41 entries from February 2008.Arguing with Zeff Zucker NewTeeVee has lots of sound bites from NBC's Jeff Zucker's talk at the Harvard Business School a couple of days ago. For whatever reason, it seems like the main qualification to be a CEO is the completely inability to adapt to changing markets, with an irrepressible urge to hang onto the past as long as humanly possible, regardless of the consequences.Zucker fits that mold quite well, based on some of the crap coming out of this guys mouth. He's still mad at Apple for rebuking NBC's attempt to raise the price of TV shows (only for NBC to start streaming them for free), apparently doesn't know net neutrality is, and wants everyone to believe that the writers strike was a... A wager built on sand Came across a post by Steve Gaynor this afternoon via Penny Arcade, whereby Gaynor wagers that video games won't be any more culturally ingrained or introspective as films and books have been 50 years from now, or pretty much ever. I don't believe in betting generally because it's the essential definition of risk without mitigation, which is obviously never really a good idea. That aside, I believe this wager is crafted too narrowly and therefore is weighted too heavily in favor of the person proposing it.I could make all sorts of analogies here, but I'll just cut to the chase. To say that video games won't be as culturally ingrained as films and books at any point in time is... This ain't your daddies Scifi There's a funny poll running on Scifi Wire today asking readers which of the listed films should win the Saturn award for best Scifi flick. It's funny because of the six choices, only two of them are actually science fiction, while most are borderline stupid and just do not belong. I could go on for pages about how the term has been so abused over the years that it doesn't really resemble the original use in any way. It feels like virtually anything that isn't a comedy can be called Scifi now, and people don't even think about it.I've seen people say that Lost is science fiction, and Heroes, and these films are even more ludicrous; Transformers, Fantastic Four, and... Science Fiction Quarterlife didn't impress In case you didn't hear about it, and I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case, Quarterlife made a very quiet debut on NBC last night. For a little background, Quarterlife is a series made specifically for the Internet, spanning six episodes cut into six parts each, but produced with veteran talent and equipment you aren't going to find lurking in the garage anytime soon.... Quarterlife No Oscars For Old People I missed the first hour or so of the Oscars last night, which quickly brings me to my first point: it's on too late. They need to either tape the show on Saturday and broadcast it Sunday so that it'll be on at a reasonable time in every timezone, or hold the event in New York or anywhere else in the eastern timezone.Of course that'll never happen, even though to not do it is self absorbed and logistically retarded on every imaginable level. It must be nice for the program to start at 5:30pm and have it wind down at around 9pm, but the left coast is pretty much the only place that can happen, and with the ratings the... Academy Awards Bionic Woman is dead. Again. This show was troubled and probably doomed right from the very beginning. We've seen some success with this reboot/reimagining phenomena over the past couple of years in Battlestar Galactica on the television side of things, and Batman Begins on the feature side.It can work and in some cases with wonderful results, but that doesn't mean it will work, nor it is reason enough to try. It also helps not to force out the show's creator and begin a revolving door of showrunners before the first episode even hits the airwaves.NBC did precisely that, and not-so-shockingly the results are a whole lot of people looking for new jobs:Although NBC isn't talking, I'm told by multiple sources that Bionic staffers were informed... Bionic Woman 'Punisher 2' scribe has life threatened over film You could see this coming from a hundred miles away -- one of the writers working on the next Punisher flick has opted to take his name out of the hat, come credit arbitration time, to totally disassociate himself from the film. That's an exceptionally bad sign, as if this film actually needed more of them, that it's going to be a true junker that won't even come close to making a profit in the theaters.I wouldn't bother with repeating something like this normally, since I don't think it's all that out of the ordinary for doomed projects to have a merry-go-around of writers that each in their own way are going to be unhappy about what's going on. Some... Kurt Sutter, Punisher 2 Terminator losing more viewers, and my patience I've been watching the new Terminator spin-off on Fox, as I'm sure most of you have been, and I'm just about ready to cancel my season pass and send this monster into oblivion, as I'm sure a lot of you already have.Yeah, I know, it's kind of redundant since there's only two episodes left and Terminator wasn't on Fox's recent list of shows returning to production. They only managed to complete eight episodes before the strike put a stop to this (mercy?) although they were able to plan out the final episode of this "season" as a finale.House, Bones, Back To You, and others are coming back and a few premiering between the end of February and mid-April, but not... Terminator 4, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles 'My Name is Earl' creator spent strike on virtual vacation I'm kind of tired of writing about L.A. labor issues; I'm as ready to get on with other things as much as you're surely sick of reading about this stuff, but there's still some things worth talking about before we magically forget all of this ever happened a few weeks from now. It's easy to move on like that when you didn't have your ass (car, house, livelihood, etc) on the line as so many of these people did.... Greg Garcia, My Name Is Earl SAG may still be itching for a fight You had to figure that SAG was going to rattle its own saber a little bit after the WGA was ready to wrap things up -- which still has not happened by the way -- to make the AMPTP nervous about their own contract negotiations that could happen anytime between now and June. I kind of feel sorry for the AMPTP, maybe just a little bit, since they have to do this three times whereas the labor unions only have to go through this once each. That's immediately destroyed though with their atrocious behavior over the past 3.5 months so screw them, let 'em cry over their $30 million-per-year paychecks.SAG members will reportedly strike this summer after their current contract... SAG Warner Brothers does Valerie Plame, Enron If you're a fan of films based on real-life events, this will be some welcome news for you. I count myself amongst that group to a degree, though I'm so much more of a television person that I don't take the time to watch many films at all, much less something that has mostly a niche these days.Warner Brothers is working on three high profile based-on-true-story movies: one about outed CIA agent Valerie Plame, another about poisoned ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, and finally one about the Enron scandal from 2001. Conspiracy of Fools is the movie that tells the story of the Enron scandal and it was just announced today that Robert Schwentke has been attached to direct. Leonardo DiCaprio... Warner Brothers Michael Bay penned 'Transformers 2' during strike You can read other peoples thoughts on this here, here, here, and here, but you didn't come here for their thoughts, now did you? Look, I'm willing to give just about anyone the benefit of the doubt when they are trying something new, but I'm not a sucker willing to fall face first on the floor without making sure there's somebody else already down there that I can land on.In other words, before I'd ever give the nod to Michael Bay writing his own scripts, a couple of things would have to happen first to reassure me that he's serious and dedicated to the task.With the kinds of movies this guy makes, it's a difficult pill to swallow even then,... Michael Bay, Transformers 2 Jericho an example of finite-length serial drama While catching up on DVR stuff (20+ hours of backlog) I managed to snag the season debut of Jericho on CBS West. Now I haven't got a lot to go on here, but I'm just not getting good vibes.The ratings were just about where the show left off when it was canceled, which is better than I expected after such a long time off, though they should have been a lot better with no other real scripted competition to deal with. With a slashed budget and slightly smaller cast, you'd figure that identical ratings to what it was canceled would actually work in its favor since CBS is getting the same number of peepers and the same advertising dollars, yet... CBS, Jericho Who 'won' the strike? Yeah, I've seen that question asked rhetorically in the titles of a number of blog posts and MSM stories since the middle of last week too. The contract hasn't even been ratified yet and fools such as myself are going out declaring winners like this was a sporting contest rather than a labor "negotiation", although it really was neither of those things most of the time. The answer is actually an easy one to find, but you've got to figure out who was in the dominant bargaining position first.The plaintiff in a lawsuit is in the dominant position, and I'll stretch that analogy a bit here in a minute to explain what I mean. But honestly, I think the answer... AMPTP, WGA Interview with Chip Proser (Adopt a Writer) A couple of weeks ago, I signed up for a project to interview striking writers, to give them the same kind of publicity that the studios and networks get by default from their parent corporations owning all of the largest newspapers and TV stations -- basically they own the media we depend on to get "fair and balanced" news.What follows is my interview with veteran jack-of-all-trades writer, director, producer, and everything else you can imagine, Chip Proser. who has been busy for much of the last three months working a cause that he deeply believes in.... Adopt a Writer, Chip Proser 'Trio' and 'Midway' getting it done for Atlantis Since I crapped on Reunion and Outcast, it's only fair that I hand out some props for Trio and Midway. I just saw the latter two this morning and was very happy with what I saw. Not that I'm some definitive connoisseur of Stargate, drama, or television in general, but it's good to acknowledge the good along with the bad. It's pretty easy to bitch and whine when something isn't to your liking, but much more difficult to articulate your thoughts when you enjoy something.Maybe that's because you really just want to bask in it without thinking at all, lest you spoil the moment. Trio did that for me, but less so with Midway. The latter of those two really... Stargate Atlantis Atlantis season 5, and thoughts Now that season 5 of Stargate Atlantis has started production, I suppose now is a good time to gather some of my thoughts on what's going on, and where the show is going in the future. I really wish this show would get better ratings so that it didn't feel like it was always in a tenuous position for renewal. Even though I'd put quite a few shows above SGA on my list of things to make sure I see each year, I really don't think there are any that I'd rather write for. It'll suck well beyond description if and when it does end its run.So where is this show right now? I've got to fudge on that just... Stargate Atlantis ABC screws with Lost's timeslot...again Usually this is a sign that show is about to go away on a happy trip, the kind that people don't come back from because they've actually been taken out behind a shed or something, and shot. If you consider a 13 share great, then Lost is thriving. I don't actually consider a show that once had 26 million people watching it to be great -- if anything it's deflated and within easy striking distance of many other shows who would like to dethrone Lost as the king of the utterly-nonsensical-and-mostly-boring island.The island of the Lost, naturally.Anyway, ABC has decided that while 9pm on Thursday nights was cool, 10pm -- the hour after which everyone on the entire east coast... ABC, Lost Late night talkers actually thrived during the strike If there's one thing I learned from the writers' strike, it's that one of the following two things must be true -- either the majority of the late-night crowd wouldn't know real comedy if I rubbed their face in it then beat them with my belt, or people just don't watch late-night talk shows for anything other than the interviews.I'm going with the latter.... Late Show, Tonight Show '24' season 7 pushed back to Jan. 2009 There's lots of news flooding the blogosphere about what shows are coming back this year, or next year, what shows aren't coming back at all, and which of those are heading back into production or have done so already. 24 wasn't going to just go away, and most of you should have been aware by now that Fox decided to hold off on airing the beginning of the 7th season which they had already begun until after the strike ended.I could insert a snide remark here about how Fox wouldn't have even had to make that decision, if they had acted like adults and gotten the WGA contract out of the way without the need for a strike. Instead, I'll... 24, Joel Surnow Yes, it's finally over. Kind of. The strike was called off by vote yesterday, which naturally happened while I was fending off an army of angry midgets with pitchforks that were laying siege to my little island of the Internet damned (it rained, then it was sunny, and finally, it snowed.) The reason I say "kind of" is that while the strike was called off and all writers are now formally allowed to go back to work (if they have work to go back to, and lets not forget that well over half of them do not) they will be working without a contract.It'll be a week or possibly two before the vote on the contract will come down and while it seems extremely unlikely that... AMPTP, WGA This strike ain't over yet Sorry to break the bad news to you all, the strike isn't over yet. It won't be over today, and may not be over tomorrow. You wouldn't know it by all these deceptive and downright false headlines I found with a quick glance this morning, every single one of them wrong:The WGA Strike is Over - The Movie BlogHollywood Writers Strike Comes to an End - Hollywood.comWGA Strike Over - Buddy TVI assure you that the strike is not over, and arguably has not even coming to an end. This process entails four separate votes in succession over the course of more than a week, and we're only half way through. Any single vote that comes down as no can... AMPTP, WGA WGA membership meetings tonight The WGA-West is going to be holding their membership meeting to discuss -- not vote on -- the deal summary in a couple of hours, one that looks to have good points, bad points, and is every bit the result of trying to deal honestly with snake oils salesman. Deadline Hollywood has lots of "insider" coverage that is about as trustworthy as promises from the AMPTP. From what I understand, you only give a source anonymity when there's no other way to get that information. You don't give it just because someone wants to say something and not have their name attached, either because it will make them look bad, or because once you know who it is, you'll know... AMPTP, WGA The Rock almost beat up Cloverfield I'm only pointing this out because it's not just funny, it's damned funny, and in a way, a very scathing indictment of Hollywood in general. Dwayne Johnson -- a.k.a. The Rock, from his former pro-wrestling careering -- finally had a successful film this year with The Game Plan. Not only did it do well in the theater, it's now doing pretty well on DVD as well.The Game Plan was the 31st best performing film of 2007, bringing in $111 million worldwide on an estimated budget of about $22 million. That's actually amazing when you consider that Cloverfield cost about the same, and may have made a ton more when all is said and done.We're talking about The Rock leading a... Cloverfield, Dwayne Johnson Will 'Inside The NFL' land on the NFL's own channel? This may not be a news item that would appeal to very many people, nor do I imagine it has appeared on many people's radar. I still find this in an awkward way to be pretty great news. HBO is ditching Inside The NFL after hosting the talk program for the better part of past three decades. That's the bad part, HBO isn't interested in the show anymore, for whatever reason, but HBO didn't own it to begin with.I'll get to that in a minute, but first, the sound bite:More than 30 years after it began its run on HBO, "Inside the NFL" is leaving the field after Wednesday night's show."It has been a terrific franchise," HBO Sports president Ross... Inside The NFL, NFL Adopt a Writer highlights While I'm busy working with my adopted writer (my questions which I wanted to send yesterday will instead be going out later tonight) I thought it'd be nice for the project to highlight some of the interviews that have already gone up on the collective site. Though I don't have a great deal of time at this very moment, in brief review, I see based on the post titles that there appear to be seven interviews up for your consumption.Here are some excerpts from the most recent few. A lot of hard work and time by a number of people have been put into bringing you these interviews, so I'm sure they'd appreciate if you could check them out, and... Adopt a Writer Yep, the strike still isn't over. Apparently I'm not the only person who thinks Michael Eisner is talking out of his ass today. Despite the fact a deal hasn't even been presented to the membership, much less has it been ratified, Eisner is running around the financial cable news channels declaring that the strike is already over. Everybody can go home now, get back to work, and stop being so dirty and disagreeable with their corporate masters."It's over," Eisner said. "They made the deal, they shook hands on the deal. It's going on Saturday to the writers in general." .. "A deal has been made, and they'll be back to work very soon," Eisner said, adding, "I know a deal's been made. I know it's over."Respectfully... More blaming the victim from The Movie Blog There may not be much posted here today (the 6th) because of weather conditions that will effectively knock out my internet connection for the better part of the day and night, so I'm posting a few things early and mostly whatever I can come up with in the next hour or so. Real quickly, with everyone holding their breath waiting to see how the talks between the WGA and AMPTP are going to end, John Campea went and stuck his foot in his mouth for what feels like the 50th time.... AMPTP, WGA Pay no attention to the boring labor negotiations According to wire reports, there are going to be meetings this weekend where the WGA might present a deal to the membership -- the one they've been working on over the past week and supposedly have made great progress on. To clarify a little bit, this meeting was previously scheduled and was not called for any reason related to what is going on right now.That it may be used to present a contract is coincidental, and possible, not hardly guaranteed. At the very least though, the membership should be briefed about how things are going, how much work there is left to be done, and that news will undoubtedly leak out to us shortly thereafter.... WGA Adopt a Writer coming to The Media Pundit Ever since this blog went dark for a day in support of the writers strike, some things have been going on (too slowly for my tastes) to arrange a series of interviews between striking writers, and bloggers, called Adopt a Writer. My first adoption didn't work out -- the writer I contacted hasn't responded for the last seven days, so I've adopted another one whom I sent a letter to this evening.I really hope to have that wrapped up quickly and posted for all of you as soon as humanly possible, so be on the lookout for it. I plan to interview as many people as I can get my hands on, so naturally it's frustrating to wait a full... Adopt a Writer Scabs or just inaccurate reporting? Along with obvious and inevitable rumors that character X would get his or her own spin-off movie after appearing in movie Y, I raise a certain uncomfortable question where the answer is going to suck either way. Let me explain; you can see the rumor that Venom of Spider-Man 3 -- which I just saw this weekend and didn't was all that great -- would be getting his own flick just about everywhere on the entertainment blogs over the past few days, but I don't see anybody asking the obvious question that ought to follow this statement:... Spider-Man 3, Venom Scifi Channel finds Sanctuary I found it too, albeit I never actually saw it, I knew where it was! It was on a crappy website which was the only place you could actually see the series, which will in the end probably be remembered not so much as a pioneer, but one of those "ahead of its time" shows, like early scripted dramas that paved the way for the likes of 24, and Lost.This is actually worthy news because this is the second instance where a show was created outside of the studio system, for digital consumption only. Meaning it was made with a smaller budget, with shorter episodes, viewable only on the Internet via its home website. If that sounds familiar, NBC recently... Quarterlife, Sanctuary, Scifi Channel They'll give any movie a sequel these days Zap2it reported on the 31st (yes I'm coming to this late) that Paramount wants J. J. Abrams and company to give them a sequel to Cloverfield, even though the film burst out of the gate in its first weekend, only to splatter itself all over the pavement in its second and third weekend stints at the box office. I don't know if that's actually true or not, and Paramount will certainly be in a good position to rethink those cravings after it's seen what Abrams can do with its Trek franchise.That could go either way, you know. This will be the most expensive Trek film so far, and none of them have been blockbusters. I can't really see Abrams bringing... Cloverfield, J. J. Abrams, Paramount No news is good news There isn't much news related to the strike today, contrary to what you keep reading elsewhere. Both sides are still hashing out a deal, and will still be working on it tomorrow, and the next day, and so on until it's actually done. After that, the membership will still have to take time to read it, understand it, debate it, and then vote on it.The big difference between what the DGA did, and what the WGA is doing, is the DGA agreed on a deal that hasn't been finalized, and won't actually be voted on by their membership until this summer, around the time their current deal expires. The WGA doesn't have to wait, and won't wait. Once they've got... Cloverfield was anything but a stellar success For all the hype, there was remarkably little known about Cloverfield other than it was a completely typical and well explored Godzilla knockoff. You could infer certain things based on who worked on the film, and in all honesty, those were not benefits so much as they were serious questions about the viability of the film as a film, rather than an open ended quagmire than neither satisfied nor really entertained -- though it may have been very intriguing.I haven't seen it so I can't really make any judgments, but I figured what ought to be at least as enlightening is how well the film did end up doing, versus its hype. Snakes on a Plane, for instance, had three... Cloverfield, J. J. Abrams FCC fines ABC $1.5m for 5-year-old infraction It's funny how conservatives (i.e. Republicans) are the first to object to the government interfering in a family's rights when it comes to parenting and running their household, and generally fight all forms of regulation even when it's desperately required, but are always coming into your home unannounced, sitting down onto the couch next to you, holding your remote control, and deciding what you -- presumably a mature adult with a car and a real job and everything -- can watch on television.The FCC under Republican control (it's a five-member panel with a Republican president that gets to decide who gets nominated -- do the math) has been rebuked by the courts for trying to regulate far beyond what congress... ABC, FCC Giants win big, but Fox wins bigger So everyone knew that Fox was going to set a ratings record on Sunday with probably the most anticipated Super Bowl in history, and neither the football teams nor Fox would disappoint. Point in fact, this was the most watched Super Bowl in history, pulling in a monster 65 share, or just under 100 million people screaming from the couch, squirming in the chair, and gusty gamblers in Vegas raking in a fortune.To give you an idea of just how big that is, American Idol was pulling in about 32-37 million viewers in its most popular year, while the best performing scripted dramas average in the low 20s. So yeah, this Super Bowl tripled up on American Idol, I shit... NFL, Super Bowl More commenting stuff Just a quick note that I finally located the real problem that caused a malfunction with the comment system, which has now technically been fixed. I say technically because I'll have to republish the site for the changes to propagate across all pages. I'll do that soon, but before I spend the time, I'd like to tweak a few things here and there, specifically I'd like to fix a few mistakes in the theme that make the site appear a little differently in Internet Explorer than in Firefox.It'd be easier of course if everyone would stop using IE, since it's insecure, non-standards compliant, and Microsoft has proven plainly that they only update the browser when its market share lead is... Variety ratches up the pressure on the WGA, talk about inappropriate actions.. You had to figure there would be some sort of blowback from the DGA being accused by everyone and their cousin of being weak, and signing a bad deal for their membership. I don't really think it's warranted since their deal is probably the best one they've ever signed in the unions existence, which actually says a lot about the indirect benefits of a strong stance by the WGA. That is to say that -- and this isn't grand standing or face-saving -- the WGA forced the AMPTP to talk about issues they refused to even discuss at the outset, and by standing strong on those issues, became a sort of leverage for the DGA to get at least some... DGA, SAG, WGA News Summary I'm going to summarize a few things, then drop in a few more posts before the Super Bowl starts. Hopefully if I can stop being a lazy SOB, I'll get back to normal posting on Monday, or even later tonight. There will probably be a lot of small stuff mixed in this post, so don't just gloss over it from your feed reader.... AMPTP, WGA The Super Bowl is truly Worldwide No joke, you may have read about this a few days ago:For the first time ever, the BBC is to broadcast live TV coverage of Super Bowl, one of the world's most popular sports events. Super Bowl will be shown by BBC2, the pubcaster's second most watched web, at 10.50 p.m. local time Feb. 3. The Beeb will have it this year and in 2009 as well, and I'm sure once they see the ratings this event pulls in, they'll try to lock it in for as long as they can possibly afford, just as Fox has done here in the U.S. I'm actually a little surprised this hasn't happened sooner. The U.S. has exported American football and baseball, and... |
