ABC is developing a small screen adaptation of John Updike’s The Witches of Eastwick. You might remember that George Miller brought the book to the big screen in 1987, with Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer. Warner Bros TV has been trying to bring the franchise to the small screen for almost two decades. The book has also been adapted for the stage. Written by Maggie Friedman (Dawson’s Creek, Jack and Bobby) , the new supernatural tv series will apparently be a variation of the 1987 film. The story will focus on three witches who are seduced by a devil-like character, who teaches them how to further their abilities. The idea of a witch-focused television series just makes me think of Charmed, which I pretty much hated with a passion. I don’t care how hot any of the women on that show are, the show was unwatchable. [variety]
Seth Green and Breckin Meyer are in talks to join the cast of Heroes for multi-episode story arcs. The duo will play play Atlanta-based comic book geeks who advise one of the heroes. How meta. [EW]
CBS has teamed with Criminal Minds executive producer Ed Bernero to develop a new version of Hawaii Five-O. The new series will focus of Chris McGarrett, a Hawaiian cop and son of Steve McGarrett, a character played in the original series by Jack Lord. The show will be updated (as will the clasic opening theme song) but Bernero insists that it won’t be a reinvention. [THR]
Posted on Saturday, August 9th, 2008 by David Chen
The /Filmcast Interviews are a series of interviews with movie stars, directors, and other key figures from the film industry. Last week after Stephen Tobolowsky reviewed The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor with us on the /Filmcast, he spent an extra 40 minutes chatting with us about his past and present work, including the greatness of Groundhog Day, working with Christopher Nolan on Memento and what exactly it’s like to be an actor on the show Heroes. For those of you who weren’t able to make it, here is the interview in its entirety for your enjoyment.
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Watchmen / Heroes Mash-up by DrewbolX
The Pitch: DrewbolX created this mash-up which uses footage from Heroes cut to the music and tonal moments of Zack Snyder’s Watchmen teaser. Wow, who knew Heroes could look so incredibly cool, which is probably a testament to the music of the Smashing Pumpkins. Thanks to /Film reader Gregory V for the tip.
Watch More Cool Videos Here!
Video of the Day is a daily feature of /Film showcasing geekarific video creations. Have a video we should be feature on VOTD? E-Mail us at orfilms@gmail.com.
As a special treat for Comic Con attendees, creator Tim Kring joined the entire Heroes cast onstage with a metal briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, and proceeded to pull out a burned DVD with the handwritten text “Heroes Volume III (Episode One)” written on it. This could only mean one thing, and as the lights dimmed, fans erupted in applause.
For those, like myself, who found the second season of Heroes to have been incredibly weak but with a small handful of redeeming qualities toward the end, you’ll be happy to know that for the most part things do seem like they’ll be getting better. Whereas last season’s premiere was both dull and uninvolving, volume three kicks off immediately with an onslaught of new developments that are sure to keep viewers on their toes. Not all of them are entirely successful though, partially because the dialogue and execution are way too cheesy in a number of instances, and partially because some of the newly introduced subplots are just plain dumb.
If you’re not interested in having the first episode of the season spoiled for you, you should stop reading now.
The episode starts off four year into the future, with a scarred Peter running for his very life. He enters a building and finds Claire waiting for him, holding a gun to his head. She tries to shoot him, but he slows down time and evades the bullet by simply walking out of its path. Then he grabs her gun and jumps through time to the present. Now we’re back to where season two ended, with Nathan being shot by an unknown assailant. As it turns out, “Future Peter” is that unknown assailant.
Nathan gets taken to the hospital, but the wounds are too severe and he dies… for about five minutes. His pale lifeless body jumps up on the hospital bed. The experience of dying and coming back to life makes him rethink his purpose, and instead of continuing what he started by announcing to the world about people like him, he comes to the realization that they exist to serve God’s will.
Later on, Angela Petrelli confronts “Future Peter” about changing the future for the worse.
Meanwhile, Claire finds herself attacked by Sylar, who captures her and splits her head open. We then see Sylar examining Claire’s exposed brain. A mildly concious Claire asks “Are you gonna eat it?” “Am I gonna eat it? That’s disgusting, Claire.” Soon afterward, Sylar locates the necessary part of Claire’s mind with his powers. He looks down and a wound on his stomach starts to heal. Claire is confused, wondering why he doesn’t kill her. “You’re not like the others, Claire. You can’t die. And now, neither can I.”
On the other side of the world, Hiro is the head of his father’s company and has all the money anyone could ever ask for, yet still feels left without a purpose. Before he can dwell on it for too long though, he receives a video tape of his late father explaining to him he must protect a world-altering secret that’s hidden within a safe in the office, and must not ever open it. Unwilling to listen to reason, Hiro opens the safe anyway, much to Ando’s chagrin. Inside is another tape of his father, this time yelling at Hiro for opening the safe. He then explains that the safe contains half of a formula that must never get in the wrong hands.
Moments later, the paper vanishes from Hiro’s hand. He stops time as fast as he can, and notices this lengthy red blur traveling through the office. He follows it all the way through the building until it connects to a blond girl, who he soon finds out isn’t actually frozen in time. His power has no effect on her. In order to get away, she punches him and speeds out of the building. Needing to get the formula back, Hiro travels to the future and sees “Future Hiro” battling Ando, who demands he give back the formula. Unwilling to do so, “Future Ando” blasts “Furure Hiro” with red bolts of electricity. Hiro quickly travels back to the present.
The last character subplot involves Mohinder and Maya. Maya gets upset that Mohinder wants to leave, and when her powers start to take effect, Mohinder realizes how people get their powers: through the adrenal gland. He then figures out how to replicate the abilities in other people, later deciding to inject himself with it, causing him to lose conciousness. As he wakes up, two muggers try to rob him. He grab one of their guns and bends it in half, and then throws one of the guys halfway across the street. The other mugger takes off without a second thought, while Mohinder stands there amazed at what he just did.
As much as I like where the storylines with Sylar, Hiro, and Peter are heading, I really dislike what they’ve done with Mohinder. It was bad enough when they made it so that Claire’s blood could revive anyone simply by injecting it (thus removing any tension about whether or not certain characters would survive), but now it’s even worse. Within a single episode, two powerless characters have been either given powers or shown having powers. What do you guys think? Is this a bad move, or do you like the prospect of any normal individual being able to gain superpowers on the show?
It was announced at the Heroes panel that the Season 2 DVD release will actually include some unaired episodes which were shot but apparently cut due to the writer’s strike. Not much more information is known, but I’m sure we’ll find out more in the coming weeks. The DVD will hit stores on August 26th.
NBC has released a new trailer for the third season of Heroes.
“Because hey will kill, and they will terrorize, and they will cause unimaginable destruction to the world. They’re Villains, Claire!”
The promo promises that “Good will Battle Evil”. Heroes Season 3 “Villains” will premiere on Monday, September 22nd 2008.
I’ve decided to consolidate a bunch of tv updates down to one posting, because, after-all this is still a movie blog.
The writers strike caused LOST to lose two hours of it’s planned fourth season. The show’s producers have announced that they will reclaim those hours in the show’s fifth and six season. That means that the finial two seasons of the hit show will now be 17 episodes in length instead of the planned 16 episode arcs. [THR]
Nikki Finke is reporting that the American remake of Edgar Wright’s Spaced is a no-go. This should satisfy fans of the original British fanboy series starring Simon Pegg. For those of you who have never had a chance to watch the original Spaced, it finally comes to DVD in the states on July 22nd featuring new Exclusive Commentary By Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith, Bill Hader, Matt Stone, Patton Oswalt and Diablo Cody.
Fox has picked up JJ Abrams‘s Fringe, which follows a young female FBI agent who tackle cases involving unexplained medical and scientific phenomena. Abrams’ Bad Robot produced a two-hour pilot which was written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Transformers, Star Trek) and directed by Alex Graves (Journeyman). The series’ cast includes Anna Torv, Mark Valley and Joshua Jackson. [Variety]
And finally, NBC has started running a promo to promote Heroes Season 3. Watch it below.
