Tron: Legacy has now a release date: Dec. 17, 2010. It will, like Spidey 4, be digitally remastered for the IMAX.
As you probably have heard by now, District 9’s Sharlto Copley and Jessica Biel are joining Joe Carnahan’s A-Team cast. Bradley Cooper, Liam Neeson and Qinton “Rampage” Jackson have already been cast, respectively playing Lt. Templeton “Faceman” Peckn John “Hannibal” Smith and Sgt. “B.A.” Baracus. Biel is set to play Faceman’s ex and Copley be Capt. “Howling Mad” Murdock.
Ron Howard is coming back at FOX with another comedy, this time multicamera, and about an IRS district office. The Simpsons/The Office’s Brent Forrester will write the pilot.
Oh and Arianna Huggington will have her own multicamera sitcom for ABC, brought to you by How I Met Your Mother’s exec Greg Malins. The show will be about “the friendship of three freshman members of Congress — two men and a woman — who live together in D.C.”
Back to the usual today with a few very interesting news bits.
I’m not going to discuss the Marvel $4-billion acquistion. It’s been prettymuchtalkedto death already.
However, there was a double dose of duh yesterday with the announcement of a fourth season for Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire getting picked up at HBO.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles’ Lena Heady will quickly be back on TV thanks to another HBO show, Game of Thrones. In this complicated piece of fiction, she’ll play “Queen Cersei of House Lannister, wife of King Robert and sister of twin brother Jaime Lannister and outsider younger brother Tyrion”.
Equaly as thrilling is Megan Mullally joining the second season of Rob Thomas’ Party Down.
WGA Award-winner Davey Holmes saw yesterday his spec script come to fruitition (almost) with FOX picking it up for a pilot commitment. What am I talking about? Worthy, a show about “an Arizona politician named Worthy whose struggle to do the right thing takes a wrong turn after he is involved in a hit-and-run and gets blackmailed by a mob boss.“ Says Holmes:
I’m fascinated by moral dilemmas in politics. I also love the intensely colorful characters who spring from that world, the sweaty dance they do as they angle for power, weighing personal beliefs against their desperate need to win the next election.
Despite seeming to be cable material, Kevin Reilly and Peter Rice loved so much the script that it’s now at FOX.
As I’m slowly but surely getting back on my feet, I’m catching up on the news of the world.
First, you know how I love to continuously point out how I called the 2009 3-D emergence. Well now Comic-Con has announced its first ever 3-D panels, including one for James Cameron’s Avatar, and another by Disney showing footage from A Christmas Carol, Alice in Wonderland and Tron.
In other news, Ryan Reynolds is set to star as DC’s Green Lantern movie adaptation, becoming the first actor to both star as a DC and Marvel superhero.
Also, a trailer has been released for ABC’s upcoming new “Sci-Fi” show, Defying Gravity. The pitch intrigued me (an 8-person team of astronauts travelling through the solar system) as well as the fact that it is an internationally produced show, which means in a way international cast. But ultimately the show doesn’t look that promising, it just seems like Grey’s Anatomy in space.
And finally, a quick update regarding the 2×2 Russian network case about South Park censoring. We’ve seen how a case to revoke the channel’s licensewas dismissed, and now footage from the show has apparently been cut as it mocked Vladimir Putin. Yay free speech.
For a week now there has been non-stop coverage of Michael Jackson’s life.
All this media circus culminated in today’s memorial service.
Now, don’t get me wrong, Michael Jackson is probably (one of) the greatest entertainers in History.
But we’re talking about, hands down, the biggest broadcast event in History.
Bigger than Obama’s Inauguration.
Bigger than any other event in recent times.
Would you say that Michael Jackson dying is a Historical event?
Or is everyone treating it as a Historical event the event itself?
No offense to whomever might get offended, but this is ridiculous.
During this hommage, the poor man’s coffin was publicly displayed right in front of the stage like some kind of weird trophy.
I have never seen anything like this and probably will never again.
Just the entrance of the coffin under applause is enough to get chills down your back (not in a good way).
This isn’t just the biggest broadcast in History, it’s also one of the creepiest.
The final choir with the kids holding hands intersected with shots from London and people dancing to “We Are the World” mixed gaudy with crass.
Are people going to dance on his grave soon?
James Hibberd even declared (about the event itself, before it began):
Is it possible to have a pop star’s memorial service on this scale and not have it be, to a large extent, tacky? […] No matter how much it means to you, the setting turns it into camp. Who can regard an event soberly when you know there’s going to be folks selling T-shirts outside?
Honestly, is this supposed to be a concert with a coffin or a memorial service?
What was even more heart-breaking was seeing the family, especially the daughter, talking about their dead brother/father.
Though fans can grieve, this is a memorial service that in my opinion should have been held privately.
The mourning of a family towards a human being shouldn’t be shared with over a billion people worldwide!
Elizabeth Taylor earlier stated:
I’ve been asked to speak at the Staples Center. I cannot be part of the public whoopla. And I cannot guarantee that I would be coherent to say a word. I just don’t believe that Michael would want me to share my grief with millions of others.
How I feel is between us. Not a public event. I said I wouldn’t go to the Staples Center and I certainly don’t want to become a part of it. I love him too much.
The fans are grieving a celebrity.
Michael’s family is mourning a man.
This isn’t the same thing, and the media circus is only blurring the line.
Time for follow-ups to some of the post from the last year.
Hopefully this won’t turn into another Jaws, trying to follow on follow-ups with other follow-ups and pointless sequels.
Let’s begin with, guess what, follow-ups to a couple of posts from way back.
In late September, Russian channel 2×2 was facing a criminal investigation following the broadcast of a South Park episode, Mr. Hankey’s Christmas Classics. And now an update from ten days ago: the court has dropped the case against the adult cartoon channel. Problem solved.
The case deals with swearing on live TV: In March of 06, the FCC fined FOX for Cher and Nicole Richie saying “shit” and “fucking” during the 02 & 03 Billboard Music Awards, all due to a “new” FCC policy that allowed penalization even if the expletive is made only once, and live.
The case worked its way up to the Supreme Court and on Tuesday were heard the oral arguments for the case.
I forgot to talk about but finally a decision was reached at the end of last April:
The Supreme Court ruled in a 5–4 decision on April 28, 2009 that the Federal Communications Commission had not acted arbitrarily when it changed a long-standing policy and implemented a new ban on even “fleeting expletives” from the airwaves. Justice Antonin Scalia, in the majority opinion, wrote: “The FCC’s new policy and its order finding the broadcasts at issue actionably indecent were neither arbitrary nor capricious.” In the dissenting opinion, Justice John Paul Stevens claimed that this decision was hypocritical given the presence of television commercials for products treating impotence or constipation.
Incidentally, “the Court explicitly declined to decide whether the new rule is constitutional, and sent that issue back to the lower courts for their review.“ So long story short, First Amendment rights are still up in the air.
Richard Kelly’s The Box (reviewed here) also has a few new updates. The first trailer is now out:
And there is an interesting interview with Kelly on SciFi Wire.
Speaking of SciFi, given the backlash after the Syfy rebranding announcement earlier this year, there has been in the last month or so a few responses from channel president Dave Howe. In a very recent TVGuide interview he said:
This wasn’t an option, it was a mandate. We made a commitment to grow into a global lifestyle brand. Sci Fi is a genre; it is like calling a TV network Drama or Sport. The default perception of sci-fi is that it’s space, aliens, the future. It’s Star Trek. The new name positions us as having our own attitude and personality, which gives us permission to do a broader range of sci-fi/fantasy shows and take us into the supernatural, the paranormal, action-adventure and mystery space.
I think it’s been pretty much established, if only by Star Trek’s very recent success, that the clichéd opinions regarding science-fiction are gone. We’ve seen pretty weak arguments regarding the brand change… Broadcasting & Cable also has a piece up detailing Syfy’s upcoming branding strategy, including “Wyfy from Syfy”.
You can as well check out the future Syfy TV spots right here.
Continuing on the SciFi side of things, we have another article on the genre by STLtoday’s Gail Pennington. Included in it is an interview with Battlestar Galactica’s Ronald D. Moore.
Moving back to more serious issues, there has been some talk regarding the future of entertainment, and especially the future of broadcast. TV Week’s Brian Steinberg had an In Depth article on the conflicting visions of NBC and CBS:
NBC and CBS are at odds about how best to proceed at a time when the future of the business is under serious assault. Is the future of broadcast TV generating big audiences from early morning to late at night? Or is it picking the right spots, focusing instead on syndicating big-ticket programming — the Olympics or a favorite crime procedural — across a multitude of screens in exchange for advertising and other revenue?
It’s a very intriguing and interesting look at two network giants that are actually betting on opposite sides of what the future might be.
Well, that’s all the time we have folks. Tomorrow is writing day so be sure to tune in.
First post of the birthday week. This might feel to some like one of those sitcom epis with clip shows of the best moments because writers have become lazy. Don’t worry though, this is just a blog taking a look back at a year’s worth of random posts, because I’m lazy.
Like J.D. said:
“I know I’d love to forget all the [things] that have happened to me. But unfortunately I keep replaying them in my head like some clip show from a bad sitcom too lazy to come up with a fresh story.”
So much incredible stuff happened in the past year…
Let’s get started with TV. This year has been marked by crazy actions on this side of the biz. From CBS to FOX or HBO, we’ve seen some pretty incredible stuff. Most of all, there was some serious NBC talk thanks to Dumb and Dumber’s stupid moves, especially moving Leno to the 10PM slot, Mondays thru Fridays. You can bet I’ll be talking about this more in Wednesday’s post.
Equally as mind-boggling was SciFi’s atrocious name-change planned for July (SyFy? Really?):
Let me get this straight. You want to change everything from your logo to your slogan, and from the brand to your core audience (you know, the one that made you what you are now). And do all that for absolutely no reason at all (given the channel’s top-10 network status)?
If it’s such a good time for sci fi, why change your network name to SyFy? To differentiate our brand in an increasingly competitive category where we’re competing in more countries and on a growing number of platforms. For instance, type “scifi” into Hulu search and you won’t get any results from our shows on the first page. Just one example of many.
Continuing on the TV side of things, we’ve seen our fair share of TV Shows throughout the year, including an interview I did with Lost’s Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. Some shows were unfortunately cancelled, like The Middleman (my favorite from last summer), others surprisingly not, like Dollhouse. Others meanwhile were fortunately renewed, such as Leverage. There was also an introduction to this new little ABC show called Flash Forward (now renamed FlashForward, following the author’s original wish).
We talked abit as well about the Arrested Development movie that shouldn’t come out for another year or two. In the meantime, you should check out the awesome Arrested Developement documentary (yes there is one) when it comes out (2009?).
Perfect segue to the movie front of the year, which had a lot of…interesting happenings (besides Cannes). Watchmen was probably the most talked-about film here, followed closely by Star Trek. Speaking of, Warner Bros. just loved my posting of the epic Watchmen opening sequence and asked Blogger to delete my post with no warning. Like I said at the time:
I’m not going to post the sequence again for the sake of it, but suffice to say that I’m quite disappointed by the behind-my-back actions taken. I also find quite ridiculous that said actions were done in the name of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, let alone the crusade against people posting the opening Watchmen sequence. Are they afraid people will find it is so awesome they decide not to go watch the rest of the movie? Even yU+Co was forced to take it down, even though it’s their own company that made the titles. Quite ridiculous indeed.
Another Watchmen scandal was with its ending. Squid or no Squid? I asked back in November. You should know by now the answer (spoiler alert: it’s not like in the graphic novel). Let’s not forget as well the FOX versus WB case regarding the movie’s rights. Ultimately, and unsurprisingly, they settled. No harm done.
What is however a harm (to my brain) are phenomenons such as that Twilight thing. Remakes of remakes were as well discussed. And I almost forgot to talk about all the game adaptations, like Monopoly, and Clue. Where is the originality? Here it is: The big talk of upcoming 2009 films must be James Cameron’s Avatar. You know, the movie I’m saying will revolutionize 3-D. This is like my own personal TOLDJA! moment regarding 3-D (and Avatar):
Sound was introduced in 1927. Color was introduced in 1938. 3-D will be introduced in 2009.
Continuing on the entertainment industry… We’ve seen our fair share of (not-that-funny) award shows this year, from the Golden Globes to the Oscars. This year might prove different with either Neil Patrick Harris or Craig Ferguson hosting the Emmys. That’s epicness right here.
Moving on, there was a lot of talk about technology. From the floppy disk to Twitter (who had even heard of Twitter a year ago?). Some talk around the future of entertainment, especially television, has as well been present throughout the year. Whether it is via Strike.TV in last August, or more re
cently Hulu, with its financialinvestments. Yet again, we’ll talk more about this on Friday’s post thanks to a couple of new articles regarding rebranding (SyFy) and broadcast future (NBC and CBS specifically).
Finally, there were changes in the political landscape this year, with the arrival of a new President and the departure of another. Shifts in the economy as well were felt. Both in theTVindustry and elsewhere. And to finish us off, we shall mention this Lego man, who didn’t after all go on I’m a “Celebrity” (sarcasm quotes not included in original title).
Incredible postings aside, this year was riveting. More to come tomorrow.
