Nominations announced for the 2007 Golden Globe Awards December 14, 2006 11:25 am
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Nominations have been handed out for the “64th Annual Golden Globes” to be awarded January 15th live on NBC.
The theme for this year’s Golden Globe nominations seems to be double nods, with Clint Eastwood drawing dual director nods for “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters From Iwo Jima” as well as Leonardo DiCaprio pulling off the rare feat of getting nominations for two starring roles in “The Departed” and “Blood Diamond”.
News Corp. was also a big winner in the nominations, as the corporation picked up nods from three of its units for a total of four out of five nominees in the comedy field (2oth Century Fox’s “Borat” and “The Devil Wears Prada” and Fox Searchlight’s “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Thank You for Smoking”). The other movie in the field was Paramount/Dreamworks “Dreamgirls”.
Joining “The Departed” in the Best Drama field were the movies “Babel” (which had the most nominations at seven overall, followed by six for “The Departed” and five for “Dreamgirls”), “Bobby”, “Little Children” and “The Queen”.
Eastwood’s nominations set up a sort of rematch with Scorsese, up for “The Departed,” after Eastwood took the prize two years ago.
Leonardo DiCaprio was joined in the Best Actor field by nominations for Peter O’Toole for his work in “Venus”, Will Smith for “The Pursuit of Happyness” and Forest Whitaker for “The Last King of Scotland”.
This year looks to pit, again, Martin Scorcese against Clint Eastwood as Scorcese’s “The Departed” will go up against Eastwood’s two films. Others nominated for Best Director were Stephen Frears for “The Queen” and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for “Babel”.
Looking towards the TV side, the Best Drama field was filled with two new series: NBC’s “Heroes” and HBO’s “Big Love” (HBO led the pack for another year with 13 nominations). Others nominated were Fox’s “24” and ABC’s “Grey’s Anatom” and “Lost”.
In the Best Musical/Comedy the nominees were led by another newcomer; ABC’s “Ugly Betty”. Others nominated were ABC’s “Desperate Housewives”, HBO’s “Entourage”, NBC’s “The Office” and Showtime’s “Weeds”.
Here are all the categories and nominees:
Peter Doyle Passes at the age of 71 December 13, 2006 8:13 pm
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Peter Doyle, known most recently for his work on the hit sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond” and for his role as the Monster in “Young Frankenstein”, passed away Tuesday night at the age of 71.
According to reports, the actor suffered from multiple myeloma and heart disease.
Mr. Boyle portrayed the character of Frank Barone (father to Ray) on ‘Raymond’ for 10 seasons and was nominated for an emmy 8 times. He won an Emmy for his work as a guest actor on an episode of “The X Files” in 1996.
NBC to give “Top Chef” a network run December 12, 2006 10:19 pm
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NBC will be giving the Bravo reality show “Top Chef” its first network airing December 30th (a Saturday) at 8:00 PM ET.
The episode to be aired will be a re-airing of a holiday episode which will air on Bravo on Decemeber 13th.
Top Chef is currently in its second year on Bravo and is a solid performer for the network. It’s most recent episode attracted 1.76 million viewers.
NBC announces broadcast team for first two NFL playoff games December 12, 2006 10:15 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in News, NFL, Sports, Television.2 comments
On January 6, 2007, NBC will have a doubleheader of football that night. Tom Hammond (Notre Dame football broadcaster for the network) and Cris Collinsworth (currently a contributer to NBC’s “Football Night In America” as well as part of the NFL Networks Thursday night football games) will announce the first game of the night.
NBC’s regular team of Al Michaels and John Madden will call the second game.
Collinsworth and Hammond last worked together for the 1995 Orange Bowl college football game and also worked together calling NBC’s Notre Dame broadcasts from 1992-1994
Weekend Box Office Results for December 8-10, 2006 December 11, 2006 7:41 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Box Office, Movies, News.1 comment so far
Here are the final (actual) box office movie results for the past weekend.
(Ranking – Film – Weekend Gross – Total Domestic Gross)
1. “Apocalypto” – $15,005,604 — $15,005,604
2. “Happy Feet” – $12,718,000 — $137,738,000
3. “The Holiday” – $12,778,913 — $12,778,913
4. “Casino Royale” – $8,926,207 — $129,020,082
5. “Blood Diamond” – $8,648,324 — $8,648,324
6. “Deja Vu” – $6,019,672 — $52,995,929
7. “Unaccompanied Minors” – $5,815,474 — $5,815,474
8. “The Nativity Story” – $5,713,854 — $15,907,450
9. “Deck the Halls” – $3,993,188 — $30,144,903
10. “The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause” – $3,254,729 — $77,184,019
Source: Box Office Mojo — ‘Apocalypto’ Impales Top Spot
SEGA acquires rights to “Alien” franchise for Video Games December 11, 2006 7:25 pm
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SEGA of America, SEGA Europe and Twentieth Century Fox Licensing & Merchandising today announced an agreement to bring the “Alien” movie franchise to next-generation gaming systems.
Multiple titles will be developed, including a first-person shotter and a role-playing game, with the first game hoped to be released in 2009.
“As a direct result of Fox’s efforts over the past 27 years, Alien has become one of the most recognized franchises in the motion picture industry,” said Simon Jeffery, President and Chief Operating Officer, SEGA of America, Inc. “SEGA will utilize the power of next-gen systems to blend the time-honored story with leading edge design technology to deliver a riveting and suspenseful gameplay experience.”
Alien premiered in 1979 and spawned three sequels. The franchise has grossed more than $557 million worldwide and has one numerous rewards including two Academy Awards.
Golden Globe Nominations to be announced this Thursday [Update] December 11, 2006 7:19 pm
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The nominations for “The 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards” will be announced at the Beverly Hilton on December 14, 2006.
Jessica Biel, Scarlett Johansson and Mathew Perry, will join Hollywood Foreign Press Association President Philip Berk that morning to give the nominations for 25 categories.
The awards ceremony will take place live on NBC at 8:00 PM on Monday, January 15, 2007.
Angelina Jolie may have role in Sin City 2 December 11, 2006 7:07 pm
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ComingSoon.net is reporting that Angelina Jolie may be a part of the second Sin City movie, scheduled for release sometime in 2007.
The folks over at ComingSoon.net caught up with the actress at a press junket and asked her about her possible role in the second Sin City film.
“We talked about it and I read the comic,” Jolie said. “I don’t think the film is being made at this moment. When it’s actually going to be made I’m sure we’ll talk about it.
“It was a funny thing, because the idea came to me when I was pregnant,” she added. “So it was this idea… I’ve been Clover (in ‘The Good Shepherd’), depressed and quiet, and then I was feeling very maternal, pregnant. It was this idea of this sexy, violent and loud [character]… I thought maybe after I’m pregnant it would be nice to do.”
The character Ava in the graphic novel is the former lover of Dwight McCarthy (Clive Owen) who uses her innocence and beautiful looks to manipulate men.
HBO looking to launch Online Video Service December 11, 2006 6:55 pm
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According to HBO’s Eric Kessler, president of sales and marketing for the channel, the network hopes to launch a broadband-video service sometime during the 2007 calendar year.
“We believe we can do with the broadband platform what we did with the on-demand product for our partners,” Kessler said. “Our goal is to create a broadband product with our affiliates that would continue to increase our usage and the value of HBO to our subscribers.”
No other details about the service have been announced, but it is expected to contain the same original series, specials and sports offerings currently available on HBO On Demand (a subscription based VOD channel).
Prince to perform during Super Bowl halftime show December 11, 2006 6:49 pm
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It was announced today that the 11 time nominated and six-time winning Grammy performer Prince will be entertaining the audience of Super Bowl XLI, as well as the nation, on February 4th in Miami.
Prince makes the third straight Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame member to be the lead act during the Super Bowl, following up on Paul McCartney two years ago and the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger last year.
ESPN aquires European Football (Soccer) December 11, 2006 6:45 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in ESPN, News, Sports, Television.1 comment so far
ESPN has picked up the rights to air the 2008 UEFA European Football Championshiops, sheculded for Saturday, June 7 through Sunday June 29, 2008.
The tournament, which will be played in Austria and Switzerland, is one of the most popular sporting events in the world today.
On the television front, all 31 games will be shown (exclusively) on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic and ABC as well as on ESPN Deportes.
ESPN Radio also has the broadcast rights to air the games on the radio if they so choose.
Soccer rated very highly during the past world cup on all the ESPN nets as well as on ABC, and ESPN has taken steps in recent months to continue expanding their soccer portfolio in an effort to capitialize and maintain the sports increase in ratings.
Matt Damon says he’s open to playing Kirk in Trek XI December 11, 2006 2:45 am
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Matt Damon told Sci Fi Wire that he would be open to playing Captain James T. Kirk in the new Star Trek movie tentively titled “Star Trek XI”, but denied the rumors that he was already cast in the role.
“If the script was good, I’d do it,” Damon said in an interview while promoting his latest film, The Good Shepherd. “But, yeah, I heard that [rumor]. I think J.J. Abrams or somebody said that at press junket or something, and it got picked up [by the media and Star Trek fans].”
Many details are still being fleshed out surrounding the next Trek movie, which has a planned release date sometime around 2008/2009.
J.J. Abrams (of Lost and recently Mission: Impossible III fame) is set to co-write and produce “Trek XI”. Abrams is said to be mulling a directing role in the film as well.
Firefly to become video game December 11, 2006 1:30 am
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“Firefly”, the short lived (2002), but critically acclaimed and fan-loved Science Fiction series, will be resurrected once again (the show spawned a theatrical movie titled “Serenity” last year), but this time in video game form.
Wired.com is reporting that Multiverse has struck a deal with Fox Licensing to turn the show into a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) in the vein of Star Wars Galaxies and Eve Online.
“We see virtual worlds as an extraordinarily promising new entertainment medium,” said Adam Kline, Fox Licensing’s vice president of media enterprises in an e-mail. “We believe Multiverse can deliver an experience that will remain true to the original series, while enabling a whole new level of personal involvement for fans.”
The online game will feature many different characters, not just the central characters.
“Television series can be really good properties to turn into MMOs, because when you make a TV series, not only do you need great characters, but you need to create a full, rich, compelling place,” Bridges says. “If you’re doing science fiction, you have to really think it out and create an incredibly rich environment that is compelling in its own right, and worth exploring and going back to week after week. That’s what Joss Whedon did with Firefly.”
Multiverse hopes to have a playable version of the game ready by 2008.
Source: [Wired] — Firefly Reborn as Online Universe
AFI Top 10 Film and Television names announced December 11, 2006 12:28 am
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AFI (the American Film Institute) has announced their 7th annual list of the top 10 film and television programs for the past year.
On the television front, NBC Universal was well represented with four series from NBC (“The Office”, “The West Wing”, “Heroes” and “Friday Night Lights”) as well as one series from Sci Fi (a division of NBC Universal) the critical darling “Battlestar Galactica”.
Other television series in the list were HBO’s “Elizabeth I” and “The Wire”, Showtime’s “Dexter”, Comedy Central’s “South Park” and Fox’s “24”.
On the film front, there was a wide mix of drama and comedy led by such movies as “Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan”, “Happy Feet”, “Babel”, “The Devil Wears Prada” and “United 93”.
Others in the category being honored were “Dreamgirls”, “Half Nelson”, “Inside Man”, “Letters from Iwo Jima” and “Little Miss Sunshine”.
The awards show will be held January 12th at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, where the rational behind each award choice will be disclosed during a ceremony.
Source: [Variety] – AFI names top films of the year
Top DVD sales for the week ending December 3rd December 10, 2006 10:12 pm
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“Superman Returns” took the top spot in weekly dvd sales for the week ending December 3rd, taking the #1 spot away from “Ice Age: The Meltdown” which dropped to #2.
Other movies entering the top 10 charts were “The Ant Bully” at #4, “Clerks II” at #5, “See No Evil” at #7, “Molly: An American Girl” at #9 and “Cheetah Girls 2: Cheetah-Licious Edition” at #10.
Other new additions to the charts were “Superman: Ultimate Collector’s Edition” at #12 and “Robin Hood: Most Wanted Edition” at #13.
Among TV Shows on DVD, the top selling was “Family Guy: Vol. 4” at #15 followed by “Seinfeld: Season 7” at #18 and “Greys Anatomy: Season 2” at #19.
“Apocalypto” wins weekend box office December 10, 2006 9:09 pm
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Taking $14.166M from Friday to Sunday, “Apocalpyto” took the #1 spot ahead of previous openers and the other newcomers this weekend.
Opening in 2,465 theaters, the film averaged a strong $5,746/theater–the most for any wide-release this weekend.
Following in second place was another new opener, “The Holiday” (2,610 theaters-$5,172/theater) with $13.500M.
“Happy Feet” continues to to have good legs, dipping only 27.5% and grossing $12.718M at 3,650 theaters and pushing its domestic total to $137.738M.
Coming in fourth place with $8.800M from 3,161 theaters was “Casino Royale”. Its domestic total now stands at $128.894M ($195.575M from its overseas) for a total worldwide take of $324.469M.
Following then in fifth place for the week was “Blood Diamond” which opened wide to 1,910 theaters. The movie pulled in $8.515M.
The only other new wide release this weekend was “Unaccompanied Minors” which gathered up $6.205M from 2,775 theaters.
“Deja Vu” ($6.070M–$53.046M total), “The Nativity Story” ($5.575M–$15.769M total), “Deck the Halls” ($3.925M–30.076M total) and “The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause” ($3.311M–77.240M total) rounded out the top 10 for the weekend.
Source: [Box Office Mojo]: Weekend Box Office Results for December 8-10, 2006
New “TMNT” and “300” trailers December 9, 2006 5:49 pm
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New trailers for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and “300” have been released.
To view the trailer for “TMNT” go to MTV’s Trailer Park and click the poster for TMNT on the right side.
The trailer for “300”, based on the Frank Miller graphic novel, can be viewed at Yahoo! Movies.
“Apocalypto” takes early Weekend lead as it wins Friday Box Office [UPDATE] December 9, 2006 5:26 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Box Office, Movies, News.1 comment so far
Estimates are a tad less than originally reported for Friday, but “Apocalypto” still took first place.
1. “Apocalypto” – $4.950M
2. “The Holiday” – $4.400M
3. “Happy Feet” – $3.075M
4. “Blood Diamond” – $2.675M
5. “Casino Royale” – $2.635M
“Apocalypto” takes early Weekend lead as it wins Friday Box Office December 9, 2006 12:28 pm
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The Mel Gibson directed Mayan epic “Apocalypto” (2,465 theaters) is expected to take the friday box office with around $6M when Friday estimates are released later in the day.
Its total weekend total should approach somewhere in the $15-16M neighborhood. That would surpase the expectations of Disney, who distributed the film, putting it over the $9.9M “Braveheart” from 1995, which is considered similar to “Apocolypto” in terms of its R-rated content.
Insiders were unsure how the general public would respond to a movie by Gibson which has no spoken english (all in Mayan), subtitled and as well as the scandal involving Gibson from his arrest a while back.
The other main openers for the weekend were “The Holiday”, the romantic comedy starring Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Kate Winslet and Jack Black and “Blood Diamond”, the action packed thriller starring DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, Jennifer Connelly which revolves around the diamond trade on the African continent.
“The Holiday” (2,610 theaters) took in an estimated $4.5M friday followed by “Blood Diamond” (1,910 theaters). All three new releases are expected to have total 3-day weekends in the teens.
Mel Wins Friday: #1 ‘Apocalypto’ Bigger Opening Wkd Than ‘Braveheart’; Cam’s ‘Holiday’ #2, Leo’s ‘Diamond’ #3 [Deadline Hollywood Daily]
“Dead Man’s Chest” opens big on DVD December 9, 2006 11:00 am
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The blockbuster hit of the summer continued its amazing money earning run selling an estimated 5 million copies of its recently released DVD in its first day alone.
That tally equals the previous high set by “The Goblet of Fire”, but when all is said and done Pirates is expected to sell around 10 million units in its first week and have the best selling DVD of the year.
“Harry Potter” and “Narnia” sold 7M their first week and “Cars” holds the current year record with 9M sold in its first week.
“We could not be more thrilled with the incredible success of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” said Buena Vista president Bob Chapek. “This franchise is a genuine treasure for us, and we are ecstatic that the momentum generated at theatrical has continued with the DVD release. Consumers have an insatiable appetite for all things Pirates of the Caribbean.”
“Criminal Minds” gets post-Super Bowl Spot December 9, 2006 2:16 am
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CBS has decided to give the sophomore drama “Criminal Minds” the plush post-Super Bowl time-slot.
The series will air immediately following Super Bowl XLI on Sunday, February 4, 2007.
“This is an outstanding opportunity to expose a series that is young in its life cycle and on the rise to an enormous universe of potential new viewers,” said CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler.
“Criminal Minds” has performed very strongly this season against “Lost”, averaging nearly 17 million viewers a week and showing strong year-to year double-digit gains in the key adults 18-49 demo.
Another “Star Trek” Auction December 9, 2006 2:07 am
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Movies, News, Star Trek, Television.1 comment so far
Beginning December 15th, “Star Trek” fans will get the chance to bid on props and costumes from the franchise’s film and tv productions.
The ‘Trek’ items will be auctioned off on itsawraphollywood.com and eBay and will include itmes from all five TV series and all 10 films and some items being auctioned off include costumes from Captain Kirk and Captain Picard, Klingon “Bat-Leth’s and even certain pieces of furniture from the set of “The Next Generation”.
Click here for more details on the auction.
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