WINTER PREMIERES
* Denotes series returning from a winter break, rather than season or series premiere.

Monday, Jan. 5
True Beauty (ABC)

Wednesday, Jan. 7
Damages (FX)
Knight Rider (NBC)*

Thursday, Jan. 8
30 Rock (NBC)*
My Name Is Earl (NBC)*

Friday, Jan. 9
Flashpoint (CBS)
Psych (USA)*

Sunday, Jan. 11
24 (Fox)

Wednesday, Jan. 14
Wonderland (DTV 101)

Thursday, Jan. 15
Bones (Fox)*

Friday, Jan. 16
Battlestar Galactica (Sci Fi)

Sunday, Jan. 18
Secret Diary of a Call Girl (Showtime)
The Simpsons (Fox)*
United States of Tara (Showtime)

Tuesday, Jan. 20
Fringe (Fox)*

Wednesday, Jan. 21
Lie to Me (Fox)
Lost (ABC), two-hour premiere

Thursday, Jan. 22
Burn Notice (USA)*

Monday, Jan. 26
Trust Me (TNT)

Wednesday, Jan. 28
Life on Mars (ABC)*

Thursday, Jan. 29
Hell's Kitchen (Fox)

Monday, Feb. 2
Chuck (NBC),* 3-D episode
Heroes, Vol. IV: Fugitives (NBC)*

Friday, Feb. 13
Dollhouse (Fox)
Terminator (Fox)*

Sunday, March 8
Breaking Bad (AMC)

Monday, March 9
Castle (ABC)

Tuesday, March 17
Reaper (CW)

Thursday, March 19
Kings (NBC)

Tuesday, March 24
Cupid (ABC)

Wednesday, April 8
The Unusuals (ABC)

Thursday, April 9
Harper's Island (CBS)

EXACT DATES TBD

* Amy Poehler, Beyond Thunderdome premieres on NBC in April.
* Life returns to NBC in February.
* Rescue Me returns to FX in March or April.
* Rules of Engagement returns to CBS in the spring.
* Saving Grace returns to TNT in March.
* The Tudors returns to Showtime in April.

Happy Holidays and New Years everyone!

Wishing you a year full of joy, love and laughter.

It's a short clip and Dushku is in only the first bit. You can tell they spent quite a bit of money on the look and sets. Feb. 13 (series premiere) seems quite a while away, I hope it turns out well.

Exclusive 'Dollhouse' video: Watch Eliza Dushku's memories vanish!

I manged to see the new trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) this weekend and it looks fantastic.

ABC Develops Fables

I am looking forward to this upcoming production. I have read several issues and like the series. One of the things I liked about the first Shrek movie is it's take on fairy tales, loved it, so this is up my alley.

"DC Comics' fantasy comic series Fables is being adapted for a pilot by ABC, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The fantasy project, based on the comic book created by Bill Willingham and published by DC's Vertigo imprint, deals with characters from fairy tales and folklore living in exile in modern-day New York. Six Degrees creators/executive producers Stu Zicherman and Raven Metzner are writing the script for the hourlong drama for Warner Brothers TV. David Semel has come on board to direct Fables. Zicherman and Metzner wouldn't elaborate on which fairy-tale characters will be featured in the TV series, but noted that Big Bad Wolf and Snow White, who are central to the comics, will have a similar role on the show."

Twilight: The Puppet Saga

You know you want to see it, just admit it. (Warning: plot spoilers for the movie and book)

Too funny. I liked Puppet Angel in season 5 as well. Maybe we need a puppet face-off  between Edward and Angel to see which puppet vampire rules. [warning: this is tongue-in-cheek, so please don't take it seriously]

New Battlestar Webisodes!

"SCIFI.COM announced the launch of a new 10-part series of Battlestar Galactica webisodes, "The Face of the Enemy," starting Dec. 12 at noon ET. Two webisodes will debut weekly, leading up to the on-air return of the series on Jan. 16, 2009. Each of the three- to four-minute chapters will complement and enhance the action broadcast on SCI FI and give viewers more insight into characters and events from the fourth and final season."

You know when there is an up and coming season of BSG when the webisides start playing. Hurray!


Battlestar Catch-Up Teaser!

"Watch this 13-minute recap of everything BSG, leading up to the premiere of the final episodes, starting at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Jan. 16, 2009."

I checked out Punisher: War Zone (2008) this weekend and gads it was violent to the point of almost being comical (it did make me laugh at a couple of spots due to the insanity of it). I still haven't seen AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem (2007) [I was suppose to catch it with a friend, but we never managed to get our schedule to atch up so I missed it on the big screen, ugh] which judging from the trailers is uber violent. I don't have anything against non- gratuitous violence if it moves the story along or adds to it, but this latest installment of the Punisher franchise goes a bit beyond plausible.

The Transporter franchise (I've only seen 1&2) has also become non-plausible (even more then the Bond series at times), but at least it's a bit of a roller-coaster ride.

* Yes, that was sarcasm.

Wow! Check out the new Terminator 4 trailer and be ready to drool. I'm just happy to at least have TSCC TV series until T4 gets released. They are suppose to be of different time-lines which is just fine by me. That is one of the great things with this franchise, anything goes, any direction, idea or spark since you can have unlimited time-lines.

Animated movie poster, I just finally got a browser to play this file, I have been having technical difficulties for a while now. I really doubt that this is an actual shot of LA, but stranger things are true. So just in case it's real could someone who either knows LA well or can track down the ariel shot on Google Earth drop by and tell me if it happens to be a strange coincidence and be real.

I just discovered some excellent TSCC fanfic authors:

Nyah (@ FanFiction.net) and (@ her blog)

indie (@ FanFiction.net) and (@ her TSCC site)

Their work is  dark, original, deep and exceptionally well written. They both have written stories for other series that are also worth checking out.

If you have any other authors to suggest or specific stories, please leave a comment.

Yup, after nearly a year+ of hearing about the highly anticipated prequel to Battlestar Galactica it finally gets the go ahead, hurray! SCI FI Channel has ordered 20 hours of Caprica including a two-hour pilot. Production is scheduled to start next summer, 2009 once again in Vancouver, which should have it out for the 2010 season.

SCI FI Green-Lights Caprica

Alexander Skarsgård plays 'Eric Northman" a thousand year old vampire in Alan Ball's new TV series True Blood. There is a great Q&A video on Uinterview.com with him speaking about his role. He is the son of well known Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård.

I enjoy his understated approach to playing Eric, I think many other actors would have played him over-the-top, vicious and over bearing. AS has a quite yet deadly way of being Eric and the character's charisma, self-confidence and power shine through.

In the interview we see some of his own sense of humor which is great to see since Eric has a great sense of humor starting in the 2nd book.

I can't wait to see how Alan Ball continues to develop the world since it is based on a widely popular book series. The TV series has stayed true to several plot points of the novels & characters, but it has made some very interesting changes as well so I am never sure where they will go which is a great thing to have to keep it fresh and interesting to those of us who have read all of the books.

A couple of week-ends ago I got to finally watch Generation Kill and AS plays the main character, Sgt. Brad 'Iceman' Colbert. It's a great series that also makes you think about what's going on in the world around us and what our troops are going through right now.

(Yup, the blog title is a Monty Python reference, it sounded funnier in my head.)

I just got back from the first regular showing of Twilight  in Montreal. I loved it. It's always hard to take a med. to long novel and make a screenplay out of it, but Melissa Rosenberg adapts Stephenie Meyer novel very well I look forward to her adapting the 2nd and 3rd novels.

I really liked the fact that the casting department didn't hire an all caucasian cast. The movie theater was packed with mostly female teenage fans and boy did they scream and swoon. 

BURN-E is Pixar’s latest DVD/Blu-ray-exclusive short film available on the WALL-E disks and runs just over 7 minutes and full of belly laughs. It follows a service droid out trying to complete its task, but due to Wall-e's antics he just can't get a break. Track it down.

'The PIxalr Blog' on Burn-E

I just saw the  trailer for DreamWorks' upcoming 3D animated feature "Monsters vs. Aliens". Oh, my gads it's TOO funny. It looks as good as Pixar/Disney's The Incredibles. It's slated for a March 2009 release and I can't wait.

Groovy Early Art from 'The Incredibles'

MORE from THE INCREDIBLES

I'm curious if they will ever make a sequel of The Incredibles, I would just love that.

A few months ago I heard about a new vampire film that was coming out this fall, Twilight. It was the first time I ever heard of the film let alone that it was based on a well selling book series by Stephenie Meyer. Needless to say the trailer got my attention and I knew I would see it. I like vampire stories and this sounded a bit different then most. I like different.

Two weeks ago I got to see more about the movie and it got my full attention. Then I made a big mistake, I started to read the first novel and I couldn't put it down. Really, I couldn't and finished it in a day. Luckily I started it on a Friday or Saturday, that saved me. Then my second mistake, I started the next novel and I couldn't put that down either. I didn't get much sleep between reading and work. Within a week I had read all the novels including the incomplete final novel's leaked chapter. This got leaked online while it was still being written.  Stephenie Meyer released a statement on her website about the leak and provided the leaked chapter on her site. For a while she didn't want to complete the series (see her statement), but I recently read that she's thinking of doing so again (hurray).

Twilight is being released this week (I'm counting down the days until I can see it) and so I was pleasantly surprised to read this evening that the next 2 books after Twilight have their rights purchased and that a writer, Melissa Rosenberg, has been attached to the projects, but no one for the 4th novel.

Wow, that was fast. This either means that they know they have a well put together movie that will do well or they are trying to save and make money in hope that it does well regardless of the 1st film's quality. I hope they feel Twilight is a good film and that it should do well.

While reading the sequels I thought they could be very difficult to make into movies since they are mostly written from Bella's point of view (occasionally someone else's)  and in a movie that would need a great deal of voice over work so that we get that perspective. Ouch! A tough job, good luck Melissa Rosenberg. I really hope the films do justice to the novels which I loved.

I've been good for two weeks and haven't written a dozen entries for Twilight so here are all the links in one clump:

Twilight Sequels Developing         Twilight Sequels Optioned, More vampire love for Meyers books

Empire Magazine's exclusive Twlight photo shoot and video

Empire's Guide To Twilight

Q&A: Twilight's Rob Pattinson          Q&A: Twilight's Kristen Stewart

Q&A: Twilight Sequels And Stunts          How Twilight's Kissing Scene Got Shot

Twilight's Edward Speaks!          Stewart Reluctant To Read Twilight

New Twilight TV Ads, Clips!     New Twilight Trailers Here     New Watchmen, Twilight Footage!

Clarke Has Twilight Reunion

Interview: 'Twilight' Director Catherine Hardwicke

I really enjoyed watching Quantum of Solace this afternoon. I had forgotten to get around to rewatching Casino Royale (2006) before seeing the sequel so a few details where fuzzy for me when they came up in the film, but overall I was able to keep up.

Daniel Craig makes a great James Bond. Back when he was first mentioned as being the next James Bond I wasn't surprised and I knew he could pull it off since I had just seen him in Layer Cake. Many people couldn't see him in the role and were rather upset. I was so glad to see that he did slip into the role and make it his own. He is a different Bond then those before him, but with a pinch from a few of them to makes his version work with the franchise.

I'm looking forward to the next film and I hope Daniel Craig sticks around for at least another couple before he leaves the franchise.

I was looking forward to seeing the new Trek trailer which had been mentioned recently online as being released with QoS, but it wasn't played. Although I have a great deal of issues with the re-boot Trek film I was looking forward to seeing something with something more then just welder's working on a ship's exterior.
Star Trek Trailer Leaks Out

Craig Credits Moore With Bond Success
...
Craig says, "He (Roger Moore) said very nice things. It's reciprocated because I grew up watching Roger as James Bond and I watched the old movies specifically because I think they hold really good keepings that we need to have in our movies."

Moore's Fatherly Feelings For New Bond Craig

...Moore says, "I supported him all the way through, from the time they were saying he's too short, he's too blond, he's not right for Bond. I said 'Wait and see - he's a hell of a good actor'.
"I was quite surprised when I met him three weeks ago in London... He's a gentle soul, he's really nice. I felt so bad his arm was in a sling I wanted to take him home and dress it for him."

I just watched the trailer for PUSH, starring Dakota Fanning and Chris Evans, release date February 6, 2009. It looks very interesting and I'm looking forwarded to seeing it when it plays.

When I was watching the trailer I couldn't help thinking about the TV series Heroes, and or course various comic book superheroes. Even though several of my friends like or love Heroes I just can't get into the series. The first season took too long to introduce the huge cast of characters and get to a juicy part of the story ("save the cheerleader, save the world" which for me was anticlimactic). Then there was at least one  long pause during the first season and the shortened 2nd season due to the writers strike. Maybe if I had watched both seasons back-to-back on DVD I might have been able to get into the story, but right now I just can't.

Push Footage Revealed

It feels a tad weird to see Dakota Fanning almost grown up at age 14. I'm looking forward to seeing her career grow over the coming years. 

Edit Bay Visit: Paul McGuigan's Push

Let the Right One In,  seems to be an unusual Vampire film from Norway Sweden. I'm curious to see it and see how they tackle the subject matter.
trailer

Update: Nov. 8th

So I was lucky enough to be able to see this little gem since my original posting. This is a charming, sweet, unnerving and disturbing film*. Yes, it's all of those things and very much worth the effort to track it down and watch it if you either enjoy vampire films and coming-of-age stories. I look forward to watching it again now that I know the story and how it works together. It tackles some disturbing topics that are rarely touched in vampire films or stories, one being children that have been turned**.

*Another film with a similar mix of descriptors (that is not a vampire film) and worth watching is a 1996 Canadian film by Lynne Stopkewich called "Kissed" starring Molly Parker.

**Ann Rice's series The Vampire Chronicles does touch on this disturbing topic as does Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series(Breaking Dawn 2008).