RHCP's Flea fumes over leaked CD
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are upset over an Internet leak of their upcoming album "Stadium Arcadium," set for release Tuesday, and are urging fans not to download it illegally.
In a web posting on the band's official site on Tuesday, RCHP bassist Flea shared his feelings on the discovery of the leak.
"Well that's not very nice. If you download it now off one of those file-sharing sites, you will be getting a pale imitation of the record," he wrote in his latest blog. "It will be of... poor sound quality... and that will break my heart. It will break John Frusciante's heart. It will break Anthony Kiedis' heart. And it will break the heart of Chad Smith."
He also lashed out at the music pirate who leaked the band's first studio album in four years.
"For people to just steal a poor-sound quality version of it for free because some a--hole stole it is sad to me. It is stealing from us and that is lame. Everyone has to live with their own conscience on that one."
It is unknown who the leaker is or how they managed to obtain a copy of the not-yet-released material.
Upon the release of "Stadium Arcadium," the Chili Peppers will embark on a North American tour beginning August 11 in Portland, and will play a month long Canadian stint beginning Sept. 14 in Vancouver.
Richards to undergo brain surgery
Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards will undergo brain surgery after a concussion suffered following his fall from a coconut tree in Fiji last week proved to be a brain hemorrhage, Undercover.com reports.
Surgeons are planning to drill a hole in the 62-year-old rocker's skull in order to drain blood out of his brain.
Following his fall in Fiji, Richards was transported to a hospital in New Zealand, where he was originally diagnosed with a mild concussion. After Richards continued to suffer from a dull headache, it was concluded that he had a small hemorrhage.
Richards is expected to make a full recovery but it is unclear whether he will be able to perform with the Stones, who will resume their "A Bigger Bang" world tour in a few weeks.
HOW THE MOST PROMISING NEW FALL DRAMA LOST ITS 'COMMAND'
It just might be the steepest, single-season decline in TV history.
So what went wrong with "Commander in Chief"?
Just about everything.
ABC's "prestige" drama about a female president was once considered the most promising new show of the current season.
But a little more than seven months after it premiered last fall with the highest ratings of any new series, "Commander in Chief" is leaving office in disgrace.
The hard truth: The show lost 60 percent of its audience from its debut last Sept. 27 through last Thursday. (The show attracted 16,365,000 viewers when it premiered at 9 p.m. Tuesdays. It fell to 6,513,000 last Thursday at 10 p.m.)
Another hard truth: It was never that good in the first place.
It should have been. On paper, the show had a quality cast, led by Geena Davis, Oscar winner for "The Accidental Tourist," as the president, and Donald Sutherland, a movie legend, as her archrival.
And it had a highly promotable premise - the nation's first woman president - with which to trigger a thousand prelaunch magazine and newspaper stories.
But all the publicity in the world couldn't mask the show's deficiencies.
For openers, it had the misfortune to be on TV at the same time as "The West Wing."
NBC's White House drama might have been in its last season, in a time period - Sundays at 8 p.m. - where long-time fans had trouble finding it, but as far as presidential TV shows go, "The West Wing" remains the gold standard.
"Commander in Chief" was anything but golden.
President Mackenzie Allen's White House never felt authentic, a situation that had nothing to do with the president's gender. Compared to the Bartlet administration of "The West Wing," President Allen's White House was an empty place seemingly staffed by six people under the age of 35 who didn't know what they were doing.
It's likely the show's quality suffered from the behind-the-scenes turmoil that saddled the series with three different bosses in its inaugural season.
It was also harmed by spotty scheduling, including a four-week hiatus in December and a 10-week absence from Jan. 31 to April 13.
Whatever the problems on or off the screen, ABC this week decided it had had enough of "Commander in Chief," yanking it for the remainder of the May sweeps and the season - both of which end officially on May 24.
ABC plans to burn off the show's remaining three episodes (19 were produced; 16 have aired) in June. And while a spokeswoman would not concede the show is gone for good, it's doubtful it will be on ABC's fall schedule when the new lineup is announced later this month.
Silver Surfer May Enter 'Fantastic' Sequel
For years, comic fans have clamored to see the Silver Surfer on the big screen, but is this they way they wanted it to happen?
It's being reported in Variety that the funny book cult favorite has a featured role in one of two possible scripts for the upcoming "Fantastic Four" sequel.
The trade paper reports that 20th Century Fox and Marvel are choosing between a script by Mark Frost ("X-Men 2") and a second script by Don Payne ("My Super Ex-Girlfriend"). The film, which will be directed by Tim Story, has a July 4, 2007 release date already staked out, so production can't be far away. The Payne script, the script with the Silver Surfer, is rumored to be in the lead.
Not to imply that Variety would ever run a studio-planted story or anything, but if Fox is still determining which script to go with, the little blurb in the trade seems very much like a tentative feeler out into the fan community. Given the decidedly mixed reaction in that community to the first "Fantastic Four," the studio may not want to risk jeopardizing a Silver Surfer feature if the fans are negatively predisposed to the character being reduced to a supporting role in a franchise that's already generated ire.
The Silver Surfer is no stranger to playing second banana to the Fantastic Four, of course. The character was introduced in "Fantastic Four, Vol. 1 No. 48," which may suggest that the studio is trying to mirror the character's comic launch for his theatrical debut.
Budget concerns have always hampered a possible Surfer film. Silver Surfer is the tortured herald of Galactus, a cosmic being that travels the universe devouring worlds. He looks like a nude, silver-skinned man, and he flies around the universe on a silver surfboard. That doesn't come cheap.
Stay tuned, we guess, for additional details.
"Mission" set to kick box office into high gear
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Mission: Impossible III," the third installment of Paramount's highest-grossing franchise, will get an early start to the weekend by opening across North America at midnight Thursday.
The Tom Cruise thriller will be in an ultrawide 4,054 theaters, and it goes without saying that it will be the top-grossing film this weekend.
There has been much speculation as to how "M:I-3" will do at the box office because of Cruise's recent unconventional public displays, and also because it is the third film in the franchise. On the other hand, the influx of fresh ideas from a new director (J.J. Abrams), the addition of Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman as the villain and a six-year wait since the second installment plays to the film's advantage.
The first "Mission" film opened almost 10 years ago, during Memorial Day weekend 1996, and grossed $56.8 million in four days (Friday to Monday) from 3,012 venues. At the time, it was the biggest four-day opening weekend in history, and that debut was softened somewhat by Tuesday previews and a Wednesday bow. The first "Mission" went on to a domestic take of $180.9 million.
Fast-forward to Memorial Day weekend 2000, when the second film debuted with a stellar four-day gross of $70.8 million from 3,653 theaters. At the time, the opening was the second-biggest for a Memorial Day weekend behind Universal's "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" ($90.2 million). "M:I-2" grossed $215.4 million by the time it left North American theaters.
Abrams, who fills the shoes of Brian De Palma and John Woo, got the largely based on his work on "Alias," which he created, and on his being a fan of the "Mission: Impossible" television series. The director has said that he and his co-writers wanted to instill more emotion, humor and character development into the franchise.
Fresh off his best actor Oscar win for "Capote," Hoffman is making his first appearance in an action film, playing an icy villain intent on disrupting Hunt's attempt to live a more normal life. Michelle Monaghan plays Hunt's love interest, and Ving Rhames reprises his role as the resident technophile. As on the previous two "Mission" films, Cruise and business partner Paula Wagner handled producing responsibilities.
Two other films opening in wide release this weekend are direct counterprogramming moves aimed at specific audiences and are tracking to finish in the top five.
New Line Cinema's "Hoot," based on the book by Carl Hiaasen, will be in 3,018 theaters. The PG-rated family comedy was written by Wil Shriner, who also makes his feature directorial debut.
Freestyle Releasing's "An American Haunting" will be going out in 1,679 locations and marks the widest release since the indie distributor's inception in January 2005. The PG-13 film, written and directed by Courtney Solomon, is aimed at horror fans and stars Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek.