Posts with tag universal
Posted Jul 19th 2008 5:24PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Celebrities, Casting, Pushing Daisies, Reality-Free
A few thoughts about Kristin Chenoweth, if you don't mind. First, congratulations to the
Pushing Daisies' actress --she plays Olive -- for snagging an Emmy nomination as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. And kudos for the effervescent and spontaneous adlibs and asides she and Neil Patrick Harris -- another favorite of mine -- brought to the
reading of the nominations Thursday morning.
So often the reading of the nominations is as dull as dishwater, like the stars doing the announcing are simply trying to get through it without tripping over their tongues. Not so with Chenoweth and Harris; they were delightful together and added a kick to the nomination announcement.
Continue reading Emmy nominee Kristen Chenoweth would love to be Wicked
Posted Jul 16th 2008 11:24AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: TV on the Bigscreen, OpEd, Reality-Free
Yet another BBC series is being adapted to American audiences. Only this time, it sounds like it's going to be a movie.
Universal Pictures
will be adapting the 1999 BBC series Second Sight which launched the career of Clive Owen. It will be produced by Angry Film's Don Murphy and Susan Montford. The story is about a homicide detective named Ross Tanner who suffers from a degenerative eye illness that leads to blindness and hallucinations. As a result, he must rely more on his intuition to solve crimes.
There have certainly been any number of American adaptations of British shows over time. Some are good and some are utter crap.
Second Sight does sound like a good premise (I've never seen the show), but I think the movie would have more credentials if they made sure to involve members of the original crew. I wonder if they'll get Clive Owen to reprise his role?
Posted Jun 19th 2008 3:01PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: TV on the Bigscreen, Interviews, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Kim Cattrall is hot. Hot as in busy as well as in looking good. She's also smart, funny, observant and remarkably candid. Recently, I spoke with her for TV Squad about
the success of the Sex & the City movie, her new
HBO project Sensitive Skin, and a whole lot of other things, including
Star Trek, aging, Universal TV in the 1970s and more.
Allison Waldman: When Sex & the City ended, you didn't want to do the movie. Now it's done and it's a huge success. Kim Cattrall: It's extraordinary. I look back four years ago when this was a runaway idea, I just did not feel ready to do it. We had reached such a high point, I wasn't sure I had anything else to say. I also had incredible personal challenges. My marriage was coming apart, also, my dad was diagnosed with dementia. I really needed a time out.
AW: How did the movie come back around?KC: Michael Patrick King called and said, 'I'm writing something and I think you're going to love it. ...I think you were right to say no when you did because of whatever reasons you had.' See, I had never been public about my reasons I felt that it was nobody's business.
Continue reading Kim Cattrall: The TV Squad Interview
Posted Feb 16th 2008 1:41PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Industry, Cancellations, Bionic Woman
In the least surprising news I've seen all week, the British tabloid
Daily Mail is reporting that
NBC's Bionic Woman will be canceled, "barring a last-minute miracle." The
Mail's "source" tells the tab that star Michelle Ryan has returned to England "because the writing was on the wall," and is "defeated and depressed" that things didn't work out. Their source also claims that NBC Universal is pinning the blame for the show's failure on Ryan: "Their bet was that American viewers would fall in love with her looks, personality, and the character she played."
Gee, you think this "source" was a friend of Ryan's? Anyway, given the fact that a) this news hasn't shown up in any of the trades, like
Variety and
The Hollywood Reporter (UPDATE: this article in Variety says that the show is "probably canceled," which isn't that definitive, either), and b) the British tabs never let the truth get in the way of a juicy story, you have to take this news with a whole shaker of salt. Still, it's not like people were clamoring to see
Bionic Woman return after the writers' strike. So, I'm sure it's just a matter of time before Ben Silverman and the folks at NBC make this cancellation official.
Posted Oct 22nd 2007 3:28PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: TV on DVD, Short-Lived Shows
When the Billy Bob Thornton movie The Astronaut Farmer came out, a lot of us were amazed how the plot sounded similar to Salvage 1, a TV movie and later short-lived series on ABC that starred Andy Griffith as the owner of a scrap and salvage company who builds a spaceship and goes to the moon. I don't think this show has been seen that much since the late 70s, but TVShowsOnDVD is hearing from a source that Sony is going to release the show (the pilot movie and all the episodes, including 4 never shown on ABC) some time in 2008.
But that's not the only DVD news that TV fans are going to be interested in...
Continue reading Two short-lived ABC shows coming to DVD
Posted Oct 7th 2007 9:24AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, TV on DVD
Since NBC just launched the remake of the 70s sci-fi drama The Bionic Woman (I still love you Lindsay Wagner), some people are wondering if we'll ever see the original on DVD. TVGuide.com has an interesting story explaining why the original show (and the show it was spun off from, The Six Million Dollar Man) hasn't been released on DVD yet. And, you guessed it, is has to do with licenses and ownership.
Continue reading Why isn't the original Bionic Woman on DVD yet?
Posted Aug 7th 2007 9:00PM by Varun Lella
Filed under: Industry, Programming
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.
Continue reading USA invests in Universal films
Posted Dec 18th 2006 6:35PM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Programming, Stargate, Sci Fi
Back in October Brett mentioned a number of Stargate SG-1 movies that were heading straight to DVD release. Within that item he mentioned that these movies could be used as a launching pad for a new Stargate series. It looks like producers aren't waiting for those movies to be completed.
According to an story posted on the Gateworld website a third show in the Stargate franchise is now under development. The new series is in the concept phase and being worked on by those behind current shows Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis. Right now there doesn't seem to be a rush to production in order to replace SG1, which ends it 10-season run in Spring 2007. Instead, a premiere of 2008 or later is expected.
Meanwhile, SG1 will return in April with the final 10 episodes of the series. At the same time Atlantis will return to finish out its third season, with a fourth airing later in 2007.
Posted Nov 10th 2006 12:09PM by Julia Ward
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Animation
A mobile media company called Player X
is teaming up with Universal Mobile Entertainment to create special, two-minute animated "retrosodes" of popular 80s television shows
Knight Rider and
Magnum, P.I. The animated short form episodes promise to take a "tongue-in-cheek" look at the two popular series. Was there some other way to go about this project other than "tongue-in-cheek?" Perhaps not.
This is the first time a major Hollywood studio has allowed a mobile company to essentially remake and capitalize on branded properties like
Knight Rider and
Magnum. Once produced, the "retrosodes" will be distributed over 85 global carriers, offering the content to 1.8 billion people.
Continue reading Knight Rider and Magnum get animated
Posted Aug 20th 2006 11:12PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, HBO, Premium Cable, OpEd, Entourage
(S03E11) It seems only fitting that the week that I fill in for Jonathan, the name of the episode is "What About Bob?" The only thing stranger would be if next week's episode was titled "The Return of Jonathan." (Just checked, it's not.)
While Drama goes to shoot his first scenes for the new Ed Burns flick, Ari, Bob, and Eric go to see a studio head about the Ramones movie, and Vince and Turtle spend the day trying to track down a pair of expensive, limited edition sneakers from a famous Japanese artist.
Continue reading Entourage: What About Bob?
Posted May 20th 2006 10:00AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Industry, TV on DVD
For some reason I never watched
Simon & Simon. Oh, I saw the crossover with
Magnum, P.I., and it seems like the type of show I'd like, but for some reason I never paid much attention to it in the 80s. I guess I was too busy watching something else at the time, and keeping track of
Magnum,
Riptide,
Moonlighting, and other private eye shows.
But now I can
buy the DVDs this September ( and yes, and so can you!). The first season set will have 13 episodes, and since it's Universal the extras will probably be shoddy or non-existent. Still, I love it when these 80s shows come to DVD. I'm still waiting for more.
Posted Apr 20th 2006 9:19AM by Adam Finley
Filed under: NBC, News, Video
If you've ever wished there was a way to kill
time while pumping gas, other than staring off into space and picking your nose, which is my preferred method of
killing time, NBC Universal Television Stations group and VST Media Network may have a solution for you. They're
equipping gas pumps in select areas with tiny screens which will broadcast three-minute news, sports, and
entertainment briefs in markets with affiliate stations owned and operated by NBC. Right now only people in
Los Angeles can see the screens, though more are expected to pop up in San Francisco and San Diego this year. The
screens will eventually be added to other gas stations across the country. Apparently, the three-minute length is how
long it takes to fill a typical gas tank. I wonder if they'll have longer versions for truck drivers.
Posted Apr 18th 2006 5:46PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, TV on DVD
At long last, Steven Spielberg's 1980s anthology
series is
coming to DVD! The first season of the
show hits stores on July 18.
The bad news? This is a Universal set, so there are hardly any extras at all.
But it's still good to finally have the show on DVD, even if overall the show was so-so (from what I remember anyway -
haven't seen the show in several years).
Posted Apr 14th 2006 5:56PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, TV on DVD
Universal has
offically announced that the entire first season of
The Incredible Hulk, the 70s action show with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno that I loved for about a year, will
be coming out on July 18. It will be a 4 DVD set, with both TV films and the 10 episodes from the first season.
Universal is notorious for not having many extras on their TV DVDs, but fans will be happy to know that this
set will have two extra features: a commentary track and special interview/intro with Ferrigno. Which is good, because
you don't want to make Hulk fans angry. You wouldn't like them when they're angry.
Posted Mar 11th 2006 5:14PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Industry, Web
The New York Times
reports that Amazon is considering entering into the world of downloadable television and movies.
Amazon.com is apparently deep in high-level talks with industry execs for a deal to
sell television episodes and movies as downloads that can be burned onto DVD. The online retailer may be close to
solidifying a deal with Paramount, Universal, and Warner Bros. Amazon owns
IMDB
(Internet Movie Database), and would likely use that website as a way to promote its new movie and television
offerings. So far there is no speculation about how much it would cost to download an individual television episode or
a movie.
Would you use this service? I kinda like my movie DVDs because of all the extras.
The Dharma Initiative wants you - VIDEO - Comic-Con Report
Forget the Knight Rider movie, say the series creators - TCA Report
Giveaway Monday: TV Funhouse
