Thursday, September 04, 2008

The first season finale of The Middleman on Monday was so completely made of awesome that I'll be sad if this clever little show doesn't get renewed for a second season. If you didn't notice it, the prop used for the phased polaron cannon in the episode was Dr. Horrible's freeze ray (and the name of the weapon is a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine reference)! There were also references to Escape from New York and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, among other things.

The fourth season premiere of Bones last night was pretty good, mixing humor and relationship angst into an entertaining two hours. Also, Indira Varma (Suzie Costello in the first season of Torchwood) guest starred.

After Guillermo del Toro finishes directing The Hobbit and the unnamed Lord of the Rings prequel, he'll still have a lot on his plate thanks to his new deal with Universal Pictures. He's set to direct remakes of Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Slaughterhouse Five, as well as an adaptation of Dan Simmons' upcoming novel, Drood, and an adaptation of Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness is also being developed.

As excited as I am for a del Toro version of Frankenstein, my dream was to see remakes of Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein done by Tim Burton.

According to Variety, Ghostbusters III is being developed with The Office staff writers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky writing the screenplay. The plan is to reunite the original cast of the first two films: Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson.

The first season of Fringe, a new science fiction drama, begins next Tuesday on the FOX network. The show is the creation of J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost) and the writing team of Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman (Transformers, the upcoming Star Trek film), with former Alias and Lost writer/producer Jeff Pinkner serving as showrunner. It's being described as influenced by The X-Files, The Twilight Zone, and Altered States.

WildStorm is publishing a Fringe prequel comic book, and the first issue was released today. The comic book is being co-written by Zack Whedon, best known as the co-writer of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

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This week's comics: Fringe #1, Detective Comics #848, Angel: After the Fall #12, Buffy the Vampire Slayer #18, X-Men Origins: Beast #1, X-Men: Manifest Destiny #1, Iron Man: Golden Avenger #1, Invincible Iron Man #5, Trinity #14, Secret Six #1, Nightwing #148, Manhunter #34, House of Mystery #5, Green Lantern #34, Chas: The Knowledge #3, Fables #75, The Authority: World's End #2.

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