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Posts tagged as “Money”

Didn't see that coming

And my first news of the year is…


Matt Smith has been cast as the new Doctor Who lead.

At 26 years old, he will be the youngest to take on the role.
Quite a shocker.

Meanwhile, the world seemed to have continued moving forward whilst I was gone, with further development to the Watchmen lawsuit between Fox and WB.
Guess what: there’s gonna be a trial.
Judge Feess, from the United States District Court for the Central District of California, has ruled in favor of FOX. Stating that the studio has at least distribution rights to the movie.
You can read his ruling over here. Pretty interesting. And pretty readable.
A hearing on a possible injunction is expected to happen to decide remaining issues such as the amount of rights Fox has over the franchise and if the release date for the movie can actually be blocked.
The injunction should take place on Jan 20.
So, is the judge anti-Obama or what?

Anyway, I hope they will quickly settle.
If FOX wins some stake in the B.O. result, I’m not sure they would anyway want to move the release date since it would just result in confusing viewers, ergo less B.O. revenue.
And no, that’s not like that Harry Potter move.

What an excellent start to the year, don’t you think?

Cash troubles

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.

Mix it up

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.