Tagged: Mad Men

Martha Thomases: The Usual Gang

Are you watching the last season of Mad Men? It’s our last chance to see Jon Hamm in so many crisp suits – at least for a while.

It’s also a weird sort of time travel, at least for me. I figure that I’m about the same age as Sally, the oldest daughter in Don Draper’s (i.e. Hamm’s) family, so I’m watching events I lived through, but from the perspective of my parents, if they were stunningly beautiful, not Jewish, lived in New York, and worked in advertising in the 1960s.

In the ten fictional years since the show started, we’ve watched the turbulent 1960s from the point of view of successful, media-savvy adults, mostly men. We saw Kennedy get elected and assassinated. We saw the Civil Rights movement and Woodstock. We saw Americans land on the moon.

This season, it’s 1970. And it’s remarkable how that time, 45 years ago, is so much like now.

If you click on the link, you’ll read an insightful analysis of Sunday’s episode when both Peggy (the first woman to write copy at our fictional ad agency) and especially Joan (a secretary who became an account executive and partner at the firm) faced subtle (in Peggy’s case) and not-subtle-at-all (in Joan’s case) sexism.

My problem with the episode is that it didn’t play like something from the past. That crap still goes on far too much. Even (maybe especially) in the so-called “liberal” entertainment industry. (See here for an extremely vile assortment of examples).

This is bad news for working women, and it’s bad news for society in general. We miss out on different points of view and we miss out on the great work people with different backgrounds can do. There is no reason to think you have better talent available from a smaller group of applicants.

Comics have the same problem, albeit with less money at stake. When I was at DC in the 1990s, at least one prominent editor said as a statement of fact that women can’t write superhero comics. This is the cousin to the Hollywood attitude that female superheroes can’t star in movies. At least in comics (again, probably because less money is involved), we have writers like Kelly Sue DeConnick, Gail Simone, Amanda Connor, and G. Willow Wilson as best-selling examples to the contrary. (Also probably dozens of others. Forgive my laziness at looking up stuff.)

We suffer as an audience when we are only offered the stories of white people. Most recently, a group of Native American actors walked off the set of an Adam Sandler movie because the dialogue was so profoundly offensive to them. As this article about the incident suggests, Native Americans get far fewer roles than they should, so it took great courage to give up a paycheck. I hope that the attention they get encourages someone to make a comedy movie from their point of view. It has to be funnier than Jack and Jill .

Nearly 30 years ago, when I saw Spike Lee’s School Daze, I walked out of the movie theater thinking, “That’s how black people talk when there are no white people around.” I’ll never know whether or not that’s true, but I felt I had been offered the chance to eavesdrop on a different world. I still enjoy that opportunity, but Spike Lee did it in a way that had singing and dancing.

Of course, no one actually talks the way people do in the movies. We hem and haw more, we don’t finish our sentences, and we digress from the subject at hand. Movie people talk with precision because they only have two hours to tell the whole story.

Mad Men isn’t a bad show because its point of view is limited. Every piece of art has a limited point of view. The way to enjoy different points of view is to live your life and pay attention. One purpose of entertainment should be to open our eyes to other experiences.

 

The Point Radio: James Wolk – Yeah THAT Guy

We all loved actor James Wolk as the slightly creepy Bob Benson in MADMEN, plus his run with Robin Williams on THE CRAZY ONES. Now he’s part of CBS’ next big summer event,  ZOO,  and the star of a new quirky indy film with the folks from SONS OF ANARCHY. He covers it all with us. Plus the new sitcom, THE McCARTHYS is really a family affair especially for third generation talent Tyler Ritter who explains what finally brought him into show biz.

THE POINT covers it 24/7! Take us ANYWHERE on ANY mobile device (Apple or Android). Just  get the free app, iNet Radio in The  iTunes App store – and it’s FREE!  The Point Radio  – 24 hours a day of pop culture fun. GO HERE and LISTEN FREE  – and follow us on Twitter @ThePointRadio.

HARD CASE BRINGS LOST NOIR NOVEL TO READERS!

  • News
  • September 29, 2012

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REPOSTED FROM CNN
(CNN) — Would you recognize a roscoe if you see one? Ever run into a gumshoe? Do you take your heroes hard-boiled and your dames dangerous?
If the answer is yes to any of these questions, then dear reader, you will welcome the arrival of a lost novel from a prince of pulp fiction. The book is “The Cocktail Waitress.”
The author is James M. Cain, best known for two noir masterpieces, “The Postman Always Rings Twice” and “Double Indemnity.” Both books sold millions of copies and inspired classic movies. When Cain died in 1977, his fans thought it was the end of the story.
Now, 35 years later, Cain’s last novel is finally reaching readers. So how did this book go from buried treasure to publication?
Credit crime fiction connoisseur Charles Ardai with discovering “The Cocktail Waitress.” Ardai is a longtime Cain fan, an author, editor and the publisher behind the Hard Case Crime series. Ardai helped revive the pulp fiction genre in recent years with a series of popular paperbacks packed with sex, sin and recognized for their tawdry covers.
Years ago, Ardai heard rumors of a lost Cain novel, written at the end of his life but never published. With nearly a decade of detective work, Ardai uncovered “The Cocktail Waitress,” polished the manuscript and this week brings it to bookstores. To fans of old school crime fiction, this book is akin to finding an unheard symphony or a missing oil masterpiece. It has all the hallmarks of classic Cain: lust, greed, betrayal and deception.
It’s the story of beautiful young widow, Joan Medford. After her husband dies under suspicious circumstances, she’s forced to work as a waitress in a cocktail lounge where she meets a handsome young hustler and an aging millionaire. To reveal more would spoil the fun for readers, but suffice to say Joan is not your typical femme fatale. CNN recently spoke to Ardai about the hunt for Cain’s long-lost novel.
The following transcript has been edited for style and brevity:
CNN: Tell me about the hunt for “The Cocktail Waitress.” How did you discover the book?
Ardai: A decade ago, before we ever put out our first book, I was talking with “Road to Perdition” author Max Allan Collins about what sorts of books we might want Hard Case Crime to publish, and he mentioned that he’d heard that there was a last unpublished James M. Cain novel called “The Cocktail Waitress,” written at the very end of Cain’s life, but Max had never seen the book and no one he knew had. Maybe I could find it?
Well, I’d been a huge Cain fan since my freshman year in college, when I’d found a battered copy of “Double Indemnity” on a used book table, and I couldn’t resist this challenge. So I began searching.
The search took nine years. No one I asked seemed to have seen a copy of the manuscript. The Cain estate didn’t have one. None of the collectors or historians I reached out to did. For a while, the more inquiries I put out the less progress I seemed to be making. But I finally thought to ask Joel Gotler, the Hollywood agent who’d inherited the files of H. N. Swanson, Cain’s agent back in the day, and sure enough, there was a copy of the manuscript lurking in Swanson’s files.
But even that wasn’t the end of the search, since it turned out there were several incomplete drafts hiding in the rare manuscript collection of the Library of Congress. …
CNN: This sounds like quite a literary find?
Ardai: Very much so. Cain is considered one of the “big three” in hard-boiled crime fiction, the other two being Dashiell Hammett (“The Maltese Falcon”) and Raymond Chandler (“The Big Sleep”). Chandler and Hammett defined the hard-boiled detective story, but when you take the detective away and just focus on the criminals — the story of a femme fatale out to kill her husband for the insurance money and the lust-blinded sap she seduces into doing the deed — then you’re on Cain’s turf.
He completely owned that type of sordid, desperate crime story. And finding an unpublished manuscript by Cain — it’s like finding a lost Steinbeck novel, or a lost Hemingway, or if you’re a music lover a lost score by George Gershwin. A last chance to hear a great voice from the past, taking you on one last wild ride.
CNN: Once you found the novel, your work was not over. There was quite a bit of revision and editing before the novel’s release.
Ardai: Cain worked and reworked this novel several times at the end of his life, which was presumably why it never got published — he was still working on it when he died. But just to be clear, this doesn’t mean the book was incomplete; on the contrary, he completed at least two full drafts, and then also had various partial drafts that petered out after anywhere from 1 to 100 pages. Which left me with an editing challenge: How to put together a single, complete final draft out of all the material Cain left behind?
In some cases, it was clear that Cain had made a choice he wanted to stick with — for instance, after writing his first draft in the third person, all subsequent drafts were penned in the first person. So first person clearly was his preference.
But in other places, it was less clear what he’d have preferred, so we had to just go with the version we felt was stronger. But in the end, this is what an editor always does — work with an author’s draft to make it the strongest book you possibly can.
It’s easier when the author is alive and can answer questions, but this is hardly the first posthumous book we’ve published. We’ve had similar situations with Donald E. Westlake and Roger Zelazny and David Dodge, among others. So I could draw on that experience when working on this book.
CNN: How does the novel hold up for today’s audience?
Ardai: Oh, it’s great. Part of the reason is that it’s set smack in the heart of the “Mad Men” era, which is certainly not a turnoff for today’s audience. But a bigger reason is that Cain’s themes are timeless.
The dialogue and clothing and hairstyles might remind you you’re reading about the past, but men still kill each other over the love of a beautiful woman today; women still hunger for men who aren’t their husbands; people still find themselves in dire situations, desperate for money and forced to take a degrading job to provide for their children.
The danger in the book, the threats, the pain, the horror of losing a loved one — these are things that never go away.
CNN: “The Cocktail Waitress” is written from the point of view of Joan Medford. How would you describe her?
Ardai: The thing that makes Joan unusual is that she’s the narrator of the book. Usually in Cain’s novels, it’s a man who’s narrating and you see the femme fatale through his eyes — beautiful, sultry, ice cold one minute and burning hot the next, more than a little mysterious. But here Cain makes the brave choice to put us inside the head of the femme fatale herself, which makes her a much richer and more complex character.
No femme fatale thinks she is one or will admit it if she does. From her point of view, she’s just a woman who’s acting reasonably while the world goes mad around her. Do the men in her life drop like flies? Perhaps — but it’s not her fault! This chance to see a classic femme fatale from the inside out is part of what makes “The Cocktail Waitress” so fascinating, and so daring.
CNN: As an award-winning writer, editor and publisher of crime fiction, Cain must have had a great influence on you.
Ardai: No question. The pair of novels I wrote as Richard Aleas — “Little Girl Lost” and “Songs of Innocence” — were directly inspired by Cain. They’re the story of a young man blinded by his love for two beautiful women, who finds himself doing terrible things as a result.
Before I wrote them, I read every book Cain had ever published. He was my muse. As you can imagine, it was an honor and a privilege to get to work on Cain’s final novel, to have a hand in bringing this last lost dollop of darkness to light.

David Selby Relocates from Collinsport to Gotham City

  • News
  • September 19, 2012

Having made his mark as a villain for many of his 45 years in the entertainment industry, David Selby is only too happy to provide the heroic voice of Commissioner James Gordon for Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1.

Selby is best known for his long-running roles as Quentin Collins, the werewolf brother to vampire Barnabus Collins on the original series Dark Shadows, and as the ruthless, vengeful Richard Channing on the 1980s primetime soap opera Falcon Crest. Between those two series alone, Selby logged more than 500 episodes as an antagonist.

Finally, Selby gets a beloved protagonist turn as the everyman hero James Gordon, a straight-shooting, intelligent lawman bent on doing what’s right … with the help of his old pal, Bruce Wayne (and his alter ego, Batman).

Selby will be in attendance on both coasts for the World and West Coast Premieres of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1. Selby is the lone actor on the September 20 post-screening panel at the Paley Center in New York, and he’ll be joined by co-stars Peter Weller and Ariel Winter for the panel discussion on Monday, September 24, at the Paley Center in Los Angeles.

After making his professional acting debut on Dark Shadows in 1968, Selby found fame on the large and small screens as well as Broadway. His film career runs the gamut from early starring roles opposite Barbara Streisand in Up The Sandbox and alongside Ron Liebman in The Super Cops to a memorable role as one of the key lawyers in The Social Network. On television, surrounding his 209 episodes of Falcon Crest, Selby has been seen on everything from The Waltons, Police Woman and Kojak to Ally McBeal, Cold Case, Mad Men, and HBO’s Tell Me You Love Me.

Selby is also one of the more learned actors around the industry, having earned a Master’s Degree from West Virginia University, and a Ph.D. in Theatre from Southern Illinois University. Beyond the stage and screen, Selby has written two volumes of poetry.

The affable Selby was happy to discuss his role as James Gordon following his initial recording session for the two halves of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Here’s what he had to say …

QUESTION: Having spent several hours in his mind, how do you see Police Commissioner James Gordon in this film?

DAVID SELBY: Because Bruce Wayne is Batman, and even though we all want to be heroes, Gordon is willing to take a quieter, more backseat role. I think he’s persistent, he’s calm. He’s a very practical man, like certain presidents. Lincoln was a very pragmatic guy, and I think Gordon is a very pragmatic commissioner.

Gordon is the type of guy that would think, “If I’ve gotta do it, and it’s going to make it right, and I look out and I know that my wife is going to be fine, and the children are going to be fine, then if a certain kind of justice is required to do this, I can live with it.” That’s my kind of Gordon. A very strong, practical guy.

QUESTION: In this film, James Gordon is 70 years old and about to retire. David Selby is now 70 years old. Usually it doesn’t matter in voice acting, but does that age similarity help increase the bond between actor and character?

SELBY: What are you saying? (laughs) That I’ve been playing this game for 50 years? (laughs harder) Well, I guess that’s true. You know the frustrations, the thinking of “Okay, I’ve got a few years to go, and there’s still one thing I want to do.” Maybe I want to play Macbeth. I don’t know. There’s definitely some parallels. Really, though, it’s the whole life experience – that’s the thing that ties me to Gordon. Having been around and seen what we’ve seen. I understand his frustrations. My God, all you have to do is pick up a bloody newspaper. It’s hard to not get frustrated. Sometimes the best thing to do is to avoid the paper in the morning.

QUESTION: Was there a centering emotion you used in James Gordon to help you focus on his motivations?

SELBY: For Gordon, what he wants to do more than anything in the world is that he wants to leave the world a little better place than when he came into it. And he thinks of how awful it would be to live your life and not be able to do that.

I like Gordon. Sometimes you have to draw the line in the sand, the morality line, and each of us has to decide how far you’re willing to go for success. Now if you’re battling the Mutants, you can go a long way. You can step over that line, as long as you know why you’re doing it. That’s my little take on that.

QUESTION: You had more than 300 episodes to get to know Quentin Collins for Dark Shadows. You spent 209 episodes creating Richard Channing for Falcon Crest. Today you had about four hours to become James Gordon. How do you develop a character that quickly?

SELBY: You don’t. You just sort of depend upon Andrea (Romano) and Bruce (Timm), because they know this territory far better than you. I did do a little research, though. I asked my son, who is a great aficionado of Frank Miller and all of these things. That was my first call. He gave me a great rundown, so there was a little preparation. So mostly you put yourself in the hands of those that know the character, and learn from their experience.

QUESTION: So your son is a Frank Miller fan. Do you have newfound street cred in the family?

SELBY: You can’t imagine. My son-in-law is a big fan, too. I’m in like flint now. I couldn’t have done better than to be able to make that call. “Do you know Dark Knight?” “What do you mean, do I know Dark Knight? Who do you think you’re talking to?” “Well, I’m playing the Commissioner.” “You’re playing James Gordon? You’re playing Gordon?!? Commissioner Gordon?!?!?” I never mentioned the Gordon’s name. (laughs) I just said the Commissioner. Oh my God. How special is that? I like that.

QUESTION: Did you read comics when you were a kid?

SELBY: We lived in a little community called Woodburn, where I grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia. There was a store down the street from where I grew up – a confectionary, you know, “beer on tap” – and they had a comic rack. Tom and Ann Torch owned the place – Tom would sit in the corner by the Coke machine and play checkers. And then guys would come in and order … Dewey would order egg in his beer, and all the regulars who lived in the neighborhood would be around. We could look in the comics, and they never once said “Put the comics down.” Now, once we graduated from comic books and went on to Sexology and Golden Nugget girls, then Ann and her sister Hortense got concerned. But as long as we stuck to the comics, it was okay, so I read all the comics. I’d also go two houses down to my friend Wally’s house – he had a lot of comics. But at the Richwood Confectionary, that was terrific place to grow up. Sit in there, drink a Nehi Orange for a nickel, and read your comics.

QUESTION: What was going on in 1966 that made it right for both Dark Shadows and Batman to premiere and explode in popularity?

SELBY: That was a special time in the 60s, and for whatever reasons these shows captivated the public’s imagination. Maybe we just needed it in the 60s. They were shows that allowed you to escape … shows that made life a little easier to cope. I think about New York City at that time and all the things that were going on. The corruption, the racial conflicts, the unrest at Columbia University. There were protests everywhere. Then there was Chicago, and the election in 1968. The assassination of Martin Luther King, the assassination of Bobby Kennedy. Vietnam was raging. And then you had these shows. I’m sure some sociologist is examining all of this and working it out. But I think those two shows, Batman and Dark Shadows, they fit that expression, “Whatever gets you through the night.” It is interesting that they both came out of that period. But maybe not. Maybe the times were right.

QUESTION: You’ve obviously had the experience. But do you like playing the villain?

SELBY: I’m not complaining – a lot of times the villain is the most interesting character. But I’ve played some awful people. I played a character who got rid of his own sister. In doing these characters, I like them, and you have to get your audience on your side somehow. They have to understand where you’ve come from. And maybe, just maybe, they’ll hang in there with you.

“Rowdy Roddy Piper Lends his Voce to Green Lantern: Emerald Knights

“Rowdy” Roddy Piper ruled the wrestling ring for the better part of four decades, crafting a Hall of Fame career that brought cheers – and huzzahs – from fans across the globe. Along the way, Piper established numerous milestones that set his career apart from all others.

At age 15, Piper was the youngest professional wrestler to ever enter the squared circle – and he would proceed to hold more than 38 titles while eclipsing 7,000 victories in professional matches. It was the main event at the very first Wrestlemania – pitting Piper and “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff against Hulk Hogan and Mr. T – that truly established the WWE.

Of course, any fanboy worth his weight in comics can recite Piper’s famous lines from John Carpenter’s cult classic They Live. Wherever he goes, somebody asks Piper if he has any bubblegum.

Today, Piper continues to entertain and educate, whether it be via his one-man show or as a best selling author of an autobiography entitled “In the Pit with Piper.” And on June 7, fans can experience Piper’s acting chops in his very first voiceover role for animation as the barbaric Bolphunga in Green Lantern: Emerald Knights.Produced by Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation, Green Lantern: Emerald Knights will be distributed by Warner Home Video on Blu-Ray™, DVD, On Demand and for Download.

Piper’s character – Bolphunga the Unrelenting – is the central antagonist in the episodic segment entitled “Mogo Doesn’t Socialize.” Based on the 1985 story created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, the story centers on Bolphunga’s search for Mogo, the largest Green Lantern, in hopes of engaging the famed warrior in a battle worthy of the villain. The role serves as a perfect vehicle to showcase Piper’s strength and wonderful sense of humor.

Green Lantern: Emerald Knights weaves six legendary stories of the Green Lantern Corps’ rich mythology around preparations for an attack by an ancient enemy. As the battle approaches, Hal Jordan mentors new recruit Arisia in the history of the Green Lantern Corps, telling tales of Avra (the first Green Lantern) and several of Hal’s comrades – including Abin Sur, Kilowog, Laira and Mogo. In the end, Arisia must rise to the occasion to help Hal, Sinestro and the entire Green Lantern Corps save the universe from the destructive forces of Krona.

Primetime television stars Nathan Fillion (Castle) and Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men) lead a diverse array of performers as the voices behind the Green Lantern Corps, including actor/spoken word artist Henry Rollins (Sons of Anarchy, The Henry Rollins Show), Jason Isaacs (the Harry Potter films), Arnold Vosloo (The Mummy), Kelly Hu (The Vampire Diaries) as Laira and Wade Williams (Prison Break) as Deegan. Radio Hall of Fame commentator/talk show host Michael Jackson voices the esteemed Guardian, Ganthet.

Bruce Timm is executive producer of Green Lantern: Emerald Knights. Directors are Lauren Montgomery, Jay Oliva and Christopher Berkeley. Oliva directed “Mogo Doesn’t Socialize” from a script by Gibbons.

Piper spent a few moments after his recording session to discuss his current activities, his love of acting, and the responsibilities of being a role model. Listen closely … because Roddy just ran out of chewing gum. (more…)

Nathan Fillion Takes to the Skies in ‘Green Lantern: Emerald Knights’

  • News
  • February 8, 2011

BURBANK, CA, (February 8, 2011) – Primetime television stars Nathan Fillion (Castle) and Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men) lead a diverse array of performers as the voices behind Green Lantern: Emerald Knights, the
next entry in the popular, ongoing series of DC Universe Animated Original Movies. Building up to the release of the highly anticipated live action film, Green Lantern, in theatres June 17, Green Lantern: Emerald Knights arrives on Blu-Ray™, DVD, On Demand and for Download June 7 from Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros.
Animation.

Fillion provides the voice of the animated film’s central character Hal Jordan, the human Green Lantern assigned to Sector 2814 (which includes Earth). Fillion has starred in several primetime television series including Desperate Housewives, Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He has also developed a popular
cult following as a pair of Joss Whedon’s heroic captains: Capt. Mal Reynolds in the space-western series Firefly and follow-up film, Serenity; and Captain Hammer in Whedon’s internet sensation Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.  Fillion returns to the DC Universe after his successful turn as Steve Trevor in the animated film Wonder Woman, and has performed voice work on Justice League, Robot Chicken, The Venture Bros., and several Halo video games.

Moss gives voice to Arisia, a young recruit forced into her first mission on just her third day as a Green Lantern. Prior to starring as the ever-evolving Peggy Olson in AMC’s ground-breaking series Mad Men, Moss was featured on The West Wing, Invasion and Picket Fences. Moss has been active in voiceovers for animation with previous roles in
Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs, Freakazoid! and It’s Spring Training, Charlie Brown!.

The voice cast for the animated Green Lantern: Emerald Knights also features actor/spoken word artist Henry Rollins (Sons of Anarchy,  The Henry Rollins Show) as Kilowog, Jason Isaacs (the Harry Potter films) as Sinestro, legendary professional wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper (They Live) as Bolphunga, Arnold Vosloo (The Mummy) as Abin Sur, Kelly Hu (The Vampire Diaries) as Laira and Wade Williams (Prison Break) as Deegan. Radio Hall of Fame commentator/talk show host Michael Jackson voices the esteemed Guardian, Ganthet.
Bruce Timm is executive producer of Green Lantern: Emerald Knights. Directors are Lauren Montgomery, Jay Oliva and Christopher Berkeley.The full-length animated Green Lantern: Emerald Knights complements the Warner Bros. theatrical release of the highly anticipated live-action major motion picture Green Lantern,Green Lantern: Emerald Knights will be distributed by Warner Home Video as a Blu-Ray™ Combo Pack and 2-Disc Special Edition DVD, as well as single disc DVD. The film will also be available On Demand and for Download.

Warner Premiere Formally Announces ‘All-Star Superman’

  • News
  • November 30, 2010

DC Entertainment’s All-Star Superman was one of the better things to be released by the company during the past decade. It was universally acclaimed and awarded, recently being collected in an Absolute edition. Now, Warner Premiere is tackling Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s 12-part saga as their next animated feature. Here’s the formal press release:BURBANK, CA, (November 29th, 2010) – Grant Morrison’s beloved, Eisner Award-winning vision of Superman’s heroic final days on Earth is brought to exquisite animated life in All-Star Superman, the latest entry in the popular, ongoing series of DC Universe Animated Original Movies coming February 22, 2011 from Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. The highly-anticipated, full-length film will be distributed by Warner Home Video as a Blu-Ray™ Combo Pack and 2-Disc Special Edition DVD for $24.98 (SRP), as well as single disc DVD for $19.98 (SRP). The film will also be available On Demand and for Download.

In All-Star Superman, the Man of Steel rescues an ill-fated mission to the Sun (sabotaged by Lex Luthor) and, in the process, is oversaturated by radiation – which accelerates his cell degeneration. Sensing even he will be unable to cheat death, Superman ventures into new realms – finally revealing his secret to Lois, confronting Lex Luthor’s perspective of humanity, and attempting to ensure Earth’s safety before his own impending end with one final, selfless act.

The celebrity-packed voice cast is headed by James Denton (Desperate Housewives) as Superman, Christina Hendricks (Mad Men) as Lois Lane, and Anthony LaPaglia (Without A Trace) as Lex Luthor. The stellar cast includes seven-time Emmy® Award winner Ed Asner (Up) as Perry White, Golden Globe® winner Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under) as Ma Kent, Matthew Gray Gubler (Criminal Minds) as Jimmy Olsen and Linda Cardellini (ER) as Nasty. 
Arnold Vosloo (The Mummy), Catherine Cavadini (The Powerpuff Girls), Finola Hughes (General Hospital), Alexis Denisof (Angel), Obba Babatunde (That Thing You Do!), Michael Gough (Batman) and John DiMaggio (Futurama) round out the voice cast.

Based on the Eisner Award-winning DC Comics series/graphic novel of the same name by Grant Morrison with illustration by Frank Quitely, All-Star Superman is executive produced by animation guru Bruce Timm and directed by Sam Liu (Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths) from a script by acclaimed comics writer Dwayne McDuffie (Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths). (more…)

TV Tidbits

  • News
  • October 17, 2008

Michael Ausiello writes at Entertainment Weekly, "Good news: A Sci Fi source confirms to me exclusively that the last half of season 4 premieres on Friday, January 16, at 10 p.m. Which, by my calculations, puts the series finale (boo-hoo!) at Friday, March 20." This means the network will not skip the three-day weekend i nFebruary as they normally have in the past, which is good news for one and all.

CBS has given a full season order to The Mentalist starring Simon Baker. The freshman series has garnered good ratings and positive reviews encouraging the Eye Network.

NBC has ordered three additional scripts for its midseason drama Medium. The peacock network may be forced to add the series to its schedule before the end of the year given some weaker than expected ratings for its lineup.

AMC has ordered a third season of the wonderful Mad Men.  Creator Matthew Weiner and Lionsgate, though, are still talking contracts with the studio hoping to sign the creator/producer to a two year deal which would encourage AMC to green-light a fourth season sooner than later.  Regardless, the second season of the award-winning drama will reach its conclusion October 26.

Brian Cox has been cast opposite Katee Sackhoff in the NBC pilot Lost and Found. He will play her character’s fractious partner Burt Macey, described by The Hollywood Reporter as "a foul-mouthed, racist dinosaur of a cop who does things the old-fashioned way: with blunt force and bigoted rants." The two are assigned to the worst possible cases after Sackhoff’s Tessa pisses off her Los Angeles Police Department superiors. Cox has also been cast for a multiple-episode story arc for the network’s midseason replacement, Kings.

‘Iron Man’, ‘Dark Knight’ Earn Multiple Nominations

  • News
  • September 26, 2008

iron-man-1-7508828The Hollywood Post Alliance Awards announced the nominees for the third annual award presentation for excellent in post production work. Iron Man and The Dark Knight among other genre films received multiple nominations. The HPA Awards will be presented Nov. 6 at the Skirball Cultural Center.Nominees for the HPA Awards include:

Outstanding Color Grading Feature Film in a DI Process

Iron Man, Steven J. Scott (EFilm)
Sweeney Todd, Stefan Sonnenfeld (Company 3)
Kite Runner, Mike Sowa (LaserPacific Media Corporation)

Outstanding Color Grading – Television

Pushing Daisies, “’The Fun in Funerals”, Joe Hathaway (LaserPacific Media Corporation)
ESPN: The Masters, Siggy Ferstl (RIOT)
Andromeda Strain, Night 2: Part 1, Mike Sowa (LaserPacific Media Corporation)

Outstanding Editing – Feature Film

Iron Man, Dan Lebental, A.C.E.
Into the Wild, Jay Cassidy, A.C.E.
The Dark Knight, Lee Smith, A.C.E.

Outstanding Editing – Television

Mad Men “Indian Summer”, David J. Siegel, A.C.E.
Breaking Bad (Pilot Episode), Lynne Willingham, A.C.E. (Sony Pictures Entertainment)
Pushing Daisies, “Pie-lette”, Stuart Bass, A.C.E.

Outstanding Audio Post – Feature Film

Wanted, Wylie Stateman and Harry Cohen (Soundelux) & Christopher Jenkins and Frank A. Montano (Universal Studios)
Wall*E, Ben Burtt (Pixar Animation Studios), Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Matthew Wood (Skywalker Sound)
Into the Wild, Michael Minkler (Todd AO), Lora Hirschberg (Skywalker Sound) and Martin Hernandez (Ztrackz)

Outstanding Audio Post- Television

CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION, “Cockroaches”, Mace Matiosian, Ruth Adelman, David Vanslyke, Bill Smith, Yuri Reese and Jivan Tahmizian (Todd-AO)
John Adams, Episode 3: “Don’t Tread on Me", Marc Fishman and Tony Lamberti (Todd-AO) & Stephen Hunter Flick and Vanessa Lapato (Warner Brothers Post)
R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour Don’t Think About It, Sam Kaufmann and John Schell (Media City Sound)

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