008.The original plot took place in Africa, but well into story development ended up having to be scratched by the guys with the money bags due to projected costs. I can't help but wonder if this is something they might have been able to pull off if they still had the ratings they did...
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Warner Bros. Filming Theater Audiences

This is truly some creepy stuff. In an unverified letter written to The Consumerist, a D.C. moviegoer who went to see The Invasion (based on its weekend numbers, he is about the only person who did) noticed someone in the theater with the audience, sporting a video camera of some sort, but he wasn't trying to record an illegal bootleg of the film. I'm not sure anyone would want to, given the bad reviews. But no, this guy was apparently filming the audience periodically to get their faces on tape for WB.After the movie I went to the Customer Service desk to inquire if they knew about this incident. The manager behind the desk informed me that Time Warner/Warner Bros...
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Keith Olbermann Breaks Through

I read a while back that NBC was going to push Keith Olbermann to the front with some pre-and-post Nightly News slots sometime this year. Those as far as I know haven't happened yet, but Countdown is making its broadcast network debut August 26th at 7PM just before the preseason game between the Eagles and the Steelers.Mr. Olbermann, right, will have a regular role in NBC's football coverage once the season begins -- appearing as a co-host on the pregame show "Football Night in America" on Sundays -- this weekend's appearance of his cable show will give a wider audience a look at what he has been up for the last four years. " 'Countdown' is rocketing right now over...
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Don't Ban Cell Phones From Theaters

I just got done reading a story on The Movie Blog called Ban Cell Phones From Theaters. I sympathize with the frustration, but disagree with a couple of things here. John Campea mentions how Australian authorities are claiming that the first instance of The Simpsons Movie being pirated came via a cell phone recording. Everyone seems to be accepting this claim at face value, and I wonder, am I the only person who is calling bullshit here?Just playing with the numbers here, a two hour film at a paltry 300kbps for video and not accounting for audio at all will cost you about 270mB of storage, and probably drain your battery dead before you get to the end. At 300kbps,...


Box Office Booty: 2007-08-20

Everybody else does it, and I know you want it, so here is your daily does of really lame puns: Superbad is super bad at the box office this weekend!Guh. The numbers don't lie though, Superbad ate up $31 million this weekend to Rush Hour 3's $21.8m. The Invasion barely scraped by with $6m on a budget of nearly $80m. Wow, talk about a bomb. Maybe that one would have faired better with a $2 million budget airing on the Scifi Channel.The Weinstein's just can't catch a break; The Last Legion pulled in only $2.5 million and a lot of execs have been left scratching their heads trying to figure out what their movies suck. Bummer.Superbad ($31.2m)Rush Hour 3 ($21.8)The...


Why is Ryan Seacrest Hosting the Emmys?

Seriously, and I'm not knocking on the guy personally, but I'm really kind of upset about this. Yeah, it's a silly thing to get mad about, but so what? Seacrest is the host of the planets most popular reality show, so he has brand name power behind him, and he's a pretty decent host. No arguing against that.But he also, every bit as much as Simon Cowel, represents the transcendence of crap on television. There are a few good reality programs out there, though most of them live on the Discovery Channel, but the majority are exploitative junk that should shock and embarrass any Emmy nominee with an ounce of self respect and pride for their industry. Even if they...
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The Nines hits the Alamo Drafthouse Sept. 28

John August's new flick The Nines is going to hit the Alamo Drafthouse on September 28th (four days after the debut of Heroes, which has nothing to do with this post but must be mentioned at every opportunity.) This is one day after it holds its premier in New York and Los Angeles on the 31st. There will be a Q&A with August and (presumably) Ryan Reynolds (Blade: Trinity). See The Nines in Austin for links to where you can still get tickets to these premiers and this post for info about the Q&A sched.Synopsis: A troubled actor, a television show runner, and an acclaimed video game designer find their lives intertwining in mysterious and unsettling ways.I wonder just how...
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Joe Mallozzi is Sunomono Jones

Great post by Joe Mallozzi on this weblog yesterday afternoon, recounting his recent visit to Anime Evolution in Vancouver this year. I've had the pleasure to speak with Mallozzi via email once when I was trying to find a production script or show bible for Stargate, probably last year or so. He was extremely prompt and very nice, and while there were no shooting scripts to be had (for some reason they choose not to let them out) and no bible, he did verify some things about act breaks and page counts that would have helped with the spec I was writing, had I not shelved it in favor of a feature spec for an upcoming contest.Mallozzi has a good...
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Tonight on Heroes: Homecoming

NBC's new thing where they have two cast members from Heroes host "their favorite episode" from the first season is coming back at ya tonight at 9PM EDT. This evening we've got Hayden Panettiere (Clair Bennet) and Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli) doing the honors for the chapter nine: Homecoming. This episode was the wrap up to the "Save The Cheerleader, Save The World" arc/meme that really is what got me interested in Heroes in the first place. But not in a good way....
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Kristen Bell is a Hero

According to a story in Daily Variety last evening, Kristen Bell has shunned CBS' Lost in favor of joining NBC's Heroes for its upcoming second season. She won't be a regular, but will take part in a multi-episode arc. Is that good news, or bad news? I've never seen Veronica Mars before so I'm not familiar with Bell's acting abilities, but there is a world of difference between a little show on UPN/The CW and biggest new drama of this past television season."This was not easy to pull off," said "Heroes" creator-exec producer Tim Kring. "But since we're an ensemble show, with many arcs playing out through the year, we found a way to jump into a small window in...
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Gateworld Interviews Martin Gero

I haven't read this whole thing but there's a transcript over there, along with the audio from the interview. Sometimes I bang my head on the table when I read interviews with working writers. There's one level, and then a whole other level for how fast people can write, and the difference between the two is a shock to the system. Even when you know it, when you see it again, it's like whoa, how can they write that slow?Not trying to toot my own horn here, I'm just one of those people that when I get on a roll, I can flat out produce. It's worth remembering that quantity is not quality, so I may in fact be somebody...
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Halloween Trailer

Found a new trailer for Rob Zombie's version of Halloween, which is totally unnecessary and yet completely predictable in the age of industry cowardice towards original material. I hope you enjoy the trailer to the film you've already seen, because if this makes any money at all, we'll see even more of these down the road....
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Utah Pirate Party - Their Hearts are in the Right Place

Any cursory glance at this countries record of updating its copyright law makes it painfully clear that virtually every instance has been at the behest of corporate media lobbyists. I'm not riffing on them or going on your typical anti-conglomerate rant, this is about inappropriate legislation by the peoples representatives that hurts us, rather than helps us. If anything, these updates help one thing and one thing only: the bottom line of big media companies.It's clear to anyone who advocates fair use rights for the public that an initial balance between the rights of the author and the rights of the public have swung wildly in favor of the author over the past few decades. The author driving these changes...
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A Note on IESB

I can take flat out lying better than I can hypocrisy, and I'm going against my own call for civility for a moment to call out IESB. There was a spat about two weeks ago, a very public back-and-forth dialog between IESB and Cinematical (AOL/Time Warner/Weblogs Inc. owned) over comments made by IESB's owner at Comic-Con. I don't know what the genesis of this was, only that at one point during a panel made up bloggers, IESB's guy got really upset over being put in the same boat as other media bloggers."It's not only established media ... we're not bloggers, for God's sakes" he said, "I'm not a fucking blogger. You know, we might have a blog, but we don't...
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Theater Watch: 2007-08-17

At some point I'll figure out a better name for this series of posts. Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments or email/instant message them to me if you'd prefer.Last Friday it was Rush Hour 3 and Stardust, even though The Bourne Ultimatum raked in almost as much as did Brett Ratner's latest franchise pic. I've been reading that Ratner is really unhappy with what he was paid for doing Rush Hour 3 (seven million) because a big chunk of his deal was on the backend, meaning after the film made a profit, he'd get a percentage. The schemes by which these decisions are made is complicated and never worth the risk, so Ratner is now demanding ten million...


Masi Oka Q&A

Superhero Hype was in on a conference call/Q&A with Heroes star Masi Oka (Hiro), and they've got a transcript of the deal to which I'll link, and provide a short excerpt. I have got to find out how to get in on these things.Seriously, anybody know? Do I need to bust out a Mediapundit press pass? I can make a few. Anybody want one? $5 each - no refunds!Q: What seems to make the character unique is that with all these reluctant heroes, Masi, you play the world's one not reluctant hero. What were your thoughts when you first read that concept.Oka: I thought it was phenomenal... Tim Kring created an amazing, beautiful world with such rich characters. Hiro embodied...
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Invasion Review

AP's movie critic has taken a few shots at the latest incarnation of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, this iteration staring Nicole Kidman, and having been written by the guys responsible for bringing us The Matrix. I'm a huge critic of remaking movies for any reason, but when they do it for no reason at all, that's pretty much throwing money in a toilet as far as I'm concerned. Think about the casualty here. Had the studio that created The Matrix not taken a chance on the original material, the Wachowski brothers wouldn't have been around to work on this very film.Now that they are a commodity, they've set to work on a movie that, as Christy Lemire has pointed...
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Reviewing Truveo, AOL's New Video Search Portal

You may or may not have heard, AOL/Time Warner has launched a video search engine called Truveo in an attempt to take on Google for advertising dollars and search dominance. This is one area where I expected Google to pioneer and excel, but they've languished under their own weight. Any attempt to search for video at Google will only return results for Google Video and YouTube, not video on the Internet at large.Truveo aims to do just that....


NFL, DirecTV Find New, Creative Ways to Bankrupt You

Let's do a little comparison here. The DirecTV MLB package gives you about 140 games (with about 20 national blackouts due to monopolistic, predatory licensing) for about $140 per year. That's about one dollar per game, and a really good deal. Now let's think about that NFL package for a moment. $269 for 16 regular season games. That's about $16 per game, making it what, about 95% more expensive on a per-game basis?Settle in football fans, the National Football League and DirecTV are finding new and creative ways to suck even more money out of your pockets, as if a car payment's worth isn't enough. Now they are going to begin streaming games online (a full 2-4 years after MLB...
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'24' Delayed Again

E! Online is reporting that Fox's waning drama 24 has been delayed for a second time as the shows producers attempt to wrap their brains around the complex story line for the upcoming seventh season. Personally I think they would do well with less plot and more character driven story telling. The first season of 24 was compelling because a great deal of it was all character development, which you needed since it was a new series with a complex format and a lot of characters all doing different things in different places.Its felt like over the years they've been moving away from that towards how best to up the stakes with the most thrilling conclusion possible. I fell in...
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'Painkiller Jane' Canceled

The bad news keeps rolling in this month, this time I'm reading that the Scifi Channel's Painkiller Jane which stars Kristanna Loken will not be renewed for a second season. The series will continue with production to fill out the rest of its first and only season. I'll tell you what, movies based on comics may be making a killing in theaters, but they sure as hell aren't doing anything noteworthy on television.The cancellation of "Jane" comes on the heels of the strong Friday premiere of another Sci Fi series based on a comic strip, "Flash Gordon," which scored the channel's best series premiere numbers this year.Now that's just weird. Flash has been universally panned by critics, and I wonder...
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'20/20' Investigating Dateline's 'To Catch a Predator' Series

It's strange, yet actually quite appropriate. 20/20 is investigating Dateline's visit to a town in Texas where one of their caught "predators" was actually a Texas District Attorney who, after being snagged by Dateline, fatally shot himself just when he was about to be apprehended by the authorities. A lot of questions have been raised over the moral ethics of Dateline's investigations, including complaints by one of NBC/Dateline's own producers who was fired from the show after complaining about unethical behavior by the group that Dateline works with during their stings, called Perverted Justice....
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James Marsters Lands 'Without a Trace'

I'll be honest, I don't have the first clue what kind of show Without a Trace is, even though I recognize the name. There are way too many shows, most of them mediocre and bad, to watch and become intimately familiar with every single of them. I am however familiar with one James Marsters, and his presence will definitely lead me to take a look into this series to see what it's all about.I love what Masters did on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, especially towards the end of the sixth and into the seventh season. Not so crazy about the Angel crossover. Felt like something was lost in translation there, felt like the old Spike that didn't go through the...
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Len Wiseman to Helm 'Escape From New York' Remake

Fear not, I'm rolling my eyes too. Let's make Die Hard 4, and remake old flicks, and then make sequels to re-made old flicks. Let's not have the balls to shoot original material, because, you know, it's not like original material wins awards or does really good at a box office sick to death of remakes and endless sequels. 'Risk' isn't a word in the accounting rooms of Hollywood studios. Apparently 'balls' isn't a known term either. You could add brains to the list, but that that point we're just shooting for spite.So here we have it, Len Wiseman (Die Hard 4) has been hired to helm a remake of John Carpenters Escape From New York. They said it, so...
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NBC Fall Preview Video

NBC shot a thirty minute segment hosted by Heroes star Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman) that previews their fall lineup, with a sneak peak at season two of Heroes itself. This special has already aired on select local NBC affiliates, but is scheduled to air nationally on September 8th at 8:30pm EDT. NBC is being a good player with streaming video though. I spent a solid hour trying to figure out where they stored their video that streams off the video.nbc.com website (I'm sure it's actually sitting on Akamai servers somewhere, but I didn't even get that far.)Luckily for me, NBC split the preview up into segments (why?) and posted it all on YouTube, making it exceptionally easy for me to...
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Fake Comedy From the Fake News Channel Fails

The irony of this situation is exceedingly apt. A lot of people mock Fox News Channel as the true source of fake news, given their conservative bias and tendency to just make things up to enrage people. It wasn't funny when they announced a Sunday night program created by 24 exec-prod Joel Surnow to serve as a conservative counter-punch to The Daily Show. I thought it odd that Fox would go to an action/drama guy to do a comedy show, but it wasn't surprising given that 24 is one of Fox's tentpole shows, and Surnow is a rabid conservative.I'm sure that even though Surnow jumped at the opportunity, there hasn't been a single funny moment on 24 in six plus...
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Stephen King Digs Jericho

Just posting this for Jericho fans, this isn't news by any means, but I thought you might like to know about this. Stephen King has column at Entertainment Weekly (what a waste of a place) where King writes about "pop dope", the stuff you've just got to have when it comes to culture. McDonalds, Harry Potter, etc. It's a great little read and there was this bit that caught my eye, because I know how fans of Jericho scour the net for any and all information related to the show. I thought it was cool, and I bet they will too.And sometimes you get the good stuff. Take Battlestar Galactica. Excellent pop dope! I've been downloading season 3 from iTunes...
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'John From Cincinatti' Cancelled

My condolences to the staff and fans of HBO's exceedingly strange show John From Cincinnati, which was not renewed for a second season. There's a fine balance to be had between exciting mystery, and downright confusion, and apparently John couldn't toe that line enough get second digs.[The] Cancellation marks the first time in modern era that HBO has canceled an hourlong show after its first season.[The] Cult series, which blended supernaturalism, family drama and beach culture, earned plaudits from a small group of devoted followers.But it remained elusive to wide auds -- numbers in many weeks only barely climbed above one million total viewers for the initial airing -- while also drawing bafflement from some critics.Now see that's actually strange...


Good Ratings News for 'Weeds'

The Showtime drama Weeds has set some records with their third season debut, according to Variety. Last nights opener saw a 43% increase over the second season premier, though these numbers are extremely small given the nature of pay-cable shows, apparently this is still really great news.The David Duchovny series that got a link from me yesterday didn't do so well, bringing in 550k viewers. I find it hard to adjust my expectations for pay-cable when I'm so used to regular cable and broadcast network ratings. For instance, two million is considered really good for a show on something like TNT or the Scifi Channel. On broadcast, you'd want at least seven million for a low budget show, maybe 10-11...
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Brannon Braga Apologizes for 'Enterprise' Finale

It's about time somebody apologized for the abortion that was the Star Trek: Enterprise finale. Listen, I have sympathy for writers who try to do good but end up producing crap. Sometimes you're constrained by the studio, or higher execs on the show, or your own imagination. From what I understand, showrunners usually reserve the right to write the season and certainly the series finale for a show. Sometimes that's just not a good idea, and this episode proves the point....
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'Jurassic Park 4' Continues Downward Spiral

Well, that was predictable. The first film was pure lightening in a bottle, while the sequel was an underwhelming and unsatisfying adventure within the Jurassic Park world, but not in the mind of Michael Chricton who gave birth to it all. The third film had a few redeeming qualities with Sam Neil returning for another island adventure, but in the end all it did was revisit the same territory we've already so familiar with: trying to escape a pacific island full of dinosaurs.Neither of the sequels warranted more attention unless some better talent was invested in the struggling franchise. The emergence of Steven Speilberg is a welcome sight, but even the most brilliant director ever can't turn a crappy script...


Warner Intent on Ruining 'Lost Boys'

I'm not surprised in the least, are you? I heard rumblings that a straight-to-DVD sequel to the extremely great The Lost Boys had been commisioned. A sequel might have been a given if the thought had crossed the studio's mind say..15 years ago. But 20 years later? Give me a break. This is nothing but a spiteful attempt to take a film with a decent reputation and burn it to make a few more bucks in another non-original, not even bothering to try making a quality film that they could release in theaters.No Keifer Sutherland in this one ladies and gents, just the freaking frog brothers. I will admit I loved these two guys in this film, but that was...
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Lindsay Lohan's Dad is Suing CTU

Not that I like reporting on this tabloid garbage, but sometimes I get really bored fighting the forces of evil and saving the planet fifty times every day, and I need to take a break and read about the latest twists in Lindsay Lohan's exceptionally screwed up life. It reminds me that no matter how hard we all work to make this world a better place, there are plenty of rich people around to &#$! it all up for the rest of us. Who needs better motivation than that?HOLLYWOOD - Lindsay Lohan's father, Michael, is set to launch a legal suit against his daughter's former bodyguard following comments the minder made about him and his estranged wife Dina.Tony Almeida, who...


'Today Show' Expanding

Because three hours just isn't enough time to see all of this falls finest fashions, NBC's The Today Show is expanding from an unfortunate three hours to an untenable four hours sometime early next month. NBC has tapped Ann Curry, Natalie Morales, and Hoda Kotb to host the new block. I remember when Ann Curry was doing very early morning news for CBS, back when CBS actually did more than half an hour of national news in the evening. She was good, but you know, it was just news, and Today is...well wait, it's even more boring than the news is.Are you ready for another hour of hot sticky Today Show goodness to keep you from going to work like...
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'Californication' Review

I envy people that have press connections that enable them to preview new TV series before the rest of us get to see them. Back when people like that were crapping Prison Break, I thought "hey cool, they just saved me from having to track another dead-ender." Well, since I have a HTPC at my disposal, I decided it was worth checking out some early morning when there was nothing else to watch, so I recorded and watched the first few episodes. The critics were dead wrong, Prison Break was hugely popular and very well produced. I loved the first season and it'll take its place on my entertainment center DVD collection soon enough, although I can't say the same...
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In 'Criminal Minds' Shuffle: Patinkin out, Mantegna in

I heard the rumors that Harvey Keitel was in the running to replace Mandy Patinkin on CBS' Criminal Minds, but I didn't hear that Geena Davis was in the mix too. How about that? How about neither? Joe Mantegna is alright, but Harvey Keitel is better. Much better. After two years playing FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit leader Jason Gideon, Patinkin left "Criminal Minds" last month. In a statement that followed a week of swirling rumors, both sides said the departure was due to that favorite Hollywood condition of "creative differences.""Money." I don't know why it's so hard to say that word in Hollywood since everything revolves around it. Can't say for sure, of course, but it's not hard to guess...
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Box Office Booty: 2007-08-13

The only two big players this past weekend were Stardust, based on the novel by Neil Gaiman, and Rush Hour 3, the all-action no-plot third installment of the franchise from Brett Ratner. Stardust didn't inspire me very much with its trailers, even with all the stars in the cast, and it looks like it didn't catch the eyes of anyone else, either. On a $70 million dollar budget, the fantasy flick just barely cleared the $9m mark for the three-day weekend, making it a certified flop that probably won't be saved even by strong DVD sales. Remember, 44% of that $9m goes to the theaters, leaving just a shade under $5m for Paramount. I imagine they must be devastated, but...
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Live Action 'Jungle Book' Coming to the BBC

Because one version of a film is never enough. This version will be live-action with CGI special effects used to make real animals shot in India talk like human beings. Can we for a moment just consider trying something original? Please? Seriously, stop it. This isn't funny, it's ruining peoples careers and boring the hell out of viewers. We don't need to see every story done three or four times over just because some nub comes along and thinks he can do it better than the last, thinks he has something to "say" with it that nobody else has ever said before.There are times when a fresh look with fresh talent can do great things with stale properties; just look...
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Media Pundit Content Gets Love From WGA

I wrote a story a few days ago about a final ruling from the National Labor Relations Board on a complaint filed against the Writers Guild of America (WGA) by NBC Universal over the creation of "webisodes." If you managed to digest that sentence, I'll spare you more torture. As I do from time to time with "newsy" stories, I'll submit them to Associated Content where often times they'll get more readers than other places. I did of course post it here first.Well, that story was found and linked to (unfortunately the AC version, not the one hosted on this site where I could have used the attention more) by the WGA, and as of right (3PM EDT) is the...
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Tonight on Heroes: Collision

Later on tonight in its regular time slot of 9PM EDT, Ali Later (Jessica Sanders) and Adrian Pasdar (Nathan Petreilli) will be hosting an episode of Heroes from last season as a two-part promotion for Later's upcoming flick Resident Evil 3 (save yourself the trouble and don't go see it) and the eminent debut of season two later in September.The episode Larter and Pasdar will be presenting this evening is Collision, the fourth episode to air. It's notable that Bryan Fuller wrote this episode, as he is no longer with the series. Fuller shot a pilot and had it picked up by ABC called Pushing Daisies which I believe will be airing in Wednesday nights at 8, and is probably...


'Rush Hour 3' Chokes

You know, since quality is so subjective, the best metric for predicting a films box office success or failure is taking a hard look at how much it cost to make. Since theaters take about 45% of ticket sales, a film has to double its costs just to break even, and people rarely count marketing expenses which can sometimes double that magic number. Each successive installment of Rush Hour has cost more than the previous, made more than before, but the percentages have stayed about the same so that if the costs hadn't increased, the profit would have marched upwards instead of staying flat.It looks like Brett Ratner finally let his interest in big budgets get the best of him,...
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'Masters of Science Fiction' Airs Tonight

Just a quick reminder, episode 2/part 2 of ABC's miniseries Masters of Science Fiction will be on tonight at 10PM EDT. Tonights installment is called The Awakening, with the description "In Iraq, American soldiers discover a mysterious casualty that cannot be identified as human." The guys at AICN are on top of this so that I don't have to be, which is great, because I don't have the slightest clue who wrote this story or what the deal is, so I'll just quote and link:Next week's "The Awakening" was adapted and directed by Michael Petroni ("Till Human Voices Wake Us") from Howard Fast's short story "The General Zapped ..." The only episode not set decades in the future, it's about...


Stargate Atlantis Season 4 Promo

Just dropped by Gateworld to see that they've dug up a link to Yahoo! where you can feast your eyes on a promo for the upcoming and currently shooting fourth season of Stargate Atlantis.The clips confirm Samantha Carter's promotion to full-bird Colonel (Lt. Colonel Sheppard congratulates her with a salute), and implies an impending alliance with the Wraith. The show's two newest cast members, Amanda Tapping ("Samantha Carter") and Jewel Staite ("Jennifer Keller") are also featured, as is recurring guest star Jill Wagner ("Larrin," the leader of the new race of humans introduced in "Travelers").Even with the great product that Ron Moore has been putting on the air over the past few years, my money is still on Stargate Atlantis...


'Survivorman' returns, 'Flash Gordon' Debuts TONIGHT

I don't know about you, but I've been waiting for this for a long time. Survivorman Les Stroud is returning to the Discovery Channel tonight at 9PM EDT with all new episodes, some of which are still being shot.Just when you think it can't get any hotter, Les Stroud finds out it can. In this episode, Les dips his toes in the scorching red sands of the Kalahari Desert -- one of the most extreme climates on Earth.Leave it to Les "Survivorman" Stroud to come up with inventive ways of surviving the arid air and the oppressive heat in the Kalahari. With temperatures on the sand reaching 140 degrees Fahrenheit, Les has to tread carefully.Zooming around the sand dunes is...
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'Rush Hour 3', 'Stardust' Good Bets This Weekend

There are only a couple of big players opening today, the overwhelming favorite to take the weekend prize being Rush Hour 3. A lot of people will go to see it on the credit of the previous two films, and based on some of the reviews I've seen, are in for a disappointment. Everyone involved is overpaid, and production costs have gone up every single iteration of the franchise. Brett Ratner is due for a flop, only I think this one figures to be just disappointing rather than an outright financial failure....
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'Weeds' Creator Deserves an Apology...From Me

I wrote a story yesterday based on other material I found around the web, including a post on TV Squad, a site that was purchased by AOL/TimeWarner when they bought Weblogs Inc. from Jason Calacanis in 2005. I'm not blaming them for my error in judgment, only noting that they fell into the trap of jumping to conclusions just as I did, and they have far more strict policies on publishing and access to people to revise and research what they write about.If they can foul it up, it's not surprise that I did.Based on a cherry picked quote I found on TV Squad (sourced elsewhere), I published a story that chided Weeds showrunner Jenji Kohan for endorsing or condoning...
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Huge Win for Writers over Webisodes

Hollywood writers have scored a big win in their fight to receive minimum wages and union-mandated residuals for their work on webisodes, in what is shaping up to be a war over payment and jurisdiction just as they've settled in for long-term contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The previous three-year contract expires in late October and is not expected to be seriously addressed until next summer when the directors and actors guilds begin their own negotiations.The main issue between the studios and the Writers Guild of America is focusing on a disagreement on how residuals should be applied to content created by union writers solely for airing over the Internet, typically on the...
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'Punisher' Fans Being Punished by Stupid Studio

If it wasn't bad enough that Thomas Jane bowed out of the sequel to The Punisher because he was ashamed of how poor the first film was, and upset at how terrible the sequel was shaping up to be, and having John Dalh pass on directing for virtually the same reasons, now the studio has put the finishing touches on flushing this would-be franchise down the drain by giving it a title: The Punisher: Welcome Back Frank.Look, I'm all for giving people a chance even when it looks like all signs point to total disaster, but this is just silly. Jane is one of the few actors I respect because he busted his ass making The Punisher, and walked on...


'Bloodrayne 2'? Wtf?

There is nothing else to say about this. However, soldier on to view a trailer for this continued abomination from Uwe "I #$!%ed your mom" Boll....
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'Death Sentence' Trailer

I'm experimenting a little here with embedding Apple movie trailers in my pages, something I've never done before so I'm not sure how well this will work. The actual trailer will be on the post page, so you need to click the title of the post at the top or bottom to go through to where it is.This is a trailer for Death Sentence, a new flick starring Kevin Bacon. I've not heard anything about this but since Bacon is a big name and I want to try this out, now is as good a time as any. If something appears broken, send me an email via the contact link on the navbar....
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Blocksbuster Misguided About Movie Download Business

I see news from yesterday evening that Blockbuster finally bought out Movielink, a movie download service created by five of the major studios in an attempt to offer consumers a legal alternative to downloading movies without resorting to piracy.This puts Blockbuster in direct competition with Netflix for movie downloads in addition to by-mail rental, but I think neither company really "gets" it, and here's why: people pirate movies and TV shows through file sharing networks not because online downloading is their new preferred method for getting content, it's because when they download pirated booty, they get it for free.It really is as simple as that....
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'I, Robot', 'The Thing' Sequels for Battlestar's Ron Moore

I think it was during the upfronts earlier this year when Ronald D. Moore, showrunner for Scifi Channels "original" series Battlestar Galactica let slip that he was writing scripts both for a sequel to I, Robot, and possibly a new take on The Thing. The latter of the two has been wrapped into a new two-year overall deal with Paramount, according to Variety.There's a couple of things worth talking about here, namely that The Thing is John Carpenter's version of a story from 1938 called "Who Goes There?", in which scientists in the arctic find an alien space craft buried in the ice along with a frozen alien, although Carpenter's version I believe was a much better film than The...
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More Feast?

Feast wasn't what Marcus Dunstan sold it as. It was not in the tradition of Evil Dead, if there is such a thing. It was more like Trey Parker and Matt Stone's limited rewrite of a bad horror film written for the Scifi Channel, with a brilliant smidgen of directing. There was no plot, the crude moments didn't make up for the poor acting, and I cringe when I think about how many wonderful scripts were passed up for this sorry rag just because the funding studio wanted something that'd make money rather than win praise. (It got neither.)...


No 'Blade Runner' Sequel Afterall

I wrote about a story going around last week that Ridley Scott was looking to direct another Blade Runner film, if he could find a good script to shoot. It sounded like he was encouraging writers to cook something up and send it to him for consideration, something that simply isn't done. First of all without a signed disclaimer, it opens the reader to legal liability should something similar to that script go into production, but not that script. Even with a disclaimer in hand, directors don't want scripts anyway, they want projects where they can pick writers and mold the story themselves (which is often why movies end up being terrible, with large holes in the plot and scenes...
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'Weeds' exec-prod Unprofessional, Grossly Irresponsible

Far be it from me to lecture people about piracy, given my own spotty past (I'm reformed), but this is totally unacceptable behavior from an executive producer and must be strongly condemned. According to TV Squad, Weeds EP Jenji Kohan either in a meltdown of common sense or in an act of utter stupidity that will not be winning any fans amongst her own staff anytime soon, openly wished for her series to be pirated on file sharing networks moreso than it already is....
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Cali. Judge Blocks Video Game Violence Bill

Battles have been raging all across the country between video game publishers and the various state legislature's attempts to regulate games that contain forms of sex and violence. While virtually every law passed has been struck down for being unconstitutionally broad, that hasn't stopped both Republicans and Democrats from trying to take games such as Take Two Interactive's wildly popular Grand Theft Auto series off of store shelves, despite the existence of a ratings board made up of industry players....


Paul McGillion (Carson Beckett) Returns to Stargate Atlantis

Zap2it.com posted a story reporting that Paul McGillion will return to Stargate Atlantis in the upcoming fourth season in a two-episode arc, along with Torri Higginson, though not necessarily in the same episodes. I heard about McGillion's character being killed off before I had seen the episode where it happened, because I had gotten so far behind. DVRs are both a blessing, and a curse people.You know what I'm talking about.I thought it was odd that they'd kill off his character when, from what I understand, his character wasn't originally a recurring role, but more of a recurring guest star. When somebody got hurt, he'd roll in, and then right back out again. I liked McGillion a lot and what...
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Where is the Rain When You Need it?

Apparently flooding a CBS studio and shutting down subways in New York. While they had over two inches of rain dumped on them earlier today, forcing the Early Show to move to another set, North Carolina where I am writing this post from this afternoon is looking a lot like a scorched Earth. It hasn't rained here in at least three weeks - probably longer - with the grass all over the county dying or already yellow and dead. The last time is got this bad in North Carolina, it took a tropical storm coming up from South Carolina to reset our weather pattern.Back then it hadn't rained in months either, then that storm rolled through dumping two inches in...


Site Hiccups

Yesterday afternoon, my host upgraded some server-side scripting packages that MovableType depends on to access the MySQL database. This happened while I was working on the templates to bring them into full compliance with the XHTML and CSS specs. The upgrade went south and didn't get fixed until after 4AM EDT for the server I'm hosted on.The good news is that this site should have remained readable because it is a static-publishing system, meaning rather than generating the page on the fly via scripting when you request it like with WordPress, it generates a fully valid web page after I push 'publish' and it gets saved to disk by the scripting system, along with having the data saved in the...


'Dresden Files' Canceled

The Scifi Channel has canceled their original show The Dresden Files. I picked this up from Syfy portal this afternoon, which they apparently poached from TV Guide. It's difficult if not impossible to keep an eye on every single cable show to find out if it got renewed or not, there are just too many with too much focus put on the broadcast networks.Apparently the show didn't get high enough ratings to justify its cost, which I can't imagine would be all that high since it wasn't exactly an ambitious show. That's not to say it wasn't good, it was entertaining at times and had what I felt like a lot of potential. I think they had a lot of...
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Box Office Booty: 2007-08-06

It looks like tracking was off pretty badly this weekend, I seem to recall reading that The Simpsons was going to retain the number one spot with $50 million, with The Bourne Ultimatum coming up just short with about $40m. Instead, everything without shouting distance got squashed by Matt Damon's latest action flick, hauling about $70 million over the weekend, crushing its nearest competitor in The Simpsons.The animated comedy in its second weekend managed a very respectable $25 million, with another comedy, Underdog, pulling in $12m....
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When Blogs Attack: IESB vs. Cinematical

For those of you who, like myself, didn't know about this, there was a panel at Comic-Con for the people who run blogs - I think it was called Masters of the Web, or something similarly ridiculous. Of all the websites and blogs on the Internet that I'd consider deserving of that title, none of them were present on that panel, much less IESB who I think sponsored it. I track their RSS feed in Google Reader along with about 70 other sites for news, along with Cinematical. I first heard about that panel from Cinematical when one of their authors wrote a story about an uneducated, arrogant rant by the owner of IESB lobbed against blogs in general and...
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Comments Enabled

I'm not sure what has changed since I haven't had the opportunity to work on the problem, but the thing that made the comments broken has seemingly went away. I'm enabling them on all new posts from this point forward. Here is my comment policy.Although I may at times use salty language, I'd prefer that you do not. Please keep all language in the comments safe for a family environment. I will make efforts to hold myself to the same standard.I will allow anonymous comments, but I'd prefer if you would use your real name. Having your name permanently attached to what you say makes people act more responsibly.You are free to include links in your comments that lead to...


'Pushing Daises' Gets Lost's Old Time Slot

Quick news blurb, here but I'm pushing this show because I sense great potential here. Pushing Daises is getting Lost's old time slot on Wednesday nights at 8PM beginning on October 3rd on ABC, based on the logic that this series is so weird that there just isn't anything else good to pair it with. You know, like Lost. Wait a second..Daises is a new show created by Heroes writing executive-producer and science fiction veteran Brian Fuller (Heroes, Dead Like Me), and has thus far been the most anticipated new show on the fall schedule for any network. Critics seem to love it, for what that's worth, which ain't much to be honest. The setup is a little strange, so...
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Interviews: Chris Carter, Kiefer Sutherland

Entertainment Weekly interviewed Chris Carter about his work on the upcoming sequel to the 1998 feature film The X-Files, while IGN TV hooked up with the star of Fox's continuing drama 24, Kiefer Sutherland. For the record, I didn't like the film and I thought the series took a noticeable down turn after the film came out. I felt like the driving force behind the series was the mystery over the aliens. There was always a level of deniability built into that show where up until 1998, there wasn't any single episode where you could point to that and say that Mulder got his proof, saw something real, knew for a fact and didn't just suspect any longer. Getting to...
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Watch Kevin Smith Own a Heckler

Okay well, to be honest, this guy wasn't a heckler. A heckler is someone in a crowd that shouts with the intent to disrupt something, solely for the purpose of being a jerk. This guy waited his turn, went up to a microphone at Comic-Con, and asked a question. He waited quietly and let Kevin Smith answer the question. It just so happens, this guy is a douche bag, and his question was more of a statement of insult than a question.So that being said, go watch this right now, and see what happens when you toss rocks at a guy who does nothing but write about people disparaging other people in the most humorous way possible for a living....
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Amanda Tapping: Photos From Comic-Con

In a strange reversal of fortune, someone thought it would be a good idea to give cameras to the already famous and mostly rich thespians, directors, and other pros at Comic-Con to take pictures of the event from their perspective. And you know, that's actually a pretty cool idea. MTV got Stargate SG-1/Stargate Atlantis star Amanda Tapping to play along, and they've posted some of her photos along with her own captions on their website.Either somebody at MTV wasn't paying attention and somehow ended up buying a camera that could only hold 10 pictures, or we've gotten screwed. You'd think that with 120,000 people attending, you could find enough things, people, and places to take pictures of to fill any...
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Movie Studios Want no Part of Lindsay Lohan

I didn't have to find an article on Entertainment Weekly to know this, nor do I feel like it's really worth posting here since I try to stay away from tabloid entertainment "news", but since I said this was going to happen, I might as well gloat in being right. It sucks for Lohan and I'll be honest, I'm actually kind of sad about this. It's easy to laugh at the misfortunes of the rich and famous, but when that downhill slide turns into a plummet to the bottom of a canyon, its just another example of how money doesn't guarantee a happy life if you've got little to no self control.According to EW, even after Lohan starred in and...


'Cloverfield' A.K.A. '1-18-08' could be the next Snakes on a Plane

The title really says it all, doesn't it? Not giving a title to the film really is kind of a silly way to tease the audience. Think about it, even if we knew what the title of the film is, what would that tell us about the content? J. J. Abrams could come out in the next five minutes and announce that his new film is called "City of Doom" and we'd know nothing more than before. Obviously, from the trailers, it appears to be just another rehashing of Godzilla. Do we need another one of these, especially after the horrible film Dean Devlin made?I was right there with everyone else thinking that Snakes on a Plane was going to...
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'Heroes' Season 2 Tidbits from Tim Kring, Masi Oka

TV.com has lots of information, such as a reminder that the first season of Heroes will be released on DVD this month, August 28th. You can pre-order the standard definition box set, or the HD-DVD box set right now. Sorry, no Blu-Ray. This all comes from a conference call NBC Universal held recently with showrunner Tim Kring and Masi Oka. They talked about how Oka's character Hiro wasn't in the original pilot script, but was added later to lighten things up a bit. Obviously Kring had no idea that Hiro and Ando would be so popular with the fans, and I'm right in the boat with everybody else. I loved Hiro right from the beginning.Lots of stuff in the call...
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TNT Finds 'Truth in Advertising'

Even though the upfronts are behind us, the networks always keep things moving behind the scenes. Some shows that didn't get picked up at place A will get a second chance at place B, after place B decides some of their own stuff isn't working out. Cable networks have more flexibility than do the broadcast networks because there's less advertising money involved, and more irregular schedules.Truth in Advertising comes from The Closer vets Hunt Baldwin and John Covney, according to Variety. The show, as the name implies, centers around people working for an advertising agency.Here's something that caught my eye and made this worth posting: Given the show's marketing themes, net will also seek out product placement, or what it...
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'New Amsterdam" Shelved by Fox

Fox is playing around with their fall schedule, pushing the debut of New Amsterdam back towards January, kicking into high gear its disgustingly reality-laden schedule which appears to now be eating up half the broadcast week. Supposedly, Fox is doing this, and also moving Bones out of its Wednesday night time slot, in order to protect the fall dramas because of past difficulty competing with the other network's offerings.But I have another explanation, one that better fits the facts than Fox running scared from the other networks - it's preparing for the Writers Strike....
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'Masters of Science Fiction' Debuts Saturday

ABC created a mini-series which is an anthology of one-hour stand-alone episodes, supposedly from the "masters of science fiction", which will debut tomorrow night at 10PM. Yeah, Variety wasn't the only one to notice that ABC isn't even giving token effort to promote and make successful the venture. This isn't a reflection on the material, I think, so much as how utterly retarded ABC is.Variety compares this set of stories to TNT's Nightmares and Dreamscapes, another set of four hour-longs, these all adapted from the short stories of Stephen King, all coming I believe from the book of the same name. All four of those stories were fantastic, as is most everything Stephen King has ever written. I don't know...
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id Software's 'Return to Castle Wolfenstein' Coming to a Theater Near You..Eventually

According to Variety, id Software has licensed the theatrical rights to first-person-shooter Return to Castle Wolfenstein to producer Samuel Hadida. The bad news is that this doesn't really mean anything, rights transfers like this happen on a daily basis, and even though Hadida has commissioned a script, there is no studio deal in place at this time. Obviously, getting a script written goes a long way towards achieving that goal. The good news, on the other hand, is that Roger Avery (Pulp Fiction, Silent Hill, Beowulf) is the guy writing the script.Avery won the Best Screenplay Oscar for co-writing Pulp Fiction with Quentin Tarantino in 1995, and has won nine other awards in his career. This is no Uwe Boll...
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'Bourney Ultimatum', 'Underdog' Debut This Weekend

Three big releases this weekend from Universal, Paramount, and Buena Vista. The big dog isn't Disney's Underdog, it's The Bourne Ultimatum, the final film in the trilogy from Paul Greengrass. This flick is opening wide in over 3600 theaters today, even though Deadline Hollywood says tracking indicates holdover The Simpsons will still scratch out the number one spot. I don't buy it though, I think Bourne will take the weekend trophy.Family comedy Underdog is hitting 3000+ theaters, while Paramount's slapstick enjoy-watching-stupid-people-do-stupid-things-and-get-hurt comedy Hot Rod will open to about 2600 cinemas. Lionsgate is opening BRATZ in 1500 locations, while no other flick has more than 600. For the sake of being complete, those other films are: Becoming Jane (Miramax), Cash (AdLabs),...


On 25th Anniversary DVD Release, Ridley Scott Looking For More Blade Runner

This is a combo piece where the Scifi Wire has some quotes on changes Ridley Scott made to the new super-duper-extra-special re-release of Blade Runner on DVD. But that's not all, if you call within the next ten minutes, you could write a screenplay for a sequel and have it directed by Scott himself! Really? Maybe..The re-release is a 25th anniversary recut which will be the final-final directors cut. In other words, it's probably only fractionally different than the last directors cut, which is only marginally different than the studio cut. Sometimes it makes a difference. I read about but didn't see the directors cut of Aliens for years and years and when I happened to run across it by...
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Stargate SG-1 Full Series DVD Collection

The title says it all, if you're a big Stargate SG-1 fan and don't have the entire series resting comfortably in your DVD collection, here is a great opportunity to spend a lot of money and get the whole series in one shot. $275 is a lot to spend on DVDs, but you are getting 10 seasons, roughly 220 episodes all told, and you'll have the distinction of owning forever in perfect digital quality the longest running science fiction series ever.If you'd rather skip the seasons you don't care for, here are links to each and every season set individually. The 10-season compilation is set for release on October 9th, so this is a pre-order. Just click one of the...
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'Get in the Gate' Contest Ends Today..Maybe

I came across a post over on the GateWorld forums reminding people that the Scifi Channel's latest "Get in the Gate" contest ends today, Friday August 3rd. Get in the Gate is really just a random drawing they hold once every year where one person will get a walk-on (and as far as I know) non-speaking role, previously on both Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis. Now that SG-1 has ended its run, it's just an Atlantis contest these days.You get a costume, some camera action, and probably no lines. If you do get any, it won't be much more than "understood" or a good scream while dying. Probably have to pay you SAG minimums otherwise, but it's still a really cool...
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Clarifcation on Jericho Stuff

I noticed in my traffic logs this morning that the story I wrote earlier this morning on Jericho got linked from the Jericho forum hosted by CBS. Thanks for the link, love is always appreciated. Based on some chatter in that thread, I think I should remind everyone of a few key facts regarding Jericho, where it stands, and what needs to happen to get more of it....
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'Sunshine' Review From Film Crunch

I talked about Sunshine a little bit about one week ago in Offsite Stardust Reviews, because obviously I had momentarily confused Sunshine with Stardust. In the extended entry, I had this to say about the films premise.I'll be honest here, Stardust sounds more interesting than Sunshine does, even though I dislike fairytale romance flicks, and dig all over science fiction. The plot has me gasping for air through all the BS, and I've only copied the first paragraph. That's not a good sign, is it?Pardon my salty language in the original story, but I'm sure you get the point. The visuals look stunning, but the idea leaves a lot to be desired. It's the difference between smart science fiction, and...
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Scifi Missing The Point with Farscape

Apparently the really expensive, heavy-on-the-drama and absolutely enjoyable original Scfi Channel series Farscape is making a bit of a comeback, albeit not through traditional outlets. The critically acclaimed (for all that comment is worth these days) series will see 10 new episodes streaming from the Scifi Channel website, each limited to between three and six minutes in length, according to a press release.Now with that babel out of the way, here's the problem and here's where Scifi is missing the point: this is an opportunity to prove that a television show doesn't have to die just because a broadcast or cable network doesn't want to carry it anymore. People want more Farscape and if webisodes is the way to get...
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'Jericho' Season 2 Bits (updated)

Date announced for Jericho Season 2 Premier...Note: If you've come here looking for info on the second season of Jericho, you may find these other posts interesting: CBS Entertainment Prez Talks 'Jericho', Stephen King Digs Jericho, Jericho on DVD, Turteltaub on Jericho, Jericho Season 2 Spoilers, CBS Has Message for 'Jericho' Fans, and Jericho Season 2 Preview from IGN.I'm going to start right off with this from TV.com:Jericho fans know the deal: If the show does not get enough viewers, it will be canceled. If the attendance at the CBS program's panel at Comic-Con this year is any indication, there is a bit of work to do.At this point I have got to point out that Jericho has already been...
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Shrek 4 in 2010?

This came out over the wire yesterday and has splattered the web from end to end already, so here's your obligatory note that DreamWorks plans on having Shrek 4 out in theaters in May of 2010, about three years from now. Since in Hollywood there is no such thing as being too greedy, or too cowardly to shoot original material, there'll be a Shrek 5 sometime down the road as well. Since CGI actors can't hold you up for more money or "get tired" of playing the same character over and over again, despite getting filthy disgusting rich while doing it, I'm sure there will be a 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th down the road.Oh yeah, don't forget about...


'The Punisher' Lands Ray Stevenson, Lexi Alexander

The Punisher left a lot to be desired, and while I don't claim to be much of an expert since I'm not a comic fan, that doesn't mean that I don't know what I'm talking about. There wasn't a discernible plot so much as there was an opening that setup a single-theme revenge flick that consisted of our hero spending 90% of the film killing his way to the "boss", not unlike your typical 90's first-person-shooter video game.Filmgoers weren't happy, and Thomas Jane, who played the films star Frank Castle, wasn't thrilled either. Jane did an admirable job with what he had, and based on his abilities and dedication, I'd have gone to see the sequel on his credibility alone....
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Olympics in China Sends Bad Message

I'm of two minds on China these days, the first being that anything we do that doesn't result in a positive change in China's way of doing things is contributory to its shameful culture of ignorance and oppression. On the other hand, calling them names and sending them to the back of the class isn't going to encourage them to change their ways, and at some point any reasonable person has to acknowledge that even slow change is better than pushing them in the other direction by being bullies.I'm writing this because China landed the next Winter Olympic games, which I strongly oppose. China is still extremely hostile to press freedoms, and human rights in general, and I do think...
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Is Brett Ratner a Hack?

It's not fair to say since I don't know the man personally, but I will say this of Ratner, when he snaps his fingers, studios fight each other over who will dump the most money on him and his productions. I wrote last year of how the combined expenditures for Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker for Rush Hour 3 were somewhere in the $50 million range, probably with another $15m added in for Ratner's services. Right off the bat you're talking about $65 million in budget costs just to make sure that three guys show up on the set every day. Add in another hundred for to a hundred-and-fifty for the rest of the films costs, and you're saddled with...
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