If everything goes according to the most recent plans, Arrested Development won’t feel like it’s missed a moment since its cancellation.

Series writer Dean Lorey took to his blog this weekend with some very welcome news about the return of Arrested Development:

We’re really doing this thing. Mitch Hurwitz, Jim Vallely and I are off writing the new season of ARRESTED to premiere on Netflix in 2013. The original cast is back. There are offices and parking spaces. We’re shooting this year. I wish I could give more specifics but, for the moment, even the schedule is being kept under wraps. But it’s happening and it’s great to be back with my pals from the show. More later as it becomes okay to release further details…

If this is true, and there’s no reason to think it isn’t, that means we can expect:

• Jason Bateman as Michael Bluth
• Portia de Rossi as Lindsay Bluth Fünke
• Will Arnett as George ‘Gob’ Bluth II
• Michael Cera as George-Michael Bluth
• Alia Shawkat as Mae “Maeby” Fünke
• Tony Hale as Byron “Buster” Bluth
• David Cross as Tobias Fünke
• Jeffrey Tambor as George Bluth Sr.
• Jessica Walter as Lucille Bluth

As regular readers of this blog know, I can hardly wait for these new episodes and the follow-up movie. As a matter of fact, I can’t tell you how many people were firing variations of this link off to me through out the day on Monday. (Credit to Jon Rettinger for being the first) With each additional piece of information, it’s looking more and more like this is really happening, and that just continues to amaze me. We haven’t seen new episodes since 2006, and the idea that all of these people coming back together after this long is just a testament in my mind to how special this show was to everyone involved, and that should tell you part of what the fans see in it as well.

It seems that moviegoers were very much in the mood for some fresh films this weekend.

The new Liam Neeson film that shows him fighting wolves in the wilderness, The Grey,  brought in an estimated $20 million this weekend.  It’s behind some other recent films from the actor, but not a horrible showing.

Underworld Awakening slipped 50.6 percent this weekend to bring in an estimated $12.5 million.  It’s currently tracking slightly ahead of the second film in the series, the last to feature Kate Beckinsale, so depending on final numbers I wouldn’t be too surprised to see a fifth film to show up at some point.

The new Katherine Heigl film, One For the Money, was estimated to bring in only $5 million this weekend by some analysts, but the current estimates put it at $11.75 million. Based on a popular series of crime novels by Janet Evanovich, it’s a bit surprising it wasn’t expected to do better, but lets see how it does with a couple more weeks under its belt, but it’s getting marginal reviews.

Red Tails fell 44.6 percent, which is a healthy hold on its box office take, and slightly ahead of the normal decline films see in their second weekends.  It added $10.4 million to its take, bringing its total to $33.78 million.

Opening in fifth place was Man on a Ledge came in with $8.3 million, so it seems unlikely this movie will be around for very long.

Next week will see the releases of Big Miracle, Chronicle and The Woman in Black.

Alexandra Elizabeth McLean, 27, was arrested in Colorado after allegations surfaced that she had sexual intercourse with a 17-year-old that was playing a role in the school play she was directing.

Hired last summer to replace a drama teacher that had retired after three decades of service to Englewood High School, Alexandra Elizabeth McLean turned herself into the Englewood police on January 4 after the allegations surfaced.  The alleged incident is said to have taken place on the night of either November 15 or 16 after she offered to drive the student home after a performance of Lend Me a Tenor.

A 29-year-old woman with a high school aged younger sister informed her that a friend of her’s was bragging about having had sex with McLean.  The woman informed authorities of the information and on November 28 McLean’s car and cell phone were seized as evidence in the case has led to her facing two felony counts of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of authority.  Explicit text messages were found on the phone between the teacher and student.

When the 17-year-old student was questioned by the police, he admitted to having initiated kissing with McLean, and that the sex had indeed taken place had been consensual between the two.  The teacher had been known for giving him rides home after practice which had raised some initial concerns among the faculty of the school, but it appears there had been no follow-up by anyone.

McLean was placed on administrative leave by the school district, but has since resigned from her position.  She turned herself into the 18th Judicial District on January 4, but is now free on $25,000 bond.  She had previously been a teacher in Michigan before taking up her post at Englewood HS as a English language arts and drama teacher in August 2011.

Once again we see a case of text messaging being a fairly significant factor in one of these cases, and you have to wonder at what point these teachers will learn not to leave a trail behind them, but so long as it helps stop them, lets hope they don’t catch on.

Pilot season is kicking into full gear at the networks, and as per usual, at least one show is coming from England. We’ll just go ahead and mark it for failure.

Entertainment Weekly is reporting that ABC has ordered a pilot for Only Fools and Horses, based on what is considered one of the greatest Britcoms of all time.

Based on the iconic British series, this classic comedy chronicles the misadventures of two streetwise brothers and their aging grandfather as they concoct outrageous, morally questionable get rich quick schemes in their quest to become millionaires.” From Steven Cragg & Brian Bradley (Scrubs) through ABC Studios.

Apparently the networks have learned nothing about how remakes of Britcoms don’t typically work over here.  Fox tried remaking of Absolutely Fabulous, and that never even made it to air.  NBC’s version of Coupling made it to air, but only aired four episodes.  ABC’s Payne, a remake of Fawlty Towers, aired only eight episodes.  There are, of course, exceptions, that went on to great success such as Three’s Company, All in the Family and Sanford and Son which went on to great success, but also consider how long that means it’s been since a Britcom remake worked on U.S. television.

Only Fools and Horses is one of the most beloved series in the U.K., and like so many other shows there, it is built on a class system that is unique to their culture.  Yes, yes, we have lower income, middle class and upper class here in the United States, but it has never been a cornerstone of our society quite like it is there.  The classes, for the most part, do not mix, and so those in the lower class always feel if they could move up their lives would be that much better.  That lends a lot of the humor to this series, and it just won’t translate to the States.

If this makes it past the pilot stage to an actual series order, expect it to last only a few episodes before it gets the axe.

[via Entertainment Weekly]

It’s episode #174 and Scattercast is back in business.

Updates from my extended absence.

Some thoughts on the coming year of consumer electronics.

Movie news, as always.
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Yes, I’m still working on this silly embedding issue.

Columbia Pictures has released the official synopsis for The Amazing Spider-Man, and … yeah, it isn’t good news.

Not only did we not need a reboot of the Spider-Man series this soon, but we especially didn’t need it if it means they’re going to play with all sorts of aspects of the character’s past.

One of the world’s most popular characters is back on the big screen as a new chapter in the Spider-Man legacy is revealed in “The Amazing Spider-Man.” Focusing on an untold story that tells a different side of the Peter Parker story, the new film stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Campbell Scott, Irrfan Khan, with Martin Sheen and Sally Field. The film is directed by Marc Webb from a screenplay written by James Vanderbilt, based on the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad, and Matt Tolmach are producing the film in association with Marvel Entertainment for Columbia Pictures, which will open in theaters everywhere in 3D on July 3, 2012.

“The Amazing Spider-Man” is the story of Peter Parker (Garfield), an outcast high schooler who was abandoned by his parents as a boy, leaving him to be raised by his Uncle Ben (Sheen) and Aunt May (Field). Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. Peter is also finding his way with his first high school crush, Gwen Stacy (Stone), and together, they struggle with love, commitment, and secrets. As Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents’ disappearance  leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr. Curt Connors (Ifans), his father’s former partner. As Spider-Man is set on a collision course with Connors’ alter-ego, The Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero.

His parents left him? (yes, there is one version of the comics where it turned out they were spies) A briefcase? Connors worked with his dad at Oscorp?

There are times where some changes to the core story work (i.e. X-Men First Class didn’t make me cringe in terror for the most part), but some of these “tweaks” are just outrageously wrong.  His parents, the origin of Dr. Connors and so on just make me already completely turned off to this latest installment of the film series.

Come on, Hollywood.  The comics have years and years of history, that have worked on, why can’t you just pick a part that works and leave it mostly alone?

Leave it to The CW to screw up a show before they even film it.

The TV Addict got ahold of the casting breakdowns for the upcoming Arrow series which will be based on the DC Comics character of Green Arrow.  From these listings its pretty obvious that just like the network did with Smallville the comics background doesn’t matter.

Oliver Queen
A 27 year old reformed bad boy, who after having spent five years shipwrecked on a tiny, brutally dangerous island in the South China Sea returns to town a different man. Or to be more specific, a tortured, thoughtful master of the bow with a ferocious determination to make a difference.

Dinah “Laurel” Lance
28 years old, smart sexy, Laurel is a legal aid attorney determined to use her life as a one-woman war against the 1% following the death of her younger sister Sara. A sister, who as luck would have it, just so happened to have died aboard Oliver’s yacht.

Tommy Merlyn
28 years old and devil-smooth, Tommy is a trustafarian like Oliver, a spectacularly rich young man whose life revolves around parties, clubs, liquor and lots of anonymous sex. Unlike Oliver, he can’t seem to understand his former best friend’s sudden change of lifestyle and direction.

Moira Queen
48 years old, a beautiful woman, Oliver’s mother Moira is a very wealthy woman who is not used to being shaken. Having remarried during the five years that former husband Robert and Oliver were both presumed dead, Moira has had free rein over the Queen billions. Not surprisingly, she’s deeply interested in learning whether or not Robert will also return unexpectedly, to ruin her present marriage and go over the books with a fine-tooth comb.

John Diggle
35 years old, African-American, Diggle is really, really big, a former military man who served with the Army Rangers in Afghanistan, and has been a bodyguard for hire for the last four years. Hired by Moira to be Oliver’s chauffeur and protector, Diggle soon finds he is trapped in a battle of wits, as Oliver repeatedly eludes his protection. But in fact, Diggle’s primary conflict is one of loyalty — he has to show that he’s working for Oliver, not Moira, before Oliver will give him a smidgen of trust.

Thea Queen
17 years old (suggest 17-22 years), Oliver’s Lolita-esque sister, Thea was a 12 year old girl when he went on his infamous yachting voyage — but now she’s a celebutante who’s testing the boundaries of acceptable behavior. Thea loved her big brother with all her heart, and is delighted to have him back in her life — but she’s spreading her wings, and is unprepared for Oliver to become the Bad Cop in the family, restricting her access to boys and drugs.

Thea Queen?  Well that’s a totally new character.  And imagine that, a bratty teenage girl character on The CW.  I’m shocked, shocked I tell you!  And Dinah “Laurel” Lance?  You mean the Black Canary, Green Arrow’s long time girlfriend?  Well, no mention of her being her super heroine alter ego, but perhaps they’ll add that down the road?  Who knows, it’s The CW, they could decided this is the “wrong” Dinah Lance or some other crazy idea.

Just once I’d like to see The CW do something faithful to a comic, but I guess that’s just too much to hope for.

[via The TV Addict]

The nominees for the 84th annual Academy Awards have been announced.

The awards show will air Sunday, Feb. 26th, hosted by Billy Crystal.

Some of the films with the most nominations are:

• Hugo – 11
• The Artist – 10
• Moneyball – 6
• War Horse – 6
• The Descendants – 5
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – 5
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – 3
• Midnight in Paris – 3
• The Help – 3
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – 3
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon – 3
• The Tree of Life – 3

Full list after the jump.

Continue Reading ->

It seems there is still some life in the Underworld series as the fourth film took the number one spot at the box office this weekend.

Underworld Awakening brought in $25.4 million this weekend to win the top spot.  The last installment of the series to star Kate Beckinsale was Underworld: Evolution which opened to $26.9 million, and when you factor in the higher average ticket price of today, and adding in the higher price for 3D tickets, attendance was down significantly from that 2006 film.  We’ll have to see how it performs in the coming weeks.

Second place went to the new George Lucas-produced film, Red Tails.  The latest film to take on the story of the Tuskegee Airmen brought in a respectable $19.1 million.  I’m honestly not sure how it will end up doing, but seeing as it cost $58 million to make it should end up recouping Lucas his investment.

Contraband fell 49.9% from last weekend to bring in $12.2 million. While not a huge dollar amount, it’s actually doing well for a Mark Whalberg movie … which actually isn’t saying a whole lot.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close went in to wide release this weekend, increasing from 6 screens to 2,630, meaning it saw a financial take increase of +11,484.2%.  This translated to $10.54 million, but it’s just really fun to write it out as a percentage

Rounding out the top five was Haywire with a $9 million opening weekend.  Considering the extremely poor reviews, it’s unlikely that this female action thriller is going to have a whole lot of life to it.

Next week sees the debuts of The Grey, bank heist thriller Man on a Ledge and One For the Money.

At long last, someone has finally explained to me why in the world I keep ending up with an American Airlines group 4 ticket!

For those who aren’t familiar with flying American Airlines, the planes are loaded by group starting with first class, uniformed military and so on, then they move on to Group 2, Group 3 and finally Group 4. So, it is not unusual for me to get on the plane and find no overhead storage left for my rolling carry-on.  This leads to me “gate checking” that bag quite often, which always makes me nervous as thats usually my “emergency” clothing and so on, but sometimes I simply have no choice.

I found myself in this situation yesterday at the Santa Ana airport in California.  As they announced the flight was nearly sold out, they needed people to hand over whatever bags they could, so I went ahead and opted to turn mine over as I was on my way home.  While getting the bag processed I made an off-handed comment about how I always seem to end up in Group 4.  ”That’s because you checked-in with an agent,” the airline agent told me.  After I asked her what she meant, she told me that online check-in gets you in Group 2, checking-in at a self-help kiosk would get you Group 3 and checking in with an agent got you into Group 4.

See, I’m almost always in a hotel the night before I fly, so I normally don’t check-in online as it’s a pain in the butt.  As for self check-in, I just figured I was right next to the agents, just use an agent.  Little did I know it was actually causing me issues with my position of getting on the flight.  Perhaps if American Airlines publicized this a bit more I would have seen a reason sooner to not use an agent, but if you don’t see any real line, with them, why not use them?

I have no issues with the group idea, but at least explain to your customers how the heck they work!

Due for release on May 11 of this year, the early promotional work for Dark Shadows has been nearly non-existent. Beyond a cast photo released a few months ago, there hasn’t been anything else in the realm of official promotion.  No posters, commercials or trailers, but at least we now have a few still images of scenes to take a look at.

The first shot shows Johnny Depp as the vampire Barnabas Collins apparently saying something unsettling to Michelle Pfeiffer as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard.

And a solo shot of Depp as Barnabas.

Hopefully there will be some sort of larger publicity push in the not too distant future so we know exactly where this film is going in terms of style … you know, besides just being a Tim Burton film.

[via The Hollywood Reporter]

After relaunching its entire comic book line, DC Comics has also decided that perhaps it was also time to give its logo a fresh coat of paint … or more like a whole lot of coats of paint.

DC Comics has unveiled a totally new version of its logo that can be customized to the property it is being used on.  I.E. It’ll be one color on Superman books, but look totally different on Batman.

The idea is that the new logo represents peeling back to reveal the story, and if you’re reading on a computer, tablet or smartphone you’ll actually be able to peel it back to reveal the character.

While I can see what they’re going for, and I’m certainly no graphic artist, I think it’d be nice if you could actually figure out that the peeling part is supposed to represent a “D.”  As it is it looks like a C … with a vinyl covering?  Who knows, perhaps they should concentrate on making more good movies than just the current run of Batman.

… Just sayin’.