Film

• Doug Liman to direct film about Attica uprising
• Al Pacino to replace Robert De Niro on Son of No One
• BBC making a movie about Seb Coe and Steve Ovett
• Jeffrey Wright joins Duncan Jones' Source Code
• Gwyneth Paltrow joins Contagion

• Joanna Lumley, David Hyde Pierece and Mark Rylance to star in La Bête

British TV

• BBC to launch mobile phone apps
• Merlin gets an iPhone app…
• …as does Freeview
• One-stop video on demand service SeeSaw launches with BBC, C4 and Five content

• Pilot casting, including Scrubs' Donald Faison on The Odds
• Steven Spielberg's Nine Lives moves from SyFy to NBC after four years in limbo
• History Channel to make its own version of Top Gear?
• Better Off Ted's Jay Harrington joins Nathan vs Nurture
• Courtney Thorne-Smith to recur on Two and a Half Men
• The CW goes action with Nomads from Numb3rs producer Ken Sanzel
• NBC picks up Friends… with Benefits
• More pilot casting, including Primeval's James Murray on Chaos
• Eugene Levy joins Hitched
• Poppy Montgomery and Marc Blucas join True Blood
• Taryn Manning joins Hawaii Five-O
• Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl and Supernatural get renewed
• Lost ratings down to 9.8m
• 24 hits series low
• Paul Blackthorne to recur on CSI: Miami
• Elisabetta Canalis to recur on Leverage

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Read other posts about: 24, CSI, Gossip Girl, Lost, Numb3rs, Supernatural, Top Gear

Film

• Jeffrey Dean Morgan joins The Unblinking Eye
• Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen join Michael Winterbottom's The Promised Land
• Another Riddick film
• Kevin Costner to star in A Little War of Our Own
• The Three Musketeers to get the Sherlock Holmes treatment
• Trailer for Russell Brand's Get Him To The Greek
• Alicia Silverstone and Amy Heckerling reunite for Vamps
• Full Toy Story 3 trailer  

British TV

• Tamsin Greig and Paul Ritter to star in Channel 4 comedy
• Nickelodeon UK to rebrand
• S4C cutting jobs

US TV

• The chances of survival for various shows in danger of cancellation, including Heroes, 24, and FlashForward…
• …and for Smallville, Supernatural, Fringe, The Forgotten, Chuck and Human Target
• More pilot casting including Kate Mara on Danny Boyle's 127 Hours
• Dennis Pennis's Paul Kaye to star in Larry Charles comedy for CBS
• HBO picks up Kate Winslet mini-series
• Season highs for The Middle and Modern Family
• Marsha Thomason to return to White Collar as a series regular [spoilers]
• Hulu to work on iPad/iPhone?

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Read other posts about: 24, Heroes, Smallville, Supernatural

Doctor Who

• Big Finish to do The Four Doctors, another Mara story
• Neil Gaiman writing ep for second Matt Smith season

Film

• Lucy Punch to star opposite Cameron Diaz to Bad Teacher
• Sam Worthington to star in The Fields
• Prince of Persia trailer
• Carey Mulligan to star in My Fair Lady?
• Casting on The Thing prequel

British TV

• Mark Gatiss, Matt Horne and Marc Warren to star in Boy George drama for BBC. No filming in Eltham, though! Pah!
• Persuasionists ratings halve
• Trevor Eve to star as hostage negotiator in ITV1 thriller

US TV

• Michael Chiklis to star in No Ordinary Family
• A&E drops one pilot, still considering Sugarloaf
• More pilot casting
• Lost's Daniel Dae Kim to star in Hawaii Five O
• Smallville movie hits a high…
• …as does Parks and Recreation, while Supernatural drops
• Henry Winkler joins Royal Pains [spoilers]
• David Goyer out as FlashForward show runner
• Julie Benz to stay longer on Desperate Housewives
• Lexa Doig and Nicolas Lea join V
• Sheryl Crow to appear in Cougar Town
• John Rhys-Davies to guest on Legend of the Seeker
• Heroes producers Tim Kring and Aron Eli Coleite working on III
• Enrique Murciano joins Off the Map

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Read other posts about: Big Finish, Heroes, Lost, Smallville, Supernatural

Film

• Guy Ritchie pulling out of Lobo for Sherlock Holmes 2?

British TV

• BBC4 to have a maps season
• S4C to launch digital children's service

US TV

• ABC greenlights crime drama
• The top names of the TV pilot season: Julianne Moore, Maria Bello, Christina Applegate, Matt Dillon and Jason Isaacs
• CBS picks up dramas and comedy from HIMYM creators and Brett Ratner
• Castle gets all-time high, Heroes picks up, 24 continues to drop in the ratings…
• …and Damages starts badly for season 3
• Who's coming and going at Brothers and Sisters? [spoilers]
• House spin-off still on?
• Supernatural to have a Ghostfacers web series spin-off
• Conan O'Brien's production company sells a pilot to NBC
• Vampire Diaries-Gossip Girl crossover?
• Apple trying to cut iTunes prices for SD episodes to $0.99
• Caprica starts poorly in the ratings

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Read other posts about: Gossip Girl, Heroes, House, Supernatural

Doctor Who

• The other reason Amy Pond wears that mini-skirt? [spoiler?]

Film

• Ciaran Hinds joins John Carter of Mars
• Mark Strong to play the Green Lantern villain?

British TV

• Press pack for Only Fools and Horses prequel Rock & Chips

US TV

• Jessica Parker Kennedy joins Undercovers
• Fox greenlights two pilots
• Hawaii Five-O gets a pilot…
• …possibly starring Alex O'Loughlin
• Alison Sweeney to guest on Mercy
• Gena Rowlands to guest on NCIS
• Lex Medlin to guest on Supernatural [spoilers]
• AMC developing 'teapot dome' mini-series
• Archer gets 1.8m viewers

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Read other posts about: Supernatural

Living TV now has first-run rights to Supernatural and to promote season five, it's got a trailer and an online/real-world game in which you can win prizes (UK players only I'm afraid), as well as a video from Satan himself.

Unfortunately, since Living's PRs haven't got a proper handle on this new-fangled Interweb thing, they only videos they have are 640 pixels wide and can't be resized so won't fit in this lovely window. So you'll have to click here for the season trailer and here for a very special message to UK viewers from Satan.

UPDATE: They've provided some proper-sized vids now:

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Film

• The A-Team teaser trailer
• Gossip Girl's Blake Lively to co-star in Green Lantern
• Another trailer for Kick Ass
• Trailer for From Paris With Love
• Remakes of Robocop and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes shelved
• John Malkovich joins Red

Theatre

• Jeremy Irons returning to the RSC for The Gods Weep

US TV

• Jeremy Irons to star in The Borgias
• Maz Jobrani to star in Funny in Farsi
• Day One cut back to a two-hour movie
• NBC greenlights six drama pilots…
• …considers Law and Order: Los Angeles…
• …after moving Jay Leno from primetime…
• …but what's going to happen to Heroes, Chuck, Trauma, Mercy et al?
• ABC greenlights Scoundrels based on NZ series Outrageous Fortune
• CBS cancels Three Rivers
• A sixth season for Supernatural?
• …and a tenth for Smallville?
• Someone's coming back to Chuck [spoilers]
• Dana Carvey to develop and star in new Fox comedy show
• Alexis Denisof discusses his supernatural pilot for ABC/ABC Family
• Moonlight to return?

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Read other posts about: Gavin and Stacey, Gossip Girl, Heroes, Smallville, Supernatural

So, other than Doctor Who, what have you been watching this week? As per usual, I've reviewed most of what I've seen, but of the regulars:

• Community – Very funny and took the show in odd directions. However, last night's seemed to ignore that direction. Which is odd, but they've mixed up episodes before now
  
• 30 Rock – Is it bad that the new Canadian guy seemed more interesting than everyone else on the show?
• Dexter – Ooh, some interesting twists and glad to see Rita having some fun for a change
• Stargate Universe – Very good and unexpected. I don't know if there was a magic reset button at the end or not (tonight's ep will reveal that), but even if it wasn't, it was a good way to end the ep, crediting the audience with some intelligence. They seem to be going in the direction of "you know all the crap things that can happen when you're exploring? Well we're going to show you them all."
  
• The Thick of It – Another good one. The opposition are starting to seem more interesting than the government though.

Still got this week's CSI, Cougar Town, Modern Family and Supernatural to watch. But I've decided I'm never going to watch this series of The Sarah Jane Adventures so I've deleted them from my line-up.

The Prisoner
Big almost watch of the week was the AMC/remake The Prisoner. First, a confession – when I was young, I loved the original so much I joined the appreciation society. So I might be biased. But this was excruciatingly dull. It was beautifully shot, but the direction was in no way involving, it was literal when it shouldn't have been, made sure it rammed home the face that some things might not be real, and was just hopeless in every way. It was also so edited in such a way that whenever there was a moment that needed explaining, they tried to do it with music and a montage – it was like a rock video version of The Prisoner at times.

Episode 2 was a brief uptick, and I did appreciate the little head-nods to the original show (the map, the taxis, Rover, the abbreviated episode titles, the blazer, as well as a few plot elements), but episode 3 got so dull, so soon, I abandoned all hope and gave up. I've since found out what the ending was, and I'm very, very glad I gave up, because that sounded rubbish.

What have you been watching though?

As always, no spoilers unless you're going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please. If you've reviewed something on your blog, you can put a link to it here rather than repeat yourself (although too many links and you might get killed by the spam filter).

Read other posts about: 30 Rock, Community, CSI, Dexter, Stargate, Supernatural, The Prisoner

For once, the funniest thing on TV last week wasn't Community or The Thick of It but Supernatural. Changing Channels saw our heroes thrown into an alternative TV universe, in which rather than having to slay demons and ghosts, they have to survive Japanese game shows, CSI: Miami and Grey's Anatomy.

After the jump, clips of the best bits, but first a promo and the alternative title sequence for this episode to give you an idea of the flavour.

Continue reading "Supernatural parodies CSI, Grey's Anatomy and other shows for Changing Channels"

Read other posts about: Community, CSI, Supernatural

As you may have guessed, I've been watching quite a bit of tele this week and you should have seen the result in a big wodge of reviews. However, on top of this I've also seen:

• Accidentally on Purpose: Episode 2, which was truly dreadful so I've given up on it. E4 viewers steer clear of it when it arrives on our scene
• The Vampire Diaries: Episode 2, to which I can only say, ditto.
• Hank: review later
• The Middle: review later
• The Fixer: Little bit daft, but interesting to see MMA on a mainstream UK show
• Supernatural: As excellent as always, and nice to see Hector off The Unit getting a job as an archangel
• House: weird. No instant reset button. A good twist at the end, too (although I did see it coming). No longer can House be accused of being formulaic
• CSI: Miami: back to insulting our intelligence. I knew it couldn't last longer than a week
• Community: last week's was absolutely sensational, with an ending as well written as 30 Rock. It's really must-see TV already
• Mad Men: I played catch-up (not seen Sunday's though), but the last-but-one episode was excellent

So I've still got a big pile of programmes to watch as you can probably tell. Any I should avoid?

As always, no spoilers unless you're going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please

Read other posts about: Community, CSI, House, Supernatural, The Unit