Year: 2006

US TV

24 movie given the greenlight

8 June 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer

After much mulling, musing and moaning, there’s finally going to be a 24 movie, according to Variety. Kiefer hasn’t signed up for it yet, although frankly the producers would be insane not to spend a good part of the budget, if necessary, to get him on board.

A couple of notable facts

  1. It’s not going to real time. Neither is it going to be 24 hours long. Let’s face it, a 24-hour movie wouldn’t be a great attraction. However, it is likely that part of the film will be in real-time, so if you can imagine the first hour being set-up and the second hour being continuous, you’ve got a good idea of how it’s supposed to work
  2. Parts of it could be shot in London. Clearly, that won’t be the real-time part because having Kiefer standing on the Northern line platform for seven minutes, waiting for the train, only to realise he really needs the City branch which means going up to Euston then coming back down again just isn’t that interesting.

It’s going to occur between seasons six and seven (because you just know there’s going to be a season seven). Since they work something like 26 hours a day, nine days a week while they’re filming and rely on the two or three months they get free between seasons to catch up with their sleep, expect a certain degree of tiredness, hallucinations, irritability, sudden mood swings, etc, in the main characters’ performances

Who are you? Oh crap, you’re real

7 June 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Imagine this. You’re a kid in a Florida High School. Your teacher has a jolly wheeze. Why don’t we go on a CSI field trip? We’ll dig up stuff – planted of course – and you’ll have to work out what happened using forensic science.

Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Now imagine you’re out in the field, the sun beating down as you gently brush away the dirt and the grime from the artfully placed props. Is this what it’s like for Gil, Sara and Catherine? Wow. This is great. I’m going to be a real CSI when I grow up (good luck kid. The pay’s rubbish, the courses over-subscribed, applicants-to job ratios massive and people have to make do with a magnifying glass and an old distilled water bottle to do anything, most of the time, the budget’s are so tiny).

But what’s this? It’s a hand. Cool. It’s so real-looking. But you can tell it’s fake.

Oh bugger. It’s not. It’s a dead homeless guy.

How much would you sue for?

The Wicker Man returns in a different guise

7 June 2006 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

There’s a trailer available now for the remake of The Wicker Man. Yes, you read right. They’ve remade The Wicker Man. Did we really need a remake? I don’t think so, but others may disagree.

I have to say though, it doesn’t look a huge amount like the original, particularly since it stars Nicolas Cage and appears to be all about Satan-worshippers rather than pagans. So it’s more like a “re-imagining” in the parlance of Hollywood and not for the better. Oh well. I have little faith it’ll be any good, and what faith I have comes from the fact Neil LaBute is directing it. Let the forces of nature and a giant maypole prove me wrong.

Anyone reckon that Nick Cage is going to be burnt alive in a huge wicker effigy at the end, though? Thought not.

PS Nice references to Edward Woodward in the trailer. That, at least, was a nice touch.

A new channel just for me

5 June 2006 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Five have finally revealed their new free-to-view digital channels: Five US and Five Life. I’ll be ignoring Five Life since it’s basically Living TV in disguise (“Five Life will be aimed at women, with soaps and lifestyle programming as well as an extension of the channel’s children strand, Milkshake” – where are the psychics then?), but Five US is going to be all-US programming.

Well, that’s the power of blogging for you. They’ve finally developed a TV station just for me. Hooray!