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‘Total Drama Action’ Joins Cartoon Network

  • Uncategorized
  • October 29, 2008

total-drama-island-2702184Total Drama Island is getting a spinoff as the Cartoon Network has announced the addition of Total Drama Action.  According to Variety, the new series, debuting in 2009, will also satirize reality television and was created by Tom McGillis and Jennifer Pertsch of Canada’s Fresh TV.

TDI first debuted on the network July 8, 2007 and mocks the Survivor-style shows with contestants seen on a deserted island.  They have to form teams and complete challenges to win prizes. Since its start, the 27 episodes have been the anchor for the channel’s "Har Har Tharsdays" comedy block.

In December, The Total Drama Island Season 1 Movie is expected on DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Total Drama Action is actually the second season of the series from the producer’s point of view. This time, the contestants will be placed within an empty studio lot. Plans calling for Total Drama the Musical! in its third season followed by Total Drama Comedy. Cartoon Network has yet to pick up the last two seasons as yet.

Total Drama Island Interactive is an online game tied to the Flash-animated series, produced by Xenophile Media. Players can register for a free account and earn points by competing in events based on that week’s episode for marshmallows. The top 22 players will be placed in a drawing and the winner will have their TDII avatar added to the 27th and final episode of the series.
 

he-ex-list-8619073

The Ex ‘Ex-List’

  • News
  • October 29, 2008

he-ex-list-8619073After poor reviews and worse ratings, CBS has given up on the Elizabeth Reaser-starring vehicle The Ex List.  The Friday night dramedy, based on an Israeli television series, was a creative problem for the network.  Show runner Diane Ruggiero left the series when it was clear she and CBS couldn’t agree on a direction. Rick Eid replaced her but his efforts hadn’t aired in time to change its fortunes.

The series averaging just 5.3 million viewers, according to Variety, driving viewers away after its more successful lead in, The Ghost Whisperer, and keeping people away from Numbers. As a result, the show has been removed from the schedule with a rerun of NCIS in its place this week.

With only four episodes aired but ten filmed, the network may bring the series back at a later time.  This is the first hour-long dramatic series to be canceled after the failures of two reality series, Fox’s Hole in the Wall and ABC’s Opportunity Knocks. The first sitcom to go was Fox’s Do Not Disturb.

It is not a good season for the freshman series with most receiving tepid ratings and none being a clear breakout hit or pop culture sensation. Several such as 90210, The Mentalist, and Knight Rider have already received full season pick ups showing patience and faith on the part of the networks.
 

Fox Takes ‘Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test’

  • News
  • October 29, 2008

At long last, the 1968 written The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test from Tom Wolfe is heading to film. Fox Searchlight has picked up the rights for the novel, with director Gus Van Sant and writer Dustin Lance Black attached to the project. Richard Gladstein and his Film Colony banner will produce.

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is a drug-addled new journalism epic in the vein of Hunter S. Thompson. The novel follows the hallucinogenic exploits of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest novelist Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters, proponents of psychedelic drugs, as they drive across the country. Their vehicle of choice is a DayGlo painted school bus named "Furthur." Some prominent figures featured in the novel include The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan and Timothy Leary. Sadly, the Kool-Aid man does not play a prominent role.

Gus Van Sant and Dustin Lance Black recently collaborated on the upcoming Milk starring Sean Penn and Josh Brolin. The film debuts on November 26, 2008 in limited release.

Van Sant has directed high quality films such as Good Will Hunting and Finding Forrester, one of Sean Connery’s final films before retiring. Black is a writer on HBO’s successful Big Love, a series about a Mormon polygamist and his very large family.

Producer Richard Gladstein originally enlisted Van Sant and Black for Kool-Aid with an eye for a 2009 release, but he was unable to find financing. Now that Fox Searchlight is backing the film, development should move much quicker.

Plastic Man’s Animated Adventures Coming to DVD

  • News
  • October 28, 2008

Warner Home Video is apparently readying the Plastic Man Comedy Adventure Hour for a DVD release. On Friday, Mark Evanier mentioned on his News from Me blog, “This afternoon, I had to go out to the Warner Brothers lot to be interviewed for little behind-the-scenes videos that will appear on two upcoming DVDs of cartoon shows. One is of the 1979 Saturday morning Plastic Man series, which I worked on for one season. The other is of the 1985 syndicated Jetsons revival, which I worked on for about an hour.”

TV Shows on DVD notes that when they surveyed people in 2007, the series topped their charts. When a Warner exec was asked during a chat earlier this year, hey replied, "We are looking at all of these, and hope to have news for you in 2009."

The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show ran from 1979 to 1981 on ABC. Produced by Ruby-Spears, it aired right after Super Friends and was either 90 minutes or two hours and was comprised of segments featuring Plastic Man (voiced by Michael Bell), Baby Plas, Plastic Family, Mighty Man & Yukk, Fangface and Fangpuss and Rickety Rocket.

On this series, Plastic Man had Penny as a girl friend who became his wife, voiced by Melendy Britt and their child, Baby Plas, had his own escapades. Woozy Winks was unfortunately replaced by Hula Hula, a Hawaiian sidekick.
 

‘Harry Potter,’ ‘Twilight’ Trailers

The international trailers for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Twilight have hit the internet.

First up is Potter, which can be found over at Trailer Addict or watched below. The new trailer offers some interesting glimpses into the film, including Dumbledore’s curse-ridden hand and Potter chasing after Snape while shouting, "Fight me, you coward!" You also get to see the cave where Harry and Dumbledore have their last great team-up together. All in all, looks like a fitting adaptation of the series’ penultimate chapter.

Click below to watch!

Next is Twlight, an adaptation of the young adult vampire/romance novel by Stephenie Meyer. The book has spawned three sequels: New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. It follows the romantic relationship between a human named Bella and an animal-feeding vampire named Edward. The film stars Kristin Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Cam Gigandet, Peter Facinelli and Nikki Reed.

Head here to see the trailer.

ComicMix Radio: Captain Action Leads The Pack

  • News
  • October 28, 2008

This is that rainy day Mom always told you about, at least in the comic stores. It’s a huge week with a lot of great stuff and we help you wade through it all, plus:

  • A Comics Campaign Collectible up on eBay
  • Transformers debut on DS
  • Fabian Nicenza celebrates the return of Captain Action

One bit of good news –   Press the Button- it’s still free!
 

 

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-1154297 or RSS!

 

Sample ‘Legend of the Seeker’ for Free

legend-of-the-seeker-2188635Legend of the Seeker debuts on Saturday as a first-run syndicated series.  To let people sample the series, an extended preview is available as a free download at Apple’s iTunes store. Legend of the Seeker: A First Look is actually the first 30 minutes of the two-hour first episode.

The series is from executive producers Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, who gained fame for their work on Hercules and Xena.

"Fans have been clamoring to get a first look at the series and based on the early response from the clips released on the Legend of the Seeker website, we knew this would be a huge success with audiences," Janice Marinelli, President, Disney-ABC Domestic Television said in a release.

Craig Horner (Blue Water High) and Bridget Regan (The Black Donnellys) star in the series originally entitled Wizard’s First Rule. The 22 episodes are being shot in New Zealand. Horner is Richard Cypher, a simple woodsman who becomes the magical leader who partners with Kahlan to put an end to a tyrant’s reign.

The book series launched in 1994 and the complex story has played out through eleven novels and one novella. Each volume is largely self-contained but the threads continue from book to book. Confessor, out last year, is said to end the current story cycle but Goodkind intends to revisit the world in future works.

For times and channels in your area, consult the show’s website.

Neil Gaiman Talks ‘Coraline’

  • News
  • October 28, 2008

Neil Gaiman’s Coraline has been turned into an animated film by Henry Selick and the popular author spoke with Premiere about the film, which opens in February. Much of the material is familiar to connoisseurs of the man’s career but he did fill in some gaps.

He discussed how he had the book sent to the director 18 months prior to publication. “That’s true. I mean, Henry didn’t even get the final draft. But the moment I finished it, I gave it to my agent, the redoubtable Jon Levin at CAA, and I said… ‘Well, I want it with Henry Selick and I quite like it with Tim Burton, ’cause I love The Nightmare Before Christmas, and they were the two people who did that, and I think, if it’s gonna be a film, it should be something like that.’ And I don’t know if it ever made it through the ranks to actually land on Tim Burton’s desk and get read, [but] it was really a moot point, because by the end of the week, Henry had read it, said that he wanted to do it, and had put the mechanisms in place. You know, the contract negotiations had already started.”

Gaiman was very pleased with Selick’s fidelity to the source material but clearly things had to be modified between print and screen. “He wrote a first draft that was incredibly faithful,” Gaiman said. “And I think I actually wound up saying to him, ‘Look, I think it’s a bit too faithful,’ because it didn’t feel like a movie, it felt like you were just reading the book. And I sort of encouraged him to expand it into a film a bit more. And the next one he rather nervously added a character and added events, but now the script read like a movie script. And then it was just a matter of him having another six years to find a studio that would give him the money to make the ultimate stop-motion movie.”

He remained uninvolved in the production but remained curious. “I’d go about my life and then I’d sit up one day and think, You know I haven’t seen anything for three or four months now, and I’d phone Henry and I’d say, ‘Have you got anything for me to see?’ And he’d say, ‘Yeah, I’ll get you off a DVD.’ And I’d get a DVD with another 10 minutes of footage on it! [laughs] What’s actually been fun is, because they’re pretty much shooting it exactly in order, the DVDs have been getting scarier and scarier. They started off [and I thought], ‘Well this is rather sweet and rather friendly,’ and the last one that I got I could actually say, ‘No, this is scary, this is really scary.’

Gaiman also addressed the long-delayed film version of his Death: The High Cost of Living. “Well, I think the latest is that we’re all waiting to see what happens to New Line. Death is a very odd thing because, unlike Coraline or Anansi Boys, which I’m doing for Warners, or The Graveyard Book or any of those kinds of things, I don’t own and control the rights to Death. I’m attached to it, I’ve written a script for it, I’m meant to be directing it… but I don’t control it, and for reasons having to do with corporate relationships between DC Comics and Warner Brothers, it has to be done by a Warner Brothers company, and then you have to find a Warner Brothers studio within Warner Brothers that will be a good fit for that film, and of course New Line was a really good fit for that film, and it remains to be seen right now what New Line is when the dust is settled and whether there is a New Line or not.”
 

Chris Pine Talks ‘Star Trek’

  • News
  • October 28, 2008

Right now, fans across the world identify Captain James T. Kirk with actor William Shatner. That’s likely to change when the J.J. Abrams helmed Star Trek premieres this coming May with newcomer Chris Pine in Kirk’s captain’s chair. Collider got the chance to speak with Pine at the recent Hollywood Awards, where the actor initially shrugged off the epic scope of his upcoming film.

"[I’m in] a small, small movie called Star Twars," jokes Pine. "It’s a mix between Star Trek and Star Wars."

Pine acknowledges that he’s stepping into some hefty shoes, and knows that some fans are already "giving the middle finger" to the project. However, the endorsement of Kevin Smith was a huge morale booster for the young actor. When he found out about Smith’s glowing review of both the film and Pine’s performance, Pine was through the roof.

"[I sent him an e-mail and said], ‘Thanks dude. I couldn’t have asked for a better thumbs up from someone [of Smith’s caliber]," Pine says. "This far away from the release date, to have someone say I did a good job, especially with the potential naysayers out there, it was a nice ego boost for a Wednesday."

Unless Kevin Smith can create millions of clones, Pine and the rest of the Trek team will need to appeal to a much wider audience. In that regard, the soon-to-be Kirk isn’t worried about the detractors.

"It’ll be what it’ll be," says Pine. "People will like [our movie] or they won’t.  I’m really proud of it. From what I’ve seen I think we did a great job. We just have to leave the rest [up to] the peanut gallery."

For now, after months of fighting Romulans and avoiding Spock’s death grip, Pine’s working on a project that’s just a tad more small scale.
  (more…)

Horror Review: ‘Trackman’

  • Uncategorized
  • October 28, 2008

trackman boxSynopsis:

A perfect bank heist turns deadly when the robbers and their hostages flee to the abandoned underground subway station where they encounter the Trackman, a deformed madman that prowls the darkness. It becomes a fight for survival as the mysterious monster picks off the people, both good guys and bad, one by one.

Lowdown:

Remember the days when horror films didn’t need a twist ending? When Freddy Krueger never turned out to be Nancy’s father, or Michael Myers was never just a part Laurie’s subconscious? Those were the good old days, but since the genre has been changed by things like Saw or the trend of remaking Japanese horror, it’s almost like a rite of passage to have a “mind-altering” twist at the end of the film, and quite frankly, its getting old.

Trackman has some great slasher movie elements to it, buried deep inside of a poorly edited and badly shot film. Having that the film was made in Russia, I may not be up to speed on how things are shot and edited there, but I’m pretty sure taking a page from Zack Snyder’s book of “unnecessary slow motion” is universally unacceptable. At least when Snyder does it, it’ during a moment of deep(ish) drama to accentuate the moment, and not just establishing shots of dark hallways slowed down to fill time. The film weighs in at 80 minutes, but if you were to dump the slo-mo shots, we’re looking at more like an hour.

The beginning kicks off with a very “Inside Man” feeling, with two men going over the plan for a bank robbery. The robbery goes on, some unneeded blood was shed, and the robbers escape with a few hostages for good measure. Their plan, for some reason, involves roaming around an abandoned tunnel system where (here’s when things get fun) they come across the Trackman.

The origin of the “monster” is done through about two lines of dialogue and something about Chernobyl, but is vague and pretty borders on being convoluted. The great thing about the Trackman is that he had just about all of the elements that made Jason Voorhees so scary for decades: covered face, skulky, had the ability to appear and disappear when needed, wielded a pretty big weapon, and even had a memorable rattle (replacing the Ch-Ch-Ch-Ka-Ka-Ka with some pretty heavy footsteps). The twist in the end of the film, however, negates all of this as we learn that the monster may not be all that monstrous.

The gore is done on a pretty low budget for the film. The big shtick that the Trackman has is a makeshift eye-scooper that he uses to rip out the eyes of his victims and keep. The act of scooping is done all off camera with screams, and even the more gory slasher-type kills are done off camera. A bit of a rip off for the fans of the genre who remember the days of Jason hacking away pieces of campers.

While the film does have its flaws, it makes up for it by bottling what we all loved about the slasher films of the 80s. There are some great moments of suspense and horror, and there may even be room for a return of the Trackman, provided they can find another reason to go into an abandoned Russian mining tunnel.

Overall Rating: 6/10

Scare Factor: 4/5

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