No, no, no to Friends feature says Warners
Thanks to the success of the Sex and the City movie — and talk of more to come — the rumor mill has been bubbling with other TV shows making the leap to the big screen. In the case of Arrested Development, it sure sounds like the truth.
However, the Friends feature is a rumor that has no legs. Warners owns the property and on July 4th, even though all U.S. offices were closed for the holiday, denied the rumors via the London office.
Jayne Trotman, Warner’s director of publicity, said of the Friends movie, “(There’s) no truth in the story.”
Just to be sure, Matthew Perry’s press rep also denied the rumor. She told the BBC that nothing is happening and the rumor is just that, a shred of news with no value attached to it.
So, where are the affirmatives that have made the media think there was a chance for a Friends big screen production? MailOnline.com started it. The web site posted on July 2nd that all the Friends, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer and Matthew, were willing to reprise their roles for a picture to be filmed within the next 18 months.
In what can only be called a fanciful — unsupported by named sources — story, the writer went on to say that Jennifer and Courteney had been talking about what they wanted the feature to be about and how to get it done. Whether they ever really talked about a movie or not remains uncertain.
What is certain is this: if Warners says it’s not happening, it’s not happening. Not any time soon, anyway.
But even if Warners was hot to make the film, would a Friends feature really be such a great thing? I don’t think so. As it was, the series probably should have ended in 2000, when Monica and Chandler proposed to each other.
I know it may seem like heresy to some, but for me, that was the last, great Friends season. A feature film might be a real let down, when you think about it.
BURN-E Details Revealed?
reader DC claims to have more information on the upcoming WALL-E short film titled Burn-E which will be included on the DVD release. In the feature film there is a sequence where Eve and WALL-E fly around the Axiom Starliner, and enter through a door locking a poor welder bot on the outside of the ship. The bot bangs his fists against the door after he realizes that he has been locked out.
Apparently the welder bot is actually named BURN-E, complete with a logo very similar to the one mocked up by UpcomingPixar (seen above). This explains what Stanton meant when he told us that the short film would be “very connected to WALL-E.” So if I were to guess, I would say the short film will follow BURN-E on his journey to break back into the Axiom.
Pixar’s BURN-E
When I sat down with WALL-E director Andrew Stanton earlier this week, one of the questions I asked was if they were planning to release a short film for the DVD release. For those of you who don’t know, Pixar released a computer animated short film called Mike’s Car with Monster’s Inc, Jack Jack Attack was released with The Incredibles, Mater and The Ghostlight with Cars, and Your Friend The Rat on Ratatouille. Stanton told me:
“There is going to be a sci-fi short that is very connected to WALL-E. We were very conscious of making sure this was produced at the same time as the film. And I think that everyone will be pleasantly pleased.”
I grilled him for more information but he looked over to a Disney big wig who was in the room and said “I don’t think think I’m allowed to announce it, am I?” He laughed and said “Got to give us something to talk about for the next time you’re here.”
Well UpcomingPixar was able to find out more information from a member of the orchestra of WALL-E. Apparently the some of the crew was brought back this week to record the score for the computer animated short film which will be on the DVD/Blu-ray release. The short is called Burn-E and is about a robot named, well, Burn-E. No details were revealed, but I’m assuming this little robot has something to do with fire. The music was composed and conducted by JAC Redford, who is also orchestrator on the feature film. So there you have it.
WALL-E hits theaters on June 27th 2008.
24 Movie Prequel is Beginning to Sound Lame
A few years ago when Fox announced that they would be making a feature film out of it’s hit real time television serial 24, I was excited. But that was before this past season, where the show not only jumped the shark, but nuked the fridge. We had Jack Bauer running around with the fictional equivalent of Osama Bin Laden, numerous unexplainable twists, turns and deaths, and a storyline that involved Bauer teaming up with a mentally disabled man. And the upcoming season doesn’t look much better - we have a man coming back from the dead, and the early advertisements show a torture-obsessed Bauer who has been reduced to a parody of the multi-layered character from the first few seasons. Remember when Bauer kicked his heroin habit over the course of one day? I’m beginning to miss those times.
For some reason, I just assumed that the 24 movie would never actually happen. And now I actually doubt it ever will. A two hour prequel for this upcoming season is currently in production. Robert Carlyle has confirmed to Premiere that the two hour prequel takes place in real time and the the end of the prequel will connect directly into the first episode of the series
“This two hours is two hours in real time and there’ll then be 22 episodes. I don’t know how they connect it to the first of those 22 episodes but it’s literally the third hour…”
So wait a second. Not only is this not the big screen movie that Fox has been promising for years, but its looking less and less like a supplemental television movie. 24 has always had a 24 episode season. If this prequel accounts for the first two episodes, and leads directly into the third hour, than how is this even a prequel?
Still interested? Carlyle revealed a little more about his role in the prequel:
“My character’s called Carl Benton who is Jack Bauer’s best buddy and he hasn’t seen him for 10 years or something. Jack’s on his travels and he comes to see Carl and hang out with him and potentially change his life. Maybe…” “We were in the Stellenbosch region, the wine country. It was doubling for jungle in the fictional country of Sangala.”