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TV Log
Hailing Frequencies #380
10.11.07
HELLO
And here's the three hundred and eightieth edition of "Hailing Frequencies."
If you want to be notified when this newsletter is updated, email me to be put on my "notification" list.
Yes, you just had a Hailing Frequencies, but that was for last week.
NEW AT THE SITE
New Entries for Ozzy's Corner Hut
BIONIC WOMAN
Quite possibly, we're going to get another writers' strike at the end of October, so the smart thing for networks to do is put in script orders now, even if they're not sure they need them.
So, we can't be sure that the CW's order for additional script orders means that they plan to continue Bionic Woman and Journeyman. However, it's a sign the network likes things enough to hedge their bets..
DARK KNIGHT
Batman-on-Film.com says the next trailer for The Dark Knight will probably be attached to Warner Bros.' I Am Legend, which premieres December 14. Buzz has it that the film will be more "realistically violent" than the first Christian Bale outing, with lots of close-up hand-to-hand.
DRAGON WARS
Well, this over-produced, under-edited adaptation is getting pretty thoroughly trashed in the reviews, running at 22% at RottenTomatoes.com. Even the reviewers who recommend it are taking the stance made by IGN:
"Dragon Wars is easily one of the most ridiculous and nonsensical movies I have ever seen. Ironically, however, this proves to be its saving grace because the process of rationalizing and interpreting the philosophical gibberish that is unspooling on screen is what makes for such dynamic, absurd and yet strangely irresistible entertainment."
The majority of critics, however, simply call the film "a mess."
EUREKA
The series has been renewed for a third season.
HARRY POTTER
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has begun filming and has a tentative opening date of November 21, 2008.
HEROES
If you just can't get enough stuff to go with your Heroes episodes, you'll be glad to hear that G4 and hi-def net Mojo will be doing the strip reruns, with G4 producing an accompanying 30-minute recap series, The Post Show to follow. Look for it all to start October 27, 2010..
JOHN CARTER OF MARS
Since the dawn of time, it seems, someone somewhere has tried to figure out how to make movies out of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars series. The latest report, from ERBzine.com, now has Pixar making a trilogy of CG1 pix for Walt Disney Pictures with a tentative release date of "sometime before 2012."
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA
EW has the scoop. It's an origin story from scribes Kieran and Michele Mulroney, with the original seven members: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and the Martian Manhunter.
The bad guy is Maxwell Lord, a billionaire will an army of cyborgs called OMACs (One-Man Army Corps), who can take over humans and turn them into killing machines. This pits the members of the league against each other, include Superman vs. Batman and Superman vs. Wonder Woman.
The movie is a hit, there could at least seven spin-off sequels (obviously), except for Wonder Woman, probably, as DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com has reported that Warner Bros. president of production Jeff Robinov has decided, "We are no longer doing movies with women in the lead."
Ah, ain't life grand?
(Thanks to IGN for the heads-up on that quote.)
LAND OF THE LOST
I've already snarked about the plans to remake of Land of the Lost, but I should have saved the true derision for the news that Universal Pictures is going to have Will Ferrell (whom I love, but not for this) in the starring role.
Production begins next March, with Brad Silberling directing and Jimmy Miller producing along with Sid and Marty Krofft. The script by Chris Henchy and Dennis McNicholas ditches the whole family thing and aims for comedy about a disgraced paleontologist, his assistant and a macho tour guide who find themselves in a strange world inhabited by dinosaurs, monkey people and Sleestaks. The budget is reported at $100 million.
LOST
The fourth season of Lost bows February 6, 2008. Set those TiVos now.
MISC...
- Principal photography for Indy IV has wrapped.
- Cartoon Network and LucasArts will produce a 3D Halloween programming block on Friday, Oct. 12 at 7 PM with a sneak peak of the upcoming LucasArts 3D game Thrillville: Off the Rails. Episodes include Out of Jimmy's Head at 7 PM, and a Halloween 3-D episode of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends at 7:30 PM.
- ABC Family's has a new project, The Middleman, about a woman who is hired by a secret government agency to fight comicbook-style villains. Natalie Morales will assume the female lead, and Matt Kesslar will play "The Middleman."
- BBC bought the terrestrial rights to ABC Family's Kyle XY, which will run in the UK on BBC2.
- Google's rumored GPhone is not a phone after all. It is an open source mobile web platform built to operate on a variety of handsets, according to The New York Times. The initiative is geared toward getting carriers and manufactures to use the software for free in order to provide a ubiquitous platform for web browsing, business software and other applications that can be monetized through advertising. (I'm quoting the last bit from the PR release.)
- Okay, this isn't even remotely sci-fi, but it's cool! Check out Women in Art.
- The volume one (of three) DVD of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones will be available October 23. The 12-disc set has seven feature-length episodes, 38 companion documentaries, a historical overview, an interactive game, and an interactive timeline.
RANDOM DIALOG QUIZ
Can you name the movie? "Brilliant cook! Though he will put mushrooms on everything."
Highlight to read the answer: The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover
RATINGS
- ABC's Cavemen is doing pretty well, earning a 4.5/7 this week.
- NBC's Heroes got a 6.4/9, and Journeyman a 4.5/7 this week.
SPIDER-MAN
Spider-Man Merchandising L.P. has lined up its The Spectacular Spider-Man merchandising units, even though the show doesn't air until 2008 as part of the Kids' WB Saturday morning line-up on The CW. These include: Hasbro (master toy licensee), Wear Me Apparel (master apparel), IMT (sporting goods), Fashion Accessory Bazaar (back-to-school, storage), Bendon Publishing (publishing), DecoPac (cake decoration), Giant Merchandising (t-shirts), Berkshire Fashion (headwear, cold weather and hosiery), Fast Forward (back-to-school), and Jay Franco (domestics). Yeesh.
STAR TREK
The Hollywood Reporter reports the unconfirmed news that Chris Pine is going to be Kirk in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movie. Eric Bana was officially cast for the role of bad-guy Nero on October 9. Release is planned for Christmas 2008.
STARGATES
The season four Stargate Atlantis premiere episode "Adrift" earned a 1.2 household rating, which is...okay. We can do better, people!
TERMINATOR
All right. It's back, and it's rebooted. Warner Bros. has acquired North American distribution rights to Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, which means that the money's in place and production can start on the first a of planned trilogy of Arnold-less Terminator movies. John Brancato and Michael Ferris have finished the script, though there's no director in place yet. The release for Terminator Salvation is planned for summer 2009.
THUNDERCATS
Am I the only person in the world who found this particular cartoon unwatchably awful? There's been a lot of Thundercats nostalgia lately, and I don' t just mean on Robot Chicken.
Anyway, Warner Bros. has wrangled Jerry O'Flaherty to direct the CGI feature film, says Variety. O'Flaherty has extensive experience in gaming, having worked as art director on Gears of War, Unreal Tournament 3, and Command and Conquer. As he puts it to Variety, "The last four years of my life have been about bringing the energy of filmmaking into the videogame experience." I guess now he'll do the opposite.
TIN MAN
Sci Fi Channel and Publicis Groupe's Fallon Worldwide have put up a super-duper Flash-based site for Tin Man to support the upcoming miniseries loosely based on L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. "Infinite Oz utilizes new ZoomQuilt technology to take users into a digital creation chock full of extra scenes, character background and artwork, created by B-Reel." Tin Man premieres Sunday, December 2 9 PM and will air over three consecutive nights
TRANSFORMERS 2
IGN reports that Steven Spielberg says "that Transformers 2 is rapidly being prepared for production." With the story going out within the month (again, avoiding that pending writers' strike). Shia LeBeouf will be returning as Sam for this sequel, and probably more after that. (And, of course, LeBeouf is the new action hero for the Indiana Jones franchise. Hey, it really pays to be Spielberg's go-to guy!)
Top Visited US Broadcast Network TV Show Websites (Week ending Oct 6, 2007)
Rank Network Website Market Share of Visits
1 NBC Deal or No Deal 13.60%
2 ABC Dancing With The Stars 10.63%
3 NBC Heroes 6.23%
4 FOX America's Most Wanted 3.29%
5 ABC Grey's Anatomy 3.26%
6 NBC The Office 3.15%
7 ABC The Bachelor 2.32%
8 ABC Lost
2.24%
9 NBC The Biggest Loser 2.08%
10 ABC Desperate Housewives 1.96%
Source: Custom report from Hitwise
TOP MOVIES FROM THE NUMBERS
1 The Heartbreak Kid...................$16,696,491 (heartbreak box office!)
2 The Kingdom...........................$33,903,815
3 The Game...............................$46,595,899
4 Resident Evil: Extinction............$44,718,202
5 Good Luck Chuck.....................$30,085,602
6 3:10 to Yuma..........................$49,497,901
7 The Seeker: The Dark is Rising.....$4,542,096
8 Eastern Promises......................$15,009,475
9 The Brave One........................$34,911,204
10 Across the Universe.................$8,550,000
TOP BOOKS SCI-FI/FANTASY @ Amazon, 10.11.07
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, byJ.K. Rowling
2. The Road (Oprah's Book Club)
3. The Orc King (Forgotten Realms: Transitions, Book 1)
4. Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy, Part 3 (Sword Of Truth, Book 11)
5. Making Money (Discworld Novels)
6. Fatal Revenant (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant)
7. A Lick of Frost (Meredith Gentry, Book 6)
8. Harry Potter Paperback Box Set (Books 1-6)
9. Empire of Ivory (Temeraire, Book 4)
10. Halo, Books 1-3 (The Flood; First Strike; The Fall of Reach)
TOP DVDs SCI-FI/FANTASY @ Amazon, 10.11.07
1. The Jungle Book (Two-Disc 40th Anniversary Platinum Edition)
2. Transformers (Two-Disc Special Edition)
3. Heroes - Season One
4. Fantastic Four - Rise of the Silver Surfer
5. Shrek the Third (Widescreen Edition)
6. The Secret (Extended Edition)
7. Smallville - The Complete Sixth Season
8. Stargate Atlantis - The Complete Third Season
9. Spider-Man 3 (2-Disc Special Edition)
10. Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
INSANE TREK TRIVIA
This Week's Question: When Tom Paris was a lad, he wanted to join what branch of the Federation?
Send your answer to julia.houston@gmail.com. All correctly answering trivia maniacs will have their names mentioned in the next letter. The first winner gets to make a request, anything they like -- within reason -- for the next "Hailing Frequencies" Issue. Please let me know if you don't want me to post your email address if you win.
Last Week's Question: Whom did Dax think was kinda cute with his three little forehead hairs?
Answer: Morn.
First winner
Joanie M.
Second winner
Sue
Third winner
athena28
Fourth winner
Kelly
Fifth winner
Michael
Sixth winner
Renee
Seventh winner
Debra
CAPTION CONTEST
Send in your best caption for the picture below. The best (as in, my favorite) entry will appear in next week's issue.
[Insert caption here.]
THIS WEEK'S WINNER:
"Hey Ando, see what my father taught me? He learned it from one of his treks." - Renee-
Honorable mentions...
"Do you know the international symbol for "huge dork"? - BTCHONWHLS
My name is Hiro Nakamura. My honorable father taught me this greeting. He learned it from an old friend of his in another life. He told me I must teach it to the one I know named SYLAR. If I am lucky, the maniac won't cut off my head." - Sue
"Well, um. It's really not the Vulcan salute. It's more like I Crazy Glued my freakin' fingers together. Heh!" - BrownRd226
"Does Godzilla speak Vulcan?" - Angie
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR"
Last week's topic: Are we actually getting to the point where there's too much sci-fi on TV?
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Yes.
BTCHONWHLS
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Hey Julia, Too much Sci Fi on TV? Nah!
***
Next week's topic: Do you agree with Warner Bros. president of production Jeff Robinov that action movies with women in the lead roles aren't worth the effort these days?
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Send me something if you've got something to say. It can be about anything that's on your mind!
HAILING FREQUENCIES CLOSED
