News Bites: J.J., J. Michael and J. Malko

Friday morning has rolled around once again, and if I had thought that previous weeks were indicating an increase in the amount of press releases coming out of Hollywood, this week’s the mother lode. Even with the usual caveat that there are things I miss or overlook or just don’t attribute any significance to, there’s a lot. In fact, there are just shy of two dozen news items this week.

Sheer volume indicates at least some of it should catch your interest, so let’s get to it, shall we?

News Bites: Jedi and Other Knights

It’s Friday morning, time for your weekly tidbits of the news. This week there hasn’t been a lot of solid news, but the rumor mill is in full swing with some mighty big possibilities. If any of the rumors are true, there’s apt to be some serious divides among fan-bases as they try to sort out how they feel about some of this.

Paramount Pictures and J.J. Abrams are planning to adapt Juliet Macur’s upcoming book Cycle of Lies, about Lance Armstrong’s doping scandal. No release date is mentioned, though with typical production times, it’ll probably be out in about two years, which will be about two years after the last person stops caring.

Speaking of Abrams, he may be directing a major science-fiction film set among the stars… and no, I don’t mean Star Trek. According to The Wrap, J.J. Abrams has been selected to direct Star Wars: Episode VII. Which, if true, means all that infighting among sci-fi fans about which franchise is better is about to get a whole lot muddier. (Note, however, that there have been a lot of “confirmed” directors attached already who were debunked within a few days, so until this comes out in the form of an official press release, it may not be a given, especially as Abrams denied wanting to direct the film last November.) EDIT: That press release has now arrived.

Also largely in the “rumor mill” stage, Latino Review cites “sources” as saying the characters have been chosen for Justice League. There will be a core team of five in the film, with the possibility of cameos for other characters. Those five? Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern. As these are probably the best known members of the J.L.A., it makes a certain amount of sense.

All six actors to play James Bond in film will be on stage together at the Oscars. This will take place during Adele’s performance of the Skyfall theme song (nominated for Best Original Song). So there will be at least one cool thing about this year’s Academy Awards — actually, two, considering this implies they’re actually going to play the nominees for Best Original Song instead of doing 10-second clips like they have the last few years.

In a move sure to upset absolutely nobody — except perhaps all the fans of the film — the Weinstein Company is moving forward on a sequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, based on author Wang Du Lu’s Silver Vase, Iron Knight. The director currently in talks for the film is Ronny Yu, best known in the U.S. for Freddy vs. Jason and Bride of Chucky. This may be the funniest thing I’ve seen all week.

“There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke.”
– Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, 1851

First Impressions: Revolution

It’s the start of the 2012 Fall TV season, and Monday night, NBC aired the premiere of their new post-apocalyptic series, Revolution. I’ll be getting to my thoughts on the show in just a moment, but first a word on the new “First Impressions” category on the site. What it is should be fairly self-explanatory. Why I’ve added this new category is nearly as straightforward. I still feel that, as a rule, I prefer to take television series on a season-by-season basis when it comes to reviews; the post-mortems work better for me than having a review for each individual episode. But I noticed last year that this leaves me with a bit of a problem when I decide to abandon a series well before the season finale. Certainly I had some thoughts on Grimm, for example, but as I had only watched three episodes, it didn’t quite fit into the full-season reviews I was doing with other shows. Adding a category for my thoughts on the first one to three episodes of a show (and conceivably a season, though I don’t anticipate that) allows me to jot down those early impressions and share them. Yes, those impressions will often be premature and superficial, but that’s going to be the case whether I share them or not, and whether they are good or bad. But this way I can at least say what they are, and why I am or am not following a show.

So with that out of the way, on to Revolution.

Weekly Weblinks: Comics and Coens

It’s Friday morning, and you know what that means: it’s time for the Weekly Weblinks. There’s a hefty amount of both blog posts and news this week. There’s some talk about upcoming movies that haven’t yet hit their wide release, as well as a couple looks back at slightly older films.

On the news front, there are remakes, retitlings, planned sequels, and a meeting of William Shakespeare and Joss Whedon. Plus, a long-lost Stanley Kubrick film is coming to home video. To find out what it’s all about, keep reading!

Weekly Weblinks: Phantoms and Foleys

It’s Friday morning, time for the Weekly Weblinks. This has been a bit of a busy week for me, so I wasn’t able to score a “just for fun” link this week; hopefully it’ll be back next time. But on the plus side, it seems to have also been a busy week around the web — busy with lots of blog posts, that is. Bloggers this week have been discussing everything from new films to old, from films that are classic to those that are cornball.

This being the start of the Fall season, it should be unsurprising that a lot of the news has to do with television; however, most of it’s for series a year or so away. What’s coming down the pipeline for the tube? Read on!

Post-Mortem: Fringe, Season 4

Fringe, one of the best shows that hardly anybody seems to be watching, just finished its fourth season. I didn’t start watching quite from the beginning — somehow it flew under my radar initially, as it apparently has with a lot of people — but I started watching about halfway through the first season, and I haven’t missed an episode since.

It’s a fun show, it’s always entertaining, and it’s pretty good science fiction, which is a rarity on for a network show. And it’s got some truly great acting, particularly from John Noble and Anna Torv. But this last season in particular, I can’t help but feel like it’s gotten just a little bit lost in itself… and I’m not just trying to pun on the fact that it shares J.J. Abrams as a creator with Lost.