From Scranton to Winnipeg: The Office goes north
Winnipeg is about to take a star turn in the offbeat TV comedy The Office.
An episode scheduled to air Nov. 13 has star Steve Carell, in his role as office manager Michael Scott, taking a business trip to the windy capital of Manitoba.
Emmy-winning writer Brent Forrester chose Winnipeg as a suitable destination for the cringe-inducing boss of fictional paper firm Dunder Mifflin.
"It seemed like Montreal was maybe too exotic and Vancouver also a little maybe too conventionally sexy, and Winnipeg seemed to strike the right balance between exotic and obscure," he told CBC News in an interview from Los Angeles.
"In fact, some people on our staff have named it the Scranton of Canada in a way — a nice kind of analogy to where Michael is from."
Office underling characters Oscar Nunez and Andy Bernard make the trip to Winnipeg with Michael. The episode centres around Michael having an affair with the concierge at a hotel in the city.
"Michael Scott is trying to turn Winnipeg into a city of international intrigue in his mind so much that he wants this business trip to be all it's cracked up to be. We sort of imagined that Winnipeg in November was not Paris in summer, so it's a little colder and a little lonelier than he hopes," Forrester said.
Episode shot in California
Carell and the rest of the cast and crew actually never set foot on Canadian soil.
The whole episode was shot in the Los Angeles area, with the aid of some background footage and a shipment of Canadiana from Destination Winnipeg.
The show's propmaster contacted the Winnipeg tourism promotion agency, which sent along airport baggage tags, shopping bags from The Bay, Old Dutch potato chips, Fort Garry brewing company paraphernalia and other distinctive items.
In consolation to fans of The Office who had hoped to see its stars in Winnipeg, Los Angeles also stands in for Scranton, Penn., the supposed location of the office featured in the NBC sitcom.
Forrester says the show, the U.S. version of a British sitcom of the same name, has too tight a budget to move locations.
"We know it's cold and we know, if we had the budget, we would have put a lot more snow in the shots," he said.
"The episode is supposed to represent Michael travelling in November, when presumably you would have a bit of snow there, but it turns out snow is incredibly expensive and difficult to create, especially in downtown Los Angeles, which is where we filmed our fake Winnipeg."
The show is known for its irreverent humour and improvisational acting.
"I would think there would be a joke or two at our expense, but I think we'll laugh," said Jody Tresoor of Destination Winnipeg, who helped send Winnipeg artifacts to Los Angeles for the shoot.
"We have a really good sense of humour over here and we're willing to accept the jokes, but we're really curious," she told CBC News.
Beastie Boys In The 'Middle' Of New Album
As the Beastie Boys prepare to begin their barnstorming Get Out and Vote tour, the group is also at work on the follow-up to the 2007 instrumental album "The Mix-Up."
"We're actually in the middle of recording it right now," group member Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz tells Billboard. "We hope to have it out sometime next year. It's a lot of vocals, a lot of words -- very wordy. And it's political, depending on what you call political. You know, if toilet talk and fart jokes are political, which they can be, in that sense yeah, very."
Any chance of new material getting played on the "Get Out and Vote 08" tour? "I don't think so," Horovitz laughs. "It's always weird when you play the new songs that people don't know. Anytime we play new songs, it always seems like a brick."
Horovitz says the decision to stage Get Out and Vote came down to the simple fact that in the last presidential election, 70 million registered voters didn't make to the polls.
"70 million people is a lot of people to not vote," Horovitz says. "So this all happened really quick, like a month or so ago and within the past few weeks, literally. We were just stressing on what to do and then we were like, 'We're a band and we play shows, so let's go to these swing states.' We thought it would be a good idea to get people to vote.
"Basically, we just called a bunch of people and asked them if they wanted to play," he says. "It's literally like, whoever called us back (is on the tour)."
The seven-date trek begins Oct. in Charlotte, N.C., and runs through Nov. 2 in Denver. Sheryl Crow, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Norah Jones, Crosby & Nash, Santogold and Tenacious D will play in different incarnations throughout. Horovitz says the Beasties also reached out to De La Soul, Nas, Nine Inch Nails and Moby, but those acts were unable to participate for scheduling reasons.
Beastie Boys In The 'Middle' Of New Album
As the Beastie Boys prepare to begin their barnstorming Get Out and Vote tour, the group is also at work on the follow-up to the 2007 instrumental album "The Mix-Up."
"We're actually in the middle of recording it right now," group member Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz tells Billboard. "We hope to have it out sometime next year. It's a lot of vocals, a lot of words -- very wordy. And it's political, depending on what you call political. You know, if toilet talk and fart jokes are political, which they can be, in that sense yeah, very."
Any chance of new material getting played on the "Get Out and Vote 08" tour? "I don't think so," Horovitz laughs. "It's always weird when you play the new songs that people don't know. Anytime we play new songs, it always seems like a brick."
Horovitz says the decision to stage Get Out and Vote came down to the simple fact that in the last presidential election, 70 million registered voters didn't make to the polls.
"70 million people is a lot of people to not vote," Horovitz says. "So this all happened really quick, like a month or so ago and within the past few weeks, literally. We were just stressing on what to do and then we were like, 'We're a band and we play shows, so let's go to these swing states.' We thought it would be a good idea to get people to vote.
"Basically, we just called a bunch of people and asked them if they wanted to play," he says. "It's literally like, whoever called us back (is on the tour)."
The seven-date trek begins Oct. in Charlotte, N.C., and runs through Nov. 2 in Denver. Sheryl Crow, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Norah Jones, Crosby & Nash, Santogold and Tenacious D will play in different incarnations throughout. Horovitz says the Beasties also reached out to De La Soul, Nas, Nine Inch Nails and Moby, but those acts were unable to participate for scheduling reasons.
'Sky's the limit' for 'High School Musical' movie
Disney's popular High School Musical TV franchise matriculates to the big screen this weekend — most likely with financial honors.
Friday's theatrical release of High School Musical 3: Senior Year "is an event movie for tweens and teens, and that translates to big box office," says Gitesh Pandya of industry tracker boxofficeguru .com. "The sky's the limit."
Unlike other small-screen series that transitioned to film, the High School Musical franchise is rooted in just two made-for-TV films. But the August 2007 sequel drew 17.2 million viewers on the Disney Channel — the most-watched non-sports basic cable program ever.
And the global popularity of the 2006 original and sequel have spawned top-selling DVDs, soundtracks, sold-out concert tours and a merchandising empire.
With a huge fan base, savvy marketing campaign and the star power of leads Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale and Corbin Bleu, HSM 3 could challenge the October weekend box office records of 2003's Scary Movie 3 ($48.3 million) and 2004's Shark Tale ($47.6 million). "Based on the strength of the franchise, it has an excellent chance of one of the biggest openings of October," says boxofficemojo .com's Brandon Gray.
Disney production chief Oren Aviv is steering away from predictions, but says he'd be happy if it grossed comparable opening-weekend numbers to musicals Hairspray ($27.5 million) and Mamma Mia! ($27.7 million).
"We've got our fingers crossed," says Aviv. "The goal was to have a movie worthy of the big screen — that meant everything needed to be notched up higher. It was important to deliver on the script, the choreography and the songs. The filmmakers did their job really well."
Tisdale says fans of the first two will enjoy HSM 3's 10 musical numbers and the plotline surrounding the graduating Wildcats, which she calls "bittersweet."
Advance ticket sales at Fandango.com are "easily outpacing pre-sales of Mamma Mia! and Hairspray," says chief operating officer Rick Butler. "People are looking for good old-fashioned entertainment, and movie musicals are one of the purest forms of escapism," he says.
With the exception of Saw V, the latest in the horror franchise, there's little competition for young viewers this weekend, says Gray. Moreover, HSM 3 could have staying power: "Musicals lend themselves to repeat business."
"The musical numbers are huge, the choreography is intense and the characters have evolved," says Bleu, en route to Rome to promote the $30 million film. "This is High School Musical on steroids."
Critic Ebert Criticized By Critics
After initially defending his decision to write a scathing review of the indie movie Tru Loved after walking out after the first eight minutes, Roger Ebert has had a change of heart. In a message posted on his website, he concedes, "In reviewing the first eight minutes, I was guilty of too much affection for my prose."
Later, he vows: "I will never, ever, again review a film I have not seen in its entirety. Never. Ever." (He has since seen the entire film and posted a detailed review of it.)
Some of Ebert's fans and fellow critics are not willing to let him off the hook so fast, however. In the Los Angeles Times, media columnist Patrick Goldstein writes today (Thursday): "If there were ever an act that indelibly painted critics as elitist snobs, it would be America's best-known critic reviewing a movie after only bothering to watch for eight minutes."
Orlando Sentinel critic Roger Moore says that writing a review of a movie based on its first eight minutes is "not cricket." He then concludes, "If we're going to start writing reviews of movies we haven't suffered all the way, or at least most of the way through, the way most people who shell out $10-12 do after they've spent the cash, we're all doomed."
And Gary Susman, a sometime critic who writes the PopWatch blog for Entertainment Weekly's website, comments: "No other movie critic in America could have pulled off such a stunt without getting fired. I fear that, even though he corrected his mistake, he's still set a bad example. At a time when film critics all over America are losing their jobs, it can't be good for readers, editors, or filmmakers to think that when he did passes for professional, acceptable behavior among film critics and the outlets that publish their work, even for a moment."
Dr Pepper flowing as new Guns album arrives
NEW YORK (Billboard) – Guns N' Roses fans thirsting for the band's first album of new material in 17 years will have a sweet, fizzy treat to savor as they listen.
Dr Pepper is making good on a promise to provide every person in America a can of the soft drink if "Chinese Democracy" were to arrive in 2008, and has revealed details of the plan.
"We never thought this day would come," Dr Pepper vp marketing Tony Jacobs said Wednesday. "But now that it's here all we can say is: The Dr Pepper's on us."
Interested fans are being asked to visit www.DrPepper.com on November 23, the day "Chinese Democracy" is released in the U.S. exclusively via Best Buy.
After registering online, fans will receive a coupon redeemable for a 20-ounce Dr Pepper wherever the drink is sold.
The twist: The coupon is available for only 24 hours and will expire on February 28.
Gross's passion no Porky's
Actor-director Paul Gross's First World War epic Passchendaele failed to notch a breakout hit for Canadian film at the box office this weekend. The movie was the second highest-grossing film in Canada on the weekend, earning an estimated $940,000 from its debut on 202 Canadian screens, according to its distributor Alliance Films. The movie had a budget of approximately $20-million as well as at least a $2-million marketing budget.
Howard Lichtman, the veteran Toronto-based box-office analyst, said Passchendaele's performance wasn't "an unmitigated success ... but in perspective it did just fine," since it's aimed at an older audience and is being released in the fall, traditionally a time for either "art films" or "adult-oriented fare."
"Is it a commercial blockbuster like a Quantum ofSolace [the new James Bond film opening Nov. 14]? It's not - but I don't think it was intended to be," Lichtman noted. "If you take the just-under million dollars it generated and divide that by the average ticket price, there's still an awful lot of people that went to see a Canadian piece of history. Which isn't too bad."
"We're thrilled with the box-office," said Carrie Wolfe, Alliance vice-president of marketing, publicity and promotion, yesterday in Toronto. "Canadians across the country have embraced the film," which opened this year's Toronto International Film Festival.
Passchendaele was bested for top spot by Max Payne, a new Mark Wahlberg action vehicle shot mostly in Toronto earlier this year. No specific Canadian weekend gross was available yesterday for Payne but Box Office Mojo estimated its North American receipts were $18-million (U.S.) from a total of 3,376 screens. Using what Lichtman calls "the 10-times factor" - that is, movies in the U.S. tend to have, on average, 10 times the box-office of Canadian releases - then it's likely Max Payne opened on 250-300 screens in Canada and earned $1.5-$1.8-million here.
It appears Passchendaele isn't en route to surpass Porky's (1982) or 2006's Bon Cop, Bad Cop as a Canadian box-office champion. (Porky's earned more than $11-million in theatrical receipts, while Bon Cop's take was more than $11.5-million.)
Nor is it likely to best Men with Brooms which Gross also directed, co-wrote and starred in. That comedy, budgeted at $7.5-million, played on 207 screens on its opening weekend in the winter of 2002 and earned $1.125-million. Its eventual total take from its theatrical release was $3.9-million.
Lichtman, however, said a film's performance needs to be evaluated in terms of its release date and its competition. He suggested the more apt comparison for Passchendaele should be with W., Oliver Stone's biopic of the current U.S. president. W grossed $10.6-million on slightly more than 2,000 screens. "It's right in the range [of the 10-times factor]," said Lichtman, meaning W.'s weekend box-office in Canada probably totalled about $1-million from approximately 210 screens - very close to that of Passchendaele.