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!

Blog Posts:

First up, it’s fall, and that means horror films. Andrew at A Constant Visual Feast take sa look at The Possession, currently in theatres.

Ian the Cool gathered together a group of film bloggers to look at film through the ages. They take a look at the best films for one year out of each decade: 1931, 1941, and so forth. There are some interesting choices in the mix here.

Ah, Troma. We love thee, even when we know we really, really shouldn’t. Will at Silver Emulsion looks at one of their many offerings, the 2005 film Pot Zombies.

My knowledge of great sports films pretty much begins and ends with Rocky. But Fogs is a pretty knowledgeable fellow on the subject, and has put together his top 10 sports movies. Head over there, check out his choices, and see if you agree with the many commentators who are picking on him for not including Rudy.

Andy is trying hard to look like Gary Cooper (Super duper!) Or at least watch his acclaimed film, High Noon. High Noon was one of the first films I watched many years ago when I started to make an effort to check out must-see films I had missed, so it was a lot of fun seeing what someone who hadn’t seen it before thought of it.

Lawless, a film about bootleggers, is out this week. PG Cooper has his take on it here.

Alex Ryan Rhoades takes a look at last year’s Sleeping Beauty; go find out if he thinks it’s a sleeper hit, or just a snooze.

The Words makes its theatrical debut today. As is so often the case, Dan the Man has his review up before everyone else.

News Blurbs:

Michael Clarke Duncan, star of The Green Mile and the best thing about Daredevil, passed away Monday from a heart attack at age 54. Duncan was a fantastic actor, and by all accounts one of the nicest people in Hollywood. He will be missed.

Remember when Queensrÿche fired their front man, singer, and songwriter Geoff Tate? Well, now he’s formed a new band… called Queensrÿche. Joining him are Rudy Sarzo (bassist, of Ozzy Osbourne’s band, Quiet Riot, and Whitesnake), Bobby Blotzer (drummer, of Ratt), Glen Drover (guitarist, of King Diamond and Megadeth), Kelly Gray (guitarist, who has been a member of Queensrÿche before) and Randy Gane (keyboardist of Myth). Meanwhile, the previously-existing Queensrÿche — Michael Wilton (lead guitar), Eddie Jackson (bass), Scott Rockenfield (drums), and Parker Lundgren (guitar) — are moving forward with their own Queensrÿche, with new lead singer Todd La Torre, formerly of Crimson Glory. Lawsuits are already flying, as you might imagine, with the question of who owns the name still up in the air. If I had to make a premature guess, I’d say Tate will win, the other guys will lose the right to use the name, will start calling themselves Kingsrÿche, and will join the ranks of Creedence Clearwater Revisited and The Doors of the 21st Century in being a pale shadow of their former selves. Mind you, that last part is pretty likely even if they win the name.

A few days ago, I posted a list of quotes from actors about their regrettable movie choices. Included was a quote in which Eddie Murphy said he did Beverly Hills Cop III for the money. Over two decades later, he hasn’t learned his lesson. Beverly Hills Cop is coming back… as a television series. Murphy is producing, along with Shawn Ryan, and CBS has snagged the rights to the pilot. But don’t look for Murphy himself on the small screen… the show will be about Axel’s son Aaron. So, you know, it’ll completely lack that fish-out-of-water Chicago cop feel that made the original movie a great comedy.

NBC has picked up a pilot of a different sort of cop show… an as-yet-untitled drama from Howard Gordon and Josh Friedman, about a lead detective who has to investigate the first robot-on-human murder in a society where robots have become commonplace. No mention of Isaac Asimov has been made yet, but I’m reminded of The Caves of Steel personally. But, just speculating, it may wind up having more in common with Alien Nation — certainly a just-barely-futuristic Earth would be easier on the budget.

But those aren’t the only cop shows scheduled. In point of fact, NBC’s show isn’t even the only cops-and-robots show being produced. Yes, this is apparently a genre now. J.J. Abrams and J.H. Wyman are producing a show for FOX that will take a buddy-cop approach to the concept, set in a futuristic LAPD where every human officer is partnered with an android. Thus far the program is also untitled.

And that’s it for this Friday’s edition of the Weekly Weblinks. Tune in next week when, no doubt, I’ll be bringing you news of CSI: Foundation.