Doctor Who

• Sixth series and Christmas special confirmed
• There almost certainly will be a Tom Baker Big Finish play
• From the new series press launch, a video interview with Matt Smith…
• …and a video interview with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, including a clip from the first episode

• Final Destination 5 a go
• Jamie Foxx joins Bruce Willis on Kane and Lynch
• Trailer for Predators
• New trailer for Kick-Ass
• Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher join Ivan Reitman's Friends with Benefits
• Film rights to Andy McNab's Nick Stone series acquired
• Tim Burton doing 3D stop-motion Addams Family movie

British TV

• Lucy Gaskell joins Casualty
• Adam Crozier to earn at least £1m a year at ITV [subscription required]
• Justified acquired by Five USA
• Wii and iPhone now responsible for 4% of iPlayer views each
• John Pilger to make Afghanistan documentary for ITV1 [subscription required]

Canadian TV

• Lots of money spent on US shows

US TV

• Beau Bridges to co-star in The Rockford Files
• Skeet Urich gets a pilot
• Ashley Tisdale to star in Hellcats
• Human Target's ratings hold up
• BSG's Michael Trucco to recur on Castle
• A returning True Blood character [spoilers]

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It had to happen. You don't think I could continue this epic nostalgia-fest without mentioning cult kids' TV show Monkey, do you?

For the uninitiated, Monkey (aka Monkey Magic) was a Japanese kids show that aired on BBC2 in the 80s, dubbed (with a couple of exceptions) by English actors such as Miriam Margolyes doing dodgy Japanese/Chinese accents.

It was based on a Chinese story about the Monkey king and his travels with a priest to recover some Buddhist scrolls, aided only by his natural cunning, a water monster and a pig-man and being a Japanese show it was completely mental: a combination of humour, surrealism, fight scenes and Buddhist philosophy.

For your delectation, the explanatory weird title sequence is below, but I've included a "best bits of" video as well. See if any of it makes sense to you.

Doctor Who

• Steven Moffat offers Steven Spielberg the chance to direct an episode
• Karen Gillan reveals more about her character, as well as her inability to do anagrams [spoilers]

Films

• Peter Mullan to star in The Lion Inside
• Glee/Heroes' Jayma Mays to star in The Smurfs…
  
• …with Hank Azaria playing Gargamel
• Spooks' David Oyelowo to play Martin Luther King
• Amanda Seyfried to star in McG's The Girl Who Conned The Ivy League
• Trailer for Jason Statham's The Mechanic
• Trailer for The Romantics
• Reese Witherspoon signs up for blog-based The Pioneer Woman
• A Tron: Legacy set visit or two (with pics) [spoilers]

British TV

• Five to go HD on Sky
• Five won't help FlashForward if it's cancelled

• CTV acquires The Borgias

US TV

• Larry Charles creating Steve Jobs satire
• Pilot casting
• Brotherhood's Jason Clarke to star in Shawn Ryan's Ride-Along
• 24's Howard Gordon to adapt Israeli format Prisoners of War
• Justified FX's second biggest debut ever
• Daylight savings time continues to cause ratings drop
• Robert Wisdom to appear in Burn Notice [spoilers]
• James Marsters joins the Hawaii Five-O pilot
• Jane Espenson to write for Game of Thrones

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Films

• Sigourney Weaver joins Vamps
• Rose McGowan joins Conan

British TV

• Virgin to offer HD for free [subscription required]

US TV

• White Collar's Natalie Morales joins Parks and Recreation
• Goran Visnjic to star with Katee Sackhoff in pilot, Dougray Scott and Molly Parker to star in another pilot + more casting
• Tom Selleck to get a pilot?
• The Pacific starts with 3.1m viewers
• Trailer for David Simon's Treme
• Chuck gets all-time lowest ratings
• Ashley Scott joins NCIS

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Doctor Who

• Behind the scenes of the new series [spoilers]
• An interview with Karen Gillan

Film

• Orlando Bloom and Jonathan Rhys Meyers join Albert Nobbs
• Paul Bettany and Rufus Sewell join The Tourist

• Trailer for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls

British TV

• BBC to launch second Freeview HD service because Five can't?
• BBC shouldn't have bid on Harper's Island [subscribers only]
• Sci Fi HD coming to Virgin
• ITV1 HD also coming to Sky

US TV

• SyFy working on Three Inches, Alphas and another BSG spin-off
• Mia Maestro to star in Cutthroat + more pilot casting
• Actor leaving True Blood for The Good Wife?

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Canal+ has released some more pictures and videos from season three of Engrenages (BBC4's Spiral). I can't embed the videos so you'll have to go to the Canal+ web site for them, but here are the pics. Looks like there's a new female cop on the scene at the very least.

Continue reading "Engrenages/Spiral pics and videos"

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…who've got their own programmes. Should be familiar to STV viewers.

[From the Armando Ianucci Show, via @thejimsmith]

Film

• Judy Greer, Robert Forster and Beau Bridges join George Clooney on The Descendants

Radio

• Just under 8,000 complaints about 6Music closure

British TV

• ITV to launch ITV1 HD on Virgin
• Skins gets two more series and another new cast
• BBC1 to make four-night siege drama
• Sky to launch Hallmark Channel HD
• Kevin Bishop Show returning?

Canadian TV

• MovieTime goes HD

US TV

• Casting on Lights Out and Hung, plus a departure on White Collar [spoilers]
• Colm Feore to star on The Borgias
• Sarah Shahi's Facing Kate gets a series order
• BSG's James Callis to join Eureka
• Mary Steenburgen to star in Southern Mom, Xander Berkeley joins Nikita + more casting
• Summer Glau joins The Cape
• Annabeth Gish joins FlashForward
• Paul Schneider leaving Parks & Recreation as a regular
• Guy Pearce, Evan Rachel Wood and Melissa Leo join Kate Winslet on Mildred Pierce
• Julie Roberts to guest on Glee?

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Doctor Who

• Wii game a go

Film

• Hugo Weaving to play the Red Skull in Captain America?
• Trailer for Shrek Forever After
• Sam Worthington to play Dan Dare?
• Leonardo Da Vinci – action hero?
• Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman to star in Change Up

Radio

• What the Beeb plans to do after closing 6Music and the Asian Network

British TV

• Sky looking for 13-part dramas [subscription required]

US TV

• Firefly/Dollhouse's Alan Tudyk to co-star on Rockford Files
• Pilot casting, including Malcolm McDowell in Franklin & Bash
• John Voight signs up for Fox's Midland
• Katherine Heigl to be released from Grey's Anatomy
• Michael Madsen to guest on 24
• Grace Park and Moon Bloodgood to guest on Human Target
• Nurse Jackie season two trailer

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Film

• Gary Oldman, Malin Akerman, Harvey Keitel and Milo Ventimiglia to star in Criminal Empires for Dummys (sic)
• Guy Ritchie working on King Arthur film

British TV

• Lenora Crichlow cast in BBC3 comedy Dappers
• Ashes to Ashes series three press pack
• Living acquires Drop Dead Diva [subscription required]
• 196 of the 890 programmes put out by S4C are rated as having zero viewers

US TV

• 24's Elisha Cuthbert joins Happy Endings
• Pilot casting, including The Wire's Sonja Sohn on Body of Evidence
• Amy Acker to guest on Human Target

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