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Days go too fast! Staph! But here is my review of Fox's new shows Ben and Kate and The Mindy Project, so check that out. For next week I'm planning a review of Partners and a quick recap of few older shows that have premiered so far, like Mike&Molly, How I Met Your Mother and Parks&Recreation.

From top left: 2 Broke Girls, Black Books, Family Guy, Parks and Recreation

FILM 

Though new shows premiere all through-out the season, some great shows are wrapping up their run. One of them is The Office which is now on its ninth and final season. It is one of my favourites and truly a pioneer for other U.S documentary-style comedies like recent Emmy-winner Modern Family and Parks & Recreation. And it looks like the final season will be among the best. First of all James Spader (barf!) is gone and second Catherine Tate has more screentime. The third good thing is that Stephen Colbert is joining the Halloween episode as a guest star, playing one of Andy's (Ed Helms) old a Capella group member. In case you haven't followed the show through the years, here is a great video to celebrate the past eight seasons:

The Simpsons is also gearing up for their season premiere this Sunday. The first episode features all Bart's old girlfriends, so there is going to be a lot of starpower (Anne Hathaway, Zooey Deschanel and Natalie Portman among others). The Simpsons also decided to share their opinion on this years presidential election, much like they did four years ago, and surprise surprise, Homer gets in trouble:

I used to like Two and a Half Men, but after Charlie Sheen left, it's just not the same. And now it seems like they are trying to bring back the audiences with their new guest star: Miley Cyrus. She will play Jake's (Angus T. Jones)  new crush, but Walden (Aston Kutcher) falls for her too. Is the age difference a joke on Aston's old wife Demi Moore? Don't know, but this does not seem like a good idea. For some pictures from the set with Miley, go here!

Film star Diane Kruger is also transitioning to small screen. She will star on FX's new show The Bridge, adapted from Danish series Broen. Her character is Sonya North, who is trying to hunt down a serial killer at El Paso. This is her first regular role on TV. If you've forgotten what she looks like, you can see her in the trailer of her newest film Special Forces here!
 
FILM

Though Melissa McCarthy didn't win either of the Emmys she was nominated for this weekend, she is doing pretty okay. Mike & Molly just started their third season, her new movie Identity Theft with Sandra Bullock just got a new poster  and on top of all that, she was just cast in the upcoming Hangover 3 movie. The role would be small according to Variety, since she is so busy. But hopefully she'll make the time to appear on the film.

Though the Oscars are still months away, some distributors are trying to get their films nominated. The rules state that the film has to run for atleast a week in LA before the end of the year. For example Hitchcock has been moved up to November to qualify. This is the second Hitchcock themed movie, the other being The Girl (though its a TV movie). Anthony Hopkins plays Hitchcock and I think he is a strong candidate for an Oscar, since the Academy tends to like biographies a lot. Another movie that is trying to get into the Oscar race, is Ginger & Rosa. Elle Fanning has garnered a lot of great reviews during her young career and  this films distributor thinks her role as teenager struggling with personal trauma is her chance for an Oscar nomination. Maybe, we'll have to wait and see, since neither of the mentioned movies has a trailer out yet.

Few casting news: Tom Hardy will star as George Mallory, who tried to climb Mount Everest three times in the 20's only to die on his list try at the mountain. The movie is called Everest and it is going to start filming after Doug Liman is done with his previous project with Tom Cruise called All You Need Is Kill. The second casting news is about Parker Posey joining the Grace of Monaco movie. She plays a kinda bitchy character who sells stories about Grace Kelly to the press, sounds like a perfect role for her.

There are two films coming out this December I'm really looking forward to seeing, and I mean like reaaaallly looking forward. First one is The Hobbit, which just got a new trailer which features a lot of new scenes that are not featured even in the books. You can see the trailer here and a full analysis of the trailer at EW. The second film I'm talking about is Les Miserables of course. They released an extended look behind the scenes and more info about their "live singing", meaning that the actors will sing the songs live on set, and the orchestra will be composed around their versions. The film also got a new poster, which is sort of a live-action version of the original poster for the musical.

TRAILERS

The first trailer is for The Details. It premiered on the Sundance Film Festival in 2011, but is only now getting wide release. It stars Toby Maguire, Elizabeth Banks and Laura Linney. Basically the movie is about a man who seems to have it all good, but then things start to fall to pieces. I love anything Elizabeth Banks is in, so I assume I'll like this one too though it has bug-eyes-Maguire too.

The second is Gus Van Sant's (Milk) newest film, Promised Land. Starring Matt Damon, John Krasinski, Rosemarie DeWitt and Frances McDorman. This is one of those movies again, that was moved up top qualify for Oscars. And I wouldn't be surprised to see it nominated, the film is produced and written by Damon and Krasinski. The movie tells the story about how locals stand up to a big corporation who tries to buy their land.

Since the two previous ones were a bit darker, this one is over the top light. I still want to think that this movie is a joke, or maybe they count on the fact that it's so camp that it will attract viewers. Vamps is the latest form of vampire fandom, a comedy. It stars Alicia Silverstone and Kristen Ritter as vampires who fall in love while being chased my vampire killers. See for yourselves!

That's all folks! New posts coming out next week!

Ben and Kate & The Mindy Project

The Mindy Project

The Mindy Project is so far this seasons best comedy. It is created, written, starred and named after Mindy Kaling who is know for her work on The Office.

The series follows Mindy (why bother change her name), a single physician who struggles with her personal and professional life.  The pilot starts with a typical set-up, she sees her ex-boyfriend getting married and kinda loses it. After that she decides to put her life together and not date the wrong kind of guys.

 

It's no wonder that its called The Mindy Project, since the supporting characters are kind of forgettable. Gwen (played by Anna Camp from Help) plays Mindy's best friend who is the total opposite to the main character. Other cast includes Chris Messina (Damages, Newsroom), Stephen Tobolowsky (Glee) and Zoe Jarman (I mostly remember her as the girl who almost gives her baby up for adoption for Mitch and Cam on Modern Family).

 

I think this show could be the New Girl of this year's season. With a strong lead actress and good writing, this show is almost guaranteed to get picked up for a second season, especially if the supporting characters step up the game. It has also gotten some great reviews from the critics.

 Ben and Kate

This is the second new comedy on Fox. And that is why it is just ridiculous that the last name of the siblings the show follows, is Fox. Ben (Nat Faxon) and Kate (Dakota Johnson) are total opposites. Kate is a rational single mother while Ben is a day-dreaming goofy guy. Ben hasn't been around that much, since he comes and goes as he wishes, but after he sees that her sister needs him, he decides to stick around.

 

This setup gives a lot of room for development and I was truly surprised by how much I liked this show. Sure it's not like a non-stop laugh marathon (mostly because of Kate's rational thinking), but Ben is hilarious. He is like the second child of Kate. And BJ (Lucy Punch) is might be the greatest part of the show. She gives "good" advices, like "always put stuff in your mouth", makes me wonder where she got her name...

 

The shows creator Dana Fox is a close friend of Elizabeth Meriwether, who created New Girl, and I think these two shows have kinda similar rhythm and cinematography. But I think it gives the show a light look and makes it harder to judge. Few words about the lead actors. Nat Faxon is an Academy Award winner, he co-wrote the Descendants script. He must be one of the greatest actors, since he plays stupid so well and no one could guess he is an Oscar winner. This is his biggest role on TV so far. Dakota Johnson is also relatively new actress with only minor roles (Social Network, Five-Year-Engagement). Not to mention that she is the daughter of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith.

Overall I think Fox has got a pretty strong line-up of comedies with these two, New Girl and Raising Hope. Not to mention all their animated shows, like Family Guy and Simpsons. But we'll have to see with these newcomers, since many shows change a lot after the pilot, but looking good Fox!

-Emmy Awards-

The 64th Primetime Emmy Awards were held yesterday in Los Angeles honoring achievement in television. This was Jimmy Kimmel's first time hosting, and that was really visible. I watched the ABC coverage of the whole show, red carpet and all. I was disappointed by their red carpet show, I really think that they should have hired a real fashion expert instead of Chris Hansen asking "Who are you wearing?" when he clearly had no interest in knowing the answer. And though I'm no expert either, there were a lot of beautiful people on the carpet. Here are my favourites, pictures are from Vulture:

From top left: Hugh Dancy and Clare Danes, Edie Falco, Jessica Lange, Julia Bowen

Nicole Kidman, Heidi Klum, Shannon Woodward, Kat Dennings and Nick Zano

Now on to the real show:

Here is the full list of WINNERS

I really don't know why Jimmy Kimmel has gotten so much criticism for hosting, I think he did a pretty good job though he did wander on to risky ground with his political jokes. Good thing a compilation of this year's comedy shows lightened the mood after his opening monologue.

Modern Family started their comedy domination right from the start with Eric Stonestreet taking home the award for Best Supporting Actor in Comedy for his work as Cameron. This wasn't really a surprise, after all this category was just a competition between Modern Family actors. I noticed that after Stonestreet moved to backstage, first photographers were right there and the whole Nokia Theater was on the background. It looked great and was a nice idea instead of just white background.

Though Louie C.K didn't win the leading actor Emmy, he did win two for writing. Jon Cryer took home the Lead Actor Emmy for Comedy in which was maybe the biggest surprise of the night, beating other stars like Don Cheadle and Alec Baldwin. This was the first year Jon Cryer was nominated as lead actor for his work in Two and a Half Men, as opposed to supporting actor like back in the days when Charlie Sheen was around. But at least Melissa McCarthys comments about the nominees were hilarious.

Modern Family took home its second award after Julie Bowen won the Emmy for Supporting Actress for her role as Claire. Her acceptance speech (about nipple covers) was maybe the second funniest after Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Julia pretended that her speech got mixed with Amy Poehler and started thanking the people behind Parks and Recreation. Julia of course won for her role as Selena Meyers, the vice president in Veep. Though she was amazing, every single woman in this category should have won in my opinion.

After Steven Levitan won the award for Directing in Comedy Series, it was really not a surprise that Modern Family would win the coveted award of Best Comedy Series. Levitan's speech was funny too thanking himself for hiring him when no one else would.

 

After comedy categories came the reality shows, which I don't really care about, so I'll slide past them pretty quickly. Amazing Race took home the award for Reality Show once again. I really don't get how they keep winning each year, the show just keeps repeating itself. The same thing goes for Best Variety show, where the Daily Show with Jon Stewart took home its tenth consecutive award, which is just sad. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for their crew, but wouldn't it be someone elses turn by now, really? Both Jimmies, Kimmel and Fallon, were nominated in this category and totally deserved to win.

Drama is not really my area of expertise either, but most of these categories had clear frontrunners, but some minor surprises occurred in these Homeland dominated categories. Aaron Paul won his second Supporting Emmy for his role in Breaking Bad, while his co-star Bryan Cranston's winning streak was broken by Damian Lewis who won for Homeland. 

Homeland also won the awards for writing, best drama and leading actress for Claire Danes, but interestingly enough lost the directing award for Broadwalk Empire. Maybe I should start watching Homeland now.

Though Anna  Gunn was the frontrunner for Supporting Actress Emmy, Maggie Smith swooped in for the win after Downton Abbey had to change from miniseries category to drama since this was their second season. To me, it was no surprise that Smith won, since she's got the starpower to pull in the voters.

The miniseries and movie categories were dominated by political drama movie Game Change about the John McCain/ Sarah Palin presidential campaign. The movie won Emmys for best miniseries or movie, directing, writing and actress (Julianne Moore as Palin). After last night Moore has now both Primetime and Daytime Emmy. 

And it came as no surprise that Jessica Lange won Best Supporting Actress for her role in American Horror Story.  Though the show was one of the most nominated, this remained as the only major award for the show. Some critics say that this is due to their decision to run as miniseries, and not as drama, since they are shooting a new season now. But the Academy decided that this would be acceptable since the new season will start from level table, with new characters and story.

Overall, the night was pretty surprise free, yet very entertaining. I'm really not the kind of writer to critique every single bit of the show, I really don't think that's the point of Emmys. It's the celebration of achievement in TV so why not celebrate the event itself too.

To the end, I'd like to post few videos. The first one is from the genius actors of Modern Family which we saw during the broadcast. The second one is for something I found few days ago. Parker Posey made a funny video about accepting an Emmy, check these out.

Weekly post and other stuff coming later this week! Take care!

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I just finished my review of the SNL premiere hosted by Seth MacFarlane, so check that out too! Next week I'll review two new Fox shows Ben And Kate and The Mindy Project.

From the top left: Golden Girls, Spongebob Squarepants, South Park, Absolutely Fabulous (I sometimes forget to mention this, Pleated Jeans is my resource for these screencaps if I don't mention otherwise)

TELEVISION

Fall season is upon us! Though most of my old favourites haven't returned yet, I'm already hooked on shows like Ben and Kate, The Mindy Project, The New Normal and the second season of X Factor (Demi Lovato and Britney Spears really kick ass as the new judges). X Factor is facing some tough competition from The Voice but they both will probably finish before the new season of American Idol starts in January. American Idol has also finally confirmed their judge panel. Mariah Carey was announced few weeks ago, but now Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban are also officially judges. Randy Jackson returns as judge despite rumours that he would become just a mentor. The new panel seems like a really interesting on, can't wait!

I'll have to wait till January for another one of my favourite shows, Smash. But I don't mind, since it just keeps getting better all the time. Now two new actors have joined the cast: Jesse L. Martin (Rent) and Nikki Blonsky (Hairspray). So both of them have a firm base on musical theater and I believe they will fit the world of Smash perfectly.

I have talked alot about Arrested Development too, and how they have been recruiting all their old actors. But they have added some new characters too. There is no word yet on who they will play, but Isla Fisher (Bachelorette (my favourite comedy movie at the time) and Terry Crews (Everybody Hates Chris) have joined the cast. As previously mentioned John Slattery will also be playing a new character.

Quick casting news: New Girl's Jess is getting some pretty impressive parents as they are played by Jamie Lee Curtis and Rob Reiner. They will appear in a Thanksgiving episode as Jess (Zooey Deschanel) will try to reunite her divorced parents. Big Bang Theory cast a new character too, named Alex who is Sheldon's new assistant but gets a crush on Leonard. She will be played by Margo Harshman who was one of the stars of the short lived (unfortunately) NBC comedy  Bent.

If you love Episodes as much as I do, then you'll be super happy that it has been renewed for a third season! Though there is no mention on the dates of the new season, but I assume it will take a while. I just hope its worth a wait, and maybe this season we'll see at least one of the old Friends join Matt LeBlanc, that would be a dream come true.

Then some Cougar Town news: The cul-de-sac crew decided to celebrate their new premier date on TBS with a cool video. This is exactly why I love the show, they aren't afraid of getting embarrassed and they really love their fans. Though the creator Bill Lawrence has now dropped out as the show-runner (he still writes and produces) and is planning a new comedy, the show will probably be greater than ever! (I tried to embed the video here, but didn't work because of the legal rights, so watch it here!)

AWARD SHOWS

This deserved a section of its own. There were two big happenings on the world of awards this week. I'll start with Oscars. Don Mischer is returning to direct after directing the last two shows. This is a pretty good decision, to combine two new producers with a veteran director. Now we just have to wait to find out who will host the show. 

The Academy also announced all their dates. The biggest change was moving the nomination announcement to Jan 10th, way earlier than usually. This way the voters have more time and it gives a chance to more viewers see Oscar-nominated films too. The change also means that the nomination announcement comes few days before Golden Globe awards are held, drawing the spotlight from them a bit. But I really don't care, I love both shows so I'm happy they even exist.

The second award show that has been on the news alot is Emmys. Though the main event is this Sunday 23rd, the Creative Arts Emmys were last weekend. Though most of the awards were technical (like for directing, camera work, casting and stuff) , there were few acting categories too. All four guest star Emmys were given. Martha Plimpton (Raising Hope) won Guest Actress in Drama for Good Wife and Jeremy Davies won Guest Actor in Drama for Justified. Awards for Guest stars in Comedy were give to Jimmy Fallon (for hosting SNL) and Kathy Bates (for Two and a Half Men). You can read more about the highlights of the show in here. And for some red carpet action, got here!

FILM AND TRAILERS

This week there weren't so many interesting news about movies, but these two made the cut. August: Osage County has added Ewan McGregor to play the husband of Julia Roberts' character. This movie is going to be so good! McGregor, Roberts and Meryl Streep acting, George Clooney producing, based on a Pulizer-winning story, and it's a drama. 

The second news is maybe the biggest in few weeks. After the announcement of the newest James Bond

film, Skyfall, there has been a lot of buzz about who will sing the theme song. And now it seems like its final, Adele will be singing the theme, currently titled just Skyfall. I tried to track this bit of news as far as I could, since it seems too good to be perfect. I found no official announcement, but I really wish it is true. And so far the production company hasn't denied the rumours. But how cool would it be to hear Adele's voice booming before the feature film.

Now on to the trailers. First one is for Disney's newest animated movie, Wreck It Ralph. I was sold the minute the trailer started with Funkytown playing on the background. Seems like another success for Disney!

The second is for Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, an epic drama about Abraham Lincoln played by Daniel Day- Lewis. Looks very powerful and beautiful (and an Oscar-bait too)

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

SNL: Seth MacFarlane

I know I was supposed to write a review about a new show, but Guys With Kids was just not worth writing about, so I decided to go with the 38th season premiere of Saturday Night Live, hosted by Seth MacFarlane. Musical guest was Frank Ocean, and John Mayer played guitar on both songs Ocean sang. Once again, I have to remind that NBC really isn't fond of sharing their videos outside U.S, so try to find this episode some other way, if ya know what I mean...

 Seth MacFarlane is best know for his work on Family Guy. He created the show and voices many of the main characters. He is also responsible for American Dad and The Cleveland Show. He also directed Ted this summer. I was a bit surprised when I learned that he would be hosting, since he really isn't know for his acting. But his monologue really reminded me of how good he is at impersonating others (like George Takei and Kermit the Frog).

One of the most welcomed changes this season is Jay Pharoah replacing Fred Armisen as Barrack Obama in all SNL sketches. Pharoah really nailed the cold opening, though they over-did his makeup a bit, but he still managed to pull it off, and its pretty critical. Especially as we will be seeing a lot of him since its election year. And that might be one of the reasons Jason Sudekis decided to stay for at least half a season, since he does a killer Mitt Romney impersonation. EP and creator Lorne Michaels doesn't rule out the possibility that Sudekis might be staying for the whole season. How great would that be! (And Taran Killam does Ryan Paul, it seems)

 

After the monologue came maybe the weakest sketch of the show. Fred Armisen played Roger Brush as the replacement host of Sex After 50 talk show and gave some very inappropriate tips for his viewers. Like advising a man with erectile dysfunction on attaching a Popsicle with rubber bands to his ding-dong.

After this came maybe the best digital short of the evening. With Bill Hader doing his Clint Eastwood impersonation and making fun of Eastwood's appearance at the Republican National Convention where he talked to an empty chair and interviewed  Barrack Obama. The skit also included singing and juggling. With Andy Samberg gone, I really think Hader is the strongest actor of the crew.  Some enthusiastic fans even loved the part where "it was just the chair for 45-minutes while Clint ate chicken backstage". The male fan is played btw by Tim Robinson, one of the new featured actors.

SNL was the latest to get in to the Gangnam Style boom, with Bobby Moynahan impersonating Psy on a sketch where a salesperson tried to cheer up co-worker. Though the sketch was pretty decent as it is, it got even better when the real Psy made an appearance at the end. Notice the horses at the background, they really made my day.

My favourite sketch of the evening was the "introduction to puppeteering" sketch, where Hader shone once again when he played a former army men who had some "issues" from the past, which he decided to share via his puppet. This included acting out some murder scenarios and making out with another puppet.  This is the kind of sketches that Hader really shines in, since he can really dead-pan though impressions are his strongest part.

Though I love the sketches, Weekend Update with Seth Meyers is still maybe my favourite part of the show. It's constantly witty and features the best guests (real or impersonations) on the show. It was no surprise that the presidential election was the subject of most jokes. But other current talking points got their share too, like Honey Boo Boo Child, who appeared with her mother (played by Moynahan, while the kid was played by Vanessa Bayer). Moynahan does already a killer Snooki impersonation so now he can add this this to his repertoire. Meyers also joked about Innocence of Muslims, the video that sparked a lot of conflicts in Islamic countries, saying that "You guys know that YouTube has a comment section too, right?". MacFarlane was also part of the Update as he impersonated swimmer Ryan Lochte, and though they look nothing alike, he really did well (his best line "It feels so weird to be dry"). The Update also featured Cecily Strong, in her first real part at SNL as a new featured player. She played Mimi Morales, who gave viewpoints on the Latino community and how they will vote. 

MacFarlane's best sketch of the evening followed after Weekend Update, where he played a stuttering army general, trying to order around privates and asking for honest opinions for his stammer. He also shone on the next sketch, which was Steve Harvey- talk show, where  MacFarlane's character got a makeover from Harvey (Keenan Thompson). After makeover he said he feels like an Iranian DJ. The result was pretty amazing, especially when they practiced smiling:

Nasim Pedrad is my favourite actress of SNL crew, and it was really sad that she was rally part of only one sketch. Now that Kristen Wiig is gone, she and Bayer are the only two repertory actresses and it is really kinda sad, since SNL used to be really filled with great comediennes, like Tina Fey, Amy Phoeler, Rachel Dratch and Wiig, all at the same time. Lets hope that Kate McKinnon who joined last season, and the new girls will work hard this season.

The last skit was two Amish brothers (MacFarlane and Robinson) trying to advertise their wooden spoon business. Though they spelled their website www.woodenspoonwarehouse.com like this: "double valley, double valley, double valley, time freckle, time valley, owl's eyes, stringless harp, broken ladder, hurt snake, fine snake, fat snake, owl's eyes, hurt snake, double valley, lean two, fat snake with a sex penis, broken ladder, horse bridge, child's toy, bull's scrotum, the river that took my son, the three fingered man, dot com. That's one way to spell that website.

The episode was overall really good and I can't wait to see the next episode hosted by Joseph Gorden-Levitt.

Next week I'll write review about new shows: Ben and Kate, and The Mindy Project. Now I'll start working on my weekly post.

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This time I got a very good reason to write a day late, I wanted to write a small review from of New Normal which premiered two days ago, but aired a second episode yesterday already. Another comedy, Go On, premiered this week, but I already wrote few lines about that great newcomer headlined by Matthew Perry. And once again, here is the September calendar for new premieres in U.S. And also I decided to feature small titles this time to make the post a little bit more coherent. AND I will also write one review of a new show, but this time I decided to incorporate the review into my usual post, but next week it will be a totally different post, so remember to check them out.

From top left: Spongebob Squarepants. Futurama, How I Met Your Mother, The Office (almost wrote Glee since that's what they talk about)

New Normal

This new NBC comedy has already created some criticism from stupid ass bigots, since the subject of the comedy is a bit "controversial". It follows a gay couple, Bryan and David, who decide to have a baby through surrogacy. The couple is played by Justin Bartha (Hungover) and Andrew Rannellss (The Book of Mormon) while the surrogate mother Goldie is played by Georgia King who is better known in her native UK so this is sort of her breakthrough in America. Other castmembers include NeNe Leakes (The Real Housewives of Atlanta and Glee) as Bryan's secretary and Ellen Barkin (Tony Award-winner for The Normal Heart last year) who plays the grandmother of Goldie. And of course the show was created by Ryan Murphy who also created Glee and American Horror Story.

Though the shows plays right into some stereotypes, it also tries to break them too. Bryan is the "typical" gay while David is more "straight-like", I put the quotation marks since I don't want to offend anyone, but you all get what I mean by them. Though the main plot is pretty sweet and adorable about love and such, the show' has got some attitude too, brought by Leakes and Barkin, who both play mean and sarcastic so perfectly. I just hope they keep the writing good so those two characters don't get real old real soon. Goldie's daughter whom she got while she was a teenager (played by Bebe Wood) is sorta fun too, though she is not really quite at the same level as the child stars of Modern Family. But I say give her time. 

I wanted to wait for the second episode before writing this, since so many comedies totally change their style after pilots, but fortunately this one didn't. If they keep this level I could really get into it, and the general plot leaves a lot of options to the writers to explore.

TV

This time I really only have casting news for upcoming shows, since all other TV news are overshadowed by new shows and film festivals. But I don't mind, these are some pretty good news too!

Though I pretty much assumed that Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under) would be returning for the second season of American Horror Story, it has now finally been officially announced that she would in fact return to the super popular horror series. She will play "the ultimate angel" according to creator Ryan Murphy.

Since I love Tina Fey and The Simpsons, this news got me really excited. After those keywords it can't be hard to realise what the news is, Tina Fey is guest starring in The Simpsons, playing a mean substitute teacher for Lisa, who gives her a B but Ralph an A. Oh the drama! The Simpsons premiere on Sept 30th, but the Fey episode wont air until the middle of the season.

Arrested Development is bringing back almost all of their old characters since now Liza Minnelli and Mae Whitman are back on the payroll too. Minnelli plays the neighbour and namesake of  on of the main characters, Lucille Bluth. Lucille 2, as she is sometimes referred, suffers from vertigo and Minnelli is just a blast to watch. Whitman plays the ex-girlfriend of George Michael and his family never seems to remember her. Anyways, if you haven't seen the old seasons, you'll wanna watch them before the new season premieres.

Saturday Night Live has confirmed three (OMG) new castmembers who will make their debut on the shows premiere this weekend, when Seth MacFarland is hosting. Aidy Bryant, Tim Robinson and Cecily Strong join the greatest live show on TV. As usual, they are not largely know, but that's what I like about SNL, they hire based on their comedic talent and not their name. 

And since we have to wait few weeks until the premiere of Parks and Rec, here is a blooper reel of the last season and let me tell you, this video footage is hilarious.

FILM

A lot of movie castings too. Hunger Games: Catching Fire has already stared shooting, but it's not too late to cast characters. Jeffrey Wright (Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace) has been cast as Beetee, the technology-savy winner from District 3. And speaking of James Bond movies (in which Wright plays Felix Leiter), Daniel Craig has been confirmed as the James Bond for two more films after Skyfall, making that a total of 5 Bond films for him. That would make him the third longest James Bond after Sean Connery and Roger Moore.

Though know for his action and drama roles, Michael Fassbender has decided to change to comedy as he is signed on to the titular character of Frank. Domhnall Gleeson (Bill Weasley of Harry Potter-movies) plays an aspiring musician who wants to join  Frank's band. I'm not quite sure how to handle this one, but I guess he good enough actor to pull this off.

Another actor who is playing against typecasting is Cynthia Nixon. Though she has recently created a name as a serious actress on Broadway, she is still best know as Miranda in drama-comedy Sex And The City. Now she has been cast as the great American poet Emily Dickinson in a movie directed by Terence Davies. Davies recently directed The Deep Blue Sea (not the shark movie, but a serious drama) which was pretty well received by critics though didn't do so well at the box office.

TRAILERS

This week I found a lot of great trailers, and since I don't want to overload my post, since my site seems to be running pretty slow anyways. I'll just post links to the first few.

Here is the trailer for the last Twilight movie, just because I thought it was worth mentioning but not displaying here. The second one is for a fantasy-action movie Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, that stars Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton as the classic fairytale characters all grown up, and apparently witch hunting now. You'll find it here.

And these three finally made it to my blog after tough competition (not really tough now that I think about it). First one is for Rust and Bone, a really touching story about a whale trainer who loses her legs in an accident and later finds love after some self-pity. The main character is played by one of the most talented and beautiful actresses that grace this earth, Marion Cotillard. There has been even some early buzz for a second Oscar for her. Maybe not, but a nomination seems plausable.

The second is for musical-comedy-drama or something, dunno really how to categorize it. It's called Pitch Perfect and it stars Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson (who is hilaaarious) among others. Though the movie seems like a bit cliché it still manages to make me smile. Plus, I love to see Hollywood stars who I didn't know could sing, belt their hearts out.

And the last one might be the most visually beautiful trailer I've seen in a while. It's for the newest film adaption of Wuthering Hights by Emily Brontë. This movie is also a bit different as the role of Heathcliff is played by an African-American actor James Howson. And though the movie is almost a year old, it is only now getting its US premiere. But that doesn't matter when the trailer is this good.

That's all folks! New post coming next week and another review to accompany it.

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UUuu, the fall season is coming up fast. In case you've forgotten the schedule for September, check this out! Go On and The New Normal are few of the comedies that start next week.

From the top left: Friends, Modern Family, Family Guy, Parks & Recreation

Few weeks ago The Academy of Motion Pictures and Arts chose its producers for the 85th Annual Academy Awards. Established TV and movie producers Neil Meron and Craig  Zadan will take on the hard job, that can really inflict their career if it goes really wrong or if they do a exceptionally good job. They have a lot of background in musical genre (they produced Oscar-winner Chicago, TV-series Smash and film remake of Hairspray) so I hope this year's show will have quite a few musical moments. Especially as the Academy has changed the rules for Best Original Song category, where five nominees is now guaranteed, instead of all songs requiring a specific number of votes to get nominated. Last year that lead to us having only two nominees while they left out quite a bunch of great songs.

But there are quite a few film festivals and award shows still before Oscars, like Venice Film Festival and Telluride Film Festival, both of which are currently happening. So its quite possible that we still haven't seen the film that will go on to win the Best Picture at the Oscars. At the moment, it seems like Beast of the Southern Wild is the favourite, but it got some pretty good competition from Argo and The Master among few. Based on a true story, Argo tells the story of how CIA smuggled six Americans out of Iran. Directed by (and starring) Ben Affleck got great reviews and political thriller is always a good choice of genre to start with at the Oscars. Affleck previously won Oscar for writing Good Will Hunting and was praised for directing The Town few years ago. The Master is directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and I shared a trailer for it few weeks ago, so I won't bother at recapping it. Toronto Film Festival (where Looper will premiere) starts Sept 6th and New York Film Festival (where Life of Pi will premiere) follows Sept 28th.

While these movies are done with their productions, there are lot of movies in pre-production that caught my eye. Like Ryan Gosling's directorial debut How To Catch a Monster which he also wrote. It's a story about a single mother who gets swept in to the dark underworld while her son discovers an underwater city. Sounds bit weird, but then again Gosling isn't just a normal guy.  Christina Hendricks is set for the leading role and the filming should start in 2013 so more info is coming as soon as it appears. Another movie that I was instantly draw to, is the film about the death of reporter Marie Colvin who died while covering the uprising in Syria this year. Subject is fascinating and devastating, but what makes it even more interesting is that Charlize Theron is in talks to produce and hopefully star in the movie. I can already imagine her on the Oscar stage accepting her award for Best Actress for this role.

But not all movies are based on true stories, so here is a small fantasy blast. First the biggest news: now that the Hobbit will be in three parts, there were a lot of speculation of what the third one will be named. Now director Peter Jackson announced that the third one will be called The Hobbit: There and Back Again (released July 18th 2014) while the second is now called The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. These names will give us some guidelines of how the book is going to be divide into three. If you haven't read the book, this part might be gibberish for you, but I assume the first part will end at the Halls of the Elf King, or when they get out of there or when they enter Mirkwood, while the second will focus on Lake Town and the dragon Smaug and his fate and the last one will feature the Battle of Five Armies  and the aftermath of all that. These are all speculations, but that's my take on the subject.

I didn't even know this movie was in the making. But some animated films tend to keep themselves covered until they have enough material to actually show something. Dreamworks is also going waaay back in time (like 20th Century Fox's Ice Age films) with their new release The Croods, about a caveman family  looking for a new cave to live in. Nic Cage is voicing the head of the family while the other family members are voiced by the likes of Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone and Cloris Leachman. Here is the brand new image from the film:

Film producers have recently start noticing how good movies some games would make (though we all have our opinions of the Tomb Raider movies). I've reported about the upcoming Assassins Creed movie and the Uncharted movie, but now two more adaptions are incoming. The Metal Gear Solid movie has been around for a while as an idea, but now it seems like its really happening, at least they have promo-ed it pretty heavily. Game creator Hideo Kojima and Spider-Man producer Avi Arad are set to produce, but no word on the director yet. Another game that is getting film treatment is the God Of War. The writers working on the project told in an interview that the film will start from the very beginning of the start (maybe leaving room for sequels if the movie is successful). The God of War game series has been immensely successful and I assume if they do any justice to the original work, the film will do fine at the box office.

I've mentioned the newest project of Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky, Noah. Now some new photos from the set have come online. Here are few of them, but you can watch the rest of them here! Looks like the ark is going to be massive. The pictures aren't that great quality, but I assume the photographer couldn't get very close at the set.

The most exciting news this week about TV was without a doubt the SNL announcement of their newest hosts. Seth MacFarlane will host the premiere while Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Daniel Craig will host on the following shows While the first musical guest will be Frank Ocean, second Mumford & The Sons and third will be Muse. Now this is all very exciting news, and I like all the newly announced hosts, but I can't help but wonder how the regular cast will do without their old stars. Can't wait to see what happens at the premiere on Sept 15th.

Quick casting news then: Nick Zano (2 Broke Girls, Cougar Town) will be the new romantic interest of Penny in Happy Endings, he is set for a 6-episode-arc. Kenneth the Page got some pretty impressive parents at 30 Rock's last season as Bryan Cranston and Catherine O'Hara will play his parents. Cranston is best know for his roles from Malcom In The Middle and Breaking Bad, and while O'Hara's film credits are impressive most people still know her best as the mother in Home Alone movie screaming "KEVIIIIIN". Then some Arrested Development casting, though its not really casting, but just the old characters returning. Judy Greer and Henry Winkler will reprise their roles. Greer plays the bimbo secretary Kitty while Winkler plays his old character Barry, propably the worst lawyer ever.

Liz & Dick came back to my TV news radar with these new pictures from the TV film featuring Lindsey Lohan. She seems to be pulling of the look and I really hope this would be her return to the real world.

I didn't find three brand new trailers this week worth featuring, so I'll compromise.  I'll post the trailers for two films I mentioned before: Argo and Beasts of The Southern Wild and one brand new. The new one is for The Sapphires, which is basically the Australian version of Dreamgirls but with much more fun (starring Bridesmaids Christ O'Dowd)

Then one last video. Few weeks ago I posted the Disney and Phantom of The Opera song medleys sung by Nick Pitera, and now he has done the same for Les Miserables. For all of you who dint know the songs of the smash hit musical,  this is a nice way to get acquainted with them.

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