Aykroyd hopeful about 'Ghostbusters 3'
TORONTO - Dan Aykroyd says that seeing this year's "Star Trek" reboot has convinced him that a renewed "Ghostbusters" franchise could also live long and prosper.
But Aykroyd warns that until he has a script for "Ghostbusters 3" in his hands, nothing about the sequel is certain.
"I think this last 'Star Trek' was great, they did a really fine job of revivifying those characters," Aykroyd told The Canadian Press in a telephone interview from his farm in Kingston, Ont.
"I'd like to see the torch get passed in sort of a 'Star Trek' manner so that the franchise lives on."
Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky - scribes for NBC's "The Office" - have signed on to write "Ghostbusters 3." Aykroyd has said that he and other members of the original cast - including Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson - are on board to reprise their roles.
But Aykroyd still sounds cautious about the prospect of another film.
"As ('Ghostbusters' director) Ivan Reitman says - and I quote him now - 'It's all just talk,"' Aykroyd said.
"That's pretty much what we can say. Until we can see a script, until we have casting, until we've got a production number," he added before trailing off. "I'm the biggest cheerleader. I think it's going to happen, but really it's just theory until the production number is stamped."
If the film does get made, Aykroyd figures it's time to crown a new generation of Ghostbusters.
"The old generation of Ghostbusters, we're getting hip replacements now, we can't lift the equipment anymore, the eyesight's fading, we can't drive the car, there's so many things that are just physically breaking down," he said.
"We need a whole new cadre of cadets to get us through to a new generation."
Given Aykroyd's unwavering passion for the franchise, he's just as anxious about a sequel as the series' ardent fans.
The idea for the first film - which was released in 1984 and went on to fetch a North American gross of almost $240 million - grew from Aykroyd's own fascination with the paranormal, which he inherited from his family.
His great grandfather was a dentist and also an "Edwardian spiritualist." Aykroyd's father is preparing to release a book called "A History of Ghosts," which tracks the development of spiritualism from the mid-19th century.
Aykroyd wrote his own treatment of a third "Ghostbusters" movie in the 1990s - it centred on a "Ghostbusters in hell" motif, where there was an alternative version of Manhattan full of demons and ghouls - and Ramis has given him credit in interviews for keeping the flame for the franchise alive.
"I'm sitting right in the farmhouse right now hoping to get that first draft and I will sit down and go through it, but it all really came from my family so I originate it, and I will continue to be the chief cheerleader on it," Aykroyd said.
MuchMusic turns 25...quietly
As MuchMusic marks its 25th anniversary this month, there will be no stylishly produced retrospectives, no neon-splashed '80s videos from the vault, and no nostalgic appearances by former VJs.
In fact, representatives from the network which has survived by keeping a finger firmly on the pulse of young people say they will not mark the milestone at all, arguing that their audience just doesn't care about it.
"We will be doing absolutely nothing for the 25th anniversary," said Brad Schwartz, senior vice-president and general manager of Much MTV Group.
"It's actually really, really important to me. ... You will not see a press release from us, they will not do anything special on air, there will be nothing going on, you will never know that Much turned 25, because for us it's not a story.
"We are in the looking-forward business, we are in the looking-at-today business, we are in the young-person business. We are not in the looking-back business."
And, apparently, business is good.
Schwartz says MuchMusic was the No. 2 network for 12- to 34-year-olds last year, behind TSN. Overall ratings steadily increased until 1997 and have held steady since, despite an increasingly competitive landscape and the fact that music videos once Much's lifeblood are now available at the click of a mouse.
Schwartz remembers when viewers had to stay glued to their sets to watch the latest offering from their favourite artist and even sit through videos they didn't like to get to videos they did.
"Remember, when MuchMusic was playing music videos, it was the only place to get music videos," Schwartz said.
"You couldn't get them anywhere else, so you had to tune into MuchMusic and watch the countdown. If you wanted to watch the Michael Jackson `Thriller' video, you had to watch videos six, five, four, three, two and then finally get to it.
"Today, you don't need to do that. If you want to watch the `Thriller' video, you go online and you watch it, you watch it 10 times in a row. ... Today's music is so on-demand that you don't need to watch a Beyonce video to get to a Britney video, you can just go straight to a Britney video."
As a result, videos have largely been pushed to the margins of the network's programming. Meanwhile, Much has found higher ratings with in-house fare such as Video on Trial, in which comics poke fun at popular videos; reality shows including So You Think You Can Dance and Pimp My Ride; and with teen dramas including One Tree Hill and Degrassi.
Much still devotes 50 per cent of its programming to music videos, as per the requirements of its CRTC licence. But once-beloved Much mainstays such as The Wedge and Rap City have been relegated to late-night airings where the network tends to tuck much of its video-centric programming while The NewMusic was cancelled outright in 2008.
Unsurprisingly, many Canadian artists lament Much's change in direction.
"Definitely, they've been playing a lot more reality TV programming, and I'm not really a fan of that," Billy Talent guitarist Ian D'Sa said in a recent interview.
"Or even pop culture TV programming," added the band's bassist, Jon Gallant. "They're a smash success, I guess they're just following the money, but it's kind of a drag."
Said Alexisonfire vocalist George Pettit: "Sometimes you just feel like you're missing out on what's the best of our culture, and we're trading that for `Hogan Knows Best."'
Rheostatics singer Dave Bidini was more blunt.
"I don't think MuchMusic contributes to youth culture anymore," he said. "I think it's let Canada down in a lot of ways. It's becoming this teenage lifestyle channel as opposed to an outlet for great, wild, strange, interesting, beautiful music."
Even John Roberts one of the network's first VJs, when he went by J.D. says he misses long-cancelled music-centric shows such as City Limits and The Power Hour.
"I lament the loss of the shows, because when we first were on the air it was all about the music, it was all about exposing new talent to the audience," said Roberts, now the anchor of CNN's American Morning, on the line from his New York office.
"I guess I am somewhat saddened by the fact that a lot of what was supposed to be quote `music television' has gone into reality TV mode. And I know that people probably just got bored of the videos, but I'll tell you ... I just like listening to and watching music, and you can keep the reality shows, I'm not really interested in those at all."
Videos, of course, have not disappeared from MuchMusic's repertoire. The station's website has more than 14,000 music videos, interviews and clips available for free. And Much also owns cable networks MuchVibe, MuchMoreRetro, MuchLoud and PunchMuch, which will be going commercial-free in the fall.
But as far as the main network is concerned, has the Internet killed the music-video station?
"It's almost like, why would you want to watch a channel of videos and wait and hope something you like comes on, when you have control now?" said Edmonton hip-hop artist Roland Pemberton, a.k.a. Cadence Weapon.
"It's kind of disappointing that there's not more of a music focus on a music channel, but they've gotta go with what people are watching."
Added Dallas Green, guitarist/vocalist for Alexisonfire: "I can appreciate what (MuchMusic) was before the Internet and before reality TV, because I remember it and it meant a lot to me ... but things change, and it's all about how I think you change with it."
So, what changes are next, and where is the station headed? The altered music landscape and overall direction of MuchMusic over the past decade might indicate that the station will continue to move away from music, or, at least, music videos.
But executives at the station insist that's not the case.
"I think music is always going to be a part of MuchMusic, yes," said Craig Halket, senior music programmer for Much MTV Group. "I don't see that changing. I think the evolution is going to continue, but music isn't going away."
Schwartz has lots of ideas for the future of the network, saying the network needs to get smarter at presenting music videos.
He suggests showing music videos in commercial breaks between programs, or showing 30-second clips of music videos and directing viewers online to watch the rest.
He also says that campaigning the CRTC to have Much's licence changed is not out of the question.
"We constantly need to evolve the channel along with the desires of young people," he said. "If our licence doesn't allow us to be everything that our audience wants us to be, then obviously we have to look at that.
"But I can't tell you that we have any firm plans or anything on paper that anything's coming, but we will always have to evolve with our audience."
Schwartz considers the mandate for the modern MuchMusic to be an ``excitement channel," dedicated to connecting with youth and connecting youth to music.
One need only look to Much's headquarters on Toronto's Queen Street West on a typical afternoon to get an idea of whether they're succeeding.
For a recent appearance by dimpled teen-popper Justin Bieber, screaming throngs of preteen girls crowded the corner, digital cameras fastened to their wrists.
"It's crazy," Bieber muttered, over and over.
Heck, the mostly preteen "MuchOnDemand" crowd was so amped to be in the Much building, they even mustered appreciative cheers when recent guest Quentin Tarantino cited long-dead Italian director Sergio Leone as a primary influence (``whoo!").
These are Schwartz's people. He's not too concerned with whether the Much of today stacks up to nostalgic memories of the Much of yesterday which is why the network doesn't feel the need to promote its past.
"My friends come to me and they say: `Oh, MuchMusic isn't what it used to be,"' he said. "I'm like: `You're 36 years old, you're not supposed to be watching MuchMusic anymore.'
"If we're doing our job properly, then we're staying focused on our audience, which is the ripping, burning, young, early adopter young Canadians.
"So to people who don't think that we are what we used to be, I'd say we're even more and greater we're just not for you anymore. And if we're doing our jobs right, we shouldn't be."
Tudors, Flashpoint vie for Gemini Awards
CBC programs Being Erica, The Border and The Tudors are among the nominees for best dramatic series at the 2009 Gemini Awards, Canada's honours for the best in television production.
CTV crime drama Flashpoint led the pack with 19 nominations, including best drama, as nominations for the Geminis were announced Tuesday in Toronto.
ZOS: Zone of Separation, the eight-part drama about Canadian peacekeepers working in a fictional town in the Balkans, also received a nomination for best drama. It was shown on The Movie Network and Movie Central.
The best comedy category includes novice programs Less Than Kind, on Citytv; Testees, on Showcase; and Three Chords from the Truth, on Country Music Television; as well as CBC favourites Rick Mercer Report and This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
The Tudors, the CBC multinational co-production about the life of Henry VIII, has 11 nominations, including a best performance nod for Natalie Dormer as the doomed Anne Boleyn.
Other multiple nominees include Being Erica, Global TV's Diamonds, Less than Kind and The Border, each with nine Gemini nominations.
Flashpoint dominates actor categories
Flashpoint, the drama about a police tactical unit created for CTV and CBS, dominated nominations for performance.
The show's stars, Enrico Colantoni, Hugh Dillon and Amy Jo Johnson, were among the nominees for best actor and actress in a dramatic series.
Guests stars on the series, which was in its second season by May 2009, also earned nominations for their performances, among them Nicholas Campbell, Henry Czerny, Mpho Koaho, Sarah Gadon and Kristin Booth.
Koaho played a wrongfully convicted man who spent 11 years in Kingston Penitentiary and after he is released is determined to find out what went wrong with his prosecution.
"I really like the positive ending and as a black man, the way the story wasn't catering to negative stereotypes," Koaho said of the role.
"I don't play a gangster the kinds of parts I usually get. He's just a guy whose life goes wrong, and he's trying to figure it out."
The young Toronto actor is a double nominee, also receiving a nod for best supporting role in a drama for his part in Soul.
Less Than Kind, the Winnipeg-shot drama about a dysfunctional family that runs a driving school, earned acting nominations for Benjamin Arthur and Brooke Palsson.
They are competing in the comedy performance category with Debra DiGiovanni at the Halifax Comedy Fest, Jon Dore of The Jon Dore Television Show and Terry McGurrin of Comedy Now!
TV reporting also honoured
Dormer, who won the best leading actress in a drama Gemini in 2008, is competing for the honour this year with Andrea Menard, playing the police investigator in the Aboriginal People's Network series Rabbit Fall, Amanda Tapping in SyFy series Sanctuary and Being Erica star Erin Karpluk.
Karpluk told CBC News she was thrilled with her nomination, and credited the cast and crew of Being Erica with turning it into a winning series.
The Erica character, who is transported to the past to confront her own mistakes in each episode, is "very relatable," she said.
"The theme of regrets is very universal regardless of your age, or class or background," Karpluk said.
The time travel aspect of the show never seems out of place because it's not meant to be realistic, she said. "It's just a catalyst for my character to delve into her past," she said.
CBC earned several nominations for best reporting, with nods for Adrienne Arsenault for coverage of the Beijing Olympics; Neil MacDonald for his work on the U.S. economic crisis; and Frιdιric Zalac for reports for The National. Also nominated in this category are Kevin Newman, Geoff Fontes and Bryan Mullan of Global National.
Heather Hiscox, Janet Stewart, Diana Swain and Peter Mansbridge of CBC are all nominated for best news anchor, along with Kevin Newman of Global.
Les Stroud, who in 2009 completed his last season of Survivorman, in which he tests himself against the elements, has three nominations, including best host, best direction and best documentary series.
CBC's The Lens, TVO's The View from Here, History TV's Ancestors in the Attic and The Adventurers also have nominations for best documentary.
There are 99 Gemini categories. Most of the awards will be given out in Toronto on Oct. 19 and 20.
The main Gemini gala will be held Nov. 14 in Calgary and broadcast on Global TV and Showcase.
Gemini Awards selected nominees
Best drama
Flashpoint
Being Erica
The Border
The Tudors
ZOS: Zone of Separation
Best comedy
Less Than Kind
Rick Mercer Report
Testees
This Hour Has 22 Minutes
Three Chords from the Truth
Best reality TV show
disBAND - The Homecoming
Dragons' Den
GoldMind
Project Runway Canada
The Week the Women Went
Best ensemble comedy performance
Rent-a-Goalie
Three Chords from the Truth
Billable Hours
This Hour has 22 Minutes
Black Cake, White Cake
Best dramatic mini-series
Burn Up
Diamonds
The Last Templar
XIII
Best preschool series
Are We There Yet: World Adventure
Get Ready for School
Kids' Canada
The Mighty Jungle
Best children's or youth series
Instant Star 4
The Latest Buzz
Life with Derek
Lyle Lovett maps fall headlining shows
After tackling his upcoming fall outing with John Hiatt, Lyle Lovett will head out for a slate of headlining shows with his Large Band in tow.
The veteran performer and multiple-Grammy-winner will kick off the headlining stretch Oct. 26 in Orange, TX, following his latest run with Hiatt, which kicks off Oct. 6 in Albuquerque, NM, and closes with an Oct. 18 show in Tacoma, WA.
The headlining trek will take Lovett through late November, winding up with a Nov. 24-25 engagement in Fort Worth, TX. Details are included below.
Lovett, who has been on the tour trail sporadically since January, released his most recent album, "It's Not Big It's Large," in 2007. The 12-track set--which features the performer's Large Band on a variety of country, blues, folk, jazz and gospel songs--peaked at No. 18 on The Billboard 200.
"We've always done arrangements that border on blues music, that border on jazz arrangements, that border on what folks might think of as 'big band,' but we don't really play big band music," Lovett said of the album's title in a promotional video clip posted at Amazon.com. "But we've always had a lot of people in the band, so that's why I call the band the 'Large Band' and not the 'Big Band.' But invariably people refer to the band as the 'Big Band' and ... it's not big ... you get the idea."
"Its Not Big It's Large" follows Lovett's Lost Highway Records debut, "My Baby Don't Tolerate," which surfaced in 2003. That set marked his first collection of original material since 1996's "Road to Ensenada."
October 2009
3 - San Francisco, CA - Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival
6 - Albuquerque, NM - Kiva Auditorium (w/ John Hiatt)
7 - Colorado Springs, CO - Pikes Peak Center (w/ John Hiatt)
8 - Boulder, CO - Macky Auditorium Concert Hall (w/ John Hiatt)
9 - Greeley, CO - Union Colony Civic Center (w/ John Hiatt)
10 - Salt Lake City, UT - Kingsbury Hall (w/ John Hiatt)
12 - Modesto, CA - Rogers Theater (w/ John Hiatt)
13 - Davis, CA - Mondavi Performing Arts Center Jackson Hall (w/ John Hiatt)
14 - Santa Rosa, CA - Wells Fargo Center for the Arts (w/ John Hiatt)
15 - Eugene, OR - Silva Concert Hall (w/ John Hiatt)
16 - Portland, OR - Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall (w/ John Hiatt)
18 - Tacoma, WA - Pantages Theater (w/ John Hiatt)
26 - Orange, TX - Lucher Theater
27 - Mobile, AL - Saenger Theatre
28 - Tallahassee, FL - Leon County Civic Center
29 - Knoxville, TN - Tennessee Theatre
30 - Danville, KY - Norton Center
31 - Roanoke, CA - Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre
November 2009
2 - Bethesda, MD - Strathmore Performance Hall
5 - Red Bank, NK - Count Basie Theatre
7 - Bridgeport, CT - Klein Memorial Auditorium
9 - Wilmington, DE - Grand Opera House
10 - Portsmouth, NH - Portsmouth Music Hall
11 - Ithaca, NY - State Theatre
13 - Toronto, Ontario - Massey Hall
14 - Ottawa, Ontario - National Arts Centre
15 - Kingston, NY - Ulster Performing Arts Center
17 - Charlotte, NC - Belk Theatre
18 - Atlanta, GA - The Tabernacle
20 - Meridian, MS - Riley Center for Performing Arts
21 - Thackerville, OK - Winstar World Casino
22 - San Antonio, TX - Majestic Theatre
23 - Austin, TX - Bass Concert Hall
24, 25 - Fort Worth, TX - Bass Performance Hall
Letterman calls 'Harry and Horsie' an 'amazing' read
The cover of Harry and Horsie, a children's picture book published today, offers no indication that the real-life Harry is a celebrity, or at least the son of one.
That's mentioned inside the book, in a short note from "Harry's Dad," signed "Dave Letterman," better known as David.
He writes: "Hello, kids, and get ready for an amazing bedtime adventure."
The author, Katie Van Camp, 27, is Harry's former nanny.
She began Harry and Horsie (HarperCollins, $16.99, for ages 3 to 6) as a homemade gift four years ago for Harry, who's now 5.
It's a gentle fantasy about a boy, armed with a Super Duper Bubble Blooper, who goes into space to rescue his stuffed horse.
Harry has a real-life stuffed Horsie. Van Camp made up the Bubble Blooper, but says, "Harry, like all kids, loves bubbles."
The story's origins go back to a night on Manhattan's West Side Highway. Van Camp was in a car with Harry, Horsie and Harry's mother, Regina Lasko (Letterman's longtime girlfriend who married him in March).
Van Camp, who's Canadian, recalls that Harry looked at the lights across the Hudson River and asked, "Are those lights or stars?"
That got her thinking. She wrote a short poem about Harry and Horsie that she turned into a "makeshift book" she gave to Harry as a Christmas gift.
His parents encouraged Van Camp to do more with it. She added the bubbles and more of a story. An illustrator, Lincoln Agnew, added "a retro-comic feel."
The Harry in the book "isn't the spitting image of the real Harry, but shares his blond hair and dimples." She says he's a "quiet little boy who loves to read, but has a sense of humor."
Van Camp found her job by accident. She was a budding ballerina until a knee injury at 15 "spun me out to other things." She taught kindergarten in Shanghai for three years. Then a friend "who knew I always wanted to live in New York" forwarded an online ad for a nanny.
Not until after she interviewed with Harry's mother, "who I loved from the start," did she realize who Harry's dad was.
She worked for four years until her visa expired. In 2005, a worker on Letterman's Montana ranch was charged with planning to kidnap Harry and Van Camp.
She says only, "No one should have to go through that." The man, Kelly Frank, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
As for Van Camp, she's in Montreal, writing a second Harry and Horsie adventure.
Jessica Biel named `most dangerous celebrity'
NEW YORK Jessica Biel is the most dangerous celebrity on the Web.
Security technology company McAfee Inc. on Tuesday reported that searches for the 27-year-old actress are more likely to lead to online threats such as spyware and viruses than searches for any other celebrity.
McAfee said fans searching for the actress have a one-in-five chance of ending up at a Web site designed to damage one's computer. Its the third annual report on the subject from McAfee, which last year found that Brad Pitt was the "most dangerous" celeb online.
"Cybercriminals are star watchers, too," said Jeff Green, senior vice president of McAfee's product development. "They latch onto popular celebrities to encourage the download of malicious software in disguise."
Following Biel in the report, in order, were Beyonce, Jennifer Aniston, Tom Brady and Jessica Simpson. McAfee noted President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are curiously safe searches, ranking no. 34 and no. 39, respectively.