Archive for July, 2008

The Emmy awards aren’t only rewarding reality TV hosts for the first time this year — they’re also giving them a big chance to show off what they do best. Instead of hiring a single host, the Emmy producers instead will turn the show over to the five nominees in the Outstanding Reality Host category: Tom Bergeron, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel, Jeff Probst, and Ryan Seacrest.

Seacrest, of course, got his first shot last year, but the rest will all be newbies to the Emmy hosting stage. Do you think it’s a good idea to split up the hosting duties between these five people? Or is it just a disaster waiting to happen?

Photos courtesy of NBC and Source

It’s no secret that I’m quite addicted to AMC’s Mad Men — I declared July “Mad Month,” after all! It’s fresh and smart, with great writing and fantastic characters (and the fashion is awesome, and Don Draper is one of the dreamiest men to hit the television in a long while . . . ), and because there isn’t a lot going on this Summer in TV-land, the show’s return on Sunday felt a little like Christmas in July.

So, since Mad Men keeps me riveted to my screen (both because of the entertainment value and multi-layered social commentary embedded in each episode), I’m going to be recapping each episode of season two. Together we can sort through the drama and thought-provoking topics the storylines touch each week.

I know a lot of people are still playing catch-up with season one, so I won’t even hint at where we last saw these ad men and the women who loathe love them until after the jump. But if you’re ready to chat about last night or just see my thoughts,

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Entertainment Weekly held a few “Visionaries” panels at Comic-Con that brought together some of the greats in the TV, movies and comic book worlds. At the filmmakers panel, it was mostly a kick to see Kevin Smith, Judd Apatow, Zack Snyder and Frank Miller all at one table. It turned into the Smith-Apatow comedy hour, but that seemed to suit the audience members (myself included) just fine. Check out some of the highlights below.

• The whole panel was super bawdy and raunchy, mostly due to Smith and Apatow making dirty jokes about each other. And then there was the smiling, friendly-faced Zack Snyder, who awkwardly bumbled out an answer to a question, after which there were about three beats of silence before Smith said, “Thank God your visuals are so strong, man.” Smith later marveled at how awesome Snyder’s Watchmen looks, saying he could die once he sees that movie.
• Apatow talked about his raunchy comedies: “You have to find out: how much penis can you show in a movie without clearing an entire room?” Meanwhile, Smith nodded, deadpan, like he totally understood.
• Smith: “I go with my gut, but my gut has lied to me in the past, like, when my gut said, “Yeah, Jersey Girl‘s a great idea!’”
• Frank Miller: “Very early on I learned I was incompetent at anything else. So I started to make comic books.”

More on comics, geek culture, and how comedians differ from rappers (according to Apatow), if you

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• Citing a lack of stories to tell in a second season, HBO won’t be bringing back Tell Me You Love Me after all, Zap2it reports.
• According to Hollywood Reporter, Ridley Scott’s Nottingham movie (starring Russell Crowe as Sheriff of Nottingham and Sienna Miller as Maid Marion) has been “indefinitely postponed.”
• Alexis Bledel and Scott Porter are joining Julio DePietro’s romantic comedy The Good Guy, ComingSoon reports.
• Harvey Keitel will play a detective in ABC’s Life on Mars, marking the first time he’s taken a regular TV role, the New York Times reports.
• Billboard has the news that Coldplay’s album Viva la Vida climbed back to the top spot on the U.K. charts.
• Showtime is developing a drama about Studio 54 called Studio, writes Hollywood Reporter.
• Ellen Barkin, Ving Rhames and Rob Corddry will star in the indie comedy Rogues Gallery, Variety writes.
• Family Guy showrunner David A. Goodman will adapt Blatant Comics’s Last Blood into a horror film, according to ComingSoon.
• Entertainment Weekly reports that Nelly will guest-star on CSI: NY as a club owner.

Source

It’s one thing to hear all about the twists and turns coming up on the second season of Chuck. But it’s another thing entirely to get to see them — and that’s exactly what happened over the weekend when Josh Schwartz, Zachary Levi, and the rest took the stage at Comic-Con. While there’s no official version of the almost 7-minute trailer, E!‘s Kristin Dos Santos, who moderated the panel, got her spies out to capture the video from the big screen. (So what I’m saying is: Agent Casey, blame her, not me!)

Among the wonderful things to be glimpsed in the trailer: a shot of the Nicole Richie shower fight, Tony Hale dressing down the Buy More crew, more than one Chuck/Sarah kiss, and the first appearance of Jill! I’m so psyched, so to see if the season looks like you were hoping, just

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A herd of cattle grazing in a parking lot probably isn’t the weirdest thing I saw during Comic-Con, but it’s not too far off. The dozen or so cows had a purpose, though, serving as a clue along the way during a Fringe-related scavenger hunt in San Diego.

If you’ve seen the Fringe pilot — which several thousand more people now have seen following the San Diego screenings — you’ll get the cow thing, which also came up at TCA; if not, stay tuned for Fall. But cute (though smelly) as they were, the cows weren’t the best thing I found in the parking lot. Nope, that would be Roberto Orci, Fringe (and Star Trek) writer and executive producer, who chatted with me briefly about what Comic-Con has meant for Fringe. The entire show actually has its roots in the convention, so to hear about that, just

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“Based on the true story of a real idiot.”

The teaser for How to Lose Friends and Alienate People was kinda “meh” and the international trailer was downright odd. Now we have the “official” trailer for us Americans who are curious about this movie starring Simon Pegg, Megan Fox, Jeff Bridges, and Kirsten Dunst, and I have to say it is definitely an improvement. I didn’t necessarily laugh at any of the moments that are supposed to be funny, but at least I can figure out what to expect from this film.

Based on the true-life story of author Toby Young, the movie looks a touch forced. Still, I adore Simon Pegg (who I recently got to interview — stay tuned for that!) and want to keep an open mind until it opens October 3.

To check out the trailer,

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In its second week in theaters, The Dark Knight continued to trample both the competition and box office records. According to Variety, it brought in $75.6 million from the 4,300 theaters screening it. This means that the Batman sequel brought in $300 million in less than 10 days, and grossed more than any other film has in its second weekend, a record previously held by Shrek 2.

Batman’s competition mostly came from Step Brothers. The R-rated comedy took in $30 million which secured it the no. 2 spot. It seems that much of America did not have Will Ferrell fatigue after all.

Mamma Mia! grabbed the third spot with $17.2 million, bringing its total to $62.7 million.

The rest of the top five included The X-Files: I Want to Believe, which brought in $10.2 million, a very small number for what was expected to be a Summer blockbuster. To put that into perspective, the first X-Files film earned just over $30 million its first weekend during June of 1998. Journey to the Center of the Earth took fifth place, earning $9.4 million.

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros.