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Tidbits: Rod Roddenberry joins Star Trek; McShane to American Gods; ABC early pickups; will Doctor attend Class?
by Doc on Mar.03, 2016, under Movies, Television
Some Thursday tidbits for you…
Rod Roddenberry, the son of the “Great Bird of the Galaxy”, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and president of Roddenberry Entertainment, will join the upcoming Star Trek series for CBS All Access as an executive producer, along with chief operating officer Trevor Roth. Roddenberry Entertainment will co-produce the series.
Actor Ian McShane (Deadwood) will play the mysterious con man Mr. Wednesday in Starz’ series adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, where the gods of myth are about to enter a war against the gods of modern society representing money, power, etc.
ABC gave quite a few early pickups to its shows, including Once Upon A Time and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Absent, at least so far, is Agent Carter, which appears to be a long shot at this point – especially since star Haley Atwell has signed on to do a pilot for ABC. While Carter currently operates on a half-season schedule it is possible that if the other show is also half-season she could do both, but the shows only modest ratings already were pointing at an ending for the show.
And finally, the Radio Times is reporting that Peter Capaldi is set to show up in the upcoming Doctor Who spinoff Class which is set at the Coal Hill School – where the very first episode of Doctor Who started and where Clara Oswald had been teaching. “It wil[sic] have a close connection with Doctor Who so don’t be surprised if Peter pops up,” according to someone close to the production. Now, my interpretation of that statement is that it isn’t definite Capaldi will appear, but that the story will allow for it.
With several official live action spin-off series in the history of the show (K-9 and Company (only one episode produced), Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures, and K-9), the Doctor only appeared on The Sarah Jane Adventures – but he did so in two incarnations: both David Tennant and Matt Smith appeared in separate two-parters.
HotShot Trailer: Ghostbusters official trailer
by Doc on Mar.03, 2016, under Movies
Now we finally get a taste of what the new Ghostbusters are up to…some of it seems a bit familiar, but perhaps with a tad more slapstick…
Ghostbusters start bustin’ July 15, 2016.
Mad Max: Fury Road cleans up while Star Wars and The Martian blanked at Oscars
by Doc on Feb.29, 2016, under Movies
While the Oscars were good in general for genre movies at least for nominations, it was Mad Max: Fury Road that stood out with the statues, collecting six of them in a near-sweep of the technical awards (Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Make-up and Hair, Best Editing, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing), and coming out the big winner of the night.
However, the rest of the genre fell flat, with favorite The Martian and Star Wars: The Force Awakens not getting any awards, and Ex Machina winning for Visual Effects and Inside Out winning for Best Animated Film.
All is not lost – at least Fantastic Four made a good showing at the Razzies. 🙂
Nicholas Meyer to write and executive produce Star Trek series
by Doc on Feb.29, 2016, under Television
Nicholas Meyer, who helped rescue the Star Trek franchise from near obliteration after Star Trek: The Motion Picture, is joining the team for CBS All Access’ Star Trek series as a writer and executive producer, working with showrunner Bryan Fuller.
Meyer, along with Harve Bennett, waded through the aftermath of the first Star Trek film, which Paramount disliked but was still a financial success to warrant a sequel. He was brought on as director, but took on an uncredited rewrite of a script for the second film in order to get it done in 12 days so they could begin production. He changed the style of the franchise, and came up with what was arguably the best film of the entire franchise in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. And although he pledged not to get tied to a franchise, he would work on Star Trek again – writing the “present day” portions of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and co-writing and directing Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country – thus being involved in what many consider the three best of the six original cast films.
Trailers for the Netflix series Marvel’s Daredevil second season
by Doc on Feb.25, 2016, under Television
Speaking of Netflix and Marvel, the second trailer for Marvel’s Daredevil was released today, and seeing as how I didn’t post the first one, here are both for your viewing enjoyment…
Game of Thrones‘ Finn Jones to play Iron Fist
by Doc on Feb.25, 2016, under Television
Deadline reports that Game of Thrones actor Finn Jones (Ser Loras Tyrell) has been tapped for the title role in the Netflix series Marvel’s Iron Fist, the fourth piece of the Netflix The Defenders crossover puzzle.
Based on the Marvel comic, Iron Fist is Daniel “Danny” Rand, who’s father as a young boy discovered the mystical city of K’un-L’un where he saved the city’s ruler, and was adopted as his son. Wendell left, but tried to return many years later with his wife an son, but his parents are killed, and he is rescued by archers from K’un-L’un, and becomes an apprentice where he learns mystical martial arts, and eventually becomes the next Iron Fist, part of the long line.
Iron Fist often teamed with Luke Cage, even having their own title, Heroes for Hire.
TidBits: Channel Zero: Candle Cove and Time After Time
by Doc on Feb.20, 2016, under Television
A couple of tidbits this weekend…
Syfy’s Channel Zero: Candle Cove finally has a director. Craig William Macneill (The Boy) will take the reigns for all six episodes. Candle Cove is expected to debut in October. A second 6-episode story which has not been named yet will follow in 2017.
And just days after it was announced that Freddie Stroma would play H.G. Wells in ABC’s pilot Time After Time, we now know who will play his nemesis. Revenge‘s Josh Bowman will take on the dark mantle of Dr. John Stevenson, a surgeon and a friend of Wells, who in fact moonlights as Jack the Ripper. Stevenson steals Wells’ time machine and escapes to the modern day.
Deadpool breaks rules – and records
by Doc on Feb.20, 2016, under Movies
Deadpool shouldn’t be the successful film it is.
Sure, it’s a superhero movie and that’s all the rage. And it’s a Marvel movie at that. And it exists within the X-Men universe (which one isn’t clear, even to the protagonist) and features a couple of them.
But it’s R-rated, with lots of violence, nudity and sexual references, it parodies the genre and itself, makes fun of the star, breaks the fourth wall, it opened mid-winter, the studio cut the budget, it stars the guy who previously played Green Lantern…the list goes on. At best, it could make a moderately-successful movie off of a “puny” (for superhero movies) budget of $58 million. Some of the most generous estimates saw maybe $80 million.
Then WHY is it approaching $250 million this weekend?!? Because it’s a frakkin’ good movie.
From the get go the film doesn’t take itself too seriously. Instead of naming the actors, director, etc. in the opening credits, it does so descriptively; Ryan Reynolds as “God’s perfect idiot”, Morena Bacarrin as “a hot chick”, the producers as “asshats” and the director as an “overpaid idiot” and the writers as the “true heroes of the movie”. This, while Juice Newton’s “Angel of the Morning” is playing, during a slow motion continue shot of what appears to be massive carnage.
The vulgar references are not only keeping with the character, but help keep the focus of the movie light despite the violence. And even the violence is handled with levity.
Deadpool may have shown the studios the true power of social media as well, as even Reynolds campaigned for and championed this movie heavily, while Fox seemed willing to throw it away. Could it have been done PG-13? Sure. But it probably wouldn’t have been nearly as interesting.
Deadpool is laugh out loud funny – and it takes a lot to make me laugh out loud. Go see it…but please, leave the 10 year olds at home.
Time After Time finds H.G. Wells in Freddie Stroma
by Doc on Feb.17, 2016, under Television
The Time After Time TV series we reported on in September has found its H.G. Wells.
Freddie Stroma, who played Cormac MacLaggan in the final three Harry Potter films and more recently Adam Cromwell on UnReal, has signed on to play the author of “The Time Machine” who, in Karl Alexander’s 1979 novel after which the series is named, builds an actual working time machine, only to have it stolen by none other than Jack the Ripper and taken to the present day. Wells then embarks on a chase to stop Jack from killing again. The original novel, which was also the basis of a 1979 film starring Malcolm McDowell in the starring role, will be used as a starting point for the series.
ABC commissioned the pilot from Warner Bros. TV. Kevin Williamson wrote the pilot and will executive produce, with Marcos Siega directing.