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MOVIE & TV NEWS
Tin
Man
SCI
FI Channel has ordered the six-hour original miniseries "Tin
Man," a reimagining of The
Wizard of Oz. Written by Steven
Long Mitchell and Craig
Van Sickle the project will start shooting in Vancouver, B.C.,
in early 2007, then premiere in December 2007. Discribed by SCI FI Wire
as "A sometimes psychedelic, often twisted
and always bizarre take on The Wizard of Oz. It centers on DG, a young
woman plucked from her humdrum life and thrust into The Outer Zone (the
O.Z.), a fantastical realm filled with wonder, but oppressed by dark magic.
DG discovers her true identity, battles evil winged monkey-bats and attempts
to fulfill her destiny. Her perilous journey begins on the fabled Old Road
that leads to a wizard known as the Mystic Man. Along the way, she is joined
by 'Glitch,' an odd man missing half his brain; 'Raw,' a quietly powerful
wolverine-like creature longing for inner courage; and 'Cain,' a heroic
former policeman (known in the O.Z. as a 'Tin Man'), who is seeking vengeance
for his scarred heart. Ultimately, DG's destiny leads her to a showdown
with the wicked sorceress Azkadellia, whose ties to DG are closer than
anyone could have imagined." Casting is
currently underway.
Local
Film Critics Fading Away
Orlando
Sentinel's blog of the newspaper's film critic Roger Moore, he
wrote that in an effort to cut costs newspapers are firing their film critics
and replacing them with wire-service reviews. He discussed the recent firing
of Jamie Bernard at the New York Daily
News and Mark Burger at the Winston-Salem
Journal and the reassignment of George Thomas at the Akron
Beacon Journal. Moore said: "When
a paper loses its critic, a town loses another local voice. The 'we can
run wire service reviews' line may be true. But heaven help the movies
the day we're down to a couple of critics in the largest markets syndicated
everywhere. There aren't many who would play all over America. We used
to have two people on the movie beat here, which allowed us to cover the
heck out of what was (and WASN'T) happening in a city that wanted to be
'Hollywood East.'"
Saturday
Morning Forever
Warner
Brothers says that "Saturday
Morning Forever," a new aspect of the
Hanna-Barbera.com
website, will post a mix of classic cartoons and new animated content.
The site is also running the "Saturday
Morning Forever Ultimate Prize Pack" sweepstakes,
giving fans a chance to win more than $4000 worth of prizes. The press
release is here.
Sgt.
Frog
ADV
has acquired exclusive broadcast, home-video, and major merchandising rights
to Sgt. Frog, which is described as "the
biggest franchise to come from Japan since Hello
Kitty!"
Disney/Comcast
Deal
Comcast
Corp. is planning to announce that subscribers will soon have access
to Walt Disney Company's
programming on its free video-on-demand service. ABC
shows such as Lost,
Desperate Housewives
and Nightline
will be available for free on the service under the terms of the deal,
which will also include two new 2007 fall programs from the television
network. Channels such as ESPN,
Toon Disney and SoapNet
will also be available. The video-on-demand service will also sell films
from Disney's major studios, including Walt
Disney Pictures, Miramax
Films and Touchstone
Pictures for $3.99 for the new Disney movies and $2.99 for older
titles. Some films can be had as soon as 15 days after the DVDs are released
for sale at retail stores.
HBO
Online
The
Financial Times reports that HBO
is considering a new broadband Internet channel, available to subscribers,
on its Web site. Chris Albrecht, HBO CEO, said the company was talking
to cable operators about an "HBO-like service"
to download the network's programming. Albrecht stressed that Internet
offerings would be done in partnership with cable operators.
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Comic Previews
Newsarama
has posted
preview
pages for
What
If? Age of Apocalypse,
Punisher
War Journal #1,
Red
Menace #1,
Classic
Battlestar Galactica #2,
Army
of Darkness
"Old
School" Trade,
Savage
Red Sonja:
Queen
of the Frozen Wastes #4,
&
Monster
War,
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And
C. Wayne Owens' New Publishing Site is
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Friday, November 24, 2006
--posted by Wayne Friday, November 24, 2006
SCI
FI Wire is reporting that Darren
Aronofsky has added a small, but key scene to the film since it's
debut at Comic-Con International in San Diego
last July. The film now contains a scene in which neuroscientist Tommy
Creo (Hugh Jackman)
utters a defining line: "Death is a disease.
There is a cure, and I'll find it." "The
Fountain" tells three parallel stories occurring
in the past, present and distant future. It follows Creo, fighting to find
a cure for his dying wife, Izzi, played by Rachel
Weisz. The early cut of the film didn't have the scene, which happens
at a funeral in the snow. Aronofsky said: "Another
filmmaker friend of mine said you never finish a film, you abandon a film.
And I think that's very true. . . . It's always going through your head.
There's one line that Hugh really wanted. In that [Comic-Con] version,
he kind of walks off into the snow. And in this version, there was a line
there that we cut out, which is he says, 'Death is a disease. There is
cure, . . . and I'll find it.' I always loved that line. I loved that performance.
But I couldn't cut it in, because I couldn't make it work with [co-star]
Ellen [Burstyn]'s performance.
And there [were] a few complications. And then, three [or] four months
ago in the middle of the night, I kind of was like, 'Oh! That's how it
should go.' I called up [editor] Jay
[Rabinowitz] and told Jay, and we sketched it out on his laptop. Jay's
my editor. And we're like, 'Oh, this works better.' And then Warner
Brothers agreed, and they let me change it. It's a slight thing. It's
something that people won't know. But, I mean, if I had another eight months
to release the film, I'm sure I would be like, 'Well, you know, I'm not
really happy with the volume of [this or] that.' There's always things
you're catching. You're just trying to make [everything] really perfect."
The Fountain opens nationwide Nov. 22.
Few
actors have as monolithic a presence as Bruce Lee, when he died before
his time it only added to his myth. Now director Rob
Cohen, who created the biography film "Dragon:
The Bruce Lee Story," is planning to make another Bruce Lee film
called "Rage and Fury."
Latino Review
reports that he told them: "I am NOT using
clips from the film; I am creating an entirely photo-realistic Bruce Lee
with new, advanced digital technlogy. Digital
Domain who did 'XXX'
and 'Stealth' with me
are on it big time. We are in the vfx development stage. This will be the
first digital actor and I am very excited about the challenge. We do have
the rights to Bruce's films but the lines are all I am going to use."
Tintin
Steven
Spielberg told Variety
that he has not deserted the perenial charater. They said: "As
for Tintin, Spielberg recalled that he had first acquired the rights to
that character back in 1983 and later re-established the option to do something
with the French comic character." The
whole story is here.
Death
of the Nerds
After
two weeks a remake of the 1984's "Revenge
of the Nerds" has been shut down as being "too
raunchy" for Emory,
the Atlanta university hosting the production. The first effort for Fox
Atomic, there is little chance it will be resurrected. After director
Kyle Newman and
his project were kicked off the campus, they moved to neighboring Agnes
Scott College in Decatur, Ga. But the smaller college lost the
large-scale campus feel that the movie's producers felt the film needed.
While having to pay the entire production crew, it became increasingly
hard to find another suitable location. Fox spokeswoman Isabel White said:
"The whole production was standing by,
and it was unlikely we were going to be able to get anything going until
after the holidays. Given the pressures surrounding the film, it felt like
we were trying to put a square peg in a round hole. There is little chance
that this incarnation of 'Nerds'
will come to be." Peter
Rice, President of Fox Atomic, said: "Everybody
has worked really hard on 'Revenge of the Nerds,' and we're all disappointed
that we can't move forward."
CBS
on YouTube
CBS
is announcing that just one month after launching the CBS
Brand Channel on YouTube, they have uploaded more than 300 clips
that have a total of 29.2 million views on YouTube, averaging 857,000 views
per day, since the service launched on October 18. Quincy Smith, President,
CBS Interactive, said: "Above all the other
good news, what's most exciting here is the extent to which CBS is learning
about its audience as never before. YouTube users are clearly being entertained
by the CBS programming they're watching as evidenced by the sheer number
of video views. Professional content seeds YouTube and allows an open dialogue
between established media players and a new set of viewers. We believe
this inflection point is the precursor to many exciting developments as
we continue to build bridges rather than construct walls."
Kevin Donahue, Vice President of Content for YouTube, said: "CBS
has done a phenomenal job at engaging and interacting with the YouTube
community and we're pleased that this has brought new viewers to their
broadcasts. It's been great watching our community respond so strongly
and positively to their entertaining content. We look forward to working
with CBS to help them promote their quality programming while bringing
timely video content to our user community."
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 #370
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Comic Previews
Newsarama
has posted
preview
pages for
Okko:
The Cycle of Water #1,
Ghost
Rider #6,
Batman
#659,
Connor
Hawke:
Dragon's
Blood #1,
&
JSA:
Classified #19,
Don't
miss the C. Wayne Owens/Seymoure Store at our
CafePress.com
Page
And
C. Wayne Owens' New Publishing Site is
New
Books by Wayne
--posted by Wayne
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
--posted by Wayne Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Sawyer
as Gambit?
Josh
Holloway was set to play Gambit in "X-Men:
The Last Stand," but pulled out because of "Lost."
But now it's reported the actor join the next installment, which is not
to feature most of the original stars. Lauren
Shuler Donner, the film's producer, told Moviehole:
"Remember in Lost? There was a guy in there
that was the perfect Gambit, the guy with the straight hair, good-looking,
the bad boy . . . Sawyer. The reason we didn't use Gambit was because in
a sense his persona is a bit like Wolverine in that he's got attitude and
his power is not quite as exciting as the others. That's why we went to
Nightcrawler on 2 because he looked different than everybody else and he
had a great power. So yes, I think we would weave Gambit within our story,
(but) it wouldn't be The Gambit Movie."
Give
Us a Kiss
Anjelica
Huston has signed on to direct "Give
Us a Kiss" for Focus
Features. Based on the Daniel
Woodrell novel, the story tells of a burnt-out writer who forsakes
academia to return to his Ozarks roots. While reconnecting with his brother
and other relations, he gets caught up in a blood feud. Angus
MacLachlan will write the script.
Love
and Virtue
John
Malkovich, Michael
Madsen, Damian
Lewis, Stephen
Dillane and Virginie
Ledoyen have all signed to star in "Love
and Virtue" for director Raoul
Ruiz. Written by Mia Sperber and Stefano
Pratesi, the script is based on the epic poems "The
Song of Roland" and "Orlando
Innamorato." Lewis plays a knight in King
Charlemagne's court who falls for Ledoyen's character, while Malkovich
and Madsen are barbarian marauders and Dillane plays Charlemagne. Shooting
is to start next spring in Belgium, Luxembourg and London.
Mike Fright: Stand
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 #368
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Comic Previews
Mile
High Comics has posted
preview
pages for
Daredevil
#91,
Heroes
For Hire #4,
Marvel
Spotlight:
Brian
Michael Bendis/Mark Bagley,
New
Excalibur #13,
Runaways
#22,
Spider-Man
Loves Mary Jane #12,
&
X-Factor
#13,
Don't
miss the C. Wayne Owens/Seymoure Store at our
CafePress.com
Page
And
C. Wayne Owens' New Publishing Site is
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Books by Wayne
--posted by Wayne
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
--posted by Wayne Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Whose
Museum is it Anyway?
Ben
Stiller told SCI FI Wire
that he and other stars of "Night
at the Museum" (Ricky
Gervais and Robin
Williams) had a chance to improvise some scenes. Not that all of
it ended up in the movie. Stiller said that Williams, as a statue of of
President Theodore Roosevelt come to life, did "this
hilarious improv where he would do . . . Teddy Roosevelt in old newsreel
footage, where it'd just be the fast motion and his voice coming in and
out. It was so brilliant. It was, like, a perfect Robin Williams bit. But
we couldn't figure out a way to put it in the movie."
Director Shawn Levy
commented: "This is far and away the most
improvisational adventure-effects movie [we've] ever heard of, because,
you know, whether it was Ricky Gervais or [Steve]
Coogan or Owen [Wilson],
oftentimes with Dick [Van
Dyke], Mickey [Rooney],
it was a heavily improvisational process. Frankly, my favorite scenes
are almost entirely improvised." In "Night
at the Museum" Stiller plays a night guard at a New York natural history
museum in which the exhibits all come to life at night. Stiller added:
"Ricky Gervais is really, you know, . .
. so much fun to work with in that way, because he . . . cracks
up really easily. He cracked me up; I'd crack him up. The crew was bored,
but we were cracking each other up. After 12 takes, they were like, 'Come
on, already!' But it was really fun to work with him."
"Night at the Museum" opens nationwide Dec. 20.
Casino
Royale Sequel
Eva
Green told Entertainment
Weekly some secrets about the sequel to "Casino
Royale." First, the film is to open in
November 2008. She said: "They're going
to do a second [movie] where you'll understand what's going on in her mind.
It was really hard, and Barbara
Broccoli helped me understand. You would think, wait a minute, she
had an Algerian boyfriend, and she's been sent on this mission, and then
she begins to feel guilty. She's in love with Bond. It's a deep love. The
Algerian boyfriend was something light, an affair. So there's an internal
conflict. The plan is, the Algerian boyfriend is going to be the baddie
in the second Bond, and we'll understand [better]. But you don't have to
think about it too much." The next film
shows Bond getting better at his job and hunting down the organisation
behind Mr. White.
Dark
Knight Details
Superheroflix
says that Warner Bros. Pictures has July 18, 2008 release date for the
"The Dark Knight,"
the sequel to 2005's Batman
Begins. In the film Batman and Commissioner Gordon found an alliance
with a newly appointed DA Harvey Dent to stop a vicious killer with a warped
sense of humor known only as The Joker, a threat to both the good, and
the evil of Gotham City.
Jackson
Passes on Hobbit
Mania
has posted a statement from Peter
Jackson and Fran
Walsh originally posted at TheOneRing.net,
wherein New Line
says they will not be using Peter Jackson to direct The
Hobbit due to past legislation between Jackson and the studio. The statement
says: "Several years ago, Mark
Ordesky told us that New Line have rights to make not just The Hobbit
but a second 'LOTR prequel.' covering the events leading up to those depicted
in LOTR. Since then, we've always assumed that we would be asked to make
The Hobbit and possibly this second film, back to back, as we did the original
movies. We assumed that our lawsuit with the studio would come to a natural
conclusion and we would then be free to discuss our ideas with the studio,
get excited and jump on board. We've assumed that we would possibly get
started on development and design next year, whilst filming The
Lovely Bones. We even had a meeting planned with MGM
executives to talk through our schedule. However last week, Mark Ordesky
called Ken and told him that New Line would no longer be requiring our
services on the Hobbit and the LOTR 'prequel'. This was a courtesy call
to let us know that the studio was now actively looking to hire another
filmmaker for both projects." The full
statement is here
Mike Fright: Stand
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 #367
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Comic Previews
IGN
Comics has posted
preview
pages for
Punisher:
X-Mas Special,
Wolverine
Kills the Marvel Universe,
Spider-Man
Family
Featuring
Spider-Clan,
Young
Guns: Reload,
Spider-Man:
Reign #1,
White
Tiger #2,
Civil
War: War Crimes #1,
&
Iron
Man/Captain America:
Casualties
of War #1,
 
Don't
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And
C. Wayne Owens' New Publishing Site is
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--posted by Wayne
Monday, November 20, 2006
--posted by Wayne Monday, November 20, 2006
If
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There's a particular emphasis here on Science Fiction and Fantasy. Big
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Previous Posts
Bonus Features
Tin Man, Local Film Critics Fading Away, Saturday Morning Forever, Sgt.Frog, Disney/Comcast Deal, HBO Online, Mike Fright, Comic Previews
New Fountain Scene, New Bruce Lee, Tintin, FF:TROTSS, 24 Day 6 DVD, Death of the Nerds, CBS on YouTube, Mike Fright, Comic Previews
Sulu on Heroes, The Alchemyst, Smart Casting, Sawyer as Gambit?, Hulk Release Date, Give Us a Kiss, Love and Virtue, Mike Fright, Comic Previews
Museum Improv, Casino Royale Sequel, Dark Knight Details,Jackson - No Hobbit, Flags Follow Up, Target v. Disney, UK Whose Line, Mike Fright, Comic Pre
The Thing Remake, Camp Creepy Time, Weinstein/Blockbuster Deal, X-Men 4?, First Season Sale, Doomsday, Warren's Catalog, Mike Fright, Comic Previews
Miller:"I've got a lot.", Heroes Casting, House, Monstrous Memoirs, Moore's Elstree Appeal, Happy Feet, Shadow Divers, Mike Fright, Comic Previews
MGM Plans 2 Hobbits, Lost Moments, TiVo Merging PC & TV, Aguilera on CSI: NY, Superman, Ultimate Collector's Edition, King Dork, Mike Fright, Comic P
Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, The Sadhu, Bond Leaves Britain?,Evolution's Captain, Double Cross, Til Death Do Us Part, Mike Fright, Comic Previews
Aronofsky Looks Ahead, TV DVD News, Play Misty for Me, The Spirit, Empire,Nielsen & DVRs, Mike Fright, Comic Previews
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