Category Archives: News

Apple to unveil the iPhone 5 September 12

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Here we go people. The moment you’ve all been waiting for is almost here. Today Apple sent out invitations inviting press to attend a special event where the company will announce the next iPhone. The invite, posted above, teases “It’s almost here” and features a giant number 12 (referring to the date September 12) and its shadow is the number 5 (likely referring to the name of their next smartphone, the iPhone 5). After Apple reset the naming scheme with the third-generation iPad and simply called it “the new iPad,” most were led to believe that the next iPhone would shed a number and be known as “the new iPhone” to be in line with its bigger sibling. The 5 featured in the invite, however, has people speculating again. Will it be the iPhone 5, or perhaps the number here refers to the amount of new devices the company will unveil? In addition to a new iPhone, also in the rumor pipeline is an iPad mini and Apple typically announces updated iPods in September. Things to think about.

Other things to think about: how will the next-gen iPhone be different from the 4S? iOS 6 will ship out the gate, obviously, and rumor has it that it will sport a larger 4-inch screen and it is very likely that it will take advantage of 4G LTE speeds. Add to the speculation in the comment section below.

For now, mark your calendars; the date is September 12 and the time is 10AM PST. It all goes down at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and you can be sure that all the details will be posted here as soon as Tim Cook and company wrap up the festivities. At last, iPhone 5 here we come.

New ‘Hobbit’ movie in the trilogy gets titled and dated

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Last month Peter Jackson announced that his adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit would be a three part epic instead of an originally planned two part journey. Since that news settled, Warner Bros. and MGM stepped out again to reveal the name of the new movie in the trilogy. So here it goes.

Part one, An Unexpected Journey, is still due out December 14 of this year. Part two, (drum roll please) The Desolation of Smaug, occupies the vacated space left by the originally planned sequel There And Back Again releasing almost exactly one year later on December 13, 2013. There And Back Again is now the name of the third film which will hit theatres in the summer on July 18, 2014. All three films will incorporate footage shot during principal photography which completed on July 5. Additional scenes will be shot for part three, which plans to incorporate expanded stories told in Tolkien’s appendices.

[Via Deadline]

‘Saturday Night Live’ lines up hosts and musical guests for new season

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Though it hasn’t even started and we’re already missing Kristin Wiig and Andy Samberg, the 38th season of NBC’s Saturday Night Live is going to start with an exciting bang. The late night comedy sketch show has tapped Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane to host the upcoming season premiere with musical guest Frank Ocean. A man of many talents, MacFarlane is a great choice to start the season of right and so is Ocean who is hot off his debut release Channel Orange. In the weeks following the September 15 premiere, Studio 8H will be visited by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (promoting Looper, out 9/28) and Mumford & Sons (airing September 22) and Daniel Craig (promoting Skyfall, out November 9) and Muse (airing October 6).

In addition to Wiig and Samberg, it has been confirmed that Abby Elliot will not be returning this season. Jason Sudeikis is still on the fence but all signs point to a no-show.

FX renews ‘Anger Management’ with 90 episode back order

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It was expected and now it’s official. FX has granted Charlie Sheen’s comeback vehicle Anger Management–the highest-rated new comedy series on cable this year–not only second season but 90 additional episodes. “We set a very high ratings bar that included some additional hurdles for Anger Management to earn its back-90 order and the series met and exceed those metrics,” said FX executive Chuck Saftler. “[Creator] Bruce Helford has created a sitcom that works extremely well in our pre-10PM programming lineup,” he continued. “Charlie Sheen and the entire cast did an amazing job in the first ten episodes, which were produced in a very tight window. I have no doubt that the producers and cast will be able to pull off the Herculean task of producing 90 episodes over the next two years.”

Production on season 2 is already underway, and Charlie’s father Martin Sheen (who was introduced as Charlie’s estranged father in this season’s penultimate episode) will return as a series regular. Though it plays like a typical sitcom, a likable cast headed by a recovered Sheen makes Anger Management a show worth tuning into during the dog days of summer.

[Via Deadline; EW]

‘American Horror Story: Asylum’: more clues & trailers, a premiere date

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As we inch closer to fall and Halloween, you can sense the return of Ryan Murphy’s spooktacular inventive anthology series American Horror Story. Over the course of the last few weeks, FX has dropped clues for fans to watch and dissect. The first three can be viewed here, and the rest of them have been neatly posted to AHS‘ official Facebook page. The most intriguing of the bunch include two new trailers introducing the members of Asylum and they are Jessica Lange, Zachary Quinto, Lily Rabe, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters and newcomers Adam Levine, Chloë Sevigny, Joseph Fiennes, and James Cromwell. Other new players not featured in the trailers are Jenna Dewan and Clea Duvall. Watch an introductory trailer above and an even insaner one after the break; they both play in front of an AHS theme-infused rendition of the famous song “Que Sera Sera.”

Below, flip through four creepy pieces of key art; I wouldn’t recommend peeking before bedtime.

AHS: Asylum premieres October 17 at 10PM on FX.

Continue reading ‘American Horror Story: Asylum’: more clues & trailers, a premiere date →

Live action Marvel TV show from Joss Whedon gets a name: ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’

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Earlier this month it was reported that Avengers director Joss Whedon would return to write and direct the sequel and develop a live action series for Marvel Television at ABC. Today more information regarding the latter announcement was divulged. The ABC drama will be called S.H.I.E.L.D. (which stands for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division) and is based on the league of Marvel superheroes headed by Nick Fury (who is played by Samuel L. Jackson in the movies). S.H.I.E.L.D. will be written by Whedon, his brother Jed, and Jed’s wife Maurissa Tancharoen; these three previously collaborated on Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and FOX’s Dollhouse. They will executive produce with Jeffrey Bell and Marvel TV’s Jeph Loeb. According to Deadline the show has officially been greenlit and production is already underway. Whedon plans on directing at least the pilot.

The Avengers are preparing to assemble on TV; which members of S.H.I.E.L.D. do you think Whedon and friends will decide to introduce on the small screen?

[Via Deadline]

Comedian David Cross on the resurrected fourth season of ‘Arrested Development’

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If you consider Tobias Fünke a reliable source, then listen up! In an interview with Rolling Stone, actor and comedian David Cross talked about the upcoming fourth season of cult sitcom Arrested Development.

“I’m not gonna divulge anything, but I know what the stories are and what Mitch [Hurwitz] is doing, and it’s so layered. It’s really audacious and amazing. I think a lot of people will miss the work that is involved, the story, the Venn diagrams that are being created, the domino effect that characters have with each other in their various episodes. I know what he’s doing, and this has never been done on a TV show like this. This makes Lost look like a Spalding Grey monologue. You’ll have to watch each episode more than once.”

And then there is this bombshell. Cross says the initial plan to air 10 episodes might not stick; the season may be expanded. “I think it’s going to be 13 episodes, not 10,” he said. There’s too much story. Some characters will have two-parters. Everybody sort of participates, sometimes in a bigger way and sometimes in a tiny little thread that goes through everybody else’s stories.”

Read the brief interview in full at the source link below, and shake in anticipation in your cutoffs as new episodes of Arrested Development are expected to premiere on Netflix in Spring 2013.

[Via Rolling Stone; EW]

‘The Office’ season 9 will be the show’s last

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Some say this news should have come when star Steve Carell left the show at the end of season 7. But the show went on and this past Tuesday the series’ executive producer Greg Daniels announced that the upcoming ninth season will conclude the antics in The Office. Daniels served as the series’ showrunner from seasons one through five and then handed the creative reins to exec producer Paul Lieberstein, who plays Tobey. For the final season Daniels returns as showrunner and he had this to say about the not-so-shocking news.

“This will be the last season of The Office. And we’re planning a very big exciting last season. We’re going to have a lot of faces coming back … There are a lot of things that I’ve personally been wanting to do since season two … All questions will be answered this year. Now that we know we have an end date we can blow things up and take some chances and it will be very freeing, creatively.”

He assures fans that NBC has not cancelled the show (why would they–it’s the network’s highest rated comedy); The Office is closing its doors because the creative team behind it feels the time has come; many fans likely share the sentiment. “This year feels like the last chance to really go out together and make an artistic ending for the show that pays off a lot of the stuff that matters most to fans,” said Daniels. He continued, “You have a choice–only tell the beginning of story and the middle, or allow a story to end. If we didn’t let it end this year, I don’t think we would have been able to tell the ending stories of so many characters… we couldn’t count on getting everybody back for season 10.” (What with Mindy Kalling headlining The Mindy Project on FOX with fellow Office star B.J. Novak, and Rainn Wilson moving on to NBC’s Office spinoff The Farm.) Daniels added, “You could see a world where new people keep coming on the show. But I think [we want to] do justice to the existing characters in the most creative and explosive way and that means the show will be changed to such a degree that if anything was to continue it wouldn’t be the same show.”

Specifically, what can longtime viewers expect to see in the final season? Daniels says more drama will hit Jim and Pam’s relationship, the season will explore who’s behind the documentary crew that’s been filming the Office employees over all these years, and the elusive Scranton Strangler will be revealed. Do you want to see Michael Scott again? The producers do. “We would certainly wish for it,” Daniels said. “We’re not going to put so much pressure on Steve by writing something that would only work if he would return. He really loves how he was exited. He’s probably anxious about not messing up such a stylish exit. It’s a perfectly legitimate point. We’ll see, we haven’t written anything, we just have some ideas for the ending.”

The Office returns Thursday, September 20 on NBC.

[Via EW; Deadline]

Green Day readies three new albums, releases music video for ‘¡Uno!’ single “Oh Love”

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Ever since releasing the mega-popular 21st Century Breakdown in 2009, punk rock band Green Day has been relatively quiet in terms of new material. That ends now. Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tre Cool came up with so many new songs that they refuse to fit it all on a single album. In April the band announced that they plan to release a trilogy of new albums aptly titled ¡Uno! ¡Dos! ¡Tre! and they will come out September 25, November 13, and January 15, 2013, respectively. The first single off ¡Uno! is “Oh Love” and the music video for it, directed by Green Day clip collaborator Samuel Bayer, is embedded above. In it the band performs the catchy track in front of an audience of scantily-clad, tattooed ladies.

If you have been preparing yourself for more politics from the band who made Breakdown and American Idiot, you’re in for a surprise. Frontman Armstrong told MTV, “It was a time for us to step away [from political overtones], because we didn’t want to come across as politicians. We’re in a band first and foremost, and we wanted to have a good time making music. So it was kind of a way of us getting back to basics.” Bassist Dirnt puts the trilogy in perspective like this: “There’s a lot of that in these records. It’s kind of like getting ready and charging to the party on the first record, and then getting to the party on the second record and having an absolute great time and overstaying your welcome and doing a lot of damage, and then kind of looking for your car keys and doing some self-reflecting on the third record.”

As for the single you’re about to listen to, Armstrong describes it like this: “It’s kind of a tension ballad … instead of pulling at your heart strings, it’s like a noose pulling at your heart a little bit, and trying to keep your emotions intact. It’s very lustful, which is kind of a subject we haven’t gotten into in a long time.”

[Via MTV]

It’s official: Joss Whedon will return to write & direct ‘The Avengers 2’, develop a Marvel-based TV series

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What a day! Arrested Development keeps its head down and powers through and Disney and Marvel announce that The Avengers helmer and geek god Joss Whedon will return to write and direct the anticipated sequel tentatively titled The Avengers 2. The superhero summer blockbuster hasn’t even hit Blu-ray yet, and we still have to get through Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Solider, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Ant-Man, but just knowing that the mastermind behind arguably the greatest superhero movie of all time is going to do it again. And if that wasn’t enough, Whedon also plans to develop a live action drama series set in the Marvel universe for ABC (it may or may not star members of the elite Avengers team).

After Disney CEO Bob Iger spilled the beans during the company’s earnings call, Marvel released the following statement nicely summing it all up: “Joss Whedon has signed an exclusive deal with Marvel Studios for film and television through the end of June 2015. As part of that deal, Whedon will write and direct Marvel’s The Avengers 2 as well as help develop a new live action series for Marvel Television at ABC. He will also contribute creatively to the next phase of Marvel’s cinematic universe.”

That last bit is interesting, isn’t it? Will Whedon be free to dip his toe in Phase Two waters? Whatever comes of that, rest assured knowing that the man behind Firefly isn’t going anywhere anytime soon Marvel fans. And for you Whedon fans, perhaps his recent shift in luck will amount to a TV series lasting more than a few seasons (Buffy and Angel notwithstanding).

Update: Save the date; The Avengers 2 (that’s a tentative title) releases May 1, 2015. Now cry because that’s so far from now. And then later recover because you know that new installments from the other Marvel franchises are on the way.

[Via Deadline 1, 2]

‘Arrested Development’ begins shooting new episodes today, photos from set inside

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Believe it, people. Arrested Development is back…in production. On Tuesday the seventh of August in the year 2012 the cult comedy was officially resurrected as shooting began on the upcoming 10 episode fourth season for Netflix. To celebrate the occasion (and prove it was actually taking place) star Jason Bateman (aka family man Michael Bluth) tweeted a picture (see above) from the set, tagging it with the words “First day. Away we go…” There isn’t much that can be gleaned from the photo, except that Workaholics stars Adam DeVine and Anders Holm are present inside of what appears to be an airport. Speculate!

Although the pic does not contain any familiar Development faces, Deadline reports that the entire cast–that is Jason Bateman, Jeffrey Tambor, Portia de Rossi, David Cross, Jessica Walter, Will Arnett, Michael Cera, Alia Shawkat and Tony Hale–is returning for the relaunch; actor contracts are currently “in final negotiations” as shooting begins. This news deserves a loud, obstructive “STEVE HOLT!” chant right about now… STEVE HOLT! So does this: Executive producer Ron Howard is back as the show’s all-knowing narrator. If you were afraid this comeback would play differently than before, your fears are now righteously quelled.

Howard’s Imagine TV and 20th Century Fox TV are the studios behind Arrested Development 2.0, and series creator Mitch Hurwitz, Troy Miller, and Imagine TV’s Howard, Brian Grazer, and Francie Calfo are executive producing. All ten episodes will go live on Netflix in 2013, and the word on the street is that while some episodes will bring us up to speed with each character individually, storylines will still cross into one another for a true Bluth family reunion.

BONUS! Hop after the break to view two more photos from the set. Bateman shared these via Twitter about a week back and they feature his TV son George Michael.

[Via Deadline; Twitter] Continue reading ‘Arrested Development’ begins shooting new episodes today, photos from set inside →