Identity Crisis

What is going on with all those brand renaming themselves?
Gatorade changes to G, Pizza Hutt to The Hutt, RadioShack to The Shack, and now Cartoon Network, who freshly announced a slate of non-cartoon shows, is also considering a name change?

There are even whispers inside the channel’s Burbank animation studios that the network might drop “Cartoon” from its name.
[…]Rob Sorcher, a veteran cable programming executive who joined Cartoon Network last year after a stint at AMC, where he spearheaded that network’s push toward original dramas and was involved in the development of “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad.”
[…]Although they are committed to their approach, they disagree on the fate of Cartoon Network’s name. [Sorcher] said he expects “we will have to deal with this down the line.”

Please don’t do this.

Side-note with some movie stuff:
Remember Outland, the SF/western 1981 movie with Sean Connery?
Well, it’s getting a remake with Shoot ‘Em Up‘s Michael Davis set to helm the project.
Who’s the guy writing the script? That would be Chad St. John.
You might recall that John also wrote SOTW6‘s The Days Before (notice how FlashForward is also on there, kinda funny considering the two scripts’ stories).
Anyway, I loved the Days Before script so I’m wondering what Chad will be able to pull for this Outland remake.
Incidentally, the current issue of Script Magazine has a piece on Chad St. John.

There’s also this other Dirty Dancing remake currently planned by Lionsgate.
What is interesting is that this time the writer is Julia Dahl. If you don’t know her, she was The West Wing‘s executive story editor from 2001 to 2002, and wrote two of the show’s 3rd season episodes.

Moving back to TV territory…
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences lost its longtime PR agency, the Lippin Group, due to the recent debacles surrounding this year’s Emmycast.

ABC is moving on a haunted-hotel series entitled Clive Barker’s Hotel from two original Saw writers, Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton. I’m not here talking about the original movie, rather the latest four instalments (Saw IV throguh Saw VII).
Charlie’s Angels/Terminator Salvation’s McG might also be set to direct the pilot if the project comes to fruition.

And finally, some more great news for Caprica (remember, the Battlestar Galactica spin-off).
James Marsters is joining the cast for a “seizable arc” in at least three episodes of the show’s first season.
He will play “a dangerous terrorist leader by the name of Barnabus Greeley. Driven by desires both moralistic and carnal, Barnabus is as lethal as he is unpredictable.”

There’s also this new FlashForward poster that I just find plain awful.
The faux-embossed character pictures are kitschy, the “flash-forward” ball is badly done and made out of basically the same fifteen pictures used over and over again, and the sea reminds me of some 1990 photography background.
See for yourselves:

My eyes are bleeding…