Rock Band Wii? EA says "no" (for now)
A Wii version is nothing more than wishful thinking at the moment.
Despite the release of a PS2 flavor and official comments suggesting otherwise, Electronic Arts has yet to confirm Rock Band for Wii.
"We have not announced any plans for a Wii version at this time," wrote EA's Bryce Baer on Wednesday in an email to GamePro.
In April 2007, Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos said "absolutely" when asked if there was a possibility of seeing the game on Wii.
"We will, at some time, bring Rock Band to every [important] platform," he said in the conference call. "I think the Wiimote is something that holds enormous promise."
Rock Band is currently available for Xbox 360, PS3, and PS2. The music simulator won several game of the year awards in 2007 including "best game that involves getting off the sofa" by the Associated Press.
Writers Refuse to Budge on Globes
It's a new year, but so much for resolution.
Just hours after producers of the upcoming Golden Globe Awards said Wednesday they were working to hammer out a deal to keep the Jan. 13 show on track, the guild announced it didn't have any intention of budging on its decision to withhold a waiver.
"Dick Clark Productions is a struck company. As previously announced, the Writers Guild will be picketing the Golden Globes," the WGA said in a blunt statement responding to news of the latest round of negotiations.
"The WGA has great respect and admiration for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, but we are engaged in a crucial struggle that will protect our income and intellectual property rights for generations to come. We will continue to do everything in our power to bring industry negotiations to a fair conclusion. In the meantime, we are grateful for the ongoing support of the Hollywood talent community.”
The union's current position more or less echoes the one it took last month when the Globe nominations were announced. Soon after, the WGA rejected a waiver request from the HFPA to allow scribes to contribute quips to the ceremony. The union also shot down the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which had submitted its standard application for permission to use old film clips and tape from past Oscar ceremonies during the Feb. 24 broadcast.
The writers are allowing otherwise-striking scribblers to contribute to the Screen Actors Guild and Independent Spirit Awards.
In a lengthy statement earlier Wednesday, HFPA president Jorge Camara had said talks between his group and the WGA resumed Saturday, a day after David Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants, announced it had agreed on terms that would allow the late-night host to return to the air tonight with his writing staff intact.
"We are pleased that the WGA has made interim agreements available for independent production companies," Camara said in a statement. "The process established by the WGA permits writers to get back to work, grants the WGA the rights it is seeking on behalf of all writers, and allows certain shows to move forward.
"Much like the Screen Actors Guild Awards and Film Independent's Spirit Awards, we want to enter into an agreement with the WGA that will allow the entertainment industry to celebrate the outstanding work of creative individuals in addition to millions of fans nationwide," he said. "It is only fair that we be afforded the same opportunity as these other awards shows."
This latest blow to what in more upbeat times would be a much-hyped, glamorous precursor to next month's 80th Annual Academy Awards comes just as the Globes' organizers were looking to gain momentum for a show that could be considerably lacking in the star-power department.
NBC confirmed just this week that the prime-time telecast would, indeed, go on as scheduled. Whether there's a red carpet, swag bags or even a celebratory mood remains to be seen.
SAG president Alan Rosenberg said in a statement Wednesday that they will hold a meeting with actor nominees later in the week to discuss Globe protocol.
Late night TV hosts back after 2 months
NEW YORK - Late-night TV hosts returned to the air Wednesday after a two-month hiatus, showing support for their striking writers, plenty of creative stretch marks — and at least two scruffy beards.
David Letterman walked onstage amid dancing girls holding picket signs supporting striking writers. His writers are back on the job, but NBC's Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien and ABC's Jimmy Kimmel returned without theirs.
Filler was immediately evident on the shows without writers. O'Brien, sporting facial growth to match his red hair, showed off Christmas cards, danced on his table as his band played the Clash's "The Magnificent Seven" and tried to see how long he could spin his wedding ring on his desk. Leno took questions from his audience.
"I want to make this clear. I support their cause," O'Brien said of the writers. "These are very talented, very creative people who work extremely hard. I believe what they're asking for is fair."
Letterman, who had grown a mostly white beard, brought writers on to recite a top 10 list of their strike demands. They included "complimentary tote bag with next insulting contract offer" and "Hazard pay for breaking up fights on `The View.'"
"You're watching the only show on the air that has jokes written by union writers," Letterman said. "I hear you at home thinking to yourself, `This crap is written?'"
Guest Robin Williams teased Letterman unmercifully about his beard, alternately comparing him to Gen. Robert E. Lee, a rabbi and an Iraqi mullah.
Presidential politics intruded on the eve of the Iowa caucus: Republican Mike Huckabee appeared on Leno despite his apparent confusion about the strike and a bid by picketers to keep him away, and Democrat Hillary Clinton taped a cameo introducing Letterman.
"Dave has been off the air for eight long weeks because of the writers strike," she said. "Tonight, he's back. Oh, well, all good things come to an end."
Huckabee said he supports the writers and did not think he would be crossing a picket line, because he believed the writers had made an agreement to allow late-night shows on the air. But that's not the case with Leno; "Huckabee is a scab," read one picket sign outside Leno's Burbank, Calif., studio.
The writers guild urged Huckabee not to cross their picket line after he flew out to California. But Huckabee appeared on Leno, even showing off his electric guitar playing with the band.
"Huckabee claims he didn't know," chief union negotiator John Bowman said. "I don't know what that means in terms of trusting him as a future president."
For fans of the late-night hosts, the controversy was secondary to seeing their favorites again. Chuck Gunther of Grand Junction, Colo., stood on a sidewalk outside of Letterman's New York studio on a frigid night hoping to get into the audience.
"When Dave is live, it's fresh and new every night — instead of watching reruns of `Seinfeld,'" he said.
Letterman had writers because his production company, Worldwide Pants, struck a separate deal with the guild. The deal also allowed writers to return to Craig Ferguson's "Late Late Show" on CBS.
Picketing writers outside of O'Brien's studio in New York's Rockefeller Center said they were hoping to encourage people not to appear on the shows where writers weren't working. Michael Winship, president of the WGA East, said he expected Letterman's "Late Show" to be a "bully pulpit" for striking writers and their issues.
Leno's staff writers, who regularly picket at one of the gates to NBC studios, did not show up on Wednesday. Writers insist they're demonstrating against NBC, not Leno, who was supportive of his writers in the strike's early days.
"It must be difficult for them to picket their own boss," said Allan Katz, a veteran sitcom writer. "Probably Jay Leno understands."
Besides depriving the nation of punch lines, the two months of reruns have been devastating for the networks — particularly NBC.
Late-night leader Leno is averaging 4.4 million viewers this season, losing a quarter of his audience from last season. Before the strike, his audience was off 10 percent, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Letterman's average of 3.6 million viewers is 15 percent off last season. Before the strike, his viewership was down 9 percent. Leno's audience was obviously far less interested in reruns or — even worse for NBC — decided to sample Letterman instead.
Kimmel's audience of 1.8 million viewers is slightly up from last season, because it follows "Nightline," which has been making fresh shows.
O'Brien's audience is down 29 percent from last season and he's been running virtually neck and neck with Ferguson: O'Brien has 1.8 million viewers, Ferguson 1.7 million. Now Ferguson returns with writers and O'Brien without.
How big the advantage might be for CBS likely depends on how long the strike lasts. At least at the beginning, the writer-less shows may draw viewers curious to see how the hosts respond.
The CBS programs will also probably have bigger-name guests. The Screen Actors Guild has urged its members to appear with Letterman and Ferguson. It's unclear whether Hollywood's glitterati will be willing to cross picket lines for face time on national television.
Besides being without writers, Leno, O'Brien and Kimmel will be unable to perform many familiar comic bits, including traditional monologues, because of strike rules.
Comedy Central's topical nightly comedies, "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report," will return Monday without striking writers.
Letterman poised to strike a blow
HOLLYWOOD -- It's the second day of the new year but, more to the point, it's the first day since the start of the writers strike that Jay Leno and David Letterman will have something new to talk about.
Tonight, both Leno and Letterman will be returning with fresh shows. But that's where the similarity ends.
While The Tonight Show host will be flying by the seat of his own pants since his writers will still be hoisting picket signs, the Late Show host will be back with his writing team intact.
During the final working hours of 2007, Dave's production company, WorldWide Pants, Auld-Lang-signed a separate contract with the Writers Guild of America, agreeing to the Guild's pay increase demands that have thus far been rejected by the producers alliance. Unfortunately for Jay, his show is owned by NBC, which means he didn't have the options of negotiating a similar deal with the WGA.
That means Letterman will be back with his Top 10 Lists, Viewer Mail and other popular segments, while Leno will have to rely solely on his wit.
But the ramifications go beyond how much Jaywalking Leno's viewers are able to tolerate in a given week. Because large numbers of big-name stars are refusing to cross those WGA picket lines in the name of solidarity (their Screen Actors Guild contract expires in June), that means Jay's guest list could be looking flimsy, while it will be business as usual for Dave.
Although he has traditionally outdrawn Letterman, Leno reruns since the strike started have seen an average 40% drop in viewers in the key 18-49 age demographic, compared to Letterman's 21% erosion.
So with a possible scenario that could see Dave partying with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts over on the East Coast as Jay chats up the oldest living cribbage player on the West Coast, the late-night landscape could undergo a significant shift.
R.E.M. Prepares To 'Accelerate'
Nobody would ever confuse R.E.M. for Metallica, but the guitars have definitely been turned up for the Georgia group's 14th studio album, "Accelerate," due April 1 via Warner Bros.
Nearly all the material was tested out during a summer run in Dublin, although manager Bertis Downs tells Billboard a few of those songs didn't make the cut, and that a couple of album tunes were held back from live airings.
Mostly gone is the drowsy vibe of 2004's "Around the Sun," with "Living Well Is the Best Revenge," "Horse to Water," "Aftermath" and "Until the Day Is Done" recapturing the old R.E.M. energy. "It's not like we're going to pretend these are ballads. These are rockers," Downs says.
"I feel like there's a confidence in the material, and a communication between the three of us that hasn't been there for some time," frontman Michael Stipe told Uncut. "We didn't talk to each other for a couple of records -- as friends or as bandmates. And we reached a point before this LP where we just sat down at a table and hashed it out."
R.E.M. will tour this spring; for now, the lone confirmed date is an appearance at the Langerado Festival, which runs March 6-9 in Big Cypress, Fla.
This year, there'll be fewer sequels at the movie theater
LOS ANGELES — They may be the bane of critics and a common complaint of moviegoers, but sequels have kept the film industry afloat for years.
So what happens when studios give people something original?
Hollywood is about to find out. This year, only 16 sequels are slated for the big screen, according to Nielsen EDI. Since 2003, the average has been 25.
"It's surprising to see how few are coming," says Disney distribution chief Chuck Viane. "It will be interesting to see how creativity sells."
Five of the six biggest movies of last year were sequels, helping propel 2007 to about $9.6 billion at the box office, a record — though attendance remained flat from last year, according to Media By Numbers.
Still, it was a weak year for movies not based on toys or cartoons. Among the small-studio films, only No Country for Old Men took in more than $40 million, though Juno probably will cross that mark. It has earned $31 million and is still expanding.
Not that Hollywood has lost its love for series and spinoffs. This year still has plenty of high-profile franchise wannabes and sequels, from Jan. 25's Rambo to May 2's Iron Man to May 22's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
"You're trying to think a year and a half or two years ahead when you start a movie," says Rob Moore, president of worldwide marketing and distribution for Paramount Pictures. "And I don't know what fewer sequels will do. But there are some things you can do to get people into a moviegoing rhythm."
Here are a few:
•Bigger-budget movies. Despite ballooning production costs and spiraling star salaries, most studios believe bigger is better. "We'll continue making big-budget movies, investing in big stars, big effects," says Jeff Goldstein of Warner Bros. "You have to give people things that home theater systems can't give audiences."
•More gimmicks. From better seats to 3-D glasses to the next generation of computer animation, studios and theaters are emptying their bag of tricks: About 80% of the nation's theaters have gone to stadium seating. U2 has a 3-D movie due Jan. 25, and next year's Final Destination 4 hopes to make you think the blood really is oozing on the screen. Hollywood is hoping James Cameron's computer-generated epic Avatar gets older moviegoers back into the seats. "The technology is getting so advanced," Viane says. "You've got to use everything you've got to compete."
•Happier movies. "There have got to be more uplifting movies than these overly violent movies," says Harvey Weinstein, whose feel-good The Great Debaters is getting a heavy Oscar push. "People want movies that aren't just reflections of our times."
Nintendo revives the light-gun game
Most gamers who grew up in the 1980s have fond memories of "Duck Hunt," one of the games that came with the Nintendo Entertainment System. Your controller was a plastic gun, the Zapper, that you used to shoot on-screen ducks; if you missed, your hunting dog would snicker.
Despite the ubiquity of the Zapper and "Duck Hunt," light-gun games for home consoles never really caught on. For the last decade, Namco Bandai's "Time Crisis" series has pretty much had the genre to itself, although if you visit an arcade you're likely to see a broader selection (with bigger weapons).
Nintendo's Zapper has a spiritual successor in the Wii console's remote control, which you operate by pointing directly at your TV screen. And Nintendo has acknowledged the connection by introducing a new version of the Zapper — essentially, a plastic doohickey that turns the Wii's remote-and-nunchaku combo into a two-handed firearm. It's not exactly state-of-the-art technology, but it does add something fresh to the first-person shooter.
_"Link's Crossbow Training" (Nintendo, $19.99 with the Wii Zapper): The game that's packaged with the Zapper isn't the deepest title in the Wii library, but it's a fast-paced challenge that just about anyone can enjoy. You are Link, the hero of Nintendo's "Legend of Zelda" series, and "Crossbow Training" takes you on a whirlwind tour of sites from 2006's "Twilight Princess."
There are three kinds of competition: target shooting, in which you have to fire at (mostly) stationary bull's-eyes; defender, in which enemies come at you from all sides; and ranger, in which you have to hunt down your foes. Accuracy pays off, because your score is multiplied by the number of consecutive targets you hit — but other people I played with had just as much fun shooting willy-nilly.
There are a few surprises. For example, if you shoot a glowing green monster you get rapid-fire powers for a brief period. The ranger levels are a little tougher because you have to move with the nunchaku while swiveling your weapon with the Zapper. And the game can get quite competitive when you have four players taking turns on the firing range. Overall, the simplicity of "Crossbow Training" makes it a lively party game. Two-and-a-half stars out of four.
_"Medal of Honor Heroes 2" (Electronic Arts, $49.99): EA's long-running World War II series has been eclipsed in recent years by "Call of Duty" and "Brothers in Arms," but there still may be some life in the old soldier yet. There's nothing original plot-wise — hey, welcome back to Omaha Beach! — but the savvy use of the Wii controller makes "Heroes 2" feel brand new.
An arcade mode, designed specifically for the Zapper, moves you across the terrain automatically and lets you focus on the fun part: shooting Nazis. It has the somewhat cartoonish feel of a classic light-gun game like "House of the Dead," but it's fast and accessible for players who have never tried a first-person shooter before.
More serious gamers will go right to the campaign mode. Aside from the usual running, shooting and hiding, you need to use the Wii remote to throw grenades, tune enemy radios or set explosives — actions that are easier to execute without the Zapper. Still, with its intuitive controls and precise gunplay, "Heroes 2" is one of the Wii's best shooters yet. Three stars.
_"Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles" (Capcom, $49.99): Like the arcade version of "Heroes 2," "Umbrella Chronicles" moves you along a predetermined path; your only job is to shoot the zombies and other monsters that want to eat you. It's not as satisfying as, say, 2005's "Resident Evil 4," but it's good, brainless fun.
"Chronicles" recreates classic scenarios from previous games in the series, and fans will enjoy the trip down memory lane. But a newcomer can have fun too, particularly when joining forces with a veteran in one of the cooperative levels.
The aiming isn't accurate enough, especially when you need to hit a small spot on a very large beast. And some of the boss fights seem unfair, with difficulty levels that are way out of whack with the rest of the game. Having a helper definitely makes the ordeal more manageable — and enjoyable. Two-and-a-half stars.