South Park season 12 is around the corner
The 12th season is coming to DVD and - for the first time - to Blu-ray early next year from Warner.
All fourteen uncensored episodes from South Park's twelfth season are now available in this exclusive three-disc set. In this collection, South Park follows the new President-elect from his acceptance speech to his first official day of duty as Commander in Chief. The boys keep busy helping a pop-princess who's down on her luck, negotiating a truce for striking Canadians, and preventing giant rodents from destroying the world. For them, it's all part of growing up in South Park.
The set will contain all the episodes as well as a behind the scenes look at the making of an episode from start to finish and a special featurette on the making of Major Boobage.
Arriving on March 10th, the four boys who started as pieces of construction paper will go 1080p.
April Wine on tap for Music Industry Hall of Fame
April Wine is now a vintage to be treasured — the Canadian rock band is to be inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame in March.
The rockers who had hits like You Could Have Been a Lady, Roller and Anything You Want You Got It are still performing, though there have been several changes of personnel over the years.
Myles Goodwyn, Jim Henman and brothers David and Ritchie Henman originally formed the band in Nova Scotia in 1969.
Lead singer Goodwyn remains and the other members are Jerry Mercer, a drummer who joined the band in 1973, Brian Greenway of Hawkesbury, Ont., on guitar and vocals, who joined in 1977 and bassist Breen LeBoeuf, formerly with Offenbach, who joined April Wine in 2007.
Goodwyn was in the news after collapsing after a Halifax show on Nov. 28. He was treated in hospital for internal bleeding and released.
The band will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award and be inducted into the Hall of Fame March 13 during Canadian Music Week in Toronto.
April Wine moved to Montreal in 1970 and had their first hit with You Could Have Been a Lady, a song originally recorded by Hot Chocolate in the U.K.
Producer Ralph Murphy saw the group through a number of albums, including Stand Back and The Whole World's Goin' Crazy, with hits such as I Wouldn't Want to Lose Your Love and You Won't Dance with Me. They toured extensively, becoming known for their power ballads and rock 'n' roll sound.
The band is also famous for opening for a mystery group called the Cockroaches at the El Mocambo club in Toronto in 1977.
The Cockroaches turned out to be the Rolling Stones and the album recorded from that session, Live At The El Mocambo, features April Wine's She's No Angel.
The band's seventh studio album First Glance was a turning point, with the single Roller becoming a hit in the U.S.
The band, then with five members, continued touring throughout the 1980s with hits such as Crash and Burn and Just Between You and Me.
Goodwyn went solo for a while in the late 1980s, but the band reunited in July 1992.
Their most recent studio album is Roughly Speaking, released in 2006.
New CD Releases, December 16: Fall Out boy, Jamie Foxx, Keyshia Cole, The All-American Rejects, Anthony Hamilton, and more!
Fall Out Boy "Folie a Deux" (Island)
The alt-rock band returns with its fifth album, which follows last year's "Infinity on High." That earlier outing was the group's first No. 1 album in the US, and spawned a pair of Top 10 singles in "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" and "Thnks Fr Th Mmrs."
"Folie a Deux" features a plethora of guest stars, including Lil Wayne, Pharrell, Panic at the Disco and Blondie's Debbie Harry. Fall Out Boy is currently finishing up a short tour, which still has two California dates left: Dec. 20 in San Diego and Dec. 21 in San Francisco.
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Jamie Foxx "Intuition" (J Records)
The multi-talented artist, who has made a name for himself on television, in film and on the Billboard charts, is set to drop a follow-up to the 2005 chart-topper "Unpredictable."
"Intuition," the R&B singer's third studio album, features contributions from such A-list personalities as Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Ne-Yo. The album's first single, "Just Like Me," is a collaboration with rapper T.I.
Despite his hefty success as a recording artist--"Unpredictable," for example, has been certified double platinum--Foxx remains best known for his work onscreen. Most notably, he won the Best Actor Oscar for playing the lead role in the 2004 Ray Charles biopic "Ray."
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Keyshia Cole "A Different Me" (Geffen)
The R&B/soul vocalist is set to unveil her third studio effort, which follows 2005's "The Way It Is" and 2007's "Just Like You," both of which have been certified platinum.
"A Different Me" includes guest appearances by Monica, Kanye West, Nas and, most notably, Tupac Shakur. The deceased rapper is featured on the album's first single, "Playa Cardz Right." That tune was first released on Shakur's sixth posthumous album, 2006's "Pac's Life," and the version on "A Different Me" was rearranged by Cole and her producers.
Cole is currently on the road as one of the opening acts on Lil Wayne's big arena tour. That trek is set to stretch into late January. TV viewers can also catch the star on her BET reality series, "Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is."
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The All-American Rejects "When the World Comes Down" (Geffen)
The pop-punk outfit is back to sing about "When the World Comes Down." The album, AAR's third studio effort, follows 2005's multi-platinum-selling "Move Along," which stayed on The Billboard 200 chart for nearly 100 weeks and spawned the hits "It Ends Tonight," "Dirty Little Secret" and the title track.
"When the World Comes Down" was produced by Eric Valentine (Maroon 5, Smash Mouth). The set's first single is the track "Gives You Hell," which has already made some noise on Billboard's Pop 100 chart.
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Anthony Hamilton "The Point of It All" (La Face)
The R&B star gets around to telling fans "The Point of It All." The album is Hamilton's sixth studio effort, and comes roughly one year after his previous outing, "Ain't Nobody Worryin'."
Hamilton co-wrote and co-produced the set with longtime collaborators Mark Batson (Seal, Beyonce) and Kelvin Wooten. The album's lead single, "Cool," features a guest vocal from David Banner.
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More new releases:
Bob Dylan, "Playlist: The Very Best of Bob Dylan 1960s" (Sony)
Brooks & Dunn, "Playlist: The Very Best of Brooks & Dunn" (Sony)
Led Zeppelin, "Complete Studio Recordings" (Warner Bros.)
Madonna, "Miles Away (Remix EP)" (Warner Bros.)
Martina McBride, "Playlist: The Very Best of Martina McBride" (Sony)
Dave Matthews Band, "Live at Mile High Music Festival" (RCA)
Dave Matthews Band, "Live Trax Vol. 13" (RCA)
Plies, "Da Realist" (Atlantic)
Saliva, "Cinco Diablo" (Island)
Santana, "The Best of the Fillmore Years" (Cleopatra)
Soundtracks and scores:
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Concord)
"The Day the Earth Stood Still" (Varese)
"Frost/Nixon" (Varese)
"Valkyrie" (Varese)
Jack Black to guest-star on `The Office'
NEW YORK – Jack Black is headed to "The Office," guest-starring in an episode slated to air during a ratings-rich time slot: after the Super Bowl.
The Feb. 1 episode of the sitcom, titled "Stress Relief," will follow the office drones as they try to secretly watch a bootlegged Hollywood movie at work. The network did not say how Black will factor into the story line.
Black recently starred in "Tropic Thunder." His other film credits include "King Kong," "High Fidelity" and the voice of the main character in the animated "Kung Fu Panda."
It's Tom Hanks vs. Mel Gibson as SAG Splits Into Strike Camps
Los Angeles (E! Online) – All work and no contract has made members of the Screen Actors Guild a surly bunch.
While support for an actors' strike was already running thin thanks to the industry-wide burnout still being felt from the 100-day writers' strike in 2007-08, the current state of the nation's economy—not to mention the just-underway awards season—has Hollywood up in arms over what could be another potentially disastrous work stoppage.
A select group of A-listers is in favor of authorizing a strike, should SAG leadership choose to go that route, but nearly 150 big-deal actors have now gone ahead and publicized their avowed opposition to such a move.
George Clooney, Tom Hanks, Alec Baldwin, Cameron Diaz, Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner, Charlize Theron, Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman and Eva Longoria Parker are among the boldfaced names found on a petition that was sent to SAG national president Alan Rosenberg asking the board to cancel a strike-authorization vote scheduled for Jan. 2.
"We feel very strongly that SAG members should not vote to authorize a strike at this time," the petition read. "We don't think that an authorization can be looked at as merely a bargaining tool. It must be looked at as what it is—an agreement to strike if negotiations fail.
"We support our union and we support the issues we're fighting for, but we do not believe in all good conscience that now is the time to be putting people out of work."
David Boreanaz, Ewan McGregor, Sally Field, Michael C. Hall, Felicity Huffman, Rob Lowe, Kevin Spacey, Josh Brolin, Pierce Brosnan, Glenn Close, Donald Sutherland, Billy Crystal, Ted Danson, Kelsey Grammer, Edward Norton, Tobey Maguire, Bradley Whitford and Helen Hunt also lent their signatures to the document.
Then again, plenty of A- and B-listers are in favor of authorizing a strike, having signed a "Statement of Support" for Rosenberg & Co.'s studio-fighting tactics.
Among the 30 prominent thesps who will stand by SAG if it chooses to play even harder ball are Mel Gibson, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, Martin Sheen, Sandra Oh, Jerry O'Connell and Rob Morrow.
SAG's contract with the studio-representing Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers expired June 30 and actors have been working under the terms of their own deal ever since.
As was the case with the Writers Guild of America, SAG continues to quibble over new-media residuals and other compensation-related issues.
The AMPTP's response to SAG's upcoming vote was as follows: "SAG members are going to be asked to bail out a failed negotiating strategy by going on strike during one of the worst economic crises in history. We hope that working actors will study our contract offer carefully and come to the conclusion that no strike can solve the problems that have been created by SAG's own failed negotiation strategy."
Metallica gets 'Guitar Hero' treatment
Next up on the Guitar Hero stage … enter Metallica.
The legendary hard rockers are providing the latest riff on Guitar Hero, with a game based on their music expected in stores during the first half of 2009 for Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3 and PS2. No price or rating has been set, but past GH games have sold for $40 to $50 and have been rated T for ages 13-up.
"Us being a pretty guitar-oriented band, I think we were pretty much destined to do something with Guitar Hero," says guitarist Kirk Hammett. "It's a natural sort of relationship. We jumped at the chance."
Guitar Hero: Metallica plays out differently from Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, the first GH game based on one band (released in June). "There's a historical element involving some memorable gigs we have played, but it's not something that follows a chronological timeline to a T," says drummer Lars Ulrich. "We kind of wanted it to be a little bit more about who we are now than a who-we-were-in-1986 type of thing."
After an opening set of two Metallica songs — complete with the 3-D animated band on-screen — players take the role of a fledgling group of rockers inspired to create their own band. The story line, Ulrich says, "is about helping out a bunch of young dudes to put a band together to come on the road with us."
Metallica is one of the few bands worthy of a solo title, says Luke Plunkett of game news site Kotaku.com, "because they're one of the few popular enough — and with a large enough back catalog — to make it a worthwhile endeavor. A lot of their biggest songs are built on fast drums, fast guitars and epic solos, which should make them more enjoyable to play."
Band members Hammett, Ulrich, singer James Hetfield and bassist Robert Trujillo had a motion-capture performance session to bring their 3-D characters to life. About 40% of the 45-plus songs will be from artists that influenced Metallica, played concerts with them or appeared on 1998 covers album Garage Inc. Among them: Queen, the Foo Fighters, Alice in Chains, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bob Seger, Kyuss and Samhain.
"That is another cool facet of Guitar Hero," Hammett says. "Younger kids are exposed to all this great rock and heavy metal they'd never be exposed to otherwise."
You can play solo or with up to four — two guitarists, singer and drums — using current game controllers. You also can add a second pedal (sold separately) to propel double bass drums as Ulrich does. The game takes its cue from Metallica's ferocity. "It's a couple grades harder than Guitar Hero World Tour," says lead designer Alan Flores.
Iron Man Meets The Office at AFI Awards
Los Angeles (E! Online) – The Hulk is gonna get green with envy. Well, greener.
Iron Man and The Dark Knight were both named Sunday to the American Film Institute's Movies of the Year Top 10 list.
On the television side, the AFI Awards' honorees included The Office, Lost and Mad Men, but not the Emmy-winning 30 Rock.
For Iron Man, the kudos is its first major honor of awards season. For The Dark Knight, it's its umpteenth honor. For superhero movies—the passed-over Incredible Hulk excepted—it's another step in their march toward world domination.
Brad Pitt, Michelle Williams and Clint Eastwood, meanwhile, helped represent for people who can't fly.
Pitt's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Williams' Wendy and Lucy and Eastwood's Gran Torino all made AFI's movie Top 10.
Rounding out the list: Frost/Nixon, the low-budget indie Frozen River, Milk, WALL-E, and The Wrestler.
Revolutionary Road, The Reader and Slumdog Millionaire, all of which are up for Best Drama at the Golden Globes, along with Frost/Nixon and Benjamin Button, were not AFI selections. The group's awards honor American-made films; those three movies are European productions or coproductions.
As with film, the AFI's Programs of the Year list heavily favored drama over comedy. In addition to Lost and Mad Men, Breaking Bad, In Treatment, cult-favorite Life, the miniseries John Adams, the TV movie Recount, and the late The Wire and The Shield all made the cut.
The Steve Carell-managed The Office was the only half-hour comedy honored.