Ponderings For 2008-12-26

Posted Dec 26 2008

  • So, did y’all have a peachy Christmas? The project I’ve been working hard on trying to finish before Christmas still managed to end up behind schedule, and I’m still working at finishing it, so blog posting will continue to be a bit sporadic. Figured I’d try and get one set of stuff posted today. I was at the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas concert tonight at the Rosemont Theatre, so the holiday spirit hasn’t quite diminished yet.
  • RIP: Majel Barrett-Roddenberry (Yeah, I’m late with this news, thanks to my slow postings recently)
  • Awesome. Bruce Boxleitner has now been confirmed for the Tron sequel. Now if they could get Cindy Morgan signed on, that’d be truly cool. The name for the film is still in question (or at least it should be). I’ll go with ComingSoon’s impulse and just call it Tron 2.0 – what it should be called anyway, no matter what stupid name Disney wants to use.
  • I picked up the new Band Of Brothers Blu-Ray set at Best Buy when they had a 50% off all HBO sale recently. I’ve watched a few of the episodes on it, and I must say that it’s a breathtaking transfer. High marks to HBO for a fine release of one of the greatest mini-series ever made (along with HBO’s From The Earth To The Moon). But here’s the real shocker – I just stumbled upon the fact that HBO has already filmed a follow-up miniseries called The Pacific which, as you might guess, does for the Pacific theater what Band Of Brothers did for the European. It’s being made by many of the same people, and is planned for airing in 2009. If it’s even half as good as Band Of Brothers, it’ll be great. Can’t wait. If only HBO could make anything other than mini-series that are worth watching.
  • Check out the trailer for the very cool looking new sci-fi, animated film 9.
  • Woo hoo! The wonderful Jane Espenson (one of the best writers in the TV business) is writing a 5 part comic about the Buffy character Oz (played so perfectly by Seth Green).
  • Looks like the third Chronicles Of Narnia film has stalled, with Disney backing out of the production. Personally, I think it’s likely that Walden will be able to drum up a different studio (and yes, Fox is a good bet).
  • All hail the fractal kitty!
  • Wow. The videographer of this lightning strike probably had some hairs singed.
  • For those who didn’t know, this is a leap second year.
  • Classic: Artist renditions of the scoring sessions for Star Trek
  • Do you like dolphins? (emphasis on the plural)
  • This is so bad, it’s funny. Talentless hack director Stephen Norrington has signed on to write & direct a reboot of The Crow franchise. Unless he has hidden talent that the lame Blade and the reprehensibly awful The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen worked against, I’m betting this Crow movie will be the biggest embarrassment the franchise has ever seen. This has disaster written all over it.
  • The sad thing is, I might actually believe the McDonald’s rep that says they didn’t know 1000 people were being sent to the location. It’s those most outlandish attempts at spin that sound so hard to believe they must be true.
  • Rock on. Forget voice controlling your computer – try mind control. (the demo starts around the 14 minute mark)
  • Ah, The Onion doing what they do best. (moderate language warning)
  • The CW took an embarrassing hit in the last few weeks, being beaten by fly-by-night MyNetworkTV (MNT), the goofy group of stations that were left out in the cold when The WB & UPN merged into The CW. As much as MNT seems to be the winner of this story, it’s surely a random fluke. With the crap programming that MNT has (I need only glance at their line-up before I laugh at it and move on), I find it impossible to believe their beating The CW as anything but a momentary spike in the randomness of ratings. Sure, the idiotic wrestling is likely helping them on a regular basis in achieving those ratings surges, but it’s been proven multiple times that WWE isn’t enough to really help a network beyond bragging rights. If WWE had such controlling interest in their own programming when they were on UPN & The CW, then they surely nave nearly complete control over it at a network with such a low profile as MNT.

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