-52-

Hey guys! I'm back from my unannounced Christmas break. One last post before moving on to next year. I might have to change my method of blogging since I start new studies in January. Well, here we go!

From top left: Harry Potter extras, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Home Alone 2, Will & Grace

FILM

Since I haven't wrote for a while, some of my news might be a bit older, but deal with it. As a committed Disney fan I'll start with this new concept art picture of the upcoming Frozen animated film, based on the classic Snow Queen fairytale. This doesn't really give us any new info, but just clears up the visual image of the film and it looks like they are going with a classic look and not too unusual.

Disney is also moving forward with the Tron Legacy sequel currently named Tron 3. I really loved Legacy visually so I got high hopes for this one too. Garrett Hedlund was reported to reprise his lead role, but the plot is still a mystery. Hopefully Olivia Wilde will be back too.

Johnny Depp is keeping busy though The Lone Ranger isn't even out yet (new trailer here!) and he's got next project already on the line. He is planning a modern take on Don Quixote, where I can only assume he'll attack skyscrapers instead of windmills of the original story. Since it's Depp we can't really expect anything, but I'll be sure to keep an eye out for more updates on this project!

Though Barbra Streisand's comedy that is out now (I can't even remember the name, she co-stars with Seth Rogen) and it kinda flopped, she is keeping busy with her Gypsy movie adaptation. Now she has hinted that she would be interested to see Lady Gaga star in it.  That would honestly be pretty amazing! I would love to see a bit toned down version of Gaga.

I finally saw Chronicle and I can honestly say it was one of the best movies of 2012. So obviously I had too look up the director Josh Trank and that was pretty easy since he was in the headlines recently when his Fantastic Four reboot got a release date. So it looks like 2015 is going to be the year of nerds, with Fantastic Four reboot, Avengers 2, Justice League, Star Wars 7 and maybe even Avatar 2 coming out the same year.

TV

For TV news I've mostly got casting news since they all are currently on Christmas break too. I was going to post this behind-the-scenes of Parks and Rec, with Christ Pratt, but you'll have to watch through 30 sec toilet paper commercial to get to the video, so have fun with that. And by the way, Jenny Slate (old SNL member) is coming in for a guest spot as Jean Ralphio's (Ben Schwartz) sister and shares his bizarre personality.

Speaking of SNL, Jennifer Lawrence is hosting the show Jan 19th. Though her previous roles (Winters Bone and Hunger Games) haven't really been comic ones, I laugh at every interview she's in because she is so funny! And also, look at this. She is currently promoting her dramedy Silver Linings Playbook.

It's funny how everything seems to be connected to SNL this week. Abby Elliot left the show past year, but we can still see her in TV. She appeared in an episode of 2 Broke Girls few weeks ago and has now landed a guest spot on the Happy Endings where she plays a love interest to Adam Pally's gay character Max, who falls for her for all the wrong reasons (basketball game tickets). If you are a fan of the show, you should also check out this video!

Sean Hayes (Will&Grace) might be coming back to TV for a longer haul, if his comedy gets picked up for airing in NBC. The show is a bout a dad whose 14-yo daughter moves in with him. Hayes has recently appeared in Up All Night and Parks and Rec. He will also have an arc in the second season of Smash. And you can find a long list of Smash spoilers here!

TRAILER

Tarrence Malik is back after Tree of Life with another stunning film, To The Wonder. It stars some big names like Ben Afleck, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams and Javier Bardem. The footage has similar feeling to it as the Tree of Life had, but I think this one might be a bit more comprehensible.

Then some comedy. Here is the trailer for The Incredible Burt Wonderstone starring Steve Carrel and Steve Buscemi. With Jim Carrey too, this one is hilariously stupid and that's why I like it.

And lastly, the first proper trailer for Man Of Steel, the Superman movie directed by Zach Snyder with Henry Cavill in the title role. Finally we get to see some action and flying.

That's all folks! Happy New Year and I'll see you in 2013!

-Golden Globe Nominations-

The nominations for 70th Golden Globe Awards were announced yesterday, with the usual amount of snubs and surprises. The main event itself will be held Jan 13th with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosting (ah-mazing!). I mean, just look at their first promo!

HERE is the full list of nominees!

Now let's talk a bit about them. I've always thought that the separation of drama and comedy has its pro's and con's. Pro: acting categories (more nominees and appropriate categories), con: directing category (with total of 10 best film nominees but only 5 best director, many great directors will get shut out, like Tom Hooper (Les Miserables) and David O. Russel (Silver Linings Playbook)).

Golden Globes are given out by Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) which is notorious for favouring stars with big names and being kinda easy to persuade, which is most likely to have happened with Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. It has been MIA in almost all other award ceremonies, and yet it pops up here with three nomination, for Emily Blunt, Ewan McGregor (who has been lobbying for nomination for The Impossible, but did not get nominated for that like his co-star Naomi Watts) and for Best Comedy. I was also surprised that Maggie Smith got nominated for Quartet instead of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (maybe it was too long to write on the ballots). 

 

There have been so many great performances this year in film, so there are bound to be big snubs through-out the award season. You can write them in the comments if you feel like I should mention some one in particular.

 

Few words about the TV noms then. The two most glaring surprises was the nomination of Newsroom over Mad Men in drama category and Smash getting nominated for Best Comedy/Musical instead of one of the great comedies on air. Don't get me wrong, I love Smash and Newsroom is pretty awesome too, but still it was surprising that more people voted them.

 

I really don't get the idea with the current acting categories. Why on earth is there different categories for lead actors/actresses in Drama and Comedy, but then every single supporting category is smashed together (Comedy, Drama, Miniseries and TV movies). This makes it almost impossible to predict who will walk home with the Supporting Actor/Actress Globes.

The Best Song category was pretty star-studded too. Adele, Jon Bon Jovi, Keith Urban, Taylor Swift and Les Miserables (with new brand new song not in the stage musical, so that it will qualify for Best Song awards). Here is a small featurette of the making of that song:

Though this event might not be very good prediction when preparing for Oscars, it will surely be entertaining. Weekly post coming Sat/Sun.

 

-49-

Empire is one of my favourite film magazines and its time for their annual Jameson Empire Awards. You can affect the result by voting here. You can also win tickets to attend the awards themselves in London, would be pretty amazing to meet all the A-listers. So good luck! And in case you missed, you should still hate Bret Easton Ellis.

From top left: Kathy Griffin: My Life on The D-List, Friends, SNL, The Simpsons

FILM

As if portraying Princess Diana wasn't enough, Naomi Watts will also play Marilyn Monroe in a biopic Blonde, which was frozen for a while, but is now back in action. Andrew Dominik is set to direct, making this only his third movie. Monroe has been a very popular subject for TV and film throughout the years. With Naomi Watt's talent, I'm sure she'll excel at the role. You can next see her in The Impossible.

Dane DeHaan (Chronicle) will join Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Shailene Woodley and Jamie Foxx in the sequel for Amazing Spider-Man. He'll play Harry Osborn in the film. I haven't seen Chronicle yet (but it's on my list) so I can't say a lot about his acting skills but he sure looks the part. Harry Osborn was portrayed by James Franco in the previous trilogy.

As the award season is kicking in, you'll see a lot of mentions about them. I'll mostly just post links to the winners/nominees, and assume you'll read through them yourselves if you are interested. My focus will be on The Oscars and Golden Globes. Here are the Annie Award nominees. Annies celebrate achievement in  among animated films and television series. It came as no surprise that Disney/Pixar dominates the categories with Brave and Wreck-It Ralph, which both did well at the box office and with the critics. The winner of Best Film at Annies is usually the frontrunner for The Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

But we shall not forget live-action films either. Here are the Satellite Awards nominees. These awards are presented by the International Press Academy, so they are basically voted by journalists. Satellite Awards don't always go for future Oscar winners and I think they sometimes represent more the public view. AMPAS members voting for Oscars tend to be more traditional and not vote for the underdog. And I'm very proud to say that there is a Finnish actress nominated for the Best Actres Satellite Award, Laura Birn for her role in Purge (Puhdistus). Good luck to her, she's got a tough competition from Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain among others.

Since it's Christmas you can find a lot of advent calendars online, but this might be by favourite. Les Misreables just happens to come out 25th in US, so why not make a calendar celebrating Christmas as well as the premiere. We have Vulture to thank for this. It features many fun videos like this and this picture:

I don't usually get to talk about one of my favourite musicals, Sound Of Music, but I'm super excited to tell you that Carrie Underwood will play Maria in a televised version of the stage musical, airing at NBC. It will be produced by Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, who are working on Smash and the next Oscars too. Can't wait! We all know of course that Julie Andrews played Maria in the classic film version, which won Oscar for Best Picture. Due to an throat-surgery gone wrong in 1994, we haven't heard her sing for a while, and unfortunately she has said that she'll probably never be able to sing properly ever again. I guess we'll just have to listen her beautiful singing voice on recordings then. She is currently trying to produce a musical version of a childrens book she wrote.

I feel like I've been writing about The Hobbit every week for past few months, but they just keep coming out with more cool stuff. (Like first looks of the second and third movies in the trilogy). We also got a picture of the main villain of the first movie, the Goblin King. But what I found the most interesting was these 6 small clips directly from the movie itself. And I assure you, they are all worth watching.

TV

BBC is working fast, since it has already announced that it would be turning J.K.Rowling's new book, The Casual Vacancy, into a TV series. I haven't read the book yet, but it is supposed to be pretty good, though nothing like her Harry Potter-series. This one is basically about small town drama. But honestly, at this point she could pretty much sell a book with just blank pages and get to the bestseller list.

Fox has ordered some new addition to its animated Sunday schedule. A new comedy Murder Police will join Fox's old Sunday stars The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers, Family Guy and American Dad. Murder Police was created by Family Guy Executive Producer David Goodman and newcomer Jason Ruiz. The show is about to homicide detectives with Peter Griffin/Homer Simpson qualities aka. no brains.

Though we still have to wait over three months for a new episode of Game Of Thrones, HBO has released a behind-the-scenes of their third season, featuring many of the stars speaking about their experiences. We don't get to see that much of material from the new season, but who cares, its Game Of Thrones, you'll enjoy everything about it!

TRAILERS

I don't usually like Zombie movies, but when its paired up with comic and romantic elements, it becomes interesting. Warm Bodies stars Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer, and seems pretty good, take a look:

Even the guys at /Film couldn't figure out what Upstream Color is really about, my guess is cancer? The official synopsis: A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism. So that doesn't really help at all. See if you can make more sense about this:

I generally hate Tom Cruise, Oblivion looks pretty good. He plays just a simple guy, repairing drones in post-apocalyptic Earth where there is not supposed to be any life left. But guess what? There is plenty of it. The cast is pretty impressive, Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Melissa Leo, Olga Kurylenko, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. The film is coming out later in 2013.

That's all folks! New post coming next week!

-48-

In case you are wondering why I haven't mentioned the Oscars for a while, I'm planning to go all out for this year's award ceremony. I'll write one post about the nominations, one pre-show and one about the ceremony and maybe one where I write about why specific movies won certain trophies. So it's going to be an Oscar-extravaganza (or Oscarvaganza?)

From top left: The Simpsons, 30 Rock, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Big Bang Theory

TV

Miss B aka Beyonce is making a move towards the small screen, since she has now decided to release a behind-the-scenes documentary of her return to the show business after giving birth to Blue Ivy. The documentary will air Feb 16th on HBO and I'm really looking forward to it. In my eyes she can do no wrong and it'll be fun to see how she manages her life since she sure ain't slowing down.

One of the most talked about events of the past week was the bizarre rant of Two and a Half Men-star Angus T. Jones where he declared the show to be filth and not worth watching. He then apologized for the clip and said he will honor his contract with the show. But it's not sure yet if the show even wants him back. He is not scheduled to appear in the next few episodes anyways, so that gives the studio time to think. Former star of the show Charlie Sheen (who was kicked out because of a mental breakdown) even went on to say that the show is cursed. This whole thing has of course been a very easy bait for gossip, even so that some sources suggested that Miley Cyrus would replace him after providing the show with great ratings boost during her two-episode arc. Honestly I think the show has gone downhill since Sheen left. Sure he was crazy, but he was easily the best character on the show. Without him the show is like a headless chicken and I really wouldn't mind if it got cut after this season, though it still provides pretty decent ratings.

Though Seth MacFarlane is probably one of the busiest men in Hollywood at this point (With three shows and Oscar-hosting duties waiting), he still has time for more. There have been plenty of speculations about the Family Guy movie, if it would be made or not. MacFarlane recently confirmed that a movie is indeed in works, after he finally found a plotline that would be impossible to make as a TV episode. He has dabbled with animated movies already with the three Star Wars/Family Guy mash-up parodies and of course last year's comedy success Ted. MacFarlane will also guest star in rival Fox animated series The Simpsons. He is going to play a suitor of Marge in the premiere episode of 25th season.

The cast of Parks and Recreation joined forces with GQ to release this hilarious video of the cast playing Hollywood Squares. The rules of the game don't really matter, since they could probably make any game-show invented funnier than the original.

FILM

Though I'm still very much looking forward to the Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty live-action remake), a new fairytale adaption has entered my radar. Cinderella is getting a live-action version too, and it seems like Cate Blanchett has landed the role of the evil step-mother. The movie will be directed by Mark Romanek (Never Let Me Go) and written by Chris Weitz (Golden Compass, Twilight: New Moon). So it certainly has a good setup for a great success. But lets see, we can never be too sure about these big productions.

X-Men First Class sequel, Days of Future past has attached Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart to reprise their roles as Magneto and Professor X from the original trilogy. In First class those same roles are played by Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy, who certainly look nothing like their older counterparts, so it'll be fun to see how they link those two stories together. Hugh Jackman will also appear in the new movie as Wolverine, a character he is maybe the most know for. He did a small cameo in First Class, but hopefully this will be a bit bigger part.

In other superhero related news. It was first rumored that Joseph Gordon-Levitt might play Batman in the Justice League movie that is currently in pre-pre-production, and that he would cameo in the Man of Steele Superman movie. While this would have been pretty great, JGL's team has declined all these rumors. I know this news might be a bit pointless, but that rules out one big name from the casting list. Or maybe they are just lying and covering up?

 The Independent Spirit Awards nominations were announced this week. It was no surprise that Moonrise Kingdom, Silver Linings Playbook and Beast of The Southern Wild were among the top nominees. Though Spirit Awards rarely go to eventual Oscar winners, it is not unheard of. I think these awards will pave the way for Silver Linings Playbook most of all. But WTF is Matthew McConaughey doing getting nominated for Magic Mike? Is that a joke?

I'll end with some Disney news. Their newest, and most interesting, upcoming animated feature film, Frozen, has finally locked both its directors. Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck (both have been working for Disney previously) will direct this adaptation of the old fairytale Snow Queen. I'm really looking forward for this, since I've been a fan of the original story since I was a kid and the talent attached to this production is pretty amazing (Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel). And I have the biggest respect for traditional animation, that's what made Disney worth its value.

TRAILERS

This time all three featured films here were totally under my radar. I haven't heard anything about them, which actually pretty good thing, since I didn't have any expectations. First one is for a thriller where the they pray turns against the hunters as three women get into some serious trouble. The movie looks haunting and raw, but I'm not sure if the full film manages to keep up the level of suspense. Here is Black Rock:

I don't really know how to describe this next one. I think by saying that it stars Charlie Sheen as a man who goes a bit nuts after breaking up with his girlfriend, says pretty much. The film is called A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III. It looks just crazy enough to be totally hilarious.

The last one is for Love is All You Need, starring Pierce Brosnan and Trine Dyrholm.  This Danish-British film is directed by Oscar-winner Susanne Bier. It looks like a decent romantic comedy, but I doubt it will be a smash hit outside Denmark.

That's all folks! New post coming next week (this week was kinda close to ending)

-47-

This week's post is going to be pretty much all about TV. Mainly because film news seem to have stopped flowing during Thanksgiving, but thank god TV never quits. The film industry did manage to attract viewers though, since the record for biggest Thanksgiving week box office revenue in US was broken, mainly because of Skyfall, Breaking Dawn part 2 and Lincoln.

From top left: How I Met Your Mother, Go On, The Simpsons, Arrested Development

FILM

With the catch line: "Every revolution begins with the spark", Hunger Games: Catching Fire has released a new interactive logo, much like they did with the first film. This is to get everybody excited and wait for the first trailer for the sequel for the smash hit. It won't be out until next November, but no reason not to get super duper excited! You'll find the logo here but beware of the sound effects that start as auto-play.

The movie This is 40 might not be a very strong candidate at the Oscars, but with this new Fiona Apple song, they are one of the hopefuls who try to get the coveted spot in the newly revised Best Original Song nomination list. This year there will be five nominations guaranteed, unlike last year where only two songs got enough votes to even get nominated. And as this years Oscar producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan having a very strong background in musicals, we might even see full performances of all the songs on stage. You can listen to the Fiona Apple's song Dull Tool at Huffington Post.

Gotta love these idiots. The minions of Despicable Me are back with another teaser. Thanksgiving themed this time, it's short but worth watching! See it here.

I was glued to the screen watching these total of 22 minutes of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey -related video footage. First there is the 9th Production video which focuses on the post-production. I love these kind of featurettes where we get to see how the film actually gets its polished look. We get to see what happens at animation, editing, sound mixing etc. At the end of the video where we see Howard Shore recording the score, I got goosebumps when they started playing. The other video I'm talking about is a fan-made 8min video where he has edited most of the trailers together to create a mega-trailer. This is something you should not miss!!

I'll categorize this one as films, since my TV bit is going to be full. But here is the November patch of best entertainment photography from Vulture. Among them are such beauties as these. That's Laura Carmichael from Downton Abbey on the left and Alan Arkin with John Goodman on the right.

TV

I would be ashamed not to start with this. I feel like I'm responsible of about half of the 90k views of this video. The new promo video of Smash Season 2. We see a lot of old characters as well as newcomers. And of course the music, ah the music. So many good brand new songs! Check it out:

SNL might be losing another great player as Kenan Thompson is developing a new comedy (with Lorne Michaels producing). He plays a guy who moves back in with his parents at the suburbs. Of course this one is just in development, so NBC might not pick it up, though almost everything that has Lorne involved gets aired. But we'll see, I will surely miss Thompsons impressions of Whoopie Goldberg and Reba.

Though The Mindy Project is only on its first season, it is already going through some pretty big changes. Amanda Setton who plays Shauna is leaving the show due to creative differences. I think her character was funny for a while, but then they tried to make it too deep. Anna Camp, who plays Gwen has been bumped down to recurring character by her own demand so that she has more time to different projects. And not everyone are going, but Ellie Kamper is coming in for a guest appearance. She and Mindy co-starred of course in The Office for many years. Speaking of The Office. They released  this deleted Thanksgiving-themed scene, featuring a lot of funny moments, see it at EW.

I'm a bit torn, I have a lot of great videos to share, but I can't decide which ones to put here. This is such a "first world problem". I'll start with the I can most connect. Conan O'Brien visiting the Guinness Brewery at Dublin. It's fun to see places I've been to, and having Conan make fun of them makes it even better.

I haven't watched a full episode of The Dancing With The Stars US in my life, but I found this Paula Abdul performance to be pretty entertaining. I certainly I didn't know she could still move like that. Her performance used similar technology Beyonce used before, blurring the line what is the real performer and what is just video. If you don't focus on her lip-syncing, its very good.

Johnny Depp is making his Family Guy voice-over debut as he plays his old character Edward Scissorhands in an upcoming episode. The part is very small, but it continues the trend of big stars appearing in animated series. You can see the clip at EW. Another animated show is getting some star power, but in a totally different way. Some twenty years ago young Judd Apatow wrote a script for a very successful show called ... The Simpsons! The script is about Homer getting hypnotised and starts to think he is Bart's age. Sounds entertaining and hopefully it gets made during this season, because I don't know how long I can wait for this!

Though Cougar Town isn't back until January, they've released a brand new (wine-infused) promo. Featuring the whole gang throwing around some wine basically, but it sums up all the fun that makes Cougar Town. I tried to embed the video, but it didn't really work, so go to Deadline to watch it.

And let's not forget that this happened at Late Night with Jimmy Fallon:

TRAILERS

I don't want to fill this blog to much with videos (since it makes it a lot slower, not because they aren't great), so I'll just post two trailers this time. First one is for a fantasy epic Jack The Giant Slayer, which has had a bit rough road to production, but it is finally coming out. It won't be a huge success, I can tell it already, but I assume it will get even with its budget with the revenues.

The second one is for a british comedy I Give It a Year. With a great cast (Rose Byrne, Simon Baker, Anna Faris, Minnie Driver among others) it certainly seems funny. Judge for yourselves:

That's all folk! New post coming next week!

-46-

This week just flew by! I'm so much behind on my Late Night Shows, I still haven't watched even my Chelsea-Lately's which I normally watch as soon as I can, since they are the bomb. This week my screencaps are a dedication to Amy Poehler and her huge throbbing funny bone that never ceases to make me laugh my ass off.

Top two: Parks and Recreation, bottom two: SNL

FILM

Last week I got pretty excited again with Sam Raimi's The Oz: The Great and Powerful, since it released a brand new set of photos, and later a trailer to accompany them. It still hasn't been revealed which witch is the bad or "wicked" one. Michelle Williams is obviously the good one. I'm thinking Rachel Weitz is the baddie and Mila Kunis is something in between (though she says she is a good one). You can find the pictures here, and trailer below (I found too many good ones this week so I have to spread them around a bit). It still looks pretty spectacular.

I rarely mention music in this blog, but since this song is very likely to get nominated for The Best Original Song Oscar, I had to mention it. Neil Finn created Song Of The Lonely Mountain to be played over the end credits of Peter Jackson's first part of The Hobbit trilogy. Jackson's previous Tolkien trilogy did pretty well in that category, with two nominations and one win.  I tried to attach the song to my blog, but with little success, so you need to go here to hear it.

If you've read my blog intensely, you might remember the upcoming Lego movie The Piece of Resistance. Well now they have added some big stars to the voice cast, like Will Ferrel, Allison Brie, Liam Neeson and Nick Offerman. With that and the old cast (Will Arnett, Chris Pratt), this might be one of the most epic sounding movie yet.

Bunch of casting news caught my eye again. James McAvoy is joining the Julian Assange/Wikileaks movie, directed by Bill Condon. He'll be playing the right-hand man of Assange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Kit Harrington (Game of Thrones) might be one of the lead characters of Paul W.S Anderson (Resident Evil- movies) Pompeii movie. The film, obviously, focuses on the devastating day the eponymous volcano erupted. Anne Hathaway has joined the Steven Spielberg adaptation of Robocalypse. Now I don't have any idea what the book is about, but apparently it's a big deal. Ben Whishaw and Chris Hemsworth might be in it too.

It seems like game-to-film adaptations are becoming increasingly popular. One of them is Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, which has now attached Tom Hardy to play the lead character Sam Fisher. Fisher is a government agent sent out on some very sneaky missions. As the game series went along, he became betrayed by his own organisation and outlawed. Then I stopped playing them so I don't know the rest, maybe this gives me a reason to star them again.

And to finish off this section with a more artistic note: here are the portraits of Les Miserables characters Annie Leibovitz shot for Vogue. As you can expect from her, they are amazing. I'll post just few here, but you can find all of them at /Film.

TV

As a not-so-surprising turn, CBS has decided to cancel Partners, the new comedy from the creators of Will & Grace, Matt Mutchnick and David Kohan. If you read my review of the show, you'll find out why I'm not surprised by this. Though I'm very disappointed at the two of them, since Will & Grace was pure comedic genius.

I honestly didn't think Smash could get any better, but look what happened! Now they have added Liza Minnelli to the cast and though it's just a guest spot, she will be singing at least one totally new song written for the show. Cougar Town has also steadily been adding strong guest stars, like Shirley Jones, which was announced this past week. She hasn't appeared in many shows lately, but even so, she remains a very familiar face from her long career. More about her role in Cougar Town at TVline. Modern Family also added some "star" power to their ranks. Billy Dee Williams who played Lando Calrissian in Star Wars (see my star-pun now?) will play a fellow gambler Jay (Ed O'Neill) meets when their families spend New Year's Eve at Palm Springs.

By now you all should be watching the last season of 30 Rock, since it is epic! And it's about to get a lot more epic-er (?)... Well super epic. Liz Lemon (played by talented Tina Fey) is getting married! I know that by looking at Lemon's past love life, it could have been assumed that she'd get few cats and become a spinster. But then along came Chris Chross (James Marsden), who was just as stupid as Liz, a match made in heaven. NBC released this hilarious wedding invitation to their nuptials. I think every one who is getting married over 30 should have a similar printed out.

I love especially the last line, "bring your own snacks".

TRAILERS

Okay, so as I mentioned, I found a lot of good ones this week. If I'd post them all here, my blog would get soooo slow. So I'll just link you few and the post the rest.

The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones, which is trying to take over the spot that Twilight leaves. With half angels, Lily Collens and Jamie Cambell Bower, it might just do that. It is the first of six books.

Another one trying to get Twihards on their side is Stephenie Mayer, who pretty much has them all anyways since she created Twilight. But now her next big franchise is hitting the big screens. The Host is a love story (shocker) between two humans who are one of the few remaining in futuristic Earth. Until one of them becomes "the host" of a alien form.

Before we get to see Lindsey Lohan in Liz and Dick as Elizabet Taylor, we were treated to the new trailer of The Canyons. I don't know if it's exactly a treat, but it certainly is something. With very 50's vibe the trailer really doesn't reveal much about the plot, just that there is a lot of drama.

I knew that I wasn't totally wrong when I mixed up Melissa MacCarthy's co-stars few weeks ago. She is starring in a comedy with Jason Bateman, but also one with Sandra Bullock, and that one has gotten a trailer now. As you might expect, The Heat seems hilarious:

There is only one word to describe the trailer for Now You See Me: magical. With a great cast and fine plot, I think this movie will actually be pretty entertaining:

The last one is for a comedy with Tina Fey and Paul Rudd called Admission. I think that says enough about the movie, but here is the trailer:

That's all folks! New post coming next week!

-45-

It's been 45 weeks now since my first post, and THIS is my most watched piece here. Don't know what that says about me and my blog, but carry on! Here are some more screencaps for your enjoyment. Well actually they are GIFs, so click to open them if you don't see them properly on the normal view.

From top left: The Big Bang Theory, Family Guy, Spongebob Squarepants, The Office (that dog gets me every time)

TV

 Let's start with Glee. Last year the students of McKinley High School did West Side Story but this year they are doing Grease (or Glease some have dubbed it). You can listen to most of the songs here, or you can go to Glee's official YouTube channel to find more (just found out it is not working, the notification says it has been deleted, but I assume FOX will have it up in some time, most of the videos from the previous link work though). One of the new students who joined the school this year, was Jake (Jacob Artist) who is the half-brother of Puck (Mark Salling). They share the some father, but different mother and it looks like Jake's mom is about to debut. She'll be played by Aisha Tyler, one of the hosts of The Talk. I can now see where he got the looks.

Few quick casting notes. Gillian Vigman (Suburgatory) will join the fourth season of Cougar Town as the new love interest for Bobby. Looks like it's going to be just a quickie since its just an one episode guest spot (for now). Cougar Town is back Jan 8th. Jane Seymour (you might know her best as Solitaire in the Bond movie Live and Let Die, or as the cougar in that one episode of How I Met Your Mother) joins one of my favourite new comedies, Ben And Kate, as the mother of BJ (Lucy Punch). So both characters are British and have a big appetite for men, this has got to be good! The third cougar coming to TV shows I follow, is Carla Gugino. She'll play Schmidt's flirty boss on New Girl. Gugino was last seen on TV as the reporter in a great show, Political Animals. And great news for all my Finnish readers, the show will start on AVA in few weeks after the first season of Smash ends, on Wednesdays 9 PM.

Rebel Wilson has found a co-star for her ABC comedy Super Fun Night. Liza Lapira (from ABC's Don't Trust The Bitch in Apartment 23) will play the intelligent roomie of Wilson's character. Wilson also made it to the Hollywood Reporter's list of Hollywood's Fastest-Rising Stars. This is a list you should all check out, since we'll be hearing a lot from these guys.

Joe Biden, the vice president of USA, is making a cameo on Parks and Recreation in the coming weeks. We already saw John McCain on the season premiere, so with Ben living in Washington D.C., the show has gotten a lot more political. Biden apparently shot the scenes in early July, but this information was to be kept as a secret until the election (Horray for Obama btw!) so that it wouldn't affect it in anyways. I also found these funny Newsletters that the characters of the show write monthly. You can subscribe for them here!

Two new shows that are in development caught my eye. One is a lifestyle sitcom produced and inspired by Martha Stewart. The idea is pretty funny, a twenty-something party girl wants to quit her bad habits, so she starts to follow the teachings Martha Stewart. I love Stewart, but I really don't think her sense of humour is anything I'll like, so I hope she'll just but out and leave the writers alone so she wont ruin the show. The second one is an upcoming comedy written, produced and starred by Fortune Feimster, a regular face from my favourite late night talk show, Chelsea Lately. And talking about the bitch herself, Chelsea Handler is producing. It will be a multi camera workplace comedy focused on Feimster's character and her sister, who struggle to maintain a successful furniture store. Remember though that both of these are just in pre-production and might never get a full season pickups, hopefully we'll get to see even pilots.

FILM

It's been so long since I last heard about this project, so I kinda forgot it even existed, but now we got the first pictures from the set of Saving Mr. Banks, the story of how Walt Disney convinced the creator of Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers, to sell him the rights for a movie, which turned out to be a huge success though Travers never really enjoyed it. Disney is played by Tom Hanks while Travers is portrayed by Emma Thompson. You can find more pictures here!

Here are some quick casting notes. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has been cast as Hercules in an upcoming adventure film based on the popular mythical character. There seems to be some sort of plot, but it seems to be just a typical hack-n-slash pic. Brett Ratner (X-Men: The Last Stand) will direct. David Yates, fresh from directing four of the latest Harry Potter movies, will direct yet another adaption of Tarzan. If you read my post from few weeks ago, you know how I feel about Tarzan. This will be a life-action version, so its success will really come down to the fact who will play the main role. Michael Bay is already planning a new Transformers movie, fourth in series, and he has locked Mark Wahlberg to star in it. It seems like he'll play the lead role, but even though he is a tough action star, this will age the movie series considerably since the previous lead character was played by Shia LeBouf. Then the last bit, McG (Charlie's Angels) will direct a movie revolving around the Magic Castle, the privete magic club in L.A. There is no official synopsis yet, but I imagine it would be about a newcomer magician who works his/hers way to the top.

This adorable movie filled with old geezers is bound to receive good reviews. It's called Last Vegas and it stars Morgan Freeman, Robert DeNiro, Kevin Kline and Michael Douglas as old friends who go to have a bachelor party at Las Vegas (sound familiar? Pretty close to the first Hangover movie). The movie is now in production and is expected to come out in December 2013.

SNL co-stars Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader will star with Luke Wilson in an upcoming indie comedy called The Skeleton Twins. Wiig and Hader play two ex-lovers who have a near-death experience at the same time and this makes them reunite and wonder what went wrong. I seems to love everything Kristen Wiig does and Hader is hilarious too, so I think I'm going to enjoy this one.

Since Disney announced its purchase of Lucasfilm last week, the Internet has been all a buzz trying to figure out what the next Star Wars film will be about. Well we might not know that yet, but we do know who will know. And that is Michael Arndt, who will write the script for Star Wars: Episode VII. He won Oscar for writing Little Miss Sunshine, which makes me wonder how he will translate into Sci-Fi genre, especially as he co-wrote Toy Story 3 too. Before Star Wars, he is co-writing Hunger Games: Catching Fire, so that will give him some practice before stepping into some very big wookie-furred shoes.

TRAILERS

I just can't resist sharing the new international trailer for Les Miserables. It will come out in December and this will ease the wait for those of us who can barely sit down. This trailer is also the first where we see Russel Crowe singing. We also get some clips from the Anne Hathaway (Who hosted SNL this weekend) version of I Dreamed A Dream.

The second one is for a horror movie, a genre I don't usually endorse. But this one has Frodo aka. Elijah Wood. The film is called Maniac, and I don't recommend this one for the weak minded.

The last one is for a film we've been waiting for a long time. World War Z has be rescheduled, rescripted and reworked for multiple times, but it's now coming out next summer, we'll have to wait and see if that will happen. The movie is apocalyptic zombie movie starring Brad Pitt, and the trailer looks surprisingly good compared to what I braced myself for.

That's all folks! New post coming next week (hopefully a bit sooner than this)

-44-

I finally got the time to sit down and write this long overdue post, but it's still the week 44, so it counts. A lot has happened during this week in the world of TV and film. I mentioned last time that I might write a review of the new James Bond flick Skyfall, but I wouldn't be able to write it without spoiling the whole thing for those who haven't seen it, since there are are a lot of changes that really affect the future of the whole the brand. But go see it, the film was amazing! It strutted proudly into my Top 5 Bond Movies.

From top left: Will&Grace, Arrested Development, Modern Family, The Simpsons

FILM

How can I not start with one of the biggest news of the week (besides Sandy the Hurricane). George Lucas has sold Lucasfilm to Disney for $4 Billion. And the best part is that we can expect a new Star Wars movie in 2015 and a new movie every two to three years after that, up to Episode IX. I know some die hard fans hate this decision sine they think even the three prequel episodes were total blasphemy, but I really can't see the bad side in this. If the movie doesn't seem good, then don't go see it. Lucas won't be directing or producing himself, but he will serve as a creative consultant. This news of course inspired a lot of things in Internet, like these cool mashup Disney/Star Wars posters. And this awesome video: 

Compared to this, every other news seem so minor. But the fact that Arnold Scwartzenegger will step into the boots of Conan the Barbarian once more, is pretty major too. The new film, Legend Of Conan, will be a sort of reboot, since it ignores the latest reboot from 2011 with Jason Momoa and it will also ignore the second of Arnold's two Conan films.In this the new film Conan will be obviously pretty old and starting to realise that his life won't last forever and decides to go out with a good battle. I'm pretty sure they won't kill the character in the movie, but anything could happen.

George Clooney's next directorial effort, Monuments Men, is starting to look pretty amazing. First of all, the story sounds interesting: A group of Allied historians and curators try to save priceless pieces of art from the hands of Hitler who deems some works degenerate. And secondly, look at the cast! First Bill Murray and Cate Blanchett were announced to have roles in the movie. Then John Goodman, Daniel Craig and Jean Dujurdin joined the cast. How can this not be good ? (And Oscar-worthy?) The filming will start next spring, so the movie might come out just at the end of 2013 to qualify for 2014 Oscars. Or that's what I hope, can't wait to see the film!

John Logan will write the next two James Bond movies. At first they were reported to have an arc which would combine the two, but Daniel Craig denied that rumour. Logan has previously written such masterpieces as Hugo, The Aviator and Gladiator. These two would be most likely the last two films with Daniel Craig, since they played "the old scruffy agent"-card now on Skyfall. Naomi Harris suggested that Idris Elba should play the next Bond, making him the first African-American Bond, but that is just a rumour and everything can (and will) change once we reach Bond film number 26. (Skyfall is 23th)

Unlike the first Captain American movie, the sequel will be set in modern times. This will allow the film to be more tied up with the Avengers universe. Especially now that Colbie Smoulders and Samuel L. Jackson have signed on to reprise their roles in Captain America: The Winter Soldier as the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents they played in the Avengers. Though this is good promotion also for the upcoming  S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series, it will make it hard for these two to appear in the show, since in the movie universe Agent Coulson died, but in TV he lives on. Would be hard for them to explain how the agents would react around each other when they've seen one of them die. Well, strange things can happen in the world of comics, so who knows.

And to the end of this segment, I present you with the first look of Wicked Witch in the new poster for Oz: The Great and Powerful. Under that layer of make-up hides either Mila Kunis or Rachel Weisz, it is not clear which one, since they both will play Wicked Witches, Theodora and Evanora. Either way, the picture looks good!

TV

A lot has happened in TV too. Most shocking news for me was the fact that Up All Night would be changed in to multi-camera format with live audience. This is very unusual for a TV show and honestly I can't yet see how it will work, or if it will destroy the show. Single-camera shows are a lot more popular format at the moment, but then again Big Bang Theory and Two And A Half Men are one of the most watched TV shows and they are both multi-camera comedies. These new episodes of Up All Night will start airing next spring after their winter hiatus, but we still get six more episodes of the good old single-camera format. One of the stars of the show, Maya Rudpolh is also expanding to another form of performing. Her Prince cover band, Princess, has book a gig head lining at the Largo, in L.A. They also performed at the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon few weeks ago and were pretty good! I couldn't find very good quality video of the show, but you can get the gist from this.

All news can't be good though. Unfortunately NBC has decided to pass on The Office spin-off The Farm. Rainn Wilson would have reprised his role as Dwight Schrute but now instead they will just air the already filmed pilot for the nixed show as an gift to commemorate the final season of The Office. Second bad news is that Political Animals won't have any extra episodes. Though the show was initially planned as a mini-series, there were a lot of rumours that it would come back for the second season, but now those dreams have been crushed. At least we got the first season.

Kim Cattrall will star in and produce an U.S adaptation of the Sensitive Skin (U.K). She has some big shoes to step into, since Joanna Lumley played the original character. The show is about a woman struggling with mid-life crisis. To describe the original show as a comedy, is pretty misleading, since it's very dark comedy, with a lot of drama aspects. It reminds me of Nurse Jackie, since its funny, but not in a comedy kind of way. Though this adaptation was first set to air on HBO, they have passed on the deal and now Cattrall is working with Canadian partners, but it is expected to get aired on U.S networks too.

ART

I didn't really know which segment to put these under, so I created a new one, though don't expect these every month. Firstly the October edition of Vulutre's Best Entertainment Photography was pretty spectacular. Here are some of them (Angela Lansbury on the left, and Jennifer Lawrence next to her), but you can find the all at Vulture.

I also found this amazing new poster for Iron Man 3. Matt Ferguson, creator of this beauty, also created artwork for the  Avengers DVD-box. Scroll down this page to see some other examples for his work.

TRAILERS 

This first trailer isn't brand new, but I just wanted to remind you about it since the movie Flight just came out and it looks like a pretty strong platform for Denzel Washington to get Oscar nominated. He plays a pilot who manages to save most of his passengers when he performs a near-impossible emergency landing (while a bit drunk). The rest of the cast includes such stars as John Goodman (he's everywhere at the moment) and Melissa Leo.

The second is for the movie that I honestly never thought I'd see: Die Hard 5. The fact that they even made fourth Die Hard was just beyond me, it was really bad. And honestly it looks like this won't be any better. Though it is packed with awesome action segments, it can't save this parachuteless freefall that is Die Hard 5. The full name is A Good Day To Die Hard and it will star Bruce Willis. Cole Hauser and Sebastian Koch.

I love Despicable Me's minions and thankfully that is all the new trailer is filled with. In Despicable Me 2, the minions get kidnapped and Gru has to find them. If you don't know about the minions, just go to YouTube and search "despicable me minions". You'd be surprised how much fun they are.

 Just look at how cute he is in a french maid's dress!!!

That's all folks! New post coming next week!