Screenhead

As in two more than one.  As in one more than two. As in why are they even bothering?

Look…I know Martin Lawrence’s career is pretty much as dead as a goldfish when you get it home but do we seriously need yet another guy in a fat suit and horrible accent?  Isn’t the whole cross-dressing black guy thing pretty much owned by the nonstop array of Madea movies that Tyler Perry continually grunts out like so many golden eggs of dubious origin?

But to show Fox’s committment to blasting Lions Gate out of the water in the black guys dressed like elderly fat black women subgenre, they’ve brought in Randi Mayem Singer to handle the script.  The hilarity in that decision comes in the fact that Singer was the previous writer of…brace yourself…

MRS. DOUBTFIRE.

You can’t see me right now, and that’s probably a good thing, because my gravitas would be SO smoked by the fact that I spent the last three minutes rolling with laughter.  I now understand ROFL.  But this really is fun news, even if the movie won’t be quite so much fun.

I’m giving two to one this goes direct to video!

There isn’t a whole lot of reason to watch normal network television any more.  Pretty much everything they’ve come out with lately has been just a new version of something that’s already been around for years upon anyway.  And the stuff that hasn’t already been out for years upon is involved in some kind of cinematic incest and inbreeding; seriously, how much difference is there REALLY between American Idol, America’s Got Talent and So You Think You Can Dance?

So when I first heard about Fringe, the first season of which will be out on DVD in just a matter of days, I confess to some doubt.  Network TV is hardly the place to go anymore for anything more than second-rate watered-down content that fully complies with FCC regulations so draconian and nightmarish in scope that it’s a wonder we can see ANYTHING, let alone the nonsensical garbage we get these days.  What I got was actually pretty engaging with some innovative touches that brought it above the standard.

Fringe is a series about an FBI group that tackles things on the titular fringe of science.  All the stuff that’s in the process of going from science fiction to science fact, like nanotechnology and genetic engineering and assorted similar whatnot.  And the three people tracing down all these cool and sexy science terms are an FBI special agent, a literally mad scientist, and the mad scientist’s rogue wandering genius son.

If you think of Fringe as C-S-Sci-Fi, or The X-Files without the constant romantic tension, you won’t be too far from the truth of it.  The storylines are fairly deep and involved–they’re going to get all the way up to corporate conspiracy with this, involving an outfit called Massive Dynamic, which makes this some really prime sci-fi drama.  There’s any number of places they could go with this plotline. And, I love how the locations are given in three-dimensional lettering superimposed over the scene itself.  It really beats that little block of text at the bottom of the screen and is sufficient unique to catch interest.

Special warning in advance, though–Fringe can get  surrealist with its imagery and will get downright weird at points.  If you’re not game for that, stay WELL away.  Seriously.  I spent so much time watching this and wondering what bizarrity they were going to pull out next.

Maybe I have to rethink the whole “network TV is useless” concept.  The Broken Clock Theory still applies.  And as such, the Screenhead Ten Scale gives the massive seven disc collection of Fringe season one an eight out of ten for busting a hole in expectations and doing so with some style besides.

Paramount Pictures has laid off of 31 production staffers, including some division heads. Among the execs leaving the Melrose lot are Georgia Kacandes, head of physical production and Guy Stodel, head of the Paramount Vantage unit. Ben Cosgrove, Senior V.P. of production and Dan Levine, Exec V.P. of production, were also let go, along with casting chief Gail Levin and Aimee Shieh, head of Paramount’s New York literary office.

The focus on cost-cutting within Paramount was noticeable in the staff cuts as well in Tuesday’s report by the Financial Times that Paramount has approached Sony and Fox about a potential partnership with either studio that would unite the production and distribution functions of their home video operations however, the studios would maintain separate sales and marketing teams.

A spin-off of the 1988 film Alien nation is being developed by Sci-Fi Channel, reports Variety.

The film saw alien refugees coming to Earth and attempting to integrate into Los Angeles. It followed a detective cop and his newly assigned alien partner as they tried to stop a businessman from selling a dangerous narcotic to the aliens.

The success of the film saw a television spin-off spawned, though it lasted for only a year. Several TV movies aired after that wrapped up the show’s storylines.

The new version is set in the Pacific Northwest of the 2020s, two decades after the first alien ship arrived on Earth. It will use serial mythology and will explore racial and cultural issues. Tim Minear (X-Files) is writing.

Variety sends word that Fox Searchlight will adapt Langston Hughes’ 1961 gospel musical Black Nativity into a big-screen film.

The Broadway show is a retelling of the Bible’s nativity story with an all-black cast and features traditional Christmas carols sung in gospel style. It was one of the first plays written by an African-American to be staged on Broadway.

It will be adapted and directed by Kasi Lemmons (Talk to Me) and is being fast-tracked for release as early as this Christmas.

Piracy has pretty much plagued Hollywood since the dawn of VHS, but the ever increasing bandwidth of broadband internet is causing major headaches for studios. Torrent programmes are bypassing laws and methods of tracing pirates, and even new and more intricate ways of getting the latest movies are possible. Almost every Christmas sees the release of Oscar potentials online as screeners are copied. 2007 saw the leak of American Gangster a week before its initial release. But possibly the biggest blow to Hollywood yet is this week’s leak of the forthcoming summer blockbuster Wolverine.

A sort of prequel to the X-Men films, the Hugh Jackman vehicle is now working its way through the internet, a month before its worldwide release. The version is a workprint cut, meaning that many special effects are incomplete, some of the sound needs to be refined, and there are probably scenes that need to be added or cut. But, according to those who have watched it, the quality is quite good.

Needless to say, Fox are pretty unhappy with this, and are estimating that several hundred thousand people have viewed it. The FBI are currently investigating exactly how a workprint was leaked. Meanwhile, most established movie review websites are refraining from posting reviews of an incomplete movie. On the bright side, if those who watch the workprint enjoy it, not only will they most likely watch the complete version next month, but they may generate good word of mouth and actually boost box office intake. American Gangster, for example, went on to make $266 million worldwide.

The film rights to Alan Weisman’s environmental non-fiction book The World Without Us has gone to Fox.

The book explored the idea of life on Earth if humans were to suddenly disappear. The studio will most probably focus on using the book’s science, possibly showing an event that would lead to mankind vanishing.

The project is being set up as a tentpole feature for I Am Legend duo Mark Protosevich (writer) and Francis Lawrence (director).

In a ridiculous move, Fox has acquired film rights to 9-year old Colorado fourth grade student Alex Greven’s self-help book How to Talk to Girls.

The kid wrote the pamphlet after he noticed his friends were having trouble talking to members of the opposite sex. The book had been picked up by Harper Collins; it came out in November and quickly became a hit.

No writers or producers are attached yet.

CHUD is reporting that a new film in the Planet of the Apes franchise is in development, noting that it will be a remake of the fourth film – Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.

The site points out that after the original film aired the other night on the Fox Movie Channel, Fox’s production chief Tom Rothman came on-screen to reveal that they are “very close on a new Apes script – this one a kind of prequel story before the first story, with a return to the social schematics that mark the first one, but with an entirely contemporary setting – Earth 2009.”

As expected, nothing more is known about the film. However, it can be pointed out that this move comes just as the original series hit Blu-ray, which has reportedly been selling well.

The matchup between the Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays during the World Series could be the lowest-rated World Series ever. I guess this is due to the fact that fans are clamoring for a Red Sox-Dodgers matchup. Fox’s World Series hopes started off promising, with the Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox in the playoffs. But the Cubs, Angels and White Sox fell in the first round and the Dodgers were eliminated by the Phillies in the second. The low-profile Rays, the worst team in baseball last year, then finished off the defending champion Red Sox on Sunday night.

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