Film and Television

A Great Frak’in Interview

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Glenlarson
Today I interviewed legendary writer/producer Glen A. Larson on camera for the Archive of American Television. He's created such shows as KNIGHT RIDER, FALL GUY, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, MAGNUM PI and QUINCY…and added the word "Frak" to our vocabulary. It went great and he told some terrific stories (and offered some fascinating insights into the TV business in the 1970s and 80s). One of the many surprising bits of trivia is that Sheryl Crow sang the theme to his series P.S. I LUV YOU with Greg Evigan. I'll be sure to let you know when the 4 hour video interview is on-line.  

 

Christian Bale Goes Batty

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TMZ has a audio tape of Christian Bale's insane tirade after the Director of Photography of Terminator Salvation accidentally walked into the star's eye line during a shot. The recording was apparently sent to the film's insurance company in case Bale bailed on the movie mid-production. I don't get why the director didn't step in and try to save his DP — and the crew — from Bale's tirade. Was McG just sitting there and watching? This was a much as insult to the director's control as it was a humiliation for the poor DP.

The sad truth is that Bale is so successful that he can get away with this repugnant, unprofessional behavior like this — nobody wants to offend a guy who makes the studios this much money, no matter how offensive he might be. I've worked with a couple of actors like that — but they weren't big enough stars to get away with it and didn't. It's not pleasant. 

More Retro TV News

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Key_art_the_a_team
Fox has reshuffled the creative team behind it's big screen theatrical remake of THE A-TEAM. Director John Singleton, who previously bungled the SHAFT remake, is out and Joe Carnahan is in. Ridley Scott is now on board as producer, along with Stephen J. Cannell, who created the original hit series.
Carnahan will also team up with screenwriter Brian Bloom to rewrite Skip Woods' current draft of the script. The studio hopes to get the movie into production in June for a Summer 2010 release. Variety reports that some tweaks are being made to the series concept:

In the original, four Vietnam vets convicted of armed robbery escape from military prison and became do-gooder mercenaries.
The Middle East will replace Vietnam as the place the four did their tour of duty, but Carnahan said the origin story is the jumping-off point.
"This was a coveted property, and reimagining a show that I remembered as a kid was tough to turn down," Carnahan said. "Fox hired me to make it as emotional, real and accessible as possible without cheesing it up."

It’s 1980 again

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V_l
Hot on the heels of THE BIONIC WOMAN and KNIGHT RIDER, ABC has greenlighted a pilot for a "reimagined" version of V, the NBC alien invasion series that starred Mark Singer,  Robert Englund and Jane Badler (pictured on the left). Variety reports:

The new "V" centers on Erica Evans, a Homeland Security agent with an aimless son. When the aliens arrive, her son gloms on to them — causing tension within the family.
Like the original, show centers on visitors who say they've come to help the Earth — but their motives are nefarious.

V writer/creator Kenneth Johnson isn't involved in this version, which will be written and produced by Scott Peters from THE 4400.

Two Web Pilots. Do They Represent The Future…or The Past?

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Here's The Remnants from writer/director John August…this one cost $25,000 to produce.

And here's Fusion, from writer/producer Richard Manning….this one cost less than $10,000 to produce.

Both are slickly produced and well-written. But are they the future of television? It seems to me like the majority of scripted, drama web pilots have a sci-fi slant. Is that a requirement of web shows simply because they are viewed on a computer screen? 

Every "webisode" and web drama I've seen all look like re-purposed TV shows rather than story-telling & film-making that takes advantage of the unique qualities and resources of the medium they are using. Why are we sticking so rigidly to the TV formats and techniques in this new medium?

What do you think? Would you click on new episodes of these shows every week? Would you pay to subscribe to them?

UPDATE: You can also catch the FUSION pilot here.

A Bourne Again Holmes

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25lyal600
Somebody is going to write a book on how the Bourne movies have reshaped action heroes. First James Bond got Bourne Again (in CASINO ROYALE), now it's Sherlock Holmes' turn. The new Holmes, portrayed by Robert Downey Jr., is going to be as brawny as he is brainy. The New York Times reports:

Sure, he will still be smarter than everyone within a three-planet radius, and he will retain his uncanny ability to intuit whole life stories from the tiniest speck of dust on a shoe. But he will do those things while being a man of action, a chaser, shooter and pummeler of criminals — “like James Bond in 1891,” Joel Silver, one of the film’s producers, said last fall.
[…]The new Holmes is rougher, more emotionally multilayered, more inclined to run with his clothing askew, covered in bruises and smudges of dirt and blood. […]But when he applies himself, Holmes is as fast with his body — he is a bare-knuckle boxer, a crack shot and an expert swordsman — as he is with his mind.

Can a Bourne Again Robin Hood, Tarzan, and Popeye The Sailor be far behind?