Month: July 2006

UK TV

And the role of John Simm will be played by… Brad Pitt

27 July 2006 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

State of PlayA while ago, I was wondering where State of Play 2 had got to. It’s somewhere. I know it is. And I want it bad.

It looks more likely that the Hollywood adaptation of State of Play is going to arrive first, though. Today’s big surprise is that Brad Pitt of all people is apparently interested in taking on John Simm’s original role.

According to Variety, “Pitt is also circling Universal’s ‘State of Play,’ the pricey Americanized adaptation of the acclaimed British miniseries. Matthew Carnahan is writing the script. Pitt is interested in playing a journalist and former campaign manager of a fast-rising politician who unravels a murder conspiracy involving his former boss.”

Just can’t see it myself. Still, Pitt is very much trying to be an actor these days. He was also the one who ensured that Se7en retained its original downbeat ending, saying he’d walk from the project if a happier one were tacked on. So, we can only hope that he brings his power to bear and delivers us a State of Play movie that we can all be proud of.

Assuming he ends up doing it, of course. You know how fickle these stars can be.

UK TV

I, Claudius repeats coming soon

27 July 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

I, Claudius

If you like TV classics, they don’t get much more classic than I, Claudius. BBC Four is going to be airing the entire series, starting at 9pm on Saturday 5 August and broadcasting pretty much an episode a night until 17 August.

Don’t miss it: whenever anyone talks about declining standards and how TV just ain’t what it used to be, this is the kind of show they have in mind. You can view a trailer and find out more from BBC Four’s web page.

Armando Iannucci’s Time Trumpet coming soon

27 July 2006 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

Armando Iannucci is pretty much a comedy genius. He’s been a writer, performer and producer on TV and radio, cranking out hits such as The Day Today, I’m Alan Partridge, Lionel Nimrod’s Inexplicable World, The Thick of It, Knowing Me, Knowing You, The Mary Whitehouse Experience, The Friday Night Armistice and, surprise, surprise, Armando Iannucci’s Charm Offensive.

Coming to our screens very soon (10pm on BBC2 next Thursday in fact) is Time Trumpet aka The Time Trumpet. The spiel from the Radio TImes goes like this:

Comedy series written by Armando Iannucci. Set 30 years in the future, it looks back at events today, speaking to older versions of current celebrities. Sixty-year-olds Ant and Dec talk about the day Charlotte Church vomited herself inside out. Plus the end of Blair, the rise and fall of David Cameron and a very old Tom Cruise. Also featuring Stewart Lee, Richard Ayoade, Matt Holness, Adam Buxton.

A 10-minute trailer has already aired and here it is for your enjoyment. Don’t forget to watch it!

The limits of a screener

27 July 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

In my duties as screener reviewer, I made my way through Heroes. I remarked at the the time that it was odd that Greg Grunberg wasn’t in the pilot. Turns out, they edited the pilot down to an hour for screening purposes and he’s now going to be in the second episode.

It’s a little unclear from the SciFi Wire article whether the screener version is now the official pilot, or whether the original pilot will be the one that airs, but it’s an interesting twist. In particular, one of my concerns about the screener was the pacing. If there’s an hour’s worth of extra footage due to be inserted into it, it could well veer into “too slow by half” territory.

Let’s just see.