MGM Talks “The Hobbit” November 16, 2006 9:56 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Lord of the Rings, Movies, News.add a comment
Chief executive of MGM, Harry Sloan talked briefly at the European Media Leaders Summit in London about the planned “Hobbit” movie.
Sloan said that there will be two films, with the first being a direct adaption of The Hobbit and the second a new film which would draw from “footnotes and source material connecting The Hobbit with The Lord of the Rings“.
Sloan also went on to confirm that MGM is in advanced talks with Peter Jackson to direct both movies, but it was emphasised by MGM that the negotiations are still in progress and there likely wont’ be any sort of production till at least 2008 or possibly even 2009.
Versus to Launch HD channel in January November 16, 2006 9:51 pm
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Comcast-owned Versus, the former OLN network, will launch a high definition channel in January of next year that will offer regular Versus programming for half of the day and golf programming for the other.
From noon to 7:00 PM it will program golf programming from Comcast’s Golf Channel while normal OLN programming will air on the network from 7:00 PM to noon.
So far, the network has deals in place for cable customers who subscribe to Comcast and customers who subscribe to DirecTV.
The channel will offer all of its National Hockey League games which are currently carried by Versus in high definition, Golf Channel programming will be simulcast on that channel and Versus HD and other programming such as boxing, professional bull riding, hunting and fishing shows will also be broadcast in high definition.
The Tour de France will be upconverted to HD for the time being, but negotiations are underway for the network to acquire a pure HD feed of the bicylce race.
New Online Comedy Channel from AOL and HBO Set To Launch November 16, 2006 9:40 pm
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AOL is partnering with HBO to rebrand its current “AOL Comedy” broadband channel into “This Just In”, a humor site based around current events. It will re-launch sometime during the first quarter of 2007.
The site will also carry HBO branded original content.
New Series Announced for Food Network November 16, 2006 9:36 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in New Show Orders, News, Television.2 comments
Food Network has announced a new series entitled “Dinner: Impossible” for a debut of January 24th.
The program features Robert Irvine (a chef to princes and presidents) and a team of sous chefs making meals in impossible situations, such as rushing to finish a dinner before being left at a train station.
TV Notes: 11/16/2006 November 16, 2006 9:33 pm
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“Heroes” will air straight through in original programming, with no repeats, according to NBC. Eight episodes have aired so far with three more episodes scheduled for the fourth quarter. The series will then come back in January and run through the remaining original episodes.
Fox is considering doing the same thing with “Prison Break”. The network is leaning towards running all 22 episodes first-run with no repeats and deciding not to pull the series and put it on hiatus. Last season, the series ran to the end of November sweeps and did not come back until mid. 11 episodes have aired thus far, and the remaining 11 episodes will run straight through most likely around January, after their BCS games are aired and after the special two-hour premiere of the sixth season of “24”.
In other news, Fox has set a returning date for “Justice” of Friday, December 1st at 8:00 PM. The series will take over for canceled “Vanished” which will be banished to the internet, where the remaining four episodes will be streamed for free:
“The remaining four episodes will stream on the VANISHED myspace page, with a new episode posted every Friday at 12:01 PT, beginning Nov. 17th. Three episodes will be kept up at a time. The series finale will be posted online on Friday, December 8th.”
Continuing with news from Fox, the network has extended “Standoff” by ordering six additional episodes and has given “‘Til Death” a full-season order.
And lastly, CBS has ordered at least an additional 4 episodes (an exact amount has not yet been decided on) of “The Class”.
Third Season Ordered for “Weeds” November 16, 2006 9:16 pm
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Showtime has renewed “Weeds” for a third season, ordering 15 episodes for the critically acclaimed series.
The shows third season resumes production in the spring of next year in readiness for a summer premiere.
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