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Posts tagged as “News”

Quickie

Not much time today to post so I’ll do a quickie:

Looks like I was right calling Tim Robbins’ Possible Side Effects as Showtime’s next pickup.
Seeing as it is now the only pilot left standing, the pickup seems extremely likely now.
Sho has indeed passed on the other pilot that was still in the running, the Jewish comedy Ronna and Beverly from Weeds‘ Jenji Kohan, Reno 911!‘s Jamie Denbon, and Jessica Chaffin.

Also, something that will most likely make some waves: the Dutch program Devil’s Advocate has ruled that Osama Bin Laden is no guilty of the 9/11 attacks (not enough evidence against him) .
Wow.

Cast It

A bunch of casting news today for some pilots:

Battlestar Galactica‘s Tahmoh Penikett will star in SciFi/Syfy’s Riverworld.
That must mean either his character dies in Dollhouse, or, well, you know the alternative.

Also joining the cast is Smallville‘s own Laura Vandervoort who played Supergirl on the CW show.
Vandervoort and Penikett will play the main couple that is killed and brought into this world were everyone who has lived on Earth is.

The Caretaker should be played by Alan Cumming.

The Phantom has also been cast, and he will be played by Desperate Housewives‘ Ryan Carnes.
I am not too thrilled about this casting news. Let’s just say the “gravitas” I was expecting isn’t quite there.

On the other hand, the new villain, Lithia, will be played by Isabella Rossellini.

I wonder if they are going to do something closer to The Tick, or if it’s just going to end up like Smallville…

The Shield‘s CCH Pounder, who is going to appear in both Warehouse 13 and James Cameron’s Avatar, will also be joining the regular cast of a comedy, a FOX comedy to be more precise, named Brothers. Pounder is set to play the mother of the two brothers.

Interesting casting choices here and there, we’ll see how it all plays out on screen in the months to come.

Also, the Daytime Emmys are shifting over to The CW.
Seriously.

Coming soon to a screen near you

Is it just me or is nothing major going on in H-Wood (other than massive layoffs)?
Well, actually, a couple of other things have been happening lately.

For one, here are two pics from upcoming pilots.
One is for ABC’s Flash-Forward ($7 million budget), the other one is for FOX’s Absolutely Fabulous.

Over here, the Jules Verne Festival in Paris has just announced its last event for the whole 3 days, after a disappointing opening night (a documentary about the moon basically), and both a small Lost and even smaller BSG event, the only night left to reveal was the closing one.
Barely two weeks before this night, they finally reveal that they’re going to honor Gerard Depardieu.
What the frak?
Some people were expecting a Star Trek premiere or something similar (they hyped it as if it was going to be something major), and we get a tribute to Depardieu?
I know he’s a great actor and all that, but, seriously, we’re talking about a festival named Jules Verne.
How does he relate in any possible way to “adventure” or “science-fiction” or “fantasy”?
No wonder they waited until the last minute to reveal what was going to be night about.

The jury is also even more ridiculous than last year.
What a disappointment overall.
I hope we’ll at least get something epic off the BSG/Lost events.

In the meantime, let’s take a quick look at Showtime.
The cable network has passed on The L Word spin-off as well as theMatthew Perry/Peter Tolan comedy, The End of Steve.
Is this a huge mistake? Time will tell.
Steve will however be shopped around to other nets.
I’m expecting Tim Robbins’ Possible Side Effects to be picked up though.

Also, no surprise, AMC has renewed Breaking Bad.