Welcome to the sixth annual posting of this entry!  Long time readers can skip it, but as I keep adding more readers, it’ll keep getting posted!

Ah, Columbus Day, the day we set aside each year to celebrate a lie. It always warms my heart.

People tend to forget that Christopher Columbus wasn’t looking for North America when he landed here, he was looking for the West Indies. Quite the navigator there. He also believed, until his death, that the entire time he was in this area that he was exploring the Eastern coast of Asia.

Never mind the fact that he also took the indigenous people as slaves and shipped them back to Spain, against the Crown’s wishes. Never mind that colonists he brought over here rebelled against him when the New World didn’t come close to what he described. No, no, all those things are just a-ok for a man we should honor with a governmental and banking holiday.

The biggest offense to me is that he was far from the first person to “discover” the Americas. (how does one “discover” a place that is already inhabited?) The Siberians crossed the land bridge with Alaska as early as 70,000 BC, and it was those crossings that gave us the Native Americans. There were numerous other occurrences of people coming to the Americas, but one of the most well documented was Leifur Eircksson in 1005 when he sailed from Iceland to North America and traveled down the coast. Gee, does that come before 1492?

Yet, history textbooks still hail him as the man who “discovered” America. Why is beyond me, but a friend pointed me to a wonderful book called Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
(Barnes & Noble link) that spends an entire chapter delving into this very matter. Fascinating stuff.

If you want to credit Columbus with something, just say that he brought the America’s to the attention of Europe, but leave it at that.

Apparently this weekend was a time for folks to head to the theater and watch robots fighting it out with one another.

Real Steel, starring Hugh Jackman, made it to the top of the box office over the weekend with an estimated $27.3 million.  A healthy showing for a fall debut, and exit polling was mostly positive, so it’ll probably have some life to it.  Who knew people were so anxious to see boxing robots?

Coming in a distant second was George Clooney’s political drama, The Ides of March.  The new film landed with $10.4 million which is squarely in the center of George Clooney movies as of late.  Not a huge disappointment, but there’s a reason these sorts of films usually hit in the fall.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good political thriller … at home.

Dolphin Tale slipped 34.2% to land in third, bringing in $9.16 million. A decent performance for any film in its third weekend, and brings its domestic total to $49 million off of a $37 million budget.

The Brad Pitt vehicle, Moneyball, came in fourth with $7.5 million inching its cumulative total to $49.5 million off of a $50 million budget, so it still has some ways to go for it to hit profitability.

Rounding out the top five was the cancer drama 50/50 with an estimated fall of 36.4% to $5.5 million. Considering the dark subject matter, this is a surprising hold for the film.

Next weekend is a mess with the remake of Footloose, the prequel to The Thing and The Big Year.

And from the “movie disasters” department, the Sarah Jessica Parker vehicle, I Don’t Know How She Does It lost 505 theaters and took a 76.8% fall to a paltry $93,000. This brings the total to $9.48 million off of a $24 million budget. I don’t picture Ms. Parker getting a whole lot of work any time soon.

Well, that didn’t take long. Sony is attempting to option the rights to the upcoming biography Steve Jobs by Walter Isaccson.

According to Deadline, Sony is making a hefty offer to acquire the rights to the biography that is due out later this month.  The 656-page hardcover is made up of over 40 interviews that Isaccson conducted with Steve Jobs, up through, and just after his retirement as the CEO of Apple.  It was originally slated for release next year, but the release was moved up after the announcement of the retirement.  Mr. Isaccson has since confirmed since Mr. Jobs’ passing that he was indeed aware his time was short and that prompted his retirement as well as the acceleration of the biography’s release.

While I have no issues with the book’s release as it was all done with Jobs’ approval, a film studio moving to acquire the film rights this quickly seems to be in poor taste to me.  True, we’re probably looking at a year or more before any potential release, it still seems like there should have been at least some distance before someone moved on this.

If this has to go forward, which I’m sure it will, I’m voting now for Noah Wyle of ER fame to step into Jobs’ New Balance sneakers again.  Wyle played Jobs in the 1999 telefilm, Pirates of Silicon Valley about the early days of Bill Gates and Jobs forming their respective companies.  While the film had its factual inaccuracies, Jobs liked Wyle’s portrayal enough to have him show up at the 1999 MacWorld convention and impersonate him for the first few minutes of his scheduled keynote.  He’s a talented actor, and this is the closest anyone could ever come to having Jobs’ personal seal of approval.  (And if you’ve never seen the movie, you can find it cheap on DVD, it’s worth watching)

I would rather not see this movie go forward, but if it must, then at least do it right.

You can find the Pirates trailer and the MacWorld appearance after the jump.
Continue Reading ->

A total of 42 this week.

FunJug.com

• Weetabix Chocolate Spoonsize
• Floppy music DUO – Imperial March
• Penguin Attack!
• Kittens Turn on a Vacuum Cleaner
• iPhone 4S Siri is a Harsh Taskmaster
• Saturday Shorts: The Snob

SeanPAune.com

• Walking Dead Season 2 Promos Start Rolling Out
• Arrested Development Limited Series Eyed by Netflix and Showtime
• Dolphin Tale Swims to Top of the Box Office
• NBC Pulls the Plug on The Playboy Club; PTC Takes Credit
• Steve Jobs – 1955-2011
• Free Agents and H8R Hit the Cancellation Chopping Block
• Scattercast Episode #163: Jobs
• Judge Dredd Director Kicked Out of the Editing Room

TechnoBuffalo.com

• Images of the N90A (Cheaper iPhone 4) Leak From Brazil
• iPhone 5: Would You Switch to Sprint For It? (poll)
• iPhone 5 Coming to Best Buy on October 21?
• Ask The Buffalo: Windows Phone 7 and How Technology Will Shape Our Future
• iPhone 5: TechnoBuffalo Will Have All of Your Coverage Needs
• Nexus Prime Info Leaks in Spy Shot
• Apple Store Down Ahead of iPhone 5 Announcement
• Which iPhone 5 Rumors do You Most Believe? (poll)
• iCloud Will Take Care of Your Virtual Storage Needs Come October 12
• iPhone 4S Finally Brings World Phone Functionality
• iPhone 4S: Success or Disappointment? (poll)
• iPhone 4S vs. iPhone 4 Spec Shootout
• iPod Touch 5 vs. iPod Touch 4 Spec Shootout
• BlackBerry Messenger for Android Shown Off in Spy Shots (again)
• Samsung Teasing the Nexus Prime in a Video?
• Sprint Confirms Unlimited Data for iPhone 4S
• iPhone 4S News – Catching Up on What You May Have Missed
• Ask the Buffalo: October 5th Edition
• What’s The Apps: ForScore – Get Your Music On!
• Nexus Prime Tech Specs Leak Ahead of Announcement Next Week
• iPhone 4S Finally Appears on the Sprint Website
• Steve Jobs – Steve Wozniak Remembers His Friend
• Sony Looking to Remove Ericsson From Joint Venture
• Radio Shack Offering Up to $200 Off iPhone 4S with Trade-Ins
• Swype Sells for $102.5 Million to Nuance
• Google Music and Google+ Receive Overhauls in Ice Cream Sandwich
• BlackBerry Messenger to Have a Monthly Fee on Android?
• Rumor Roundup: Prime Specs, Nokia’s Sun and RIM’s Future

If there is one rule in Hollywood that a movie is going to suck, it’s when the director gets kicked out of the editing room.

Pete Travis, director of the upcoming Dredd based on the long-running Judge Dredd comic has been locked out of the editing process on the film.  According to the LA Times, Mr. Travis butted heads with the producers, and now screenwriter Alex Garland has become so involved in the editing process that there is a chance that he could receive a co-director credit when the film is completed.

Reports are conflicting on just how locked out Travis is, but at the most he is keeping abreast of progress on the film via the Internet, so he essentially isn’t involved at all no matter how you slice it.

This is not an unheard of event on films, but for someone else to get a co-director credit on a film that they didn’t shoot even one frame of is pretty unique.  No matter how much editing Garland has done, this is still Travis’ filming that is being played with.  However, there is also a chance that Travis could demand his name be removed from the film, and in cases like this the Director’s Guild usually uses the infamous name “Alan Smithee” in the place of the real person.  (If you ever see that name on a film … run.)  This is usually granted when editing is messed with to an extent the director finds unacceptable, so I won’t be too surprised if it pops up here.

In short, the new Dredd is probably going to suck, and that makes me very, very sad.  I had some hopes when this project was first announced, but every new report and picture just makes it looks like it’s gone that much further off the rails into the land of suckdom.  Somehow I just don’t think I’m ever going to get a decent Judge Dredd movie at this point.

[via the LA Times]

It’s episode #163 and Scattercast is feeling pretty sad.

I’m sure you can guess what this episode is about.

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It took only one show failing to start the domino effect for this fall season.  The body count now stands at three.

After The Playboy Club headed off to cancellation heaven earlier this week, you knew more shows were going to be getting the ax.  First up was the Hank Azaria comedy Free Agents based on a British comedy of the same name, after a dismal showing last night, NBC immediately pulled the plug on the series replacing it with re-airings of other shows until further notice.

This means that in short order that NBC, the network most in need of a hit, has lost two new shows, and there is no clear break out success story for them.  It’d be nice to see them get back in the game at some point after being #1 for so many years, but every time they turn around they are failing.

The other cancellation comes from The CW, and is anyone really surprised it was H8R?  Yes, the idiotic “reality” show where people were “forced” into meeting celebrities they hate.  This show was so insanely stupid that I still can’t believe it ever even ended up on the air, but then again it is The CW, so it isn’t like it was on a real network.

I am certain this won’t be the end of the cancellations for this year.  The selection of shows that got picked up was some of the weakest I have ever seen, and now the networks are finally realizing it.

It’s almost impossible to collect my thoughts at the moment when it comes to the news of Steve Jobs passing.

I never owned a Mac before last year, but it was never out of a hatred for Apple, they simply didn’t suit my needs.  However there was one thing that I never had an issue with and that was Steve Jobs, the co-founder former CEO of Apple.

I’m not going to go into a lot because what do you really say about a man that not only helped shape your life (would there even be a world of tech blogging without him? … think about it), but also helped shape the entire world.  The things he helped invent, design and spearheaded will be with us for years and decades to come.

Steve Jobs may be gone, but his legacy will live on.

My deepest condolences to his family, friends and co-workers.

It shouldn’t come as any huge surprise, but NBC has pulled the plug on The Playboy Club, making it the first casualty of the fall television season.  What is surprising is who is taking credit for the event.

Considering the subject matter of The Playboy Club, it should come as no big surprise that my old friends the Parents Television Council (PTC) made it a target for one of their busy body campaigns of contacting the network and its advertisers about the horrors of this show and how it would destroy the youth of the United States.  So, of course they are taking credit for the cancellation no matter what the network may tell you.

Well, they must be right, I mean they tell you bluntly in their Tweet that no matter what else NBC may say it was them that brought it down.  I mean, it certainly couldn’t have anything to do with the generally lackluster reviews and the fact it was polling in pitiful ratings it was pulling in its three week run.

Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter, someone who should understand the entertainment business than most, ran down his three reasons for what happened.

1. It was bad show, period. The writing was weak, the acting spotty and the sexism too ridiculous and obvious to comment on more than once.
2. Nobody was watching it. It had no buzz tune-in numbers and sank in each successive airing, finishing with 3.4 million viewers on its third and final episode. Those are cable numbers — and not especially impressive cable numbers. The cost of filming The Playboy Club was too expensive to support that kind of tanking.
3. While the Parents Television Council may feel some vindication in NBC pulling the plug, this cancelation wasn’t about boycotts. It was about owning up to the obvious. America did not care for a Mad Men-esque retro series about a lifestyle and brand more dated than any nostalgia could prop up. One would hope that the reason viewers tuned out in droves after sampling it was because it had none of the attributes of a high-quality drama like Mad Men. NBC simply misjudged the appeal of a show like that, despite mountains of evidence from Mad Men that being brilliant doesn’t also mean dominating the Nielsens. Nobody bought into NBC’s big tent approach to nostalgia, so the Bunnies are no more.

But, nope, it was all the PTC. Not sub-par writing. Not poor ratings.  Just a bunch of people with no lives who have nothing better to do than write letters to a network and advertisers.

Oh how I’ve missed that special brand of PTC crazy.

It took a dolphin to knock the lion out of the top box office spot.

Dolphin Tale took the top spot at the box office this weekend, leading a pack of non-new releases from cracking into the top three. The movie based on a real life “tail” (ha! See what I did there?!?) dropped 25.6% from last weekend, but scored a healthy $14.25 million. The percentage drop was far better than expected, and took many by surprise.

Holding on to second place was the Brad Pitt vehicle, Moneyball. It dipped 35.9% which was a bit steeper than some expected, but wasn’t horrible by any stretch of the imagination and it brought in $12.5 million.

The 3D re-release of The Lion King took a 49.6% fall to bring in $11 million.  Considering it comes out on home video on Tuesday, the $79.7 million the re-release has brought in over three weekends is nothing to sneeze at and brings the lifetime earnings of the film to $408.2 million.

Fourth place was the best showing for any new release this week and saw the cancer-themed 50/50 bring in $8.85 million over the three days. Considering the subject matter, it wasn’t a horrible showing.

Rounding out the top five was Courageous with $8.8 million which was an impressive showing for only 1,161 locations.

Following up some recent disasters at the box office, the Sarah Jessica Parker vehicle, I Don’t Know How She Does It took a massive 80% hit from last weekend and brought in a paltry $400,000 brining its three weekend run to $9.2 million off of a $24 million budget. Meanwhile, Killer Elite starring Jason Statham fell 48.1% to $4.85 million bringing its two week total to $17.4 million off of a $70 million budget.  In short, things are not going well in several different genres of films at the moment, but that certainly won’t stop Hollywood from continuing to over spend.

Next week sees the debuts of The Ides of March and Real Steel.

It seems there is a chance that not only is an Arrested Development movie really happening, but there may also be a limited season of new episodes.

That girlish shriek you may have heard this evening was me …

Series creator Mitch Hurtwitz was speaking at The New Yorker Festival on a panel that reunited the entire main cast - Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Portia de Rossi, Michael Cera, Tony Hale, Jeffrey Tambor, David Cross, Alia Shawkat and Jessica Walter – and said that there was a chance that the series may come back as a limited engagement series, and then finally follow that up with long-awaited movie.

According to Deadline, the plan is to do a 9 to 10 episode limited series with each episode focusing on a different member of the Bluth clan.  Once the new episodes would run their course, they would finally move on to the film (although I will believe all of this when it actually appears on a screen).  Apparently none of the plans involve airing the episodes on Fox, but instead have involved talks with Netflix which is looking for original content.  Premium cable channel Showtime has also apparently been looking into the concept, and that comes partially from the fact that the network’s new entertainment president is David Nevins who assisted in getting the series developed when he was at Imagine TV.

Following the surprise announcement, series star Jason Bateman confirmed the news on his Twitter account:

It’s true. We will do 10 episodes and the movie. Probably shoot them all together next summer for a release in early ’13. VERY excited!

The concept of an Arrested Development movie has been floating around since the series ended, and despite numerous promises, it has just never come to be.  It has felt like a cruel joke on fans of the series at times, but with actual entities such as Netflix and Showtime being named, it sounds like things may actually be coming together.

I am ready for some more Bluth family in my life, and I’ll take whatever I can get.

AMC is kicking the marketing for the second season of The Walking Dead into high.

With the season premiere set for October 16th, get ready to see a ton of zombie action coming to your commercials everywhere you turn.  These first two definitely show the different sides of the series: Zombie action and character development.  Considering they changed the zombies from the comic (they can’t run or climb walls or stairs in the comic series), and the addition of new characters, and changes to others, who knows where they’re going with this.  (add in the fact some folks have lived longer than they should have already …)

I find myself getting mildly excited for our second go around with this series, but also ready to be horribly devastated once again.

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