The multi volume, made for TV horror anthology is undergoing a bit of a boom right now. Masters of Horror is the obvious example on these shores but Spain also just ran their Six Stories To Keep You Awake series and now France is looking to get into the mix with the independently produced Terror Project Six. Described as a horror sitcom with zombies by the producer, the project brings together French speaking film makers from France, Belgium, Switzerland and Quebec under the support and oversight of series “godfathers” Xavier Gens and Fabrice Du Welz - the directors of Frontiere(s) and Calvaire, respectively - along with notable guest stars such as Alysson Paradis (Inside), regular Fulci star Catriona MacColl, Troma’s Lloyd Kauffman and more.
I’m told the first official teaser will become available sometime in May but in the mean time we’ve got stills plus episode synopses and the like for your perusal.
Continue Reading "Beware The TERROR PROJECT SIX!"...
Twitch readers may or may not be aware that Showtime’s hit-or-miss (mostly miss) Masters of Horror skein was picked up by, of all networks, NBC late last fall and re-titled Fear Itself. The series never quite clicked in its MoH incarnation, with one or two stand-out episodes from each of the first two seasons fighting for attention among a slew of been-there, done-that excuse for gore and T&A. Will the series’ transition to a more heavily-censored primetime slot on network TV (10pm, Thursdays, starting May 29th) result in better returns? Tough to say. The move certainly seems to go against the grain of what now-absent series creator Mick Garris envisioned MoH becoming - a no-holds-barred playground where genre luminaries could unleash pet projects.
All that being said, Fear Itself has managed to line up an impressive spread of directors, most recently tapping personal (and general Twitch) fave Larry Fessenden, late of 2007’s superlative The Last Winter, to helm a segment initially intended for John Carpenter. Joining Fessenden will be returning directors John Landis, Stuart Gordon, and Brad Anderson as well as newcomers Ernest Dickerson, Mary Harron, Breck Eisner, Ronny Yu, Darren Bousman, Rob Bowman, and Lem Dobbs. Landis and Gordon were responsible for some of the stronger entries in MoH, and Fessenden and Dobbs (a regular collaborator of Soderbergh) are inspired choices. For the most part, Fear Itself will represent a chance for these filmmakers to push their work to a wider-than-usual audience, which is always a good thing. We’ll be keeping an eye on the series as it rolls out.
It was a couple years back that word began to circulate that director Darren Aronofsky was developing a horror themed series for HBO. At the time it seemed like great news as HBO was totally dominating the specialty TV world and seemingly unable to do wrong. A couple years later they’ve done plenty of wrong, the best specialty shows are all elsewhere and now word is that they’ve let this go, too. Titled Riverview Towers the show has just moved to AMC, where it continues the development process. The show revolves around a family that moves into an apartment building plagued by paranormal activity, which opens all sorts of interesting avenues to explore.
I have two responses to this. First, what on earth is going on at HBO? All of their best properties are done and they’re not developing much of note to replace them. Second, AMC is readily available on regular cable here in Canada while HBO is not available at all, so hurray!
It’s a good time to be a masked superhero in Chile. Mirageman, the second collaboration between martial artist Marko Zaror and director Ernesto Diaz opened in March to great success in their home country and now Chile’s Channel 13 are after the duo to bring the hero to the small screen. The only sticking point now? Just how much Mirageman there will be. Channel 13 are pushing for a daily show running a whopping one hundred episodes while the duo behind the hero are hoping to start with a more modest twelve episode commitment. Regardless of what happens there, audiences in North America can expect to see Mirageman on screens here later this year. You can check the trailer below the break.
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To say that I have been eagerly looking forward to the day that season four rolls around for Battlestar Galactica is putting it lightly. Since the season finale last year, to the day I stood on that flight deck in the studio back west, then watching season 3 all over again the other week just so I was refreshed and ready for this week, I have been waiting for that day. But I got my hands on the season premiere, He That Believeth In Me, yesterday and I’ve watched it a couple times already. Tonight is the night that I can be this complete blithering idiot in hopes that my enthusiasm is contagious and you catch the fever. And the only cure is the season premiere of Battlestar Galactica this Friday night!
Continue Reading "Oh. My. Gods. Battlestar Galactica season 4 premiere review!"...
If you’re outside of the States and you don’t have illegal satellite hooked up to you digs then there is a slight chance you haven’t seen the two recent Battlestar Galactica specials from SciFi, REVEALED and PHENOMENA. Do not fret, we have them both now in the Twitch Player. Just follow the jump.
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You gotta love Turner Classic Movies ("TCM") for respecting the breadth of the term “classic”, applying it equally to silent films as to countercultural indies. Case in point: tonight’s doublebill of Twitch favorite Jamaa Fanaka, whose Emma Mae (aka Black Sisters Revenge, 1976) and Penitentiary (1980) are boasting their late night TCM premieres tonight at 11:00PM and 12:45AM PT (3 hours later ET), respectively.
I recently ran into TCM’s Director of Programming, Charlie Tabesh, at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, and welcomed the opportunity to congratulate him on his continuing creative programming; not only the Val Lewton retrospective a month or so back, on which I piggybacked The Evening Class Val Lewton blogathon, but the Charles Burnett showcase, tonight’s Fanaka double bill, and their upcoming June focus on Asian and Asian American representation in film. Let it be said in print that Charlie Tabesh is guiding the art of exhibition right into the 21st century by championing films that might otherwise never be seen. Though Fanaka’s films might not align with everyone’s notion of “classic”, their historicity is unquestioned and their impact on independent filmmaking seminal. Kudos to Charlie Tabesh for recognizing same! And a loving shout-out to my man Jamaa for his television debut!
Cross-published on The Evening Class.
There are three days marked off in my immediate calendar. One day is for my nephew who is coming all the way from Vancouver to have a play day with his uncle. Another day is this coming Tuesday when the third season of Battlestar Galactica is coming out on DVD. And the third day is Friday, April 4th when the fourth and final season of Battlestar premieres. Oh, I am counting down the days with glee!
But what if you’re not all caught up on your Battlestar and you cannot pick up that third season before season 4 starts? Never fear, SciFi has given us an 8 minute clip covering all three seasons. Everything you need to know in an eight minute marathon. All the action, drama and suspense - everything you need to know in eight minutes.
We also have a couple tasty promo clips for Season 4. If you’re not caught up before now you will by the time that clip is over. Follow the jump and no frakking complaining if it spoils anything for you.
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Been a little while since we’ve commented on McG’s upcoming remake of British cult comedy hit Spaced, you know - the television show all the key folk from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz did before hitting it big on the big screen. Well, there’s been a bit of a furor around the remake because despite co-creator Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright being prominently name dropped on the initial announcement of the new version - while co-creator Jessica Stevenson (now Hynes) was completely ignored for some reason - none of the principals involved in the original show have ever been contacted or had any involvement in this new version. And they’re not so happy about that. We linked to Edgar Wright’s comments on the scenario a while back and now, with the pilot episode officially greenlit and moving ahead, both Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes have weighed in with their thoughts.
Wright has posted his cohorts’ thoughts on his MySpace page but I find linking to MySpace blogs to be a well nigh impossible task and an exercise in extreme frustration - I pretty much hate MySpace - so I’m reproducing the posts below the break.
Continue Reading "Tim Bisley and Daisy Steiner: Not Such Big Fans of McG’s McSPACED"...
The new season kicks off with a harrowing investigation of the legendary Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia, once the site of bloody battles in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. Today, both visitors and employees of the Fort tell chilling tales of their brushes with the afterlife. Some claim to have seen apparitions of soldiers, while others report hearing a woman’s terrified scream coming from an empty room. Now, the TAPS team has the opportunity to conduct the first investigation into newly discovered Casemate 11, an underground holding cell for those condemned to hang. There, Jason and Grant experience a bizarre series of events and uncover some of the show’s most compelling paranormal evidence to date.
Continue Reading "Ghost Hunters Season 4 premiere preview"...
I have a huge man-crush on David Simon’s The Wire, which airs on HBO in the US, and this, its fifth and final season, is barreling its way into television history with a tumultuous, incisive series of episodes. The show has pushed into new directions this year, taking on the Media (via a fictionalized version of real newspaper The Baltimore Sun) as well as its usual targets of cops, criminals, and the drug trade, not to mention politicians, lawyers, the homeless, and family. Even better, it’s even more piercing than usual in examining the lives of characters who’ve been with us since the beginning: McNulty, Lester Freeman, Kima, Bunk, Bubbles, and Omar. I very much want to see how Simon & Co. wrap things up, while at the same time I dread the demise of one of my favorite dramatic shows ever.
The third season of Lost was an increasingly confounding series of self-conscious mind games that quickly became tiresome, but the last episode provided hope, and this season has been a breath of fresh air: tight, dynamic episodes that actually tell parts of the story without getting bogged down in mental circling patterns.
These are the only shows I’m recording right now, to make sure I don’t miss them; otherwise, the writers’ strike has completely devastated the US television schedule, as far as I can see. Are you watching any TV these days, or is it strictly movies and DVDs?
‘Phoo Action’, a new upcoming BBC3 Action Comedy is about to screen here on February 12th , and it looks as if its worth a watch. The Action-Comedy stars Hollywood big hitter Carl Weathers along with upcoming UK talent Jamie Winstone ( Kidulthood ), as you can see from the trailer, its not taking itself seriously and looks like a funride. A quote from the Creative Director of Phoo Action Jamie Hewlett is quoted in a recently UK tabloid as stating “I think it’s the most weird and radical thing that the BBC have taken on since the Young Ones first aired in the early Eighties.” Lets hope it lives up to that statement.
Car chases, kung-fu and comedy come together in the wonderfully warped world of Phoo Action – an offbeat 60-minute drama special for BBC Three.
Based on characters created by Jamie Hewlett (Gorillaz, Tank Girl) for The Face comic strip Get The Freebies, Phoo Action is set in 2012, when London is in the grip of mutant criminals, The Freebies.
Only Terry Phoo, a hapless Buddhist kung-fu cop, and unruly teenage heroine Whitey Action, the daughter of Police Chief Benjamin Benson, can save the nation.
Together they form an unlikely but effective crime-fighting team who bring together chaos and comedy, mischief and mayhem, to become heroes for a future generation in the face of Britain’s super-vile, super-famous mutated criminals.
Jaime Winstone (Kidulthood) stars as teenage anarchist Whitey Action, Eddie Shin (ER) as martial arts sweetheart Terry Phoo and Rocky legend Carl Weathers as Benjamin Benson, Chief of Police and long-suffering father to the rebellious Whitey.
SciFi Channel has greenlit a 13 episode season of Sanctuary, a television series to be based on a series of webisodes broadcast last spring on the web. The original webisodes were the project of Stargate sovereign Amanda Tapping, and SG-1’s writer-producer Damian Kindler and producer-director Martin Wood. Kindler created Sanctuary, while Wood directed the webisodes starring Tapping. The webisodes were originally available on a subscription basis but the web being the wonderful beast that it is you can find them over on YouTube. But you didn’t hear that from me.
Tapping stars as the mysterious Dr. Helen Magnus, ‘tapping’ into her English roots for her soft linguistic inflection. Tapping plays a 157-year-old scientist who runs a secret organization that seeks out extraordinary people. It also co-stars Robin Dunne as Will Zimmerman the young doctor with an open mind, Emilie Ullerup as Ashley Magnus, Helen’s leather-clad gun-toating daughter, and Christopher Heyerdahl ("Halling" on Stargate Atlantis) as Montague John Druitt, evil incarnate.
I just watched the first two eps myself. Not bad. Fairly typical sci-fi stuff. Creatures. Violence. Rain. Comic relief. The recipe of good sci-fi has been pulled out of mom’s recipe box. But it is not so much the synopsis that is the breakthrough point for the series. The real breakthrough is that the series will shot with the same green-screen/CG generated virtual set style that was perfected in movies like Sin City and 300. The fact that the team behind the webisodes was able to do it so well without a big budget says how far we’ve come with the technology. About 90% of the background and environment will be CG.
And I’m not going to lie to you. Seeing Emilie Ullerup trot around in a full vinyl cat-suit is a plus as well.
“We were blown away by the level of quality they have been able to achieve on a Web budget,” Sci Fi Exec VP Original Programming Mark Stern said. “We loved the world they’d created, and we particularly loved their approach, since we had been looking for a way to apply the virtual-set CGI environment from films like ‘300’ and ‘Sin City’ to a television series.”
And production will not be a problem because the series is based up here in Canada [likely Vancouver] and like our anthem says Canada is indeed the ‘True North, Strong and Free’. Free from the effects of the writers strike that is.
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Monday, January 21, 2008), Turner Classic Movies ("TCM") is bringing the work of long-heralded independent filmmaker Charles Burnett to the forefront with a primetime marathon that kicks off with his award-winning 1977 drama Killer of Sheep. The marathon also includes Burnett’s 1983 feature My Brother’s Wedding, as well as three of his short films, all making their first appearance on TCM. TCM’s tribute comes as interest in Burnett is experiencing a resurgence, thanks in part to the long-delayed theatrical release of Killer of Sheep last year. Burnett will be featured during the primetime marathon introducing each film with TCM host Robert Osborne.
“To be able to present a slate of Charles Burnett’s films is a particular honor for everyone here at Turner Classic Movies,” said Charles Tabesh, senior vice president of programming for the network. “Burnett is a cinematic voice that needs to be heard, and there’s certainly no better day to introduce him to the many film lovers who haven’t experienced his work than on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We are proud to be able to show these amazing and very insightful films, as well as being able to pair them with a daytime line-up of eight classics celebrating African-American life.”
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Fantastic news here for animation fans. Word has come down that Masaaki Yuasa will be returning to the Japanese airwaves in April with a new series titled Kaiba. Very little is known about the series yet beyond that it is a science fiction oriented love story but the sheer fact that Yuasa at the helm makes this absolutely compulsory viewing. His feature debut, Mind Game, was one of the most startlingly original and utterly compelling pieces of work I’d come across in some time and his television directorial debut Kemonozume has displaced Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop and Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex to become my favorite anime series ever. Yes, he is really that good. Now somebody out there make Todd a happy boy and license this one along with Kemonozume so I can get decent English friendly versions of them on DVD.
