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Posts tagged as “Movies”

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.

Here we go again

New news have emerged regarding projects that have been in the works for some time now.

For you Melrose Place fans out there, you probably know about that remake the CW wants to (re?)make.
One Tree Hill‘s creator Mark Schwahn is now in pole position to write the pilot, although he probably won’t stay with the actual series after that, à la Rob Thomas on 90210.

Robert Carlyle, who recently starred in 24: Redemption (who else thought that movie sucked?) is now set to star as the lead in the next (the third one) Stargate show, Stargate Universe.
The move seems similar to Richard Dean Anderson and Ben Browder’s casting in SG1 way back when: a known face for a new role.
The show should be more character-driven and darker than the previous two with less planet-exploration-type episode, since the show is based on a ship rather than on a team exploring planets.
I’m all for it to be honest.
The Stargate franchise has been dead originality-wise for a few years now.
Bring on the new.

In other news, as predicted, McG is currently working on the fifth Terminator movie, the second in the new Terminator trilogy that is (the one with Christian Bale in it).
The studio feels confident enough to order a fifth movie even though the fourth T-movie might bomb for all we know.

I just love franchises.