Here we go again!
Being deep in the renovations, you may have noticed the lack of fresh enjoyable content. And, like in mid-June, don’t worry, it’s coming.
Meanwhile, here’s a collection of the most interesting articles from the past few days.
As you may know, yesterday was The Twilight Zone’s 50th anniversary. On October 2, 1959, CBS broadcast the first Zone episode, written by Rod Serling himself.
For this occasion, The New York Times’ Dave Itzkoff wrote a piece about the classic anthology series over here.
There is also this great interview with Sterling dating back before the premiere of the show.
Another anniversary is The Blair Witch Project‘s, which this year celebrates its 10-year mark.
Jeff Otto over at Bloody Disgusting has an article on how the movie revolutionized marketing by introducing the now-called viral component into the mix.
Can you believe it’s been ten years since THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT took the world by storm? Remember the build-up? Those mysterious posters months before release making everyone think it was a documentary? “In October of 1994 three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland while shooting a documentary… A year later their footage was found,” read the eerie teaser.
Two big news stories these last couple of weeks have been Dick Cook’s eviction from the Disney Corp. and David Letterman’s admission of his sexual relationships with a few of his staffers.
Following Cook’s ousting, Peter Bart from Variety asked a simple question:
There were rants in the media last week that Bob Iger, the Disney CEO, had not been sufficiently respectful in terminating his venerable studio chairman, Dick Cook.
I can understand this position, except for one issue: Is there really such a thing as a “respectful termination”?
As for Letterman, Verne Gay exposes eight dangers that may face Letterman now that he’s publicly admitted about his sex stories.
And in case you were wondering about My Little Pony’s villain, Overthinking It has posted its own in-depth analysis of why The Smooze is one of the greatest villains ever.
A few NBC news stories surfaced today, such as the networking ordering Madagascar and Monsters vs. Aliens specials from DreamWorks Animation.
NBC will air its “Monsters” half-hour special on Oct. 28, with voices by Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland and Rainn Wilson. “Merry Madagascar” will air Nov. 17, with voices by Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Cedric The Entertainer, Carl Reiner and Andy Richter.
There was also this spec pilot by Felicity’s J.J. Abrams & Josh Reims which got sold to the highest bidder, the peacock. Reims is most known for his work on family-centered dramas such as Brothers & Sisters and Dirty Sexy Money.
The still-untitled show sounds like a Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The Series: Spy Edition. Indeed, it centers around two spies, husband and wife. Not much else is known though.
There’s also some business news with Comcast supposedly on the verge of acquiring NBC Universal, even though both parties are currently qualifying these “rumors” as “inaccurate.”
Chez FX, unsurprisingly both Terriers and Lights Out just got their 13-episode series orders.
We’ve already seen what both those series entailed, though if you have a short memory span, just know that the former, by Shawn Ryan and Ted Griffin, stars Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James as an ex-cop and his BFF hot-shot starting their own unlicensed PI business.
As for Lights Out:
[It centers] around a former heavyweight boxing champion with pugilistic dementia (a disorder slowly leading to complete memory loss) struggling to support his family, including his wife, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. The boxer is also forced to become a debt enforcer.
The pilot was co-written by The Bucket List’s Justin Zackham and Phillip Noyce and the show described as more family-centered à la Sopranos than The Shield.
Holt McCallany plays the leading man, Patrick “Lights” Leary.
Terriers and Lights Out are respectively scheduled for a summer and late 2010 premiere.
By picking up all of its six pilots this season, FX is trying to regain its lost momentum by introducing a new wave of original programming.
In other TV news, Melissa Joan Hart is returning to television (well, besides her dancing with the stars).
ABC Family has greenlit an untitled series by Bob Young & David Kendall, with Joseph Lawrence as a co-star. Joan Hart will play “Hailey, a political dynasty wild child-turned-politician who takes in her teenage niece and pre-adolescent nephew when her sister goes to prison and her brother-in-law flees. She turns for help to Jack (Lawrence), who, desperate for a job, moves in and becomes the family’s many.”
There’s also Spider-Man/Milk/Pineapple Express’ James Franco who is joining for two months the ABC soap drama General Hospital.
What the hell is he doing on a soap? Perhaps the pot finally got to his head.
Also, I thought he was in college. Does he have that much free time? Or does he need money?
Quick, someone give him a loan or something!
And finally, some good news:
Christopher Nolan’s Inception will come out on July 16, 2010 in IMAX!
Hell yes.