TVSquad

If you're like me, you raced out to your local book merchant last Tuesday and got yourself a copy of Neal Stephenson's latest book, Anathem. Then, more than likely, you tore through it before you realized, "Crap, it's going to be another five years before there is another one." But this isn't Book Squad, so what am I on about?

You might recall a January 2007 post by Kevin about Stephenson's earlier novel, The Diamond Age, being adapted for the Sci Fi Channel. As a longtime fan, I was thrilled to hear the news. But then, months and months passed with no real updates. I make periodic runs through IMDB, the official Neal Stephenson site, Smokehouse Productions, the Sci Fi Wire, wikipedia... Nobody has any information on just what the heck is going on with the adaptation. Given the nature of TV and movies, I was starting to worry that it had all just been back burnered. Or worse, they spent all that Diamond Age cash on Painkiller Jane. Not so fast...

I'll blame my relative indifference toward the anime series itself, but it was only recently that I had heard anything about a live-action Dragon Ball Z flick.

Last month, IGN had a brief write-up about the alleged adaptation, but didn't have much other than speculation. Now, however, comes word that the movie will begin shooting in Montreal sometime in the near future, with plans to wrap production by next July. There has been no official word on who will star in it, or who will make it, though Roland Emmerich's name was tossed around.

I'm going to file this under "Rumor" for now, since none of the major outlets appear to have anything on it, but some of the more gossipy sites are reporting the same story that actor Nicolas Cage is considering the role of Thomas Sullivan Magnum, IV in an upcoming film version of the popular '80s dramedy Magnum P.I. Tom Selleck, of course, played Magnum in the original series, and has said in several interviews he wanted to play the character in the film version.

Some have argued Selleck's too old to play the part, and that's true, he is too old to play a young Magnum, but with "senior citizens" such as Bruce Willis and Harrison Ford coming back to play roles from their more youthful days, I don't think Selleck returning as an older, seasoned Magnum is a terrible idea for a feature film.

G.I. Joe is just one of many adaptations of '80s toys/animated series that have been on deck for the last few years. There was of course Transformers, followed by rumors of bigscreen versions of He-Man and Thundercats. Now, however, the live-action G.I. Joe movie is official.

Writer/director Stephen Sommers (The Mummy) will helm the project, which will envision the G.I. Joe team as an international collaboration of military forces battling the evil Cobra, as opposed to the America-centric gang most of us remember from the '80s cartoon. Fans can also expect favorites like Duke, Snake Eyes, Scarlett, Destro and Cobra Commander in this new flick. The movie could hit theaters by summer of 2009.

Much like the new Underdog movie, the Wachowski brothers' bigscreen adaptation of the popular Speed Racer cartoon will not be animated, but considering the Wachowskis were behind the Matrix trilogy, one assumes the new film will be both visually stunning and not especially "heavy" storywise. Of course, it's not as if the original cartoon was all that deep, either, so in many ways this is a good match. If they do it right, it could be the perfect no-brainer, popcorn matinee.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, HBO and the BBC are adapting Caryl Churchill's short play A Number for HBO. This could be the first in a series of short play adaptations for HBO.

A Number will star Tom Wilkinson and Rhys Ifans. Wilkinson plays a father who encounters his cloned sons ten years later. Ifans will play both sons. James MacDonald directed the original stage play and will also direct the one-hour show for HBO.

Of course, whether the idea works or not will depend on how good the material is and whether it adapts well to television. Nevertheless, I like the idea of doing a series of one-shot "plays" for television that can stand or fail on their own. It wouldn't be too dissimilar to anthology series like The Twilight Zone, offering something completely new each time.

As we all know, the Stephen King / Peter Straub novel The Talisman is being made into a six-part miniseries for TNT for the 2008 season.

Now TNT has told advertisers that the Stephen Spielberg-produced miniseries could also become a regular series in 2009.

The original novel, the first collaboration between King and Straub, focused on a young boy named Jack Sawyer who flips back and forth between two worlds: our world and a mystical but malevolent world known as the Territories as he attempts to secure the titular talisman that may save his dying mother. A sequel, Black House, followed many years later. Both stories also tie into King's larger Dark Tower series, which may also be developed for television.

Eddie Murphy will star in the big screen remake of the popular series Fantasy Island.

I'll let that first sentence soak in. Ready? Okay, let's continue:

Murphy, much like in the Nutty Professor and Norbit, will play multiple roles in the adaptation of the series which starred Ricardo Montalban and Hervé Villechaize, ran from 1978 to 1984, and always creeped me the heck out when I was a kid. I'm not sure why it creeped me out, but it did. Hey, I was young and my parents watched it, plus I was kind of a wuss anyway. Maybe it was Montalban's accent.

In the original series, Montalban played Mr. Roarke, the caretaker of a mystical island where visitors could have any fantasy fulfilled, but there was always a catch.

Norbit screenwriters Jay Scherick and David Ronn are re-writing the script, and no director is attached to the project at this time.

[via Moviehole]

Jason Lee, star of My Name is Earl, also has another career apart from television: crapping all over my childhood memories. Lee will not only provide the voice of Underdog in the upcoming live-action feature based on the beloved children's cartoon, but has also joined the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie as Dave Seville, the human "father" to Alvin, Simon and Theodore (the Chipmunks will be computer generated). Seville was the stage name of songwriter and performer Ross Bagdasarian, who first used the sped-up voice technique on his song "The Witch Doctor" and later used the same technique for his Chipmunk records.

The film is being produced by Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. and his wife Janice Karman. Tim Hill, director of the second Garfield feature film, will direct.

[via Toon Zone]

In January, I mentioned that SciFi would, most likely, be developing a Flash Gordon series. Well, they've found their Flash Gordon, and twenty-two episodes have been ordered, so keep your eyes peeled for the show this July. Flash Gordon, which began as a comic strip in the '30s, has been adapted into just about every medium save for wax cylinder recordings. SciFi's plans are to create a show that's lighter in tone than its other series, such as Battlestar Galactica, but not quite as campy as previous incarnations.

CinemaBlend writes that Christopher Showerman, who has previously appeared in movies such as the made-for-video George of the Jungle 2 and Frankenbabe, is being considered to play Flash in the new series.

Shhh, listen.

Hear that? It's the Magnum, P.I. movie rumor machine cranking up again.

Jonathan told y'all back in June that Ben Affleck was the favorite to take on the role popularized by Tom Selleck on the original '80s TV series, but now Dark Horizons is reporting that Matthew McConaughey has been listed as the new Magnum by Rawson Marshall Thurber, who recently finished a redraft of the script. Other actors supposedly involved with this "on again, off again" project include Steve Zahn as Rick, Tyrese Gibson as T.C. and William H. Macy as Higgins. Also, Optimus Prime, not wanting to be typecast for his role in The Transformers, will play the helicopter.

One other thing: in the movie, Magnum will be an Iraq war veteran, not a Vietnam veteran.