Month: September 2012

Friday’s “More Episodes, Toby Stephens is a pirate, German remakes and Mandy Patinkin’s soul” news

14 September 2012 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Film

  • Ross Noble to play a clown in Stitches
  • Sequels to Ted and The Bourne Legacy planned
  • MGM acquires rights to Metro 2033

Trailers

  • Trailer for 13 with Sam Roley, Jason Statham, Ray Winstone and Mickey Rourke
  • Trailer for Mama with Jessica Chastain and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

International TV

  • RTL to remake The New Adventures of Old Christine

UK TV

US TV

New US TV shows

Weird old title sequences: Alias the Jester (1985)

13 September 2012 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Back in the 70s and 80s, Cosgrove Hall was a powerhouse of children’s TV. Creator of Chorlton and the Wheelies, Danger Mouse, The Wind in the Willows and Count Duckula, it dominated animated independent TV for the best part of those decades.

One minor little blip – although not necessarily on quality grounds – that’s largely been forgotten was 1985’s 13-part series Alias the Jester, which followed the adventures of a time traveller by the name of Alias and his dog-like companion Boswell. After their malfunctioning ship gets stuck in the Earth’s magnetic pole, they crash-land in a Middle Age kingdom called Houghton Bottoms, ruled by (a) King Arthur and his Queen Edith. Taking up a secret identity as Alias the Jester, he gains employment at the court and befriends the bumbling court wizard Meredith.

However, when the situation called for it, Alias instantly changed back into his red uniform, which enabled him to fly, and gave him a degree of super strength, which used to face the various villains of the show, each episode inevitably ending with Arthur firing Alias and Meredith.

Here’s the title sequence, which is a weird old combination of 80s pap music and utterly unhelpful scenes from the show.

US TV

Preview: The Last Resort (ABC) 1×1

13 September 2012 Rob Buckley 11 Comments

In the US: Thursdays, 8/7c, ABC. Starts September 27th
In the UK: Not yet acquired

You’ll have seen the scenario before, in films like Crimson Tide: a nuclear submarine receives the order to fire its missiles at the enemy. Will the captain have the guts to nuke the target? Will he chicken out? Or has it really all been a big mistake and war hasn’t actually been declared? It’s usually that last one.

Having not read much of the publicity material around The Last Resort, I assumed that this was going to be Crimson Tride all over again. But lo and behold, here we have something new and interesting. For now.

The Last Resort, featuring the ever-interesting Andre Braugher (last seen being wasted by House, Miami Medical and Men of a Certain Age), comes from the pen of Shawn Ryan, who can usually be relied to turn in something both interesting and manly (cf The Shield, Chicago Code, Terriers). Here, the crew of a nuclear submarine are given a suspicious order to fire nuclear missiles at Pakistan. And when the captain (Braugher) questions the order, he’s first relieved of command and then shot at… by a US ship, which goes on to nuke Pakistan itself in supposed retaliation for shooting the submarine.

So, in another interesting twist, the submarine heads off for the Caribbean and declares itself an independent nation, ready to stop the war between the US and Pakistan. And if anyone comes after them… well, there’s a silo of nuclear missiles waiting for them, too.

Here’s a trailer.

Continue reading “Preview: The Last Resort (ABC) 1×1”

Film

Google will now calculate an actor’s Bacon number for you

13 September 2012 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Kevin Bacon

Everyone knows about Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon by now. In case you’re not everyone, here’s how it works. The theory is that everyone in the world (well, actors at least) is separated by no more than six other actors from Kevin Bacon. The number of degrees of separation of that actor from Kevin Bacon gives you that actor’s ‘Bacon number’. So if the actor is in a movie with Kevin Bacon, their Bacon number is 1; if the actor appears in a movie with someone who’s been in a movie with Kevin Bacon, their Bacon number is 2; and so on.

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon has become a party game for film nerds but now Google has ruined it for everyone who has a smartphone. All you now have to do is type “Bacon number” followed by the actor’s name and Google will not only tell you the Bacon number of that person, it’ll also tell you how it worked out that number.

As a test, I typed in the names of some this ere blog’s favourite actors. Here are their Bacon numbers according to Google – turns out they’re all twos, apart from Audrey Fleurot:

  • Ali Larter: 2
    Ali Larter and Bruce McGill appeared in Obsessed
    Bruce McGill and Kevin Bacon appeared in National Lampoon’s Animal House
  • Joanna Page: 2
    Joanna Page and January Jones appeared in Love Actually
    January Jones and Kevin Bacon appeared in X-Men: First Class
  • David Tennant: 2
    David Tennant and James McAvoy appeared in Bright Young Things
    James McAvoy and Kevin Bacon appeared in X-Men: First Class.
  • Richard Armitage: 2
    Richard Armitage and Elijah Wood appeared in The Hobbit: Part 1
    Elijah Wood and Kevin Bacon appeared in Beyond All Boundaries.
  • Amber Heard: 2
    Amber Heard and Emma Stone appeared in Zombieland
    Emma Stone and Kevin Bacon appeared in Crazy, Stupid, Love.
  • Scarlett Johansson: 2
    Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray appeared in Lost in Translation
    Bill Murray and Kevin Bacon appeared in Wild Things.
  • Audrey Fleurot: 3
    Audrey Fleurot and Omar Sy appeared in Intouchables
    Omar Sy and Robert De Niro appeared in Micmacs
    Robert De Niro and Kevin Bacon appeared in Sleepers.

Give it a try with some of your favourites and let us know the answers below.

Some of the best and most famous US audition tapes, including Hugh Laurie as House

13 September 2012 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Almost every actor has to audition to get a role in a TV show – unless they’re really, really famous. Audition tapes allow producers to see what the actor would like in the role and although most audition tapes remain private, a few have escaped onto YouTube. Flavorwire has put together a collection of the best, including Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner as Arya and Sansa Stark from Game of Thrones, Seth Rogen as Ken Miller in Freaks and Geeks and Lea Michele as Rachel Berry in Glee, but I’ve put a few of them below as well:

Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad

Josh Holloway as Sawyer in Lost

Hugh Laurie as House

Blake Lively as Serena van der Woodsen in Gossip Girl