While the response to the first two episodes of the second season have been mixed at best (NO SPOILERS I HAVEN’T WATCHED THEM YET!) there is NO doubting the extreme popularity of the AMC TV adaptation of The Walking Dead.
With nearly SEVEN million people tuning in every week, it’s the biggest show in cable, and being smart, AMC has decided to lock in their investment for another year.
Sure, there has been much talk about Frank Darabont’s departure from the show, and budget issues…but the fact at the end of the day is this – there will be a third season of The Walking Dead!
Now lets see how the next year plus turns out before we start hoping for a fourth season.
In one of the bigger pilot deals for the 2012-2013 season, Fox (not ABC, a Disney network) has lined up a ‘put pilot’ for an adaptation of the Marvel Comics hero, The Punisher.
For those, like me, who don’t know what a ‘put pilot’ is, this means that Fox HAS to order the series, or they will have to pay some super big fines to Marvel for not producing it. So I guess we’ll be seeing Frank next fall.
One of the unique things about this new take on The Punisher is the twist – Frank Castle will be an NYC cop by day, Punisher by night, so I guess we’ll get to see how Frank works on the ‘right’ side of the law.
That’s all the details for now, but it could end up good. I mean – it’s going to be better than the Dolph Lundgren version, right?
I think it’s fair to say that since the Fall of 2009, people have wanted a follow up to the horror comedy Zombieland.
That said, given the popularity of its cast (Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson), it’s starting to look like that film was lightning in a bottle. So what do the creators do to make a sequel happen?
If you said “Turn it into a half hour TV show!” you win, as FOX and Sony Pictures are working together to turn Zombieland into a half-hour comedy for the 2012-2013 season.
This is interesting, as the movie originally started off as a potential TV series, but was turned into a film when the project stalled at CBS. Given the HUGE popularity of AMC’s adaptation of The Walking Dead, zombies are the new big thing, so it’s of little surprise that someone bit on the project.
Sorry to say that this will kill all hopes of a Zombieland 2 proper, but I think given that they’re going the half-hour comedy route, as opposed to an hour long dramedy, that this project could work, stand out and be a good time. I sure am going to miss that cast, though.
An NYCC Exclusive Attack the Block Print from Marvel Comics
One of my top films for this, the year of 2011, is Attack the Block, but you already know that.
What you may not know is that it hits DVD and Blu-Ray tomorrow. (You might wanna swing for that.)
Anyway, many people, including myself, but more importantly, big money Hollywood types are pretty much figuring that Attack the Block is going to wind up as quite the big movie on video. So in turn, creator/director Joe Cornish is starting to get quite a few offers on the table.
Like what, you ask? As Cornish spoke to IFC about, they are about what you’d expect. You have the standard US remake, which would be completely unnecessary and terribly shit, I feel. There’s the idea of a TV series – again, pretty unnecessary and terribly shit.
But then there’s the sequel idea – which I’m only vaguely interested in because the idea of it comes from actor John Boyega, who starred as the lead, Moses.
Here’s what Cornish said on Boyega’s idea for Attack the Block 2:
“[He] keeps coming up with amazing ideas,” says Cornish of Boyega. “He has this image of a bigger alien attack on London, as if the attack we saw in ‘Attack the Block’ was just the [first] wave and there’s another wave of bigger creatures. And he described to me this image of Moses leading a whole army of hood kids across the Thames, next to the houses of Parliament.”
“No, his image was even better,” Cornish continued. “He had an image of Moses on a police horse. You know the police in London who have those horses they use in riots…somehow Moses has got onto one of those horses. So he’s on a horse leading this army of South London kids across the river to take on this bigger wave of aliens. So yeah it’s really fun to think of stuff like that and what we could do.”
That honestly sounds pretty awesome, and I suppose at the end of the day, we always would have the pitch perfect film to look back at.
Any way you slice it, if you’re reading this and haven’t seen Attack the Block yet, pick it up, Redbox it or do whatever you do to see movies – it’s a damn fine film.
Hey, you guys remember when Hostess made delicious baked goods based on DC Superheroes?
N-no? OK, that’s fair. But they did. .
Anyway, in celebration of the home video release of this summer’s explosion highlight reel Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Hostess has decided to mash up their snowballs and cupcakes with Autobots and Decepticons for a limited edition run.
The classic Snoball has been given an Autobot touch with Optimus Prime, making for SNOBALLIMUS!
Not to be outdone, the classic Hostess Cupcake has gone evil, combining with the Decepticon Shockwave to make…CHOCKWAVE!
Transformers: Dark of the Moon hits DVD and Blu-Ray on September 30th, so expect these treats to hit your local grocer around them. If they don’t have them, do what Michael Bay would do…BLOW THE PLACE SKY HIGH.
It looks like that the longest running prime time animated series of all time may also be the first to spawn it’s own television network. That’s right, gang, we could see a cable network made up of nothing but episodes of The Simpsons.
I know, I know, you’re already sold on the idea, but let’s hold off on fantasizing, as this is just a potential idea.
News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey hinted at such an idea at the the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media Communications & Entertainment Conference in Beverly Hills earlier this week.
Personally, I think they might just be smarter to start a “Fox Animated” channel, featuring their wide breadth of animated programs from throughout the years, but ponder this…if you do the math of how many episodes of The Simpsons have aired over the years (not including the episodes still to come), they could air episodes of the show 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and not rerun an episode for eleven days. I don’t know of another show that could pull that off.
What do YOU think? Could a Simpsons network work? Or would it be too much for our favorite family from Springfield? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
One of my favorite films this year, Source Code is apparently on it’s way to becoming a TV show.
In case you missed the movie (AND SHAME ON YOU IF YOU HAVE!), the titular “Source Code” is a unique investigative tool that, via time travel, allows someone to relive the last 8 minutes of someone’s life. In the case of the film, it allows a military agent to constantly relive a train bombing in the hopes of catching the bomber.
Apparently CBS is convinced that you’ll be willing to watch an entire series as CSI-esq operatives enter new people’s final minutes each and every week.
For the big Duncan Jones fans like me, please note – the series does not involve him (yet?), it’s totally the production of the writer of the film, Mark Gordon.
As for me – I can’t say I’m thrilled that the film is being mined for a TV show, but the concept is removed enough from the movie-proper that I think they can coexist. Lets keep an eye on this one, shall we?
Lets all take a moment to ignore all of the hubbub about of The Walking Dead Season 2 and realize that holy crap, we are weeks away from Season 2 of The Walking Dead.
Sure, if the rumors are true about AMC wanting to cut costs, that’s kind of messed up, given that The Walking Dead is their best rated series to date, but lets play devil’s advocate – Season 1 wasn’t all the series could have been. If you’re producing a series and you constantly deliver over budget and after deadline, you’re gonna get smacked, no matter how good you are. Maybe these changes could be good.
But whatever changes we see, we’ll be seeing them in two parts, as AMC announced today that the first seven episode half of Season 2 will air starting on October 16th, and the second, six episode backend will air starting in February 2012. Take this as notice to expect a pretty big cliffhanger at the end of episode 7, and to probably ignore a Season 2, Part 1 DVD or Blu-Ray set (I mean, they’re already double dipping Season 1, for fuck’s sake).
But, it’s not all doom and gloom, as it was also announced that the first episode will be an extended 90 minute episode, just like the amazing opener to Season 1.
I think they can salvage this. Lets hope it’s true. Don’t let us down, AMC!
