When discussing any industry’s output, be it on a yearly or seasonal basis, the most over-used cliche might just be the good old “best of times, worst of times” mantra. After all, any mature business environment will eventually have to deal with both ends of the spectrum sooner or later. For instance, the incredible boom Korean films went through during those fantastic ten years, 1996 to 2006, was fueled by a generation of filmmakers who replaced Kellogg’s and milk with molotov cocktails, Playboy with Cahiers du Cinema, and the smoking sessions inside putrid school bathrooms with editing short films. Or maybe they did both?
The result was new blood who changed the landscape of Korean cinema in ways few people could ever imagine. Chungmuro became one of the few remaining Gaul villages fighting against the mighty Roman Empire of filmmaking with their magic potion. But then, all of a sudden, the potion was stolen under their noses, sold off to the enemy along with their fighting spirit. In no time, the whole village had turned into a collection of youngsters and old farts who didn’t know how to direct their punches, with the occasional Obelix still hanging around with his magnificent menhirs. Chungmuro’s current crisis might have been a predictable outcome, a sort of post dot-com bubble burst going at 24 frames per second, but with a few adjustments things could get better. Alas, when it comes to TV Dramas in the first half of 2008, bringing out that old cliche wouldn’t be just optimistic. It would be a mere illusion, as it was the worst of times. Let’s find out why.
Continue Reading "[2008 K-DRAMA] First Half Wrapup"...
I just had to post this after I saw this because it’s so funny in such a low brow way. We don’t talk much about TV animation here other than a few japanese shows maybe and then it’s mostly feature length. This little pilot comes from the New Zealand production house Mukpuddy and I never would have thought that anyone, outside the Japanese maybe, would come up with an idea like this.
What happens when a family adopts a turd that pops out after their youngest daughter is born? I kid you not. That is the premise of ”It’s The Pughs!”
The animation is fantastic, fast paced and hilarious.
Below the break you’ll find the pilot along with Mukpuddy’s own web page.
Continue Reading "It’s the Pughs!"...
Todd and I agree that this year of Doctor Who has been better than expected what with the addition of Catherine Tate as this year’s companion, a move we thought was a recipe for disaster. So color us tickled pink when we found out today that Steven Moffat, frankly the series’ best writer, is going to take over the Lead Writer and Executive Producer reigns from Russell T Davies.
Has this guy got the chops? I would certainly say so. Moffat wrote the episodes Blink, with the weeping angels that move when you close your eyes, the WWII era two-parter The Empty Child, with the little boy wearing the gas mask saying, “Are you my mummy?” and The Girl In The Fireplace. Moffat won a Bafta for Blink and a Hugo for Fireplace. This season his two-parter Silence In The Library will start on May 31st with the tag line “Count the Shadows”. Oh, and he’s the guy behind the script for Stephen Speilberg’s Tintin. Oh yeah. This guy is the shit.
Steven Moffat says: “My entire career has been a Secret Plan to get this job. I applied before but I got knocked back ‘cos the BBC wanted someone else. Also I was seven. Anyway, I’m glad the BBC has finally seen the light, and it’s a huge honour to be following Russell into the best - and the toughest - job in television. I say toughest ‘cos Russell’s at my window right now, pointing and laughing.”
Doctor Who will return in 2009 with four specials, and the full-length fifth series is currently scheduled to be broadcast on BBC One in Spring 2010.
Turner Classic Movies ("TCM") will devote the month of June to an extensive, in-depth look at how Asians are depicted on film with Race and Hollywood: Asian Images In Film. The festival comes on the heels of TCM’s highly successful 2006 look at African-American images in film and its 2007 examination of gay images in film.
Joining TCM’s Robert Osborne to host Race and Hollywood: Asian Images In Film will be Dr. Peter X. Feng, editor of Screening Asian Americans and author of Identities in Motion: Asian American Film and Video. In addition, several talented people from the world of film, literature and academia will take part in the festival, including filmmaker Wayne Wang, actress Ming Wen, writer Amy Tan, actress Rosalind Chao, actor George Takei, actress France Nuyen, actress Nancy Kwan, actor James Shigeta, actress Miiko Taka, film scholar Elaine Mae Woo, film producer Janet Yang and actress Lauren Tom.
“We have had an extremely positive response to our previous month-long festivals on African-American and gay images,” said Charles Tabesh, senior vice president of programming for TCM. “No other network has the collection of films and the abundance of behind-the-scenes material and footage that TCM has. We are very proud to be using the resources of the TCM library to look in-depth at how Hollywood has depicted Asian characters throughout the past century. And we are particularly thrilled to have Dr. Feng join Robert Osborne in guiding us through this fascinating topic.”
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Surprising news here: Word is out that Fox has pulled the plug on the McG produced American remake of classic UK sitcom Spaced. Hurray! Be a good boy or girl and buy the North American DVD release of the original show when it hits this summer.
The multi volume, made for TV horror anthology is undergoing a bit of a boom right now. Masters of Horror is the obvious example on these shores but Spain also just ran their Six Stories To Keep You Awake series and now France is looking to get into the mix with the independently produced Terror Project Six. Described as a horror sitcom with zombies by the producer, the project brings together French speaking film makers from France, Belgium, Switzerland and Quebec under the support and oversight of series “godfathers” Xavier Gens and Fabrice Du Welz - the directors of Frontiere(s) and Calvaire, respectively - along with notable guest stars such as Alysson Paradis (Inside), regular Fulci star Catriona MacColl, Troma’s Lloyd Kauffman and more.
I’m told the first official teaser will become available sometime in May but in the mean time we’ve got stills plus episode synopses and the like for your perusal.
Continue Reading "Beware The TERROR PROJECT SIX!"...
Twitch readers may or may not be aware that Showtime’s hit-or-miss (mostly miss) Masters of Horror skein was picked up by, of all networks, NBC late last fall and re-titled Fear Itself. The series never quite clicked in its MoH incarnation, with one or two stand-out episodes from each of the first two seasons fighting for attention among a slew of been-there, done-that excuse for gore and T&A. Will the series’ transition to a more heavily-censored primetime slot on network TV (10pm, Thursdays, starting May 29th) result in better returns? Tough to say. The move certainly seems to go against the grain of what now-absent series creator Mick Garris envisioned MoH becoming - a no-holds-barred playground where genre luminaries could unleash pet projects.
All that being said, Fear Itself has managed to line up an impressive spread of directors, most recently tapping personal (and general Twitch) fave Larry Fessenden, late of 2007’s superlative The Last Winter, to helm a segment initially intended for John Carpenter. Joining Fessenden will be returning directors John Landis, Stuart Gordon, and Brad Anderson as well as newcomers Ernest Dickerson, Mary Harron, Breck Eisner, Ronny Yu, Darren Bousman, Rob Bowman, and Lem Dobbs. Landis and Gordon were responsible for some of the stronger entries in MoH, and Fessenden and Dobbs (a regular collaborator of Soderbergh) are inspired choices. For the most part, Fear Itself will represent a chance for these filmmakers to push their work to a wider-than-usual audience, which is always a good thing. We’ll be keeping an eye on the series as it rolls out.
It was a couple years back that word began to circulate that director Darren Aronofsky was developing a horror themed series for HBO. At the time it seemed like great news as HBO was totally dominating the specialty TV world and seemingly unable to do wrong. A couple years later they’ve done plenty of wrong, the best specialty shows are all elsewhere and now word is that they’ve let this go, too. Titled Riverview Towers the show has just moved to AMC, where it continues the development process. The show revolves around a family that moves into an apartment building plagued by paranormal activity, which opens all sorts of interesting avenues to explore.
I have two responses to this. First, what on earth is going on at HBO? All of their best properties are done and they’re not developing much of note to replace them. Second, AMC is readily available on regular cable here in Canada while HBO is not available at all, so hurray!
It’s a good time to be a masked superhero in Chile. Mirageman, the second collaboration between martial artist Marko Zaror and director Ernesto Diaz opened in March to great success in their home country and now Chile’s Channel 13 are after the duo to bring the hero to the small screen. The only sticking point now? Just how much Mirageman there will be. Channel 13 are pushing for a daily show running a whopping one hundred episodes while the duo behind the hero are hoping to start with a more modest twelve episode commitment. Regardless of what happens there, audiences in North America can expect to see Mirageman on screens here later this year. You can check the trailer below the break.
Continue Reading "MIRAGEMAN Moving To The Small Screen!"...
To say that I have been eagerly looking forward to the day that season four rolls around for Battlestar Galactica is putting it lightly. Since the season finale last year, to the day I stood on that flight deck in the studio back west, then watching season 3 all over again the other week just so I was refreshed and ready for this week, I have been waiting for that day. But I got my hands on the season premiere, He That Believeth In Me, yesterday and I’ve watched it a couple times already. Tonight is the night that I can be this complete blithering idiot in hopes that my enthusiasm is contagious and you catch the fever. And the only cure is the season premiere of Battlestar Galactica this Friday night!
Continue Reading "Oh. My. Gods. Battlestar Galactica season 4 premiere review!"...
If you’re outside of the States and you don’t have illegal satellite hooked up to you digs then there is a slight chance you haven’t seen the two recent Battlestar Galactica specials from SciFi, REVEALED and PHENOMENA. Do not fret, we have them both now in the Twitch Player. Just follow the jump.
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You gotta love Turner Classic Movies ("TCM") for respecting the breadth of the term “classic”, applying it equally to silent films as to countercultural indies. Case in point: tonight’s doublebill of Twitch favorite Jamaa Fanaka, whose Emma Mae (aka Black Sisters Revenge, 1976) and Penitentiary (1980) are boasting their late night TCM premieres tonight at 11:00PM and 12:45AM PT (3 hours later ET), respectively.
I recently ran into TCM’s Director of Programming, Charlie Tabesh, at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, and welcomed the opportunity to congratulate him on his continuing creative programming; not only the Val Lewton retrospective a month or so back, on which I piggybacked The Evening Class Val Lewton blogathon, but the Charles Burnett showcase, tonight’s Fanaka double bill, and their upcoming June focus on Asian and Asian American representation in film. Let it be said in print that Charlie Tabesh is guiding the art of exhibition right into the 21st century by championing films that might otherwise never be seen. Though Fanaka’s films might not align with everyone’s notion of “classic”, their historicity is unquestioned and their impact on independent filmmaking seminal. Kudos to Charlie Tabesh for recognizing same! And a loving shout-out to my man Jamaa for his television debut!
Cross-published on The Evening Class.
There are three days marked off in my immediate calendar. One day is for my nephew who is coming all the way from Vancouver to have a play day with his uncle. Another day is this coming Tuesday when the third season of Battlestar Galactica is coming out on DVD. And the third day is Friday, April 4th when the fourth and final season of Battlestar premieres. Oh, I am counting down the days with glee!
But what if you’re not all caught up on your Battlestar and you cannot pick up that third season before season 4 starts? Never fear, SciFi has given us an 8 minute clip covering all three seasons. Everything you need to know in an eight minute marathon. All the action, drama and suspense - everything you need to know in eight minutes.
We also have a couple tasty promo clips for Season 4. If you’re not caught up before now you will by the time that clip is over. Follow the jump and no frakking complaining if it spoils anything for you.
Continue Reading "It’s three seasons of Battlestar Galactica in eight minutes!"...
Been a little while since we’ve commented on McG’s upcoming remake of British cult comedy hit Spaced, you know - the television show all the key folk from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz did before hitting it big on the big screen. Well, there’s been a bit of a furor around the remake because despite co-creator Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright being prominently name dropped on the initial announcement of the new version - while co-creator Jessica Stevenson (now Hynes) was completely ignored for some reason - none of the principals involved in the original show have ever been contacted or had any involvement in this new version. And they’re not so happy about that. We linked to Edgar Wright’s comments on the scenario a while back and now, with the pilot episode officially greenlit and moving ahead, both Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes have weighed in with their thoughts.
Wright has posted his cohorts’ thoughts on his MySpace page but I find linking to MySpace blogs to be a well nigh impossible task and an exercise in extreme frustration - I pretty much hate MySpace - so I’m reproducing the posts below the break.
Continue Reading "Tim Bisley and Daisy Steiner: Not Such Big Fans of McG’s McSPACED"...
The new season kicks off with a harrowing investigation of the legendary Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia, once the site of bloody battles in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. Today, both visitors and employees of the Fort tell chilling tales of their brushes with the afterlife. Some claim to have seen apparitions of soldiers, while others report hearing a woman’s terrified scream coming from an empty room. Now, the TAPS team has the opportunity to conduct the first investigation into newly discovered Casemate 11, an underground holding cell for those condemned to hang. There, Jason and Grant experience a bizarre series of events and uncover some of the show’s most compelling paranormal evidence to date.
Continue Reading "Ghost Hunters Season 4 premiere preview"...
