Comic-Con 2008: J.J. Abrams on “Cloverfield” Sequel (“It’s not a literal sequel”) and the “Star Trek” Movie July 27, 2008 2:00 am
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Cloverfield, Cloverfield Sequel, Comic-Con, Comic-Con 2008, Movies, News, Star Trek, Television.add a comment
During the Comic-Con panel for the Fox television series Fringe, an audience member asked J.J. Abrams if there were any updates on a Cloverfield sequel, to which Abrams responded with the following nugget according to /Film:
“There’s something we’re playing with now that may or may not happen. There’s an idea we have that plays with… it’s not a literal sequel.“
Unfortunately, as is almost always the case with Abrams who is very tight-lipped on his projects, that’s all he would let slip.
Abrams and crew were also asked about the upcoming Star Trek movie and though nothing major was revealed, he did indicate that the reason no footage was shown from the film was because the trailer sequences don’t have the special effects added in yet, and they are heavily covered in SFX. He went on to say that had the movie’s original release date of December 25, 2008 still been a go, they would have hustled to get those sequences ready for release.
TrekMovie.com also debunked the recent footage report that was posted on AICN. The site, however, could not debunk the rumor that J.J. and crew had wanted to bring some footage from the film to show the crowd at the Fringe panel, but Fox nixed the idea because they didn’t want it to upstage their Fringe presentation.
Broadcast TV Ratings for Friday, July 25, 2008 July 26, 2008 7:35 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Broadcast TV Ratings, News, Nielsen TV Ratings, Television.add a comment
Comic-Con 2008: Fox’s “Bones” Panel July 26, 2008 5:15 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Bones, Comic-Con, Comic-Con 2008, Fox, News, Television.add a comment
The panel for Fox’s Bones featured David Boreanaz, Tamara Taylor, John Francis Daley, Michaela Conlin and creators Hart Hanson and Barry Josephson. Here are some highlights courtesy TV Squad:
- The audience was treated to a preview for an upcoming fourth season episode, which TV Squad note was a takeoff on Cheaters and looked good.
- Josephson was happy that they were able to take the show out of its usual setting, placing Bones and Booth in London for the two-hour season premiere (airing September 3rd).
- Michaela said that she may have a relationship with an ex-girlfriend in the upcoming season.
- Daley also said that his character may find love and will have to work harder after some of the events of last season’s finale.
- Love will also be in the air for Taylor’s character, who according to the actress, will have a tryst with someone Angela has had a relationship with.
- Also, Hanson said that both Booth and Bones will end up in bed together. Naked.
- Some information about how the show came to be was discussed, including that originally Breanna was going to work for a number of different law enforcement people–one of which being Booth.
- Boreanaz said he was impressed and moved when Emily Deschanel, who plays Dr. Temperance ‘Bones’ Brennan, tried out for the role and was the only one who stood up to Booth during the read. Josephson said: “When we finished the pilot we knew how good the chemistry was (between Bones and Booth).”
Comic-Con 2008: NBC’s “Heroes” Panel (S2 DVD To Include Unaired Episodes) July 26, 2008 4:45 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Comic-Con, Comic-Con 2008, Heroes, NBC, News, Television.add a comment
The biggest news to come out of the panel for NBC’s Heroes was that the season two DVD release of the show will contain several unaired episodes which were shot but apparently cut due to the writers strike. The DVD hits store shelves on August 26th. Click here to purchase it on DVD (and here for Blu-ray Hi-Def).
Comic-Con 2008: Fox’s “American Dad” and “Family Guy” Panels July 26, 2008 4:35 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in American Dad, Comic-Con, Comic-Con 2008, Family Guy, Fox, News, Television, The Cleveland Show.1 comment so far
The panels for the animated Fox comedies American Dad and Family Guy took place back-to-back. Very little was revealed at the American Dad panel, with really the only noteworthy thing being that there was a table reading by the voice actors of the show, so we’ll just jump into the Family Guy panel. Here are the highlights courtesy TV Squad.
- The panel for Family Guy featured Seth MacFarlane, Seth Green and the producers and writers of both Family Guy and The Cleveland Show.
- Upcoming episodes will feature: A new dog in the Griffin house that is always happy, which will force Brian away; Stewie and Brian going back in time to 1939 Poland and bringing Mort Goldman along and a takeoff on the Sliders premise with Stewie and Brian traveling to different parallel universes.
- They confirmed that this season will see a sequel to the Star Wars parody Blue Harvest. It will be a parody of The Empire Strikes Back and be called “Something Something Something Dark Side”.
- Still no premiere date for The Cleveland Show.
- MacFarlane said that they are “putting a helluva lot of work on the show.” and that “You will not be disappointed”.
- James Woods will be returning to Family Guy sometime this season.
- Asked about why Stewie is no longer trying to kill his mother, MacFarlane said that they try to get back to it, but “It’s hard to do this one note thing.” He added that, despite being a cartoon, the character of Stewie needed to expand.
Comic-Con 2008: “The Simpsons” Panel July 26, 2008 3:47 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Comic-Con, Comic-Con 2008, News, Television, The Simpsons.add a comment
After a preview for Treehouse of Horror XIX (which features a homage to Peanuts) the panel for The Simpsons went straight into audience questions. Here are the highlights courtesy TV Squad.
- Guest stars that will be appearing on the show’s 20th season include Dennis Leary in the second episode and Seth Rogan will also star and write an episode to air later in the season.
- Al Jean, responding to a question about whether there will be another movie, said that a script would have to be really right in order to create another one.
- Matt says he’s amazed that none of the other major networks have stepped up like Fox to produce smart animated fare, though is glad that the cable nets have picked up the slack.
- When asked where the writers get their jokes, Groening deadpanned “Family Guy“. After the applause died down, Al Jean responded that some of the jokes come from personal experiences.
Comic-Con 2008: “Futurama” Panel + ‘Bender’s Game’ Release Date July 26, 2008 3:45 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Comic-Con, Comic-Con 2008, News, Television.add a comment
Due to time constraints, the panel for Futurama was strictly focused on questions from the audience. Here are the highlights courtesy TV Squad.
- The primary voice cast: Billy West, Katey Sagal, and John DiMaggio as well as creators Matt Groening and David X. Cohen, were in attendance.
- Matt and David both said that they had the entire story of Futurama planned before the show began. They didn’t know where the show would go, but they still have plenty of secrets to reveal via the DVD’s.
- Responding to a question on how the time code was created for the first Futurama DVD, Cohen responded: “If it wasn’t obvious to you then you should be ashamed of yourself,” said David. More seriously, David said that the code was the same in the mirror as it was when read properly on Bender’s rear end.
- The Fry-Leela relationship will be revisited during the 4th DVD and there may be some kissing.
- Guest appearances for the upcoming DVDs: George Takei and Rich Little in the third DVD and Snoop Dogg and Penn Gillette in the fourth DVD.
Fox also showed some footage of the upcoming DVD “‘Bender’s Game’ and the movie has been dated for release on DVD and Blu-ray Hi-Def on November 4, 2008. Check out promotional art below courtesy /Film (click to enlarge).
Comic-Con 2008: “Stargate Atlantis” Panel July 26, 2008 1:40 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Comic-Con, Comic-Con 2008, News, Stargate, Stargate Atlantis, Television.1 comment so far
Here are some highlights, courtesy TV Squad, of the Comic-Con panel for the SCI FI series Stargate Atlantis:
- Flanigan was the only original cast member of Atlantis at the panel. Flanigan talked about how his character has evolved over the last five seasons. He use to do many things solo in the beginning, but now he’s a team player, he says.
- Plenty of jokes to go around.
- Jewel Staite answered a question about her most difficult show to film to date, saying it was the season four episode “Tracker”.
- Picardo named an upcoming episode, “Inquisition”, because his character has nearly 10 pages of straight dialougue to go through.
- Writer Brad Wright responded a question about whether there would be any romance between Sheppard and Teyla by saying that they have a unique relationship and it will be explored more this year.
Comic-Con 2008: “Mystery Science Theater” DVD Announced July 26, 2008 11:10 am
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Comic-Con, Comic-Con 2008, DVD, Mystery Science Theater, News, Television.add a comment
Shout! Factory has announced that they are releasing a special 20th Anniversary Edition DVD set of Mystery Science Theater on October 28th. The set will include four never-before-released movies: Laserblast, First Space on Venus, Werewolf, and Future War. The announcement was made at Comic-Con and Shout! says they intend to release several more boxsets of the series.
Order it today at this link.
Source: TV Squad
Comic-Con 2008: “Stargate Continuum” Panel July 26, 2008 3:22 am
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Comic-Con, Comic-Con 2008, News, Stargate Continuum, Stargate SG-1, Television.add a comment
There were several Stargate-related panels at Comic-Con, one of which was for the new direct-to-DVD movie, Stargate Continuum. Brad Wright, Martin Wood, Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping, Ben Browder, Michael Shanks, Christopher Judge and Beau Bridges attended the panel. Here are some highlights courtesy TV Squad:
- The audience was shown a trailer for the new movie. This is the same trailer that was previously released.
- Tapping revealed that they are currently filming on the eighth of 13 episodes of her new series Sanctuary.
- Judge said he’s working on a new project and he’ll announce it in the near future.
- Wright said that there will be another Stargate DVD movie and that it “looks good” for the Stargate Universe series.
- They played a memorial to deceased actor Don S. Davis.
Stargate Continuum hits DVD and Blu-ray Hi-Def on Tuesday, July 29th. Buy it now (DVD or Blu-ray).
Comic-Con 2008: CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory” Panel July 25, 2008 11:13 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in CBS, Comic-Con, Comic-Con 2008, News, Television, The Big Bang Theory.add a comment
At the panel for the CBS comedy The Big Bang Theory, Chuck Lorre, co-creator Bill Prady and the entire cast (Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar) were in attendance. Here are the highlights courtesy TV Squad:
- Lorre says that he never intended to make a show about nerds and geeks, but that his main intention was to air a show about remarkable people.
- All the backgrounds of the major characters will be explored more fully in the upcoming season.
- There will be some form of resolution in the Leonard and Penny situation that took place at the end of the first season.
- Sara Gilbert will be returning for several episodes.
- The cast said that they all receive complaints if they get something scientifically wrong, however they have a consultant that fact checks for them.
- The characters on the show are all based on people Bill used to work with when he was a computer programmer.
- There was a previous pilot for the show created for CBS, but according to Lorne “it sucked.” Because of the strong chemistry between Johnny and Jim, CBS gave them blessings for a re-shoot.
More from the panel, including what if anything makes the cast and crew a geek, can be read at TV Squad.
Comic-Con 2008: NBC’s Videos of the “Knight Rider” and “Kings” Panels July 25, 2008 10:39 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Comic-Con, Comic-Con 2008, Kings, Knight Rider, NBC, News, Television.add a comment
NBC has put up videos of today’s panels for Kings and Knight Rider. Check them out at the links below.
They’ve also put up a new video preview for Knight Rider, which you can check out at this link.
“Flashpoint” Premieres In New Timeslot With Solid Results July 25, 2008 3:53 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in CBS, Flashpoint, News, Nielsen TV Ratings, Swingtown, Television.1 comment so far
Flashpoint, the CBS series which switched timeslots with Swingtown, premiered in its new timeslot last night and drew okay ratings, improving upon its last Friday episode by 13% among the key A18-49 demographic. The series drew the following ratings: 4.5/8 HH rating/share, 6.73M viewers and a 1.7/5 A18-49 rating/share.
It was off slightly among households and viewers from its last episode (-2% among HH, -5% among viewers), but the growth among A18-49 is a key improvement, and is just 11% off from its series premiere rating in the demo (1.9).
It also was strong enough to post a first place finish in the timeslot across all three categories and improved upon last week’s timeslot occupant Swingtown by 15% among households, 27% among viewers and 6% among adults 18-49. Additionally, its retention from its lead-in was much stronger at 92% among households, 91% among viewers and 106% (or +6%) among adults 18-49 (compared to 65/60/84 for Swingtown last week), indicating that its a much better fit out of CSI, than was Swingtown. Though, that’s not all that surprising really.
Swingtown premieres in its new timeslot this evening. Be sure to check back in the future for my analysis of its ratings (Update: My post analysing Swingtown’s first Friday night ratings has been posted. Read it at this link).
DVD Giveaway: Win “Girlfriends: Season Four” on DVD! July 25, 2008 3:03 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in DVD, Girlfriends, Girlfriends: Season Four, Giveaways, Television.comments closed
The hit, award-winning comedy series GIRLFRIENDS returns to DVD on July 29th in a 3-disc set of THE FOURTH SEASON. This DVD includes all 23 smart and sexy fourth season episodes featuring the intertwining lives of four young, sophisticated African American women living and working in Los Angeles. Pick It Up Now. I’ll be giving away several copies of the set, so click through the jump for the dtails on how to enter the contest.
Broadcast TV Ratings for Thursday, July 24, 2008 July 25, 2008 2:52 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Broadcast TV Ratings, News, Nielsen TV Ratings, Television.add a comment
Lucy Liu and Mark Hamil Voicing “Afro Samurai: Resurrection” + Trailer Released July 25, 2008 1:48 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Afro Samurai, Afro Samurai: Resurrection, Movies, News, Spike TV, Television, Trailers.add a comment
Spike TV has announced that Lucy Liu and Mark Hamil will be voicing characters in the original movie Afro Samurai: Resurrection, which debuts on the network in January 2009. The network has also released a trailer for the movie, check it out at this link.
Comic-Con 2008: Showtime’s “Dexter” Panel July 25, 2008 12:03 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Comic-Con, Comic-Con 2008, Dexter, News, Showtime, Television.1 comment so far
UPDATED 7/25/2008 AT 2:55PM: The trailer has been released on Showtime’s website. Check it out at this link.
In attendance at the Showtime panel for Dexter were Michael C. Hall, Julie Benz, Clyde Phillips and Melissa Rosenberg. Kristin of E! moderated the panel. Here are the highlights courtesy TV Squad.
- The crowd booed at the mention of Dexter reruns appearing on CBS.
- Scenes from the upcoming season were screened, including a “botched kill” by Dexter. He wasn’t sure of the man’s guilt, and that seems to be one of the main themes of the new season.
- The trailer shown, which featured new addition Jimmy Smits, will appear on showtime.com shortly.
- Smit’s character is considered a friend of Dexter.
- Themes of the new season include Family values and the evolution of Dexter as a man.
- Lundy will not be back this season.
- Phillips said that comic books would be a natural fit for the show.
- A Dexter videogame was announced. It’ll appearfirst on iPhone and iPhone Touch.
- There’s a “huge shocking reveal” in the season premiere something that Dexter cannot pull back from.
Read the full report at this link, which also includes pictures.
Here’s a summary of the trailer that was shown (via /Film–click to read their full report):
The trailer started off with Dexter getting up in the morning, brushing his teeth, taking a shower…everything that everybody normally does when the get up first get up from bed. As it showed clips of him doing this, Michael C. Hall doing one of his chilling voiceovers said “life is a ritual, hurtful, and controlling”. We see quick clips with familiar characters and also one new face for this series. Jimmy Smit, of CSI-Miami fame, will be joining Miami-Dade Police Department. And this time, instead of working in the law enforcement, he’ll be a rookie hard-nose District Attorney, put in the position to clean up the crime-ridden streets. Probably not the best thing for our favorite killer.
As the trailer went on, I started to notice that Dexter might have done the unthinkable, kill a innocent person. It had a voice over of Dexter talking about how he gave in to one of his impulses and not following “Harry’s Code”. He then went on to say something very disturbing, “If I still cared what Harry thought, I’d feel bad”. The trailer ended soon after that. But not after the words “The student becomes the master.”
Comic-Con 2008: Comedy Central’s “TV Funhouse” July 25, 2008 11:28 am
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Adult Swim, Comedy Central, Comic-Con, Comic-Con 2008, Morel Orel, News, Television, TV Funhouse.add a comment
Comedy Central’s two-hour panel on TV Funhouse began with a speech by Triumph the insult comedy dog and the panel included Smigel, Dino, Smigel, Dino Stamatopoulos (Morel Orel) and Tommy Blacha (Metalocalypse). Odenkirk moderated the panel. Here are the highlights courtesy TV Squad.
- They showed clips from TV Funhouse.
- Dough Dale, the host of TV Funhouse, showed up via internet midway through, discussing various aspects of the show and entertained with various hats, puppets and facial expressions.
- The Anipals made an appearance.
- It was announced that Morel Orel will not be returning to Adult Swim after the 13 episodes air this season.
- Tommy Blacha mentioned that Metalocalypse would be returning.
- Smigel inferred that he may not be returning to Saturday Night Live this season, mentioning that he was barely on last season due to budget cuts, though he wasn’t bitter about it and defended the show when an audience member said everything on the show, save his bits, were crap.
Read the entire report at this link, which also includes pictures.
MTV Remaking “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” July 25, 2008 11:16 am
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Movies, MTV, News, Television, The Rocky Horror Picture Show.add a comment
It’s hard to imagine this being anything but a very, very bad thing. Variety is reporting that MTV is readying a remake of the 1975 cult classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Lou Adler, the executive produce of the original film, is partnering with BermanBraun and Fox Television Studios on the two-hour remake. They say that the film will use the original screenplay by Jim Sharman and Richard O’Brien but may also include music not featured in the original. “I’d like to see it shown a year from this coming Halloween, but that’s up to MTV,” Adler said. At least Adler is involved. Then again, why make a new movie if all you’re doing is remaking it?
Comic-Con 2008: HBO’s “True Blood” Panel [UPDATE] July 24, 2008 11:55 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Comic-Con, Comic-Con 2008, HBO, News, Television, True Blood.1 comment so far
UPDATED 7/25/2008 AT 12:00PM: /Film has put up their report on the panel for this series, and they’ve also added a few photos from the presentation and other misc. promotional material on the show at Comic-Con. Read the report at this link.
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HBO held a panel discussion on their upcoming vampire drama True Blood (premieres September 7th at 9pm). Cast and crew in attendance were Alan Ball, Charlaine Harris, Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Ryan Kwanten, Rutina Wesley, Sam Trammell and Nelsan Ellis. Here are the highlights courtesy TVSquad.com.
- A trailer was shown.
- Harris is working on the 9th book in the series right now.
- Alan Ball said the show will be true to the book as much as possible without making Paquin work every single day on the set.
- Lafayette runs a gay porn website in the show, unlike in the books, and to that Harris said: “I’m good with it.” That got a laugh out of the crowd.
- The casting of Quinn. Harris said he’s her “personal homage to Vin Diesel.”
- Alan Ball said he didn’t want to give away whether Bubba would be on the show.
- Only three days of shooting are left and then the season is wrapped.
- Alan Ball said he doesn’t have time to check up on what fans are saying online. All he can do is try to be as strue to Harris’ vision and he takes fans of the books seriously.
- The first season will basically be book one and at least for the most part not show anything from the second book.
You can read the full report at this link.
Comic-Con 2008: “Battlestar Galactica”-Related Panels [UPDATE] July 24, 2008 11:55 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Battlestar Galactica, Comic-Con, Comic-Con 2008, News, Sci Fi, Television.add a comment
UPDATED 7/25/2008 AT 12:15pm: TV Squad has put up their report from the panel. Read it at this link.
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There are several panels going on at Comic-Con this week related to the SCI FI series Battlestar Galactica, and the Galactica SitRep blog is on top of all the events. Here is some of what’s going on:
- SCIFI.com forums members have a pinned thread at the site set up to discuss the Con and share experiences and photos and what not.
- Wired, Discover blog, and io9 have observations from today’s BSG 30th Anniversary panel that included Richard Hatch, Bear McCreary, Tom DeSanto and Kevin Grazier.
- io9 has a post up discussing the 2001 aborted Bryan Singer BSG project: “…Singer’s production company was working on a $13.5 million backdoor pilot for a new BSG, which would air on Fox and then on the Sci Fi Channel. The episodes would have been letterboxed, and the repeat airings on Sci Fi would have had extra footage. DeSanto said the story of the humans “forgetting their purpose” and living in super-capitalist decadence on New Caprica mirrored what he was seeing of his friends during the tech boom around 1999-2000, with people obsessing about their stock portfolios. And just like the Cylon attacks in the abortive Singer pilot, 9/11 brought people back to a sense of purpose.”
I’ll post more when I see it.
Comic-Con 2008: “Doctor Who” and “Torchwood” + Torchwood Star Up For Role as Captain America? [UPDATE] July 24, 2008 11:55 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Captain America, Comic-Con, Comic-Con 2008, Doctor Who, Movies, News, Sci Fi, Television, Torchwood.1 comment so far
UPDATED 7/25/2008 AT 12:15PM: The trailer for the Doctor Who Christmas 2008 special that was screened at the panel has been leaked on YouTube. Check it out at this link, or embedded after the jump.
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Writers Julie Gardner and Steven Moffat were in attendance today at the Doctor Who panel. Here are some highlights courtesy TVSquad:
- Series 5’s premiere was being written on the plane over by Steven Moffat.
- Steven Moffat is hilarious. When asked about writing for the show: “I decided to give up a life of friends to write for it” and “a life of virginity has kept me pure.”
- Gardner asked Moffat about the first time writing “INTERIOR: Tardis” in a script. Moffat said it was like giving him “an enormous toy to play with.”
- Some highlights were shown from episodes Steven Moffat wrote. One was an episode about a spaceship from the 51st century stalking a woman from 18th century, ‘Blink’, an episode about “The Library,” though not an episode about “The Empty Child,” which Moffat wrote and he was disappointed wasn’t shown.
- An attendee mentioned attending a reading by Niel Gaiman where she asked him if he’d write an episode of Doctor Who with Moffat, to which he said “would be nice.” Moffat replied with the same “that would be nice.” So who knows? Hell I’d start watching this show if that happened!
- Lots of questions were asked that could be big spoilers, and Moffat simply wouldn’t say a word about them or would jokingly whisper the answer to Gardner. There was one mention of one character having met more than one of the Doctors before, but I’ll have to go back to listen to that again.
- When asked about whether he had a hard time getting into the country for Comic-Con, Moffat joked, “Yes! I don’t know if you know this about your country, but you hate us!”
- We were treated to an extended trailer for the 2008 Christmas episode, featuring the return of the Cybermen.
There was also a panel for the Doctor Who spin off Torchwood, where it was revealed that the series was just this morning given a green light for a third season. It will air first in the U.K., followed by a US release shortly thereafter.
Also, Steven Moffat gave an interview with ComingSoon.net. Click here to read it.
Also, John Barrowman, star of Torchwood, was just asked at the panel forthe show if ther was any possibility he would be playing Captain America in the upcoming film The First Avenger: Captain America (May 6, 2011). Here’s what Barrowman said (via ComingSoon.net):
He smiled and gave the stock answer that he’d love to play the character and that Captain America has always been his favorite comic book superhero. Clearly, though, the notion did not take him by surprise and he ended up admitting there had been discussions with his agents and meetings on that very issue.
Comic-Con 2008: Title Change for “Wizard’s First Rule”, Now Called “Legend of the Seeker” + New Trailer July 24, 2008 10:56 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Comic-Con, Comic-Con 2008, Legend of the Seeker, News, Syndication, Television, Wizard's First Rule.5 comments
The biggest news out of the panel for the Sam Raimi produced Syndicated series Wizard’s First Rule, was that the show has a new title: Legend of the Seeker. According to the panelists and the author, Terry Goodkind, the name change was made to focus on the hero of the book, rather than the main book of the series. Here are some highlights from the panel courtesy TVSquad.com.
- The show will begin airing in Syndication on November 1st (filming has already begun) and has been cleared in about 97% of the nation. It will air on Saturday nights.
- The first season will be 22 episodes, including the two-hour season premiere. Each episode will be standalone and feature a beginning and an end. It will cover the main plot points of Wizard’s First Rule.
- Everyone on the panel agreed that the syndication market was the right avenue for the series.
- They announced that Bruce Spence (The Matrix Revolutions) will portray Zedd and Jay Laga’aia (Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith) will portray the boundary patrolman Chase.
Click here to read the full report and to check out some photos from the panel.
They also debuted a new trailer which can be found at this link.
Comic-Con 2008: NBC’s “Kings” Panel July 24, 2008 6:00 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Comic-Con, Comic-Con 2008, Kings, NBC, News, Television.add a comment
The audience at NBC’s panel for the upcoming series Kings, were treated to the first 20 minutes of the pilot. Heroes star Greg Grunberg moderated the panel, noting that he’d seen the pilot and was a huge fan of it and decided to drive down to San Diego the night before “because I’m such a geek.” Here are the highlights from the panel, courtesy TVSquad:
- Greg Grunberg (Heroes) came out to introduce and moderate, then we were shown 20 minutes of the pilot.
- The initial 20 minutes from the pilot felt very movie-like. Everyone has these orange flags with a butterfly emblem (pictured in the button in the gallery). Ian McShane plays the king of a place that looks a lot like our Earth — scenes show a very New York-like city, called “Shiloh.” Even watches have the butterfly emblem. Flashbacks to a battle at the “Northern Border”. A soldier, David, takes out an enemy tank known as “Goliath” while trying to save fellow soldiers from captivity. Unbeknownst to David, one of those soldiers is the king’s son. This turns David into an overnight hero.
- Grunberg joked that the only thing he found wrong with the show was that he wasn’t in it.
- Present at the panel: Michael Green, Francis Lawrence, Erwin Stoff, Sebastian Stan, Susanna Thompson and Allison Miller (who I thought looked 13 up there).
- Ian was late and never showed up, apparently in traffic, since his message, read to us by Green, was “if those cocksuckers don’t get off the motherfucking road and let me get to the motherfucking convention center…”
- Michael Green said he went and took a risk, went with the wildest idea to NBC and they went with it.
- The show shoots in New York City.
- Stoff noted the butterfly motif from I Am Legend, which he was a part of. He also mentioned that a David & Goliath retelling for Universal was being worked on, though I’m guessing that’s not happening.
- Chris Egan is Australian, so there’s another possible ‘Excellence in Outsourcing’ award nominee for you.
- The battle scenes were shot right outside JFK airport.
- An attendee asked if the whole monarchy aspect was supposed to be ominous as related to … current situations in the US. Stoff indicated it’s more of a parallel with how corporations are held, with a CEO having this overwhelming power over a large amount of people.
- When asked how it was working with McShane, Sebastian Stan joked “he’s a puppy.”
- The show is set to premiere February 2009 with a two-hour pilot.
Click here to read IGN’s accounting of the panel.
Kings premieres on NBC in 2009.
Broadcast TV Ratings for Wednesday, July 23, 2008 July 24, 2008 1:57 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Broadcast TV Ratings, News, Nielsen TV Ratings, Television.add a comment
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