All FOX-produced shows have been asked to cut 2% off their budget. The shows include 24, Family Guy, Life on Mars and Dollhouse.
Speaking of Dollhouse: there won’t be any webisodes contrary to what was originally planned.
Dollhouse is probably the most doomed show on TV. Ever.
THR has meanwhile announced that three TV writers (Bill Oakley, Mike Rowe, and Patric Verrone) have inked a deal with the Machinima website (based on machinima itself: digital movies made with already existing or new VG animation) to create an online series.
They will be paid upfront fees for pilot-writing and then if the pilots are successful, they will move on to become online series in themselves.
As far as I’m aware this is a first and is not at all guild-covered.
So what gives, Patric Verrone?
I saw this afternoon Seven Pounds. A pretty good movie, although I don’t see why everyone wants to compare it to The Sixth Sense and all the promo is axed around a “twist” at the end.
In my opinion there isn’t any twist in the movie, and if they call what happens at the end a twist, then I sure as hell found that one out less than 30 minutes into the movie. Therefore: crappy twist.
I highly doubt that thought of Smith’s character’s motivation as a “twist” and I am sad to see ads taunting a so-called “secret”. It just downplays the whole emotional drama that emanate from the characters. It’s not a thriller!
As for the actual movie, as I said, it was really good. Will Smith has a wonderful performance in it (he has come a long way from Prince of Bel-Air!).
Oscar nom (win?) anyone?
Also, HBO has picked up to series Hung by The Riches’ creator Dmitry Lipkin and Colette Burson about a high-school basketball coach in financial trouble finding a way to use his best asset: his giant penis.
I think you can now guess what the title means.
Looks like the NBC exec-change is already having an impact of TV shows.
Case in point with the mid-season drama The Philanthropist.
David Eick is now out, now focusing on BSG’s spin-off Caprica while Tom Fontana is back in.
He was previously pushed out after “creative differences” with the previous NBC execs.
Meanwhile new N.Y. taxes should take effect on April 1 (no joke), targetting downloads and other entertainment goods (like iTunes movies, cable/sattelite TV, movie tickets, radio, etc.).
An accretion of $15 million from the 09–10 season and $20 mil from the 10–11 season in the budget is expected with the download-tax, while the proposed sat/cable/radio tax could bring in a further $136 mil for 09–10 and $180 mil for 10–11.
Finally back to blogging!
Lots of stuff to catch up, including some major NBC changes.
First of all, one of the big NBC 2009 move:
Jay Leno in primetime.
Every day.
No more NBC drama at 10PM.
Jeff Zucker said the other day that NBC won’t be doing 22 primetime-hours anymore, similarly to “three” of its “competitors”.
Wait a sec.
Is Zucker really considering MyNetworkTV and The CW as NBC’s competitors?
Wow.
Zucker also said:
It’s not giving up. It’s not retrenching. It’s not throwing in the towel.
Let’s get real here: are you really that surprised?
The way NBC is currently programming its shows is already similar to a 2-hour primetime/night scenario.
Just look at Crusoe, Knight Rider and My Own Worst Enemy.
Or what about their Tuesdays?
It doesn’t exist.
NBC is as well converging its TV divisions, merging studio and scripted.
But you have to wonder there:
Is less original programing what NBC is all about?
Because if that’s the case, tune me out.
Speaking of NBC.
Was it just me or did last night’s Chuck kind of ripped of Leverage’s series premiere?
That whole floor-replacement thingy had a strong déjà-vu effect on me.
I also recently saw Primer.
This was a really (good) mindfrak movie.
Fortunately there is
a clear visual timeline available to help sort it all out.
The movie and its script are also proving to be an excellent lesson on “how to write a great no-budget movie.“
The answer being obviously a focus on characters.
And since TV is a character-medium…
You know the rest.
Some more fresh news hot off the printer.
Let’s begin with a quick follow-up to my awesome prediction from the other day on how 3-D will rule us all in a decade or so.
What’s the one industry that can make or break a format? Or, in our case, a new era of entertainment pleasure?
Was your first thought ‘porn’?
If yes, then you’d be right.
If we would have been talking about the 90s.
Porn embraced first HD DVD and look where that format went.
Bottom line is: Porn endorsement is now kinda useless, especially when everyone is basically downloading his (her?) porn.
There’s also no 3-D Porn in the works as far as I know.
But I have high hopes (or is that low expectations?) that one is coming our way soon.
No pun intended.
Seriously.
Don’t worry, I’m going somewhere with all of this.
So, back to the question.
What’s the industry that will lead Joe Six Pack to watch 3-D stuff?
It’s not per se an entertainment industry, but it definitely has its own (big, huge) weight.
I am of course talking about sports.
And to be more precise, the NFL.
Tomorrow night will be broadcast live in 3-D to theaters in Los Angeles, New York and Boston a game between the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders.
I may go out on a huge limb here again, but I’m pretty sure that in 2 decades, if not less, watching 3-D sports at home will become a common thing.
Also, LG announced that they would try to market at least one 3-D TV in 2009.
And we’re already in December 2008 folks.
Meanwhile, CBS just announced its mid-season schedule while ABC the premiere date of some of its new shows.
Let’s begin with CBS.
First things first, Flashpoint season 2 will premiere Jan. 9.
Did I forget to mention that the missing 4 episodes from season 1 are added to the whopping total of 18 season 2 episodes ordered?
That’s a full season of 22 episodes for you.
The 13-hour Harper’s Island (I sense a backdoor series somewhere) will be broadcast from April 9 to July 2.
Not much more news regarding dramas since there hasn’t been much canceling lately on CBS’ side.
Remember how NBC only announced their January skeds?
Well it seems that ABC is announcing the premiere of its new shows — for around March-April.
Mondays (March 9) will see the arrival of the long-awaited Castle (by most Nathan Fillion fans).
The reboot of Rob Thomas’ Cupid will premiere meanwhile starting March 24 on Tuesdays.
The Unusuals will take place on Wednesdays (beginning April 8).
Why so late?
Well, you might have guessed this, but ABC wants to finish showing its fall shows before beginning its mid-season’s.
Notice a trend in all of this?
Mid-season shows are beginning more and more frequently to premiere late in the season (as late as April-May for some).
Are we converging to year-long original drama programming or what?
Can someone explain to me what is up with the Twilight phenomenon?
At least with Harry Potter, I knew about the books years before the first movie came out. Not so with Twilight. It was only when I found out about the movie that I found out about the book.
And that was less than a year ago, thanks to EW.com.
Or should I say EtWilight.com?
The amount of Twilight articles posted every single day on that site! Wow.
I still don’t get what all the fuss is about.
The book as far as I know is far from selling as well as HP did before its movie adaptations.
Yet MovieTickets.com reported that Twilight had sold more tickets on its site earlier this week than Bolt, Quantum of Solace, Australia, and Milk combined!
It’s like with High School Musical 1.
Why was it one of the most-watched TV movies ever at the time?
The everlasting mysteries of teenage girls’ favorite things eva’.
Or is that tweens now?
And I’m off.
Gonna go throw up.
