The UBS Evening Television & Movie News 12.31.09

Posted by George H. Sirois on 12.31.2009

A “Hangover” star makes his transition to the stage, Disney mulls over how to use its new Marvel characters and I get to step into next year with a challenge for parents everywhere. All this, plus Andy Critchell’s photo news brief in The “Creative Spin or Horrendous Rip-Off” Edition…



Welcome everyone to the latest edition of the UBS Evening Movie News. I'm George H. Sirois, and if you're on Twitter, you can find me HERE! And don't forget, for all of you who are new to 411Mania.com, make sure you check out all of our zones. We have some of the best writers on the Internet right here, and we love to hear from all of you! So keep coming back to read what we have for you, make us your homepage and if you have Facebook, make sure to join our group HERE!


CHOSEN ONES, STEP FORWARD!

"Eons ago, on the planet known as Denab IV, its creator Excelsior appeared as a vision to several people he deemed "Chosen Ones." Those lucky few were selected by him to lead their fellow Denarians in keeping the planet as the paradise he always envisioned. As each passing generation of the Chosen Ones reached a certain age, Excelsior visited them in their dreams to give them the wisdom necessary to pick up where the previous generation left off. This continued on until Excelsior's spiritual form was cast down to the planet he had taken such care in crafting.

Today's the last day to see if I can get 50 pre-order deposits before we move on to 2010. As of now, I have less than 10 orders to go! Think you can be one of the 50? Remember, if you send in your order, then you are not only guaranteed your own personally autographed copy, but you are also guaranteed a spot in the acknowledgements section in the back of the book. If you'd like to read a book that I take a lot of pride in writing – and have an added bonus of seeing your own name in print – then by all means, click on the button below…

Quantity

1 Copy $14.95
2 Copies $29.90
3 Copies $44.85
4 Copies $59.80

Pre-Order "EXCELSIOR" - $14.95

And feel free to check out the new blog for the novel HERE!

Thank you so much to Erik Leurs for filling in for me to well last week. You did a great job, and once again Andy, you brought the goods. Just like you did this week as well.

And with that, on with the news!

SYBIL THE SOOTHSAYER

UPCOMING MOVIES

DAYBREAKERS: Set in the near future, when a plague has turned the human race into vampires, a group of rogue bloodsuckers and survivors (Ethan Hawke, Claudia Karvan, Willem Dafoe) work together to ensure the species does not die out.

Now this looks like something pretty damned interesting. It's nice to see something like this since there usually has to be a story featuring an outsider encountering the vampires and that outsider being the ideal window into the world of the vampires. If this trailer is accurate, then we're going to be dealing with a very unfamiliar world, which has my curiosity peaked.

Credit: TheMovieBox.net


JIM WEBBING AND HIS IT'S THE HONEST TRUTH DEPARTMENT

Wonder if he‘s still sunburned…What do you do after a massive Hangover? Why, debut on Broadway, of course. That's what Justin Bartha, a star of this year's big comedy hit is doing, replacing T. R. Knight in the revival of Lend Me a Tenor, to open March 11 in New York City, according to Variety.

Bartha, 31, will play a hapless assistant in a Cleveland opera house who has to step in as the star of a production of Othello in the 1930s. He'll be joining actors like Anthony Lapaglia and Tony Shalhoub in the nonmusical play, which will be the Broadway directing debut of Stanley Tucci.

Hey, if you‘re gonna start working on Broadway, there are much worse people to work with than Lapaglia, Shalhoub and Tucci. And even though the story of The Hangover required that we saw very little of Bartha‘s character Doug, he did just fine with the small amount of screen time he had. So I wish the guy the best with this. It‘s nice to see an actor from the big screen making a move to the stage, and I hope it goes well for him.

People.com


Those who fail to learn from Generation-X are doomed to repeat it: The Walt Disney Co. is betting that its $1.2-billion acquisition of Marvel, which is likely to be completed this week, can pay off despite the fact that rival studios already own the rights to Marvel's best-selling superheroes, including Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Men, and the Hulk, the Associated Press reported on Monday. The wire service said that Disney is particularly looking to bring to the screen characters from Marvel's The Avengers series, including Ant-Man and Dr. Strange, although the studio has a choice from among 5,000 characters dating back to the 1960s.

The wire service quoted Disney chief Robert Iger as saying that the company may initially test the characters on cable TV -- possibly on its boy-focused channel, Disney Xd. "Instead of making a $200 million movie and kind of betting the farm on one character, you can develop a television pilot, a television series," Iger said.

I can understand Iger‘s willingness to spend less and risk less when it comes to adapting Marvel‘s lesser-known characters. It only makes sense to handle them that way, and a series allows for a slow build of awareness and can create fans that had never even heard of the character before.

However, Iger also has to be aware of the last times Marvel tried just dipping their toes into the pool in Hollywood instead of jumping in and yelling, "Cannonball!" During those years, we were given a very lackluster pilot film for "Generation-X" and - if I‘m not mistaken - an attempt to put Nick Fury on the small screen with David Hasselhoff donning the eye patch. And speaking of spending low, I don‘t think I need to remind fans of the ill-fated Captain America film. So while I agree with Iger, he needs to be very careful not to repeat the same mistakes that were made in the 90s before Marvel got her groove back.

Credit: Studio Briefing


FILM MUSIC NEWS
Download This Week's Issue at: www.filmmusicweekly.com.

VOX POPULI

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: December 25 - 27

1. Avatar: $ 75,617,133
$ Total: 212,711,184
2. Sherlock Holmes: $62,390,000
Total: 62,390,000
3. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel: $48,875,415
Total: 75,589,048
4. It's Complicated: $22,100,820
Total: 22,100,820
5. The Blind Side: $11,470,000
Total: 184,127,000
6. Up in the Air: $11,275,000
Total: 24,038,000
7. The Princess and the Frog: $9,004,610
Total: 63,679,289
8. Nine: $5,452,513
Total: 5,830,605
9. Did You Hear About the Morgans?: $5,000,143
Total: 15,600,328
10. Invictus: $4,045,000
Total: 23,020,000

Credit: BoxOfficeGuru.com


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ANDY CRITCHELL'S INTERACTIVE BABE PHOTO NEWS BRIEF WITH ANDY CRITCHELL

Welcome, welcome, welcome! This week we meet Vanessa Veasley. Vanessa is a 25 year old model/hip hop video girl from Philly. You may recognize her from the "Welcome to Atlanta" music video. She is the kind of gal I really like because she has curves in all the right places. Let's check her out:









That's it for me this week! Back to you George!


MAD PROPHET OF THE AIRWAVES

So there I was, walking around the electronics section of Wal-Mart and checking out all of the $4 to $5 offers for the DVDs. Obviously there was quite a bit to consider, as the discs that are going for prices like that are either geared towards filling in the blanks in my franchises or grabbing a few impulse buys that I normally wouldn't buy at full price. I'm sure you guys operate the same way when it comes to your DVD buying.

At the same time, I had no idea what I was going to write about this week. I was considering talking about New Year's Resolutions, but that would have been too easy. Besides, the three main resolutions I had last year - get into grad school, finish the novel, drop 50 lbs. - were still lurking around and none of them had been accomplished (although the book's really close to getting finished). Inspiration was needed and needed badly.

And then, as I was about to turn the corner to go down another aisle, I saw it. The inspiration was staring me in the face, and God knows it wasn't pretty. It was actually downright dreadful, something so stupefying that I simply HAD to write about it. It was a DVD called…



I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Now, we've seen a slew of different low-budget rip-offs of the bigger budget films, direct-to-DVD non-classics like Snakes on a Train and Transmorphers, but the fans of those movies know better than to get fooled and pick up a bullshit rip-off instead of the movie they really want to buy.

The animated movies, however, are a different story. Obviously, we as cinema fans can tell which version is Pixar and which one is the cheap fake. But there are millions of parents out there that don't pay as close attention to detail as we do. Those people would look at the cover of this disc, see an old man with a house floating via a large balloon, notice that the big word in the title is UP and grab this off the shelf. Especially since this disc is maybe 10 to 15 bucks cheaper than the instant-classic from Pixar.

So the parent picks this up without knowing any better and takes it home to their kids, who immediately notice that this isn't anything like what they saw in the theaters and are disappointed. The parent is disappointed since they realized they made the mistake, and the only ones who come off happy in this situation are the company that bothered to produce this shit.

The company responsible is called Video Brinquedo – formerly known as Goodtimes Entertainment – and it wasn't long before they were known as a constant rip-off outfit taking original ideas from Disney and Dreamworks, then producing a cheap piece of shit based on the bigger budgeted movie hitting theaters. This sad attempt at riding Up's coattails isn't the first time that this company has tried something this shameless, peddling inferior crap to kids and unsuspecting parents. Just take a look at what they've done in the past few years. (Credit to Wikipedia for giving me this list…)

The Little Cars
Ratatoing
Little Bee
Gladiformers
The Little Panda Fighter (Previously known as Heavy Weight Panda)
Tiny Robots
Little Princess School
What's Up?: Balloon to the rescue
Little & Big Monsters

You have to wonder how these guys can walk with balls that big. This isn't like the $1.99 movies based on old stories that just happen to come out because Disney is about to release their version, since both movies are based on the old stories. This is blatantly ripping off someone's original vision and apparently doing an awful job of it too.

So here's a New Year's Resolution I have that I hope parents across America - hell, the whole world - decide to make. Pay attention to what you are buying. Do not try to save a few bucks by getting a bullshit product. If you take this advice to heart, then before you know it, this company will cease to exist since they won't be able to fool anyone anymore.

Hell, the way they're going, if my book ever becomes a film, I wouldn't be surprised to see "Excellent Man" on the DVD shelves the same weekend.




And that's a wrap for Chapter 145 of The UBS Evening Movie News! For Andy Critchell, I'm and we'll see you next week!

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