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Movie & TV News | Serendipity Cinema | The DVD Review | Archives | Links | About C Wayne Owens
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Movie & TV News | Serendipity Cinema | The DVD Review | Archives | Links | About C Wayne Owens
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MOVIE & TV NEWS
Film Threat announced The Action/Cut Short Film Competition, a newly launched annual contest, proposed as an opportunity to discover the next generation of filmmakers from the USA and around the world. Filmmakers compete in three categories: 1.Fiction 2.Documentary 3.Animation. "As a natural extension of our filmmaking seminar company, we wanted to create something special and different for short films.not another festival but an industry competition. Since for filmmakers the most important result of their work is to receive recognition/awards to launch their film careers, we designed our competition to open Hollywood career access doors for the winners and truly enable them to move forward which is what every filmmaker hopes for when they win a competition...we organized over $25,000 in value prizes and over 75+ awards to the winners that include cash prizes, industry career access to Hollywood players, distribution offers, and many sponsor awards," said Action/Cut founder and working director/writer Guy Magar. The Call For Entries began on January 15 and deadlines on May 15. Winners will be announced on September 1. For more info, visit Action/Cut website ------------ NBC Unwraps Mork, Bewitched 
As part of its Behind the Camera franchise, NBC is putting together TV movies focusing on the behind-the-scenes drama of the classic shows Mork & Mindy and Bewitched, among others, Variety reported. NBC has already produced telefilms on Three's Company and Charlie's Angels. "The franchise has performed quite well for us," NBC's executive Jeff Gaspin told the trade paper. ------------ Yet Another Body Snatchers Coming Dave Kajganich has been tapped to write the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers for Warner Brothers, Variety reported. Vertigo Entertainment is producing the film, the trade paper reported. Warner Brothers has the remake rights after making the 1993 version Body Snatchers, directed by Abel Ferrara. The original Invasion of the Body Snatchers debuted in 1956 and then was also remade in 1978. Kajganich is also penning an update of the 1979 ghost tale The Changeling. ------------ Red Sox Movie To Debut in Boston on May 7th A feature documentary chronicling the Boston Red Sox's roller-coaster 2003 season will open in Boston on May 7th and expand to more than 100 theaters in the Northeast in the following weeks, New York indie distributor THINKFilm announced Wednesday. The company said it is planning a wider release nationally, later, during the summer. ------------ Wall Street Brothers to Launch Stand-Up Comedy Channel Two brothers who hit it big with an online brokerage firm during the dot-com boom are trying a new venture: a stand-up comedy channel. Joseph and Avi Fox, founders of Web Street Inc. in 1996 and sold it to E-Trade Financial Corp. for $45 million in 2001, said Thursday that Stand-Up Comedy Television is going to be a Chicago-based, 24-hour national cable network targeting baby boomers. Besides featuring original stand-up comedy programming produced at its studio on stages in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and Phoenix, SCTV is to air vintage comedy shows, movies and classic stand-up routines. Joseph Fox, 37, said that they are aware that there is no comedy channel that fares well with viewers older than 30. But they think their mix might just be the key. He also said, "There could be no better place from which to launch a national comedy channel than Chicago, with its rich comedic heritage." The brothers are teaming with former Web Street executives Jonathan Rosenberg and Stuart Cohn for the venture, which is expected to launch in January. ------------ A La Carte Cable Experiment Proposed By McCain As chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a longtime critic of rising cable rates, said Thursday that he thinks the Federal Communications Commission should begin a pilot program to see if offering cable channels a la carte would benefit consumers. "Right now, they have all the choice of a Soviet election ballot," he said. ------------ Skeleton Key Unlocking Doors The Hollywood Reporter (Via Really Scary) reports that Antwone Fisher star Joy Bryant has joined the cast of Skeleton Key with Kate Hudson and Peter Sarsgaard.The Universal Pictures project follows a young woman (Hudson) experiencing spooky things in the home of the elderly couple for whom she's caring. Bryant plays Hudson's friend and roommate. Filming is scheduled to start next month with Iain Softley at the helm. ------------ Shatner, Spader In 'Practice' Spinoff William Shatner joining James Spader in producer David E. Kelley's spinoff to canceled legal drama "The Practice." Both actors have already appeared in "The Practice," which is wrapping its eight-year run this season. Spader was a lead and Shatner was a guest star. Fay Masterson and Lake Bell are also to star in the spinoff, their characters will be introduced in the final episodes of "The Practice." Masterson will play a tough, capable, veteran attorney, while Bell will play a free-spirited recent law school graduate. ------------  .The Punisher Mold
Thomas Jane spoke to USA Today about the upcoming action film. "I love guys who are at odds with themselves," he said. "I don't think there's an actor out there who is filling that niche for tough-guy movies the way they used to be made. Nobody is taking the place of guys like Charles Bronson or Steve McQueen or Clint Eastwood. That's what I want to do. I just want to be as good as some of the guys I learned from, like Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman. Billy Bob Thornton said something that stuck with me: Find out what kind of animal you are, and be that animal. I'm finally discovering what kind of animal that is. The kind that wants to make hard-boiled, hard-nosed, take-no-prisoners punk-rock action movies." ------------ A View of Hellboy 
Can't wait to see some of Hellboy? Countingdown.com have posted six clips from the film, including the action packed tunnel chase and the subway fight. Also Hellsite2 has stolen 300 eight-foot-wide "Hellboy" banners and are giving them away. Finally, actor Ron Perlman spoke to Moviehole and Sci Fi Wire about his experience as Hellboy. "Oh, you are kidding? Who in their right mind would say no to this character? It's a dream come true," he told Moviehole. "Let's examine, if you will, what Hellboy does in this film," Perlman said. "He drinks beer. He smokes cigars. He f--ks around with the guys he works with to the point where he drives them up the wall. He's a wiseass. He's a wisecracking dude. He trash-talks the people that he's fighting against for life or death. He's constantly in this kind of mode like, 'Is that all you've got?' There's nothing similar to him [in] me." ------------ Go-To Guy It's official: 20th Century Fox TV is producing at least 22 more episodes of Family Guy, which, thanks to cable reruns and DVD, has turned into a cult phenomenon since its cancellation two years ago. According to Variety, Cartoon Network has signed will air the fresh segments, although Fox does have an option to broadcast them first. ------------- Smallville Retires To ABC Family ABC Family has bought the rerun rights to The WB's Smallville, which will begin its off-network run in the fall, Zap2it reported. The cable channel has rights for several years. ------------- Harry Potter, Back On The Net Warner Brothers has posted a new Web site and trailer for the upcoming Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban movie, which opens June 4. ----------- MPAA Will Reward Moviegoers Who Spot Pirates The MPAA announced it is considering a "rewards program" in which moviegoers would receive a payment for turning in anyone spotted operating a camcorder in a movie theater. Speaking at a panel for "Anti-Piracy Practices Within the Exhibition Industry," Bill Shannon, head of the MPAA's anti-piracy unit, told the ShoWest convention in Las Vegas that the rewards plan is currently only an idea, in the developmental stage. ------------ Nobody Bites Like Buffy Sarah Michelle Gellar will not be resurrecting Buffy the Vampire Slayer for Angel's big swan song in May. Why the heck not? Well, click here for the story! Meanwhile, Variety reports that Gellar is in talks to co-star in Southland Tales, a comedy-musical thriller written and directed by Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko) and starring Seann William Scott. In an interview with TV Guide Online, Joss Whedon said he didn't invite Gellar to appear in the Angel series finale because he didn't want the sendoff to "revolve around a guest star." She had been invited for the pentultimate episode (just as Angel had been in the next to last Buffy show) when "We will deal with the issue of Buffy and how much she means to Angel and Spike, but I want to end the show with the people who've been in the trenches together, the characters who have lived--and occasionally died--together...the regulars." When they were told she could do the last show it was too late. "We had already written and shot the episode [for which we originally wanted her] which emotionally dealt with [the romantic rivalry]," Jeffrey Bell said. "So, to go [back] and force her into the very last episode to retread stuff that we already dealt with didn't make any sense. "By the time it became a possibility," he continued, "the ship had sort of sailed." Instead, the Buffy-Angel-Spike love triangle will be resolved without the Slayer. "Angel and Spike arrive at an understanding--that's all I'll say about that," Bell said. "And without her being involved, Buffy's character has come to some sort of understanding too."
Question #804: On the TV series The Thinderbirds, what group were all five sons in the Tracy family named after? Answer
#803: This animated series was originally called
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Serendipity Cinema: (This is a Once A Week Feature) A Recommended Film You May Never Have Heard Of, But Should See. #1: 7 Faces Of Dr. Lao This won an Oscar for Make up, but it is not the kind of film that one would think of as an award winner. It has the feel of Roger Corman and George Pal, with a hint of Harryhausen thrown in. It is simple, and while seeming simplistic it is far from that. It humbly powerful. There are a thousand reasons to belittle and put down this film. And if you go in with that mindset, you will find them all. But, if you give it a willing suspention of disbelief and let the magic that hints around every corner over take you, this will be a little gem that you treasure.  --posted by Wayne
Friday, March 26, 2004
--posted by Wayne Friday, March 26, 2004
If you're interested in what's happening in the entertainment world, then signup for this newsletter. Wayne scours all the top websites for the latest entertainment news and sends them out every day for your pleasure. There's a particular emphasis here on Science Fiction and Fantasy. Big news items like Star Wars, Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and just about anything by Steven Spielberg. |
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