Lego Rock Band Coming to PS3, Wii and Xbox 360
There is no typo in that headline. Lego and Rock Band are joining forces in Lego Rock Band which is currently in development at TT Games in partnership with Harmonix for PS3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii.
Lego Rock Band is targeting younger and family-centric audiences who might have shied away from big brother Rock Band.
The use of Lego in Rock Band will allow players to "build" their band from their own personal avatar to the manager, crew and even roadies. Expect Lego's trademark humor found in previously licensed properties to make an appearance as well.
The first screens are below so please click to enlarge for high-res versions. Look for Lego Rock Band in stores this fall.
Louis-Dreyfus wants 'Seinfeld' film
Seinfeld star Julia Louis-Dreyfus is ready to revive the hit 1990s sitcom for the big screen - after reuniting with her former castmates for guest spots on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Seinfeld fans will get a teaser when Louis-Dreyfus and her former TV co-stars Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards appear together in a number of shows for the upcoming season of Larry David's comedy series.
Returning to the set with her former colleagues brought back fond memories for the actress, 11 years after Seinfeld came to an end in 1998 following a nine-season run.
She tells People.com, "It was wonderful. It was like we never left to be honest with you - so that part of it was quite surreal."
Louis-Dreyfus admits she is keen to reprise her role as Elaine, one of Seinfeld's zany sidekicks, in a movie adaptation of the show - and she's already got some big plans for her character.
She tells reporters, "You get the financing together and I'll work on the script... I would say she'd just be getting out of prison."
Ron James comedy, skating reality show set for CBC-TV schedule
New shows featuring comedian Ron James as well as figure skaters and hockey players taking part in a reality competition will join returning programs like Being Erica and Rick Mercer Report on CBC-TV's new schedule.
The public broadcaster announced new additions to its upcoming fall-winter 2009 programming lineup in a statement issued Tuesday.
For the fall, James is set to offer up his observational comedy in The Ron James Show, while Battle of the Blades will see teams of Canadian figure skaters and hockey stars matched to compete each week in an elimination-style challenge.
Also debuting in the fall will be Super Speller, a competition show for young Canadians hosted by CBC personality Evan Solomon.
Two new shows will premiere during the winter: 18 to Life, a domestic comedy about a couple who marry at 18, and The Republic of Doyle, a one-hour, St. John's-set dramatic comedy about a dysfunctional father-son private investigator team.
Along with Being Erica and Mercer Report, returning to the schedule are The Border, Little Mosque on the Prairie, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, The Tudors, Dragons' Den, Heartland, Coronation Street and The Hour.
In March, CBC announced it would produce fewer episodes of some of its prime-time shows, such as 22 Minutes, Little Mosque and Being Erica, due to overall programming cuts.
Wild Roses cancelled
Wild Roses, the Calgary-based drama about two families duelling over oil, has been cancelled, CBC spokesman Jeff Keay confirmed. Rumours of the show's demise had spread of late, with a group of fans banding together on Facebook to sing its praises in an attempt to save it.
The cancellation of Wild Roses follows that of two-year-old sitcom Sophie and long-running runway chronicle Fashion File, announced in March. Daytime lifestyle chat show Steven & Chris was placed on indefinite hiatus.
There are also no current plans for another instalment of the reality series The Week the Women Went, "but that's really more a function of the fact that we have some resource issues," Keay said, citing "funding reductions" that will also scuttle new editions of occasional, one-off programs such as Test The Nation.
"We'll have more announcements later this summer," he said, adding that there are currently no changes planned for the summer schedule.
CSI movie in the works, says former star, producer Petersen
TV's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is heading to the movies, according to executive producer and former star William Petersen.
The actor, whose paternal forensic investigator Gil Grissom left the drama earlier this season, told the U.K.'s Radio Times that a movie featuring the Las Vegas team is in the works.
Petersen, who has since returned to the theatre world, acknowledged that some fans might feel "a little trepidatious" about the prospect of a CSI film project.
"Usually people leave it till a series has finished — they did that with The X-Files and Sex and the City," he told the magazine.
"But it's about finding the right story…You don't just do it because you want to make money. You do it because there's a story that can't be told on TV and needs to be told from CSI's perspective, and the audience wants it," Petersen said.
"And we can't wait for CSI to end or Grissom will be about 90."
Petersen had previously expressed a desire to see a CSI movie, quipping "that's the real reason Grissom isn't going to die of a brain tumour."
Having portrayed the show's lead investigator since the series debut in 2000, Petersen made his exit this season — the show's 10th — paving the way for Emmy and Tony Award-winning film, TV and stage actor Laurence Fishburne to join the cast of the top-rated forensics drama.
Petersen has since joined Chicago's celebrated Steppenwolf Theatre Company as a member of its acting ensemble.
Adults steering clear of movies As Recession forces studios to aim younger
Pricey, star-driven thrillers and dramas will struggle for profitability as the recession intensifies a trend toward youth-dominated openings.
That's the consensus after the weekend's soft opening for Universal's Russell Crowe starrer, the latest in a series of misfires by adult-oriented releases. Investigative-journo thriller "State of Play" rung up just $14.1 million over its first frame, meaning the Americanized adaptation of a British miniseries must overperform dramatically overseas for the $60 million production to break even.
The pic's travails reflect this rude awakening in Hollywood: Older demos may be resisting the recent enthusiasm for moviegoing. Certainly it's been months since anything has caught fire at the arthouses.
But it's the ill-fated outings of studios' highest-profile adult fare that's stirred the most concern.
"Not as many adults are going to the movies because of the recession," a highly placed studio exec lamented. "More and more, it's the kids who come out and support the pictures over opening weekend and not as much the older adults."
The good news is that ticket sales are pacing ahead of last year's by a healthy single-digit percentage, and boxoffice is up by a double-digit margin on a calendar-year basis. In fact, the market has been so robust it can produce even the odd adult-driven success: Fox's Liam Neeson starrer "Taken" -- produced for under $30 million -- rang up $218 million in worldwide boxoffice after unspooling in January.
"The success of 'Taken' has a lot to do with the audience rooting so hard for Liam Neeson to find his daughter in the picture," Fox distribution president Bruce Snyder said. "The audience involvement is great. That personal involvement doesn't happen often with these kind of movies. It's more common in the younger movies, but that emotional note is important to hit."
Marketing also figures prominently in any success or failure at the boxoffice.
"Adults are a harder audience to motivate, and the problem with some adult movies is compounded by their not being high-concept films that you can boil down to 30-second spots," a top studio exec said. "With 'Taken,' it was, 'You took my kid, motherfucker, and you're going to pay.' "
A succession of adult-oriented boxoffice laggards has been noticeable for at least six months, though the trend was in evidence with 2007's critically lauded but commercially constrained "Michael Clayton." Warner Bros. rung up less than $93 million worldwide with the George Clooney starrer.
More recently, Uni absorbed a bottom-line hit with its recent Julia Roberts-Clive Owen starrer "Duplicity," a mere $39 million domestic performer through five frames that's unlikely to compensate with outsized foreign coin. Warners registered a similar sum with the thriller "Body of Lies" -- an October opener starring Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio that overperformed only modestly overseas -- while Sony's political thriller "The International" unspooled over Valentine's Day and raked in less than $50 million worldwide.
With films like "State of Play," critical praise is nice but goes only so far. If the kids don't take notice, then it's fingers-crossed for a successful DVD release to stanch some of the inevitable red ink -- though adult thrillers also have been a tough sell on shiny disc.
The worrisome trend is likely to put additional pressure on studios to rein in production costs on adult-skewing films where possible, including talent deals.
"If these things were made for a reasonable cost, it wouldn't be a problem," a studio exec groused.
"Not a lot of them break through," acknowledged another top distribution exec. "With an R-rating you're playing to an older audience, and the subject matter has to be something besides politics. People at the moment are kind of fed up with that stuff."
Warners hit big last year with Clint Eastwood's older-skewing but leggy "Gran Torino," a neighborhood-vigilante tale of personal redemption. Like the avenging-father thriller "Taken," "Torino" was a crowd-pleaser with emotional wallop. The pic grossed $237 million worldwide.
"Material-wise, I thought 'State of Play' was too 'been there, done that,'" a studio exec mused.
The comment echoed sentiment heard repeatedly last week when pre-release interest in the pic prompted forecasts for a limp "Play" bow.
"The opening was better than expected," a Uni publicist noted Monday.