Doctor Who sets 2nd Guinness record
Guinness World Records has named Doctor Who the most successful science-fiction series, the second Guinness record for the much-loved BBC-TV production.
The new honour was based on a combination of ratings, DVD sales, book sales and dowloading popularity for the show, which has had several incarnations since it first ran in 1963.
"It is too good a show to have just one record," Guinness editor-in-chief Craig Glenday said after handing over the award Sunday to Russell T. Davies, the show's current producer and chief writer.
Doctor Who also holds the Guinness record for longest-running sci-fi TV series, though that honour is controversial. Stargate SG-1, which ran 10 years, has received the record for longest-running consecutive sci-fi series.
The latest incarnation of the series, launched in 2005, is about to get a new lead actor. Matt Smith is to succeed David Tennant, who succeeded Christopher Eccleston as the doctor-cum-alien who travels through time in his ship, the Tardis. Smith will be the 11th Time Lord since 1963.
Mila Kunis dances to 'Swan' song
At long last, we'll know: Is Mila Kunis for real?
Kunis has joined the cast of Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan" as a mysterious (and possibly not real) dancer, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The role will place Kunis opposite Natalie Portman, who signed on in June to play a New York ballerina contending against a possibly supernatural rival.
"Black Swan" is a bit of a pet project for Aronofsky, whose films ("Pi" and "The Fountain," among others) had largely languished in arthouse theaters until the mainstream popularity of 2008's "The Wrestler."
Filming begins this fall in New York City.
Foreigner Comeback To Be A Wal-Mart Exclusive
Can Wal-Mart work its magic for yet another '70s rock act?
The retail giant's exclusive September 29 release of Foreigner's "Can't Slow Down" will be its first major exclusive since AC/DC's "Black Ice" in October. The album (Foreigner's first since 1995's "Mr. Moonlight") has much in common with Journey's 2008 Wal-Mart-only release, "Revelation." Like its predecessor, "Can't Slow Down" will be a three-disc set that features a CD of new material, a concert DVD and a best-of collection. But whereas "Revelation" included a CD of rerecorded Journey favorites, Foreigner remixed the band's original master recordings to make its hits sound more contemporary.
Perhaps most noticeable to longtime fans of both bands, each release features a replacement lead singer -- in Foreigner's case, Kelly Hansen, who takes the place of original frontman Lou Gramm.
Despite the absence of original Journey lead singer Steve Perry, "Revelation" sold 633,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. In its debut week that ended June 8, 2008, it sold nearly 105,000 copies, good enough to reach No. 5 on the Billboard 200 album chart. "Black Ice" sold 2.1 million U.S. copies, including 784,000 in its debut week that ended October 26, 2008.
It won't be easy for "Can't Slow Down" to match the success of "Revelation" or "Black Ice." During the past year, overall U.S. recorded-music sales have continued to tumble, with CD sales plunging 21.2 percent in the first half of 2009 from a year earlier.
And despite being a regular chart fixture in the '70s and '80s, Foreigner doesn't have a synch-licensing hit like Journey's 1981 single "Don't Stop Believin'," which has helped keep the band in the public eye through its use in hit movies and TV shows, most memorably the June 2007 series finale of HBO's "The Sopranos."
But Foreigner boasts its own potential source of hip cachet: founding guitarist Mick Jones' stepson, Mark Ronson. Ronson, who has collaborated with Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen and Kanye West and is a BRIT Award-winning performer in his own right, co-produced the new songs on "Can't Slow Down" with Marti Frederiksen.
Foreigner also has a catalog of hits that instantly register with fans, even if they don't remember who performed them. "When Foreigner played at the company's annual shareholders meeting, the band's (appeal) was reinforced by how much our associates loved it," said Wal-Mart senior music buyer Tom Welch.
"People know all of Foreigner's songs," the group's manager, Phil Carson, said. "But the band has so many hits -- nine top 10 hits and 16 top 30 -- they aren't aware that they are all by the same group ... With the album at Wal-Mart's entrance, we can get people to associate the band with their songs."
Tron's time has finally come
SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- There's a term for movies that are ahead of their time.
Flops.
Take, for instance, 1982's Tron, heavily hyped for its groundbreaking computerized graphics only to be snubbed at the box office by the then-pre-digital masses.
Still, the film managed to cultivate a fanbase so enthusiastic that reports have long persisted of a possible sequel.
Even star Jeff Bridges remembers hearing recurring rumours of a Tron 2.
"Over the years, somebody would say, 'So I hear they're making a new Tron' and I'd say, 'What are you talking about?' They'd say, 'Oh yeah, you're kind of lost in the world, kind of Apocalypse Now -- you're (Marlon Brando's) Kurtz or something' and I'd say, 'What are you talking about?' And here it is, 30 years later. It's quite amazing."
First announced at last year's Comic-Con, Tron Legacy, which has been shooting in Vancouver, is due out in the fall of 2010.
Bridges returns -- as multiple versions of himself, no less -- alongside Garrett Hedlund and House's Olivia Wilde.
"It's kind of bizarre," says Bridges, 59. "I'm kind of reticent to discuss this stuff because it's like a magician shows up and tells you how he's going to do his trick."
Behind the camera is Joseph Kosinski, a commercial director who is making his feature-film debut under the aegis of Tron creator Steven Lisberger.
Kosinski believes the plot -- in which Hedlund, as Bridges' son, enters the cyber-scape to locate his missing father -- will appeal to more than just the die-hards that have been salivating decades for a sequel.
What both demos -- newcomers and fans -- will discover is that "the world of Tron has evolved kind of on its own like an aquarium, disconnected from the outside world for 20, 25 years," Kosinski says. "The simulation has gotten more perfect and more realistic so the scale of the world is much bigger than it was before ... The line between what's real and what's not should be blurred so that you can't tell the difference."
All of which should please Lisberger most of all. What does he think of this chance at a better-appreciated version 2.0? "It's a generational thing," he says philosophically. "Part of the reason Tron is happening now is that it feels like the generational wheel has aligned."