More "Chuck"? Yes, please!

You know, my hopes have already been raised and dashed by that dastardly rumor that "Chuck" would come back as soon as the end of October (which is, of course, just about here, with no "Chuck"), but I'm certain this time that this just-as-good information is satisfactual.

With another of its new shows crashing early - this time "Trauma," poor Derek Luke deserves much, much better - it seems that NBC has already ordered six more episodes of "Chuck," upping the second season order from 13 to 19 (and, if enough people tune in, perhaps maybe even 22 - hey, I can dream right?)

No word yet that it would come back any earlier than the originally planned March, but the way things stand now, it would probably be best to just wait until then. NBC has the Winter Olympics, so if "Chuck" were brought back in, say, January, it would just get preempted for the second half of February and perhaps lose any new viewers it may have picked up. Methinks, all things, considered, waiting until March would be just fine.

Whenever it comes, however, more "Chuck" is just sensationally good news. Stay tuned for more details as I get them.

The word is also out today on when we'll get to see another of my favorite comedies, but probably one that should be off the air already.

How in the world "Scrubs" has survived for what will be its ninth season beginning Dec. 1 with two episodes on ABC, I'll never know, but I do know that when it returns this time it won't look much like anything we've seen in the past.

As far as I know, all the regular cast members except for Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) and perhaps Carla (Judy Reyes) have mostly moved on and will only be seen in brief recurring spots from time to time (but it sure is nice to see Neil Flynn each week on "The Middle.") Instead, we'll find Dr. Cox with a new crop of med students to berate and perhaps break down.

I'm all for a fresh start, and I like this show enough to give it another chance this winter, but the main problem is that when they tried to introduce a new cast of characters last year, they all bombed (and I assume will all be gone.) I mean, when you have veryfunnyman Aziz Ansari and you give him absolutely nothing funny to say, you're certainly going in the wrong direction.

But, enough of that. Like I said, I'll at least tune in to see if any of the magic still exists. And all I have except for that today is a couple of videos that caught my eye this morning.

First up is a deleted scene from J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek," which I assume will be included with the DVD release coming Nov. 17. Like most people, I loved the flick, and am almost certain it will end up on my top 10 for the year. Enjoy.


Star Trek - DVD Bonus Footage

And finally comes something that's, unfortunately, at least as depressing as it is enjoyable. If you somehow haven't seen Joss Whedon's short-lived series "Firefly" or the improbable follow-up flick "Serenity," you've missed one of the truly great characters of the last 10 years or so in Nathan Fillion's Captain Mal Reynolds. Watch them as soon as you can, and just to stir some memories, here's Fillion donning the familiar garb for a recent episode of "Castle," which I just can't bring myself to watch because I already absorb way too much just-above-average TV and just don't have time or energy for something that looks so thoroughly banal. Anyways, enjoy the clip, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.

A Cool Coens gathering in Macon, and the bizarro future of "Scrubs"

I don't think I'll ever be particularly good at social networking or understand the real use of Facebook beyond an amusing diversion, but it finally came through at least slightly last night.

Sitting at home on a Friday night watching the Braves blow out the BoSox (fairly pathetic I know, but entertaining all the same), I decided to check the facebook, blog, etc., and got this interesting post from my friend and boss Stephanie Hartley.

It seems that some group in Macon called the College Hill Corridor Commission, while being far from the most organized folks in town, are fans both of great (or at least extremely funny) movies and showing them outside, hence a rather cool happening Sunday night less than a mile from my house.

The original plan, which would have made me just say meh, was to show some version of "Shrek" this Sunday night. Well, thankfully, but with little notice, they've changed both the movie, "Raising Arizona" (huzzah!), and the venue, to Tattnall Square Park. There are few better communal movie viewing experiences than watching a very funny flick with a hopefully large group of people, so come and check it out this Sunday starting at 8 p.m.

But here today it's largely about a deliriously silly comedy that might appeal to people who might just not live within 20 minutes or so of my house, "Scrubs," which is somehow headed for a ninth season on ABC, but apparently in radically different form.

Before I launch into it, credit for all this goes to the seriously TV-obsessed Michael Ausiello of Entertainment Weekly, who got the goods in an interview with "Scrubs" creator Bill Lawrence.

Now, we already know that the core stars, Zach Braff and Sarah Chalke, will be back for very limited runs at best (and worst of all, Neil Flynn's delightfully deranged janitor will not be back at all), so to fill this void, Lawrence has come up a change of venue of sorts.

When the show returns next winter, John C. McGinley and Donald Faison will be the principal stars (in no way at all a bad thing), and they will now become med-school professors rather than active doctors. Take that in for a moment.

Actually, if you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Since you have to start with a whole new crop of players, why not make them students and shake things much more than a bit? Anyone who tuned in for the truncated eighth season earlier this year will probably agree with me that the new crop of doctors shared only one trait: They were uniformly unfunny. So I guess they realized it's time for at least a gallon of new blood.

And besides, for classroom comedies, Lawrence at least seems to have his source material right. As he told Ausiello:

"It'll be a lot like Paper Chase as a comedy, It's going to be a different show. It'll still be life-and-death stakes, but if the show is just Scrubs again in the hospital with a different person's voiceover, it would be a disaster and people would be mad."

He said Sacred Heart wouldn't go away completely, since it will still be the show's base of operations and allow familiar faces to return from time to time, but it's still almost a complete change of course, and since "Scrubs" has defied death many times now, it's certainly not of me to doubt its creators.

And with that, I'll simply leave you with the trailer for the October flick "Zombieland," because what Saturday morning isn't at least a little bit better with a funny dose of zombies? Enjoy, and have a great weekend. Peace out.

Take a bite: Three glimpses of "True Blood" season two

I love it when a rumor turns into truth, but even more when that truth turns out to be even better than believed, as is the rather amazing case with "Futurama."

Collider reported earlier this week that Comedy Central was in negotiation for 13 new episodes of the fantasticly entertaining animated show, but it turns out that was half the deal. The network has apparently ordered 26 new episodes, so far, to run over two seasons.

"Futurama" creators Matt Groening and David X. Cohen are already working on stories for the next season, set to premiere in mid-2010 with all the original voice cast returning.

Now I like "Family Guy" enough and I love "Scrubs," but seeing as there haven't been any new episodes of "Futurama" since 2003, I'd have to say this is the most remarkable story yet of a tv show getting resuscitated, and in honor of Bender, I'll just say "bite my shiny metal ass" and bring it on!

And this summer, two of my current favorites are returning, and I have to say, the more I hear about "Mad Men" show runner Matthew Weiner, the more I admire just how much he's an ornery sort. AMC apparently wanted to add two minutes of commercial time to the brilliant show about ad men, but Weiner balked and the network understandably gave in rather quickly, so the show will run until 11:02 or so when it returns at 10 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 16. And to answer the first question that popped into my mind, AMC assures viewers that DVRs will indeed record all 62 minutes.

But here today it's supposed to be all about Charlayne Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels and how they've morphed into "True Blood," which returns this Sunday and is the only show in several years good enough to get me to re-up on HBO for three months (but I'll surely be back again when "The Wire" creator David Simon's New Orleans show "Treme" hits next year.)

I like stories about vampires ("Let the Right One In" has lingered as my favorite movie of all of 2008) and especially funny ones, so I'm ashamed of how long it took me to come on board with Harris' trashy-in-all-the-best-ways novels. They're certainly far from high art, but for airplane reads there are few series I can recommend higher. I've read two-and-a-half of them so far, and I have to say Harris' mix of horror, humor, romance and Southern flavor, while perhaps not unique, is extremely addictive.

So, what's gonna happen in season two? I have no way of knowing everything, of course, but from what I know happens in the second Sookie Stackhouse novel, "Living Dead in Dallas," and with the help of these three clips courtesy of HitFix, I can give you at least a taste.

Though you certainly won't hear who it is from me, season two opens with the murder of one of the show's most colorful minor characters. Along with looking into that, in an unrelated case, Sookie (Anna Paquin, whose certainly all growed up) is called to Dallas to investigate an anti-vampire church/cult that has kidnapped the brother of Dallas' vampire sheriff (yes, really.)

One big and mostly good way the show differs from the novels is that it builds up minor characters that Harris largely ignored and gives them new life, the best example being Tara Thornton, played for great comic effect by Rutina Wesley. In this first clip, we find Tara still staying at the home of her rescuer Maryann ("Battlestar Galactica" 's Michelle Forbes), who I can tell you plays a big part in the early parts of "Living Dead in Dallas," and here meets Tara's mother (Adina Porter.)



Another character who gets a lot more play in "True Blood" than in print is Sookie's brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten.) He pretty much disappears after the first novel, "Dead Until Dark," but on TV, "True Blood" mastermind Alan Ball has him become involved with the anti-vampire sect, as you can see from the clip below.



And, of course, Sookie is called in to investigate the Dallas case, or more accurately ordered to by the local vampire sheriff, Eric, played by Alexander Skarsgard. In this final clip, Eric explains his order to Sookie's vampire paramour Bill (Stephen Moyer), who understandably isn't terribly pleased about it.



Anyways, that's probably way too much to write about one TV show, but it's summer and, well, there's not much else on at all. And for anyone who cares about this kind of thing, apparently Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer are now a couple in real life, too. Peace out.

Terry Gilliam and the art of perseverance ... or is it insanity?

Well, Friday came and went with no word on "Chuck," so I guess Tuesday really is the big day in that department. Two other shows I just assumed were dead, however, have somehow escaped the chopping block.

When Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse" premiered, I was sure it would be canceled after four or five episodes, because frankly those early shows were almost as abysmal as the ratings. Not awful, I guess, just awfully generic, and with really no touches that would tell you it was a Whedon show.

As the season went on, however, it slowly developed into a solid little bit of sci-fi, so I'm pleased to see it will be back for a second season. And, frankly, just as glad that it will once again only be 13 episodes. More network shows should adapt to this cable-like schedule, in my opinion, since a lot of them - while perfectly entertaining - just clearly don't have enough ideas to sustain a full 22-episode run.

And, perhaps even more amazingly, "Scrubs" is somehow coming back to ABC for a ninth season, after what was clearly intended as a series finale. Zach Braff and Sarah Chalke have both agreed to return for six episodes to help transition to the newer cast members, and thankfully Donald Faison, John C. McGinley and Neil Flynn will all be back for at least some of the new episodes too.

I'd call this mostly great news, since "Scrubs" is just the perfect pitch of silly fun, except for one very big problem. A quick test: If you watched the "Scrubs" season that just ended, can you name any of the characters who were added? I can't, because none of them were all that memorable or entertaining, and I really think it's gonna be a big leap to make people want to watch them week after week without a BIG dose of the real regulars.

But enough of all that. Here today it was supposed to be all Terry Gilliam, and from here on out it will be.

When I first saw this news Friday, it just made me smile, but it also made me finally realize that I really like Gilliam as a personality at least as much or more than I still do as a filmmaker. Don't get me wrong: I'm cheering for him to return to form, but his last flick, "Tideland," was just the definition of unwatchable (although I did, in a couple of sittings, somehow make it to the end.)

And I wish him nothing but the best in finding a proper distributor for "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus." Tom Waits as the devil? I'll be there as soon as I can, but I really don't have terribly high hopes that it will ever be at a theater anywhere near my little corner of the world.

But for his own sanity and hopefully at some point our entertainment, I'm most happy to now hear that - truly against all odds - Gilliam has somehow revived once again "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote."

If you're unfamiliar with this saga, it began nine years ago and has already spawned a feature documentary about just how epic a failure it was the first time around. And if you haven't seen "Lost in La Mancha," I can't recommend it highly enough as an oft-times depressing but nonetheless engaging portrait of exactly how NOT to make a movie.

But even after watching that doco in Atlanta with my mom at the fabulous Plaza Theatre in Atlanta, I was always cheering for Gilliam to finally somehow pull this off, mostly because I've been a big fan of perseverance that borders on and often crosses right over to insanity. And beyond that, what he was cooking up the first time and hopefully again this time just sounded like tons of fun.

This time, screenwriter Tony Grisoni and Gilliam are working on a tale that will revolve around a filmmaker who is charmed into Don Quixote’s eternal quest for his ladylove, "becoming an unwitting Sancho Panza." If this really happens, it will begin shooting next spring, but the biggest remaining question would have to be will Johnny Depp really go through all this again?

If I were a betting man, which I almost never am now, I'd say yes, both because he clearly has tremendous loyalty to Gilliam and because he often seems to have the same obstinate qualities that make Gilliam so fascinating in the first place. Here's hoping he also brings along his wife, Vanessa Paradis, again, and that easily one of my favorite actors, Jean Rochefort (who had a small but pivotal role in one of my very favorite movies of 2008, "Tell No One"), will also be able to take on the lead role again, though it was his back pains, among other things, that doomed Gilliam's Quixote the first time around (and if you want to see another great Rochefort movie on DVD, Patrice Leconte's "L'Homme du Train," with Rochefort and the French pop singer Johnny Hallyday, is just a nearly perfect little flick.)

And no matter how this all turns out, to me it's just an inspiring tale of insanity. And with that, I'm off to watch "Star Trek" again to do my part to put it on top of the box office ladder again, and hopefully miles above the ball of shite known as "Angels and Demons." Peace out.

This time, the f***ed with the wrong Mexican"

If you ever wake up thinking the odds are stacked against you, which I do fairly often, I've got a rather amazing TV story to share with you, but first a word or two about the still surprising Baltimore Orioles.

Sure, they're only at .500 (8-8), but apart from a rather disastrous four-game sweep at the hands of the dastardly Boston Red Sox, the Orioles have won all four of their other series this year, by a count of 2-1 in each one. Tonight has Japanese import Koji Uehara facing off against Vicente Padilla, his 9.64 era and the Texas Rangers. Keep hope alive!

And the fact that hope is still alive at all for a ninth season of "Scrubs" is even more incredible. Given how this first season on ABC has unfolded, with almost all the new doctors being instantly forgettable, and Zach Braff already eyeing the exit, I just assumed the end was coming in a few weeks or so.

But, when the show has focused on its core characters, it has often been just as funny and plain silly as ever, and it seems that ABC has taken notice. Though no deal is complete yet, the network is said to be seriously looking at a way to lower the license fee and bring back just about the entire cast (including the weakest link, Braff, for at least a few episodes) for a ninth season next year.

Here's hoping it happens, because I can count the non animated TV half-hours I watch on just more than one hand: "How I Met Your Mother," "Scrubs," "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" (the best of them all), "My Name Is Earl," "Parks and Recreation," "The Office" and "30 Rock." Are there any other sitcoms out there that I should be tuning in for?

The news that "Scrubs" may still somehow be on life support is, however, far from the strangest TV news out there this morning. It seems that Pedro Almodovar, one day after it was announced that his new flick, "Broken Embraces," will be in competition at Cannes, is now getting into the U.S. TV game too.

And believe me, I'm not making this up. Fox TV is apparently adapting an hourlong series to be extremely loosely based on Almodovar's first big hit (and still his funniest flick) "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown."

Though Almodovar will be an executive producer and says he will stay involved, I still can't see this being anything but bland assuming it actually comes together. Why? First of all, the plot, as described by pilot author Mimi Schmir, seems to have little to do with the original movie: According to Schmir, it's "a suburban drama about a group of women who have known each other for a long time, perhaps from college, who are in the middle of their lives and looking at the second half of their lives."

OK, I watch plenty of shows intended for women (and yes, even one, in "Gossip Girl," clearly intended for girls), but that just sounds like nothing but boring. The original movie got all its spirit from its rapid-fire dialogue and the screwball humor inspired directly by '50s Hollywood comedies. I suppose there's a chance they can keep all that alive, but count me as a skeptic.

Oh well, that's probably more than enough about that. On to the main event. Robert Rodriguez's Machete character, played by Danny Trejo in the best faux trailer from "Grindhouse," seems to be even more resilient than my Orioles.

Even though "Grindhouse" can't even generously be called anything but a box-office disaster (though still tons of fun in my book, with Tarantino's second half being even better than Rodriguez's first) after taking in only $25 million in the U.S. and costing $67 million to produce, Trejo's blade-wielding Mexican day laborer and former Federale Machete is seemingly somehow about to rise again with his own feature film.

Rodriguez says he is eyeing a June start for the flick, which he will co-direct with longtime editor Ethan Maniquis, to begin shooting in Austin.

And for anyone who has managed to block Machete from their mind by any number of things that would have to be much more important, I've included the trailer from "Grindhouse" at the bottom of this post (and be warned that, if you watch it at work, along with rather spectacular cartoon violence, it does feature some rather bare breasts.)

Rodriguez has several other irons in the fire, but "Machete" is certainly the one that I'm most interested in. And with that, I'm off to the second weekend of the Atlanta Film Festival 365, to hopefully squeeze my way in to both James Toback's "Tyson" and Carlos Cuaron's "Rudo Y Cursi." Enjoy the trailer, and have a perfectly pleasant weekend. Peace out.

Remember Sofia Coppola? She's back ...

It's really funny that this turned up this morning, since one of the many things that has passed through my too-active imagination recently while it was trying to avoid any actual work was what in the world ever happened to Sofia Coppola?

It's been three years since "Marie Antoinette," and I have to say that, for me at least, that one just left a bad taste in my mouth. I dragged my brother to see it in Amsterdam while we were taking a side trip from the 2006 World Cup in Germany, and perhaps if we had sampled a bit of the local product beforehand I would have enjoyed it more. As it was, the flick had style to spare, but it was certainly signifying nothing, and I just couldn't get into it one bit.

All that, said, however, I still have a lot of time for Sofia Coppola, because I count her first two flick among my favorites, and of how many directors can you really say you like two-thirds of their movies? "The Virgin Suicides" and "Lost in Translation" were both much more intimate affairs than "Marie Antoinette," and each represented just a moment in time as much as they did a dream. And it sounds like what she's up to now (yes, I will get to it very soon) could be a return to form.

Much as "Lost in Translation" centered on the Park Hyatt hotel in Tokyo, Coppola's next flick, "Somewhere," will take place at the iconic Chateau Marmont in Hollywood. Stephen Dorff will play "a bad-boy actor stumbling through a life of excess," and Elle Fanning (who I have to assume is some kind of relation to Dakota) will play his daughter who visits to interrupt his reverie.

The flick, which was also written by Coppola, is set to start shooting in June in L.A. and Italy, so to that I can only say welcome back.

Why I love Blackfilm.com

Well, there are many reasons, actually, but a big one is that they simply cover movies that get ignored by most of the world earlier and much more extensively.

Case in point: I had never heard of a flick called "Next Day Air," a comedy set to be released very wide May 8. Directed by rap video helmer Benny Boom, it's an ensemble comedy that's clearly in the vein of "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and starring Donald Faison of "Scrubs" and Mos Def, easily one of my favorite actors.

Why in the world wouldn't I be interested in that? Anyways, enjoy the trailer, and certainly go see this one when it comes out soon.



"It's just a dragon-looking wild thing"

Can you imagine how happy Warner Brothers must have been when they found out their "Where the Wild Things Are" flick was gonna get a free endorsement of sorts from no less than Barack Obama? The Spike Jonze flick is finally set to come out in October, but in the meantime, enjoy this seriously fun reading of my favorite children's book by Mr. Obama at the White House Easter Egg Roll, and I defy you to not just smile broadly.



"Bruno" somehow gets an R rating

Even after pointing out that it still has "pervasive, strong and crude sexual content, graphic nudity and language" (one can certainly hope so!), the MPAA has still rescinded the NC-17 rating given to Sacha Baron Cohen's next flick, centering on the Austrian fashion reporter Bruno, and awarded it an R rating. This is one I'm certainly looking forward to seeing in July, but for now just enjoy this new promotional pic and have a perfectly pleasant weekend. If you'll excuse me, I'm off to the Atlanta Film Festival 365, and rather excited about it. Peace out.

Saturday morning funnies: A glimpse of "Observe and Report?"

Speaking of funny, it looks like Donald Faison, a k a Dr. Turk, is moving on from "Scrubs," so with J.D. already out it looks like that show will finally be coming to an end this year. It's been a great run, but since the new interns aren't terribly funny or, well, appealing in just about any way, it's probably the right time to call it quits.

But here today briefly it's all about Jody Hill's "Observe and Report," which I can't wait to see when it comes out April 10 (and though I really have nothing against Kevin James, this will be my first mall cop movie, unless you count "Mallrats.")

The flick is directed by veryfunnyman Jody Hill, who created "Foot Fist Way" with fellow veryfunnyman Danny McBride (rent that one already if you haven't seen it and I guarantee you'll laugh.) They also teamed up for the still-going-but-probably-done-after-one-short-season "Eastbound and Down" on HBO, which has pretty much been roundly panned but which I like quite a bit. There's just an art, though I'll concede not a fine one, to making Southern comedy that let's the characters all be in on the joke from the beginning, and Hill and co. certainly know how to do it.

Anyways, here as you can see from this featurette, he's got Seth Rogen as the head of mall security who's investigating the case of a flasher. If that doesn't make you laugh already this just might not be for you. He's also got Anna Faris, who surely deserves much better but will be just as flat-out funny here as she is in anything else (will someone give her the lead in a movie that's not a chick flick already? Sheesh!), and a certain reserve football player for the Dillon Panthers (and if you're not watching "Friday Night Lights," why the heck not? It's easily, with all apologies to "Battlestar Galactica," the best drama on TV, and was just in top form last night.)

Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant weekend. And, if you're so inclined, do go see "Watchmen" again, as I'm gonna do this afternoon before watching my Terrapins take out the Dukies. Peace out.

Observe and Report: Introducing Forest Ridge Mall exclusive

An "Arrested Development" movie? Signed, sealed but not yet delivered

I suppose it's my duty to mention something about "Twilight," which I will bother to see Saturday afternoon, so here goes.

I was watching "Rocket Science" last night on the DVR, which is easily one of the most charming movies of 2007. My brother and I first saw it in Minneapolis, and if you haven't, just go ahead and rent this quirky teen anti-romance (I'm not really selling it very well, but trust me.)

I tell you all that to tell you this: Anna Kendrick, who starred in "Rocket Science" and apparently has the most microscopic of parts in "Twilight," has somehow managed to snag the female lead in Jason Reitman's next movie, "Up in the Air." It stars George Clooney as a "career transition counselor" - essentially one of the Bobs in "Office Space" - whose main goal in life seems to be to accumulate 1 million frequent flier miles. Not sure how Ms. Kendrick factors into all this, but congrats all the same.

But the real order of business here today is that murky realm where TV and film collide, and how Hollywood works so hard to tease the fans of dead shows with a cinematic afterlife. I had decided to swear off reporting on each slim ray of hope that there would ever be an "Arrested Development" movie, but after a few months or so going strong, today's news just makes me have to surrender to the urge.

In the latest development - and if I understand this the most solid one so far - series 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.

The actors (some of whom I'm sure could sorely use the work) have been teasing that this would happen ever since the show got canceled. I'd imagine even big movie star Michael Cera would come back to play George Michael Bluth again (and since I now mention "Chuck" every day, Tony Hale - whose parents reportedly live somewhere very near to or even in my town of Macon, Ga. - has been very funny as the new assistant manager of the Buy More.) Please, make this happen already!

Is "Pushing Daisies," well, pushing daisies?

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?

OK, that's enough from me on that, but here's what series creator Bryan Fuller had to say to the Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd:

"I can't help but feel immense pride when it comes to 'Pushing Daisies.' I'm grateful TO everyone and FOR everyone who brought the show to life and for the very loyal audience that embraced us. If we are indeed dead on ABC, we now have to convince DC Comics to let us tell the rest of the season's story lines out in comic book form and convince Warner Bros. features to let 'Pushing Daisies' live again as a movie."

I'd imagine that last bit is even more of a pipe dream than an "Arrested Development" flick, but I'll at least spring for the comic book. Just sad, sad news all around.

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.

The full "Coraline" trailer

One of the more tedious of my weekly newspaper duties is to figure out what's playing at our three Middle Georgia movie theaters and compile capsule reviews from the wire. I say tedious, but I do enjoy seeing which movies manage to stick around way longer than what should be their shelf life.

The most recent example was the magical "The Nightmare Before Christmas," which was re-released in 3-D (which did very little to enhance it) just before Halloween and somehow managed to stick around in one of our theaters until this week. Very odd.

And I tell you all that to tell you this: Here's the full trailer for "Coraline," a coming collaboration between writer Neil Gaiman and animation director Henry Selick (the director of "Nightmare Before Christmas.") As you'll see, it's the story of a young girl who discovers a parallel universe in the crawlspace of her dingy apartment, and it's one of the movies I'm really looking forward to for 2009. Enjoy, and if you happen to see "Twilight" before I do, please feel free to share your thoughts.

Behold, the trailer for the new "Indiana Jones" movie!

I was going to headline this post with my admittedly rather juvenile and profanity-laden reaction when I found out I could watch the trailer for "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" this morning, but decided the folks who run the family-friendly newspaper I toil for daily probably wouldn't appreciate that.

And now, thanks to the fine folks at Ahorahollywood.com (which, if you can read Spanish, is just a sensational film junkie Web site), you can see it too. I don't want to say too much about it, but after a way-too-long intro it's just all kinds of cool. Enjoy, and if you have the time, read on for a bit more news after the clip.



Tivo alert: Great shows to return soon

CBS and NBC have announced their immediate plans to air something that doesn't flow from the reality toilet, which means the return of a few shows that I tune into reliably each week.

CBS has announced that "How I Met Your Mother" (and, unfortunately, with it "Big Bang Theory" and "Two and a Half Men") will return to the air March 17.

NBC, meanwhile, has staged a two-tier rollout for its lineup of Thursday comedies. Fans of "My Name is Earl" (of which I'm not much of one) will be treated to a fresh, one-hour episode April 3. Fans of "The Office" (yes!!!) and "Scrubs" (bring that on too!) will have to wait until April 10 for new shows.

Good and bad news about a Valerie Plame movie

Continuing with the international flair today, this is translated from the great French site Cinempire.com, so bear with me.

I've been curious about what would happen with this ever since I first heard the earliest snippets about a possible Valerie Plame movie, because as anyone who's been here before probably knows, I just love me some spy movies, especially ones grounded in reality. Billy Ray's "Breach," for example, about the master spy Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper), was easily one of my favorite movies of 2007.

And now comes word that Nicole Kidman (heard of her?) will be playing Ms. Plame, the CIA agent who was outed by the Bush administration because they had a beef with her husband. I realize this is far from a minority opinion, but I love Nicole Kidman, as much for her acting skills as for her ability to (almost) always pick great roles. Though it came under a lot of critical fire, I thought she was great at playing a truly detestable character in Noah Baumbach's "Margot at the Wedding," and for one from the vault, I guarantee watching her early supporting turn with Thandie Newton and Noah Taylor in the Aussie flick "Flirting" will make you smile.

But this news is still a bit of a mixed bag, since it comes from Doug Liman, a director who I've just come to respect less and less. I was certainly with him through "Swingers" and the rather criminally underrated "Go," but I couldn't find much to enjoy in "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," and this weekend's "Jumper" looks like a similarly empty spectacle. I hope he still has the chops for this much more serious fare, but I certainly have my doubts.


Emile Hirsch in "Milk"

"Milk," the upcoming biopic about the assassinated San Francisco pol Harvey Milk, should be a real return to top form for Gus Van Sant (although I can't really say he's not on top of his game already, since I have yet to see "Paranoid Park"; I can, despite the fact that it has only about 20 words or so of dialogue, highly recommend his school-shooting flick "Elephant.")

And the Milk flick has assembled easily one of the best casts for 2008 flicks. Emile Hirsch, shown on the set in the above photo courtesy of JustJared, will be playing the activist Cleve Jones, who came up with the idea for the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. Also already on board are Sean Penn as Milk (Oscar, anyone?), Josh Brolin as the assassin Dan White and Victor Garber as S.F. Mayor George Moscone, who was also killed by White. James Franco, Diego Luna and surely some women will also be featured in what should be one of the best flicks of this year. And that's about all I've got for today. Peace out.

The fact is this: "Pushing Daisies" will be back!

Acting quicker than I expected in many cases, the TV networks have already gotten back to business in starting to determine what the fall landscape is going to look like.

The big news in my little corner of the world is that ABC has indeed decided to give a 13-episode order to the delightful freshman series "Pushing Daisies."

What would be great now would be a proper re-launch of all nine previously aired episodes this summer, flowing freely into the new season and giving anyone who has missed out on this often-magical show a chance to catch up.

For anyone who hasn't tuned in so far, what you're missing is a true TV oddity: A prime-time fairy tale that's almost as clever as it is simply sweet. Leads Anna Friel and Lee Pace just have perfect chemistry, and the always welcome Chi McBride provides great comic relief as the money-grubbing P.I. Emerson Cod. Throw Broadway vet Kristen Chenoweth into the mix and make her prone to break out in song at any moment, and you've got a show that I'll tune in to week after week.

There were, of course, a lot of other shows that got either great or horrible news yesterday, and you can read the full list here.

In the much smaller subset of shows that I actually tune in for, CBS has thankfully given the greenlight for "How I Met Your Mother" to at least finish up Season three. The show had seemed to lose some of its most important component, heart, in the 11 episodes that had aired this fall, so here's hoping this series starring Willow, Doogie and Freak Nick Andopolis can find its footing whenever it manages to return.

NBC will obviously take more episodes of "The Office" and "Heroes" as soon as it can get them, but more murky is what will happen to the end of "Scrubs." It had already been announced that the interrupted and rather remarkable seventh season would be the last, and negotiations are now under way with creator Bill Lawrence to see just how many episodes it will get to complete its run. Here's hoping it gets the chance to go out on top.

Still also up in the air at NBC is the fate of easily network TV's best drama, "Friday Night Lights." Though the show had fared very well (by Friday standards) in its Friday night slot and, thankfully, managed to put out new episodes throughout most of the writers' strike, it's highly likely that last week's show will have to serve as a series finale.

As for the CW, that network may well be about to lose me for good. Already generating plenty of ill will by exterminating "Veronica Mars" after only a three-season run, it now may be about to kill the only two shows that still gave me any reason to tune in: "Aliens in America" and "Everybody Hates Chris."

The latter, which had managed to finish its third season in spite of the strike, is more likely to return, but "Aliens in America," which had gotten better with each show in its 18-episode run, may well be lost for good, which would be a real shame.

Two big questions, of course, still loom large: How soon will any of these shows manage to return, and will there be any new shows worth watching when Fall finally rolls around? About the latter I'm still extremely pessimistic, but here's hoping that I'm somehow wrong once again.

Coens getting "Yiddish" with Chabon

The only Michael Chabon novel I have yet to read (but just ordered used from Amazon) is now in the rather capable hands of the Coen brothers.

And "The Yiddish Policemen's Union," Chabon's 2007 novel, sounds like it's just tailormade for the Coens. Chabon sets up a contemporary scenario where Jewish settlers are about to be displaced by the U.S. government's plans to turn the frozen locale of Sitka, Alaska, over to Alaskan natives. Against this backdrop is a noir-style murder mystery in which a rogue cop investigates the killing of a heroin-addicted chess prodigy who might be the messiah.

The only possibly bad news in all this is that we might have to wait quite a while to see it. The Coens must be just about finished with "Burn After Reading," their CIA comedy starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt and set for a September 2008 release. After that, they are set to shoot something called "A Serious Man," for which I could only find this truly odd plot summary at Wikipedia (which, of course, never gets anything wrong):

A Serious Man will focus on Larry Gopnik, a Jewish college professor in the Midwest in 1967. Larry starts to question the value of life when he discovers his wife wants a divorce (and may be having a romantic affair with one of their neighbors). He also has trouble with his children stealing money out of his wallet (his son is buying marijuana, while his daughter is saving for plastic surgery) and his deadbeat brother, who has moved in because he neither has the cash nor the maturity to live on his own. Add to that the hostile anonymous notes he keeps receiving which threaten his tenure at school, the grad student who will get a passing grade from Larry by any means necessary (who may or may not be the person leaving the threatening letters) and the attractive neighbor who bedevils Larry with nude sunbathing, and there is little wonder why Larry seeks to solve his existential issues from men of God whom he hopes will help him to become an austere and devoted man.

All of which means the Coens won't be getting to Chabon's work until sometime in the fairly distant future. And in case anyone's keeping score, that means all four of Chabon's novels either have been or will be made into feature films: "Wonder Boys" is a wonderful little film, "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" is apparently finished and may have already come out in some form, and "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" is being shot by Stephen Daldry and is set for a 2009 release. Add to that the fact that Chabon had a hand in writing the script for still my favorite superhero flick of all time, "Spider-Man 2," and you've got quite a run so far.

And now, so that I can get ready for what is still my only paying job, I'll leave you with, first, this plea that, if you live in the republic of Virginia, the great state of Maryland or the District of Columbia (respectively, where I was born [Blacksburg], grew up [Salisbury] and went to college [Catholic University]), please get out and vote today; and secondly with this clip of George Clooney and the boys performing "Man of Constant Sorrow" from what is still my favorite Coen brothers' flick, "O Brother Where Art Thou." Peace out.

Demko's DVD shelf: The weird, wonderful world of "Twin Peaks"

With the triple punch of "Spider-Man 3," "License to Wed" and "Captivity" hitting all at once, it would be very easy to dismiss this as a spectacularly craptastic week on DVD, but beneath the surface there are reasons to cheer, mainly in TV releases.

Just how good was David Lynch's "Twin Peaks"? The best way to judge that, unfortunately, is in the number of imitators that followed and failed in its wake.

What Lynch's show had over these others was that it created a genuine sense of mystery. Whereas most "supernatural" TV shows just pile on the quirk for quirk's sake, each piece of the puzzle that was "Twin Peaks" was essential to making the murder of Laura Palmer and everything else in this weird little burg on the US-Canadian border so intriguing.

Given that the show only ran for 30 episodes it's surprising that it's taken this long for the complete series to come to DVD, as it does this week with "The Definitive Gold Box Edition," supervised by Lynch himself.

If you actually spring for these 10 discs, which I'll have to look at my finances before doing, it would seem Lynch and co. have made it worth the considerable expense. Along with the newly remastered (I'm never quite sure exactly what that means) episodes, there are deleted scenes; a feature-length documentary, "Secrets from Another Place"; the featurettes "A Slice of Lynch" and "Return to Twin Peaks"; an interactive map of Twin Peaks; the complete Log Lady introductions; Kyle MacLachlan's appearance on "Saturday Night Live" and Julee Cruise's music video for "Falling."

This is listed as costing $99.99 (marked down to $64.99 at Amazon.com, but still not cheap), but for a groundbreaking TV show that instead of being ahead or behind its time just created a time unto itself, I'd have to say it's well worth it if you can spare the change.

Scrubs - The Complete Sixth Season
I never would have guessed that a sitcom this silly (yet undeniably entertaining) would have reached the magic number of seven seasons occupied by several of my favorite shows ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Gilmore Girls" and - if you count the two halfs of season six as separate entities - "The Sopranos.") The pacing and the characters on this show all just work for me, so I've got the DVR set to record all of season seven and will, eventually, spring for this on DVD too (since I have all the other season already.)

"My So-Called Life" - The Complete Series
The title alone should have had me running screaming from this mid-'90s show, and it probably would have if it weren't for Claire Danes and her mysterious beau, Jared Leto as quite possibly the broodiest teen in TV history. Though I'll still take "Freaks and Geeks" any day, this show was actually fairly moving when it didn't just make you cringe, and is well worth another look on DVD, assuming you can rent rather than buy it.

Talk to Me
It's one of the great crimes of my film year that I didn't manage to see this one in the theater, but in my defense it did hit during the one week (and one week only, in Macon) when I happened to be on vacation. Don Cheadle stars in the true story of Ralph Waldo "Petey" Green, an ex-con who weaseled his way onto the radio in DC in the '60s. It also stars the great Chiwetel Ejiofor and was directed by Kasi Lemmons, who managed to make one of my favorite movies, "Eve's Bayou," and just one other flick ("The Caveman's Valentine") before seeming to disappear completely for about 10 years. Welcome back! According to the IMDB, she's also the owner of this rather dubious title: The only black woman to manage to direct three major feature films. Now that's just depressing.

John Waters: This Filthy World
Essentially a DVD of director John Waters doing standup comedy and seeing just how gross he can be, this is perfect for DVD because, although he is often very funny, it does eventually get tiresome and call out for the remote. When he's on, though, he's as outrageous as you could possibly expect, so if you like Mr. Waters' movies (and I very often do) this is well worth a rental.

Two news tidbits

Speaking of "Freaks and Geeks," Sam Weir is about to make a very welcome return to series TV as a regular on "Bones," which just might be enough to get me to tune in for the Fox show. John Francis Daley will play Dr. Lance Sweets, a therapist appointed by the FBI to determine whether Dr. Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and FBI agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) can continue as partners. The Hollywood Reporter report also listed him as the star of the "upcoming" "5-25-77," so maybe that means Patrick Read Johnson's autobiographical flick about his quest to see the first "Star Wars" movie may actually someday get a proper release. Daley's also listed as writing his first feature film for New Line, "The 40 Thousand Dollar Man," which I can only assume will be a - hopefully funny - spoof of "The Six Million Dollar Man."

Robert Townsend sighting!
I may be the only person who was asking "what in the world ever happened to Robert Townsend?", but in case anyone else was actually wondering, here's the answer. It seems he's enlisted Ving Rhames to play Sonny Liston in "Phantom Punch," a biopic he will direct about the legendary pugilist. The flick began shooting Monday in Toronto and should wrap in December. The title refers to the single "phantom punch" Liston took from Cassius Clay that many believe led to the demise of his career. I love good boxing movies even more than I do Mr. Townsend, so I give this a hearty huzzah!

A truly goofy trailer for "I'm Not There"

I still have fairly high hopes for this Todd Haynes flick about Bob Dylan, but after the disappointment that was Wes Anderson's "Darjeeling Limited" I'm keeping my expectations in check. It's better to be pleasantly surprised anyway, right? Here's the international trailer which, as you'll see, is just an extended riff on Dylan's most famous music video. Please, please, please don't let this movie suck! Peace out.