television (207 posts)

20th Century Fox

Do we really need to do the time warp again?

MTV thinks so. The music net is resurrecting Dr. Frank-N-Furter, Brad, Janet, Riff Raff and the rest of the singin' and dancin' weirdos of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, turning everyone's favorite midnight musical comedy into a TV movie.

The Rocky redux will feature the original campy 1975 screenplay by Jim Sharman and Richard O'Brien, according to Variety, along with the classic soundtrack for the two-hour teleflick. There might be a couple of new songs written specifically for the TV take, which MTV is hoping to have on the air next year.

No word yet on a director or cast, but it seems unlikey original stars Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Patricia Quinn or Meat Loaf will be meeting over at the Frankenstein place for another go-round.

The Rocky faithful are, predictably, already taking to the Interwebs to grouse about the redo. What do you think, great idea or some doo-doo waiting to happen? Sound off in the comments.

Zade Rosenthal/20th Century Fox, David James/New Line Cinema

Today's installment finds Mark Wahlberg swapping those Boogie Nights for the Miami heat, John Waters breaking out the beehives again for a Hairspray sequel and Tim Burton finding a girl to take a spin through the looking-glass in his Alice in Wonderland.

First up, Wahlberg is attached to executive produce and costar with Peter Berg in Cocaine Cowboys, a drama Berg is slated to direct based on the true story of a Vietnam vet who ran a powerful cocaine syndicate in south Florida in the 1970s.

Keep Reading

The CW

Gossip Girl's lusty marketing minds have rolled out another series of steamy promos for the teen drama, this time craftily spotlighting nuggets of "praise" from the Parents Television Council ("Mind-Blowingly Inappropriate"), the Boston Herald ("Every Parent's Nightmare") and other outlets.

As with the show's other recent foray into shock-and-awe advertising, the campaign—meant to appeal to both our basest and our brightest (as in, our satire-appreciating) instincts—certainly fares well. And it obviously achieves the CW's No. 1 objective, which is to create buzz.

Admittedly, Serena, Blair, Nate and the rest are all played by fresh-faced 20-and-aboves (albeit none of whom would ever admit to having had as much sex in high school as their upper-crust characters) and none of the new spots proclaim "OMFG" but...

It's still a bunch of teens doin' it! Or about to do it. Or very obviously thinking about doin' it.

Check out just how far we've come from Brenda and Dylan's tender moment at the spring dance after the jump...

Keep Reading

Adult Swim/Cartoon Network

The Force is still with Carrie Fisher and Billy Dee Williams.

The Star Wars stars are set to reprise their iconic roles as Princess Leia and Lando Calrissian, lending their pipes to the Cartoon Network's Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II.

Seth Green is once again on board to helm the animated sequel, a follow-up to Adult Swim's George Lucas-sanctioned special that not only earned Green an Annie Award for Best Direction but also a recent Emmy nomination for Best Animated Show.

"It doesn't even seem real—getting to make Star Wars twice!" the Robot Chicken mastermind tells the Hollywood Reporter.

Keep Reading

ABC/Greg Zabilski

Guess not too many people are planning to stay for the end credits of High School Musical 3.

High School Musical: Get in the Picture, the new ABC reality show that promises to cast its winner in a music video to play during HSM3's aforementioned crawl, failed its first—and second—ratings tests.

Sunday's inaugural episode placed 69th in Nielsen Media Research's latest weekly rankings. It finished fourth, or last, in its time slot behind nonstellar broadcast competition led by CBS' Big Brother (33rd place, 5.7 million). Its 4 million viewers were more fitting for an umpteenth HSM rerun on Disney Channel than a broadcast premiere.

Keep Reading

Kurt Iswarienko/FOX

As all Buffy, Angel and Firefly fans know, when Joss Whedon gets it right, he gets it very, very right. And if he gets it wrong—he'd rather us not know it.

The writer-producer confirmed on his Whedonesque website today (via a faux Q&A with "Rutherford D. Actualperson") that he is reshooting the pilot for his upcoming Fox series Dollhouse after both he and some network execs—who picked up the Eliza Dushku-starring sci-fi drama earlier this year based on concept alone—became concerned that his intended opener didn't make a whole lot of sense.

"What’s that, you say? A second first? How can such a thing be? Does it defy the laws of all physics?" the show runner blogged.

"I said [the pilot] was grand, I didn’t say it was comprehensible. I showed some scenes to David Lynch and he’s all, 'whuh?' Bad sign. But I kid," assured Whedon.

Keep Reading

Ash Knotek/ZUMAPress.com, Lisa O'Connor/ZUMAPress.com

Thanks to Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen is used to being on the receiving end of lawsuits. Now, he'll be filing them.

The comic actor is set to produce and star in Accidentes, a comedy for Fox Atomic about an ambulance-chasing personal-injury attorney.

Keep Reading

Maury Phillips/WireImage.com, Chris Pizzello/AP Photo

A day after Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper announced they were vacating their aisle seats on At the Movies, producer Disney has given two thumbs-up to a couple of new hosts for the venerable movie-review show.

Producers have tapped E!'s resident movie buff Ben Lyons and Turner Classic Movies go-to man Ben Mankiewicz as the new cinematic tastemakers on the weekend show.

"I am incredibly excited to be involved with such a prestigious show," Lyons said. "Reviewing films for a living is a thrill, and now that I will be a critic for At the Movies, it is an honor and huge responsibility that I look forward to."

Keep Reading