REJECTS OF THE 'SITH'
It's everything you ever wanted to know about "Sith" but were afraid to ask.
Here's a peek at two scenes added to the DVD of the sixth and final chapter of the "Star Wars" series, in stores next week. The two-disc "Revenge of the Sith" set, available in full-screen or widescreen, features a handful of deleted scenes, making-of featurettes, game demos, photo galleries and even a preview of "Hyperspace, the ultimate online Star Wars experience."
Though director George Lucas has said much of his deleted material focuses on the Senate, at least one scene features some good, old-fashioned lightsaber fighting.
In "General Grievous Slaughters a Jedi," which adds to a rescue sequence early in the film, Anakin (Hayden Christensen) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) battle a throng of droids - led by cyborg General Grievous himself - and then cut through the floor to escape.
The scene also connects to the animated "Clone Wars" series, as Grievous kills a Jedi prisoner he took in the Cartoon Network prequel.
In another deleted scene, Chancellor Palpatine plants further tension between Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) and Anakin.
Also included is the lone scene featuring actress Bai Ling, who ended up on the cutting-room floor - reportedly because she posed topless in Playboy before the film's release.
In "The Seeds of Rebellion," Ling plays a senator working with Amidala to thwart the plans of the chancellor. Her one line? "That would be dangerous."
(Too bad someone didn't tell her that before the Playboy shoot.)
ABC's Muppet Makeover
Think of it as the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational, Muppetational reality show around.
After plunking down a whopping $90 million last year for rights to Kermit and cohorts, Disney is hoping to relaunch the Muppets on a prime-time ABC series parodying such unscripted hits as American Idol and America's Next Top Model.
A network rep says the Muppet project is in the extremely early stages of development. But ABC has ordered a pilot script and five additional script outlines for America's Next Muppet, which will see Kermit's crew trying out would-be Muppets to join the pantheon of beloved Jim Henson creations like Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, the Swedish Chef, Scooter, Rowlf, Janice, Dr. Teeth, Animal, Dr. Bunson Honeydew, Beeker and a certain amphibian.
While there's been no official word on who'll judge the contestants, we think Statler and Waldorf would be naturals. And with Paula Abdul and Tyra Banks already tied up with their own day jobs, the diva role would be perfect for, oui, Miss Piggy.
Who knows, if America's Next Muppet takes off, maybe we can look forward to Muppet Survivor, The Amazing Muppet Race or Extreme Makeover: Muppet Edition.
Since assuming control of Henson's iconic characters, the Mouse House has moved swiftly to reintroduce the Muppets to new generations unfamiliar with The Muppet Show, which aired in syndication from 1976 to 1981 and spawned the feature films The Muppet Movie (1979), The Great Muppet Caper (1981) and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1983).
Henson died unexpectedly of a bacterial infection on May 16, 1990--the same day he was set to sign a deal licensing the characters to Disney. During the 1990s, the franchise floundered, despite movies like A Muppet Christmas Carol and A Muppet Treasure Island and the short-lived TV revival, Muppets, Tonight, which aired on ABC in 1996 before moving to the Disney Channel for one more season.
In 2000, Henson heirs Brian and Lisa Henson sold the pack of puppets to German conglomerate EM.TV for a $680 million. The company quickly announced it was going to revive The Muppet Show.
However, awash in red ink, EM.TV sold the characters back to the Hensons in 2003 for $89 million. That prompted a renewed interest on Disney's part and led to last year's deal.
Soon Mickey's minions began plotting Kermit's comeback. Disney produced the TV movie The Muppets Wizard of Oz, which attracted a solid 7.8 million viewers when broadcast on ABC last May. Statler and Waldorf will begin appearing on Disney's movies.com Website this week.
And the company is currently celebrating Kermit's 50th anniversary with a world tour that saw the Muppets stop at the Statue of Liberty, run with the Bulls in Pamplona, trade smooches at a kissing booth at the Eiffel Tower, attend a frog-leg festival, climb the Great Wall of China and, naturally, receive a key to Kermit, Texas, where the road show touched down last week.
Even the U.S. Postal Service is getting involved, honoring Kermit & Co. with their own set of stamps.
Who said it wasn't easy being green?
ALL BRUCE, ALL THE TIME
Sirius Satellite Radio launching E Street Radio, a channel devoted entirely to the music of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, on Nov. 1.
"Harry," Pulp & Radiohead's Wyrd World
Pulp's Jarvis Cocker is a Harry Potter fan. Canadian folk band the Wyrd Sisters--not so much.
The Winnipeg-based group has conjured up a $40 million lawsuit seeking to block the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in North America all because the film features a performance with a same-named band fronted by Cocker and backed by members of Radiohead.
The suit was filed late last month in both the U.S. and Canada and touched off a firestorm in the blogosphere as fans of Potter, Radiohead and Pulp threatened to go Dark Arts on the Canadian group.
In the original book, Potter scribe J.K. Rowling christened the band the Weird Sisters, but Warner Bros. changed the spelling to Wyrd for the movie. In both the book and film, the magical group plays a party attended by Harry and pals. The film's band consists of Cocker along with Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenwood and drummer Phil Selway (reportedly subbing for Franz Ferdinand, which turned down the gig).
According to the lawyer for the Wyrd Sisters, the band was tipped off that Goblet used the moniker back in June, when Warners offered the trio $5,000 for name rights. The band, which has been together for 15 years, refused. Warners reportedly upped the offer to $50,000. No dice.
The group then launched their lawsuit, seeking $40 million in damages from Warner Bros., as well as Cocker, Greenwood and Selway. The real Wyrds are also asking that the film be blocked from release on Nov. 18.
Now, Warners says it has removed any reference to the band, Weird or Wyrd, from the film and soundtrack.
"The name the Weird Sisters is not being used either in the film or on its soundtrack and we've submitted sworn affidavits to the court stating that fact," the studio said in a statement Tuesday. "Last week, we even showed plaintiff's counsel the film in its entirety to prove that point."
The statemenet may, or may not, be good enough for the Wyrd camp.
"Until recently Warner had them credited and the official word was that the name of the band was 'The Wyrd Sisters'," the group's lawyer, Kimberly Townley-Smith, said in a posting on the band's Website. "They've already created an association between the name and the band and that's all you need."
Or, as the band's singer and cofounder Kim Baryluk told the music site ChartAttack.com: "They are so much more huge than us in their reach that we'll go out on tour a month after the movie comes out--and we'll go all over to Australia, to New Zealand--and people will wonder who are these strange people stealing the Harry Potter name."
As the Wyrd dispute winds its way through the legal system, it's proving difficult for Warner Music's marketing group to hype the soundtrack, which is eagerly anticipated by alt-rock fans.
In a press release announcing the album, due Nov. 15, Warners simply says there are three original tunes performed by the now unnamed band: "Do the Hippogriff," "This Is the Night" and "Magic Works."
Cocker, who wrote two of the Goblet tracks, told E! Online Monday that he was proud of the project.
He was making an L.A. appearance at the small Los Angeles club Tangier, where he tried out a new song that may well end up on his forthcoming solo debut, titled "C--ts Are Still Running the World," with a little help on stage from former Beck drummer Joey Waronker and Donnie Darko composer Michael Andrews on guitar.
However, he did seem a bit taken aback by the Wyrd folkie attack.
"I didn't know they had lawyers in Canada," the singer deadpanned before playing the pick-up gig Monday night.
"I thought Canadians were supposed to be polite."
Rolling Stones dig up rare songs for Starbucks CD
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Rolling Stones will release an album of rare tracks next month in partnership with coffee retailer Starbucks Corp. and the group's Virgin Records label, the partners said on Tuesday.
"Rarities 1971-2003" will be released simultaneously on November 22 in both Starbucks-owned outlets and in traditional music stores across the United States and Canada. Virgin, a unit of Britain's EMI Group Plc., will handle the foreign release by itself.
The nonexclusive deal marks a departure from recent controversial arrangements Starbucks has had with other major artists. Pop singer Alanis Morissette allowed Starbucks to sell her latest album six weeks before everyone else, resulting in the HMV chain in her native Canada pulling her other albums off its racks in protest.
The Stones, currently on a tour of North America, suffered a similar fate from some retailers in 2003 when they gave electronics chain Best Buy Co. Inc. an exclusive sales window for a DVD package.
Starbucks, which has aimed to boost revenue by adding small CD kiosks in stores, has enjoyed its biggest success with Ray Charles' Grammy-winning posthumous album "Genius Loves Company," which was a nonexclusive release.
The album has sold about 3.1 million copies in the U.S. with Starbucks accounting for about 730,000 copies, according to Charles' Concord Records label.
The new Stones disc boasts 16 tracks, including live versions of concert staples like "Tumbling Dice" and "Beast of Burden," dance remixes of songs like "Miss You" and "Harlem Shuffle" and b-sides, such as their live 1971 cover of Chuck Berry's "Let It Rock." All have been previously released, but some are hard to find. The band has been wary of releasing old gems as it prefers to keep the focus on its new material.
"With every studio session, there are always songs that never appear on the final album and at the time you think, what a shame that song did not make it," Stones vocalist Mick Jagger was quoted as saying in a statement.
It will reach stores just 11 weeks after the Stones released their first studio album in eight years, "A Bigger Bang." Despite critical acclaim and heavy publicity surrounding the tour, the Virgin release has been a commercial disappointment, debuting at No. 3 on the U.S. pop charts, and sliding to No. 63 in its sixth week, with cumulative sales of 295,000 copies, according to tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan.
Starbucks was involved in the manufacturing, distribution and marketing of "Rarities," but Starbucks Entertainment president Ken Lombard declined to offer financial specifics.
"We felt this was an exciting project and a perfect fit for what we're trying to provide to our customers," he said in an interview.
Lombard said Starbucks has been working with the Stones' management since they partnered on a 2003 album in the chain's "Artist's Choice" series, where musicians choose their favorite songs and discuss their impact.
IMesh Rolls Out New File-Sharing Software
LOS ANGELES - Popular peer-to-peer, file-sharing service iMesh introduced new software Tuesday that allows users to legally share and buy music online.
The service offers access to 17 million music files. About 15 million will be available for free. Another 2 million protected releases will be sold for 99 cents per song, with the company paying record labels a portion of the revenue from each downloaded or shared song.
The new service is being offered free for a 30-60 day introductory period, and will cost $6.95 a month after that.
"This takes the peer-to-peer experience, turns it on its ear and it becomes a pay service," said Bob Summer, executive chairman of iMesh.
The move comes after New York-based iMesh paid $4.1 million to the recording industry in July 2004 to settle a copyright infringement lawsuit. The firm also agreed to block users from trading unauthorized copies of songs.
For years, peer-to-peer networks have made it simple to illegally share music online. Music labels claim illegal downloads have cut into sales, while analysts say high CD prices and musical quality also share part of the blame.
Users of iMesh can now legally access songs through the Gnutella network, where musicians and others post music for free sharing. In addition, songs can be bought from the four major music conglomerates.
Mitch Bainwol, chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, said iMesh is another example of the growing online marketplace that respects the rights of musicians, songwriters, record labels and others.
"It is a significant moment in the transformation of the peer-to-peer model," he said.
Muppets pull strings at ABC
Reality skein has viewers pick next big kiddie character
The Muppets are plotting a return to primetime while looking for their next great character.
ABC has ordered a script and five script outlines for "America's Next Muppet," a reality TV parody in which viewers may actually get a chance to pick Kermit and Miss Piggy's latest colleague.
ABC and Disney remain tight-lipped on the project, although word of the project first leaked last month to several Muppets fan Web sites. But it appears that the new Muppet project would borrow from shows like "American Idol" and "America's Next Top Model" as judges (Kermit? Statler and Waldorf? Animal?) comb through several new characters to select a major Muppet.
Since acquiring rights to the Muppet characters in 2004, Disney has been pursuing various ways to relaunch the popular brand as part of an overall corporate goal. Alphabet web last May aired telepic "The Muppets Wizard of Oz," which performed solidly (7.8 million viewers), particularly with adults 18-34, teens and kids.
"America's Next Muppet" would rep the first Muppets TV program since "Muppets Tonight," which briefly aired on ABC in 1996 (moving with additional episodes to the Disney Channel for one more year). That show also parodied the TV biz, as the Muppets ran a variety show on "KMUP-TV."
The original "Muppet Show" ran in syndication for 120 episodes between 1976 and 1981.
The Couch Potato Report - October 25th, 2005
This week The Couch Potato Report features some things you never need to see twice, and some that can be watched over and over and over again!
There are only a few hour long television shows that I can watch a second, or third time. For some reason, after the drama has played out, and I know what happens, I just can't enjoy them any more.
For instance, I have enjoyed almost every episode I have seen of "The West Wing", "24", "Law & Order", "Homicide", and "Kojack" on television, but when I sat down to watch their respective DVD sets I was,...well I was bored.
There are exceptions, notably "The X-Files", "Miami Vice" and "Lost", but for the most part I just can't get into most of these hour long dramas the second time around.
And the same is true with the show ALIAS. When the show began airing new episodes for it's fourth season in January I made a point to be home every Wednesday night to watch them.
However when I sat down this past week to watch the 6-DVD Box Set for ALIAS - THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON, I could barely get through it.
Now, if you didn't make a point of being home every Wednesday from January to May of this year just so you could watch a TV show about Sydney Bristow, an international spy recruited out of college and trained for espionage and self-defense, then maybe you will enjoy this box set.
As for me, well, I got through it, and there were episodes I mildly enjoyed, but I was,...well, I was bored.
But, I am still glad I had the set to watch as it has a wide array of extras.
In addition to featuring all 22 Episodes from the fourth season, the Box Set includes an interview with star Jennifer Garner, a Director's Diary, Blooper Reel, Deleted Scenes, commentary of four episodes, and much more!
In ALIAS - THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON family secrets come to light and old foes once again return. It is a season of betrayal, suspense, and one of the best season cliffhangers ever!
That is, if you have never seen it before.
I recommend this box set, because I know what it entails, but that doesn't mean I will ever watch it again.
I also doubt I will ever watch HERBIE: FULLY LOADED again.
That isn't because it is a bad film, it just doesn't have anything that would make me watch it again.
And that is too bad as I have watched the original Herbie movie THE LOVE BUG, and all of it's sequels many times since I started watching movies in the early 1970s.
I love all of these films about a Volkswagon Bug with a mind and a heart of its own.
But with HERBIE: FULLY LOADED, I guess it is time to realize that I am too old for this franchise, and just pass it on to the youth of today.
So youth, in HERBIE: FULLY LOADED, Lindsay Lohan from MEAN GIRLS stars as a woman who gets an old Volkswagen Beetle for a graduation present.
She soon ends up racing against a champion in the sport on her way to a very satisfying conclusion.
Luckily for the viewer, Lohan and the entire cast realizes that they aren't making an Oscar winning picture so they just have fun with the material.
The result is an entertaining enough film that the whole family can enjoy.
The whole family might not ever need to see it twice, but they will enjoy it.
Now, if there are things that you never need to see again, then there must be things that must be seen a second time. Or third, or fourth...
Some of those exact things are collected on THE LOONEY TUNES - GOLDEN COLLECTION: VOLUME THREE.
If you missed my reviews of the original THE LOONEY TUNES - GOLDEN COLLECTION, or my review of THE LOONEY TUNES - GOLDEN COLLECTION: VOLUME TWO I will tell you that I called them both "incredible anthologies of classic cartoons."
Now that THE LOONEY TUNES - GOLDEN COLLECTION: VOLUME THREE is available, I hope it doesn't come as too big a shock when I proclaim this new 4-disc set with 60 more of the most legendary cartoons ever created to also be "an incredible anthology of classic cartoons."
VOLUME THREE's cartoons range from the debut of Porky Pig in 1935 to the end of the Warner Bros. animation studio in 1963.
Plus, each of the four discs has a varied lineup of cartoons so you don't end up watching cartoon after cartoon of Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, or Road Runner. Each disc has a few of everyone!
A few of everyone, and a few for everyone!
THE LOONEY TUNES - GOLDEN COLLECTION: VOLUME THREE is a must own for all fans of animation.
And so is this week's first "Leftover!"
The classic Disney animated film CINDERELLA was released on DVD for the first time on October 4th and the studio did a great job with their 2-disc DISNEY SPECIAL PLATINUM EDITION.
This version of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale was first produced in 1950. To this day it remains one of the most enduring animated films of all time.
As superb as the film is, the best part of this PLATINUM EDITION are the supplemental features. Those features are a wealth of archival material and they include "The Cinderella That Almost Was," a feature that tracks the development of the project through decades of original Disney concepts, characters, and songs.
If you or your kids have been waiting for this film to come out on DVD then I guess it is as CINDERELLA's classic song says "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes."
Our second "leftover" this week is SCTV - VOLUME 4.
When these shows originally aired Dave Thomas, Rick Moranis and Catherine O'Hara had departed the series, Martin Short became a superstar in their absence.
The VOLUME 4 box set does feature the SCTV parodies of "The Towering Inferno," "Christmas Specials," "Midnight Cowboy" and "Sweeps Week", along with musical guests John Cougar Mellencamp, Joe Walsh, and Crystal Gayle, but the primary reason this box is a must have for comedy lovers is because it contains the episodes that parody the CBC.
In that same episode is the parody of the early seventies Canadian film "Going Down The Road", which is just as much an integral part of Canadiana as the movie it spoofs.
SCTV - VOLUME 4 is classic Canadian comedy and it is available now at a store near you. For that matter, so are the CINDERELLA DISNEY SPECIAL PLATINUM EDITION, THE LOONEY TUNES - GOLDEN COLLECTION: VOLUME THREE, HERIE: FULLY LOADED, and ALIAS - THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON.
Coming up in the next Couch Potato Report
The saga concludes with STAR WARS: EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH!!
Finally, we get to see Anakin Skywalker turn to the dark side and become Darth Vader!
We will also get to see Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn starring in THE INTERPRETER; John Belushi, Gilda Radner and the Not Ready For Prime Time Players in SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE: LIVE FROM NEW YORK - THE FIRST FIVE YEARS and ALF - SEASON TWO features...Alf.
Remember him?
I'm Dan Reynish. I'll have more on those, and some other releases, in seven days.
For now, that's this week's COUCH POTATO REPORT.
Enjoy the movies and I'll see you back here next week on The Couch.