Category: News

Updating the Casting News

Updating two of this week’s stories, Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly has reported that Katee Sackhoof’s schedule has forced her to give up her multi-episode commitment to Nip/Tuck.  She had hoped to film this after finishing her Battlestar Galactica telefilm, now in production, and the beginning of shooting the pilot to Lost & Found for NBC. She has been replaced by Rose McGowan who will film her episodes while training to begin the October shooting of Red Sonja.

Across the pond, the BBC has told Digital Spy that Paul McGann will not reprise his role as the eighth doctor in one of the 2009 Doctor Who specials. "There is no truth to the story at all,” they tersely told the site.  Stay tuned for developments.
 

‘Shrek the Halls’ Comes to DVD in Time for Holidays

shrek-the-halls-1694483Paramount Home Video has begun the Christmas shopping season with the announcement of Shrek the Halls coming to DVD on November 4.  The CG-animated television special debuted last holiday season and featured a brand new story, cramming all the trilogy’s characters into a thirty minute event.  It received good reviews and had an impressive audience averaging 22.7 million viewers.

The DVD will feature fun and interactive holiday-themed bonus material including a sing-along version of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” starring the entire gang of characters from DreamWorks Animation’s Madagascar, a unique take on “Deck The Halls” with the hilarious Madagascar penguins and sing-along lyrics, a Gingy Dunking Game that tests your matching skills, plus a Shrek Carnival Craze game demo and cheat codes. 

The DVD will be available as a single disc in either full screen or widescreen, as well as in a special two-pack with Shrek the Third and in limited edition holiday packages featuring Holiday Shrek, Holiday Puss, Holiday Donkey or Gingy plush characters.

Disc details:

  • The Twelve Days of Christmas Sing Along—Join along and watch the entire Madagascar gang as they celebrate the holidays in style with their own take on the “Twelve Days of Christmas.”  Sing along to the Madagascar-inspired lyrics, including “lemurs leaping, foosas fussing and a penguin who made a loud squeak!”  In classic sing-along style, the words appear on screen as the characters perform.
  • Deck The Halls Sing Along—“Deck the halls, it’s time to party.”  This is your chance to sing along with everyone’s favorite Penguins from Madagascar.  Join Skipper, Private and Kowalski for their version of the classic holiday song as they get into the spirit of the season. 
  • Gingy’s Dunking Game—Test your skills at being a master baker and make sure you have plenty of flour as you try to match the Gingerbread cookies that come out of the oven with the Gingy that appears on screen. 
  • Shrek Carnival Craze video game demo and cheat code
  • DreamWorks Animation Video Jukebox
     

BBC Video Unveils Palin Box Set, ‘Sarah Jane’, ‘Doctor Who’

Coming to stores next month, BBC Video offers a 19-disc Michael Palin Collection – on October 7, 2008.

All of eight of Palin’s fascinating travelogues — Around the World in 80 Days, Pole to Pole, Himalaya, Sahara, New Europe, Full Circle, Hemingway Adventure, and Great Railway Journeys – will be included, the last three new to DVD.  The box set contains 36 hours of content and over seven hours of bonus features, include interviews with Palin, behind-the-scenes featurettes, outtakes, deleted and extended scenes, as well as Polish and Russian subtitles on New Europe. The box set will retail for $249.92.

Michael Palin: Full Circle
($49.98) and Michael Palin: Hemingway Adventure with Great Railway Journeys ($34.98) will also be released individually.

Also being released on October 7 will be The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete First Season. This Doctor Who spin-off provides science fiction adventure for the whole family by melding the same mystique and wonder featured in the contemporary Doctor Who series with fun-filled hilarity. Elisabeth Sladen reprises her role as the investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith — one of the classic Doctor Who‘s most beloved companions. Accompanied by a fresh, young team including 13-year- old next door neighbor Maria Jackson (Yasmin Page, The Mysti Show), Sarah Jane sets out on a whole new round of escapades ranging from discovering mischievous alien plots to helping lost extraterrestrials return home. Boasting six hours of content, this four-disc set features all 10 episodes as well as cast and crew interviews, a Sarah Jane Smith video timeline, behind the scenes footage, and character and alien profiles. The box set will retail for $49.98. (more…)

David Boreanez may Take the Oath

Marc Guggenheim, Greg Berlanti and Michael Green are just about done with a rewrite to their Green Lantern feature film script and told Moviehole they anticipate turning it in this coming week.

One of the things that excited Warner Bros. about the proposed project were the production drawings from former comic book artist Brian Murray.  He based Hal Jordan on actor David Boreanez, known for Angel but also was Jordan’s voice on the New Frointier animated movie released earlier this year.  Carol Ferris was modeled after Sin City’s Carla Gugino.

Boreanez, currently starring on Fox’s Bones, has tested for super-heroes before, first as The Thing in Fantastic Four and later as Superman for Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns.

Now word is bubbing that he may be considered for the live-action version as well.

For George Miller’s stalled Justice League film, GL was going to be John Stewart and played by the rapper Common.
 

Get Committed To Arkham Asylum Contest

 

Remember the comic miniseries Arkham Asylum: Living Hell where a regular guy gets sent to the madhouse for Batman’s criminally insane enemies?Well, now that could be you. Gamestop is sponsoring a contest where your likeness will be put in the Batman: Arkham Asylum game. You’ll get to co-star with Mark Hammil who was recently announced as reprising his voice acting role as the Joker for the game.

The winner will have to patient because Batman: Arkham Asylum doesn’t come out until August 2009, but you can hold yourself over with these amazing screenshots seen below and after the jump that were posted for a short time on developer Rocksteady Games’ website.

 

ComicMix Radio: ComicMix Hits Print

balt-9266633Now you can get actual, beautiful printed copies of a few of the best comics ComixMix has offered, but these will be true collector’s items.  Details right here, plus:

  • Beau Smith packs cowboys, pirates and Nazis in a new comic
  • Sarah Palin gets an action figure or three
  • Missing a comic? We’ve got the update on what’s late.
     

So why that little plug for the Baltimore Comic-Con?  Hmm…..what could that mean? To find out, just is Press the Button!

 

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-7749024 or RSS!

 

 

Smallville, by Martha Thomases

2-6-6857921The media narrative for the last week has been about “small town values.” According to several speeches made during and after the Republican convention, they are the party of these values, and Democrats are not.

What are these small town values? Among those traits cited are safety (you can leave your door unlocked), church, and concern for your neighbors.

To me, the quintessential small town is Smallville, and Clark Kent is its quintessential citizen. He helped his parents on their farm, and worked in their store. He made friends that lasted for his entire life. And as soon as he learned what he could, he left for the big city.

For Clark, Smallville is a place where he could make his mistakes. He could count on his family. When he felt confident in himself and his abilities, he went to Metropolis, so he could share his gifts with the most people possible.

(more…)

‘Doomsday Protocol’ Housed at Fox

The Seven Samurai remains one of the classic storytelling devices invented for movies and has been the template for many films beginning with The Magnificent Seven.  It has now also proven to be the inspiration for Doomsday Protocol, a science fiction thriller.  The original script by Shane Salerno was purchased by 20th Century Fox for development.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, “a group of aliens and humans with various abilities who are brought together to save Earth.”

Salerno’s previous writing credits Alien vs. Predator: Requiem, Ghost Rider, the remake of Shaft ,and Armageddon.

‘Fear(s) of the Dark’ Coming to America

Fear(s) of the Dark, an animated horror film from France, will receive a limited US release in October through December.  The movie screened this past January at the 37th International Film Festival Rotterdam and garnered good reviews.

Coming to America via IFC Films, the movie is an anthology of six intertwined tales about phobias and nightmares from a variety of international creators including Blutch, Charles Burns, Marie Caillou, Pierre Di Sciullo, Lorenzo Mattotti, and Richard McGuire.

The film will run between October and December at mostly independent theaters.  See IFC’s website for additional details.
 

Katee Sackhoff Gains New Series

katee-sackhoff-8960338Katee Sackhoff will star in a new series created by Chris Levinson, Lost and Found for NBC according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The Battlestar Galactica star had originally been contracted with Universal Studios and NBC to become a regular on The Bionic Woman should that series make it to a second season.  Instead, it was a ratings and writers’ strike casualty, freeing her for other work including a stint on the next season of Nip/Tuck.

Once she completes her work on the BSG telefilm, now shooting in Vancouver, she will go to work on the Dick Wolf production which will cast her as an LAPD detective who is punished for clashes with authority and sent to work on John and Jane Doe cases.

Levinson developed the show for the 2006-07 development season finally received a cast-contingent order from the network last month.  Sackhoff’s casting moves the show to a guaranteed pilot.