Thursday’s lovely, lovely news

Bit luvvie, that.

Film

  • Two made-for-TV Star Wars movies to come?
  • May the biggest wuss win: Tim Roth will face off against Edward Norton in The Incredible Hulk
  • Looks like there are more Terminator things on the way
  • The Rock as Captain Marvel?

Music

British TV

US TV

US TV

The mysterious declining (?) career of John Badham

John BadhamEveryone watch Heroes on Monday? Okay, I thought, with some nice touches, but not as good as previous eps. What did you think?

One thing did catch my attention though: it was directed by John Badham. Why should that have drawn my attention? Well, do you remember any of these films:

  • Saturday Night Fever
  • Blue Thunder
  • WarGames
  • Short Circuit?

Yes, he directed all of them. Not bad, hey? But now he’s directing Heroes. It’s a bit of a comedown, isn’t it? I’m not saying anything bad about the show itself here, but you don’t see Martin Scorsese directing episodes of Lost, and if you did, ABC would be making a bit of a song and dance about it, you can bet. But no mention of Badham’s presence anywhere in the NBC publicity for the episode. Bad NBC.

I had a brief look at Badham’s recent resumé on IMDB. It’s a bit upsetting. Episodes of:

  • Crossing Jordan
  • Standoff
  • Just Legal and
  • Blind Justice

Standoff? What went wrong?

There’s nothing on the trivia list that might explain his fall from grace. Is he just spending his time teaching film at Chapman University in Orange, California, as his trivia section suggests, picking up the extra bit of cash and keeping his hand in from time to time? Is it merely his age that’s caused him to stick to smaller projects (he’s 67, but then so’s my Dad and he doesn’t seem to be slowing down)? Is it because he’s from Luton, and bad things happen to people from Luton?

Can anyone enlighten me?

Wednesday’s fun-filled news extravaganza

Was that overselling it a bit, I wonder?

Film

Audio Plays

  • A 36-part audio Blake’s 7 series is now up on the SciFi Channel web site. Features none of the original cast, but does include Colin Salmon, Daniela Nardini, Michael Praed and Rula Lenska

Theatre

  • Orlando Bloom will make his West End debut in David Storey’s In Celebration

British TV

US TV

Tuesday’s post-bank holiday news

Doctor Who

Film

British TV

  • Film24 is taking over the Bonanza channel [free registration required]
  • ‘Unprecedented’ coverage of the Hay Festival due
  • The Beeb has indeed dropped out the Neighbours bidding war



US TV

Friday’s pre-Bank Holiday weekend news

Doctor Who

  • There’s going to be a treat at the end of The Lazarus Experiment. Something that appears to involve John Simm

Film

  • Pierce Brosnan is likely to start soon on a sequel to The Thomas Crowne Affair called The Topkapi Affair
  • Maybe Jessical Biel was too buff. Liv Tyler is Betty Ross in The Incredible Hulk

Music

Australian TV

British TV

  • Bummed you can’t watch CSB’s pirate reality TV show Pirate Master? Don’t worry, Sky One’s just bought the rights [subscription required]

US TV