Movie/TV News Extravaganza!

As we near the end of what has to be the most disappointing year for film in television that I can remember, good news is cropping up. First off, Danny Boyle's new film, "Slumdog Millionaire" just opened in Seattle this weekend and it's getting rave reviews. The director of "Shallow Grave," "Trainspotting," "28 Days Later," and "Millions" is back with a new movie that sounds a heck of a lot better than "Sunshine" (the only one of his movies I can really say I just didn't like). In addition to seeing that this weekend I'm hoping I can finally get around to Charlie Kaufmann's "Synecdoche, New York" and the only current vampire movie I care about, "Let the Right One In."
I've watched the trailers for "Twilight" which do nothing for me and I've yet to hear a more compelling argument than "Edward is soooo cute!" So no "Twilight" for me.
In other news my good pal (whom I've never actually met face to face) Keith from Reel Fanatic posted a bevy of movie and TV news this morning that I just have to pass along. This from Reel Fanatic:

In the latest development - and if I understand this the most solid one so far - ("Arrested Development") creator Mitch Hurwitz and backer Ron Howard have apparently signed some kind of deal for it with Imagine and Fox Searchlight. Hurwitz is apparently on board to write and direct the feature (again, if it ever happens), and Howard will be around to help out, and I assume narrate.

In less good news, Keith alerts us that the fate of "Pushing Daisies," a show I just started watching this year (and have really enjoyed), may be sealed:


It brings me no joy whatsoever to share this next bit of news.

The truly dismal facts are these: ABC has opted not to pick up three shows - "Dirty Sexy Money", "Eli Stone" and the only one of these I care about at all, "Pushing Daisies" - for a full season.

What does that mean for "Pushing Daisies" fans? Well, if I have this right, it means that after last Wednesday's "Oh, Oh, Oh, It's Magic," we have only seven more episodes left of TV's only primetime fairy tale for adults.

Given the rather poor ratings for season 2 so far I suppose you can't really blame ABC, but I'm gonna do it anyway. How in the world did they expect a show this odd - with an admittedly small but devoted following - to survive after only putting out nine episodes before the strike intervened and then none again until this October? Was there anything so compelling on ABC this summer that they couldn't have taken nine hours out of their primetime schedule to reintroduce viewers to this magical tale?

The final bit from Keith is less of a downer:

In the only bit of good news from ABC, however, "Scrubs" is about to come back to life, and I can only say welcome back. The hospital comedy returns beginning Tuesday, Jan. 6, at 9 p.m., in the time slot it started with way back before being moved all around (and pre-empted all the time) by NBC. We'll get two weeks of back-to-back episodes before it settles in for its regular half-hour run.

I'm hoping that NBC's "Chuck" doesn't end up suffering a "Pushing Daisies"-like fate. Week after week there's no show on television that's more fun than "Chuck." The story of a Buy More employee turned unwitting secret agent (played by the very likable Zachary Levi) is pure entertainment. I actually find myself more excited about that on Monday nights than "Heroes" (although that has definitely stepped up from last season).

And now I leave you with quite possibly the greatest news of all. In the summer of 2002 a little movie came out...well, actually it was a rather big movie. A big, loud, dumb, obnoxious movie called "XXX." What I had expected to be an exercise in uninspired stupidity turned out to be the most fun I'd had watching a movie in quite awhile. Three years later I passed on the Vin Diesel-less sequel but now it appears that the man himself, Xander Cage, is back to BLOW. THINGS. UP. "Variety" reports, "'XXX: The Return of Xander Cage' is getting off the ground with 'Terminator Salvation' scribes Michael Ferris and John Brancato in early talks to write a script that will reunite Vin Diesel with director Rob Cohen." I am so there. Now if only somebody would greenlight "Pootie Tang 2: Citizen Tang"...

And now I leave you with the trailer for 2009's "Star Trek." Hardcore fans are divided on this. As a casual Trekker I'll say this. This movie looks fun!