The Flickcast – Page 705 of 1030 – Stuff Nerds Love

TV RECAP: ‘Breaking Bad: Abiquiu’

Posted on May 31, 2010

This recap contains spoilers for the Breaking Bad episode, “Abiquiu.”

“Abiquiu” opens with a flashback of Jesse and Jane pontificating about the artwork of Georgia O’Keefe. The two are examining a more chaste collection of O’Keefe paintings featuring a series of doors, which Jesse finds boring and pointless, while Jane admires artistic liberties that O’Keefe took with each individual painting.

Jesse can’t understand why O’Keefe basically repeated the same painting with slight variations. “Isn’t that insane?” he asks Jane.

Jane counters that she believes you should go wherever the universe takes you, and by using Jesse’s logic, there is no point to repeating anything, even acts that are enjoyable. She takes a last drag and crushes her cigarette out in his car ashtray, leaving the tell-tale lipstick trace that caused Jesse to fish it out of the ashtray earlier this season, as it is the the last tangible remnant of her physical being.

The scene brilliantly cuts to a pair of feet dangling several feet above the ground. Uh oh, who is that hanging? Once the camera pans back, you see that it is Hank, in the Hospital, in some sort of harness device that is lowering him to the ground. A physical therapists encourages him to take a step while Marie, Walt Jr., and Skylar look on.

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J.J. Abrams and ABC May Reboot ‘Alias’

Posted on May 31, 2010

I guess one show about spies isn’t enough for J.J. Abrams. With Undercovers currently going ahead at NBC, the writer-director-producer is now discussing the possibility of bringing back his earlier spy series Alias to ABC.

According to “insider” sources, the rebooted series would have some elements of the original that featured a then-unknown Jennifer Garner. However, it would be a more straightforward action/spy show and wouldn’t contain the mythology involving the Rimbaldi prophecy and subsequent other developments.

While discussion are only in the very preliminary stages, ABC would reportedly make this move in an effort to hold onto the audience they will be losing now that Lost has ended and FlashForward was cancelled. Plus, spies seem like a hot commodity on TV right now with the return next season of Chuck, USA’s Burn Notice still going strong and the upcoming debuts of the CW’s Nikita and the aforementioned Undercovers.

Given all that, it would seem the decision by ABC to reboot the show might be a good one. Still, you have to wonder about TV executives. They lose a show like Lost and the best idea they can come up with to “replace” it as to reboot a series that only lasted five years and towards the end got incredibly convoluted and lost a great deal of its audience?

Well, if a new Alias really does come to pass then my vote for the new Sydney Bristow is Kerri Russell. She was great as a spy (briefly) in Mission Impossible III so I think she would make a great choice. What do you guys think?

Guillermo del Toro Steps Down As ‘The Hobbit’ Director

Posted on May 31, 2010

If you were one of many fans who thought that if Peter Jackson wasn’t going to direct The Hobbit a really great alternative was Guillermo del Toro, prepare to be disappointed. After spending the last two years developing the adaptation of the J.R.R. Tolkien classic as his next directing effort, Guillermo del Toro has announced he is now stepping down as director of the project.

The director was obviously disappointed about the decision but said: “In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming “The Hobbit,” I am faced with the hardest decision of my life,” Guillermo wrote in his announcement on “Lord of the Rings” fansite TheOneRing.net. “After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien’s Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures.”

However, all is not completely lost as the director also indicted he would stay on the project co-writing the screenplays for parts one and two with Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Phillippa Boyens. Of course, now that del toro has stepped down it would seem like a perfect choice would be for Jackson to step up and take over the film.

After all, he’s been intimately involved with the production and did a pretty good job with those Lord of the Rings movies. Sadly, with Jackson’s other commitments, he won’t be taking on the film either.

“New Line and Warner Bros. will sit down with us this week, to ensure a smooth and uneventful transition, as we secure a new director for ‘The Hobbit,’ said Jackson. “We do not anticipate any delay or disruption to ongoing pre-production work.”

Well, there you go. With del Toro out and Jackson out, who’s the best choice to take on The Hobbit now?

Box Office: ‘Shrek’ Knocks Off The Newcomers

Posted on May 31, 2010

Wait, you mean to tell me that this was a holiday weekend?  You certainly wouldn’t know it from the box office, which had its worst Memorial weekend showing in ten years.  Remember when Memorial weekend signaled the beginning of the summer movie season?  Studios usually unveiled a surefire hit to serve as a harbinger of the season.

This weekend, a holdover (Shrek Forever After) beat out two newbies, Sex and the City 2, and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.  This is rather unusual for a holiday weekend, so let’s take a closer look at what may have happened, based on Sunday’s totals.

At the time of this writing, Shrek had collected about $43.3 Million, while SATC 2 made about $32 Million (this does not count the Thursday totals for the movie.) Meanwhile, Prince of Persia made about $30 Million.  So, the two new entries almost exactly split the vote, so to speak. Between the two of them, they made over $60 Million.  However, they were targeted to complete opposite demographics, while Shrek still appealed to families this weekend.  It should be noted that Shrek is still playing at almost 1,000 more theaters than any other movies this week.

SATC 2 cost less to make ($100M), so it will probably be fine over the upcoming weeks, but Prince of Persia had a hefty price tag of $200 Million, and it will have an uphill battle to win back its budget, not to mention that the appeal of Jake Gyllenhaal as an action hero comes into question.

At any rate, I think most of us expected SATC 2 and Prince of Persia to make $50 or $60 Million each. Yikes.

Iron Man 2 came in in third place with $16 Million, bringing its cumulative to $274 Million after four weeks in release.  Robin Hood managed to rake in another $10 Million, and now stands at $83 Million, but that is still a long, long way from its reported budget of close to $200 Million, though foreign ticket sales are helping cushion the blow.

Letters to Juliet continues to quietly perform well.  Now in its 3rd week, the film only dropped 34%, and has made over $36 Million in three weeks. The big loser this weekend was MacGruber, which plummeted 63% from its already less than stellar opening weekend, and only made $1.4 Million.

Next week we have Splice, Get Him to the Greek, and Marmaduke.  Talk about counter-programming!

Go Behind The Scenes Of ‘$#*! My Dad Says’

Posted on May 31, 2010

In the past few years, CBS has tried very hard to dump the stigma of their programming being thought of as “TV for old people.” They’ve done a pretty decent job by greenlighting unconventional sitcoms like How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory that weren’t about the same old family problems and the comedic ways people get out of them.

Continuing this trend, CBS picked up $#*! My Dad Says, based on the Twitter account of the same name. The show follows a young man who lives with his 74 year old father, who is constantly saying or doing outrageous things. That father? William Shatner.

On top of the concept of picking up an entire TV show based on a few tweets, CBS has also decided to keep the implied expletive in the title, as opposed to calling it “Stuff” or “Things.” At the risk of their ratings, this has even outraged the Parents Television Council

The rest of the cast reads like a MadTV reunion. Will Sasso and Nicole Sullivan join alongside Ryan Devlin (Cougar Town) and others. Shatner manages to bring the “off the cuff” humor to this new show that made his role as Denny Crane on Boston Legal the legend it is today.

Check out the first behind the scenes clip for the show after the jump, and stay tuned to the network this fall, as $#*! My Dad Says is currently slated for Thursday nights at 8:30/7:30 C.

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Happy Memorial Day

Posted on May 31, 2010

It’s a holiday here in the United States and a day we remember all the men and women of our armed forces who’ve paid the ultimate price for our freedom. Because of this and because we like to let the writers have some time off occasionally, we’ll have a reduced posting schedule today and will resume our full schedule tomorrow.

To our readers in the U.S., have a great holiday. For the rest of you from other countries, thanks for reading and we’ll see you tomorrow when everything is back to normal around here. Well, as normal as it gets that is.

The Flickcast’s ‘On the Radar’

Posted on May 28, 2010

Welcome to this week’s On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets. Let is know if we missed something.

• Think our own Shannon Hood was a bit hard on Sex and the City 2? Check out this review. Hint: Not flattering.

• Entertainment Weekly has released their 100 Greatest Characters of The Last 20 Years. Why Rachel from Friends is in the Top 10, we’ll never know.

• The single greatest headline in the history of news. And the world.

• Shocker! Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl’s piece of crap masterpiece won’t be screened for critics.

• This is how celebrities make money in other countries. Just like Bill Murray in Lost in Translation.

• Think you look ridiculous playing Wii Fit? Say hello to the new Wii Wing Flap Game.

• Zombie Vs. Shark? Zombie Vs. Shark.

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Cartoon Network Planning ‘Green Lantern’ Animated Series

Posted on May 28, 2010

As if a live action Green Lantern movie featuring Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan wasn’t enough, now word comes that Cartoon Network is planning an animated Green Lantern TV series. The announcement came during Time Warner’s annual “Investors Day”, which took place in New York yesterday. See, Time Warner owns Cartoon Network, just in case you didn’t realize that. Okay, moving on.

Slides of the new show, dubbed Green Lantern: The Animated Series (clever, right?), were shown to the crowd during the event by TW’s CEO of Turner Networks Unit Phil Kent. In addition, Warner Bros. chairman and CEO Barry Meyer also mentioned the show later in the day as an example of  “increasing collaboration and coordination between his unit and Turner.” So many jokes right now but I’m going to leave that alone.

The show will reportedly be based on both the DC Comics character and Warner’s Green Lantern movie, which is currently scheduled for a June 17, 2011 release. The TV series is expected to launch in the second year after the film release. So, that’s a long time from now. Presumably, if the movie does poorly we probably won’t ever see the series at all. Still, it could be fun so let’s hope both end up coming to fruition.

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