NBC has finally announced the fate of their gourmand drama Hannibal and it is a favorable one. Despite low numbers, NBC has decided to take a chance on Bryan Fuller’s story about the legendary cannibal.
We’re so proud of Bryan’s vision for a show that is richly textured, psychologically complex, and very compelling, there are many great stories still to be told. — Jennifer Salke, NBC Entertainment President, via EW
Continue reading Pass the fava beans… Hannibal renewed for a second season
So Game of Thrones is in the last few episodes of its season, Veep is plugging along (if you aren’t watching Veep then you are missing out), and True Blood is about to start up soon which means it’s time to talk about The Newsroom and of course, my favorite, Boardwalk Empire!
First up, The Newsroom. After a first season that seem to have moments of brilliance coupled with typical Sorkinisms that maybe are starting to get old, The Newsroom is gearing up for their sophomore season and one has to believe that they are looking to iron out some of the kinks. Perhaps Aaron Sorkin will listen to the cacophony of women clamoring to be portrayed on-screen as more than petty gossip mongers with nice legs who don’t know how to work fancy phone email machines. Or perhaps not. Maybe Will McAvoy will pull his head out of his ass and stop being a complete well, ass, to everyone around him outside of those few moments where he freaks out that everyone thinks he’s an ass so he acts like a normal human being. I get that it’s part of his character but after a while, it just got old. Don’t get me wrong, I actually am a big fan of this show, would be okay with changes in this new season.
Speaking of new season…
That teaser is just beautiful. So simple – I mean it’s just lights turning on for pete’s sake – but I really enjoyed it. There was for the briefest of moments a “behind the scenes tease” which was even better but it has since been made private for reasons unknown.
Enough of this Newsroom talk though because every day that passes means we are one day closer to season four of Boardwalk Empire!!!! Gyp is no longer and things are dicey up in New York between Rothstein and Lucky so who might step in the spotlight this season? Apparently Jeffrey Wright is up to the task signing on as Dr. Valentin Narcisse, “a ‘Doctor of Divinity’ and philanthropist who controls Harlem”.
Not only Wright but blink and you would have missed him, Ron Livingston is joining the cast. Word is he’s going to have some type of relationship with Gillian so in other words, don’t get too attached because he’s going to die.
That’s all I’ve got for now. As the summer goes on I’m sure there will be plenty more Boardwalk Empire news but for now we just have to sit back and wonder “what will Margaret do this year?”
Sit back, close your eyes, relax… and let me tell you a tale that will frustrate and infuriate even the most chill amongst us.
It starts back in 2010 when a group of actors signed on for a movie about a group of LARPers (that would be Live Action Role Playing for those who aren’t in the know or who haven’t seen Role Models) who accidentally summon a real demon and the hijinks that ensue. This just isn’t your run of the mill group of actors though. No, this is a group of actors that get the neck hairs of a wide variety of geek standing on end. Peter Dinklage, Danny Pudi, Jimmi Simpson, Steve Zahn (a personal favorite of mine), Ryan Kwanten, Joshua Malina, and of course the geek girl herself, Summer Glau. I don’t know that it’s possible to look at that list of names and not want to immediately see what they have put together.
Well, fast forward to 2011 San Diego Comic-Con and a trailer is released. Our own esteemed Dr. Kronner did the honors and provided a nice write up about it, including interviews with the cast. You will most certainly want to check that out, but just for ease of use right now, let’s go ahead and put the trailer here as well.
Right? Even though I’ve never had the chance to don chain mail and wield a foam sword myself, I am a huge fan of LARP and movies about LARP. I’ve watched Faintheart more times than I can count, and Unicorn City is one of my “because you liked…” categories on Netflix. Hell, I’ve even watched All’s Faire in Love more times than anyone should ever admit to, so it isn’t really surprising that I really want to see this movie. Enter the problem.
It appears as if Knights of Badassdom has hit a bit of a snag and by that I mean, it’s having a lot of issues, and by that I mean, we might not ever get to see it. With a trailer being released in 2011, one would expect to see the movie in 2012, especially when the movie’s site has a banner that says…
In case you’ve been living under a rock, 2012 has come and gone and this movie has not been released. Actually for quite a while there was nothing even mentioned of this movie. In July of 2012, an unknown investor in the movie took to the internet claiming that the film’s production company, IndieVest, was doing nothing but stringing them along. Then radio silence again.
That was until March of this year. It seems as if the original cut of the movie, done by director Joe Lynch and completed days before the trailer was released at Comic-Con (remember this was back in the summer of 2011), was tossed aside by the Indievest and namely, it’s CEO Wade Bradley. It was actually Wade Bradley himself who responded to the ‘Rip-Off Report’ complaint by saying that “The film is now readying for its final mix and is on schedule to be released (by IndieVest Pictures) in the first half of 2013.”
I’m thinking that perhaps Mr. Bradley needs Santa to bring him a calendar this Christmas because there’s only roughly three weeks left in the first half of 2013 and there’s been neither hide nor hair seen of the recut Knights of Badassdom. But what of director Joe Lynch? What has he been saying in all this? Well when IndieVest was planning on screening their own edit, he took to twitter to make sure that everyone knew that it was not his version of the film by often using the hashtag #notmyedit.
He hasn’t said much else about it since then, instead choosing to tweet about Joss Whedon and S.H.I.E.L.D., conversations with friends, and his podcast, The Movie Crypt, with Adam Green.
When asked directly about Knights of Badassdom, the answer is a little sad.
I’m a person that hates to see good people get hurt (unless they’ve wronged me then I take glee in it – I’m a complicated individual) so it’s disheartening to see a director of a movie get shut out of his own project publicly like this. Granted this was probably mishandled by everyone involved but it’s hard not to paint IndieVest as the demon in this situation.
The real victim here though? Well that of course is the movie and the potential fans of said movie. I think we can all agree that this is the type of film that it doesn’t really matter if it wasn’t the best writing, or the best story, or the best anything. As a rule, if you don’t mess up the major things like Star Wars, Star Trek, or any other established universe, we geeks can be rather forgiving. There aren’t many shows or movies that have LARP as a main aspect so I think it’s safe to say that most of us would embrace it regardless. Sadly, no word yet on if we’ll ever get that chance.
I’ve mentioned it before, (here in the S.H.I.E.L.D. trailer write-up) but I love when shows embrace social media, especially when they come up with a clever hashtag with which to brand themselves. There are few better than the HBO vampire show, True Blood, with their #WaitingSucks campaign. In addition to having something that is easy for people to spread around twitter, they put out YouTube videos as well.
Continue reading True Blood – #WaitingSucks but a new trailer doesn’t!
Before anyone thinks I’m a loon, I don’t really believe Andy Kaufman is alive. However, I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t be impressed and rather pleased if he was. I suppose before I go any further, I should make sure everyone knows who Andy Kaufman is. I know, I know, it seems ridiculous to assume there are people who don’t know of Kaufman, but stranger things have happened.
Andy Kaufman was (is?) a stand up comedian. I take that back, Kaufman actually would often say that he was not a comic because he didn’t tell jokes, but rather let’s call him a “performance artist”. He was also an actor appearing on SNL and Taxi as well as a pair of specials airing on ABC and PBS. Lending to his protests that he was not a stand-up comedian, his act was composed mainly of characters he had developed. Perhaps the most famous was Foreign Man and his SNL appearance lip synching to Mighty Mouse is on the Way.
Kaufman’s act was one that quite possibly no one else could pull off, ever. He often would spend the majority of his time just looking nervously at the audience or asking them why they were laughing at him. He was able to pull off a “darker alter ego” light years better than Garth Brooks ever did, so much so that some people never picked up that Tony Clifton was indeed Kaufman.
There was so much more to the legend that is Andy Kaufman including his supposed desire to fake his own death, so it isn’t hard to see why people would want to believe that he is still alive. Kaufman died on May 16th, 1984 of kidney failure. He’d been diagnosed with lung cancer earlier in the year and people just assumed it was another of his bits but no, he really did have lung cancer and he really did die. However, there are still a large number of people who believe Kaufman is alive and well and now think perhaps living in New Mexico.
Could that be Andy Kaufman? Sure, why not? Is it more likely that it’s just some man living in New Mexico and has no idea that people are following him around filming him thinking he’s Andy Kaufman? A much more likely situation. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love for Kaufman to show up on The Tonight Show one night laughing at all of us for falling for the gag but some things are just too awesome to be true. No, it seems as if it is only his legacy that is still alive, and with any luck, will remain so for decades to come.
Thankfully there are those out there who are actively making sure that Kaufman’s work is remembered. On July 16th, record label Drag City will release an album called “Andy and His Grandmother“. According to Drag City, Kaufman was fond of carrying around a tape recorder and the album will consist of clips from the 82 hours of recording that they have.
[quote]Andy and His Grandmother is material never heard before, a skimming from 82 hours of micro-cassette tapes that Andy recorded during 1977-79. Real life was the ultimate frontier for him, and these tapes demonstrate the heart of Andy‘s comedy: with gusto, he involves those closest to him, as well as total strangers, in put-ons, falsehoods and other provocations, pushing the limit on logic and emotional investment in everyday situations from the trivial to the deeply personal until any suspension of disbelief is out of the question for all involved, and everyone becomes fully immersed in whatever scenario Andy is suggesting as the new reality. — Drag City [/quote]
Produced by Vernon Chatman, narrated by SNL alum Bill Hader, and with liner notes provided by long time Kaufman friend and colleague, Bob Zmuda, “Andy and His Grandmother” is certainly something to look forward to for all comedy fans. Christmas/Hanukkah/whatever in July anyone?
Jason Sudeikis may not have himself officially announced that he is leaving SNL (Jay Pharoah tweeted about his departure but it has since been taken down), but he is returning to the big screen with Jennifer Aniston in We’re the Millers. At first glance, it might seem like this is just a rip off of Robin Williams’ movie RV but one look at the trailer and you quickly realize, it is not.
Sometimes summer comedy movies can be rather hit or miss, but I think this might be a winner. It looks good from the green band trailer but, unsurprisingly, it looks amazing from the red band trailer.
I’ll go ahead and vocalize what everyone is thinking – Jennifer Aniston is hot! I don’t know if this is a new development or if I just haven’t noticed it before but damn.
Of course Jennifer Aniston isn’t the only draw here. Nick Offerman married to Kathryn Hahn? That’s damn near as good a combination as Nick Offerman married to Megan Mullalley. Nick Offerman, Kathryn Hahn, Jennifer Aniston, and Jason Sudeikis in a swinging foursome? This is shaping up to be a great movie!
If my time enjoying Jason Sudeikis on the small screen is over, I rest easy knowing that he is still getting decent enough roles in Hollywood even if that means smuggling pot for Andy Bernard.
Grizzly Bomb 