Filed under: Industry, Programming, Web, Celebrities, Reality-Free

What’s happening on other blogs via the interweb.

• You’ve read our discussion of the Lost finale, now read the Hollywood Reporter’s, James Poniewozik’s, and Alan Sepinwall’s. Also, here’s news about the ratings the finale got.
• Is the head of The CW, Dawn Ostroff, on her way out?
• Is ABC already ahead when it comes to this fall’s new shows?
• Another season of The Two Coreys starts on June 22. Oh, great.
• The Wall Street Journal weighs in on the American Office vs. British Office debate.
• Eddie Griffin is being sued over an incident on his new VH-1 show.
• The Sci-Fi Channel has launched a new gaming blog called Fidgit.

Permalink | Email this | | Comments

Share This

Filed under: Late Night, TV Royalty, Programming, Celebrities, Talk Show, Reality-Free

Here’s who’s on the late night shows tonight.

• Charlie Rose: Philip Bobbitt and Tony Judt
• The Late Show with David Letterman: Al Pacino and David Wright (repeat)
• Jay Leno: Conan O’Brien, Anderson Cooper, and Allison Moorer (repeat)
• Jimmy Kimmel Live: John Cusack, Sofia Vergara, and The Jonas Brothers (repeat)
• Tavis Smiley: Phil Donahue (repeat)
• Late Night with Conan O’Brien: Christina Ricci, Jason Sudeikis, and Shooter Jennings (repeat)
• The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson: Felicity Huffman and Mike Doughty (repeat)
• Last Call with Carson Daly: Sheryl Crow and Romany Malco (repeat)

Permalink | Email this | | Comments

Share This

Filed under: Lost, Watercooler Talk, Celebrities, Reality-Free

You have to give Harold Perrineau points for being brutally honest.

The Lost star, who (spoiler!) blew up last night in the season finale of the show, can’t believe that he came back to the show only to be killed off. In fact, his exact words about the decision to kill off Michael are “…what the hell? I came back for that?!”

Perrineau didn’t know he was getting killed off until he got a phone call from the producers right before he received the script for the season finale. He’s also unhappy that they didn’t give Michael and Walt a happy ending. But perhaps the most interesting part of the interview with TV Guide’s (but not for long) Michael Ausiello is where Perrineau says the show doesn’t know how to treat black characters…

Continue reading Harold Perrineau not happy about his stint on Lost

Permalink | Email this | | Comments

Share This

Filed under: Documentary, Music & Musicals, Casting, Deals, New Releases, RumorMonger, Celebrities and Controversy, Politics

Just when it seemed like Al Gore couldn’t reassert his international stature any further comes word that An Inconvenient Truth is getting turned into an opera. Seriously. Currently in planning stages for the 2011 season at Italy’s Milan opera house, the new work will undoubtedly carry the same tone of global peril that the ersatz vice president enforces in the film, although one imagines they’ll probably do away with some of the dry Power Point material. It’s not the most practical choice for an adaptation, that’s for sure: The way it’s assembled in the film, Gore’s lecture manages to engage a diverse audience, while the guy comes off as assertive and witty, which makes you wonder what sort of president he would have made — but that singular charm doesn’t necessarily translate into the sort of theatrics demanded by a massive stage spectacle.

It’s too early to get any sense for the final product, but for now, the conceit sounds like ridiculous fodder for a Saturday Night Live sketch, and it’s hard to envision anything but a parody of the source (consider the infamous case of Jerry Springer: The Opera). Personally, I can see the revamped An Inconvenient Truth taking a cue from Wagner’s Ring Cycle and setting the stage ablaze around the main character in a horrific look-what-might-happen finale as a team of green-friendly celebrities chant “Give us Gore” from stage left, their pathetic words drowned out by a deafening orchestral surge … but maybe that’s pushing it.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Share This

Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, Scripts, Remakes and Sequels

So it looks like I have to disabuse myself of the notion that this story was some sort of fever dream or hallucination on my part. A Donnie Darko sequel, titled S. Darko, is happening, and Elizabeth Berkeley, that fearless queen of the C-list, has joined the cast. She will play “a speed freak-turned-Jesus freak whose sentiments about ridding the world of its exponential sin are rivaled only by her infatuation with her dreamy pastor.” No word on who plays the dreamy pastor, but Berkeley joins Justin Chatwin, Ed Westwick and the original film’s Daveigh Chase. Chase reprises her role as Donnie’s sister Samantha, who leaves Sparkle Motion to go on a road trip with her best friend (Brianna Evigan) only to be plagued by nightmarish visions.

What’s most curious about S. Darko is that while it has begun production, with television veteran Chris Fisher at the helm, I can’t find word anywhere about who the screenwriter is. What gives? The stories about the film have given the impression that Fisher was hired by the producers to direct; if so, where did the project originate? It seemed to come out of nowhere earlier in the month.

I’m not sure any admirer of Donnie Darko can reasonably be optimistic about this sequel. The first film is so wonderfully self-contained that the very notion of a sequel is kind of heartbreaking. And it seemed so personal to maestro Richard Kelly that doing it without him (he’s not involved in any way) seems offensive.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Share This

Filed under: Action, Casting, Family Films

Back in March, Jessica shared a script review for Robert Rodriguez’s next film — not the still-suffering Barbarella, but rather Shorts — a quirky family adventure movie. Now, finally, we’ve got the cast in place. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Jon Cryer and James Spader have jumped on board, joining William H. Macy, Leslie Mann, Jimmy Bennett, Kat Dennings, Trevor Gagnon, Leo Howard, Devon Gearhart, Jake Short, Jolie Vanier, and Rodriguez’s super-cute offspring, Rebel Rodriguez.

The descriptions of the movie on THR and the script review are a little different, but the basic gist of the film is about a magic rock in a suburb where everyone works for the Black Box company. Kids find this rainbow-colored rock that grants wishes, and go a bit nuts with it before the adults get their hands on it and things get even crazier. Bennett plays the protagonist, Toe Jackson, Cryer and Mann play his parents, and Dennings plays his older sister. Spader, meanwhile, plays Mr. Black, and Macy plays “the father of a germphobic genius,” which I imagine makes him Dr. Noseworthy. If Robert pulls this off with the same spark that Spy Kids held, this could be one fun flick.

Per usual, Rodriguez is involved in many aspects of the film — he wrote it, is producing with ex Elizabeth Avellan, and will be director of photography, editor, and visual effects supervisor. According to Variety, production is just gearing up in Austin.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Share This

Filed under: Video, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free

It just has a ring to it, don’t you think? I doubt that we’ll see Rainn bulking up Stallone-style to save the world with a knife and his guile, but he did just land a role in Michael Bay’s Transformers 2. It doesn’t really get more action movie than that. Wilson will play a college professor to Shia LaBeouf’s Sam. It will be interesting to see how much, if any, Schrute makes it into the character.

But wait, there’s more. Fans of the gone but not forgotten Las Vegas will be happy to learn that Josh Duhamel will be returning for the sequel. And fans of ridiculously hot girls will be happy to know that FHM’s Sexiest Woman In The World, Megan Fox, is also returning. A warning, that FHM link is safe for my workplace, but might not be for yours. If you can’t wait for Bay to finish all of those CGI sequences to get your Rainn fix, you can also catch him this summer in The Rocker as a failed drummer who gets a second chance at fame. That one also features Teddy Geiger (Love Monkey), and the trailer is after the jump.

Continue reading Rainn Wilson: action star - VIDEO

Permalink | Email this | | Comments

Share This

Filed under: Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, Universal

Back in 2000, we saw the brilliant debut of filmmaker David Gordon Green. The movie, George Washington, also marked the first screen credit for Danny McBride. Three years later, with Green’s also-brilliant sophomore effort, All the Real Girls, McBride made the switch from second unit director to supporting actor, playing the film’s excellent comic-relief character, “Bust-Ass”. Then the two film school classmates kind of went separate ways. Green continued making beautiful little independents like Undertow and Snow Angels, while McBride wrote and starred in the low-budget comedy The Foot-Fist Way (which finally hits theaters this weekend) and then continued to find minor roles in big-budget comedies such as Hot Rod, Drillbit Taylor and The Heartbreak Kid (and the upcoming Tropic Thunder). Finally, this summer Green and McBride are reunited for the Judd Apatow production, Pineapple Express.

Continue reading David Gordon Green and Danny McBride Reunite for ‘Your Highness’

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Share This

Filed under: TV Royalty, Celebrities, Obituaries, Reality-Free

This seems to be a very active week for celebrity deaths, and it’s sad to report that Carol Burnett Show veteran Harvey Korman has died at age 81. He died of heart failure at his home in California.

Besides The Carol Burnett Show, where Korman teamed for a ton of great sketches with Tim Conway (often cracking each other up), Korman appeared in many other shows since the early 60s, including ER, Ellen, Perry Mason, Route 66, The Red Skelton Show, Dennis the Menace, Hazel, Jack Benny, Gidget, The Lucy Show, The Munsters, The Wild, Wild West, F Troop, and many others. He was a regular on the sitcom Mama’s Family and did the voice of The Great Gazoo on The Flintstones. Movies that Korman appeared in include History of the World, Part 1, High Anxiety, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Blazing Saddles, Son of Flubber, Gypsy, and others.

Do you ever get the feeling that all of the great classic stars and performers are dying and it’s going to be a very different world in a couple of years? Rather depressing.

Permalink | Email this | | Comments

Share This

Filed under: Celebrities, Obituaries, Reality-Free

It’s not often that two people are so connected in these TV obituary roundup posts I do every week or so, but these two people are worth mentioning in the same post.

Alexander Courage, who composed the theme song for the original Star Trek series, died on May 15 at age 88. He also did music for episodes of many other series, including Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Waltons, Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, The Loner, Eight is Enough, Daniel Boone, Riverboat, and many others. He was also an orchestrator on several movies, including L.A. Confidential, The Haunting, The Mummy, First Knight, The Shadow, Rudy, Malice, Hook, Sleeping with the Enemy, The Poseidon Adventure, Hello Dolly, My Fair Lady, Guys and Dolls, and a ton of others.

But Courage wasn’t the only Star Trek figure to pass away that week…

Continue reading Two Star Trek veterans died this month

Permalink | Email this | | Comments

Share This