-36-

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.

-35-

Even though this week certainly hasn't started out the way I planned, I'm still going to do my weekly post, after all I got some free time at my hands now. I found an old stash of quotes so now I can finally use them:

"Maybe if its a boy I'll name it after you: fuckweisel"

-Amy

Anna Chlumsky on Veep

"Kim Kardashian pregnant? She is going to be one bump in every direction"

Chelsea Handler on Chelsea Lately

"-Can you wire a doorbell?

-Yes, if you can resuscitate an electrocuted person"

-Nancy and Jack

Julianne Moore and Alec Baldwin on 30 Rock

"-Bart, everything has rules!

-Not me when I hit the dance floor"

-Lisa and Bart

Yeardley Smith and Nancy Cartwright on The Simpsons

 Few months ago I mentioned the upcoming Lego film Lego: The Piece Of Resistance, and now they have added some pretty impressive actors to lend their voices. Elizabeth Banks and Morgan Freeman will both be part of the movie, but it has been kept as a secret what characters they will play, but the whole plot is kinda hazy as it involves both Superman and Batman too. Speaking of Legos, I came across this pretty nice animated video of the history behind Lego company. You can see it here, and I suggest you watch it if you were a fan of Legos as a little kid.

Looks like Angelina Jolie is really building an acting dynasty as now her daughter Vivienne has gotten her first acting job. She will play young version of  Aurora (Elle Fanning) at her mother's Maleficent movie. After all Angelina did start acting alongside her father Jon Voight so this might be the first step to Vivienne towards her own acting career, but somehow Angelina seems like an overprotective mother who wont allow her daughter to get in to the spotlight, but lets see. Angelina got some bad news too as the director of her Cleopatra project called it quits. David Fincher was attached to direct the adaption of the book Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff, but he has reportedly dropped out. Producer Scott Rudin bought the movie rights for the book and set Angelina to star in the leading role, but the director keeps changing. I really want this project to happen since it seems like role she was born to act.

Another movie I'm really looking forward to see happening is the Uncharted: Drake's Fortune movie adaption. Now it looks like the movie is finally moving forward as Marianne and Cormac Wibberley have been attached to write it. They duo has previously written National Treasure movies, so I assume they will give this movie a playful adventure-action feel, which is good, since it seems like more movies are going darker and darker with their tone. After the rewrite is complete, Sony will start looking for a director for the project.

Wes Ball is on fire! First his short film Ruin which I have mentioned numerous times got picked up for a full feature and he got the directing job, but now he also got another director job in a project I've mentioned before too in my Books For Summer post (though when I wrote that Catherine Hardwicke was in talks to direct). The book/movie is called The Maze Runner and you can read more about the plot at my book post. Ball certainly is a rising star to watch out for!

Michael Fassbender has also been busy and looks like he is keeping up the pace. He is in talks to star in Jane Got a Gun, which will be directed by Lynne Ramsay (We Need to Talk About Kevin) and star Natalie Portman as Jane. This western movie focuses on Jane who is forced to ask help from her ex (Fassbender) after her current husband returns home half-dead chased by a gang of thugs. The movie might be a surprise as westerns  usually require a bigger budget but this movie will be financed by Portman's own production group as an indie film. So lets see, the film is set to shoot by 2013 by earliest.

 Then some exciting musical news. We only get about one musical movie per year (Les Mis would be this year's musical) so I'm always happy to read about a new musical film.  Minnie Driver has been attached to star in a new horror musical, Stage Fright, which tells the story of a snobby music camp which gets interrupted my a masked killer, supposedly Scream meets Glee type of thing. This could be kinda fun, like Rocky Horror Picture Show, especially as Meat Loaf will appear in Stage Fright too.

Then on to TV. This picture of Sofia Vergara dressed as the comedy legend Lucille Ball is both hilarious and makes no-sense at the same time. I've seen few sites like THR speculate that the new season could involve some kind of dream sequence where she would play Lucille Ball or she might as well have done it just for the fun of it. Either way the result is pretty funny:

Glee has been promoting their new season pretty heavily. They released another promo (where Kate Hudson covers J-Lo's Dance Again) and a new cast promo picture with all the new characters (While Diana Agron's Quinn is missing from the picture,  but the star already tweeted that her character is still very much involved in the show though she is missing from the pic). The other new poster features Lea Michele and Kate Hudson in a New York- inspired fashion.

 

The Simpsons also teased us with some new info about their new season, the classic Halloween episode, Treehouse of Horror, to be more exact. The episode will include segments with themes like time travelling, Paranormal Activity, black holes and Mayan prophecies. Usually I like the Halloween episodes a lot, and it seems like I will enjoy myself once again. The episode airs October 7th so look out for that. Meanwhile another Matt Groening is preparing to air its season finale, thats right: Futurama! The last episode is called Naturama and will feature the regular cast as different animals, like we see in the preview clips. I couldn't embed them to my blog but you can watch them here! Look out for weird turtle penises.

Then quick casting news. Now that Abby Elliot has part ways with SNL she is coming to TV in another series. Her first part will be on How I Met Your Mother, where she plays love interest to one of the guys, though it was not mentioned will it be Barney or Ted, or both? Well, we have time to figure that out as her multi-episode arc isn't set to start until the latter half of the season. But I'm glad to see she is doing fine after SNL.

Maulik Pancholy is returning to 30 Rock, but to be honest I really didn't even notice he was gone. Pancholy plays of course Jonathan, Jacks (Alec Baldwin) assistant. Pancholy left 30 Rock to star in another comedy Whitney, but he was let go after its first season leaving Pancholy with a lot of free time. Jonathan is a funny (and somehow disturbing) character so it's good to see him back. I haven't been watching Whitney at all, but I kinda dismissed it since I don't particularly like Whitney Cummings, maybe I should give it a chance.

This week's trailers are pretty weird bunch of videos. First one is for a new comedy about... *drumroll* ... butter carving. Butter cast includes Jennifer Garner, Ty Burrel, Olivia Wilde and many more, this actually seems like a really funny movie!

 
The second one is also a comedy, though it might not be so family friendly. It's called The To Do List and it stars Aubrey Plaza in the lead role. This isn't exactly a trailer, just a teaser. But the movie isn't coming out till  next February so they still got time to release a full trailer.

The last one is for HBO's TV movie The Girl. The movie is about the obsessive relationship of Alfred Hitchcock towards his star Tippi Hedren while making his films The Birds and Marnie. The teaser seems like very dark and knowing that it's HBO I know it will be great. It stars Toby Jones as Hitchcock and Sienna Miller as Hedren. You can watch the older teaser here!

That's all folks! New post coming next week

-34-

Oops, few days late. Well no biggie. There have been a lot of small casting news and deals this week, but I'll try to keep it short since most of them might just be rumors, like Nicki Minaj becoming a judge on American Idol. This could happen, but it has been rumoured that Mariah Carey is not happy with that, and that Coca-Cola (sponsor of American Idol) is resisting too since Minaj is a spokes-person for Pepsi. But anyhow, the life goes on in Hollywood and a lot is going on.

From top left: The Simpsons, Parks & Recreation, 30 Rock, Friends

If I had to choose a TV show that has been in the news all week it would be Glee. Ryan Murphy has been tweeting very actively from the set of Glee. Fox also released a small promo video which features the new guest star Kate Hudson. EW also got ahold of this pic from set. Hudson shared her musical gifts on Nine, the film adaption of the musical. Murphy also tweeted a picture of Blaine (Darren Criss) in a Robin outfit, possibly for a Halloween episode, and a picture of Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Isabella (Sarah Jessica Parker). Murphy is also busy working on New Normal and American Horror Story (Which has been releasing very bizarre teasers for the new season, such as this). Also the second season of the Glee Project just wrapped up, with Blake Jenner winning the seven episode role on Glee. I didn't watch this season at all really, so I don't know about him, but I guess he can do something right if Murphy hired him.

As you all know by now, Jennifer Hudson is part of the new season of Smash, but the good news from the set just keep on coming. They have cast Sheryl Lee Ralph to play her characters mother. Ralph originated the role of Deena in the original Broadway cast of Dreamgirls. She has also had multiple small roles in TV and film. I just hope she's got a singing part in Smash too.

Last week I wrote about Sean Hayes joining Smash too and now he has scored another guest spot on one of my favourite shows, Up All Night which returns on Sept. 20th. He plays an old friend of Ava (Maya Rudolph) from her singing-career past. Hayes has actually been very actively guest starring on different shows like Hot In Cleveland, Parks & Recreation and on 30 Rock few years ago.

Speaking of Parks & Recreation, Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) is getting a new romantic interest played by Xena. Well that's the name that comes to mind when I see her, but I'm talking about Lucy Lawless of course. She will play a single mother that comes to the parks department with a problem which Ron will help solve and she will appear in at least two episodes.

Then some quickies. John Slattery is joining the upcoming season of Arrested Development and he will appear on multiple episodes. He is of course best know for his role on Mad Men, but he has guest starred on many comedies and showed his comedic skills. Raising Hope is also getting some star-power as Chris Klein joins the cast as the "almost" long-lost brother of Jimmy (Lucas Neff). I have no idea how he is "almost" long-lost, but that's how THR described the role.

While others are adding stars to their cast, SNL just keeps spreading the sad news. Now there has been word that Abby Elliott would be leaving too.  And this rumour is fairly true too. Now it means that three of the best SNL actors are leaving, and four maybe since Jason Sudekis has been rumoured to part with SNL too. Lorne Michaels has a lot of casting to do before the 38th season kicks off in September.

Another sad report came out today from the Dunder Mifflin paper company. NBC reported that the ninth season of The Office will be its last one. Though it is sad that it will end, I'm not surprised. The show lost a lot of its edge after Steve Carrell left and now many of the cast members are getting busy with other projects. This week there were even first casting news from The Office spin-off The Farm. Majandra Delfino was cast to play Dwights (Rainn Wilson) sister. And I think its good that they go out while they are having fun and now they have time to wrap up the show nicely rather than getting brutally axed at some point.

Many movies announced some castings too. Last week I mentioned that Paz Vega had joined Nicole Kidman in the upcoming Grace Kelly biopic, and now few more actors have joined them. Tim Roth (Pulp Fiction, Incredible Hulk) will be playing Prince Ranier III and Frank Langella (Cutthroat Island, Frost/Nixon) will play Father Tucker, the priest who wed Grace Kelly and Prince Ranier, but I assume he will do more than just that.

Nina Simone, the famous jazz/gospel/soul singer is getting a biopic too, with Zoe Saldana attached to play her. Simone was also a well known civil rights activist, so I suspect there will be a political side to the film too. Especially as Saldana is not know for her singing. Saldana has previously worked in films such as Star Trek, Avatar and Colombiana.

At one point in the past I was pretty sure that the Clint Eastwood A Star Is Born-remake would never happen, but now as Beyonce is available once again I'm starting to hope again. Bradley Cooper is the latest guy to be rumoured to play the male lead. This would be the third remake of the original 1937 film starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March. I would really like to see this happen, since Beyonce sure knows how to put on a show, like she once again prove at the UN where she filmed her newest music video for I Was Here to celebrate the World Humanitarian Day. I know I don't usually post music videos, but this was just stunning and touching too, I could watch it over and over again.

 Quick animation news too. Ellen DeGeneres is almost sure to reprise her role as Dory from Finding Nemo in the upcoming sequel. She has voiced her interest to come back for a sequel multiple times, and now that the sequel is actually happening she is pretty much guaranteed to join in. There is no word yet on how big the role will be, one site even suggested that the new movie would be kinda Finding Dory, since she has incredibly short memory span, but who knows, maybe it will be just a small cameo. The other animation news I'm talking about is of course the release date for Despicable Me spin-off movie for the minions. These adorable morons will hit the theaters in December 2014. In case you've missed what the minions are, here is a reminder, who wouldn't wanna see a full movie with these idiots:

Kristen Stewart has been getting some pretty grim news lately, you know with the cheating and all. Now there have been rumours that she would have been kicked out from the Snow White and the Huntsman sequel. It was suggested that the sequel would be more like a spin-off for the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) and Rupert Sanders would still be directing. Now Universal has denied all rumours that Stewart would be out, but they do say that the new movie will focus more on the Huntsman, so they kinda admit that they are planning to downplay Stewarts role a lot.

Elle Fanning has scored a movie role too. She will play a struggling teenager who discovers that a classmate of hers who died in a tragic accident wished to be her friend, but she didn't have any idea. The movie is called Olive's Ocean and it is based on the book of the same name. Fanning will next be seen on my favourite upcoming film, Maleficent.

 Then some trailers again. First one is for the short movie Partysaurus Rex, which I wrote about last week. This trailer pretty much sums up what the film is all about:

The second one is sorta old one for Lawless, since it has only few news shots, but those are the scenes that result in the higher rating. Well anyways, the movie is about bootlegging brothers with some romantic aspect but overall it seems like a pretty raw movie. And it has some pretty big names on it too: Tom Hardy, Shia LeBoeuf, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Gary Oldman and Guy Pearce.

The last one is also based on a true story about a family surviving the devastating 2004 tsunami at Indian ocean. Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts star and Juan Antonio Bayona directing this film called The Impossible. The trailer is beautiful and terrifying at the same time, I predict that no one will leave the cinema with dry eyes. I'm getting teary eyed just watchin the trailer, and with that U2 cover playing on the background, its going to be a cryfest.

Good thing I noticed before posting that the last trailer was in Spanish,  luckily I found the English one too. That's all folks! New post coming next week!

-33-

Though the last few days have all been about the London Olympic closing ceremony and Spice Girls, I decided not to review the ceremony, since I think everyone even slightly interested watched the show anyways. So instead I'm jumping right in to screencaps (all of them are from Pleated Jeans btw) :

From the top left: Parks and Recreation, Arrested Development, Friends, The Office (UK)

The news started slowly falling in last week about the castings of Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and then all of a sudden, almost every part has now been cast, but then again, there are quite many roles since every District has two tributes so that's 24 in total, and then there are all the people outside the arena.  Instead of posting them all here, I found this great compilation of the new cast (and old) at EW, so check it out.  They did leave out one new addition which was announced just this morning. Though a minor role,  Maria Howell will play Seeder, a tribute from D11. I last saw Howell on The Blind Side with Sandra Bullock, but she is better known as TV actress and will star in the new J.J Abrams show Revolution.

Guess which 80's sitcom is getting a movie treatment? ALF. Though there is no writer or director attached to the project yet, the fact that Sony Animation has acquired the movie rights for it, is a pretty clear sign. Thanks to modern CGI Alf would no longer be a puppet, but a CGI-creation while other characters are still live action.

On other animation related news, Pixar is known for its short films before feature films in cinemas. To celebrate the re-release of Finding Nemo in 3-D, the Toy Story crew is came up with a new short called Partysaurus Rex. It's pretty obvious who will be the main character. Rex is really enjoying bath time with his new owner and decides to let loose on an underwater rave. EW shared these exclusive pics:

I almost wrote last week about the casting of the female lead in an upcoming reboot of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan books, but I figured they'd make a decision soon, and I was right! It looks like Keira Knightley has landed the part, which might expand to a full film franchise if the first part takes off. Chris Pine plays the titular role while Kenneth Branagh directs. Knightley plays the main character's wife. I think the plot sounds pretty, blah, just a typical save America and wife from terrorists, but Branagh is an established director and he might actually make it good.

In some other smaller casting news: Steve Carell joins Will Ferrel in an upcoming comedy Swear To God, about a corporate man who believes he has seen god. This movie has been in works for quite some time, but now with a new rewrite and director (newly-engaged-to-Jennifer-Aniston actor/director/writer Justin Theroux). These days it seems that any comedy with Ferrel or/and Carell will be a success.

Reese Witherspoon also joined a new comedy, The Beard. And no its not about facial hair, but the other kind of beard, kinda the trophy wife of a gay person to hide his homosexuality. It's a pretty new idea in the field of rom-coms, but I just hope that the writers come up with something better than the gay guy turning straight and falling for Reese. There is no director attached to the project yet, but it seems like no one never knows who directs all those romcoms, they just spawn.

 Well Bret Eason Ellis is quite a douche. First he didn't get the job as the writer for the Fifty Shades Of Gray movie and now he is slammed the possibility that Matt Bomer would play the lead because of his sexuality. Bomer recently came out as gay and Ellis tweeted that he can't play the title character because of that. He quickly defended that he is not discriminating Bomer because of his sexuality. Umm, he just said he isn't right because if his sexuality. Read the full story here. Besides Ellis has no word on the casting since he isn't part of the project. Ian Somerdhal is also been stated as a possible actor for the role.

I'll be quick with the TV news this time, since most of them is again just casting news for the new fall season, and with quite a few reunions, I'll start with what combines two of my favourites. Smash is getting a mini-Will&Grace reunion as Sean Hayes joins the cast (that includes his W&G co-star Debra Messing) for multi-episode arc. He will play a comedic film actor who is about to make his Broadway debut. So that will be fun! Messing's character is also busy with a new romantic interest what will be played by Deniel Sunjata. Smash also released a promo with sneak peek with Jennifer Hudson, but thanks to NBC (!!!!) that video can't be viewed outside US, so I'll just have to wait.

The other reunion I was talking about will happen in Don't Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23. Busy Phillips will guest star on the show that stars her Dawson's Creek co-star James Van Der Beek. Beek plays a version of himself and will on the show try to set up a Dawson's Creek reunion and that's when Phillips will appear playing also a version of herself. Confused yet? Well lets add Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Frankie Muniz to the mix too. I was really surprised of how much I liked the show on its first season, and I'm really looking forward to the season two premiere.

Happy Endings has also cast few new stars on their show. Hangover star Rachel Harris (who has also a recurring role on New Girl) will appear as real estate agent trying to find a new place for Dave and Alex after they kinda got back together on the season finale. Rob Corddry (Childrens Hospital)will also appear on the comedy playing a successful car dealership owner who hires Jane to work for her. Hopefully Happy Endings will improve ratings this season so it wont get cut.

Raising Hope announced a new guest star too. SNL-alumn (though just one year) Jenny Slate will appear as a social worker who'll check up on how raising Hope is really working out. Slate also created this wonderful little creature Marcel The Shell, read more about it here and search YouTube for her videos.

The fall season is getting closer, as we can see from all the casting news, and TVline decided to help my schedule by creating this wonderful chart about all the premieres on Fall 2012 season. It features all new series and old ones too. Speaking of new series for fall season. Matthew Perry's new show premiered after the Olympics and I watched it too. The show will start airing properly at fall but they shared the first episode already. It was actually quite good, it had a lot of black humor and crazy characters. Perry plays a man struggling with the passing of his wife and is forced to take group therapy classes. I suggest you find the first episode online or you'll have to wait few months to its proper premiere.

One show I'm really looking for is The New Normal, the new Ryan Murphy comedy that premieres in September. During NBC coverage this two minute preview aired too, and it seems like a good show, at least it's got some very good actors. So let's see how it works out.

Then some trailers again. First one is for Trouble With The Curve, and it features Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams and Justin Timberlake. To me it seems that the movie combines the new and old Hollywood perfectly and it is something I'm looking forward to. It comes out in September.

The second is for Josh Radnor's (How I Met Your Mother) big Sundance hit Liberal Arts and its his second time as a director. He stars in the film with Elizabeth Olsen. He plays a 35-yo bookworm who falls for a college sophomore. The movie had the sweetest tag line: Sometimes students make the best teachers.

The last one came out today and it's for Great Expectations, an adaption of the Charles Dickens novel. It stars Jeremy Irvine, Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes and Holiday Grainger. The trailer seems very dramatic, but now wonder since the plot is kinda tragic. Discard the subtitles, I couldn't find one without any.

 That's all folks! New post next week!

-32-

This past weekend was all about Marilyn Monroe (and Dark Knight Rises still dominating the box office) and the 50th anniversary of her death. Even after fifty years she still remains as one of the best known actresses of all time. Though she died young she certainly left her mark with movies like Some Like It Hot, Gentlemen Prefer Blonds and Seven Year Itch. In her honour many sites have posted a compilation of her works or how she has inspired certain movies, like one of my favourites of last year My Week With Marilyn or my favourite new comer TV series of the past year: Smash.  Joe Satran of the Huffington Post even speculated what Mrs Monroe would be doing if she was still alive; working in theater or retired actress).  Celebuzz posted this nice video in her memory. She is certainly a dame to remember.

Let's lighten up the mood a bit after that with quotes:

"I hope you aren't allergic to nuts, 'cus I'm gonna kick yours up into your throat"
Kenan Thompson on SNL

"Ah, I love gay events. I got my eyes waxed in the men's room. Meanwhile in the ladies room I learned how to rewire a lamp."
-Grace
Debra Messing on Will & Grace

"-Niles, this steak is a little tough
-So is life, then you die."
-Brighton and Niles
Benjamin Salisbury and Daniel Davis on The Nanny

"You can just stay hang around outside in the sun all day, tossing a ball around or you can sit at your computer  and do something that matters."
-Cartman
Trey Parker (voice actor) on South Park

The fall season is coming faster than I thought and so are the casting news for the new seasons. I already told about the few new male actors joining the Glee cast, but now the show is adding some girls to the McKinley High.  Melissa Benoist and Becca Tobin are joining the fourth season on the hit show. I know neither of them, though Benoist has appeared in Homeland. Both roles are recurring. Creator Ryan Murphy also shared some deleted scenes, one of them you can see here!

The Queen of Indies, Parker Posey is heading to New Girl. The role was originally cast with Leslie Mann, but after she dropped out Posey was cast. She is playing a shot girl at Schimidt's penis cast removal, and no, that's not a joke. The premiere of New Girl will be worth checking out when it airs September 25th. (btw ever noticed how much Parker Posey looks like Rachel McAdams and Elizabeth Banks, they should play triplets in a movie)

Though there have been dozens of Three Musketeers film adaptions, TV adaptions are far fewer, especially the good ones. Now BBC is planning a ten episode series with Adrian Hodges writing. Hodges has previously written My Week With Marilyn and created TV shows Survivors (not the reality show) and Primeval. I kinda like the idea, but then again, the story is so over used in pop culture that I don't know how they will keep it fresh.

Before moving on to movies; some Disney news. I have loved all the previous pictures Annie Leibovitz has shot for the Disneyland campaigns and now she has added two more to the collection. The new ones depict Russel Brand as Captain Hook and Will Farrel, Jack Black and Jasen Segal as the Hitchhiking Ghosts from Haunted Mansion attraction at Disneyland. You can find some of the old ones here, and behind the scenes pics here, and the new ones here:

Lately Marvel has been on fire with the Avengers and Amazing Spider Man, so its no wonder they try to speed things up with their upcoming movies. The much anticipated sequel to X-Men: First Class has gotten a plotline. It follows the storyline of Days of Future Past comic book, so it will revolve around time travelling, more about that here. Marvel's newest film franchise Guardians of Galaxy is also moving forward as they got a new writer Chris McCoy. Though none of his previous scripts have been adapted to film yet, all three of them have landed on the coveted Black List. And that's quite an accomplishment. Thor is also part of the Marvel family and the new Thor 2 just got its villain. Christopher Eccelston plays Malekith the Cursed and is supposed to form an alliance of Tim Hiddleston's Loki.

In other, non-Marvel related casting news, months and months ago I wrote about Nicole Kidman playing Grace Kelly in an upcoming biographic film, and now the film has cast another beauty, Paz Vega, as opera singer Maria Callas, who became friends with Kelly. Paz Vega is not so well known outside Spain, but will certainly make her mark with this movie at least.

And my favourite upcoming film announced some new cast too, Hunger Games: Catching Fire finally cast Mags, the 84-yo tribute. The part went to Lynn Cohen, who has a lot of big movies under her name, but who are we kidding, every one knows her as Magda, Miranda's housekeeper in Sex And The City. Melissa Leo was first rumoured for the part, but I think she was too young for the role anyways.

Scary Movie 5 just got a little bit scarier. Both Lindsey Lohan and Charlie Sheen have been attached to the fifth installment of the horror parody film series. I  predict this film production will run into some troubles, if they don't it will be a miracle. Sheen also starred in the previous Scary Movie 4.

The Academy of Motion Pictures and Arts, AMPAS, has elected a new president, Hawk Koch, the son of past Academy president Howard W. Koch. Hawk Koch has been a member of the AMPAS board for eight years and was also a president at the Producers Guild. He has already been in the headlines during his presidency as he denied rumours that Lorne Michaels was attached to produce the Academy Awards and Jimmy Fallon would be hosting. Previous presided Tom Sherak had been in talks with the two, but Koch denies all rumours, especially as the Awards air on ABC and Fallon hosts a show in NBC, so there is that rivalry. I would have loved to see Fallon host, but Koch pretty much put an end to that daydream. He has also said that finding a producer and host are on the top of his to-do list, so hopefully we'll find out soon.

And finally, some trailers. This week I found a lot of them, so I won't post them all here since that would slow down the page a lot. Skyfall got a new full trailer that features the new baddie, but I assume you've seen that already, but if you haven't, you'll find it here! Another trailer you might have already seen is the new one for Hobbit, though it just got out today, so maybe you haven't but here it is too!

So the trailers I'm actually going to post here, are of films that you might not see other wise. First one is for The Paperboy that premiered in Cannes this year, but is now getting a wider release. The film stars Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron and Matthew McConaghey. The trailer fortunately did not feature the scene where Kidman urinates on Efron (calm down, nothing pervy, just to ease the pain after a jellyfish sting, a lesson we  all learned from Friends).

The second one is for a drama Nobody Walks co-written by Lena Dunham (star and creator of HBO's comedy Girls). It stars John Krasinsky, Rosemarie DeWitt and Olivia Thrilby. Krasinski and Thrilby play LA-based family who accommodate NY-born artist (DeWitt) and drama ensues:

The last one is for the new Brad Pitt film Killing Them Softly. The film also stars Richard Jenkins and Ray Liotta. There is not a lot of info about the exact plot, but see the trailer to get some idea. I couldn't help but laughing at the two idiots blowing up the car in the mid-part of the trailer.

And as a last not, I've been watching Political Animals now, and it is an amazing show! With a superb cast that includes Sigourney Weaver, Carla Gugino, Ellen Burstyn and Ciaran Hinds. I urge you to find few episodes of this brand new political drama.

Thats all folks! New post coming next week.