Movies/TV's 3R’s 01.19.10: Conan O'Brien, Avatar, Ghostbusters 3, Golden Globes, More

Posted by Shawn S. Lealos on 01.19.2010

From Conan O'Brien keeping his masturbating bear, Avatar looking to capsize Titanic, Katherine Bigelow remaining in the Middle East, and Ghostbusters retaining its director to James Bond replacing Iron Man in the battle against aliens, Jean Claude Van Damme shooting on Sylvester Stallone, the producers of The Wire going to New Orleans, and more, 411's Shawn S. Lealos breaks down the Right, wRong, and Ridiculous from the week in Movies/TV!




Welcome to Week 30 of The 3 R's for the Movie/TV world.

THEATRICAL PICK OF THE WEEK

DVD PICK OF THE WEEK

Without any further ado, here is...

The Right

Holy s**t: Avatar is going to be the highest grossing film of all time. It is going to happen and I am as shocked as I have ever been about movie news. This past weekend, Avatar earned another $166.3 million, with $125 million of that derived overseas. A lot of people think that anything that happens out of the United States doesn't mean anything but this is proof that those people don't know how the world works. Avatar is now up to $1.115 billion overseas, just short of the $1.242 billion record foreign gross set by Titanic. Not only that but Avatar is also averaging $20 million a day oversees. By the end of the week, at that pace, it will pass Titanic. Its worldwide gross is $1.64 billion, $203 million behind Titanic ($1.843 billion). 20th Century Fox believes it will possibly pass Titanic in the record books this week - IN ITS SIXTH WEEK! That is amazing and I have not even seen it yet. That will be rectified today.

** Update: Just got back from the movie. It is the most amazing 3-D movie I have ever seen. Is it the best movie out there? Not really, but the experience is well worth the money,

Wes Anderson is animated in his awards acceptance speeches: Seriously, animated.



Katherine Bigelow to remain in the Middle East: Katherine Bigelow has as good a chance of anyone of walking onto the stage to accept an Oscar for her work on the amazing The Hurt Locker. I am not a big fan of war movies in general but the Bigelow directed film about a group of soldiers tasked with defusing bombs is a tour-de-force of filmmaking. It is also a movie I never dreamed the woman who brought us Point Break would ever make. Bigelow has maybe found her next project and it remains entrenched in the conflict in the Middle East. Bigelow has reportedly signed on to direct Held by the Taliban based on a 5-part New York Times series about David Rohde and his experiences as a prisoner of the Taliban for seven months. Terrence Malick (The Thin Red Line) has also shown interest in the project, scripted by Stephen Belber. With directors that talented circling the project, I can't help but feel excited about it.

Not MIA any more: A while back the Top 5 asked what the most desired movie missing from DVD was. One movie that hits many, many people's lists is The African Queen. The film stars Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn and earned four Oscar nominations, including a win for Bogart. It is also the only movie in the AFI 100 that was never released on DVD. Well, the wait is over and The African Queen is finally hitting DVD and Blu-Ray on March 23, 2010. The restoration of the film will use the same 4K digital technology, showing the same care given to titles such as The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind. I can't wait.

Still Making Calls: The new Ghostbusters movie continues to take form. Not only are Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Sigourney Weaver and even Rick Moranis coming back for the third movie but Ivan Reitman announced in an interview that he is coming back to direct it! The bad news is the team behind Year One has turned in the first draft of the script. You take the good with the bad, I guess.

Piranha 3-D!!!: James Cameron directed the second movie in this series, which he calls the "finest flying piranha movie ever made." I had absolutely no interest in the movie until I saw the recent stills. To see more, head on over to aintitcool.com. Here is the synopsis: "In Lake Havasu, Arizona, a tremor causes the lake's floor to open, setting free scores of prehistoric piranhas." What more needs to be said?



Michael Bay says Transformers 3 will be in theaters in summer 2011: Yep, Michael Bay was interviewed recently and said the next movie in The Transformers franchise will feature less robots, fewer explosions but will contain a "nice crescendo ending" that gets to know more about the robot character. Why is this Right? I have not had anyone bash me for my Michael Bay love affair in a few months...

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil : This movie is going to rule all your worlds.

The wRong

Cowboys and Aliens is screwing everything up: I was actually really excited about Cowboys and Aliens when they cast Robert Downey Jr. in the lead role. However, Downey Jr. dropped out of the Jon Favreau project, possibly because shooting for Sherlock Holmes 2 is upcoming. I am happy with the guy they have chosen to replace him, Daniel Craig. I love Craig as an actor but this signing has a downfall. Craig's involvement means that the next Bond movie, which is scheduled to start in the fall, is in danger of missing its scheduled start, pushing the next Bond movie to Summer 2012. I'm ready for a new Bond movie.

What to Expect?: When my wife and I were expecting our first child, we picked up a book that was recommended by a number of people that helped us get through some strange moments in those nine months. The book we bought, What to Expect When You're Expecting, has been around for 25 years and that means a lot of expecting parents who buy it now had parents who bought it. Well, the book includes a lot of helpful information but I can't figure out for the life of me how they are going to adapt it into a movie. But that is what they are doing as they have not only optioned it but hired Heather Hach (Freaky Friday) to pen the script. What the hell is this movie going to be about?

The Ridiculous

More Dinosaurs are coming: I assumed the third Jurassic Park movie had effectively killed the franchise. The director of that third installment, Joe Johnston, has announced he is planning a new Jurassic Park trilogy. Yes, the man who killed the franchise is trying to revive it. He announced the fourth installment will be "unlike anything you've seen." It will be completely different and be a new trilogy, breaking away from the three movies that came before. Yippee.

Why is JCVD not in The Expendables?: According to Van Damme, he is not in the upcoming super action flick The Expendables because Sylvester Stallone could not tell him what his character was about, other than "you will make lots of money and then boom boom boom." The film has Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Jason Statham and appearances by Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. It is clear what the story is about. But, whatever... This sucks because the film needs JCVD and Steven Seagal. And maybe Carl Weathers too. Despite the ridiculous implications that Van Damme cares about character (have you seen his movies?), he is funny when describing the conversation he had with Stallone.



Spider-Man reboot: The new Spider-Man movie will be an origin story of Peter Parker, as a teenager and high school student, who must come to grips with having super powers. So basically, it is the same story as the first Spider-Man movie, except in high school instead of college. I guess this means they are going more for an audience around the age of a typical Twilight fan. This might be good for the box office but I don't think rehashing something done less than ten years ago is going to be worth the time.

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The Right

I don't mention this enough...: Neil Patrick Harris is a GOD.



The creators of The Wire go to New Orleans: David Simon and Eric Overmyer, the producers of the awesome HBO series The Wire, are preparing for their next HBO series Tremé. The cast includes Wendell Pierce (The Wire), Khandi Alexander (CSI: Miami), Clarke Peters (Damages), Rob Brown (Stop-Loss), Steve Zahn (A Perfect Getaway), Kim Dickens (Deadwood), Melissa Leo (Frozen River), John Goodman (The Big Lebowski), Michiel Huisman (The Young Victoria) and classical violinist Lucia Micarelli. The show will premiere in April and the plot sounds amazing. Check it out:

TREME begins in fall 2005, three months after Hurricane Katrina and the massive engineering failure in which flood control failed throughout New Orleans, flooding 80 percent of the city and displacing hundreds of thousands of residents. Fictional events depicted in the series will honor the actual chronology of political, economic and cultural events following the storm.

The drama unfolds with Antoine Batiste, a smooth-talking trombonist who is struggling to make ends meet, earning cash with any gig he can get, including playing in funeral processions for his former neighbors. His ex-wife, LaDonna Batiste-Williams, owns a bar in the Central City neighborhood and splits her time between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, where her children and new husband have relocated. Concerned over the disappearance of her younger brother David, or Daymo, unseen since the storm, LaDonna has turned to a local civil rights attorney, the overburdened and underpaid Toni Bernette, for help. The government's inconsistent and ineffectual response to the devastation has spurred Bernette's husband Creighton, a university professor of English literature and an expert on local history, to become an increasingly outspoken critic of the institutional response.

Tremé resident Davis McAlary, a rebellious radio disc jockey, itinerant musician and general gadfly, is both chronicler of and participant in the city's vibrant and varied musical culture, which simply refuses to be silent, even in the early months after the storm. His occasional partner, popular chef Janette Desautel, hopes to regain momentum for her small, newly re-opened neighborhood restaurant. Elsewhere in the city, displaced Mardi Gras Indian chief Albert Lambreaux returns to find his home destroyed and his tribe, the Guardians of the Flame, scattered, but Lambreaux is determined to rebuild. His son Delmond, an exile in New York playing modern jazz and looking beyond New Orleans for his future, is less sure of his native city's future, while violinist Annie and her boyfriend Sonny, young street musicians living hand-to-mouth, seem wholly committed to the battered city.

As the story begins, more than half the population of New Orleans is elsewhere and much of the city is wrecked, muddied and caked in mold, while other neighborhoods remain viable. The tourists have yet to return, the money that follows them is scarce, and residents can take solace only in the fact that the city's high levels of crime have migrated to Houston and Baton Rouge. And for those returning, housing is hard to come by, with many people waiting on insurance checks that may never arrive.

I can't wait...

Spike Lee also returns to New Orleans: In related news, Spike Lee is starting shooting this week on a sequel to his Emmy winning documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. It will be five years since Hurricane Katrina and horrible mismanagement by government officials devastated New Orleans. Spike Lee is returning to the city to revisit with some people he spoke with in the original documentary as well as some he missed. The original documentary was heartbreaking and I hope to see a glimmer of light in what Lee discovers when he returns.



The Golden Globes get it right: I want to say that The Golden Globes got it just right with the television awards this year. Finally, Michael C. Hall won a statue for his portrayal of Dexter and it has been a long time coming. The guy is amazing in a series that just finished its most shocking season to date. Alec Baldwin, a man who believes he is a "failure" as an actor, won a deserved award for his role on 30 Rock. Both Glee (Best Comedy) and Mad Men (Best Drama) were the most deserving of the nominees in their categories as well. Julianna Margulies needed a comeback role, having been largely MIA since her departure on ER, is a nice win for Best Actress in a drama and the best award went to John Lithgow for his role as the bad guy on Dexter. I agree with just about every award winner this year (although I wanted Jane Lynch to take the supporting actress award). Bravo, Golden Globes.

Speaking of the Golden Globes, Ricky Gervais is funny and it's a good thing Mel Gibson can take a joke...



More Renewals: Last week I reported the awesome news that Glee was being renewed for a second season. Well, there are more shows to add to the list including the hilarious Modern Family, Good Wife, Cougar Town, Men of a Certain Age and NCIS: Los Angeles. So much is said about shows being axed (Dollhouse is almost over) and not enough about shows being renewed.

The wRong

Hawaii Five-O: The writers of Star Trek are preparing a new version of the classic television series Hawaii Five-O for CBS. Can Magnum P.I. be far behind? How about a new Miami Vice series?

Rue McClanahan suffers a stroke: The former Golden Girls actress suffered a stroke while recovering from her November heart bypass surgery. She is recovering and the blood clot was removed but her speech and movement on the right side of her body have been affected. Best wishes to the former Golden Girl.

The Ridiculous

Jay Leno just sucks...: Jay Leno has won, as if that is a surprise. One of the funniest responses was when he spoke to Jimmy Kimmel and Kimmel said Conan has a family. He asked why Leno, who only has his cars and $8 million, has to mess with Conan's show. Well, Leno is taking back over the Tonight Show, meaning David Letterman is the only funny choice in the time frame once again. NBC remains steadfast behind Leno and has finalized a payoff to O'Brien close to $40 million. That is nice for O'Brien financially, but he is losing a lot in the process as well. Leno will return to his former show on March 1 and O'Brien will trade the millions of dollars for everything he has worked to create for the last sixteen years. Every recurring character and sketch is owned by NBC, meaning that once O'Brien leaves on January 22, those characters will never be seen again. Fuck NBC and fuck Jeff Zucker who is said to be responsible for the mess this has become.

** Update: O'Brien may be allowed to keep his characters, including Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, the Pimpbot 5000 and the Masturbating Bear after all. The only sticking point is that he may have to trade off a non-disparagement clause, meaning Conan cannot trash the network after he leaves. That's ok. David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel can pick up the slack on ripping NBC when he's gone.

The Devil did it: I am a Christian. It may not seem that way when I complain about things the Church and special interest groups do, but just because I am a Christian does not mean I have to stand by and listen to people being idiots. In the Jackass of the Week category, pastor Pat Robertson explained on CBN that the reason an earthquake devastated Haiti is because a few hundred years ago, everyone on the island made a pact with the devil. And that has to do with the people living there now how? You're a dick, Robertson.

** Note: In this clip, Robertson said the people of Haiti made a deal with the devil and the devil said OK. How does he know the devil said OK? Has he been talking to Old Man Lucifer about this?






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