TVSquad

If we lived in a world where we could only watch five TV networks on our televisions (I don't know what type of world that would be but it sounds like one of those bleak futures you often see in sci-fi movies), I would definitely choose Turner Classic Movies as one of those networks. That's a no-brainer. I think I'd have a harder time choosing which major networks(s) I'd want on that list too.

The movie network has announced that they're doing a classic film festival in April 2010.

Matt Damon was on The Late Show last night to promote his new film The Informant! As usual, he did his Matthew McConaughey impersonation for Dave and they also talked about a recent web rumor that Damon had died (really? I guess I missed that one).

This led to Damon telling another story about the Venice Film Festival involving George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and a stripping journalist.

A little bit of Hollywood died yesterday.

Army Archerd wrote for Variety since 1953, when he replaced columnist Sheilah Graham. That's not a typo. That's 1953, as in 56 years ago. That means he talked to everyone, saw everything, and wrote about just about everything that happened in Hollywood for more than five decades.

Last year, all the citizens of Transsexual, Transylvania felt a collective disturbance in their fandom force. MTV had announced that they were going to do a remake of the classic cult film, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Not only would this be completely unnecessary, but it actually kind of hurt every Rocky fan's soul to hear it. Rocky Horror needs no remake because it never becomes dated. It's so far removed from, well, everything ever, it still holds up perfectly, happily doing the Time Warp again and again in its own little universe.

Well, maybe MTV got lazy or maybe they got freaked out about the insane amount of Internet sad-chatter against the idea of the new version, but MTV's Rocky Horror remake is on hold. Rejoice and prod a gold underwear-clad Adonis with a standing candelabra.

In 1958, Alfred Hitchcock went on his TV show and asked viewers who were watching the show in the year 2000 to write in and let him know how things are going. Not sure if Hitchcock thought he'd be alive 42 years later, but it's an interesting clip (and kudos for Hitchcock for actually assuming that this show would be watched decades later).

Conan O'Brien should have jumped on this for his bit, but now they've gone and changed the name of it.

[via Paleo-Future]

Allison told you yesterday that both Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper were leaving their film review show, At The Movies. Ebert has been off the show since 2006 because of health problems and Roeper couldn't come to terms on a new contract. They both explained that Buena Vista wants to take the show in a new direction and that they wouldn't be a part of it. Here is that new direction.

The new hosts of At The Movies are Ben Mankiewicz, a host on TCM, and Ben Lyons, from E!. Not sure how these two got to be the new hosts, other than the fact that they're both named Ben and I'm sure we'll see some cute reference to that, maybe even in the ads or the intro. I like the fact that Mankiewicz is from TCM; makes it sound like he knows what he's talking about (he's also the son of Frank Mankiewicz and the grandson of the guy who wrote Citizen Kane). But Lyons looks about 14 years-old and comes from a network with celeb gossip and reality shows, so that has me a little worried.

Then again, he's the son of film critic Jeffrey Lyons (the host of his own movie review show, Reel Talk), so maybe it's in his blood. But the article above says he called I Am Legend one of the greatest films ever made? Yikes.

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.

Disney Channel's popular High School Musical series of TV movies will hit theaters for its third installment, but don't expect a Halloween-themed movie as reported earlier. According to TV Guide, the Halloween idea was scrapped and instead the feature film will focus on senior year and the lives of students Sharplay, Troy, Gabriella, Ryan, Chad and Taylor.

The first High School Movie hit the Disney Channel in January of last year and was a gigantic success. The second installment, aptly tilted High School Musical 2, debuted on the channel this month. The TV movies also inspired a professional touring stage production that launched this year. There is no word yet on when the third installment would hit theaters, and none of the actors involved with the TV movie have signed on for the movie just yet.

Don't you wish someone would make a live-action movie based on a popular cartoon from the '80s about giant robots?

No, not that one, I'm talking about Voltron. Variety reports that Voltron: Defender of the Universe is finally on the cusp of getting made. Of course, the success of Transformers has helped quite a bit as far as stirring up interest. New Regency and the Mark Gordon Company are close to finalizing a deal to start production on the movie. New Regency's other live-action adaptation is Alvin and the Chipmunks. Eek.

My friend Wild Bill sent me news that Jonny Quest, the Hanna-Barbera series about the titular lad who accompanies his scientist father on wild adventures, is being made into a live-action movie. The series, much like The Flintstones, The Jetsons and Top Cat, aired during primetime when it first aired in the '60s. New versions of Jonny Quest also popped up in the '80s and '90s.

Like the upcoming Speed Racer flick from the Wachowski brothers, reports so far say the movie will be "family friendly." The movie will serve as an origin story explaining how Jonny's bodyguard Roger "Race" Bannon and Dr. Benton Quest's adopted son Hadji join the family.

The basic networks used to be the kings of theater to TV imports. When I was a kid I used to get genuinely excited about Saturday night's Wonderful World of Disney movie.

Since the turn of the new millennium -- been a while since you heard that phrase, huh? -- cable networks have been playing the movie game. TBS, HBO and others have all brought big name movies to television at a very slow pace.

USA Network has made a 11-movie deal with Universal Studios to bring films such as The Bourne Ultimatum and Children of Men to the NBC-owned channel.

No, this is not an episode of Retro Squad. The kids TV show ReBoot is coming back to awe a new generation of tweens in the form of three feature-length animated films. For those of you not in-the-know, ReBoot was one of the very first commercial computer-generated projects. This way before Toy Story or Shrek or the slew of cheesy 3-D animated children shows on the tube today.

Perhaps. A few sites, citing an Empire Magazine interview with They Live star Roddy Piper, report that Carpenter was in talks with SciFi to develop his 1988 film into a TV series for the network.

Unfortunately, that's all we know, and it doesn't look as if the interview is on Empire's Web site. Nevertheless, I think this could be a really cool idea. They Live was a lot of fun in a campy, B-style sort of way, and its not-so-subtle plot of aliens trying to control mankind through subliminal methods is something that could be easily fleshed out into a full series. In the film, Piper's character, John Nada, finds a pair of sunglasses that allow him to see the various subliminal messages broadcast across the city: OBEY, CONSUME, etc.

The answer is maybe. The Hollywood Reporter writes that creator Seth MacFarlane is looking at the possibility of doing a Family Guy movie sometime in the future, which makes sense because it's much harder to make movies in the past.

One plan McFarlane mentioned was to have former Family Guy scribe Ricky Blitt come back to work on the film script. It's worth noting that none of this is official, and that a basic plot for a Family Guy film hasn't even been thought up, though McFarlane does state he doesn't want to do a huge movie like the upcoming Simpsons Movie, but rather a smaller story focusing on the Griffin family.

Joel told you not too long ago that a second X-Files feature film was most likely going to happen. Now comes word from David Duchovny himself that the film is indeed going ahead and that co-star Gillian Anderson is attached, as well.

Most of what Joel mentioned still appears to be true: the film, written by X-Files creator Chris Carter, will be a standalone story and could possibly hit theaters sometime in summer 2008. Duchovny says he hasn't seen the script, and 20th Century Fox, the studio that owns The X-Files, has not confirmed the project just yet.