This is neither a movie nor a television post but rather a thanks to Jeremy Schoemaker or “Shoemoney” for the t-shirt he sent over. After sending him a heads up on the latest LOST season 5 trailer earlier this month I was thanked for joining the discussion with a “Shoemoney” emblazoned t-shirt. All the other kids on the playground are so jealous.

If you’re looking to land one of these yourself then you can jump over to Shoemoney.com and join the discussions (details here). Don’t forget you can win something here on Hollywood Hills too: “Mamma Mia!” on DVD.

Bad news for Watchmen fans. United States District Court judge Gary A. Feess has declared that Fox’s lawsuit against Warner Bros. for the upcoming release of “Watchmen” is valid and with merit. He encourages both companies to prepare for the January trial, dashing hopes this could be quickly resolved and pave the way for its March release.

“Fox owns a copyright interest consisting of, at the very least, the right to distribute the Watchmen motion picture” and that “The parties may wish to turn their efforts from preparing for trial to negotiating a resolution of this dispute or positioning the case for review.”

I’m expecting Warner Bros. to come up with some sort of settlement with Fox, though Fox has said they don’t want money, just to stop the release of “Watchmen.” Grrr. Either way I’ll be surprised if we still get to see this potentially awesome film come March.

Finally some good news in the realm of Michael Bay’s production company Platinum Dunes and their efforts to stand on the shoulders of classics to make a quick buck with a crappy remake. Writers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form had been working for sometime on recreating “Rosemary’s Baby” but after numerous failures to come up with something credible they’re ready to give up:

Form tells Collider.com, “We went down that road and we even talked to the best writers in town and it feels like it might not be do-able. We couldn’t come up with something where it felt like it was relevant and we could add something to it other than what it was, so we’re now not going to be doing that film.”

I don’t understand the push to remake classics. They’re classics because they were done right the first time with no need to redo. I think it’s disrepectful and money grubbing to go after these, especially the way Michael Bay set up an entire group to do nothing but rape the work of others.

Source: WENN

While Robert Downey Jr. had the scene stealing character in “Tropic Thunder”, Tom Cruise is hoping there’s a still some more juice to squeeze from his character, the well disguised Les Grossman. Sounds like things could go so far as to see a Les Grossman movie one of these days:

“I’ve talked about doing different videos with the character,” Cruise said. “I’ve started working with Ben [Stiller] on it, and we’ve kind of talked about different things to do. We were gonna do some in our free time, but we haven’t found the free time…yet.”

He doesn’t rule out a full-length feature film centered on Grossman: “He’s a fun character,” said Cruise, who will next be seen in the real-life WWII thriller Valkyrie. “I gotta talk to Ben, but there could be more to do with that guy.”

What do you think? Is Cruise’s future in comedies rather than his drama work? Considering the reviews his work in Valkyrie is getting this may be the way to go.

Source: E!

Sigourney Weaver may be 60, but she has no interest in slowing down her acting career. In fact, she’s been all over the board recently in discussions on some of her biggest franchises: Aliens and Ghostbusters. While I always enjoy a good “Ghostbusters” rerun on cable, my real interest is Aliens, so let’s start there.

Obviously things started to go down hill as the Aliens series progressed and while many people said it died in the third one I’d say its director, David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club), did no such thing. I actually really enjoyed the third one especially for its conclusion but felt the fourth film set off the bomb. Thankfully, both Weaver and “Alien” director Ridley Scott would want to take a step back:

She asked aloud “whether there’s unchartered territory for a creature who’s become somewhat debased by this computer generated thing. I haven’t seen [“Alien Vs. Predator”] but I just think if you overexpose the creature, that’s a mistake.”

Weaver confirmed that she and Scott have discussed re-teaming for a fifth film, “Both of us feel a kind of commitment to that woman. He’s as much responsible for who she is as I am.” Then as she opined on the way the alien creature had been ruined in the recent films, Weaver’s comments got especially interesting.

“We’d have to go back to the drawing board on [the alien],” she said. “Ridley said that right away when we first talked about [a fifth film].”

And finally, the quote that’s gotten me mighty curious, “What we’re interested in is taking the character of Ripley and seeing what other science fiction story we can tell about someone who has lived several lives.”

I think it’d be hard for Weaver to pull off Lt. Ripley and this age, but taking her character in a different direction would be very cool and if anyone could do it it’d be “Blade Runner” director Scott.

Okay, back to Ghostbusters. There had been lots of chatter on a Ghostbusters sequel starring the Apatow crowd lead by Seth Rogen but still involving Murray and crew. After gaining momentum it was shot down by most of the younger actors, thankfully. I just didn’t like the “passing of the torch” approach to the proposed story.

Weaver told MTV that she’s set to meet with Bill Murray this week and talk things over. She said that if she doesn’t get to come back she’d really like to see her fictional son, Oscar, become a Ghostbuster. That takes me back to my “torch” dislike.

My vote: Aliens 5 – Yes; Ghostbusters 3 – No. You?

Just seven weeks after its second season debut, ABC’s “Pushing Daisies” has been canceled, reports series executive producer Bryan Fuller. I’m extremely disappointed by this news as “Daisies” had become my favorite new show from last season for its Roald Dahl-like stories and Tim Burton-esque settings.

Fuller is taking it better than I am, as he told E!:

“To be honest,” Fuller tells me, “I’m really not feeling very boo-hoo about it. I am so proud of the show. We put together 22 really good episodes, and there is a lot to be proud of. I’m sure I’ll be working with a lot of these people again, and I would love to do so.”

E! also caught up with Daisies’ Olive Snook, played by Kristin Chenow, just after she had heard the news:

“I just found out about an hour ago,” she said. “Pushing Daisies will probably forever be one of my most happiest times of my career. I loved being a part of that show, such quality, and I’m very sad.”

As for all the storylines that will be left hanging, Kristin says, “We don’t really have a closure. It’s going to leave a lot of our friends wondering.” So would she do a movie? “I hope [Bryan Fuller] does it, because there’s nothing like his mind. I often ask him if his brains hurt because there are so many ideas inside of his head. I would love to do a movie.”

I think I’m most disappointed that the series won’t have the chance to nicely wrap things up. There were 13 episodes ordered which will all air, but there won’t by an additional finale material created. I had been hoping for some sort of magical resolution to Chuck and Ned’s (Chuck is a girl, for the uninitiated) predicament of no touching alas she’d go back to being dead. Sigh. I think I’ll go wallow in some pie.

Source: E!

Well that was short lived. “Valkyrie”, the WWII era story of Germans who turned against Hitler, has suffered a series of bruises in its road to release and just when things seemed to have improved it all came crashing back down. After being bumped from its original date of February 2008 after terrible reviews the film went back for edits in an attempt to make it come out as an action thriller in December 2008. It looks like director Bryan Singer was only successful in making that transition with the trailer.

Previews of the film left audience members with a far less than favorable reaction:

“It’s an unsettling scene but you almost start to laugh. His character is resisting it but you never forget it’s Tom Cruise saying ‘Heil Hitler.’ It’s funny and shocking at the same time.”

It doesn’t get much better with another viewer:

“It was disgusting,” said another who saw the film. “It was like watching someone pluck their contacts out. The film just isn’t a thriller at all. It’s a bunch of white guys in Nazi uniforms. It’s too bad. And Tom doesn’t speak with a German accent, though they did add a voice-over of him speaking German to the beginning of the film. Still, it’s as if he could say ‘I complete you’ at any time. This is not his Oscar moment.”

Damn. I was getting psyched for “Valkyrie” but I’m not completely turned off yet because Kidman and Urban can be real jerks when they’ve been drinking at the movies.

Source: Snark Food

Don’t get too excited as this first look at Jessica Biel in “Powder Blue” seems to be much more focused on the dude in the foreground rather than the half-naked lady in the back. Nuts. The good news is that Biel is ready to break her “no nudity” pledge with her role as a stripper, no doubt with a heart of gold, who is raising money to save her child.

Q: I assume you’re still sticking to your policy of no nudity in the film? I heard you picked out your own body double for Nailed.

JB: “Yeah I did pick out my own body double. That was bizarre, that was very bizarre. It’s very hard to be a woman and sort of be looking at women kind of like they’re just objects. I was like, ‘I’m kind of having a male experience right now.’ It was weird. It wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever done. Anyway, I actually didn’t stick to that policy in this other film I did called Powder Blue.

Oh, and that dude in the picture, I think that might be a very odd looking Patrick Swayze though IMDB does list Patrick’s younger brother, Don, as a bouncer in the film as well.

Source: BadandUgly

This has not been the year for television and you can put two more names on the tombstones. NBC has cancelled two of its more hyped series starring one-time headliners: “My Own Worst Enemy” and “Lipstick Jungle”.

Christian Slater’s “Enemy” was in its first season with nine episodes already in the can while “Lipstick” had already turned around for its second season with thirteen episodes completed. Both series are currently slated to be aired in their entirety, but neither will have additional episodes filmed.

“Enemy” was pulling in an average of 5 million viewers while reaching only #61 in the Nielsen rankings. “Lipstick” fared even worse with just over 4 million average viewers a week. Maybe Christian can help Brooke out with her VW commercials in their free time.

Source: Yahoo!

It seems like every year we’re threatened by FOX that they may not renew the long running animated series, “King of the Hill.” Well this year it’s finally come true. Hank Hill won’t be returning to the Lone Star state for a fourteenth season next year. FOX has decided not to renew “King of the Hill” and will end the series run this year after thirteen long seasons.

“King of the Hill” creators Greg Daniels and Mike Judge have moved on to other projects since “Hill’s” inception in 1997. Daniels is busy with his work on “The Office” which he helped create and produces while Judge has begun work with “The Goode Family,” launching on ABC in midseason.

Watch for FOX to replace Hill’s void with two new animated series: Mitch Hurwitz’s “Sit Down, Shut Up” and the “Family Guy” spinoff “The Cleveland Show.”

Source: THR